Hollywood Playbook: Friday's Top 5 News Items

1. Zombies Vs. Boy Scouts

According to The Hollywood Reporter “Scouts vs. Zombies” is a real thing that will involve boy scouts and will begin production in a couple of months.

What’s the line in Vegas for the number of Boy-Scouts-Hate-Gays jokes we’re going to have to suffer through?

No thanks.

2. Cable Companies: More Avid TV Viewers Planning on Cutting the Cord

Ten-percent of those polled plan to cut the cable cord.

It is hard to imagine a world where television shows and cable news channels might lose their immoral bundled cable racket and be forced to choose programming based on the actual number of people who tune in, but that day might be coming.

Have you stuck it to The Man, CNN, MSNBC, and all the other left-wing bilge on cable by canceling your bundled cable?

If not, you need to … for America.

3. Is It Time to Forgive Mel Gibson?

One entertainment reporter think it is time to forgive Mel Gibson and so does Ace of Ace of Spades.

Fair enough. But forgiving Mel Gibson is a little different than tolerating his presence in the pressure-cooker of the working environment that is film production. Putting the racism aside (and not lightly), I’d pump gas before I’d risk having anything to do with a screamer, and Gibson appears to be something of a screamer.

I am as sensitive to the idea of today’s Hollywood blacklist as anyone, but I’m not sure it is fair to include Gibson among the blacklisted. It seems like a natural human reaction to not want to work with a man guilty of saying what he did about Jews and who used the appalling phrase “pack of niggers.”

One fit of racist rage is much easier to forgive than a second. Lashing out to hurt someone in that way can be excused as a moment of weakness the first time. Gibson was caught twice. That feels more like a revelation of who a person is.

Sure, people can change, and I truly hope Gibson has. But that’s a little different than taking a multi-million dollar chance he hasn’t.

Great actor. Great movie star. Great director. I can watch his movies but I’m not sure I would risk a year of my life and a fortune on him.

4. ‘You want to go down in history as the man that killed the funk?’

Here is the trailer for the new James brown biopic ‘Get On Up.’ It looks like a sense of humor and fun might separate it from the tired “Ray,” “Walk the Line” template.

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