Actress Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven on Netflix&#8217;s hit show &#8220;Stranger Things,&#8221; turned 16 on Thursday. In a lengthy post to Instagram, the young actress lamented the &#8220;sexualization&#8221; and &#8220;insults&#8221; she has endured over the past few years while hoping that a change can happen for the next generation.
&#8220;16 has felt like a long time coming,&#8221; began Brown. &#8220;I feel like change needs to happen for not only this generation but the next. Our world needs kindness and support in order for us children to grow and succeed.&#8221;
&#8220;The last few years haven&#8217;t been easy, I&#8217;ll admit that,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;There are moments I get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me. But not ever will I be defeated. I&#8217;ll continue doing what I love and spreading the message in order to make change.&#8221;
The Instagram post included a montage video of Brown throughout the years intercut with various media clips and Twitter hot takes that were critical of her.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s focus on what needs changing, and I hope this video informs you on the things that go on behind the scenes of the headlines and flashing lights. Don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;ll always find a way to smile,&#8221; she concluded.
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</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8v7J8YH_ZR/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">16 has felt like a long time coming. i feel like change needs to happen for not only this generation but the next. our world needs kindness and support in order for us children to grow and succeed. the last few years haven&#39;t been easy, I&#39;ll admit that. there are moments i get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me. but not ever will i be defeated. ill continue doing what i love and spreading the message in order to make change. let&#39;s focus on what needs changing and I hope this video informs you on the things that go on behind the scenes of the headlines and flashing lights. dont worry I&#39;ll always find a way to smile 😉 leggo 16 ♡.</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/milliebobbybrown/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> mills</a> (@milliebobbybrown) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-02-19T12:49:27+00:00">Feb 19, 2020 at 4:49am PST</time>
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Millie Bobby Brown has been subject to bizarre press coverage at times throughout her youth. At age 14, for instance, outlets like People and Page Six felt it somehow necessary and newsworthy to report on her breaking up with her boyfriend at the time, as if the relationships of 14-year-olds deserved any level of attention.
“Millie Bobby Brown Splits With Singer Boyfriend,” announced <a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/07/31/millie-bobby-brown-splits-with-singer-boyfriend/">Page Six</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown and Jacob Sartorius Split After Seven Months of Dating,” lamented <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/millie-bobby-brown-jacob-sartorius-split-after-seven-months/">US Magazine</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown and Jacob Sartorius Break Up After 7 Months of Dating,” decried <a href="https://people.com/tv/millie-bobby-brown-jacob-sartorius-break-up/">People</a>. “Millie Bobby Brown just broke up with her boyfriend in the most mature way possible,” wrote <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/01/milly-bobby-brown-just-broke-up-with-her-boyfriend-in-the-most-mature-way-possible/">The Mercury News</a>.
As reported by <a href="https://people.com/tv/millie-bobby-brown-reflects-scrutinity-16th-birthday/">People</a>, Millie Bobby Brown faced a scolding on social media when someone told her to &#8220;act your age&#8221; when she posted a photo of herself in a form-fitting dress. “[I know] everyone on my last pic wants me to ‘act my age,’ but, quite frankly, it&#8217;s my Instagram and if I choose to post that picture and you don’t like it… scroll past it,&#8221; she said in response.
Millie Bobby Brown&#8217;s birthday post was largely met with positive responses from her fans and followers.
&#8220;Happy bday, Millie. This year is gonna be your year. AGAIN. Here’s to 16 years old!&#8221; wrote Brown’s &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; co-star Noah Schnapp. 
&#8220;I love you, Millie, happy birthday baby girl,&#8221; wrote Bella Hadid.
&#8220;You’re showing tremendous poise in this business that has such built-in scrutiny! Enjoy every facet of being 16. Trust me, it doesn’t stop even when you’re 35 like me. Ok, I’m NOT 35. But hang in there sweetie,&#8221; wrote actress Octavia Spencer.
&#8220;Send you so much love, angel!! Happy Birthdayyy!! Keep thriving and being exactly who you need to be,&#8221; wrote singer Lauren Jauregui.

26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards &#8211; Arrivals

‘Stranger Things’ Star Millie Bobby Brown Turns 16, Laments ‘Sexualization’ And ‘Insults’

Hollywood

Millie Bobby Brown

Netflix

Stranger Things

The first Netflix film produced by former President Obama and Michelle Obama&#8217;s production company won an award on Sunday during the Oscars and, while accepting the award, the filmmakers recited Karl Marx&#8217;s Communist manifesto.
Julia Reichert of &#8220;American Factory&#8221; received the award and said: &#8220;Working people have it harder and harder these days – and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.&#8221;
The term &#8220;workers of the world unite,&#8221; comes directly from the communist manifesto and was widely noticed by media critics.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
How woke! How Hollywood!
Producer Julia Reichert cites the Communist Manifesto because&#8230; well, we all know why. 
“Workers of the world unite.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/kl64TC0uNh">pic.twitter.com/kl64TC0uNh</a>
&mdash; (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1226701801820282880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Obama praised them, writing on Twitter, &#8220;Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release. <a href="https://t.co/W4AZ68iWoY">https://t.co/W4AZ68iWoY</a>
&mdash; Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1226696870292008960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Communism is an ideology of evil and was estimated to be responsible for the deaths of 100 million people last center.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810">reported</a> in 2017:
<blockquote>Such convictions set the stage for decades of murder on an industrial scale. In total, no fewer than 20 million Soviet citizens were put to death by the regime or died as a direct result of its repressive policies. This does not include the millions who died in the wars, epidemics and famines that were predictable consequences of Bolshevik policies, if not directly caused by them.
The victims include 200,000 killed during the Red Terror (1918-22); 11 million dead from famine and dekulakization; 700,000 executed during the Great Terror (1937-38); 400,000 more executed between 1929 and 1953; 1.6 million dead during forced population transfers; and a minimum 2.7 million dead in the Gulag, labor colonies and special settlements.
To this list should be added nearly a million Gulag prisoners released during World War II into Red Army penal battalions, where they faced almost certain death; the partisans and civilians killed in the postwar revolts against Soviet rule in Ukraine and the Baltics; and dying Gulag inmates freed so that their deaths would not count in official statistics.
If we add to this list the deaths caused by communist regimes that the Soviet Union created and supported—including those in Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia—the total number of victims is closer to 100 million. That makes communism the greatest catastrophe in human history.</blockquote>
Responses varied online with the far-left praises the speech and everyone else either mocking it or expressing shock or outrage.
Far-left activist Adam Best responded: &#8220;The Obamas now have a movie that won at the #Oscars and Trump is still mad over never winning an Emmy. Imagine he’s having a hissy fit right about now.&#8221;
Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles responded to Best by writing, &#8220;Do the Obamas also get credit for the filmmaker&#8217;s quoting the Communist Manifesto in her acceptance speech?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Do the Obamas also get credit for the filmmaker&#39;s quoting the Communist Manifesto in her acceptance speech? <a href="https://t.co/KtbN5VUG1m">https://t.co/KtbN5VUG1m</a>
&mdash; Iowa Caucus Winner Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1226701895961460736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Commentator Jordan Schachtel wrote: &#8220;The 100 million victims of communist regimes would like to have a word.&#8221;
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The 100 million victims of communist regimes would like to have a word.<a href="https://t.co/aKTBr4VrjA">https://t.co/aKTBr4VrjA</a>
&mdash; Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) <a href="https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1226702366386380800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote: &#8220;I love that most of my twitter feed thought the big game away from her speech was &#8216;go Buckeyes&#8217; not the opening line from the f***ing Communist Manifesto.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love that most of my twitter feed thought the big game away from her speech was “go Buckeyes” not the opening line from the f***ing Communist Manifesto. <a href="https://t.co/zHiHVfuoCE">https://t.co/zHiHVfuoCE</a>
&mdash; Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1226692767079858178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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92nd Annual Academy Awards &#8211; Press Room

Obama-Produced Film Wins Oscar, Producer Quotes Communist Manifesto In Acceptance Speech. Obama Praises.

Barack Obama

Oscars

After bravely bearing the cruel slings and arrows of the woke scolds that launched a cancel campaign against him for old jokes that offended some members of the LGBT community, Kevin Hart has now apologized for how he handled the situation, which culminated in him <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/kevin-hart-steps-down-from-oscar-hosting-gig-after-past-staments" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stepping down as host </a>of the Academy Awards in 2019.
Though Hart recently expressed regret for being immature at the time in the Netflix documentary “Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up,” he doubled-down on that sentiment in an interview with Men&#8217;s Health.
“With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was,” <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a30469053/kevin-hart-car-accident-recovery-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hart told the magazine</a>. &#8220;I got 10 years where I made sure not to joke or play in the way that I did back then because it was a problem. I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay. I’m a people person. I’m going to love you regardless.”
Hart, however, feels that he should have become an ally to the LGBT community by speaking up about violence.
“It wasn’t until close friends like Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels, and Ellen talked to me and explained what they didn’t hear me say that I understood. Then I was like, ‘Oh, s*** — I did f*** up.’”
Kevin Hart had been slated to host the 2019 Oscars but stepped down within 48 hours of accepting the gig after the Academy demanded he apologize for his past jokes.
“I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on, and I’m in a completely different space in my life,” Hart said in a video on Instagram at the time. “I’m going to be me; I’m going to stand my ground.”
Hours later, Hart stepped down from his dream of hosting the Oscars and apologized to the LGBTQ community for his “insensitive words.”
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscars … this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” he wrote on Twitter. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-hart-regrets-how-he-handled-oscars-controversy-i-was-immature">Netflix documentary </a>explored how the comedian disregarded the advice of his publicists and other members of his team at the time, leading him to eventually conclude that he was acting “immature.”
“What I thought was going to blow over ended up becoming a bigger mess than I expected,” Hart says in the documentary.
“You need to learn how to stop and think,” Hart’s publicist tells a team member in the documentary. “He’s not used to being the person that’s not loved and cherished. He needs to just shut up and put his head down for the next few weeks. &#8230; What he needs to remember is he’s feeding 50-60 people. When he takes a sh***er, everybody takes a sh***er and that’s a big issue now.”
Nine days after his stepping down, Hart then told members of his staff at an emergency meeting that he had no desire to keep addressing the controversy, fearing he would be “making it okay to go backward.” Looking back, Hart now feels that he “missed an opportunity.”
“I missed an opportunity to say simply that I don’t condone any type of violence in any way, shape, or form to anyone for being who they are,” Hart now says. “I f***ed up. &#8230; Instead, I said, ‘I addressed it.’ I said, ‘I apologized.’ I said, ‘I talked about this already.’ I was just immature.”

2020 Winter TCA Tour &#8211; Day 3

Kevin Hart Caves, Apologizes Over Oscars Controversy: ‘I Did F*** Up’

Homosexuality

Kevin Hart

LGBT

Political Correctness

In response to pop star Taylor Swift bashing her in the documentary &#8220;Miss Americana,&#8221; which chronicles the singer&#8217;s ascent into political activism, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) took the high road by praising Swift for the issues they have in common — namely, protecting artists from censorship and theft.
&#8220;Having apparently gotten wind of her unflattering appearance in the film, Blackburn took time out from the president’s impeachment trial to issue a conciliatory statement Thursday, suggesting that she and Swift could find some common ground despite their monumental differences on social issues,&#8221; reports <a href="https://variety.com/2020/music/news/senator-marsha-blackburn-issues-statement-taylor-swift-documentary-miss-americana-1203487711/">Variety</a>.
Referring to Swift as an &#8220;exceptionally gifted artist,&#8221; Blackburn hailed Taylor Swift for helping to influence legislation that protects artists from &#8220;censorship, copyright theft, and profiteering.&#8221;
“Taylor is an exceptionally gifted artist and songwriter, and Nashville is fortunate to be the center of her creative universe,” said Blackburn’s statement. “While there are policy issues on which we may always disagree, we do agree on the need to throw the entertainment community’s collective influence behind legislation protecting songwriters, musicians, and artists from censorship, copyright theft, and profiteering. The Music Modernization Act was a huge win for creators, and the BOTS Act for fans. Growing support behind the AM-FM Act will close loopholes blocking compensation for radio play. I welcome any further opportunities to work with Tennessee’s and the nation’s creative communities to protect intellectual property and ensure appropriate compensation for their creations. On that note, I wish Taylor the best — she’s earned it.”
In many ways, Marsha Blackburn&#8217;s run for the Senate prompted Taylor Swift&#8217;s political activism after she remained silent during the 2016 election, angering leftists everywhere at the time. The documentary chronicles her eventual decision to start endorsing Democratic candidates for office — specifically, over the GOP&#8217;s support of what she referred to as the &#8220;slate of hate bills&#8221; in her home state, which would, among other things, allow religious adoption agencies to prefer children go to married heterosexual couples over same-sex couples.
“Companion bills HB 1151 and SB 1297 expand the state’s indecent exposure law to apply &#8216;in a restroom, locker room, dressing room, or shower, any of which are designated for single-sex, multi-person use, and the person is a member of the opposite sex than the sex designated for use,&#8217;” reported <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/slate-hate-advocates-decry-anti-lgbtq-bills-introduced-tennessee-n979116">NBC News </a>in 2019. “Advocates say that since transgender Tennesseans cannot legally change their sex on legal documents, this bill unfairly targets them for criminal prosecution.”
Speaking with Variety, Swift said she was &#8220;really upset&#8221; with the way Tennessee was going regarding social issues and wanted to use her influence to shift its direction. In an Instagram post way back in 2018, Swift characterized Marsha Blackburn as an enemy of &#8220;human rights&#8221; while speaking of the &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; that people of color experience in this country.
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/f-that-i-dont-care-taylor-swift-gets-political-in-new-doc-dunks-on-trump">she wrote</a>. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.”

blackswift

True Class: Sen. Marsha Blackburn Praises Taylor Swift After Singer Bashes Her In Netflix Documentary

Marsha Blackburn

Taylor Swift

With the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/netflix-is-feeling-the-pressure-of-the-streaming-wars.html">slowing</a> of its subscriber growth, the streaming giant Netflix has now changed its definition of &#8220;views&#8221; to include a watch time as short as two minutes.
According to <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/netflix-changes-its-view-on-views-which-will-boost-its-numbers-by-35-2020-01-21">MarketWatch</a>, Netflix originally counted a view if the person watched at least 70% of the program, but by lowering that to as short as two minutes, Netflix will be able to increase its reported viewership by 35%.
“The new metric is about 35% higher on average than the prior metric,” Netflix executives said in the company&#8217;s first quarterly earnings report of 2020. “For example, 45 [million] member households chose to watch ‘Our Planet’ under the new metric vs. 33 [million] under the prior metric.”
That means a simple rollover into the next program if the viewer either fell asleep or went to the bathroom for several minutes could be counted as a view. However, Netflix claims that the two-minute metric can determine if a viewer &#8220;chose to watch and did watch for &#8230; long enough to indicate the choice was intentional.”
A Netflix spokesman told Market Watch that the metric would better determine a product&#8217;s popularity as opposed to viewership. Take, for example, the hit fantasy series &#8220;The Witcher,&#8221; which the streaming giant said was its “biggest series one TV series ever,&#8221; since “76 million member households chose to watch [it].&#8221; Netflix compared this model to YouTube and the BBC iPlayer.
“Our new methodology is similar to the BBC iPlayer in their rankings based on &#8216;requests&#8217; for the title, &#8216;most popular&#8217; articles on The New York Times, which include those who opened the articles, and YouTube view counts,&#8221; the quarterly letter said. &#8220;This way, short and long titles are treated equally, leveling the playing field for all types of our content including interactive content, which has no fixed length.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/netflix-views-definition-changed">Fox News</a>, in response to this radical definition of views, critics on line have unanimously blasted the streaming network for openly inflating its numbers.
&#8220;Netflix thinks this is a more fair way to compare content of different lengths. To be fair, everyone has a different viewership metric. Still, two minutes feels terribly short,&#8221; Recode senior data reporter Rani Molla <a href="https://twitter.com/ranimolla/status/1219748931535613953">tweeted</a>.
Writing at <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflixs-new-ratings-math-sacrifices-clarity-flashy-numbers-1272214">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Rick Porter argued that Netflix sacrificed &#8220;clarity for flashy numbers.&#8221;
Netflix&#8217;s viewer count strategy has been called into question before, going all the way back to the tail-end of 2018, when the company said that the original film &#8220;Bird Box&#8221; garnered a whopping 45 million viewers. Skeptics felt the numbers were either inflated or at least not an accurate representation of the exact number of people watching the film from start to finish — with<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39807/netflix-claims-45-million-people-watched-bird-box-paul-bois"> CNN Business arguing</a> that Netflix has no third party verifying the numbers.
FX CEO Jon Landgraf <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fx-ceo-john-landgraf-blasts-netflix-ratings-system-paul-bois">decried this mechanism</a> of counting viewers as a &#8220;winner-take-all&#8221; mentality in the streaming world.
“What I don’t tend to like about Silicon Valley is how the search ecosystem is Google, the social media ecosystem is Facebook. I don’t think that ‘winner-take-all’ mentality is good for the world. I don’t think it’s good for America,&#8221; he said. “One way or the other, the truth will always come out — as it always does.&#8221;

Netflix : Illustration

Netflix Radically Changes Definition Of ‘Views’ To Boost Numbers; Critics Blast Them

Earlier this month, Netflix premiered a new show co-created and starring famed drag queen RuPaul, called &#8220;AJ and the Queen.&#8221;
In the show&#8217;s second episode, drag queens relate inappropriately to a 10-year-old gender-confused girl named AJ brought around the performers by RuPaul. One of the men dressed in drag is admonished by RuPaul for &#8220;tucking&#8221; his &#8220;junk&#8221; in front of the girl. Another drag queen refers to the child as a &#8220;top,&#8221; a sexual term for the person on top during sexual intercourse.
The disturbing commentary exchanged before the boy doesn&#8217;t stop there. One drag queen suggests AJ&#8217;s character is a product of closed down Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
The show, according to the <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2020/01/13/sick-rupauls-netflix-show-calls-10-year-old-child-sexual-top">Media Research Center</a>, &#8220;is about a 10-year-old child who accompanies Robert (RuPaul), a gay male drag performer who goes by &#8216;Ruby Red,&#8217; as he travels across the country performing in drag shows at mostly gay bars.&#8221;
&#8220;The child, AJ (Izzy G.), is the daughter of a drug-addicted prostitute,&#8221; the outlet explains. &#8220;She wants to be a boy &#8216;because people leave boys alone.&#8217; She hides her long hair under a boyish hat and does her best to look and act like a 10-year-old boy instead of a girl. The show is one long exposure of this child to sexualized adult situations in which she does not belong, all under the guise of the drag queen and the child &#8216;bonding&#8217; cross-country.&#8221;
Below is a transcript of the alarming exchange in episode two, via the Media Research Center (emphasis added):
<blockquote>Magda: Well, look what the p***y dragged in. And you have a child. I knew closing those Planned Parenthood clinics would create a problem. [Laughs.]
Magda and Robert: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: Girl, this is AJ. AJ, this is Magda. One of Pittsburgh’s finest queens.
Edie: Which tells you a lot about the Pittsburg scene.
Robert: Uh, maybe don’t tuck in your junk in front of a minor.
Edie: There are no miners in Pennsylvania, no matter what the president promised.
Robert and Edie: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: AJ, this is Edie. She used to be pretty.
Magda: I’m still pretty thought, right?
Robert: Well…
Alma Joy: Wait till you…
AJ: What’s his problem?
Robert: That’s Alma Joy and, trust me, she may have a couple of nuts, but there is no joy&#8230;
Robert: Good to see you, Alma.
Alma Joy: Have we met?
Robert: Oh, okay. No high road. Michelle Obama taught us nothing?
Alma Joy: Surprised to see you all the way out here in the sticks, Ruby. Wasn’t that what you called us? I guess she’d know all about sticks. She has that big one stuck up her a**.
Magda: You say that like that’s a bad thing.
Alma Joy: What are you even doing in Pittsburgh? I thought you were opening your own New York club.
Robert: Oh, I am. We’re in the middle of huge renovations and it is going to be major.
Man: Here you go, Edie.
Edie: Oh, Ruby, girl, there are burgers at the bar. Are you hungy?
AJ: I am. Take me. Come on. Let’s go.
Edie: Okay. Follow me. First kid I ever met that’s a top.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="MRC TV video player" src="https://www.mrctv.org/embed/546290" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

RuPaul

Drag Queen ‘Tucks Junk’ In Front Of ‘Trans’ Child, Refers To Her As Sexual Term ‘Top’ In New Netflix Show

Sexual Abuse

Sexual Harassment

Sexuality

Transgender

Prince Harry has not only pitched Meghan Markle&#8217;s voiceover work to Disney CEO Bob Iger, but also to top Disney director Jon Favreau ( of &#8220;The Mandalorian&#8221; fame).
Released on Saturday, new footage obtained by the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7903455/Moment-Prince-Harry-tells-Lion-King-director-Jon-Favreau-wife-available-work.html">Daily Mail </a>shows the duke and duchess of Sussex touting Meghan Markle&#8217;s acting chops while speaking with high-profile celebrities Jon Favreau, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z at a premiere for Disney&#8217;s &#8220;The Lion King.&#8221;
&#8220;If anyone needs any extra voiceover work,&#8221; Harry could be heard beginning to tell Favreau just as Meghan jokingly interrupts to say, &#8220;That&#8217;s really why we&#8217;re here — it&#8217;s the pitch!&#8221;
&#8220;Just not Scar,&#8221; Harry jovially says in reference to the villainous character in &#8220;The Lion King.&#8221;
<iframe title="&#039;She&#039;ll tackle any voiceover just not Scar&#039;: Moment Harry tells Lion King director Jon Favreau" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pUAp9-E3Im8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The recently released footage follows a report from last week which showed Prince Harry speaking to Disney CEO Bob Iger at the same event about Meghan Markle&#8217;s voiceover work.
“You know she does voiceovers,” Harry told Iger at &#8220;The Lion King&#8221; premiere in July.
“Oh, really?” responded Iger.
“Did you know that?” Harry added. “You seem surprised. … She’s really interested.”
“Sure,” said Iger. “We’d love to try.”
Conservative commentator Mark Steyn called it &#8220;the absolute lowest point of the monarchy in the last 100 years.&#8221;
&#8220;I think of all the pathetic things that the Duke of Windsor did after he abdicated when he entertained wealthy Americans and gave them a sort of pseudo glimpse into Royal life,&#8221; Steyn <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6122347498001">told Fox News</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s nothing like actually touting your wife as available for Lion King 7 or whatever it is.&#8221;
Meghan Markle was hired by Disney to do some voiceover work in exchange for a charitable donation to Elephants Without Borders. Just over the weekend, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflixs-ted-sarandos-interested-prince-harry-meghan-markle-deal-1271376">expressed interest</a> in collaborating with the duke and duchess of Sussex for a project.
Over the weekend, Queen Elizabeth II<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/prince-harry-meghan-markle-give-up-royal-titles-1270934"> unveiled the rather strict terms</a> that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be under as they split from the royal family to pursue a more &#8220;progressive role&#8221; in North America — an act that bars them from being referred to by &#8220;her majesty&#8221; and &#8220;royal highness.&#8221; They were also ordered to repay the money British taxpayers had spent on remodeling their Frogmore Cottage.
&#8220;The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are grateful to Her Majesty and the Royal Family for their ongoing support as they embark on the next chapter of their lives,&#8221; the statement from Buckingham Palace read. &#8220;As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments. They will no longer receive public funds for Royal duties.&#8221;
&#8220;With the queen’s blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations,&#8221; it continued. &#8220;While they can no longer formally represent the queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty. The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family. The duke and duchess of Sussex have shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their U.K. family home.&#8221;

Duke and Duchess of Sussex statement

WATCH: New Video Shows Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Pitching Voiceover Work To Disney Director Jon Favreau

Disney

Meghan Markle

Prince Harry

Kathy Griffin, the comedian and Hollywood actress who shocked the world when she staged a photo holding the decapitated head of President Trump, revealed to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/01/14/you-kathy-griffin-season-2-cameo-life-after-trump-scandal/4431253002/">USA Today</a> on Tuesday that in the aftermath of the notorious public relations fiasco, she resorted to literally &#8220;begging&#8221; people for acting roles. 
“I straight up was just begging for five lines on something that would be seen by people that had nothing to do with Trump &#8212; nothing that was controversial,” Griffin told the news agency, revealing that she finally got a break from Greg Berlanti, executive producer of the show “You” on Netflix, who gave her a 90-second cameo. 
Griffin also acknowledges that after the photo, she tried messaging producers on social media websites to land jobs. &#8220;I&#8217;m certainly learning how to do more things, as they say &#8216;in house,&#8217; and (it&#8217;s) one of the things that I became proactive about after the Trump scandal because it&#8217;s kind of like Hollywood feels like I have something that they&#8217;re going to catch &#8230; People don&#8217;t want to get Kathy Griffin-ed,” the comedian told the news agency. 
Hollywood wasn’t the only place trying to distance itself from Griffin during the photo backlash. 
In May 2017, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/squatty-potty-drops-kathy-griffin-after-trump-photo-shoot-2017-5">Business Insider</a> reported that Squatty Potty, the children’s toilet training company, had to clarify that Griffin was not, in fact, their spokesperson. 
&#8220;Kathy Griffin is not, nor ever has been Squatty Potty&#8217;s spokesperson,&#8221; announced the company in a statement, according to the news organization. &#8220;She was hired to make one commercial. Squatty Potty has pulled said commercial as well as other promotional and marketing content featuring Kathy Griffin.&#8221; 
Griffin also lost her gig on CNN co-hosting New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper, the news organization said in a <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/31/media/cnn-kathy-griffin/">statement</a> at the time. Cooper has continued to host New Years without Griffin, and the result has been weird to say the least — in the past two broadcasts, Cooper has directly and indirectly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-anderson-cooper-live-on-cnn-who-has-the-biggest-c-in-hollywood">referenced</a> his late-mother’s sex life. 
After the photo was released, both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump issued statements condemning the stunt. 
“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick,” the president said in a tweet. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869874798087819264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
&#8220;As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing,&#8221; said the first lady in a statement at the time, reported <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/05/31/donald-trump-kathy-griffin-should-be-ashamed-herself-over-decapitation-photo/102340236/">USA Today</a>. &#8220;When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.&#8221;
After the backlash, Griffin apologized for the photo, saying that in retrospect, it was “disturbing.”
&#8220;I sincerely apologize,&#8221; said Griffin in a video statement amid the backlash. &#8220;I’m just now seeing the reaction of these images. I’m a comic, I crossed the line. I move the line then I cross it. I went way too far&#8230;the image is too disturbing, I understand how it offends people. It wasn&#8217;t funny. I get it.&#8221;

2019 SXSW Conference And Festival &#8211; Day 5

Kathy Griffin Describes ‘Begging’ For Roles To Distance Herself From Trump Fiasco

Donald Trump

Kathy Griffin

[WARNING: Spoilers for Netflix’s “Don’t F**k With Cats”]
On December 18, when most Americans were preparing to spend the joyful Christmas holiday with family and friends, Netflix dropped one of the most disturbing true crime docuseries in quite some time.
“Don&#8217;t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer” is a three-part docuseries dealing with a cat and mouse game that played out between a group of internet sleuths and a deranged man who uploaded a video of himself killing two kittens in a vacuum bag.
Well, that’s how it started.
From the very beginning, an electric horror pulses through the veins of “Don’t F**k With Cats.”
A mystery man uploading an anonymous video to the internet in which he sweetly pets two kittens before placing them into a sealed vacuum bag and suctioning the air out until the kittens have died is the starting gun to this docuseries that explores evil, viral infamy, and complicity.
Shortly after the video goes viral, a small cadre of internet “nerds” decide to find the man responsible for the sickening footage – but the task is more difficult than they imagined.
Just when they feel like giving up, clues, seemingly from the killer himself, begin to arrive in the form of Facebook notifications. Has the kitten killer infiltrated their vigilante Facebook group? Has he been watching them toil away this entire time? The cat might have had the the mouse by the tail all along.
But this is only the beginning. Two more videos have been posted – one in which a kitten is fed to a python, and another in which a kitten is tied to a broomstick and drowned in a bathtub.
As if these sickening videos weren’t enough, the killer ups the ante by sending the group a photo of himself lounging while holding a kitten. The killer has blurred his own face in the image, but just enough to be maddening to his seekers.
Tips come flooding in about the identity of the mysterious kitten killer, but the alleged sicko is difficult to track down as he travels the world. The sleuths now know who the killer is, but ache as they are able to accomplish nothing material.
The game takes an even more heinous turn (if that’s possible) when the killer uploads a new video of himself stabbing a human to death with what appears to be an ice pick. The internet sleuths know who perpetrated this crime, but their pleas for officials to listen seemingly fall on deaf ears.
Now that the kitten killer has tuned into a murderer, officials begin investigating. The twists and turns come fast and furious in the final episode, and are so unbelievable and unthinkable, one might be forgiven for wondering if this docuseries is scripted.
In the end, the internet sleuths are left to wonder if they helped advance the narrative of this vile, fame-seeking killer; if they fed the animal-slaughtering beast who would eventually graduate to murder. It’s a question that cannot be fully answered.
Altogether thrilling and sickening, pulse-pounding and horrifying, “Don;t F**k With Cats” is a docuseries for the ages. If you’re fascinated by true crime tales, this is a must-watch.
“Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer” is available to stream right now on Netflix.

CAMP: Netflix Docuseries ‘Don’t F**k With Cats’ Is A Twisted Ride For True Crime Fans

Don’t F**k With Cats

True Crime

Based on a popular collection of fantasy novels and stories by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Sapkowski">Andrzej Sapkowski</a> and an even more popular video game trilogy, Netflix’s “The Witcher” seemed primed to be a possible heir to “Games of Thrones.” At least, that’s the hype Netflix hoped for. Instead, the show comes across more like “Hercules” a la Kevin Sorbo sharing ale with “Xena: Warrior Princess” at some dimly lit tavern on the outskirts of <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Winterfell">Winterfell</a>.
The fantasy series builds around the character Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill. Essentially, Geralt is a “witcher” who wanders a land known as The Continent fighting monsters for money. Witchers are apparently superhuman mutants forged by science and magic imbued with special powers.
Sadly, all that science and magic could not afford a better wig for poor Geralt. That mop was forged in the fires of The Hair Club For Men before being gussied up by a local taxidermist. Honestly, it should be registered as a service animal, but I digress.
Hairpieces aside, Cavill does a fine job as Geralt. The actor is a huge fan of “The Witcher” universe, and it shows. Apparently, Cavill <a href="https://bgr.com/2019/07/31/the-witcher-netflix-new-details-henry-cavill-interview-geralt/">hounded Netflix</a> for the lead role. He nails the stoic, gruff disposition of Geralt and remains the most compelling and entertaining aspect of the new series.
Two other characters remain the focus of “The Witcher” as well. Anya Colatra plays Yennefer, a sorceress mired in bitter existential ruminations and Geralt’s budding love interest. Ciri, played by Freya Allan, is a teenage princess on the lam desperate to find her potential savior in Geralt. Their character arcs are quite uneven so far, though maybe that’s to be expected in the first season of any show.
Given author Sapkowski’s Polish origins, it’s not surprising that “The Witcher” draws from a fair amount of<a href="https://time.com/5753369/the-witcher-history-folklore/"> European and Eastern European folklore</a>. The creatures that infest The Continent are often directly inspired by centuries of myth and legend. With that in mind, some of the multicultural castings of characters seem a tad bit odd. On one hand, it’s a fantasy series, so who really cares. On the other hand, Netflix is so <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cancel-cultures-failure-james-baldwins-famous-essay-exposes-the-lefts-flawed-logic">desperate to appear “woke”</a> it feels like they are trying to fill some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test">silly quota</a>.
As for the plot, complexity does not benefit the show at all. The odd timeline in “The Witcher” is more confusing than clever, and creates a somewhat incoherent brand of storytelling. The show simply works best as a <a href="https://geekandsundry.com/procedural-versus-serialized-television/">fantasy procedural</a>. As much as “The Witcher” wants to wow us with unusual narrative schemes, the show is at its best when it sticks to a more episodic monster-of-the-week formula. It&#8217;s far more entertaining and Cavill’s charm shines through when the show doesn’t take itself too seriously or try to compete with shows like “Game of Thrones” or “Westworld.”
Also, showrunner Lauren Hissrich seems to think that gratuitous nudity lends seriousness and sophistication to the show. Instead, it comes across as garish and trite – not to mention that if a man had been at the helm of “The Witcher,” he’d be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-no-leftists-critics-of-cancel-culture-dont-hate-democracy">burned at the stake</a> for some idiotic variant of toxic masculinity with all those bared breasts.
Finally, it must be said that the theme song, “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” is simply insufferable. Sung by Geralt’s bard and sidekick, Jaskier, it runs through most of the first season and continues on in your head for days like some neurotic tick. The song sounds like some noxious mashup of Panic! At The Disco and Engelbert Humperdinck. <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a30360114/netflix-the-witcher-song-toss-a-coin-lyrics-bard-jaskier-joey-batey/">Sadly, many consider it epic</a>. Rest assured, it’s going to be played to exhaustion at Renaissance Fairs throughout the land this summer amid clouds of patchouli and rank body odor.
Countless mixed reviews aside, “The Witcher” remains a bona-fide hit for Netflix at the moment. It’s certainly watchable and entertaining on the level of, say, binging frozen pizza and ice cream. You will more than likely enjoy it, but you might feel a bit ill afterward.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/review-the-mandalorian">REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’</a>

&#8220;The Witcher&#8221; Netflix Premiere

REVIEW: ‘The Witcher’

Netflix has caused controversy by streaming a &#8220;comedy&#8221; special that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/netflix-christmas-special-that-features-gay-jesus-weed-smoking-mary-sparks-backlash">depicts Jesus</a> as a homosexual and his mother as God&#8217;s pot-smoking mistress. This comes to us from a &#8220;comedy&#8221; group with a history of sacrilegious content of this sort, including, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christians-are-dumping-netflix-over-blasphemous-gay-jesus-comedy">reportedly</a>, a skit that portrays Christ as a homicidal sadist.
There is part of me that thinks we should ignore this idiocy and go on with our day. It&#8217;s so utterly stupid and witless — just provocation for provocation&#8217;s sake — that I fear we dignify it by responding with exactly the outrage that the creators of the special were banking on. In the end, what they&#8217;ve produced is the intellectual equivalent of making a fart noise in our faces. Why pay it the respect of getting angry about it?
But ultimately it&#8217;s this — the total lack of any creative value — that makes its existence on Netflix all the more worthy of condemnation. If this was some dumb skit on YouTube, it wouldn&#8217;t warrant our attention. But Netflix, a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate, decided to lend it the support and credibility of its massive platform. What reason is there to stream this tripe, other than as a blatant &#8220;screw you&#8221; to its Christian customers? Netflix has &#8220;The Last Temptation of Christ,&#8221; too, which is equally sacrilegious, but at least it&#8217;s a legitimate film created by one of the best filmmakers in cinema history. This gay Jesus thing, on the other hand, serves no artistic purpose other than to desecrate what Christians hold dear, just for the fun of it.
<iframe title="Netflix Doesn&#039;t Want Your Business | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 392" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ttdhNKLHtcM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I won&#8217;t dwell on the obvious point that many have already made. It goes almost without saying that Netflix would never play host to a whimsical comedy special that portrays the Prophet Mohammed as a homosexual. In fact, the skit goes out of its way to avoid including Muslims in the mockery. From The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/netflix-christmas-special-that-features-gay-jesus-weed-smoking-mary-sparks-backlash">report</a>:
<blockquote>At other points in the special, Mary smokes marijuana, Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi, hires a sex worker, and Jesus gets high off “special tea.” Hallucinating himself — he meets with Buddha, Krishna, the Rastafari god Jah and an alien deity for Scientologists, the Post writes.</blockquote>
Buddha, Krishna, even the Rastafarian god and the galactic lord Xenu of Scientology fame. It seems that the deity of one major world religion is missing. These oh-so-bold comedians wouldn&#8217;t dream of heaping the sort of contempt upon Islam that they heap upon Christianity, and they certainly wouldn&#8217;t spit on Islam&#8217;s prophet like they spit on Jesus Christ. For one thing, they would be condemned by everyone as bigots. For another, they&#8217;d be taking their lives into their hands. Not to mention Netflix wouldn&#8217;t have picked it up. The company that has publicly <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-bostson-straight-pride-parade-netflix-cease-desist-heterophobic-20190718-nqyh5tfa65au7ckaurr6lhucgq-story.html">condemned</a> &#8220;hatred&#8221; and &#8220;bullying&#8221; only makes an exception where Christianity is concerned.
And so for that reason, Christians should oblige and cancel their Netflix subscriptions. This isn&#8217;t a boycott. It isn&#8217;t even a statement on our part. Netflix is the one that made the statement. That statement is clear: If you&#8217;re a Christian, we don&#8217;t want your business. What else are we supposed to do but oblige? If you show up to someone&#8217;s house party and they immediately scream in your face and call you a piece of garbage, you probably aren&#8217;t going to stay very long. You aren&#8217;t welcome. And it&#8217;s not your house. Fine. Why would you want to stick around anyway? Well, we aren&#8217;t welcome at Netflix&#8217;s party. That&#8217;s fine, too. We can take our collective millions of dollars in subscription fees and go elsewhere.

Netflix logos

WALSH: If You’re A Christian, Netflix Doesn’t Want Your Business

Christianity

First, there was &#8220;The Last Temptation of Christ,&#8221; which depicted the life of Jesus and his struggle with various forms of temptation, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance and lust.
Now comes &#8220;The First Temptation of Christ,&#8221; which portrays Jesus as gay and Mary as a pot-smoker.
Just in time for Christmas, Netflix is streaming the 46-minute Brazilian comedy special.
&#8220;Jesus, who&#8217;s hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from the comedians Porta dos Fundos,&#8221; Netflix says in a brief description.
&#8220;The Netflix film tells the story of Jesus returning home from the desert for his 30th birthday, in a highly satirical format. Mary and God are portrayed as illicit lovers, Joseph is a bumbling carpenter who can&#8217;t build a table, and the Three Kings try to pass off ham as &#8216;free-range soy,&#8217; &#8221; <a href="https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Pastors-politicians-slam-Brazilian-Christmas-14912291.php">The Washington Post</a> reports.
<blockquote>And Jesus, the movie suggests, seems to have done more than wandering around the desert for 40 days. Arriving in Nazareth, he brings along a flamboyant companion, Orlando, who implies at nearly every turn that he and the son of God are romantically involved, at one point calling him a &#8220;naughty Capricorn.&#8221;
As Orlando, the walking stereotype of an effeminate gay man, begins to describe how the pair met &#8211; &#8220;I was bathing in an oasis, and I was naked&#8221; &#8211; Jesus abruptly cuts him off to prevent more from being revealed.
&#8220;And then I asked for directions,&#8221; Jesus says. &#8220;I asked, and he gave it to me.&#8221;
&#8220;You bet I did,&#8221; Orlando responds, nail file in hand. &#8220;I sure gave it to him.&#8221;</blockquote>
At other points in the special, Mary smokes marijuana, Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi, hires a sex worker, and Jesus gets high off &#8220;special tea.&#8221; Hallucinating himself &#8212; he meets with Buddha, Krishna, the Rastafari god Jah and an alien deity for Scientologists, the Post writes.
The backlash has been swift &#8212; and severe.
More than 500,000 people have signed a <a href="https://www.citizengo.org/en-af/rf/175897-ask-netflix-cancel-film-depicting-jesus-homosexual">petition</a> titled, &#8220;Ask Netflix to cancel film depicting Jesus as a homosexual!&#8221;
&#8220;Using humor and art as an excuse, this group has attacked Christianity in an unprecedented manner. They supposedly produced this film as a &#8216;Christmas&#8217; film for their viewers!&#8221; the petition says. &#8220;It is an absolutely unacceptable provocation. No one has the right to attack the faith of millions of people around the world. These type of supposed &#8216;shows&#8217; only cause one thing: numbing the population to attacks against Christians.&#8221;
Another petition on <a href="https://www.change.org/p/netflix-especial-de-natal-porta-dos-fundos">change.org</a> has collected nearly two million signatures. Signees are &#8220;in favor of the removal of the film from the NETFLIX catalog and for the &#8216;Porta dos Fundos&#8217; to be held responsible for the crime of villainous faith. We also want public retraction, as they have seriously offended Christians.&#8221;
The National Conference of Bishops in Brazil released a statement last week condemning the special, saying &#8220;Nothing allows anyone the right to vilify people&#8217;s deeply held beliefs. The right to freedom of expression does not nullify respect for people and their values.&#8221;
The Gospel Coalition, an international collective of evangelical pastors, has also begun a campaign in Brazil calling for a boycott of Netflix, The Post writes.
&#8220;To remain a sponsor of film productions that mock and vilify the Lord is the same as slapping him, spitting on him, beating his head to bury his crown in thorns,&#8221; wrote the Rev. Joel Theodoro, a pastor at the Bairro Imperial Presbyterian Church in Rio de Janeiro.
&nbsp;

In this photo illustration a American global on-demand

Netflix Christmas Special That Features ‘Gay Jesus,’ Weed-Smoking Mary Sparks Backlash

Christmas

The CEO of entertainment streaming corporation Netflix defended the company&#8217;s decision to censor &#8220;Patriot Act With <a href="https://mashable.com/article/china-censorship-companies-hong-kong-protests-nba/">Hasan Minhaj</a>&#8221; in Saudi Arabia after the show was critical of the Middle Eastern nation&#8217;s crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, and his role in the disappearance and probable murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/netflix-ceo-on-censoring-patriot-act-with-hasan-minhaj-in-saudi-arabia-were-not-trying-to-do-truth-to-power/">The Wrap reports</a> that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was clear, in an interview at the New York Times&#8217; DealBook conference, that Netflix had no desire to anger foreign nationals and that it would not court controversy if it meant forgoing profits and access to foreign audiences.
“Well, we’re not in the news business. We’re not trying to do ‘truth to power,&#8217;” Hastings said.
The Saudi-focused episode of &#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; disappeared from Netflix in Saudi Arabia last January after the Saudi royal family complained that the episode criticizing Mohammad Bin Salman violated the country&#8217;s &#8220;anti-cyber crime law.&#8221;
At the time, the Wrap reports, Netflix issued a statement claiming that &#8220;we strongly support artistic freedom worldwide.&#8221; It added that “we had received a valid legal request&#8221; to pull the episode, which required them &#8220;to comply with local law.”
Social media users noticed the disappearance and notified Minhaj, who addressed the issue in an additional episode of &#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; that aired in February.
“This isn’t about just censoring one episode of a TV show. It’s about the precedent,&#8221; Minhaj said in a taped segment. &#8220;Because as tech companies keep expanding, they’re going to keep running into more vague censorship laws — laws that can allow governments to pull any content at any time.”
Hastings seemed to confirm Minhaj&#8217;s suspicions of censorship in his interview, noting that Netflix has no desire to pick fights with prickly regimes over “newsy topics.&#8221;
“We can accomplish a lot more by being entertainment and influencing a global conversation about how people live, than trying to be another news channel,&#8221; Hastings said, adding that Saudi Arabia has approved the Netflix series, &#8220;Sex Education&#8221; despite the fact that Saudi officials consider the show&#8217;s content very controversial.
Netflix is, of course, hardly the only entertainment corporation that censors content for foreign audiences &#8212; especially in countries known to bankroll expensive film and television projects, like China.
Hollywood has had a very complicated relationship with China and the Chinese government. China is the single <a href="https://www.axios.com/hollywood-movies-china-censorship-bba26aa9-b122-4b2c-80e1-054394414698.html">largest global entertainment market</a> and only allows around 40 foreign movies to be shown in Chinese theaters each year. Competition for those slots is heavy, and entertainment companies, like Disney, are more than willing to tailor their offerings to please Chinese censors and government information ministers.
Activision Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft and other popular massive multiplayer online role playing games recently censored a pro gamer, confiscating his winnings and banning him from competition for a year, after that gamer noted support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in a post-competition interview. The NBA, likewise, censored players and team administrators from speaking out on the protests in Hong Kong after China complained.
&#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; will return to Netflix for a new season next month, and it&#8217;s very likely Hasan Minhaj will make censorship a top topic.

Netflix reed hastings

Netflix CEO Defends Censorship: ‘We’re Not Trying To Do Truth To Power’

LeBron James got caught cozying up to China in the most embarrassing of ways a few weeks back. Turns out he’s got some competition on the “cozying up” front from two of the biggest companies in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar scolded Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey for supporting Hong Kong protesters, dubbing Morey “misinformed” and “not educated.” A massive public backlash ensued.
The derisive chant “Shut Up and Dribble” made a sudden comeback.
Much less has been made of two similar comments tied to authoritarian regimes.
Netflix, the world’s biggest streaming company (for now), got in trouble with one of its politically charged originals. The company’s far-left talker “Patriot Act” starring Hasan Minhaj aired a segment critical of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his ties to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this year.
The streaming giant yanked the episode in question from its Saudi feed at the country’s urging. Recently, CEO Reed <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/netflix-ceo-defends-censoring-anti-government-video-in-saudi-arabia/">Hastings defended the decision</a>.
<blockquote>&#8220;We&#8217;re not in the news business,&#8221; he said during an event sponsored by The New York Times. &#8220;We&#8217;re not trying to do &#8216;truth to power.&#8217; We&#8217;re trying to entertain.&#8221;
&#8220;We can accomplish a lot more by being entertainment and influence the conversation about the way people live, rather than being another news channel,&#8221; he added.</blockquote>
Netflix seemed less interested in “entertaining” when it got into <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/flashback-obamas-netflix-not-political/">bed with the Obamas</a> on a multi-million dollar production deal. Or when Hastings added former Obama official Susan Rice to the company’s Board of Directors.
And what about Netflix threatening to pull productions out of Georgia after the state passed strict new legislation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hypocrites-netflix-films-middle-eastern-countries-paul-bois">targeting abortion procedures</a>?
That doesn’t mention the streamer’s hard-left content catalog, featuring uber-woke talent like Chelsea Handler, the aforementioned Minaj, David Letterman and, briefly, Michelle Wolf.
Standing up to authoritarian regimes isn’t of particular interest to Team Disney, either. The House that Mickey Built gains plenty from showing its product in Chinese movie theaters. That allows gargantuan hits like “Avengers: Endgame” to be gargantuan-er.
So it’s not shocking to hear Disney echo similar talking points.
The Hollywood Reporter recently <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-reporter-executive-roundtable-7-major-studio-chiefs-1250718">invited seven major studio chiefs</a> to weigh in on a number of critical issues, from the changing digital landscape to our current superhero fixation.
Alan Horn, chief creative officer and co-chairman of Disney, joined in the conversation which eventually steered toward … China. THR brought up the imbroglio revolving around the studio’s live-action version of “Mulan.” That film’s star, Yifei Liu, shared her support for the Hong Kong protests, causing a LeBron-sized outcry.
How did Horn react?
<blockquote>“My feeling is free speech is an important component of our society, and folks ought to be able to say what they want to say.”</blockquote>
So far, so good.
<blockquote>“We try to be nonpolitical. There is always an issue somewhere in the world, and China happens to be a very, very big market, but it&#8217;s not the only market where there have been issues. The only thing I have said to the folks that work with me is to keep in mind that when you speak, [the media will quote you]. And that carries with it a certain responsibility. Be sensible and think before you speak. Especially on social media.”</blockquote>
The conversation then shifted to the “Fast &amp; Furious” franchise, one of Hollywood’s hottest properties. The roundtable moderator asks if the series could have a Chinese villain at some point. Universal’s Donna Langley offers this answer:
<blockquote>“We run a business. We have to be sensitive to important markets.”</blockquote>
That would be a “no.”
These revelations don’t address the other ways studios appease Chinese censors, from adding positive Asian characters to win over foreign censors to ensuring no plot points interfere with the nation’s “flawless” image.
The international markets certainly complicate business decisions in the 21st century. Movie studios know a stateside flop can turn into a profit leader if select foreign markets rally to their side.
There are few easy answers in our increasingly global age. Still, it’s hard to process the non-stop lectures and finger-wagging from Hollywood Inc. and the aforementioned comments.

Disney Plus Netflix

TOTO: Disney, Netflix Wave White Flag On International Censorship

China

LeBron James

Marvel

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are now Hollywood power players, according to the latest top 100 list from <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/thr-100-hollywood-reporters-powerful-people-entertainment-1246527/item/thr-100-2019-dick-wolf-1246575" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
Clocking in at number 50 ahead of top names like Jeffrey Katzenberg and James Cameron, THR said that the Obamas are soaring into Hollywood with deals from every corner:
<blockquote>Who wouldn&#8217;t take their call? The former president, 58, and first lady, 55, kicked off 2019 with a Sundance acquisition — doc American Factory, which premiered to strong reviews on Netflix in August en route to an awards-season run. Tonia Davis and Priya Swaminathan, co-heads of Obama banner Higher Ground, are steering projects under the couple&#8217;s deal with the streamer — including adaptations of David W. Blight&#8217;s Frederick Douglass bio and Michael Lewis&#8217; Fifth Risk, and Bloom, a post-World War II-era show about fashion — plus podcasts under a new deal with Spotify.</blockquote>
Earlier this year, the Obamas&#8217; production company, Higher Ground, announced an impressive slate of content for Netflix and Spotify. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos hailed their slate as a symbol of their commitment to “diverse creators and unique voices.”
“President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the Higher Ground team are building a company focused on storytelling that exemplifies their core values,” Sarandos said. “The breadth of their initial slate across series, film, documentary, and family programming shows their commitment to diverse creators and unique voices that will resonate with our members around the world.”
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-seven-projects-barack-and-michelle-obama-paul-bois">statement announcing the projects</a> at the time, former President Obama said that Higher Ground is proud to use the power of dramatic narrative to explore social justice issues. “We created Higher Ground to harness the power of storytelling,” he said. “That’s why we couldn’t be more excited about these projects. Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights, and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all.”
Michelle Obama said the projects will offer something “for everyone” that will likely generate conversations. “We love this slate because it spans so many different interests and experiences, yet it’s all woven together with stories that are relevant to our daily lives,” she said. “We think there’s something here for everyone — moms and dads, curious kids, and anyone simply looking for an engaging, uplifting watch at the end of a busy day. We can’t wait to see these projects come to life — and the conversations they’ll generate.”
In May of 2018, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28789/netflix-names-former-obama-ambassador-susan-rice-paul-bois">Netflix announced</a> it would be adding to its board of directors former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
“We are delighted to welcome Ambassdor Rice to the Netflix board,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings at the time. “For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight, and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.”
Former Ambassador Rice said she was “thrilled” to be joining the “cutting-edge” company. “I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,” she said at the time.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Portraits  &#8211; Washington, DC

Barack And Michelle Obama Make List Of Hollywood’s ‘Most Powerful’ People

Michelle Obama

Speaking recently with <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-marvel-theme-parks-1203360075/">Empire Magazine</a>, legendary director Martin Scorsese compared superhero movies to &#8220;theme parks.&#8221;
<blockquote>I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.</blockquote>
Scorsese’s latest film, &#8220;The Irishman,&#8221; has won rave reviews, and will debut in limited theaters on November 1 before being available to stream on Netflix just three weeks later.
In the wake of Scorsese’s comments, several directors and actors who have worked as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have issued responses.
Speaking with Variety’s Angelique Jackson on Saturday, Samuel L. Jackson, who has portrayed character Nick Fury in a host of MCU films, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/samuel-l-jackson-martin-scorseses-marvel-1203360546/amp/">offered his opinion</a> on the Scorsese remark.
<blockquote>VARIETY: Did you hear Martin Scorsese’s thoughts on Marvel films, on superhero films not being cinema?
JACKSON: I passed by that, but I didn’t pay much attention to it &#8230; I mean, that’s like saying, you know, Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. Everybody doesn’t like his stuff either. We happen to. Everybody doesn’t. You know, there are a lot of Italian Americans who don’t think he should be making films about them like that. Everybody’s got an opinion, so, I mean, it’s okay. Ain’t going to stop nobody from making movies.</blockquote>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zq24LPxTFG8" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
James Gunn, writer and director of both &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; films, as well as the upcoming &#8220;The Suicide Squad,&#8221; tweeted out a response as well:
<blockquote>Martin Scorsese is one of my 5 favorite living filmmakers. I was outraged when people picketed The Last Temptation of Christ without having seen the film. I’m saddened that he’s now judging my films in the same way.</blockquote>
Gunn added: &#8220;That said, I will always love Scorsese, be grateful for his contribution to cinema, and can’t wait to see The Irishman.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
That said, I will always love Scorsese, be grateful for his contribution to cinema, and can’t wait to see The Irishman.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1180158818736574464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
One Twitter user questioned Gunn’s response, saying: &#8220;You must see what he means, at least — that their primary aim is not to explore the complexity of human emotion but to provide entertainment?&#8221;
Gun <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jamesgunn/status/1180165680823508994?s=21">responded</a> by saying that his &#8220;primary aim&#8221; with the &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; movies was to achieve that feeling. &#8220;Whether they achieve it or not is up to others to decide — but it’s absolutely their primary aim,&#8221; the director wrote.
This is not the first, nor will it be the final, time that the essence of &#8220;cinema&#8221; is debated among filmmakers.
As films from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have gained traction during awards season, some have protested.
In 2018, legendary director Steven Spielberg <a href="https://youtu.be/_hTTvO50QTs">told ITV</a>: &#8220;Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.&#8221;
In 2019, Netflix received 15 Oscar nominations. The streaming giant went on to win across four categories, including best director. Expect Netflix to surpass its 2019 nominations total when the 2020 Academy Awards nominees are announced on January 13.

Samuel L. Jackson.

Samuel L. Jackson Responds To Scorsese: ‘Everybody Doesn’t Like His Stuff Either … It’s Okay’

Martin Scorsese

For both the &#8220;Woke&#8221; and sleeping viewers out there, comedian-turned-full-time political activist Chelsea Handler hits all the wrong notes in her Netflix documentary exploring her so-called &#8220;white privilege.&#8221;
The newly-released documentary, wherein Handler explores how her white privilege has helped her career and its effects on American culture, has racked up some viewer feedback on review site <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hello_privilege_its_me_chelsea/reviews?type=user">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, and let&#8217;s just say Handler&#8217;s supposed white privilege provided little help in landing her high praise.
As of Wednesday evening, &#8220;Hello Privilege. It&#8217;s Me, Chelsea,&#8221; has a stunning 16% audience approval rating.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ouch. <a href="https://t.co/ke8kSlqGx1">pic.twitter.com/ke8kSlqGx1</a>
— Amanda Prestigiacomo (@AmandaPresto) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaPresto/status/1174433128208830469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The reviewers were wildly unsatisfied; either Handler was not sensitive enough to the intersectional Woke experience, or her desperate apologetics were too much to bear.
One seemingly left-leaning reviewer, for example, blasted the documentary as &#8220;full of fake outreach and perpetuation of black stereotypes with no real insight from the main character.&#8221;
&#8220;The most enlightening parts of this documentary are the conversations held with actual activist,&#8221; the female reviewer <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hello_privilege_its_me_chelsea/reviews?type=user">posted</a>. &#8220;There is no nuance or heart in this documentary.&#8221;
&#8220;[Handler] even had the nerve to make a sexual joke about (comedian and actress) Tiffany Hadish when Tiffany was being DEAD serious in her example of white privilege,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Even when Tiffany was nearly brought to tears with a fact that had personally brought ME to tears, Handler reacted in the most unattached way ever.&#8221;
The reviewer noted that Handler &#8220;completely tried the &#8216;we didn&#8217;t have a lot of money&#8217; bit which she later contradicts by talking about going back to her nice neighborhood.&#8221;
&#8220;This &#8216;documentary&#8217; is full of fake outreach and perpetuation of black stereotypes with no real insight from the main character. I. Can. Not,&#8221; she closed.
Another audience review complained that Handler interviewed the wrong people.
&#8220;Chelsea was good and put effort into trying to understand what is going on, but I don&#8217;t think she interviewed the best people to talk about this subject because I ended up taking nothing away from this documentary,&#8221; the person said.
A female viewer who seemingly wanted to like the doc gave Handler two out of five stars and ironically criticized the work for exposing the comedian&#8217;s white privilege.
&#8220;[I don&#8217;t know]. I think creating a documentary and traveling the world seeking answers about white privilege is the epitome of white privelege [sic],&#8221; she posted. &#8220;I&#8217;m a fan of Handler and especially her last book, but this wasn&#8217;t her best use of time in my opinion. Was just a little cringey to watch to be honest.&#8221;
&#8220;Seriously cringy and racist all along,&#8221; a male reviewer bluntly wrote.
Another said, &#8220;So boring I cried.&#8221;
&#8220;Only giving it a half star because she made me chuckle once or twice,&#8221; a male reviewer posted. &#8220;Otherwise [it&#8217;s] a cringe fest of self deprecation/loathing.&#8221;
&#8220;A long, boring, scolding given by an unfunny white comedian pretending to depth. If you are a masochist, or a difficult person to be around, you will probably really enjoy it,&#8221; a post blasted. &#8220;Anyone with the bodily resources to create a measurable EEG readout should give it a pass.&#8221;

Chelsea Handler

Viewers Savage Chelsea Handler’s ‘White Privilege’ Netflix Doc

Race

President Trump started off this week on a Twitter tear, trolling the Democrats on the dead &#8220;collusion&#8221; narrative and the dying &#8220;obstruction&#8221; allegations, flaunting his judicial appointments and America&#8217;s energy progress, smacking the &#8220;horrible&#8221; people in the media for yet another &#8220;assault&#8221; on Brett Kavanaugh, and suggesting it&#8217;s time to start investigating Barack Obama&#8217;s post-presidency Netflix deal.
As The Daily Wire has reported, not long after leaving the White House, Barack and Michelle Obama inked a lucrative, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46582/here-are-seven-projects-barack-and-michelle-obama-paul-bois">multi-project deal</a> with Netflix, which has run into a few <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51462/obamas-new-production-company-gets-deplorable-james-barrett">legal problems</a> due to a copyright issue, but is still moving forward on cranking out a slate of features, documentaries, and TV series for the streaming platform in the near future.
Trump kicked off Monday by tweaking the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee over collusion and obstruction, then found a way to tie his taunts to Obama. &#8220;House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent — ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION,&#8221; Trump wrote (tweets below). &#8220;So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that &#8216;Trump&#8217; has done over his lifetime. But it doesn&#8217;t work that way.&#8221;
He then offered the committee &#8220;a better idea&#8221;: &#8220;Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the &#8216;Congressional Slush Fund,&#8217; and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!&#8221;
Trump returned to the Obama-Netflix theme a few hours later amid another Mueller report-themed mini-rant. &#8220;[The Democrats] failed on the Mueller Report, they failed on Robert Mueller’s testimony, they failed on everything else, so now the Democrats are trying to build a case that I enrich myself by being President,&#8221; he tweeted. &#8220;Good idea, except I will, and have always expected to, lose BILLIONS of DOLLARS for the privilege of being your President — and doing the best job that has been done in many decades. I am far beyond somebody paying for a hotel room for the evening, or filling up a gas tank at an airport I do not own. These Radical Left Democrats are CRAZY! Obama Netflix?&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s trolling was successful over at the left-leaning outlet <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-suggests-justice-department-investigate-barack-obamas-publishing-and-netflix-deals/">Mediaite</a>, which was clearly incensed about him taunting Obama and spiking the football over the Democrat-disappointing Mueller report. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, Mediaite noted, &#8220;announced just last week an active Congressional investigation based in part on details emerged from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office.&#8221; So obstruction isn&#8217;t dead, at least not totally.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51808/trump-check-out-what-nyt-just-had-do-after-james-barrett">The Daily Wire</a> reported earlier, Trump also blasted out to his 64 million followers his thoughts on The New York Times&#8217; recent &#8220;assault&#8221; on Kavanaugh, which it was forced to correct amid pushback by other journalists.
&#8220;&#8216;The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim,'&#8221; he tweeted, citing &#8220;Fox and Friends.&#8221; &#8220;The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh &#8211; Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.&#8221;
&#8220;Just Out: &#8216;Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident,'&#8221; he added later, again citing his favorite morning show. &#8220;DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions &#8211; but played the game badly. They should be sued!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51462/obamas-new-production-company-gets-deplorable-james-barrett">Obamas’ New Company Gets ‘Deplorable’ With Smaller Business, Says Lawyer</a>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent &#8211; ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION. So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that “Trump” has done over his lifetime. But it doesn’t&#8230;.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173552937542569986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">&#8230;.work that way. I have a better idea. Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the “Congressional Slush Fund,” and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173552939019001857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">They failed on the Mueller Report, they failed on Robert Mueller’s testimony, they failed on everything else, so now the Democrats are trying to build a case that I enrich myself by being President. Good idea, except I will, and have always expected to, lose BILLIONS of DOLLARS..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173597713860046848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">&#8230;.for the privilege of being your President &#8211; and doing the best job that has been done in many decades. I am far beyond somebody paying for a hotel room for the evening, or filling up a gas tank at an airport I do not own. These Radical Left Democrats are CRAZY! Obama Netflix?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173597715487477760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">“The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim.” <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh &#8211; Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173568871481171974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Just Out: “Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident.” <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions &#8211; but played the game badly. They should be sued!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173576122811985920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

barack_obama_gi.jpg

Trump: Time To Start Looking Into Obama’s Netflix Deal

Jerrold Nadler

Robert Mueller

Russia

A production company founded by former first couple Barack and Michelle Obama that was granted a massive contract with Netflix is taking legal action to save its name, &#8220;Higher Ground Productions&#8221; — a nod to Michelle&#8217;s famous line about when their enemies &#8220;go low, we go high.&#8221; But the lawyer for the much-less financially robust company in the Obamas&#8217; crosshairs is decrying their legal team&#8217;s &#8220;deplorable behavior&#8221; and says the Obamas are failing to practice &#8220;the values they preach.&#8221;
On Aug. 20, Higher Grounds Productions, founded shortly after Obama left office, demanded the cancellation of another company&#8217;s earlier trademark, Higher Ground Enterprises, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/barack-obamas-production-company-runs-a-trademark-problem-1236219">The Hollywood Reporter</a>&#8216;s Eriq Gardner reports.
&#8220;Higher Ground Enterprises is run by Hanisya Massey, who, according to her attorney Larry Zerner, is in the business of helping authors publish e-books. Her trademark is in Class 41, which includes entertainment services. Zerner says Massey has been using &#8216;Higher Ground&#8217; since 2008,&#8221; Gardner explains. &#8220;Naturally, as the Obamas came to a lucrative agreement with Netflix for films and television series, Higher Ground Productions came into conflict with Higher Ground Enterprises.&#8221;
The couple contends that the two trademarks should be able to coexist, but a Trademark Examiner disagreed, maintaining that the names of the two companies and the services they offer are too similar. When the office refused to register the Higher Ground Productions mark on April 10, the Obamas chose to take further action, demanding the cancellation of the 2008-founded company&#8217;s trademark.
In response to Obamas&#8217; cancellation demand, Zerner expressed disgust. &#8220;The Obamas have known for almost a year that their Higher Ground trademark application was rejected by the USPTO because it infringed my client&#8217;s rights,&#8221; he said in comments reported by THR. &#8220;Instead, of simply picking another name, the Obamas&#8217; lawyers have now filed a meritless petition to cancel my client&#8217;s trademark so they can take it for themselves. This is really deplorable behavior. I hope that the Obamas realize that these actions are not consistent with the values they preach and that they instruct their attorneys to immediately dismiss the petition.&#8221;
In their failed initial bid to let both trademarks co-exist, the Obamas&#8217; production company sent a letter to the Trademark Office, which, as Hot Air&#8217;s <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/karen-townsend/2019/09/05/legal-woes-obamas-deplorable-behavior-cited/">Karen Townsend</a> puts it, &#8220;arrogantly implies it&#8217;s a distinction between a big, important entertainment deal with the former First Couple and a small business that promotes e-books.&#8221;
&#8220;[T]he consumers of &#8216;media production services&#8217; covered by the Application are likely to be highly sophisticated,&#8221; the letter states, as reported by THR. &#8220;Media production services are generally offered not to individual consumers but to commercial entities and professionals in their field. Indeed, Applicant has entered a deal with Netflix in connection with its media production services. Such customers, whether multi-billion-dollar media companies or smaller commercial entities in need of media production services, will exercise the height of care in selecting a media production company and are highly unlikely to be confused by a photographer or e-book publisher — particularly when the other party uses a distinguishable mark.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/04/barack-michelle-obamas-higher-ground-sets-first-netflix-slate-1202604661/">Deadline</a>, in April, the Obamas unveiled their first slate of productions for Netflix, which includes &#8220;American Factory,&#8221; a film that &#8220;takes a deep dive into a post-industrial Ohio, where a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant and hires two thousand blue-collar Americans&#8221;; &#8220;Bloom,&#8221; a &#8220;drama series set in the world of fashion in post-WWII New York City that depicts barriers faced by women and by people of color in an era marked by hurdles but also tremendous progress,&#8221; and a feature film adaptation of &#8220;Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom&#8221; by David W. Blight.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49676/watch-students-slam-trump-statement-immigration-james-barrett">WATCH: Students Slam Trump Statement On Immigration, Then Learn Obama Said It</a>

Obamas’ New Company Gets ‘Deplorable’ With Smaller Business, Says Lawyer

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will serve as the inspiration for an upcoming Netflix series, which crafted the story based on her ill-fated attempted to defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/greg-berlanti-julie-plec-adapting-chasing-hillary-as-netflix-series-1234960?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, &#8220;the streamer, which already has an overall deal and multiple projects in the works with the Obamas, has won a multiple-outlet bidding war for &#8216;The Girls on the Bus,&#8217; a drama series inspired by a chapter from New York Times journalist Amy Chozick&#8217;s novel &#8216;Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling.'&#8221;
After a considerable bidding war, Netflix acquired the rights to Chozick&#8217;s book. &#8220;This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me,&#8221; she said in response to the new series.
Though the series will not be a direct adaptation of Chozick&#8217;s book, Netflix said the show would &#8220;follow the every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, finding friendship, love, and a scandal that could take down not just the presidency but our entire democracy along the way.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/interview-amy-chozick-on-her-new-memoir-chasing-hillary.html">New York Magazine</a> in 2018 said Chozick&#8217;s memoir of the failed presidential campaign would &#8220;piss off both sides&#8221; by what it contained:
<blockquote>Chozick spent a decade of her life — from her late 20s to late 30s — covering Hillary Clinton, first for The Wall Street Journal during the 2008 election and then for the New York Times for 2016. Now she’s written a memoir about the period, Chasing Hillary — a sort-of Bridget Jones’s Diary meets What it Takes coming-of-age rom-com set on the campaign trail, with a tragic twist at the end (spoiler alert: Clinton lost). &#8220;I’m sure it’s going to piss off [both sides],&#8221; Chozick says. &#8220;I’m bracing for that.&#8221;</blockquote>
The series comes amid Netflix&#8217;s recent deal with the Obamas and their production company Higher Ground, which will be developing a variety of content for the streaming empire, from scripted to non-scripted series along with documentary films. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that Higher Ground will express the Obamas&#8217; &#8220;core values,&#8221; hailing their slate as a symbol of their commitment to &#8220;diverse creators and unique voices.&#8221;
&#8220;President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the Higher Ground team are building a company focused on storytelling that exemplifies their core values,&#8221; Sarandos said. &#8220;The breadth of their initial slate across series, film, documentary, and family programming shows their commitment to diverse creators and unique voices that will resonate with our members around the world.&#8221;
In May of last year, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28789/netflix-names-former-obama-ambassador-susan-rice-paul-bois">Netflix announced</a> it would be adding to its board of directors former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
&#8220;We are delighted to welcome Ambassdor Rice to the Netflix board,&#8221; said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings at the time. &#8220;For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.&#8221;
Former Ambassador Rice said she was &#8220;thrilled&#8221; to be joining the &#8220;cutting-edge&#8221; company.
&#8220;I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,&#8221; said former Ambassador Rice.

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