On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the Trump Kennedy Center, reporters whispered in hushed voices to each other to see which journalists, if any, would be allowed entry to a screening of Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania.”
In the hours before the film screened (press check-in began at 2 p.m. for the 6 p.m. carpet), there was slight optimism from veteran reporters, accustomed to slipping their way into Trump World, that they’d be able to network their way into a seat. But by 6:30 p.m., when members of the administration began walking the carpet, it became clear that most of the mainstream press would be blocked from attending the Amazon MGM Studios film.
Well duh. If you’re mainstream press you’re probably not going to heap flattery on a movie about a woman sleazy enough to marry Donald Trump.
Reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Vanity Fair, among dozens of other outlets on the carpet, were not granted tickets to the invit[ation]-only screening in the Opera House, located one floor above the carpet. The only press from the carpet allowed into the screening (not counting those separately invited) were One America News anchor Dan Ball and his wife Peyton Drew, a producer for the far-right news channel.
Regime media only. Bow to the pretty lady.
The film opens on Friday, Jan. 30 against a backdrop of political unrest, with ICE raids in Minneapolis and other parts of the country causing increased backlash against the administration’s glitzy White House screening earlier this week (with Apple CEO Tim Cook in attendance) and tonight’s premiere.
When asked about the exorbitant amount of money Amazon spent on the film — Amazon MGM paid $40 million for rights to the doc, and reportedly another $35 million on marketing — Trump said he “wasn’t involved with that.”
And it was in no way a barely disguised bribe. Good heavens no.
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