Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1005

Angelina Jolie Has a New Leading Man

Angelina Jolie has a new man in her life. No, not that kind of man. A leading man for her next directorial effort, Unbroken. The movie, based on the nonfiction book recounting a tale of survival during WWII, centers on resilient soldier Lou Zamperini, whose plane crashed in the South Pacific, leaving him stranded on the open ocean for 47 days, only to then be taken prisoner of war by the Japanese for two years. So it's a big, tough role, and Jolie did an international search for her man. She eventually settled on one Jack O'Connell, a British actor who is maybe best known for the show Skins. We'll have to assume that he can do a good American accent. So will this movie make him a big star? Just might! Universal announced today that the movie will be released on Christmas Day of 2014, so they're certainly positioning it as a big awards-y, box office-y kind of a thing. So, congrats, kid. Don't f--k it up. Meanwhile, every other young actor in the UK and America is going to go be alone for a while.[The Hollywood Reporter]

Good news for Jack O'Connell, bad news for Geena Davis. TNT has decided not to proceed any further with the pilot she had with the network, about an eccentric bounty hunter. (Ugh.) Deadline writes a single, haunting sentence about the network's reasoning: "Something to do with its tone." Something to do with tone. Well that won't echo in Geena Davis's head forever or anything, jeez. "Something with its tone. Something with its tone. Something with its tone..." Mysterious and sad. A reason for nothing and a reason for everything. "What didn't they like?" "The tone." "Oh..." Shivers. Anyway, Davis was joined in the pilot by Scott Bakula, Gloria Reuben, Enrico Colatoni, and Marsha Mason if you can believe it. What a cast! But now, nope. Not at TNT, anyway. Oh well. Better luck next time. And work on that tone. [Deadline]

Oh lord. If your nerdy brother or roommate or whoever just had to excuse himself to go to the bathroom and then you heard a pained sort of muffle/yip sound, it's because Summer Glau, beloved mystery creature from Firefly and tough protector robot from Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, has just joined the cast of The CW's mostly ludicrous superhero thing Arrow. She will play "the enigmatically beautiful and professionally dangerous Isabel Rochev, Vice President of Aquisitions." So that ought to be... Well, I don't know. I was going to say interesting. Is it interesting? I mean, it's interesting to some people, clearly. But on the whole, hard to say. Anyway, just give your nerdy brother or roommate or whoever some time and he'll get himself together and return to the world of the normal soon enough. He just needs a moment. [Entertainment Weekly]

Here is the first image of Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, in Saving Mr. Banks, a movie about Disney trying to convince Travers to sell him the rights to Poppins. They look good! I mean, that's not exactly what Walt Disney looked like nor is it what Travers looked like, but whatever. It's a movie, not a documentary. The movie comes out on December 13, and given the cast that probably means it's hungry for some Oscars. Which is fine, though isn't there something a little weird/gross about Disney making a big serious movie about the wonder of Walt Disney? I know that everything they do is an advertisement for themselves, but this is a little direct. Oh well. Nothing to be done about Disney at this point.

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Here is the first trailer for Seventh Son, a fantasy adventure movie starring the improbable duo, improbable for a fantasy adventure anyway, of Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. Bridges is a guy who fights evil spirits, Julianne Moore is a witch who likes evil spirits, and caught in the middle is dreamy Ben Barnes, who has to learn the dark spirit-fighting trade from Jeff Bridges. It's very strange that this movie was made with this cast, but who knows what mysteries lie at the heart of casting directors. The movie was supposed to come out this fall but has now been pushed to January, which usually means the movie's a turkey. Really, should we be surprised about that? Just listen to Jeff Bridges's voice in the trailer. It's... strained, to say the least.

       

The New 'Oldboy' Looks Just as Vicious as the Original

There were a lot of worries Spike Lee's English-remake of Park Chan-wook's South Korean 2003 cult classic Oldboy would be a watered down, Americanized version of the ultraviolent revenge tale. But if the new red-band (NSFW) trailer is an indication, Lee's version will be filled with just as many bloody bodies as the original. 

From what we can tell in this brief clip, the first trailer for the American release, they've kept the plot relatively the same: a wealthy businessman is forced to spend twenty years (it's fifteen in the original) in a mysterious prison without any explanation. Inside, he learns that his wife has been killed while his young daughter was raised without him. He's eventually released with cash and some supplies by an even more mysterious villain, who demands that the businessman figure out what he's meant to do, or face consequences. From there, it's a violent vengeance ride through cronies and bad guys all the way up to a disturbing, unforgettable finish. The first sign of blood and bad guys in this new trailer is when Josh Brolin, playing the main character, uses his trusty hammer on this baddie's head:

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But the more important shot for die hard original Oldboy fans is this one, where it seems Lee has decided to simply recreate the famous hallway-and-a-hammer fight scene. In the original, the main character fights his way through a hallway littered with bad guys with only the tool to defend himself, all shot in a single, slide-scrolling take. The scene looks to be intact in the American version.

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Oh, and Samuel L. Jackson is in this, too, as a bad guy with cool blond mohawk: 

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He doesn't meet a pleasant fate, though the same will be said for most of the characters Brolin interacts with: 

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Oldboy comes out on October 25.

       

You Only Have Yourself to Blame for Congress' Ineptitude

You have probably heard that the current Congress is, to put it kindly, not getting a lot done. Perhaps the word "historic" was used. Well, it's true. The 113th Congress, which started work in January, is on a torrid pace of inactivity. In one sense, though, it's not exactly Congress' fault. It's sort of yours.

Let us explain. You've probably seen some version of the graph below. On Tuesday, the Huffington Post presented one, calling the lack of new legislation "not an insignificant feat" — particularly since the 112th Congress, which ended in January, was the least productive since the '40s. The graph below, which uses data from GovTrack, shows the total number of bills enacted — passed by both chambers and signed into law — per Congress since the 93rd (1973-1975).

That's not really fair, of course, since the 113th Congress has only been on the job for six months, one quarter of the time the other Congresses have had. Even if the Congress finalizes four times as many bills, though, that only brings it to 60 total bills — still the least by far.

But that chart is still deceptive. First of all, it doesn't take into account the number of bills introduced. Here's each Congress since the 93rd once one includes all of the legislation that could possibly have been enacted. The little blue sections atop each bar are the bills and resolutions that became law — the data above. The purple sections are bills for which no major action was ever taken. The bills that died.

In that light, the current and most recent Congress looks slightly better. The percentage of bills that become law has been on the decline, but the difference with other Congresses is slightly lower.

The Huffington Post article focused on another aspect of the 113th Congress: How it compares year-to-date with other Congresses. And the answer is: poorly. Only the 97th and 104th Congresses have been close in terms of pace, but the 113th is still significantly lower in terms of bills signed into law. In part, that's because the Congress has been slow at introducing new bills.

Below is the average number of bills and resolutions introduced each month since the 93rd Congress. The blue line shows the average per month; the red, the cumulative total. (Notice that the graph spans two years, the length of each Congress.)

By the end of June, most Congresses have introduced 7,339 bills and resolutions. This one has introduced 4,510 to date. Take fewer bills introduced, multiply it by a lower percentage of passage, and you get a historic low.

And now we get to the part where you take the blame. Congresses don't work in a vacuum, of course. There are two chambers that need to pass a bill and a president that needs to sign it into law. So we took a look at how the composition of a Congress compares to the laws enacted. The chart below shows three data points. The yellow is easy; it's the number of bills enacted as in the first graph. The red and blue lines, however, take some explaining. Each shows the percentage of a chamber of Congress that matched the party of the sitting president. So in 1982, the 97th Congress, there was a Republican president. The Senate had 53 Republicans, so the percentage that year was 53 percent. The theory being: if a party holds a majority in each chamber plus the presidency, more bills should be passed into law. Anytime the red (House) or blue (Senate) line climbs above the 50 percent line below, it means that the president has a majority in that chamber.

As you can see, the correlation is questionable. So we broke it down further. We looked at three scenarios — a majority of both chambers sharing the president's party, neither chamber having a majority that shared the president's party, and a split. The results were very surprising.

What this says is that more bills were signed into law on average when the Congress and the president were in opposition. When both chambers shared the president's party, nearly as many passed. But when a majority in one chamber shared the president's party and one didn't? Far, far fewer bills passed.

Which, of course, is the situation now. A situation that came about because of you, the American voter.

And here's the part where we let you off the hook. Here's how the most recent Congress — which largely shared the make-up of the current one — compared in bills passed to even the average of other split Congresses.

Far fewer bills passed. Because, after all, the last Congress was historic in its inability to get things done. And as you may have heard, this one is shaping up to be worse.

       

George W. Bush Says the Immigration Debate Should Have a 'Benevolent Spirit'

Former President George W. Bush called for immigration reform during a citizenship ceremony in Dallas on Wednesday, and urged people to be nice. Though he didn't say it, his remarks probably were meant for conservative Republicans. "I hope during the debate that we keep a benevolent spirit in mind," Bush said. "We understand the contributions immigrants make to our country. We must remember that the vast majority of immigrants are decent people who work hard and support their families... At it's core immigration is a sign of a confident and successful nation."

A big focus of the immigration debate has been how to prevent immigrants from receiving welfare. The Senate bill says undocumented workers would be blocked from getting government benefits, such as food stamps and disability and subsidies to buy health insurance under Obamacare. Some proposals went further, like preventing immigrants from getting the Earned Income Tax Credit. Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions proposed only letting immigrants who make four times the federal poverty level apply for the path to citizenship. Sessions has complained that when people are let into the country, "Virtually no one one is being examined before they enter the country on whether or not they'll ... immediately begin to depend on government welfare." If one goal of passing immigration is to make Latinos think Republicans don't hate them and thus consider voting for the party—John McCain has pretty explicitly said this—then implying that tons of immigrants are moochers might not help the cause.

The former president's brother, Jeb Bush, sounded a similar note in a Wall Street Journal editorial earlier this month. Jeb wrote:

Immigration is not the only issue on which Hispanics or Asians vote. But it is a gateway issue. Republicans have much in common with immigrants—beliefs in hard work, enterprise, family, education, patriotism and faith. But for their voice to penetrate the gateway, Republicans need to cease being the obstacle to immigration reform and instead point the way toward the solution.

It's interesting that Jeb Bush included Asians in his editorial. They voted for President Obama even more overwhelmingly than Latinos did. As The New York Times' Paul Krugman points out, that's even though wealthier people tend to vote Republican, and Asians tend to be wealthier.

[image error]Bush's remarks came just before House Republicans held a long, closed-door strategy meeting on immigration. Speaker John Boehner has said the House won't bring up the Senate's immigration bill, and the bills the House passes would likely be more conservative. Supporters of the bill held a rally outside the Capitol during the meeting (photo at right by Politico's Ginger Gibson.) Though the signs warned the GOP the future of their party was at stake, it is unlikely the lawmakers were convinced the protesters were their voters in the first place. 

       

Venezuela is Waiting for Snowden

While Edward Snowden's asylum quest was met with not unsubstantial rejection, the NSA whistleblower's asylum request is going smoothly so far with Venezuela, one of a handful of Latin American states seemingly opening their borders to the American. 

Here's what the country's president Nicolas Maduro had to say on Monday (via Al Jazeera): 

"We have received the asylum request letter. He will have to decide when he flies, if he finally wants to fly here...We told this young man, 'you are being persecuted by the empire, come here."

The country, along with Bolivia and Nicaragua, had earlier indicated that they'd grant asylum to Snowden if asked. On Monday, Venezuela acknowledged the receipt of his request for them to do so, bringing the whistleblower a plane ride away from a welcoming country. Meanwhile, the U.S. has already sent them their extradition request for Snowden, because it's always a good idea to get a little ahead of your work load. According to RT, Snowden's request reasons that: "it is unlikely I would receive a fair trial or proper treatment [in the US]," adding that a return home comes with the “possibility of life in prison or even death.” 

Now all Snowden has to do is get on a plane from Moscow (The Atlantic Wire's Philip Bump figured out those details for him in case he needs some tips), hope that Cuba's support comes with safe passage, in the likely event that the leaker's plane needs to stop in Cuba on the way to his final destination, and, you know, live in the country of his choice indefinitely. 

       

Orson Scott Card Wants Your 'Tolerance' for His Anti-Gay Views

The biggest nemesis to a long-anticipated film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's legendary Ender's Game has been, for many, the author's almost equally legendary anti-gay activism. His outspoken stance against marriage equality has already prompted a call for a boycott of the film, and now the otherwise promotionally sidelined Orson Scott Card has released a statement addressing the controversy. Spoiler alert: he wants you to ignore his politics.  

Here's the statement, released to Entertainment Weekly: 

Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot.  The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.

Orson Scott Card

Of course, this isn't the only recent controversy where the author's work and his beliefs have crossed. Earlier this year, DC Comics tapped Card to write an Adventures of Superman comic. The outcry against his involvement was so strong that the artist assigned to draw the book quit. The project, written but not drawn, is now apparently shelved. Notably, Card probably won't be making an appearance at this year's Comic-Con, even though Summit is bringing the Ender's Game film to the convention in a big way. 

While the statement is a clear attempt to distance the film from the beliefs of its creator, out of the mouth of the creator himself, it's not clear whether it will be enough. Even if you forgive the author for arguing that gay rights as an issue "did not exist" in 1984 (it did), and for giving a whistle to the notion that he and other anti-gay activists might be victimized by the Supreme Court's decision on DOMA, his history on the issue goes deeper. Orson Scott Card, after all, still wrote a version of Hamlet in which the eponymous character's father was a gay, as a way of explaining why he was a terrible king (Card also made Hamlet's father into a child molester). And he still sat on the board of the National Organization for Marriage.

On the other hand, Ender's Game is a well-known and beloved book, even by some who know from whence it came. We'll have to wait until November, the film's scheduled release, to find out. 

       

Judge Orders The Secret Service to Release Their File on Aaron Swartz

We might be about to learn a lot more about the Secret Service investigation into Aaron Swartz, the political and internet activist who committed suicide earlier this year. That's because a federal judge, in response to a FOIA lawsuit, has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (the parent organization of the Secret Service) to start releasing thousands of pages of documents, ASAP. 

That request comes from Wired's Kevin Poulsen, who sought documents relating to the Secret Service's 2011 investigation into the activist's downloading of JSTOR articles in bulk. Those downloads were central to the mounting legal troubles the Swartz faced just before his death, after Massachusetts Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann refused to offer Swartz a plea deal without jail time. Here's what Poulsen says about the request: 

That criminal case was formally dismissed after Swartz’s death. Yet in February, the Secret Service denied in full my request for any files it held on Swartz, citing a FOIA exemption that covers sensitive law enforcement records that are part of an ongoing proceeding. Other requestors reported receiving the same response.

After enlisting the help of FOIA litigator David Sobel, who helped him file suit, it looks like Poulsen may get even more than what he asked for. It turns out that the government has "several thousand" additional pages of documents related to Sobel's request than they initially thought. Of course, the last-minute revelation allowed the U.S. to request even more time in delivering them, indicating that the new trove may also help to drag out the process even further. On the other hand, Judge Kollar-Kotelly's order requires the immediate release of all documents already processed by the government, and sets a deadline for their release timetable for August 5. 

       

The CEO Behind Barnes and Noble's Nook Strategy Resigns

William Lynch resigned on Monday from his post as the CEO of Barnes and Noble, following months of plummeting sales of the digital Nook division, the signature piece of Lynch's push to bring Barnes and Noble into an e-future. The resignation is one of many signs that the company is changing tack yet again, after an aggressive move into the crowded field of digital sales failed to pay off in the end. 

Lynch, who gave no reason for his resignation, led the company's web division     

The Members of Congress Who Want to Reform NSA Surveillance

Slowly — very, very slowly — attitudes toward NSA surveillance among Congressional representatives appear to be changing. A report from The Washington Post indicating that members of the Democratic leadership are open to reform measures warrants the question: How many total members of Congress currently support reform?

To figure that out, we first had to define what we meant by reform. We came up with three options, dealing with the two laws that enable the surveillance. The first law is the Patriot Act, passed in October 2001 and revised in 2006 to allow the collection of phone records. The second is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was amended in 2008 to approve the government's surveillance of online activity.

Release the court's opinions on use of surveillance. This is the lowest level of reform. It would demand that the administration (through the Department of Justice) release the legal opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that indicate how the surveillance is legal under the laws. Reform the bills or their amendments. The next level of reform is to ask that the bills be changed to prevent the sort of mass data collection that has been in progress by the NSA. Repeal of the bills or their amendments. The most extreme option would be to repeal the bills as they exist, presumably removing the legal authority for the agency to conduct its surveillance.

So how do both chambers of Congress break down? Overall, not well. In the graphs below, the red slices show the number of members of Congress opposed to the reform. The blue slices are those in support.

Repeal
Reform
Release

If there's any good news, it's that support for reform, where it exists, is generally bipartisan. Here is the breakdown by party for release and reform. (Repeal's bipartisan, too — no member of either House supports the idea publicly.)

Release Reform

The most popular measure, release of the Court's opinions on the surveillance, gained support today from Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Minority Leader, and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, according to the Post. Here's the breakdown by chamber. Darker colors indicate support, with red representing Republicans and blue, Democrats.

Senate
House

Clearly, even the most popular idea for reform is still a long way from being passed in either chamber. But this also only documents those elected officials who have a stated opinion on the subject. Others may support a measure once introduced. For example, a measure by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon last year that would have released the FISC's opinions yielded 37 votes on the Senate floor.

Supporters Sen. Leahy: reform, release Sen. Lee: reform, release Sen. Tester: reform, release Sen. Wyden: reform, release Rep. Sensenbrenner: reform Sen. Udall: reform, release Sen. Paul: reform, release Sen. Baucus: release Sen. Blumenthal: release Sen. Shaheen: release Sen. Udall: release Rep. Amash: release Rep. Broun: release Rep. Gabbard: release Rep. Griffith: release Rep. Holt: release Rep. Jones: release Rep. Lofgren: release Rep. Massie: release Rep. McClintock: release Rep. O'Rourke: release Rep. Pearce: release Rep. Rokita: release Rep. Salmon: release Rep. Sanford: release Rep. Schiff: release Rep. Yoho: release Sen. Begich: release Sen. Franken: release Sen. Heller: release Rep. Enyart: release Rep. Speier: release Rep. Waxman: release Sen. Merkley: release Rep. Pelosi: release Sen. Murray: release Sen. Schumer: release

Photo: Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pelosi leave the White House. (AP)

       

'Ray Donovan' Could Be a Bona Fide Hit

Showtime's new Boston-goes-to-LA family crime drama Ray Donovan, a slightly sleazy but still captivating show, actually managed to rise in the ratings from week one to week two. Deadline reports that that's the first time a new drama has done that on the network. Way to go, Ray Donnie! Of course this is only week two, so no one should be buying boats or condos on Fort Point Channel just yet, but if the trend continues, this could be Showtime's next big show. Or at least next reasonably popular show. It still had a million fewer viewers than Dexter, so. Homeland it ain't. But it's still something. Dammit, Donnie. Ya something. [Deadline]

Fans of gay cowboys, or at least gay country singers, rejoice. The producers of ABC's Nashville have promoted former bitch-punching Orange County resident Chris Carmack to a series regular. Carmack plays a closeted country singer who made an ill-advised drunken pass at the show's soulful heartthrob, who had a not very soulful or heartthrob-y reaction. Oh well, I'm sure he'll come around. Not in a romance-y way, but at least in a good buddy sense. What this does potentially mean is that Carmack's character will get a real love interest, which would be interesting! Always interesting to see Chris Carmack... doin' that. ANYWAY, they also made the two little girls who play Connie Britton's daughters regulars. So. OK. Whatever. Kids. Bah. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Here is a trailer for The Lifeguard, an indie starring Kristen Bell that has basically the same premise as last year's Hello I Must Be Going. Meaning, they're both about a woman in her 30s (well, in The Lifeguard's case 29) who moves back home to her parents' house and starts boffing a young dude. Which is fine! There can be two of those movies. Plenty of room in that territory. This Lifeguard looks pretty good — Kristen Bell is likable and it's nice to see her in a more serious vein here. Plus the supporting cast is strong — Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, dear sweet Amy Madigan. I don't know. It looks nice, right? I think it looks nice.

Speaking of movies that look, y'know, nice, here's the trailer for Austenland, a comedy starring Keri Russell as a Jane Austen-obsessed lady who travels to England to stay at an Austen-themed role-play hotel. Huh. What a concept. She's joined by Jennifer Coolidge, Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie (fun to see him in a romantic role), and Jane Seymour as the hotel's owner. Oh and there's JJ Feild as the Mr. Darcy of the place, all clipped and British and uptight and even though Keri Russell thinks she wants to be with him, of course she really wants to be with Bret McKenzie. He's the George to her Emma, perhaps. Anyway, it looks cute, right? Very silly, but kinda... well, nice.