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Tag: filmmaker

  • Clint Eastwood Clears The Air, Says He Didn’t Threaten Michael Moore

    Legendary gunslinger Clint Eastwood sets the record straight and denies threatening to kill Michael Moore.

    The American Sniper director was recently honored during The Legend of Cinema luncheon which was organized by CinemaCon and Warner Bros. The glitzy event, called “A Salute To Clint Eastwood,” showcased the actor’s distinguished career, both as an actor and as a director.

    The film icon also talked about various topics during a 30 minute conversation he had on stage with reporter Stephen Galloway. Eastwood reflected on his career, talked about his inspirations, discussed the success of his latest movie and finally addressed Michael Moore’s comments that he threatened to kill the Bowling for Columbine director.

    “Everyone kept saying I was going to kill Michael Moore but that’s not true,’ Eastwood confessed, before adding “It isn’t a bad idea.”

    His statement drew laughter and applause from the crowd. But the filmmaker tried to explain his side of a story that’s said to have happened 10 years ago.

    I think once years ago somebody asked me what would I do if a guy like him came to my house with a whole film crew and started filming away like he did with Charlton Heston,” Eastwood recalled. “But I thought if somebody was on your property you could shoot him.”

    He jokingly added that he thought about his famous line “get off my lawn.”

    (Moore notoriously ambushed a confused and sick Heston about his NRA leadership at his home for his film Bowling for Columbine.)

    The Play Misty for Me director also talked about his favorite movies (the heartbreaking Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales) during the event.

    The erstwhile Dirty Harry also gave his view on what made American Sniper successful.

    “I think that for a lot of Americans, there’s been a lot of news in the last year about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and everybody has opinions on it,” he said, adding that “nobody’s really thought about it from the point of view of the families of the people over there and the people who go over there.”

  • Malia Obama: Stanford or Berkeley Bound?

    Malia Obama: Stanford or Berkeley Bound?

    Malia Obama has reached that pivotal point in most teenager’s lives when it’s time to seriously consider the colleges to which she’ll apply. The 16-year-old daughter of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will head off to college in the fall of 2016.

    President Obama has said in the past that Malia wants to be a filmmaker. The media reported last summer that Malia Obama toured two northern California rivals–both Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

    Berkeley, of course, is California’s flagship public university. It is known as a liberal enclave. It also has an internationally renown department of film and media.

    Stanford is a private university in Palo Alto, and is a far more conservative school. Chelsea Clinton and some Supreme Court justices including Sandra Day O’Connor graduated from there. At Stanford, students can major or minor in film and media studies. The university has more NCAA championships than any other U.S. school. Malia Obama is known as an athlete, excelling at tennis, so she might be a good fit for “Nerd Nation.” That’s the unofficial nickname for Stanford’s sports fans.

    Malia Obama certainly has a wealth of fodder for her college essay. She’s lived in the White House since she was just 10 years old, and that alone must be an education of sorts. She’s had a front-row seat to her father’s two presidential campaigns. She has traveled around the world, and met world figures such as Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai.

    Malia Obama’s parents are Harvard-educated lawyers with Ivy League undergraduate degrees–the president’s from Columbia and Michelle Obama’s from Princeton. That said, expectations for Malia undoubtedly run high.

    David Hawkins is an official at the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Virginia. What did he have to say about Malia Obama with regard to her college applications?

    “Given the educational attainment of her parents, which is exceptional in itself, I can only assume she is going to be a bright and well-qualified student,” he said.

    What do you predict? Will Malia Obama be heading to Stanford or to Berkeley? Or might she surprise everyone and head somewhere completely unexpected?

  • Michael Moore To Address Graduating Class At Michigan State University

    Two opposing sides of the political spectrum are well represented in the upcoming graduation at Michigan State University. Michael Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Fahrenheit 9/11 stands for the Liberal side, while conservative columnist George Will stands for the other.

    The President of MSU, Lou Anna K. Simon, noted the dynamic combination of the commencement speakers for their graduation. “The respectful exchange of differing viewpoints is a marker of the healthy intellectual environment Michigan State models,” she said at a recent interview with The Detroit News.

    Both Will and Moore will receive honorary degrees for their contributions. Will is slated to address the graduates from the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and James Madison College at the ceremony, while Moore will address the undergraduates from the colleges of Engineering, Natural Science, and Communication Arts.

    Moore is known for his thought-provoking documentaries like Bowling for Columbine and Capitalism: A Love Story which talked about gun laws and the economy, respectively. Will, on the other hand, is a popular columnist for The Washington Post who frequently writes about economic and social issues in relation to conservative politics.

    The commencement events will be held at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center on December 12 and 13. The entire ceremony can be monitored on Twitter through the hashtag #MSUgrad14.

    The list of those awarded with honorary degrees from the MSU includes civil rights advocate, Robert Clark Jr.; President Barack Obama’s spiritual adviser, Rev. James Wallis; Kristin Clark Taylor, the White House director of media relations during President Bush’s term; and Teresa Sullivan, the president of the University of Virginia.

    Sullivan was recently known for canceling fraternity and sorority activities until next semester after the Rolling Stone reported about a shocking gang rape that occurred at one of the Virginia campus’ fraternity houses.

  • Malia Obama Works on Set of Halle Berry’s ‘Extant’

    Malia Obama, daughter of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, worked on the set of Halle Berry’s upcoming sc-fi series Extant for a day. The aspiring filmmaker will be a junior in high school come fall, and was no doubt getting up close and personal with what her future work might entail.

    Malia clapped together the board that indicates the beginning of shooting a scene. The almost-16-year-old (Malia Obama turns 16 on the 4th of July) must have been completely enthralled by the goings-on on this Hollywood set.

    Extant is set to begin airing in July. In addition to starring Halle Berry it is produced by Amblin Television which was founded by Steven Spielberg. These two components add to the likelihood of the new series becoming an instant hit. How exciting will it be for Malia Obama to not only watch the show and know she spent a day on set, but to share that excitement with her friends as well?

    No one from the White House has yet commented on Malia’s exciting adventure. She attends Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., however it is far more likely that she was allowed this privilege because she is the president’s daughter than the chance that it was a school-related project.

    Some reports are indicating that Malia will work for the entire summer on the Extant set as Halle Berry’s assistant.

    Even though Michelle Obama is rather strict with Malia and sister Sasha Obama as far as watching television goes, Malia did admit during an interview about her famous dad back in January that she is a fan of the hit TV show Girls. Hopefully Mom will bend the rules a bit and allow the sisters to catch a few episodes of Extant when it begins airing next month.

    If nothing more emerges from Malia Obama’s visit to this Hollywood set, she will forever have the memories of a very exciting day away from the White House and away from school. Not many teens can file this kind of experience away in their memory banks.

    Image via YouTube