Steve Pond's Blog, page 2064
November 18, 2019
Colbert Cringes at Gordon Sondland’s Possible Testimony in Trump Impeachment Hearings (Video)
On Monday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert took a moment in his opening monologue to talk about this week’s new round of public hearings in the ongoing Donald Trump impeachment inquiry — and to dunk a little on U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.
Sondland is set to testify before the House intelligence committee on Wednesday, and Colbert ran down what Sondland might talk about. For instance, a report by The Daily Beast said that Sondland at one point stormed into a White House room and “demanded ferociously that Ukrainians open the Biden investigation,” and that he “got very emotional” and yelled about it.
A temper tantrum in the White House? Do you expect me to believe that a man who looks like this is a giant baby,” Colbert joked while a photo of Sondland, which you can see at the top of the page.
Colbert also noted the report that according to a State Department witness, Sondland once called Trump on a personal cell phone from a restaurant in the Ukraine, and during the call, Sondland told the president that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “loves your ass.”
“Oh, who doesn’t,” Colbert said while visibly cringing. Colbert then asked for a “taste” of that, at which point a very unflattering photo of Trump playing tennis in tight white shorts was displayed onscreen. If you can handle that accursed image, watch the full clip below:
TONIGHT: Stephen kicks off New Zealand Week while Trump continues to fight the impeachment hearings. #LSSCinNZ pic.twitter.com/KWBoiVthRv
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 19, 2019
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Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series Gets Early Season 2 Renewal
Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” series is moving forward with a second season, TheWrap has confirmed.
The production is set to take a four-to-five month hiatus after filming the first two episodes of Season 1, during which time showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay and the show’s writing team will begin mapping out the story for Season 2.
The newly extended Season 1 hiatus will span until the end of the winter season in New Zealand, where the show is filmed.
Also Read: 'Game of Thrones' Alum Joseph Mawle Joins Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' Series
The series, which remains untitled, is set in the Middle-Earth of the Oscar-winning film franchise and will take place in the period before the events of the first film, “The Fellowship of the Ring.” The show’s cast includes “Bandersnatch” star Will Poulter, “Game of Thrones” alum Joseph Mawle and Markella Kavenagh.
Amazon first acquired the rights to adapt “The Lord of the Rings” for streaming back in 2017, a deal which included a multi-season commitment and the potential for an additional spinoff series. The formal pick-up makes good on the commitment to commission additional seasons of the show.
As previously announced, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” director J.A. Bayona has signed on to direct the first two episodes of the big-budget series, also serving as an executive producer alongside Payne and McKay, as well as his producing partner Belén Atienza.
Additional executive producers are Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, Sharon Tal Yguado, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill and Justin Doble.
Also Read: Amazon to Film 'Lord of the Rings' TV Series in New Zealand
The series is produced in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Deadline first reported the news.
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'Game of Thrones' Alum Joseph Mawle Joins Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' Series
RBEL Becomes Fourth ATA-Affiliated Agency to Sign Franchise Agreement With WGA
The Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston Agency (RBEL), a boutique literary talent agency for film and TV, became on Monday the fourth affiliate of the Association of Talent Agents to sign a franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America amidst an ongoing standoff around packaging fees.
RBEL joins previous signees Kaplan Stahler, Buchwald and Abrams Artists, the latter of which signed with WGA after previous talks during the summer fell through.
In April, WGA implemented a new Code of Conduct for agents designed to end practices it says are conflicts of interest: Packaging, where agencies bundle talent and projects together and bring them to studio as a package, for which the agency collects a fee; and affiliate production, in which a studio partly owned by the agency is involved in a packaged project. Thousands of writers terminated their representation shortly after the Code went into effect, and since then a small handful of agencies have signed on to the Code.
The ATA, which represents top agencies like WME and CAA along with dozens of other agencies, has remained staunchly opposed to eliminating packaging fees. But the four affiliated agencies that have signed did so when given the opportunity to sign on to a franchise agreement that allowed, among other things, for the agencies to continue packaging fees for up to one year after signing. The RBEL version offers similar terms.
“Under the Rothman Brecher agreement, packaging fees are banned after a sunset period ending January 22, 2021. In order to induce more agencies to sign, the sunset can, under certain circumstances, be extended,” read a letter from WGA leadership released Monday evening.
“The agency also agreed to information-sharing with the Guild, including contracts and invoices, which will aid the Guild in enforcing late pay, free work, and other MBA violations. The agreement includes other modifications to the most-recent franchise agreement, including allowing the agency to have up to a 5% ownership interest in an entity engaged in production or distribution.”
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How to Watch MSNBC’s Coverage of the Trump Impeachment Hearings Week 2
The next round of public hearings in the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry continues Tuesday. MSNBC will be showing wall-to-wall live coverage featuring MSNBC and NBC anchors and commentators. The hearings will also be streamed live.
The hearings begin Tuesday at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and foreign service aide Jennifer Williams — both of who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine president Vladimir Zelenskiy — will testify. The afternoon panel will include former special envoy Kurt Volker and former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison, both of whom are on the list of witnesses requested to appear by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee.
On Wednesday at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. PT, all eyes will be on Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who said he personally told Zelenskiy’s top aide that U.S. aid to Ukraine was linked to the Biden investigations. The afternoon session will include testimony from Laura Cooper and David Hale.
Fiona Hill, a top Russian specialist on the National Security Council, and David Holmes, the aide who heard the conversation between Sondland and Trump, will testify Thursday.
Also Read: 5 Key Moments From Trump Impeachment Inquiry Hearing Day 1 (Video)
MSNBC will air special coverage of the impeachment hearings beginning at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 19, Wednesday, Nov. 20 and Thursday, Nov. 21. Nicolle Wallace, host of “Deadline: White House,” will anchor the special coverage on Tuesday and Thursday. Brian Williams, host of “The 11th Hour,” will anchor Wednesday’s coverage along with Wallace.
MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent and “The Beat” host Ari Melber, who has anchored multiple highly watched specials dedicated to covering the latest impeachment developments, will join the special coverage throughout the week.
The impeachment hearings will also stream live on NBC News NOW, which is available on Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire, http://NBCNews.com, and http://MSNBC.com.
NBC News will air a Special Report, beginning at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 19, Wednesday, Nov. 20 and Thursday, Nov. 21, led by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, NBC News Chief Legal Correspondent and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, and moderator of Meet the Press and NBC News political director Chuck Todd.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House of Representatives would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
The decision came in light of a whistleblower complaint that the president sought to use foreign power from Ukraine for his own political gain. During a phone call with Ukraine’s president, Trump reportedly pressured Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden; earlier that week, Trump admitted that he had brought up Biden’s family during the call but told reporters that he did so because “we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.” The president also confirmed that his administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine but denied that it was done for leverage.
Week one of the impeachment saw testimony three career public servants: William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; and Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
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How to Watch Fox News’ Coverage of the Trump Impeachment Hearings Week 2
The next round of public hearings in the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry continues Tuesday. Fox News will be showing wall-to-wall live coverage featuring Fox News anchors and commentators. The hearings will also be streamed live.
The hearings begin Tuesday at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and foreign service aide Jennifer Williams — both of who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine president Vladimir Zelenskiy — will testify. The afternoon panel will include former special envoy Kurt Volker and former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison, both of whom are on the list of witnesses requested to appear by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee.
On Wednesday at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. PT, all eyes will be on Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who said he personally told Zelenskiy’s top aide that U.S. aid to Ukraine was linked to the Biden investigations. The afternoon session will include testimony from Laura Cooper and David Hale.
Fiona Hill, a top Russian specialist on the National Security Council, and David Holmes, the aide who heard the conversation between Sondland and Trump, will testify Thursday.
Also Read: 5 Key Moments From Trump Impeachment Inquiry Hearing Day 1 (Video)
Extensive live coverage surrounding the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s open impeachment hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump will air on Tuesday, November 19th, Wednesday November 20th, and Thursday, November 21st. FNC’s coverage will begin at 8:30A a.m. ET with an extended edition of “America’s Newsroom” leading up to the 9 a.m. ET hearing, pre-empting the last half hour of “FOX & Friends.”
Leading coverage from Washington, D.C. will be FNC’s chief political anchor and anchor of “Special Report” Bret Baier alongside FOX News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace. Martha MacCallum, anchor of “The Story,” will helm coverage from New York alongside Bill Hemmer & Sandra Smith, co-anchors of “America’s Newsroom,” joined by chief White House correspondent John Roberts. Throughout the day, “The Daily Briefing’s” Dana Perino and political analyst and co-host of The Five Juan Williams will also provide commentary and analysis. Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr and FNC contributor and former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy will offer additional legal commentary throughout the network’s special programming.
Kevin Corke will report from the White House, while Chief Congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel, Congressional reporter Chad Pergram, and correspondents Griff Jenkins and Gillian Turner will provide the latest breaking news live from Capitol Hill.
Additionally, FNC will also offer special coverage of the hearings to all FOX affiliates nationwide anchored by Harris Faulkner beginning at 9 AM/ET.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House of Representatives would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
The decision came in light of a whistleblower complaint that the president sought to use foreign power from Ukraine for his own political gain. During a phone call with Ukraine’s president, Trump reportedly pressured Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden; earlier that week, Trump admitted that he had brought up Biden’s family during the call but told reporters that he did so because “we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.” The president also confirmed that his administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine but denied that it was done for leverage.
Week one of the impeachment saw testimony three career public servants: William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; and Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
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‘History of Violence’ Theater Review: Edouard Louis’ Best-Seller Makes a Transatlantic Crossing
It may be a theater first for you. It certainly was for me. I sat in St. Ann’s Warehouse reading English supertitles of a play being performed in German that’s based on a French novel. Operagoers are used to this babble, although the universal language of music is what carries you through there.
Thomas Ostermeier’s kinetic iPhone- and iPad-enhanced direction helps to carry you through “History of Violence,” which opened Monday at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Edouard Louis’ autobiographical novel of the same title, written in 2016, has been adapted from the French into German by Ostermeier, Louis and Florian Borchmeyer. This new stage play had its world premiere last year at the Schaubuhne Berlin.
The upstage wall of Nina Wetzel’s set for “History of Violence” is a white screen, the perfect space to project images of the actors as they record each other with iPhones and iPads in hand. It’s also the perfect visual metaphor for the survivor of a sexual assault who finds himself disconnected from that traumatic experience by the police, the doctor, the forensic workers, his sister and brother-in-law, and the limits of his own background as a middle-class gay man growing up in an ethnically diverse France.
Louis’ novel reminded me of a contemporary “Catcher in the Rye” in which a cocky, gay Holden Caulfield makes the mistake of inviting a stranger to share his bed. The stage version makes a different impression, and much of that has to do with the casting of Laurenz Laufenberg in the lead role of the victim, Edouard. Think Michael York in the movie version of “Cabaret.” Laufenberg is blond, frail and tremulously innocent. It’s an impression that heightens the contrast to the swarthy stranger Reda (Renato Schuch). Although he’s categorized by the police as an “Arab” and someone from “North Africa,” Reda is careful to identify himself as Kabyle, belonging to the Berbers from Algeria.
The play follows the novel very closely, although it’s often more fluid. In the play, Edouard’s sexual foreplay with Reda is sometimes interrupted by police officers’ questions. This dislocation of experience and recall is never captured as effectively in the novel. There’s also Reda’s monologue regarding his father’s first harrowing days in Western Europe. Delivered in bed in front of our eyes, Reda’s words turn into a confidence game that’s part of his seduction. In the novel, his words register as a quickly delivered backstory, albeit one that is riveting in its depiction of extreme persecution.
The story of Reda’s immigrant father finds a parallel in Edouard’s own mother. Her pathetic existence as a cleaning woman is delivered by Edouard’s sister, Clara (Alina Stiegler). While his direction adds a new dimension to the story of Reda’s father, Ostermeier mucks up the mother’s story on stage by double casting the actor Christoph Gawenda, who plays both Clara’s husband and the mother. That white upstage wall is now flooded with close-up images of Gawenda as he puts on makeup and a scraggly wig. We listen to the father’s story. We laugh at the actor performing bad drag. These two experiences should not be so radically different for the theatergoer.
Also Read: 'Seared' Theater Review: Raúl Esparza Sizzles in Theresa Rebeck's New Top-Chef Comedy
The play begins and ends with forensic workers collecting samples of Reda’s fingerprints, hair and DNA from Edouard’s apartment. They’re wearing protective gear that covers them from head to foot (costumes also by Wetzel), and it makes for a very scary, visually arresting introduction. But it also detracts from Edouard’s mania to scour his apartment as soon as Reda leaves, long before the forensic workers arrive. That crucial mistake on Edouard’s part is muted in favor of delivering a visual wallop as soon as the play begins.
Schuch performs the impossible task of being the perpetrator who somehow manages to remain oddly sympathetic throughout. This remarkable actor presents about a dozen different faces, all of them ultimately belonging to one man. Reda’s pick-up of Edouard on the street turns that encounter into the most normal happening in the world, something that Edouard can’t later explain to the police without sounding like a degenerate.
Gawenda and Stiegler essay a variety of roles, and perform real acts of legerdemain with each new impersonation. As Edouard’s sister and brother-in-law, however, they resemble no French characters I’ve ever seen on stage or film. They appear instead to have stepped out of a Rainer Werner Fassbender movie, and one of his gamier ones at that.
Clara criticizes Edouard for being an avid reader. She thinks his penchant for carrying around intellectual books and novels is pretentious. In Louis’ novel, Edouard likens himself to Temple Drake in William Faulkner’s novel “Sanctuary,” and he quotes from Hannah Arendt. The play wisely drops the Faulkner reference, but has the character recite the Arendt quote very near the end. It’s unfortunate. The experience of watching “History of Violence” should not be summed up in a few sentences lifted from another source.
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Xumo Adds 24/7 Live ABC News Channel as 2020 Presidential Race Heats Up
Xumo, the ad-supported streaming service, has launched a new 24/7 live news channel from ABC News, the company announced on Monday.
The channel, dubbed ABC News Live, will cover breaking news as well as 2020 election coverage, including analysis of this Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate.
“ABC News Live offers exceptional, world-class coverage of the most important stories and events around the globe, and now, millions of Xumo viewers can access it 24/7 across our premium, multi-screen distribution network of smart TVs, mobile, web and streaming devices,” Stefan Van Engen, SVP of content partnerships and programming at Xumo, said in a statement. “ABC has long been a trusted name in news, and especially as the 2020 election heats up–XUMO viewers will appreciate straightforward political news, event coverage and more–available for free on our service.”
Also Read: How Xumo Differentiates Itself From Competitors Like Pluto TV
The Irvine-based company now offers more than 180 digital channels for free, covering sports, news, kids programming and entertainment, among other topics. Xumo is available in 45 million U.S. households thanks to a distribution network with an array of smart TV makers, as well as other mobile, web and streaming devices.
“We are excited to bring ABC News Live to XUMO viewers everywhere, and reach an even wider audience through its broad distribution across many of the most popular streaming platforms,” added Colby Smith, senior vice president and general manager of ABC News Digital and Live Streaming. “As America’s #1 streaming news channel, we’re thrilled to provide XUMO users a new and straightforward source of 24/7 news and information.”
In March, Xumo senior VP of content Stefan Van Engen told TheWrap that the eight-year-old company reached 5.5 million active users each month.
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’21 Bridges’ Film Review: Chadwick Boseman Locks Down Manhattan in Half-Baked Thriller
Exploring what it’s like to be a black cop in conflict, especially in the #BlackLivesMatter era, has become popular fodder for filmmakers. But while it’s an interesting topic to pursue, the films that have dared to do so have been unsatisfying.
“Monsters and Men” struggled with determining a resolution, “Black and Blue” pivoted to a humdrum action saga and now director Brian Kirk’s new film, “21 Bridges,” also struggles to find its voice in the conversation.
Written by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan (“Dark Waters”), the New York City-set “21 Bridges” actually tries, but ultimately fails, to examine issues that extend beyond its heroic policeman Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman), who’s known among his unit as the go-to officer when you need to take down a cop killer. His father, a respected officer in his own right, was gunned down by thugs when Andre was just a child, and he’s made it his mission to apprehend anyone else who would target a badge.
Watch Video: Chadwick Boseman Hunts Cop Killers in Russo Brothers' '21 Bridges' Trailer
So when Andre is called to the scene of a liquor store where eight cops were killed following a drug bust gone awry, he comes in eager to crack the case. To his credit, Boseman — seemingly channeling all his King T’Challa/Black Panther energy — is appropriately commanding as a narrowly focused man of the law who has only justice on his mind.
He quickly surveys the scene and rightly concludes that the culprits are two men (Stephan James and Taylor Kitsch) and that they still have to be somewhere in Manhattan. Then he effectively issues a lockdown of the entire island, including all of its bridges. Hence, the schlocky title of the film that is indicative of the overall storytelling, which includes the line, “Flood the island with blue!”
While TV vet Kirk depends on the audience’s empathy toward Andre, his dead father and his ailing mother (whom he cares for at his home), the director and writers also try to build the same level of compassion for James’ character, Michael, beginning in the film’s earliest moments at the scene of the crime. That’s evident by how much time the film spends with the two cop killers, Michael in particular.
Also Read: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman to Star in August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Film for Netflix
He hesitates before killing an officer as his trigger-happy partner blindly riddles policemen with bullets. And it’s clear from the start that he’s terrified when he realizes the amount of drugs far exceeds what they were expecting, instantly casting a shadow on the deal and who’s really behind it.
So as Andre and his team close in on the criminals, the filmmaker attempts to assemble a case for Michael, though it’s so paper thin — replete with a deceased brother and something about his experience in the Army — that it’s both hard to follow and harder to care about. Maybe Michael is just a product of devastating circumstances, but trying to set up that arc after we’ve just watched him and his partner slaughter officers that catch them at the scene of a major crime is a giant leap that doesn’t pay off.
On top of that is, well, everything going on among Andre’s camp. Without divulging any spoilers, Andre’s reputation as the man who’s inherently on the side of the cops emboldens a unit that is — surprise, surprise — fraught with corruption. And one that is very messily interwoven with Michael’s storyline. This makes Andre, for perhaps the first time in his career, want to extend a hand to the perpetrator.
By the end of the film, the script also struggles to allow the cops to have some perspective in a forgettable thriller that is somehow both bloated and empty at the same time. (It’s baffling how this is not a January or February release.)
Also Read: Chadwick Boseman Says Martin Scorsese 'Didn't Get' What Black People Saw in 'Black Panther'
The cinematography by Paul Cameron (“The Commuter”) sleekly captures a nighttime Manhattan in gridlock yet brimming with police activity, including an adequately riveting subway chase. (But aren’t the subways supposed to be locked down too?) Still, the muddled plot undercuts any chance of “21 Bridges” being an edge-of-your-seat thriller, even as it attempts to answer the question: Where do your morals lie when the organization you’re vowed to protect is a fraud?
Though Boseman gives by far the most intriguing performance among a stunningly impressive array of actors that have found themselves in this subpar film — including Sienna Miller, J.K. Simmons, Keith David and Stephan James — he’s not given enough to work with to truly captivate. The same goes for the supporting cast that seem utterly lost in this bland story. (In addition, there are embarrassingly terrible New York City accents galore.)
Perhaps if “21 Bridges” just settled on being a mildly entertaining single-night cop thriller, it could have gotten by on its well-shot action scenes and A-list cast. But once it introduces concepts it’s unable to fulfill, it becomes a massive disappointment.
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November 17, 2019
‘Walking Dead': What Just Happened With Siddiq and Dante
(Major spoilers ahead for the November 17 episode of “The Walking Dead” on AMC)
This are really starting to go down as we get close to the mid-season finale on “The Walking Dead.” The fragile peace that has been in place since the massacre in season 9 looks like it’s falling apart, and it feels an awful lot like we’re on the brink of war.
In the comic book version of “The Walking Dead,” the transition from peace with the Whisperers to all-out war was a simple one, but the dynamic is much more complicated on the show. In the books, as I wrote about last week’s episode, the communities were basically ignored by the Whisperers during the peacetime. The peace was only broken when the escaped Negan wandered into the Whisperers camp, joined up, and eventually murdered Alpha (Samantha Morton).
On the show, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has joined up with the Whisperers and might pull the same move that his character did in the comics, but there are far more variables at play in this version of the story. Gamma (Thora Birch) is a big one, certainly, as the Whisperer third-in-command was having a bit of a crisis of conscience in general that was extremely exacerbated when she found out that Lydia is still alive. Who knows what she’s going to do next?
Also Read: 'Walking Dead': What Did Carol Really See, and What Did She Hallucinate?
But an even bigger variable right this minute is Dante (Juan Javier Cardenas). At the end of this week’s episode, a generally traumatized and physically ill Siddiq (Avi Nash) started to put the pieces together about why so many residents of Alexandria were getting sick. He realized that really the only thing all the sick folks have in common, aside from all living in the same town, is that they all drink from the same water supply. And thanks to a water purification system that sure seems easy to accidentally screw up without anyone noticing, it appears the problem is just that everybody is drinking bad water.
But Siddiq didn’t know why or how that happened. Until the very end of the episode, when one of his PTSD flashbacks to Alpha’s brutal massacre from last season popped up again and he realized that Dante had been there too — as the Whisperer who had held his eyes open to force him to witness the carnage and tell the others what he had seen.
So, yeah, Dante is a Whisperer spy, and the episode ends with him apparently killing Siddiq. Though to be clear, while Dante certainly choked him out we don’t know if Siddiq is actually dead or if he’s just unconscious.
Also Read: Lauren Cohan May Return to 'The Walking Dead' 1 Season Earlier Than Expected
Either way, Dante is a pretty major wild card right now. He’s a character with no comic book equivalent, just like Gamma, and in the books the Whisperers did not have a spy in Alexandria sneakily sabotaging them from the inside like this. So we can’t look to the comics to figure out what this development means or what’s going to happen with Dante next.
But I maintain what I wrote last week — I think that the peace between Alexandria and the Whisperers will finally break down in the mid-season finale. That’s next week! I don’t know if the breaking point will be Negan murdering Alpha or whatever Gamma and/or Lydia after they each run off into the darkness, or if Carol and Daryl and the others will find out Dante’s identity and initiate war themselves.
Whatever it is, we’ll probably find out in a week.
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Trump to Award Actor Jon Voight the National Medal of Arts
Jon Voight, best known for his current role on “Ray Donovan” and his Oscar-winning performance in “Coming Home,” will be awarded the National Medal of Arts, the White House announced Sunday.
Voight, who is one of President Trump’s most vociferous Hollywood devotees, will be among those honored at a White House ceremony on Thursday. Other honorees include country singer Alison Krauss and author James Patterson, who will receive a National Humanities Medal.
“Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart,” the statement said of Voight, adding that he has an “exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters.”
Also Read: Jon Voight Calls Trump 'the Greatest President Since Abraham Lincoln' (Video)
The longtime Trump supporter frequently posts videos on social media praising Trump. In May, Voight posted two videos to Twitter in which he assures the president he has Republicans’ “utmost respect and our love.”
“This job is not easy, for he’s battling the left and their absurd words of destruction,” Voight said. “Our nation has been built on the solid ground from our forefathers, and there is a moral code of duty that has been passed on from President Lincoln.”
He went on, “Our country is stronger, safer and with more jobs because our president has made his every move correct. Don’t be fooled by the political left because we are the people of this nation that is witnessing triumph.”
Also Read: Jon Voight Backs Donald Trump's Google Conspiracy Theory (Video)
“Let us stand up for this truth: that President Trump is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln,” Voight concluded.
In March, Trump appointed Voight — along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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