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Celebrity news & gossip from the world’s showbiz and glamour magazines (OK!, Hello, National Enquirer and more). We read them so you don’t have to, picking the best bits from the showbiz world’s maw and spitting it back at them. Expect lots of sarcasm.

Jeremy Clarkson suspended over fracas following hullabloo, brouhaha and imbroglio

A resonably priced fracas

A resonably priced fracas

 

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson is on gardening leave. He’s been suspended by the BBC “following a fracas” with a producer. Yes, a fracas. Not a brouhaha. Not a kerfuffle. And most certainly neither an imbroglio nor a tawdry hullabloo.

Last year Clarkson was given a warning when he appeared to say “nigger” while filming. It’s something he denies.

The full BBC statement runs:

“Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation. No one else has been suspended.”

The BBC seem to realise that without Clarkson, Top Gear is an expensively priced lame duck. Richard Hammond and James May, Clarkson’s sidekicks, nay his abettors, are free to work but the show will not be broadcast this Sunday.

Taxi for three…

Posted: 10th, March 2015 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio | Comment


Fantastic Trip Advisor comments on The Beatles Abbey Road crossing

beatles abbey road

Phil Lucas spots comment on The Beatles Abbey Road crossing:

Although iconic, the Abbey Road zebra crossing has always been just a working crossing. Hasn’t stopped Trip Advisor.

Although iconic, the Abbey Road zebra crossing has always been just a working crossing. Hasn’t stopped Trip Advisor.

Posted: 10th, March 2015 | In: Music | Comment


Indie band Ex Cops open letter to McDonald’s who asked them to play for burgers during SXSW

ex cops letter

 

Happy day for Amalie Bruun and Brian Harding. The pop duo known as Ex Cops are invited to play at the Austin, Texas, SXSW. It would be just great. Think of the exposure. Think of the fans. Don’t think of the money because the invite from McDonald’s wants you to appear for free.

 

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The Ex Cops’ replied via their Facebook page:

‘McDonald’s asked us to play SXSW. This is Brian’s open letter about it.

This week our band was asked to play the McDonald’s Showcase at the annual South by Southwest, also known to music insiders as “SXSW.”

Their selling point was that this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc”

I don’t, and doubt that they know what this means either.

Getting past that rhetoric, at the very least a big corporation like McDonald’s can at least pay their talent a little. Right?

“There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately)”

As of 2013, McDonalds is valued at 90.3 billion dollars.

I won’t get into the internet semantics of things you’ve probably seen on your Facebook feed; like that thing where it takes a McDonald’s worker 4 months to earn what the CEO makes in an hour, or their GMO love affair, and I will certainly spare you the bounty of photos showing how they treat their animals.

In lieu of being paid like a real artist, or anyone who is employed to do a service, McDonald’s assures us that we will “be featured on screens throughout the event, as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”

We recently headlined a show at the Brooklyn venue Baby’s Alright. They are by no means a DIY venue, but they are still an independent small business. The owners are people our age who used to book shows at Pianos and busted their asses to open a venue of their own in Brooklyn.

While I haven’t asked Billy or Zach how much they make annually (that would be weird) I’m going to guess they’re not looking at brownstones in Prospect Park at the moment. Yet when we played, we were paid very very fairly, were provided with drink tickets, and each band member fed a full entree from their menu (try the Brussels sprouts)

I will also go ahead and save time for any schill / troll rebuttals; “Are the other showcases paying you? No one is holding a gun to your head!” This is true. It is our choice (pretty much) to fly to Austin, play shows without soundcheck, and get paid nothing to a little. But hear this loud and clear, we LOVE making music, it is what we do, and despite some of its very apparent flaws, SXSW still provides a decent venue to be heard by some people who are really there to hear new music and not just do blow with dudes who wear square toe loafers.

It is a horrifying and gross reality when one sees the true nature of corporations and their pathetic attempts to achieve relevance with millennials. Doritos received a lot of flack for their stage a couple years ago, but i’m going to assume they paid Lady Gaga.

Oh, I almost forgot; “McDonald’s will offer free food to all audience members”

I don’t doubt that tons of bands will kowtow to this lame, lame attempt at a rock show. And I’m aware that to achieve any exposure is a Herculean task in 2015, but the Boethian Wheel is a real thing, and this will continue to exist if we, as artists, keep saying yes in exchange for a taste of success. Even if smells like a shitty Fish filet.’

Can you be a burger artiste? Just wondering because McDonald’s have a few opportunities – all unpaid – for anyone who can pump sauce into intersting shapes…

 

Posted: 7th, March 2015 | In: Key Posts, Music, The Consumer | Comment


Hilarious highlights from Kanye West’s speech to Oxford students

kanye west oxford

 

Pouty rapper and current holder of Kim Kardashian’s bum breasts Kanye West has been talking to the Oxford Guild Business Society.

The talk features one question from the audience, which he didn’t answer. Your question might
have been, “Who gives a talk to the Oxford Guild Business society?’

Shakeel Hashim was there to brings us a few highlights of Kanye West’s self-styled “stream of consciousness”:

It begins with Shhhh…:

“OK, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.”

Pablo’s Kanye Period:

“My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater.”

On Greed:

“We have the resources as a civilisation to find a utopia, but we’re led by the most greedy and the least noble.

Acts of the Keanu:

“What I said was The Matrix is like the Bible of the post-information age.”

No Clocking Off:

“By the way, I don’t know the days of the week. I just go to exactly when my appointment is.”

Hail to the Chief:

“I understand that I’m a servant. And with my voice, with my ability to build relationships with amazing people, speak to amazing people. Call Elon Musk out of the blue, or call Obama out of the blue…he calls the home phone, by the way.”

It’s Not Me; It’s You:

“In America people really do wear $3000 shirts. For real. Here and in Stockholm people will be like ‘oh dude, it’s a $3000 shirt’.

“I’m assuming I’m probably wearing a $2000 shirt but I got it for free from the designer so.”

On Hypocrisy:

“Time is the only luxury. It’s the only thing you can’t get back. If you lose your luggage – I’m not gonna say the obvious brand of luggage that I’d normally say because I’ve got a meeting with them soon – if you lose your expensive luggage at the airport, you can get that back. You can’t get the time back.

“It feels like people do everything in life to get this BMW, this Benz, to get this townhome, to get 2.5 kids exactly. One of them has to be small, y’know!”

The Dalai West:

“People say it takes a village to raise a child. People ask me how my daughter is doing. She’s only doing good if your daughter’s doing good. We’re all one family.”

Have I Not Heels?:

“One of my biggest Achilles heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, the very person, can remove my ego, I think there’s hope for everyone.”

It’s Child Abuse:

“My momma taught me that if I was in a grocery store and I’m by myself and a stranger grabbed my hand, scream at the top of your fucking lungs. If I’m at an awards show and a stranger grabs my hand and they say so we’re going to use these moving lights, or we’re gonna play the music right now before we define the look, or we’re gonna cut the TV cameras in a traditional way. I’ll scream at the top of my fucking lungs.”

It’s Not a Sweater – It’s A Shirt:

“It’s illegal to not wear clothes, and also possibly too cold. That means someone is imposing an idea on you that should legally have to do! Clothing should be like food. There should never be a $5000 sweater.”

Drinks.

 

Posted: 4th, March 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Someone is selling Jerry Garcia’s severed finger

jerry garcia's finger

You can buy Jerry Garcia’s severed fingers. and the owner will toss in a FREE glass and FREE brine.

Craigslist user ‘Matt’ has more on the Grateful Dead singer’s digit (condition: ‘good’):

I am selling Jerry Garcia’s severed finger to raise money for the upcoming GD 50th Anniversary show in Chicago. It pains me to part with this one of a kind collectable, but I believe Jerry would want me to see the last show. Finger is preserved in brine solution and sealed in air tight bottle for long term storage.

It’s what he would have wanted…

Posted: 4th, March 2015 | In: Celebrities, Strange But True | Comment


Arsenal: Daily Mail sticks the boot into Brooklyn Beckham and his brothers

Any child of David and Victoria Beckham will want for nothing save talent. You can fake it in the world of fashion and pop music, but in sport, there is no auto-tune or PR-wrangling to make the mundane appear masterful.

And the media is watching their every move.

On February 20, the Daily Mail told us just how fantastic the Beckham boys are doing in the Arsenal youth teams:

Brooklyn Beckham is a hot prospect for the Arsenal academy, but brothers Romeo and Cruz could be even better

 

Screen shot 2015-03-03 at 11.31.23

And Cruz, age 10, must be brilliant because Brooklyn is ace. As Sami Mokbel told readers:

The teenager has caused quite a stir at Arsenal’s youth HQ over the past few months. At the age of 15, he was named on the bench for last weekend’s Under-18 clash against Leicester, raising hopes that he may well have the substance to back up his name.

A mere five days later, Sami Mokbel had more news:

Screen shot 2015-03-03 at 11.34.49

He wrote:

However, Sportsmail can reveal that Beckham was one of only a few Under 16 and Under 17 players still at the club’s Hale End academy that weekend as the rest travelled to the Al Kass youth tournament in Qatar.

Having ‘revealed’ that Beckham had been called up on merit, the Mail then ‘reveals’ that young Beckham was called up to make up the numbers.

Anyone sane might realise that a teenager minding his own business and doing his best knows that his mates are away on tour. It’s only the Mail that portrayed it as a major news item.
Having set Brooklyn Beckham up for a fall – Mokbel: “Beckham shirt sales at the Emirates Stadium club shop are set to go through the roof” – the Daily Star tells its readers that Romeo Beckham is “brilliant” at tennis.

IMAG0009

 

No pressure, Romeo. But do we detect a touch of snark benath the Star’s photo?

 

 

IMAG0010

 

“David and Victoria will be told how good their son it”

And not only by the Press. But what’s this “good” rot? In the media, the Beckhams lads must be nothing short of brilliant let they be gleefully portrayed as failures.

 

Posted: 3rd, March 2015 | In: Arsenal, Celebrities, Sports | Comment


Jack Chick: One Man’s Comic-Book Crusade For Humanity

Chick Career: one man’s comic-book crusade for humanity

 

Chick1

 

Are you worried about the growing menace of the Homosexual-Catholic-Islamic-Satanist-Masonic-Alien conspiracy to promote evolutionism, fornication, pornography, pornography, paedophilia, pop music, alcohol and drugs?

 

 

Chick2

 

No?

Well in that case, it’s high time you got acquainted with Jack Chick – crazy name, crazy guy – and his body of enlightening works.

I first became aware of Jack when I purchased This Was Your Life for a few pence in a Christian bookshop many decades ago. Its primitive and unsubtle visual style intrigued me, as did the way it crudely homed in on the childlike insecurities that lurk within us. Here it is, animated for your convenience (with an extra ending that is definitely NOT in Jack’s original)…

 

 

But if the theme of the prodigal son is a familiar one, Jack’s other work takes us to nightmare scenarios far beyond the normal scriptural pastures, where the very existence of the human race hangs in the balance…

 

Chick3

 

So who is Jack Chick? And how did this unlikely evangelist embark on his pioneering cartooning career?

According to his website, ‘As he grew, Jack was constantly drawing, and honing skills that God would later use in a great way.’

A great – some might say mysterious –way indeed.

Jack got off to an inauspicious start: ‘While in high school, none of the Christians would have anything to do with him because of his bad language. They all agreed not to witness to him, convinced that he was the last guy on earth who would ever accept Jesus Christ.’

After high school, Jack studied drama, went in the army, and eventually became an actor.

Then one day his mother-in-law insisted that he listen to Charles E Fuller’s Old Fashioned Revival Hour on the radio, during which Jack fell to his knees ‘and my life was changed forever’.
First he borrowed $800 from the credit union to fund the initial printing of Why No Revival?

 

Chick4

Then, while out driving, Jack spotted some teenagers on the street. ‘At the time, I didn’t like teenagers or their rebellion,’ he recalled. ‘But, all of a sudden, the power of God hit me and my heart broke and I was overcome with the realisation that these teens were probably on their way to hell. With tears pouring down my face, I pulled my car off the road and wrote as fast as I could, as God poured the story into my mind.’

The result? A Demon’s Nightmare

 

 

Jack’s boss told him that the Chinese people had been won over to Communism through mass distribution of cartoon booklets, and this planted the seed of a plan in his fertile mind.

When invited to speak at a local prison, he prepared a flip chart to illustrate his speech. So successful was his performance that ‘nine of the eleven inmates present trusted Christ as their Saviour’.

The artwork from his talk formed the basis of This Was Your Life, the seminal ‘Chick Tract’ mentioned earlier.

The early tracts were not an instant hit.

‘A lot of the bookstores were really outraged at some guy using these cartoons to present the gospel,’ remembered Jack. ‘They thought it was sacrilegious.’

Half a century later, however, with hundreds of tracts translated into a hundred tongues, Chick claims a combined sales figure of 750 million: ‘His burden has always been to get the gospel into the hands of millions of lost people around the world. He wanted to be a missionary himself, but his new wife wanted no part of missionary life. Her aunt had been a missionary in Africa. While pregnant, she was being carried across a river on a stretcher, when one of those carrying her lost a leg to an alligator. But God had other plans. He wanted Jack to stay home and produce effective gospel literature that missionaries could use to win the lost. As a result, many missionaries love Chick tracts and use them to reach multitudes they could never reach one on one. Today, over fifty years after writing his first tract, God is still giving Jack Chick new gospel tracts. In fact, he is now producing some of his most popular work. As of this writing, five of the ten most popular Chick tracts in stock have been written in the last year or two.’

Jack’s tracts bring new and vivid illustrations of Christian tenets. In The Execution, a murderer is spared the gallows – only to discover (to his horror) that his own mother offered to be hanged in his place, just as Jesus died for our sins. In Flight 144, a Christian couple who have spent 50 years doing good works around the world in God’s name are killed in a plane crash and refused entry to heaven because good works don’t save sinners – only God can. In Heart Trouble, a man visits a cardiologist who tells him that he will die (‘everybody dies’) and that everyone is born with a heart problem: ‘the ugly things down deep in your heart that we can’t see… But God does.’ In Lisa (now no longer available but posted online by Chick’s detractors) a doctor informs a father that he has given his young daughter an STD – then saves his soul by introducing him to Jesus. In Big Daddy? a crazed teacher throws a boy out of his class for questioning the theory of evolution.

 

Chick5

 

And so on. Targets range from the world’s biggest religions, science, abortion and homosexuality through to Santa Claus, Halloween, Harry Potter, and Dungeons and Dragons.

Many people seem to find it amusing to republish the distinctive Chick Tracts online, with amended text that ridicules Jack’s urgent message.

Some claim that Jack is a bigot and a hater. Others, that he is delusional and mad.

The latter share their delight in Jack Chick’s nightmarish visions at The Chick Tract Club.

But for the real thing, and the fount of all such wisdom, visit the home of Chick and count your blessings.

Previously.

Posted: 2nd, March 2015 | In: Books, Celebrities, Key Posts, Strange But True | Comment


Facebook autofills Cliff Richard’s’ description on official profile to include the ‘police’

Sir Cliff Richard is mired by allegations of sex crimes. He’s not been arrsted. And he denies any wrongdoing. But the papers have got their teeth into him. The tabloids all lead with the perma-tanned singer. And on social media it’s worse.

On Facebook, Cliff is no longer a ‘singer’. No. He’s billed as a “singer under investigation by police”.

 

Screen shot 2015-02-26 at 16.50.43

As Chris Applegate says:

So Facebook now autofills celebs’ descriptions on official profiles, which can lead to unfortunate juxtapositions.

Look out for Facebook behaving more like the Press and adding “Suspected racist” beneath all football fan’s names…

 

Posted: 26th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Jimmy Savile and his brother raped the living and dead in Stoke Mandeville

jimmy-savile stoke money

 

Jimmy Savile, formerly Sir Jimmy Savile in life, is all over the news.

The Sun says “Savile abused 63 people at Stoke Mandeville hospital”.

This is fact. There are no inverted commas around any part of it.The Sun then belts out other facts:

Victims aged between five and 75 were patients, staff and visitors

Savile’s older brother was a predatory sex beast

Savile’s hospital victims included cancer patient and burns victim

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 26th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment


Cliff Richard: sex, sinners, Kaddie fiddlers and a desire to bury the singer alive

Daily Mirror

Daily Mirror

Cliff Richard – still Sir Cliff Richard – is on the front page of all the tabloids.

The Mirror (front page): “Cliff Richard Facing New Sex Claims”

Not too long ago that shocker would have been that Sir Cliff had ever had sex, preferring tennis and al fresco singing to nookie. Now we read that “police are probing new claims of sex abuse with Sir Cliff Richard are more alleged victims came forward”. An “officer”, revealed to be South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton,  says”This investigation has increased significantly.”

Crompton made his comment in a letter to Home Affiars Committee chariman Keith Vaz.

Page 9: “I have no idea where these absurd  & untrue allegations come from,” says Cliff. The Mirror fails to tell its readers that Cliff said that on his Facebook page:

I have no idea where these absurd and untrue allegations come from. The police have not disclosed details to me. I have never, in my life, assaulted anyone and I remain confident that the truth will prevail. I have cooperated fully with the police, and will, of course, continue to do so.

Beyond stating that the allegations are completely false, it would not be appropriate for me to say anything further until the investigation has concluded, which I hope will be very soon. In the meantime, I would, again, like to thank everyone for supporting me through this unbelievably difficult period.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 26th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment


Jasmine Tridevil is exposed: the third breast is revealed

Jasmine Tridevil, the woman with THREE breasts is on the cover of the Daily Star. The paper has a scoop. Yes, it is true. The third breast is not a breast at all. It’s a huge marshmallow, a rolled up sock, a deviled dumpling or whatever other cunning device Alisha Hessler shoved in a bra to dupe the media, and ruin the Daily Telegraph when its chief political writer Peter Oborne quit citing Jasmine as the stuff you find under your nails when you scrape the news barrel’s bottom.

It’s left to the venerable breast experts at the Daily Star to expose the bare, naked truth:

 

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And there on Page 3 s the thermal fact, as reveales by a Gwrman TV channel’s thermal camera.

 

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Unless it is real. And the third breast delivers cold drinks only…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted: 25th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities, Strange But True | Comment


Oscars: Mike Kleton and Morgan Miller wow New Yorkers with their “Mobarazzi” star maker

 

It’s Oscar season. And gearing up for the movie biz’s AGM, are Mike Kleton and Morgan Miller with their “Mobarazzi” star maker. New Yorkers are now all the beautiful people…

Posted: 21st, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


The Daily Mail invades Julia Roberts’ grief for her dead mother

Julia Roberts’ mother has died. Roberts is an actress. Her mother wasn’t. Her mother was not a public figure. This is a moment of private grief for a private person. So. How does the Daily Mail report it:

 

Julia Roberts mother

 

Lest you think the Mail has bought nine paparazzi photos  – a thing the paper vowed to stop doing after Princess Diana died – and was gawping at private grief, the ‘Daily Mail Reporter’ tells us its there to support the actress:

As news broke, the star’s friends rushed to the actress’ side as she began the difficult task of visiting her mother’s home in West Los Angeles, California. While many may struggle to enter their late loved ones home on the day they died, the 47-year-old appeared to be determined to get everything in order.

A difficult task made easier by the man with the camera recording your every move .

She’s an inspiration. But can Julia Roebrts be so great at the funeral? Let’s hope the Mail is there to show us…

Posted: 20th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


First drafts: ‘Fifty Shits of Grey’

Shit First Drafts has “found a couple of drafts of the Fifty Shades of Grey script”:

tumblr_njokooAojN1s5k0eto3_1280-680x510

tumblr_njokooAojN1s5k0eto2_1280-680x510 tumblr_njokooAojN1s5k0eto1_1280-680x510

Posted: 13th, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


The worst clickbait headline ever – you’ll think journalism is dead when you see this!

Clickbait journalism is the current trend. The newspapers realise that brand loyalty means nothing. It’s all about the instant hit. So. The Independent looks for a topic riding high on the news cycle. It spots Bobbi Kristina. It sheds crocodile tears – one young woman’s mental turmoil is a public “tragedy” – and muses:

“Those who have been following the Bobbi Kristina tragedy maybe surprised to learn this…”

 

Bobbi Kristina headline

Surprise: Newspaper gets traffic from depressed woman!

 

The “surprise” is that Bobbi Kristina is getting better, at least physically…

 

Posted: 12th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


What would you pay to see Charles Manson dead?

It turns out that Afton Elaine Burton, aka Star, only wanted killer Charles Manson for his body. She’s marry him then keep him for ever.

Daniel Simone says  Burton and one Craig Hammond wanted to use Manson’s lifeless remains as a tourist attraction. He be placed in an hermetically sealed glass box some demented Snow White, Nazi Lenin or Jeremy Bentham*.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 11th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Donald Trump’s hair style will make him President

donald trump hair horror

 

Donald Trump says his hair tsunami is real. Barbara Walters and Joan Rivers have both touched the hair on the telly. And still the rumours persists that Donald’ Trump’s hair is real – but real what?

A Dr. Sean Bednam, from Dermatology and Hair Restoration Specialists, looked at 300 photos of Donald Trump, and declared:

“Donald Trump did not have a hair transplant, and, he doesn’t have a toupee. This is all his own hair, and it is exactly how he styled his hair when he was younger.”

So. How do you get the look. In 2008, the Daily Mail explained how:

 

Donald TRump hair

Wave your hair ‘hello’

 

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 10th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities, Politicians | Comment


America ignores the Baftas in favour of the American Dance Institute’s New Choreography awards

What does America think of the Baftas, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards? A look at the New York Times tells us the anwer is not very much. Or nothing.

One night after British acting’s AGM, and the NYT’s Arts section features not a single story on them awards.

 

 

Bafta New York

 

It might be hard luck that the Baftas are staged on the night of the Grammy Awards. But it’s lamentable that Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul ‘DNA’ is bigger news.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 9th, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


Method-one acting: EastEnders’ John Altman says dope, LSD, cocaine, opium were better than alcohol

john altman

 

EASTENDERS actor John Altman is from the method-one school of acting. Speaking to the Sun, Atlman, who played EastEnders‘ nasty Nick (think middle-aged Sid Vicious without the charm) “revealed he once took heroin, just like his junkie alter-ego”.

Actor took drugs! It is a shock.
Says Altman:

“Everything Nick’s taken I’ve probably taken at some point or another — dope, LSD, cocaine, opium. The first time I did opium was in an opium den in a tower block in the back streets of Calcutta, and I smoked it from a pipe. I threw up afterwards, but when I got back to my hostel I drifted off into this incredible hallucinogenic dream.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 8th, February 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Dad handmakes a David Bowie doll to surprise his 7-year-old daughter

labrynth

 

We love dolls, or action figures (as you macho lads call them). We’ve seen the weirdest celebrity dolls of all time. We’ve seen dead dolls. And we’ve spliced and diced more Barbies then you can shake a nagging finger at.

On Imgur, Uh Jess shows has been makin his own dolls. He’s taken Barbie (always Barbie gets it) and turning them into David Bowie, as seen in the 1986 film Labyrinth.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 6th, February 2015 | In: Film, The Consumer | Comment


50 Shades of Grey was made with Lego in mind: video

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The clunking dialogue. The ability to fold yourself in half and turn your partner into an origami swan. The hands made for w***ing and clutching a ‘martial sex aide’. Yeah. 50 Shades of Grey was made with Lego in mind:

 

Posted: 6th, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


American Sniper: Bradley Cooper’s Slipknot drive to remake news as entertainment

 

In making American Sniper, Bradley Cooper transformed into Chris Kyle, hero of the Clint Eastwood movie about the late Navy SEAL:

“Walsh added that Cooper didn’t just use his workouts to create the right look for the role. He used them as a springboard to transform into Chris Kyle. The intensity of the workouts got him into the right frame of mind. Cooper would often place a picture of Kyle on the wall of the gym and he blasted Kyle’s personal playlist during workouts, listening to the kind of music that defined Kyle, everything from Metallica and Slipknot to Toby Keith. . . . Bradley Cooper started the program at 186 pounds and ended at 225 with roughly the same percent body fat. By the end of the program, he was performing rack pulls with 425 pounds for 10 reps.”

Cooper’s an actor. What about the real thing?

Iraq veteran Brian Turner ( My Life as a Foreign Country) intakes a view:

This isn’t the defining film of the Iraq War. After nearly a quarter century of war and occupation in Iraq, we still haven’t seen that film. I’m beginning to think we’re incapable as a nation of producing a film of that magnitude, one that would explore the civilian experience of war, one that might begin to approach so vast and profound a repository of knowledge. I’m more and more certain that, if such a film film ever arrives, it’ll be made by Iraqi filmmakers a decade or more from now, and it’ll be little known or viewed, if at all, on our shores. The children of Iraq have far more to teach me about the war I fought in than any film I’ve yet seen — and I hope some of those children have the courage and opportunity to share their lessons onscreen. If this film I can only vaguely imagine is ever made, it certainly won’t gross $100 million on its opening weekend.

The biggest problem I have with American Sniper is also a problem I have with myself.

It’s a problem I sometimes find in my own work, and it’s an American problem: We don’t see, or even try to see, actual Iraqi people. We lack the empathy necessary to see them as fully human. In American Sniper, Iraqi men, women, and children are known and defined only in relation to combat and the potential threat they pose. Their bodies are the site and source of violence. In both the film and our collective imagination, their humanity is reduced in ways that, ultimately, define our own narrow humanity. In American Sniper, Iraqis are called “savages,” and the “streets are crawling” with them. Eastwood and his screenwriter Jason Hall give Iraqis no memorable lines. Their interior lives are a blank canvas, with no access points to let us in. I get why that is: If Iraqis are seen in any other light, if their humanity is recognized, then the construct of our imagination, the ride-off-into-the-sunset-on-a-white-horse story we tell ourselves to push forward, falls apart.If we saw Iraqis as humans, we’d have to learn how to live in a world far, far more complicated and painful than the difficult, painful one we currently live in.

The movie is not real. It’s made to entertain. If you get your news from Hollywood, then you’re not that into news:

 

Posted: 3rd, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


Ghostbusters: First peek at new all-female Ghostbusters movie

The news Ghostbusters movie is an all-female affair. It’s going to be fan-tastic. Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray were at the top of their games when the first Ghostbusters film hit the big screens. But who needs them when you have a script like this?

Ghostbusters script

 

 

Spotter and scriptwriter: Sean Mullins

 

 

Posted: 1st, February 2015 | In: Film | Comment


Bobbi Kristina Brown: Roswell Police Department make the link

The daughter of late American singer Whitney Houston has been found unresponsive in a bathtub in a home in Georgia, US police say.

The BBC adds:

Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, was found by her husband and a friend, police said. They immediately started resuscitating her until police and medics arrived.

She was taken to a hospital in Roswell where she was said to be breathing.

Whitney Houston was found dead in February 2012, aged 48, in a bath in a hotel in Los Angeles.

Lisa Holland of Roswell Police Department told People: “Obviously we all know her mom died this very same way.”

Was that necessary? Because the Mail adds:

The LA County coroner said her death was as a result of drowning and effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use

So. The same way?

Posted: 31st, January 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Topless Chelsea Handler makes the Middle East war sexually arousing

The quip of the desert

The quip of the desert

 

Chelsea Handler has sat topless on a naked camel. It’s a statement, Handler says:

“A Muslim allowed a topless Jew to sit on his camel. And we say we can’t live side by side? I say we try and we can and we will. And, You don’t even have to be topless. L’chaim.”

Chelsea Handler lives in California.

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Posted: 31st, January 2015 | In: Celebrities | Comment (1)