FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
So happy to announce my casting in David Fincher's 'Gone Girl' playing opposite Ben Affleck http://t.co/GDKxaMf2gV — Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) September 16, 2013
Because I know that I've been neglecting my important show biz duties a lot here on the blog of late, I have the following important casting news to share with you that will be ricocheting around the globe all day and be common knowledge by the time all of you wake-up tomorrow. Causing delight for some people and angst in others, and lots of happine$$ in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where most principal non-LA shooting of Gone Girl will take place.
TheWrap Ben Affleck’s ‘Gone Girl’ Casts ‘Blurred Lines’ Beauty Emily Ratajkowski (Exclusive) By Jeff Sneider on September 16, 2013 @ 7:37 am
In her first major movie role, model-actress Emily Ratajkowski is nearing a deal to play the hotly contested role of Ben Affleck’s mistress in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.
Ratajkowski is best known as the bombshell beauty at the center of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video, which has nearly 174 million views on YouTube.
And now, channeling my best legal defense attorney persona, recalling both Perry Mason and Ben Matlock, I present to the jury the following evidence and ask that the bailiff distribute copies of this photo to them so that they may see the evidence for themselves...
Well, the maxim goes that "a photo speaks a thousand words." But some photos speak much more. I would humbly suggest that this photo on Emily Ratajkowski's Twitter feed does just that. It's only my opinion, but winning the genes lottery and the casting lottery is not a bad way to start off a career.
Finally some good news about the upcoming 2013-14 U.S. TV season: 'Who Do You Think You Are?' is coming back! The Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky-produced celebrity docu/genalogy series that ran on NBC for 3 years gets picked-up by TLC; premiering July 23rd; @TLC, @lisakudrow, @danbucatinsky, #genealogy, # familytree, #roots
TheWrap
TLC Brings NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Back From the Grave (Exclusive)
Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky's celebrity documentary series gets a second life on the cable channel
The show's episodes on Rashida Jones and Jason Sudeikis were very compelling and among the more-interesting and memorable things I saw on TV all last year.
That both of them wound-up discovering some rather unsettling news about their own family's history -originally from Latvia and Lithuania, respectively- showed me that the shows were NOT written just so that there'd be a happy ending by the end of the sixty minutes, which was a nice change of pace when it comes to TV shows built around a celebrity. That difference in attitude is why I'm very encouraged that TLC has revived this series -and why I will be watching every week. As it happens, I was one of the very first persons to see TheWrap'sEXCLUSIVE this past week, seeing it about a minute after it got posted online, and that explains why I was the first reader to comment there. There were many more people who were fans of the show who followed me in the hours afterwards, about two dozen last time checked, far more comments than almost any article about an individual TV show ever generates on the website, which I think speaks very well for the show's future, assuming they market it properly. Additional reader comments are at Yahoo's dispatch here: http://tv.yahoo.com/news/tlc-brings-nbcs-think-back-grave-exclusive-202837056.html ----- https://www.facebook.com/IsOrIsntEntertainment
, thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: TheWrap CEO and Editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman talks with Oscar columnist Steve Pond about the 85th Annual Academy Awards and how the results of the Producers Guild and SAG Awards have only increased the momentum for 'Argo'; the year of waiting patiently is over as Kevin Tsujihara is officially named new Warner Bros. CEO. Uploaded January 28, 2013. http://youtu.be/URJjo170GTE
thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: TheWrap CEO and Editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman talks with Oscar columnist Steve Pond about the 85th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night. Uploaded February 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/jX9EWpzB-Wc
Is this the year that Steven Spielberg's actually loses the Best Director Oscar that's been thought by some in the know to be his for the taking for 'Lincoln' in the closing days to Ang Lee for 'Life of Pi' or David O. Russell for 'Silver Linings Playbook," perhaps in part due to the continuing national controversy over the historical accuracy of the film? And to repeat a question that hasn't been asked in a few years, "Did it [Argo] direct itself?"
The glaring hole created by Ben Affleck being ignored for directing Best Picture nominee 'Argo' has not only created a vacuum for a Wild Card to emerge in that category, but also one to emerge in another category, and Hollywood studios have been quick to seize the opportunity, engaging in very heavy spending -even by their own standards- for paid print and display ads in industry trade mags and time on local Los Angeles TV stations. I'm told that the half-hour paid studio ads that ran at 7:30 Pacific, following the SOTU last week, did huge numbers, relative to what you might think, and that people in the industry were literally dumbfounded when they saw the reports with the raw data. And that doesn't even include what Warner Bros. did... WB buys half-hour in prime time to promote Ben Affleck's 'Argo' http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-wb-takes-a-primetime-half-hour-to-promote-ben-afflecks-argo-20130213,0,6812757.story
The pride of a Lou-a-vull -Jennifer Lawrence She will win the Oscar on Sunday night for Silver Linings Playbook
Louisville Courier-Journal
The Buzz
Louisville's Jennifer Lawrence lands GQ
April 19, 2011 Photo gallery includes many photos you've never seen before
thewrapnews YouTube Channel video: Jennifer Lawrence OscarWrap Cover Shoot. Uploaded February 17, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAcXFIC6gE Cover shot from above is here:http://www.thewrap.com/oscarwrap2013
In Sweden, they love Jennifer Lawrence so much that repeats of the forgettable WTBS-TV sit-com she did a few years ago, The Bill Engvall Show, actually airs Monday thru Friday in the morning, as I discovered when I was in Stockholm for eight days last month. I don't think they even repeat that show HERE!
I'd never seen the show when it originally aired from 2007-'09, and was flipping thru the channels one morning in my hotel room during a commercial break during the national news. I kept flipping until I stopped when I saw the familiar face and taut figure of a younger JL playing the role of -wait for it- young teen daughter. http://youtu.be/iF0eQjHDyD8
And, of course, she'd been on the cover of the February Vanity Fair I read aboard SAS while en route to the capital of Scandinavia. Video: Behind-the-scenes of Vanity Fair photo cover shoot with photographer Ellen von Unwerth: Jennifer Lawrence’s Sexy New York–Skyline Shoot Warning: Intense! You may need to sit down so you don't faint!
'Lincoln' Review: Riveting Tale Separates the Man from the Monument
By Alonso Duralde
November 7, 2012
There are few dramaturgical tasks as difficult or as thankless as telling the life story of a Great Man (or Woman), particularly when that historical figure has become the sort of legendary icon featured in national monuments and on currency.
And for you regular readers of the blog, what have I had written at the top of this blog since Day One? "Trust me when I tell you, this part of Florida is NOT the Land of Lincoln." -----
Seinfeld's CosmoKramer once famously felt compelled to share with his best friend what he was doing with some of his free time when we didn't see him -"I'm watching the watchers, Jerry.'
Similarly, former LA-based Slate blogger Mickey Kaus, long a favorite of ours, and now with a media perch at The Daily Caller, takes a scalpel to the the U.S. Mainstream Media over their new "Fact Check"-ingobsession and wonders if what they're really doing is simply walking onto more thin ice -and only MORE BIAS.; Kaus adroitlyobserves that it "opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, esp. when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns"
The Daily Caller
Credulous fact-checkers fall for scam
By Mickey Kaus
September 2, 2012
Why the Fact-Checkosphere is failing: So, as I understand it, this year the MSM will righteously strike back against “Post-Truth Politics” through rigorous fact-checking, followed by a manly, non-balanced, yet authoritative calling out of transgressors for the liars that they are. James Fallows and Jay Rosen, among others, have heralded this great new day. One problem, of course, is the ease–rather, the constant temptation–of presenting debatable policy issues as right/wrong fact issues, a problem emphasized by dissenter Ben Smith yesterday. Another is the way what Smith calls “the new pseudo science of fact-checks” opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, especially when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns.
Earlier this afternoon, TheWrap had the story on an effort by one prominent conservative media personality to push back at what they see as the guilty parties. In this case, reporter Beth Fouhy at the AP who seems to have a history of... well, you be the judge, and take a look at what one well-known conservative media website says.
Can they really be so wrong about one person who has such a proven track record like Fouhy's, many of whose pieces appear in theMiami Herald?
'2016: Obama's America' Author Dinesh D'Souza Fires Back at Associated Press 'Fact Check'
By Todd Cunningham
September 03, 2012 @ 2:37 pm
Author Dinesh D’Souza, who wrote and co-directed “2016: Obama’s America,” told TheWrap Monday that a recent Associated Press report “fact-checking” his hit documentary is “a crude and inaccurate attack masquerading as a news story.”
The AP article, posted Friday and written by Beth Fouhy, was headlined “Fact Check: Anti-Colonial Obama Not Plausible.”
Closer to home, the problem of media bias, and even institutional bias, is even more rampant on a local level because there are not only fewer people paying close attention and who know all the details and context about what's REALLY GOING ON, there are fewer people in newsrooms who will stand up and stop it from airing or going into print.
They just look the other way and make a mental note of it.
And just so there's no confusion on this point, let me be clear.
In my opinion, despite the efforts of Journalism Schools to inculcate a stronger sense of pro-active ethical probity into their students the past thirty years, the evidence to date suggests that in an era of news reporting retrenchment and uncertain economic futures, fewer people in the press corps will stand up to their own corporate management team, editorial superiors or Editorial Board when those people engage in untoward behavior and bias, and in some cases, don't even try to hide it,.The reason?
Because, hello, those are the very same people who will have a say in who is around a year from now in that very newsroom.
NATIONAL USC ANNENBERG-LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL SHOWS LOCAL TELEVISION NEWS RULES WITH VOTERS
That is especially true in South Florida, where despite what you may want to believe, the general level of ethics in the news room down here is certainly no higher than you'd find in the offices at City Hall, County Halls and the State Capitol that are being followed.
That level of newsroom ethics in South Florida is largely below-average compared to the rest of the country, and some have been able to keep jobs despite how well-known their own biases and proclivities are for looking the other way and making excuses for shoddy journalism practices.
Over the next week, I'll be pointing-out some examples of this to you readers here on the blog by putting some sunshine on some stories and news angles that you haven't seen mentioned or reported upon elsewhere.
MediaTrackers.org
PANTS ON FIRE: PolitiFact Florida Rulings Show Clear Bias in Favor of Democrats, Against Republicans
Recent posts of mine on media bias in its various guises include my April 16, 2012 blog post, titled, Despite self-congratulatory declarations, Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact's bias in analyzing "facts" over past few years is becoming increasingly apparent to everyone, and Breitbart's Big Journalism's Tony Lee points out some recent examples re Romney.
as well as my January 1, 2012 post, Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!
Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Matt Welch discusses the symbol-laden presidency of Barack Obama with Fox Business Channel's Stuart Varney. http://youtu.be/b5W6KYFWN_Y
The blog post below is easily among the best things I've read, heard or seen all year, and I'm especially pleased that longtime HBB favorite Sharon Waxman is the one sharing the scoop with us via her blog on the website she created.
If you've read this blog for any period of time, you will know exactly why I feel this way, and just to give you a sense of the devastating and penetrating comments made by former Los Angles Times Assistant Editorial Page editor Matt Welch, now Editor-in-chief at Reason magazine, which he gave to Sharon on the telephone -wish I had the audio to play here!- take a look at this:
The paper is “blaming customers, blaming competition, blaming technology, instead of more forthrightly recognizing that the economics (of newspapers) got a lot worse,” he said. “If we don’t confront our own organizational pathologies, we’re in trouble.”
The Wrap WaxWord blog Former L.A. Times Editor Slams Paper For 'Blaming Customers, Competition, Technology' By Sharon Waxman Published: April 3, 2012 @ 2:58 pm,
How badly does former Los Angeles Times editor Matt Welch think the paper is doing?
Its “attitude is killing the host,” he tweeted last weekend.
For those of us like yours truly -and most of you reading this- far from The Left Coast who don't get the LA Times tossed into our front yard every morning, the costs under the LA Times: Digital Unlimited plan is 99 cents for the first four weeks, which includes unrestricted 24/7 access to latimes.com, plus special membership privileges, and then continues at $3.99 a week after promotional period, which comes out to roughly $196 for the year for digital access.
This post of Sharon's on Tuesday regarding the Tribune Company-owned Times actually follows by a few days an email I sent out last week about the decision of the Tribune'sSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel to erect a paywall next week, and why I think that in their particular case -as opposed to the Chicago Tribune or even the Baltimore Sun, both of which are MUCH BETTER value-added newspapers- is positively a suicidal roll of the dice.
I will post that email of mine online very soon.
And since many of you reading this probably never saw it the first time, I'll also include links to my critical and fact-filled email -and subsequent blog posts here- to Miami Herald President and Publisher David Landsberg, with cc's to Herald executive editor Aminda Marques and managing editor Rick Hirschregarding the Herald's continuing unsatisfactory news coverage of Broward County, which so often is either invisible when it should be anything but, or obtuse and condescending when it should be penetrating and hard-hitting. As I said at the time, neither is acceptable.
The future of the "24" film; Kiefer Sutherland interview on BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles Show re "24," the "24" Movie, and his new Fox-TV series, "TOUCH."
This is a bit of a follow-up to my last post about Kiefer Sutherland and his wonderful new Fox-TV drama, "TOUCH," which I wrote about here right before the Super Bowl, on January 28th, 2012 titled, Kiefer Sutherland talks about his remarkable new hit Fox-TV drama, "TOUCH," and reminisces about "Stand By Me" and how much he still misses River Phoenix http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/kiefer-sutherland-talks-about-his.html
TOUCH World Premiere is on Monday March 19th at 9 p.m. Eastern. When it was given a sneak preview in January, the first episode won its time-slot.
Amongst my friends and I, especially the ones still up in the Washington, D.C. area, Kiefer Sutherland remains one of the most compelling actors on the scene today, and those cynics who doubt that a sufficient number of movie goers would plunk down $10 to see a film version of 24 in a theater, esp. when considering the raft of plain awful comedies, shallow dramas and insipid rom-coms with Jennifer Anniston already coming out of Hollywood, is clearly not aware of the depth of support he, the show and its creators continue to have.
Around 2:24 p.m. Tuesday my time in Miami, Sharon Waxman, founder of TheWrap, your inside look at "Entertainment Industry Analysis, Breaking Hollywood News," had an exclusive about the looming financial problems facing the 24 film on her own blog,WaxWord, and it was a post that like to send a shiver down the back of every 24 fan who has already been waiting patiently for what seems like forever for this long-promised venture to finally be made.
TheWrap
WaxWord blog
Kiefer Sutherland Furious as Fox Pulls Plug on '24' Movie (Exclusive)
By Sharon Waxman
Published: March 14, 2012 @ 11:06 am
Kiefer Sutherland is furious at 20th Century Fox, which has called a halt to the movie version of his hit television show, “24,” over budget and star salary issues, TheWrap has learned.
The movie based on the conspiracy-terrorism-action show was in pre-production and set to start shooting next month, but has now ground to a halt because Fox will greenlight a budget no higher than $30 million, while Sutherland and producer Brian Grazer feel the budget needs to be in the low $40s at its tightest.
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 donewhat 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.
Also writing with some insight on this story was reporter Julie Makinen of the L.A. Timesat 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.
And in case you forgot, as you watch the videos below, of his Good Morning America interviews with ABC NewsDiane Sawyer from October 12th and 13th 2006, recall that this was BEFORE the most recent scandal involving former Gibson love interestOksana 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)
Since the Hurricanes play Kansas State on Saturday afternoon and the Dolphins play in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon against the Browns, I'll necessarily be seeing this film I've been waiting for for years -since first reading the Michael Lewis book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" in hardback- later today at the AMC Aventura 24 down the street at the Aventura Mall.
See also:
The Washington Post
Celebritology blog
‘Moneyball’: Why it’s this year’s ‘Social Network’
Moneyball is being billed as a sports drama, but really it's a mystery.
The first question I couldn't figure out is: Why was it even made in the first place? When the book was released in 2003 it was polarizing but it was interesting and helped casual baseball fans gain acceptance and understanding of advanced statistics.
Through no fault of its own, the book (written by Michael Lewis and published in 2003) hasn't aged well and the story just doesn't translate to the screen. The Moneyball concept has become trite and misunderstood over the years and this movie will only continue to make things worse.
Read the rest of the review with lots of good points about the finer points being dummied down for movie-goers:
FYI: In my opinion, actress Tammy Blanchard, who plays Scott Hatteberg's (Chris Pratt's) wife in the film, is an amazing mega-talent who ought to be starring in a a lot more big films than she is. Ten years ago, she won an Emmy Award for playing a young Judy Garland in a TV film titled "A Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," which was only one of the best things I've ever seen on American TV. It was stupendous.
If you have never seen it and see it advertised on cable, watch it -you won't be disappointed!
-----
Given the media contretemps that has surrounded Brad Pitt the past ten days since his comments to the Parade magazine Sunday newspaper supplement about ex-wife Jennifer Anniston, and his subsequent attempts to clarify them and undo any misperceptions, I wish that someone could explain to me just when and why it was decided that one of the unwritten job responsibilities of the American news media in the 21st century was being a suck-up for Anniston, and defending her from any and all criticism, no matter how valid.
It's unprofessional, and seems to especially be an epidemic among female journalists.
And it's equally true of their treatment of Julia Roberts.
Anniston is NOTKatharine Hepurn or Audrey Hepburn or Ingrid Bergman or Elizabeth Taylor.
She's NOT even Faye Dunaway, Jennifer Connelly or Natalie Portman.
Not be any stretch of the imagination.
Jennifer Anniston is famous for what she looks like, what she's wearing -or barely wearing- and whom she's dating.
There's room for that in an entertainment-consumed society, of course, but is her life in particular really so fascinating that it's deserving of the out-of-proportione attention she nets among the non-entertainment media?
That's just it -she's NOT that interesting.
And while no serious well-informed person who closely follows contemporary entertainment or the real inner working of 'Show Biz' harbors any illusions about what Entertainment Tonight is now compared to what it once was or at least aspired to be, with serious reporting in the 1980's on what was happening behind-the-scenes at the Hollywood studios, their over-the-top coverage of Pitt's comments seem very sexist and parochial in a way that is hard to fathom in the year 2011.
As he stated himself to NBC-TV'sMatt Lauer, can't he just be happy he is with Angelina Jolie?
Does everyone immediately have to jump to Zero Sum theory and say that it's a reflection on Anniston?
He was unhappy, unfulfilled and didn't want to be married to Anniston anymore.
Can't you cut the guy some slack?
Besides, it's always been clear to me that he wanted to have a family sooner than Anniston and that cleavage created the same sorts of difficulties for them that it does for millions and millions of married couples with a lot less resources than Pitt and Anniston.
As I've stated her previously, Sharon Waxman'sTheWrap has made a name for itself in Hollywood in part because it refuses to play the role of talent-friendly, hand-holding media stooge.
Months ago, she wrote a great blog column about actor Rupert Everett attacking the liberal Hollywood studios for their politically naivete and for defending and promoting stars like Anniston no matter how poorly her films do at the box office.
(You could throw-in Sarah Jessica Parker to that mix as well.)
I strongly suggest you read it.
TheWrap
Rupert Everett Lashes Hollywood as Homophobic, Jennifer Aniston as Protected
Published: January 01, 2011 @ 10:42 pm
By Sharon Waxman
Rupert Everett has given scorched earth interviews before, but none like the one he gave the BBC this week, criticizing Hollywood and its “powers that be” for shutting out homosexuals like himself and protecting favored movie stars like Jennifer Aniston.
A few months ago after hearing that a new feature film called Green With Envy was coming out that featured an actor whose TV show I watch every week, Jason Segal of CBS-TV'sHow I met Your Mother, I looked for any teasers or trailers of it at the usual places.
I eventually found one, above, and discovered the female lead was someone I really liked, too -the radiant Amy Adams.
So far, so good.
The first 51 seconds or so seemed okay, but then... Muppets.
Smurfs, Bratz, Strawberry ShortcakeandMy Little Pony are just some of the toy world's diabolical offerings that have literally given me the creeps and made me shudder for as long as I can remember whenever I've walked thru a retail store like Target, Walmart, CVS, et al, and see something from their evil empire.
So banal, so uninspiring, so unambitiuous...
All I could think was that some poor kids were going to be stuck getting this junk when some confused older relative of theirs freaked-out as a birthday or Christmas approached and they realized they had nothing for seven-year old Britney, Brittany or Chloe, so rather than showing some originality, they panicked and simply let their fear take over and became one of the consumer lemmings who took the easy way out.
(When they were younger and not the ambitious college students they are now at Washington & Lee and UVA (University of Virginia), yours truly, in his doting uncle mode, bought his two oldest nieces stuff from the Smithsonian Museum shop on The Mall at the American Museum of History -my favorite!- or, The National Geographic Scociety store at their HQ on 17th Street, N.W., a few blocks north of The White House.)
Which is the predicate for understanding why, so far, the headline of the year, seven months in, comes from Sharon Waxman'sThe Wrap:
Alonso Duralde reviews 'Smurfs': "Cheesy Reboot Will Annoy & Disgust Audiences of All Ages. Obnoxious blue imps do for children’s entertainment what lead paint does for children’s toys."
I smiled when I saw that and knew immediately that I would have to share it with you here, so pleased was I to see anything like it.
TheWrap
'Smurfs': Cheesy Reboot Will Annoy & Disgust Audiences of All Ages
Published: July 28, 2011 @ 10:17 am
By Alonso Duralde
Call your Congressman and demand that Central Park be federally protected from Hollywood.
This cherished New York institution was already overrun by Jim Carrey and a gaggle of pooping seabirds in this summer’s “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” and now it’s being invaded by obnoxious blue imps in “The Smurfs,” a film that does for children’s entertainment what lead paint does for children’s toys.
See this gem involving the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, whose books of cartoons I bought so many years ago at the Olsson's Books at Dupont Circle:
Fishbowl LA
eBay Gem: A Pre-Simpsons Matt Groening and His ‘Smurf House’
Mediabistro's Fishbowl LA -Click the icon to see what's new inside Hollywood U.S.A. and the Left Coast.
After lunch today, I came across this in my inbox, my daily Snowmail email from London and Channel 4 News, with Carl Dinnen writing the news preview today:
Carl Dinnen here and I'm looking at Smurfs.
Smurfette, Papa Smurf and Clumsy Smurf to be precise.
Someone at the New York Stock Exchange thought it would be a swell idea to have them ring their opening bell today. But just four days and a few hours before the US federal government runs out of money due to a political squabble between the White House and Congress, putting the Smurfs in charge on Wall Street looks somehow appropriate. President Obama has been speaking this afternoon and Sarah Smith will have the latest from Washington while Siobhan Kennedy will be here to explain what happens to your mortgage (or pension or savings) if the US can't get its act together by Tuesday.
Obama 'running out of time' to solve US Debt crisis
Where's that red-light camera warning sign? Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. About 6:50 p.m. on April 24, 2011. Photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Where did you say that red-light camera warning sign was, again? No, it's not that silver-colored one next to the curb, that the Merge/Bike lane sign.Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees! You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera flash, there are no street lights nearby. You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes? Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
My own comments about Buddy Nevins' new post on red-light cameras at BrowardBeat, which I first read about around 10:15 p.m. Monday night, follow his own critical comments.
I read it while watching a new episode of NBC-TV's terrific and re-configured Law & Order: Los Angeles, which had a common element of the real-life murder last November of noted Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen thrown in, which I immediately caught despite not having read about the episode online or in print, but still felt uncomfortable about. Chasen was the victim of a random shooting by a guy on a bicycle; in the episode, it was a hit.
Still, it was a hell of a compelling story well-told and is exactly why everyone I know is watching this show after the recent cast changes were made, with cast regular Alfred Molina sent from the DA's office to the detective squad, replacing the departed Skeet Ulrich, whose character was killed on the show a few weeks back after it finally returned to the air. Dick Wolf Must Really Hate Skeet Ulrich http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/dick_wolf_must_really_hate_ske.html
Watching LOLA after Fox-TV'sThe Chicago Code is definitely a habit I could grow accustomed to. http://www.fox.com/chicagocode/
TheWrap Ronni Chasen Laid to Rest, but Hollywood Can't Shake the Shock By Sharon Waxman & Dominic Patten Published: November 21, 2010 @ 10:31 am
They came by the hundreds from all across the country and within Hollywood. Every senior PR professional and most entertainment journalists but also composers, executives and movie stars -- to pay respects to Ronni Chasen, laying to rest the beloved publicist just five days after she was killed.
The primary message at the packed midday funeral service in the bright, fall air was of shock and loss. Elegant eulogies conveyed how fresh the grief was -- not yet a week removed from her senseless killing at the hands of a person or people still at large.
------- Broward Beat TV Highlights Hypocrisy Over Red Light Cameras By Buddy Nevins
Channel 6-NBC Miami proved tonight that elected officials who support red light cameras are hypocrites.
The report by Willard Shepard featured the red light camera Pembroke Pines has installed westbound at Pembroke Road and SW 129th Avenue. This is at the southern entrance of Century Village.
I want to see any official claim how these particular Pembroke Pines cameras are being used as a safety measure. Their nose is growing.
There was no video of this story on NBC-6website as of 11:30 p.m. Monday night; I'll re-check Tuesday and post it on the blog if found so you all can see it for yourselves.
Per the above, I should mention that every time I have posted something on my blog about the mendacious red-light camera situation in Broward County or Florida, esp. anything that is at all critical of them -which is each post on red-light cameras!- I quite suddenly get lots of hits from the home of American Traffic Solutions Inc., i.e the Phoenix area. Hmm-m...
Also, per the arrogant, condescending and patronizing tone of the note above in the Brittany Wallman post from Pembroke Pines Comm. Angelo Castillo -did I leave out an adjective?- as I stated recently to some of you via email, I'm really starting to fully grasp the full-dimension of my misplaced positive words about Castillo last year, as he has increasingly become for me the poster boy for the pro-govt., know-it-all Nanny State in Broward County that brooks no disagreement from its citizens.
Castillo's'my way or the highway' attitude expressed in that note above is precisely the opposite of what an elected official should be saying right now in Broward, and, again, is about the last thing I'd have thought I'd be hearing out of him, based on his comments to me a year ago. But make them he does, and with increasing frequency!
In one new story after another on Pembroke Pines -where my youngest sister lives- he somehow keeps finding himself on the side of everyone but the average taxpayer, having supported one pink elephant or govt-funded fiasco after another, and thus far, at least as the stories have been reported, there never seems to be even the slightest amount of doubt on his part about his actions, words or votes.
It must be great to be so sure of yourself, despite the observable, quantifiable facts all around you. General Custer must've had those traits in spades I think.
Frankly, I've wondered for the six months since Election Day why the Miami Herald never gave his truly disastrous County Comm. run last year the full Quincy, M.E. post-mortem it deserved, the sort that we have become accustomed to in other cities, since Castillo seems by most accounts to have run THE single-worst election campaign of any Broward candidate last year, esp. for one so well-financed and known.
The final totals for that three-way primary:Sharief 6,973 Castillo 2,415
Despite he and I having exchanged several friendly emails early last year, Castillo never once contacted me on when he was actually coming into HB to talk to the residents of the city living in that District 8, which had formerly been represented by Diana Wasserman-Rubin, until she was FINALLY arrested.
(Frankly, I don't know that he ever visited, since nobody I know ever heard about such a thing, which explains a lot in retrospect.)
I'd have been more than happy to post the meeting info here and remind people in emails, just as I would've been for (eventual winner) Barbara Sharief as well, because I wanted HB residents to take full advantage of the opportunity, however fleeting. But despite having all my contact info, he never did anything to communicate.
Sharief has been a voice of logic, reason and sanity on the red-light camera issue, and has refused to be intimidated, or swallow whole the laughably bogus claims of local officials like Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines' mayors, Joy Cooper and Frank Ortis, that fall apart as soon as you examine them for facts, not spin.
It's telling that like Buddy Nevins says in his post, if there are problematic intersections that are responsible for a larger number of speeding-related accidents than seems reasonable, why aren't local city managers and mayors directing local police resources there to make their presence felt and change the dynamic?
The sort of thing that would have been common sense years ago in other cities I have lived in like Bloomington, Evanston and Wilmette, and which is still probably the first thing that happens in the cities and towns where many of you reading this now live.
That doesn't happen here in South Florida, though, for the very same reason that the HBPD doesn't care about all the speeding on U.S.-1, esp. at night, and while you are more likely to see someone pulled-over there by an Aventura policeman than you are a HB one. They don't want to do what's simple and necessary.
Instead, as I've mentioned so many times here, with photos, what happens is that rather than locate the second red-light camera in HB somewhere where itmight actually do some public safety good, it's deliberately placed in a location, one block east of I-95, in order to nab drivers eager to get onto I-95 and out of the daily HB gridlock.
So tell me -since Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mark Antonio won't say publicly- why are there NEVER any HB police cars stationed near there if it really is a problem?
If Mayor Cooper were really interested in public safety, as she said she was a few weeks ago in her laughable performance with Mayor Ortis before the Broward County Commission, to cite but one example, why is it that for well over a year, despite everyone in the city seemingly knowing about it, for a few blocks on one of the three streets that directly lead to the HB Police Dept, it's pitch-black at night?
Yes, pitch-black, just like the Police Dept. and City Hall parking lots were so frequently for 6-9 months at a time, numerous times over the past few years, a subject I frequently mentioned at City Commission meetings and which the myopic and mendacious HB Police Chief at the time, Thomas Magill, completely ignored, along with the mayor and the city commission.
(The same way Magill continually ignored the broken parking lot light nearest the ONE security camera in front on the U.S.-1 side of the municipal building, having been out 99% of the time since the security camera were installed over three years ago. It's still out as of last night. And what about the city's liability in case something unfortunate happens? City Attorney David Jove takes the who-cares route, ignoring that possibility. month-after-month, year-after-year. Personally, I don't think the city's insurance company will take such a happy-go-lucky view, which is sure problematic for city taxpayers in the future in the event of a lawsuit.)
That pitch-black street would be Old Dixie Highway, the same street that's right near the city's largest park, Blusten Park, which many kids walk to and ride their bikes to and from everyday. The park's lights are usually turned off about 9:15 and then it's every man -or kid- for himself.
Safety is not what they care about in HB, revenue is.
Above, (diagonal) Old Dixie Highway looking north from S.E. 7th Street towards the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ and parking lot on the right, two blocks away. The lights you see on the left are the auxilary lights at the city's municipal pool at Blusten Park. Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. The photo above was taken WITH a flash, otherwise you'd see nothing but arc lights emanating from the pool area.
My prior posts on red-light cameras can be found at http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=red-light Because of the number of posts I've written on the subject, and the particular template and design I use on my blog, after you click the URL and go to the most recent one, continue to the end and right below the Google Ad Sense ad you will see "Older Posts." Click that to see prior post on the subject in reverse chron order.
