I had this in my possession thanks to the wonderful largess of a fabulous person, but was unable to parse it out into the increments needed to upload onto YouTube. By the grace of Yahweh, someone did the hard work for me. Behold ladies and gentlemen, all the glory of David Miscavige celebrating the greatest triumph of the Church of Scientology (besides recruiting Tom Cruise as its mascot) in their epic victory of litigious endeavors ever attempted: winning tax exempt status.

It’s long, but certainly telling. Also, here’s a complete transcript of the event, including color commentary.

Parts 2 - 5 after the jump:

But wait, there’s more…

 

It’s nice to see that you can take the boy out of the Midwest, but you can’t take those good homespun Midwestern values out of the boy.  David Letterman, talk show titan, has opened up his own coffers to pay his writing staff:

I’ve just learned that David Letterman and his producers yesterday morning announced to his Late Show staff that they will be paid through the end of the year even though the show isn’t on the air during the writers strike. “Dave’s not doing this to get good press, which is why it hasn’t been reported for almost two days,” a source tells me. “This is really significant because, as opposed to all of the other shows, this money comes out of Dave’s own pocket.” When Late Show stopped making new episodes last week, CBS ceased paying Letterman’s production company on November 5th. And, in case you were wondering, Dave owns Late Show while Jay does not own The Tonight Show as Johnny Carson did.

Good for Dave.  It’s nice to see that all his fame and fortune hasn’t gone to his head; he still seems to be the same boy from Indiana who done did good.

However, I can’t say the same for CBS, as the technical staff of Dave’s party are CBS employees, and they have been out of work as well:

However, most of the technical crew for the Late Show and Late Late Show are CBS employees, some of which are non-staff but per diem, even though they work on regular basis. These employees (at least in Los Angeles) have been on the street since day 1 of the strike. CBS does not want to pay them. They’re like the bastard child nobody wants to claim.

I said in an earlier post that this strike would start to affect more than just the writers, and it seems it is happening.  I also said that more show hosts might be thinking about crossing the picket lines to save the jobs of their crews, as Ellen has done, and as no less than talk show king Johnny Carson had to do in the 1988 writer’s strike.  He did so to save the jobs of the Tonight Show crew, and it may come to that for today’s talk show hosts.  It might not be a popular thing to do, but it just might happen while the studios and writers attempt to hammer out a solution to the strike.

And speaking of the strike…here is an interesting little tidbit I found:

If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No “Daily Show.” The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for “Lost” to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on “America’s Next Hottest Cop” and “Celebrity Eating Contest,” I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us.

Um.  Well, let’s not get hasty.  Brutal?  I’m not so sure that applies.  Yes, I like my television as much as the next person, even though I’d be hard-pressed to name a current prime-time network television show that I like.  But brutal?

Brutal is the situation that our soldiers face in stations around the world.  Brutal is the situation that poverty-line parents find themselves in, when it’s time to decide between paying the rent and feeding their child.  Brutal is the situation that elderly people find themselves in when they have to decide between their medication and food.

But if a host of fans have to put up without a season of Lost if there’s no decision made in this strike by the end of December, that might be unfortunate, but it’s a far cry from brutal.  While I want to see people get their fair share for their work, let’s keep a bit of perspective here.  If they reach a contract by the end of December or first of January, the shows will go back to work, and so will the crews, there just won’t be new shows for a year.  Are we really that hard-up as a nation, as a people, that we can’t find something else to do if there is nothing on the telly to watch?

That’s okay.  I’ve got a lot of TAGS and Dirty Jobs to catch up on.  And Dave and his toast will be back.

Ellen DeGeneres is a well-liked figure in Hollywood and by her viewing public, but her recent actions have brought her more flak than Iggy ever did.  Her decision to continue with her show in the wake of the writer’s strike has brought the wrath of the WGA down on her head:

That move sparked an inter-union brawl between AFTRA and the WGA after DeGeneres — who belongs to both unions — opted to continue working on her daytime talker during the past week.

The fight came into the open Friday, when the WGA East issued a press release blasting DeGeneres for continuing to perform comedy in violation of strike rules: “Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise.”

AFTRA topper Kim Roberts Hedgpeth declared in a letter to WGA East chief Mona Mangan that DeGeneres is required to work.

“As you know, AFTRA members such as Ms. DeGeneres who are working under the AFTRA Network TV Code (which covers ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’) are legally required by the no-strike clause of that contract to report to work and perform their AFTRA-covered responsibilities,” she wrote. “Ms. DeGeneres, along with thousands of entertainment-industry workers represented by AFTRA and other unions who are bound by similar no-strike clauses, are also reporting to work as legally required.”

But Mangan said DeGeneres is wrong: “Beyond any issue of membership, there is the obvious ethical issue, which is clearly present in Ms. DeGeneres’ decision to write and produce a show without writers in the face of an industrywide walkout by 12,000 writers.”

Ellen had sat out one show in support of striking writers, but came back the next day with this explanation:

I’ve got to say this is a strange show for me to do. This is weird. Weird. It’s a weird show. Channeling Johnny Carson all of a sudden. [Imitates Carson] “Very Weird. Weird. Weird.” Here’s what the deal is. It’s ’sweeps’, which is a very important time in television. That’s when you do your best shows, your funniest material, you pull out all the stops and you’re doing everything you can because you want everybody watching. Now at this moment, we’re in the middle of this strike. There’s a writer’s strike going on, and here in Los Angeles it’s a huge story. I don’t know where you live, but it’s a huge story in Los Angeles. I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honor of them today, I’m not going to do a monologue. I support them and hope that they get everything they’re asking for. And I hope it works out soon. In the meantime, people have traveled across the country. They’ve made plans. They’re here. I want to do everything I can to make your trip enjoyable and give you a show. Otherwise you’d just be wandering around and circling Bob Hope Drive.

But wait, there’s more…

 

When someone as respected and beloved as Tori Amos comes to your defense, while you are attempting to reclaim yourself against a tsunami of criticism, then that’s something to be happy about.  So is the case for the recently rehabbed pop sensation Britney Spears.  Tori recently spoke up about Britney’s troubles and points to Britney’s label as being a part of the problem:

“Whether they’re selling perfume or a song, people have decided they’re a brand. Hollywood did a good job of creating icons in the 30s and 40s, they understood a story. Now, give ‘em a haircut and some clothes and they think they can pull off Aphrodite. Then you have situations like Britney shaving her head. I don’t think her sweet, saccharine image was close to who she really was, and she rebelled.”

Obviously, Britney’s image isn’t the only element in her fall from grace; Britney’s crumbling marriage, dealing with parenthood and substance abuse issues were a bigger part of the problem.  But maybe, Britney’s has been trying to tell us something about herself all these years.

From her public kiss with fellow pop-rebel Madonna, to her shredding her pop-tart image for songs like “Toxic” and “I’m A Slave For U,” it’s clear that Britney’s much “darker” than her peers, and quite possibly, has felt trapped in a persona that didn’t closely match who she really was.

Tori Amos’ observations, though simplistic, may in truth be really insightful.  More importantly, her experiences make her a credible witness to testify on Britney’s “troubled” behalf.  Tori Amos has had her share of hard times too.

But wait, there’s more…

I love how gays can’t leave other gays alone.

Out Magazine’s lastest issue published a bold list of high profile gays titled “The Power 50, The Most Powerful Gay Men and Women In America.” Some are openly gay, like comedian Ellen Degeneres, financial expert Suze Orman (who only recently came out as gay) and Congressman Barney Frank, and of course, the ultra-sexy gossip gangsta Perez Hilton (Mario Laviendera) who is ranked at No. 17. Awesome!

That’s all well and good, because well, those people have stated they are gay, and as such, clearly don’t mind being considered gay. But what I find truly WRONG — on so many levels — is that they put two people on the cover who haven’t come out as being gay, actress Jodie Foster and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with the caption “The Class Closet, Why Stars Won’t Come Out And Play.”
But wait, there’s more…

Sir Ian McKellan, a favorite around our house, has been openly out about his sexual orientation since 1988.  Not only has this NOT hurt his career, it really hasn’t affected his reputation as a respected actor and reasonable human being for that matter. 

Having scored big playing the larger-than-life wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s excellent film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the RingsTriology, Mr. McKellan is everywhere.  Recently, lending his voice to the animated film Flushed Awayand of course as Mageneato in all three X-Men films.  Ian is a huge star, and is now using his power to draw attention to an issue that he feels needs to be addressed: forcing actors and actresses to hide their sexual orientation. 

According to Starpulse, McKellan has criticized actors/actresses for not disclosing their proclivities in the past, but is not complaining that the root cause may be the movie makers themselves:

“With all that liberal attitude (in Hollywood), you have a local industry which is saying to local people who live in the area - ‘When you come to work, you are not gay.’ And I think to myself, ‘Can people whose minds work like that make good films? And if at the heart of Hollywood there is that lie, how many other lies are there?’

“And it’s the producers who have this problem - God knows what sort of people they are - who think that it’s impossible for you and me to fancy the same person. Well, what dull lives they must have.”

I applaud Ian McKellan for being upfront at a time when many people were still in the closet.  As each day passes and we become more aware of what makes the human mind tick and the biology of sexuality, how is it even remotely okay to judge a person for their natural needs and desires?  Ignorance and bigotry in an industry that prides itself on being left of the mainstream, and so deeply wishes to influence the very heart of who we are as a culture, should be setting the standard for what we find acceptable.  Perhaps if more notable and well-respected folks like Sir Ian were to speak up, they will listen.

Being gay is perfectly acceptable by my standards.

Being a raging, vacant, self-absorbed, hate-filled whore, not so much. Yes, Paris Hilton, I am talking to you, beeyotch.  When’s Hollywood going to do something about her blighting its very existence? I know this isn’t really related, but I couldn’t help myself.

In case you haven’t heard, because you aren’t some kind of lameass celebrity gossip sniffer like myself, there’s troubling abrewing in the world of rap and r&b.  Thankfully, this isn’t some East Coast/West Coast rivalry between warring factions of gansta rappers.  Yes, thankfully this is between a big bunch of wussbags who are mostly white, and absolutely full of crap.

So it’s started with this song featuring producer Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado called “Give It To Me,” where they start some beefs with some other cats, in this case Timbaland was ragging on Scott Storch and supposedly Justin Timberlake was busting ill on Prince for some perceived beefs.  I guess Prince was overheard saying “Bringing sexy back, I didn’t know it left,” or some such nonsense in reference to Justin Timberlake, and who knows what Timbaland’s problem is. I just don’t have enough energy to try and figure it out, because you know what, whatever the root cause, it gonna be something real stupid.  

I know I hate Scott Storch, but for entirely legitimate reasons like a) he produced Paris Hilton’s record and b) he produced Brooke Hogan’s record.  For those offenses alone I should bust a cap in his ass and cut him ghetto style.

And here’s the comedic relief you were all waiting for:

I just don’t even know what to say, except possibly, GROW THE HELL UP.  Those are some fat beats though!

 

Who is this hirsute fellow? One of SoCal’s more imposing homeless chaps?

Well, if having three homes in L.A. makes you homeful, then this must be Rick Rubin, one of the most successful and eclectic producers in the recording industry.

Rick Rubin has produced wildly successful music for the following staggering array of artists: AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Bangles, Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, Danzig, Neil Diamond, Dixie Chicks, Mick Jagger, L.L. Cool J, Nine Inch Nails, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run D.M.C., U2, Jay-Z, System of a Down, and Justin Timberlake.

But wait, there’s more: