Test drive the stargate to your dreams. Click on the board.

Big Hollywood is the unofficial voice of Hollywood East, Inc.

Hollywood East and Big Hollywood were launched the same day.

The New Hollywood is replacing the old Hollywood like The New Media is replacing the old media.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/05/a-million-stories-to-tell/

On Tuesday, I launch Big Hollywood (bighollywood.breitbart .com), a big group blog that will feature hundreds of the big minds from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture. 

Big Hollywood is not a "celebrity" gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots. 

Big Hollywood's modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope. 

Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion's share of Big Hollywood's contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle. 

Hollywood is no longer an American industry. And it took a prolonged war in which the studios and most of the stars didn't show up to fight for America to draw attention to this hard truth. 

American corporations, the FBI, the CIA and elected U.S. officials are the bad guys in flicks these days. Radical Islamists are seldom vilified while the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are smeared too often. 

Film production - and countless jobs - have been steadily shipped abroad for cost-cutting purposes. Standing ovations at Cannes and Golden Globes - not American popular opinion - determine who wins the Oscar. And homegrown actors are hailed as First Amendment heroes for speaking out against the United States. 

The anti-hero rules this celluloid world. Nihilism is packaged as edginess. And there's zero sense that anyone's watching out for quality control. Even the respected awards are often given to the most outlandish and gratuitously deplorable. 

In 2003, Meryl Streep told the Wall Street Journal: "We export the crap. And then we wonder why everybody hates us and has a distorted picture of what Americans are." 

In the period since Sept. 11, 2001, international box office receipts have steadily exceeded domestic numbers. Film financing now usually begins with international investors and creative decisions are crafted to geopolitical sensibilities rarely simpatico with our own. 

Big Hollywood box office analyst Steve Mason will explore these trends and be the first national reporter to crunch the movie numbers throughout the week. Politicians need to pay attention to the results as close as studio executives. Or elections beware. 

Globalization explains a good portion of the Hollywood leftward lurch but alienated and demoralized Americans turning off and tuning out further undermines the case for inserting proud Western ideals into entertainment product. We are now giving the world what we think it wants as we turn our heads in disgust. That's not a good formula for a civilization to survive. 

Most heartbroken by this cultural and financial sea change are those who ply in the powerful trade of make-believe, who got into show business, for among other reasons, to carry on Hollywood's patriotic mission. It's hard to believe, but not everyone in the business thinks Sean Penn is a gonzo genius. 

Hidden amid the "dissent is patriotic" glitterati are thousands of deeply concerned artists and industry players who have mostly privately and sadly watched Hollywood reflect ideals that are not their own. 

Non-left-leaning writers, producers, directors and "below the line" members of the creative community will slowly begin to tell "flyover country" that their values are shared - even in glitzy Los Angeles. In fact, to foreshadow its big message, Big Hollywood will be an invitation to aspiring conservatives to drop their political dreams for the grueling Hollywood grind. 

Returning veterans of the current war, please move to the head of the line.

Big Hollywood also will offer politicians, think tank brains, pundits and sundry wonks the opportunity to show another face to the conservative movement and the Republican Party. No longer will "South Park" and Dennis Miller carry the load alone in pointing out the absurdities of the modern left. 

On Day One, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter invokes the Beatles' "Dear Prudence," inviting Hollywood's "closeted" conservatives to "come out and play." Actor and raconteur Orson Bean remembers that the hopeful movies of his childhood during the Great Depression gave him and many other Americans the will and drive to succeed. 

We need to discover that spirit again. 

If conservatives don't figure out popular culture soon, the movement will die a deserving death. If Hollywood liberals can't learn how to play well with those with whom they disagree, Big Hollywood will have a field day at their close-minded and intolerant expense. The days of open bullying in the marketplace of ideas are nearing their end. 

Consider this a warning. 

Editor in Chief John Nolte is veteran of the film blog world, and a director in his own right. His love of the best of Hollywood - yes, there still is great product - will keep the readers and the writers enthusiastic about the future. 

I will be writing and recruiting like the madman that I am. 

Hollywood may not be completely anti-American yet, but it is certainly no longer pro-American. And no one has put up a public fight to change that. 

Until now. 

Andrew Breitbart is the founder of the news Web site www.breitbart.com and is co-author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - the Case Against Celebrity."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,476165,00.html

 A once-timid group of social outcasts is emerging from the shadows in Hollywood. If the past year is any indication, Tinseltown may have to get accustomed to the loud presence of a growing minority.

After years of silence, conservatives are coming out of the closet.

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative founder of Breitbart.com and author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon," is launching a Web site he hopes will help challenge the status quo in what he believes has been a one-party, left-tilting town. Set to debut on Jan. 6, "Big Hollywood" will be a place where center, right and libertarian-leaning celebrities and industry-insiders can weigh in on Hollywood politics, offer film, television and movie reviews, and have an open forum for political discussion.

"Our goal," says Breitbart, who lives in Los Angeles, "is to create an atmosphere of tolerance — something that does not exist in this town."

Breitbart has invited a number of conservative politicians, commentators and journalists to write regularly about the cult of celebrity, liberalism in popular culture, and politics. Among the names who will be contributing, he says, are Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va), political commentator Tucker Carlson, and former Tennessee Senator and Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson.

The site will also feature the punditry of some well-known Hollywood actors, directors, producers, and writers, Breitbart says.

As celebrities like Jon Voight, Gary Sinise, Charlton Heston, Patricia Heaton, Stephen Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer came out publicly with their political ideas over the past few years, the news that there were, in fact, conservatives in Hollywood, had many wondering who would be next.

Recently, there have been rumors that Robert Downey Jr. is a closet Republican, though his publicist will neither confirm nor deny it, saying only, "We unfortunately have no comment, as RDJ does not comment on political matters."

But Breitbart says the goal of Big Hollywood is not to "out" conservative celebrities, and he will not pressure celebrities like Downey to jump into the fray. He says conservative celebs who aren't comfortable with full transparency will be allowed to write under an alias.

"I want them to come on their own volition," he says. "'Big Hollywood is going to have to be a compelling daily read that speaks to Hollywood conservatives' unique burden before some will stick their necks out and choose to speak up for what they believe."

Sticking their necks out has not always been good for business. Mark Vafiades, president of the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, says, "I'm hoping that one day politics won't make a difference in Hollywood. But because there is still subtle intolerance here, conservatives remain somewhat shy.

"If you come to an audition wearing a Bush or McCain button, the casting director will most likely pick another actor. Just being on a set you hear people bashing Bush and the right, because they assume everyone agrees."

Some have suggested the purported anti-conservative tilt in Hollywood is overstated — if it exists at all. Perez Hilton, the self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media" and author of his eponymous gossip site, said, "I think Hollywood is very tolerant. They may mock you for your political beliefs, but at least they'll do it to your face!

"It won't ever interfere with people getting a job. Kelsey Grammer still works!"

But some conservatives in the entertainment industry say there may not be a literal blacklist in Hollywood, but there is pressure to keep silent.

"Conservatives don't necessarily have to be covert about their politics, but in many cases they are because the liberals aren't fair and balanced towards those with differing points of view," says Jerry Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of big Hollywood hits like "Schindler's List," "Jurassic Park" and "Rain Man."

"In too many cases, conservatives are immediately labeled racist, homophobic, bigoted, hateful, demonic, or even un-American without the benefit of debate, and are locked out of the hiring process, with a few exceptions."

But the doors may be slowly opening "An American Carol," a conservative parody that lampooned liberal Hollywood this year, galvanized conservative celebrities like Robert Davi, Dennis Hopper, Kevin Farley, Voight and Grammer, all of whom had roles in the film.

And conservative film festivals, including the American Film Renaissance and the Liberty Film Festival, have also helped bring to market conservative projects that a few years ago might have had a difficult time getting made.

Some industry insiders credit John McCain with helping to embolden Hollywood conservatives during this year's presidential election. Andrew Klavan, a conservative author and screenwriter of psychological thrillers including True Crime and Don't Say A Word, said, "For people who had a lot to lose, McCain gave them some cover. He wasn't a true Republican like Bush was. He was someone even the left liked, whereas Bush was demonized. Hollywood conservatives could support McCain without necessarily supporting the GOP."

Klavan suggested that a spate of recent political movies like "Rendition" and "Redaction" also strengthened the conservative cause.

"These movies are genuinely anti-American. Never before have we had anti-war movies made while our troops were at war. Many people like me were ashamed of the industry, and there's been a bit of a backlash."

Vafiades says increasing numbers of conservatives have joined his organization in the past year, and more organizations like his are sprouting up.

But hush-hush groups like "Friends of Abe," a secretive society of Hollywood conservatives, still operate well under the radar. And the increased spotlight on conservative celebrities has not changed the political climate as much as Breitbart, Vafiades, Molen and Klavan would like.

They say liberal celebrities still have an easier time "being political" than conservatives do.

"Sean Penn is out dancing with dictators, and no one gives him flak. Instead they give him Oscar nominations," says Klavan. "Jon Voight may have some semblance of job security, but he still has to be careful about what he says."

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/new-blogs-on-the-block/

Yesterday came the debut of Big Hollywood, a group blog developed by Andrew Breitbert. Breitbert writes a column by the same name for the Washington Times and is co-author of Hollywood, Interrupted. In his newspaper column on Monday, Breitbert laid out the site’s mission: Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots.

Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope.

Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion’s share of Big Hollywood’s contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle.

Hollywood is no longer an American industry. And it took a prolonged war in which the studios and most of the stars didn’t show up to fight for America to draw attention to this hard truth.

Most heartbroken by this cultural and financial sea change are those who ply in the powerful trade of make-believe, who got into show business, for among other reasons, to carry on Hollywood’s patriotic mission. It’s hard to believe, but not everyone in the business thinks Sean Penn is a gonzo genius.

Hidden amid the “dissent is patriotic” glitterati are thousands of deeply concerned artists and industry players who have mostly privately and sadly watched Hollywood reflect ideals that are not their own.

Non-left-leaning writers, producers, directors and “below the line” members of the creative community will slowly begin to tell “flyover country” that their values are shared - even in glitzy Los Angeles. In fact, to foreshadow its big message, Big Hollywood will be an invitation to aspiring conservatives to drop their political dreams for the grueling Hollywood grind.

Returning veterans of the current war, please move to the head of the line.

Big Hollywood also will offer politicians, think tank brains, pundits and sundry wonks the opportunity to show another face to the conservative movement and the Republican Party. No longer will “South Park” and Dennis Miller carry the load alone in pointing out the absurdities of the modern left.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_010609/content/01125104.guest.html

RUSH: Mark Steyn had a great post at National Review Online last night, taking off something that Andrew Breitbart out in California had to say. This is very important, and I printed this out to discuss this at some point, maybe today or down the road. It's all about how the culture has just become default liberal. There's not any question.  There's no contentiousness in the culture. It just is liberal, from movies, to books, to songs, you name it, even in so-called high culture. Steyn talks about -- oh, some great musical that was performed and the conductor stopped to bash Bush in the middle of it, and the audience applauded.  The point is, he said, that if conservatives do not find a way to dent the pop culture, it isn't going to matter what happens in Washington.  It's unrealistic to expect that every bit of entertainment culture the American people are exposed to is a hundred percent dyed-in-the-wool liberal and then expecting on Election Day to go vote for liberals.  It's just unrealistic to expect that. Breitbart's trying to get something going cultural in Hollywood where conservatives don't have to hide in the closet. What he's doing is crucial, and that's how we're going to reverse some of this stuff.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODhkYTFiOWMwZTVjMzNmODA4ZmU5NWNmYWI1OWZiM2U=

Jay's round-up of politicized conductors, Boston Pops narrators, etc, tossing in dreary reflex Bush-bashing even in the middle of "Peter And The Wolf" should really be read in concert with Andrew Breitbart's plans for his new Hollywood website. They both address the same phenomenon: Liberalism is the default mode of the culture — to the point where the left-of-center position is so pervasive it's no longer a position at all, but rather something uncontentious, received wisdom, part of the air we breathe. In several of the examples Jay cites, I'll bet the musicians involved would be stunned to find that there was anyone in the room who would find the message remotely disagreeable.
 
In these conversations, one should distinguish between the activist types — the Sean Penns and whatnot — and the far bigger number of actors and musicians who don't think about politics terribly much and for whom a passive allegiance to the only recognized party of the entertainment state is just the easy option. Personally, I wouldn't want to live in a one-party state, and I'm slightly taken aback by the number of bigtime Hollywood stars who've said to me sotto voce in the last two years how much they agree with my book but please don't mention it to anyone. But Andrew Breitbart gets to what's really at stake:

If conservatives don't figure out popular culture soon, the movement will die a deserving death.

I think that's right. If the non-political sphere is permanently left-of-center — the movies, the pop songs, the plays, the sitcoms, the newspapers plus the churches, schools and much else — it's simply unreasonable to expect people to walk into a polling booth every other November and vote conservative. The culture is where the issues get framed and the boundaries set. 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/01/big_hollywood_arrives.asp

On Tuesday, Andrew Breitbart, friend to many here at TWS, launches "Big Hollywood," a website of culture and politics which has "changing Hollywood" as its modest goal.

Breitbart, who helped establish the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post, has discarded more good ideas than most of us have had. (One idea that does not fall into that category was his plan for huskymalemodels.com, a website featuring photos of men whose high-school-era good looks had been compromised by a steady diet of beer and wing in the years since. While there would have been no shortage of "models," I'm not sure that one would have generated much traffic). With Big Hollywood he hopes to engage conservatives and libertarians in the bi-coastal ideas war he has been fighting for years. As Breitbart puts it: "Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion's share of Big Hollywood's contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle."

Breitbart lifts the veil on the project in his column today over at The Washington Times. Starting tomorrow, you can access the site here.

http://thehill.com/cover-stories/breitbarts-big-red-hollywood-2008-12-08.html

After playing supporting roles to big names in media and politics, Andrew Breitbart is poised to become the protagonist in his own story.

The publisher of the online news aggregator Breitbart.com helped launch and run two of today’s most influential media and political punditry websites, Arianna Huffington’s left-leaning The Huffington Post and Matt Drudge’s right-leaning Drudge Report. He offers little about his past with Drudge, where he was a part-time editor who once at a dinner party jokingly called himself “Matt Drudge’s bitch.” He compares the comment to President-elect Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau groping the breast on a cardboard Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).  Of Drudge, Breitbart says only, “I don’t work there anymore.”

Now the politically conservative Breitbart, 39, will debut his own collection of original material in his Big Hollywood group blog, a new home for right-of-center voices that want to sound off on the interplay of popular culture and politics.

A Los Angeles native, longtime Hollywood observer and known political commentator, Breitbart might seem the natural choice to fill what he sees as a gaping hole in the country’s public discourse. His fascination with the relationship between entertainment and politics dates back to his high school years, when he enrolled in an American University summer program as an excuse to come to Washington for the hearings on the Iran-Contra affair.

“The only thing I remember is that Morgan Fairchild was in the front row,” he says.

Now, not only has the conservative movement given up interest in America’s arts and entertainment industry, he says, the liberals’ lock on Hollywood ideas has resulted in a single-minded atmosphere that has become “just flat-out boring.” He hopes to use the Big Hollywood blog, which will go live Jan. 6 and be housed on Breitbart.com, to bring the political right back into the pop-and-politics discussion.

“My primary goal is to diversify Hollywood,” says Breitbart, whose 2004 critique of liberal Tinseltown, Hollywood, Interrupted, made The New York Times best-seller list. “Those people [in Hollywood] who dissent are so summarily attacked and dismissed that they learn to just keep their mouths shut. And there’s nothing I like more than to have debate free and open in America.”

His strategy is to prod conservative Washington to start caring about Hollywood. Breitbart has already signed several big names, including House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), incoming Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Reps. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and Connie Mack (R-Fla.), to post entries on the site. He has also landed former senator and GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson, MSNBC correspondent Tucker Carlson and a slew of other conservative thinkers from the National Review, The Weekly Standard and Commentary magazine to contribute.

Breitbart is also eager to include commentary from Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives who have stirred up controversy in the past. “I don’t consider them controversial,” he says.

“I desperately want to change the environment here,” says Breitbart, who lives with his wife and four children in Los Angeles’ Westwood neighborhood. “And I can see no other way than for the Washington establishment and the conservative establishment to avert their eyes from policy for just a moment and focus their attention on Hollywood.”

And to jolt liberal Hollywood, Breitbart says he has wooed conservative screenwriters, comedy writers, classical musicians and alternative singer-songwriters to contribute to the blog. Celebrities who risk being blacklisted if they come out as conservative can write under pseudonyms, Breitbart says.

“I want it to be such a mixed group of people that people’s minds will be blown,” he says. “They’ll go, ‘This is not your mother’s conservative moment.’ ”

Contributors will not get paid for posting on Big Hollywood, which will be funded through Breitbart.com’s advertising revenue, Breitbart said. He said contributors will take on a variety of topics.

If Boehner, for instance, sees a movie, “I’d like for him … to do a movie review,” Breitbart says.

“Not everything is going to be a political dissertation,” he says.

In that vein, Cantor spokesman Rob Collins says he could see his boss writing a post on the television shows his three teenage children watch and how those programs affect them.

But not everyone’s on the same page about Big Hollywood’s mission. Though McCotter says he is happy to use the blog as another way for Republicans to communicate their message, writing pop-culture critiques isn’t exactly what he has in mind.

“I’m not going to be doing movie reviews,” he says.

McCotter recognizes the need for the site (“The only people lonelier than Washington Republicans are Hollywood Republicans right now,” he says), but isn’t looking for any personal gain. “I’m just writing for the blog. I’m not looking to get a toupee and go out to Hollywood,” he says.

For other people thinking Washington lawmakers and their influencers have better things to do, Breitbart thinks the contrary.

“I’m arguing that pop culture isn’t just superfluous,” Breitbart says. In the “stream of American popular culture,” he says, attitudes and behaviors portrayed in movies and other pop-culture outlets eventually become policy issues.

“The movies used to reinforce good behavior — that you should pay back your loans,” he says, using the country’s credit crisis as an example. “I think you’re going to get better-behaving Americans … you’re going to have a better society if you treat Hollywood like the important entity it is.”

Both Breitbart and John Nolte, a screenwriter whom Breitbart tapped as the blog’s editor in chief, say their goal isn’t to force their viewpoint down other people’s throats. They plan to offer countervailing points of view on the site, like that of liberal screenwriter John Ridley. Overall, they hope to broaden the pop-culture dialogue to include more conservative points of view and stop what they see as the demonization and misrepresentation of conservatives in Hollywood.

“We’re not bigoted, homophobic, racist, sexist monsters,” says Nolte, the creator of Dirty Harry's Place and former head writer at the now defunct Libertas, two conservative film blogs. Nolte also directed the yet-to-be-released feature film "Beautiful Loser."

“If we can have a conversation, we can move the ball a bit,” he said.

Others question whether Hollywood oppresses conservatives like Breitbart and Nolte say it does. Bill Triplett, former Washington bureau chief for the entertainment trade magazine Variety, says he has had no trouble finding conservatives in Hollywood.

“I never thought anybody [in Hollywood] was afraid to express that they had conservative values or politics,” he says. “I just question how big this repressed population is.”

Triplett does, however, see an opportunity for conservatives to become more involved in pop culture. “I think [Breitbart’s] right; you don’t hear much commentary on pop culture from hardcore conservatives, except usually in a critical sense,” he says.

Huffington, whose site is providing a rough model for Big Hollywood, says she “doesn’t know if there’s a lot of evidence” that Hollywood discriminates against conservatives. But she does note the talent of her former colleague Breitbart and says his new venture might provide the political right a springboard from which to regroup.

“I think this is actually a moment where the right has a lot of rethinking to do,” she says, adding that Breitbart could help facilitate that.

If Big Hollywood is successful, Breitbart says he would like to start other group blogs that focus on climate, human sexuality and race, and he’s open to blogging on other issues. But first, he just wants to get people in Hollywood talking again.

“There’s nothing I want more than for the tension in this town to go away,” he says. “People can agree to disagree.”

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/01/022478.php

Big Hollywood is the brainstorm of Andrew Breitbart. It is a group blog that is intended to provide a forum for heterodox voices talking about popular culture and encouragement to conservatives working in the Hollywood vineyards.

Andrew explains the purpose of his new venture in "A million stories to tell." He has appointed editor John Nolte to preside over a team of interesting contributors in his new venture. Nolte has contributed several interersting reviews that are accessible on the home page, as well as his editor's statement "Big Hollywood loves the arts."

Andrew has invited me to participate, and I have posted a short note on Hollywood's 2007 anti-war flicks. As always in the case of such left-wing pap such as Peter Berg's disappointing "The Kingdom," commercial expectations were high and, as always, filmgoing audiences had a mind of their own.

Among the contributors helping Andrew roll out the site tody are Orson Bean, who asks "Where are the cinema heroes today?," and Andrew Klavan, who says "Hooray for Big Hollywood."

I'm wondering who among the hearty contributors to Big Hollywood will take up the challenge of addressing Steven Soderbergh's epic tribute to the Commmunist murderer Che Guevara. Soderbergh's tribute assumes its position in a line that includes Richard Lester's 1979 bomb "Cuba," which I refer to in my Big Hollywood post this morning. The line also includes Robert Redford's 2004 paean to Che, which I took a look at in "Motorpsycho Diaries." For the moment, I refer interested readers to Mark Goldblatt's "Revenge of Che" and to Jay Nordlinger's unfortunately still timely 2004 article "Che chic."

http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2009/01/big-hollywood.html

Check out Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood, a huge and bodacious group blog that shines a light on a side of Hollywood we never hear about. The right side. From Andrew's opening post:
Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots.

Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope.

Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion’s share of Big Hollywood’s contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle.
Right on, and more here. And, in a coincidental but perhaps related development, today I received my review copy of Roger L. Simon's Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, out in a couple of weeks from Encounter Books.

Breitbart and Simon are on to something very important. Even when conservatives and libertarians have great new ideas and charismatic leaders -- which they do not right now -- they wage a rearguard action against the left's domination of popular culture. We need more righties to go into movies, write exciting novels and screenplays, and produce television shows that people want to watch. Before any of that can happen, though, Hollywood must become more tolerant in both fact and metaphor. Somebody needs to soften up the beaches, and Big Hollywood believes it has the guns to do just that.

All of that having been said, I worry that it will not be possible to turn, or at least neutralize, popular culture without opening up high culture and academia. We need more conservative artists, poets, and professors, too, and that is the project of a generation.

Good luck, guys. And readers who want to help should buy Roger's book.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/welcome_to_big_hollywood.html

Thomas Lifson
Can Hollywood be rescued from the left? A small sign of hope begins today.

Andrew Breitbart, website creator extraordinaire (he set up Drudge and the Huffington Post for their owners), today debuts his latest creation, Big Hollywood, a site intended to showcase the existence of conservatives in Hollywood, and help make the entertainment industry a more congenial and politically balanced business.
This is important work. I'll be posting on Big Hollywood because I consider show biz a major influence on politics as well as culture, and a sphere that conservatives can no longer leave to the left by default.

http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/01/05/big-hollywood-takes-a-bow/

“Big Hollywood” — the new project of Internet guru/impresario Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com and (formerly) the Drudge Report — makes its debut Tuesday. Working with his editor John Nolte, Andrew’s intention is to create a web home for those in Hollywood of right, center-right and libertarian persuasions. His contention is that there are more people in the entertainment community with those views than normally assumed and, much like gays in the past, they need a comfortable place to “come out.” In other words, most of them are not loudmouths like I am.

Full disclosure: Andrew is a friend of mine (several years now) and a short pre-publication excerpt from Blacklisting Myself from “The New Blacklist” chapter will appear on Big Hollywood Thursday.

Breitbart, however, has a more serious theme behind his website that is worthy of discussion here and elsewhere. He thinks popular culture is more important than politics and one of the great mistakes of the right is to have ceded pop culture to the left. Well, that’s not entirely precise. I imagine Andrew would say at the same time the left has arrogated popular culture to itself, snatching it from the unwitting jaws of a compliant right. (Hello, our dear friend Annie Lennox and all other great, good friends of Hamas). Of course, Breitbart has a point. With notable exceptions like 24 and South Park our culture, as we all know, tilts liberal.

And now our politics also tilts liberal. Is this the cart leading the horse or the other way around? Beats me. I think we’re into the old chicken and road conundrum and, unlike Andrew, I would weight politics and culture equally. In fact, I would see them as inseparable, two chickens crossing the road tied together in what we called as kids a “three-legged race.” To make things more complicated, as Lionel and I were discussing today on Poliwood, while we were recording forthcoming shows on The Wrestler and Gran Torino (made by that putative conservative C. Eastwood), the best film art transcends politics. It follows the dictates of its characters where they want to go. And sometimes they say and do things you hate and you want to kill your own characters, but you don’t, or you’re not sure you’re allowed to, so you don’t, or you feel guilty for doing it, so you don’t.

Got that? I’m not sure I do. But, much as I love Oscar Wilde, I don’t want to get into that old “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life” argument.

So coming back to the simpler Breitbartian Truth — that pop culture is more important than politics — I kind of agree, although I’m not sure that would mean so much to the citizens of Darfur, if you know what I mean. I don’t think their lives would have improved much from a good episode of South Park. Nevertheless, we — at least most of us — are citizens of the US of A and near constant consumers, witting and unwitting, of that same pop culture. Might as well do our best to maniuplate it. It’s the one chance we have of shaping the culture at large . It’s either that or (gasp) running for office — and you know the results of that from, er, The Candidate, i. e., pop culture.

So, all this palaver is to say “bon voyage” to “Big Hollywood.” I’m sure it will be vaut le detour, as the French say (while it itself is saying many nasty things about the French).

http://whatwouldtotowatch.com/2009/01/06/big-hollywood-bigger-ambitions/

The Culture Wars enter a new phase today courtesy of Andrew Breitbart.

Breitbart, the man who helped start The Drudge Report and The Huffington Post, is behind Big Hollywood, a spanking new Web site dedicated to giving right-leaners a voice in Hollywood and pop culture at large.

I’m humbled to be a small part of the new site, so look for my postings as well as those by the great Dirty Harry (John Nolte). He’ll be serving as Big Hollywood’s Editor in Chief.

Screenwriter Roger L. Simon breaks down the new site over at Pajamas Media.

http://www.poligazette.com/2009/01/05/big-hollywood-taking-conservatism-to-liberalisms-heartland/

The co-founder of the Huffington Post and former contributor to the Drudge Report, Andrew Breitbart, has taken on a new venture which could become a highly influential member of the online media community: Big Hollywood.

Big Hollywood will be the blog of Breitbart.com - a site which has existed for some time now, and the favorite source of news for 1 million (or so) people per day. 

 Big Hollywood’s big goal? To combat Hollywood’s intolerant liberal culture; bringing a tolerant conservatism to liberal’s heartland. and, by doing so, improve America. As Breitbart himself explained to TheHill: “My primary goal is to diversify Hollywood. Those people [in Hollywood] who dissent are so summarily attacked and dismissed that they learn to just keep their mouths shut. And there’s nothing I like more than to have debate free and open in America.”

“I’m arguing that pop culture isn’t just superfluous,” Breitbart says. In the “stream of American popular culture,” he says, attitudes and behaviors portrayed in movies and other pop-culture outlets eventually become policy issues.

“The movies used to reinforce good behavior — that you should pay back your loans,” he says, using the country’s credit crisis as an example. “I think you’re going to get better-behaving Americans … you’re going to have a better society if you treat Hollywood like the important entity it is.”

His strategy to do so is to convince (Washington) conservatives to care about Hollywood, which has a major impact on American society and culture and on America’s image abroad. Several big political names - House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), incoming Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Reps. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and Connie Mack (R-Fla.) - have already agreed to contribute to Big Hollywood. 

Not only will politicians contribute, the site’s editor-in-chief will be John Nolte, Tucker Carlson has agreed to contribute and several individuals writing for outlets such as National Review, The Weekly Standard and Commentary magazine have done so as well. 

Since the focus will be on Hollywood, Breitbart has also ‘wooed conservative screenwriters, comedy writers, classical musicians and alternative singer-songwriters to contribute to the blog.’ Hollywood conservatives who fear liberal revenge are allowed to write under a pseudonym. 

In short, Breitbart is busily assembling a true dreamteam, which will blow your mind away. The names of the people mentioned - and more will undoubtedly be added in the coming days, weeks and even months - make one thing clear: Big Hollywood is going to have a major impact, just like the HuffPo and Drudge had.

And then an announcement: I too have been asked by Andrew Breitbart to contribute to Big Hollywood. I of course happily accepted: I will be the politically conservative European liberal Muslim voice (let that sink in for a while). My first entry will be about Hollywood (movies) and America’s image abroad: does Hollywood increase anti-Americanism and does it confirm the anti-American caricature already existing?

http://www.bookwormroom.com/2009/01/06/big-hollywood/

Sadly, Hollywood isn’t only a mirror of culture but it’s also a cultural leader. During WWII, it took the lead in promoting American values and urging American victory. In the past decades, and with increasing energy in the current decade, Hollywood has taken the lead in hostility to American values and, in the war between us and radical Islam, in painting us as the bad guy.

Andrew Breitbart is trying to strike a blow at the Hollywood mindset with a new website called Big Hollywood. It would be a wonderful thing if Breitbart could make conservatism a viable option, rather than an embarrassing secret, in the propaganda capital of the world.

http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2009/01/big_hollywood.php

Andrew Breitbart, the online news maverick, has started a new blog called Big Hollywood. Its mission:To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope.

Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who will be the lion’s share of Big Hollywood’s contributors - recognize that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1365965/big_hollywood_website_provides_a_voice.html

A common complaint about Hollywood is its supposed discrimination against conservatives. Liberals dominate Hollywood, come out overwhelmingly for Democrats, and they can't go one week without maki Big Hollywood Website Provides a Voice for Conservative Hollywoodng a Bush-bashing movie. The few conservatives in Hollywood feel like the odd actors out, in this story. But now, a new site is up where they can come out of the political closet and come together to take on the Hollywood liberal elite.

Today, the website Big Hollywood premieres to be a haven for conservatives in the Hollywood industry. Big Hollywood will offer movie reviews, political commentary, industry commentary and much more for the discriminated Hollywood conservative.

Big Hollywood is founded by Andrew Breitbart, founder of the website Breitbart.com. Breitbart is a former contributor of the Drudge Report and a co-founder of the Huffington Post.

The stated goal of Big Hollywood, according to Breitbart, is to bring conservatism into the Hollywood mainstream, and use that new influence to improve America. Having already gotten Senators like John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mary Bono Mack to contribute, Breitbart aims to have Hollywood's social impact reflect a less liberal standard.

Breitbart also encourages conservative actors and actresses to contribute. They can even write under a fake name, in case they fear retaliation from the liberal elite.

Hollywood conservative organizations like the Hollywood Congress of Republicans and "Friends of Abe" have popped up a bit more frequently, but carefully, over the years. Hollywood Republicans have made a habit of claiming that liberals will often pass them over for roles, or subtly pressure them to keep quiet on their views.

Conservatives have claimed some bits of victory in Hollywood recently, for getting films like Expelled and An American Carol released, and for so many higher profile anti-war films bombing over the last several years. Actors like Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammar have also been a bit more vocal voicing conservative beliefs recently.

Big Hollywood may be the next big step in Hollywood conservatives fighting back against the Big Hollywood Website Provides a Voice for Conservative Hollywoodelites. Movie reviews, editorials and political commentary on issues like taxes and the Gaza war are already up on the website.