Bigotry in Tinseltown

Michael Kinsley, the genius behind the wikitorial, has invented a new form of crap, the anonymously sourced op-ed piece.

In yesterday's edition of the L.A. Times, wingnut actor Govindini Murty, best known for her role as "Don Quixote's 'Donna'" in the Lance Peverly classic, "Tilt," and a one-off appearance in the remake of the classic Canadian T.V. series "Viper," complies the anonymous whinings of her right-wing pals, who just can't catch a break in Hollywood:

A conservative writer/director friend was developing a script last year about the Iraq war and the capture of Saddam Hussein. My friend says that after $500,000 was spent developing the project, the studio head pulled the plug because, as he put it, any movie depicting the capture of Hussein might help Bush.

...

A screenwriter friend who has written a number of big family movies described how stifling it was to sit in on story sessions and listen to executives rant for hours about President Bush. As my friend put it: "George Bush had nothing to do with the movie we were making, yet the executives would rather complain about politics all day than figure out how to make our project better." When asked why he didn't say anything, my friend responded: "If I did, I'd be fired."

No names are given for these victims of the "new Hollywood blacklist."

But the biggest victim of all is Ms. Murty herself:

And my husband, Jason Apuzzo, and I wanted to make a film that depicted the realities of Islamo-fascism. Our script featured positive and negative Muslim characters (I was to play the lead positive Muslim character), and did the rounds of various independent production companies.

The script received great feedback but encountered a stumbling block when creative executives expressed concern that our Muslim terrorists "weren't sympathetic enough." They wanted us to "explain the terrorists' motivations more."

The Apuzzo-Murtys wanted to make a film, but their script gets rejected by independent studio executives. What are the odds of that happening? Especially after the pot was sweetened with the much-demanded acting services of Govindini Murty.

And unnamed executives are quoted... in actual quotes. What more proof do you need?

I'm sure that Jason Apuzzo, Ph.D.'s Islamo-facism script was as nuanced as his unfinished 2002 student film classic, San Pedro, "the tale of a hard-boiled bounty hunter (actor John Barrett) who seeks a cursed Chinese statue that threatens to expose Gore's Chinagate connections during the 2000 presidential election."

In that epic, Murty plays the role of the "lead positive immigrant maid." (Her breakout performance earned her the following review: "I went and took a leak and when I came back she was still vacuuming!")

Dr. Jason dedicated his student flick to Rush Limbaugh and George Lucas, and is no doubt crushed by the fact that George turned to the dark side on the war on terror.

It appears that the Apuzzo-Murtys have been pedalling their sob story for over a year, on wingnut websites. Because the executives crushed their dreams, they were forced to abandon their project and make a low-budget, "hardcore" thriller in which they "ma[d]e fun of liberals, the INS, even Clinton." (That direct-to-landfill masterpiece also starred John Barrett as a bounty hunter and was funded by less-liberal backers: Apuzzo's daddy and some credit cards.)

As no one has taken interest in Murty's other scripts, "an epic set in ancient Egypt" and "a romantic comedy, a melodrama, and an epic of ancient Rome," it's safe to conclude that Hollywood liberals also hate romances, comedies, melodramas, epics and ancient Romans and Egyptians.

It's bigotry, I tell ya. And kudos to Kinsley for re-exposing it. Except for, you know, the identities of any of the bigots.

(Link via Kevin Drum)