A co-founder of the upstart Slamdance Film Festival, Dan Mirvish is also an active director, screenwriter and producer. Mirvish made headlines around the world as the co-creator (with Eitan Gorlin) of the faux McCain adviser Martin Eisenstadt who was the self-admitted leak for the Sarah Palin Africa story. Their book, I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's Wildly Inappropriate Adventures with the Last Republicans, will be released November 3, 2009, by Farrar, Straus Giroux. The book promises to be twice as rogue-y, half the price and come out two weeks earlier than Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue." The Eisenstadt phenomenon was reported in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, NPR, BBC, and newspapers and magazines from Australia to Norway.

In the feature film world, Mirvish directed, co-wrote and produced the real estate musical Open House, which was distributed by The Weinstein Company. The Academy Awards literally rewrote their rules in response to Mirvish's controversial Oscar campaign to revive the dormant Original Musical category. Mirvish is the rare filmmaker who's actually made money on an Oscar campaign in a category that didn't exist, for a movie that no one had seen. The film starred Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman, Ann Magnuson, Kellie Martin and Anthony Rapp.

In order for the Academy to recognize the requisite number of films eligible for the Original Musical category, Mirvish went so far as to write, produce and shoot yet another feature musical, Half Empty. Shot in 10 days in Germany and France with an international cast, the film premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Mentored by Robert Altman, Mirvish wrote, directed and produced his award-winning first feature Omaha (The Movie) which played at over 30 international film festivals, and theatrically throughout the US. In the TV world, Mirvish directed the controversial comedy A Message from the President of Iran, which was broadcast on the Emmy-winning season of Al Gore's CurrentTV.

Prior to getting an M.A. from USC's graduate film production program, Mirvish was a Washington-based speech writer for U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and a freelance journalist for such publications as the New York Times and the Washington Monthly.

Blog Entries by Dan Mirvish

Not Just Palin Porn In Eisenstadt Book

Posted November 24, 2009 | 03:08 PM (EST)


Now that Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue is out, it's worth taking a look at the book that Ken Silverstein at Harper's says is "essential reading for all political junkies": I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's (wildly inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans, by none other than fake...

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Castellanos CNN Scandal: Confessions of a Balloon Boy Pundit!

2 Comments | Posted October 20, 2009 | 03:50 PM (EST)


I read with interest the news that CNN pundit Alex Castellanos was "revealed" by Media Matters to be working with the health care industry on their ad campaign. Everyone seems "shocked, shocked!" that he is in fact exactly what he's usually identified as on CNN, a "GOP Media Consultant."...

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Obama to Send Gay Brigade to Afghanistan: Everyone Happy!

Posted October 13, 2009 | 06:09 PM (EST)


According to one Department of Defense adviser, the Obama administration has found a creative way to both pacify the gay rights community and placate hawks who'd urged him to send more troops to Afghanistan. Reportedly, most of the contingent of 13,000 troops to be sent in the "Afghan surge" will...

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Sarah Palin vs. Dan Brown: Battle of Bestsellers Turns Ugly (VIDEO)

8 Comments | Posted October 2, 2009 | 11:27 AM (EST)


By now, everyone's heard that Sarah Palin's new book Going Rogue: An American Life has upended Dan Brown's multiweek supremacy atop the bestseller lists with his book The Lost Symbol. But the army of Brownies is not taking this lying down. There is already a campaign afoot on Twitter...

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Sarah Palin Book that's Twice as Rogue-y, Half the Price, 2 Weeks Earlier!

8 Comments | Posted September 29, 2009 | 06:54 PM (EST)


By now everyone's heard that Sarah Palin's 400 page book Going Rogue: An American Life is coming out November 17. But as it turns out, scandalous political pundit Martin Eisenstadt has his own book about Sarah Palin coming out exactly two weeks earlier, it costs half the price, and it...

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Source of Sarah Palin's $150,000 Wardrobe Comes Clean?

12 Comments | Posted August 31, 2009 | 03:04 PM (EST)


In a classic case of burying the lead, a newly posted promo for a campaign tell-all book has a bombshell buried deep within. Remember Sarah Palin's infamous $150,000 wardrobe from last year's campaign? The mystery was never solved as to who actually bought her the clothes. Turns out,Martin Eisenstadt is...

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Does Sarah Palin Fear Upcoming Book Revelations?

69 Comments | Posted July 9, 2009 | 01:53 PM (EST)


Of all the prevailing theories about why Sarah Palin may have quit the governorship in Alaska perhaps the most intriguing has to do with books--her own and others--and the race to finish the definitive Palin narrative. Palin's frustration with "the media" is one of the reasons she cited for resigning,...

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Ahmadinejad Dreams of Being an American [VIDEO]

3 Comments | Posted June 19, 2009 | 10:24 AM (EST)


In this time of crisis in Iran, it is heartening to see the Iranian people dreaming of a real democracy.

But this begs the question: When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad falls asleep, what does he dream about? According to this video, he dreams of being a young American - complete with a...

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The Few and the Proud? A Red-Band Marine Recruiting Video

1 Comments | Posted May 27, 2009 | 04:30 PM (EST)


At a time when we are reconsidering every decision made during the Bush/Rumsfeld era, from torture to the invasion of Iraq to the speculation of adding a sixth side to the Pentagon (thank you Douglas Feith for floating THAT trial balloon!), comes a new, equally disturbing revelation. We all know...

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