This Week in Hollywood Progressive

Between Raul’s Cuba and Obama’s U.S.A.
Ed Rampell: Hopefully, the senseless 50-year-old blockade and embargo of Cuba will end soon – if, for no other reason, so American moviegoers can have the right to buy tickets to see more great films, like Ticket To Paradise.

Note to GOP Candidates: Stick to ABBA Songs
Michael Sigman: Now that Tom Petty has asked Michele Bachmann to stop playing his classic track “American Girl” on the campaign trail, the Minnesota congresswoman would be wise to steer clear of lefty lyricists and join fellow Republicans in their canny embrace of the Swedish disco of ’70s pop icons, ABBA.

Tracy Morgan’s Homophobic Rant Is About Black Manhood
Rev. Irene Monroe: While I will continue to argue that the African American community doesn’t have patent on homophobia, it does, however, have a problem with it. And Tracy Morgan, comedian and actor on NBC’s “30 Rock,” is another glaring example of the malady.

Enough With ‘on Steroids’ — How About ‘on Acid’?
Michael Sigman: Dare we hope that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled the beginning of the end last Sunday on Face the Nation with his wacko characterization of government regulators as “bureaucrats on steroids?”

Filmmaker Asks: “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?”
Bill Meyer: Twelve years after five Cubans were arrested in America for espionage, Saul Landau has made a film hoping to bring the trial and harsh sentences of the men, who are now known as “The Cuban Five,” to the public eye.

Wallace Embedded
Dan Pasley: I think we’ve got this upstart cock-a-whoop, Stewart, on the ropes. Talk about vast liberal media confederacy! Fire up the echo chamber and get ready to douse the public with the tonic for what ailes us!
Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Ron Briley: Marable concludes, “A deep respect for, and a belief in, black humanity was at the heart of the revolutionary visionary’s faith.

“The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris”
Aline Voldoire: The Greater Journey is a masterful exploration of the experiences of Americans in Paris in between the 1830s and the end of the nineteenth century.