All posts tagged "hollywood"

Reality TV producer laughs off Trump threat as merely the act of a 'shunned' man

From the beloved children’s show “Bluey” to the blockbuster “Harry Potter” films, directors and producers have warned that President Donald Trump’s proposed 100 percent tariff on movies made in “foreign lands” would damage the U.S. entertainment industry’s ability to produce hit shows.

But Lamont Pete, a veteran reality TV producer, told Raw Story “nobody should really pay this much mind,” because Trump’s May 4 Truth Social post isn’t grounded in “reality.”

“When he came out and said this I don't think he really thought it through, but surprise, surprise, that would not be the first,” Pete said. “Honestly, I think nobody should really pay this much mind … that’s the most ridiculous s-–t I’ve ever heard.”

Earlier this month, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was “authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”

“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Trump said.

The next day, the White House said “no final decisions" had been made about instituting film tariffs. It did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

“Common is not even a word” to describe how often film and TV producers use locations outside of the U.S. for filming or hire international talent, said Pete, whose near-25-year career has included casting for shows such as “The Real World,” “Dating Naked,” “Wild ‘n Out” and “The Simple Life”.

“It's really, when are they not?” said Pete, who has also worked on movies including “Respect,” about the singer Aretha Franklin.

“It works out pretty well when you can do that because you can get the best creative work from any part of the globe. It's not always gonna be localized. It’s just not reality.”

Pete said the entertainment industry was still recovering from COVID-19, with filmmakers continuing to work on shrunken budgets — which often takes them to countries like Australia or Canada, which offer tax incentives.

The day after Trump’s post, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed working with the president on a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit plan.

“If you really care, you would say … everything made in the U.S., from pre- to post-[production], we're going to give you these tax credits, and it's gonna incentivize you to be here,” Pete said.

“That's what somebody who actually wants to see our industry thrive would do. [Trump’s] not that guy.”

Pete challenged the feasibility of enforcing tariffs on films that use international locations and questioned the concept of instituting tariffs on intellectual property rather than products.

“You gonna monitor the back credits? ‘Ooh, I think they went to Korea and did this’? You can't put tariffs on IP. It's intellectual property — concepts people think about. You can put tariffs on goods, but how do you tax an idea?”

‘It’s idiocy’

Thousands of economists have spoken out against Trump’s tariffs policy, which made the costs of imports soar, particularly from China.

“It's idiocy. It's like saying two plus two equals zero,” Donald Boudreaux, a leader of the Anti-Tariff Declaration and former chair of the Department of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., told Raw Story of Trump’s love for tariffs.

“It makes no sense. You can say it, but it’s just illogical.”

On Monday, the U.S. and China came to an agreement for a 90-day pause on 145 percent tariffs Trump instated last month, shrinking tariffs on Chinese imports to 30 percent, with 10 percent tariffs on U.S. goods going the other way.

“I can't believe that now Hollywood is in trouble,” said Jeep Kline, who teaches finance at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It's not a good idea to use tariff policy as a broad swath of how we actually protect and support any particular industry.”

Tariffs of any kind end up hurting those who work on film and TV sets as they are consumers, said Kline, founder and managing partner at Raisewell Ventures.

Boudreaux said of Trump: “He just has no plan. He just loves tariffs. I will give the man this: I think he is not acting in a venal way. I think he is — because he's been this way for 40 years — sincerely ideologically committed to tariffs.”

Donald Trump NBC Trump considering hosting ‘The Apprentice’ after losing the White House: report Donald Trump appears at an NBC promotional event, during his years on The Apprentice. (NBC)

Pete, who said he crossed paths with Trump when he was the star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” said he thinks Trump’s tariff attacks on the film industry are more of a “private get back” — because Trump has long been “ridiculed” by Hollywood stars.

“I think that this has more to do with a man who's been shunned by an industry that he wished at one point he was accepted by,” Pete said.

“He's been the butt of so many jokes, and Hollywood has been a thorn in his side. So, of course, you're gonna wake up one morning and say, ‘Man, how can I show Hollywood that I'm not to be messed with?’”

ALSO READ: ‘Pain. Grief. Anger’: Families heartbroken as Trump backlash smashes adoption dreams

Hollywood ending for Sifan Hassan — and Paris Olympics

Sifan Hassan completed her mission impossible with a grueling women’s marathon win on the sun-baked streets of Paris on Sunday, as Tom Cruise is rumored to close the Olympic Games with a Hollywood ending.

With China and the United States grappling for dominance at the top of the medals table, fourteen golds were on offer on the last day of what is widely seen as a successful Olympics.

Dutchwoman Hassan had taken on what many considered to be a crazy gamble, competing in the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the marathon — the last two events just two days apart.

But in a thrilling sprint finish, Hassan overhauled Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa to take gold by three seconds in an Olympic record of 2hr 22min 55sec.

On Friday she had taken bronze in the 10,000m in the Stade de France after coming away with a bronze in the 5,000m.

She fell to the ground on the blue carpet in front of the golden dome of the Invalides memorial complex in the heart of Paris before grabbing a Dutch flag to celebrate an extraordinary achievement.

“It was not easy,” said Hassan. “It was so hot, but I was feeling OK. I’ve never pushed myself through to the finish line as I did today.”

It was a sensational ending to an Olympics athletics programme that saw US sprinter Noah Lyles win the 100m by just five thousandths of a second.

The US dominated the athletics and are going for gold in the last event of the Games, as their women basketball stars hope to add to the men’s title against hosts France.

An eighth straight triumph would give them the record for most consecutive golds in any team sport at the Olympic Games — breaking a tie with the US men, who won seven basketball titles in a row from 1936 to 1968.

“I think the gold medal is the standard,” U.S. forward Alyssa Thomas said. “No matter where we are in the world, it’s our goal and that’s what we came here for.”

Wrestling, weightlifting, water polo, volleyball, modern pentathlon, handball, and track cycling are the other sports to crown Olympic champions on the last day.

Old rivals Serbia and Croatia meet for gold in men’s water polo in what could be a feisty affair.

In the men’s handball final, Germany are in their first gold medal match for 20 years where they will face Denmark, who are in a third consecutive final.

The weightlifting concludes with the battle to become the strongest woman at the Games in the over 81kg category led by China’s world record holder Li Wenwen.

Helped by a clean sweep in diving and table tennis, China lead the medals table with 39 golds, one ahead of the US, but the Americans have more gold shots on the final day.

‘Precious’

As the sport nears an end, attention turns to the closing ceremony at the Stade de France and the next Olympics in Los Angeles in four years.

LA is expected to play heavily on its Hollywood star power and will roll out its big guns, with pop star Billie Eilish, rapper Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all confirmed.

The worst-kept secret in Paris is that “Top Gun” star Tom Cruise appears poised to close the ceremony with a spectacular stunt sequence.

Cruise is filming the latest episode of the “Mission Impossible” franchise in Europe and has been a regular feature at Olympic events in Paris.

“On August 11, the Olympic Games will be over, and the Olympic flame will be extinguished,” said Thomas Jolly, who masterminded the unique opening ceremony along the River Seine.

“That moment will remind us just how precious are these Olympic Games,” said Jolly, whose ceremony sparked outrage in some quarters with a scene that appeared to parody the Last Supper.

Hollywood battles aging — in film reels

Reels of film and the Hollywood stars who fill them share one common enemy: aging.

But while an actor can go under the knife or get a bit of filler in an effort to stay young, it's a one-way street for film, which eventually starts to break down into its original — rather prosaic — ingredients.

"Film base is actually wood pulp and acetic acid in its simplest form," says Tim Knapp of California-based film preservation specialists Pro-Tek Vaults.

"Acetic acid over time produces what is called 'vinegar syndrome' which degrades the base of the film... and prevents it from being used."

And no film star wants to end up like that.

Movie-making has gone through a number of evolutions as directors sought a way to immortalize their leading men and women.

When the industry was born at the start of the 20th century, pioneers like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were captured on nitrate film, a medium capable of capturing deep blacks, infinite shades and sharp lines.

But studios quickly noticed a significant drawback: nitrate is highly flammable.

Projection rooms had to be fireproofed in an effort to avoid the kind of blazes that killed dozens of cinema-goers in the 1920s.

Even when not in use, nitrate film was not safe -- with a relatively low flashpoint, it could ignite if the room it was stored in became too hot. Huge fires at film storage sites in 1914 incinerated much of America's early cinematic history.

- Acetate -

The introduction of acetate film in the 1950s was a cause for celebration among movie executives and cinemas alike; a material that allowed directors to capture images in life-like resolution without the danger of it catching fire.

The problem is that it doesn't age well, and -- if not looked after properly -- in as little as 15 years it can turn into an unusable reel of plastic that reeks of vinegar.

For a movie company that has spent tens, or even hundreds of millions of dollars on a film, that's bad news.

"Keeping film in the proper environment ensures its longevity," said Doug Sylvester, CEO of Pro-Tek Vaults.

"That allows you to have a pristine, often original copy that can be used to make additional prints and digital copies over time."

TV and movie companies are increasingly looking to their back catalogues for sources of revenue, whether that is licensing clips for commercials, a reformatted re-release -- think of the number of times "Star Wars" has come out -- or the wholesale resale of titles to a streaming service.

While many movies and TV shows are now recorded digitally, a number of top-flight directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino still insist on using film, whose 12K resolution still trumps even the very best digital reproduction.

Old and new films all have to be stored -- with the utmost care and under tight security.

High security

Around a million reels of Hollywood history sit coiled in metal cans in top-secret temperature- and humidity-controlled units in Burbank and Thousand Oaks, just outside Los Angeles.

Huge moveable shelves are filled floor to ceiling with tens of thousands of hours of movie magic -- alongside legendary television shows, footage from presidential libraries and music videos.

Closed circuit cameras watch over the approximately 1.5 billion feet (almost half a million kilometers) of film to ensure that no one makes off with the original negatives from an Oscar winner.

Sylvester's company is cagey about what titles they have in their care, but promotional posters from films including the original "West Side Story," "Back to the Future II" and Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" cover the walls.

Silvester said his customers are "very particular about mentioning the titles that we hold."

"But I can say that there are some classics, if you were to look at.... the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time, you would see many of those here in our inventory."

The company is also involved in the cataloging and digitization of material that production houses might not even be aware they have in their own storage units.

That has included a project with record label Universal Music Group that unearthed never-before-seen footage of a Guns N' Roses concert, as well as restoring classic videos from the likes of Johnny Cash, Bon Jovi and The Cranberries.

Sylvester says uncovering hidden gems like these and then working to keep them safe is a rewarding task.

"It's part of our cultural history, and (we) love to play a part in preserving it for the future."

AI companies are courting Hollywood. Do they come in peace?

Artificial intelligence is coming to Hollywood — but is Hollywood ready for it?

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is meeting with entertainment industry players, including executives at talent agencies and film studios, to demonstrate and explain its latest technology, Sora, which conjures videos based on what users describe in text.

It's a delicate dance for entertainment companies that want to harness powerful tools that could reduce costs and streamline their processes.

Time of the sign: Hollywood landmark hits 100

Hollywood (United States) (AFP) - The landmark word has loomed over Tinseltown since before movies started talking, becoming a symbol of the entire film industry. For the first time in decades, the Hollywood sign -- at least a little bit of it -- was illuminated on Friday to celebrate its 100th birthday. The nine-letter sign is officially a centenarian but, as with many an aging grande dame in Hollywood, looks as fresh as ever. Like the actors and actresses it looks down on, the sign has been in its fair share of films. Directors who want to let their audience know a movie is set in Los Angele...

Is GOP's George Santos eyeing Congress exit for a second act in Hollywood?

If Washington fails, there's always a chance to take a shot at Tinsel Town.

A banking customer with a pedigree in the national security sector, took snaps of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) lounging in a Congressional Credit Union branch and supposedly daydreaming about one day being cast in one particular indie director's next picture.

"I walked into their office and noticed two people sitting in the waiting area," said Ian Larsen, a global strategist noting he kept an account at the bank.

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Larsen claimed to have overheard Santos chewing Hollywood fat with another person in the bank.

"One was telling the other he wants that person to be cast in an upcoming Kevin Smith movie," according to the tweet. "Weird topic for DC, so I looked to see who was speaking….."

Kevin Smith is the indie darling director who shook up the industry with his shoestring budget hit "Clerks."

Larsen soon realized one of the thespian hopefuls was the embattled Long Island politician.

"It was George Santos. He was just lounging around the credit union in the middle of the day, as though he had nothing better to do," the thread reads.

Larsen opined: "And apparently he moonlights as Kevin Smith’s casting agent, I guess?"

And he also noticed that Santos was in no hurry to get back to his office as the House was in the throes of trying to select the next speaker to fill McCarthy's unceremonious ouster.

"He was still there when I left, just milling about and chatting with the tellers," Larsen added. "You'd think he'd be meeting with his lawyers, but that's where he was at 2:00 on a Monday afternoon."

Raw Story reached out to Santos' camp and so far has not heard back. Calls and emails to Kevin Smith's reps were not immediately returned.

Minutes after contacting his reps, Santos tweeted out a dig at Larsen, but didn't deny the substance of him longing for career on the silver screen.

"You see Ian… If you were good at gossiping your little pathetic trip to the bank would make sense," Santos tweeted. "But here we are…🥱"

Santos is currently fighting for his freedom after a federal indictment came down over the summer.

Prosecutors allege Santos usurped people’s identities, altered donor's’ credit card amounts without seeking their authorization, and submitted bogus campaign reports that listed ghost loans and contributions that were either doctored or stolen.

Santos has pleaded not guilty.

"Nothing has changed,” the defiant Santos said earlier this month. “I think I’ve made it clear that I will fight this to prove my innocence. So yeah, I’m pretty much denying every last bit of charges.”

Santos also told reporters why he couldn't possibly be guilty of what he described as the "bullsh-t" charge of defrauding his donors.

Richard Roundtree, America's 'first Black action hero,' dead at 81

Washington (AFP) - American actor Richard Roundtree, heralded as "the first Black action hero" for his starring role in the iconic 1971 hit "Shaft," died Tuesday at 81, US media reported. Hollywood publication Deadline said that the actor, known for opening doors for other Black artists in the industry, died with his family at his bedside, "after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer." "Shaft," in which Roundtree played the eponymous private eye John Shaft, sparked a series of sequels and a TV spinoffs. Five decades later, Roundtree was still acting, appearing in the television romance drama ...

Chelsea Handler calls Al Pacino, Robert De Niro ‘horny old men’ who ‘cannot stop procreating’

Chelsea Handler isn’t breaking out the bubbly to celebrate the latest baby news coming out of Hollywood. The envelope-pushing comedian has weighed in on the baby boom among stars including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin and Elon Musk — all of whom have recently expanded their family trees. “They cannot stop procreating,” Handler, 48, said, referring to a country-wide epidemic of “horny old men who won’t stop spreading their seed.” “Between the four of those guys, they have 32 children,” she said in a satirical Instagram video posted Wednesday, adding that they “never met a broken cond...

Pete Davidson's 'SNL' hosting gig canceled this weekend; show to air reruns amidst writers strike

NEW YORK — The Hollywood writers strike has forced “Saturday Night Live” to cancel its upcoming episode with alum Pete Davidson, and possibly future episodes. The Writers Guild of America officially called their strike at midnight May 2, and late night programming is already feeling the repercussions. It was reported Tuesday that NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” have both gone dark for the time being due to the strike. Now “SNL will air repeats until further notice starting Saturday, May 6,” the network said in a statement. The NBC sketch comedy ...

Scammers, con artists and thieves: Why we keep watching, and why Hollywood keeps making

The lead characters — and probably their true-life counterparts — of “Super Pumped,” “The Dropout” and “WeCrashed” will all tell you the same thing: They wanted to change the world. The world, they say, just wasn’t ready. In the span of less than a month, three new series have tried to figure out the rise and fall of the tech bro: Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) at Uber, Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) at Theranos and Adam Neumann (Jared Leto) at WeWork. We know how all three end: Kalanick and Neumann were ousted by their respective boards and Holmes, along with COO Sunny Balwani, wa...