 | Over 80,000 ecommerce brands trust Shopify. Get started with a 14 day free trial. From our sponsors |
| CNN.com - Top Stories |
| CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more. |
Parents scared to let kids learn
5/14/2014 3:56:59 PM
- Up to 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped by Boko Haram from Chibok, Nigeria
- Parents, children say they are now too scared to go to school in the region
- Father tells CNN: "No one can afford losing their daughter"
Chibok, Nigeria (CNN) -- It's the beginning of the second semester in public schools across Nigeria and students are flocking back after the vacation.
But in most of Borno state, the heartland of the militant group Boko Haram, the desks are empty and the playing fields are quiet.
Western education is a sin in the eyes of the terror group --- and nowhere has that message more clearly hit home than in their recent horrific attack on Chibok Girls Secondary School. Only the walls of the classrooms, library and science laboratories remain: a charred shell of what was once, the pride of Chibok.
But even more painful is the fact that more than 200 of the girls who took classes here are still missing, kidnapped from the school during that night of terror.
Daniel Muvia, a resident of Chibok who witnessed the attack on his village, says he is too scared to take his daughters to school. Since the attack he's kept them at home, where he felt they would be safer.
"I am scared of sending them to school," he says. "I'm not feeling good that they're at home and I'm not feeling good to send them to school because of the attacks."
Muvia's dilemma mirrors that of almost every parent in Chibok: torn between education for their child and their family's safety.
On the way to Chibok from Abuja, the country's capital, travelers meet one police or military checkpoint after another. But join the main rough dirt road to Chibok and the government security presence seems to taper off.
It all leaves local residents feeling vulnerable and afraid. Muvia couldn't forgive himself if he sent his daughter to school and then heard that something had happened to her. "No one can afford losing their daughter," he says.
In an article on his website "Education for All" Gordon Brown, the U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, says 10.5 million children in Nigeria are yet to go to school and that the high levels of illiteracy are now an economic problem, as well as a social disaster, for the country.
Analysts say that if the Boko Haram attacks on schools continue unabated then those levels of illiteracy will significantly increase, further compromising the future of the country's young people.
CNN interviewed one of the girls who managed to escape from Boko Haram on the night they were taken from their dormitory. Though she hopes to go back to school soon so she can fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor, she's still very scared. "If in Chibok, I'll never go again," she says.
But like many families in the area her family is too poor to send her to a boarding school far away from the village. All the people in Chibok seem to have left is hope. Muvia prays a day will come when his daughters will be free to pursue their futures and become lawyers, doctors or engineers.
"When I see all these people doing their jobs, I have the desire -- or the hope -- that I want my children to be like them," he says.
"I have very high hopes for them."
READ: 'Fear is everywhere:' Boko Haram threat keeps abducted Nigerian girls' village awake
READ: The road to Boko Haram's heartland
READ: Opinion: Negotiation, not force, way to #BringBackOurGirls
Israel's Ehud Olmert gets six years
5/13/2014 4:57:20 AM
- A judge says Ehud Olmert took bribes from a developer while he was mayor of Jerusalem
- The developer had been previously convicted of bribing Olmert and other officials
Jerusalem (CNN) -- Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for taking bribes while mayor of Jerusalem.
Olmert was also fined 1 million shekels (about $289,000), Israeli state radio IB reported.
Olmert was convicted in March of receiving about $161,000 in bribes related to a controversial Jerusalem housing project called Holyland. The judge acquitted Olmert on a third count of bribery.
The developer of Holyland, Hillel Cherney, had been previously convicted of bribing Olmert and other high-level officials in exchange for Holyland approvals.
Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.
Olmert, an attorney who in 1973 became the youngest person ever elected to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009.
He announced his resignation shortly after police recommended corruption charges against him.
In August 2012, he was convicted of breach of trust and acquitted on two corruption-related charges after a trial that lasted nearly three years. He was given a 3-month suspended jail sentenced and fined about $19,000 in that case.
The allegations stemmed from Olmert's time as mayor as well as prime minister. Prosecutors accused him of double-billing government agencies for travel, taking cash from an American businessman in exchange for official favors and acting on behalf of his former law partner's clients.
READ: 2012: Ex-Israeli prime minister accused of corruption gets mixed verdict
READ: Former Israeli Prime Minister's exclusive interview with Christiane Amanpour
NASA plan: Land people on asteroids
5/13/2014 9:46:17 AM
- NASA wants to land astronauts on an asteroid in the 2020s
- Its strategy is to capture an asteroid and put it in orbit around the moon
- Two astronauts have been simulating an asteroid landing at a space center
- Rock samples from an asteroid may garner information about the solar system
(CNN) -- This isn't a real-life recreation of "Armageddon." There's no clear and present threat to Earth.
But NASA says it's working on plans to send astronauts into space to land on an asteroid.
The NASA mission isn't planned to take place until the 2020s. That isn't stopping astronauts from simulating an asteroid landing in a 40-foot-deep swimming pool at a Space Center in Houston.
"We're working on the techniques and tools we might use someday to explore a small asteroid that was captured from an orbit around the sun and brought back by a robotic spacecraft to orbit around the moon," said Stan Love, one of the astronauts participating in the tests.
Testing tools
"When it's there, we can send people there to take samples and take a look at it up close," he said. "That's our main task; we're looking at tools we'd use for that, how we'd take those samples."
Love and his colleague Steve Bowen, who between them have clocked up more than 62 hours on real spacewalks, took a dip in the swimming pool at NASA's Johnson Space Center last week to practice climbing out of a mockup of the Orion spacecraft onto a fake asteroid.
Being underwater creates the lack of gravity that allows astronauts to practice walking in space.
The two men were working with engineers to try out tools that might be used, like a pneumatic hammer, as well as the type of spacesuit that might be worn on the asteroid.
Searching for targets
NASA says it's already trying to pick out an asteroid that a robotic mission could reach, capture and bring into an orbit around the moon. Astronauts would then travel on the Orion spacecraft to explore the asteroid and collect samples.
Material from the asteroid's core could contain information about the age and formation of the solar system.
The agency says the approach "makes good use of capabilities NASA already has, while also advancing a number of technologies needed for longer-term plans: sending humans to Mars in the 2030s."
Astronomers find first asteroid with rings
Study: Solar system full of 'rogue' asteroids
Antarctic ice melt seems 'inevitable'
5/12/2014 11:56:39 PM
- Warm currents, other factors have caused chain reaction, NASA says
- Region has enough ice to raise global sea levels by 4 feet, scientists say
- Researchers: Melting could take several hundred years, but could have impact this century
(CNN) -- New research shows a major section of west Antarctica's ice sheet will completely melt in coming centuries and probably raise sea levels higher than previously predicted, revealing another impact from the world's changing climate.
According to a study released Monday, warm ocean currents and geographic peculiarities have helped kick off a chain reaction at the Amundsen Sea-area glaciers, melting them faster than previously realized and pushing them "past the point of no return," NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot told reporters.
The glacial retreat there "appears unstoppable," said Rignot, lead author of a joint NASA-University of California Irvine paper that used 40 years of satellite data and aircraft studies.
NASA says the region has enough ice to raise global sea levels by 4 feet. According to Rignot, conservative estimates indicate the complete melting of the Antarctic ice cited in the study could take several centuries.
However, the melting could have an impact this century, according to Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University.
The United Nations' most recent climate change report estimated sea levels could rise from about 1 foot to 3 feet by 2100. Such a rise could displace tens of millions of people from coastal areas around the world.
Anandakrishnan said the U.N. estimate largely didn't take into account the melting ice sheet from west Antarctica, because few studies for that area had been completed.
"So as this paper and others come out, the (U.N.) numbers for 2100 will almost certainly" lean closer to 3 feet, he said.
Why scientists think it's unstoppable
The rate at which the area's ice is melting has increased 77% since 1973, and there are several reasons, researchers said.
The ice sheet there, unlike those in much of east Antarctica, is attached to a bed below sea level. That means ocean currents can deliver warm water at the glaciers' base, or grounding lines -- places where the ice attaches to the bed, NASA said.
The heat makes the grounding line retreat inland, leaving a less massive ice shelf above. When ice shelves lose mass, they can't hold back inland glaciers from flowing toward the sea. Glaciers then flow faster and become thin as a result, and this thinning is conducive to more grounding-line retreat, NASA said.
"The system (becomes) a chain reaction that is unstoppable, (with) every process of retreat feeding the next one," Rignot said.
Iceberg is twice the size of Atlanta
A hill or a mountain behind the grounding line would slow this retreat. But the beds behind nearly all the Amundsen Sea glaciers slope downward, researchers said.
Rignot said he believes climate change and a depletion of the Earth's ozone layer are partly to blame, saying they have changed the winds in the area to cause more warm water to go toward the glaciers.
Climate change skeptics, many backed by a huge campaign funded by the fossil fuels industry, seek to undermine research findings on the impacts of what is popularly referred to as global warming. They challenge the scientific validity of climate change, as well as the role of human-produced pollution in contributing to it.
For example, such opponents of policies to reduce U.S. carbon emissions say the severe North American winter that just ended and evidence of increasing Antarctic sea ice defied the claims by scientists of a warming planet.
However, Rignot and Anandakrishnan said their findings on the west Antarctica ice shelf don't clash with news of the record levels of Antarctic sea ice. They noted that sea ice forms and melts quickly, while glaciers are subject to longer-term change.
Rignot added that the same winds that stir subsurface heat toward the base of Antarctic ice shelf also can expand sea ice cover.
Not a first
Such a melting would be uncommon, but not necessarily unprecedented, Anandakrishnan said. Evidence shows that west Antarctica retained an ice sheet during the last few 100,000-year cycles of glacial formation and retreat, he said.
But evidence also suggests the entire west Antarctica ice sheet might have melted 500,000 to 600,000 years ago, Anandakrishnan said.
The six Amundsen Sea glaciers are just a portion of the entire west Antarctic ice sheet. Though much of the other west Antarctic sections are grounded below sea level, the Amundsen Sea area is more vulnerable, in part because it has fewer hills behind the leading edges and because the shape of the sea floor helps usher more warm water to the base, NASA said.
Anandakrishnan said it was possible that the melting in the Amundsen Sea area could destabilize other ice sheets. The entire west Antarctic ice sheet has enough ice to raise the global sea level by about 16 feet, NASA said.
Bearded lady Conchita appalls Russia
5/14/2014 5:46:38 AM
- Conchita Wurst, a "woman" with a full beard, overwhelmingly won Eurovision song contest
- Frida Ghitis: She became a lightning rod in culture war between the West and Russia
- Russia, known for anti-gay laws, demanded that Conchita be removed from the contest
- Ghitis: When asked, Conchita's message to President Putin was "We are unstoppable"
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- A slender and stylish "woman" with a full dark beard -- yes, a beard -- stands in the middle of the roiling battle between Russia and the West, adding to the fury of a growing confrontation. Who could have imagined it?
I'm talking about the singer Conchita Wurst, alter ego of the Austrian artist Tom Neuwirth. Conchita just won the hugely popular Eurovision contest with overwhelming public support, turning herself into an instant international superstar, a fact that is apparently driving many influential Russians into a foot-stomping rage.
In theory, Eurovision, the venerable 58-year-old European tradition, is all about good feelings and understanding between neighbors in a continent once torn by war. In reality, it is a competition driven by crisscrossing rivalries and subtle political overtones.
This year the competition was something to behold.
More than 100 million viewers across dozens of countries tuned in on Saturday night. When Austria's turn came, the camera slowly zoomed in on the stylish figure in the golden dress standing in the middle of the giant stage. The camera moved in to reveal a thick, well-trimmed beard on the face of a woman with long black hair. Conchita sang "Rise Like a Phoenix," a theme evoking personal rebirth, transformation, and triumph.
We might have been able to hear the gasps of surprise that surely rose across European living rooms. We could not record those. But the competition did register the public reaction, and we know millions cheered, because Conchita won the competition.
And yet, not everyone found the performance all that inspiring.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent years redefined Russia as a rival, an opponent of the West. And among the aspects of "Western culture" that he has used to distinguish Russia from its rivals is its attitude toward equality for gays.
Putin has quite deliberately become the standard-bearer of traditional morality, cracking down mercilessly on Russian liberals, particularly on its gay and lesbian citizens, even foreign visitors, as part of an effort to stoke popular support in a country that, despite having lived through the cutting-edge social experiment of communism, remains deeply conservative.
The ongoing battle over Ukraine, which stands on the edge of civil war, was triggered by a push by Ukraine to strengthen its ties to the European Union, something Putin is loath to accept.
The dispute with Ukraine created tensions at the Eurovision contest. Since the voting includes phone and text, organizers had to decide what to do with the vote from Crimea, the province that Russia seized from Ukraine a few weeks ago. (They counted those votes as Ukrainian.)
But it was Conchita, "the bearded lady," who stuck like a stone inside the Putinists' shoes. Russia, along with Belarus and Armenia, filed petitions to remove Conchita from the competition, or at least edit her out of the broadcast.
Wurst didn't just sing. She wowed the viewers. And when the time came to vote, they texted and phoned in with abandon. She won the competition by a wide margin.
Who knows what exactly drove the vote? She sang well. But undoubtedly there were other factors at play. In the press conference after her victory, somebody asked her if she had a message for Putin.
She did.
"We are unstoppable."
That may be. But in Russia, life for people whose sexual orientation is out of the mainstream is rife with danger. A year ago, Putin signed a law banning gay "propaganda," which makes it illegal to even express support for gay rights in any manner. Gay parents worry about losing their children. Many are leaving the country. It's the tip of the iceberg of Putin's repression of the opposition.
Conchita would face harassment in Russia. She uses the pronoun "she" to refer to herself, and her sexual identity can make your head spin: She is the creation of Tom Neuwirth, who uses the pronoun "he" and describes it as having "two hearts beating in my chest." He created Conchita, complete with a fictional birthplace -- the mountains of Colombia -- to deal with the discrimination of his teenage years, when he liked to dress in girls' clothes. Conchita demolishes our conception of femininity and masculinity. She is an individual creation; Neuwirth's creation come to life.
But don't expect Russian politicians to have any understanding. The always outrageous ultranationalist member of parliament, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, declared that Conchita's win marks "the end of Europe. It has turned wild." He helpfully offered that "Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union occupied Austria ... we should have stayed there."
Of course, Zhirinovsky is not the man on whose judgment we should rely for issues of morality. A few weeks ago, he was confronted on live television by a Russian journalist, a pregnant woman, on the subject of Ukraine. He accused her of having "a uterine frenzy" and ordered one of his aides to "rape her violently."
Putin's deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin, used the Conchita victory to take a slap at Ukraine, sarcastically tweeting, "Eurovision showed the eurointegrators their europerspective -- a bearded girl." That was something of a limp slap.
A member of the St. Petersburg legislative assembly officially asked Russia's Eurovision committee to stop participating in the competition, thus to avoid having Russian performers on the same stage as "the clear transvestite and hermaphrodite Conchita Wurst," which would serve as propaganda for "moral decay."
The despicable Zhirinovsky -- whom I had the inerasable experience of meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, many years ago (he was wearing revealing Speedos doing laps in the hotel pool) -- said: "There are no more men or women in Europe. Just it."
He might have thought the quip very clever. In reality, Conchita showed us that there are many kinds of people in Europe -- including in Russia.
And the people who voted for the new Eurovision champion showed they are very consciously throwing their support behind someone who represents openness, inclusiveness, and the possibility of becoming a human being that may not conform to the standards set by others.
With that, European television viewers sent a message to Putin, and to Russia, and to all the people who would like to fight to keep the world from changing. And they put Conchita, in her full-length evening gown, with her bearded face, right in the middle of that battlefield.
China targets GSK for bribery
5/14/2014 9:52:33 PM
Chinese officials have announced that they will investigate GSK for bribery and price inflation. David McKenzie reports.
If your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed, click above to play. Otherwise, click below.
Russia tensions hit space station
5/14/2014 6:12:43 AM
- Russia to stop using orbiting laboratory in 2020, deputy prime minister says
- U.S. depends on Russian spacecraft to get to the station with end of shuttle program
- NASA says it has not received notification, notes long-standing cooperation
(CNN) -- Russia said it does not plan to use the International Space Station beyond 2020, casting a shadow on U.S. plans to continue cooperation with the country and extend the life of the orbiting laboratory until at least 2024.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters Tuesday that Russia is looking to redirect its attention to other projects after 2020. His comments come as tensions mount over U.S. sanctions on Russia for its role in the crisis in Ukraine.
NASA released a statement saying that the U.S. space agency "has not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."
NASA added that cooperation in space has been a hallmark of U.S.-Russian relations, even during the Cold War, and it pointed to the past 13 years of continuous human presence on the orbiting outpost.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki echoed that the United States and Russia have a long history of cooperation in space and that the United States hopes it will continue.
At present, the U.S. space program relies on the Russian program. Ever since NASA retired its aging shuttle fleet in 2011, the only way for astronauts to reach the space station is aboard a Russian Soyuz craft.
Private industry has filled a gap by ferrying cargo in low-Earth orbit, and NASA has awarded cargo resupply contracts to the California-based SpaceX and the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Rogozin's statements. Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski told CNN that the company did not have an immediate reaction to the Russian reports, and he noted that the company's contract calls for the delivery of cargo to the speace station through 2016.
The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada are the principal countries involved in the operation of the International Space Station.
The history of human spaceflight
NASA to end most activities with Russia
CNN's Mike Ahlers, Greg Seaby and Samson Desta contributed to this report.
Reward offered in beheading case
5/14/2014 9:37:13 PM
- The FBI offers a reward of up to $20,000
- Shirley Dermond is missing and in danger; agencies ask anyone with more details to call
- Worried friends went to their home in upscale neighborhood, found body in garage
- Pastor describes parents of three as "beloved in the community"
(CNN) -- The FBI is offering a reward in its search for the wife of an 88-year-old Georgia man who was found decapitated.
It will pay "up to $20,000 for information leading to the location of Shirley Wilcox Dermond and/or the arrest of the individual(s) responsible for her disappearance," Special Agent Stephen Emmett of the FBI's Atlanta office said Wednesday.
Investigators are treating Dermond's disappearance as an abduction, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills has said. Investigators believe Russell Dermond of Eatonton, Georgia, was killed between May 2 and May 4, and they're still searching for his severed head, Sills told reporters last week.
With no breakthrough in the case, authorities are reaching out to commuters. The FBI commissioned at least 100 billboards throughout the state in its search for 87-year-old Shirley Dermond and her husband's killer.
The digital billboards say, "Missing and in danger," and include a photo of the gray-haired, blue-eyed Dermond, along with her height, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weight, 148 pounds.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the FBI's Atlanta field office at 404-679-9000 or the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 706-485-8557.
"They're basically running in all corners of the state," said the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia's executive director, Conner Poe. "They'll run once a minute, every minute, 24/7."
The billboards can be seen as far south as Valdosta, as far east as Brunswick, and as far north as Chattanooga, Tennessee, with 50 in metro Atlanta alone, Poe said.
There is no indication that Shirley Demond is a suspect, and there's "plenty" to indicate she was taken, Sills said. Her pocketbook, cell phone and vehicle were all at the million-dollar waterfront home.
"I don't think it's a random incident. I think for whatever reason these people were singled out for this," Sills said. "They live in the most exclusive neighborhood, or one of the most exclusive neighborhoods, in this county. ... They're on a cul-de-sac in a gated, multimillion-dollar resort community that we have no crime in."
The Dermonds' friends hadn't heard from them in days and went to their home in the lakeside Great Waters community, where they found Russell Dermond's headless body in the garage.
Authorities have searched Lake Oconee in the vicinity of the Dermonds' home -- turning up only a lawn chair and a Christmas tree -- and sent cadaver dogs into the nearby woods, to no avail, Sills said.
Residents described Reynolds Plantation -- a tony resort complex about 75 miles east of Atlanta, which also boasts a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course and a Ritz-Carlton Lodge -- as a safe enclave where people were comfortable leaving their doors unlocked.
The 3,300-square-foot home where the Dermonds had lived since 1994 is valued at more than $1 million.
The Rev. David Key of Lake Oconee Community Church last week said he has known the couple for about eight years and counts them among his church's 350 attendees. He said he's "baffled" as to why anyone would commit such crimes against them.
He described the couple of 68 years, who had three adult children, as grounded, "beloved in the community" and "sweet as can be."
CNN's Vivian Kuo, Devon M. Sayers, AnneClaire Stapleton and John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.
Jason Priestley: I regret leaving '90210'
5/14/2014 12:36:02 PM
- Jason Priestley told CNN he let Aaron Spelling down when he left "Beverly Hills, 90210"
- He also regrets his departure because "there were no more Walshes in the Walsh House"
- He directed the candle-lit episode where Donna loses her virginity
- His new book also talks rooming with Brad Pitt, a near-fatal car crash and fatherhood
(CNN) -- Jason Priestley played Brandon Walsh on "Beverly Hills 90210" from 1990 to 1998. Having long since hung up his Peach Pit uniform and Beverly Hills Beach Club cabana boy polo shirt, his character became a journalist and departed to take a job at the Washington Bureau of the New York Chronicle, and Priestley left the show four episodes into the series' ninth season.
"I felt that the character of Brandon had kind of run his course. I had explored everything I wanted to explore with him," Priestley told CNN while promoting his new book, "Jason Priestley: A Memoir" (HarperOne) at the New York Bureau of CNN.
"In retrospect, I do regret leaving. Understanding what I do now about story and character, I believe that [Aaron Spelling] was pushing the story in a direction that would have had Brandon and Kelly end up together at the end of the show and I think I probably should have stuck around to its fruition."
Fans of "90210" surely remember Kelly Taylor's (Jennie Garth) "I choose me" speech following Brandon and Dylan McKay's (Luke Perry) showdown for her affections. Brandon wanted Kelly to marry him. Dylan wanted to take her on a trip around the world. But Priestley believes Executive Producer Aaron Spelling had always envisioned Brandon and Kelly riding off into the sunset.
"I think my departure also hurt Aaron's feelings," continued Priestley. "Aaron and I had worked very closely together for a number of years. He gave me a lot of opportunities, and I feel like my departure hurt his feelings and I never meant to do that."
Among the opportunities Spelling afforded the Vancouver-born Priestley was the opportunity to direct several "90210" episodes -- 15 in total. In fact, Priestley directed two of the series' most iconic: The one where Dylan's wife, Toni Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart) was killed in a mob hit mix-up in which Dylan was the target; and the episode where Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) lost her virginity.
"Everyone remembers the candles," Priestly, 44, said of the episode in which Donna had sex for the first time. "But I could only have, like, six candles because they didn't want to pay for a fire marshal, which would have cost $350."
Yep. $350. So six candles it was.
"So I had that one candelabra," recalled Priestley, "and I kept moving it around for every shot and through the magic of Hollywood it looked like a lot of candles!"
As the director, as well as Spelling's friend, Priestley was under the added stress of directing a scene in which the TV legend's daughter loses her virginity -- albeit her alter ego.
"I was in a difficult spot," he said. "I wanted to be respectful, but it had to be sexy. I was kind of walking on eggshells that day."
Priestley also contributed to the dialogue of the show. True "90210" devotees should recall that Brandon had quite a few catchphrases, and Priestley was kind enough to reflect on such Brandon Walsh-isms as:
"Stop the bombing!"
"Seldom right and wrong again."
"Right church, wrong pew."
"Dim sum and den some."
"It's funny that you bring all those sayings up," said Priestley. "Part of the fun of working on 'Beverly Hills, 90210,' for me, was that I got a lot of freedom from our executive producer, Chuck Rosen, to add things, change things. I got a lot of freedom to be creative. My theater training was all improv, that's sort of the world I came from, so the Brandon Walsh-isms you speak of, a lot of them came from me! I've been saying, 'Stop the bombing!' for a long time."
Another reason Priestley regrets leaving "90210" is because the series needed Brandon's Eagle Scout ways to offset the onscreen chaos.
"I think there was no more moral center to the show," Priestley said of Brandon's departure. "There was no more lynchpin. There were no more Walshes in the Walsh House. It kind of didn't make sense anymore. So, I regret leaving the show for all those reasons."
Though it premiered nearly a quarter-century ago, "90210" continues to resonate with audiences.
"It's certainly not the fashions," said Priestley. "I think there were a lot of universal life lessons and truths in that show, and I think that's maybe why it's stood the test of time."
The book goes into all manner of "90210" tell-all, such as Shannen Doherty's shenanigans and what led to her firing. Brenda's bon voyage had nothing do do with Doherty's hard-partying ways and nightclub fights. Spelling actually thought that any publicity was good publicity. Rather, it was her chronic tardiness that held up production, costing Fox a ton of money.
Spelling gave Doherty many chances, but in the end, it was a business decision.
Priestley also writes about who he keeps in touch with (pretty much everybody, but he and Luke Perry are particularly close), his five-year romance with actress Christine Elise (who played the unstable but later redeemed, esteemed Cousteau Institute scholar Emily Valentine), and his not so warm and fuzzy feelings about Tori Spelling's husband, fellow Canadian Dean McDermott.
Priestley is at peace with being forever associated with Brandon Walsh.
"I'm OK with it," he told CNN. "It's baggage I carry with me. But I find as my career goes on, and I have more and more successes in other arenas and with other characters, I find that Brandon becomes less and less part of my life. I find that a lot of people associate me with 'Call Me Fitz' these days."
"Call Me Fitz" is an award-winning HBO Canada half-hour comedy -- available to Americans on DirecTV -- in which Priestley plays an immoral, Sinatra-idolizing used car salesman.
"Jason Priestley: A Memoir" also recalls the prefame days of having Brad Pitt for a roommate, Priestley's later battles with alcohol (he once spent five days in jail on a DUI), and the 2002 race car crash that nearly cost him his life.
Additionally on the professional horizon, Priestley's feature directorial debut, "Cas & Dylan," a road trip comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss, will hit theaters later this year.
Priestley is married to makeup artist Naomi Lowde. The couple has a young daughter and a young son.
"My kids are my greatest achievement," Priestley told CNN. "I love being a husband and a father. That aspect of my life has been a joy."
Former champion out of U.S. Open
5/14/2014 7:02:23 PM
- 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell out of this year's tournament
- New Zealander misses chance to return to scene of his famous triumph at Pinehurst
- Injury and personal problems mean he has withdrawn from 2014 tournament
Follow us at @WorldSportCNN and like us on Facebook
(CNN) -- Former U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell is to miss out on an emotional return to Pinehurst after withdrawing from this year's tournament.
The New Zealander, who won the 2005 edition of the grand slam on the North Carolina course, has pulled out citing personal and injury problems.
Campbell explained that he had only just recovered from an ankle injury and had recently separated from his wife Julie.
"Sorry I have been off the radar since playing at the 2014 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship," a statement on his personal website read.
"I have had some problems with a tendon in my left ankle that stopped me from playing for 2 to 3 months. The good news is that I am back swinging and now managing to play 18 holes.
"On a personal note, I have some sad news. Unfortunately Julie and I have separated. Our children remain our number one focus as we move forwards -- as parents first and foremost while remaining both friends and business partners.
"As I do not feel that I am either fully physically or mentally ready to play tournament golf at the highest level, after much deliberation, I have decided not to play in the BMW PGA Championship, the US Open or the events in between.
"I want to get back to my best and I believe this is the best strategy to achieve this."
The 45-year-old has endured a lean period since his 2005 U.S. Open triumph, all eight of his career wins coming in 2005 or before, but his is still one of the enduring major championship wins.
Campbell only secured his place at the 2005 tournament after making a birdie on the final hole of a qualifying competition at Walton Heath in England.
Then he held off the challenge of current world No. 1 Tiger Woods -- who was then at the peak of his major-winning powers -- to claim the title by two shots.
He became the first Kiwi in 42 years to claim a major championship, and though he finished tied for sixth at that year's US PGA Championship his game rapidly deserted him.
His third place at the Portugal Masters in October 2012 was his best finish since 2006 though he did record a handful of top-25 finishes in 2013.
Campbell's win at Pinehurst gave him a 10-year exemption at the tournament, meaning 2015 will be the last year he doesn't need to quality, but he now won't be able to relive any of those fond U.S Open memories at Pinehurst.
Read: Kaymer holds on at Players
Golf: Caddie dies, play continues
The danger of North Korea is no joke
5/14/2014 5:44:01 AM
- North Korean state media hurl foul insults against Obama, South Korea president, others
- Writers: U.N. report finds vile words nothing like the hate crimes against its own people
- Writers: Obama administration can't ignore regime that assists Iran, Syria, terror groups
- They say Pyongyang must be convinced by strong sanctions that change is its only choice
Editor's note: Joshua Stanton, an attorney in Washington, has advised the House Foreign Affairs Committee on North Korea-related legislation and blogs at OneFreeKorea. Sung-Yoon Lee is Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies and assistant professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers.
(CNN) -- In the past weeks, North Korean state media have called the female President of South Korea a "dirty political harlot" and an "old prostitute"; the gay chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on North Korea "a disgusting old lecher with 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality"; and, in a loathsome screed, referred to U.S. President Barack Obama as a "monkeyish human monstrosity."
Still, North Korea's exceptionally vile words pale in comparison to its criminal actions.
In North Korea, racism isn't just talk. That U.N. Commission of Inquiry's report summarizes testimony from North Korean refugee women and former border guards who say that the regime forcibly aborts or murders the babies of refugee women sent back to North Korea by China, on the presumption that the babies' fathers were Chinese, to maintain the myth of state-mandated "racial purity." It described a system of hereditary discrimination, based on perceived political loyalty, that denies lower-caste North Koreans opportunities for education, employment, and even food.
The report asserts that Pyongyang fines women for wearing pants or riding bicycles, and forces thousands of them into sexual slavery by denying them an adequate supply of food. As for gay North Koreans, Pyongyang denies that they even exist, and said the report was spurred by lies and "hostile forces."
North Korea's repellent language and actions teach us some uncomfortable lessons:
First, North Korea's remaining defenders on the far left do not deserve to be described as liberal or progressive. Although increasingly fewer in numbers, these ideologically committed apologists echo Pyongyang's justifications for its nuclear weapons programs, deny its responsibility for crimes against humanity, and -- despite Pyongyang's repeated violations of the 1953 Armistice -- insist that only a peace treaty can prevent war. To defend Kim Jong Un's rule, they must also defend its racism, its sexism, its homophobia, its class discrimination, and its extreme repression.
Second, we should stop infantilizing North Korea and dismissing it as ridiculous. The temptation is understandable. The North Korean regime's very weirdness causes much of the world to dismiss its invective as the rant of a regime that is merely isolated, eccentric, and misunderstood.
But North Korea is not just a bizarre abstraction --- an impoverished kingdom ruled by a young, overly well-nourished hereditary leader with an affinity for the National Basketball Association. It is a murderous regime that is approaching nuclear breakout, and whose human rights violations, according to the Commission of Inquiry, "have no parallel anywhere in the world." North Korea's words reflect the character of its political system. They manifest the malice of a regime that practices hate and inflicts it on its own people and its neighbors alike. It's time to treat Kim Jong Un like the threat to civilization that he is.
Third, North Korea is not a problem the Obama administration can keep ignoring. North Korea has been caught assisting Syria's nuclear weapons and chemical weapons program; has sold ballistic missiles to Iran and Syria; and has sold arms to Hamas and Hezbollah. Yet, it has not been penalized for most of these actions. Indeed, North Korea may be the most influential regional actor in history in relation to its economic, political and cultural power, and the size of its territory and population. Over the past two decades, this poor, aid-dependent, isolationist state has outplayed the biggest and wealthiest nations in the world, including the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, on high international politics -- nuclear diplomacy.
Fourth, North Korea can't be appeased or patronized away. Since the mid-1990s, Pyongyang has reaped billions of dollars from the U.S. and its allies in return for empty pledges of de-nuclearization while forging ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Since 2008, North Korea has refused to show up at six-party de-nuclearization talks, in spite of U.S. and South Korean offers of aid. Despite years of aid and engagement, North Korea shows no interest in reform, has become more dangerous to South Korea as well as to its own people, and has become more hostile to the U.S. and the world. Today, North Korea is on the verge of a fourth nuclear test.
North Korea must be held to the standards of the civilized world. For decades, diplomats and nongovernmental organizations alike have excused Pyongyang's transgressions, lies and crimes out of a desire to maintain relationships with it at all costs.
The consequences of such appeasement are telling: Aid doesn't get to the hungry, disarmament deals collapse, U.N. sanctions leak, and a regime sustained by hate and contemptuous of human life and dignity acquires the bomb. Pyongyang uses its access to the civilized world to supply its increasingly wealthy elite with cash, while, according to the United Nations, 84% of North Korean households have poor or borderline food consumption. The world cannot sanction and subsidize the same regime at the same time. It must first pressure Pyongyang into understanding that change is its only choice, by taking the enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions seriously.
For once, actions must have consequences. For Pyongyang to enjoy the benefits of civilization, it must live by the standards of civilization. Accepting Pyongyang's hate at face value is a first step toward credibly presenting Pyongyang with that dose of reality.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.
'Take my life too:' Tears and anger at mine disaster vigil
5/14/2014 10:15:44 PM
- NEW: Protesters lay symbolic coffins at government buildings, rail against Erdogan
- 274 are confirmed dead after an explosion, fire inside a mine in western Turkey
- 88 workers made it out of the mine; dozens may be trapped
- Miner says there's "no hope" that anyone else is still alive
Soma, Turkey (CNN) -- The scene was somber, sullen and mostly silent outside the Turkish coal mine. But every so often, the grief came out loud and clear.
"Enough for the life for me!" yelled one woman -- her arms flailing, tears running down her cheeks -- according to video from Turkish broadcaster DHA. "Let this mine take my life, too!"
As she was pulled away, she added, "Enough is enough."
Sadly, the torment for her and many others isn't over.
Yes, rescuers did save at least 88 miners in the frantic moments after a power transformer blew up Tuesday during shift change at the mine in the western Turkish city of Soma, sparking a choking fire deep inside.
But another 274 are known dead, according to Turkey's Natural Disaster and Emergency Coordination Directorate. Those who underwent autopsies died of carbon monoxide poisoning, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
There is every expectation that number will grow.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday as many as 120 more were trapped inside the mine, though that was before rescue crews grimly hurried a series of stretchers -- at least some clearly carrying corpses -- past the waiting crowd.
As helicopters buzzed overheard and flags flew at half-staff, police and rescue workers were everywhere on the scene Wednesday night. But for most, there was precious little they could do.
The smoke rose from openings in the ground showed the continuing dangers both to those trapped and anyone who dared try to get them. Rescue volunteer Mustafa Gursoy told the CNN team at the mine that conditions inside the mine were abominable -- hot, smoky and filled with carbon monoxide.
Authorities worked to pump in good air into the mine, so they could get in. However, as Davitt McAteer, a former top U.S. mine safety official points out, sending in oxygen likely would "increase the likelihood that the fire would grow and continue to put those miners at risk."
These stiff challenges notwithstanding, rescuers haven't given up hope that some miners reached emergency chambers stocked with gas masks and air.
"If they could reach those emergency rooms and reach their gas masks and close the doors and protect those emergency areas from the poison gas, then they could survive," Gursoy said. "It's possible. We are ready for anything."
But Yildiz, speaking earlier, said "hopes are diminishing" of rescuing anyone yet inside the mine.
Veysel Sengul has already given up. The miner knew that four of his friends -- at least -- are dead.
"It's too late," said Sengul. "There's no more hope."
Political fallout
The trauma from what already looks like the worst mine disaster in Turkish history has left Soma and the rest of Turkey in shock and, in some cases, in anger. The latest death toll already tops a mining accident in the 1990s that took 260 lives.
Even as officials in the United States and elsewhere offered their condolences to his people, Erdogan found himself on the defensive.
Opposition politician Ozgur Ozel from the Manisa region had filed a proposal in late April to investigate Turkish mines after repeated deadly accidents.
In some incidents three people died, in others, five, said opposition spokesman Aykut Erdogdu. And Ozel wanted to get to the bottom of the deaths.
Several dozen members of opposition parties signed on to his proposal, but the conservative government overturned it. Some of its members publicly lampooned it, he said.
Erdogan questioned Ozel's version, and said the mine had passed safety inspections as recently as March.
The mine, owned by SOMA Komur Isletmeleri A.S., underwent regular inspections in the past three years, two of them this March, Turkey's government said. Inspectors reported no violation of health and safety laws.
The company has taken down its regular website and replaced it with a single Web page in all black containing a message of condolence.
Not everyone in Soma, at least, has sided with Erdogan, who canceled a trip to Albania to tour the rescue effort and speak to relatives of dead and injured miners.
He was met by a chorus of jeers as well as chants of "Resign Prime Minister!" while walking through the city Wednesday, according to DHA video.
Video from that network, social media messages and pictures posted to Twitter showed hundreds participating in anti-government protests in Istanbul and Ankara, with police answering in some cases with water cannons and tear gas.
While not focused on mine safety, such demonstrations railing against Erdogan and his government have been commonplace in Turkey in recent months, as has the police responding with water cannons and tear gas.
In the nation's capital of Ankara, some called for silent demonstration to "stand for humanity." Others left black coffins in front of the Energy Ministry and the Labor and Social Security ministry buildings.
That grim symbol speaks to the sadness permeating Turkey, whatever one's political bent.
For Sengul, the miner waiting by the tunnel entrance for more of his friends to emerge, the mourning may go on much longer than the three days ordered by Erdogan.
After what's happened, he said, he'll never work in a mine again.
2 West Virginia coal miners killed
Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz reported from western Turkey; Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Michael Pearson, Ben Brumfield and Talia Kayali contributed to this report.
Fumes build up in mine
5/14/2014 10:55:00 PM
Ivan Watson explains why efforts have been halted to rescue the more than 100 people trapped in a Turkish coal mine.
If your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed, click above to play. Otherwise, click below.
'Sugar Man' director dies at 36
5/14/2014 1:10:42 AM
- Director Malik Bendjelloul died suddenly in Stockholm, Sweden, police say
- Bendjelloul directed "Searching for Sugar Man," which won a best documentary Oscar
- Police say foul play is not suspected in the filmmaker's death
(CNN) -- Malik Bendjelloul, the acclaimed Swedish director who ran out of cash and finished shooting his Oscar-winning documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" with a smartphone app, died suddenly Tuesday in Stockholm, police said. He was 36.
No crime is suspected in the death of the filmmaker, who won the 2013 Academy Award for his debut feature about an obscure American crooner who gained fame abroad but remained a virtually unknown at home, Stockholm Police Sgt. Janne Gyllstedt told CNN.
Gyllstedt would not specify the cause of death and said he was unable to disclose any additional information.
"Searching for Sugar Man" is the story of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer from Detroit who became a legend in South Africa. With lyrics such as "The system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune," Rodriguez unwittingly became the voice of the anti-Apartheid struggle in the 1970s, even as his records flopped in his own country.
"A man who lives his whole life in Detroit working as a construction worker, without knowing that, at the very same time, he's more famous than Elvis Presley in another part of the world," Bendjelloul told CNN's Poppy Harlow in 2012. "I thought it was the most beautiful story I've ever heard in my life."
After running out of money for the film, Bendjelloul finished shooting the documentary using an iPhone app.
"I started shooting with a Super 8 camera which, in the end, was too expensive," he told CNN. "How am I going to finish? Then one day I realized there was this app for the iPhone called the Super 8 app. It was $1. It worked very well. Actually, I used that for the film."
The film gets its title from "Sugar Man," a 1970 Rodriguez song about a drug peddler.
"It was this lost masterpiece, like a Cinderella story, a fairy tale," Bendjelloul said of Rodriguez's life. "I never heard anything like that. A story that was so rich and true."
Bendjelloul, who was born on September 17, 1977, in Sweden, performed in the Swedish TV series "Ebba och Didrik" as a child in the 1990s and later studied journalism and media production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar, according to imdb.com.
He produced several musical documentaries for Swedish TV. Bendjelloul also worked as a reporter on the show "Kobra" until he resigned to travel the world, which was when he first came across the story of Rodriguez, according to imdb.com.
"It's a touching story that hits you in the heart," he said. "And also he's such a lovable character. Everyone falls in love with him. He's a person you can actually really love."
In 2013, his debut feature beat out "5 Broken Cameras," "The Gatekeepers," "How to Survive a Plague" and "The Invisible War" for best documentary.
"Oh boy!" Bendjelloul said in his acceptance speech. "Thanks to one of the greatest singers ever, Rodriguez."
Bendjelloul had likened the Oscar to winning his native country's Nobel Prize. "This is the only one that is on the same level," he said.
People we've lost in 2014
CNN's Ray Sanchez and Nischelle Turner contributed to this report.
Man who designed 'Alien' dies
5/13/2014 9:32:34 PM
- H.R. Giger created "Alien's" Xenomorph along with album covers
- His work was distinguished by eerie, erotic combinations of human and machine
- Giger said he was inspired by his dreams and nightmares
(CNN) -- H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist artist whose works of sexual-industrial imagery and design of the eponymous creature in the "Alien" movies were known around the world, has died. He was 74.
His death was confirmed by a statement from his longtime friend and manager, Leslie Barany.
"We are absolutely heartbroken over the loss of this loving husband, selfless friend and supremely talented artist," the statement read.
"He truly was one of a kind, committed to his craft, to his friends and to his family. His warm personality, incredible generosity and sharp sense of humor were in stark contrast with the universe he depicted in his art."
Giger's art -- often featuring skeletal, tentacled, protomechanical (Giger called them "biomechanical") figures rendered in shades of blue-gray and brown -- was a mainstay of dorm-room bookshelves and science-fiction hallucinations. Among his most widely known works was the cover for Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1973 album "Brain Salad Surgery."
But he's probably best known for his design of the Alien, the extraterrestrial species in Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror film "Alien" and its sequels.
With its oblong, skull-like head, dozens of teeth, narrow torso and spiny, whip-quick tail, it was a fearsome creature that salivated acid and appeared to come and go at will. Indeed, the being that terrorizes the spaceship in the first film literally explodes out of actor John Hurt's chest before skittering away.
Encouraged by "Alien" screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, Scott turned to Giger after seeing similar creatures in the artist's 1977 book, "Necronomicon." Giger and the special effects team won an Oscar for their work.
The Alien, also known as the Xenomorph, later appeared in "Aliens" (1986), "Alien 3" (1992), "Alien: Resurrection" (1997), "Alien vs. Predator" (2004) and its 2007 sequel, and -- in somewhat different form -- "Prometheus" (2012).
Giger, who called the creatures "my monsters," told CNN in 2011 that his work was, indeed, shaped by nightmares.
"I feel very, very safe and happy and I have no more nightmares, but at the time, in earlier days, I could heal myself through doing my work," he said.
Barany's statement addressed Giger's fondness for the Xenomorph.
"It was certainly a design which Giger prized, much as he took great pride in his collaboration with myriads of music industry and film artists, since he began his glorious journey as a world-class painter, sculptor and designer," read the statement.
Hans Rudolf Giger was born on February 5, 1940, in Chur, Switzerland. The son of a pharmacist, he showed a talent for drawing at an early age and originally trained to be an architect. But he maintained a separate life as an artist, turning to the field fulltime in the 1960s.
He had a longterm relationship with actress Li Tobler, who served as the model for several of his works. Tobler committed suicide in 1975. Giger was married twice; he is survived by his wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger.
In the late '60s, a friend published a number of Giger's works as posters. Within a couple years, he was in demand by galleries and curators. In 1974, Giger was asked to do the design for Alejandro Jodorowsky's doomed version of "Dune," now the subject of a documentary, "Jodorowsky's Dune." Among the other participants in "Dune" was one of Giger's heroes, the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali.
Giger also created the cover for Debbie Harry's 1981 album "Koo Koo," which featured the Blondie singer with long needles impaling her face, and was a designer on the 1996 film "Species."
His work was much praised.
"I think his ideas are very existential," Norwegian curator Stina Hogkvist told CNN in 2011. "What makes up a human being; when does a life start, when does it end; what is natural and what is unnatural. It's always interesting and always relevant."
In later years, Giger had his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland. It included his own work, as well as pieces by Dali and Ernst Fuchs.
His life, Giger said in 2011, had grown much calmer.
"I have not to work absolutely now. I like to be free to dream," he said.
People we've lost in 2014
French reporter's murder condemned
5/14/2014 12:47:14 AM
- French troops found Camille Lepage's body in a vigilante group's vehicle
- France vows to use "all necessary means" to find her killers
- Sectarian violence has killed thousands of people in CAR since last year
- The U.S. announces sanctions against some of those involved in the crisis
(CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council has condemned the killing of a French journalist who was reporting from the violence-racked Central African Republic.
French troops found the body of Camille Lepage during the search of a vigilante group's vehicle in a western region of the country, French authorities said Tuesday.
"All necessary means will be employed to shed light on the circumstances of this assassination and to find our compatriot's murderers," the office of French President Francois Hollande said.
The U.N. Security Council said that "those responsible for the killing shall be held accountable."
Widespread unrest
Sectarian violence has killed thousands of people and displaced many more in the Central African Republic since a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels deposed President Francois Bozize in March 2013.
The rebels have since been forced from power, but Christian and Muslim militias have continued to clash despite the presence of French and African peacekeepers in the country.
Vigilante groups known as the anti-balaka, which translates to anti-machete, were formed to counter attacks on Christian communities by Seleka groups. But the anti-balaka have carried out deadly reprisals on Muslim communities.
Humanitarian groups have warned that the country risks descending into genocide.
Lepage's body was found in an anti-balaka vehicle in the region of the western town of Bouar.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described Lepage as a "journalist and photographer of great courage."
U.S. sanctions
News of her killing came on the same day that the White House announced that President Barack Obama had issued an executive order declaring an emergency in the Central African Republic and authorizing the use of sanctions to deal with the crisis.
The order also imposed sanctions on five individuals involved in the unrest.
The U.N. Security Council had in January unanimously voted to set up a sanctions regime against the people responsible for instability and atrocities in the country, putting three people on a sanctions committee list.
More than 2.5 million of the country's roughly 5 million inhabitants are in need of humanitarian assistance and approximately one million people have been displaced, according to the White House.
"Growing attacks perpetrated by both Muslim and Christian militias have brought CAR to a crisis of disastrous proportions," it said in a statement.
Mother shot on the road to safety, victim of CAR violence
Will the people of CAR ever get to return home?
CNN's Anna Maja Rappard and Laura Bernadini contributed to this report.
Obama is no superhero
5/14/2014 7:40:58 AM
- Timothy Stanley: If Obama is a disappointment, Hollywood is partly to blame
- Stanley: Obama used to challenge or snub the celebrity liberal elite
- He says it's ironic that Obama needs their help now, for money and for image
- Stanley: Hollywood might still imagine him to be a superhero, but there's reality
Editor's note: Timothy Stanley is a historian and columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of the new book, "Citizen Hollywood: How the Collaboration between LA and DC Revolutionized American Politics." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Recently, Obama told Hollywood that America is not cool with itself. Speaking at the home of Walt Disney executive Alan Horn, he looked into the eyes of stars like Barbra Streisand and James Brolin and said that the country is full of "disquiet," that the future risks "more cynicism, more dysfunction," and that "we have a Washington that's not working." In the distance, a car alarm went off. The President quipped, "Sound the alarm, because we've got a problem."
There was a lot of predictable gloom in those remarks, given the President's low approval rating, but also a surprising lack of self-awareness. If Obama has proved to be a disappointment then Hollywood is partly responsible for all the unrealistic ambitions that have surrounded him. And there's big irony in the fact that he is now seeking comfort from the very liberal elite that he once seemed to challenge.
Back in the 2008 Democratic primaries, Hollywood was solid Clinton country; it only rallied to Obama after he snagged the nomination. After he won the White House, there were two years of mutual snub between L.A. and D.C. Not only did some moviemakers gripe that the President was a reluctant reformer (remember Matt Damon or Robert Redford or remind yourself of when Obama was still anti-gay marriage), but he rarely called people to say "thank you" for everything they've done for him. Hollywood might tolerate inaction, but it can't abide the absence of flattery.
So how did Obama change his mind about Hollywood? The change occurred thanks to the rise of the tea party, which galvanized West Coast liberals, and the President's sudden conversion to the legalization of gay marriage, which happen to come at a time when local reports indicated that his Hollywood money was in danger of drying up. Almost overnight, Hollywood assumed a structural importance in his re-election campaign to rival that of organized labor, liberal PACs or even the DNC. Here's another irony: Hollywood benefited from the changes to campaign finance that many stars protested against. Citizens United allowed moviemakers to act as bundlers, buying them new levels of access and influence.
This corresponded with a subtle change in the way that Obama was sold to the voter. In 2008, he was the outsider offering change (although the famous "Yes We Can" video was a 100% Hollywood product produced by Bob Dylan's son, Jesse). Come 2012, he now represented various faces of liberal authority -- many of them defined by Hollywood archetypes.
For example, there was an experiment in reinventing Obama as Atticus Finch, the lawyer played by Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird." Obama gave a televised introduction to the movie on the USA Network channel in 2012. Film critic Tom Shone noted that Obama wanted the viewer to imagine that he was "cut from exactly the same liberal oak as Peck's Atticus Finch (retrenching) Obama's status as the defender of the mainstream."
Defender, too, of law and order. For the release of "The Dark Knight Rises," the White House publicized a photo of Obama and Biden with the tagline, "The Dynamic Duo," capitalizing upon the plotline of a caped crusader protecting an American city against a greedy villain who bore almost the same name to the company that Mitt Romney set up -- Bane/Bain. And once the election was over, the first movie that Obama showed in the White House was Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with its equally prescient synopsis of a President who overcomes partisan divisions to bring social justice to America. "I never compared myself to Lincoln", Obama told David Gregory on "Meet the Press." But he did film a metajoke for the White House Correspondents Dinner in which he played Daniel Day-Lewis preparing to play Obama in a biopic spoof of Lincoln.
Alas, Barack Obama is no Lincoln. Honest Abe may have had the power to make the opposition vote his way, but when Obama invited congressional Republicans to attend the showing of Spielberg's movie, not one of them turned up. That's typical. When the President threw a barbecue for newly elected House Republicans, only one third showed, and John Boehner has set a record for dodging state dinners.
Once, Obama eschewed connection with the Hollywood liberal establishment. Now he relies upon it for money, for selling Obamacare to voters and -- most importantly -- for helping to define a shifting image of what he wants his presidency to be. There is nothing unusual in this. Richard Nixon used John Wayne to define his foreign policy, Ronald Reagan's Western swagger was pure Hollywood invention. But this kind of celluloid fantasy-making is far from healthy.
Congress isn't a place that can be navigated by idealism; a dangerous world cannot be managed with superhero theatrics (such as drone strikes).
Expectations are raised excessively by promising to solve all these problems with the same ease that they do in the movies. Moreover, talking in clichés encourages partisanship. While the Democrats cling to being Jed Bartlets, the Republicans see themselves as Men With No Name -- and there's little common ground that can be reached between people competing to be more stubbornly archetypal than the rest.
Where do you retreat to when your policies fail and the partisanship grows deafening? Your base. After a term and a half of promising to be a different kind of Democrat, to change things, to reshape politics for ordinary people -- Barack Obama finds himself seeking comfort in the audience of old-fashioned, dare I say "fading," liberal stars like Barbra Streisand.
Hollywood might still imagine him to be a superhero, but Obama has really become the thing that in 2008 he set out to avoid: another Clinton Democrat.
Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.
Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at feedmyinbox.com
If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions
No comments:
Post a Comment