Jane Lynch is a comedic force. But even her funniest onscreen performances are rooted in a commitment to the truth of human nature, a quality that carries over into her more recent dramatic work. The three-time Emmy winner has created indelible characters of all sorts -- most notably as Sue Sylvester on Glee -- over the course of nearly three decades in Hollywood. But perhaps none have loomed as large in the popular imagination as U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, whom the actress portrays in Discovery Channel’s latest scripted project, Manhunt: Unabomber.
The eight-episode anthology series, created by Andrew Sodroski, follows the FBI’s pursuit of Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany) and his ultimate capture based on breakthrough linguistic evidence assembled by agent Jim Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington). In just a few short scenes, Lynch embodies a key player in the true-crime drama, and perhaps the sole character as recognizable to the American public as the Unabomber...
The eight-episode anthology series, created by Andrew Sodroski, follows the FBI’s pursuit of Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany) and his ultimate capture based on breakthrough linguistic evidence assembled by agent Jim Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington). In just a few short scenes, Lynch embodies a key player in the true-crime drama, and perhaps the sole character as recognizable to the American public as the Unabomber...
- 8/7/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Simon Brew Mar 8, 2017
Days after the movie Contact was released in 1997, it received a complaint from the Clinton White House...
The 1997 movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, proved to be a solid hit for Warner Bros. Directed by Back To The Future helmer Robert Zemeckis, and based on the book by Carl Sagan, the film however resulted in a formal complaint being lodged by Bill Clinton's White House.
See related Prime Suspect 1973 episode 1 review The women taking over TV crime drama
The issue was footage used in the film of President Clinton at a news conferences back in August 1996. Robert Zemeckis took the material, and edited it into Contact. In the actual 1996 new conference, Clinton had been talking about a rock that was believed to have come from Mars. In the film, it was used to talk about the messages that had seemingly come from alien sources.
Days after the movie Contact was released in 1997, it received a complaint from the Clinton White House...
The 1997 movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, proved to be a solid hit for Warner Bros. Directed by Back To The Future helmer Robert Zemeckis, and based on the book by Carl Sagan, the film however resulted in a formal complaint being lodged by Bill Clinton's White House.
See related Prime Suspect 1973 episode 1 review The women taking over TV crime drama
The issue was footage used in the film of President Clinton at a news conferences back in August 1996. Robert Zemeckis took the material, and edited it into Contact. In the actual 1996 new conference, Clinton had been talking about a rock that was believed to have come from Mars. In the film, it was used to talk about the messages that had seemingly come from alien sources.
- 2/7/2017
- Den of Geek
President Barack Obama has plenty of worries as the leader of the free world – but his daughters’ love lives are not among them.
Obama spoke with Raleigh radio station Wdcg about some of his favorite moments from his time in office – and revealed that recently his daughters, Malia, 18, and Sasha, 15, have started “ditching” family dinners.
Asked what he’ll do when his daughters start dating, the president answered, “Oh, that happened. The truth is, I’m pretty relaxed about it for two reasons. One is Michelle — she’s such a great example of how she carries herself, her self-esteem, not...
Obama spoke with Raleigh radio station Wdcg about some of his favorite moments from his time in office – and revealed that recently his daughters, Malia, 18, and Sasha, 15, have started “ditching” family dinners.
Asked what he’ll do when his daughters start dating, the president answered, “Oh, that happened. The truth is, I’m pretty relaxed about it for two reasons. One is Michelle — she’s such a great example of how she carries herself, her self-esteem, not...
- 11/4/2016
- by m34miller
- PEOPLE.com
Huma Abedin stepped back into the spotlight Thursday evening, hosting a fundraiser for longtime boss Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C. alongside Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg.
Clinton’s top aide took a break from the campaign trail in the wake of Friday’s news that emails being scrutinized by the FBI in conjunction with the closed investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server were retrieved from estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Abedin received a warm welcome from the crowd of Washington, D.C. power women in attendance — all gathered at the home of Connie Milstein,...
Clinton’s top aide took a break from the campaign trail in the wake of Friday’s news that emails being scrutinized by the FBI in conjunction with the closed investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server were retrieved from estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Abedin received a warm welcome from the crowd of Washington, D.C. power women in attendance — all gathered at the home of Connie Milstein,...
- 11/4/2016
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
Hillary Clinton says she’s determined not to be distracted in her final week of campaigning by the “noise” of the latest development in her email controversy.
The Democratic nominee was asked this week about her gut reaction to first word of FBI director James Comey’s Friday letter to Congress announcing the discovery of new emails to be reviewed as part of the probe of the private email server she used as secretary of state.
“Of course I was surprised,” Clinton tells People in this week’s issue.
Federal agents obtained a warrant over the weekend to begin reviewing...
The Democratic nominee was asked this week about her gut reaction to first word of FBI director James Comey’s Friday letter to Congress announcing the discovery of new emails to be reviewed as part of the probe of the private email server she used as secretary of state.
“Of course I was surprised,” Clinton tells People in this week’s issue.
Federal agents obtained a warrant over the weekend to begin reviewing...
- 11/2/2016
- by sandrawestfalltimeinc
- PEOPLE.com
President Obama Speaks Out Against FBI’s Hillary Clinton Email Probe: ‘We Don’t Operate on Innuendo’
President Barack Obama has criticized FBI Director James Comey’s decision to notify Congress of the agency’s renewed probe into Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Breaking his silence on the matter in an interview with NowThis News that aired Wednesday, Obama suggested — without mentioning Comey by name — that the FBI director had breached investigative protocol with his bombshell announcement on Friday.
“I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo and we don’t operate on incomplete information...
Breaking his silence on the matter in an interview with NowThis News that aired Wednesday, Obama suggested — without mentioning Comey by name — that the FBI director had breached investigative protocol with his bombshell announcement on Friday.
“I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo and we don’t operate on incomplete information...
- 11/2/2016
- by Tierney McAfee
- PEOPLE.com
With less than a week left until Election Day, President Barack Obama is calling on male voters to search their minds and hearts for any signs of sexism that may be holding them back from voting for a woman president.
Speaking at an early voting rally for Hillary Clinton in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, the president told supporters of the Democratic nominee, “Hillary Clinton is consistently treated differently than just about any other candidate I see out there.”
“You know, there’s a reason why we haven’t had a woman president before,” Obama continued. “We have to ask ourselves,...
Speaking at an early voting rally for Hillary Clinton in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, the president told supporters of the Democratic nominee, “Hillary Clinton is consistently treated differently than just about any other candidate I see out there.”
“You know, there’s a reason why we haven’t had a woman president before,” Obama continued. “We have to ask ourselves,...
- 11/2/2016
- by Tierney McAfee
- PEOPLE.com
At the “Adam Ruins Everything Election Special” taping earlier this month in Los Angeles, even the warmup jokes had their eyes on politics. As standup comedian Jared Logan primed both the audience and the sound technicians for the ensuing show, he invited the audience to test laugh: “Imagine if Tim Kaine just told a joke.”
After 19 episodes of the truTV show already under their belts, Tuesday night’s special represents the most ambitious “Adam Ruins Everything” project yet: an hour-long examination (and in most cases, refutation) of some of the most commonly held refrains of this election cycle.
Read More: ‘Adam Ruins Everything’ With Research, and Adam Conover Likes It That Way
It’s the culmination of weeks of nationwide touring and refining, all done during the midst of production on this year’s batch of “Adam Ruins Everything” episodes, which have been airing since late August. Conover, along with...
After 19 episodes of the truTV show already under their belts, Tuesday night’s special represents the most ambitious “Adam Ruins Everything” project yet: an hour-long examination (and in most cases, refutation) of some of the most commonly held refrains of this election cycle.
Read More: ‘Adam Ruins Everything’ With Research, and Adam Conover Likes It That Way
It’s the culmination of weeks of nationwide touring and refining, all done during the midst of production on this year’s batch of “Adam Ruins Everything” episodes, which have been airing since late August. Conover, along with...
- 10/25/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
If you had any doubt that millennials ruled the world, the photo below is your confirmation. In the most 2016 move ever, a group of Hillary Clinton supporters took the selfie below to beat all selfies. The photo was taken by Barbara Kinney, a former Clinton White House photographer and current photog on Hillary's campaign. The snap, which has now gone viral, features a mass of people turning around with their front-facing cameras to take the crazy pic. Kinney told Mashable that it was actually Hillary who suggested the crowd take the picture, and not the other way around. She snapped it after Hillary stopped by the overflow room at a recent rally in Orlando. Kinney said, "When we're working the crowds and...
- 9/26/2016
- E! Online
TheWrap’s photo du jour goes to Hillary Clinton, who really knows how to work a room filled with selfie-loving millennials. Former Clinton White House photog and current full-time photographer on the Hillary Clinton campaign, Barbara Kinney, snapped a pic of, well, people snapping pics. After #ImWithHer supporter Victor Ng tweeted Kinney’s photo, Twitterverse picked it up and ran with it. Check out some of the funny memes that followed: 2016, ya’ll. pic.twitter.com/M0AZceVagQ – Victor Ng (@victomato) September 25, 2016 @victomato How long till Trump tweets this photo, says all these people are turning their backs on Hrc,...
- 9/26/2016
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
Newt Gingrich is back in the political spotlight after emerging as a finalist in the search for Donald Trump's vice presidential pick. Even if the Georgia lawmaker doesn't make the cut as Trump's running mate, the presumptive Gop nominee has promised Gingrich some sort of role in a Trump administration. "In one form or another, Newt Gingrich will be part of our government," Trump said during a joint appearance with Gingrich in Ohio on Wednesday. Gingrich's growing involvement in Trump's campaign has peaked the interest of media outlets, with CNN exploring "How Newt Gingrich became Donald Trump's inside man...
- 7/11/2016
- by Tierney McAfee, @tierneymcafee
- PEOPLE.com
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday for an extended interview. In addition to discussing the Republican presidential candidates -- especially Donald Trump -- and what a second Clinton White House might look like, the former U.S. Secretary of State also participated in a segment with host Jimmy Kimmel and a bunch of kids.
- 11/6/2015
- by Andrew Husband
- Mediaite - TV
Jon Stewart started off his interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos by asking how a news organization could spend so much time covering the White House Correspondents' Dinner while Baltimore was burning just a few miles away. But soon, their discussion turned to another story that has been on the former Clinton White House staffer of late: foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
- 4/29/2015
- by Matt Wilstein
- Mediaite - TV
The Us talkshow host and comedian has overcome adversity to become a bona fide American superstar and a household name
In September, Ellen DeGeneres told the audience of her talkshow about the pros and cons of hosting the Academy Awards: "Pro: a lot of fancy designers will want to approach me and want me to wear a beautiful, expensive gown. Con: ain't no way in hell I'm wearing a gown." The audience erupted in cheers.
Such vocal approval is an indication of how far both DeGeneres's fortunes and Us public attitudes towards sexuality and gender have shifted. At the turn of the century, you could have been excused for thinking DeGeneres was down and out.
After spending two decades establishing herself as one of the most popular comedians in the Us, in 1997 she gambled everything on coming out as a lesbian, both in real life and in character on the...
In September, Ellen DeGeneres told the audience of her talkshow about the pros and cons of hosting the Academy Awards: "Pro: a lot of fancy designers will want to approach me and want me to wear a beautiful, expensive gown. Con: ain't no way in hell I'm wearing a gown." The audience erupted in cheers.
Such vocal approval is an indication of how far both DeGeneres's fortunes and Us public attitudes towards sexuality and gender have shifted. At the turn of the century, you could have been excused for thinking DeGeneres was down and out.
After spending two decades establishing herself as one of the most popular comedians in the Us, in 1997 she gambled everything on coming out as a lesbian, both in real life and in character on the...
- 3/1/2014
- by Ben Walters
- The Guardian - Film News
Reporters Who Cover Politics today pored over thousands of formerly withheld documents from the Clinton White House released from the National Archives. With Hillary Clinton already an official presumed presidential candidate in 2016, as NBC and CNN learned the hard way, the reporters are keeping a sharp eye out for anything Hillary-related — including a 1995 suggestion by her then-press secretary that the First Lady guest star on an episode of ABC’s Home Improvement, found by New York magazine: Little did they know that another First Lady would make a sitcom appearance less than 20 years later. Related: ‘Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ Gets Ratings Bump With Guest Michelle Obama...
- 2/28/2014
- by LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
- Deadline TV
A panel of political strategists and analysts on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Tuesday noted that President Barack Obama is bringing on former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, John Podesta, as a counselor amid historically low job approval ratings. One panel guest noted that Podesta, who guided the Clinton White House through its final days, is a sign that the Obama presidency is winding down.
- 12/10/2013
- by Noah Rothman
- Mediaite - TV
Jim Kennedy had joined Sony Pictures in 2005 after working as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton and as head of communications for the White House Counsel’s office, Vice President Al Gore, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, and the Clinton Foundation. He has been overseeing media relations for Sca at Sony’s New York headquarters since October 2011. Here’s today’s release about him running communications at the “new” News Corp: New York–December 4, 2013)– News Corp (Nasdaq:nws)(Nasdaq:nwsa)(Asx:nws)(Asx:nwslv) announced today the appointment of Jim Kennedy as Chief Communications Officer, responsible for the company’s global corporate communications and media relations initiatives and strategy. Mr. Kennedy, who served in the Clinton White House, joins News Corp from Sony Corporation of America (Sca), where he currently serves as Senior Vice President for Strategic Communications. Mr.
- 12/4/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Christa Robinson has been hired as Tribune’s Chief Communications Officer, effective immediately, the company said today. She will report to Tribune’s President and CEO, Peter Liguori. Robinson moves to Tribune from CNN where she led communications and public relations for all CNN Networks and digital platforms from 1999 to 2013. In 2003, she was named Svp of public relations and, beginning in 2007, was also a member of the CNN Worldwide executive team. Before CNN, Robinson served at the Clinton White House where she was the Director of Communications for the Domestic Policy Council. She previously served as the White House liaison to the law enforcement community and worked on crime policy, health care reform and other domestic initiatives. Robinson will be based in Tribune’s New York offices.
- 11/11/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
There are documentaries that uncover hitherto unknown shocking facts, and then there are the ones that take what is already known and then package that information in one place for tidy consumption. “Inequality for All” fits neatly into the latter category, but if you’re looking for a streamlined explanation for the mess the U.S. economy’s in, and how we might get out, it’s as good a place to start as any. Director Jacob Kornbluth (“Haiku Tunnel”) seems to be pursuing the formula of “An Inconvenient Truth” to explore wealth inequality in this country: Take someone from the Clinton White House (in.
- 9/26/2013
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
To some in the news business, Fox News chief Roger Ailes looms large, viewed with a combination of fear, loathing, fascination and (at least in cable-news-ratings terms) envy. But when it comes to staffing Fnc and its sister cablenet, Fox Business Network (Fbn), a relationship with Ailes is often the secret ingredient.
Thursday (June 20), Fnc announced that it has hired longtime media reporter Howard Kurtz, who has anchored CNN's weekly media-criticism show "Reliable Sources" since 1998. He has also been the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Daily Beast and Newsweek.
Fox News also recently re-upped with right-wing political firebrand Sarah Palin, no fan of what she calls the "lamestream media." The former Alaska governor and 2008 Gop vice-presidential candidate made her reappearance on the network on Monday's "Fox & Friends."
Contacted via email for comment on Kurtz joining her in the Fnc stable, Palin wrote, "Well, no one can accuse a...
Thursday (June 20), Fnc announced that it has hired longtime media reporter Howard Kurtz, who has anchored CNN's weekly media-criticism show "Reliable Sources" since 1998. He has also been the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Daily Beast and Newsweek.
Fox News also recently re-upped with right-wing political firebrand Sarah Palin, no fan of what she calls the "lamestream media." The former Alaska governor and 2008 Gop vice-presidential candidate made her reappearance on the network on Monday's "Fox & Friends."
Contacted via email for comment on Kurtz joining her in the Fnc stable, Palin wrote, "Well, no one can accuse a...
- 6/20/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
This piece comes to us courtesy of The Hechinger Report.
Doreen Diaz left the red carpet movie premiere of “Won’t Back Down” in New York City last week feeling encouraged.
But then the 47-year-old mom, a figure in the unfolding education movement that “inspired” the feature film, headed back to the tiny desert city of Adelanto, Calif., and her tract home near Desert Trails Elementary School. That’s where the real battle over the so-called “parent trigger” law drags on, with no tidy Hollywood ending in sight.
“The movie makes it look a lot easier than it really is,” said Diaz, who started drumming up support to overhaul her local public school more than a year ago. “It definitely didn’t happen by just one mom wanting change.”
Desert Trails, where 100 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, ranks in the bottom third of California schools with...
Doreen Diaz left the red carpet movie premiere of “Won’t Back Down” in New York City last week feeling encouraged.
But then the 47-year-old mom, a figure in the unfolding education movement that “inspired” the feature film, headed back to the tiny desert city of Adelanto, Calif., and her tract home near Desert Trails Elementary School. That’s where the real battle over the so-called “parent trigger” law drags on, with no tidy Hollywood ending in sight.
“The movie makes it look a lot easier than it really is,” said Diaz, who started drumming up support to overhaul her local public school more than a year ago. “It definitely didn’t happen by just one mom wanting change.”
Desert Trails, where 100 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, ranks in the bottom third of California schools with...
- 10/3/2012
- Huffington Post
Meet Trevor Neilson, the man who advises the stars on their good causes. But who benefits most from his help: the charities or the celebrities?
On a recent afternoon in Santa Monica, Trevor Neilson met with his staff at Global Philanthropy Group, a company that guides the philanthropic activities of the very rich. Since starting the business in 2007, Neilson has had a startlingly fast rise as an adviser to celebrities, who make up about half of his roster; his clients have included Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Ben Stiller, Shakira, and Madonna. At the meeting, he was looking for strategies for using his clients' fame to raise money. A tall man of 40, Neilson was dressed in jeans, Converse and a cardigan. The offices, a few blocks from the beach, had the fashionable atmosphere of an ad agency.
Neilson opened the meeting by saying: "No idea is a bad idea,...
On a recent afternoon in Santa Monica, Trevor Neilson met with his staff at Global Philanthropy Group, a company that guides the philanthropic activities of the very rich. Since starting the business in 2007, Neilson has had a startlingly fast rise as an adviser to celebrities, who make up about half of his roster; his clients have included Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Ben Stiller, Shakira, and Madonna. At the meeting, he was looking for strategies for using his clients' fame to raise money. A tall man of 40, Neilson was dressed in jeans, Converse and a cardigan. The offices, a few blocks from the beach, had the fashionable atmosphere of an ad agency.
Neilson opened the meeting by saying: "No idea is a bad idea,...
- 7/28/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
The struggle to catch Osama Bin Laden has been a long time coming for many CIA counter-terror agents, and on 60 Minutes last night, one former official explained to Lara Logan the frustrating process of targeting and finding Bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1999, barely taking precautions to cover himself, and receiving only bureaucratic obstacles from the Clinton White House when asking for authorization to kill him.
- 5/14/2012
- by Frances Martel
- Mediaite - TV
CNN just had their lowest ratings in a decade. They are in disastrous shape. When I was on MSNBC, we would beat them with a stick. Even after "pro-cnn" stories like revolutions in Egypt and Libya, Japanese nuclear meltdowns and the killing of Osama bin Laden (CNN does much better when major news or international stories break out), we still beat them. Now they're doing so poorly I might even catch them on Current.
We started at almost nothing on Current, but we have been steadily improving our numbers. Why are we getting traction? Because people want an alternative -- the real news. So, I should just stay quiet and let CNN drive off that cliff. By the way, when I catch Erin Burnett -- which is not that far off because I'm beginning to see her in the distance in the demos -- everyone will know it. Who knows,...
We started at almost nothing on Current, but we have been steadily improving our numbers. Why are we getting traction? Because people want an alternative -- the real news. So, I should just stay quiet and let CNN drive off that cliff. By the way, when I catch Erin Burnett -- which is not that far off because I'm beginning to see her in the distance in the demos -- everyone will know it. Who knows,...
- 5/2/2012
- by Cenk Uygur
- Aol TV.
Gene Sperling is White House point man for what may be the most delicate negotiations of the Obama presidency. Lloyd Grove reports on the latest turns in the debt-ceiling drama.
Gene Sperling-a key White House player in the bipartisan negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling-is a devotee of the iron fist/velvet glove school of politics.
As President Obama's top economic adviser, he had a hand in the recent presidential speech that trashed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's deficit reduction plan as a savage attack on old folks, college students, disabled kids and sick people, as well as an obscene gift to millionaires and billionaires.
Sperling loved that speech.
Ryan, not so much. An invited guest who sat in the front row at George Washington University during the speech, the congressman was at first surprised, then angry as he listened to Obama demonizing him and...
Gene Sperling-a key White House player in the bipartisan negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling-is a devotee of the iron fist/velvet glove school of politics.
As President Obama's top economic adviser, he had a hand in the recent presidential speech that trashed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's deficit reduction plan as a savage attack on old folks, college students, disabled kids and sick people, as well as an obscene gift to millionaires and billionaires.
Sperling loved that speech.
Ryan, not so much. An invited guest who sat in the front row at George Washington University during the speech, the congressman was at first surprised, then angry as he listened to Obama demonizing him and...
- 5/19/2011
- by Lloyd Grove
- The Daily Beast
Why is a general so lionized hanging up his uniform for a back-bench position? Jamie McIntyre on why Petraeus is headed for the CIA-and not the Pentagon-and how he can help the agency that helped kill Osama bin Laden. Plus, full coverage of bin Laden.
The whispers that began floating around Washington last month that Afghanistan commander David Petraeus was in line to run the CIA were initially dismissed as bizarre rumors.
Related story on The Daily Beast: History, Not Progeny, Will Define Billy Graham's Legacy
Why would the most celebrated American general of the post-9/11 era, credited with saving Iraq and charged with salvaging Afghanistan, accept a post where he would be a second-tier adviser to the president on intelligence matters, after the director of national intelligence?
But given the CIA's prominent role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the once-beleaguered agency is suddenly seen as hot.
The whispers that began floating around Washington last month that Afghanistan commander David Petraeus was in line to run the CIA were initially dismissed as bizarre rumors.
Related story on The Daily Beast: History, Not Progeny, Will Define Billy Graham's Legacy
Why would the most celebrated American general of the post-9/11 era, credited with saving Iraq and charged with salvaging Afghanistan, accept a post where he would be a second-tier adviser to the president on intelligence matters, after the director of national intelligence?
But given the CIA's prominent role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the once-beleaguered agency is suddenly seen as hot.
- 5/7/2011
- by Jamie McIntyre
- The Daily Beast
They hoped their cash could transform failing classrooms. They were wrong. This week's Newsweek investigates what their money bought.
This story was reported and written by the Center for Public Integrity.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Obama's War on Schools
The richest man in America stepped to the podium and declared war on the nation's school systems. High schools had become "obsolete" and were "limiting-even ruining-the lives of millions of Americans every year." The situation had become "almost shameful." Bill Gates, prep-school grad and college dropout, had come before the National Governors Association seeking converts to his plan to do something about it-a plan he would back with $2 billion of his own cash.
Gates's speech, in February 2005, was a signature moment in what has become a decade-long campaign to improve test scores and graduation rates, waged by a loose alliance of wealthy CEOs who arrived with no particular background...
This story was reported and written by the Center for Public Integrity.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Obama's War on Schools
The richest man in America stepped to the podium and declared war on the nation's school systems. High schools had become "obsolete" and were "limiting-even ruining-the lives of millions of Americans every year." The situation had become "almost shameful." Bill Gates, prep-school grad and college dropout, had come before the National Governors Association seeking converts to his plan to do something about it-a plan he would back with $2 billion of his own cash.
Gates's speech, in February 2005, was a signature moment in what has become a decade-long campaign to improve test scores and graduation rates, waged by a loose alliance of wealthy CEOs who arrived with no particular background...
- 5/2/2011
- by Rita Beamish
- The Daily Beast
The star's much-lauded effort to help girls in the African nation of Malawi blew up. In this week's Newsweek, Wayne Barrett looks at how much Kabbalah had to do with it.
One year ago, Madonna squatted in the rust-colored dirt of a sprawling empty lot outside Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. With curious villagers and invited photographers crowding around, she laid the ceremonial first brick for a planned $15 million girls' academy, a noble mission in a nation where only 27 percent of girls attend secondary school. In a blog post on the website of her Raising Malawi foundation, she wrote that the brick, inscribed with the words "Dare to Dream," was "not just the bedrock to a school-it is a foundation for our shared future."
Related story on The Daily Beast: Madonna's Academic Guru
Last week it was announced that the future would not be built.
One year ago, Madonna squatted in the rust-colored dirt of a sprawling empty lot outside Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. With curious villagers and invited photographers crowding around, she laid the ceremonial first brick for a planned $15 million girls' academy, a noble mission in a nation where only 27 percent of girls attend secondary school. In a blog post on the website of her Raising Malawi foundation, she wrote that the brick, inscribed with the words "Dare to Dream," was "not just the bedrock to a school-it is a foundation for our shared future."
Related story on The Daily Beast: Madonna's Academic Guru
Last week it was announced that the future would not be built.
- 4/4/2011
- by Wayne Barrett
- The Daily Beast
Her rocky relationship with the press was infamous. But Mark Katz remembers a night with reporters when Geraldine Ferraro was undeniably winning-even while losing.
In the spring of 1998, when a young intern named Lewinsky was making headlines for her role in the White House, I received a call regarding another woman who had made history 14 years earlier in her bid to serve in the executive branch. Was I available to help Geraldine Ferraro prepare for a humor speech she was scheduled to deliver at Albany's answer to Washington's Gridiron Club? Having gotten my start writing humorous speeches on the 1988 presidential campaign of Mike Dukakis, I answered that I had never written for any national candidate who had received less than 111 Electoral votes but was willing to give it a try.
Related story on The Daily Beast: What Your Baby Remembers
Only weeks earlier, the former Queens congresswomen turned vice presidential...
In the spring of 1998, when a young intern named Lewinsky was making headlines for her role in the White House, I received a call regarding another woman who had made history 14 years earlier in her bid to serve in the executive branch. Was I available to help Geraldine Ferraro prepare for a humor speech she was scheduled to deliver at Albany's answer to Washington's Gridiron Club? Having gotten my start writing humorous speeches on the 1988 presidential campaign of Mike Dukakis, I answered that I had never written for any national candidate who had received less than 111 Electoral votes but was willing to give it a try.
Related story on The Daily Beast: What Your Baby Remembers
Only weeks earlier, the former Queens congresswomen turned vice presidential...
- 3/27/2011
- by Mark Katz
- The Daily Beast
Chris Vein has pioneered open-source and open-data initiatives in the City by the Bay. Now he's taking his vision for a more transparent and collaborative government to Washington.
If you follow Gov 2.0 issues, you’ve heard of Chris Vein, San Francisco's first-ever Cio, who has spent the last five years leading the charge to move the city toward open-source software and open data. Now Vein is heading to Washington as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, where he'll work under Aneesh Chopra at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and focus on government innovation.
In San Francisco, Vein pushed the city to consider an "open-source first" policy, meaning if an open source solution was available, the city should give that option as serious consideration as any commercial product. And last fall, he succeeded in getting the city to pass an Open Data law--the first for any municipality in the...
If you follow Gov 2.0 issues, you’ve heard of Chris Vein, San Francisco's first-ever Cio, who has spent the last five years leading the charge to move the city toward open-source software and open data. Now Vein is heading to Washington as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, where he'll work under Aneesh Chopra at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and focus on government innovation.
In San Francisco, Vein pushed the city to consider an "open-source first" policy, meaning if an open source solution was available, the city should give that option as serious consideration as any commercial product. And last fall, he succeeded in getting the city to pass an Open Data law--the first for any municipality in the...
- 2/24/2011
- by E.B. Boyd
- Fast Company
The new White House press secretary isn't a part of Obama's Chicago-centric inner circle or a Clinton alum-instead he's a D.C. stalwart whom journalists believe may be more agreeable at the podium.
The news came, fittingly enough, in the form of a leak. White House officials passed the word to reporters Thursday that President Obama has chosen Jay Carney to lead the administration's press office. Carney, now the spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, is a former reporter himself who for years led Time magazine's Washington bureau.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Will Carney's Voice Carry?
Carney's promotion is a notable departure from the administration's latest round of hiring, which brought in former officials from the Clinton White House, including director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, and Chief of Staff Bill Daley, both former White House officials in the 1990s.
At Thursday's briefing before the news was announced,...
The news came, fittingly enough, in the form of a leak. White House officials passed the word to reporters Thursday that President Obama has chosen Jay Carney to lead the administration's press office. Carney, now the spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, is a former reporter himself who for years led Time magazine's Washington bureau.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Will Carney's Voice Carry?
Carney's promotion is a notable departure from the administration's latest round of hiring, which brought in former officials from the Clinton White House, including director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, and Chief of Staff Bill Daley, both former White House officials in the 1990s.
At Thursday's briefing before the news was announced,...
- 1/27/2011
- by Daniel Stone
- The Daily Beast
In early excerpts of his State of the Union released to the press, President Obama calls for a ban on earmarks and proposes a five-year freeze on federal discretionary spending-with an exception for security. "This freeze will require painful cuts," he warns.
Tonight, the clichés come as thick and fast as the policy proposals, and the press tends to forget about the substance overnight. Howard Kurtz on how to navigate tonight's coverage. Plus, chat live with The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz during the State of the Union address.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Will Carney's Voice Carry?
It is, by all accounts, a turning point.
No, it's more than a turning point. It's a defining moment.
And as such, the stakes could not be higher.
After all, if things don't go well, it could be a missed opportunity.
All of the machinery is rolling into place to cast...
Tonight, the clichés come as thick and fast as the policy proposals, and the press tends to forget about the substance overnight. Howard Kurtz on how to navigate tonight's coverage. Plus, chat live with The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz during the State of the Union address.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Will Carney's Voice Carry?
It is, by all accounts, a turning point.
No, it's more than a turning point. It's a defining moment.
And as such, the stakes could not be higher.
After all, if things don't go well, it could be a missed opportunity.
All of the machinery is rolling into place to cast...
- 1/25/2011
- by Howard Kurtz
- The Daily Beast
When President Obama took to the stage at a Beverly Hilton ballroom on May 27, 2009, to raise money for the Democratic National Committee, it was a victory lap of sorts for the 250 studio executives, directors and stars who had paid $15,200 apiece to dine on kabachi ravioli as they listened to their newly elected leader.
"If it weren't for you, we would not be in the White House," the president told DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, going on to recognize the deep pockets of other showbiz contributors who had put millions into his campaign coffers.
Tonight, a little more than a year later, Obama arrives in Hollywood again to meet and greet industry heavy hitters. This time, the feelings of many in the crowd are more complicated. Obama has faced criticism from the left about unfulfilled campaign promises ranging from the closure of Gitmo to the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
"If it weren't for you, we would not be in the White House," the president told DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, going on to recognize the deep pockets of other showbiz contributors who had put millions into his campaign coffers.
Tonight, a little more than a year later, Obama arrives in Hollywood again to meet and greet industry heavy hitters. This time, the feelings of many in the crowd are more complicated. Obama has faced criticism from the left about unfulfilled campaign promises ranging from the closure of Gitmo to the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
- 8/16/2010
- by By Jeffrey Ressner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rob Reiner was sitting at a table at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge on Wednesday when his wife Michele called from San Francisco with the breaking news that Proposition 8 had been overturned. He'd wanted to be in San Francisco too but had already committed to a full day of publicity for his new film "Flipped," which Warner Bros. releases Friday.
The fact that he was in the Polo Lounge had a nice symmetry to it -- he happened to be sitting at the exact same table where, just 22 months earlier, he and several friends had first discussed the idea of pursuing a federal court challenge, an idea that many thought was quixotic and some felt downright risky.
"It was crazy," Reiner said of fact that he was back at the table where it all began.
The battle to defeat Prop. 8 had launched the 63-year-old actor-turned-director-turned-political activist into a whole different sphere.
The fact that he was in the Polo Lounge had a nice symmetry to it -- he happened to be sitting at the exact same table where, just 22 months earlier, he and several friends had first discussed the idea of pursuing a federal court challenge, an idea that many thought was quixotic and some felt downright risky.
"It was crazy," Reiner said of fact that he was back at the table where it all began.
The battle to defeat Prop. 8 had launched the 63-year-old actor-turned-director-turned-political activist into a whole different sphere.
- 8/5/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Presidential children’s weddings are, in modern history, terrifically ho-hum affairs. Sometimes the presidents in question seem to seek attention for their daughters (never particularly for their sons), but it is seldom given. The Nixon daughters' weddings were particular examples of their father trying to muster some reverence and awe and getting a lot of rude jokes instead. Harry Truman couldn’t get much respect for his daughter Margaret. The Johnsons fell flat with Lucy and Linda. Amy Carter, if memory serves, got married uneventfully. The Bush twin wedding hardly caused a ripple. Caroline Kennedy summoned a bit more interest—but then Jackie was her mother. So what’s with the tizzy over Chelsea? This isn’t even an in-office wedding and it’s a news blowout. Surely, it’s not her personality. Chelsea Clinton seems as beside the point as any presidential child has been—a specific Clinton White House accomplishment,...
- 7/29/2010
- Vanity Fair
Plus George Takei's life story, Tuc Watkins looks forward to Desperate Housewives, and Chris Colfer is a Teen Choice Scene Stealer.
Lt. Dan Choi, Constance McMillen and GLAAD at NYC Pride
Tonight at 7:00 Edt on Howard 101 on Sirius-xm they'll be playing George Takei's America: A Howard 100 News Documentary. The show takes a look back at his young life, and his family's time in the Japanese detainment camps during World War II. Tomorrow at noon Edt, Johnny Weir will be making a Bluefly Closet Confession and answering your questions. The Daily Show celebrates gay Pride with a collection of their favorite Gay Pride moments throughout the years, including their Tinky Winky sendup.
Sirius-xm partnered with The Paley Center for their ambitious piece I Want My Gay TV: The Lgbt History of Television. From a cross-dressing Milton Berle to Ellen DeGeneres to Soap to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy...
Lt. Dan Choi, Constance McMillen and GLAAD at NYC Pride
Tonight at 7:00 Edt on Howard 101 on Sirius-xm they'll be playing George Takei's America: A Howard 100 News Documentary. The show takes a look back at his young life, and his family's time in the Japanese detainment camps during World War II. Tomorrow at noon Edt, Johnny Weir will be making a Bluefly Closet Confession and answering your questions. The Daily Show celebrates gay Pride with a collection of their favorite Gay Pride moments throughout the years, including their Tinky Winky sendup.
Sirius-xm partnered with The Paley Center for their ambitious piece I Want My Gay TV: The Lgbt History of Television. From a cross-dressing Milton Berle to Ellen DeGeneres to Soap to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy...
- 6/28/2010
- by lostinmiami
- The Backlot
The Sunlight Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering political transparency through (really terrific!) technology, has a new Web site, Elena’s Inbox, on which users can browse through Supreme Court–justice nominee Elena Kagan’s e-mail archive. It’s technically more like Elena’s Outbox: an overwhelming majority of the correspondences Kagan sent during her time as an adviser and aide in the Clinton White House are available for consumption. And just like real Gmail, the contents of Elena’s Inbox may be starred and searched. For novice voyeurs, the site also provides suggested queries (“red sage” and “making the President look like a liar,” for example) that bring up interesting results.
- 6/23/2010
- Vanity Fair
Senator Jeff Sessions* (R-al) has made some ominous threats concerning Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court–nomination hearings next week and the Republicans’ possible boycott thereof. “If we feel like we can’t go forward with the hearings . because we don’t have sufficient documents, then yes, we may feel compelled to do whatever it takes to try to insist that the process be done right,” he told Politico. Sessions is convinced that the Obama administration is withholding hundreds of documents about Kagan’s tenure as a Clinton White House aide, particularly those relating to her involvement in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. However, Dark Knight star Pat Leahy (D-vt), who moonlights as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Sessions also serves, disagrees, telling Politico that the committee has received “more than 170,000 pages of documents and an unprecedented access to e-mails.”...
- 6/22/2010
- Vanity Fair
President Obama's budget director Peter Orszag, a chief officer on the White House economic staff, has announced he will resign from his position in July, making him the first person in his position to do so.
The 41-year-old helped direct the 7 billion stimulus package bill through Congress.
Orszag also worked at the Clinton White House as the president's special assistant at the National Economic Council and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors.
According to reports, officials have already begun the vetting process for possible replacements.
The 41-year-old helped direct the 7 billion stimulus package bill through Congress.
Orszag also worked at the Clinton White House as the president's special assistant at the National Economic Council and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors.
According to reports, officials have already begun the vetting process for possible replacements.
- 6/22/2010
- icelebz.com
Stars of “The Special Relationship”, a HBO movie focusing on the relationship between Bill Clinton and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have come to blows about the deletion of the quarrel scene centered on the Monica Lewinsky controversy. The quarrel scene though included in the preview version of the movie was edited out in the final review. Dennis Quaid, who plays Bill Clinton, felt that scene should have remained in the final cut. His co-star Hope Davis, who plays Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, was glad it was axed. She said “We shot a really good scene but I'm happy it was left out." "It put them in such a vulnerable place. I don't want to see them, I don't want to see her, in that position…We know all we need to know. We know how it wrecked his presidency and how hard it was for them to get through.
- 6/1/2010
- IrishCentral
Photo on left from PatrickMcMullan.com. Alleged Ponzi-schemer to the stars Kenneth Starr was arrested yesterday on charges of fraud and money-laundering. Starr reportedly swindled $30 million from his clients, among whom were many well-known figures in New York and Hollywood, and funneled the money toward the purchase of a luxe Upper East Side residence with an indoor swimming pool. A less graver crime, perhaps, is Kenneth Starr’s identity theft—not in the legal sense but in the cultural-vernacular sense—from America’s original Kenneth Starr, independent counsel in the Bill Clinton White House and author of The Starr Report, a legal-thriller/pornographic non-fiction hit of the late 90s. As Kenneth I. Starr the Accountant continues to usurp Kenneth W. Starr the Lawyer’s dominant hold on “Kenneth Starr” nomenclature, let’s learn more about these two men.
- 5/28/2010
- Vanity Fair
What does actor Dennis Quaid have in common with Bill Clinton? Not so much. So when filmmaker Peter Morgan approached the veteran actor to play Clinton in upcoming HBO special titled 'The Special Relationship,' Quaid practically wrote off the idea without second thought. First of all Quaid looks almost nothing like the former Us President. 'I almost said no,' Quaid recently told press. 'I don't look anything like him. My mannerisms are completely different than his. I didn't really see myself in him at all.' But Quaid, who once spent a 'guys weekend' at the Clinton White House in 1999, remembered how kind-hearted, humourous and intelligent Clinton was. But, most of all, he admired Clinton's tremendous resolve, for steadying his administration following the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Ultimately Quaid agreed to the part and began studying up the role , even downing McDonald's fries and burgers at a breakneck speed and gaining 35 pounds.
- 5/26/2010
- IrishCentral
George Stephanopoulos may finally get to start sleeping in on Sundays. ABC's chief Washington correspondent is in talks to fill Diane Sawyer's soon-to-be empty anchor chair on Good Morning America, according to the Los Angeles Times. A former adviser in the Clinton White House, the eternally boyish-looking Stephanopoulos—the model for Michael J. Fox's character in The American President—is no worse for wear after hosting ABC's Sunday-morning political talkie This Week for the past seven years. There's no word yet on when or if the 48-year-old Stephanopoulos would stop hosting This Week if he takes the Gma job. Gma news anchor Chris Cuomo has also been said to be in...
- 12/4/2009
- E! Online
Sometime in the late spring or early summer of 1993, those of us responsible for “message” in the Clinton White House (where I served as Press Secretary) convened a meeting of seasoned Washington hands to help us rethink communications strategy. While the new president was in so many ways an effective communicator, something wasn’t working. We had lost control of the dialogue on any number of issues. Tony Coelho, the politically astute former California Congressman, was among those who showed up to help. “I just flew into National Airport,” he said, when he arrived. “All the televisions along the concourse were on, and the president was speaking. But no one—no one—stopped to hear what he was saying.” President Clinton had become ubiquitous. In any given week, he seemed to appear on television dozens of times, talking about issues from health care to Haiti; signing bills, executives orders, even...
- 9/15/2009
- Vanity Fair
New York -- Veteran comedy producers and masterminds of the defunct U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen are returning to the mountain resort as part of this week's Aspen Ideas Festival to try out a format mixing politics and comedy called "The News Has No Clothes."
If the stage show works, producers could end up pitching the concept -- described as "The View" and "Politically Incorrect" meet old BBC show "That Was the Week That Was" -- to TV networks for a possible late-night slot.
The team behind the idea includes Joe Lang, director of festival producer Jazz Aspen Snowmass and former local producer for Uscaf; Craig Minassian, assistant press secretary and director of TV news in the Clinton White House and Uscaf director; Robert Morton, former executive producer of "Late Show With David Letterman" and Comedy Central's "Chocolate News"; and Stu Smiley, executive producer of "Flight of...
If the stage show works, producers could end up pitching the concept -- described as "The View" and "Politically Incorrect" meet old BBC show "That Was the Week That Was" -- to TV networks for a possible late-night slot.
The team behind the idea includes Joe Lang, director of festival producer Jazz Aspen Snowmass and former local producer for Uscaf; Craig Minassian, assistant press secretary and director of TV news in the Clinton White House and Uscaf director; Robert Morton, former executive producer of "Late Show With David Letterman" and Comedy Central's "Chocolate News"; and Stu Smiley, executive producer of "Flight of...
- 6/29/2009
- by By Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One evening last summer, I happened to be at a Washington dinner party when the talk turned to whether Michelle Obama would be an asset, or a potential vulnerability, in her husband’s coming campaign. My table mates included a couple of Senators, some savvy veterans of the Clinton White House, and a member of the Obama high command. To a person, they all liked and sympathized with Mrs. Obama. And, almost to a person, they agreed that she could be a liability. So much for conventional Beltway wisdom. Ask not whether this is the first time that Michelle Obama is proud of her country. Ask just how proud her country—and the world—must be of her. With a 76 percent approval rating in the latest Washington Post/ABC News Poll (even higher than her husband’s, which is also still high), Mrs. Obama is an undisputed asset, and a great big star.
- 4/3/2009
- Vanity Fair
They both walked the red carpet in the 1990s, so maybe Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore will have an easier time acting as if they're at the Clinton White House. The actors will portray Bill and Hillary Clinton in an HBO movie titled Special Relationship, Variety reports. The film, featuring Michael Sheen in yet another turn as former British prime minister Tony Blair - as he did in the 2006 movie The Queen - will focus on the political relationship between president and prime minister. The film is to be directed by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen. No start...
- 3/25/2009
- PEOPLE.com
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