HUGE MOVIE STAR SHOWS HE COULDN’T CARE LESS WHAT HOLLYWOOD THINKS IN REVEALING CHAT ON ‘CONSTITUTION AND THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY’

Ask actor Vince Vaughn about his political views and he’ll proudly tell you he’s conservative – and he doesn’t really care what Hollywood thinks.

In a telephone interview with Adam Carolla, Hollywood A-lister Vince Vaughn made a strong declaration about his conservative principles. When Carolla asked him very directly, “Do you count yourself a conservative?” Vaughn did not hesitate or stammer, he merely replied, “I do, yeah…I mean I’m very supportive of Ron Paul, but I’ve always been more conservative than not.”

During the three minute interview Carolla tried to see if Vaughn’s conservatism was a product of a conservative upbringing. Vaughn talked about growing up in Chicago, with a father who came from a working class family that leaned more democratic.

However, the actor also stated, “As a guy that worked very hard, and sort of put himself through school and stuff, he was more conservative, for sure.”

Carolla claimed that he was not conservative, but he “has been made conservative by the direction the country’s been going.”

When Vaughn was asked if his conservatism runs along the lines of fiscal issues, social issues or both, he mentioned Ron Paul, the Constitution, and a lack of trust in government.

“I really like Ron Paul…I think that when you get older, you just get less trust in the government running anything. And you start to realize…when you go back and start to look at the Constitution and the principles of liberty, the real purpose of government is to protect the individual’s right to, you know, sort of think and pursue what they have interest in,” Vaughn replied.

Via: The Blaze

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Blake Lively, Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood Makeup Artists Create Teachable Moments at White House

It was all Michelle Obama's idea, gushed mega-producer Harvey Weinstein, as he and some of Hollywood's greatest gathered at the White House Friday for a careers-in-film workshop for high school students out of D.C., New York and Boston.

Weinstein, Whoopi Goldberg, actress Blake Lively and a handful of directors and producers gave the kids a serious pep talk, emceed by CBS News' Gayle King.

Weinstein said that the idea to bring Hollywood to Washington to talk jobs came about around the same time Michelle Obama was being tapped to announce best picture last year at the Academy Awards.

"This is what I want to do," Weinstein recalled the first lady saying in a meeting. (Weinstein also revealed that he couldn't believe it didn't leak that FLOTUS was going to play such a pivotal part in the Oscars. "Amazingly, enough, we did keep in a secret," Weinstein recalled.)

[READ: Country Crooners Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood Knock Obamacare at CMA Awards]

At the afternoon discussion, while Goldberg, producer Bruce Cohen, director Ryan Coogler, actress Naomie Harris and director David Frankel all spouted words of wisdom, Lively's story stood out as she talked about her unexpected path into the business.

Lively said in high school she was disinterested in acting, the family business, and interested in attending an Ivy League school.

"It was the only thing I knew I didn't want to do," she said of a career in Hollywood. "I wanted to get a great education."

To pursue this goal, Lively became class president and practically overdosed on extracurriculars, to the point where the school tried to tell her no.

"They said, 'you can't do this,'" she recalled.

But the acting bug eventually got Lively and high school administrators again came down on her, not allowing her to walk at graduation because she missed too many school days shooting the movie, "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

"They didn't let me do that because they wanted to shut me down," she said. (Years later, they asked the star to speak at graduation. She said no.)

Lively's breakout role came on the CW soap "Gossip Girl."

Via: US News

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Hollywood Targeted to Give Health Care Law a Boost. $500,000 to sell a failed program.

The health care overhaul might get a Hollywood rewrite.

The California Endowment, a private foundation that is spending millions to promote President Barack Obama's signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions.

The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll, especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success.

"We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it's fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual," said Martin Kaplan of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, which received the grant.

The public typically gets as much, if not more, information about current events from favorite TV programs as mainstream news outlets, Kaplan said, so "people learn from these shows."

California Republican strategist Jonathan Wilcox, who has taught a course on politics and celebrity at USC, said the attempt to engage Hollywood was coming too late to influence views, and he doubted fictionalized TV would play into families' decisions about health care.

"This is an attempt to use entertainment pop culture to fix a political challenge," he said. "It will be received as a partisan political message, no matter how cleverly it's delivered."

Hollywood is known for supporting Democratic candidates and causes — Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler are among a long list of celebrities who have made a pitch for the law — but there is no guarantee the entertainment industry will be in lockstep with the White House on health care.

Via: ABC News

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Why Unions Are Pouring Money Into Virginia & Why You Should Care

Union bosses and other out-of-state liberals–from Hollywood to New York–are pouring millions into the Virginia governor’s race.

They are, without a doubt, hell-bent on defeating Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and putting long-timeDemocratic party boss and fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe into the governor’s seat.

More than that, however, the Left (just as they are targeting Texas and other Southern states) may be using the governor’s race to put the final nail in the coffin for Republicans in a state that has swung from reliably red to almost-but-not-quite blue.

While the polls in the seem to be tightening from a McAuliffe shoe-in to a too-close-to-call (were it not for the Libertarian candidate), according to the Washington Post, Democrat McAuliffe has collected $8 million more than Cuccinelli.

In addition to Democrat heavyweights like Bill Clinton ($100,000), Hollywood heavy hitters like the Weinstein Co. ($25,000) and noted author John Grisham ($75,000), Planned Parenthood donated over $1.5 million and many other liberal special interest groups have sent McAuliffe six-digit donations.

Given the amount of big out-of-state money and extraordinary efforts union bosses and their liberal cohorts are putting into the race, one must question how the Left will gain from a McAuliffe win.

Why are union bosses investing so heavily in Right-to-Work Virginia?

Via: Red State

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CUCCINELLI: MCAULIFFE REPRESENTS DC POLITICS, DETROIT FINANCES, HOLLYWOOD VALUES

On Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, Virginia attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli slammed Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe as a liar who represents the worst of Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Hollywood.

"If you like Washington, D.C. politics, Detroit finances, and Hollywood values, Terry McAuliffe is your man," Cuccinelli said. "He brings it all. He's the whole package on that front."

Cuccinelli also emphasized that there is "not one plan" McAuliffe "has laid out for Virginia that he has explained." He said McAuliffe "lies like he's taking a drink of water" and added that he has never seen a campaign "so disconnected from the truth."

Cuccinelli emphasized to host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that the race should be a referendum on Obamacare and mentioned that he was the first attorney general in the nation to fight the law and win the "right of the states to make their own decisions" like whether they would participate in the Medicaid expansion. He said that would be the single largest budgetary decision before the next governor. 

"A no vote on Obamacare is a yes vote for Ken Cuccinelli," he said. 

Via: Breitbart

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Celebrities who promoted ObamaCare now quiet in wake of website debacle

LOS ANGELES –  In the heady days after the October 1 launch of the Affordable Care Act -- better known as ObamaCare -- Lady Gaga, Amy Poehler, Nina Dobrev, Rosario Dawson, Sarah Silverman, Olivia Wilde, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Pearl Jam, Lance Bass, John Legend, Alyssa Milano and Kerry Washington joined the President to encourage Americans to #getcovered.

Since then, technical glitches and website snafus have so marred the ObamaCare website that the team who built it has been called to testify before Congress on Thursday. But there will be no celebrities flanking them on Capitol Hill, as the stars that helped launch the initiative are now being advised to walk away.

One well-placed Hollywood agent told FOX411 that while Obama and ObamaCare are separate issues, and that you can support one without the other, public relations teams across the industry are cautioning their clients to now lay off the latter. Even Oprah Winfrey, one of the President’s most influential mouthpieces during his first election, reportedly refused to get on-board and lend a hand.

“Hollywood has gone from pushing #getcovered to heading for cover,” Dan Gainor, VP of Business and Culture at the Media Research Center told FOX411. “Stars like Lady Gaga and Sarah Silverman pushed their ObamaCare propaganda to more than 67 million fans on social media. But don’t expect them to be honest about the situation.”

Via: Fox News

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The Rages of Sin By BEN STEIN

SundayA full day. I had lunch with a stunningly brilliant 24-year-old Chinese woman film student at the Polo Lounge. The student’s name is Tian Wei Wang. She is from the Beijing area, and she graduated from a prestigious university there in foreign affairs, then studied drama and film in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich. She is fluent in German, English, and Mandarin

She has been sending me short comments on her favorite films and why she likes them. They represent one of the most acute minds on the subject of politics, romance, economics, class struggle, and drama I have seen since Warshaw’s The Immediate Experience.

I am simply awed by her. Her name means Clear Blue Sky and as far as I can tell, her horizons are unlimited.

Then, a long nap in my office. My bedroom is a total mess from the mad efforts to get my new 3D TV to work. It has taken four experts thus far and we are farther than ever from making it happen. Now, I have no TV at all, and no DVD, and a huge mass of empty boxes, wires, and bills for machinery and labor. This is a nightmare.

Then, a 12-step meeting at which a fine speaker spoke, but he kept being interrupted by two hideous, dopey texting girls sitting in front of my wife and me. Finally, my wife, the kindest of persons, said, “Be quiet!” sharply to them and they were quiet. What bad luck that they were there.

We then went to a going away party for a beautiful young woman who is moving to Hawaii. It was at a charming but very dark restaurant called “Joan’s” in Hollywood. I ran into Molly, the lovely daughter of my witty friend, John Mankiewicz, a successful writer, from that famous screenwriting family (Citizen Kane). She was so happy looking, it thoroughly charmed me.

As I was sitting and waiting for my wife to finish a conversation about training grizzly bears for movies, a pleasant young man came up to me.

Via: American Spectator

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Obama to travel to Los Angeles to recognize labor

Obama will appear at the AFL-CIO convention, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Thursday.

That night the president will also appear at a $32,400 per plate Hollywood fundraiser held at the home of Marta Kauffman, the co-creator of the sitcom "Friends," according to an invitation obtained by the Sunlight Foundation.

The White House is billing the appearance at the labor convention as the latest in the president's summer-long middle class economic tour, according to the Los Angeles Times. Last week, the president visited schools across New York and Pennsylvania to tout his proposal to rank universities based on value, while previous stops have seen Obama call for new infrastructure improvements and reforming the corporate tax code.

It's not clear what specific topic Obama will tackle, but Trumka said his organization was working with the administration to plug holes in the Affordable Care Act.

“We have been working with the administration to find solutions to the inadvertent holes in the act,” Trumka said. “We are working to try solve problems, just like they tried to solve problems with employers, with large business and small business groups.”

Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will also appear at the four-day AFL-CIO convention, the group said in a release.

The president's fundraiser that night will benefit the Democratic National Committee. 

Obama has been a prolific fundraiser in California since his reelection, traveling repeatedly there to raise cash for congressional Democrats. Before a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late May, Obama appeared at events benefiting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee. In April, Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) raised cash in the Bay Area for House Democrats.

Via: The Hill

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L.A. Mayor Declares State of ‘Emergency’ As Movie, TV Production Flees Hollywood

Los Angeles’ new mayor has vowed to help stanch the flow of film and TV production jobs out of Hollywood, starting with the appointment of a film czar at City Hall. But to make a real difference, Eric Garcetti needs to convince skeptical state pols to combat the lure of rich tax incentives from outside California.

SEE MORE: From the August 27, 2013 issue of Variety

Two days after this year’s Oscars, Hollywood’s councilman Eric Garcetti, then running for mayor of Los Angeles, staged a media event at Sunset Gower Studios.

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Only a smattering of reporters and photographers showed up, perhaps because the gathering was to address “runaway production,” a buzzword that means little for those outside the industry and, for insiders, is a timeworn term for a chronic, unresolved problem alongside piracy and studio accounting.

But Garcetti, a series of location managers and other crew workers who spoke in late February tried convey a message of urgency: Hollywood’s homegrown industry is being ceded to other states and countries whose favorable tax credits are increasingly luring away movie and television production at an alarming rate. As competition both in the U.S. and abroad continues to grow, the state’s market share and longtime stronghold on production jobs and spending are fast evaporating.

PHOTOS: Tax Incentive Hot Spots

“I am starting to see people who have never made a feature film in Los Angeles,” Chris Baugh, location manager for Oscar winner “Argo,” which actually shot in L.A., told the small group outside a soundstage. “In fact, they are afraid to. They are concerned that it is too expensive and too difficult.”

Via: Variety

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NBC/WSJ poll: NRA more popular than entertainment industry

As Washington prepares for a political battle over the Obama White House's proposals to curb gun violence after the Newtown, Conn., shootings, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that the National Rifle Association is more popular than the entertainment industry.

Forty-one percent of adults see the NRA -- the nation's top gun lobby -- in a positive light, while 34 percent view it in a negative light.

By comparison, just 24 percent have positive feelings about the entertainment industry, and 39 percent have negative ones.

The NRA's fav/unfav score is virtually unchanged from its 41 percent-to-29 percent rating in the Jan. 2011 NBC/WSJ poll, nearly two years before the Newtown shootings.

"That seems to me to be a pretty remarkably stable figure," says GOP pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

But it's a substantial improvement from the 1990s, when the NRA's negative ratings outweighed its positive ones in the NBC/WSJ survey.

The current poll also shows a sharp divide between attitudes among gun owners and non-gun owners.

Among those who own a gun, 62 percent view the NRA favorably. But that percentage drops to just 25 percent among those who don't.

The full poll -- which was conducted Jan. 12-15 of 1,000 adults (including 300 cell phone-only respondents), and which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points -- will be released at 6:30 pm ET.

Via: First Read

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Obama To Close Campaign With Celebrity Blitz…

MILWAUKEE – After thousands of ads, hundreds of stump speeches and a record war chest of campaign cash, President Obama is banking on a final burst of star power to boost his get-out-the-vote effort in the final 72 hours of the 2012 presidential campaign.

As Obama and his top surrogates – Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and former President Clinton – barnstorm the battlegrounds this weekend, they will have a cast of Hollywood stars and music icons at their sides.

The pairings are aimed at driving turnout, particularly among young and minority voters, while bolstering enthusiasm in a handful of key states where polls show the presidential race very close.

Here in Wisconsin, Obama will be joined by multi-platinum singer Katy Perry, who appeared with the president at a midnight rally in Las Vegas last week wearing a white “ballot” dress. Later in Dubuque, Iowa, rocker John Mellencamp will perform, and actress Kate Walsh of ABC’s “Private Practice” and “Grey’s Anatomy” will address the crowd.

Dave Matthews will open for Obama at a late-night rally in Bristow, Va., where the president will also unite for the first time on the 2012 campaign trail with Bill Clinton.

The celebrity tour continues Sunday with Latino rapper Pitbull joining Obama in Hollywood, Fla.; soul legend Stevie Wonder performing at a rally in Cincinnati; and Dave Matthews making a second appearance with the president in Aurora, Colo.

Via: ABC News

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