Roundup of recent 007 political and cultural references

Making cultural references to James Bond has become common over the past half century. Still, there were four notable ones in just the past few days, ones that encompass opposite ends of the political spectrum and popular entertainment.

Here are four, starting with the most recent:

Fox Report With Shepard Smith, Fox News, Oct. 5: The nightly, hour-long newscast’s Oct. 5 telecast ended with a “This Day in History” segment on the 48th anniversary of the premier of Dr. No, showing publicity stills of star Sean Connery and actor Joseph Wiseman, who played 007’s first cinematic villain.

Hawaii Five-0, CBS, Oct. 4: The third episode of CBS’s revival of the classic series (which officially spells it Five-0 instead of Five-O, as in the original), includes a scene where Steve McGarrett 2.0 and Dan Williams 2.0 get dressed up to infiltrate an illegal casino run by hoodlums. “How come I look like a waiter, while you look like James Bond?” Danno (Scott Caan) asks the Big Kahuna (Alex O’Loughlin).

You can watch the episode by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.

The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, Sept. 30: The first week of the new MSNBC show included a segment about Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for California governor. She became involved in a controversy involving how she employed a housekeeper who was an illegal immigrant and fired the housekeeper O’Donnell, noted that her husband is Dr. Griffith Harsh and suggested that “Dr. Harsh” would be a fine name for a James Bond villain.

The Rush Limbaugh Show, syndicated radio program, Sept. 28: The radio host made this comment after talking to a caller: “By the way, the Bond character was Xenia Onatopp. It was spelled O-n-a-t-o-p-p, Xenia Onatopp. Sarah Palin is our Xenia Onatopp.”

To read the entire exchange between Limbaugh and the caller, you can CLICK HERE and see a transcript from the show’s Web page.

For those who don’t remember Xenia Onatopp, she was the femme fatale in 1995’s GoldenEye. Here she kills a U.S. admiral:

In Bed with James Bond

The terrific Australian cinephile’s webzine, Senses of Cinema, hits one out of the 007 scholarship ballpark with its new issue. In Bed with Bond, by the site’s coeditor Scott Murray, is a lavishly annotated catalogue of the Bond women, both literary and cinematic. It’s also a meticulously-constructed argument against the standard criticisms of the series in regards to sexual politics. Taking on critics from Umberto Eco to John Cork, Mr. Murray demonstrates that James Bond isn’t really the unfailing cocksman popular imagination supposes him to be, much less the arrogant woman hater/seducer reviled by his critics. Instead, using a point-by-point “scoring” system (pun intended), Murray gives us a picture of Bond as a sort-of sexual pinball, bouncing from woman to woman as a result of his fairly passive reaction to his leading ladies’ fairly aggressive seduction techniques. That’s when he has any luck at all!

It’s a fairly lengthy article, so bring a sack lunch to keep you fortified why you dig in to all the copious detail. It’s fun, it’s informative, it’s In Bed with Bond, and it’s RIGHT HERE. Enjoy!