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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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pop lead
Hollywood targets the White House
The White House is under attack, the president is in danger, and there is only one man who can save him - that's the plot of not only "Olympus Has Fallen," but also of "White House Down," another president-in-peril movie coming out this summer, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. On Thursday, Cobra will seize control of the White House in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," and in May, "Iron Man 3" will kick off the summer movie season by blowing a hole in the side of Air Force One.
Hollywood is getting bolder than ever about putting fictional presidents in the cross hairs. Deadline Hollywood's Dominic Patten says audiences are loving it.
"We're entering the summer blockbuster season and blockbusters involve blowing things up," says Patten. "You're looking at one of the few symbols that anyone in America - Democrat, Republican, or independent - immediately has a visceral reaction to."
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money lead
Mark Zuckerberg makes a Washington money, power play
Mark Zuckerberg is now trying to influence your life in a whole new way. The Facebook billionaire just made a major money move into politics, reportedly putting up $20 million of his own fortune to help launch a Silicon Valley non-profit organization.
Sources tell CNN that Zuckerberg is one of a growing group of mega-wealthy tech stars throwing their famous names behind an issue advocacy organization to make waves in Washington. They are forming a 501(c)4, a non-profit organization that can raise unlimited amounts of money to lobby Congress on the issues they care about - starting with immigration.
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politics lead
Could the Red River Valley soon run blue?
The year was 1976. Apple was new on the computing scene. The supersonic Concorde plane had just taken to the skies for the first time. And the Seattle Seahawks suited up for their first football game.
It was also the last time Texans voted to put a Democrat in the White House.
The Lone Star State lent its 26 electoral votes to Jimmy Carter by a three-point margin, a feat which hasn’t been repeated in the nearly four decades since. But some think the state could be on the verge of a political shift.
Among them is Ron Brownstein, the editorial director of National Journal, and CNN’s Senior Political Analyst, who wrote recently that the state’s Republican governor Rick Perry – the one who ran last year for the GOP presidential nomination – could be the one to put that ball in motion.
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pop lead
Jim Carrey takes on NRA
The odds the NRA is laughing at Jim Carrey's new parody video are about a billion to one. In the video posted today on the website "Funny or Die", Carrey mocks gun control advocates, and even portrays one of the gun lobby's most well known supporters, the late Charlton Heston.
Gun supporters call Carrey a hypocrite, and conservative pundits didn't waste any time firing back. They say many of Carrey's movies have glamorized the same kind of violence he's speaking out against.
Carrey says he made the video because he's frustrated by the rash of gun violence, telling CNN's Nischelle Turner about his recent foray into politics.
"I want to treat it in a humorous way, but I guess I'm trying to say a little something," said Carrey.
Carrey's "Funny or Die" video has already racked up more than 200 thousand views.
national lead
TV shows, Hollywood changed America's attitudes to same-sex marriage
It was just a TV show, just a situation comedy, not even a drama, but Vice President Biden has credited "Will & Grace" with changing America's attitudes about same-sex marriage.
"When things really began to change, is when the social culture changes. I think "Will & Grace" probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody's ever done so far," the vice president said on "Meet the Press" early last year.
Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage agree - entertainment and Hollywood have been incredibly influential in the acceptance of gays and lesbians. It was through the medium of television that millions of Americans first had gays and lesbians in their living rooms. It was even fodder for the "Golden Girls." Pedro on "The Real World San Francisco" in 1994 introduced a gay man with HIV/AIDS to millions of then-teenagers. He died that year and was praised by President Clinton.
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