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matt damon
Movie star Matt Damon says he no longer has a crush on President Barack Obama.
“He broke up with me,” Matt Damon said in an interview published online Thursday.
Matt Damon told BET that he and the president “no longer see eye-to-eye”.
“There are a lot of things that I really question, specifically about the Obama administration’s national security posture.”
“The legality of the drone strikes,” Matt Damon said, “and these NSA revelations are – like, you know – Jimmy Carter came out and said we don’t live in a democracy. That’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So you know, he’s got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor.”
Barack Obama has come under fire for presiding over an NSA with a mandate for domestic spying. The agency’s biggest secrets are now exposed publicly since contractor Edward Snowden leaked them to the press and fled to Russia.
And the president has faced growing outrage from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and other libertarian-minded Republicans, following his Department of Justice’s longtime refusal to guarantee that it won’t use drones to surveil Americans – an assurance it gave only in the face of an embarrassing Senate filibuster.
Matt Damon no longer has a crush on President Barack Obama
The White House continues to use unmanned drones as first-strike weapons against terrorism targets overseas.
Matt Damon campaigned aggressively for then-Senator Obama during the 2008 election season. Nine days before the 2008 election, Matt Damon told a room full of volunteers in Florida that they should work hard to “make sure Barack wins”.
But in the president’s second term, the bloom is clearly off the rose.
Matt Damon told reporters in August 2011 that he was “really dissatisfied” with Barack Obama “doubling down” on George W. Bush’s “bad ideas” for education.
Three months later in an interview with Elle magazine Matt Damon said: “I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, <<Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician>>.”
“You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”
Matt Damon’s criticism of Barack Obama began in late 2010, and by April 2011 the president was ready to fire back, albeit in good fun.
“It’s fair to say that when it comes to my presidency, the honeymoon is over,” Barack Obama said at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
“Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well Matt, I just saw The Adjustment Bureau so right back atcha buddy.”
Matt Damon has come under fire this week following revelations that despite his long-term advocacy for improving public education, he sends his own children to a private school.
“I pay for a private education and I’m trying to get the one that most matches the public education that I had,” he told The Guardian, “but that kind of progressive education no longer exists in the public system. It’s unfair.”
During a 2011 rally in Washington D.C., Matt Damon told a crowd of teachers that he would not trade his own public school education “for anything”.
Matt Damon’s upcoming film Elysium, which opens Friday, has been panned by conservatives for arguing for a socialist utopia as an alternative to a future world of haves and have-nots.
The Occupy Wall Street-inspired plot line involves a wealthy elite class that has abandoned an overcrowded Earth for a luxury space station, leaving the rest of humanity in crime-ridden and poverty-stricken squalor.
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Liberace’s old Las Vegas mansion has been put up for sale for $529,900.
The expansive main living area contains two of Liberace’s favorite chandelier, with mirrored walls and fitted wardrobes.
Another room features a raised stage style area with bright red carpet and a small mirrored ceiling.
One room boasts tile piano keys decorating the floor, while a mirror bar is etched with Liberace’s signature and an image of a piano.
The home sits on almost half an acre of land, includes five fireplaces and “several large areas for entertaining” according to Las Vegas Inc.
A new owner can look forward to a bedroom ceiling adorned with a $1.6 million reproduction of Michelangelo’s painting at the Sistine Chapel, according to the publication.
Liberace’s former Las Vegas Mansion is owned by the JPMorgan Chase bank that seized the home from its last owner through foreclosure and is asking for cash-only offers
There is also one of Liberace’s signature “L” logos left on one of the outside gates of the home, which has changed hands twice since his foundation sold it in 1989.
Another outside shot shows an ornate front door decorated with gold and what looked to be brightly colored stained glass windows at either side of the house.
The two-storey, 14,939 square foot house is on sale for more than $3 million less than in its heyday.
The two bedroom, ten bathroom home, which was built in 1962, is owned by the JPMorgan Chase bank that seized the home from its last owner through foreclosure and is asking for cash-only offers.
Liberace, born Władziu Valentino Liberace, bought the house in 1974.
Liberace, who died of an AIDS related illness in 1987, has enjoyed some posthumous fame recently after Michael Douglas played him in HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra.
Starring Matt Damon as Liberace’s secret boyfriend Scott Thorson, the film follows the last ten years of Liberace’s life based on Thorson’s memoir, Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace.
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Scott Thorson revealed his life as the toyboy lover of flamboyant pianist Liberace, describing it as a whirlwind of extravagance and excess.
Their outrageous lifestyle, captured in new film Behind The Candelabra, makes the latest breed of bling-loving celebrities look tasteful and understated.
But after five dazzling, rhinestone-encrusted years together, Scott Thorson claimed he was dumped like “a piece of trash”.
Scott Thorson lost it all and began a downward spiral into d**gs, crime and the odd spell behind bars.
The tattooed 54-year-old, who is battling colon cancer, was in jail in Reno, Nevada, for burglary when the acclaimed film – based on his book of the same name – was shown on US TV last month.
Director Steven Soderbergh revealed that the movie was rejected as “too gay” by every major American studio, before being snapped up by cable channel HBO – which is why it went straight to TV in the US and did not get a cinema release there.
Of casting Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, Steven Soderbergh joked: “I needed to see Jason Bourne on top of Gordon Gekko.”
Scott Thorson was just 17 when he met 58-year-old Liberace backstage after one of his Las Vegas shows in 1977.
He soon moved in with the musician in his lavish, custom-built Las Vegas palace.
On the bedroom ceiling was a reproduction of the fresco in Rome’s Sistine Chapel – but the cherubs all had Liberace’s face.
At the peak of his powers, Liberace was the world’s best-paid entertainer and owned 39 pianos, 32 cars and 26 dogs.
Scott Thorson says: “He built a 70,000 sq ft palace in Las Vegas for me, filled with the world’s most expensive treasure – $25million worth of antiques.
“A well-known artist spent a year painting the Sistine Chapel fresco on the ceiling.
“Even the Queen and the Queen Mother were big fans of his.
“When he played the London Palladium I went into the Royal Box to use the toilet, just so I could say I had used the Queen’s bathroom. They sent us lots of gifts – including a Welsh Corgi.”
Scott Thorson was even given a minor role in TV’s The Liberace Show, driving the pianist on stage in a jewel-encrusted Rolls-Royce while wearing a white chauffeur’s outfit.
His relationship with Liberace was bizarre to say the least.
Scott Thorson revealed his life as the toyboy lover of flamboyant pianist Liberace
The world-famous showman got a plastic surgeon to make Scott Thorson look more like his son, and put him on a cocktail of diet pills.
Scott Thorson reveals: “He had to throw the Press off, so he <<adopted>> me, changed my face so I looked more like him.
“He didn’t want people to realize I was his lover – he wanted them to think I was his son.
“I was given cheek implants and a new chin so I would resemble him.
“He took me to this plastic surgeon and he wanted me to lose weight. The doctor put me on the Hollywood diet. It contained pharmaceutical c***ine and Demerol to bring me down. Liberace agreed to all this.
“Then, when I became addicted and he was worried I was out of control and would tarnish his image, he threw me out like I was a piece of trash.
“In the movie it says he offered me rehab, but he didn’t.
“I was living in the penthouse in LA and they hired guards to throw all my personal belongings off the balcony and discard me.”
In 1982 Scott Thorson took Liberace to court in a bitter “palimony” suit. Later he settled for $93,000, some jewellery, custody of two dogs and a gold-plated Rolls-Royce he had been given as a 21st birthday gift.
But the split plunged him from the dizzy showbiz heights to the depths of despair.
Scott Thorson, who survived being shot five times during a robbery in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1991, even accuses the team behind the film – including its stars – of neglecting his cries for help during his most recent spell behind bars.
Instead Dennis Hof, who owns the infamous Bunny Ranch br***el, last week posted bail for Scott Thorson.
Scott Thorson says: “Hollywood turned its back on me. Matt Damon or Michael Douglas would not bail me out, even though I offered to talk to them about the film.
“I need to put money back into my pocket. I didn’t make much out of the movie. I own a small percentage of the film but Hollywood is notorious for padding the bill so it shows no profit.”
Biopic Behind the Candelabra was a big hit when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It pulled in 2.4million viewers when it aired in the US on HBO – the largest audience for an original movie on the channel in almost a decade. It opens in cinemas across Europe today.
Scott Thorson says: “It has been a big success, all these European companies have picked it up. So for the filmmakers to say they haven’t made a dime would be a big mistake – especially with my mouth.
“I went after Liberace, so I’m not scared.
“I was whisked out of jail when Dennis Hof paid my bail. He turned up with five Bunny Girls to pick me up in this big limousine.
“The first night we went up to Dennis’s private residence in the ranch and I watched the film for the first time. I was blown away.
“Matt Damon did a great job playing me. And he did a great job in bed with Douglas, too.”
The film ends when the pair are reunited on Liberace’s deathbed just before he passed away from pneumonia caused by AIDS in 1987.
Scott Thorson’s life has had some twists and turns that are not in the film. For starters, he claims he had a romance with Michael Jackson.
He said: “Liberace introduced me and Michael in the late 1970s. It was right around the time Thriller was coming out and Michael and I became lovers.
“Our relationship went on for six or seven years. Michael was very generous too. He treated me well.
“Liberace and I had both undergone plastic surgery around the same time Michael underwent a nose job because he didn’t think he was handsome. We all healed together at the Liberace compound in Palm Springs.”
Also in his eventful life, Scott Thorson was put in witness protection after testifying against his d**g dealer Eddie Nash in 1981, changing his name to Jesse Marlow.
He said: “I’ve survived being shot five times, overdoses, and I’ve tried to commit suicide. But I’ve survived to tell my story.”
Life for Scott Thorson at the moment, at the Bunny Ranch, is the most exotic it has been for years.
He said: “There are 22 acres with stables, a gymnasium, a personal trainer, Jacuzzi, swimming pool and lots of beautiful people.
“They have built a great team around me and I am drug free for the first time in many years. It’s been about 110 days.
“There are so many beautiful women here. I’m having lots of Bunny Ranch therapy.
“These girls are so gorgeous I could end up turning straight.
“I haven’t lived the dream like this since I lived with Liberace.
“I feel right at home.”
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Scott Thorson, who was Liberace’s one time toy-boy companion, claims he had an even more famous lover, in the shape of late superstar Michael Jackson.
Scott Thorson – whose memoir inspired HBO’s Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon – now alleges he had a six to seven years relationship with Michael Jackson.
Liberace’s 54-year-old former partner claims Michael Jackson and the piano genius used to bond at his Palm Springs compound as they both recovered from plastic surgery.
“Liberace introduced me and Michael in the late 1970’s,” Scott Thorson told The Sun.
“It was right around the time Thriller was coming out and Michael and I became lovers.”
“Our relationship went on for six or seven years, Michael was very generous, too. He treated me well.”
Scott Thorson previously talked about his relationship with Michael Jackson after he gave an interview to The National Enquirer back in 2004 claiming their first s**ual encounter took place at the home of late female impersonator Danny La Rue.
Scott Thorson, who was Liberace’s one time toy-boy companion, claims he was the lover of late superstar Michael Jackson
“I was standing only a few feet away from Michael when he motioned with his hand to come over to him and join him on the bed,” Scott Thorson revealed.
“I climbed onto the bed – our lovemaking session lasted about an hour.”
Behind The Candelabra tells the story of the bizarre love affair between Scott Thorson, then 17, when he met Liberace, who was 57 at the time.
Liberace lavished his much younger lover with gifts but it came at a price as he demanded that he get plastic surgery so that he could look more like him.
After their break-up, Scott Thorson launched an unsuccessful $113 million lawsuit against Liberace who died of suspected AIDS in 1986.
Ironically, Scott Thorson has only just seen HBO’s mini-film about their relationship after he was jailed in Reno while awaiting sentencing for burglary charges.
Scott Thorson – who is currently living at The Bunny Ranch Br***el after the owner bailed him out – liked the way that Matt Damon portrayed him.
“Matt Damon did a great job playing me and he did a great job in bed with Michael Douglas too,” he revealed.
But he’s angry that he did not make more money out of the project and that the two stars did not come and bail him out recently.
“Hollywood turned its back on me. Matt Damon or Michael Douglas would not bail me out, even though I offered to talk to them about the film,” Scott Thorson complained.
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Michael Douglas’ casting as Liberace in biopic Behind The Candelabra divided opinion, with many doubting whether he was the right person to play the role of the flamboyant stage star.
However, Michael Douglas has certainly proved his critics wrong, judging by a world exclusive clip of new film Behind The Candelabra.
Michael Douglas’ Liberace and Matt Damon’s Scott Thorson in Behind The Candelabra
Michael Douglas, 68, is seen flirting up a storm with young stranger Scott Thorson, played by Matt Damon, after he walked into his dressing room after a show in the summer of 1977.
A clearly naive Scott Thorson tells Liberace after watching the show: “What, you’re going to do that all over again? I don’t know how you do it.”
Wearing a silver sequinned waistcoat over his white shirt, Liberace is then seen joking with Scott Thorson: “Oh aren’t you sweet, it’s not bad for an old bag, huh?”
Liberace then pokes fun at his age, by telling Scott Thorson: “When I was working saloons back in Milwaukee they called them saloons – that’s how old I am.”
And when Scott Thorson replies that he is also from Wisconsin as well, Liberace replied: “No, you are? Well this must be fate!”
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The TV premiere of Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as flamboyant pianist Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, was seen by 2.4 million people in the US.
The Nielsen Company said it was the HBO network’s biggest audience for one of its original movies since medical drama Something the Lord Made in 2004.
A further 1.1 million people tuned in for a repeat of the film that aired immediately after Sunday’s premiere.
The TV premiere of Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as flamboyant pianist Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, was seen by 2.4 million people in the US
Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh’s film, will be released in UK cinemas on June 7.
Based on Scott Thorson’s memoir Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace, the film charts the life of the American pianist and the secret affair he had with the author, played by Matt Damon.
The drama received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month.
ABC’s Dancing With the Stars remains the most-watched programme on US television with around 15 million viewers last week.
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Matt Damon’s latest role will see him playing Liberace’s gay lover Scott Thorson in an HBO TV movie of the pianist’s life.
Matt Damon stars alongside Michael Douglas, 67, in the title role, and the pair were spotted getting into character on the set of the project, entitled Behind the Candelabra, in Palm Springs on Monday.
Michael Douglas, 67, looked the spitting image of Liberace on the set, sporting a brown wig, lilac shirt and beige trousers as he headed to his trailer in between takes.
The actor’s brown wig was slicked back into a Seventies style which left the veteran actor bearing a striking resemblance to the musician.
Matt Damon and Michael Douglas get into character as gay lovers on set of new Liberace biopic
Scott Thorson was 17 when he first met Liberace in 1976.
Liberace had promised Scott Thorson, who was raised in foster homes, that he would adopt and care for him and eventually the performer incorporated his live-in lover into his lavish Las Vegas stage performances.
The Ave Maria singer was famed for being the world’s highest-paid entertainer at one point, and enjoyed his fortune with an extravagant lifestyle.
But the romance ended due to the pianist’s sexual promiscuity and Scott Thorson’s drug addiction, which led him to contract Hepatitis C.
In 1982, Scott Thorson filed a $113 million lawsuit against Liberace, with the palimony suit being the more famous part. But in 1986, the pair reportedly settled out of court for $95,000, two cars, and two pet dogs.
Scott Thorson reconciled with Liberace on his death bed, and a year later published the book Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace on which the film is based.
Also joining the cast are Dan Aykroyd as Liberace’s long-time manager who disapproved of his relationship with Thorson, Rob Lowe as the plastic surgeon tasked with making Scott Thorson’s face resemble Liberace’s, and Debbie Reynolds will play Liberace’s mother Frances, according to Total Film.
