Welcome to the Commentary & Opinion page of The Hollywoodland Revue, where the spotlight shines on Hollywood’s ever-turning stage. Here you’ll find thoughtful reflections, sharp insights, and personal opinions on the happenings, headlines, and hidden stories that shape the entertainment world. From classic film controversies to today’s industry buzz, this section offers a place for open commentary, spirited discussion, and the occasional unapologetic opinion—all viewed through the lens of Hollywood’s glittering, and sometimes shadowed, legacy.

Brigitte Bardot: The Legend We Loved—and the Views We Chose Not to Hear

Few stars of postwar cinema burned as brightly—or as briefly—as Brigitte Bardot. To an entire generation, Bardot remains the apotheosis of liberated European glamour: bronzed and sun-streaked hair; bare feet, bare teeth and a bare, sultry come-hither; a demeanor that defied convention with a toss of the head, a toss of the hair, a toss of the hip, a toss of the salad and an insolent pout and laugh. Bardot didn’t just act in movies; she changed the culture’s temperature. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, she became an international icon of erotic freedom at a time when Europe was emerging from the last shadows of war and America was sticking its head through the keyhole.

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“Some of My Best Friends Are…”: When Allyship Becomes a Shield

Pop music has been one of the few areas in mainstream entertainment where LGBTQ+ fans have been able to see and love without asking for permission for decades. For gay men especially, the female pop star has frequently served as a conduit for rage, survival, and reinvention. Few artists benefited more from that devotion than Nicki Minaj. Her early career—brazen lyrics, theatrical personas, and unapologetic excess—attracted a fierce gay male following known as the “Ken Barbz,” a group that didn’t just consume her work but championed it.

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The American President: A Love Story with a Conscience—and the Rob Reiner Ideal of Power with a Human Face

There are movies you like, and then there are movies you keep going back to—not because you’ve forgotten them but because you need to be reminded of something they contain. The American President (1995) is one of those few Washington romances that doesn’t just flirt with politics as sexy wallpaper; it insists—softly, stubbornly—that there’s still room for decency in public life and that leadership can be firm without being brutal. Watching it now, after years in which the national mood has verged on an addiction to outrage, it feels less like a fantasy of a perfect administration than a yearning for a familiar kind of humanity in power: flawed people trying, in public, to do the right thing.

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Chick-fil-A and the LGBTQ+ Community: A Complicated Legacy Still Taking Shape

Few fast-food chains have found themselves at the center of cultural debate quite like Chick-fil-A. What began as a regional Southern favorite slowly transformed into a national phenomenon — and along the way, the company developed a complicated and often contentious relationship with the LGBTQ+ community. The story isn’t simple, and it isn’t static. It’s a history shaped by public backlash, shifting policies, and a lingering tension between corporate evolution and foundational beliefs.

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Why Movie Stars Don’t Exist Anymore

There was a time when a movie star didn’t simply appear on screen — they descended from the heavens. Their faces glowed from billboards fifty feet tall, their names alone could open a film, and their private lives were guarded with the same vigilance as national secrets. Garbo. Gable. Crawford. Grant. These weren’t just people; they were celestial bodies orbiting above the ordinary world.

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The October Massacre: How Eight Studio Films Crashed, Burned, and Shook Hollywood to Its Core

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood is used to surprises, but nothing prepared the town for the bloodbath that unfolded in October 2025 — a month so disastrous that insiders have already begun calling it “The October Massacre.” By the time the final receipts limped into view, at least nine major studio releases were firmly in the red. Halloween weekend — historically one of the most dependable box-office periods of the year — collapsed into the lowest-grossing weekend of 2025.

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Hollywood Without Pennies? No Wonder the Magic’s Gone!

HOLLYWOOD / WASHINGTON DC - Somewhere between Washington, D.C. and Hollywood Boulevard, someone in power decided the humble penny had outlived its usefulness. Just like that — poof! — gone. Copper history. National pocket lint no more. And while the country debates whether rounding up or down is patriotic or preposterous, Hollywood — that grand old dream factory of glitter and delusion — quietly shudders.

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Crowns, Cameras, and the Curse of Scandal: How Britain’s Royals and Hollywood’s Stars Share the Same Script

LONDON - Darlings, don’t be fooled by crowns or klieg lights — the British monarchy and Hollywood’s golden age were always in the same business: selling dreams wrapped in satin. One reigned from palaces, the other from studios, but both built empires on illusion and the fragile scaffolding of public adoration. One gilded in gold leaf, the other in celluloid sheen— but both run on the same machinery: image, illusion, and impeccable timing.

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Hollywood's First Cancel Culture: The Morality Clauses of the 1930s

HOLLYWOOD - Long before hashtags or Twitter trials, Hollywood had already mastered the art of reputation management. In the 1930s, studio “morality clauses” ruled the industry with the icy precision of a censor’s pen. Actors who drank too loudly, loved too freely, or simply refused to live by the studio’s image could find their contracts torn overnight. The town that sold fantasy demanded moral perfection from its performers — and defined “perfection” in terms as flexible as the studio’s balance sheet.

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Harvey Levin and the Rise of OWTA: A Movement to Flush Congress

WEST LOS ANGELES - In late October, a new call to action began rippling through online forums, social-feeds and talk-radio waves. It was initiated by Harvey Levin—the veteran television producer, legal analyst and founder of TMZ. The movement goes by the bold name OWTA, acronym for “Out With Their Assess.” And its mission: vote every member of the U.S. Congress out of office, regardless of party, ideology or whether you like your own representative or not.

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