The Washington Post today confirmed that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon (full WaPo article).
You scored as Geek.
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Actress Brooke Shields has lambasted former pal Tom Cruise for criticizing her "misguided" use of drugs to combat her post-natal depression. Cruise - who claims to have helped people fight drug addictions through his controversial Scientology religion - recently attacked the Suddenly Susan star for becoming dependant on Paxil, following the birth of her daughter Rowan. But Shields is disgusted by the Top Gun star's "dangerous" comments and took a swipe at his Scientology beliefs, by saying she wouldn't take advice from someone who devotes his life to creatures from outer space. She fumes, "His comments are dangerous. He should stick to saving the world from aliens." Shields is currently weaning herself off her medication so she and husband Chris Henchy can have another child.
Episodes 1-3 are almost all backstory, the stuff good writing profs tell you to cut in favor of pace and dramatic value. As the movies unfolded, I came to believe Lucas should have left well enough alone.
My imagination had already filled in a backstory with the help of Alec Guinness's narration: the Jedi Knights were honorable protectors of the realm who learned to harness the very Force behind life to come to their aid. Darth Vader got carried away with what he could personally gain with his abilities. Using the Force for evil slowly ate away at him until he needed to wear the famous suit to survive. The End.
My biggest beef with Eps. 1-3 is that they do make the Jedi look bad--at least more petty. This image of the Jedi doesn't follow logically from the original trilogy. I'm reminded of Brian De Palma's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie making Jim Phelps a villain--a possibility so beyond the original character's range it was laughable.
Cruise: "I Can't Be Cool with Holmes"
Tom Cruise excused himself for leaping all over TV talk show Oprah Winfrey's sofa and giggling through their recent interview by stating love had turned him into a lunatic. The movie star spent the first half of his TV interview with Winfrey, which aired yesterday in America, cooing about his girlfriend Katie Holmes and punching the air. He said, "I can't be cool... I can't be laidback. It's something that has happened and I feel I want to celebrate it and I wanna celebrate her. She's a very special woman." But the movie star admits he was cool when they first started dating - as he laid on a series of romantic surprises including a motorcycle ride on a beach and decorating their hotel room in Rome, Italy with rose petals. He added, "I don't really go to restaurants because I like doing things... I'm a romantic, I love stuff like that... I like treating a woman the way that she deserves to be treated. I was raised by women and I love this woman. With me, it's scuba diving and motorcycles and roses. I like seeing people happy... and I celebrate that and so I feel like I wanna share it with people because it's something that's very special." And when Winfrey asked him if he truly was smitten with Holmes, he laughed, "I'm standing on your couch!"
Cruise Slams Shields' Drug Use
Tom Cruise has criticized Hollywood pal Brooke Shields' "misguided" use of the anti-depressant Paxil, while declaring the actress' career as over. In an interview with Billy Bush on TV show Access Hollywood, to be screened on Thursday, Cruise speaks of his disappointment to learn Shields used Paxil to fight post-natal depression following the birth of her daughter Rowan. Shields is currently weaning herself off her medication so she and husband Chris Henchy can have another child. Cruise, who claims to have helped people fight drug addictions through his controversial Scientology religion, says the Suddenly Susan actress should have used vitamins to help her feelings of despair. Cruise says, "Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman. You look at, where has her career gone?" Despite the Minority Report actor's declaration her career is over, Shields is currently receiving rave reviews playing murderess Roxie Hart in the London theatre production of Chicago. Cruise maintains, "These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off. When you talk about postpartum, you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins. There is a hormonal thing that is going on, scientifically, you can prove that. But when you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that. You can use vitamins to help a woman through those things."
Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone's "Yabba-dabba-doo!" for more than two decades, has died.
Fans of Kelsey Grammer are set to find him tough to recognize in his next project - he's playing a furry blue monster in the second X-Men sequel. In X-Men 3, the former Frasier star will play oversized mutant Beast, who has not yet appeared in any of the franchise's installments. While there has been a shocked reaction to Grammer's casting, producers of the movie insist he's the perfect choice for the part - because Beast is the most intelligent of all the mutants. Snatch star Vinnie Jones is also set to undergo a huge image overhaul when he plays villainous Juggernaut in the movie. His character is a 900 pound metal-clad battering ram. The sci-fi series stars Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn. The movie, to be directed by Matthew Vaughn, is set to debut in May next year.
I finally gave CHINATOWN a sporting chance last night. I rented it for free from the library, so there was no money on the line, and from the moment I popped in the DVD I knew this was going to be the time I'd "get" it. And I did. I liked it a lot. It had the same feel and mood and vibe that THE BIG SLEEP and THE MALTESE FALCON give, but with a bit more of a modern spin. I enjoyed watching Jack Nicholson and there were some good moments in the movie, but I still don't see it as a GREAT movie. There are plenty of movies, PI and otherwise, that are much better and have done more with, and for, the form, so I don't see why this movie gets special billing.
This could be because I'm coming to the movie late and all of the secrets had been revealed, but still, I don't think that's it. And that's one of my biggest questions with this movie. I don't get what the whole sister/daughter kinky family triangle has to do with the main story of the water shortage plot. They never mesh and one never really has anything to do with the other. But none of that matters. The plot zipps along after a slow start and about an hour in I was ready to go to sleep but it kicked it up right then and I was dragged along to the end. I think my biggest complaint is that there wasn't enough character stuff for me. I've grown so used to my PI stories being as much about the PI character as the PI's case and there is none of that here.
It's been about a year since I saw CHINATOWN for the first time myself. Have a look at review I blogged.
Gittes is the best role I've seen Nicholson play. Jake may not compare to book PIs, but the debate should be how he compares to other screen PIs. Since 1974 there've been a boatload of lukewarm adaptations of book-first PIs: Robert Urich and Joe Mantegna Spenser, Powers Boothe and James Caan as Philip Marlowe, Jeff Bridges as Scudder, Denzel as Easy Rawlins, or Alec Baldwin as Robicheaux. I'll take Gittes over any of them. He was made for the movies. Towne knew what had to happen onscreen to make Jake memorable.
Two other great screen original PIs? Jeff Bridges as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski and Bill Pullman as Darryl Zero (ZERO EFFECT).
The cons are many: it's far (though I could use the trip as an excuse to do other things on the East Coast), I have a hot date who, though he may consent to go with me, would be bored to tears by the entire event, I hated most of the people with whom I went to high school, I left things rather awkwardly with the people I DID like, the very idea of spending time in a tacky hotel in the suburbs, even if the bar is open and the food is free, me + open bar + people I don't like = barbs and other snarky quips I will never be able to take back, it costs $99, and if I'm going to spend $99 in NY I'm going to sit in the first row at Glengarry Glen Ross.
The only pro is sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
Any thoughts?
I skipped my tenth-year reunion for many of the same reasons you're pondering. The day after the reunion, the Anakin to my Obi-Wan--a good friend with a bad temper who drifted toward an ornery crowd--sent me a scathing e-mail berating me for not attending. Luckily, I remained calm in response and we were able to catch up, to the extent I wanted.
Of course, I didn't have a date for the reunion and hadn't progressed enough to throw shady fruit at classmates.
Howard Struggled with Crowe's Moods
Cinderella Man director Ron Howard struggled with Russell Crowe's mood swings on the set of the boxing movie. The movie maker - who directed Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, which won them both Academy Awards - had to schedule his shoot depending on what mood his leading man was in. But he insists the end result, and Crowe's genius, made the effort worthwhile. Howard explains, "Directing Russell is like shooting on a tropical island. The weather is going to change several times a day, but you're shooting there for a reason. Sometimes those dark clouds are just what you need. And sometimes you wish it would stop raining so you can do the sunny scene."
And now I'm kind of at a loss. Seeing as it's gone, there's no valid link to [Banks's story] 'The Monkey Man'. And seeing as that story makes me shudder now, I'm not that inclined to post it here. So maybe it's best I leave it to the ether.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian prison siege ended on Monday after a group of inmates agreed to release a guard they had held for two days in return for a delivery of pizzas, prison officials said.
Those crappy, flatly-directed, and exceedingly dull MOWs shouldn't be mistaken for the underappreciated SPENSER FOR HIRE series (and I'm not just saying that because I wrote for it)...
AP: CLEARFIELD, Pa. - The burger war is growing. Literally. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world's biggest burger earlier this year, is now offering a new burger that weighs a whopping 15 pounds.
Dubbed the Beer Barrel Belly Buster, the burger comes with 10.5 pounds of ground beef, 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, a cup-and-a-half each of mayonnaise, relish, ketchup, mustard and banana peppers — and a bun.
It costs $30.
