Not many of you might remember the name Jack Valenti, but you probably recognize his picture. Jack was the head of the Motion Picture Association Of America from 1966-2004. They are the group of people who decide what ratings a film gets and so as a consequence they have a lot of power over a lot of people. Their ratings can determine whether a movie makes money or is a bomb. Anyway, back in the day, the Washington Post is reporting today that President Johnson had the FBI investigate Jack to determine whether he was gay or not. Did he want to know this so he could have an affair with him? Basically several FBI agents at the height of the cold war spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and conducted numerous interviews with people all to determine whether he was gay. I don't know how many times this was repeated with how many other people but it wasn't like they were going to release the information anyway. The only reason they wanted the information was so they could blackmail the people being investigated and make them do things they didn't necessarily want to do. Sounds like some other organization that is popular in Hollywood circles.
I mean there really is no other point except blackmail and knowing that if they released the news you would be shunned. The results of the investigation were that he was not gay and so they probably spent hundreds of more hours trying to find something else they could hold over his head.
You Americans should be more outraged about this waste of funds than you are about the octomommy and her wasting funds
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't recognize Jack Valenti's name, and you have any interest in film at all, immediately Netflix "This Film is Not Yet Rated." That's an order.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I sure remember this old crusty fart. He was antiquated in his thinking about the ratings system.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated"? It expounds on their lack of fairness and the way the MPAA is just another corrupted organization.
Was hoping it would all change when ol' man Velenti took a dirt nap. Fat chance.
I don't know if I ever heard anything good of Johnson. But to waste money just to see if this guy was gay is pretty stupid.
ReplyDeleteI had heard the name before, but didn't know much about him until he gave the commencement address at my graduation from University of Houston (c/o '02). Turns out he's a native Houstonian & UofH alum (c/o '46), & has lead an unbelieveable life. His speech was fantastic. I bought his biography-haven't read it yet, but it's supposed to be really good.
ReplyDeleteAs to the topic of the post-what a stupid waste of funds. Valenti was a special assistant to LBJ & was known to be incredibly loyal to him-& even lived in the White House for a short time after LBJ took office, if I remember correctly. Hmmm...so maybe Enty's guess as to LBJ looking into an affair isn't that far off. Nah, the blackmail guess is more likely closer to the truth. Ridiculous either way.
I disliked him intensely. Narsty piece of work in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe Not Yet Rated doc was unbelievable. Jack Valenti was a huge asshole and horrible person.
ReplyDeleteenty, he was part of johnson's administration and lived in the white house for a while when johnson first took over. prior to that his company was in charge of the press which is why he was at johnson's swearing in.
ReplyDeleteyou do know this, no??? you must be young.
Please - J Edgar investigated all of Hollywood to determine the same thing. He was SUCH a queen. It was in the 50s and 60s, so those funds are LONG gone.
ReplyDeleteWow, even the President listened to gossip.
ReplyDelete@ Sue Ellen, with all due respect, we have laws about this already, so what are we supposed to do? Contact our representatives and demand that Lyndon Johnson be impeached? Ask President Obama to apologize to Mr. Valenti's family on behalf of the US government?
ReplyDeleteI choose to be outraged for the prospects of those 14 children, the abuse of the medical guidelines and the welfare system's open pocketbook because those are things I might be able to change.
(off topic - I love being able to write "President Obama"!)
You can't ask Obama to apologise just like you can't ask those kids to go back inside their fame whore of a mom. All I'm saying is that it works both ways and you shouldn't be able to pick and choose when it suits you and your outrage. Providing those children with state funding is only going to benefit them in the long run so they aren't continually dependent on those tax dollars I see everyone on here moaning about. Do you want to cut off support to every child that has fucked up parents that can't support them? That's a good idea, perpetuate the problem by cutting them off from the only services that will save them in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record when I say you, I mean vous, as in the general you.
"...you shouldn't be able to pick and choose when it suits you and your outrage."
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't pick and choose, I'd spend my life banging my head against a wall, lol.
The "tax dollar" argument is moot anyway, because Octomom is going to get plenty of $ from tv. Hated people give the networks much higher ratings than beloved ones.
Sue Ellen Mishkey....
ReplyDeleteI cant be outraged by Octolina right now, as I am currently consumed with the beheading of a woman by her Pakistani Husband here in America. The crime being labeled as extreme domestic violence...WTF!!!!...I do thank you for the suggestion though....
I forgot to say that the reason you should be more outraged about this is because LBJ federally funded a witch hunt in an attempt to extort someone. I mean, that's your president for christ sakes, not just some dumb woman who made a bad choice for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteDear backseat: now there's an outrage
ReplyDeleteyes because what we all need right now is abunch of outraged people talking about something that isn't going to change...
ReplyDeleteActually my guess as to why this was done was to make sure that Valenti wasn't propogating the "homosexual agenda" through film. from what I recall, that was one of the things prohibited in the Hayes code which existed prior to MPAA.
ReplyDeleteSue Ellen, I'll "choose" to be outraged by something that happened this century, not by something that happened before I was born which I am unable to affect.
ReplyDeleteOctomommy should have all 14 of her kids and every penny she's got from everyone taken from her, she should be forcibly sterilized (at gunpoint, if necessary), and those kids should be moved at least four states away so she never sees them again. If she wasn't born here, she should be deported back to Iraq. She is slime.
Like I wrote earlier, J Edgar investigated all of Hollywood. There are files on everyone famous outside of Hollywood, too. This is not news. Why NOT Jack Valenti? Even aside from Valenti's connection to show biz, if he was going to work for a President, he'd be thoroughly checked out by the Fibbies.
ReplyDeleteLBJ sucked. He got funding to escalate the Vietnam War by selling a fake story to the US public. I hated him.
Heard on news radio that Gloria Allred is getting involved in the Octopussy matter. This might get interesting.
It was J. Edgar Hoover's investigation not LBJ's. The article says LBJ tried to block it, but was pressured by the FBI to approve the investigation and finally did.
ReplyDelete"Heard on news radio that Gloria Allred is getting involved in the Octopussy matter."
ReplyDeleteOh, good god.