Hollywood, D.C.

  • Howard Dean’s Bro Goes After Lou Dobbs

    CNN’s Lou Dobbs has never exactly been the friend of liberal activists.   First there was his campaign to strengthen immigration enforcement, and more recently the on-air time he has devoted to so-called “birthers” who insist President Obama wasn’t really born in Hawaii — even as Dobbs says they are wrong. Now, though, his comments…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Obama to Recognize Poitier

    Actor Sidney Poitier and actress, singer and dancer Chita Rivera will be among the 16 recipients of President Obama’s first Medal of Freedom Awards as president next month, the White House said Thursday. They will be part of a group that includes physicist Stephen Hawking, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Billie Jean King, former Supreme Court Justice…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Countdown With … Howard Dean

    Keith Olbermann certainly isn’t afraid to offer opinions on his MSNBC-TV "Countdown" show. Generally, those opinions tend a little towards the liberal side.   OK, maybe that could be a slight understatement, considering Olbermann’s long running and nightly criticism of the Bush administration and its officials that includes as a signoff the number of days…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Senate Fills Final 2 FCC Slots

    The U.S. Senate without debate today confirmed President Obama’s last two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission. The move will put the normally five-member FCC at its full strength for the first time since January. Confirmed today were Democrat Mignon Clyburn and Republican Meredith Attwell Baker. Clyburn is a former South Carolina utility commissioner and…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Hee-Haw, It’s the White House

    Who knew that Barack Obama would have a country music night so early in his presidency. Well it’s happening Tuesday night at the White House. Country music stars Alison Kraus, Brad Paisley and Charlie Pride are heading to 1600 Pennsylvania as part of a White House Music Series that will be broadcast live on the…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Kal Penn (Finally) Goes To Washington

    After a much touted move from in front of the cameras to behind the scenes, former "House" star Kal Penn finally started work today as an Associate Director in the Obama administration’s Office of Public Engagement.   In a conference call organized Monday by the White House, Penn dodged the reasons for why there had…

    By

    Dominic Patten

  • Obama Gets Disneyized

    Someday your dream will come.    For Disney’s Magic Kingdom Theme Park in Orlando, the dream of having an audio animatronic President Obama comes true on the Fourth of July.   The White House today posted a video on its website of the President in March taping an introduction that his image will deliver at…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Obama Wins at Cannes

    OK, your ads helped do the seemingly impossible in electing Barack Obama as President of the United States.   Then on top of it you find out that in a pretty usual forum for examining political ads — the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival — you win the top prize for ads worldwide last year…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • The Ben Silverman-Barack Obama Show

    It’s a White House visit for Ben Silverman, co-chair of NBC Entertainment and Universal Studios.   In Washington for Wednesday night’s premiere of “The Philanthropist” that was co-sponsored by the Creative Coalition and Microsoft’s Bing search engine,  Silverman was due Thursday to join the star of the program, James Purefoy, and others involved in the…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Obama to First-Pitch the All-Star Game

    It only seems logical, really.   President Obama, a longtime Chicago White Sox fan who sometimes would show up on the campaign trail wearing a Sox hat, is returning the tradition of the president throwing out the first ball at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.   Major League Baseball said Tuesday that Obama would…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • Mr. Genachowski Goes to Congress

    The country’s digital TV transition now history, Congress Tuesday gets its first view of what else President Obama could have coming from the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate Commerce Committee is slated to hold a confirmation hearing on the president’s nomination of his close friend and campaign adviser Julius Genachowski as the new FCC chairman,…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • NAB President Rehr Ousted

    David K. Rehr is out as president-CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters. And while some are saying privately that it’s a case of the wrong person hired for the job, others say it’s the job itself that has gotten impossible as the interests of individual broadcasters increasingly diverge. Rehr, former CEO of the National…

    By

    Ira Teinowitz

  • The Annual Invasion of Celebs

    Hollywood celebs are gearing up for their annual invasion of the nation’s capital at the White House Correspondents Dinner on May 9. This year’s event promises to attract even more of them now that celebrity-in-chief Barack Obama is in the Oval Office. People magazine has snagged Sting and wife Trudie Styler, Eva Longoria Parker, Kevin Bacon,…

    By

    Susan Mandel

  • Smashing Pumpkin Testifies for Pay-for-Play Radio

    Last week, it was Eminem trying – and failing – to get artists a bigger piece of the downloading pie. Now it’s Smashing Pumpkins, up against radio. Billy Corgan, the group’s founder and lead singer, has joined the roster of top-name artists who have appeared on Capitol Hill in the last few weeks seeking compensation…

    By

    Johanna Neuman

  • Clooney Blogs on Darfur

    Actor and activist George Clooney has already brought his plea for peace in Darfur to the White House. In separate meetings last month, he pressed both President Obama and Vice President Biden to resuscitate diplomatic efforts to end the atrocities and starvation in  war-torn Sudan. Now the 47-year-old actor is blogging about his experiences on…

    By

    Johanna Neuman