The Center for Responsive Politics has found that Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much contribution money from troops deployed overseas as John McCain.
Even Libertarian Ron Paul, who ended his campaign for the Republican nomination eons ago, “has received more than four times McCain’s haul,” claims Matthew Mosk on the Washington Post blog “The Trail.”
I know that a fair number of Iraq-based troops visit this site, so can Mgmax or one of the other right-wing talk-backers please write something that will straighten these jerks out and show them the error of their ways?

One of the 19 films in the Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery program, announced earlier today, is What Doesn’t Kill You, an real-life crime drama set in Boston with Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke. Director and cowriter Brian Goodman (otherwise an actor who mainly works on TV series) based Ruffalo’s character on his own experiences with a pal who’s now serving 100 years in prison for armed robbery. Goodman himself has done time for assault, according to one news account.

What Doesn’t Kill You director-writer Brian Goodman, Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke

The film was originally called Real Men Cry. Donnie Wahlberg and Amanda Peet costar. The film is produced by Bob Yari, who is known to be on the financial ropes these days.
“I read the screenplay and absolutely loved it,” an IMDB guy wrote. “It truly is a great American story about growing up in the city and the struggles that come with the attempts of sticking together with the ones you trust — especially when you have been involved in the criminal life since day one. With a fantastic plot, character development and series of events overturning into a somewhat positive resolution, I definitely plan on seeing this film and recommend it to anyone who may be curious about it.”

“After reading erroneous reports about Tom Cruise and United Artists, I would like to clarify that we are honored that he will continue as our full partner in control of UA. He is in the middle of one of the greatest careers our industry has ever seen and one that will continue at the top of United Artists Entertainment.” — a statement from MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan, received at 12:08 pm.

“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea — cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

“‘I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it,’ some men say. What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine, and before we know it our lives are gone.
“What does a man need — really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in, and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all in the material sense, and we know it.
“But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
“Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?” — the most oft-quoted passage from Sterling Hayden‘s Wanderer, which is required reading for every landlubber malcontent out there, particularly the under-25s.

“Convince yourself that the Republicans are just going to roll over and play dead because there is simply no life left in their party. Convince yourself this one is in the bag! Convince yourself that if you play by the rules, the Republicans will too. And when McCain and his people roll out their nuclear arsenal on you, just go all sweet and sensitive and logical.”

Oh, and always “believe that the truth shall prevail, that good people will see what the Republicans are up to. As they smear you, your family, your religious beliefs — cower, back down, go on the defensive.”
The preceding is an excerpt from rule #5 in Michael Moore‘s “How The Democrats Can Blow It…In Six Easy Steps,” posted yesterday on michaelmoore.com as a promotion for a book called “Mike’s Election Guide 2008” (Grand Central Publishing), due out on 8.26.

Peter Lauria‘s 8.14 report in the N.Y. Post‘s business section about the downfall of Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner within the MGM corporate family (Harry Sloan, Mary Parent, etc.) is the clearest and most concise-sounding assessment I’ve read so far. Having reached the conclusion that Cruise-Wagner “don’t know what they’re doing,” Sloan essentially “wants to get his hands on $500 million in financing that UA raised from Merrill Lynch last year so that he can help fund MGM movies,” and putting Parent in charge of the whole magillah is key to his strategy.
Lauria’s main points: (a) Cruise is “on the verge of getting fired yet again” as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer CEO Harry Sloan looks to bring Cruise’s United Artists studio under the control of MGM production chief Mary Parent; (b)
a source saying that Sloan “made a mistake in backing those two, and now he’s trying to figure out how to rectify it”; (c) Wagner’s departure from UA is due to Sloan has having “effectively neutered Cruise and Wagner by putting Parent — a well-regarded Hollywood talent who MGM hired in March to oversee theatrical productions — in charge of UA”; (d) Wagner’s decision to leave is therefore a “protest” move, and that “her ego won’t stand for Parent being put in charge]…she’d be humiliated if she stayed there”; and (e) Sloan is likely to extend a feather-smoothing production deal to Wagner, meaning that UA would “continue to operate as an independent company” blah, blah, and that the “current management structure for UA has not changed…Tom and Paula are still running the day-to-day operations.”

Yesterday’s $7 million haul means that Tropic Thunder‘s 5-day projection has been downgraded to $38 to $40 million instead of $45 million, which is what Fantasy Moguls‘ Steve Mason was forecasting a day or so ago. The c.w. says Thunder wont be earning as much as Pineapple Express did over the first few days because (a) it plays to a somewhat older and more city-sophisticated crowd (whereas any amoeba in baggy shorts can laugh at a good stoner comedy) and (b) satire that plays to people with an IQ over 50 always faces a bit more of a challenge, no matter the subject. Of course, the notion that Tropic Thunder is loonier, funnier and more off-the-wall surreal has been kicking around also.

This Body of Lies trailer is slightly more complex than the one I posted two or three weeks ago, but a lot of the clips and a good amount of the dialogue are the same so whaddaya-whaddaya?

Politico‘s Jeffrey Ressner has written a savvy and thorough examination of the bogus smear story about George Clooney advising Barack Obama, which began with London’s Daily Mail.
“Part of the reason the Daily Mail frequently gets away with this kind of journalism is that relatively few people in the UK media call them out on these kinds of stories,” HE reader Ambrose Heron wrote last night. “I would urge you to check out a recent book by Nick Davies called Flat Earth News as there is a very interesting chapter on how the Daily Mail operates entitled ‘Mail Aggression.'”

I can only repeat again what I’ve been told by a fellow who’s been very close to the development of Edwin A. Salt, to wit: Tom Cruise wasn’t bumped by Angelina Jolie for the lead role — he hadn’t committed to signing because he didn’t feel comfortable about playing a character who, he felt, was too close to his Ethan Hunt character from the Mission Impossible films. I’m not saying that other factors didn’t come into play as well, but this is what I’ve heard from a guy in a position to know.

I was searching around and came across this thoroughly excellent Troggs song that I haven’t listened to in ages. I’d forgotten how scrumptious it is. Raw, honest, monaural, reverby.

Two British-produced films that were shot last fall and should by rights appear at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival are Gerald McMorrow‘s Franklyn, a kind of science-fiction fantasy piece costarring Sam Riley, Ryan Phillipe and Eva Green, and Beeban Kidron‘s Hippie Hippie Shake, an adaptation of Richard Neville‘s memoir about running Oz, the famed London counter-culture weekly, in the late ’60s. Cillian Murphy plays Neville; Sienna Miller plays significant other Louise Ferrier.

Sienna Miller in Hippie Hippie Shake.

Ryan Phillipe (reputedly) in Franklyn.

Both films are due to open in England later this year. and Hippie Hippie Shake, a Working Title production, is slated for release in the U.S. sometime in ’08 by Universal. Franklyn was mentioned in an Agence France Presse article as a possible Cannes 2008 selection, only it never happened.
The final Toronto Film Festival roster will be revealed on Tuesday, 8.19.