Mark Joseph

Donna Summer will be lauded as the Queen of Disco in most obits, but many of these will miss the important role she played in integrating faith into pop culture, for it was Summer who, faced with a religious conversion at the height of her popularity in 1979, resisted efforts...

As incongruous as it may sound, I "celebrated" the season by watching both Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ and Bill Maher's Religulous. Not to say that I'm neutral in that debate, having both worked on the former and being a Theist for most of my life, still I...

The Salvation Army is reported to have had a saying in its early days: "Take the Devil's money to do God's work." Now a group of 20- and 30-somethings based in the Seattle area has taken that philosophy to a new level, and their story is told in a just-released...

"There's an old Greek saying," said Michael Dukakis in the heat of the 1988 campaign in a pointed attack on his opponent George H.W. Bush's boss, Ronald Reagan. "A fish rots from the head first. You know, it starts at the top."

Watching Game Change, I was reminded of that...

Comedian/filmmaker Adam Christing has posted this moving tribute to his good friend Steve Bridges, a top-notch impressionist whose victims included George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and many others, who passed away this past weekend at the age of 48.

Bridges was booked as the...

Watching the Republican candidates vying for their party's nomination for the last six months reminds me of pre-1992 Olympic basketball games: while the rest of the world was allowed to bring their best players to compete, Americans found themselves cheering on wannabes and has-beens, even as their best players were...

One of the best-kept secrets about LA life is that every Sunday morning one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time quietly holds court, masterfully playing his piano and singing songs that have earned him nine Grammy awards over his lifetime. Although he still tours, Andrae Crouch's first responsibility these...

Like millions of people around the world, my eyes were glued to the TV shortly after the Japanese earthquake finished and the massive tidal wave began. What was particularly heartbreaking for me and my family was the horrific sight of Japanese drivers who thought they were driving away from the...

Years ago I once interviewed comedian Jay Leno and he told me something I've never forgotten and think of quite often: when he wants to make fun of a fat man, he never makes fun of him for being fat; rather, he makes fun of his tie.

I think of...

At my first book signing at BEA (Book Expo America) I came face to face with just the kind of readers I was hoping to attract when I wrote my new book Wild Card: The Promise & Peril of Sarah Palin: Of the 100 or so who...

Not only do I have nothing against Jesus Christ or Ayn Rand, I once took one of those tests that is supposed to tell you what your religious and political beliefs are and was told that I belonged in the Quaker church and the Libertarian party. Of course I didn't...

In 1996, Texas Senator Phil Gramm ran unsuccessfully for president and although he never made it to the White House, he made a major contribution to American political life by introducing the Dickey Flatt Test. Flatt was a longtime Gramm friend and the Senator regularly invoked his name in order...

In her classic novel Shiokari Pass, one of Japan's best-loved authors, Ayako Miura, introduced the character Nobuo Nagano who upon realizing that a part of the train he was riding on had come loose from the rest of the train and was heading back down a...

I spent most of the first 18 years of my life in Japan and the idea of the Big One striking was as much a part of life as eating and breathing. Still, nothing prepares for the incredible sight of Japanese homes, businesses and lives being washed away in a...

I was invited to CPAC, the largest gathering of conservatives in America, to screen my film Doonby which co-stars a CPAC favorite, actor Robert Davi, and talk a bit about the subject of my next film, a hero to all of the attendees, Ronald Reagan. During my speech...

One of my pet peeves when it comes to public discourse is the seeming inability of otherwise smart people to follow similes and analogies and I can't think of a better example of this phenomenon than the recent case of Congressman Steve Cohen. Cohen didn't say Republicans were...

Next weekend actor/singer Robert Davi brings his Davi Sings Sinatra act to Los Angeles and I will be there cheering Robert on. I hope you can make it as well.

I've had the great privilege of working with Robert in my...

Attn: Liam Neeson, Michael Apted, Andrew Adamson, Mark Johnson
Re: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader's 24-Million Dollar Opening Weekend

If.....you.........diss.......them......they won't come.

I know. I know. Baby-boomers are still in power so the rest of us have to endure an entire week of blathering about how great John Lennon was. Fortunately there's TiVo. Certainly he deserves credit for, if nothing else, writing an amazing song like Woman, but...

As if the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader wasn't in enough trouble with stories like this one, now comes word that the voice of Aslan himself is making the ridiculous claim that Aslan the lion doesn't represent any...