Hollywood Archives - The Virginia Star

Commentary: Hollywood Is Demoralizing Americans, One Story at a Time

June 22, 2023 Virginia Star Staff

As a young boy, I lived for a time under the rule of a totalitarian regime when visiting my parents’ homeland of Iran during the 1980s. It was only a few years after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the despotic new ruler, Ruhollah Khomeini, was investing heavily in his cultural propaganda machine. The Ayatollah’s dubious aim, like any new totalitarian, was to erase the proud culture of ancient Iran and replace it with one new and ideologically approved.

Commentary: Christian Popular Culture’s Revival Cast Out the Money Changers

May 7, 2023 RealClearWire

“Jesus Revolution” and “The Chosen” are not just Christian dramas but the avant garde in a revolution in faith entertainment. The former – a feel-good movie about hippies who returned to Christ during the 1970s, starring former “Cheers” and “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer – has grossed more than $52 million since its debut just a few weeks ago, making it the most successful film released by studio heavyweight Lionsgate since 2019.

Actress Angela Lansbury Dies at 96

October 11, 2022 Just the News

Actress Angela Lansbury passed away Tuesday at the age of 96, her family announced.

“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said, according to NBC News.

Commentary: Hollywood Should Make More Patriotic Films

June 28, 2022June 27, 2022 Admin

Clocking in at 72 verses, Psalm 78 is one of the longest in the Jewish and Christian Psalters. At great length, it recalls the story of the Hebrew nation, focusing especially on the special, covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God. Psalm 78 doesn’t merely recount a list of facts — it displays Israel’s past for a purpose: to say who they are and who they should strive to be.

Americans show a consistent hunger for reflecting on our own grand story. We find it in the continued success of books on our Founders. We also see it in a recent Echelon Insights poll which found that Americans — by wide margins — want to see more historical and patriotic films.

Commentary: ‘Class’ – the Word We Dare Not Speak

July 16, 2021July 15, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

How often during the last year of woke, have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions?

Million-dollar-a year university presidents virtue signal on the cheap their own sort of “unearned white privilege.”

Amazon to Acquire MGM Studios for $8.45 Billion in Mega Media Deal

May 31, 2021May 30, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Amazon acquired MGM Studios for $8.45 billion in a mega deal that will bolster Amazon’s entertainment profile, the companies announced Wednesday morning.

The deal will allow Amazon to give its subscribers access to MGM Studios’ entire portfolio of movies and television shows, according to the announcement. MGM Studios’ content library includes more than 4,000 films and 17,000 television shows.

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a statement. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”

Filmmaker Says Hunter Biden Scandal Movie Running into Liberal Hollywood Headwinds

March 21, 2021March 20, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Irish filmmaker Phelim McAleer is producing a film chronicling the highly publicized and complicated life of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden. But his efforts to make the picture and get it onto a screen face stiff Hollywood headwinds.

“We know that Hollywood won’t make these movies, and people want to see them,” the conservative filmmaker told the TV show Just the News AM with Sophie Mann. “People want the truth out there.”

Commentary: The Hard Left Believes Its Mission is so Critical That Its Noble Ends Can Justify All Means

September 29, 2020September 28, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

There was once a tradition of Democratic liberalism. But that wing of the Democratic Party no longer exists and died sometime in the 1990s. Old-style liberalism has been absorbed by Progressivism at best and unapologetic socialism at worst—in a journey on the supposedly predetermined arc of history that bends toward 1984.

After a Long Slumber, U.S. Cinemas Awaken on Pivotal Weekend

September 5, 2020September 4, 2020 The Associated Press

With the previews about to start, a trickle of masked moviegoers made their way into one of the first U.S. screenings of “Tenet” at the Bow Tie Majestic 6 in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. They took their seats Tuesday night, eyeing the empty seats between each other and a little giddy at being back at the movies for the first time in many months.

Philip Scarante and Andy Flores, both 25, went every Tuesday religiously before theaters closed in March. “It’s just our thing,” Scarante said. Seeing Nolan’s latest mind-bending spectacle later on a smaller screen held no appeal. They sat down in center seats, up close.

Oscar Winning Actress Olivia de Havilland Dies at 104

July 27, 2020July 26, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind,” but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system, died Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104.

Havilland, the sister of fellow Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, died peacefully of natural causes, said New York-based publicist Lisa Goldberg.

Carl Reiner, Beloved Creator of ‘Dick Van Dyke Show,’ Dies

July 1, 2020June 30, 2020 The Associated Press

Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a “second banana” to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy’s front ranks as creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and straight man to Mel Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man,” has died. He was 98.

Reiner’s assistant Judy Nagy said he died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Movie ‘Gosnell’ Cracks Top 10 at Box Office

October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 Admin

by Rachel del Guidice A movie about Kermit Gosnell, the late-term abortionist in Philadelphia who went to prison after being convicted in connection with the deaths of three babies, hit the Top 10 films at the box office over the weekend. “We were [No. 10] on Friday and Saturday, but…

Dean Phillips Dines With Liberal Elites for Massive Hollywood Fundraiser

October 12, 2018October 11, 2018 Anthony Gockowski

Democrat Dean Phillips participated in a Hollywood fundraiser Tuesday night with five other congressional candidates at an attendance cost of $5,000 per person. Phillips, who is running for Minnesota’s Third Congressional District, has been highly critical of the influence of money in politics while on the campaign trail, so much…