Joe Eszterhas has found God and Viktor Orbán

Joe Eszterhas does not mince words. At the 2016 National Republican Convention in Cleveland, his hometown, he called Hillary Clinton a “criminal” and Trump an “a**hole.” Now he has found a new political hero – authoritarian Viktor Orbán.

The 74-year-old writer poses in an Orbán T-shirt giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to the Hungarian Prime Minister.

Joe Eszterhas posing in a pro-Orbán T-shirt.

I used to like Joe Eszterhas, in fact I adored him. The “old” Eszterhas was a young journalist at Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer and had pieces in the Rolling Stone. Later he became a prominent scriptwriter and made millions in Hollywood. Throat cancer, alcoholism, divorce and other personal issues plagued him and the high-paying contracts dried out. His 2004 tell-all memoir Hollywood Animal did not help, and the highly publicized feud with powerful agent Michael Ovitz also contributed to his epic downfall. (Read more about Eszterhas’s downfall here.)

A couple of years ago Eszterhas found God and became a practicing Catholic. He also has new friends in the Hungarian-American community.

Eszterhas has an unusual background. He was born in Hungary in 1944 as his family was escaping with the German Nazis to the West. They figured it was better to be captured by the Americans than the Soviets. Little Joe spent years in Displaced Person’s (DP) camps with his family not fully understanding that many of his fellow Hungarian refugees, the so called Hungarian “DP Generation,” were supporters of the wartime fascist government. Some of them were war criminals who had committed unspeakable atrocities against Jews and Gypsies.

At age 47 he learned that his own father, István, was a member of Hungary’s fascist establishment and was investigated for war crimes by the US Justice Department for writing anti-Semitic propaganda during WWII. Cleveland’s large Hungarian emigre community covered up the dirty secrets of one time fascists, often knowingly sheltering criminals and even electing them as community leaders.

Joe was so upset that his father (and his Hungarian community) lied about the past that he refused any further contact with him. Later he claimed to have regretted cutting off contact. He felt guilty he didn’t go to see his father when he was in a Hungarian old-age home.

Most recently Eszterhas connected with the Orbán regime with the help of his friend, Andy Vajna, a Holocaust survivor wig trader and Hollywood film producer. Vajna run into trouble with the IRS in the US, avoided jail and moved to Hungary where he made millions with his casinos and has used his media outlets to spread Orbán’s propaganda.

Mr. György Szöllősi Ambassador of Hungarian Football Tradition and Affairs concerning Ferenc Puskás and Joe Eszterhas

Vajna wanted Eszterhas to write the script for a movie about the legendary soccer player, Puskás. Negotiations were underway but Vajna died this year and now Eszterhas has to deal with lower level Orbán loyalists, like Mr. György Szöllősi, sport journalist turned Ambassador of Hungarian Football Tradition and Affairs concerning Ferenc Puskás. (Not a joke, this is his official title.)

Mr. György Szöllősi Ambassador of Hungarian Football Tradition and Affairs concerning Ferenc Puskás and Joe Eszterhas

Will posing in an Orbán T-shirt help Eszterhas to win a contract from the Hungarian government? I don’t know, but I find it sad that this one-time talented writer has sunk this low.

György Lázár

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