Britney Spears defies odds, makes wise decision

Namely, "Hell no, my kids are not gonna be on your damn reality show, Kevin."

Good on ya, Daniel

Daniel "Harry Potter" Radclife has spoken out against homophobia in a new interview. As you may know Radclife's own sexuality has been, shall we say, the subject of some speculation, but he is not, at least right now, openly gay.

Whether or not he is closeted I don't know & don't particuarly care. Only when possibly closeted gays are engaging in hypocritical, homophobic-empowering behavior do I think they should be "outed."

Incidentally I saw the new Harry Potter movie yesterday with my nephew. Very entertaining; fun, and surprisingly moving. As I think you know I haven't read the books, the movies I think have gotten better as they go.

This one had an old-fashioned quality to it, in a good sense. It reminded me of experiences going to see "family" films when I was my nephew's age (seven) or younger.

This may be because it was the first Potter film I've seen on the big screen, too.

(This entry is illustrated with images of Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch & Emma Watson instead of just Radclife. Because... well...y'know.)

We have trailer, Captain!

And none of you are going to watch it!*



*(I'd say "call it an assumption," but we SoS--Students of Saw--don't believe in assumptions.)

John: assume nothing...anticipate the possibilities and...let the game play out...If you're good at anticipating the human mind... it leaves nothing to chance.

[laughs]

Not that deep, really

Per Think Progess, Cheney got crazy on Bush when the then-Prez wouldn't pardon Scooter Libby.

My favorite sentence:

As a former Bush senior aide explained, “I’m sure the President and [chief of staff] Josh [Bolten] and [White House Counsel Fred Fielding] had a concern that somewhere, deep in there, there was a cover-up.”

Oh, Tennessee, I love you.

You are truly the gift that keeps on giving. Why, just today, you've given me the story of yet another sanctimonious, hypocritical Republican. To wit: State Senator Paul Stanley, who (via Pandagon):

campaigned against the right of gays and lesbians to adopt ("When you're married, there's a commitment there," Stanley said last year, while discussing legislation to prohibit gay people from adopting children); and....introduced a bill prohibiting viewing porn while driving (WTF!? Is this some kind of rampant problem in Tennessee?)

Judge not lest ye be judged, Senator.

Turns out, this 47-year-old married man with two children was having an affair with a young woman named McKensie Morrison, an intern in her early 20s.

Who I grant you, is pretty hot...but that's really neither here nor there.

Y'know, I'm really becoming fascinated with this tendency to classify Megan Fox as "dumb."

Because consistently, when I go to read of the things she's done and/or said that are supposed to reveal to me her great stupidity...I simply find myself agreeing with them.

Most recently, this report that she supposedly "snubbed" a role as a Bond Girl. I love me some Bond Girls, but honestly, what is playing one going to do for Megan Fox's career that she doesn't have already?

Make her considered one of the hottest girls in the world, the crush object of 13-year-old boys and budding lesbians; on magazine covers in bikinis? Already there, thanks.

So why does she need it?

And what's just so "dumb" about her thinking she doesn't?

This is insane...I love it. (edited with additional observation)

Saw as social statement.

Added observation: On the ohnotheydidn't entry w/the clip, there's a comment by someone who says

ENOUGH of this stupid, played-out franchise.

That same person has a picture of Michael Jackson as their icon.

Need I say more?

(except man, that clip is cool.)

This was a Razzie-sweeping flop, but I still say whoever designed the poster has a real good eye

The scary thing is, you know they could sell this.

Megan Fox is Mother Teresa!

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha

From Think Progress:

During a debate on pay-as-you-go rules today, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged her colleagues to “agree that we’re going to have PAYGO enforcement.” As an example of what she meant, Blackburn declared “that we’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina“:

Thank god for that.

Be still my heart!

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...

For the heck of it, lemme just start with an off-topic observation

The director of Saw VI estimated that any given shot in Transformers 2 cost more than the budget of his entire film in toto.

Say what you will about the Saw series, but it's economy-minded.

Now:

There's nothing wrong with the new Ruby & The Rockits show on ABC Family that--

More subtle writing
Recasting a couple of the adult leads
A better director (where have you gone, James Burrows?)
And driving a stake through the heart of that damned laugh track

--couldn't fix. Unfortunately little of this is likely to happen, because:

The co-creator is Shaun Cassidy, who lost his taste for subtlety back around American Gothic. And the two stars that most need to be replaced are his brothers Patrick and David, who both seem to be walking through their roles.

Wherever Burrows is, he's unavailable, so the director was Ted Wass, who ain't half bad as a comic actor (remember Soap?). Actually, he'd do well in one of the Cassidy's parts. But his resume as a director doesn't force smiles of remembered laughter to my lips.

And then there's the laugh track, as hard-to-kill as Michael Bay's career.

But I wasn't being sarcastic when I said it's unfortunate the fixes I want probably won't happen. They've got a workable concept--estranged brothers who were once part of a '80s band reunite when one finds he has a (previously unknown) teenage daughter.

You can see how this could work for me, right? '80s band, parentless child?
And Alexa Vega, who I wrote about in Repo earlier this year, is a white-hot rising star.

Her heartfelt performance as the child here is utterly different from the awkward, sheltered daughter in that film.

Austin Butler, who apparently is some kind of "tweener" star, is also good as a broody teenager (that's them above, BTW).

As a former rock video chick now married to one of the brothers, Katie Amanda Keane is the kind of woman you're glad to see undulate across a stage wearing spandex (see?), but at least in the pilot, there's not much else to her thankless wife-and-mother part.

Kurt Doss as her younger (Butler is the older) son--named Ben, just to add insult to my injury--should probably get the hook sooner rather than later.

As should the show, unless it gets a lot, lot better. But, as I said, it appears entirely unlikely this will happen.

Of course you didn't, Jackson. And Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman.

Joe Jackson says he never beat or abused Michael.

Can somebody tell me, again: What's so wrong with the way they do things in Canada?

Republicans see Obama's desire to fix our health care system as an opportunity to beat down the uppity black.

...ok, admittedly, that's just my interpretation of their motives...but you think of a better one.

Via Think Progress:

In his speech, Obama also took aim at comments made by one of the most ardent opponents of health reform, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). DeMint last week declared that he would do everything in his power to kill health reform in the Senate. Obama struck back today by saying the debate “isn’t about me,” but rather a system that is “breaking American families”:

OBAMA: Just the other day, one Republican Senator said, and I’m quoting him now, “if we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Think about that. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. It is about a health care system that is breaking American families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy.

Tick...tick...tick...tick...

Oh, it is so on.

Time flies when there will be blood.

Doctor Who rules

Meaning "rules" in the sense of, "principles or regulations governing conduct, action," sadly, not "the opposite of sucks." Anyway, here they are:

1. Try not to judge a new Doctor by his costume.

2. Just concentrate on the new assistant, who is very attractive.

YES!

Just push play. You'll thank me.

From Life to the Zone

Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way are moving ahead on a "Twilight Zone" movie, hiring Rand Ravich to pen a script based on the iconic TV series, which melded fantasy, science-fiction and horror elements.

Ravich's feature credits include directing "The Astronaut's Wife" and exec producing "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." He also created NBC's detective series "Life."

These are a few of my favorite things

Well, a couple of them, at any rate.

In its way, the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorites, even though I know it's not generally held to be one of the studio's greatest. And truth be told, it shouldn't be, at least if you go into it looking for a sound storyline.

But if you just want to delight in a bunch of characters (and by extension, their animators) living up to the line "Most everyone's mad here"...then greatness is indeed to be found. A not-quite guilty pleasure, if you will.

I also like "Gratitude," the single from Danny Elfman's So-Lo album back in his new wave days.

So...as you can well imagine...when I found this:



...I damn near fell in love.

Another day, another Willow/Tara Fiction Archive I'm in

And I remain gratified.

Thinking about trusted anchormen; Walter Cronkite

I haven't done one of these "linkfests" in quite a while, but this seemed like a good subject on which to get a few perspectives.

From a new-to-me website...

Through comedy, The Daily Show has done more for journalism in the past 10 years than any other newspaper, news channel or news radio program. Unlike the mainstream media, Jon Stewart and the gang refuse to be used by politicians from either side, making politicians accountable for their actions (like pulling old tapes to show their inaccuracies and hypocrisy). It is widely known that politicians are scared to death of being made fun of on The Daily Show. Good.

I also wish cable news would learn something from the debates that occur on that show.

Via Think Progress:

2003:

While many are confident the United States would easily oust Saddam Hussein, Cronkite said he isn’t so sure. “The military is always more confident than circumstances show they should be,” he said.

And the Twinkies said: Out of the way, you old fool!

Cronkite chided Congress for not looking closely enough at the war and attempting to ascertain a viable estimate of its eventual cost, particularly in light of Bush’s commitment to tax cuts.

“We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over … our grandchildren’s grandchildren are going to be paying for this war,” Cronkite said.

“I look at our future as, I’m sorry, being very, very dark. Let’s see our cards as we rise to meet the difficulties that lie ahead,” he added...

The Nation's John Nichols reports that as the war in Iraq went horribly awry, he asked Cronkite whether a network anchorman would speak out in the same way that he had. "I think it could happen, yes. I don't think it's likely to happen," he said with an audible sigh. "I think the three networks are still hewing pretty much to that theory. They don't even do analysis anymore, which I think is a shame. They don't even do background. They just seem to do headlines, and the less important it seems the more likely they are to get on the air."

And this from Barry Michael Cooper:

Will there be another Walter Cronkite? As much as I would readily elect bright candidates such as Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, Rachel Maddow, and even MSNBC newcomer Carlos Watson, to fill the vacancy of the most trusted person in America, the answer is a resounding, No.

We are The Generation Who Knows Way Too Much, and the more we know about your private life, the less we trust you.

And one last question, from me: Is Cronkite even in his grave yet? If so, he must already be turning over. Now that we know just how much GOP dick the "news people" of today are quite eager to suck.

Ok, the Mischa Barton thing

The NY Post is reporting that Barton was so high on coke following a marathon three-day bender that friends called cops afraid she would kill herself.

A source close to Barton said, "She's in very bad shape. She's running out of money and can't find love, so now she is looking for a good time to escape her misery. She is on a downward spiral. She is a mess. She is a suicidal, uninsurable mess."

Doesn't it seem like a "source" really close to Barton wouldn't be mouthing off to the friggin' New York Post?

I don't know much about Barton, but I hope she finds whatever help she needs.