This comes The Times and is cited on the former MP’s own site. You have to be impressed at how quickly he came up with his new career plan. It’s encouraging that he retains hopes of returning to Westminster.

image George Galloway, the former Labour and Respect MP, whose 23 year tenure in the House of Commons ended last week, intends to launch a new career in Hollywood as a presenter of documentary films.

He plans to emulate Michael Moore, the American left-wing film-maker. His first project will be a movie about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Scottish-born firebrand, who has long campaigned for the creation of a Palestinian state, said he will be flying to Los Angeles this week to secure studio backing for his venture.

The former Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, said he had lined up meetings with movie executives and hoped to raise £2m to £4m for the project.

Moore, who rose to prominence with hard-hitting documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, has focused on gun ownership, globalisation and the Iraq war.

“I’m off to California on Saturday to speak to people in the film business about a long-standing idea I’ve had to do a Michael Moore type treatment of the Palestinian conflict,” said Galloway. “Think of Fahrenheit 9/11 but about Palestine and the siege on Gaza and the settlements on the West Bank and so on.

“If I could emulate 20% of Michael Moore that would be something. He’s sensationally successful. I’m a great admirer of his work. I don’t want to copy him but to emulate him in the way he tackles issues.

“I think I could present well — do the Michael Moore part well. The story is attractive and controversial. I like trying to do things that have never been done before.”

“In 2005 I got quite friendly with Sean Penn and Warren Beatty. I’m going to go and see them, I hope, and several other film people on the production and directorial side,” he said.

“I’ve got a potential director — he’s quite famous — me, as a known person in the United States, Britain and throughout the Arab world, and we’ve got the story.”

Despite his Hollywood ambitions, Galloway, who lost to Labour in London’s Poplar and Limehouse, said he hoped to return to the green benches of the House of Commons.

“I was very disappointed. It’s quite a wrench, especially with a hung parliament — that would have been a very interesting thing to be involved with.”

21 responses to “George Galloway goes to Hollywood”

  1. When I first saw this story I misread Hollywood as Holyrood and thought sweet Jesus no.

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  2. Can anyone inform.The pics i see of George,he seems to be looking frail.Is he a well man.Might be time for him to hang up his bunnet.

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  3. who?

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  4. Miaow.

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  5. Georgie goes to Hollywood, huh? An unusual way to prepare for a post-election re-evaluation of where Respect’s going… What do you make of it Liam?

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  6. Yes can just see wee George in his directors chair barking out his orders to the flunkeys while chomping on his Cuban cigar. Just like Respect really.

    Eddie, i think Scotland will remain a Galloway free zone after all he is British not Scottish. Thank fcuk.

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  7. will to power Avatar
    will to power

    Galloway is best as a rabble-rouser, a propagandist. He was useless as an organiser it seems to me, and a liability considering his authoritarian predilections, love for Cuba, Hamas and the like. He would always be dismissed as a demagogue. The Greens show the way to go in terms of professionalism – we need a very serious, stable new broad socialist organisation which could in perspective enter into talks with the more progressive Greens to form a green-left alliance party. That’s the Left’s only chance it seems to me…

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  8. Like big Arnie wee George will be back [sadly].

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  9. The issue is much exaggerated.

    George is back tomorrow, and this trip was planned whether he won or lost last week.

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  10. George came back today and is giving a press conference in Tower Hamlets tomorrow.

    My understanding is that the trip was planned whatever the election result as he is looking to make a documentary about Gaza.

    I wish we all had the influence to put together this sort of project that can increase the audience for the left and positively contribute to isolating the Israeli regime.

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  11. “I wish we all had the influence to put together this sort of project that can increase the audience for the left and positively contribute to isolating the Israeli regime.”

    Is George never wrong?

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  12. Galloway making a documentary on the Palestinian struggle will have a more progressive impact on the world than most of us will in our whole lives. Compared to other former MPs get up to, this is a good step.

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  13. Bill – just for once why don’t you let your bile rest a bit and suggest what might actually be wrong with making a film about the seige of gaza.

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    1. As Duncan says making a film about Palestine is a much more useful thing than most other MPs will end up doing.  What I think is problematical is that the very first update on his website after the election was announcing a trip to Hollywood. One might have expected some comment on the results and campaign.

      I was very impressed with Salma’s subsequent post in which she reported on her visit to a church group’s environmental project. It struck the right tone.

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  14. That’s starnge Liam because the very first post on GGs site after the election was infact the comment from the Respect national secretary commenting “on the results and campaign.”

    Since George was actually in the USA it would seem strange not to comment on it since it was reported in a national newspaper. Your criticism seems somewhat misplaced.

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  15. TLC wrote: “Your criticism seems somewhat misplaced.”

    As criticisms go Liam’s is about as polite and comradely as can possibly be. Or is any criticism of George seen as beyond the pale?

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  16. Not only beyond the pale but full of “bile” as well. GG was always a chancer. He never intended to get himself kicked out of the LP, but events overtook him.
    Now the Respect adventure is over, he’s off to pastures new. Its really not complicated.
    Of course films about Palestine are great. But GGs emphasis is as much about launching himself as the next Michael Moore as the fate of the Palestinians. Notwithstanding the great work he has done for them in the past, and no doubt in the future too.
    But the idea that GG is going to devote serious time and energy to building Respect now, when lets face it, he was hardly committed while he was an MP now was he, is in my view, wildly optimistic. Not to say, completely wrong and delusional.
    But who knows? Life’s full of surprises.

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  17. “As criticisms go Liam’s is about as polite and comradely as can possibly be. Or is any criticism of George seen as beyond the pale?”

    Bristol Red – you seem to miss the point. Liam criticised GGs website for not having a comment on the election results but instead stated “the very first update on his website after the election was announcing a trip to Hollywood”. Now the reality was that “the very first update” was actually a comment on the election campaign and the results – written by the National Secretary. The criticism is misplaced, not because it is a criticism of George Galloway, but because it simply wasn’t factually correct.

    So I’m sure it was polite and very comradely but in this instance misplaced.

    As for BillJ – he really doesn’t get it does he. He’s so blinded by his sectarianism that he doesn’t get the fact that unless you’ve got some media credibility you’ll never get the funding to do the major film about the Palestinians.

    BillJ knows nothing about what George did to build Respect. He knows nothing about his future intentions. For BillJ the politics of assertion seems to have overtaken any analysis based on reality. Bill thinks something is so, asserts it as fact and so it must be true. Reality and facts never get a look in.

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  18. Actually I do know something, and simply saying that I know nothing doesn’t prove anything.
    But there’s no point arguing, you won’t hear a word against your man, to paraphrase Tammy Wynette.

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  19. Can i congratulate all at Respect for a brilliantly executed strategy?

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