Hollywood Special – Vet death and Palestine Oscars

I normally don’t do second Saturday  columns, but wanted to get the word to you Oscar watchers.

Artists4Ceasefire is a bunch of pro-Gaza ‘stars’ who support the Palestinians and oppose the Israelis. Last year, a few stars wore red pins supporting A4C, and this year there is a push to get more entertainment celebrities to wear them Oscar night March 2nd. The Brigade, a pro-Israel group, released the text of an A4C letter:

“I’m reaching out to see if <REDACTED> might consider wearing an Artists4Ceasefire pin at the ceremony this weekend and add her name to our letter,” the letter read, specifically referring to the Spirit Awards that occurred on Sunday.

The pro-Israel group expressed outrage over the fact that the Arrtist4Ceasefire message was sent out the same day that Israeli authorities confirmed the murders of Israeli children Kfir and Ariel Bibas at the hands of Hamas.

The Brigade’s statement read, “On Feb. 20, the same day the world learned 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were strangled to death by their terrorist captors in Gaza, you doubled down — urging celebrities to proudly wear your bloodstained red hand pin. Have you no shame?” Fox News

Named supporters include Billie Eilish and Mark Ruffalo.  If you are someone who actually watches the Oscars, keep an eye out for the red pins, and let us know which stars stepped out of the anti-Israel closet.

Marine vet Joseph Wambaugh, one of the more popular and influential authors of the ’70s and ’80s, died yesterday at the age of 88.

Wambaugh, who joined the LAPD as a patrolman in 1960, made a splash with his debut novel, The New Centurions, a sweeping tale that followed three young LAPD officers during a five-year period that led to the 1965 Watts riots. Published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1971, it was a hit, remaining on The New York Times Best Seller List for 32 weeks. Hollywood Reporter

The New Centurions was made into a George C. Scott/Stacy Keach movie. His second novel, The Blue Knight, became a William Holden TV movie and George Kennedy TV series. Arguably his most successful non-fiction work, The Onion Field about the kidnapping of two cops and subsequent execution of one of them, was made into a highly successful movie starring then-minor stars Ted Danson and James Woods.  He co-wrote Police Story, credited as having laid the ground for Hill Street Blues, arguably the best police series of the century.

Born in 1937, Wambaugh’s Marine service ran 1954-1957, and he used his GI bill benefits to get his associate’s  degree (and later bachelor’s and master’s as well.)  He joined the LAPD in 1960.

Much of his gritty style has been integrated into virtually every police drama and procedural drama since.

One other note – one of his novels, The Choirboys, became a movie in 1977.  Distinguished by a cast of relative unknowns and journeymen on the cusp of stardom – James Woods, Perry King, Randy Quaid, Lou Gossett Jr, Charles Durning, Vic Tayback, Burt Young, Charles Haid and more – and its rough, obscene, macabre humor (extremely familiar to any vet) – it may be even more un-PC than Blazing Saddles, and at spots even funnier. Wambaugh was so irate he tried to have his name removed from the writing credits (having read the novel and seen the movie, I can tell you that the film actually was closer to his book than most. Not for pearl-clutchers, though.)

Category: Hollywood