This morning Jason Mattera, Human Events editor-at-large and author of the new book Hollywood Hypocrites spoke to Glenn on radio this morning.
You may have seen a story on The Blaze yesterday about Jason's encounter backstage with comedian Chris Rock. Jason first approached Rock and asked the comedian nicely if he could get a picture with him. Then he did something that made Chris Rock go crazy…
“Chris, when you said that the Tea Party was insanely racist…” Jason started to ask the comedian, but before he could finish, Chris Rock lost it, attacking Jason and his camerawoman.
Jason told Glenn that Rock didn’t just try to put the camera away, but “he pushed it down to the ground, he wrestled it away from my camera woman, and he launched it fifty feet. Then he wanted to fight me. He was standing behind his body guards, lunging at me saying ‘you want to throw down? Let’s throw down right now.’ Of course he has these big bodyguards with him, so he’s acting all hardcore and tough, while I’m just asking a question about his justification for calling the tea party racist.”
Jason spent a year investigating Hollywood for his new book Hollywood Hypocrites. He embedded himself in Los Angeles, followed these celebrities, and investigated to see “if Obama’s biggest backers live up to their hype. Do they [the Hollywood elite] live by the same standard and policy prescriptions they have tried to seek and hoist upon the rest of us?”
Judging by the title of his new book, you can probably guess the answer.
Glenn wanted know what Jason was able to find during his time in Hollywood. Harrison Ford was the first celebrity that Glenn asked Jason about.
"Harrison Ford, a greenie?" Glenn asked Mattera.
“Big, big greenie,” Jason answered. “In fact, he cut a commercial for Conservation International where he got his chest waxed to portray the pain the environment feels when carbon dioxide is pumped into the air.”
But, as Jason discovered, “it turns out that he owns seven airplanes—seven—and he stated on the record, ‘I often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger.’ He flies a jet to go grab a Big Mac.”
“Unbelievable,” Glenn said. “And Barbra Streisand?”
“She spends $22,000 a year watering her lawn and her gardens, requests 120 bath size towels upon her arrival to hotels, and uses thirteen 53 foot semi-trailers at her concerts.”
Why Barbra Streisand needs 120 bath towels, none of the guys could figure out, but one thing is for sure, the hypocrisy in Hollywood is jaw dropping.
Glenn had three more celebrities to ask Jason about: Bruce Springsteen, Michael Moore, and Bon Jovi.
Jason started with Springstein. He told Glenn's radio audience that Bruce Springsteen claims that the social contract with America and its poorest middle-class is disappearing, because we give tax cuts for the rich. “Meanwhile, in his own power in his estate in New Jersey, he takes advantage of some arcane tax loophole that allows him to classify 200 acres of his estate as a farm, so he can write off 98% of his property taxes,” Jason said.
“Do you have any idea what he pays in property taxes for a huge piece of property?” Stu asked
“Or, what he should have?” Glenn added.
Jason explained that Springsteen only pays $4,000 of the $40,000 his property taxes would have been, and the story is similar with Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi only pays $104 in property taxes that would also be around the $40,000 range. Why? – a small bee farm.
Michael Moore was the final name Glenn asked Jason about. Jason explained how Michael Moore, the guy who has made movies based on his hate for capitalism, supports the 99%, and that rails against the right for not wanting “the rich” to pay higher taxes, took a nice million dollar check from the state of Michigan to produce Capitalism: A Love Story in the state.
Jason’s new book is on sale now: Hollywood Hypocrites