Christian Toto joins the podcast to talk about Hollywood. He addresses how the entertainment industry has adapted during crises like COVID-19 and #metoo – for example, has Hollywood become more hypocritical because of #metoo and more partisan because of COVID-19? And, finally, he recommends the best movies to watch for quarantine times.

Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, film critic and podcaster with more than 20 years’ experience covering Hollywood from a right-of-center perspective. He previously oversaw entertainment coverage at Breitbart News and LifeZette and currently contributes to The Daily Wire, The Federalist, JustTheNews.com and Newsbusters. He is the founder and editor of HollywoodInToto.com, the Right Take on Entertainment.

She Thinks Podcast · Hollywood’s Response to COVID-19 and #MeToo

Transcript

Beverly:

Welcome to She Thinks, a podcast where you’re allowed to think for yourself. I’m your host, Beverly Hallberg, and on today’s episode we talk about Hollywood. Has the entertainment industry become more partisan and out of touch during the COVID-19 crisis and has it become more hypocritical during the Me-Too movement? Finally, we’re going to end the podcast by topping it off with recommended movies for quarantine times, which I think is just in time, because I think we’re all running out of the programs we’ve already watched.

So, we have a great guest on today to talk about all that. Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, film critic, and podcaster with more than 20 years’ experience covering Hollywood from a right-of-center perspective. He previously oversaw entertainment coverage at Breitbart News and Lifeset and currently contributes to The Daily Wire, The Federalist, justthenews.com, and NewsBusters. He is the founder and editor of hollywoodintoto.com, The Right Take on Entertainment. Christian, it’s a pleasure to have you on.

Christian:

Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Beverly:

We are going to get into the Me-Too movement, the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden, but I first want to start with how Hollywood is handling the coronavirus quarantine. One of the things that’s really got me a little offended on how they handle things is they talk about the importance of working out and they show videos of them in their personal gyms. Of course, most of us do not have personal gyms. Or they’ll talk about how stir crazy they’re going in their spacious homes and saying they’re struggling so much during this. Do you think Hollywood is missing the mark on connecting with people’s struggles right now?

Christian:

For the most part, yes. Listen, they’re rich, they’re famous. They can hunker down better than we can hunker down for the most part. And I can’t blame them for that. They’ve earned their wealth. It’s the way the system works. But there’s such a disconnect on multiple levels. And of course when you’ve got stars singing crazy songs and sharing goofy opinions, they’re starved for camera time, so I get that as well. But what I find the most offensive are people like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and comedian Patton Oswalt going on Twitter or using their platform to say, “Oh, these rubes are out there protesting and they’re not following directions.” Well you know what? They don’t have paychecks like your paychecks. They may be starving, they may be desperate to work, to get back to work so they can provide for their families. And the fact that they have not an ounce of sympathy for people like that is really stunning.

I cover Hollywood hypocrisy. I can write, I can tell you chapter and verse about it, but that has really taken me aback at just how they don’t even begin to understand that there are so many people suffering because we’re locked down. It isn’t just being locked down and watching Netflix. It’s much more than that. And listen, I work in the media. I’m still getting most of my paychecks coming in, but there are many, many people who aren’t, and I think that’s where the disconnect is. It is really profound.

Beverly:

Well, I’m glad you brought up that video, Christian. I want to go ahead and play a clip of it. The clip you’re talking about is a video that was put out by actress Gal Gadot. She had her celebrity friends on it and they did a cover of Imagine by John Lennon. Let’s listen to a little bit here.

(singing)

And that video did go viral for all the wrong reasons. They definitely seemed out of touch in this. Celebrities, I just don’t think handle crises very well when they’re trying to acknowledge people’s pain, and so that brings up what you were saying even about the protest. You find that celebrities are telling people not to protest, that they should stay home, but of course celebrities typically have money to fall back on. I even find people who are still working, people who are teleworking, they’re also individuals telling people that we shouldn’t open up the economy. It seems that the people with money don’t want the economy to get back working again. Do you see that disparity quite often, not just in Hollywood, but also in the press?

Christian:

It’s partly that. It’s partly because that’s what the messaging from the media is giving us. We can open up, we’ve got to hunker down indefinitely, economy be darned. It’s also political. They know that the biggest selling point that President Trump has is that robust economy. Well that’s potentially gone now, and the more it suffers, the more that a new face, a new choice becomes an alternative. So I think it’s a lot of those things, and the messaging that we’re getting out of the press is you can’t go back. And we’ve seen that pretty clearly. You hate people. You want old people to die if you reopen. Well, no one’s saying we’re going to just open up society like it was two months ago. We’re saying we’re going to do it very carefully and maybe in neighborhoods and states and communities where the risk is lower and maybe where the people who have been infected is much lower.

So, I mean, it can be done. I think state by state is the right way, and people aren’t really getting that message and seems like there’s a lack of urgency with people who still get their paychecks.

Beverly:

And I also found it pretty appalling, you had Joy Behar this week, one of the hosts of The View, criticized Dr. Deborah Birx, saying that basically she needed to criticize President Trump more and not be part of his team whatsoever. It’s interesting to me that feminist will go after women if the women don’t line up with how they think they should behave. Do you see that also across the board from most women in Hollywood that they attack females who don’t have the certain ideology that many of them hold dear?

Christian:

Yeah, you know, I’ve studied this pretty extensively. Just think about our First Lady, Melania Trump. She is often savaged in the media. Comedians take potshots at her and I guess a few months ago I reached out to different women’s groups and said, “Hey, what do you think about all these celebrities saying really terrible things? I mean, not just poking fun at this or that, but really sexual, gross, terrible things about the First Lady?” And there was complete silence from them.

We’re seeing that right now because The Daily Beast, a left-of-center outlet, just reached out to whole bunch of women’s groups and said, “What do you think about the Joe Biden situation and this Tara Reade who said that he sexually assaulted her?” They were all silent, because it’s political. If a conservative woman is under attack, she doesn’t get the protection that a liberal woman would get if she were under attack. So it just means they’re being insincere. This whole Me Too Hollywood movement is insincere. It’s a political movement. It’s not about protecting and believing all women, it’s about picking and choosing who we believe, who we don’t believe, based on our political ideology. That’s what it is and it’s been exposed.

Beverly:

Yeah, I do think it’s been glaring right now. We can see just how much there is a hypocrisy between how Judge Kavanaugh was treated during his confirmation and how Joe Biden is being treated, and by the way, we don’t even know. We’re not even saying that Joe Biden is guilty of any of these accusations, but looking into them, the way they’ve been treated, the way they’ve been covered, there is a drastic stark difference between the two. And I’m wondering if there’s been such a difference in how this has been covered, such a difference in Hollywood speaking out between these two situations. Do they even see their own hypocrisy in this? Is it even obvious to them?

Christian:

I don’t know. I’d like to think in their hearts of hearts they understand what they’re saying and what they’re guilty of. But here’s the bottom line. I cover Hollywood from the right. Most people, I’m going to say 95, and that may be conservative estimate, who cover Hollywood, the film critics, the film journalists, they hail from the left, and they know that if they go into into Reese Witherspoon’s press agent and they ask her some tough questions, well maybe their access will be denied next time. There’s a symbiotic relationship going on in a sense.

And also, these different reporters don’t want to put Hollywood activists in a bad light, because they’re all on the same side. So if an actor or actress behaves badly, chances are it won’t be covered extensively. But if Roseanne Barr behaves badly, and she did with that tweet, well then it’s game on and they need to chase her out of the profession. It happens over and over again. The bias in the mainstream news press is obvious, but it’s just as obvious in what they do and don’t cover from the Hollywood press, and I see it all the time.

Beverly:

Where do you think the Me-Too movement goes because of this type of hypocrisy, and this isn’t the only time we’ve seen it. I just think it’s, of course, with someone who is likely going to be the Democrat nominee and we’re talking about a major figure that is known during a very important upcoming election. Do you think because of this hypocrisy it damages any good things that may have been accomplished through the Me Too movement to opening up a space for women to speak about any type of harassment or any type of assault they may have faced?

Christian:

Yeah, listen, I think the Me-Too movement on paper was a wonderful thing. I think it was overdue. I think it has changed the culture in a good way, and I think that the predators who are out there stand a better chance of getting caught, of being ratted on, and that’s all wonderful. But yeah, this is becoming a political movement and not a justice movement, not a movement for women, which is what it should be, but it should continue to be, but it’s not. And again, the media is not going to share that message. So for the average person, they’re not going to get it.

I spent tons of time looking into this and investigating it and going behind the scenes and seeing what’s said and not said. Most people are just living their life. They’re just trying to put food on the table and they don’t have time to dig down into the media and the bias. It’s just they have more important things to do. They’re not going to get that message, but overall this does not help them movement. I would think that people who are left of center should look at all this and say, “Gosh, this wasn’t what it was all about. This was supposed to be noble and good and change things.” And the next person that comes forward, they can think, “Well, who am I going to hurt politically? How does this stand in that cultural perspective?” And maybe they don’t come forward, and that’s a shame.

Beverly:

You would almost think that after the Harvey Weinstein situation and his conviction through all of this, that they would want to be more vocal during a time like this, at least saying we said before that women should be listened to. Now many of them said that I believe her. That was one of those slogans which I’ve always said women can lie as well. Men can lie, women can lie. Let’s go through due process and see what actually takes place, but it seems they haven’t learned anything from that. But I do think you bring up a good point right there, which was first of all, people have really important things going on in their lives, and listening to what a celebrity may say isn’t really important during a time when they’re just trying to figure out how to put food on the table.

But a common question I get, I’m sure you get this with what you do for a living, the common question I get from people is, “Where do I go for unbiased news?” Because so many people self select into what they want to read and I think it’s good to have options, but are we seeing within the media, because there seems to be more bias in media and how things are covered, especially during the Trump administration, it’s hard for people to parse through what is true and what is not true.

Christian:

Yeah, that’s a great question. I don’t have an easy answer. For me, as someone who’s right of center, I kind of absorb the left-of-center messaging. I see it in Hollywood, I see it on my newsfeed, I see it in the mainstream publication, so I can’t avoid it, and I’m happy not to avoid it, because I’d rather know what’s out there. And then I will seek out other publications like National Review or The Federalist or The Daily Wire and I’ll get the … I try to get as much information, get the full story. There’s a lot of great podcasts out there that really break down the news in ways that I think the major news outlets don’t do. So that’s part of it.

I mean, I just want more transparency. I don’t really have an ax to grind against Mother Jones or The Nation or MSNBC. Beyond what they are, they do what they do. Their bias is obvious. And I think you can go into them and say, “Okay, I know where they’re coming from. Let’s see what they’ve got.” And then you can assess whether it’s true, whether it’s false, but it’s been framed improperly or not. That’s fine. But when you have so many outlets that are purporting to be true and noble and fair and honest, and they’re not remotely any of the above, that does get my … That drives me crazy.

Beverly:

Let’s also transition to where the state of movies are right now in entertainment. We have seen movies that never went to the theater that came straight to people’s homes. You had to maybe purchase $20 instead of the normal rental rate in order to watch it. How have you seen movies, the entertainment industry, try to adapt during this coronavirus time?

Christian:

Well, it’s really tricky and it is a case-by-case basis. There are some films that were just in theaters and they figured, “Well, there’s not much we can do with it. Let’s just put it on the home video, jack up the price and see what happens.” That’s what happened with Invisible Man and also The Hunt and Emma. Then there were films that were about to be released and some of them have come straight to home video, and that includes Trolls World Tour, which actually made a ton of money according to the Universal figures as a home video release. But again that’s slanted those we’re all home, and I don’t know how it’ll fare elsewhere, but it’s, we’re in a transition period and people say, “Well it’s a death of movie theaters and we won’t go to movies anymore,” blah, blah, blah. I don’t think so. I think for the the razzle dazzle experience, nothing can replace the theater, and I think once things calm down, I think we’re going to want to go back and experience that again.

But I think what will change is there are some movies that are going to be on the bubble, movies that maybe don’t have a lot of marketing power, movies that maybe are better suited for home viewing where it’s quieter, you can really appreciate it. I think you may see more of those films go direct to video on demand, and maybe they will have a higher price tag at first until a few weeks later, then the price will flow downward. So I think that will change.

But I don’t know. Listen, I don’t think Hollywood’s going to say, “Okay, Black Widow is going to be in pay-per-view at home. We’re going to skip theaters.” I don’t see that. I could be wrong, but I don’t see it.

Beverly:

And many people are binge watching shows right now. They’re asking about the best shows. I am curious. Obviously productions are shut down right now on any TV programming, any Netflix, any movies. Are we going to have a big gap when things start opening up again, because we’re going to run out of content at a certain point in time, correct?

Christian:

Yeah, it’s going to be interesting. I guess it depends how long the gap is. Stars can’t go back to work yet. It’s not happening. We’re seeing these makeshift Zoom-created shows, the late night talk shows that are all being shot from their homes, so they’re making do. But yeah, there will be a gap of sorts. But then of course there’s a lot of content that maybe is delayed, too. We’re in uncharted territory. There are movies that will be coming out later this summer, hopefully. There were movies that were going to come out a couple weeks ago, but they’ve been pushed off to next year. It’s just a very volatile landscape. I don’t know how it’s going to change, but there’s so much content out there. If there was a two-month gap where nothing new came out, then we could all just catch up on what we missed, because there’s so many great different things on different platforms, and I think of all the problems in the entertainment realm, that’ll be a smaller one. Let’s just get back to work.

Beverly:

So, this is a good question to go from there, which is what are you watching? You, your family, any quarantine picks that you would recommend to us that maybe not be the top picks that we’re hearing? People are asking for suggestions all the time. Anything that’s a bit more obscure that you think people should pay attention to?

Christian:

Yeah. You know, as a critic, I watch two or three movies a week, but now I’m watching two or three independent movies a week. And the good thing there is that that’s another video on demand possibility, and often they’ll pay between $6 and $10 to watch it at home. These are new movies, they haven’t been in theaters, and normally they would go to art house theaters, but now they’re going straight to home. So couple of options here. One is called Resistance With Jesse Eisenberg. It’s the true story that Marcel Marceau, the great mime. I had no idea about this, but during World War II, he helped save a whole bunch of Jewish children from the Holocaust. And the story looks at how he was a hero back then. It’s not a great movie, but it’s a good movie, and it’s just, it’s such an amazing story and I think more people should hear about it and it’s well worth seeing.

On the horror front, there’s a movie coming out this weekend starting Friday. It’s called The Wretched, and it’s about a teenager who moves in with his dad and he’s living in a coastal community and there’s something creepy about his next door neighbor. I’ll say no more, but it’s a very well-constructed, smart horror movie, good special effects, lots of scares. It’s not the kind of movie where you’re smacking your head at the stupidity of the main characters. It’s smarter than that. Those are two off the bat, and also Train to Busan. It’s probably the best zombie movie of the past 10, 20 years. It’s on Amazon Prime right now. It’s a South Korean film. It is long, it is gory, it is scary, it is perfectly crafted, and if you love horror movies, I really highly recommend it. It’s one of the best ones I’ve seen in quite some time.

Beverly:

It sounds like you’re a big horror movie fan.

Christian:

I am.

Beverly:

I struggle with them, I have to be honest, I get scared.

Christian:

Yeah.

Beverly:

Have you seen, so this is in the conservative circles, this has been talked about a lot. It’s the biopic of Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly, Mrs. America. Have you seen it yet? And what is your take on it?

Christian:

You know, I haven’t been able to catch up with it. Again, I’m just watching so much stuff. I did speak to her daughter, who was astounded at some of the things that were just shown in the trailer itself. The early reviews painted it as showing her as a villain, a kind of a Walter White-like figure. Listen, it would strike me as bizarre if it wasn’t fair to her. I don’t think it is to a certain extent, but this is Hollywood. This is the message that they do. It does show some deep flaws, I understand, within the feminist movement and the different personalities and different arguments they had and the fissures that maybe stopped them from getting the ERA amendment passed. And enter carefully, Cate Blanchett plays Phyllis Schlafly. She’s a wonderful actress. She also co-produced this whole production. It’s on Hulu right now. Yeah, I just, I haven’t been able to catch up with it, but when when Hollywood tackles a subject like this, there’s often a reason for it. There’s often a message that they want to share, and I don’t think that’s avoidable when you see it.

Beverly:

Final question for you is just about any type of movies that you think are coming out or maybe currently out there that we should pay attention to that maybe have more of a right-of-center message behind it? Sometimes my favorite movies are those movies that don’t have an overt political message, it’s not a documentary, but there’s just some inherent truth. One movie that has always stood out to me that does this well was the movie Up, which of course was a huge blockbuster film. To me, it was about eminent domain. We knew that taking away this man’s house was bad, which is why he flew it away on balloons, and it’s this whole idea that government shouldn’t or a company shouldn’t be able to take your property. Is there anything like that that you see coming up where there is more of a message that’s smaller government or more about individual rights that’s coming out? I know I’m throwing you a curve ball with this question, because they’re rare. They’re few and far between if these movies come out.

Christian:

Yeah. I don’t know of anything on the coming soon. I want to mention a couple films. One is called Little Pink House. It’s about a year and a half old, and it is specifically about eminent domain. It is not an animated film, but it’s got Catherine Keener as a star. It’s a very well-told story that even though I think it speaks to libertarian impulses, it’s not a hard ideological story. I think it’s really better crafted than that. It’s more complex, more nuanced. I really recommend that one.

Also, it was in theaters a few weeks ago, there’s a way to watch it on demand right now, No Safe Spaces. I thought it was the most important that came out last year. It’s about free speech. It’s about what’s happening on college campuses nationwide. Never been more important to watch this movie and it’s really engaging. It’s smart, on a very small budget. It looks good. It’s got a glossy feel to it. It doesn’t feel like a cheap theatrical in effort. You’ve got Dennis Prager, Adam Carolla, Tim Allen, a whole bunch of people you may know of, and also some liberal voices who are talking about the importance of free speech, so if you haven’t seen No Safe Spaces, I just, wherever you can see it, see it. It’s an important movie. It’s a good movie, and I wish it had been a bigger box office hit when it came out, because those are the kind of movies we really need to support.

Beverly:

Well, we appreciate those suggestions and we appreciate your time and also your work in this sphere. Not many people are taking on Hollywood and giving us the message that center or right-of-center that is out there. Your website is hollywoodintoto.com. People should check it out, but for now, Christian, thank you so much for joining us.

Christian:

Oh, my pleasure.

Beverly:

And thank you all for joining us. Before you go, we did want to let you know that during this time of unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to show what America is made of. That’s why IWF is highlighting American ideals of ingenuity, generosity, and kindness. From everyday Americans donating blood to companies providing free food and housing, it’s a beautiful reminder that we’re in this together. Visit iwf.org or check us out on Facebook and Twitter and follow our campaign using #inthistogether. That is #inthistogether to learn more about the campaign.

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