Month: October 2010

Categories
Music

Welcome back, Amanda!!!

Amanda Marshall makes her much-anticipated return
After a lengthy period out of the spotlight due to legal issues with her record label, Amanda Marshall is back performing. Sheís at Casino Rama near Toronto on November 5th.
Everybodyís got a story that could break your heart. Just ask Amanda Marshall.
The wildly popular singer who set the music scene on fire back in 1995 hasnít been heard from much in recent years, which is why her concert at Casino Rama on November 5th is an occasion to look forward to.
And whatís behind that absence is Marshallís own particular heartbreak. Not the conventional kind, from a busted romance or a trip down the substance-abuse trail. None of that for Marshall.
No, her tragedy lies with firing her management in 2002, which then triggered a battle with her label and resulted in a series of legal actions that still arenít settled today and she isnít able to discuss.
ìLet me just say,î she begins in that wood-smoke voice of hers, ìThere are a lot of bands and performers whose careers are permanently derailed by spectacularly bad management. They just seem to vanish and one day you ask, ëHey, what happened to them?í î
But thatís the last stormy weather sentiment to pass Marshallís lips. Once the air has been cleared, the sun comes out and she definitely has a bright and shiny personality.
Judging to what she says, sheís been like that ever since she was born in Toronto on Aug. 29, 1972.
ìI was really, really, really enthusiastic as a kid. I was up for anything. I was hugely into music and theatre. I was a big musical theatre kid, I loved reading.î She pauses. ìOkay, I wasnít too much into sports!î A burst of laughter.
She happily recalls her elementary school days ìat the Montessori School on Sheldrake Blvd. My friends came from all over the city.î
When she was 10, her family moved to Halifax. ìIt was the first time I was the new kid at school. And I was the only new kid.î
And there was an added factor. Marshall is the child of a white father and a black mother. That had never been an issue in Toronto. Things changed in Halifax.
ìIt was the first time I ever had to deal with it,î she says with surprise in her voice. ìIt wasnít that awful, but it was still people saying things, calling me names, leaving me out. Iíd never known any of that.î
She chuckles. ìWell, I had known the food differences. Not only did my Mom cook food from the Islands, but she was a health freak back then. I never got a chocolate birthday cake; I got a carob one. And when I went to other kidsí houses I was very covetous of things like Cheez Whiz that Iíd find in their refrigerators.î
Marshall survived the years in Halifax, came back to Toronto to finish high school, but decided not to go to college. ìIn my mind, I had already committed myself to a career in music. I had done that a long time ago.î
So she set out at the age of 17, ìworking as a telephone operator by day and doing gigs by night.î Thatís where she met the late, great blues musician Jeff Healey, who took her on as his protÈgÈe and brought her on tour with him.
ìMy father saw how fast I was moving and he asked me, just once, ëAre you sure this is really what you want to do with your life?í but I didnít listen. When youíre that age and doing what you love, youíre just flying.î
Thereís been a generally accepted story that Marshall turned down a contract with a major record company when it was offered to her in 1991, but now, nearly 20 years later, sheís anxious to set things straight.
ìI did actually have a deal with Columbia,î she now admits, ìbut it became increasingly clear to me after signing with them that they didnít know what to do with me and I didnít know what to do for them, so we agreed to go our separate ways.î
But four years later she signed with Epic Records and her debut album, Amanda Marshall. broke big, really big, with six Top 40 songs.
Asked if she knew what had happened to her, she reaches back into her memory for a specific incident.
ìI was doing my first promo tour, sitting in a hotel lobby with a label representative, signing CDs. He was telling me how well things were going and asked me ëArenít you excited?í and even though I told him I was, he must have seen past my words and he shook his head. ëYou donít really have any idea whatís going on here, do you? You donít know how big youíre going to be.íî
And she didnít. To Marshall, her sudden fame meant ìthat I got to do two things I loved doing: travelling and singing. That was good enough for me.î
Even from the start, though, Marshall was putting her only particular stamp on things. The big hit from her first album was ìBirmingham.î a fairly brutal slice of life from the southern United States and she admits that, ìI got a lot of shit for it when it first came out,î but it was also the song that Elton John publicly admired, which gave her career a giant boost.
ìAll along, I wanted my songs to be about things, not just ëBaby, baby, yeah, yeah!í It wasnít important to me to be Madonna. It was important to me to do things than mean something.î
After two highly successful albums in the pop vein, Marshall changed direction to a more R&B oriented sound and more conversational lyrics with ìEverybodyís Got a Storyî.
The title track, one of her most enduring hits, came about when she actually ad libbed the phrase ìEverybodyís got a story that could break your heart,î in conversation and one of her collaborators said: ìThatís the kind of s— youíve got to write down . . . it speaks to people even when youíre not aware of it.î
Who knows where Marshall would have gone after that, but the next year the battle with her management began and, as she puts it, ìwhat was meant to be a small break turned into a much longer one.î
Marshall claims to be calm about the lower profile sheís had to keep while all the legal hassles continue. ìPeople in my business have a tremendous fear of being forgotten and feel they have to keep putting themselves out there in some capacity. I donít necessarily buy into that.î
But what about her famous line? Does she have a story that could break our heart?
ìSure, hasnít everyone? Itís inevitable. If youíre breathing, if youíre living, then something or someone is going to hurt you. But I think thatís what makes you stronger and much more capable of dealing with life.î
Five faves that have influenced Amanda Marshall:
ï THE POINTER SISTERS: They were huge in my house when I was growing up and they were the first concert I ever saw, at Massey Hall, when I was 7. I saw them again recently and what struck me was how much I stole from them!
ï FAME: That movie was a huge turning point for me. I saw it at the Cinesphere at Ontario Place and, as a kid, it legitimized the idea that pursuing a career in the arts was a noble thing.
ï DIONNE FARRIS: Her album Wild Seed, Wild Flower made a huge impression on me. It was hip-hop presented with a rock sensibility and it blew me away.
ï PATTI CATHCART: She sang with guitarist Tuck Andress as Tuck and Patti. I knew every one of their records note for note. She was such an amazing improvisationalist, my first exposure to that intimate, smokey, right-on-the-mic kind of thing.
ï MAYA ANGELOU: When we had just moved to Halifax and I was feeling pretty miserable, my aunt gave me a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It transported me and made me feel a lot better about myself.

Categories
Movies

I’m interested, but at the same time I am not at all!!

Mission: Impossible IV renamed
Mission Impossible IV, with Tom Cruise returning to the screen as secret agent Ethan Hunt, has been renamed Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
The 48-year-old actor told reporters at a press conference in Dubai, where the fourth movie in the blockbuster series is being filmed, that he does not see it as a sequel and therefore doesn’t want the film to have a number in its title.
“I’ve never done sequels to films and I never thought of these films as sequels,” Cruise said. “I’ve always felt it should have a title.”
Paramount Pictures then renamed it Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
The film’s production crew has one tall task to accomplish ó filming action scenes on the sides of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s 828-metre (2,716-foot) Burj Khalifa.
“I’ll be spending many days, many hours on the side of this building,” Cruise said.
The Gulf Arab emirate is slowly emerging from a debt crisis following a crash in its property market after the global financial downturn in 2008.
Movie scenes will also be shot in Moscow, Prague and Vancouver, according to Paramount Pictures.
The cast includes Jeremy Renner ó nominated for an Oscar for his role in the 2009 war film The Hurt Locker ó Simon Pegg and Paula Patton. The director is Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning maker of the 2004 animated adventure, The Incredibles.
The film’s plot is still top secret.
Cruise is producing the film with J.J. Abrams. They last teamed up in 2006 for Mission: Impossible III. Abrams directed that film, and Cruise starred as super-agent Hunt.
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol will be in theatres in December 2011.

Categories
Movies

“Paranormal Activity 2” rocks!!!

‘Saw 3D’ takes top box-office slice with $24.2M
LOS ANGELES ñ Psychokiller Jigsaw has come back to life at the box office.
Lionsgate’s “Saw 3D,” billed as the final installment in the series about Jigsaw’s legacy of bloody terror, debuted as the Halloween weekend’s No. 1 movie with $24.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That was $10 million more than the debut of last year’s “Saw VI,” the first dud in the annual horror franchise.
“Last year, a lot of people said, ‘OK, that’s it. Put a fork in it, it’s done,'” said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. “The following week, we were all disappointed and thought, what can we do to reinvigorate the franchise? So we shot the movie in 3-D and said this is the final chapter.”
It paid off, though “Saw 3D” still brought a modest return compared to earlier chapters in the “Saw” series, whose second, third, fourth and fifth movies all topped $30 million over opening weekend.
“Saw 3D” also had a soft debut compared to the previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Paramount’s “Paranormal Activity 2,” a newer fright franchise that opened with $40.7 million. “Paranormal Activity 2” slipped to No. 2 this weekend, raising its total to $65.7 million.
“Seven years into it, obviously, that’s a long time for one franchise to hold up year after year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “Other types of horror movies have come into vogue. `Saw’ is part of that whole torture-porn genre, which has gone from great success to lesser success. But they’ve had a good run. There’s nothing to complain about here.”
“Saw 3D” also had the benefit of premium prices for 3-D screenings, which cost a few dollars more than tickets for 2-D movies. According to Lionsgate, 3-D projection accounted for roughly 77 percent of “Saw 3D” screenings but 92 percent of the movie’s revenues.
Summit Entertainment’s action comedy “Red” continued to hold up well, finishing at No. 3 with $10.8 million and lifting its total to $58.9 million.
Another franchise playing in 3-D for the first time, Paramount’s “Jackass 3D,” crossed the $100 million mark, coming in at No. 4 with $8.4 million. The stunt and prank comedy raised its haul to $101.6 million.
In narrower release, Fox Searchlight’s legal drama “Conviction” broke into the top-10 after two weeks in a handful of theaters. Starring Hilary Swank in the real-life story of a woman who put herself through law school to free her brother on a murder rap, “Conviction” was No. 10 with $1.8 million, playing in 565 theaters and averaging a modest $3,230 a cinema.
That compared to an $8,618 average in 2,808 theaters for “Saw 3D.”
Also in narrower release, Music Box Films had solid results for “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” which follows “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played With Fire” to finish the trilogy based on late author Stieg Larsson’s best-selling thrillers.
“Hornet’s Nest” took in $735,000 in 121 theaters, averaging $6,074 a cinema. The Swedish-language film has Larsson’s troubled savant Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) targeted by ruthless conspirators.
Director David Fincher is shooting Sony Pictures’ English-language remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. The movie is due in theaters in December 2011.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Saw 3D,” $24.2 million.
2. “Paranormal Activity 2,” $16.5 million.
3. “Red,” $10.8 million.
4. “Jackass 3D,” $8.4 million.
5. “Hereafter,” $6.3 million.
6. “Secretariat,” $5.1 million.
7. “The Social Network,” $4.7 million.
8. “Life as We Know It,” $4 million.
9. “The Town,” $2 million.
10. “Conviction,” $1.8 million.

Categories
Movies

Here’s to 2012!!!

The Dark Tower, The Bourne Legacy, Ouija And Others Get Official Release Dates
The year 2012 already promises to be one hell of a twelve month period for movie fans. Already set for release are The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, the Spider-Man reboot, and the Superman reboot – and that’s just the superhero stuff. By January 1, 2013 everyone of us my have empty pockets and bank accounts. But there’s room for a lot of movies in the span of 52 weeks and now some more dates are coming out.
Deadline is reporting that Universal has set some more dates for its upcoming slate of films, most of which will find release dates in 2012.
They are:
Larry Crowne, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts – Friday, July 1, 2011
Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds – Friday, February 10, 2012.
Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale – Friday, March 16, 2012
The Bourne Legacy, directed by Tony Gilroy – Friday, August 3, 2012
Ouija, produced by Michael Bay – Friday, November 9, 2012
47 Ronin, starring Keanu Reeves – Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Snow White And The Huntsman, directed by Rupert Sanders – Friday, December 21, 2012
The Dark Tower, directed by Ron Howard – Friday, May 17, 2013
While we had a vague idea about most of these dates, the most surprising in the bunch is the Washington-Reynolds starring Safe House, which has been given a humdrum February date. Just two months ago that part played by Reynolds was being pursued by every male actor in Hollywood, which suggested that the project would be viewed as a tentpole. January and February are the months in which you dump movies that you expect to make nothing at the box office.
Is a special strategy being put in place by Universal here? Are they trying to Avatar it and have it play against zero competition? Or is the project really so dreadful that they want to hide it from sight? Questions, questions, questions.

Categories
The Couch Potato Report

Happy Halloween!!!

The Couch Potato Report – October 30th, 2010
This week The Couch Potato Report goes back, to the future, and back, to the 1970s for the scariest movie of all time?!?
It was on October 26th, 1985, when Marty McFly took Doc Brownís DeLorean Time Machine back to 1955 in the film BACK TO THE FUTURE, and it was on October 26th, 2010 when the 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of the film ñ along with BACK TO THE FUTURE II and BACK TO THE FUTURE III ñ were released ñ on Blu-ray for the very first timeÖand they look and sound amazing!!
In addition to these great films ñ starring beloved Canadian Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd ñ in High Definition, there are also some new Special Features in BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE 25th ANNIVERSARY TRILOGY.
The main one is TALES FROM THE FUTURE, a six-part retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Fox, Lloyd, co-star Lea Thompson, Director Robert Zemeckis, and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, and the best part of that documentary is the footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly.
You see, Stoltz ñ who by the mid-eighties had appeared in the hit films SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL and SAY ANYTHING ñ was originally cast in the role, but ñ as sometimes happens in Hollywood ñ it didnít work out, and he was eventually replaced by Fox.
Prior to this release, footage of Stoltz as Marty had never been shown before, and I for one was excited to see it!! It is a fantastic addition to an already stellar release!!
Bottom line is, I love these films, if you are a fan of THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY, do not miss THE 25th ANNIVERSARY TRILOGY!!
Another box set you can not miss this week if you are a fan of great films is the six disc ALIEN ANTHOLOGY box set, featuring the 1979 film ALIEN, 1986’s ALIENS, ALIEN 3 from 1992, and 1997’s ALIEN RESURRECTION.
OkayÖmaybe not all of these films are greatÖALIEN directed by Ridley Scott and ALIENS ñ directed by Canadian James Cameron ñ sure are, and this set is worth owning just for themÖbut it is also worth it because of the sixty-plus hours of bonus footage, yes I said there are sixty-plus additional hours of documentaries, never-before ñseen footage and so much more!
The Alien film series focuses on Lieutenant Ellen Ripley ñ played by Sigourney Weaver ñ and her battle with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred as “the Alien” and the ALIEN ANTHOLOGY is now the only way to watch them!!
Another film that I will attach the word ìamazingî to is THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIREÖthis film based on the second book in the Millennium Trilogy by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson is amazing!
As with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, the primary characters in THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE are Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Lisbeth is an intelligent, eccentric woman with a photographic memory and bad social skills. Blomkvist is a well-known investigative journalist.
The other two books in the series are THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETSí NEST.
In this film Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE has great twists and turns, doesnít pull any punches, and is utterly fascinating at times! Due to some very graphic scenes, this is not a movie for everyoneÖbut if you can stomach some cinematic violence this is one that you should not miss!
One release this week that I had been expecting to tell you that you also should not miss is the Box Set for the CBC documentary series AFRICA ON THE MOVE, unfortunately while I thought it was interesting, informative and very good at timesÖit just didnít hold my attention.
Some documentaries grab you and donít let you goÖand you are engaged and focussed on what is going on, right up until the endÖwhile others seem to go on forever and ñ even though you find it interesting at times ñ they never really engage you.
AFRICA ON THE MOVE is the latter, even thought it does do a great job of introducing us to the continentís diverse people and various cultures ñ of men and women, black and white ñ and the amazing changes that take place each and every day, but many of the stories arenít overly compelling and so ñ even though I watched all of it, I didnít care. I wish all of the people featured well, but their stores ñ as told here ñ donít make me care.
AFRICA ON THE MOVE features some very inspiring stories, but as a series, it did not inspire me to recommend it to you.
I was hoping I would, but I donít recommend AFRICA ON THE MOVE, and I also donít recommend SUPERMAN/BATMAN: APOCALYPSE to everyone, even though I liked it.
APOCALYPSE is an animated superhero film about Batman and Supermanís reaction to a spaceship that splashes down in Gotham Harbour. A mysterious female Kryptonian with powers as great as Superman’s is the sole passenger and the villain Darkseid has her abducted and brought under his control and ñ as always ñ it is up to the caped crusaders to save the day!
The story in SUPERMAN/BATMAN: APOCALYPSE is based on Jeff Loeb’s popular mini-series from the Superman/Batman comic books and it is good, but like all of these straight to home superhero films, they could use more story and less fightingÖbut I still liked it.
If you are a comic book fan, donít miss it!
Some Halloween oriented releases are coming up, however ñ right now ñ how about some TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE.
TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE features several shorts stories, each one set in the late communist period in Romania and based on urban myths from the time. The title refers to the alleged “Golden Age” of the last 15 years of Ceauşescu’s regimeÖ.years that were actually the worst in Romania`s historyÖbut the government propaganda machine referred ñ without fail ñ to that period as “the golden age.”
TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE features comic, bizarre and surprising urban myths all told in a lighthearted, entertaining and clever way. I really enjoyed it!
And then there is the other handÖa film I did not enjoyÖone called NICE GUY JOHNNY that would have been a huge disappointment, if I had been expecting much from it.
NICE GUY JOHNNY is the latest from Director Edward BurnsÖthe same guy that gave us a great film called THE BROTHERS MACMULLEN back in 1995Öand this movie isnít great.
It is a small movie about a nice guy named Johnny who is about to trade his dream job in talk radio for a job in the cardboard box industry just to please his fiancÈe.
His womanizing Uncle Terry want shim to see that he is making a mistake, to no avail, but then a beautiful female stranger comes along, and ñ as happens in predictable films like this ñ she makes him see the error of his waysÖand you wonít care.
NICE GUY JOHNNY is poorly make, the continuity is off, you can see the camera crew in window and door reflections at times, and ñ as someone who has worked in radio for a number of years ñ I can tell you that this guy would never get a job in radio, let alone a dream job in the medium ñ and so this is one of those movies you should just skip past
OkayÖthe Halloween Weekend is here!! A weekend when we get to eat candy guilt free and enjoy scary movies, just because!
And one of the best scary movies, one that I can easily recommend to you even twenty-eight years after it first came outÖis POLTERGEIST.
Based on a story idea by Steven Speilberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, POLTERGEIST is about a young family who are visited by ghosts in their home. At first they appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorise the family before they “kidnap” the youngest daughter.
POLTERGEIST is now available on Blu-ray and it is still a great flick to watch at this time of year!!
If you have never seen it, scare yourself up a copy!!
Here is a trick for you now, after that treat, a remake of a true classic horror film, a remake that does not need to exist, yet it does.
Yes, surprise, surprise the remake of the 1984 horror classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is pointless.
This NIGHTMARE is billed as a re-imagining of the horror icon Freddy Krueger, the serial-killer who wields a glove with four blades for fingers.
And once again here if you die in your dreams you die in real lifeÖand as I was watching it, I wished this film would die. If filmmakers are going to re-imagine things, you would hope they would either do it better than the original or at least give their film a reason to existÖthis one just does not.
The 2010 version A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a complete waste of timeÖsee the original instead!!
Since it is the Halloween weekend ñ Or Halloweekend as I like to call it ñ it is my pleasure to let the Blu-Ray Beacon shine on the film whose packaging refers to it as ìThe scariest film of all time.î
Ultimately only you can decide if THE EXORCIST is ìThe scariest film of all timeî, and you should use the new Blu-Ray Book edition to help you make up your mind because this 2-Disc Edition features fantastic High-Definition Presentations of the Original 1973 Theatrical Version and the 2000 Extended Director’s Cut.
THE EXORCIST is about a young girl who becomes possessed, and a mother who seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
Whether THE EXORCIST is ìThe scariest film of all timeî or not is up for debate, but what is not is the fact that it is a true horror classic!!
Finally this week, ITíS THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN
The 1966 classic about the Peanuts gang celebrating Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin is now available on Blu-ray and it looks just as good now as it ever didÖand one day, one of these years, I hope that Great Pumpkin actually shows up!!
ITíS THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, THE EXORCIST, the remake of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, POLTERGEIST, NICE GUY JOHNNY, TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE, SUPERMAN/BATMAN: APOCALYPSE, the CBC Documentary series AFRICA ON THE MOVE, the tremendous film THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, ALIEN ANTHOLOGY and BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE 25th ANNIVERSARY TRILOGY are all available now for you to watch and own.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
Buzz, Woody and the gang are back in TOY STORY 3, weíll head to THE PACIFIC, celebrate Christmas early with the ULTIMATE COLLECTORíS EDITION of Will Ferrellís ELF and THE SOUND OF MUSIC debuts on Blu-ray!!
I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

Categories
Memorabilia

I want one!!

John Lennon coin issued by UK Royal Mint
LONDON ñ Most British coins bear the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II ó but now she’s been joined by John Lennon, honored Friday with a commemorative coin struck by the Royal Mint.
It was a triumph for Beatle fans, who used e-mail voting and social networks to buttress support for Lennon in a public poll to determine whose face should be on the special coin.
Lennon _whose songwriting credits include “Imagine” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” ó came out far ahead of author Jane Austen and several other figures in the balloting.
“It’s entirely fitting that John Lennon has been chosen by the public in what would have been his 70th year,” said Dave Knight, director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint. “The massive proportion of the vote he received shows clearly just how much his untimely death still resonates with the nation. He ranks alongside, and even ahead of, some of the greatest names in history.”
The former Beatle will join William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale among British luminaries whose images have graced special coins.
The issuing of the silver commemorative coin marks one more step in the British establishment’s posthumous embrace of Lennon, whose political stance and open drug use brought him into conflict with authorities in the late 1960s before he moved to New York, where he was murdered in 1980.
The airport at Lennon’s home town of Liverpool has been named after Lennon, and there is a statue of him in the city center.
The limited edition coin shows Lennon with long hair and sideburns and his trademark round glasses. It will have a face value of 5 pounds ($8) but will be sold for 44.99 pounds. Only 5,000 will be offered for sale.
The Royal Mint also plans to produce a single coin in 24 karat gold that will be given to Lennon’s estate.

Categories
People

Funny is trustworthy!!

Stewart, Colbert influence growing
NEW YORK – U.S. President Barack Obama’s election led many political pundits to predict the popularity of American satirist Jon Stewart would wane. After all, mocking Republicans was his bread and butter.
But two years later with the nation just days away from an election expected to shift the balance of power in Washington, Stewart and his Comedy Central stable mate Stephen Colbert are growing ever more successful.
On Saturday, the pair mount their most audacious stunt — rallies on Washington’s National Mall. Stewart’s is a “Rally to Restore Sanity,” while Colbert, whose show mocks conservative punditry, holds a rival “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
Organizers haven’t disclosed what exactly the rallies will be, but they will no doubt build on Stewart’s huge following for “The Daily Show,” which typically features the comedian commenting on the day’s news in a faux anchor format and conducting interviews with top newsmakers.
“We all thought he would have less fun after (President George W.) Bush left office but that’s not been the case,” said Michael Musto, a culture writer at New York’s Village Voice.
“There are still plenty of Republicans to poke fun at, and Obama’s ratings are so low that he can now poke fun at Obama and the Democrats too,” said Musto. “It’s twice as much fun.”
Experts say the explosion of Internet news, opinion and blogs and the 24-hour cable television news cycle have created a cacophony of shouting pundits. That, they say, allows Stewart to poke fun at overheated rhetoric on both sides.
Media and Society Professor Richard Wald of New York’s Columbia University said Stewart is evocative of Will Rogers, known for such cutting satire as: “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.”
U.S. entertainment, from Bob Hope in early radio days to “Saturday Night Live” and late night TV hosts Johnny Carson and David Letterman, has satirized politicians, albeit in a gentle tone associated with conservative U.S. broadcasting standards.
Where Stewart is different, said Wald, is he places politics squarely at the center of all his comedy, and new forms of communications help him spread his laughs.
“Stewart’s edge is that he not only has cable TV … but YouTube and Twitter and the Internet, so that he gets to reach an ever wider audience,” Wald said.
Stewart’s stature is certainly high this week. On Wednesday not only did Obama become the first sitting commander-in-chief to be interviewed on his show, but the comedian was named in a poll as more influential than the U.S. president.
‘MOST TRUSTED MAN IN AMERICA’
Stewart topped a poll of the “most influential men” of the year conducted by AskMen.com, ahead of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Obama came 21st.
The web site called his show “our youths’ most trusted source of information and its host the most trusted man in America.”
Such is Stewart’s influence that The New York Times wrote that Obama’s appearance, seeking votes for Democrats who are expected to suffer big losses in Tuesday’s congressional election, raised the question: “Whether a political satirist loses credibility when hobnobbing with the president.”
Stewart’s Daily Show is watched by about 3.6 million U.S. viewers per episode, Comedy Central said. Crucial to his value to advertisers, that audience includes 2.2 million viewers in the sought-after 18-49 age range.
By comparison, the most popular cable TV news show by a large margin is the Fox News’ show “The O’Reilly Factor,” with 4 million viewers.
The average Daily Show episode is also streamed online almost 225,000 times, Comedy Central said.
The Obama appearance this week drew just over 2.8 million viewers, according to the Neilson ratings.
The Daily Show began in 1996 as a pop culture satire hosted by Craig Kilborn. Stewart took over as host in 1999, and its audience grew as he shifted its focus to politics.
Stewart has broadened his celebrity, hosting the Oscars twice and writing best-selling books — 2004’s “America (the Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction,” a mock school history book, and “Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race,” published in September.
Organizers have declined to estimate what crowd Stewart and Colbert might draw at their rallies this weekend, but many youngsters seem intrigued.
“I love him, and love this show,” said Tahlia Selby, 19, a college student in New York. “If I could go to his rally and Colbert’s in Washington, I probably would.”
But while Stewart is certainly popular with younger Americans, his context is not all lost.
“I like him because he’s rather funny,” said Juliana Hein, 23, a human resources consultant in New York. “But people take him too seriously and forget he’s just a comedian.”

Categories
Magazines

It does come with a great cover picture!!

LeAnn Rimes mag cover under fire
The editor-in-chief of fitness magazine Shape has apologized to readers for putting singer LeAnn Rimes on the October cover of the publication.
Valerie Latona has called the decision to publish bikini shots and an interview with Rimes, who split from husband Dean Sheremet in 2009 following an affair with married actor Eddie Cibrian, a “terrible mistake”.
In an email sent to some readers and obtained by TooFab.com, the editor wrote, “Please know that our putting her on the cover was not meant to put a husband-stealer on a pedestal, but to show (through her story) how we all are human. And this woman in particular found strength in exercise in what she said was her most difficult personal moment.
“It did not come across that way… and for that I’m terribly sorry.
“I hope that we can do better the next time for those of you that will give us another chance.”
The email comes after many Shape readers complained about the cover story.

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People

May he rest in peace!!

Actor who played Danno on ‘Hawaii Five-O’ dies
LOS ANGELES ñ Stage and screen actor James MacArthur, who played “Danno” in the original version of television’s “Hawaii Five-O,” died Thursday at age 72. MacArthur’s agent, Richard Lewis, said the actor died in Florida of “natural causes,” but no direct cause was specified.
In a career that spanned more than four decades, MacArthur was most recognized for his role as detective Danny “Danno” Williams on “Hawaii Five-O,” which aired from 1968 to 1980. Episodes often ended with detective Steve McGarrett, the lead character, uttering what became a pop culture catch phrase: “Book ’em, Danno.”
Jack Lord, who starred as McGarrett, died in 1998.
MacArthur quit the role of McGarrett’s sidekick a year before the program’s final season.
“Quite frankly, I grew bored,” he explained on his website. “The stories became more bland and predictable and presented less and less challenge to me as an actor.”
“Hawaii Five-O,” one of the longest running crime shows in TV history with 278 episodes, was shot on location in the Hawaiian islands. It was the first Hawaii-based national TV series.
Glenn Cannon, a University of Hawaii theater professor who had a recurring role as the district attorney in the original series, said Lord and MacArthur were “a great part” of the team that produced the series and kept it “strong and positive.”
The use of many local actors, scenery and flavor of the islands led Hawaii residents “to feel very positively about the series,” added Cannon, who still acts, directs and leads the local branch of the Screen Actors Guild. “People in Hawaii felt they had an ownership of the series.”
The drama has been remade by CBS with a new cast this season.
MacArthur, born Dec. 8, 1937, seemed destined to become an actor. He was the adopted son of playwright Charles MacArthur and Helen Hayes, an award-winning actress often referred to as “First Lady of the American Theater.” Silent film star Lillian Gish was his godmother.
“They did teach me a lot about the theatre just through my life with them,” he said of his parents in a 1957 interview in Teen Life magazine. “They never pushed me in any direction. Any major decision has always been my own to make.”
James MacArthur made his stage debut at age 8 in a summer stock production of “The Corn is Green.”
His breakout role was in the 1957 “Climax!” television series production of “The Young Stranger,” in which he starred as the 17-year-old son of a movie executive who has a run-in with the law.
He entered Harvard that same year, but dropped out in his sophomore year to pursue an acting career.
As a young actor, James MacArthur appeared in the Walt Disney movies “Kidnapped,” “Third Man on the Mountain,” “Swiss Family Robinson” and “The Light in the Forest.”
He also had roles in “The Interns, “Spencer’s Mountain,” “Battle of the Bulge” and “Hang ‘Em High,” as well as many guest roles on TV series such as “Gunsmoke.”
He performed in many stage plays, including the lead role of Hildy Johnson in a 1981 production of “The Front Page,” which was co-written by his father in the late 1920s, at the Stanford Community Theatre in Palo Alto, Calif.
His live acting career won him the 1961 Theatre World Award for best new actor for his performance in “Invitation to a March.”
James MacArthur said that one of his favorite “Hawaii Five-O” episodes was a 1975 segment called “Retire in Sunny Hawaii Forever” because it marked one of the rare times that he worked on screen with his mother. Hayes played Danno’s Aunt Clara, who visits Hawaii and helps the detectives solve a murder.
Asked by the Hawaii Star Bulletin newspaper in 2003 about his fondest memories about working on “Hawaii Five-O,” he replied: “Living in Hawaii.”

Categories
People

May he also rest in peace!!

James Wall, Captain Kangaroo’s ‘Mr. Baxter,’ dies
NEW YORK ñ James Wall, Captain Kangaroo’s neighbor “Mr. Baxter” on the children’s show and longtime stage manager for CBS News, has died. He was 92.
CBS News says Wall died Wednesday in New York City after a short illness.
The former vaudevillian joined the popular children’s show in 1962 as a stage manager before persuading the show’s producers to create its first black character in 1968.
He played Baxter and another recurring roll on the show until 1978.
Wall was a stage manager for many CBS broadcasts over the years, including “60 Minutes,” “Face the Nation,” and the US Open Tennis Championships.
In 1994, Wall was honored with an achievement award by the Director’s Guild of America.