Lobotero’s Info Ink

US entertainment conglomerates organized in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) made their “final offer” to the Screen Actors Guild on Monday, only hours before the expiration of the present contract at midnight. SAG has not asked its 120,000 members nationwide to authorize a strike.

In a message posted on its web site, SAG told its members that “work will continue and all SAG members should report to work and to audition for new work past the expiration date until further notice from the Guild.”

The AMPTP issued a statement asserting “Our final offer to SAG represents a final hope for avoiding further work stoppages and getting everyone back to work.” Members of the Alliance include Time Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., General Electric’s NBC Universal, Viacom, CBS, Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, among others.

AMPTP and SAG representatives were scheduled to meet Wednesday. The conglomerates arrogantly announced that they would answer questions on their ‘final’ proposal, but would not entertain any counter-proposals.

In line with general economic trends, the entertainment giants are determined to cut costs at the expense of the bulk of the industry’s workforce. A piece on “middle-income working actors” in the New York Times June 30 painted a grim picture: “Reality shows have crowded out scripted programs, comedies in particular. The studios are making fewer movies, and the ones they are making are less actor-driven. [Two of the current box office top ten are animated films; most of the others are simply ‘cartoonish.’] Networks like NBC have virtually stopped filming pilot episodes, meaning they are hiring fewer actors. Voice-over work, once a staple for less-known actors, is outsourced to other countries or given to A-list stars.”

If it is not accepted then look for more boring crap on TV–geez that means more Reality TV–oh goody!

Lots and lots have been said about the new Pixar movie, Wall-E, seems right wingers say that it is sending a left wing message.  Their problem seems to be that the movie may imply that humans have caused all the problems on the planet like pollution, global warming, etc.

Why the uproar over Wall-E?  What about another movie, “The Happening” by M. Shyamalan?  This movie is about the result of Global warming that trees are giving off a neuro-toxin because they are being damaged by pollution and such.  The results of this toxin is that people start committing suicide and in ways that is just gruesome.  Basically this movie is saying that humans are filthy, greedy and deserve to die for screwing up the planet.

I ask why this movie has not acquired the ire of right wing nuts?  Maybe it is because most of them watch movie cartoons and not the  more adult movies.  Please stop looking for a left wing conspiracy and enjoy the movies and your popcorn.

There is a building pile of crap over a movie–Wall-E.  First, it is a animated movie, do any of the right wing idiots get that?  OK and the Tele-Tubies were gay–at least one of them, according to people of similar thinking.  These same people really hate it when others see their right wing agenda being portrayed in the media, but yet they continue to see those long dead “socialist” demons everywhere.

This is a piece written in the NY Times by Chris Suellentrop:

Two denizens of National Review ­ Greg Pollowitz and Shannen Coffin ­ think Pixar’s latest is a bit of “leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind,” as Coffin puts it.

“It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment,” Pollowitz writes at Planet Gore, National Review’s global-warming blog.

“I have been a huge fan of Disney Pixar’s movies,” Coffin writes at The Corner, the magazine’s staff blog. “Parents are usually just as entertained as their kids are. With WALL-E, that’s probably true only if you thought ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was Oscar-worthy.”

Blogland moves at the speed of thought, however, and already the right-wing backlash to the right-wing backlash against “Wall-E” is underway. Jonah Goldberg chimes in with a brief rebuttal at The Corner. He calls “Wall-E” a “fascinating and at-times brilliant movie.”

Goldberg, however, agrees with the critique that “Wall-E” is a bit of “Malthusian fear mongering” from Pixar. Two other bloggers go further and mount a conservative defense of the film.

“I was relieved to see a kids’ movie in which the obligatory message of ecological apocalypse is framed in terms of jeopardizing our own humanity, rather than being mean to poor Gaia,” writes Matt Frost at The American Scene.

Robert Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative suggests that “Wall-E” is, Coffin’s protests notwithstanding, more right-wing than left-wing. “The real tragedy of these callous conservative critics (say that three times fast) is that they are missing the real lessons of the movie, ones I found immediately attractive to a traditional conservative,” Ford writes. “In the film, it becomes clear that mass consumerism is not just the product of big business, but of big business wedded with big government. In fact, the two are indistinguishable in WALL-E’s future. The government unilaterally provided its citizens with everything they needed, and this lack of variety led to Earth’s downfall.” He continues:

Another lesson missed is portrayed perfectly in Coffin’s claim that WALL-E points out the “evils of mankind.” The only evils of mankind portrayed are those that come about from losing touch with our own humanity. Staples of small-town conservative life such as the small farm, the “atomic family,” and old-fashioned and wholesome entertainment like “Hello, Dolly” are looked upon by the suddenly awakened humans as beautiful and desirable. By steering conservative families away from WALL-E, these commentators are doing their readers a great disservice.

Hollywood is preparing for another crippling strike after the largest actors’ union failed to agree on a new contract with the US entertainment industry’s key studios and networks.

The 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild has been locked in talks with the studios for several weeks, with both sides working towards a deadline of midnight last night.

But it became clear yesterday that the deadline would not be met, paving the way for a repeat of the strike by Hollywood screenwriters that began last November and paralysed the industry for three months. That strike cost the California economy more than $2bn in lost revenues, according to the Milken Institute, a think-tank.

Any strike by actors could potentially cause as much damage to the state’s economy and also hit other US states that rely on the entertainment industry, such as New York, Louisiana and New Mexico.

SAG is also at loggerheads with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a rival acting union, which has accepted a contract offer from the studios.

Aftra, a smaller union with about 70,000 members, has agreed to a contract that would guarantee its members a bigger share of revenues from the airing of their work on new media platforms.

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, said the industry was “shutting down” because “SAG’s Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking Aftra”

Don Imus, responding to criticism about racial remarks made Monday on his radio program, said on the air yesterday he was trying to “make a sarcastic point” about unfair treatment of blacks in the criminal justice system - in this case the arrests of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones - but had been misunderstood. “What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason,” Imus said yesterday. “I mean, there’s no reason to arrest this kid six times. Maybe he did something once, but everyone does something once.” He called the flurry of criticism surrounding the comments “ridiculous” and said that his program’s cast is now more diverse than ever - and includes a black producer and two black cohosts, a man and a woman. During a conversation Monday about Jones’s run-ins with the law, Imus asked, “What color is he?” Sports announcer Warner Wolf said Jones is “African-American.” Imus responded: “There you go. Now we know.” (AP)

Now think about this, would not you think hard and long about making a screw up after being chastised by the world for your last one?  Many of Imus peers have gone on record that he is NO racist.  After the first one, I could have believed that statement, but after the last one I doubt its validity.  If Imus is not a racist, then he is an arrogant fool that thinks he can say anything he likes and then explain it away.

WABC has said that it is unlikely that Imus will be punished for his latest comment.

Does anyone remember the Arabic speaking TV station started by the US?  It is called al Hurra.  I believe it was started in 2004 with the purpose of cutting through the BS and the hate of the region and give the listener the truth.

The station has not quite delivered on its promise.  As a matter of fact, it is airing anti-Israeli, anti-American programing; it also does pro-Iranian reports and has even aired a militant that has been calling for the death of an American prisoner.

But all that is not the absurd part, that is that the American taxpayer has paid $500 million for the operation of this TV station.  Now there is money well spent by your government.

George Carlin, 71, the much-honored American stand-up comedian whose long career was distinguished by pointed social commentary that placed him on the cultural cutting edge, died last night in Santa Monica, Calif.

Over a career of half a century, Carlin placed himself in the forefront of comic commentators on the American scene. He was particularly known for an album that referred to what he described as the seven words that could not be used on television.

His wit and humor will be sorely missed. As a social commentator, he was one of the best. He will go down with the masters such as Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl , just to mention a few that I recall vividly.

I know wherever his soul winds up, he will be giving somebody hell.

Americans received a good dose of conservative idiocy over the weekend.

The dose, which almost defies belief, involves noted conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who got upset with a television advertisement by Dunkin Donuts that featured 30-minute chef Rachel Ray.

The reason for Malkin’s distress over the commercial? The war on terrorism, a war that excites conservatives even more than the war on drugs, the war on communism, or the war on immigrants.

Malkin went ballistic because in the commercial Rachel is wearing a scarf that bears a resemblance to a kaffiyeh, a traditional scarf worn by Arab men, which apparently some people in the Middle East view as a symbol for Palestinian independence and Islamic radicalism.

I have watched Rachel on the tube and I can say that she is too worried about making lots of money, to be making any type of political statement.

Rachel should be ashamed of herself (sarcasm intended) , she should have known better, but beyond that the fact that Dunkin Donut caved to a pack of whackos does say much for Dunkin. These types of people have nothing better to do than waste time and money sowing the seeds of fear and loathing.

I watched this piece last night and even though I knew the outcome of the situation, the 2000 Florida general election debacle, I was amazed that it was so well done.  It was a political thriller that the end was already known.  It was well acted and Spacey and Leary were fab.  It kept me on the edge of my seat unlike any real life drama.

All in all well worth the investment of nearly 2 hours of my time.  I say..do not believe me…SEE IT!

I have questioned the sanity of the entertainment media with Reality TV, UFC, etc.  But now I think that the American viewing public is just pathetic and sick.

Cable network Spike TV will soon be showing a program entitled, “1000 Ways To Die”, now the promos say that it is all about the ways people die, like hit by a car, attacked by an animal and such and all caught on tape.  Since the “Faces Of Death” series was so imporant to the movie rental business I guess Spike wanted to cash in on the insanity of the American people.

Is American society is sick that watching someone die is entertainment?  But I guess good taste is not an option when trying for ratings.  What could possibly be the next “big” deal in entertainment?  Maybe I should not have asked that question–the possibilities should scare you.