Hollywood's brave face

I have to say I'm disappointed. I had planned to go see the new Sony Pictures film The Interview on Christmas Day and now Kim Jong-un has ruined my Christmas. Thanks to the leaked script and some spoilers from folks who attended a sneak preview, it probably wasn't going to be all that anyway. Now everyone wants to see it just because they can't. It's human nature.


Something that puzzles me, and I heard it on both CNN and Fox News, is this notion that Sony should never have made this movie in the first place. What the heck is that supposed to mean? The folks who spout that nonsense don't elaborate. We're left to suppose that they mean Sony shouldn't be making fun of a sawed off, narcissistic dictator who thinks he's God. Quite frankly, the dude is ripe for the picking.

And what's up with the president, who can't get the stars of the movie straight (he called James Franco James Flacco), piling on Sony like they had a choice in pulling the movie? Look, when the top five movie chains say they're not going to show your movie, it's over. That's not to say that the movie can't come back at some later date but don't act like Sony Pictures is somehow a coward for scrapping the run.

The real cowards are in Hollywood. George Clooney tried to get a letter of solidarity with Sony signed by the major movers and shakers. There were no takers. Because the execs at Sony had made some Obama jokes in their e-mails, everyone else was afraid to be anywhere close to them, despite the fact that the very same attack could happen to them. They're so brave.

And to make matters worse, some theaters wanted to run the movie Team America instead. The movie, using "supermarionettes," makes fun of Kim's father, Kim Jong-il. Although it's unnecessarily crude, it is pretty darn funny. The weenies at Paramount Pictures put the kibosh on that. Funny. No condemnation from the Dalai Bama on that one.

OK, so the higher-ups at Sony were proved to be liberal hypocrites who make fun of a black president in private e-mails. Is this really such a shocker? I had a self-proclaimed Democrat tell me many years ago that she couldn't be a racist because every time she sees black folks her heart just breaks. No, dear, that's not racist. You're supposed to pity anyone who's not white. Reminds me of Wolf Blitzer's comment during Hurricane Katrina when he observed that many of the victims were "so poor and so black." You folks who are "so black" keep that in mind next time a liberal tells you they're here to help you.

Despite all that, we have been attacked by North Korea and probably little, if anything, will be done about it. Newt Gingrich said this was the first cyber war involving the United States and we lost. He's right.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Hollywood crowd, who ran and hid during the whole Sony cyber attack, doesn't give Sony Pictures a special medal of freedom award at the Oscars. It'd be just like 'em.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.