Hollywood PR gambit or simply returning a favor? Brent Lang in TheWrap: Robert Downey Jr. Urges Hollywood: 'Forgive Mel Gibson'; But some NEVER will

Hollywood PR gambit or simply returning a favor? Brent Lang in TheWrap: Robert Downey Jr. Urges Hollywood: 'Forgive Mel Gibson'; But some NEVER will

Given the Hollywood-based news media's fascination for constantly recreating the same old narratives over and over again with different faces -it's not just Hollywood studios that like remakes- esp. their version of re-birth or redemption -regardless of whether it's factually either- it'll be interesting to see next week how talent-friendly, lowest common denominator TV shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and the like treat this story from Friday night, since there are a LOT of hard feelings in the Los Angeles entertainment industry about Mel Gibson, and an awful lot of people who have no intention of letting Gibson feel he's socially acceptable again in either polite society or the film industry.

Even people who usually try their best to stay "above it all" and not take sides if it's bad for business or ratings.

But the Mel Gibson issue is different.

Not that you'd know it from what your read in most U.S. newspapers or magazines -much less ones in South Florida- but there are a lot of smart and savvy TV program/network producers in LA who usually try their best to act agnostic editorially about some entertainment/celebrity stories they run that are clearly banal or self-serving but let them fly anyway, because they are, at heart, well, harmless.

But on this subject, they might just put their feet down and say, essentially, "Nope, I won't accommodate you, Mel Gibson. I won't allow you and your reps to finesse us in to giving you a one-sided forum to plead your case for public redemption.

Nope, first you must actually say that you're sorry publicly, specifically say what you're sorry about and then show some genuine remorse over an extended period of time.

Don't call us, we'll call you."

The conundrum of course, is how do you really ever know if a once hugely-popular actor like Gibson who has said and done what many people believe are some truly reprehensible things -consistently- is showing true remorse?

Or, frankly, is even worth trying to salvage?

Sometimes, despite your past history with talented-but-troublesome people, you have to let people with a documented history of 'burning bridges behind them' stay on the outside looking in, if for no other reason than self-preservation, so that you yourself aren't burned in the future. (Completion bonds exist for a reason, no?)

There are a lot of successful industry people who no longer are interested in being in the "Mel Gibson business,' no matter how artistically creative or financially reasonable the project he pitches sounds.

He's dead to them.

Period.

Someone else in LA will have to give him a rope or ladder to crawl out from the entertainment 'Phantom Zone' he's exiled in, but it won't be them.

They're throwing him an anchor, not an olive branch.

Over the weeks and months to come, we are all going to come to know just who those people are in Hollywood who put principles over profit.

TheWrap

Robert Downey Jr. Urges Hollywood: 'Forgive Mel Gibson'

Published: October 14, 2011 @ 11:50 pm

By Brent Lang

It was supposed to be Robert Downey Jr.’s night, but somehow Friday’s American Cinematheque Award ceremony became all about Mel Gibson.

When the evening’s honoree took to the stage at the Beverly Hills Hilton to accept his doorstop, he had a clear message for Hollywood.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://thewrap.com/movies/article/robert-downey-jr-tells-hollywood-forgive-mel-gibson-31881

Also writing with some insight on this story was reporter Julie Makinen of the L.A. Times at their 24 Frames film blog.

24 Frames blog

Los Angeles Times

Mel Gibson gets a boost from Robert Downey Jr.

October 15, 2011 | 12:34 am

The slow but methodical rehabilitation of Mel Gibson in Hollywood took another step forward Friday night, courtesy of Robert Downey Jr.

Dozens of famous faces who've performed onscreen with Downey or directed him -- among them Gibson, Jodie Foster, Gary Shandling, Michael Douglas and Jon Favreau -- gathered to pay tribute to (and roast) the "Iron Man" star at the Beverly Hilton as he received the 2011 American Cinematheque Award.

Read the rest of her take at:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/10/the-slow-but-methodical-rehabilitation-of-mel-gibson-in-hollywood-took-another-step-forward-friday-night-courtesy-of-rober-2.html

And in case you forgot, as you watch the videos below, of his Good Morning America interviews with ABC News Diane Sawyer from October 12th and 13th 2006, recall that this was BEFORE the most recent scandal involving former Gibson love interest Oksana Grigorieva, whom he took up with even before officially divorcing his wife, Robyn.

Mel Gibson Accounts for his Drunken Anti-Semitic Tirade (Part 1 of 2)

http://youtu.be/SeQMMp4tXfk

Mel Gibson Accounts for his Drunken Anti-Semitic Tirade (Part 2 of 2)

http://youtu.be/jGRS_TQhEhU

Michael Parks -What's old becomes new again! Actor finally getting overdue respect; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: What's old becomes new -and popular! again! Actor Michael Parks is finally getting the overdue respect and attention he was due; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood


Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsztoaU9Ls


"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW79P5jLoU4&t=9s

Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. Shown above in still of video, the delightful Bonnie Bedelia.

A confession: this TV show from 1969 is one of my ten favorite all-time American TV shows.

I was only eight years old when this was on TV, yet I was smart enough even then to realize that THIS is what compelling acting was.

And it's when I first fell in LOVE with Bonnie Bedelia!

I watched every episode religiously and if VCRs and DVRs had existed back then, I would have watched it over-and-over trying to make sure that I had drained every nuance and anecdote I could out of it before I went to school the next day at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach.

My friends and I talked about it the next day in detail like I later would talk about sports and politics -with enthusiasm and great curiosity about what others thought about what we'd all seen and what it all meant.

For those of you who never saw the show in the first place and want to know more details about it, see this Wiki entry which seems pretty accurate to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_Came_Bronson

I last wrote about Then Came Bronson in a post on July 23, 2010 that I titled,

In this part of Broward County, being sandbagged is a good thing! Tropical Storm Bonnie; my Leighton Meester: Bonnie Bedelia analogy is proved!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-this-part-of-broward-county-being.html

I strongly suggest you read that to get a better appreciation for what's what, and not just because you'll see why my Bonnie Bedelia:Leighton Meester analogy is so apt!

(If you agree with me about this, feel free to give me the credit!)

So, all that said, early this morning while most of you were already asleep, I let my fingers do the walking on the LA Times website -an excellent site in my opinion, and I get a couple of their daily newsletter, too- to look for the latest Times story, column or editorial on the effort by the LA business and entertainment establishment to get the California legislature to do their bidding and grease the skids so that an NFL team can be in Los Angeles at a new stadium for AEG -the Farmer's Field project- financed with tax dollars.

I know, hard to believe in this economy, right?

Well, I'll be posting some thoughts soon on the never ending melodrama of the NFL returning to LA, as I've got quite a collection of stories from the Times and elsewhere that have helped me make sense out of some things that weren't clicking in my brain before, but while looking for that story, I struck gold.

Yes, there's still gold in California if you know where to look.

Gold in the form of a very interesting story in today's Times on actor Michael Parks and how a litany of younger film directors have either finally gotten a chance to work with him after always wanting to, or, having just discovered him for the first times themselves, are dazzled and can't think straight and MUST HAVE HIM.

Not a Michael Parks type of actor, Michael Parks, the genuine article.

Trust me, when I saw that out-of-the-blue, I nearly jumped out of my chair!!!

And yes, once again I fired-up YouTube to see what got set in motion after Martin Sheen's character, a friend of Jim Branson, goes kerplunk off a certain bridge in Cali.

Dominoes fall in all sorts of interesting ways...

Los Angeles Times

Michael Parks goes from nowhere to go-to guy

The actor remembers when his phone rarely rang. Now he's coveted by directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith.

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

September 5, 2011

Writer-director Kevin Smith describes Michael Parks as "porn for actors. If you like actors and you discover Michael Parks in a scene and you have never seen him before, your brain explodes. He will take a page of dialogue and deliver it in a different way than anybody else."

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-michael-parks-20110905,0,2472053.story

And what about that great photo of him in the article, too?

Wow, he looks like he could play Jack Wagner's father.

If you hadn't heard the news yet, Jack Wagner is getting married to one of America's -and my- former stone-cold secret crushes: the talented, beautiful and beguiling Heather Locklear. And she really seems happy -after lots of recent personal upset- which makes me happy for her, too.

Good to finally see some people in Hollywood that I've always liked getting their fair share of some positive karma for a change!

Speaking of motorcycles, you know whose song would be great to have playing in a film scene of an attractive young woman -oh, say a Leighton Meester par exemple- driving a motorcycle or car winding her way on the interstate from Las Vegas to LA or Phoenix, with her hand making time with the song, tapping, tapping, tapping...?

Of course you do! Bella Tech's "Summer Song"

Bella Tech - Summer Song

http://youtu.be/0Q5x7NfbhP0

-----

See also:

http://www.georgeduning.com/soundtracks/Then_Came_Bronson/Then_Came_Bronson.html

http://www.jimbronson.com/

Must-read! Ruben Vives of L.A. Times on the City Hall corruption story that never ends - "Bell's former leaders are gone, but their legacy lingers"

KCAL-9 News video: Reporter Dave Lopez details the background behind the indictments against the "Bell 8" brought by LA County DA Steve Cooley. Reporter Stephanie Abrams covers the jubilation among Bell residents following the arrests. September 21, 2010. http://youtu.be/ap7LQbGwlv0

It's not very much consolation for those of us living in corrupt and crony capitalism capital South Florida -and the city of Hallandale Beach in particular- where we daily face 'the slings and arrows' of outrageous government fortune and chronic ineptitude, to know that there are actually towns in this country in the year 2011 where things are actually MUCH WORSE.

Yes, it's the latest news with the home of the "Bell 8" out in Los Angeles County and the town residents that were left to pick up the pieces after the elected city officials looted it.

Technically, they were accused of misappropriating city money and attempting to cover up their high salaries.

And here's something we'd all recognize in South Florida -a deliberate policy of misinformation as part of their daily handiwork: police chiefs, city clerks, town administrators, city council members...

Bell 8: City clerk testifies she was following orders in giving out false salary information

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/bell-8-city-clerk-testifies-she-was-only-following-orders-in-giving-out-false-salary-information.html

And today we read in the LA Times that one of the ticking time bombs left for the beleaguered taxpayers of Bell was a huge property tax hike for promises that were never delivered.

Los Angeles Times

Bell's former leaders are gone, but their legacy lingers

The new council says it can't legally stop a looming property tax hike. The revenue will go to pay back $50 million in bonds, much of which was already squandered, for a park that won't be built.

By Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

August 30, 2011, 7:17 a.m.

Bell's residents already pay one of the highest property tax rates in Los Angeles County despite being one of its poorest cities. Now, homeowners are discovering that their taxes are about to go up again to pay for a park that will never be built.

It's one more legacy of the Robert Rizzo era, even though residents thought they had turned a page when the former city administrator was taken away in handcuffs, the last of those accused in a sweeping public corruption scandal were voted out of City Hall, and a new City Council was sworn in.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-taxes-20110830,0,955335.story

Readers comments at:

http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-me-bell-taxes-20110830/10

L.A. Times stories on the City Hall corruption in Bell and the town's efforts to come to grips with it can be found at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/bell/

City of Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo Steals a Shocking $800,000 a Year

http://youtu.be/HLqSnRE1Jv8

So, do you recall who signed-off on the sweetheart deal for former Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good deal last year, who, when he wasn't late, often stopped showing-up for work at City Hall and couldn't be found by phone?

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/05/mike_good_fired_hallandale_beach_joy_cooper.php

That is, after Comm. Ross finally showed-up at a HB City Commission meeting and stopped hiding in her office upstairs, which caused one important City Commission meeting to be postponed for lack of a quorum!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/comm-dotty-ross-hiding-in-plain-sight.html

For the sweetheart deal that left HB civic activists and taxpayers slack-jawed: Joy Cooper, Dorothy "Dotty" Ross, William "Bill" Julian, Anthony A. Sanders.

Opposed to the deal and interested in pursuing litigation against Mike Good: Keith London.

Among Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew, Ross is NOT running for re-election next year, Comm. Sanders is, ex-Comm. Julian is running to get back on it, while Mayor Cooper, in office now for ten years, is seeking re-election, too.

Hmm-m-m... three Commission seats up and possibly, a fourth, if Keith London runs against Cooper in the mayoral race.

See

CBS News video of August 2, 2010

Pension Problem in Calif.

http://youtu.be/9BQ6osA8yiU

CBS News video of August 8, 2010

Small Towns, Sky High Public Pay

http://youtu.be/8fBpedLATsQ

KCAL video: City of Bell ripoffs

http://youtu.be/LfUpyGjDTxY

More local Los Angeles TV newscast stories on the situation in Bell can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SavedHealed

Question in L.A. Times column after USA-Mexico debacle: "In what other country would the visitors have home-field advantage?" Answer: Miami

U.S. Mens National Team vs. Mexico: Highlights - June 25, 2011, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California: Mexico 4, USA 2.

http://youtu.be/6fTvZqC-ycE

Answer: Miami, the Capital of Latin America.

At least it is according to the Miami Herald and their super-sensitive Editorial Board and cronies in the South Florida community that not only DON'T welcome honest discussions of U.S. immigration policies and related issues, but that also has shown over the years that it is NOT interested in dealing with valid, fact-based complaints about their reporters and editors' personal bias bleeding into actual news coverage and reporting of facts.

Question asked at the end of sports columnist Bill Plaschke's column in the Los Angeles Times about the ugly scene at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Saturday after Mexico's 4-2 win over the USA Mens National Team: "In what other country would the visitors have home-field advantage?"

(Saturday's match was, to soccer-loving me, a completely meaningless game that has about as much portent for the future of the U.S. team as the Dolphins' 1973 exhibition game loss at the Vikings had for their success later that season. That loss got me so upset I almost cried after it was over, which sounds even more ridiculous to me as I write it than it could possibly sound to you reading it since... well, a.) I was there, and b.) they still won the NFL title again, beating -yes- the Vikings in the Super Bowl in New Orleans.)

Less than 24 hours after this Bill Plaschke column went online, approximately 887 reader comments bombarded the L.A. Times forum site.

In fact, 21 hours after column was posted online, the L.A. Times, showing they'd learned little from the Chicago Tribune after their politically-correct news stories on flash mob criminal activity in downtown Chicago by African-American youths, wherein the Trib intentionally refused to describe what the assailants looked like or had in common, rushed this warning online:

L.A. Times Moderator at 7:42 PM June 26, 2011

Note to readers and commenters: Because of repeated inappropriate posts, we will now be reviewing comments on this article before they are posted. We are also in the process of removing comments that violate our terms of service.

My blog post on that situation, from June 12th, is here:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/chicago-trib-readers-screw-wtrib-execs.html

-----

Los Angeles Times

In Gold Cup final, it's red, white and boo again

Mexico rallies for a 4-2 win over U.S. behind overwhelming support at Rose Bowl. In what other country would the visitors have home-field advantage?

By Bill Plaschke

June 25, 2011, 10:15 p.m.

It was imperfectly odd. It was strangely unsettling. It was uniquely American.

On a balmy early Saturday summer evening, the U.S soccer team played for a prestigious championship in a U.S. stadium … and was smothered in boos.

Its fans were vastly outnumbered. Its goalkeeper was bathed in a chanted obscenity. Even its national anthem was filled with the blowing of air horns and bouncing of beach balls.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0626-plaschke-gold-cup-20110626,0,7072114.column

Reader comments at:

http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-sp-0626-plaschke-gold-cup-20110626/10

IF the game was really so important, how come the Miami Herald only devoted 13 sentences to coverage of the game in Sunday's newspaper? Thirteen.

IF the Women's World Cup in Germany is so important, and women deserve as much coverage as the men -which I believe they do- then why does the Herald not send their soccer writer, Michelle Kauffman to cover it?

Because it has degenerated into a third-rate, yet-pretentious newspaper that won't put its money where its mouth is.

Which we already knew, didn't we?

-----

U.S. National Team YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/ussoccerdotcom

View more videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com.

For those of you seeing this outside of South Florida, it should be noted for the record that these Mexican/M-A fans in SoCal talking about rooting for Mexico, despite living in the U.S., sound remarkably like South Florida Jews talking about any subject involving Israel for local Miami TV newscasts. Entirely predictable!

The video above of the man who has been living in the U.S. for 40 years but who speaks Spanish to the KNBC reporter instead of English, is too good to be true as far as local TV cliches go.
In that sense, it sounds exactly like Miami TV.
If only the reporter had interviewed him at a sports bar, THAT would've been a sports cliche grand slam!

"Emergency" U.S. House Rules Comm. meeting Wed. re bill permanently barring NPR or affils from getting Fed funds; Larry O'Connor on Dennis Miller Show

3/14/11 Breitbart TV Editor-in-Chief Larry O'Connor talks about last week's James O'Keefe-inspired sting of National Public Radio (NPR) with Dennis Miller on his syndicated radio show
http://www.youtube.com/user/breitbart#p/a/u/1/7GTXXFCpAhg

Weekdays, 10AM-1PM EST http://www.dennismillerradio.com/


Los Angeles Times
GOP prepares new assault on NPR funding as questions over video flap remain
A House committee schedules an 'emergency' session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliates from receiving federal funds. The move comes even though the video that brought down the broadcaster's chief fundraiser and CEO was apparently manipulated.
By James Oliphant Washington Bureau
March 15, 2011, 2:37 p.m.

Reporting from Washington -- House Republicans are preparing a new effort to strip NPR of all federal support, even as new questions have emerged from last week's scandal that forced an NPR fundraiser, as well as its chief executive, to resign.

The House Rules Committee will meet in "an emergency" session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliate stations from receiving federal funds. If it passes the committee, as expected, the bill could make it to the House floor later this week.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-npr-questions-20110315,0,4992364.story

Terminal velocity? Mexico is in free-fall and the Miami Herald is STILL playing catch-up to a story it should be owning

WikiLeaks Reveals ‘Devastating X-Ray’ of Power in Mexico; the fear that many Mexicans have of a U.S. invasion.

"...in the battle against organized crime, there is a serious lack of coordination between the Army, the Attorney General's Office and the Public Security Secretariat; and that these agencies are infiltrated by those whom they are supposed to be fighting."
-U.S State Dept. cable leaked by WikiLeaks

For a newspaper that has long prided itself on being an influential player in Latin America, whether that's still true or not, or even been true since the first Sandinista regime in Nicaragua -given that you can buy the Miami Herald in certain Latin capitals and large cities- the Herald's surprising lack of compelling stories and insight info Mexico's downward spiral is pretty amazing.
And a grim reminder of how far things have fallen.

I might even have to go back to, if not exactly reading the Los Angeles Times every day -like I used to do when I lived in the Washingon, D.C. area, and paid one dollar for the ad-free Washington edition, with a GREAT foreign affairs news section on Mondays- at least reading it every other day. And for more than just the entertainment industry news, since I already get their daily industry news emails every day, plus the odd look at what they've got in the Sunday magazine.

http://www.latimes.com/
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/

I found out some things on Monday about Mexico that I don't recall reading anywhere else and certainly NOT in the Herald.
Not that the Times isn't without its known and suspected political biases and agendas like the ones I've detailed here about the Herald, but honestly, the writing at the LAT on foreign affairs is just SO much clearer and sophisticated, which is why it's long been one of its acknowledged and industry-admired strengths, regardless of who was the Executive Editor, especially the foreign affairs reporting of Kim Murphy.

See the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter's work here:
http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=%22Kim+Murphy%22&target=adv_article
-----
La Jornada, Mexico
WikiLeaks Reveals 'Devastating X-Ray' of Power in Mexico

"The U.S. diplomatic cables present an image of power in Mexico that is as bleak as it is deplorable. … They show that warnings about the loss of national sovereignty made by the most apocalyptic critics were not exaggerated. And they remind us that the struggle for national liberation is not the outdated nostalgia of nationalists, but a necessity that is the order of the day."

By Luis Hernandez Navarro
Translated By Florizul Acosta-Perez
March 1, 2011

On February 16, La Jornada published a news item outlining the doubts of U.S. Consul in Monterrey Bruce Williamson, on the effectiveness of the Mexican Army in their fight against narco-trafficking. "The military presence," he asserts in a confidential cable on July 29, 2009 - "is not a panacea for Nuevo Leon." The dispatch also states that in the battle against organized crime, there is a serious lack of coordination between the Army, the Attorney General's Office and the Public Security Secretariat; and that these agencies are infiltrated by those whom they are supposed to be fighting.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://worldmeets.us/lajornada000139.shtml#axzz1GGd33qs6

See also:
http://worldmeets.us/ -WorldMeets.US provides accurate English translations of international news and views about the USA.

So, we're all agreed? Five months from now, we all see Reese Witherspoon in "Water for Elephants" at the theater? YES!

Water for Elephants film trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiNVZLwHbLc

Monday afternoon's Los Angeles Times books blog, Jacket Copy, subtitled "Books, authors and all things bookish," had a very interesting piece by Carolyn Kellogg titled An early look at 'Water for Elephants' interviewing author Sara Gruen about her book-turned-film that is generating so much positive buzz and excitement five months before its U.S. release on April 15th.

One of the most important things you need to know about this film is that it's Reese Witherspoon in a very good film, not a frothy banal one, so you know she's going to take it up a notch and be sensational. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000702/

To me, she's always at her best in productions that feel and look intelligent and positively oozes context, and this looks to be such a film, as savvy entertainment folks I know and trust implicitly on the Left Coast have been urging me to buy the book ever since she was signed to star in it, something that I've resisted thus far.
And I hear the script's dialogue is great.

But I must say, the trailer, which I saw again today for about the fourth time in a week, looks so damn good that I may well have to change that status quo situation before too long.

As I've commented before, in my opinion, Reese Witherspoon is one of a handful of actors and actresses on the scene today whom I believe the majority of American and European film audiences actually root for oftentimes, despite the actual quality of the films they're appearing in, and if the truth were known, they'd actually prefer to see her in more high-minded films -even if that meant less films by her- simply because it drives them crazy to see her in forgettable or frothy fare where she has to play less than, well, the Reese we love, in films that leave no lasting impression except for a few scenes here and there.

The sorts of films where when she's out promoting them on TV talk shows like David Letterman's, they actually cringe inside, despite how much they like HER.
In fact, I should know, I'm one of those such people myself.



Reese Witherspoon on CBS-TV's The Late Show with David Letterman in November 2010 promoting her film, "How Do You Know"
http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=rrQVumXofQNKpTvyZXJUKyyjg8zQ5Tte
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341188/

I feel the same way about certain other film actors, one of whom as many of you know, famously, is Ashley Judd. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000171/

Ashley Judd on cover of Condé Nast Traveler, September 2005, only one of my favorite photos of her.

Everyone who knows me very well knows that I've adored Ashley from the very beginning of her show business career, yet I'm still waiting for her creative follow-up to Ruby in Paradise that leaves me dazzled the way that film did, though she's been good in supporting roles.


Ruby in Paradise
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108000/

Ashley's talent is so very obvious to me, and has been since 1993, but it needs to come out in something of quality and high-mindedness that I can respect.
Rather selfishly, I guess, I need to have that faith of mine in her reaffirmed on the big screen in a starring role.

I guess that's more my problem than her's, but some of Ashley's films, well, to be honest, I've just plain avoided them for the same reason that I've avoided seeing Reese in a film as a ghostly presence in a San Francisco apt. , i.e. 2005's Just Like Heaven co-starring Mark Ruffalo.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425123/

Sorry, I don't want to see Reese or Ashley as a plucky ghost or wife-done-wrong at a movie theater, or have to see her do fare that seems more like it's designed to appease grandmothers with their daughter and teen grand-daughter in tow over the Christmas holidays at the Mall cinema megaplex.
For me, that's "A Bridge Too Far..."

My own belief is that film audiences have such highly positive feelings towards Reese Witherspoon, esp. in the Midwest and the Plains, that they almost instinctively want her to be in a film they can honestly highly recommend to their friends, rather than for them to have to hem-and-haw when asked afterwards whether they really liked it or not.
They want to be affirming about Reese because they like her so much already.
That's not really such a bad thing -or place to be in your career- now that you think about it.

------

Los Angeles Times
Jacket Copy blog,
An early look at 'Water for Elephants'
by Carolyn Kellogg
December 20, 2010 | 1:12 pm

Sara Gruen's bestselling "Water for Elephants," a love triangle set in a 1930s circus, is coming to the big screen. Although it's not due in theaters until mid-April, the trailer is already out. Though there's nothing wrong with watching it on a computer, it looks really fantastic projected in a movie theater (at least it did at the ArcLight, where I saw it this past weekend).

The film stars Reese Witherspoon as a circus starlet, Robert Pattinson (famous for appearing in another literary adaptation) as the young veterinarian taken by her, and Christoph Waltz as her husband.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/12/water-for-elephants.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/

The Klaxons -Twin Flames (featuring Charlotte Church) from Richard Bacon's new afternoon program on BBC Radio 5 live

Charlotte's new album 'Back To Scratch' is out right now in both the U.S. and the U.K.

The Klaxons -Twin Flames (featuring Charlotte Church)

Richard Bacon Show,
BBC Radio 5 live,
October 26, 2010



--------
The first time that I knew that Charlotte Church's talent was more than self-evident but transcendent, was when I heard her interviewed and sing on, of all things, The G.Gordon Liddy Show on WJFK-FM in Washington, D.C.

That was back when it aired just after 11 a.m. following The Howard Stern Show, which I faithfully listened to every morning for years from the moment I woke-up.

Once I left my house in north Arlington by 7:30, I listened to Howard and Robin via my radio earbuds as I walked down busy and winding Glebe Road to the Ballston Metro train station -next to the National Science Foundation HQ- which had among the best selection of out-of-town newspaper vending machines in the Washington area, with machines that were never broken!

Every morning, I could count on seeing The Boston Globe, a few Philly papers, The New York Times, New York Daily News and New York Post, plus many, many others just sitting there, tempting me and the thousands of Metro riders who made their way up and down the stairs and escalators all day.

That was an existence and flexibility so different than my current life, where getting access to physical copies of the the non-New York papers requires great deal of effort, not a good thing for a news junkie like myself, who still prefers the tactile touch of a newspaper in my hand to an online experience.
That experience also infroms you why I am so currently frustrated with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald.
Plain and simple, I'm used to better, given that I read the Washington Post everyday, too.

The D.C. version of the Los Angeles Times, which I read just about every day, was usually not there at the Metro station until after 11 a.m., so I'd sometimes swing by the huge office building downtown on Eye Street, N.W. where the Times and then-owner Times Mirror had their Washington bureau, and secure copies from friends and folks I knew there, or if I was short on time, from the nearby vending machines.

The D.C. version of the paper has most of the same articles as the edition in LA -minus the local section- but had zero ads, and was of better paper stock than other papers, and a ridiculous bargain for a dollar, esp. on the days it had an entire section full of stories from their foreign correspondents, back when they had among the best in the business, including Robin Wright reporting on the Middle East.

So very, very different than my current life and existence here in Hallandale Beach, where accessing physical copies of the the non-New York newspapers requires great deal of effort, and not just a trip up to the east side of Young Circle in Hollywood to see my favorite news stand guys; not a good thing for a news junkie like myself.

Once I got off the Metro downtown and had made my way up to street-level, I put my earbuds back in and rejoined Howard & Robin in mid-yuck or guffaw.
But once I was at work, I turned on my Sony cassette recorder, but obviously, lowered the volume at work due to others' sensitive ears!

As many of you already know by now, I was listening to Howard Stern on the morning of 9/11, which is how I came to hear of the first plane crash into the Twin Towers.
I was working in my my office across Pennsylvania Ave. from the Dept. of Justice and the FBI, just four blocks from The White House. See my post on that at my other blog, South Beach Hoosier: http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2007/09/flight-93-national-memorial-sixth.html)

As far as that moment of clarity with Charlotte goes, I was sitting by myself in a law firm's large conference room with a great view overlooking Connecticut Avenue, N.W., and was surrounded by about 50 Banker boxes full of documents I had been reviewing over the previous week on behalf of my firm.

And the combination of my second Coke Classic and my first Hazelnut coffee of the day were not having their usual effect.
It felt like 3:15 in the afternoon already and yet it was actually not even Noon yet.
I felt like spinning around in my office chair until I woke up.
Not that that ever works.

I'd heard of Charlotte, of course -who hadn't?- since she was seemingly everywhere at the time as the adorably cute and precociously talented Welsh singing dynamo.

But I'd never bought a CD of her's because, frankly, her music, amazing as it was, just wasn't all that appealing to me.
I wasn't her demographic.

After listening to the show for a while -I think her mother was with her in the studio- and hear a completely enchanted Gordon probably use the word "amazing" a dozen or so times, not unlike the way you often hear young parents gush about their own infants, he finally asked the then-15 or 16-year old Charlotte to actually sing something.
Finally!

But the cynic in me thought that after having already done lots of news show or chit-chat interviews that morning in Washington, I figured she'd beg off, saying that her voice was sore or something, but she said okay.
A few seconds later...
Wow!!
You just can't deny her talent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two

http://www.klaxons.net/


Charlotte Church - Snow



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6IIgDrVT9w

http://www.charlottechurch.co/

http://www.youtube.com/user/charlottechurch

Failed hit piece in 12/23/09 LA Times on Ileana by a hipper-than-thou Iranian regime apologist; WaPo's Robin Wright is correct about Iran

December 23rd, 2009

I'm neither a fan or opponent of Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, per se, but I know a hit piece
when I see one.

You know everything you need to know about
the essay below that appeared in Wednesday's
LA Times when you discover that author
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich's "associated" with
some group called Campaign Against Sanctions
and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII),
http://www.campaigniran.org/CASMII/index.php?q=node

So why is that NOT mentioned at the bottom of the
LA Times Guest Op-Ed, when a quick five-second
Google Search tells you that?
You know, since it actually has something
to do with the subject of the essay, sanctions?

Just more proof, as if needed, that the LA Times
isn't nearly what it used to be when I read their
great D.C. edition almost daily in the '90's, which
was nothing but news articles, opinions and essays,
with no ads -for a dollar.

It was fantastic for news junkies readers, even if it
was a loss-leader for Times-Mirror in their efforts
to have more influence in official Washington.
(I had a couple of friends in their DC bureau,
above the Farragut West Metro station.)
Their separate Foreign Policy section on Tuesdays,
usually with something insightful and original by
then-foreign affairs correspondent Robin Wright,
now at the Washington Post, was always
MUST READING for me and my friends
interested in foreign policy and strategy.

See also: http://robinwrightblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.robinwright.net/ and
http://www.usip.org/resources/irans-green-movement

Her latest column in the WaPo, on her being
underwhelmed by Obama's West Point speech,
was this one from Dec. 10th appropriately titled
The real stakes in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120903678.html

That column includes the following about Iran:

Obama's strategy will deeply affect India, the world's largest democracy. Long-standing tensions between Pakistan and India have taken the world closer to the brink of nuclear war than any conflict has since World War II -- and still could, since Pakistan has failed to contain extremists responsible for terrorist atrocities in India, including the Mumbai attacks last year. U.S. failure to help nuclear Pakistan expand or shift its military focus from India to the more immediate threat from its internal extremists risks allowing those tensions to deepen.

Just as worrisome are the stakes with Iran, which borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghanistan has become for Iran what Iraq once was: a surrogate battlefield with the United States. Once Afghanistan's rival, Shiite-dominated Iran has reportedly supplied the same weapons and explosives to Sunni Taliban fighters that it provided Shiite militias in Iraq, on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend -- at least for now.

Iran manipulated (and often fueled) the problems that ensued after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In the process, it has become a regional superpower rivaled only by Israel. U.S. failures in Afghanistan and Pakistan would further strengthen Iran's position as its increasingly authoritarian government cracks down on a legitimate opposition movement and threatens to expand its nuclear program.

Since those of you who have always lived
in South Florida or the East Coast may not
be too familiar with it, that the Times Op-Ed
author is a grad of the USC Annenberg
School for Communication is nothing
to be impressed by, esp. if you've ever met
some of the grads I met in D.C.

It's no SAIS, that's for sure,
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/ which is apparent if
you've ever met some of the Annenberg
grads in Washington that I have, who seemed
to specialize in sounding-off at public policy
forums, bars and coffee shops by repeating
things smarter people once said and wrote.
And getting it wrong.

Remember that pompous ass of a Harvard
grad student that Matt Damon's character
in Good Will Hunting made mincemeat of
in his verbal barrage in the bar, about the
evolution of the 18th Century market economy
in the Southern Colonies?

If you forgot it, it's here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4PiVMasO6s
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film555/quotes

That's what I'm talking about!

(Somewhat unexpectedly, I actually had to play
the Matt Damon role a few times while I lived
in the D.C. area in order to put some Ivy-Ivy
wannbe grads who thought they were all that,
in their place.
That usually involved both politics, history and,
shocker, sports.)

Characterized by a real lack of intellectual honesty
and heft to say the least, regardless of what they
-or their anxious parents- paid for USC tuition.

Growing-up in South Florida in the '70's, I often
marched with my Iranian friends and their families
in the late '70's in anti-Shah rallies near the
Freedom Torch on Biscayne Blvd.
-back before that had been thoroughly rendered
into a tired South Florida media cliche, like the
Versailles Restaurant- and we were positive
that there were Savak agents taking photos of
everyone, since they were a little too obvious and
we could sometimes hear the cameras whirring.

That's why my friends and their relatives
wore masks.

Many of my friends' parents and relatives had
been unlawfully imprisoned by the Shah, and
had the permanent scars and injuries to
prove it.

Iran as a modern, secular democratic country
wasn't an abstract idea to them, certainly not
the same way it seems to have been for so many
of the apologists of the Shah, or the current crew
of well-dressed apologists who shop at
The Beverly Center in LA.

I realize that my circumstances are unique
in that I know a LOT more about Iran
and its people and history than the average
American, have many friends who have
Iranian-born spouses, so when I come
across this sort of agitprop in the LA Times,
an intellectually dishonest effort that will
hurt not help the likelihood of that secular
democratic Iran from ever coming into
being, you understand that I really don't
need to hear yet another round of verbal
intellectual gymnastics from the newest hip
crowd of Iranian regime apologists wearing
Ann Taylor.

Sometimes, things are exactly what they
appear to be.

Just saying...

--------
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-ulrich23-2009dec23,0,1257966.story Blowback

The hypocrisy of American bluster toward Iran

A U.S. representative who accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism has a track record of supporting terrorists herself.

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

December 23, 2009

By now there is little doubt that hypocrisy has become Washington's standing policy on foreign affairs. What is astounding is the lack of shame in such overt duplicity as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's (R-Fla.) accusations in the Dec. 14 Times Op-Ed article that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorists -- when she herself has a track record of supporting terrorists.

In February 1988, Orlando Bosch was arrested in Miami and implicated in the 1976 plot to blow up Cubana Flight 455, a terrorist act that killed 73 passengers. Joe D. Whitley, the associate U.S. attorney general at the time, called Bosch "a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims." Bosch, however, had the distinct advantage of having Ros-Lehtinen make advocating for his release one of the cornerstones of her 1989 congressional campaign. Bosch had another advantage: Ros-Lehtinen's campaign manager was Jeb Bush, President George H.W. Bush's son. In 1990, after lobbying by Jeb Bush and Ros-Lehtinen, the Bush administration went against the Justice Department's recommendation to deport Bosch and authorized his release. Since then, Bosch has become a permanent resident of the United States.

Ros-Lehtinen also supports the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a group by the State Department as a foreign terrorist group. Leading up to the Iraq war, in October 2002, Ros-Lehtinen circulated a letter in Congress expressing support for the MEK. She continues her support.

Common sense dictates that Iran would want security in its two neighboring countries given the spillover effect. By now, it is also common knowledge that the Sunni Taliban and Shiite Iran have been hostile toward each other for years (several Iranian diplomats were killed by the Taliban in 1998), and no doubt this hostility led to Iran's decision to assist the Northern Alliance and the U.S. in efforts in the overthrow of the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks -- efforts that were rewarded with the infamous "axis of evil" brand. Yet Ros-Lehtinen would insult the American public's intelligence by telling them that Iran, without mentioning any history, has a hand in Afghanistan. Does Ros-Lehtinen ever wonder if other countries simply do not welcome occupation by any foreign force?

One has to question what motivates Ros-Lehtinen in her push to put financial sanctions on foreign and domestic companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran. Doing so could lead to more job losses in America and more hostilities between U.S. allies and Iran. This is a time when our policy makers should be thinking about America and Americans, period.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer living in Glendale.

----------------
Meanwhile...closer to home

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1385736.html-
December 17th, 2009 Miami Herald Editorial

Getting serious with Iran -

OUR OPINION:

Stronger sanctions needed to persuade regime to drop nuclear-weapons program

It should be clear by now that Iran is on a collision course with the United States and other Western nations over its quest for nuclear weapons.
Years of diplomatic engagement, proposed deals and three rounds of sanctions by the United Nations have failed to deter Iran from getting closer to acquiring the capacity to produce nukes.

Indeed, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has grown more defiant.
In the last few weeks, it has dropped all pretense of wanting to work with U.N. inspectors and Western nations, angrily refusing to comply with a U.N. demand to cease work on a nuclear-fuel enrichment plant and vowing to construct 10 more plants as soon as it can.
The latest bad news involves reports that Iran is getting closer to solving the most difficult aspects of making nuclear weapons.
The Times of London reported that Iran appears to be working on a ''neutron initiator,'' a device that could trigger an explosion in a nuclear warhead.
This means Iran is becoming self-sufficient in nuclear weapons technology and has no intention of putting an end to its clandestine weapons program.
Since the West can clearly not do business with this regime, it is time to get serious about sanctions.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin (412-12) approved a measure that dramatically increases the economic pressure on Iran by curtailing its ability to import refined products, such as gasoline.
Its key provision requires the president to impose sanctions on any company here or abroad that helps to supply Iran with refined petroleum.
Because Iran relies on imports for 40 percent of its refined petroleum, this would oblige the regime to consider the consequences of its continued defiance of the international community.
The effort was led by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, the ranking minority member of the panel. As a rule, multilateral sanctions are far preferable to unilateral moves, but it's hard to blame the House for deciding to take action.
Iran has a long record of deviousness and duplicity and the clock is ticking toward the day when it will become a nuclear power unless its leaders become convinced that the nations arrayed against it have finally lost all patience. The Obama administration has shown little enthusiasm for Congress' action, but it is working on its own set of sanctions, which officials hope will gain international support.
Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said in recent days that a broader package of sanctions is in the works.
As described by Mr. Gates, the point would be ''to persuade the Iranian government that they would actually be less secure with nuclear weapons'' because ''their people will suffer enormously'' from sanctions.
Clearly, the time has come to take such measures.

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