The Couch Potato Report - May 5th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels an inspiring, yet tragic Canadian story, some little children and our summer FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL will begin!
The CF-105 airplane - The Avro Arrow - is the stuff of legend!
Canadian legend!!
The Avro Arrow was an interceptor developed in Malton, Ontario, in the 1950s for the Canadian military.
This is a plane that could have been the fastest plane in the world, it could have been the best Military defence against our enemies at the time, and it could have been the catalyst for Canada becoming one of the world leaders in aircraft design and construction.
Could have been...instead, The Avro Arrow is now only the stuff of legends!
The reason the Arrow is a legend, and not a reality, is the fact that just as the team of designers and engineers were close to finishing the plane, and the unique Canadian engine for it, the Canadian government - lead by Saskatchewan's own John Diefenbaker - cancelled the project, destroyed all of the research information, documents and blueprints pertaining to it, and demolished the few planes that had been built.
However, Canadians haven't forgotten this unique part of our history and the inspiring, yet ultimately tragic story and the legacy of the plane itself is told in the CBC film THE ARROW.
Make no mistake, THE ARROW is not a documentary.
It is a based-on-a-true-story film, with composite characters and scenes that take place in offices, rooms and homes where we will never - sadly - know what actually happened or what was actually said.
No, THE ARROW isn't a documentary, but it is a very entertaining film about a unique time in Canadian history.
The bonus features on the DVD include stories from two great CBC programs that no longer exist as well - Midday and The Journal - as we are given the chance to meet the real engineers, politicians and military reps in The Arrow's story, and watch an investigation of the real story behind Canada's most famous aircraft.
From the stuff of Canadian legend, we go now to LITTLE CHILDREN - a very, very interesting movie starring Kate Winslet.
Winslet plays a housewife and mother who spends her days at the playground with other neighborhood mothers. She is bored and feels alienated from the others until the day she meets the only stay-at-home father in the neighborhood.
Winslet was justifiably given an Academy Award nomination for her work, and so was Jackie Earle Haley, the one-time child star who played Kelly Leak in the BAD NEWS BEARS films.
His character returns home following a conviction for exposing himself to a child. The townspeople react to him with predictable venom, even as their own misdeeds play out before our eyes.
LITTLE CHILDREN is a well-written film, populated by a wealth of lonely, interesting characters who aren't all likeable, and don't always communicate what they are feeling or thinking.
It also features a great narrator.
Due to it's sometimes graphic content and language LITTLE CHILDREN isn't a film for everyone, but I recommend it as a great film for adults.
It is a very complex movie with characters who go from likeable to pathetic and back again within a few minutes, and are - at all times - interesting.
Alright, lets go from a complex movie with many characters, to an easy to understand - and laugh at film - with one man playing many characters.
The one man is Chevy Chase, and the film is FLETCH.
FLETCH is one of my favourite movies of all time, and even though I have seen it dozens of times, I still laugh out loud to it each and every time.
Chase is at his career best playing an investigative reporter for a L.A.. newspaper who has gone undercover to expose drug smuggling activity among the Los Angeles Police Department.
Along the way he is asked to commit a murder, meets a beautiful woman, dons numerous disguises, and says one classic line after another.
THE JANE DOE EDITION of FLETCH is a special edition that features some interesting extras, but sadly, Chase himself doesn't appear.
That makes the extras less than spectacular, but the film itself remains a classic.
Finally this week, with the opening of SPIDER-MAN 3 in theatres yesterday, the action filled, very loud, check-your-brain-at-the-door summer movie season is upon us.
If you'd prefer an alternative, each week during the summer movie season I will tell you about at least one current release on DVD that you'll need your brain to enjoy.
Welcome to the FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL!
This week's film is LE PETIT LIEUTENANT from France and it is a great alternative to the loud summer films.
This movie takes 30 minutes to introduce everyone before the major plot point is introduced, and I found that an inventive decision by the filmmakers.
In LE PETIT LIEUTENANT you get to know the personal lives of an elite French police unit on the most intimate level.
Yes, there is murder and death and crimes to be solved, and they allow us to see some of the flaws of human behavior on both sides of the law.
I think it is best if you don't know much about the plot in advance in order to enjoy the film, but even if you do, I think you will find this to be a very interesting, quiet and engaging film.
LE PETIT LIEUTENANT is the first entry in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL and it is available in stores now, alongside the always entertaining film FLETCH, the complex LITTLE CHILDREN, and THE ARROW, a very entertaining movie about a unique time in Canadian history.
A time when Canada almost ruled the skies.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
The TV series ROBSON ARMS debuts on DVD; Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant star in the wanna be romantic comedy MUSIC AND LYRICS; THE PAINTED VEIL is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple; in BREAKING AND ENTERING an Architect's dealings with a young thief cause him to re-evaluate his life; and our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL will continue on DVD.
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 next time on The Couch!
Paris Hilton going to jail for 45 days
LOS ANGELES - A judge sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in county jail Friday for violating her probation, putting the brakes on the hotel heiress' famous high life.
Hilton, who parlayed her name and relentless partying into worldwide notoriety, must go to jail by June 5 and she will not be allowed any work release, furloughs, use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled after a hearing.
The judge, saying "there's no doubt she knew her license had been suspended," ruled that she was in violation of the terms of her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
"I'm very sorry and from now on I'm going to pay complete attention to everything. I'm sorry and I did not do it on purpose at all," she told the judge before he announced the sentence.
She was then ordered to report to a women's jail in suburban Lynwood by the set date or face 90 days behind bars. The judge's ruling excluded her from paying to serve time in a jail of her choice, as some are allowed.
Hilton was among a series of witnesses who took the stand during the hearing. She testified she believed her license was initially suspended for 30 days and that she was allowed to drive for work purposes during the next 90 days.
She said that when an officer who stopped her in January made her sign a document stating her license was suspended, she thought he was mistaken and did not actually look at the document.
Also called to the stand was Hilton's spokesman, Elliot Mintz. Hilton and her attorneys characterized Mintz as a liaison between Hilton and her lawyers.
Mintz testified that to his knowledge Hilton did not drive during the 30-day period. He said he then advised her that he believed her license was no longer suspended.
The judge called Mintz's testimony worthless and expressed disbelief at Hilton's lawyers.
"I can't believe that either attorney did not tell her that the suspension had been upheld," the judge said. "She wanted to disregard everything that was said and continue to drive no matter what."
As a city prosecutor said during closing arguments that Hilton deserved jail time, Hilton's mother, Kathy, laughed. When the judge ruled, Kathy Hilton then blurted out: "May I have your autograph?"
Paris Hilton looked forward and didn't speak to news media as she left court. Her mother looked upset.
When a reporter asked what she thought of the judge's decision, a visibly angry Kathy Hilton responded: "What do you think? This is pathetic and disgusting, a waste of taxpayer money with all this nonsense. This is a joke."
Defense attorney Howard Weitzman said he would appeal.
"I'm shocked, I'm surprised and really disheartened in the system that I've worked in for close to 40 years," Weitzman said.
He said the sentence was "uncalled for, inappropriate and bordered on the ludicrous."
"I think she's singled out because of who she is," Weitzman said.
Hilton had arrived at the Metropolitan Courthouse 10 minutes late and ignored screams of photographers as she swept in with her attorneys, mother and father, Rick Hilton. Wearing a gray jacket and white shirt over black slacks and with a black headband on, she said nothing and appeared serious.
The celebrity case brought an unusual scene to the austere courthouse south of downtown in a commercial area. As if at a red carpet event, dozens of photographers and reporters lined up at the rear entrance. Yellow police tape substituted for velvet ropes.
Hilton, 26, pleaded no contest in January to reckless driving stemming from a Sept. 7 arrest in Hollywood. Police said she appeared intoxicated and failed a field sobriety test. She had a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent, the level at which an adult driver is in violation of the law.
She was sentenced to 36 months probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.
Two other traffic stops and failure to enroll in a mandated alcohol education program, are what landed the socialite back in court.
On Jan. 15, Hilton was pulled over by California Highway Patrol. Officers informed her that she was driving on a suspended license and she signed a document acknowledging that she was not to drive, according to papers filed in Superior Court.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies stopped Hilton on Feb. 27 and charged her with violating her probation. Police said she was pulled over at about 11 p.m. after authorities saw the car speeding with its headlights off.
Mintz said at the time Hilton wasn't aware her license was suspended. A copy of the document Hilton signed on Jan. 15 was found in the car's glove compartment, court papers say.
Hilton was also required to enroll in an alcohol education program by Feb. 12. As of April 17, she had not enrolled, prosecutors said.
Hilton, heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune, first gained notoriety for her hard partying as a teen. She attracted worldwide attention when a sex tape she made with a boyfriend was released on the Internet.
She stars in the reality-TV series, "The Simple Life," now in its fifth season, with Nicole Richie. She appeared in the 2005 film, "House of Wax" and recently finished filming "The Hottie and the Nottie." She also is a handbag designer and has a namesake perfume.
What Paris can expect behind bars
LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton better like chicken. The hotel heiress was sentenced Friday to 45 days at the Century Regional Detention Center, Los Angeles County's jailhouse for women just south of downtown in Lynwood.
Inmates get three low-sodium meals a day, with dinner the only hot meal. Beef and pork aren't permitted — "it's all poultry-based," said Capt. Alice Scott, who oversees the 2,200-inmate facility she describes as "a very nice place."
Like other high-profile Los Angeles County inmates — O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake, Robert Mitchum, Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Manson — Hilton will be segregated from the general population for her own safety, living in a one- or two-person cell.
Her cell will be Spartan: 12-by-8 feet with a toilet, sink and a window 6 inches wide. She'll comb her blonde locks in a mirror made of polished metal.
Breakfast is served between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., hours when Hilton sometimes gets in after a night of partying.
Inmates in segregation are allowed outside their cells for at least an hour each day to shower, watch television in the day room, participate in outdoor recreation or talk on the telephone, Scott said. There are a bank of phones that use prepaid phone cards — cellular telephones and Blackberries aren't allowed.
There have been other celebrities at the women's jail. Actress Daryl Hannah, arrested last year for failing to leave a 14-acre inner-city garden where farmers were being evicted, spent a few hours there.
A year ago, former "Lost" actress Michelle Rodriguez showed up to serve a 60-day jail sentence for violating probation terms after her drunken driving arrest in Hawaii. She was released in hours because of overcrowding.
Sometimes stars are allowed to do their time in a jail of their choosing. In such cases celebrities pay a daily room-and-board fee to the smaller jails, which afford them more privacy and comfort.
Sean Penn found a jail in Bridgeport, a remote town on the eastern flank of the Sierra, to serve a 60-day sentence in 1987 for fighting with a photographer in violation of his probation for a barroom brawl.
Cop-slapping actress Zsa Zsa Gabor served three days behind bars in 1990 at the El Segundo jail near the Los Angeles International Airport. She paid $85 a day.
But the judge in Hilton's case wouldn't allow such an arrangement, so she'll head to Lynwood on June 5.
Jessica Biel wants respect as an actress
NEW YORK - Jessica Biel says she still struggles to get respect in Hollywood. "Parts that I really want aren't going to me," the 25-year-old actress says in Elle magazine's June issue, on newsstands Tuesday.
"Like `The Other Boleyn Girl' with Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. I don't want to say that there's nothing I love that I can have. But there's still the occasional script that the director doesn't want to see you for. They want that top tier of girls."
Biel, who began her career on the family-friendly TV series "7th Heaven," has starred in such movies as "The Illusionist," "Home of the Brave" and "Next." In July, she can be seen with Adam Sandler and Kevin James in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry."
Lately, she has been a fixture in the tabloids and on red carpets, sitting front row at Paris fashion week and sending celeb gawkers into a tizzy over her alleged fling with Justin Timberlake.
"The scary thing about having this opportunity is that if it's `your moment,' that eventually disappears," says Biel. "I think about reaching for `the moment' but never really achieving it. That way, I'm always striving."
Asked if media attention makes dating hard, she says, "It makes everything hard because you can't even go to pick up a prescription without somebody trying to snap a photo of what you have in your Longs Drugs bag.
"Thank goodness I'm a nice person."