Huckabee blasted the criticism to host Bill O’Reilly, noting that most of it was coming from “BSNBC” (get it?) and lamented only that the father of a fireman who died on September 11th had been upset by the attacks. That said, he clarified that a “team of experts” wrote the cartoon scripts, not him, and that their goal was to “take kids through American history in a positive way.” “It is very frustrating that this network who has fewer viewers than you have people going to the bathroom during the break,” he joked, was after him.

O’Reilly, on his end, was surprised. “I saw the video, there’s nothing offensive about the video.” He also noted that the firefighter’s father who was offended wasn’t “a loon… he looks like he’s annoyed that you may be making money from this exposition.” Huckabee addressed both the point that the left was offended by the video itself by arguing that “the far left loves to attack somebody for their character and their intent because they really can’t argue on the point of content,” but took more care in answering the criticism that he was making money.”Michael Moore made $222 million dollars on Fahrenheit 9/11,” he noted, but no one attacked him for it. He then added that attacking him would be “like saying Steven Spielberg is cashing in on World War II or the Holocaust because he made Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, that’s absurd.”

The segment via Fox News below:

Writing for the Washington Post, staff writers Philip Rucker and Paul Kane wrote a lenghty and informative piece about Pelosi’s transition to the House Minority leader after serving four years as House Speaker. Within that post was buried the following nugget:

Now, in public, Pelosi is projecting a no-looking-back aura. And behind closed doors, she is laboring to refashion the image of House Democrats – as well as herself.

Lawmakers say she is consulting marketing experts about building a stronger brand. The most prominent of her new whisperers is Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director whose films have been works of branding genius. Lawmakers said Spielberg has not reported toPelosi with a recommendation.

Nancy Pelosi has taken a public flogging in the last few years from right-of-center opinion media personalities, and given the public opinion polls of the House of Representatives, it is completely reasonable to conclude that the House Dems would be eager to change their public image. And the notion that Pelosi is asking for help from Spielberg reinforces the convenient narrative that soon-to-be-former House leader is in bed with the lefty cultural elite based in Hollywood. Except there’s on a fairly big problem with this story: according to Spielberg’s spokesman Marvin Levy, this report seems to be completely off-base.

Gossip Cop reports:

Spielberg, a longtime Democratic supporter, worked on the 2008 Democratic National Convention and recently helped raise funds for President Obama.

“News that he is advising the leading Democrat in the House on building a strong party brand would seem to be a different – and more expansive – role than Spielberg has played in the past,” notes the Washington Post.

And Spielberg knows all about roles.

However, he is NOT helping the Dems “rebrand.”

The director’s spokesman, Marvin Levy, tells Gossip Cop, “Steven has made it his career to direct actors, not political figures.”

As is typically the case in these sorts of stories, the follow-up correction won’t get near as big a splash as the original report, regardless of its veracity. And while Spielberg’s spokesman has made clear that he is not helping the Democrats “rebrand” themselves in any official capacity, its entirely plausible that there could exist a casual and helpful relationship between Spielberg and House leadership. But for now, the official word is that no one should expect the House Democrats to suddenly morph into a summer blockbuster in the coming years.

Piccalo is understandably upset with the quality of Hollywood films being released recently, and she is taking her anger out on the 1980s because, fresh out of ideas, Hollywood is churning out a ton of sequels to ’80s classics no one ever asked for. She explains:

“This year alone, there are at least eight films hitting theaters that are remakes of 1980s movies: The Karate Kid, Clash of the Titans, Tron Legacy, Conan, Predators, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Red Dawn, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. There will be more next year with retreads (or, as some producers would have it, “re-imaginings”) of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi hit Total Recall and of the 1982 remake (of the 1951 original) The Thing. By 2012, we’ll likely see Lethal Weapon 5, Battleship, based on Milton Bradley’s popular board game, another Muppet Movie, and maybe even a 21 Jump Street rehash starring Jonah Hill.”

Few will disagree that the rehashing of old plots, especially of old plots that were not amusing the first time around, is disheartening for the future of film. And sure, there were plenty of seemingly drug-induced blockbuster embarrassments like Flashdance and Rambo, but for every Rocky, the Me Generation provided a Raging Bull: an indelible classic that makes its lower-quality counterpart worth forgiving. Defining the 1980s by Lethal Weapon and Predator completely neglects an entire library of classics that greatly overshadows most of the generations before and since then.

Sadly (for her!), Piccalo sees the ’80s as “the dawn of the senseless sequel and the coming-of-age of movie merchandising, when the gonzo filmmaking of the 1970s gave way to unadulterated greed. With the exception of some rare gems from the likes of John Hughes, Terry Gilliam, and yes, Steven Spielberg, it’s an entire decade of filmmaking worth forgetting.” So perhaps worthwhile to note that if Piccalo’s knowledge of filmmaking is limited enough to consider Steven Spielberg one of the greatest filmmakers of the ’80s, then the problem doesn’t exactly lie with the decade.

In reality, the 1980s were one of the most fruitful– if not the most fruitful– decades for great films. The aforementioned Raging Bull is one of the brightest stars in the Martin Scorsese library, a realist depiction of the life of a boxing champion. Oliver Stone did possibly the best work of his career in the generation, releasing Wall Street, Platoon, Talk Radio, and Born on the Fourth of July. The list of immortal dramas from the decade is difficult to argue with, try as Piccalo may; few generations can claim a list as extensive as American Gigolo, Scarface, Amadeus, The Color Purple, Full Metal Jacket, and countless others.

And dare we leave the protective realm of Hollywood, the 1980s gave us quite possibly the greatest collection of international films in history. In Japan, Akira Kurosawa directed some of his best 30 years after the release of Rashomon with Kagemusha and Ran. In Spain, the now superstar director Pedro Almodovar made his first big splash with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. And a few months before the New German Cinema movement mostly called it quits after the death of Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1982 (who also made his epic series Berlin Alexanderplatz in 1980), his contemporary Werner Herzog released Fitzcarraldo, the story of a railroad entrepreneur who goes into the rubber business to bring an opera house to the tiny, Amazonian town of Inquitos, Peru. It is, without question, the best film of all time. And it was released in 1982. If you don’t believe me, here is some of the best acting you will ever see at the hands of lunatic genius and longtime Herzog creative partner Klaus Kinski, as the title character protests the lack of opera by locking himself in the local church:

Piccalo can gripe about the 2010s’ lack of interesting filmmaking and tragic descent into commercialism all she wants, and I will gladly second her grievance. But what she refuses to acknowledge here is that commercialism in the entertainment industry is not exclusive to the 1980s, nor was it initially pioneered then (just ask anyone who has had the misfortune of watching an Elvis Presley film). Being ungrateful towards artists that contributed so much to American culture and the history of film in the 1980s isn’t going to solve the problem.

This new entrant into the canon spoofs Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” pointing out all sorts of people who are members of the tribe, both familiar ones like Howard Stern, Natalie Portman, Jon Stewart, Howie Mandel, Debra Messing and Jeremy Piven, and double-takes like Daniel Radcliffe (Jewish mom), Courtney Love (Jewish mom) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Jewish dad, which you’d know if you’ve ever seen Blythe Danner). Though I don’t know what Madonna and Britney are doing in there, is wearing a Kabbalah bracelet enough these days? Also, the usual jokes about bagels, lox, guilt, circumcision, and eons of persecution (“All the folks who try to kill us end up in defeat/The moral of the story is ‘We fought, we won, let’s eat’”). Thank God I did this last week. Watch below:

Other includees: Rahm Emanuel, Leonard Nimoy, Hebrew Hammer Adam Goldberg, Asher Roth, David Copperfield, Albert Einstein, Adam Sandler as The Zohan, David Lee Roth, Steven Spielberg, Golda Meir, Larry King, Andrew Dice Clay, Shia LeBoueuf, Sarah Silverman and, wait, Justin Timberlake, whaaa? (According to the Internet, no he’s actually not Jewish, but his middle name is Randall.) Anyway: Don’t challenge Harvey Levin based on this video but still, it’s quite fun, and the “Shema-ma-ma” is quite catchy (not unlike, ahem, Ra-ra-ra-shema). Also, “Kosher Face” just sounds funny. So, well done.

p.s. Hat tip to Rob Tannenbaum of Good For The Jews, who can also claim a first for their song “They Tried To Kill Us, We Survived, Let’s Eat.” Wow, writing Jew jokes is getting competitive.

p.p.s. My spellcheck in our blogging software has the chutzpah to tell me that “Hanukkah” is correct but “Chanukah” isn’t. Oh really Mr. Smart Guy? Congratulations on finding the definitive answer to a question that has eluded generations of Jewish scholars.

Obama-mania meets Bollywood spectacle as the Washington press corps is going a little starstruck over Obama’s first State Dinner with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Washington Post and Politico are devoting special sections on their websites to the event and CNN is already on the story.  Several outlets are planning live video coverage of the dinner and receiving line.

In a town where a good celebrity citing is Fed chief Ben Bernanke or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, things get a little out-of-control for the White House press when they find out A.R. Rahman and Jennifer Hudson are going to be serenading guests. There’s even a “who are you wearing” element to the event, with Pulitzer Prize winning fashion writer-turned Obama family reporter Robin Givhan handing out fashion advice for the evening.

The event cries out for a full-length gown; anything less would seem too informal. A bit of cleavage is fine but a dress that requires double-stick tape should be saved for the Grammys.

In addition to the usual political crowd and Indian officials, early press reports say the dinner’s guest list includes actor-turned-political aide Kal Penn, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta (who almost became Surgeon General), and Washington Post‘s national editor Rajiv Chandrasekaram and his wife Julie Schlosser of Fortune, and WaPo managing editor Raju Narisetti (Note: if you want to score an invite, have roots in the country whose leader is being dined).

The guestlist also includes Hollywood moguls David Geffen, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg as well as super-agent (and brother of the chief-of-staff) Ari Emanuel. Representing the networks as guests at the dinner will be CBS’ Katie Couric, NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Robin Roberts.

Reporters are also tweeting away about the event, with ABC’s Jake Tapper encouraging Sen. Claire McCaskill to tweet the event because it would “be ground-breaking and a quite polite shout-out to the twitterverse.” CBS’s Mark Knoller, on the other hand, tweeted “I don’t mind not being invited to tonight’s State Dinner – since it’s meat loaf night at my house.”

Here is CNN’s report: