Ann Coulter, Al Franken, Al Franken: God Spoke

ANN'S REVENGE?

Film Site Claims Coulter Wants Scene Cut




*** Updated With Fresh Coulter- Hate Example ***


As payback for past mistreatment, is Ann Coulter now sticking it to Al Franken? Or, is Mr Smalley merely manufacturing another convenient "controversy" in order to hype his new film, Al Franken: God Spoke?

According to CHUD, a film industry news and discussion site, Coulter has demanded that a scene featuring her and Franken during a 2004 Connecticut debate be cut from the final version. And CHUD contributor Devin Faraci even suggests that Coulter is intentionally trying to sabotage Franken's new film:

Ann Coulter has demanded that a great scene where she gets her skinny ass handed to her be cut from the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke. The film, which follows Franken’s book tour for Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, his involvement in liberal radio network Air America and his eventual decision to run for office, includes a scene where Coulter and Franken engage in a public debate at The Connecticut Forum in 2004.

In the scene they briefly argue about the late Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone, then they’re asked a question about which historical figure they would like to be. Coulter says FDR, so she could never introduce the New Deal. Al Franken quickly and easily decimates her with his answer – he’d be Hitler, so he could stop the Holocaust.

But then on Monday directors Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus were informed that Coulter wouldn’t give them permission to use the footage, even though the film has already screened at the Tribeca Film Festival with the scene intact.

Franken, as usual, has been quick to turn this into a "Coulter can't take the heat" kind of slam. From Faraci's report:

“I’m heart- sick about it, frank- ly,” Franken told me today. “It’s a funny scene, with the Hitler thing. And also she’s awful.”

“We went under the unthinking presumption that it was a public event and we could shoot it,” says co-director Nick Doob. “It was really, in fact, a miscommunication in our office. To use that footage we had to have permission from Ann Coulter.”

The filmmakers don’t know what Coulter’s exact problem is with the footage. “We don’t really know,” says Doob. “She just didn’t want it in the film.” If I had to guess I would say it’s a two-pronged thing: she doesn’t want to be in the movie getting owned, and she wants to spite Franken.

Explains Franken: “We don’t get along at all. I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me.”

Previously, we've covered backstage Franken / Coulter tensions here and the film's progress here. In the latter instance, we hoped that the film's producers would let us get to know the real Al Franken a bit more, but instead, it appears that God Spoke is just another piece of Frankenfluff.

Whether Coulter will have anything to say about this latest flap is anyone's guess.


UPDATE: More unhinged anti- Coulter hate from film industry websites:

Normally I hate to get political (because politics is less interesting than movies), but after doing a few painful hours of serious research, I've come to the conclusion that right-wing lunatic Ann Coulter is probably the most horrific non-murderer I've ever come across. She sells a lot of books, true -- because ham-fisted choir-preaching, arcane ravings and sloppily-written bile make for fun reading, I guess.

Seems that the self-adoring Ms. Coulter is branching out into fields that don't include self-promotion, intolerance and hate-mongering; nowadays she fancies herself a film editor too: Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus, directors of Al Franken: God Spoke have been forced to remove a sequence in which Mr. Franken (verbally) beats Coulter down and wins an argument without breaking much of a sweat.

Despite the fact that the conversation took place at an open debate and is most definitely an item of public record, Coulter has to approve the footage for it to stay in the film -- and, as a huge proponent of ignorance, spite and censorship, she refuses to do so.

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Waaaah!: David A Lunde for the Radio Equalizer