Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 5:13 p.m. EST
Michael Moore Enjoying Corporate High Life
America's most obnoxious corporate critic, Michael Moore, is living high on the hog thanks to the perks two corporations have provided him for the West Coast leg of his book tour.
Moore was flown around California aboard a private jet, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, courtesy of media mega-corporation Time Warner.
And while he wasn't enjoying the corporate high life at 30,000 feet, he was tooling around the Golden State in the kind of vehicle anti-corporate environmentalists routinely decry as public enemy No. 1 - an SUV paid for by his publisher's corporation, Warner Books.
Moore's man-of-the-people image was further dented when it was revealed that he gladly accepted the protection of several bodyguards, who helped the left-wing crusader keep the unwashed masses at bay.
Asked if his new chairman-of-the-board lifestyle meant he was being hypocritical, Moore told the Los Angeles Times that the only reason he's feeding at the corporate trough is because it's there.
"I would never pay for this," he insisted.
Fahrenheit 9/11 coming 6/25
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lukpac
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'9/11' Shows Iraqi Prisoner Abuse, Gets R Rating
June 14, 2004
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore had footage of the U.S. soldiers' mistreatment of Iraqi captives, but was unsure about releasing the evidence to the media.
"I had it months before the story broke on '60 Minutes,' and I really struggled with what to do with it," Moore tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "I wanted to come out with it sooner, but I thought I'd be accused of just putting this out for publicity for my movie. That prevented me from making maybe the right decision."
The footage, which will be featured in Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," is similar to the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison and shows GIs laughing as they photograph each other while hooding Iraqi captives.
Moore adds, "The stuff with the detainees in my movie is even more shocking than what we saw in that prison because it happens outdoors and is more commonplace."
"Fahrenheit" won the top prize at May's Cannes Film Festival for its highly critical look at President George W. Bush's connections with high-ranking Saudis and his hawkish Iraq policies. Recently, the filmmaker had claimed his next film would target British Prime Minister Tony Blair's role in the Iraq war, but is now denying this plan.
A statement on Moore's website posted on Sunday (June 13) reads, "Some news organizations are reporting that Michael is making a new film on Tony Blair. This is not true. Let us repeat -- THIS IS NOT TRUE. Michael made a joke about his next film being about Tony Blair in an interview and, apparently, it was taken seriously."
The Motion Picture Association of America, however, is taking "Fahrenheit" seriously. The group recently gave the film an R rating for "violent and disturbing images and for language," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Distributors Lions Gate Films and IFC Films will appeal the rating, which requires anyone under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Says Moore, "It is sadly very possible that many 15- and 16-year-olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of years. If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going on in Iraq."
"Fahrenheit" is set to open in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 25.
June 14, 2004
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore had footage of the U.S. soldiers' mistreatment of Iraqi captives, but was unsure about releasing the evidence to the media.
"I had it months before the story broke on '60 Minutes,' and I really struggled with what to do with it," Moore tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "I wanted to come out with it sooner, but I thought I'd be accused of just putting this out for publicity for my movie. That prevented me from making maybe the right decision."
The footage, which will be featured in Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," is similar to the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison and shows GIs laughing as they photograph each other while hooding Iraqi captives.
Moore adds, "The stuff with the detainees in my movie is even more shocking than what we saw in that prison because it happens outdoors and is more commonplace."
"Fahrenheit" won the top prize at May's Cannes Film Festival for its highly critical look at President George W. Bush's connections with high-ranking Saudis and his hawkish Iraq policies. Recently, the filmmaker had claimed his next film would target British Prime Minister Tony Blair's role in the Iraq war, but is now denying this plan.
A statement on Moore's website posted on Sunday (June 13) reads, "Some news organizations are reporting that Michael is making a new film on Tony Blair. This is not true. Let us repeat -- THIS IS NOT TRUE. Michael made a joke about his next film being about Tony Blair in an interview and, apparently, it was taken seriously."
The Motion Picture Association of America, however, is taking "Fahrenheit" seriously. The group recently gave the film an R rating for "violent and disturbing images and for language," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Distributors Lions Gate Films and IFC Films will appeal the rating, which requires anyone under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Says Moore, "It is sadly very possible that many 15- and 16-year-olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of years. If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going on in Iraq."
"Fahrenheit" is set to open in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 25.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
The modern tragedy is that for most people, important issues are being left to clowns like Moore and the Limbaugh/Hannity/Coulter/Savage axis to hash out. It's more a spectator sport at this point.
I'll take Hitchens over all of them...even when I don't quite agree with him.
I'll take Hitchens over all of them...even when I don't quite agree with him.
"I recommend that you delete the Rancid Snakepit" - Grant
"But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities." - Christopher Hitchens
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Matt
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Patrick M wrote:"But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities." - Christopher Hitchens
-Matt
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Rspaight
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Maybe we could get Limbaugh and Moore to sumo-wrestle on pay-per-view with Coulter as the chick who flashes the little signs before each round. (Yes, I know I'm mixing my sports here. Deal with it.) Of course, if Coulter wore a bikini the awkward truth about her gender would be revealed.
Moore's bigger, so it should be a walkover, unless Rush switches to steroids.
Ryan
Moore's bigger, so it should be a walkover, unless Rush switches to steroids.
Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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lukpac
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No more Moore!
LOS ANGELES (AP) — While the White House and the Republican National Committee have taken an official "no comment" approach to Michael Moore and his new anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, some conservatives have mobilized a letter-writing campaign and crafted ads that slam the film and its maker.
Fahrenheit 9/11, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, attacks President Bush's rationale for the war in Iraq and accuses him and his administration of manipulating the Sept. 11 terror attacks and fostering fear for political gain.
It is set for release on June 25, debuting on at least 500 screens, with plans to expand to hundreds more in the coming weeks.
One of the organizations rallying against Moore is Move America Forward, a pro-Bush group that evolved months ago from the letter-writing campaign that led CBS to drop its controversial TV movie The Reagans.
The group has received several thousand e-mails of support for its Moore campaign, said executive director Siobhan Guiney, a former Republican lobbyist. But she did not know how many were sent to the various theater chains.
"Since we are the customers of the American movie theatres, it is important for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don't want this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema," the group says on its Web site, above a listing of phone numbers and e-mails for various cinema companies.
Said Guiney: "(Moore) is critical of what's happening right now, and there's no problem with being critical — but his movie is not a documentary, it's a piece of propaganda."
So far, however, Move America Forward's letters about Fahrenheit 9/11 haven't changed anything.
"There has been some communication, but not an overwhelming amount. And we do intend to play the film," said Dick Westerling, spokesman for the theater chain Regal Entertainment Group, which has 6,020 screens in the United States.
Move America Forward is funded through private donations, not the Bush campaign or the Republican National Committee, Guiney said.
Who is behind the group?
Howard Kaloogian is the chairman, a former California Assemblyman who helped organize the Gray Davis recall campaign and made a failed bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.
And who is behind Moore?
One of the filmmaker's press strategists is brass-knuckles political operative Chris Lehane, a former press secretary to Vice President Al Gore and frequent Democratic aide who worked on the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Wesley Clark. Lehane earned a reputation in 2000 for gathering information on political enemies and bringing it to reporters.
Neither Lehane nor Moore would comment for this story.
Another independent conservative group, Citizens United, is crafting video ads for television and the Internet that slam Moore.
The group's head, David Bossie, is a former Republican congressional aide who was one of President Clinton's harshest critics. He was fired in 1998 by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich for withholding the public release of testimony transcripts favorable to the Clintons in a campaign fund-raising probe.
Bossie said the ads would target Moore and George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who donated nearly $13 million to various groups seeking to defeat Bush.
"Look, this guy (Moore) is simply producing and advertising this movie at this time to try to affect the election," Bossie said. "And so clearly organizations like mine ... it seems to be left to us to make sure that the media is educated, as well as the American people are educated, as to just what they're up to."
The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org is trying to counter the conservative campaign with mass mailings asking members to "pledge to bring their friends, relatives and neighbors" to Fahrenheit 9/11 on opening night.
Supporters also are sending letters to theaters on Move America Forward's list, urging them not to give in to pressure to block the film.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — While the White House and the Republican National Committee have taken an official "no comment" approach to Michael Moore and his new anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, some conservatives have mobilized a letter-writing campaign and crafted ads that slam the film and its maker.
Fahrenheit 9/11, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, attacks President Bush's rationale for the war in Iraq and accuses him and his administration of manipulating the Sept. 11 terror attacks and fostering fear for political gain.
It is set for release on June 25, debuting on at least 500 screens, with plans to expand to hundreds more in the coming weeks.
One of the organizations rallying against Moore is Move America Forward, a pro-Bush group that evolved months ago from the letter-writing campaign that led CBS to drop its controversial TV movie The Reagans.
The group has received several thousand e-mails of support for its Moore campaign, said executive director Siobhan Guiney, a former Republican lobbyist. But she did not know how many were sent to the various theater chains.
"Since we are the customers of the American movie theatres, it is important for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don't want this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema," the group says on its Web site, above a listing of phone numbers and e-mails for various cinema companies.
Said Guiney: "(Moore) is critical of what's happening right now, and there's no problem with being critical — but his movie is not a documentary, it's a piece of propaganda."
So far, however, Move America Forward's letters about Fahrenheit 9/11 haven't changed anything.
"There has been some communication, but not an overwhelming amount. And we do intend to play the film," said Dick Westerling, spokesman for the theater chain Regal Entertainment Group, which has 6,020 screens in the United States.
Move America Forward is funded through private donations, not the Bush campaign or the Republican National Committee, Guiney said.
Who is behind the group?
Howard Kaloogian is the chairman, a former California Assemblyman who helped organize the Gray Davis recall campaign and made a failed bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.
And who is behind Moore?
One of the filmmaker's press strategists is brass-knuckles political operative Chris Lehane, a former press secretary to Vice President Al Gore and frequent Democratic aide who worked on the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Wesley Clark. Lehane earned a reputation in 2000 for gathering information on political enemies and bringing it to reporters.
Neither Lehane nor Moore would comment for this story.
Another independent conservative group, Citizens United, is crafting video ads for television and the Internet that slam Moore.
The group's head, David Bossie, is a former Republican congressional aide who was one of President Clinton's harshest critics. He was fired in 1998 by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich for withholding the public release of testimony transcripts favorable to the Clintons in a campaign fund-raising probe.
Bossie said the ads would target Moore and George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who donated nearly $13 million to various groups seeking to defeat Bush.
"Look, this guy (Moore) is simply producing and advertising this movie at this time to try to affect the election," Bossie said. "And so clearly organizations like mine ... it seems to be left to us to make sure that the media is educated, as well as the American people are educated, as to just what they're up to."
The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org is trying to counter the conservative campaign with mass mailings asking members to "pledge to bring their friends, relatives and neighbors" to Fahrenheit 9/11 on opening night.
Supporters also are sending letters to theaters on Move America Forward's list, urging them not to give in to pressure to block the film.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
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lukpac
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"Since we are the customers of the American movie theatres, it is important for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don't want this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema," the group says on its Web site, above a listing of phone numbers and e-mails for various cinema companies.
People can't decided for themselves if they want to go see it or not?
Said Guiney: "(Moore) is critical of what's happening right now, and there's no problem with being critical — but his movie is not a documentary, it's a piece of propaganda."
That's probably true. Does that mean people shouldn't be able to see it though?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
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lukpac
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Bradbury: Change 'Fahrenheit' title
Author wants apology from Moore, movie renamed
Monday, June 21, 2004 Posted: 8:50 AM EDT (1250 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Ray Bradbury is demanding an apology from filmmaker Michael Moore for lifting the title from his classic science-fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451" without permission and wants the new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to be renamed.
"He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel, that's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it."
The 1953 novel, widely considered Bradbury's masterpiece, portrays an ugly futuristic society in which firemen burn homes and libraries in order to destroy the books inside and keep people from thinking independently.
"Fahrenheit 451" takes its title from the temperature at which books burn. Moore has called "Fahrenheit 9/11" the "temperature at which freedom burns."
His film, which won top honors in May at the Cannes Film Festival, charges that the Bush administration acted ineptly before the September 11 terrorist attacks, then played on the public's fear of future terrorism to gain support for the war against Iraq. It opens nationwide Friday.
Bradbury, who hadn't seen the movie, said he called Moore's company six months ago to protest and was promised Moore would call back.
He finally got that call last Saturday, Bradbury said, adding Moore told him he was "embarrassed."
"He suddenly realized he's let too much time go by," the author said by phone from his home in Los Angeles' Cheviot Hills section.
Joanne Doroshow, a spokeswoman for "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the film's makers have "the utmost respect for Ray Bradbury."
"Mr. Bradbury's work has been an inspiration to all of us involved in this film, but when you watch this film you will see the fact that the title reflects the facts that the movie explores, the very real life events before, around and after 9-11," she said.
Bradbury, who is a registered political independent, said he would rather avoid litigation and is "hoping to settle this as two gentlemen, if he'll shake hands with me and give me back my book and title."
Moore's film needed new distributors after Disney refused to let its Miramax subsidiary release it, claiming it was too politically charged. The documentary was later bought by Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who lined up Lions Gate and IFC Films to help distribute it.
The movie's distributors are appealing to lower its R rating to PG-13 and a screening has been set for Tuesday by the Motion Picture Association of America's appeals board.
Bradbury's book was made into a 1966 movie directed by Francois Truffaut. A new edition of the book is scheduled for release in eight weeks, Bradbury said, and plans are in the works for a new film version, to be directed by Frank Darabont.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Author wants apology from Moore, movie renamed
Monday, June 21, 2004 Posted: 8:50 AM EDT (1250 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Ray Bradbury is demanding an apology from filmmaker Michael Moore for lifting the title from his classic science-fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451" without permission and wants the new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to be renamed.
"He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel, that's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it."
The 1953 novel, widely considered Bradbury's masterpiece, portrays an ugly futuristic society in which firemen burn homes and libraries in order to destroy the books inside and keep people from thinking independently.
"Fahrenheit 451" takes its title from the temperature at which books burn. Moore has called "Fahrenheit 9/11" the "temperature at which freedom burns."
His film, which won top honors in May at the Cannes Film Festival, charges that the Bush administration acted ineptly before the September 11 terrorist attacks, then played on the public's fear of future terrorism to gain support for the war against Iraq. It opens nationwide Friday.
Bradbury, who hadn't seen the movie, said he called Moore's company six months ago to protest and was promised Moore would call back.
He finally got that call last Saturday, Bradbury said, adding Moore told him he was "embarrassed."
"He suddenly realized he's let too much time go by," the author said by phone from his home in Los Angeles' Cheviot Hills section.
Joanne Doroshow, a spokeswoman for "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the film's makers have "the utmost respect for Ray Bradbury."
"Mr. Bradbury's work has been an inspiration to all of us involved in this film, but when you watch this film you will see the fact that the title reflects the facts that the movie explores, the very real life events before, around and after 9-11," she said.
Bradbury, who is a registered political independent, said he would rather avoid litigation and is "hoping to settle this as two gentlemen, if he'll shake hands with me and give me back my book and title."
Moore's film needed new distributors after Disney refused to let its Miramax subsidiary release it, claiming it was too politically charged. The documentary was later bought by Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who lined up Lions Gate and IFC Films to help distribute it.
The movie's distributors are appealing to lower its R rating to PG-13 and a screening has been set for Tuesday by the Motion Picture Association of America's appeals board.
Bradbury's book was made into a 1966 movie directed by Francois Truffaut. A new edition of the book is scheduled for release in eight weeks, Bradbury said, and plans are in the works for a new film version, to be directed by Frank Darabont.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Last edited by lukpac on Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
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Rspaight
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Yeah, I plan to, since I'm interested to see what Moore's put together on this. From the reviews, it sounds like somewhat fewer Stupid Moore Tricks than usual and more real information. We'll see.
Ryan
Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney