There was a time when you could go to Disneyland and get a guided tour of the "jungle" on a ride aptly called the Jungle Cruise. You would board a boat (really just a vessel that rode on a track a couple of feet below the surface of the water), and be guided by a seasoned jungle guide (some pimply kid from Orange County hired by Disney) who would fire a gun (a prop cap gun that made a loud noise) at suddenly emerging hippos and indigenous natives (animatronic robots) as you drifted perilously close to a waterfall (OK, that was real).

The line between what is true and what is a lie is often blurred. What used to be the truth is now couched in terms like "plausible deniability," or "white lies and half truths," or "political spin."

Sometimes a lie is soft and expected, especially when fishing for compliments. Other times, a lie can be as jarring and cold as picking up the phone and finding a Sarah Palin robo-call at the other end of the line.

There are lies, and there are damned lies.

At the end of the day, however, a lie is what it is: a lie.

We're all justifiably intolerant of those who pepper their daily ravings with the "N" word.

I remember growing up, how that word would never be spoken in my San Fernando Valley liberal Jewish home. Years later, driving car pool in post apocalyptic Woodland Hills, I would reach back across the carseat almost daily to thrash any young friend of my son's who would greet those we pass on the street with a, "Yo, my N-word!" -- thinking it to be an innocent MTVism endorsed by Snoop or Dr. Dre.

Dear supporters:

I watched a movie last night that affected me deeply: "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."

It's a story told through a young boy's eyes (the son of the commanding officer of a concentration camp) about the Holocaust, and in particular a relationship between the boy and another his age who is separated by barbed wire.

In a classic case of "biting the hand that feeds you," I'm going to start off this blog post by complaining about the coverage of our Evening Before the Emmys rally that I read on The Wrap.

I was involved in a presentation to the Animation Guild Local 839 last Thursday night. Having been invited after its board steadfastly refused to endorse our efforts to stop the Long Term Care closure, I felt the warm breezes of acceptance and understanding from Guild president Kevin Koch. He graciously extended the invitation to both us and the MPTF scoundrels after many a shared e-mail and phone conversation.

Last week, we received word that the Teamsters have joined SAG in standing up against the closure of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Long Term Care facility. Our momentum in ramping up the heat is moving faster than the spinning dial on my bathroom scale.     Still, in the afterglow of this momentous development, I was surfing the IATSE website and came across a document that the MPTF is trying to put over entitled "Setting the Record Straight."

Another public relations attempt by the MPTF looks like it is crashing and burning at this very moment.

Hawk Kock, the dapper yet grizzled self-appointed spokesperson for the fund, has taken to YouTube to broadcast yet more of its message of doom.

This 'tour de farce' that is making the rounds of the various unions and guilds now comes to you over your own computer.

Immediately following SAG's vote to denounce the closing of the Motion
Picture Home's Long Term Care Center, the MPTF issued a press release from
Frank Mancuso that read, in part:

"It would be a disservice to our community to force into bankruptcy this
indispensable organization simply because family members of the 84 people
living in the facility prefer to have them remain there."

For over six months -- once the families of the residents received that fateful letter from the MPTF -- we've been fighting tooth and nail to keep the long term care center of the Motion Picture Home open, and to elicit support from the entertainment community.