Clint Eastwood chair speech at Republican National Convention
It was less a bizarre “Clint Eastwood Chair Speech” than a bizarre “Clint Eastwood Chair Performance Artwork” at the Republican National Convention (RNC), which was held last week in Tampa, Florida. Eastwood was one of a few – very few (Midnight Cowboy‘s Jon Voight, who lambasted Hollywood “Liberals,” was another) – Hollywood personalities present at the event. More than Mitt Romney’s Bain business deals or Paul Ryan’s views on the ideal daily workout, the media – especially abroad, where Romney and Ryan are nonentities, whereas Clint Eastwood is a celebrity – focused on the bizarre sight of a Hollywood icon making incoherent, rambling, and often untrue statements while chatting with an empty chair. (Check out the Clint Eastwood speech video below.)
Needless to say, despite Eastwood’s 12-minute anti-Obama diatribe (a.k.a. “Eastwooding”) – blaming Obama for the Afghanistan War and the economic collapse, both triggered while George W. Bush was in power; deriding Obama for his law degree when Mitt Romney himself also has one – Barack Obama has already expressed his boundless admiration for his world-famous detractor. Be that as it may (politicians are consummate bullshitters and Obama is no exception), let’s see what Eastwood has to say about Obama’s “fan talk” once he starts plugging the upcoming Trouble with the Curve.
Anyhow, though unforgettable, Eastwood’s RNC performance was also a letdown; after all, this is what Hollywood’s tough guy chose not to say to his right-wing (overwhelmingly Christian) audience.
Clint Eastwood: Trouble with the Curve
Clint Eastwood’s upcoming movie, Trouble with the Curve, opens on Sept. 21. The baseball / family flick co-stars Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman. Robert Lorenz (assistant director in Eastwood’s Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby) directed from a screenplay by newcomer Randy Brown.
Clint Eastwood Lays an Egg at Republican National Convention: TV Ratings Plummet
Clint Eastwood, a two-time Oscar-winning director (Unforgiven, 1992; Million Dollar Baby, 2004), bombed in more ways than one while talking to an empty seat at last night’s Republican National Convention. Apart from the right-wing cable “news” channel Fox News, which was down only 2 percent, the overall television audience for the RNC’s final day plummeted 31 percent from 2008, when the Republican circus ringmasters were John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Despite the tabloids’ (and the tabloidized media’s) emphasis on crucial issues such as Mitt Romney’s good-looking son and Paul Ryan’s abs (or lack thereof), only 25.3 million viewers – that’s about 7.5 percent of the population of the United States – bothered to watch the right-wing show starring Romney, Ryan, and guest-starring Mystery Speaker Clint Eastwood, who reached a professional (and possibly personal) nadir while performing opposite an invisible Barack Obama. NBC and CNN suffered the steepest audience drops: 56 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Clint Eastwood: Trouble with the Curve
Clint Eastwood’s upcoming movie is the baseball / family flick Trouble with the Curve, co-starring Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman. Robert Lorenz (assistant director in Eastwood’s Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby) directed from a screenplay by newcomer Randy Brown. Trouble with the Curve opens on Sept. 21.
Source for the TV ratings data: Deadline.com.
Clint Eastwood picture: Getty Images.
Clint Eastwood in Trouble with the Curve.
Clint Eastwood is mystery speaker at Republican National Convention
Aug. 30: Clint Eastwood, who won Best Director Academy Awards for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, and whose family has its own reality show (Mrs. Eastwood & Company), is reportedly the “mystery speaker” at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, which comes to a close tonight.
I’ve no idea what Mystery Speaker Eastwood will tell the right-wing Christian extremists at the Republican gathering, but I can guarantee you, he’ll not say this:
“These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’ — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”
Late last year, some (very, very naive) people mistook Clint Eastwood’s “I don’t give a fuck” for an actual endorsement not only of marriage equality, but of equality, period. But as pointed out in this article about the Eastwood family’s reality TV show, the Dirty Harry star has openly declared his enthusiasm for the likes of Herman Cain (“I love Cain’s story. He’s a guy who came from nowhere and did well, obviously against heavy odds. He’s a doer and a straight-talker”), Chris Christie (“I’m a Chris Christie fan, but that didn’t work out”), and Newt Gingrich (“I think Newt Gingrich is still the smartest guy in the room”) — all of whom have declared themselves adamantly against gay marriage.
This year, Clint Eastwood has endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for the presidency of the United States. Both Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan have supported anti-marriage equality (i.e., anti-gay marriage) and anti-gay-rights legislation, and have come out on the side of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the U.S.
Clint Eastwood: Trouble with the Curve plug?
Clint Eastwood’s next movie is Trouble with the Curve, a baseball / family flick co-starring Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman. Robert Lorenz (assistant director in Eastwood’s Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby) directed from a screenplay by first-timer Randy Brown. Trouble with the Curve opens on Sept. 21.
Here’s wondering if Eastwood will hawk his upcoming movie at the RNC. Gran Torino was a box office success, but his last three films as director – Invictus, Hereafter, J. Edgar – have bombed in North America. Trouble with the Curve could surely use an extra plug.
Clint Eastwood Trouble with the Curve image: Warner Bros.
Jon Voight vs. Barack Obama & Hollywood liberals’ media control
While at the Republican National Convention, which wraps up today in Tampa, Florida, Best Actor Oscar winner Jon Voight (Coming Home) expressed his disgust at current U.S. president Barack Obama.
“They’re very good at propaganda,” Voight told Virginia delegation members at a breakfast on Monday, reports The Huffington Post. “[Obama’s] not good at anything else, but he’s very good at propaganda. He’s learned from masters of propaganda.”
As per the Post report, “Voight failed to mention […] exactly which ‘masters’ he felt Obama and his staff had learned from.”
In his speech, however, the Midnight Cowboy star attempted to clarify things a bit by comparing the Obama administration to that of Chavez in Venezuela.
“[T]his media has been overtaken by this administration in no less a way that Cesar Chavez has taken over the media in Venezuela. It’s as strong as that,” Voight affirmed.
Minor detail: Hugo Chavez is the populist Venezuelan leader. Cesar Chavez was the co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association.
Jon Voight and Old Hollywood’s ‘conservatives’
And here’s Jon Voight’s direct quote (via The Washington Post), which shows Voight has very little knowledge of Hollywood (and U.S. politics) history – well, at least when it comes to Voight’s statement about Hollywood’s “historical conservatism”:
“’The Hollywood community is historically conservative. All the people that I so admired growing up were very patriotic and loved the country.’ But then came the left-wing ‘nonsense’ of the 1960’s, which Voight admits he also got caught up in it. ‘I’m quite ashamed of it, actually. . . I know as much as anybody about this stuff and I know how poisonous it is.’” [See brief list of “Old Hollywood Liberals” below.]
As mentioned in my recent article on the success of Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan’s anti-Obama documentary 2016 Obama’s America, among today’s “Hollywood Liberals” caught up in “left-wing nonsense” are Voight’s daughter Angelina Jolie and her companion, Brad Pitt.
Other “Hollywood Liberals” who either directed Jon Voight or acted opposite him include Jane Fonda, Hal Ashby, Martin Ritt, Dustin Hoffman, Jonathan Demme, John Schlesinger, and Meryl Streep.
Note from the editor: The long list of Old Hollywood actors or directors associated with the Democratic Party and/or liberal causes include ACLU card-carrying member Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Janet Leigh, Myrna Loy, Robert Ryan, Spencer Tracy, Jean Arthur, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Olivia de Havilland, Fredric March, Charles Chaplin, Judy Garland, Luise Rainer, Betty Garrett, Larry Parks, Ava Gardner, Evelyn Keyes, Gregory Peck, Edward G. Robinson, Miriam Hopkins, Elizabeth Taylor, and Joan Bennett.
Also: Grace Kelly, Marsha Hunt, Melvyn Douglas, John Garfield, Orson Welles, Jane Wyatt, Gene Kelly, Vincente Minnelli, Dolores Del Rio, Dorothy McGuire, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Eddie Albert, Marlon Brando, John Huston, Danny Kaye, Betsy Blair, Kirk Douglas, Joseph Losey, Dorothy Dandridge, Paul Henreid, Aline MacMahon, Rose Hobart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jules Dassin, John Cromwell, Lee Grant, and countless others. Both the British Chaplin and the Mexican Del Rio were prevented from reentering the United States in the ’50s because of their political affiliations.
5 comments
Clint Eastwood disrespected the first African American President by cursing and looking down at him (invisible or not) in the most racist way. People can call it funny or bizarre if they want, but what I saw is an 80 some odd old white man talking down to a black President.
It was disgraceful and people need to call Clint Eastwood’s performance for exactly what it was, “a racist rant against a black man.”
Being a Citizen of the United States of America, I couldn’t have been prouder of the courage of Mr. Eastwood to step into primetime tv and announce his allegiance to the party and conservatism. There is untold pressure from the leftist film industry to “toe the line” on liberal, socialist issues, to the point of driving many in Hollywood to be “closet conservatives”, not unlike the 1950’s McCarthyism that pressured the communist party into hiding in the left coast hills.
As with most of the world, you applaud Obama for his charisma. We don’t need charisma, we need leadership. I’m tired of Obama humiliating these United States to the rest of the world.
Maybe after this election, ex-President Obama will want to move to our closest socialist neighbor, Canada. He’s never been a big fan of the United States anyway and I hear he’s pretty good at running community organizations.
Clint was hilarious. LOL!!
I think Mr. Romney’s face said it all (Mitt’s face was pinch tightly and lips were pursed, as if he was about ready to foam at the mouth as Clint Eastwood went through his ranting unrefined performance/speech). Bravo Mr. Eastwood, you have more than infuriated your next President.
Being Canadian, I was simply outraged and stunned at the fact that an actor took it upon himself to try and humiliate the President. It backfired. Mr. Eastwood should keep acting and directing. If Mitt is so wonderful and the next miracle for the USA, why is everyone on his team trying so hard to humanize him? I along with many others applaud the intelligence and charisma of President Obama and wish him well.