The Corner of Clark & Addison

Reading Fans Bid Updike Adieu ...

2009-01-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

In memory of John Updike, the acclaimed master of American letters who passed away this morning at at age of 76, here is a link to the piece of his writing that has most touched me, and that has the most relevance to one of the prime topics of this blog - baseball. Go here to read his famous 1960 essay for The New Yorker about Ted Williams' last baseball game, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu". And enjoy your new home, Mr. Updike, where there are never any rainouts at Fenway Park.

A sad legacy ...

2009-01-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

With the likelihood of Heath Ledger winning a posthumous Oscar for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight all but a certainty now, it may be interesting to you to learn about the history of dearly departed actors winning a golden ticket to the Hollywood's golden derby after they have left us. Turns out Ledger is just the latest lamented member of a sad but small club.

Ledger, turns out, is the sixth actor to receive an Academy Award nomination postmortem, but this is the seventh time the event has happened in Oscar history. That's because the first posthumous honoree, James Dean, had the (mis)fortune of being nominated twice in back-to-back years after his death in a car accident in September 1955. Months after he died, Dean made the Best Actor race for his work in East of Eden, and followed that up the following year with Giant. Then came Spencer Tracy. His final collaboration with frequent co-star and longtime lover Katharine Hepburn was in Stanley Kramer's fuzzy-wuzzy race-relations parable Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Tracy already knew he was dying, and in fact Kramer and Hepburn had to fight the suits to keep Tracy in the movie, going so far as to put their salaries up in case Tracy passed during production. But he completed his work before dying on June 10, 1967, only 17 days after filming wrapped. When Guess was released six months later, Tracy was honored with a Best Actor nomination.

Other posthumous nominations include Sir Ralph Richardson in 1984 as Best Supporting Actor for Graystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes; and Italian actor-comedian Massimo Troisi in 1995 as Best Actor for the romance Il Postino. (Troisi put off important heart surgery to complete the film he co-wrote and died 12 hours after shooting his final scene; he also shared a nomination for the screenplay.) The only person to actually win an Oscar in such a manner, though, is Peter Finch. His iconic portrayal of madman news anchor Howard Beale in the 1976 satire Network sported major Oscar buzz; in fact, the Aussie actor was on his way to appear on Good Morning, America as part of the film's - and his - promotion when he dropped dead of a heart attack in the lobby of his hotel on January 14, 1977. Had Finch lived, he likely would have been nominated in the Supporting Actor category, but his sudden death may have been the impetus to propel him into the Actor category alongside his Network co-star, William Holden - whom, to be fair, had logged much more screen time than Finch. Nevertheless, Finch was the winner when the envelope was opened on March 29, and Finch's widow accepted the Oscar for him in one of the evening's most emotional moments.

The only question when it comes to Ledger's forthcoming Oscar is who will accept the award for him. His father? One of his Dark Knight co-stars? Director Christopher Nolan? The only thing we would want, of course, is that Ledger were still around to soak up the well-earned honors his Joker is reaping.

The Oscar Nominations ...

2009-01-26T03:46:00.000-08:00

In a minute, boys and girls, I will tell you which individuals and films will win in the major categories at the 81st Annual Academy Awards, which will be dispersed in an orderly if lengthy fashion on Feb. 22. But first, let's look at how I did in terms of my predictions of the nominations themselves.

The verdict? I did pretty good, though I failed to follow some practical advice when it comes to picking the shortlisted actors - namely, pay attention to the Screen Actors Guild nominations. After all, only actors vote for the SAG Awards, just as only actors vote on the acting Oscar nods - and there is considerable overlap there, obviously. So it shouldn't be a huge surprise that Richard Jenkins' work in The Visitor usurped Clint Eastwood's in Gran Torino (in fact, I actually had Jenkins' name on my Best Actor list - really! - before changing my mind before posting my predictions, but sentiment reared its ugly head inside my brain); or that Melissa Leo's work in Frozen River edged out Happy Go Lucky's Sally Hawkins, the latter's Golden Globe win be damned.

Then there is the curious case of ... Kate Winslet, she of the double Globes wins for her devastating work in Revolutionary Road (lead actress) and The Reader (supporting actress). I had her scoring two nominations for the Academy Awards, with a decent shot of becoming the first actor to win two Oscars for two separate performances in the same year. But the problem with that scenario, as observed by my close friend and fellow film buff Beth, is that Winslet's performance in The Reader is not a supporting role in the strictest sense, and the Academy voters seems to have agreed, as they nominated Winslet's Reader work for Best Actress and left her Revolutionary Road character in the dust. Considering that Winslet is now on her sixth Oscar nomination without a win and is a strong favorite to break that streak, I doubt she's that upset about only getting one ticket to the prom. But it's still unusual to see the Academy, with its history of playing fast and loose with the lead vs. supporting categories, see things clearly for a change.

What really tripped me up, of course, was the absence of The Dark Knight in the Best Picture and Best Director contests. Maybe it was still a bit of a pipe dream to see the Batman sequel chosen for those top two categories, but for my taste the epic was indeed one of the best films of 2008 - a crime saga that more than transcended its superhero roots, which were pretty deep as it was. The film still scored eight nominations and will not go home from Oscar night empty-handed - Heath Ledger alone guarantees that - but it's still kind of a shame that some voters apparently couldn't see beyond the comic-book origins, or the huge box-office gross, to truly appreciate a movie that was more than a piece of popcorn entertainment.

(By the way, it wasn't one of the categories I predicted, but can someone explain to me why Bruce Springsteen's haunting theme to The Wrestler didn't make the Original Song list? To me, this may be the largest snub of all this year. The fact that only three songs, instead of the usual five, were selected has to be the only way why the Boss didn't make the final cut, but his absence is particularly glaring nonetheless.)

So now I'll tell you who's going to win Academy Awards in a little less than a month. Granted, it's somewhat presumptuous to go on the record this early in the game, because there's a lot of campaigning (yes, campaigning) yet to go, and conditions can change at any time. Just ask Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guiliani about that. But something tells me that either my choices are already firm or will firm up as we get closer to the date of the big show. (Besides, I reserve the right to change my mind until the very end. Because I can. Because it's my blog. So there.)

Actor: Mickey Rourke over Sean Penn. I'll admit that the prospect of the phrase "Academy Award winner Mickey Rourke" has a strange sound to me. But his performance in The Wrestler can't be denied, and his is a comeback story for the ages. Still, Rourke had better invest in a tuxedo before he gets to the Kodak Theater - the Academy folk are sticklers on that stuff.

Actress: Kate Winslet. Face it, she's way due, and the Oscar can be for two great pieces of acting in one year.

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger. He would have won this alive or dead. Though, not to be morbid, his untimely death obvious adds to the emotion behind what will go down as the most memorable performance of 2008.

Supporting Actress: Winslet's absence from this category, which often is the wild card of the bunch anyway, truly up in the air. The consensus pick likely will be Penelope Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona, but I have a feeling that the ultimate winner will be Viola Davis for Doubt. In a year when other character actors such as Jenkins and Leo broke into the Oscar race, honoring Davis makes sense.

Director: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, easy.

Picture: In a year where no one movie stands out as being truly extraordinary, the momentum seems to be with Slumdog Millionaire. Bollywood - or at least faux Bollywood - rules.

"Faithful" service ... to grammar?

2009-01-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Much hay has been made of the Flub (Literally) Heard 'Round the World, when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts misspoke the presidential oath he was reciting to Barack Obama on Tuesday, causing the new Commander-in-Chief to awkwardly repeat the mistake. Not only did it ruin one of the most important video clips in recent history, but it caused conspiracy theorists and a few pundits into wondering what it all meant. Was Obama in fact the President since he had recited the oath incorrectly? Had Roberts made a Freudian slip, perhaps conscious or unconscious revenge against Obama after the former Illinois Senator had voted against Roberts' confirmation to the Court in 2005? What was it all about, Alfie?

To be extra careful, and perhaps to shut up the Drudges of the world, Roberts and Obama did a correct do-over of the oath Wednesday night. And the do-over was welcomed despite the general consensus that Obama became president at noon on Tuesday while Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman were jamming on the Capitol steps. (The bungled oath came about five minutes later.) Now Stephen Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University (the alma mater of both Obama and Roberts), as well as the chairman of the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, has written an interesting piece for The New York Times about the incident and how it's not the first time a prominent person has played fast and loose with their words on the world stage.

Pinker compares the Roberts boo-boo with situations like Neil Armstrong's "man" versus "mankind" quotation when he hit the Moon with both feet in 1969, or Princess Diana mixing up the several names of Prince Charles when they married in 1981. (Look how well that union worked out.) He then points out that Roberts is a "famous stickler for grammar", to the point that he once corrected a Bob Dylan lyric ("When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to use") in a Supreme Court decision. In the case of the presidential oath, which is explicitly written in the Constitution, Pinker wonders if Roberts may have been fighting the machine that is the "split verb":

in which an adverb comes between an infinitive marker like “to,” or an auxiliary like “will,” and the main verb of the sentence.

The line in the oath that goes, "I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States," would fall under that split-verb rule, and could explain why Roberts, or something inside of him, took it upon himself to "edit" the Founding Fathers by moving the adverb "faithfully" to its proper position at the end of the sentence.

Of course, that doesn't explain Roberts' other major error, when he said "President to the United States". But nobody's perfect, not even a Harvard graduate.

Mr. President ...

2009-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Now let's get to work.

Dave's 2009 Oscar Predictions ...

2009-01-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

While we wait in anticipation for a certain major event to take place in Washington, another big-time happening will take place across the country two days after Barack Obama takes the presidential oath of office. And while the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards aren't nearly the big deal that the inauguration of the first black U.S. president will be - well, they're still pretty important for those involved, from the actors and filmmakers involved to the fans invested in the various movies that will be up for the golden guys come next month. And it's pretty important to me, someone whose career has been to write and report about the entertainment industry and who, God help me, still gets stoked this time every year about the Oscar nominations. So, per usual, I'm presenting to those who care my predictions about what names will be announced on Thursday morning at at ungodly early hour in Hollywood. Some I'll get right, some I'll get wrong - but that's the fun of the whole thing, ain't it?

Best Picture:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor
Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins, Happy Go Lucky
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Director
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mike Leigh, Happy Go Lucky
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant, Milk

Khan!!!!!!!

2009-01-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

Mr. Roarke, your plane has arrived ...

We Didn't Start the Fire ...

2008-12-31T15:38:00.000-08:00

So that's it? The year's over? Well, there wasn't much to 2008, was there. I mean, what actually happened?

OK, so there was an election of sorts. And, OK, it was kind of historic, since the black guy won. But, come on, that happens all the time ... in the movies, which is all about the real thing, right?

And, sure, the economy hit some pitfalls. They could even be called "catastrophes". But it's not like we haven't faced such crises before, and we came out of things just fine - after a decade or so, and only after a major global war started. But that's no reason to feel glum. It's not like we're soft or bloated or spoiled or anything, no?

And yeah, America was wracked with that peskiest of circumstances known as corruption. Governors got caught with their pants down, or with their pants really down, or with their fancy skirts on. And what about that nasty ol' investor who was caught bilking, well, just about everyone in his sights? Now that was something to remember, eh?

And we lost a few people who were near and dear to us - but just a few. Cool Hand Luke and Ben-Hur, the Joker and Deep Throat, the Catwoman and the Black Moses, the wiseacre hippie and the head of the Firing Line. Gee, that seems like a lot all of a sudden.

Well, things were quiet in the sports world - if you don't count the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, the NBA Finals, that racing chick and that fish disguised as a human at the Olympics. Other than that, meh.

So, yeah, 2008 was kind of slow. Here's hoping that something actually exciting happens in 2009. In the meantime, Happy New Year, y'all!

Summer in the midst of winter ...

2008-12-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

There are times when one just wants to spin around three times and click their heels to be teleported out of the madness of this human existence. Sadly, one of those times tends to be the holidays, which seems to bring out the absolute worst in some people. Already we here in Los Angeles are reeling at the horrible story from our backyard, where some lunatic bigneck in a Santa suit crashed a Christmas party at the home of his former in-laws, where he proceeded to shoot the place up - starting with the 8-year-old who eagerly opened the door to him, only to get a bullet in the face for her trouble - and then burned the place down, killing at least nine before going to his brother's house to off himself. Then, today, I read the equally depressing tale of two young boys, cousins aged 10 and 7, who were beaten to death with a baseball bat in a Phoenix park on Tuesday. Not as bloody - yet - is the ongoing saga of Bernie Madoff, the New York investor who was the center of a Ponzi scheme that cost $50 billion and touched everybody from regular folk to Steven Spielberg and the International Olympic Committee and some pretty important charities. While some people and organizations are left flat broke by Madoff's greed, the suspect remains under house arrest - in a posh Manhattan penthouse. And let's not forget the Caylee Anthony story, which gets worse and worse the more we hear about it.

Sigh. Good thing we have stories like that of Summer Moll, a 4-year-old girl in the Tampa Bay area whose very name makes me smile. Her tale begins badly - on Sept. 10 she was involved in a head-on collision on a local expressway that killed her mom and left Summer very badly injured, with a fractured skull, broken arms and legs, and myriad other injuries. (The other driver, by the way, tested three times over the legal alcohol limit and is now in jail awaiting jail on vehicular homicide and DUI charges. Nice.) For a while, Summer was touch-and-go. Pins were inserted in her legs, and a metal plate had to be placed on her skull. Even as she recovered, her grandparents were hit with the devastating medical bills, and a bit of a custody battle emerged between them and Summer's father, who had been out of the picture for some time but now showed up.

But all of that misery and heartache and pain faded for a moment yesterday, because yesterday was Christmas, and Christmas is built for little girls like Summer - especially for little girls like Summer, who need that spirit a bit more than the rest of us. So Summer, who's still in a wheelchair while her tiny legs mend and still has the nasty scar on her head, had the best Christmas possible, with presents galore, including the Maltese puppy that she really wanted, donated by a secret Santa.

All that bounty, of course, doesn't bring Summer's mother back or mend her injuries any quicker. But the smile on her face as she soaked in the love around her must do her some good. It definitely does those who know her, and know of her, a lot of good. Merry Christmas, every one.

It's a Wonderful Life: The Missing Ending

2008-12-23T11:33:00.000-08:00

Ever frustrated by the fact that, despite the unbridled good feelings at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, The despicable Mr. Potter seems to get away with his dire deed of making off with George Bailey's $8,000? Wonder no more! Now, presented for your holiday good tidings, is the hidden ending! (As originally interpreted by Saturday Night Live back in the day and now redone - copyrights be damned! - by the Starry Night Theater.)

Remember, boys and girls - every time an evil tycoon is beaten to death, an angel gets his wings!

Rob Parker of the Detroit News is a big fat idiot ... blunt enough?

2008-12-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

With one week to go in the National Football League's regular season, several questions remain unanswered, but at least one fact is pretty much assured - this year's edition of the Detroit Lions is by far the worst team of the decade. The Lions, who have had several dismal seasons recently, have never reached depth like this. As of yesterday's 42-7 drubbing at the hands of the New Orleans Saints (and the score wasn't that close), the Lions are 0-15, a first in the NFL's nearly 90-year history. If they lose their season finale next week against division rival Green Bay, Detroit will complete the first winless campaign since 1976, when Tampa Bay went 0-14. (Of course, the Bucs had the "excuse" of being a first-year expansion team at the time. This is the Lions' 80th season. So much for experience.) All parts of the organization have collapsed, and it doesn't help that the city surrounding the team is crumbling thanks in part to the near-death experience of the auto industry. In fact, there were reports that scalpers outside of Detroit's Ford Field were trying to sell tickets to the Lions-Saints game at a fraction of the face value - as low as $10 - and still were having trouble passing them along.

And through all of this misery, much of it self-inflicted by the inept coaching and management sides of the Lions, they may not be the biggest idiots in Motor City. Nor, for that matter, are the arrogant car executives who didn't think twice about taking private jets to Washington to ask for billions in bailout money. No, the top S.O.B. in Detroit is probably Rob Parker, a beat reporter for one of the struggling newspapers, the News. It seems that Parker has made a season-long issue out of the Lions' coach, Rod Marinelli, hiring his son-in-law, Joe Barry, as his defensive coordinator last year. Granted, Barry's tenure has not been successful - Detroit's defense ranks 30th out of 32 NFL teams - but Parker's criticism has crossed the line when it comes to getting personal about the familial connections involved here. And at the post-game press conference yesterday, Parker obliterated that line. After several inquiries toward Marinelli about why Barry was still employed, the intrepid reporter threw this final question out for good measure:

On a light note, do you wish your daughter would have married a better defensive coordinator?

Charming.

To the credit of Marinelli, who looks like the kind of guy you don't want to annoy in a bar, he simply ignored Parker's crass question rather than the natural reaction of most, which would be to rip off the reporter's scalp and piss on his brain.

Now, let's be clear - Rod Marinelli, his son-in-law and maybe just about everyone on the Lions' coaching staff will be sacked within two week of the Lions' final game on Sunday. Because, basically, they don't seem to know how to coach football in the proper fashion. And it's Parker's job, as it is the job of any beat reporter worth his or her salt, to hold the team they cover to the fire if the players or coaches or ownership deserve it. Bu there was absolutely no reason for Parker to go there with Marinelli other than to show off how clever he could be. Well, Parker is now way more famous nationwide than he was 24 hours ago - that much is certain. But not for being a clever or tough journalist, but rather for being, to paraphrase a line from the beloved series Gilmore girls, a buttface miscreant, not to mention an embarrassment to his profession. And it also doesn't help Parker's case that he was caught making false statements about a Michigan State football player during a TV broadcast not too long ago, for which the News should have fired him right then and there. Or before that, when he called Henry Aaron a coward for not speaking out about Barry Bonds' quest to break his all-time home-run record. Overall, Parker has much in common with the Lions and the auto industry. Congratulations, Rob.

P.S. Oh, Parker now says, in a column that seems designed more to save his own bacon than as an actual mea culpa, that he was just "joking" with that final question to Marinelli. ("Marinelli ... just ignored my attempt at humor and moved on.") Ha ha, Rob. Don't quit your day job. No, actually, do.

Here is a video of the Q-&-A, along with the repsonses of Fox Sports' NFL commentators.

Plucked ...

2008-12-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

Last week's announcement that NBC was giving Jay Leno a five-nights-a-week primetime talk show starting in the fall of 2009 marked the end of an era - the era, frankly, of NBC. With one bold step, the Peacock Network basically ceased to be a network - that is, a full-service free broadcast service. After several years of disease that came in the form of such fare as Knight Rider, American Gladiators and about a dozen attempts to replicate the cultural earthquake that was Friends, the patient finally succumbed to indifference, incompetence and malaise. The outlet that brought us Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld and Peter Falk has now been reduced to a version of the CW, albeit with a bit more gloss and a few less black people.

And all of this is not to unilaterally say that the Leno move will be an abject failure. Indeed, in some ways it's brilliant. It takes care of five hours of programming with a stroke of pen by inserting a known commodity into a low-cost situation, an important factor at a time of struggling economy. It take heavy burden off the shoulders of NBC programming chief Ben Silverman, who so far has shown extraordinary incompetence when it comes to putting together a schedule that the masses want to give a crap about. In theory, it allows Silverman and whomever is left working under him extra resources with which to develop new, interesting and/or innovative shows that could generate a pulse with the critics and audiences alike. And, maybe most importantly, it keeps Leno, who was to be a free agent when Conan O'Brien took over as host of the Tonight show next May, in the warm bosom of the NBC family, rather than seeing him go to ABC or Fox or syndication as a potential dangerous adversary to the red-haired boy from Boston.

So all should be well, right? Yeah, if it works - and, crucially, if it works in the long term. But NBC should be wary of the cautionary tale of ABC and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. That network rode Regis Philbin's white-hot hit to the top of the ratings, at one point airing the game show four nights a week. But when oversaturation led to the inevitable ratings collapse, ABC was left literally with its pants down as Millionaire fizzled out. Now, Leno's new gig will undoubtedly be a success at first, and maybe for a while. But what happens if the act gets old, or if the ratings aren't there? (After all, the bar for viewership is much higher in primetime than at the midnight hour.) Would NBC have the non-Law & Order goods to plug in the holes?

And whither this idea that a primetime Leno strip would free up money for the development of higher-quality scripted programs? Who is to say that NBC just doesn't use the new profits for other matters? And isn't NBC saying to producers that their operation is not open for business if it it willing to dedicate five hours of prime real estate to jokes and celebrity banter? If I were Aaron Sorkin or J.J. Abrams or Jerry Bruckheimer, I would be taking my toys elsewhere. And what about Conan O'Brien? On the cusp of one of the biggest jewels for a comedian, he's suddenly second-fiddle again, overshadowed by the Jay Leno machine. Trouper that he is, O'Brien is putting a smiling face on the situation - because, what choice does he have?

The thing about the Leno move is that it's not even original. Way back when, when the Leno-Dave Letterman feud over who got the Tonight show was raging, Warren Littlefield (whose expertise as a programmer becomes more and more appreciated as we go deeper in the Silverman regime) and his NBC cohorts actively thought about offering Letterman a primetime weeknight show as a way of appeasing their disgruntled comedy star. So maybe between bong hits, Silverman was leafing through Bill Carter's tome of that saga, The Late Shift, and noticed that little nugget o'information and had an epiphany. It's exciting to know that our TV programming executives actually read.

Sadly, none of the subjects looked like Rebecca Romijn ...

2008-12-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

From CNN:

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Four armed robbers -- two of them men disguised as women -- walked into a luxury jewelry store in Paris and swiped an estimated €80 million (U.S. $101 million) in jewels, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Is it just me, or is anybody else suddenly seeing a new movie vehicle for Hugh Grant?

Finally, validation ...

2008-12-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

The BBC is reporting that that a new study - using, for some reason, Vietnam War vets - indicates that smarter men produce better sperm. Glad to see that my big brain has some payoff other than winning trivia contests. :)

Now that's a spicy meatball!

2008-12-04T16:45:00.001-08:00

It seems like it was just a gag, but soap opera star Alison Sweeney, who is heavily with child was acting like she was going to labor during her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this afternoon. Ellen's reaction and the fact that there's nothing on the wires about Alison birthing her second child indicates that Baby Sweeney is still cooking (she's not due until January), but if it's really happy news, it would sure beat the time that Orson Welles dropped dead two hours after taping an episode of The Merv Griffin Show in 1985, or when Della Reese suffered a brain aneurysm and nearly died in front of Johnny Carson while appearing on the Tonight show in 1979. Yeah, a bouncing baby beats sudden death all the time.

Well, That Was Fast ...

2008-12-04T12:27:00.000-08:00

The first major film awards of the year were announced just now. Let's see what the National Board of Review says were the best movies and performances of the previous 12 months ... or, rather 11 months and 4 days.

National Board of Review:
Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Actor: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, Milk
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Adapted Screenplay: (tie) Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire; Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, Gran Torino
Foreign Film: Mongol (Russia)
Animated Film: Wall-E
Documentary: Man on a Wire
Ensemble Cast: Doubt

MTV: Where are they now?

2008-12-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

While reading about the layoffs going on at Viacom today, I noticed that MTV correspondent John Norris may be among the casualties. This was shocking to me not so much because such a high profile name was on the chopping block, but rather because I had totally forgotten that John Norris was still at MTV, the (former) music network having dropped off my non-essential cultural radar eons ago. No, I'm not a fan of The Hills or The Valley or whatever the heck is broadcast on MTV these days in lieu of, you know, music videos.

So this prompted me to look up what's going on with the original five MTV VJs, who for a few years flew to the heights of the sun before the reality of aging and demographics melted their wax wings and tumbled them to the cold ground that is Zeitgeist. You remember them, of course:

(From left) J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn and Alan Hunter, all trying to look intimidating.

Yeah, those hip, happening folk who were the cheery faces of MTV in its beginning, years. Where are they now, you ask? Well ...

Mark Goodman (1981-1987): Remains in music, and is now doing a radio show for Sirius Satellite Radio, at least until that entity goes bankrupt. He also has come full circle of sorts as a recurring host on one of MTV's many sister stations, VH1 Classic - at least it still shows videos on a regular basis. Age: Unknown - apparently he's been wise enough not to reveal the year of his birth.

Alan Hunter (1981-1988): Also working with Sirius, and is involved with a film festival in his home town of Birmingham, Alabama. He has done voiceover work for Verizon. Age: 51

Nina Blackwood (1981-1986): Notably posed for Playboy before joining MTV. After leaving the outlet, she held various TV and radio hosting jobs, working for MSNBC and the Discovery Channel, among others. Currently she is also a DJ on Sirius, as well as a rock station in San Diego. Age: 56

Martha Quinn (1981-1991): Probably the biggest breakout star among the original VJs, thanks to her perky, perpetually young looks. Martha went on to do some acting (most notably as Bobby Brady's wife on the unfortunate dramedy series The Bradys and in Clearasil commercials that she was still appearing in well into her 30s). Today she is also on Sirius in a weekly show she hosts from her Malibu house. Age: 49 and still (almost) looking like a teenage. See? It's annoying!

J.J. Jackson (1981-1986): The one of the original five not working for Sirius - probably because he died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 62. (Now you really feel old, eh?) Before he passed, Jackson remained in music as a radio DJ, including a stint at a smooth jazz station in Los Angeles.

Humbug ...

2008-12-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else having trouble getting into the holiday spirit? Anyone? Anyone?

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I don't know what it is. Could be the economy being in the toilet, or the terrorism that has ramped up overseas, or the fact that the most legendary strip club in Hollywood burned down this morning, or the news that Paris Hilton wants to play Tinkerbell in the upcoming live-action version of her story, or that Pushing Daisies has been canceled.

Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I've been encouraged by someone near and dear that I have to start blogging on a regular basis again. So I will endeavor to do so. And I'll try not to bring the room down in the process.

Veterans Day ...

2008-11-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Thank you ... for everything. And that includes you, Dad.

Barack Obama, the first second fifth African-American President of the United States ...

2008-11-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

A week after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States - yeah, it's still pretty damn cool to consider that a black man is about to move into the White House, and that he isn't going to be the butler. But let's not fool ourselves that Obama's victory is that much of a breakthrough. Indeed, this country's history contains more than one example of a person of Negro persuasion making it to the highest office in the land. You just have to know where to look - in your local video store, of course.

1972: Before he was Darth Vader or the voice of CNN, James Earl Jones held the job of commander-in-chief in The Man, a heavy melodrama based on the Irving Wallace political thriller and adapted for the screen by no less than Rod Serling. Jones played Douglass Dillman, the President pro tempe of the Senate who reached the Oval Office when the sitting Chief Executive and Speaker of the House were killed in a building collapse in West Germany (!) and the dying Vice President declined the promotion on the grounds that America didn't need to bury another grand poobah in six months. Needless to say, this being the early '70s, the idea of Jones in the White House doesn't sit well with, oh, just about everyone surrounding him, and before long President Dillman has to contend not only with white racist politicians (including a Southern-dipped Burgess Meredith), but also with African-Americans, including his own radical daughter, who want him to take more of a stand on their issues. Nevertheless, Dillman navigates the treacherous waters with skill and aplomb, and of course has the best president voice ever. This movie actually isn't available on DVD as of now, but Obama's real-life ascendance to the top spot may speed things up in terms of home availability for The Man.

1998: Morgan Freeman was the next man to break the White House color barrier in Deep Impact, which also began a mini-tradition of America having a black president just in time to deal with The End of the World - in this case, a comet (co-discovered by future Hobbit Elijah Wood) on its way for a mid-air collision with the Earth. As Tom Beck, Freeman doesn't have much to do but stay stoic and keep convincing his constituents that "we will prevail," even if he doesn't really believe it. But he looks so good behind the Oval Office desk, you think about drafting him for the next election.

2001: The action-thriller series 24 debuts, and with it a new hero in David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), the African-American senator from Maryland who is running for the highest office in the land during the inaugural season, which takes place entirely on the day before the California primary. Palmer manages to survive not only an attempted assassination, but also the machinations of his Lady MacBeth-like wife, Sherry, and by the second season Palmer was indeed the president, though his days didn't get much easier. Indeed, each of the first three seasons was devoted to Palmer dealing with threats against his life, his country and/or his administration. But Palmer himself always came out on top, or at least alive - that is, until the opening moments of Season Five, when he is shot through the throat while writing his memoirs, proving that a lot of good deeds do not go unpunished. Still, Palmer's death was the opening salvo in what was probably the best 24 season to date, so there's that.

2007: In a move that would make the Kennedy kids beam with pride, Palmer's brother Wayne (D.B. Woodside) assumed the reigns of power for 24's sixth season. Unfortunately for Wayne, though, things didn't get much easier for the sitting President - especially when he was blown up and seriously injured by a bomb in an inside job meant to frame an alleged Muslim terrorist. What's worse than nearly being killed by a would-be assassin? Watching Vice-President Powers Boothe ham it up as your square-jawed replacement.

And, yeah, while all of these instances of a black president are fiction, there are some who indeed feel that Obama is not the first of his ethnicity to become the main man of the U.S. There were rumors about Warren G. Harding, the 29th President, concerning his heritage that circulated during his successful 1920 run for the White House. Reports that Harding had a little color in his background were rebuffed by his campaign manager, who maintained that the candidate was of "the finest pioneer blood," and they were quickly forgotten, though there was no DNA test at the time to prove things one way or another. (Another celebrity of the age who had to deal with such rumors? Babe Ruth.) And, of course, there are those who say, with tongue embedded in cheek, that one William Jefferson Clinton, with his soulful style and empathy for the regular guy, was the true first black president - though I would assume that Bill will defer that title to the soon-to-be occupant.

All things are possible ...

2008-11-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

Wow.

WOW.

America, in large part, is a nation of dates. This is in part thanks to our schooling in history class, and partly a trait that comes from the facts that dates are easier to remember. Unfortunately, as is the nature of things, many of those dates that mark the time of the history of this country tend to be of a traumatic nature, when bad things happened to us. April 14, 1865. December 7, 1941. November 22, 1963. September 11, 2001.

So you can forgive me and many of my compatriots in the coming days and weeks for indulging ourselves a bit. For now, to go along with dates like July 4, 1776 and July 20, 1969 - American days when something good and great and beautiful occurred - we now have a new entry.

November 4, 2008.

Whether you agreed with the final decision of the voters or not, you can tell your grandkids that you witnessed history. The type of history that didn't involved carnage or violence of sadness. We all have reason to be proud today. Let's remember this feeling and allow it to sustain us in the coming months and years - because we're going to need it. But for now, even if just for a bit, let us also celebrate what has been accomplished and what this means in the tapestry of our history.

And, of course, wait for the inevitable books about it.

Gay plague at ABC?

2008-11-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

Like any other business, television is one filled with risks. It takes millions of dollars and a small army to put together a TV series, and that kind of investment automatically means, for better or (often) worse, that the networks who hosts these shows get a large say into what does or doesn't happen on said series. It's the rare show that gets by without a lot of network input (interference?), and it's safe to say that even in those cases, it's just that we don't hear about the notes that are passed along from executive suite to writers' room. But, as is often the case with many lines of work, we tend to hear about the messy stuff more than the clean. And this appears to be the case with one of the more popular series on TV today, the medical dramedy Grey's Anatomy, now in its fifth season on ABC.

A few seasons back, Brooke Smith, a respected New York-based actress known mostly for her work in the Big Apple theater scene and in some interesting film roles (Buffalo Bill's last victim in the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs; a pregnant, gun-toting reality star in the satirical Series 7; Naomi Watts' jugdmental best friend in Woody Allen's Melinda & Melinda), did a guest-star arc on Grey's as Erica Hahn, a skilled but abrasive cardiac surgeon who was a rival to Isaiah Washington's Preston Burke. During the middle of last season, Smith became a regular as Hahn replaced Burke on the staff of Seattle Grace Hospital. What followed was an intriguing storyline when Erica started a relationship with orthopedic specialist Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), marked in large part by a kiss shared between the two in May's finale. Prior to this, neither character had identified as gay or even bisexual, but the couple conitnued on as this fall's batch of new shows started. Tentatively, with humor and charm and poignancy and, yes, some missteps (including a few from the writers), Erica and Callie forged ahead, eventually going to bed together in a sequence that was marked by a great piece of acting from Smith in last week's episode, when Erica frightened Callie and maybe herself with the post-coital realization that, after all these years, she was indeed a lesbian. Many critics praised how Grey's writers, including creator Shonda Rhimes, were handling the plot, and much was made of the fact that this wasn't another "lesbian guest-star" situation, that this may have been the first time in network TV history that an ongoing lesbian romance consisted of two established regulars, neither of whom was going to just disappear one day.

Well, strike that, because today the news broke that Smith has been fired from the series, her last episode to air on Thursday. What's more, Erica in fact will just disappear, as the character has no departure story per se. As Smith told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive online story, Erica just gets in her car and drives away, most likely never to be seen again.

But wait, it gets better. Despite a late-evening statement released by Rhimes in which she seems to take the bullet for Smith's abrupt pink slip (citing a lack of "magic and chemistry"), it seems that the decision was out of her hands - that ABC decreed that the Hahn character be removed from the Grey's equation. And, according to E! Online, a new bisexual character to be played by Melissa George (Alias) has been changed. George will still be on the show, but her character will no longer be bisexual.

TV is no stranger to characters who simply don't end up fitting into the mix of an established show, and if either Rhimes or ABC had felt that Smith's chemistry wasn't right on Grey's, that would have been seen as somewhat legitimate. But the subsequent alteration of another out character, George's, makes this developing quite troubling. Let us not forget that ABC was the network that was airing Ellen DeGeneres' eponymous series when both DeGeneres and her TV doppelgänger came out of the closet. ABC reaped the rating benefits of that whirlwind, but when Ellen's ratings declined and even gays though the show was "too gay," they bailed on the series the following year. Now, that was almost 10 years ago, but it may not be too hard for some to see a trend here. Of course, both ABC and Rhimes can say that Grey's still has the bisexual Callie in the cast, but how much will we see that side of her from now on? And one also has to consider what happened to another popular ABC series, Ugly Betty, where openly gay co-executive producer Marco Pennette was fired last season at around the time that Rebecca Romijn, who played a transsexual on the comedy series, was demoted to recurring status. Some interpreted that as an attempt by the network to "de-gay" the series. To be fair, it's important to note that gay characters remain on Ugly Betty, along with other ABC shows such as Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters (though that series' openly gay executive producer departed under hinky conditions last season). But is there a trend here?

Meanwhile, there's Smith, who this summer told TV reporters, myself included, how excited she was about the opportunity of being on Grey's, and on doing some possibly groundbreaking television. The native New Yorker had moved her husband and two kids cross-country for the part, and the family had just purchased a house on the West Coast. Being an actor for most of her adult life, Smith no doubt is used to professional disappointment, and she's more than talented enough to bounce back from this setback. But it's a shame that what may be perceived, fairly or otherwise, as a bad case of network homophobia has such collateral damage.

Oh, and I can't what to see what GLAAD and other organizations have to say about this Tuesday morning. Or maybe Wednesday morning, since there are some bigger fish to fry tomorrow.

Vote or become cranky ...

2008-11-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

As if you needed a reason to vote tomorrow ... here's a very good one for the caffeinated ones out there ... now you have no excuses! Do your duty!

Studs ...

2008-11-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Studs Terkel didn't live to see the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. And he won't find out who will win the most important presidential election in a generation on Tuesday. (Then again, he'll probably know who will win before any of us will.) But if those are the only really depressing points about the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and raconteur's passing yesterday - other than the selfish fact that everyone who knew him, or knew of him, will miss him tremendously - then this really isn't a time to mourn, but a time to celebrate the life well lived. And how. Beloved by an entire city and a world of readers, known as the virtual creator of the modern genre of oral history, married to the same woman for 60 years - you can't beat that with a stick. Roger Ebert, who's way better at this stuff than I am, wrote eloquently about his friend within hours of Terkel's death. Go read his essay, and then do yourself a favor and check out some of Terkel's work. He's the kind of writer and interviewer I hope to grow up to be someday.

Sign of the times?

2008-10-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

In the fall of 1988, I was a newly minted college freshman, spending my first weeks living away from home at the small institution of higher living that I had chosen to further my education. Even though I was only 80 miles from my Kentucky home, I embraced the freedom of independence, an experience heightened by the fact that it was an election year. I was on a conservative-leaning campus in the middle of a conservative-leaning state, but I backed Michael Dukakis over George Bush, and took modest steps to express my choice - hanging out with similar-minded folk, putting a Dukakis sign on the door of my dorm room. And even though at that point in the fall the vice-president was starting to pull away from the Massachusetts governor in the polls, it was still a fun time for me as a young adult.

Except for the two times that my Dukakis sign was ripped off of my door. The second time, the sign was torn to pieces and strewn across the hallway. Democracy, indeed.

Of course, such acts of simple, callous vandalism have become a sad tradition of any heated political season, and the acts go both ways. But this year, as the Obama-McCain contest heads into its final hours, the incidents have become heightened in intensity and frequency. I have a friend who has had her Obama-Biden front yard sign swiped from her Indiana home twice. In Cincinnati, rock star and naturalized U.S. citizen Peter Frampton - who took the oath of loyalty to his adopted country right after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 - was so chagrined by the Obama signs that were disappearing from his lawn that he called the local paper to rant about it. And then there are the swastikas or worse being spray-painted on Obama signs and, more dire, the effigies of Obama and Sarah Palin that have been splashed across the TV and computer screens.

I won't analyze the root causes of such coarseness, partly because I try to avoid going too political on this blog and mostly because the the subject already has been analyzed to death by media figures with more time on their hands than I. But what I will say is that, in a country that so prizes its legacy of democracy and free speech, it's pretty pathetic when those who can't stand anyone who disagrees with their point of view resorts to baseless acts like these. The great thing about America is that there is a place for them as well - in rational, public discourse and debate; and, at least once a year, at the ballot box.

Of course, if the idea of criticism or disagreement is that distasteful to them, there are places they can retreat to. I hear Iran is beautiful this time of year.

Heal the World (Series) ...

2008-10-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

The World Series is over, and the ~~Chicago Cubs~~, er, Philadelphia Phillies reign supreme as the kings of baseball after what was definitely the most unusual Game 5 in Fall Classic history, one that took more than two full days to complete. And now the annual post-mortem about what's wrong with the World Series has begun, since the ratings are again in the toilet and people are complaining about another one-sided championship round, even though the Tampa Bays Rays gave as good as they got and only stunk in one of the five games. The last time there was a Game 6 of a World Series was in 2003 - that's a record time span. The last time there was a Game 7 was in 2002. And it's the Series that go six or seven games that are the ones that go down into the annals of lore and legend - and the ones that tend to have the bigger ratings and make the networks carrying them more money, thanks to that lovely additional ad revenue stream. There's not much, if anything, that can be done to compel a sixth or seventh game. That's the nature of human competition: shit happens, and it often happens at the wrong time. How else to explain the fact that the teams with the best records in their respective leagues, the Angels and the aforementioned Cubs, didn't make it out of the first round? If a team gets hot, it gets hot, and vice versa. But in terms of the popularity of the World Series, there are a couple of things that Major League Baseball should start considering for the future.

One of those things, by the way, is not the "neutral site" theory, the idea of playing the Series in a warm(er)-weather location to lessen the chances of major interruptions like the Philadelphia rainstorm that suspended Game 5 on Monday night and pushed the final three innings back two days. There are those who would convert the World Series into a Super Bowl situation, where the best four-of-seven contest would revolve between locations that have a nicer climate (L.A., San Diego, Miami) or no climate (domed stadia in Houston or Phoenix or even Toronto) rather than the way it's been for the past century - home-and-home. These Chicken Littles, to be blunt, are cracked in the head. Some of the biggest thrills in baseball playoff history come when the home team clinches the pennant or the Series on their home turf in front of the fans who have lived and died with them for the past six months. The moments are imprinted in our memories: Bill Mazerowski. Chris Chambliss. Tug McGraw. Joe Carter. To ask fans to travel hundreds of miles away from their homes and their jobs for more than a week - including some uncertainty regarding Games 5, 6 and 7 - is not only cruel, it's impractical in this day and age. And news flash - the World Series has always been played in October, when things tend to get a little nasty and chilly. The same as in April, when the season has always started. The neutral site theory is a knee-jerk response to a situation that rarely happens, a weather interruption during the final series of the baseball year.

If those guys are so worried about the cold and the wet getting in the way of a baseball game, they would be better served considering ways to shorten the entire season. I think one thing everyone can agree on is that the schedule, as enjoyable and thrilling as it may be, is too long. Next year, thanks to the World Baseball Classic delaying spring training, the seventh game of the World Series in Wrigley Field (what?) is set for Nov. 5. The last and only time the Series ended in November came only because of, oh, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Understandable. But that doesn't mean it should be a regular occurrence. But this is what happens when The Powers That Be in baseball keeping adding games in the quest to line their pockets. Another round of playoffs - check. Extend the League Championship Series - check. Get rid of doubleheaders - check. As usual, in the process the big bosses have bitten themselves in their hindparts. Since they would never consider eliminating a round of playoff games, or cutting the regular season from, say, 162 to 154 games, they really must consider reviving the weekend doubleheaders. Making Saturday doubleheaders the standard rather than the exception would easily shave a few weeks from the schedule so that the season could end in mid-September, leaving plenty of time for the playoffs to proceed in potentially better conditions. And if the owners are worried about the gate, make the doubleheaders of the day-night variety, or pay for each game individually. Everyone makes their money, so everyone's happy, right?

As for the Series itself, its real problem is that the games are often inaccessible to the sport's most important fans - the newest ones. There hasn't been a daytime Series games in 25 years - and, what's more, the nighttime contests seem to be starting later and later on the clock. With the pregame shows and the pomp-and-circumstances, they usually don't start until after 8:30 p.m. on the East coast, meaning that it's rare for them to wrap up before midnight. If your son or daughter has to go to bed in the fourth inning because of school, how do you expect them to realize why baseball is so fun and cool. No wonder more kids are gravitating to football and basketball and soccer and even lacrosse. One of the great things about last night's Game 5 conclusion was that the Phillies wrapped things up by 10 p.m. ET - meaning that, for the first time in a long while, many kids were awake for the celebration. Wow - what a concept.

The leadership of MLB really has to seriously considering a change in how the Series games are scheduled. The preferred M.O. would be to schedule at least one or two games for 4 p.m. ET starts, preferably on the weekend. Not only would it allow fans of all ages to watch a couple of games in full, it also could improve the weather situation since it wouldn't be as cold when the sun is shining. (And for those who say that weekend Series games would compete with college and pro football, so what? Lots of sports are on at the same time as the NFL or NCAA, including NASCAR, and I don't see them withering on the vine.) At the very least, though, the night games should be moved up to 7 or 7:30 starts. That extra 60 or 90 minutes could make a load of difference. And the local affiliates, who may bitch about the loss of that important hour of local airtime, can live for a few days with the situation.

Bud Selig is not my favorite baseball commissioner of all time, far from it. But, in the final years of his leadership, if he would have the courage to push these modest reforms in an effort to revitalize the crown jewel of his sport, that would be a legacy that would convince even me to reconsider his place in baseball's history. I'd probably still hate him, but not so much.

VOTE!!!!!

2008-10-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

As if your life depended on it. 'Cause it might.

But don't listen to me. Listen to them. After all, they're celebrities. Well, most of them are.

Unnecessary roughness ...

2008-10-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Football is a violent sport where a lot of bad crap can happen to you. Just ask Joe Theismann, whose legendary career was prematurely ended on national television when Lawrence Taylor sacked him and shattered his leg so badly that Taylor, as fearsome a player as there ever was in the NFL, was the first player on the field to wave widely for medical assistance. Or ask Darryl Stingley - or, rather, the relatives of Darryl Stingley, the New England Patriots wide receiver who was paralyzed by Jack Tatum, the Oakland Raiders defensive back (and avowed headhunter - his autobiography is called They Called Me Assassin), during an exhibition game in 1978. Stingley was left a quadriplegic by the vicious hit and would, nearly 30 years later, of complications from his injury. But both Theismann and Stingley suffered their injuries on the field of play at the hands (if you want to put it that way) of other players, and both men knew the risks of that happening. But I doubt if Patrick Edwards, a talented freshman wide receiver for the University of Houston, thought that his season, and perhaps his career, would be ended by a piece of non-football related equipment during a game.

Edwards and his Cougars were on the road against Marshall University last night when he was set on a pattern into the Marshall end zone. At full speed, he ran through the end zone and, before he could stop, collided with a band equipment cart that was parked there. The impact snapped his right leg virtually in two, a compound fracture that was captured by ESPN's cameras and may have made a few people lose their dinners (so you are duly warned):

It's not clear what, if any, recourse either Edwards or Houston can take regarding this, but you can bet your bottom dollar that this will be investigated by the NCAA or others, and that many teams will think twice before they place equipment like carts in harm's way. (If you ask me, Marshall should have to pay all of Edwards' medical bills, and perhaps the balance of his scholarship.) Meanwhile, I hope Edwards stays in college and gets his degree, just to be on the very safe side.

Remind me ... are these guys pro-American or anti-American?

2008-10-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we knew it was coming, and we probably knew it would be this wacky. With one week until one of the most pivotal presidential elections in U.S. history, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (and boy, don't those things go together?) have broken up a plot to assassinate Barack Obama and many more African Americans in a crime spree that would have covered America. Allegedly two young outstanding skinheads planned to invade an all-black high school, kill 88 students - 14 by decapitation, the fine art of separating the head from the body - and then keep on killing until they reached the Democratic nominee, whom they wanted to shoot to death from their car to his. And, as it to channel Fred Astaire or some such, they wanted to wear white tuxedos and top hats as they attempted to snuff Obama out. (Why do I suspect that crystal meth is involved with this somehow?) Fortunately, the bozos - who apparently knew they would die as well as they targeted Obama - were busted in Tennessee before they could carry out their dastardly deeds, or accidentally shoot each other in the process because they were so hopped up on something at the time.

When is this election done again?

A bear walks into a Subway shop ...

2008-10-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

This actually happened recently in British Columbia. It's a cute story - until the end, when you learn that the authorities found the young bear - and KILLED IT! Killed it? For wanting a meatball sub with extra cheese? That's not service with a smile!

Since we're on the subject ...

2008-10-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

Helen Mirren is sixty-freaking-three. Has been, in fact, since July 26. So there's really no reason to bring it up, except as an excuse to post this photo of Dame Helen in a skimpy red bikini during a recent holiday. :)

Sigourney Weaver ...

2008-10-08T14:45:00.001-07:00

... is fifty-freaking-nine years old today. And while this photo isn't not a recent one, it's a pretty close approximation of what Sigourney looks like today. That is, pretty freaking fantastic. Mazel tov.

Back for another cup of coffee?

2008-10-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

As many of my friends and colleagues know, I have a pathological hatred of the remake, the "time-honored" method of taking the core elements of a previously made movie or TV show and reviving it as an newly produced entity. The reasons for this are simple enough - remakes, for the most part, blow. They do nothing to enhance the enjoyment of the original and quite often send audiences running toward the hills and away from the screen, much of the time throwing off profanities in the process. Yes, I am not naive enough to think that every remake every made has been a worthless pile of civet cat excrement (minus the aromatic coffee, of course). But for every 3:10 to Yuma, there are least a dozen All the King's Men. Maybe a thousand. It's hard to keep track in a Hollywood that increasingly reaches for the past instead of, oh, trying to create something new and different. So you will forgive me if I'm not in a tizzy over the forthcoming remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still, starring no less than Keanu Reeves in the pivotal role of the mysterious alien Klaatu. ("Klaatu barada nikto, dude!")

"That's fine, Dave," you may ask, "but what about sequels?" "Good question," I would respond. Sequels are in a different category, as they are usually a continuation of a story previous told. And many a sequel has improved on the original, or at least been up to the standards of the first, whatever those standards were. The Godfather, Part II, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Dark Knight - just three examples of a follow-up to an acclaimed movie achieving its own level of excellent. (The first two actually won Oscars for Best Picture, while the latter may be up for its own Academy Awards if the cards fall in place.) Still, there are many sequels that also, well, blow, meaning that there is still something of a dread that comes into my movie-loving heart whenever a "Part II" or such is announced.

This all comes up because of an article in the New York Post this morning which reported that Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins are in talks to reprise their roles in a sequel to the popular 1988 baseball romantic comedy Bull Durham. According to the Post, the film would have Sarandon and Robbins' characers, baseball groupie Annie Savoy and hotshot pitcher Nuke LaLoosh, now married, apparently wealthy and co-owning a big-league franchise that is managed by Costner's "Crash" Davis. Now, the sequel will reportedly be written and directed by Ron Shelton, who did the same for the first. And on the surface, the plotline sounds plausible, as many a minor-league catcher has gone on to manage in The Show in the real world. But a sequel? To one of the best baseball movies ever made? Twenty-plus years later.

Oh, well, I guess the proof will be in the celluloid. Besides, I was so fearful of the Sex and the City sequel until I finally saw it. Just don't have Tim Robbins wearing women's lingerie again.

A hundred years ...

2008-10-05T16:18:00.003-07:00

And so, here we Cubs fans are yet again. Another year ... another year. To run down the litany of world events that have taken place since the Cubs last won the World Series a century ago - and, as of last night, it is officially, finally, a century - would be trite and redundant, since many a media outlet has already done that. What happened last night is better expressed in the pain of the team's many fans, myself included, who are facing both the impossible and inevitable square in the eyes.

One of my dear friends suggested to me today that it maybe was time to move on, that the Cubs were destined to break my heart every time in one way or another, and like to a mercurial lover or a parasitic chum, maybe I should cut myself off, at least somewhat, and get on with my life. (Full disclosure: This friend is a Boston Red Sox fan, which makes her heartfelt advice somewhat suspect, considering that her own pain has been more than lessened by seeing her team win two of the past four World Series.) Even if I were to attempt to implement her advice, I'm not sure if I could. In fact, the Cubs actually take up less of my time than they did during my high school or college days. Today there are other priorities in my life - like paying the rent or wondering who will win the presidential election or what will happen Wilhemina's baby on Ugly Betty. Still, I can be forgiven if I'm down in the dumps for at least the next 24 hours about what could have been, and what will be for the next six months - until spring training stars, of course.

The Lion in Winter ...

2008-10-04T08:24:00.001-07:00

Yes, karma can indeed be a bitch sometimes, can't it?

Congratulations, O.J. You're so not going to Disneyworld! Another "magic kingdom" awaits you for at least the next 15 years!

Anticipation ...

2008-10-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

It's 8:30 a.m. on the first day of October (Happy Birthday, President Carter!) and I'm waiting to do an interview for an impending assignment at 9 so I can go back to bed for a few hours (didn't sleep well last night for no particular reason). But all that's on my mind is the fact that the Chicago Cubs' playoff run starts today when they host the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field.

Everyone knows by now that the Cubs haven't won the Series since 1908, and that a lot of baseball pundits are projecting that this may be the year that all of the sundry Cubs curses are put out to pasture like any old goat. But all I can think of is the many reasons why it won't happen. This, even as I get annoyed when media attention focuses on The Goat and The Black Cat and The Bartman and the other times the Cubs, destined for Glory™, have managed to screw the pooch in the end. (The latest? Just last night on SportsCenter, when the always helpful Rick O'Reilly jotted down the ten ways the Cubs can blow it this year. Lovely.) Hearing many of those same analysts who love the North Siders' chances also say how the Dodgers were the worst-possible playoff matchup for the team isn't helping things. Anyone can be a favorite to win a game or a series or the whole ball of wax, but being a favorite is like a fistful of stocks - it can become just a hunk of paper in not time at all. So there's anxiety building inside Dave, the kind of anxiety that can lead to physical upset if one not careful. But at least I know that if I blow chunks today, it likely won't be because something's wrong with the new liver.

Cross your fingers, everyone. Toes, too, if you have them.

Fifty-four years ago today ...

2008-09-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

As we suffer through yet another day of financial anxiety - and wait for the baseball playoffs to begin - here's a welcome flashback to those days of yesterday. Come, children, gather around the computer screen and watch the greatest catch in baseball history, courtesy of one Willie Howard Mays Jr. in the 1954 World Series.

He Was Legend ...

2008-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

"There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it." — Robert Redford

In a week dominated by the increasingly tense presidential election - and, oh yeah, the American financial system coming to the brink of collapse - the death of a movie star would seem to pale by comparison. But Paul Newman, who passed away yesterday of cancer at the age of 83, was not just a movie star. He wasn't even just the movie star of his generation, though he most certainly was. Newman was indeed a superlative actor, as evidenced by his three Academy Awards and numerous other honors and accolades. And no one - not even straight men - could discount his potency as a male sex symbol, perhaps because he was much more than a pair of piercing blue eyes. And he was much more than that. It is telling that his death is getting major play on ESPN because of his longtime passion for auto racing, including his partial ownership in an IndyCar team and his own prowess behind the wheel, much of that done after he turned 60. He was one of the leading philanthrapists in Hollywood, before it was the "trendy" thing for stars to do. Newman raised more than $250 million for charity through his Newman's Own line of food products and established the Hole in the Wall Camp for seriously ill kids. Indeed, one of his three Oscars was a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charitable endeavors. (One of his most treasured fan letters was from a man who complimented him - for his tomato sauce. "My girlfriend mentioned that you were a movie star," the foodie wrote. "If you act as well as you cook, your movies should be worth watching.") And Newman was a political activist before it was trendy for stars to do that sort of thing. He often said that one of his greatest personal achievements was ending up on Richard Nixon's enemies list. Throw in his 50-year marriage to Joanne Woodward, and Newman's was a life well lived.

Newman's resume - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Exodus, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot, Absence of Malice, The Verdict, Nobody's Fool, Road to Perdition, and on and on - wasn't half-bad, either. Go out and rent one or five of them this weekend.

One down ...

2008-09-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

... three to go.

Congratulations, Cubbies, Now get back to work. You guys aren't done yet.

Wha' happened?

2008-09-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

And so we appear to be close to it. (You know what I'm talking about - or at least you should at this point. Actually, maybe not. After all, in the universe of the Chicago Cubs fan, there are so many "its", and not all of them are positive. But you're smart people, so you'll figure it out.) Just a few days ago, many a Cubs fan, yours truly included, was - well, panicking, to be fair. The team, after a season of near-dominance, seemed to be running out of gas at the worst possible time, with a plethora of losses piling up and the club's two best pitchers, Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden, on the bench with arm issues. The only thing keeping Cubbie faithful from hurling themselves off of their collective balconies was the convenient fact that the team that was closest to Chicago's blood trail, the Milwaukee Brewers, was going through its own meltdown. Indeed, the Cubs had actually picked up a half-game on Milwaukee despite its troubles.

And now ...

Thanks to some not-always-welcome quirks of fate, the landscape has changed, to say the least. Because Hurricane Ike turned Houston into a waterlogged wasteland and left half the city either underwater or powerless (or both), the three-game series between the Cubs and the resurgent Astros was postponed. Then, over the (justifiable) protests of the Astro management, Major League Baseball shifted two of the games to a "neutral" location. Of course, this being Bud Selig's version of Major League Baseball that we're dealing with, said location was determined to be Milwaukee's Miller Park - also know, affectionally, as Wrigley North. So the bedraggled Astros, many of whom have bigger things on their mind than a pennant race - even their own - flew into Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon with hours to spare and, despite the team's red-hot streak, got no-hit by Zambrano, returning for his first start in almost two weeks. Oh, and the crowd? More than 25,000 people, about 99.95 percent of whom were rabid Cubs fans.

And today? Today the Astros managed to get one hit off of Cubs pitching before losing again 6-1, giving the North Siders a quick four-game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Brewers were getting the suds blown off their head by the Phillies, who swept them in four straight in Philadelphia over the weekend, in the process changing the complexion of the playoff chase. Now the Cubs are ahead of Milwaukee by eight games, the Brewers are tied with the Phillies for the NL wild card with Houston still just two-and-a-half games behind, and Brewers management made the Palin-esque move this afternoon of firing manager Ned Yost with just 12 games left to play, including three against the Cubs at the real Wrigley starting tomorrow.

Game over? Hardly. The Brewers are starting their ace pitcher, CC Sabathia, tomorrow night. He hasn't lost since being traded to Milwaukee in July. And Cubs fans know never to look at a gift goat, er, horse in the mouth. (Yogi Berra is a prophet. Think about that.) But let's just say that the panic has been lessened somewhat. Sure, it came in part from forces beyond our control, maybe even through circumstances we wish could have been different. But it's happened, and now it's up to our lovable "losers" to take advantage and shut the door. Now's the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Suddenly, Ocean's Fourteen Doesn't Seem Like Such a Bad Idea ...

2008-09-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Far be it for any of us, particularly a puny little media critic like me, to judge what an acclaimed Oscar-winning filmmaker can do with his street cred. But one does have to wonder if Steven Soderbergh knows what he's getting himself into. Variety is reporting that the director known for such wide-ranging projects as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Traffic, Erin Brockovich and the Ocean's Eleven flicks, is developing a biopic on no less than Liberace.

Yes, that Liberace.

Wait, it gets better (or worse). Soderbergh wants Michael Douglas to play the understated pianist, with Matt Damon in talks to portray one of Liberace's paramours, Scott Thorson - you know, the one who sued Lee (as he was known to his friends) for palimony.

Of course, Soderbergh has proven that he knows what he's doing when it comes to directing films, so maybe it's unfair to poo-poo his Liberace film as mere folly or pure camp. And after devoting himself to a five-hour epic on Che Guevera, one really can't begrudge him for pulling a 180 for one of his next motion pictures. But Liberace? Michael Douglas as Liberace? I'll believe it when I see it - and even then, I may choose not to believe it.

Remember ...

2008-09-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

(No longer) in a world ...

2008-09-02T09:03:00.001-07:00

With four months to go until the end of 2008, the entertainment world has been hit pretty hard in death pool terms. Heath Ledger, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes, Sydney Pollack ... those are just five top-notch performers who have left us - at times, quite suddenly. And now, Don LaFontaine.

Don LaFontaine? You may be wondering, "Who the crap is Don LaFontaine?" Well, son, I'll tell you who he was. Don LaFontaine is - or was - one of the most prolific voiceover artists in Hollywood. When you go to the cinema to catch a film and end up watching about a hundred trailers in the process, a good chunk of them will be narrated by Don LaFontaine. He was the voice behind more than 5,000 trailers during his career, from The Godfather, Part II to Borat, and in the process made the phrase "In a world ...," well, world famous. You know, as in "In a world where money was king ..." or "In a world where love had a price ..." or "In a world where big-ass lizards ate anything ...". (One wonders why he didn't copyright those three words a la Michael Buffer and "Let's get ready to rumble".) Other people do voiceovers on trailers, of course, but LaFontaine's was one of the very few that was instantly familiar to audiences - even if they never knew what his name was.

LaFontaine also gave voice to 350,000 commercials (!) and worked directly with many broadcast and cable networks, including the Big Four. It was a GEICO commercial, however, that gave LaFontaine his biggest full-on exposure, as people could finally put a face with the voice. ("This spot has changed my life," he wrote on his Web site. "There goes any anonymity I might have had.")

LaFontaine, who was 68, died yesterday in Los Angeles of complications of a collapsed lung, he apparently had been dealing with lung problems since last year. Nevertheless, it's likely are that he can be heard on trailers that have yet to be released; if so, let's hope the producers don't scrap his work. And let's hope that LaFontaine takes his rightful place among the other fallen performers in next year's Oscar memorial reel. In a world that he entertained for more than 40 years, it's only fair.

Three in a row? Oh crap ...

2008-09-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

So the Cubs have lost three in a row ... at home. Not the best time to hit the skids, as the season enters the final month and the North Side Nine continue to fend off a ferocious effort by the Brewers to the north. Sure, the Cubs still lead the division by 4 1/2 games. And sure, Milwaukee did the favor of losing to the Mets today, so no ground was lost. Still, these are the type of stretches that has Cub fans like myself chewing our bottom lips a little more, having nightmares about 1969 and billy goats and marauding Bartmen chasing us through a swarm of black cats. So if I look a little ... panicked ... forgive me. I'm worrying. Sue me, I'm my mother's child.

Premature obituration ...

2008-08-28T12:11:00.001-07:00

There's an old saying that everybody would love to know what people are going to say about them after they've headed to the open-air baseball diamond in the sky, but I do wonder if there's is any inherent charm to knowing how your obituary is going to go before it's officially valid. (Someone ask that of Michael Phelps, who at 23 already knows what this first line of his final article will be.) History tells us that the premature publishing of an obit, while uncommon, isn't unheard of. P.T Barnum's obit made the New York Evening Sun while the ailing promoter was still alive to read it, though that was no accident; it was upon Barnum's request just so he could know what it would say about his life. Mark Twain was the "victim" of an unduly early exit courtesy of the press when he was thought to be lost at sea in 1907. And in 2003 someone at CNN.com spilled coffee on a computer or something, an act that inadvertently published the obit pages of several prominent people, including Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II and Dick Cheney (whom, of course, can never die, but that's another conversation for another time).

Now you can add Apple grand poobah Steve Jobs to this list. Yesterday the Bloomberg News Service, apparently while updating Jobs' 17-page obit, ended up publishing it for all the world to see. Granted, the article had holes in the crucial places - you know, like when and how Jobs supposedly reached "sad face" mode - which would have been an obvious clue that something was up here, and it wasn't Jobs' time among us. Still, the incident has caused Bloomberg a touch of embarrassment and may have raised the blood pressures of a few Apple investors, especially considering fears about the health of Jobs, who has dealt with pancreatic cancer and was looking somewhat thin and frail at his most recent public appearance - and who, by the way, has named no successor to his Apple throne.

Bloomberg soon after issued the appropriate retraction, so all seems right with the world again. But will the writers at Bloomberg now have to start from scratch with their remembrance of Jobs' life, now that everyone has seen more than a sneak preview?

Boy, I Didn't See That Coming ...

2008-08-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Newly anointed swimming god Michael Phelps has been slotted to host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on Sept. 13. Phelps' actual acting ability, of course, is virtually unknown, but athletes actually have a decent track record when it comes to holding their own on SNL.(Michael Jordan and Peyton Manning, yay; LeBron James, not so much.) But as long as the writers keep his workload light - and prepare a sketch that involves Kristen Wiig in a wet swimsuit - things should work out just fine. So far there's no validity to the rumor that NBC is about to sign Phelps to play Ice-T's new partner on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair ...

2008-08-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today Major League Baseball made it official, announcing that the umpires would be permitted to use instant replay to determine whether balls hit too close to the foul poles were home runs or just spectacular foul balls. The decision was a bold reversal after years of all sorts of factions within MLB fighting the encroachment of the replay technology onto big-league diamonds, and came after a string of several questionable calls earlier this season when the TV screens showed that the officials go their calls wrong. It will be a limited use of instant replay, as it should be; baseball has always been the most human of sports, a sport where the blown call is almost a tradition - albeit an extremely frustrating tradition, depending on whether your favorite team was screwed over or not. There's no need or desire for replay to be use to determine balls or strikes, or whether the runner beat the throw to second base or home plate. And yet, I'm not pleased about this move - or rather, the timing of the move.

Why? Because the change in the rules will not go into effect next April at the beginning of the 2009 campaign. It will go into effect on Thursday, amid the frenzy of some hot pennant races, some of which may have already been affected by iffy home run calls earlier this year, when going to the video tape was not an option. There's no retroactivity in play here - those past decisions still stand, even if the whole world now knows that they were plain wrong, and even if one of them may cost a team the playoffs. So what MLB has established here is what amounts to an uneven playing field within the body of a season - proving that even when baseball commissioner Bud Selig does something right (which hasn't been very often in my book), he still can find a way to muck it up.

When coaches attack ...

2008-08-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

So how did U.S. pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynki, who has only been competing in her sport for four years and was taking part in her first Olympic Games, do in Beijing last night? Listen to the message conveyed to her by her coach, Rick Suhr, and try and figure it out. Here's a hint: The answer is at the end of Suhr's speech.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0818_HD_ATW_HL_L1722

Yeah, that's right ... Olympic rookie Stuczynki won the silver medal. Finished behind only Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva, who's only the best female pole vaulter of all time and who broke her own world record - again - last night just 'cause she could. It should have been the crowning achievement of Stuczynki's brief career, and a clear sign of what she might accomplish in the next few years. And she looked as happy as she should have been - until Coach Suhr offered his words of "encouragement", leaving his athlete looking as if her boyfriend had broken up with her and then run over her cat for good measure.

I get that different coaches have different motivational techniques, but I don't know how well it works to throw your athlete under the bus on national television (remember, Suhr knew he was mic'ed up) within minutes of her career peak, within minutes of besting everyone in the world save the titan of her freakig sport (who seems to be a piece of work herself). Having perused the blogosphere, I know what it can do - get you accused of being the lousiest and most uncouth coach in recent history - and that's saying something. Billy Martin would be taken aback by Suhr's grandstanding antics, including the tone of his voice and the body language he used in "communicating" with Stuczynki. To her credit, I have yet to see any articles in which she takes Suhr to task. Maybe that's just out of respect - the respect she should have earned from Suhr last night, if not before. Personally, I'm hoping for the moment when Stuczynski's camp announces that she is moving on to new management, as it were.

Good morning, Mr. Phelps ...

2008-08-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

And how was your junket to Beijing again?

Big day ...

2008-08-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Today is Madonna's 50th birthday, giving you a big indication on how old you really are.

Today is also the 31st anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Whether or not the two events are connected is entirely up to your own perspective.

... and Olympic justice ...

2008-08-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Since Ara Abrahamian was not a fan of his newly-won bronze medal for the Greco-Roman 84-kg competition, the IOC has relieved him of that burden by stripping him of that medal and disqualifying his ass from the Beijing Olympics. Go back home and enjoy your pickled herring, punk.

The Olympic spirit ...

2008-08-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Olympics are about many things. They are about superstars such as Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryant, and dazzling sports such as gymnastics and diving. But they're also about athletes such as Ronda Rousey, who became the first American woman to medal in judo, taking home a bronze in honor of her mother, who was a world judo champion but couldn't compete in the Olympics because there was no women's judo in the Olympics at the time. And it's about Tuvshinbayar Naidan, a wrestler-turned-judoka who wept as he became the first Mongolian to earn a Olympic gold medal, setting off a massive celebration in his nation's capital.

All of which makes the actions of Ara Abrahamian all the more infuriating. The Greco-Roman wrestler from Sweden, feeling cheated after losing his semifinal to Italy's Andrea Minguzzi, won the third-place match, took his bronze medal - then walked off the podium, snatched his prize from around his neck, dropped in the middle of the wrestling mat and stormed out of the arena.

I don't know whether Abrahamian had a legitimate beef or not - God knows worse has happened at the Olympics. But his actions were unforgivable, an affront to all of the competitors who have won medals and the many more who are in Beijing knowing that they have no chance to land on the medal stand, but who give their all anyway. Rousey was seen as having a legitimate change at gold, but I don't see her bitching and moaning about having to "settle" for the bronze. Being the third-best athlete in the world in your sport is nothing to sneeze at.

The IOC is investigating his actions, but for me there can be only one resolution to this matter. Abrahamian (who says he is quitting his sport anyway) should be thrown out of the Olympic village and banned from his sport permanently. And give his bronze to someone who will actually appreciate it.

PANIC IN THE STREETS!!!!

2008-08-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

Warner Bros. had pushed back the release of the new Harry Potter film from November 2008 to July 2009! How oh how will mankind survive the extra wait?

Love thyself - but only so much, apparently ...

2008-08-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

Last fall Jennifer Love Hewitt was aghast at some of the hurtful things that were written about her, by fans and reporters alike, after paparazzi pics of the Ghost Whisperer star frolicking on the beach in a tiny bikini - and a more pounds than expected - hit the Internet. She struck back, decrying the emphasis on thinness and telling woman and girls everywhere to be proud of their curves; People magazine reported on the dust-up in a cover story called "Don't Call Me Fat". Yet today comes another magazine cover featuring Hewitt - this one for Us magazine that declares how she lost 18 pounds in just 10 weeks, complete with photos of her smaller physique, the curves she claimed to be proud of - and that many a guy has ogled for years - greatly diminished. What's more, she didn't drop the pounds, she says, because of the scrutiny over the beach candids.

Beyond my personal opinion that Hewitt didn't need to lose any weight - toning, maybe, but not anything radical. Indeed, to be blunt, I celebrated the fact that the bikini shots were easily the most revealing photos we had ever seen of her - I have to wonder what kind of message her dramatic weight loss sends to the young girls she claimed to be sticking up for last year. What are they to make of this mixed message from a star who wasn't overweight, an who said she was proud of her curvy body, but who felt compelled, despite what she says, to pare herself down less than a year later? Plus, now Hewitt seems too thin, having lost the oomph that made her one of the more enduring sex symbols of recent years.

Last year Hewitt wrote on her blog that being a size zero "doesn't make you beautiful". Now that she's much closer to that level, I have to agree with her. All I see when I look at her is ... hypocrisy.

Too soon, times two ...

2008-08-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a bad weekend to be black and famous in America. Many of us were still reeling from the news yesterday of the pneumonia-related death of Bernie Mac when the word broke just a few minutes ago that Isaac Hayes has been found dead in his Memphis home. Hayes was 65 and reportedly was dealing with some health issues, his body was discovered by family members next to a treadmill.

Beyond the obvious pain that the family of members of Mac and Hayes obviously are dealing with, the loss of these two men leave a large hole in the culture. Both men were pioneers in their own right. Mac's profane but profound comedic style owed much to the work of such talents as Bill Cosby, George Carlin and Richard Pryor, but he also brought his own edge and perspective to his stand-up act, reflecting the challenges of men dealing with new ways of thinking and dealing with life and its ups and downs. He told it like it was, whether on the comedy stage or on his acclaimed sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him Emmy nominations an won a Peabody Award. He also made a mark in the movies, including a lead role one of the better baseball films in recent years, Mr. 3000 (we'll forgive that he played a Milwaukee Brewer), and a supporting role in the Ocean's 11 franchise, where he more than held his own with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle. Most of all, Mac, who was just 50, was a dedicated family man and a loyal friend.

Hayes was simply iconic. His musical talents helped turn the Stax Records label from just another record company to a major force in music and beyond moving the early 70s. He fused pop, funk and soul into a potent blend that paved the way for such musical genres as disco and hip-hop. He's best known, of course, for his soundtrack to the blaxploitation epic Shaft, including the title song that became a smash hit and won Hayes an Oscar, making him the first African-American to win a non-acting Academy Award. (Hayes, being his own man, famously wore a shirt made of nothing but chains during his Oscar ceremony performance.) But his previous album, 1969's Hot Buttered Soul, may be an even greater musical achievement, as Hayes' acclaimed spin on some favorite standards put him and his distinctive bald pate on the map. (After Soul, You'll never listen to Burt Bacharach the same way again.) Later on, Hayes found a new audience as the voice of the wise but eccentric Chef on the cartoon series South Park. But it's his music that will be his ultimate legacy.

Ironically, Mac and Hayes will co-star in the comedy film Soul Men later on this year. The movie stars Mac and Samuel L. Jackson as former signing partner who reluctantly reunite, with Hayes playing himself. Let's hope and pray that they won't have to dedicate Soul Men to anyone else between now and November.

A testament to the power of Issac Hayes:

Calm ourselves ...

2008-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

These are strange times for the Chicago Cubs fan. Frankly, we don't know what to do with ourselves. We look at the baseball standings in our newspapers or on our computer screens, and we scratch out heads in wonder and confusion. What is this we see before us? The Cubs in first place? And widening their lead? We looked to the north last week, as the North Siders, losing momentum and with the Milwaukee Brewers breathing down the neck of our beloved, slogged their way to the Brewers' home park for a crucial (apocalyptic?) four-game series against their newest nemesis, including two games against Milwaukee's best pitchers, CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets. We closed our eyes and grimaced as if we were waiting for the first thwack of our father's belt, prepared for the worst. When we opened our eyes, the Cubs had taken four straight from Milwaukee on their own turf and seemingly changed the complexion of the divisional race.

We have been here before, of course. In 1969, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2003, 2007, and many other years when the Cubs had a pulse entering the dog days of summer, only to peter out in one fashion or another for one reason or another. We still gird ourselves for the inevitable departure of the ground below our favorite team, for the proverbial curse to emerge, for God to be reminded of the developing situation by Lake Michigan and to take appropriate action. As the eternal archenemy of the Cub, the Cardinal, heads toward Wrigley Field for yet another crucial series, we wait in fear and dread for the cock-up, the injury, the quirky moment that will collapse this growing house of cards (not Cards) and crush our hopes yet again. We look at the calendar, fully aware of the significance of this year more than any other, and we pray to whomever will listen to let our team, just this once, Do It.

The Cubs are off today; there are 47 games left in their schedule. They could hold on to make the playoffs ... or not. They could make their first World Series in 63 years ... or not. They could reach the promised land for the first time in a century ... or not. No one, of course, knows the outcome, even if many of us think we know. ("This is it, this is our time!" "They'll find a way to blow it - they always find a way to blow it.") All Cubs fans can do at this point is sit back and try to enjoy the ride. That is, when we're not turning away from the TV screen or trying to find our lucky cap, lest we cost Chicago the pennant.

Yeah, it is kind of easier when they're 20 games out of first place at this point in the season - you know, like they usually are.

Has God abandoned us - again?

2008-07-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

First Seacrest is almost eaten by a shark, and now the Earthquake of 2008™ disrupts life in the Big Brother house. What could be next? Does one even dare to ask?

Bad headline!

2008-07-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Hmmm ... maybe the editors at The New York Times should have thought a bit more about this headline before slapping it onto their article on the breakdown of the WTO talks in Geneva. Or maybe they were trying to be provocative. Either way, one must wonder what the relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks must have thought if they saw this on their computers. I know how I felt, and it wasn't warm and fuzzy.

UPDATE: Oh, they changed the headline - ever so slightly, but enough to make a difference.

Do you want fries with that shake?

2008-07-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

Leave it to me to only post whenever something wackadoodle happens, but I did want to tell everyone who knows me that, yes, there was a fairly significant earthquake here about a half-hour ago, and yes, I'm fine, if a bit, er, shaky. I've determined that I don't like earthquakes that much. So no Charlton Heston disaster movie going on here - yet. The day is young.

2008 Emmy Nominations: No judgments!

2008-07-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe just a few:

* John Adams, which raked in a leading 23 nominations, deserves all it can get and more.

* Hugh Laurie is again nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama after being snubbed last year, meaning that all is right with the world. Well, it will be when he finally wins the damn thing.

* Where, o where is Katherine Heigl's name on this list? I'm just shocked - shocked! - that she's absent!

* And Kristin Chenoweth is - well, Kristin Chenoweth.

Outstanding Drama Series
Boston Legal (ABC)
Damages (FX)
Dexter (Showtime)
House (Fox)
Lost (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)

Outstanding Comedy Series
30 Rock (NBC)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Entourage (HBO)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)

Outstanding Made for Televison Movie
A Raisin in the Sun (ABC)
Bernard and Doris (HBO)
Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (HBO)
Recount (HBO)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter(Lifetime)

Outstanding Miniseries
The Andromeda Strain (A&E)
Cranford (PBS)
John Adams (HBO)
Tin Man (Sci Fi)

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC)
Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special
Bill Maher: The Decider (HBO)
George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya! (HBO)
Great Performances - James Taylor: One Man Band (PBS)
Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell (Bravo)
The Kennedy Center Honors (CBS)
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
James Spader, Boston Legal

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
Ralph Fiennes, Bernard and Doris
Ricky Gervais, Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale
Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Kevin Spacey, Recount
Tom Wilkinson, Recount

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Movie or Miniseries
Dame Judi Dench, Cranford
Catherine Keener, An American Crime
Laura Linney, John Adams
Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun
Susan Sarandon, Bernard and Doris

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
Bob Balaban, Recount
Stephen Dillane, John Adams
Denis Leary, Recount
David Morse, John Adams
Tom Wilkinson, John Adams

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries
Eileen Atkins, Cranford
Laura Dern, Recount
Ashley Jensen, Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale
Audra McDonald, A Raisin in the Sun
Alfre Woodard, Pictures of Hollis Woods

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
Charles Durning, Rescue Me
Robert Morse, Mad Men
Oliver Platt, Nip/Tuck
Stanley Tucci, E.R.
Glynn Turman, In Treatment
Robin Williams, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Arnett, 30 Rock
Shelley Berman, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Steve Buscemi, 30 Rock
Tim Conway, 30 Rock
Rip Torn, 30 Rock

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Ellen Burstyn, Big Love
Diahann Carroll, Grey's Anatomy
Shaon Gless, Nip/Tuck
Anjelica Huston, Medium
Cynthia Nixon, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Polly Bergen, Desperate Housewives
Edie Falco, 30 Rock
Carrie Fisher, 30 Rock
Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives
Sarah Silverman, Monk
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live
David Letterman, Late Show with David Letterman
Don Rickles, Mr Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
Jon Stewart, 80th Annual Academy Awards

Outstanding Reality Program
Antiques Roadshow (PBS)
Dirty Jobs (Discovery)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)
Intervention (A&E)
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (Bravo)

Outstanding Reality/Competition Program
American Idol (Fox)
Amazing Race (CBS)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Project Runway (Bravo)
Top Chef (Bravo)

Outstanding Reality Host
Tom Bergeron, Dancing with the Stars
Heidi Klum, Project Runway
Howie Mandel, Deal or No Deal
Jeff Probst, Survivor
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol

The Dark Knight: "This movie kills ass. Hard."

2008-07-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

More than two weeks ago, I became one of the first people in Los Angeles to see The Dark Knight in its completed form. I held back my impressions of the movie, at least to the general public, lest I get busted by anyone at Warner Bros. for jumping the gun - though that didn't stop the likes of Rolling Stone. And now that we're less than 48 hours from the megarelease and every outlet has expressed their opinion about Knight, I risk looking like a sycophant in revealing my feelings about the film. So call me a copycat for saying what's true - because this movie kicks ass. Hard.

And it's not just because of the presence of Heath Ledger as the Joker, though that's a large, large chunk of the movie's overall success. Ledger, whose acting talents obviously were no secret going on, is a revelation as this maniacal, malevolent evil doer who is literally capable of doing anything and everything for no other reason that he can, so he does. There is no trace here of Ennis del Mar or Ned Kelly or any of the other characters he played during his brief career. Indeed, there's no trace of Heath Ledger. When you forget that you're watching an actor play a role, the job has been done. All of the Oscar talk revolving around Ledger is more than true - it's a rock-solid guarantee that he will be among the final five up for Supporting Actor when the nominations are announced exactly one year after his death. (Ledger is so excellent that to watch him as the Joker is almost as heartbreaking as it is exhilarating, for obvious reasons.)

There's much, more to enjoy than just Ledger, though. All of the acting is top-notch, particularly Christian Bale as the tormented Caped Crusader; Michael Caine as his wry and wise butler, Alfred; and Aaron Eckhart as "white knight" district attorney Harvey Dent, who brings a whole new meaning to the term "split personality" when he is transformed into Two-Face with an assist from the Joke. Eckhart brings a different vision to the Two-Face character, but one that is just as chilling as the original. And the story woven by director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan is dense with material and character development, along with some action set pieces that are all the more enthralling because of Nolan's use of IMAX cameras for about 20 minutes of the film, the first use of that technology in a mainstream feature film. The IMAX images do make a difference, even when seen on a standard screen. And the cinematography by Wally Pfister, which takes great advantage of Knight's locations in Chicago (and, in one sequence, Hong Kong), should net him a Oscar nod to go along with the one he received for Batman Begins in 2005. (That Batpod is killer, by the way.)

Overall, Nolan has created, if not a complete masterpiece, about as close as you can get to one. The Dark Knight is not just a great comic-book yarn or summer action movie; it is a superlative crime drama in the tradition of something that Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola would create in their primes. The only drawback - besides a lengthy running time that could interfere with Knight's chances of reeling in the highest-grossing non-holiday opening weekend of all time - is that it may set the bar too high for forthcoming superheroes flicks, including the inevitable third entry in Nolan's Batman trilogy.

Now go forth and see this film. Good luck getting a ticket, though!

Note: A warning for the grownups: Superhero movie,yes, but definitely not for the kiddies. There is mayhem aplenty here, and not the warm and fuzzy kind. I wouldn't be surprised if the original cut was an R. Parents would be wise to heed the PG-13 rating, no mater how much the tiny tykes in your house protest.

Note 2: I predict that The Dark Knight will gross at least $150 million in its first three days. I don't know if that will be the all-time record, but who cares? That's a lot of cash!

Fab ...

2008-07-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

At this very moment I am attending the Television Critics Association July press tour in my day job as an entertainment journalist. I've been attending the TCAs twice a year since January 1997, and even though it can be a very tedious experience a times, such as when you've had chicken for five meals in a row or whenever Shannen Doherty shows up, for the most part it has been a valuable experience, and not just in my wallet. Time and time again I get the chance to meet people whom I would have never gotten close to without my career or the tour, such as Buzz Aldrin and Prince Edward and even Gerald Ford. This time around, only four-plus days in, I've already interviewed the likes of Shirley MacLaine and Elvis Costello, Branch Rickey's grandson and the aforementioned Capt. Aldrin, and I've even been kissed by one of Michael Vick's dogs. And today, presented to us was Sir George Martin, who is part of an upcoming PBS show, On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. The series won't start until the fall of 2010, but the memories of Sir George, literally the fifth Beatle, speaking to us in his sober voice about his work with the Beatles (favorite Fab Four song: In My Life) and his opinions about current musical tastes (yes to Coldplay and Radiohead, no to American Idol), is a pure thrill. Sir George is semiretired and, at 82, dealing with a partial hearing loss - the questions from the press had to be transcribed to a monitor so he could be precise on what was being asked to him - but he's as sharp as ever, a treasure trove of knowledge - and very, very polite. I fought the temptation to ask Sir George where the hell the Beatles' songs are on iTunes.

One hell of a (half) year ...

2008-07-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

Baseball is my favorite sport of choice, if that hasn't been made plainly obvious here already. But even non-sports fans have to appreciate the number of epic, all-or-nothing events that already have pocked the athletic landscape in a year that has is barely half over. We have witnessed a Super Bowl that literally went to the last minute before the "other" team won. An NCAA basketball final that went to overtime. A U.S. Open tournament in which the best golfer of all time, playing on one leg, was pushed to a fifth round, and them some, before proving exactly why he is the best golfer of all time. A Stanley Cup Final contest that went three overtimes. Just on Friday, a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating championship that was decided by a "dog-off". (Don't ask.) And this morning, a Wimbledon men's final that squeezed all of the life out of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the fading London sun before Nadal won in five grueling sets to end Federer's outstanding winning streak on the grass of the All England Lawn and Croquet Club.

All of which bodes well for the second half of 2008, which will include the Beijing Olympics (Who will win? Who will drop dead of respiratory arrest?), the World Series (where a certain team will end a certain century-long streak of futility - right?) and, of course, Alex Rodriguez's impending divorce. Who will buy the naming rights to that one?

Age is just a number ... and so is 53.78 seconds!

2008-07-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres, who made her fifth U.S. Olympic Team this past week by defeating her teammate and rival, Natalie Coughlin, in the 100-meter freestyle event at the Olympic Trials in Omaha. Also, congrats to Ms. Torres for looking this freaking hot at age 41.

An important milestone (or not) ...

2008-07-04T13:10:00.001-07:00

Today is the Fourth of July, the 132th anniversary of the singing of the Declaration of Independence (though it was actually ratified on July 2 - but that's neither here or there at this point) - and the 13th anniversary of when President Whitmore, The Fresh Prince and the nebbishy reporter from The Big Chill saved us from those Rasta-looking aliens. But July 4 is also a key date on the baseball calendar, for tradition holds that the teams in first place on America Gives Britain The Finger Day will go on to win their respective divisions. And this "fact" holds particular meaning to us Chicago Cubs fans this year, for as play begins today, the North Siders, despite some recent bumps in the road, are in fact leading their division by two-and-a-half games over second-place St. Louis - whom the Cubs are playing tonight.

Now, it's important to note that the July 4 rule, like many a chuck of baseball lore, is bunk. Last year, for example, the three National League teams in first place on Independence Day - the Mets in the East, Milwaukee in the Central and San Diego in the West - didn't even make the playoffs. Meanwhile, three of the teams who were still around in October, including the eventual NL champion Colorado Rockies and my Cubs - were stagnating around the .500 on July 4. And these aren't even the most egregious examples. The biggest may have been in 1914, when the Boston Braves were in last place on the important date, 15 games behind the New York Baseball Giants in the eight-team National League. Not only did they go on a major winning streak to take the pennant, the Braves then went on to sweep the heavily favored Philadelphia A's in the World Series. Hope, perhaps, for the Seattle Mariners and all the teams in the N.L. West? Well, maybe not. But in a year when Tampa Bay is cleaning the clocks of both the Yankees and Red Sox, anything is possible.

So what does July 4 ultimately mean to baseball fans? In truth, nothing more than an excuse to down some hot dogs and watch a game. But for the nervous Cubs fans, we'll take any glimmer of hope and prophecy we can get. Though sweeping the Cardinals this weekend would definitely help.

No, no, latte?

2008-07-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Many scientists believe that the frog is the bellwether to the environment - that however the frogs go will be how the planet will follow. This is why so many biologists and such are freaked out at the decline in certain frog species, reading it as Earth's way of telling the main tenants (i.e., us) to shape up or ship out. Well, one could say the same about Starbucks in relation to the economy. When things are good, the coffee chain is selling frappuccinos like they're going out of style and there is literally a Starbucks on every corner - or sometimes two. When things are rotten - well, Starbucks announced today that the company is shuttering 600 establishments and laying off up to 12,000 employees. You do the math.

Ribbit.

Proof that God has finally given up on us?

2008-06-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

George Carlin lies dormant on a metal slab, waiting for his place in line at the crematorium, while Don Imus remains alive with his tongue intact. Justice?

"Kobe, tell me how my [blank] tastes" ... the new catchphrase of 2008?

2008-06-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

You know, you never saw Joe DiMaggio rapping about Ted Williams like this ...

(Though I have no doubt Ted may have rapped about Joltin' Joe - you know, if he had the opportunity to do so.)

Sh*t, George Carlin is dead ...

2008-06-23T15:50:00.001-07:00

If there were any legitimate reason - like many of us needed a reason - to yell out the seven dirty words in a public place, it was last night upon hearing the news that George Carlin had left the room, for good, just when we needed him the most. With much of the world around us headed to Hades in a hand basket, it would seem that the current current events would be prime real estate for Carlin, who along with Richard Pryor had been the one of the pre-eminent comic sages of the past 40 years - often vulgar, always shocking, but always making us think as much as he peed our pants with laughter. A bad heart has finally ended Carlin's perpetual riff on society, culture and everything in between. But, of course, we have so much of his material to watch and remember and reflect on for the next 40 years and more. Many of us would pay good money to hear the joint routines that Carlin and Pryor are cooking up in the big comedy club in the sky. But at least we have two events in Carlin's honor to look forward to, if that is the appropriate phrase - his now posthumous presentation as the newest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, scheduled for November at Washington's Kennedy Center; and, much sooner, whatever is going to be his public memorial service. Because when comedians die, their rites are as much roasts as anything else, and if any comic would demand that there be no tears of grief shed at his services, it would be George Carlin.

Rest in peace, motherf*****. And thanks - we needed that.

Sans beard: 1-0

2008-06-20T14:34:00.001-07:00

Cubs 4, White Sox 3 ... so far, so good. :)

Proactive ...

2008-06-19T21:22:00.001-07:00

So if you've been paying attention to the sidebar to the right, you will know that the Cubs have hit a bit of a bump in the road. They just got swept by Tampa Bay, which last year, or any other year, would have been a disgrace, but this year, because the Rays are actually quite good now, is just freaking ominous since they just might make the World Series, and the Cubs thus could be playing them in October. But that may be jumping the gun if this mini-slump turns into a great big fat one. Yes, Chicago is still 17 games over .500, is still in first place, in fact hasn't lost any ground since the second-place Cardinals also got swept this week by Kansas City, which is actually a disgrace because the Royals suck. Nevertheless, the Cubs may now be facing the temporary loss of their best pitcher, Carlos Zambrano, with the proverbial shoulder discomfort problem. And starting Friday they begin a series with the crosstown White Sox (eww), and this time more than civic pride is on the line.

So before things starting getting really nasty, it was time for me to play my part in the Cubs' "recovery". Now, I've tried to be proactive this season, doing everything from wearing the right hat before each game, to not watching the actual games 'cause I'm a jinx, to even eating a goat before the season started to figuratively consume the Curse that has been hanging over Wrigley Field for more than 60 years. And I grew a beard - a lucky beard that I strove not to shave off until the Cubs either won the World Series or starting tanking.

At this point, in my nervous condition, three losses in a row constitutes "tanking".

So tonight, with razor and shaving cream in hand, I took one for the team, as it were.

We'll try this look out for a while. If the Cubs stabilize, we'll see where the wind takes me. Personally, though, I feel 12 years old right now.

"Ain't gonna be no rematch." "Don't want one."

2008-06-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hey, Dad ... wanna have a catch?

Klingon bastards ...

2008-06-13T09:52:00.001-07:00

OK, now United Airlines is joining American in this bonehead policy of charging $15 for the first bag you check when flying on one of their gas-guzzling planes. I guess that means the floodgates are now open. How much longer will it be before the airlines start billing us for bringing aboard our own food (you know, in lieu of buying the airlines' skimpy, overpriced fare), or for even pushing the flight attendant call button? And where exactly is that Star Trek transporter technology already?

Tomorrow is Saturday the 14th ...

2008-06-13T09:41:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't get the memo, today is Friday the 13th, and you all know what that means ... we're all gonna die! Well, some of us are gonna die today, but only because, like, some of us die every day. In fact, a recent study from the Netherlands (and you know how we much we all heed those convenient "recent studies" - and everything the Dutch tell us, because, like, they're Dutch and know where to find all of the good weed) indicates that Friday the 13ths are actually fairly safe, with fewer car accidents, fires and reports of theft than on other Fridays. Granted, the reason for this dearth in mayhem may simply be that more of us keep our asses at home and in bed during that nefarious 24-hour period - but, hey, whatever gets you through the night. Now excuse me while I go back to sleep in my locked-up panic room.

Ouch!

2008-06-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

The thing that most of my friends know about me - indeed, what the friends of many of a Cubs fan know - is that as devotees of the Chicago National League Ball Club, we are pretty much always miserable. In those years when the team is out of the playoff running by the All-Star Break, we aren't happy at yet another futility-filled campaign. And in seasons such as this one when the Cubs are playing like gangbusters - well, in some ways we're in worse shape as we wait for God to suddenly notice the team and decide to set the universe back in order by allowing the bottom to fall out under Wrigley Field. So even though Chicago had the best record in baseball going into last night's action, we fans couldn't just sit back and enjoy it. Instead, we were on pins and needles, knowing that this sweet bliss couldn't last, that something that would send us back into the land of angst would eventually occur.

Last night, that "something" happened.

In the second inning of Wednesday's win against the Brave, the Cubs' leaoff hitter, Alfonso Soriano, was hit in the left hand by a errant pitch. As a result, Soriano, who leads the team in home runs and has 40 runs batted in, is on the shelf for up to six weeks.

Now, I am a Cubs fan, but I'm also a fan of baseball and a logical person. In a season that last six months and 162 games, bad crap is going to happen to every team. It's virtually impossible for a team of 25 players to get through that much time without at least one significant injury, no matter how good or bad it is. Indeed, this is Soriano's second time on the disabled list this season. He missed two weeks in April with a calf strain. During that period, the Cubs went 9-5 and average more than seven runs a game. Besides, this is why God and Branch Rickey created the modern-day farm system, and so far Chicago has had pretty good luck when it comes to reserve players. So all definitely is not lost.

So I will keep saying "tsunami" and "Emily" in my logical consciousness - but in the back of my head, I also will continue to bite my nails and wear my (current) lucky hat during the Cubs games that I of course don't watch because I'm a jinx. I figure that I can relax in October - one way or another.

Maybe this explains why the Knicks and the Mets suck ...

2008-06-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

According to the New York City Department of Health, one out of every four adult New Yorkers has genital herpes. Kind of puts a new spin on the phrase "Sex in the City," no?

Horse pucky ...

2008-06-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

It's a damn shame that Big Brown wasn't able to seal the deal at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. Lord knows that the horse racing industry could have used the pick-me-up that the first Triple Crown winner in three decades could have supplied. But one reason why most of the sport's fans and insiders aren't rending their garments over Big Brown's defeat is the fact that his butthead of a trainer also lost. And Rick Dutrow keeps finding more and more ways to make the world hate his ever-loving guts.

First it was Dutrow's shady record, both as a horse trainer and as a human being. He brazenly administered steroids to his horses, Big Brown included, even though the practice is banned in several states and frowned upon in others. Then, during the days leading up to the Belmont, Dutrow put Joe Namath to shame by calling the Triple Crown a "foregone conclusion". And now, as the bad taste of Big Brown's Belmont run remains bitter in many people's mouths, Dutrow has taken the always-popular tack of throwing his jockey, Kent Desormeaux, under the bus:

"I don't want to hurt anyone, especially Kent," Dutrow told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning in his barn at Aqueduct. "But I still don't understand what happened. I don't see the horse with a problem, so I have to direct my attention toward the ride. That's all I can come up with."

Desormeaux - the jockey who rode Big Brown to convincing victories at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, by the way - is pretty much universally hailed as acting in the best interests of his horse by easing him up at the end of the Belmont. That gesture, done for a horse that Desormeaux thought may have been injured, potentially could have saved Big Brown's life had he been hurt - not to mention protect the millions the bay colt will generate as the most popular stud since John Holmes. So for Dutrow to blame the jockey for the horse's defeat is, well, pretty dumb.

After slamming Desormeaux, Dutrow magnanimously went on to say that he would have no objection to the jockey taking the mount for Big Brown's next race. One would hope that Desormeaux would do the honorable thing - and tell Dutrow what he can do with his job. Something that involves matter that emerges from the other end of the horse.

I probably shouldn't bring this up, but ...

2008-05-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

As of today, the last day of May, the Chicago Cubs have, at 35-21, the best record in Major League Baseball. Anyone want to take a guess as to the last time the Cubs had the top record in baseball on May 31? Anyone? Take a wild guess.

I don't know if this means anything, but it's kind of cool. Freaky, weird and batshit scary, but cool nonetheless.

You haven't lived ...

2008-05-31T16:11:00.001-07:00

... until you've watched Kill Bill in Spanish. It's like reading Shakespeare in the original Klingon. Somewhere, probably in his spacious but cluttered media room, Quentin Tarantino is smiling.

Anjali's grace ...

2008-05-30T16:32:00.001-07:00

An update on Anjali Datta, the brainiac from Dallas I wrote about yesterday who has been denied the honor of being her high school's valedictorian solely because she had the temerity to post an unprecedented GPA in only three years instead of the required four: As you can read in this well-written editorial by Jacquielynn Floyd of the Morning News, she and her family are taking this boneheaded move a hell of a lot better than I would. And maybe, in the process, they're teaching all of us, including the twits in the school district's administration, a more valuable lesson than can be found in any textbook.

I still would have sued, though. And I know for sure than my mother would have. That's why I love her!

Whoa ...

2008-05-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Cubs find themselves down 8-0 to Colorado in the third inning this afternoon at a very blustery Wrigley, only to score nine runs in the sixth and seventh to win 10-9? A typical day at the Friendly Confines when the wind is blowing out, sure - except the Cubs usually lose these types of games. Hmm ...

What sweet hell (in academia) is this?

2008-05-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

Someone tell me if the schoolyard was this screwed up when I was in high school 20-plus years ago? Because there are two stories that seem to indicate that something is topsy-turvy in the educational system. Specifically, that the meek get stomped on and that excellence can cock you up.

In Dallas, a young woman named Anjali Datta should be celebrating her extraordinary achievement. Not only did she finish at the top of her class at Grapevine High School, she may have done so in record fashion, earning a GPA of 5.898, which is believed to be the highest such average in the school's history. Yet Anjali isn't the valedictorian of her school - which, in this case, also comes with a one-year scholarship courtesy of the state of Texas. What's her crime? Was she caught cheating? End up pregnant? No, Anjali's offense is that she's graduating a year early. Under the policy of the school district, a high school valedictorian "shall be the eligible student with the highest grade-point average for four years of high school."

Yep, because Anjali was literally too good for the room, she's losing out on this once-in-a-lifetime honor and all that it entails. The prize - and the scholarship - are going to the student with the next best GPA, a mere 5.64. And you know the school district knows it's in the deep water, because they're bending over backwards to keep this from being a larger firestorm it already is (not to mention, perhaps, trying to keep it out of a local courtroom). They've made up a title for Anjali, "Valedictorian - Three-Year" (are they kidding?) and even offering her an opportunity to address her 470 classmates at graduation ceremonies - you know, just like a real valedictorian.

My high school class was nearly as large as Anjali's, and I busted my ass to get valedictorian - and there wasn't even an automatic scholarship on the line in my case. I ended up fourth, along with a truckload of academic honors - and yet I was annoyed, pissed off at myself. And I lost - if you want to put it that way - but I lost fair and square. I can't imagine how Anjali and her family are feeling now, and no fake titles or token doodads can ease that hurt. If I were her, I would tell the district to stick that "Valedictorian - Three-Year" certificate where the sun doesn't shine.

At least Anjali will land on her feet; with that GPA and the press generated by this stupid controversy, she'll be awash with scholarship offers, maybe already is. And a 5-year-old named Alex Barton may end up OK as well in the long run. But how will that knowledge help this poor kid, who was actually voted out of his kindergarten class by his peers, with encouragement from his butthole of a teacher? This lovely story of academia takes place in Florida (duh), where Alex, who had recently been diagnosed with a form of autism, was sent to the principal's office after a disruption in class. When he returned, according to Alex's mother, he was made to stand up in front of the class while his peers were instructed to tell Alex what they didn't like about him. Allegedly the teacher also chimed in with the helpful fact that she "hated [Alex] right now". Then - because the class was learning about voting - there was a vote taken, a la Survivor, and Alex was ejected by a 14-2 margin.

The "teacher", Wendy Portillo, said today that the vote wasn't intended to kick Alex out of her classroom for good - just for the day - and that she wanted the young boy to hear from his fellow students how they were affected by his behavior. No charges will be filed in this case, but the jury's still out as to whether Alex - or Portillo - will be back at the school any time soon. Meanwhile, Alex and his mother have received worldwide support, including an invite from Dr. Phil to be on his show, and messages from as far away as Iran. Maybe Portillo would be more comfortable teaching there - she sounds like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's type of instructor.

Why Pandas Shouldn't Party with Amy Winehouse ...

2008-05-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

It's always sad to see cute critters go down the path of ill repute, but that seems to be the case here, as the cuddly star of the upcoming film Kung Fu Panda enjoying some roughhouse with a member of his flock suddenly has a bad reaction to something he took at a recent soirée held by none other than Grammy-winning train wreck Amy Winehouse. Let this be a lesson to you wannabe world-famous mammals - this is what can happen to you when you hit the big time.

Why baseball rocks (most of the time) ...

2008-05-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Less than two years ago, Jon Lester was battling lymphoma. Last October, the left-hander was the winning pitcher for the Boston Red Sox's World Series clincher against Colorado. Tonight, Lester threw a no-hitter against Kansas City.

And this, boys and girls, is why when someone offers you a ticket to a Major League Baseball game, you never, ever turn them down. Because you never know when you're going to see history.

Hollywood: Land of Innovation

2008-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

As if the recent announcement that Werner Herzog will cast Nicolas Cage's manhood in a retelling of the infamous crime drama Bad Lieutenant wasn't chilling enough, now comes worth, courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter, that former movie studio MGM is planning new versions of both Robocop, the badass police officer-as-cyborg hit that briefly put Peter Weller on the map; and Red Dawn, the so-bad-it-sucks war epic that made World War III hip for the young people (aka the first Patrick Swayze-Jennifer Grey mash-up). I blame The Hills for this.

A real "Morehouse Man"

2008-05-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Not to get too high-minded for a blog whose main concern is whether the Cubs won last night and which star is pursuing which bad idea for a movie, but I did feel the need to point out that in some ways, the times really are a-changing, and for the better. Less than 50 years, a man of my complexion living in the Deep South was almost as likely to end up hanging from a tree as he was to be able to vote for his preferred candidate for President of the United States. Today, not only is a man of my complexion a very viable candidate for that same office, but in Atlanta this past weekend, more history in that vein was made.

At the all-male, traditional black Morehouse College - the college that produced, among others, Martin Luther King Jr. - Joshua Packwood gave the valedictorian speech at graduation ceremonies on Sunday. Packwood maintained a 4.0 GPA while majoring in economics. He studied abroad in places as diverse as China, Costa Rica and Switzerland. He's already landed a posh job on Wall Street. And Packwood also happens to be the first white valedictorian in Morehouse's 141-year history.

White students are not unknown to Morehouse, though they are still something of an anomaly there - Packwood is the only Caucasian in his class. But the 22-year-old also had a comfort level with African-Americans prior to his admittance to Morehouse. He attended a predominately black high school in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. His mother was married to an African-American, and thus Packwood has mixed-race siblings. And Packwood himself has dated interracially. Nor was this a token admission on the part of Morehouse - the recruiter who worked with Packwood didn't know the young man wasn't black until after several phone conversations. (Indeed, when I heard Packwood interviewed on National Public Radio last week, his voice did sound like he had a little, shall we say, color in his bones.) But Packwood, who turned down full rides from a couple of Ivy League schools to attend Morehouse, wasn't looking to be a mere blip either. He made the most of his time there, and not just in the classroom, eventually becoming one of the most popular students there - a student many of his classmates nicknamed "Tom Cruise," which I presume was a compliment.

In some ways I feel bad writing about this story, because it kind of defies what should be the best part of Packwood's tale - that race, when distilled through the filters of character and achievement, really doesn't matter. Of course it does - not as much as in did in my grandfather's day, but still, it can easily be the elephant in the room. And Packwood, despite his advanced course in race relations, will still have to deal with it at some point during his life, just as I have and Barack Obama has and Oprah Winfrey has. Still, it's worth focusing on the "novelty" of Packwood to stress him as a perfect example of what fellow Morehouse Man Martin Luther King once said about people being judged not for the color of their skin, but the content of their characters. And if Packwood's success provides encouragement of just one young man, no matter his hue, then shining the spotlight on him will really be worth it.

Skull!

2008-05-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

I announce to you a great joy ...

I've seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Whatchmacallit, and it is good.

Not great, mind you. There will really never, ever be another Raiders of the Lost Ark, in for no other reason that it was the first and, at the time, unique. But in terms of what it's supposed to be - a ripping summertime yarn with great stunts, a few laughs and some genuine corny moments - it gets the job done. And, at just over two hours, quite efficiently as well.

Obviously I won't give away the precious details of the film lest some of you actually want to see it for yourselves (duh). But suffice it to say that:

• Harrison Ford - grayer and gruffer - acquits him well as the older Indiana.

• Karen Allen is as pretty and feisty as ever as the returning Marion Ravenwood, aka Indy's True Love.

• Cate Blanchett's accent is a little too Boris-and-Natasha for its own good, but at least she seems to be having a fine time chewing the scenery without the burden of shooting for an Oscar hanging over her head.

• On the other hand, Shia LaBeouf's greaser hair should be up for an Oscar nod come February. (As for the big question, is he or isn't he … sorry, not telling.)

• While there are slow patches, they never are to the point of pure boredom. And the set action pieces are well above-average.

In short, despite some of the buzz emanating from Cannes, among other places, this one doesn't suck. But please, Steve and George, let's let things lie here. In some ways, they got lucky that three of their four Indy movies worked, let alone that one of them was a classic. But I don't want to see Dr. Jones helping the Beatles find Ringo's missing ring.

One more thing: As my friend and I left the theater, she commented on how kids who weren't around when Raiders was released in 1981 may ask their parents why Crystal Skull cribbed so much from National Treasure, the adventure film that Nicolas Cage made before designing to follow in the footsteps of Harvey Keitel's penis. Hopefully their folks will tell them what really came first.

Members only?

2008-05-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

In what may be either the most intriguing or the most horrifying story to come out of the entertainment industry this year - and yeah, that includes the writers' strike - Variety is reporting that Nicolas Cage is set to star in a remake of Bad Lieutenant, the notorious 1992 Abel Ferrera shockfest of a crime drama that starred Harvey Keitel as, well, a bad lieutenant - a very troubled police detective who took perverse delight in rousting women, gambling and, in one notorious NC-17 scene, cavorting around fully nude. What's more, the remake will be directed by Werner Herzog, who's no wallflower himself (he was, after all, a frequent collaborator with actor Klaus Kinski, who made Keitel look like Pat Boone by comparison).

Production on the re-imaginataion of Keitel's penis will start up this summer. Hmm - suddenly, that actors' strike doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all.

"You Don't Mess with the Zohan" ...

2008-05-13T14:39:00.001-07:00

No.

Susan Sarandon Wears Her Love of Her Kids on Her Sleeve - and Elsewhere ...

2008-05-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Susan Sarandon has a lot going for herself: An Academy Award; a beloved (and younger) ~~husband~~ significant other; apparently well-adjusted children; a great head of red hair; and a kickass body and still fresh-faced looks that are the product of either good genes, a Dorian Grey-like portrait in her basement or the best cosmetic surgeon on the Eastern seaboard. And now, she has something else in her corner as well. At the "advanced" age of 61, Sarandon has obtained what seems to be her first tattoos - the first initials of her three kids, Miles, Eva and Jack Henry, intertwined on at the top of her back, along with a smaller one on her right wrist in honor of her daughter.

The tats made their "debut" at the Speed Racer premiere last week, and Sarandon explained her decision to go under the needle at this time to the British tabloid The Daily Mail, saying that her body has just "a few more years anyway," so why not?

At the same time, Sarandon also denied having any procedures to maintain her relatively youthful look, pointing to her lifestyle (no smoking, lots of water, etc.) and the presence of longtime partner Tim Robbins as the reasons she still looks so fantatic. And while she says she won't rule out going the plastic route down the road, she seems unimpressed by the results of some of the surgeries she's seen: "[T]here are certain people who can do it within the bounds of fixing a little something here or there ... it's when people start looking like somebody else, their lips start to get weird, or they are younger looking at 65 than they were at 30 and they have that burns victim terrified look, that's just bad taste."

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Sarandon has had a bit done here and there, but you can't blame her for holding out on us - not out of personal pride but more out of sharing who her fantastic doctor is lest he or she be swamped by a flood of prospective clients. But considering some of the chop shop work that still permeates in Hollywood and beyond, maybe Sarandon's coming clean would be something of a public service. (No names, please - though you can probably figure out whom I'm talking about.)

Cubs: It's over (?)

2008-04-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it may be over. "Why the doom and gloom, Dave?",you make ask. "Weren't you saying just last week that it's only April and that perspective must be kept when dealing with the long baseball season?" Yes - yes I was. But that was before I got wind of this:

Yeah, this is what I feared - the Cubs, or rather a Cub, new left fielder Kosume Fukudome, on the cover of Sports Illustrated. What's more, with a proclamation that the team is poised to break its century-long curse.

This is potentially bad. Way bad. This is the convergence of two major curses - the one that has hung over the Cubs for more than 60 years, and the one that dictates that if a team or player that's in contention ends up on the front of SI, disaster may be just behind the corner. Save Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and the swimsuit cover model of the year, perhaps, no one seems to be immune to eventually falling prey to this malady. And that includes the Cubs. The last time the magazine stated so prominently that the light at the end of the tunnel was forthcoming was at the beginning of the 2004 season:

Of course the Cubs didn't even make the playoffs (though they did win one more game than they did the previous year, when they were five outs away from the World Series). Speaking of 2003, Kerry Wood also made the cover after the Cubs beat Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. But we all know how that went.

Still, there are mitigating circumstances. For one,

Emily

. (Thanks, Beth.) For another, the Cubs did make the cover last year during spring training, with Lou Piniella and Alfonso Soriano lounging on the green grass in the middle of the Arizona desert. Perhaps it was mitigated by the snarky subhead of the headline ...

... but the Cubs did go on to win their division, to the shock of many.

So maybe this isn't as cataclysmic as some Cub fans, myself included, make it out to be. And, as I did say, the season is still young. Besides - if Fukudome does lead Chicago to glory days, that Japanese phrase is going to look sweet on a blue T-shirt!

Another Type of Perspective ...

2008-04-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about perspective. But perspective comes in many forms. It can be deadly serious, a matter of life and death. Or it can apply to decidedly more frivolous matters - serious, but not deadly serious. Such as, say, your favorite baseball team.

As you can from looking at the side of my blog, the Cubs are doing well. Quite well, as a matter of fact - as of Wednesday afternoon, the team is off to its best start in 23 years. One of the Cubs, Ronny Cedeno, even declared after Monday's win over the Mets that the club was already thinking about the World Series. Now, obviously, I'm a rabid Cub fan, but I also know that talking about the Fall Classic at this extremely early point is folly. Very few pennants are ever won in April, though many of them have been lost in that first month of the season. And even that is not as much of a done deal as it has been in the past. In 2002 the Angels had a horrible first month, and still went on to win it all in October. Three years later Houston stumbled out of the gate so badly that the Chronicle declared the team dead on its front page. The Astros ended up as National League champions. And last year the Cubs sucked hard until until the beginning of June, when a clubhouse fight and one of Lou Piniella's patented tantrums shook Chicago from its slumber.

Then again, remember the aforementioned hot start in 1985? Want to guess where the Cubs finished that year? It wasn't in first.

Cub fans especially are quite sensitive to disruptions in the Force, good and bad. And it doesn't help that the team already has gotten so much hype because of the rapidly approaching 100-year vortex. Many of us groaned noticeably when we heard of Cedeno's quote. This is the kind of jumping the gun that has burned us time and again. At the very least, we thought, Cedeno will probably trip over a bat and blow his knee out sometime on Tuesday as punishment from the baseball gods. But no, that didn't happen.

Instead, the utility infielder hit a grand slam in another win over New York.

Hmmm ... It's only April ... it's only April ...

Bob Margolis, your Y chromosome is showing ...

2008-04-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Amid some exciting baseball games and the beginning of the NBA playoffs, a historic sporting event took place on the other side of the world this weekend when Danica Patrick became the first woman ever to win a Indy Racing League event. The victory came at the Japan 300 in Patrick's 50th career start, the current peak in a career that has generated loads of attention for the struggling circuit thanks to both Patrick's racing ability and, yeah, her striking good looks and her willingness to market (exploit?) the same. But Patrick's career also has created controversy because of her appearances in skimpy swimsuit and provocative ads - combined with her lack of a victory so far. Some commentators, such as Yahoo Sports' Bob Margolis, have gone as far as to compare Patrick to Anna Kournikova, stating that her presence in IRL wasn't worth the attention until she actually took the checkered flag once. So you would think that Patrick's win would turn the tide and finally shut up her critics, right? Not in the case of Margolis, whom within 24 hours took great pains to marginalize her achievement.

Among other things, Margolis called Patrick's victory "a triumph (more) in public relations than auto racing" and noted out that she won in Japan based on a fuel management strategy - an outcome that is far from unusual in IndyCar racing - rather than an exciting wheel-to-wheel finish that "many close observers of the sport feel she will never win". ("Now Patrick can focus on scoring a more “traditional” victory," Margolis oozed.) He also so helpfully pointed out that the Japan 300 starting pack was smaller than usual - only 18 cars - and that only seven of them were in the lead lap at the end. He even uses other women, such as drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney, to water down Patrick's milestone - forgetting the very obvious fact that while Muldowney indeed did plenty to shatter the motorsports gender barrier, she never had to make a left turn going nearly 200 miles per hour, something that a lot of drivers with penises (including, I'm just guessing, Bob Margolis) would have great difficulty accomplishing without sending themselves into a wall.

In the end, Margolis writes that Patrick's victory "leaves itself subject to scrutiny." But the only thing that deserves scrutiny is Margolis' objectivity. It's a far cry to compare Patrick - a former IRL Rookie of the Year whose has steadily gone up in the circuit's standings year after year, including a seventh-place finish in 2007 - to Jackie Robinson for a myriad of reasons, including the fact that Patrick isn't the first or only woman in open-wheel racing. But it's easier to compare Margolis to the (possibly) racist naysayers in the press box who looked down upon Robinson when he broke baseball's color line 61 years ago. He is, to be blunt, a Neanderthal who lets his obvious contempt for Patrick get in the way of his alleged expertise about the sport he is paid to cover.

Legend ...

2008-04-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

While we weren't looking, one of the great careers in movie history has gone poof. But at least Gene Hackman has called it a day on his own terms, more or less.

Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner and one of the stalwarts of the New Hollywood days of the '60s and '70s, hasn't acted in four years and, by his own words, has found that he doesn't miss movies that much. Or, rather, that the movies seem not to miss him. "At my age, they would have me playing grandfathers and great grandfathers," the 78-year-old is quoted as saying. "That's not a heck of a lot of fun. I'd rather go back to the theatre, actually. But that's not going to happen."

Instead of acting, Hackman has spent the past several years, of all things, writing historical fiction novels with his friend and neighbor Daniel Lenihan. "I write every day for at least a couple of hours. I exercise a little bit. And then it's time for the old folks to go to bed." But while Hackman seems content with his retirement, that can't be said for the fans who were entertained and enthralled by his brisk and edgy performances. Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, Scarecrow, The Conversation, Night Moves, Hoosiers, Unforgiven, The Royal Tennenbaums - even relative fluff such as The Poseidon Adventure, Superman, The Firm, Young Frankenstein - in all of them Hackman always gave his best and left it all on the screen. So forgive me for being selfish, for not wanting his last-ever movie to be Welcome to Mooseport. But if Hackman is serious about saying goodby to film, then I hope the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences steps up to the plate and bestows upon him Oscar Number Three - for lifetime achievement - so his audience and his peers can bid him a proper farewell.

Uh-huh ...

2008-04-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Remember my post about whether the removal of David Ortiz's jersey from beneath New Yankee Stadium may have reversed the wrong curse when it comes to the Bronx Bombers? After having the worst start of his career while his replica vestment was in its hidden perch, Big Papi broke out of his slump last night, going 3-for-5 in the Sox's 6-4 win over Cleveland. I'm just saying ...

A Dodger and a giant ...

2008-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sixty-one years ago today ...

You can never remember enough. You can never thank him enough.

Helmut Kohl was never this much fun ...

2008-04-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

Angela Merkel, the 53-year-old Chancellor of Germany, getting it done in a very low-cut gown while attending the opera in Oslo on April 12. Not surprisingly, Ms. Merkel's choice of formal wear is getting a lot of pub on the Continent. Maybe she's feeling the heat from France's latest first lady, Carla Bruni. Or maybe she's just proud of her rack. Whatever gets her through the night ...

It's true, it's true!

2008-04-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Turns out it wasn't a Red Sox T-shirt buried under the foundation of New Yankee Stadium. It was a Red Sox jersey. A David Ortiz jersey, to be really specific, jackhammered out of the concrete in a five-hour excavation project this past weekend. I guess the idea of having such a garment festering underneath the $1.3 billion sports complex was too much for the Brothers Steinbrenner to stomach. Now the Yankees are comtemplating filing charges against the construction worker who planted the jersey. But was the organization better off keeping it where it was? After all, Ortiz has laid an egg for the first two weeks of the season. If he goes on for the Sox now that the replica jersey bearing his name and number has been removed from the earth of the Bronx, who will be zooming who then?

Burning Down the House (That A-Rod Built) ...

2008-04-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here we go again. Tonight at Boston's Fenway Park, the eternal struggle between good and evil begins anew when the Yankees visit the Red Sox for the first time this season. The two baseball titans have played each other yearly for over 100 years - from back to a time when they weren't even known as the Yankees and the Red Sox. (Try the "Highlanders" and the "Pilgrims". Not exactly the same, is it?) Of course, the rivalry has only really become a rivalry in the past several years, when the Sox finally shook off the shackles of failure and starting giving the Evil Empire as much as they took, and those two Boston World Series rings definitely have changed the tenor of the blood feud.

And now, this: The New York Post is reporting today that the new Yankee Stadium, which is being built in the Bronx next to the current ballpark and is set to open next season, may already have "undesirable" Red Sox taint on it. Or, rather, under it. This story, which have yet to be completely confirmed, states that a construction worker on the $1.3 billion project placed a Red Sox T-shirt into the foundation of the visitor's clubhouse before the concrete was poured. According to the article, the worker wasn't meaning to place a curse on the Yankees but now fears that that may be the actual effect. And many fans of the Bronx Bombers are concerned enough to start demands that the "offending" garment be dug up asap, even though the construction is pretty far along at this point.

Stupid? Overraction? Just keep in mind that no other major sport is as driven by superstition as baseball. The curses can be epic (Bambino, Billy Goat, Bartman, etc.) or they can be miniscule, such as how, when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter, his teammates will avoid him like the plague in the dugout; or how a player with a hot bat will not change underwear as long as he's on a hot hitting streak; or how Hall of Fame batting champ Wade Boggs ate chicken (and, at times, other things) before every game. So to place the colors of a team's most bitter rival underneath their home stadium is serious stuff indeed. And considering how angst-ridden Yankee fans already are because their squad hasn't won the Series since 2000 (shocking!), don't be surprised if there's isn't a major reclamation project at the New Stadium before it even opens.