Jane Hamsher

Jane Hamsher (born Jane Elizabeth MurphyJuly 25 1959) is an American film producer, author, and liberal blogger. She produced Natural Born Killers and is a founder of the popular progressive blog Firedoglake. She is also a contributor to The Huffington Post.

Film career

Hamsher, a native of Seattle, graduated from the USC School of Cinema-Television with a master's degree in film production, where she became friends with Don Murphy, a would-be director (by coincidence Hamsher's real last name is Murphy; Hamsher is her mother's maiden name). The two of them were able to secure an option, with a loan from Hamsher's mother, on Natural Born Killers while screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was still an unknown. (Hamsher had a cameo in the film as a "female demon".) Hamsher later wrote a tell-all book about her experiences making the film, Killer Instinct. The book was later dismissed in the L.A. Times by Stone and those that worked on the film as "inaccurate" and "a cartoon". [1] In addition, her book led to Tarantino attacking Murphy in a restaurant in broad daylight because of things she said about him in it. [2][3] In the book she went into detail about a lawsuit that was brought against the film by a friend of Tarantino's that she had to fight against after being accused of fraud.

The attorney who filed the fraud case, Thomas Ferlauto, later sued Hamsher over her descriptions of him in the book, such as a "whore's son" and "a K-Mart Johnnie Cochran". An appellate court in Los Angeles eventually found that the language was not defamatory, but merely "colorful expressions of opinion".

The family of a woman murdered by a pair of spree killers also sued Oliver Stone and others associated with the film, claiming it inspired the murders. After four years of litigation, the suit was dismissed.

She and Murphy also produced Apt Pupil, Permanent Midnight, and From Hell before officially ending their partnership. A shower scene in Apt Pupil was the source of litigation over the use of underaged male actors. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but there was Screen Actors Guild arbitration related to the incident.

Firedoglake

In December 2004, Hamsher started Firedoglake on Blogger.com's Blogspot service, and quickly gained a reputation for sharp commentary and unabashed partisanship. Firedoglake won a 2005 Koufax Award for Best Series for its detailed coverage of the Plame affair, while in close contention for Best New Blog and Best Group Blog.[4]

Hamsher graduated to her own hosting in late 2005, expanding into a group blog, with contributors ReddHedd Christy Hardin Smith, TRex, Pachacutec, and Siun. Hamsher and Smith have both made media appearances as a result of the blog. FDL is now published using WordPress and allows limited commenting capabilities, without the features found on more robust community sites such as Daily Kos. Volunteer moderators or an automatic spam filter may block comments. Almost all threads run to hundreds of comments.

The new format also allowed her to start the FDL Sunday Book Salon, which discusses recent books, usually non-fiction political books, with a standing invitation for the author. On September 4, 2006 the topic was Conservatives Without Conscience, attended by author John W. Dean as well as blogger Glenn Greenwald and Ambassador Joe Wilson.[5]

Hamsher has been criticized for comments made on her blog. Infuriated by caricatures on the cover of Women Who Make the World Worse, she called Kate O'Beirne, its conservative author, a "sandpaper snatch" and wrote, "The bitch is dead meat." She encouraged readers of Firedoglake to rate O'Beirne's book at Amazon.com, wishing "that enough single star reviews are written to knock the overall rating down to an overall single star".

FDL Books

On September 6, 2006, Firedoglake announced a book imprint called FDL Books. The first release would be a volume by Daily Kos contributor Marcy Wheeler ("emptywheel") on the Valerie Plame affair. To finance this she sought to raise $65,000 in donations from the internet.[6]

Breast cancer diagnosis

Hamsher was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time in December, 2006 at the age of 47.[7] She successfully underwent surgery in January, 2007.[8]

Support for Ned Lamont

Hamsher has supported Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont in his run for U.S. Senate against incumbent senator Joe Lieberman, whose support for the Iraq war and other Bush policies have drawn the ire of progressive Democrats. Although Hamsher is not on the campaign staff, she is among several bloggers who have traveled with Lamont's campaign, and who has promoted Lamont's candidacy and helped raise money for him through her blog. [9]

Photoshop controversy

Hamsher came under fire from the Lieberman campaign after she posted a photoshopped picture of a blackfaced Lieberman embracing Bill Clinton in her blog and her column on the Huffington Post. The Lieberman campaign believed that the photo was racist and offensive. In a statement, Joe Lieberman called the photo "one of the most disgusting and hurtful images that has been used in American history, it's deeply offensive to people of all colors, and it has absolutely no place in the political arena today." Lieberman further demanded that Lamont prohibit Hamsher from traveling with his campaign and to refuse any money that Hamsher may have raised for him. [10]

Questioned about the photo and his campaign's connections to Hamsher, Lamont responded "I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them." A spokesman for Lamont called the photo "offensive and inappropriate." [11] Lamont was also questioned about the photo in an interview with George Stephanopolous on ABC's This Week.

Hamsher took down the photo at the request of the Lamont campaign, and later issued an apology on her blog Firedoglake, but attacked Lieberman for using the graphic to score political points. [12]

Books

• Killer Instinct, Broadway, 1998 ISBN 0-7679-0074-X

External links

• Firedoglake weblog
• Ferlauto v. Hamsher (1999) 74 CA4th 1394