Category: The Washington Free Beacon
Teachers’ Unions Sue To Block Tax Cut Referendum From Appearing on Ballot
Massachusetts teachers’ unions are suing to block residents from being able to vote on a statewide tax cut, asking the state’s supreme court to keep it off the ballot in November.
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‘Melania’ soars: Audiences love first lady’s documentary while the usual haters hate
Audiences rave and critics sneer as the documentary “Melania” exceeds industry expectations in its opening weekend.
The opening gross domestic ticket sales reached $7 million, placing the film third overall at the domestic box office behind two major studio releases.
‘To say that “Melania” is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies.’
The film, which chronicles first lady Melania Trump in the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, debuted in 1,778 theaters nationwide, an unusually wide release for a documentary.
Prerelease projections published by entertainment outlets such as People magazine estimated the film would earn between $3 million and $5 million.
RELATED: New ‘Melania’ documentary blends unprecedented access with subtle, profound message
Brooks Kraft/Getty Images
While the film did not screen in advance for critics, reviews published after release were largely unfavorable.
Critics from the Guardian, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter described the documentary as politically one-sided and overly sympathetic.
Xan Brooks of the Guardian compared the film to a “medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety described it as a “cheese ball infomercial of staggering inertia.” Frank Scheck of the Hollywood Reporter wrote, “To say that ‘Melania’ is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies.”
Audiences reacted differently.
Opening-night viewers awarded the film an “A” at CinemaScore, a metric based on verified exit polling conducted at theaters nationwide.
Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images
The film was distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, which reportedly paid $40 million for distribution rights and spent an additional $35 million on marketing.
The total investment made the project the most expensive documentary release to date.
Despite the high cost, box-office analysts interviewed by AP noted that political documentaries are often evaluated based on visibility and audience engagement rather than traditional profitability.
The film premiered at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., with attendance from members of Congress, Cabinet officials, and business executives.
Following its theatrical run, “Melania” is scheduled to stream on Prime Video. International theatrical distribution is expected to be limited.
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‘False and defamatory’: Trump threatens to sue Grammys host Trevor Noah over Epstein snipe
President Donald Trump made a not-so-veiled threat to sue Hollywood leftist Trevor Noah, who made a snide remark associating Trump and Epstein’s island while hosting the 2026 Grammys.
Though he did not attend, Trump appeared to be the main focus of the music award show on CBS Sunday night. Bad Bunny, slated to perform at the Super Bowl next Sunday, sneered, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out.”
‘Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.’
Billie Eilish, who won the Song of the Year award for “Wildflower,” also repeated tired lines about immigration, including that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” She then punctuated her anti-American diatribe with a “f**k ICE” jab.
After Eilish’s acceptance speech, host Trevor Noah piled on, making what appeared to be a joke tying together Trump, Greenland, and even Epstein’s notorious island.
“Song of the Year! Congratulations, Billie Eilish! Wow! That is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” Noah said.
“Which makes sense,” he continued. “I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.”
Perhaps sensing that he had crossed a line — and perhaps recalling that the Grammys were airing on a network that recently agreed to shell out millions to settle a lawsuit with Trump — Noah, who is not expected to host the Grammys again after six tries, added: “I told you it’s my last year. What are you going to do about it?”
It seems Trump may have taken that statement as a dare.
RELATED: ‘$15 Billion’: Trump sues another major news corporation for defamation and libel
Early Monday morning, Trump ripped into Noah for making a “false and defamatory statement” about Trump and Clinton paling around on Epstein’s island.
“WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media,” Trump railed on Truth Social.
Trump then indicated he may file a lawsuit if Noah does not retract.
“Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$,” the president added.
Trump also referenced his previous successful lawsuits against ABC and host George Stephanopoulos.
“Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” the president warned.
CBS and Noah’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Membership Has Its Privileges
London Clubland: A Companion for the Curious, by historian Seth Alexander Thévoz, is the rare book that manages to be both reverent and sly: an impeccably researched directory of London’s private members’ clubs that understands, at a cellular level, which of these places want to be mythologized and which would rather die than be written about at all. The former are treated gently, the latter mercilessly. My favorite section, “What They Probably Don’t Want You to Know,” skewers this distinction perfectly, offering quiet mockery for the clubs desperate to be talked about—Soho House, for instance, which has built an entire business model on insisting it is still misunderstood—while maintaining gentlemanly discretion around those that still prize silence over clout.
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China Is Stealing Our Tech. And It’s Partly Our Fault.
In recent years, there has been growing concern that the United States and China might find themselves in a war over Taiwan. Such worries overlook an important fact: Washington and Beijing are already at war. But as David Shedd and Andrew Badger document in their new book, The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets, only one side has been acting like it.
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Kicking and Screaming Against America and Israel
In the 1970s, after the Six-Day War had time to sink in, an impressive number of Western academics, journalists, politicians, diplomats, spooks, and especially oil executives gave Israel a centripetal eminence in the Middle East that neither its population, geography, faith, wealth, nor even military accomplishments merited. Thirteen hundred years of Islamic history over 3.8 million square miles started getting boiled down to onerous and acrimonious conversations about the contemporary bloody wrestling matches between Jews and Arabs on less than 11,000 square miles of the eastern Mediterranean littoral. Modern Middle Eastern studies, where certainly the most passionate if not the most accomplished students gravitated, became battlefields where anti-Zionist sentiments usually proved triumphant.
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The Music Never Stopped for Bob Weir
Bob Weir’s death was surprising but not a shock. Grateful Dead fans have had plenty of practice saying fare thee well to other band members, most prominently Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, and Ron McKernan (aka Pigpen). Weir, who died Jan. 10 at 78, kept the Dead spirit alive after Garcia’s death in 1995 (just after turning 53), and with his passing the band’s music moves into a new realm. Never again will it be performed by the people who created it (holograms need not apply). A veil of sorts has fallen over the Skull and Roses.
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Associated Press Report Raises Concern Too Few Somalis Counted Among Winter Olympic Elites
‘The AP is concerned that there are too few Somalis snowboarding’
