Many stories about the colorful life of Sarah Palin have been told so far, and many of those by Sarah herself. Sometimes over and over again. However, through experience we know that those episodes which Sarah is shy to talk about, or which she simply likes to "skip", for example in her memoir "Going Rogue", are the most interesting ones.
One of these rarely told stories is the fact that Sarah and Todd took a rare visit to the cinema to see the movie "Juno" on Saturday, March 3, 2008.
This we learned this through the emails which were obtained by MSNBC.COM and which were published on the Crivella West database. Sarah Palin's top aide Sharon Leighow wrote to Todd on March 7, 2008 and asks him whether the ADN correctly reported that some Alaskans saw Sarah and Todd buying tickets for the movie "Juno". Todd confirms this and writes back:
So what's wrong with Sarah and the first Dude watching a movie? Don't they have the right to enjoy themselves, too?
So what's wrong with Sarah and the first Dude watching a movie? Don't they have the right to enjoy themselves, too?
Sure! :-)
But let's have a look at the situation on March 3, 2008 in Alaska:
1) Rumors had already been circulating in Juneau since December 2007 that Sarah's daughter Bristol was pregnant. Lyda Green confirmed this to me in a phone conversation in August 2009.
2) In January 2008, a top Republican in Alaska mentions in a private, confidential conversation as a fact that Bristol is pregnant. We know the identity of this Republican politician.
3) From the beginning of October 2007 onwards, Bristol Palin vanished from the face of the earth. Her last public appearance, although this was never ever mentioned in public by Bristol herself, was as a member of the audience during the taping of the MTV show "TLR" with Jennifer Lopez in New York on October 7, 2007.
4) Bristol herself was out of school with a "prolonged case of mono" from January 2008 onwards, as a young student from Anchorage, whose identity we know and whose family has political connections, posted on "reddit" on April 8, 2008 - ten days before Trig was "presented" to the world. We have subsequently heard the "mono story" from other young Alaskans as well.
5) The rumors didn't escape the attention of Sarah Palin. Kyle Hopkins confirmed in the ADN on August 31, 2008 that Sarah Palin herself was well informed about the rumor that her daughter Bristol is pregnant - even before she announced her pregnancy with Trig on March 6, 2008:
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.
At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.
At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
6) Bristol Palin herself gained a considerable amount of weight between June 2007 and September/October 2007 - despite the fact that she was a very sporty outdoor girl. Then she disappeared from the face of the earth for the following months. See the slideshow with pictures of Bristol from June, September and October 2007 HERE.
That was the general situation when Sarah and Todd Palin watched the movie "Juno" on March 3, 2008.
Sarah Palin on March 14, 2008 - Source: AP/daylife.com
So what is the movie about?
Wikipedia has the following summary:
In short: It is about a teenage girl who decides not to abort her baby, but instead willingly gives up her baby to somebody else directly after the birth in a closed adoption - and all parties are happy about it.
Sixteen-year-old Minnesota high-schooler Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) discovers she is pregnant with a child fathered by her friend and longtime admirer, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). While at first she intends to have an abortion, she changes her mind and decides to make a plan for the child's adoption. With the help of her friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno searches the ads in the Pennysaver and finds a couple she feels will provide a suitable home. Along with her father, Mac (J. K. Simmons), Juno meets the couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), in their expensive home and expresses a desire for a closed adoption.
Vanessa, while grateful, is somewhat anxious that Juno may change her mind, and their initial interactions are uneasy. However, Juno and Leah happen to see Vanessa in a shopping mall being completely at ease with a child, and Juno encourages Vanessa to talk to her baby in the womb, where it obligingly kicks for her. On the other hand, Juno more easily forms a friendship with Mark, with whom she shares tastes in punk rock and horror films. Mark, who has set aside his rock band youth (now confined to memorabilia displayed in the one room of the house allowed him by Vanessa), works at home composing commercial jingles. Juno hangs out with Mark a few times when visiting the house, ignoring a warning from her stepmother Bren (Allison Janney) that she should not spend time alone with a married man.
As the pregnancy progresses, Juno struggles with the emotions she feels for her baby's father, Paulie, who is clearly — although passively — in love with Juno. Juno maintains an outwardly indifferent attitude toward Paulie, but when she learns he has asked another girl to the upcoming prom, she is hurt and angrily confronts him. Paulie reminds Juno that it is at her request they remain distant and tells her that she broke his heart. He also suggests that she has feelings for him she is unable to admit.
Not long before her baby is due, Juno is again visiting with Mark when their interaction becomes strongly emotional. Mark then tells her that he will be leaving Vanessa. To his surprise, Juno is horrified by this revelation. Vanessa arrives home, and, to her shock, Mark tells her he does not feel ready to be a father and that there are still things he wants to do first — dreams Vanessa does not share. Juno watches the Loring marriage fall apart, then drives away and breaks down in tears by the side of the road before coming to a decision. Returning to the Lorings' home, she leaves a note and disappears as they answer the door.
After a heartfelt discussion with Mac, Juno accepts that she loves Paulie. Juno then tells Paulie that she loves him, and Paulie's actions make it clear that her feelings are reciprocated. Not long after, Juno goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital, where she gives birth to a baby boy. She had deliberately not told Paulie because of his track meet. Seeing her missing from the stands, he rushes to the hospital, arriving to find Juno has given birth to their son, and comforts Juno as she cries. Vanessa comes to the hospital where she joyfully claims the newborn boy as a single adoptive mother. On the wall in the baby's new nursery, Vanessa has framed Juno's note—addressed only to her—which reads "Vanessa: If you're still in, I'm still in. —Juno." The film ends in the summertime with Juno and Paulie playing guitar and singing together, followed by a kiss.
In short: It is about a teenage girl who decides not to abort her baby, but instead willingly gives up her baby to somebody else directly after the birth in a closed adoption - and all parties are happy about it.
You can download the full screenplay HERE.
Two days later after watching the movie, on March 5, 2008, Sarah Palin announced her "big secret" to the world, and to her staff: That she is pregnant, and already seven month along.
Wow - what a coincidence!
Please note that John McCain sealed his nomination as the Republican Presidential candidate one day earlier - on April 4, 2008.
Unfortunately, at this point, Sarah Palin didn't look pregnant at all. This also was directly confirmed to me by Lyda Green in our conversation in August 2009 - and Lyda Green was in the same room together with Sarah Palin when she made her announcement on March 5, 2008.
Sarah's appearance also didn't escape the attention of the ADN on March 5, 2008:
"The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant."In addition, we have been in contact with several other people who met Sarah Palin in person in March and April 2008 and they also confirmed that Sarah didn't look pregnant at that time.
Which is of course what the available pictures also show - for example the footage was which taken by Israeli filmmaker Elan Frank on April 8 and 9, 2008 (with a nice comparison to a pregnant woman, created by our friend Ennealogic):
This particular screenshot of the shootage by Elan Frank is from THIS VIDEO, at 5:08.
More "kitchen footage from Juneau" taken by Elan Frank can found from 3:52 in THIS VIDEO.
Additional scenes shot by Elan Frank are shown in THIS CLIP, which has been discussed in THIS POST on Palingates.
OK...what else do we find in the movie "Juno"?
We find parents who didn't know that her daughter was sexually active:
Where have we heard that before?
Of course! Sarah Palin falsely told the public in the past that she didn't know that Bristol was sexually active, for example on Barbara Walters. Bristol's myspace comments from 2007 prove that Sarah DID KNOW that Bristol was sexually active.
Bristol's myspace comments regarding this "incident" - on the myspace page of Johnny C:
The coincidences start to mount.
The coincidences start to mount.
Other remarkable scenes?
Well - we have a very bitchy "ultrasound technician". See this clip from "Juno":
Wait - this rings a bell, doesn't it?
Well - in Sarah's magna opus "Going Rogue", a book which is "100% fiction", according to McCain's former campaign manager Steve Schmidt, there is certainly no shortage of "ultrasound incidences"!
The first incidence was already the subject of a previous discussion during our reporting about "abortiongate". Sarah's describes in "Going Rogue" how a cold-hearted doctor performed a sonogram before Sarah's first miscarriage:
At my exam, the doctor listened for the baby's heartbeat. When she didn't smile, I didn't worry; she was known for her mellow demeanor. But I noticed that she kept moving the stethoscope around. And she didn't hand it to me as doctors usually do, so the expectant mother can listen to the sound of life.
"Let's do a quick sonogram," she said.
I agreed, eager to confirm that Tad was a boy - or to be surprised.
We moved to another room, and I lay down on a sheet-covered table. The doctor spread gel on my belly and began sliding the transducer back and forth. I waited for the familiar Shoosh-shoosh-shoosh sound of the baby's beating heart.
But it didn't come. And the sonogram picture looked empty.
The doctor said coldly, "There's nothing alive in there."
Her bluntness shocked me. I felt sick and hollow, and burst into tears.
"You have a couple of choices about getting rid of it," she said.
"It." That's what she called our baby, whom we'd been calling Tad for three months.
She went on to explain that I could go home and let "it" pass naturally. Or I could have a D&C.
Later in "Going Rogue", on pages 175 & 176, we have another memorable "sonogram" story. Here, not a doctor, but an ultrasound technician plays a major role. "The technician was a sweet, funny older lady who'd been doing the procedure for decades. She prepped me, and we joked about a lot of things while she pressed the wand across my belly". Sarah then describes that she had a "flashback" to her first sonogram and adds: "Then the technician smiled. 'I see boy parts...would that be good?"
Later, the technician discovers, according to Sarah, that Trig has a "thick neck", a possible sign for Down Syndrome.
So could the movie "Juno" have been an "inspiration" for the gifted storyteller Sarah Palin?
I personally believe that this is very possible.
Another inspiration for Sarah Palin was without any doubt "Desperate Housewives", as Regina and ProChoiceGrandma already explained in September 2009 (including clips from "Desperate Housewives").
Just like Sarah Palin, I also don't believe in coincidences.
And for the record: I don't believe ONE WORD of Sarah Palin's version of events in "Going Rogue". Just like Steve Schmidt.
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