Titled:      N. Zealand filmmaker arrested in drag in US prostitution sting

As Hollywood continues to sink to new depths of depravity, reflected in recent Oscar nominations, Lee Tamahori, who directed last year's action adventure "XXX: State of the Union", has been doing a little sinking of his own.

It seems he was arrested when he allegedly sought sex with an undercover policeman while clad in women's clothes.

These are turbulent times for the film industry. The recent moves to sell DVDs at the same time as their theatrical releases, the spread of piracy and the politicization of the industry are all putting pressure on Hollywood.

Other countries are finding their feet too - note Turkey, which is releasing anti-American movies to popular acclaim. 

In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.

They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.

Hollywood has a huge influence overseas, providing an image of America to the World. It is a pity that its fixation with the seamier and depraved side of US culture has to be the dominant theme.

One recent opinion poll revealed the depth of the hostility in Turkey toward Americans: 53 percent of Turks who responded to the 2005 Pew Global Attitudes survey associated Americans with the word "rude"; 70 percent with "violent"; 68 percent with "greedy"; and 57 percent with "immoral."

I am sure this has not all been through meeting Americans in person.

Maybe I'm just being too predictable:

Cantcha just see red-staters licking their lips to give Hollywood a verbal ass whooping after looking at Tuesday’s Oscar nominations? “Boy hidey, those show-biz folk are just a homo-promotin’, liberal-media-embracin’, minority-lovin’, devil-worshippin’, pimp-hustlin’, terrorist-protectin’ bunch of pansies, commies and traitors.” Or hollering “We was robbed!” when Walk the Line was blown off as a Best Picture contender.