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John Nolte

John Nolte

Editor-at-Large

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Harold Ramis, 'Animal House' Slammed as Racist

Harold Ramis, 'Animal House' Slammed as Racist

Harold Ramis dies. Conservatives declare their love for him and his films. It is therefore only a matter of time before Ramis is smeared as racist. The Village Voice did the honors last week by lashing out at one of

Kerry, Crist Mock CNN's Ratings Collapse

Kerry, Crist Mock CNN's Ratings Collapse

During Saturday night’s annual Gridiron Club event, two high-profile Democrats — John Kerry and Charlie Crist — took vicious swipes at CNN, the third-place cable news channel currently suffering a noticeable ratings and quality collapse under the leadership of CNN

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Items

1. Lena Dunham is Ratings Poison After a full week of traveling — three days in DC and four in Kentucky — you would think that the last thing I would have known about is who hosted “Saturday Night Live”

Apolitical Oscars Earn Back Millions of Viewers

Apolitical Oscars Earn Back Millions of Viewers

The bottom fell out of the Academy Awards ceremony in 2008 when only 32 million tuned in for the annual awards telecast. It was all all-time low going back to 1980 and the failure was hard-earned. Throughout the aughts, Hollywood

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Stories

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Stories

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar… Unfortunately (or not), I was traveling last night during the 86th Annual Academy Awards and didn’t see a moment of it. Judging by The Hollywood Reporter’s withering review and the Twitter response, it was another unmemorable evening.

CNN Accuses Putin of 'Bullying' Obama

These past few weeks, monitoring CNN has been like watching someone sit in a toilet bowl and try to flush themselves: pathetic, astonishing, and more than a little amusing. This particular pull of the chain is uniquely pathetic, astonishing, and

Hollywood Playbook: Friday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Friday's Top 5 News Items

‘Enlisted’ Star Keith David Salutes Military with Fox Comedy Big Hollywood’s Christian Toto interviews The Mighty Keith David, someone I had the pleasure of working with and getting to know during my time in Hollywood. Great guy. Even greater talent.

Hollywood Playbook: Thursday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Thursday's Top 5 News Items

‘Son of God’ Crucifixion: ‘Graphic … ‘Hard to Watch’ Capone of Ain’t It Cool News sat down with “Son of God” producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey for an extensive interview worth reading in its entirety. Something I had been

'Thor: The Dark World' Bluray Review

If you enjoyed the first “Thor” film, there is no reason you won’t enjoy the sequel. And based on its gargantuan box office ($640 million worldwide), quite a few people did.   — All the elements that made “Thor” a

Harry Reid on ObamaCare 'Horror Stories': 'All Are Untrue'

Harry Reid on ObamaCare 'Horror Stories': 'All Are Untrue'

With the help of a media much more interested in fact-checking cancer patients who oppose The State than they ever were in vetting ObamaCare or Obama’s years-long lie promising you can keep your health insurance, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Hollywood Playbook: Wednesday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Wednesday's Top 5 News Items

“Godzilla is the one who knocks” I wish I could take credit for the Walter White reference, but I saw it on Twitter… — — We are in a new era of blockbusters with more intensity and edge as opposed

UK Job Site Refuses to Help Piers Morgan

Oh, ouch… And awesome. — We’ll always do our best to help anyone find a new job. With one exception. pic.twitter.com/qgUyebpw0y — Jobsite UK (@JobsiteUK) February 25, 2014  

CNN's Nugent Rampage Leads to Disastrous Ratings

CNN's Nugent Rampage Leads to Disastrous Ratings

CNN is a cable news network in its death throes. As ratings return to near-historic lows, CNN chief Jeff Zucker is obviously making terrible decisions while in panic-mode. Just-released ratings show that CNN’s stupid, wildly hypocritical and hysterical rampage against

Hollywood Playbook: Tuesday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Tuesday's Top 5 News Items

‘Groundhog Day’ Should’ve Won Harold Ramis a Screenplay Oscar When you are knocking around Hollywood hoping to become a screenwriter, you always ask the studios what they are looking for, and more than one development executive told me, “Something like

The Timeless Comedy Legacy of Harold Ramis

The Timeless Comedy Legacy of Harold Ramis

Harold Ramis was a god. Not THE God, but a god. That is me paraphrasing one of dozens of forever-quotable lines scripted by comedy writer/director/actor Harold Ramis, who died today at age 69. When it comes to an artistic career

CNN Chief Jeff Zucker's Top 5 Mistakes

CNN Chief Jeff Zucker's Top 5 Mistakes

CNN’s ratings are once again edging up against record lows and now that Piers Morgan is on the way out, the cable news network has two full hours of primetime real estate to plug. CNN is a failing network. Jeff

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Items

Hollywood Playbook: Monday's Top 5 News Items

Another *Yawn* Alec Baldwin Meltdown Just when you think being rich, handsome, enormously talented, married to a beautiful young woman and the father of a new baby might help Alec Baldwin find some inner-peace and stop him from baring his

WIRE: Country Could Be Split in Two

WIRE: Country Could Be Split in Two

With a power vacuum and what looks to be a long struggle to see who will rule in Kiev, the Associated Press reports today on the possibility of the Ukraine being split in two. Though supposedly ousted in a coup,