Tag: Politics (14-26 of 102)

Nov 7 2012 01:39 PM ET

Does Mitt Romney's loss mean Jason Sudeikis will leave 'SNL'?

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Image Credit: NBC

Four more years… of Jay Pharoah on Saturday Night Live! Barack Obama’s reelection all but ensures that SNL‘s talented impressionist will enjoy job security through at least 2016. But the status of Pharoah’s sparring buddy is a lot less certain. Mitt Romney’s big loss could easily mean that Jason Sudeikis will soon go the way of Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg, two longtime SNL cast members who exited the show at the end of last season. Sure, Sudeikis also plays Obama’s vice president — but can we really expect him to stick around just to occasionally caricature Joe Biden?

Rumors about Sudeikis’s impending departure began flying last spring and intensified over the summer — especially after Sudeikis himself hinted he was on his way out in interviews with Men’s Journal, Rolling Stone, and the L.A. Times. But in September, NBC confirmed that Sudeikis was sticking around for Saturday Night Live‘s 38th season — or, at least, the first half of it. “Right now the idea is that Jason will go through at least until January,” Lorne Michaels told the New York Times. Sudeikis became a featured player on SNL in 2005.

If he does say “adios” in early 2013, Sudeikis won’t be the first cast member to exit SNL mid-season.  READ FULL STORY »

Nov 5 2012 02:29 PM ET

'South Park' makes bold election prediction with Wednesday's ep, titled 'Obama Wins!'

Who will lead the United States for the next four years? We won’t know for sure until tomorrow night — but according to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, President Obama should expect to achieve victory. Well, on South Park, anyway.

Comedy Central revealed today that the animated comedy’s next episode, which airs the day after the election, is titled “Obama Wins!” But don’t take this as a sign that Parker and Stone have gotten liberal in their old age. The pair has spent 16 seasons gleefully skewering targets from all over the political spectrum, resisting easy labels like “reactionary” or “progressive.” (This is how Stone summed up their political beliefs in 2001: “I hate conservatives but I really f—ing hate liberals.”)

South Park‘s 2008 election episode avoided political commentary altogether, mocking voters from both parties for overreacting to the contest’s results. The episode also posited that the election was actually an elaborate smokescreen built to conceal Obama and John McCain’s true goal: stealing the Hope Diamond from the Smithsonian.

The bottom line: We should definitely take “Obama Wins!” with a grain of salt. Here’s a tantalizingly brief clip from the episode, which reveals how Eric Cartman may hold the key to the election’s outcome:

READ FULL STORY »

Nov 4 2012 10:00 AM ET

'SEAL Team Six' director John Stockwell: Q&A

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Image Credit: National Geographic

Tonight, the film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden premieres on the National Geographic Channel (8 p.m. ET) before becoming available to Netflix members in the U.S. on Nov. 5. Having already making headlines for its pre-election airdate — which director John Stockwell, distributor/Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein, and National Geographic have insisted is not politically motivated — the film uses composite characters to dramatize the events surrounding the killing of bin Laden. EW spoke with Stockwell.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Is there anything you’d like to make clear about Harvey Weinstein’s involvement with the film?
JOHN STOCKWELL: Well, he didn’t make me change the story so that it’s the president who fires the fatal shot that kills Osama bin Laden. Honestly, he’s so into this story, he’s so proud of our special forces and our intelligence community. He did afford us the ability to get some stock footage and news footage into the movie, the same way he did with The Queen and The Iron Lady. He didn’t choose the date, that was chosen by the National Geographic Channel, and they are majority owned by [News Corporation’s Fox Cable Networks], so I don’t think it was a political decision — at least not one that was intended to get the president re-elected. Harvey came in really late in the game, after I’d done my director’s cut, so he didn’t influence the actual movie very much. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 1 2012 03:13 PM ET

'The Simpsons': Watch Mr. Burns endorse Mitt Romney -- VIDEO

The following will come as good news to those in Mitt Romney’s camp who’ve been wanting him to shore up the geriatric-billionaire vote: Mr. Burns from The Simpsons has come out in support of the former Massachusetts governor less than a week before the 2012 Presidential election!

Check out this video from The Simpsons, in which the ruthless tycoon tries to spin his case for Romney. Turns out, he’s not concerned about the “47 percent” tape or “the tax returns that Wesley Snipe would call suspicious,” but rather the tale of a certain Romney family pet who saw part of our great country from the roof of a car. After you watch, feel free to tell us your choice for 2012: Broccoli Obama, Meat Romney, or a write-in for Mayor Quimby? (We already know how Homer voted.)

Read more:
Obama or Romney? Homer Simpson votes for…. — VIDEO

Oct 25 2012 12:43 PM ET

'SEAL Team Six' training montage -- EXCLUSIVE CLIP

The film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden doesn’t premiere on the National Geographic Channel until Nov. 4, but it’s already making headlines for a pre-election airdate and an edit to include more news and documentary footage of President Obama. (National Geographic, director John Stockwell, and distributor/Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein have insisted the timing and recutting aren’t politically motivated but instead an effort to beat Kathryn Bigelow’s similarly-themed big-screen Zero Dark Thirty to the punch while helping to promote NGC’s fall schedule and to ground the project in realism.) In our exclusive clip below of the SEALs training for the mission, featuring Anson Mount and Robert Knepper, Obama audio is used to set the scene.  READ FULL STORY »

Oct 22 2012 08:25 PM ET

ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz on the art of national debate moderating

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Image Credit: Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

Bob Schieffer has a big task ahead of him tonight presiding over the third and final presidential debate. No debate moderator comes out of the experience completely unscathed, but ABC News Foreign Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz’s performance in the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan — watched by 51.4 million viewers — was met with largely positive reviews. Raddatz talked to EW about what goes into moderating a huge political debate. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 15 2012 01:44 PM ET

Mitt Romney cancels 'View' appearance

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Image Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/GettyImages

Mitt Romney is breaking Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s heart!

Gov. Romney will not be appearing on The View this Thursday, as his campaign had previously announced. His wife Ann will instead be interviewed by herself.

On Monday’s show, Barbara Walters said, “Gov. Romney was supposed to be on with us this Thursday with Ann Romney. We were looking forward to it. Over the weekend, his people said that he had scheduling problems and would not be coming on with us. Nor at this point did he feel that he could reschedule. We are happy to have Mrs. Romney on with us. We are sorry that we won’t have Governor Romney and that’s the situation…He can change his mind and we hope he does. It would be our pleasure to have him on the program.”

For those that had their heart set on seeing a presidential candidate on TV this Thursday, have no fear. President Obama will visit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that night.

Read more:
Ann Romney on ‘Tonight Show’: Mitt ‘is a guy that I know cares’ — VIDEO
President and First Lady visit ‘The View,’ talk jobs, marriage, and their first kiss
Presidential debates: A history of the biggest gaffes and zingers

Oct 9 2012 02:26 PM ET

'New Normal' tweaks One Million Moms -- VIDEO

The socially conservative organization One Million Moms — which first made waves protesting Ellen DeGeneres’ role as a spokesperson for JCPenney’s — is not a fan of the Ryan Murphy universe. Over the summer, the protested his yet-to-be-seen sitcom, The New Normal, saying, “NBC is using public airwaves to continue to subject families to the decay of morals and values, and the sanctity of marriage in attempting to redefine marriage. These things are harmful to our society, and this program is damaging to our culture.”

On tonight’s The New Normal, Murphy responds. Jane (Ellen Barkin) is rallying the conservative troops (a.k.a some middle schoolers whose parents have Romney bumper stickers on their car) to protest a fake wedding between Jane’s granddaughter Shania and another classmate. She calls the girls “Future One Million Moms” as the girls repeat right-wing talking points such as “Marriage is between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” and “Gay marriage is currently legal in six states. My mom says that’s six too many.”

Watch the clip below: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 8 2012 03:47 PM ET

National Geographic says 'SEAL Team Six' airdate before election isn't political

The National Geographic Channel will premiere the feature-length film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden on Nov. 4, two days before the presidential election. The film, which dramatizes the events surrounding the killing of Bin Laden and was originally produced by The Hurt Locker‘s Nicolas Chartier for a theatrical release, will then be available to Netflix members in the U.S. on Nov. 5.

Per the announcement, the deal arose after a discussion between NGC President Howard T. Owens and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company, the distributor of the film, regarding the insight the movie provides into this moment in the War on Terror and American history. Noting that Weinstein is a supporter of President Obama, who greenlit the successful raid, the deal with Nat Geo (which is a joint venture between National Geographic and News Corporation’s Fox Cable Networks) could seem carefully timed to benefit the president at the polls. In a statement, National Geographic Channel denies that politics played any part in the deal: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 5 2012 09:29 AM ET

Ann Romney to guest-host 'Good Morning America'

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Image Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Katie Couric, Oprah Winfrey, and Chris Rock are already on tap to fill in for GMA‘s Robin Roberts while she recovers from a bone marrow transplant. Now another name has joined their ranks: Ann Romney, dressage enthusiast and wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

According to the Associated Press, Ann will host from the anchor desk during Good Morning America‘s 8 a.m. hour next Wednesday, Oct. 10. ABC tells EW that the potential first lady is technically a special guest host rather than a replacement for Roberts, though she will be sitting in Roberts’ spot next to George Stephanopoulos. ABC is trying to arrange a similar guest-hosting stint for First Lady Michelle Obama, though her schedule may not allow for it.

Romney’s GMA appearance comes in the wake of Wednesday’s first presidential debate, widely believed to have been a convincing win for her husband. It will also occur one day before the vice-presidential debate in Danville, Ky.

Read more:
Robin Roberts undergoing bone marrow transplant today; thanks fans for support
‘Today’ skips 9/11 moment of silence to air interview with Kardashian mom
Ann Romney on ‘Tonight Show’: Mitt ‘is a guy that I know cares’ — VIDEO

Sep 26 2012 08:10 PM ET

'Dirty Jobs' host talks at Mitt Romney event -- VIDEO

Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel’s hit Dirty Jobs is taking the stage for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Go ahead Dems, make the joke, we’ll wait…

“We have unintentionally disconnected ourselves in a really fundamental way from the most important part of our workforce,” Rowe said at one of Romney’s campaign stops in Ohio on Wednesday. “The people who keep the lights out, the people who allow the toilets to work … those are the heroes of Dirty Jobs… The reason it’s still on the air today is back in 2008, as many of you know all too well, the headlines in the country started to catch up to the themes in Dirty Jobs.” READ FULL STORY »

Sep 20 2012 02:35 PM ET

Obama or Romney? Homer Simpson votes for.... -- VIDEO

In 2008, Homer had a little trouble casting a ballot for Barack Obama, and wound up voting six times for John McCain before he was sucked into the machine. Will it go any better for him this year on Election Day? Check out this preview clip from an upcoming episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer shows up at his voting station without proper identification before weighing his options of President Obama (“I already got one wife telling me to eat healthy”) and Mitt Romney (“I hear he wears magic underpants”). After casting his vote, Homer catches a shocking glimpse at Mitt’s tax returns, which leads to… well, see for yourself.

The Simpsons kicks off season 24 on Sept. 30 on Fox. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 18 2012 09:48 PM ET

Obama responds to Romney video on 'Letterman': 'As president you represent the entire country'

President Obama is making his second-ever Late Show with David Letterman appearance Tuesday night, and Dave couldn’t resist asking the incumbent for his reaction to the election buzz of the week — yes, that video in which his opponent, Mitt Romney, is caught on camera saying that 47 percent of the voting public don’t matter to him. CBS released some of the interview early on YouTube.

“One of the things I’ve learned as president is you represent the entire country,” Obama said, in an appearance that starts off with some humor, but gets pretty serious quickly. ”My expectation is if you want to be president you have to work for everybody and not just work for some”

Letterman did joke with Obama about staying fit (he weighs 180, for those keeping score at home).

For the rest of the interview, Letterman airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS and we’ll have our take on the President’s appearance later tonight. Check out the preview below:
READ FULL STORY »

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