Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sales Of DVD, Blu-ray Plummet, Causing Consternation In Hollywood : The Two-Way : NPR

It’s all going digital….

I’m starting to suspect there may have been previous civilizations we will never know about because all their records were digital and disappeared into the air…

In any event, this is why I’m selling off our DVD’s on eBay while someone still wants them…

Of course, I have to keep a couple of hundred I can’t bear to part with…

The Financial Times has some troubling news for Hollywood: “Sales of new DVDs have collapsed, falling 20 percent [below the year-ag quarter] and presenting a significant challenge for Hollywood film studios, according to figures released on Monday.”

The drop is attributed to consumers favoring streaming online, buying a digital copy on iTunes or watching them through subscription services like NetFlix.

via Sales Of DVD, Blu-ray Plummet, Causing Consternation In Hollywood : The Two-Way : NPR.

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Could John Krasinski Be the Next George Clooney?

George Clooney turned 50 last week, so they have to start pushing him off to the graveyard…

Sorry, but this is a little premature.

He’s one of the few genuine Stars still out there.

He looks better now than he did when he was younger, he’s smart, he’s an excellent Director and a damn fine Actor.

He is going to be around for a while…

That said, I like John Krasinski a lot, too.  He’s a standout in today’s bland world of interchangeable young actors.

I think he’s going to be around for a while also….

I agree with some later observations in the attached article:  He’s much more of a Jack Lemon/Tom Hanks type…

I’ve never seen his TV show, but I found him very endearing in “It’s Complicated”….

John Krasinski isn’t the lead character of “Something Borrowed”, but you wouldn’t know that from the recent barrage of TV ads, all of which lean heavily on his presence to sell a story with an eyebrow-raising plot: Ginnifer Goodwin’s character sleeps with the fiancé of her best friend, played by Kate Hudson, but you’re still supposed to root for her. Meanwhile, Krasinski is the platonic fourth lead who occasionally comments on the action, but it’s a testament to his natural likability — and, perhaps, his big-screen potential — that the studio is putting its marketing campaign on his shoulders. As he continues to topline The Office after the departure of Steve Carell, it may even be a sign that he could follow in the footsteps of another refugee from NBC Thursday nights who made it big in the movies: George Clooney. To find out, we spoke to industry insiders to answer the question: If John Krasinski were a stock, would you buy, sell, or hold?

via The Star Market: Could Movie Hopeful John Krasinski Be the Next George Clooney? — Vulture.

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Navy SEALs Forgot to Bring a Tape Measure

I love the President’s comment….

The odds that Osama bin Laden was the mysterious figure seen walking around the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan were estimated by U.S. intelligence at between 60 and 80 percent. When the Navy SEALs shot the tall figure on the upper floor of the compound, fatally hitting him in the chest and near his right eye, the next step was to get a positive ID. They planned to use several reference points, including facial recognition and eventually DNA when the body was transported back to Bagram airbasein Afghanistan.

Another measurement was to determine the height of the corpse. Bin Laden is listed on his FBI most wanted poster as being between 6-feet 4-inches and 6-feet 6-inches and weighing about 160 pounds.

However, the heavily-armed, electronically wired SEALs didn’t come with a tape measure to get an accurate height reading. According to reports, a Navy SEAL of about 6-feet laid out next to bin Laden’s corpse to gauge the Al Qaeda leader’s height. The corpse was several inches taller.

The Washington Post’s legendary reporter Bob Woodward came up with some inside the Situation Room conversation while the raid was underway and the president and his team were watching a muted feed of the action.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House (Credit: AP Photo/The White House, Pete Souza)

After Mr. Obama learned of the improvised height measurement technique, he reportedly said, “We donated a $60 million helicopter to this operation. Could we not afford to buy a tape measure?”

The helicopter in his remark was the stealth technology-outfitted bird that crash-landed as the raid began and had to be destroyed by the SEALs.

via Navy SEALs forgot to bring a tape measure – World Watch – CBS News.

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Don’t Leave Me This Way

Diva Thelma Houston gets her first Social Security check this month…

Happy 65th Birthday, today, to the Disco Diva!

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Chapter 54: A College Letter Home from Washington and Lee on Derby Day | My Southern Gothic Life

There’s a new post up on my MySouthernGothicLife.com Blog.
Here’s a brief excerpt and a link to the  full post:

Last year my Mother moved – well, we forced her to move- to, an Assisted Living Facility.  She had reached the point of beyond crazy that wasn’t just Southern.  It was physical and pathological.  She had some mini-strokes and was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia.

That meant we had to clean out the house she had lived in for over 50 years.  And that meant we found some truly frightening things….

I’m not talking about the panties, she had taken to stuffing behind books in the bookcase or in the kitchen cabinets.  I’m not even talking about the family photo’s or ball gowns from the 1950′s and cocktail dresses from the 1960′s.

I’m talking about pieces of my own past that had been enshrined there.  I had to get in there fast and get hold of those things before my sister could put them on FaceBook.

One of the things I found was a file of letters I had written home from College at Washington and Lee University in the late 1970′s/early 1980′s.

Yes, paper letters. On monogrammed 100% Cotton Crane Stationary.  Written appropriately in black or dark blue ink.

I’ve decided to post one letter in it’s entirety, without editing.  This proves I both have no pride and no shame.

via Chapter 54: A College Letter Home from Washington and Lee on Derby Day | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Arthur Laurents, Legendary Librettist, Playwright, Screenwriter and Director, Dies at 93 – Playbill.com

One of the giants of the American Musical Theatre has passed…

Rest well, Arthur Laurents.  You’ve left us some great gifts…

I’ll even forgive you for allowing Patti Lupone’s Mama Rose in “Gypsy”, since you created that amazing character for so many other incredible performers.

Arthur Laurents, the irascible, enduring Man of the Theatre who wrote plays and screenplays and enjoyed a significant career as a director — but who made his lasting mark as the librettist to two landmark musicals, West Side Story and Gypsy — died May 5 at his Manhattan home after a short illness, his agent Jonathan Lomma confirmed. He was 93 years old, and died peacefully in his sleep.

via Arthur Laurents, Legendary Librettist, Playwright, Screenwriter and Director, Dies at 93 – Playbill.com.

And he directed the original La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway:

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Jesse James Trashes Sandra Bullock in the Bedroom…

Can this man get any more despicable?

To say he is no gentleman is the understatement of the year….

And he’s been to rehab, so he can’t use being under the influence as an excuse…

The only answer is that he’s just trash…and Sandra’s well rid of him.

From Salon.com:

In case there was any question lingering in your mind whether Jesse James is still a raging jackass, his latest attempt at public relations should remove all doubt. Promoting his new memoir, “American Outlaw,” the man who cheated on America’s Sweetheart with a White Power enthusiast and then bragged of being “the most hated man in the world” seems determined to drum up even more ill will. During a Wednesday visit on Howard Stern’s Sirius show, Stern questioned the thrill-seeking entrepreneur/reality star about whether his fiancée, Kat Von D., was better in bed than Sandra Bullock, and James unhesitatingly replied, “That one’s an easy no-brainer … Yes sir, 100 percent.” Way to win back your public, James! Maybe he’s jealous of all the attention Osama bin Laden and Charlie Sheen have been getting lately.

via Breaking: Jesse James is still the worst – Jesse James – Salon.com.

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Actress and Playboy Model Found Mummified

Another cheery story out of Hollywood from Salon.com:

It’s a well-documented fact that Hollywood is cruel to women, both those on the screen and those of us watching at home with our unrealistic body expectations. Somehow, I always manage to forget this fact right before I buy my ticket to the next “Transformers” film, but the story of Yvette Vickers is chilling enough to taint anyone’s idealization of the City of Angels.

Yvette was a cult-famous B-movie actress of the ’50s and ’60s, first appearing in “Sunset Boulevard” in a small, unaccredited role and moving up to star in such features as “Attack of the 50 ft Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” She was also famous for her Playboy centerfolds, the first one of which was shot by noted sexploitation director Russ Meyers.

Sadly, Vickers died sometime earlier this year. As it turns out, she’d been dead for months, though the police just found her body in her Benedict Canyon home last week. According to the L.A. Times:

AND, in closing….

A really sad, stark reminder to any young actresses out there: No matter how high you’re riding now, there’s still a chance that everyone will forget about you and you’ll be dead for months before someone finds your body.

Link to full story:   Actress and Playboy model found mummified – Celebrity – Salon.com.

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Jim Caviezel Claims “The Passion of the Christ” made Him a Hollywood Outcast

It sounds to me, all these years after he played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” that Jim Caviezel still hasn’t yet climbed down off the cross…..

And I hate to tell him, but Mel Gibson isn’t the best source for career advice….

And perhaps he should also consider that there are other factors in play-

Like the fact that maybe he’s just not that good of an actor…

Or is too much of a self-centered, self-important, paranoid personality even for Hollywood…

It also sounds like he’s made the career change to Professional Christian….

It probably pays better than acting- at least it did for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson…

And it’s not all that different from acting….

From The Guardian:

“He said, ‘You’ll never work in this town again.’ I told him, ‘We all have to embrace our crosses,'” said Caviezel. He added: “Jesus is as controversial now as he has ever been. Not much has changed in 2,000 years.”

A passionate Christian, Caviezel told the audience at the First Baptist Church of Orlando he had learned to accept that the destruction of his acting career was a price worth paying. “We have to give up our names, our reputations, our lives to speak the truth,” he said. Though he labelled Gibson “a horrible sinner”, he said the actor turned film-maker should not be vilified. “Mel Gibson doesn’t need your judgment, he needs your prayers,” Caviezel said.

The Passion of the Christ was an enormous box office hit in 2004, taking more than $600m worldwide after attracting huge numbers of religious filmgoers. However, it was also the source of controversy with some critics accusing Gibson of antisemitism. Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News called it “the most virulently antisemitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II”.

via Jim Caviezel claims The Passion of the Christ made him a Hollywood outcast | Film | guardian.co.uk.

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Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day

Let us never forget…

From the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Website:

The internationally recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. When the actual date of Yom Hashoah falls on a Friday, the state of Israel observes Yom Hashoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed on the following Monday.

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