Archive for the 'Entertainment' Category
August 10th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
The man that many of today’s generation will recognize as “Chef” from South Park and whom I associate mainly as the “Duke of New York” from the classic 1981 movie “Escape from New York” and as the writer and performer of the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film “Shaft” has died at age 65.
Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless “Theme From Shaft” won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said. He was 65.
A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff’s office. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Hayes’ death comes right on the heels of the death yesterday of entertainer Bernie Mac making up 2/3rd’s of the death comes in three’s prophecy so if you don’t hear from me….Just kidding. Isaac, you will be missed.
August 9th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Popular actor and comedian Bernie Mac died this morning at age 50 of complications from pneumonia.
“Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital,” his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles.
She said no other details were available and asked that his family’s privacy be respected.
The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.
As I approach my 44th birthday in just under 2 months, I am again reminded of how fragile life is no matter how old or young your are.
July 30th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Posting will be light today as I am on the road in Aberdeen and Watertown so while I’m gone I thought I would post the trailer to the latest Oliver Stone bio-pic titled “W” for you viewing pleasure.
Stone’s latest stars Josh Brolin as George W. and is scheduled to hit theaters in October just in time to see before the November elections. Raw Story reports that the movie appears to focus “on George W. Bush’s transition from youthful drunken lout to President of the United States“.
Of course this is all based on a 2 minute trailer but there has to be a reason that Stone rushed this to completion so that it would air before the election right? And I’ll bet it isn’t to help the GOP’s chances either but that’s just me talkin’…
July 28th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
I mentioned last Friday that I was planning to see “The X-Files: I Want To Believe” over the weekend. I was really looking forward to seeing this as I have been a big fan of the Fox series from the beginning and I figured that the 6 years that has elapsed since the show went off the air would have given the shows creator, Chris Carter, plenty of time to come up with an X-File worthy of the big screen. I was wrong.
I knew almost right away that I was in for a long couple of hours when I saw that they cast Xzibit of “Pimp my Ride” fame as an FBI agent and Mulder dis-believer and the story went down hill from there.
Not wanting to spoil the story for those that still want to see this movie, suffice it to say that the plot, other than possibly the psychic child molesting priest, has no X-File type twists, no alien or government conspiracies, no smoking man type anti-heros and feels more like a 2 hour version of NCIS than an X-File feature film. The Scully sub-plot that involves her trying to cure a terminally ill child just adds more fluff and was almost painful to watch.
I am sure that Carter had plenty of left over ideas floating around in his head after the series ended in 2002, my only question is why did he pick this one?
Some TV show into movie projects should never have been made as they can spoil the memory of the original, Miami Vice comes to mind and this one isn’t much better. If you are an X-Files fan hoping to re-live some of the magic from the series, don’t waste your time and wait till the DVD comes out or better yet just tune into the Sci-Fi channel and watch re-runs of the original series.
July 11th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
“The settlement provides the class members with fair, reasonable and adequate compensation for their claims,” wrote lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Scott Kamber of KamberEdelson in New York.
What is the settlement you ask? How does around $2 for each of the plaintiffs in the Ameritrade hacking scandal and $1.8 million or $1360 an hour for the lawyers sound? Also not very good for the lawyers reputation, the lead plaintiff now says that the deal sucks and that his lawyers threatened him into signing.
Read the whole story over at Wired.
July 5th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
While not quite on the level of the government spying on your phone conversations without a warrant, the next shot in the entertainment industry’s attack on their customers was fired last week in the courts and if you’ve ever watched or uploaded a video to Google’s YouTube, your identity along with your viewing habits will soon be in the hands of media giant Viacom.
Under the terms of a US court judgment, Google, which owns YouTube, must now surrender the details of video-watching histories, IP addresses and usernames, to Viacom, which wants to use the data to prove that the site is hosting thousands of television and other media clips in breach of strict copyright laws.
And even though you may have never watched one of the Viacom owned media clips that the company claims was uploaded illegally, you are about to be put squarely in their crosshairs anyway.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an internet rights group, said the ruling will allow Viacom to see what everyone is watching on YouTube. “We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users,” the group said.
And what makes this funny, if there is any humor to having your privacy invaded, Viacom is targeting the same viral video phenomenon that is responsible for making 2 of their more popular on air personalities household names. Who would have heard of Stephen Colbert or John Stewart if their clips hadn’t shown up on YouTube to be broadcast to the world from there?
July 3rd, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Yesterday I wrote on how “24″ president and insurance pitchman Dennis Haysbert actually thinks that his portrayal of the first black president on the popular series has helped open the door for Barack Obama’s run at the White House. Today I come across this juicy tidbit over at Huffington Post about another Hollywood type injecting their “fame” into politics. It seems the Baldwin brother with the least amount of talent, Stephen, is threatening to leave the country if Barack Obama wins the election.
the actor tells Laura Ingraham, after saying that he will leave the country if Obama wins. He went on to criticize Obama’s “change” platform and reaffirm his support for John McCain.
So if Obama wins we don’t have to put up with anymore horrible “B” movies and reality shows from the “born again” hypocrite that preaches moral values while in the same breath recounting stories of his escapades with prostitutes?
“Stephen spent half his time talking about religion and the other half talking about sleeping with hookers in Vegas. Make your mind up, mate.”
As if we needed another reason for Obama to win this fall…
July 2nd, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
2 term TV President David Palmer, aka Dennis Haysbert, thinks that his portrayal of the first black president on “24″ has opened the door for Barack Obama’s thus far successful run this year. In related news, the Cleveland Indians still haven’t won the World Series despite Jobu showing Pedro Cerrano how to hit a curveball.
What’s more likely, Haysbert having any effect on Obama’s run or the Indians winning the Series? Sounds like a wash to me.
June 23rd, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
I woke up this morning to discover that another of my all time favorites has died. George Carlin, anti-establishment comedian extrodinaire, died last night of heart failure at 71.
George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.
Work warning, video contains language not for all audiences, it is George Carlin after all
7 words you can say on television:
“Goodbye George, you will be truly missed!”
June 20th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
The AP has been making news this week with their new policy that would charge bloggers up to $2.50 a word to quote from their articles. Apparently not wanting to be outdone, the MPAA wants to be able to collect damages from those that they think have lifted their property without having to provide an ounce of proof.
The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.
Sounds like the same lawyers that thought up taking away Habeas Corpus from the prisoners at Abu Ghraib are now working for the MPAA…and the AP.