EMINEM GOES BOTH WAYS IN HIS BRAND-NEW 'ENCORE'
With the glorious stupidity, fantastic humor and gut-wrenching horror that are his trademark, Eminem shares his "Encore" today - and this most anticipated album of 2004 doesn't disappoint.
Eggheads trying to fathom how deep rap's favorite Caucasian is will find plenty to analyze in the introspective "Yellow Brick Road" and the devotional lullaby to his daughter Hailie, "Mockingbird."
Thin-skinned prudes will cringe at his love songs "Spend Some Time" and "Ass Like That."
The politically correct will be outraged by his provocative homophobic and misogynistic rants.
And those who just love the soap opera of Em's life will be relieved that mommy dearest and his ex-wife, Kim, are still - as always - the villains.
The man does do something he has never done before - apologize - but don't think this is a kinder, gentler Eminem.
This disc is a clear continuation of his Grammy-grabbing "The Eminem Show"; that's why it's called "Encore." Vented rage, violence as the solution and broken-home whines and poses are the heart and soul of this record.
The disc draws first blood with "Evil Deeds," a semi-autobiographical track on which hip-hop's Motor City madman spills his guts about hard feelings for a father who wasn't there.
The bitterness of a dysfunctional family and a misunderstood youth twisted him into an angst-ridden, alienated adult, he says, and the song leaves Eminem stripped naked and flushed with anger.
The self-absorbed rapper then swipes at his detractors with "Never Enough," grumbling with pal 50 Cent that he never gets his due from his peers or the press.
Even though it is invisible, the racial boundary of being a white rapper is the undercurrent of "Never Enough." It's why everyone looks at his lyrics so closely; why he often feels that he gets no respect.
In fact, it's why, on the song "Yellow Brick Road," he says he's sorry for a tape he made as a kid slagging African-American women after he was dumped by a black girlfriend. The 32-year-old chalks it up to the ignorance of youth.
Thankfully, that defensiveness doesn't flood every track on the disc.
On the wide-ranging raps, he takes a whack at political discourse in "Mosh," the record's anti-Bush, anti-war piece. There's a plea to stop the violence in rap on the song "Like Toy Soldiers."
But he's at his best when he lets his inner juvenile delinquent loose, belching into the mike and poking fun at Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Pee-wee Herman and pop's power couple, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey.
Take "Puke," for instance.
Here, Eminem is fantastic as he writes the next chapter of loathing for his ex, Kim. It's familiar territory, and the hilarious comic-book tirade transcends his apparent hatred.
That's the key to understanding Eminem.
His raps are guilty pleasures. He's ironic, witty and a prankster at heart. Humor boils under his deadpan gangsta smirk and hard words.
This is also his biggest problem: Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether he's parodying life or himself - or, worse, that he's serious.
More Moore
Even though his film didn't prevent Bush's reelection, he says the war on terror will remain relevant enough to merit a similar exploration in two or three years time.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is the most lucrative documentary ever made, so a little thing like the movie's failure to sway voters from reelecting President Bush isn't going to stop Michael Moore and Miramax cochief Harvey Weinstein from making a sequel. It'll be called Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2. ''We want to get cameras rolling now and have it ready in two, three years,'' Moore told Variety, noting that the first film's issues, like terrorism and Iraq, will still be relevant. ''Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information [in this election] and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it now.''
Moore said he rejects the notion that his $119 million-grossing movie and other celebrities' overt campaigning against Bush created an anti-Hollywood backlash that helped the President. ''America loves Hollywood. When given a chance to vote for someone from Hollywood, they jump in,'' he said, though he acknowledged that almost all the stars voted into office have been Republicans. ''Who is the Democrats' Arnold? We have a number of them. What American wouldn't vote for Tom Hanks? Hollywood is full of people like that.'' (Let us know when one of them considers running for office, Mike.)
Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 will follow Moore's next movie, an exposé of the U.S. health care system, called Sicko. In the short term, however, Moore and Weinstein will be campaigning for Oscars for the first Fahrenheit. Earlier this week, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said the film was ineligible for any Golden Globes (which would boost its Oscar chances) because it's a documentary, but Moore acknowledged that the film doesn't neatly fit into any of the Globes' categories. ''We're not a musical, comedy, or dramatic feature.'' As for whether he might reprise his notoriously angry 2003 Oscar acceptance speech for Bowling for Columbine, he said, ''I don't know if people want to see me on the stage of the Kodak again.'' However, he noted, the Best Picture trophy goes not to the director but to the producer. ''Since my wife [Kathleen Glynn] was the producer, if I win — she speaks!''
"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
— Mariah Carey
Blue Rodeo's Stereovision DVD illustrates the band's 20 year history
TORONTO (CP) - The lifeline of most bands lies in the relationship between its members so it's no surprise that Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy's friendship dates back some 30-odd years to Grade 11 math class.
Freshly enrolled Keelor found scrunched up notes with scribblings about the new boy with "ridiculous shoes" written by Cuddy and a classmate. "He was new. He came from Montreal. Montreal people were always hard on Toronto so he deserved a bit of initiation, a little bit of hazing," explained Cuddy in a recent interview, as Keelor sat next to him shoeless on a well-worn red couch in the band's downtown Toronto studio.
"It set him up for a career in the arts, reading your own reviews. He never should have looked at the notes," added Cuddy.
That first encounter speaks volumes about the strength of the duo's bond which has outlasted and outsmarted the tribulations of a volatile business where fighting is often the norm, even customary in some circles.
The then-teenagers started playing guitar in the 1970s and formed several punk bands which eventually, after a short attempt to break into New York, mutated and morphed into the country-infused Blue Rodeo in 1984.
The outfit celebrates 20 years with a DVD retrospective this month, directed by acclaimed, sometimes quirky, documentary filmmaker Ron Mann.
Toronto-based Mann, who directed docs Grass and last year's Go Further with Woody Harrelson, says he wanted to take a "Salman Rushdie approach to music" rather than the talking heads, VH-1-style too often repeated.
Calling Cuddy and Keelor the "Lennon and McCartney of Canada," Mann said he wanted to showcase the full breadth of the band.
"Their career is really interesting because they've done it in Canada on their own terms," he said. "But they're really kind of a secret in a way. It's authentic music. People respond to it internationally."
Stereovision is not what you've come to expect from music DVDs.
First, there are no videos - a completely overused technique these days for making quickie music DVDs. Second, there are no ego-filled introspective chats with band members musing about their own greatness.
Instead, the DVD is filled with a cornucopia of rare nuggets including a stylized appreciation by novelist Paul Quarrington, who appears in front of a yellow screen as animated illustrations float around him.
Called Sweet Soul Music, the 11-minute short premiered at a music film festival in Prague a few weeks ago. It'll screen at Montreal's international documentary festival next week.
Quarrington, who had his own band, Joe Hall and the Continental Drift, when Blue Rodeo formed, waxes poetically about the band's influence on the Toronto music scene and offers up his analysis of "stupid" band names and the musical context which first inspired Cuddy and Keelor.
Footnotes to the segment include a New Music clip from the first time Cuddy and Keelor were interviewed as well as photos, posters and handbills.
A collection of rarities, such as a 1989 show at Toronto's Diamond Club, shows the band's transformation from greasy, slick-backed hairdos to the laid back guys of today.
Another segment sees the band's original five members reunite for an outdoor party at Keelor's Ontario farm, where they perform two new songs, Rena and Up On That Cloud, in addition to classics like Diamond Mine.
Showing their crazy, party side, the band stages a massive, psychedelic massacre of paper snowmen as the Sadies play a cover of Jim Morrison's The End.
"We wanted to do something that encapsulated the entire career and have a party," Keelor said.
His eyes widening, he admits he has a fire fetish and thoroughly enjoyed filming the burning snowmen scene.
"I love the power of fire. Whenever I have a party, there's usually a pretty big fire. This is one of the bigger fires," smirks Keelor.
Adds Cuddy: "It's no problem for Greg to call the local fire department and tell them he's going to have another event."
A Hollywood pyro technician and the Bowmanville, Ont. fire marshal were on hand for the filming of the fiery scene.
The band came together in 1984 after Cuddy and Keelor placed an ad in a Toronto freebie requesting musicians who'd "dropped acid at least 20 times, lost three or four years to booze."
But they didn't really garner attention outside the Toronto club circuit until the 1986 heart-piercing Try was picked up by radio and MuchMusic.
The emotional ballad struck a chord with listeners and launched what's become two decades of acclaimed songwriting from Blue Rodeo.
They've release nine studio albums which have sold over three million copies.
American success has always eluded the band despite a big push from Atlantic Records, a 1988 Rolling Stone magazine proclamation "the best new American band may very well be Canadian," and another from Meryl Streep who included the band in 1990s Postcards from the Edge.
"Over the years I feel quite glad that we didn't make it down there," said Keelor. "My life would be so different. I'm very content."
Poll Says Winslet Would Be Great 'Bridget'
LONDON - If Renee Zellweger has grown tired of playing Bridget Jones, British fans would like to see an English star in the role.
Kate Winslet, 29, was the most popular choice to replace Zellweger if she turned down a part in a third installment, according to a fan vote published Thursday.
"Fight Club" actress Helena Bonham Carter was among other British actresses getting votes.
Zellweger, 35, played the role of the chubby, chain-smoking, chardonnay-swilling British TV journalist in the 2001 film "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its sequel, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," which had its red-carpet premiere in London this week.
"Titanic" star Winslet took 41 percent of the vote in a survey by Sky Movies, a pay TV channel. Reese Witherspoon, 28, was the second most popular choice in the vote by 3,476 viewers, followed by "Friends" star Jennifer Anniston.
Producers haven't said whether they plan a third film.
The "Bridget Jones" movies are based on two novels by Helen Fielding.
Asked at this week's premiere if she would take on the role a third time, Zellweger said: "You tell me if Helen Fielding writes another book. People have responded to Bridget with a lot of affection."
Hugh Grant Signals End to Acting Career
LONDON - Hugh Grant says he's lost interest in acting and is heading into retirement. Grant, who plays heartthrob Daniel Cleaver in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was quoted Thursday by the Evening Standard's Metro magazine as saying film acting is a "miserable experience."
"It's so long and boring and so difficult to get right," Grant said.
"I am sort of semiretired," he said. "I keep thinking I'm going to write a brilliant script."
Grant, whose screen credits include "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and the first "Bridget Jones" movie, gained international notoriety when he was caught in a car with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown in 1995.
The 44-year-old actor, who took his new girlfriend, heiress Jemima Khan, to this week's London premiere of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," told the magazine he didn't feel pressure to settle down.
'Incredibles' Has Edge Over 'Polar' at Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Warner Bros. Pictures' costly new entrant "The Polar Express" goes up against reigning champ "The Incredibles" at the weekend box office, but is unlikely to dislodge the hit superhero cartoon.
"Polar," from writer-director Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as several different computer-animated characters, already has been under the microscope for its innovative use of performance-capture technology as well as its astronomical budget, reported at $170 million or more.
Based on the popular children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, the film tells the story of a young boy whose doubts about Santa Claus are changed by a magical train ride to the North Pole. Warners is hoping for an instant classic and perennial holiday player.
But if "Polar's" opening-day numbers -- it bowed Wednesday in 3,650 locations -- are indicative of how the weekend plays out, then it won't be able to surpass "The Incredibles" from Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Co. "Incredibles," which earned $70.4 million its opening weekend, reaped an additional $4.5 million Wednesday, while "Polar" bowed to $2.6 million. "Polar" was expected to enjoy a bump Thursday, when a lot of children were out of school for the Veterans Day holiday.
The pairing of Zemeckis and Hanks has proved formidable in the past. With "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away," the duo has earned more than $562 million in domestic box office receipts. But with "Polar," they'll be competing not just with "The Incredibles" but also with Paramount Pictures' "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," which arrives next weekend.
Studios may have blanketed the children's market this weekend, but adult audiences have a few new options of their own.
Focus Features' new genre label Rogue Pictures will unveil its second release, the R-rated horror film "Seed of Chucky," in 2,061 theaters. The fifth film in the "Chucky" series should score well with horror fans. The franchise's most recent installment, 1998's "Bride of Chucky," opened to $11.8 million, and execs are looking for a similar performance this time around. The film stars Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly as the voices of Chucky and Tiffany; Tilly also appears as herself. It was written and directed by Don Mancini, screenwriter for the other "Chucky" films.
New Line Cinema will bow "After the Sunset" in 2,819 theaters. The Brett Ratner-directed caper stars Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Woody Harrelson in a story about what happens after a master thief walks away with his last big score. The film has a similar feel to Brosnan's 1999 heist picture, "The Thomas Crown Affair," which opened to $14.6 million. Brosnan may have more difficulty breaking the $10 million mark this time because of mixed reviews and a crowded marketplace.
Taking some of the heat off "Sunset" is the somewhat limited release of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," which is opening in 530 theaters in the top 100 markets. The Working Title comedy -- a sequel to 2001's "Bridget Jones's Diary," which earned Renee Zellweger an Oscar nomination for best actress -- hopes to amass word-of-mouth buzz in this busy frame by opening slowly and building solidly. It goes wide Nov. 19. Co-starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, "Bridget" is tracking well with women and could gross in the $7 million-$8 million range.
In limited release are two biopics and possible Academy Award contenders: "Finding Neverland" from Miramax Films and "Kinsey" from Fox Searchlight. "Neverland" stars Johnny Depp as "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie, and "Kinsey" toplines Liam Neeson as controversial sex researcher Albert Kinsey.
Eric B. & Rakim Top Greatest Rap Album List
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Picking the greatest ever hip-hop album is a tall order and Entertainment Weekly admits its list marking 25 years since the birth of mainstream rap is subjective, with Eric B & Rakim at No. 1.
"Eric B. & Rakim's 'Paid in Full' made hip-hop a true art form, doing for rap what Bob Dylan did for rock in the mid-'60s," the magazine said of the 1987 album which it praised for its technical intricacy and poetic metaphors.
Some of today's big names such as Outkast and Jay-Z may be disappointed not to make it into the top 10, although the former makes it to 11 with "Aquemini" and Jay-Z's "The Blueprint" is listed at 15. Eminem is at 17 for "The Marshall Mathers LP."
"It's not a record sales list," said Neil Drumming, one of the writers at Entertainment Weekly who picked the top 25.
"Most of the people you find on the list or not on the list, rappers in general, are going to reference Eric B. & Rakim as a seminal rap group," he said.
In second place the magazine picked the 1989 album "3 Feet High and Rising" by De La Soul, followed by "Ready to Die" by Notorious B.I.G. from 1994. Public Enemy and Run-D.M.C. make up the rest of the top five.
"It's an endless source of debate even after it's published," Drumming said.
The publication of the list on Friday marks the 25th anniversary of hip-hop as a mainstream phenomenon, which the magazine dates from 1979 when the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" landed on the R&B charts, making it hip-hop's first hit single.
"A lot of people didn't believe it would last, what people are acknowledging now is that it's not a fad," Drumming said.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
'Saving Private Ryan' TV controversy
NEW YORK -- More than 20 ABC affiliates around the country have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.
The decisions mark a twist in the conflict over the aggressive stand the FCC has taken against obscenity and profanity since Janet Jackson flashed the world during the last Super Bowl halftime show.
Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie aired on ABC with relatively little controversy in 2001 and 2002, but station owners -- including several in large markets -- are unnerved that airing it Thursday could bring federal punishment. The film includes a violent depiction of the D-Day invasion and profanity.
"It would clearly have been our preference to run the movie. We think it's a patriotic, artistic tribute to our fighting forces," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, told AP Radio. The company owns three ABC affiliates in the Midwest.
Other stations choosing to replace the movie with other programming are located in Atlanta, Dallas, Honolulu, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. They are owned by a variety of companies, including Cox Television, Tribune Broadcasting Corp., Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., Belo Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
"We regret that the FCC, given its current timidity in dealing in this area, would not grant an advance waiver, which would have allowed stations like ours to run it without any question or any concern," Cole said.
In a statement on WSB-TV's Web site, the Atlanta station's vice president and general manager, Greg Stone, cited a March ruling in which the FCC said an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during NBC's live airing of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was both indecent and profane.
The agency made it clear then that virtually any use of the F-word -- which is used repeatedly in "Saving Private Ryan" -- was inappropriate for over-the-air radio and television.
The Bono case "reversed years of prior policy that the context of language matters," Stone said. He added that broadcasters could not get any clarification from the FCC on whether the movie violates the standard.
ABC, which broadcast the film uncut in 2001 and 2002, issued a statement saying it is proud to broadcast it again. The network's contract with director Spielberg stipulates that the film cannot be edited.
"As in the past, this broadcast will contain appropriate and clear advisories and parental guidelines," the statement said.
The network has about 225 affiliates.
Several stations said ABC had rejected their requests to air the movie after 10 p.m.
An FCC spokeswoman said Wednesday that the agency does not monitor television broadcasts, but responds to complaints. The agency received a complaint after the 2001 broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan," but it was denied, she said.
WSOC-TV of Charlotte said it received complaints about language in the movie when it aired in 2001 and 2002.
"Now, after much concern and discussion about family viewing over past months, and with Americans at war across the world, it is the vivid depiction of violence combined with graphic language proposed to begin airing at 8 p.m. that has forced our decision," said Lee Armstrong, the station's vice president and general manager.
ABC has told its affiliates it would cover any fines, but Cole, of Citadel, said the network could not protect its affiliates against other FCC sanctions.
The FCC has stepped up enforcement of its decency standards for certain content following this year's Super Bowl halftime show, in which one of Janet Jackson's breasts was exposed.
Profane speech, which is barred from broadcast radio and television between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., is defined by the FCC as language that is "so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance," or epithets that tend "to provoke violent resentment."
The guidelines say the context in which such material appears is of critical importance.
Cole cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing "Saving Private Ryan" on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie "Return to Mayberry."
"We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new Congress," Cole said.
Big-Budget 'Polar Express' Draws Mixed Reviews
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warner Bros.' big-budget movie for children, "The Polar Express," pulled into theaters on Wednesday with a load of mixed reviews, ranging from praise for an instant holiday classic to jeers for a huge disappointment.
The computer-animated movie, which reportedly cost about $270 million to make and market, is a major financial risk for the studio and a creative risk for the new "performance capture" technology used to make it.
Whether the film could be headed for box office success won't be known until this Sunday's weekend box office estimate and then whether it does well during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. As for the quality of the film's story and animation, film critics were divided.
Influential Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert, said the movie "has the quality of a lot of lasting children's entertainment." But New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis called it "a grave and disappointing failure, as much of imagination as of technology."
The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan called it "something of a devil's bargain." He praised the visual recreations of Chris Van Allsburg's book from which the movie was made, but knocks "scenes of indifferent slapstick and unnecessary spookiness."
In the movie, a young boy questions his belief in Santa Claus until he is magically transported to the North Pole aboard the Polar Express train to meet him.
The movie's plot worked for many critics.
"To not adore it is to feel like a scrooge," the Washington Post said. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a runaway thrill when the train cascades, roller coaster-like through cavernous peaks."
The animation in several scenes drew praise, especially one in which a young girl loses her train ticket and it swirls through the air over a lush, snow-covered landscape.
But the computer-generated characters, which director Robert Zemeckis based on tracking the movements of real-life actors, drew mostly negative comments.
The movie "may succeed ... replicating human movement ... but it fails to capture the subtlety of facial expressions or to fabricate sympathetic, evocative figures," said Daily Variety, a newspaper that covers the entertainment industry.
Zemeckis has said the humans were not meant to look real, but were supposed to recreate the book's illustrations.
"We had no intention of doing anything photo real," he said at a demonstration of the technology. "Photo real" is a term to describe digital characters designed to look authentic.