Michael Moore - FishbowlLA

Searching for a Great Sugar Man Follow-Up? Rolling Stone Has It

Richard Horgan — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:40:26 +0000

Before Argo, both in real life and at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, there was Searching for Sugar Man. The winner of the Documentary Feature prize is just about the most entertaining in-search-of doc since Michael Moore was in his GM, George W.-tracking prime.

Rolling Stone associate editor Andy Greene delightfully keeps the vibe going with today’s “10 Things You Didn’t Know…” feature. God love Sixto Rodriguez, a guy who opted not to attend the Oscars and then nonchalantly skipped his moment of Academy triumph from afar:

“I was asleep when it won, but my daughter Sandra called to tell me,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t have TV service anyway.”

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Former Boss Comes to the Defense of Embattled BuzzFeed Reporter

Richard Horgan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:50:34 +0000

Before Tessa Stuart joined BuzzFeed, she worked at LA Weekly. Today, that publication’s editor-in-chief Sarah Fenske has done what very few elsewhere in the media have dared to up to this point: firmly take Stuart’s side.

The crux of Fenske’s argument is that she feels there’s no way, under any circumstances (logged by the CPB or not logged), that Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat could have been detained for the amount of time Michael Moore first claimed (1.5 hours). From her op ed:

The Atlantic revealed that Burnat’s plane arrived at LAX at 4:59 p.m. , fourteen minutes behind schedule. Even if the plane was blessed with a relatively quick deboarding, it’s hard to imagine that Burnat could have possibly first encountered federal agents any earlier than 5:20 p.m.

Weirdly, The Atlantic lets Moore suggest otherwise: “In the half-hour between Burnat’s arrival and the first log entry cited in BuzzFeed’s post, Moore says Burnat and his family had already been taken to two other holding areas.” Oh really? So the plane landed at 4:59, and somehow magically everyone was ushered into various holding areas within just a few minutes, only to be detained and shuffled to room after room in just 29 minutes?

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Michael Moore Brands BuzzFeed Report a Lie

Richard Horgan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:55:36 +0000

Newly installed BuzzFeed LA reporter Tessa Stuart is causing a commotion on Twitter with her story about Michael Moore. But not necessarily the good kind of commotion.

The above tweets were rattled off by Moore around 4:45 p.m. PT this afternoon. He is taking issue with Stuart’s claims that an LAX incident last week involving Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Emad Burnat (5 Broken Cameras) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel was wrongly characterized as “racial profiling.” From Stuart’s piece:

A source working at LAX familiar with the situation said when Burnat wasn’t able to produce that document [Oscar invite] on the spot, he was taken to a secondary inspection area where he found the ticket, showed it Customs officers, and was immediately allowed to proceed to the baggage claim. This source insists the whole process took no longer than 25 minutes total, and was standard practice for anyone entering the country.

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Kathryn Bigelow Joins Rarefied TIME Cover Group

Richard Horgan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:00:35 +0000

At the recent Golden Globes, Kathryn Bigelow and Jodie Foster commingled on stage and off; Bigelow as a Best Director nominee, Foster as the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.

By gracing the cover of the February 4 issue of TIME magazine, Bigelow joins Foster once again, this time as only the second female film director to adorn the publication. Foster did so back in October 1991.

The cover shot was taken by Paola Kudacki, the accompanying interview-profile conducted by Jessica Winter with help from Lily Rothman. Female power all around for this one.

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Michael Moore Comments on Colorado Shootings

Richard Horgan — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:45:08 +0000

In a brief email to TheWrap’s Steve Pond, Bowling for Columbine Oscar winner Michael Moore commented with a heavy heart but still some level of hope about this morning’s horrific events in Aurora, CO:

I believe anthropologists and historians will look back on us and simply conclude that we were a violent nation, at home and abroad, but in due time human decency won out and the violence ceased, but not before many, many more had died and the world had had its fill of us.

The first reader to react to Moore’s take vehemently disagrees.
Writes dinosferrari:

Listen Michael – I respect your right to say what you want but I must stop you when you assert that my country is a violent county. These awful tragedies happen. Not long ago a deranged man went crazy and started shooting people on an island in Norway. He killed 80 people! Violence is not confined to America or Colorado nor is it confined to the 21st Century. Earlier civilizations were routinely far more violent than anything we see revolving today…

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Citizen Journalist Inspired by Breitbart Readies Summer Documentary

Richard Horgan — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:30:38 +0000

It has always struck FishbowlLA that a more productive reaction to Michael Moore from those sitting at the opposite end of the political spectrum would be to adopt some of his clever, humorous filmmaking tactics. Someone who seems to have realized the value of this approach is Ellen Hubbard.

Per an interview on bighollywood.com, Hubbard enlisted Kansas City KCMO AM morning radio host Greg Knapp as her Moore stand-in. His mission: to solicit federal funding for the titutlar Museum of Government Waste.

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Media Still Getting Elvis Presley First-Kiss Facts Wrong

Richard Horgan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:00:36 +0000

If this year’s Oscars are anywhere near as entertaining as a piece on TheWrap today about Documentary Short Subject category attendee Mother Prioress, we’ll be happy campers around about 8:24 p.m. PT Sunday.

Awards season expert Steve Pond fact-checks the topic of Prioress’s oft-repeated Hollywood PR. As actress Dolores Hart, it is said that she previously presented at the 1959 Oscars and was responsible for Elvis Presley‘s first on-screen kiss. Wrong, and… not quite right. Pond notes that the bit about the Elvis kiss was put forth about a decade ago by ABC News’ 20/20 and has been lazily repeated ever since:

It’s uncertain the order in which the kisses were filmed [for 1957's Loving You], but Elvis kisses Jana Lund about 50 minutes into the film, and Lizabeth Scott half an hour later; it isn’t until the movie’s final scene that he finally locks lips with Hart.

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Michael Moore Wants Some Actual Hollywood Liberals in Office

Matthew Fleischer — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:19:17 +0000

Michael Moore was on Conan last night and made a pretty great point. Republicans are constantly hard on Hollywood liberals, but it’s conservatives who actually have all the Hollywood political candidates: Ronald Reagan; The Governator; Sonny Bono. What if an actual Hollywood liberal ran for office? Moore suggests Matt Damon. Don’t know if Damon is “beloved” as Moore puts it. But he is Jason Bourne. And that’s tough to screw with.

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Current TV Makes Good on Third Show Promise

Richard Horgan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:30:12 +0000

A few weeks ago, when Current TV chairman Al Gore welcomed Cenk Uygur to the ranks, he promised that the San Francisco based network would soon be announcing a third show to go along with The Young Turks and Keith Olbermann. This week, he revealed the latest piece of his dynamically evolving 2011 prime time puzzle to be The War Room with Jennifer Granholm.

Granholm (pictured) was the first woman to hold the office of governor in the state of Michigan. The two-term ex-politician joins a progressive network that not only espouses a lot of the same views as Michael Moore, but sometimes also welcomes him as a guest. That trend will surely continue on War Room. Per Tuesday’s release:

Granholm, a regular contributor to NBC’s Meet the Press, recently co-authored a new book, A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future, with her husband and leadership consultant, Daniel G. Mulhern.

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Michael Moore Recalls Two Monumental LA Moments

Richard Horgan — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:00:43 +0000

Last night at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, Michael Moore kicked off the 16th year of long-running non-profit literary conversation series Writers Bloc Presents with a couple of great LA stories. He was there, along with journalist-moderator Anne Thompson and a pair of bodyguards, to promote and sign copies of his new book Here Comes Trouble.

Moore explained how, on the weekend of his Oscar win for 2002′s Bowling for Columbine, a casual invite from Tim Robbins turned into a hotel room full of Hollywood stars, each sharing their suggestions for his possible Best Documentary acceptance speech. Sean Penn pitched the idea of 45 seconds of stone-faced silence, while Robbins—with others like George Clooney and Eddie Veder looking on–thought perhaps that Moore could announce he was giving up the Academy Award statuette in honor of Lent.

But the real LA humdinger occurred the following year, 2004, when TIME magazine arranged for Moore and Mel Gibson to travel to LA for a photo shoot and sit-down interview in support of a shared “Person of the Year” cover:

“The night before, Mel went to his church in Malibu and had a revelation,” Moore explained. “Jesus, God, the Holy Ghost, who knows… Or as the lady in the front row here just said, St. Jack Daniels. But a voice told him, ‘You are NOT to appear on the cover of TIME magazine with the Devil.’”

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The Hollywood Reporter Lands Big Interview With Keith Olbermann

Matthew Fleischer — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:25:05 +0000

Hollywood Reporter senior writer Marisa Guthrie landed a big exclusive interview with Keith Olbermann for this week’s cover story ~~(subscription required)~~. Until now, Olbermann hadn’t spoken in depth to the press about his contentious exit from MSNBC and his move to Current TV. Among other tidbits we learn that Olbermann is making $10 mil a year at Current– a $3 million pay bump from his MSNBC days. He also has an equity stake in the company which could earn him $100 mil.

We also learn that Olbermann has brought in his former MSNBC colleague David Shuster–who was suspended from the network for taping a pilot for CNN–to serve as his substitute anchor. FishbowlLA favorite Matt Taibbi will apparently have a role on the show as well as a paid contributor, as will Michael Moore and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.

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Manhattan Beach Is the New Pandora*

Matthew Fleischer — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:26:39 +0000

James Cameron and his production company Lightstorm Entertainment will be moving the production of the next two Avatar flicks to ~~Orange County~~ the South Bay. Manhattan Beach’s MBS Media Campus will be the site of Cameron’s blockbuster sequels, which also houses the headquarters of Marvel Studios. MBS bills itself as eco-friendly, but Cameron is apparently footing the bill to install solar panels to handle the making of the films.

Interestingly, MBS Media Campus is owned by the Carlyle Group, and is managed by Raleigh Studios, whose president is named Michael Moore. Fahrenheit 9/11 irony much?

And in other film news, Chewbacca reads the newspaper.

*Post altered for fairly major geographical brain fart. We’ve lived in Southern California off and on since 2002, but we’ve only been to the South Bay twice in our entire life. Give us a break.

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Motown Tries to Make Sense of Prospective Pistons Owner

Richard Horgan — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:00:32 +0000

Peter Guber may soon have a Hollywood hardwood doppelganger. Joining the Golden State Warriors co-owner within the NBA team owner ranks will soon be, by all accounts, Platinum Equity billionaire Tom Gores (pictured).

In honor of today’s second biggest sports story (behind the forced retirement of Manny Ramirez), the Detroit Free Press has republished a February 13th profile of Gores by sports reporter Vince Ellis. It offers some interesting hints as to how the LA magnate may be perceived in Motown as proprietor of the Pistons:

Maybe you’ve never heard of potential Pistons buyer Tom Gores. But if you think he would be one of those anonymous business owners who never, ever make news, think again: he bankrolled a slasher film starring Lindsay Lohan.

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Banksy Takes the Oscar Spotlight

Matthew Fleischer — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:58:38 +0000

Will he show? Won’t he? So far, no one has created more intrigue for this year’s Academy Awards than street artist and documentary filmmaker Bansky. Earlier this week, the artist was told by the Academy that he won’t be allowed to accept his award--should he win in the Best Documentary category for his film Exit Through the Gift Shop–if he shows up masked. The artist never shows his face in public, and typically attends events wearing a monkey mask. An agreement was subsequently reached that producer Jaimie D’Cruz will accept the award on stage if the film wins. But that doesn’t mean Banksy won’t show up to the shindig. And who knows what kind of glorious stunt he’ll pull if he does attend?

The artist failed to show up to a panel discussion earlier this morning that included his fellow documentary nominees. But this week has shown he does have a heightened sense of theatrics. We can only hope he does something to top Michael Moore‘s “fictitious” tirade of 2003.

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Michael Moore Sues Weinstein Brothers For 2.7 Million Bucks of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ Cash

Matthew Fleischer — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:31:39 +0000

Wow. Michael Moore has filed suit against film moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein, alleging that the brothers used “bogus accounting methods” to hide huge sums of money the filmmaker was due from his film Fahrenheit 9/11. TMZ got a hold of the suit, which was filed today in LA Superior Court. Among Moore’s juicier charges: one Weinstein brother secretively took a private jet to Europe on Moore’s dime.

Moore is asking for $2.7 million.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is the top grossing documentary of all-time, earning a whopping $220 million-plus at the box office.

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