File this under: “Things that make you go, huh?” Just as Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders for not doing “his homework” when it comes to taking on the financial industry and its big banks, a group of former government officials — once in charge of regulating Wall Street and now working in the financial industry — are holding a fundraiser in her honor in Washington, DC. The Intercept reports the April 6 fundraiser described as a “conversation” with “Hillary for America” financial officer Gary Gensler and Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Carl Levin, D-Mich, is basically a who’s who of Washington elites either advocating for corporate clients.
- 4/7/2016
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
Producers of “nerds,” an original musical abut the rivalry between tech giants Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, announced Tuesday that they were scuttling a planned Broadway opening for this spring. “On behalf of my fellow producers and investors, it is with great disappointment that we will be postponing the Broadway opening of nerds due to the loss of a major investor,” said Carl Levin, who was producing along with Vicki Halmos, Elizabeth Williams, Greenleaf Productions and Clear Channel Spectacolor. The show was scheduled to begin previews on April 1 and open on April 21 at the Longacre Theatre, with Tony-nominated “Book...
- 3/8/2016
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
According to newly declassified documents first reported by the Associated Press, former CIA chief Leon Panetta revealed secret information to Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal while the latter was in attendance for a debriefing about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. "I had no idea that individual was in the audience," Panetta said in a statement, referring to his 2011 speech at CIA headquarters. His spokesman, Jeremy Bash, added that Panetta assumed everyone in the audience had the proper clearance.
Read Mark Boal's Landmark Story "The Kill Team...
Read Mark Boal's Landmark Story "The Kill Team...
- 12/11/2013
- Rollingstone.com
Topher Grace, Sarah Silverman and Patti LuPone Join Lorne Michaels’ HBO Pilot ‘People in New Jersey’
Topher Grace, Sarah Silverman and Patti LuPone are packing up and heading for the Garden State. Former “That ’70s Show” star Grace, Silverman and LuPone have been cast in the HBO pilot “People in New Jersey,” from executive producers Lorne Michaels and Andrew Singer. Also read: Topher Grace in Talks for Supporting Role in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ The pilot, being penned and executive-produced by Bruce Eric Kaplan (“Six Feet Under”), is billed as “a hilarious, poignant look at life today as seen through the prism of an adult brother and sister living in New Jersey.” Grace will play Carl Levin,...
- 10/4/2013
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
Topher Grace and Sarah Silverman are putting down roots in the Garden State.
The duo are set to play siblings in People In New Jersey, a half-hour comedy pilot for HBO produced by SNL overlord Lorne Michaels and directed by Bridesmaids helmer Paul Feig, TVLine has learned.
Oh, and their mother? She’ll be played by Broadway legend Patti LuPone.
Pinj is described as a hilarious, poignant look at life today as seen through the prism of an adult brother and sister living in NJ. They each struggle to get through the day,...
The duo are set to play siblings in People In New Jersey, a half-hour comedy pilot for HBO produced by SNL overlord Lorne Michaels and directed by Bridesmaids helmer Paul Feig, TVLine has learned.
Oh, and their mother? She’ll be played by Broadway legend Patti LuPone.
Pinj is described as a hilarious, poignant look at life today as seen through the prism of an adult brother and sister living in NJ. They each struggle to get through the day,...
- 10/4/2013
- by Michael Ausiello
- TVLine.com
Update, 11:08 Am: Apple‘s part of today’s proceedings is over after Sen. Carl Levin finally drew blood. He hammered CEO Tim Cook and other Apple execs for creating business arrangements that ensured that the company’s “crown jewels” — economic rights to more than two-thirds of its worldwide profits — “are in three Irish companies that you control and don’t pay taxes.” Cook acknowledged that he has “no current plan” to bring that cash “home at the current tax rate.” Levin noted that this was entirely Apple’s choice: The arrangement in Ireland was signed by “three people working for Apple.” He also observed that the company repatriates profits from Latin America and Canada but not elsewhere. “We cannot continue a system where a multinational company as phenomenally successful as you can make a decision as to where the profits are going to flow. An American company where the...
- 5/21/2013
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
- Deadline TV
DVD Release Date: April 24, 2013
Price: DVD $30.00
Studio: Ciesla Foundation
The dynamite 1998 documentary film The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg directed by Aviva Kempner (Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) looks at the Detroit Tigers’ hard-hitting Hall of Fame first baseman whose accomplishments extended beyond the field as American’s first Jewish baseball star.
The movie depicts how during the Golden Age of Baseball, Hank Greenberg’s achievements rivaled those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Additionally, it shows how Greenberg helped break down the barriers of discrimination in American sports and society and how he was a beacon of hope to American Jews who faced bigotry during the Depression and World War II.
Included in the film are some 47 interviews with Hank Greenberg and his family members; sports figures Ira Berkow, Ernie Harwell, Joe Falls and Dick Schaap; fellow payers Bob Feller, Charlie Gehringer and Ralph Kiner; fans Alan Dershowitz, Congressman Sander Levin...
Price: DVD $30.00
Studio: Ciesla Foundation
The dynamite 1998 documentary film The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg directed by Aviva Kempner (Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) looks at the Detroit Tigers’ hard-hitting Hall of Fame first baseman whose accomplishments extended beyond the field as American’s first Jewish baseball star.
The movie depicts how during the Golden Age of Baseball, Hank Greenberg’s achievements rivaled those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Additionally, it shows how Greenberg helped break down the barriers of discrimination in American sports and society and how he was a beacon of hope to American Jews who faced bigotry during the Depression and World War II.
Included in the film are some 47 interviews with Hank Greenberg and his family members; sports figures Ira Berkow, Ernie Harwell, Joe Falls and Dick Schaap; fellow payers Bob Feller, Charlie Gehringer and Ralph Kiner; fans Alan Dershowitz, Congressman Sander Levin...
- 5/1/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
After much public debate over the merits of former Chuck Hagel's nomination to succeed Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense, the former Nebraska Gop senator will finally testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee and take questions before confirmation. The committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-mi) has openly supported Hagel's nomination, while top committee Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-ok) has indicated he will oppose the nomination.
- 1/31/2013
- by Andrew Kirell
- Mediaite - TV
The furor over the depiction of CIA-sponsored torture in "Zero Dark Thirty" continued to heat up Thursday, with three members of the Senate Intelligence Committee demanding that the CIA release details about how techniques like waterboarding and sleep deprivation were used to uncover information that helped lead to the killing of Osama bin Laden. The senators also said they are seeking details about contacts between the film's creative team and the U.S. government. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) released two...
- 1/3/2013
- by Steve Pond & Brent Lang
- The Wrap
* What filmmakers were told about interrogations at issue
* Feinstein incensed by film's depiction of "torture"
* Acting CIA director's meeting with filmmakers scrutinized
By Mark Hosenball
Washington Jan 2 (Reuters) - After the Senate Intelligence Committee's chairwoman expressed outrage over scenes that imply "enhanced interrogations" of CIA detainees produced a breakthrough in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the panel has begun a review of contacts between the makers of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" and CIA officials.
In the latest controversy surrounding the film, Reuters has learned that the committee will examine records charting contacts between intelligence officials and the film's director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Investigators will examine whether the spy agency gave the filmmakers "inappropriate" access to secret material, said a person familiar with the matter. They will also probe whether CIA personnel are responsible for the portrayal of harsh interrogation practices, and in particular the suggestion that they were effective,...
* Feinstein incensed by film's depiction of "torture"
* Acting CIA director's meeting with filmmakers scrutinized
By Mark Hosenball
Washington Jan 2 (Reuters) - After the Senate Intelligence Committee's chairwoman expressed outrage over scenes that imply "enhanced interrogations" of CIA detainees produced a breakthrough in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the panel has begun a review of contacts between the makers of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" and CIA officials.
In the latest controversy surrounding the film, Reuters has learned that the committee will examine records charting contacts between intelligence officials and the film's director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.
Investigators will examine whether the spy agency gave the filmmakers "inappropriate" access to secret material, said a person familiar with the matter. They will also probe whether CIA personnel are responsible for the portrayal of harsh interrogation practices, and in particular the suggestion that they were effective,...
- 1/3/2013
- by Reuters
- Huffington Post
If you live in either New York or Los Angeles, there's a good chance you've seen "Zero Dark Thirty" by now. The film was released in limited release on Dec. 19, which means that audience members have had a chance to start witnessing for themselves the torture scenes that have become a point of debate around the project. Many people have come forth to rebel against "Zero Dark Thirty's" supposed implication that waterboarding a prisoner revealed the clue that helped Jessica Chastain's character find Osama bin Laden, and Sen. John McCain is one of them.
"You believe when watching this movie that waterboarding and torture leads to information that leads then to the elimination of bin Laden. That's not the case," McCain tells CNN's "The Situation Room." He says he's standing up against the film because "movies, particularly by very highly credentialed producers, directors and cast, [do] have an effect...
"You believe when watching this movie that waterboarding and torture leads to information that leads then to the elimination of bin Laden. That's not the case," McCain tells CNN's "The Situation Room." He says he's standing up against the film because "movies, particularly by very highly credentialed producers, directors and cast, [do] have an effect...
- 12/21/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
• Announcing the findings of a Senate panel investigating the financial crisis, Senator Carl Levin (D-mi) called Goldman Sachs “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing,” adding that C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein should possibly face perjury charges. [Washington Post] • Speaking of lying under oath, Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice in his steroid case, but he will probably get minimal jail time or probation. Those wanting arrogant millionaires to get the message that lying under oath is a big deal will have to wait for the trial of Roger Clemens, against whom the case is much stronger. [Wall Street Journal] • A fascinating revelation from the mafia trial currently underway in New York: “clip” has replaced “whack” as a euphemism for murdering someone on orders. Presumably “fuhgeddaboudit” still means fuhgeddaboudit. [NY Times] • A 30-second advertisement during Oprah’s farewell broadcast is selling for $1 million. Earlier in the season ads had been selling for only $57,400. Also,...
- 4/14/2011
- Vanity Fair
Singer posts online videos of fans urging senators to repeal controversial policy.
By Mawuse Ziegbe
Members of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network join Lady Gaga at the 2010 MTV VMAs
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/ Getty Images
When it comes to the repeal of the U.S. Armed Forces' controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, Lady Gaga is proving that she's not giving up without a fight.
Gaga, who has often used her celebrity to speak out in favor of gay rights, recently launched a campaign to prompt lawmakers to repeal "Don't Ask," which bars openly gay Americans from serving in the military and has prompted the discharge of thousands of servicemembers. She walked the Vma white carpet with former members of the military who were kicked out because of their sexual orientation and she has been tweeting with high-profile politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The pop icon has also...
By Mawuse Ziegbe
Members of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network join Lady Gaga at the 2010 MTV VMAs
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/ Getty Images
When it comes to the repeal of the U.S. Armed Forces' controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, Lady Gaga is proving that she's not giving up without a fight.
Gaga, who has often used her celebrity to speak out in favor of gay rights, recently launched a campaign to prompt lawmakers to repeal "Don't Ask," which bars openly gay Americans from serving in the military and has prompted the discharge of thousands of servicemembers. She walked the Vma white carpet with former members of the military who were kicked out because of their sexual orientation and she has been tweeting with high-profile politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The pop icon has also...
- 9/19/2010
- MTV Music News
I am but a naive outsider. I don't fully understand the working of the "derivatives" and "credit swaps" that we have heard so much about in recent months. I'm not alone. But I'm learning. I gather that these are ingenious computer-driven trading schemes in which good money can be earned from bad debt, and Wall Street's Masters of the Universe pocket untold millions at the same time they bankrupt their investors and their own companies.
This process is explained in a shocking documentary named "Inside Job," which was just named the best single film at Cannes 2010. It wasn't in competition. The voters in the poll were a group of 19 movie critics polled by IndieWire. (I wasn't one of them.) It was the only film to earn an A average. It is a very angry, very carefully argued, brutally clear documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.
This process is explained in a shocking documentary named "Inside Job," which was just named the best single film at Cannes 2010. It wasn't in competition. The voters in the poll were a group of 19 movie critics polled by IndieWire. (I wasn't one of them.) It was the only film to earn an A average. It is a very angry, very carefully argued, brutally clear documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.
- 5/24/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
I was pretty surprised when, one night last week, Keith Olbermann ran some unedited, unbleeped Senate testimony about the recent Wall Street disaster that featured evidence from Goldman Sachs internal emails proving that they knew that at least one fund they were selling was not only toxic, it was “a shitty deal.” Senator Carl Levin, among others, used the word shitty repeatedly, and even though Olbermann’s show runs at 8pm on a basic cable channel, there was that word, over and over again, in all its scatalogical glory. But that was nothing to my surprise early yesterday, when one of CNN’s Sunday morning talk shows featured an interview with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein -- who had also appeared in that “shitty” testimony last week -- and there was the word all over again, unedited, uncensored, full blast. Have Goldman Sachs’s “shitty deals” broken a language barrier on American TV?...
- 5/3/2010
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
TV Newsers: Yesterday it was Sen. Carl Levin's "sh*tty email" reading to Goldman Sachs sullied executives, today it is Prime Minister Gordon Brown.s blunder - where his handlers did not remove a hot mic from the hapless leader's blazer. The resulting gaffe has made headlines in the UK. Brown told the UK media he was a "penitent sinner" for castigating an ordinary elderly lady on the streets who expressed genuine concern for Britain's future, and asked how was he going to pay for all the Eastern-European immigrants (legal and illegal) coming over taking advantage of the UK's generous entitlement plans. Fair question, but once ensconced privately in his limo, he called out the woman as a "bigot" and...
- 4/28/2010
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Today on the smallscreen news round up, Queen Rania of Jordan is on a book tour promoting positive Arab culture via a children's book to combat the bad press, Greece has been declared "junk" and everyone's stocks and money market funds went south. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) capped the day and said the word shitty" 12 times on TV. During the congressional hearing about the shenanigans Goldman Sachs wreaked on the financial markets, (all of us) the Senate Permanent Subcommittee's Levin read back an internal memo and e-mail containing the phrase "shitty deal" over a ten minute period. Under the bug light was Sachs' Daniel Sparks, who allegedly pushed investments (the shitty deals referenced in the emails) he...
- 4/27/2010
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
During today's heated Goldman hearings on Capitol Hill Sen. Carl Levin, head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, quoted some rather colorful language from the Goldman emails which described one of their transactions as a "shitty deal." Levin repeated the description eleven times in during his questioning of Goldman Exec Daniel Sparks. The pretty fantastic exchange after the jump.
- 4/27/2010
- by Glynnis MacNicol
- Mediaite - TV
New Line Cinema has acquired the screen rights to the stage musical "Rock of Ages."
The story takes place in late 1980s at a Sunset Strip rock club club called Rock of Ages, where a couple fall in love but get torn apart by the rock lifestyle.
As per Variety, author Chris D'Arienzo will be writing the screenplay and direct the movie. Matthew Weaver, Scott Prisand, and Carl Levin will produce. Actor Tobey Maguire and his Maguire Entertainment will also be producing.
"Rock of Ages" features hits from iconic rockers such as Reo Speedwagon, Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, and White Snake among others.
The story takes place in late 1980s at a Sunset Strip rock club club called Rock of Ages, where a couple fall in love but get torn apart by the rock lifestyle.
As per Variety, author Chris D'Arienzo will be writing the screenplay and direct the movie. Matthew Weaver, Scott Prisand, and Carl Levin will produce. Actor Tobey Maguire and his Maguire Entertainment will also be producing.
"Rock of Ages" features hits from iconic rockers such as Reo Speedwagon, Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, and White Snake among others.
- 12/10/2008
- icelebz.com
PARK CITY -- "Pretty Persuasion" is too broadly played to achieve its dark satirical aspirations and too downright silly to pass for a serious commentary on contemporary society. What it is is a teen comedy with pretensions -- the one element most teen comedies mercifully avoid. Few cliches get overlooked as writer Skander Halim and director Marcos Siega take the usual easy shots at mean school girls, immature parents, sex-obsessed male teachers, easily corrupted journalists and Beverly Hills in general.
The film plays with no more depth than a "Saturday Night Live" sketch, just much greater length. Some might be interested in the jokiness and sexual misbehavior, but the material is too cartoonish to win a large following among teens and young adults.
Bad-girl protagonist Kimberly, played by the new go-to actress for teen heroines, Evan Rachel Wood, is a conniving, cynical vamp at 15. She uses her sexual charisma to get what she wants when she wants it from classmates and adults alike in a private Beverly Hills high school. In a revenge plot -- revenge for what is not immediately clear -- she talks two fellow students, bubble-brained Brittany (Elisabeth Harnois) and Arab immigrant Randa (Adi Schnall), into going with her to school authorities to accuse their English teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment. The poor guy, who might be guilty in thought but not deed, gets caught up in a media storm of scandal, fueled by an ambitious lesbian TV reporter (Jane Krakowski) and a trial that takes place seemingly the next week.
Siega eggs his actors into over-the-top performances, the most egregious of which belongs to James Woods, who plays Kimberly's uncouth, racist, foul-mouthed, coke-snorting, phone-sex-addicted industrialist dad. (Then again, maybe there is no other way to play such a role.) Siega pushes most of his movie into the broadest of comedy, especially trial scenes that bear no resemblance to anything that could occur in a courtroom.
The filmmakers then engineer an abrupt tonal shift in the third act in a bid for gravity. Let's call it the "American Beauty" ending, complete with a violent death and garbled social message. It doesn't wash.
Other things in the film feel equally as fake, such as sets that don't look lived in and an annoyingly jocular musical score.
PRETTY PERSUASION
Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films
Prospect Pictures
Credits:
Director: Marcos Siega
Screenwriter: Skander Halim
Producers: Todd Dagres, Carl Levin, Marcos Siega, Matthew Weaver
Executive producers: Joni Sighvatsson, Jason Barhydt, Eric Kopeloff, Robert Ortiz
Director of photography: Ramsey Nickell
Production designer: Paul Oberman
Music: Gilad Benamram
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Editor: Nicholas Erasmus
Cast:
Kimberly: Evan Rachel Wood
Percy: Ron Livingston
Hank: James Woods
Emily: Jane Krakowski
Brittany: Elisabeth Harnois
Grace: Selma Blair
Randa: Adi Schnall
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 108 minutes...
The film plays with no more depth than a "Saturday Night Live" sketch, just much greater length. Some might be interested in the jokiness and sexual misbehavior, but the material is too cartoonish to win a large following among teens and young adults.
Bad-girl protagonist Kimberly, played by the new go-to actress for teen heroines, Evan Rachel Wood, is a conniving, cynical vamp at 15. She uses her sexual charisma to get what she wants when she wants it from classmates and adults alike in a private Beverly Hills high school. In a revenge plot -- revenge for what is not immediately clear -- she talks two fellow students, bubble-brained Brittany (Elisabeth Harnois) and Arab immigrant Randa (Adi Schnall), into going with her to school authorities to accuse their English teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment. The poor guy, who might be guilty in thought but not deed, gets caught up in a media storm of scandal, fueled by an ambitious lesbian TV reporter (Jane Krakowski) and a trial that takes place seemingly the next week.
Siega eggs his actors into over-the-top performances, the most egregious of which belongs to James Woods, who plays Kimberly's uncouth, racist, foul-mouthed, coke-snorting, phone-sex-addicted industrialist dad. (Then again, maybe there is no other way to play such a role.) Siega pushes most of his movie into the broadest of comedy, especially trial scenes that bear no resemblance to anything that could occur in a courtroom.
The filmmakers then engineer an abrupt tonal shift in the third act in a bid for gravity. Let's call it the "American Beauty" ending, complete with a violent death and garbled social message. It doesn't wash.
Other things in the film feel equally as fake, such as sets that don't look lived in and an annoyingly jocular musical score.
PRETTY PERSUASION
Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films
Prospect Pictures
Credits:
Director: Marcos Siega
Screenwriter: Skander Halim
Producers: Todd Dagres, Carl Levin, Marcos Siega, Matthew Weaver
Executive producers: Joni Sighvatsson, Jason Barhydt, Eric Kopeloff, Robert Ortiz
Director of photography: Ramsey Nickell
Production designer: Paul Oberman
Music: Gilad Benamram
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Editor: Nicholas Erasmus
Cast:
Kimberly: Evan Rachel Wood
Percy: Ron Livingston
Hank: James Woods
Emily: Jane Krakowski
Brittany: Elisabeth Harnois
Grace: Selma Blair
Randa: Adi Schnall
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 108 minutes...
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