Hall & Oates on Arizona's Immigration Law

The Left Coast Report: A Political Look at Hollywood

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Hall & Oates on Arizona’s Immigration Law
2. Rosie O’Donnell Defends Helen Thomas
3. Kevin Costner Makes Deal with BP
4. Lady Gaga Mirrors Madonna’s Catholic Bashing
5. Democrat Jerry Brown Spending Hollywood Cash to Win
 

1. Hall & Oates on Arizona’s Immigration Law

Daryl Hall and John Oates have weighed in on Arizona’s new immigration law.

The rock duo canceled a post-game concert at Chase Field to show their opposition to the Arizona law. My bet is that neither Hall nor Oates ever read the succinct four-page statute.

The two entertainers were originally scheduled to perform on July 2, following a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Hall & Oates issued a statement that said they were “standing in solidarity with the music community” in their boycott.

Daryl and John join a growing list of musical stars, which includes Shakira, Carlos Santana, Kanye West, and Willie Nelson, among others who are taking a stand against the Copper State’s new law.

But it’s OK that the duo probably doesn’t know the bill. Some sports fans don’t know the duo: When asked if they were upset that Hall & Oates weren’t putting on a post-game show, some Diamondback fans asked, “Who and what?”

2. Rosie O’Donnell Defends Helen Thomas

Rosie O’Donnell is getting ready to return to daytime television with a new talk show in the fall of 2011. She is being hailed as the “New Oprah.” Not so coincidentally, her producers are timing the show to start when “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends.

Unlike the relatively harmless Ellen DeGeneres, the simplistic Dr. Phil, or the moralistic Judge Judy, Rosie may have trouble with something that Middle America generally finds offensive — her unrestrained mouth.

Helen Thomas recently ended her long career for a similar reason. The longtime correspondent had some shocking recommendations for bringing peace to the Middle East.

Thomas suggested that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.

Although the mainstream media soft-pedaled the coverage of Thomas’s hate speech, the disgraced reporter now has a defender in the form of O’Donnell.

Folks at Sirius Satellite Radio were foolish enough to give Rosie a talk-radio show, and she spent a significant part of her broadcast talking up Thomas. After reading Thomas’ full quote, a guest asked Rosie, “How can that be construed as hate speech?” to which the host replied, “I don’t know.”

O'Donnell then voiced agreement with Thomas that Jews should leave Israel and move to Germany and Poland, and her reason was that the ovens are no longer there.

Rosie followed this egregious rhetoric with an all-out effort to distinguish Thomas’ comments from those of white supremacists who tell “black people to go back to Africa” because, as Rosie explained, “Black people are not occupying a country, right?”

The “New Oprah” also recently gushed about the merits of a would-be government grab of a private company’s assets and a possible communist America.

Again on her satellite radio show, Rosie accused BP of “willful homicide, willful mass murder.”

“I say seize their [BP’s] assets. Right now. Seize their assets today. Take over the [company]. I don't care [how]. Issue an executive order. Call it socialism, call it communism, call it anything you want. Seize the assets. Take over BP.”

One of O'Donnell's producers then came up with a recommendation for U.S. energy policy, saying that we ought to “pay $20 a gallon rather than kill thousands of innocent people.”

Rosie as the “New Oprah?” Really? Not from where I stand.

3. Kevin Costner Makes Deal with BP

It looks like Kevin Costner will get to see his oil spill clean-up devices working to separate the crude from H2O in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has issued a letter of intent to buy 32 of the actor’s centrifugal oil-and-water separators. His company, Ocean Therapy Solutions, is preparing to send more than two-dozen machines to the afflicted area as an initial shipment.

Costner recently testified on Capitol Hill and told lawmakers an all too familiar story of having been ignored by government officials.

He said, “It may seem an unlikely scenario that I am the one delivering this technology at this moment in time. But from where I'm sitting, it is equally unfathomable that these machines are not already in place.”

According to Costner, the machines were originally developed to operate as first responders to oil slicks, but they have been adjusted to accommodate oil that has been weathered and hardened.

Full implementation of the machines may depend on how quickly BP pays for the 32 it has already committed to.

Costner learned about cleaning oil from water while making his own sci-fi film, “Waterworld.” He bought the technology from the military after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, and a team of scientists and engineers has been fine-tuning it all this time.

The company claims its largest machine, which weighs 2 1/2 tons, can cleanse 210,000 gallons a day of oily water.

Costner and his business partner-lawyer hope to sell the reclaimed oil and donate 80 percent of the proceeds to Louisiana parishes that are struggling to cope with industries devastated by the calamity.

4. Lady Gaga Mirrors Madonna’s Catholic Bashing

A lot of folks are noticing the parallel between the PR approach of Lady Gaga and her pop predecessor, Madonna.

An insensitive and offensive video by Gaga follows in the footsteps of Madonna’s past exploitation of the Catholic Christian faith but takes things disgustingly further.

The singer’s latest music video, “Alejandro,” has her wearing a latex nun’s habit, holding a crucifix in front of her privates and swallowing a rosary.

Madonna’s real name is Madonna Louise Ciccone, and Gaga’s is Stefani Germanotta. Both women were raised Catholic and attended Catholic school.

Madonna made it a point to offend Catholic Christians in a number of her videos. Her corresponding music video for the song, “Like a Prayer,” featured Catholic symbols such as crosses and stigmata. In a further affront, it also included a dream sequence about making love to a saint. The Vatican formally condemned the video.

Gaga the artist is apparently lacking in the originality department. She used the same offensive Madonna approach in “Alejandro.”

Even pop singer Katy Perry, who is not typically known for being reserved in her behavior or expression, tweeted a critique of Gaga’s latest music video. In more concise and explicit terms than used here, she commented that using blasphemy for entertainment is as cheap as a comic using a gas-passing joke to get a laugh.

Gaga’s handlers would do well to help the Lady get on a more dignified path.

And it wouldn’t hurt to reflect on what Catholic offending did to the career of Sinead O’Connor.

5. Democrat Jerry Brown Spending Hollywood Cash to Win

In predictable fashion, Hollywood has already pointed its campaign cash compass toward Democrat Jerry Brown in his California gubernatorial bid against Republican Meg Whitman.

Brown has received endorsements from the titanic triplets of election treasure, DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The man formerly known as “Moonbeam” has also been given contributions to his campaign from the head of Disney, Bob Iger, former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, Ben Silverman and high-powered Hollywood lawyer, Ken Ziffren.

Meanwhile, along with GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman is being portrayed as a “rich woman,” with lots of mainstream media coverage in the form of hand ringing over the fact that the $71-million she spent during the primary was her own money.

Interestingly, the media didn’t seem to care when Hillary Clinton loaned herself about 13 mill during her 2008 presidential bid or when former Goldman Sachs investment banker Jon Corzine used his millions to snag his New Jersey governor title.

In Florida, billionaire Jeff Greene, who made his fortune in credit-default swaps, is using his cash to upset Rep. Kendrick Meek in the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate.

Greene recently lived in a 63,000 square-foot home in Beverly Hills, had Mike Tyson as his best man for his 2007 wedding and at one time owned a 145-foot yacht and three private jets.

Wealthy Dems get a pass from the media, pure and simple, even though most of them spend the bulk of their time chasing money to fatten their campaign coffers.

Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, who have been accused of trying to “buy” offices, are actually a whole lot more independent of special interests than many of their Dem counterparts, who fawn over Hollywood celebrities, kiss the rings of trial lawyers and pledge allegiance to the public unions.