There's the been the four queen Elizabeth movies, two starring Cate Blanchett, the latest one just last year, and two starring Helen Mirren on HBO as a package last fall. There's the second season of the Showtime series The Tudors. There was the recent release of "The Other Boleyn Girl" based on a book by the same name by Philippa Gregory (which I confessed I have read, and quite enjoyed), a novelized version of Anne Boleyn's rise to queen and fall to headlessness. Indeed, this was just one of a series of books by Gregory on the many women of Henry VIII which are also hot, hot, hot.

What was it about the royals of the 1500s that so fascinate us right now? That they lived their decadent lives with little care to the commoners? That they grossly indulged themselves with no regard to moderation? That they partied all the time? That they killed one another with impunity? That they wore outlandish clothes that cost a fortune? Sounds pretty familiar.

Posted by Mariel Garza at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My favorite contestant is the old guy in this audition tape from Mazar-e-Sharif:

It's like "American Idol," but scours for contestants in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, etc. There's even an Afghan Ryan Seacrest (who's actually a medical student) and a woman on the judging panel a la Paula Abdul. It's in its third season, and this year a woman from Kandahar placed third, the highest ever for a woman, drawing lots of fans and pissing off conservative clerics. And I can't help but notice that, sans beards, there are some hot guys in Afghanistan...

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

But hopefully soon, soon, soon it will be native Valley son Paul Thomas Anderson's chance up on that Oscar stage. I was really hoping that "There Will Be Blood," which is no less than a work of art, would get more Oscars than for Daniel Day-Lewis and cinematography. Goodness, the mining and drilling scenes should have garnered the sound statue as well, but I thought the direction on "Blood" topped "Country." Then again, I'm a PTA fan since "Boogie Nights" (aka the Valley's biopic), so I might be a tad biased...

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Young Genghis is set to do battle with Indiana Jones when it arrives in limited release on June 6. Mongols rock.

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 3:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wrote about my talk with Valerie (an awesome person -- she and her hubby, the film's producer, insisted on walking me to my car after the theater closed) as well as my thoughts on women leaders at Pajamas Media today (where I have new pieces weekly):

As I watched the life of the former prime minister unfold onscreen, I chuckled at the thought of how our 2008 obsession with identity politics seems to forget the great leaders — who just happened to be women — who have long had the attention of the rest of the world. After all, Oprah is not the most powerful woman in the world; that woman is, as ranked by Forbes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But Merkel is a conservative. Meir fought for Israel’s survival in the Yom Kippur War. Even Condoleezza Rice’s term as secretary of state has not been hailed as a great advance for women and/or African-Americans. So is a leader who happens to be a women only hailed as advancement if she pursues a feminist agenda outlined by NOW or the Code Pink sisters?

It raises serious questions when Ms. magazine last month refused to run an American Jewish Congress ad hailing Israel’s powerful women leaders: Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with the words “This is Israel.”

Ms. told the Jerusalem Post that the ad was rejected for being too political, as two of the three women were from the Kadima party (which happens to also be the ruling party, hence making the magazine’s argument that the ad was unacceptable partisanship all the more ridiculous).

I later ask Valerie how Meir wasn't compartmentalized in the stereotype of women leaders:

“Golda was an amazing person, I think, male or female, in that she was both a visionary and an activist,” Harper said. “A lot of activists have sort of a vision, but they’re so in the doing that they don’t get the big picture, and some of the visionaries are very bad when it comes to the practical application and the doing. She was both. She held the vision just so clean and clear and her whole raison d’etre was ‘I want a world that’s safe for Jews.’"

Read the whole thing!

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 6:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And this is a year that I've actually seen many of the films, including "Atonement," which should win for Hottest Scot in a Leading Role for smokin' James McAvoy. I saw "No Country" last week the perfect way -- in a one-screen, 1947 theater on Main Street in Seal Beach, with popcorn that had real butter drizzled over the top. Bardem's character was fascinating because Hollywood has been full of hitmen with scruples -- case in point, the likable Jules and Vincent in "Pulp Fiction" -- but Bardem's character has absolutely none.

Maybe, in Strikeland, there should be a new rule this year: If you don't show up to get your award, the Academy will go to envelope B...

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From our Washington reporter, Lisa Friedman, in Sunday's paper:

"Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, who said one of the earliest causes he embraced while in college at UCLA was the abolishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee, said the era underscores the importance of being vigilant against curtailing civil liberties in the name of national security.

Berman said he finds some parallels in what he described as today's 'very radical concerns about radical jihadists.' That, he argued, has led to 'overreaches' in the Patriot Act and other tools Congress passed as part of the War on Terror.

...Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus of The Nation magazine, said he thinks a similar blacklisting would be unlikely today, both because the media would not keep the story silent as they did in the 1950s and because of the new strength of independent filmmakers and the Internet.

'There's such a profusion of ways to distribute ideas,' agreed Berman, whose district includes most of the major studios. 'The days when four or five top executives could get together and stop people from working because of their political views are over, hopefully.'"

Well, congressman, these are the days when four or five top executives can get together and stop people from working because of their political views -- if those views are conservative. I can't tell you how many people I've met in the industry who've a) lost out on work because of their right-of-center politics, b) have had to put up with workplace harassment because of their right-of-center politics, or c) are scared stiff that any of their Hollywood co-workers or bosses will learn that they vote right-of-center, because they fear the repercussions it will have on their careers.

I once heard director/producer David Zucker -- who became Republican after 9/11, is right on national security issues and a big environmentalist -- speaking at a wrap party for an anti-John Kerry commercial he shot. He hailed all the friends he'd made in the local GOP community -- "especially since I've lost all my old friends," he deadpanned. Let's just say you have to be a star that big to survive a political outing to the elephant side in Tinseltown.

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They just launched a new website explaining their side of the conflict.

Stand tough brass!

Posted by Tina Dupuy at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On page 50, though, Slash disses da Valley when he talks about entering Fairfax High in 1979:

"My best friend, Steven Adler (later Guns N' Roses drummer), was shipped back to the Valley for high school, which was as far off as Spain in my mind. I did visit him out there a few times and it never failed to disappoint: it was flat, dry, hotter than it was at home, and exactly like a sitcom neighborhood. Everyone there seemed to cherish their identical lawns and identical lives. Even at a young age, I knew something was wrong with that place; beneath the normalcy, I could sense that these people were more f'd up than anyone in Hollywood."

Slash also doesn't set out to trash Axl Rose, but from the very start of GNR you can see what a self-centered, arrogant, disturbed problem he is. Slash relates an early story when Axl was asleep on Slash's grandmother's couch, and she gently asked Axl to go sleep in Slash's room so she could watch her afternoon TV shows, and Axl told Slash's grandmother to F-off. Then when Slash nicely tried to talk to Axl later about why that wasn't appropriate and why he should apologize:

"Axl stared out the window as I spoke, then he started rocking back and forth in the passenger seat. We were driving on Santa Monica Boulevard, doing about forty miles an hour, when suddenly, he opened the car door and jumped out without a word...He didn't show up back at my house that night and he didn't come to rehearsal for four days."

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And yet ... and yet ... we in the media know what sells. We know that a front page with a picture of Brit will sell far more copies than one with a pic of Ehud Olmert. We know that posts with titles like "Britney Pregnancy Update" will generate far more Web traffic than, oh, "A Plan for Health Care Reform."

So even though, like everyone else, I have no interest in Britney, I can't help writing about her. And you, who could have stopped reading this post several sentences ago, can't help but paying attention. You don't want to care about Britney Spears, but for some reason you do.

That's not all bad.

For better or -- I would argue, for much, much -- worse, Britney Spears is a national icon. She represents a great swath of modern American culture: our fascinations with wealth, celebrity, sex, and gossip. Writing about Britney is, thus, a shorthand way of writing about a significant component of modern American life. What she does, and how we react, tells us a lot about who we are.

Which brings us to the latest Britney news. In Touch magazine reports that she is pregnant, again, via a new boyfriend. According to this report, the father has confirmed the story. But elsewhere, a Brit confidant denies it.

Meanwhile, for all our prurient fascination, there may or may not be another baby entering the world who, through no fault of his or her own, will live a life embroiled in this sordid soap opera's dysfunctionality. That makes three such children, the central players in this real-life saga, who are little more than props in the greater theatrics.

That's the downside of all-Britney all the time: This isn't merely frivolity; there are real victims. And in a society that's obsessed with wealth, celebrity, sex and gossip, children -- who can offer none of these things -- tend to be overlooked, under-appreciated and forgotten.

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"MTV is hoping hip-hop and reality television tailored and sanitized for a more conservative Middle East will draw young Arabs away from dozens of locally produced music video channels that already dominate the market.

MTV Arabia, which launched over the weekend, will feature 60 percent international music and 40 percent Arabic music, along with local adaptations of the channel's popular non-music shows."

And how exactly are they going to adapt "A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila" for that audience? As long as they have "The Real World: Turkish Prison."

In a way, though, I'm sort of jealous. The story notes that audiences will actually get to see music videos. I remember the days when MTV played music. Big, huge blocks of music videos. And back then, VH-1 was uncool. Now VH-1 is da bomb. But neither, come to think of it, really play music videos, except at 3 a.m...

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Totally badass Donald Pleasence battling Michael Myers (and battling him, and battling him...)

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

In non-fire news, actress/model Sophie Monk is the latest starlet to shed her clothes for PETA'a longstanding eat-vegetarian campaign. The purpose of these ads, I suppose, is to make men think: Wow, I could score with a supermodel if I ate more soy! Or something like that. Or maybe it's to get women to think: Gee, if I would stop eating chicken-salad sandwiches, I could look like that! But with this latest ad, I suspect the response will be ver different.

This shot is a screaming ad for a carnivorous diet: Eat meat, or else you'll waste away to the point that the world can count your ribs!

Sophie, do yourself a favor. Put down the wheat-grass smoothie, and go get yourself a pork chop. You need it.

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Perhaps my two Saturday activities didn't go together well: First, I went to a sweet, romantic wedding. Then, I went to catch a vampire movie. (Which may fit with some marriages, but not this particular wedding.) "30 Days of Night" opened this weekend and, being the scary-movie buff I am, I couldn't wait to see this film, in which the northernmost Alaska town is besieged by vampires during 30 days of winter darkness.

Direction: Good. Sets: Perfect. Acting: OK -- one never expects Josh Hartnett to do much except look cute, anyway. But the vampires are, well, the funniest part. The lead vampire, who kicks himself for not discovering the delicious town sooner, dresses like a Hollywood producer in a tie-less suit (which actually makes him scarier than the Marilyn Manson clone) and speaks some garbled language that sounds like a cross between Turkish (think consonants) and Starvin' Marvin on "South Park" (think the click-clicks). The best part is there are subtitles for the Vampirese, as if we need to understand their nonsensical musings, interspersed with screeches toward feeding time.

Which brings me to another point: This band of about 10 vampires attacks a town of more than 150. Is there any point at which vampires get full? The vampires in this movie are fit and trim, yet constantly gorge themselves. I don't remember "The Lost Boys" coming close to emptying their faux Santa Cruz town, but picking off a boardwalk security guard here and there (and washing their faces afterward, which the "30 Days" undead never bother to do). It's like this movie is full of hypoglycemic vampires. Hey, it's Halloween season, so high time for these sorts of serious discussions.

So "30 Days of Night" is entertaining, especially in the run-up to Oct. 31. The moral of the story seemed to be: Always keep some bud growing under a UV lamp, because in the event of a darkness emergency that lamp can mimic sunlight to burn up vampires.

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike found this on YouTube. Pretty funny:

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will be scouring eBay for a copy of this:

"President Hugo Chavez has released a CD of traditional Venezuelan folk music that features him singing, and which will be distributed free inside the country, presidential sources said.

The CD, titled 'Canciones de Siempre' which roughly translates to 'Songs For All Time,' includes tunes that Chavez has sung during his regular Sunday 'Hello, President' television and radio program."

And yes, that palace handout photo is of Chavez holding his CD, made even better by his People's Sombrero and karaoke-bar microphone.

I wish Hugo would let me write a song for him... I already wrote one for Evo Morales last year.

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because Hollywood has never stumbled upon a dead horse it couldn't flog a few more times, Warner Bros. plans to release "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," in summer 2009. The plot -- and yes, there really is supposed to be one -- involves the war between mankind and Skynet. Just in case that's not enough Terminator action for you, Fox plans to soon come out with a TV series, "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

But the real question is, where does this leave the governor? Arnold Schwarzenegger made T1 and T2 great, and well, he was in T3. How can the franchise continue without him? "Terminator 3" executive producer Moritz Borman told Variety that he's hoping Arnold will be up for at least a cameo. "He has an important job, as we know, and the final decision will be based on his desire and availability, along with what the director wants," Borman explains.

By 2009, Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial reign will be nearing an end. Maybe a new Terminator film will be just the change of pace he needs -- while providing plenty of free publicity for a possible campaign to unseat Barbara Boxer ...

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is something crooked at Disney Hall—and I don’t mean just the walls. The box office is playing more angles than Frank Gehry ever dreamed of. Is it fraud or simply deviousness? You decide.

I wanted to buy tickets to a concert at Disney Hall. Being computer semi-literate, I went on the web and found four tickets advertised at $47. Great I thought. Not so great and not at all true, I learned.

In order to buy my tickets, which I had two minutes to do or my hold would be timed-out and the tickets could disappear, I had to put them on a credit card. For this “convenience,” really a necessity, I would be charged $7.50. Okay, not too bad to save a trip downtown and to get the seats that were available only for two minutes. But wait! It turns out that my convenience is worth $7.50 per ticket! My $47 tickets are now $54.50! My anticipated $188 advertised price has inflated itself to $218.

And that’s not all! In addition to the addition of the convenience charge, cum extortion, there is a $3.60 processing fee! What the hell was the convenience charge for?

This same game goes on with most theatres and with more and more hotels and airlines. There are fees and add-ons that render the advertised prices as misleading at best, off-putting always and downright dishonest at heart.

Dear Venders,
You have extracted our money, but have lost any sense of customer loyalty, good will or trust. Worth it? When you call me, as you do, and ask for contributions, you will no longer get them.

If you cannot make money at your advertised price, change your price. Don’t lie. Don’t bait and switch. The truth is you do not offer a $47 ticket. Your ad is a lie.

Posted by Jonathan Dobrer at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you need proof that fame and fortune are no guarantee of happiness, look no further than Britney Spears, who, TMZ reports, has lost custody of her two sons. It's easy to see why a judge would opt to take the boys away from Brit, whose busy partying and professional life don't seem to leave much time for parenting, and who hasn't exactly been in the running for Mother of the Year. But you know the situation must be even more dire than we thought if the judge thinks placing the boys with K-Fed -- who left his first two children and their mother for Britney -- is an improvement.

So here we have two boys who will be unimaginably rich all their lives. They will go to all the best schools. Because celebrityhood can be inherited in our culture, they will almost surely become famous as teens and adults. And, yet, would any of us ever wish their lives upon our own children? Would anyone of us seriously want to trade places with Britney right now?

When you're through with work today, go home to your simple life -- and be grateful.

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stumbled upon this tale from a Microsoft programmer about the perils of Minesweeper -- that classic time-waster in which players must use their smarts to clear a pixilated field of landmines.

Well, turns out there were some political issues with Minesweeper. For starters, in some parts of the world, where the threat of stepping on a landmine is more than just an abstraction, this game doesn't seem so cute. (Although one would think that since the purpose of the game is removing mines, that would mitigate the offense somewhat, but apparently not enough.)

So, in designing the next version of Windows, Microsoft programmers decided to include an option in which users could hunt for flowers instead of mines. The programmer writes:

We added a preference that allows users to change it from looking for mines in a minefield to looking for flowers in a flower field. Now, personally I am not a fan of using flowers here - I mean, you WANT to find flowers, right? - but this was an established alternative in the market and none of the other ideas we had (dog poo? penguins?) could pass the legal/geopolitcs/trademark/etc. hurdles.

Sounds like a simple, even if hokey, fix, right? Wrong. It gets more complicated:

Once that was figured out, the next step is trying to determine the correct default setting. After much discussion,we decided that the default should be based on locale. So if you install in North America you get the mines, but in a mine-sensitive area the default would be the flowers....

This is when another issue arises: it turns out that the help for the game, as well as the game summary, all talks about mines, uncovering mines, and not blowing up. The technical writers are quickly engaged to figure out what the text should say.

Testing revealed another issue: If we default to flowers, does it really make sense to call the program "Minesweeper" and have a giant mine for an icon?

Oh yeah, there's that. There's also this:

There was also concern that if we changed the name, it might generate support calls from people who are asking where minesweeper went....

Just when these their way through the system, another issue arose. It turns out that some countries were taking this even more seriously than we had initially considered. Merely changing the default was not sufficient - they didn't even want to have the *option* to switch to mines! ... so we suggested that if mines were completely unacceptable than those countries should probably just remove minesweeper all together. So the various legal and geopolitics and localization people went off to discuss that one - whether it would be acceptabled, and if so which countries should pull it.

Who new PC could be so problematic for PCs?

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barry Manilow refused to appear on "The View" because they refused to kick conservachick Elizabeth Hasselback off stage while he chatted with the kranky kaffeklatch, reviving the age-old question, "Why do we care about Barry Manilow's politics in the first place?"

Then last night, during "The O'Reilly Factor," a long commercial came on, promoting Manilow's new album of '70s schlock. So he didn't want to be in the same room with Hasselback, but had no problem advertising on O'Reilly? Guess that almighty dollar trumps his "convictions" after all!

And now comes word that Manilow got over his Republiphobia and will appear "in the future" on "The View." When? When his album sales sag, of course!

Posted by Bridget Johnson at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Throughout the brouhaha over CBS' latest sicko reality show, "Kid Nation," one thought has stuck in my craw -- this is a sham. As much as people fret and/or salivate over the prospect of a colony of kids left to fend for themselves, what we have here is the very opposite: It's a colony of kids surrounded by producers, writers, and TV honchos. Far from being unscripted, their whole life is manipulated -- they're carefully selected, put into groups, and compete for fancy prizes.

Now I've stumbled upon this review by Bloomberg's Dave Shiflett, who makes the point nicely:

(O)ne quickly senses that this is a big puppet show, with the strings being pulled by guidance counselors, social workers, homeroom teachers and other destroyers of youthful exuberance....

The idea that this is an adult-free zone never really gets off the ground. Besides Jonathan Karsh, a camp-counselor type who steers the youngsters in the ways of group-think, there are many other representatives of adult land.

Indeed, in response to charges that the kids weren't properly supervised, CBS noted, ``What was extraordinary about `Kid Nation' was the behind-the-scenes support structure, which included on-site paramedics, a pediatrician, an animal-safety expert and a child psychologist, not to mention a roster of producers assigned to monitor the kids' behavior.'' ...

There is a bit of cooked-up drama. ``Don't get in my face,'' one kid warned, while another complained that a tough guy ``was trying to break me down hard.'' Sweat not, young man. At the first sign of a clenched fist an adult will fly from the hayloft and issue a timeout.

The kids in the series know they won't starve or perish in a drought, and if they get sick they'll be helicoptered to a hospital. Failure has no consequences, though there is a very real reward for exemplary behavior: A star made of real gold and worth $20,000 is bestowed on one kid per episode.

How real can you get?

This ain't no real-life "Lord of the Flies." It's just a bunch of kids being manipulated and having their heads screwed with for the benefit of adult viewers.

And that, arguably, is even worse.

Posted by Chris Weinkopf at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's an opportunity for all you wannabee broadcast opinionistas

MTV is calling for applications for "aspiring journalists" (that means desire, but no experience) from every state in the union to help cover the 2008 elections. Seeing as how this is MTV and they're using the word aspiring and all, they might be hoping for a younger set. But maybe not seeing as how MTV is still probably more popular among us Generation Xers who grew up with it.

Here's the skinny:

Citizen Journalists! Visionaries! Vloggers! This is your year. More than ever, the presidential candidates know that every vote counts, and that local campaign stops can be covered and spread worldwide by anyone with a cell phone. You have power.

As part of our collaboration with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Knight News Challenge, MTV News is looking for one aspiring reporter from every state and Washington, D.C., to be part of our Choose or Lose team. We know that you're already hitting the streets and doing this work. Now we want to give you the chance to represent your state by joining a national team of journalists in covering this unprecedented election year from a youth perspective.

Ideal candidates will have their finger on the pulse of issues that are important to young people in their state and be passionate about politics and the possibilities of new technology. Strong writing and reporting skills are a must; distinct voice and authoritative point of view… even better.

We'll load you up with some production gear and bring you to MTV's headquarters in New York City for orientation. In return, you will be expected to work in a paid, part-time capacity to file video, written, or graphical stories weekly throughout the election year. Your pieces will be posted online and spread to mobile devices, and the top stories will be broadcast on MTV, MTV2, MTVU or MTV Tres each week.

And here's where you go to apply.

Posted by Mariel Garza at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ick. There's nothing pretty about this toon from German cartoonist Rainer Hachfeld, but it's notable for being able to offend in so many ways in such a small space. From Condi being suckled to the projectile poop coming from the presumed dove of peace to the baby mideast leaders. I guess art isn't supposed to be pretty.

Posted by Mariel Garza at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)