A Little Of The Old In And Out



In: Sean Penn. His quixotic aside on Obama notwithstanding, the chain-smoking Sean Penn is, culturally, the man of the hour. And we're not just talking about his voluminous post-Robin Wright Penn "hookupage (Nemcova? Really?)."

But on to High Art. As the President of the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival -- an honor held previously by such heavyweights as David Lynch and Luc Besson -- the choices of the films presented revolve around his own aesthetic tastes. Since Cannes is the biggest film festival in the world, that makes him something of an alpha in international film swim. From the AP:

"Asked by a reporter if he could confirm that he had hesitated before taking the jury presidency because it means being 'wise and sober' for 12 days, the 'Into the Wild' director quipped, 'How many days have I got left?'

"Penn, a regular at Cannes, won the best actor award here for 'She's So Lovely,' and he showed his own movies 'The Pledge' and 'The Indian Runner' here. When Clint Eastwood's 'Mystic River' played at Cannes, it generated early buzz for Penn's performance, which went on to win an Academy Award.

"Penn wasn't all jokes and antics at Cannes — he also let his serious, thoughtful side shine through, urging reporters to see a documentary that the festival included at his special request."

(image via smh)

Out: P Diddy, Buffoon. Occasionally P Diddy is an amusing ass. A prancing media whore with fancy toys. Who can forget the image of Diddy, sprinting through the streets of Ibiza in a fur coat, still wet from the hot tub. And then there is the story of Diddy and Jamie Foxx spending $8,000 on drinks. His hammy, scenery-chewing performance in "A Raisin In The Sun" could just as easily have been titled "Ambition Run Amok." Now, this .. From the 3AM Girls:

"Has the credit crunch even hit P Diddy? We only ask because the music mogul is looking for - gasp! - sponsors to fund a big party on his yacht at this year's Cannes Film Festival."

Lame.



(image via msnbc)

In: Senator Joe Biden. Present Senior Senator from the great state of Delaware and -- please God -- future Secretary of State, Joe Biden got passionate in free-associating about lame-duck President George Bush's veiled attacks on Senator Obama. Worse: the President used the pathetic Lord Chamberlain/appeasement cliche (Is this the only History that conservatives have ever read about?). From Politico:

"Sen. Joe Biden, piling on to Democratic complaints about President Bush’s speech in Israel today:

"'This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.'"

The good thing is that it unifies the party behind Obama, after a tough beginning of the week in the state-that-will-not-be-named.



Out: Unilateralism. You know that unilateralism has jumped the shark as a geopolitical strategy when a Machiavellian brooder like Henry Kissinger embraces "cooperation." Kissinger, who operates more out of the camp of Opportunism than either the Realist or Neoconservative schools of foreign policy, addressed the "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference in Jerusalem yesterday. He appeared to be giving a nod to the popular Rise-of-the-Rest argument. One never quite knows where Kissinger exactly stands -- and that works to his political advantage, of course, as he can't be proven wrong -- but he stressed the two great global dangers as being the rise of fundamentalism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. A key strategy for Israel would be to make sure these twin threats don't overlap. From Ha'aretz:

"The Nobel Prize laureate added that the Iranian nuclear threat, besides threatening to destroy Israel, is also an existential threat to the world and must be addressed internationally. He explained that as long as a nation is capable of developing nuclear weapons in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and major world powers, then nuclear capability will consequently spread into many other nations. He stressed that when groups such as the Security Council voice objection to nuclear weapons development, they must do so with specific instructions and a defined timetable, otherwise, the situation will only deteriorate.

"Kissinger also addressed the issue China's economic growth and the threat it poses to the U.S. hegemony on the world economy, saying that the issue must be addressed from the vantage point of future cooperation, rather than strategic competition. The world has changed, Kissinger said, and the theories of foreign relations that were valid in the past are now also changing. He cited the cooperation between the European nations within the framework of the European Union as an example of such successful cooperation.

"The former secretary of state also addressed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying that it required both sides to be very brave. He added that it was impossible to move forward unless both sides know that a peace agreement is not the end of the road, but rather a starting point for future processes.

"It is imperative to maintain the kind of cooperation that Shimon Peres is cultivating, he said."

More here.