Archive for the &;Hollywood&; Category

Joan Rivers isnot 77

June 14, 2010

Last week, according to the local &;paper of record&;, the LA Times, on June 8,  &;Joan Rivers turned 77, an age that makes her shudder. After all, for years, the comedian has put a lot of money and effort into trying to look younger.&; Certainly the latter half of this statement is all too demonstrably true, as Rivers has in her campaign to not become Phyllis Diller became the poster child for repeated plastic surgery.  But along with erasing lines, Rivers has erased her birthdate&;and the Times is complicit with this. For Joan Rivers to be 77, she would have been born in 1933.  This would mean she wasn&;t quite 21 when she graduated from Barnard College in NY in May of 1954.  This is barely possible, but unlikely, especially as she was a transfer student. More than 15 years ago, when I was employed by the National Enquirer, I did a &;clip job&; on Rivers, going through printed clips on her at AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills. According to these aged clips, Joan was actually born in 1931, meaning she is now in her 8oth year, a prospect she no doubt finds far more insufferable than &;turning&; 77 (again). I have to hand it to her; she&;s worked really hard to get the later date out for years, and short of pulling her birth certificate a la &;Kenyan alien&; Barack Obama, it&;s hard to prove. Does it matter if a woman shaves a couple of years off her age?  Probably not; I know someone who&;s half-seriously attempting to shave 9 years off hers.  What&;s not OK is for the Times to just print it.  What ever happens to &;If your mother says she loves you, check it out?&;

Tags:Hollywood, Joan-Rivers, LA-Times, National-Enquirer, uncritical-press Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Follies, Los-Angeles-Times, tabloid-journalism | 3 Comments &;

James Cameron, ClosetFeminist?

December 9, 2009

As a film maker, Cameron is associated with action/sci-fi films that skew male (and fanboy) like Terminator, Aliens, the upcoming Avatar, and of course his &;classic&; first film, Piranha Part II: The Spawning. But Cameron has also included some strong roles for strong women in his films, from Sigourney Weaver as 6-foot ass-kicking Marine Ripley in Aliens (which some call the best of the Alien quartet)to Oscar-nominated Kate Winslet in Titanic. My personal favorite female Cameron role is Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2.  Her bulked up arms and steely/insane determination to protect her son appealed to both male and females.

Avatar will bring three strong females to the screen including Zoe Saldana and the ever-feisty Michelle Rodriguez.

Then there&;s Sigourney, 9-feet tall and blue in the movie&;and 6 feet tall in red in Hollywood.

Cameron may be an action director, but thankfully, when it comes to women, he&;s no Michael Bay.

Tags:Avatar, James-Cameron, Kate-Winslet, Linda-Hamilton, Michael-Bay, Michael-Bay-Victoria's-Secret, Michelle-Rodriguez, Ripley, Sigourney-Weaver, Terminator, Zoe-Saldana Posted in Hollywood, SciFi | 1 Comment &;

Vegas Gambling GoesHollywood

November 20, 2009

I know, I know, they call it &;gaming&; rather than gambling, or more properly, losing.  As I noted after 20 years of tradeshow gambling in Las Vegas, &;Like the ice caps melting, I’ve watched the casino gaming pits where one plays blackjack shrink, with the real estate taken over by an army of slot machines for a generation of Americans who prefer to interact with screens rather than a boisterous table of degenerate gamblers.&; The slots are bright and attractive now, not just one-armed bandits spinning oranges and black bars.   At the gaming expo in Las Vegas, the new &;slots&; (that take only green money, credit cards or casino player&;s club/loser&;s club cards) offer &;high-definition animated characters and 3-D graphics, touch-screen technology and Xbox-type or similar video game features.&; Just as Hollywood now makes &;films&; stripmining our collective past, from &;Bewitched&; and &;Land of the Lost&; (Will Ferrell has fallen far from &;Anchorman&;) to, G-d help us, Mr. Potatohead,  gaming companies will bring images, characters and situations from &;The Lord of the Rings&; and, for the distaff crowd, &;Sex and the City&; to the casual slot player. A Hollywood/Vegas hook-up promoting gambling directly from couch potatoes can&;t be far away.

Tags:Hollywood, Las Vegas, slot-machines, Will-Ferrell Posted in Hollywood, Las Vegas, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;

2012: Sick withCGI

October 7, 2009

The Mayans are coming!  The Mayans are coming! Or at least the supposed Mayan prophesy about the end of the world in 2012.  As the website for the movie 2012 states, &;With the Mayan calendar ending in 2012, a large group of people must deal with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers.&; Personally I&;m more concerned with the Iranians getting the H-bomb, but then I&;m not trying to sell a movie overstuffed with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and Hollywood hooey. Saw the 2012 trailer before  Zombieland last night, and was repelled by the overuse of CGI. 

Fake cars falling off the fake freeway.  Santa Monica&;s palisades crumbling into the sea.  Fake meteorites hitting the fake highway where John Cusack is driving his RV.   The arms falling off the Brazilian statue of Jesus.  Michelangelo&;s Last Supper, cracking.  St. Paul&;s Basilica, topping over. Fake floods toppling a fake monastery.  Planes flying over a digitally crumbling city. Cusack, usually a great actor, trying to scream on the green screen.

 &;Find out the truth.  Search 2012.&; The truth is that 2012 may make Armageddon look like a classic.  CGI is becoming so horribly overused in action movies that only the exceptions stand out.   District 9 looks so impressively/depressingly &;real&; that the audience is happy to accept people in &;prawn&; suits.  And Gladiator  won the 2001 Visual Effects Oscar, even though it had only 90 special effects shots, as opposed to the 350 in the favored Perfect Storm with its monstrous tidal waves. Unfortunately, filmmakers have not learned from Ridley Scott&;s judicious use of CGI in Gladiator, which he used to enhance the Colisseum and even bring Alan Bates (Proximo), who died during filming, back to life. When will filmmakers learn that with CGI, less is more?

John Cusack in 2012

Tags:2012-The-Movie, John-Cusack, overuse-of-CGI, Ridley-Scott Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Follies, Hollywood-turkeys, Uncategorized | 1 Comment &;

Natasha Richardson Injury, Parent TrapCurse?

March 17, 2009

First of all, let me say that my prayers are with Natasha Richardson and her family.  I hope the ever-reliable NY Post and others are wrong and that she is not &;brain-dead&; from a skiing accident.  She&;s a talented actress and a beautiful lady I&;ve had the chance to see in the flesh a couple of times, performing in Cabaret on Broadway and in 2005 ago at a premiere party for her film The White Countess, which though well-reviewed was essentially dumped after the death of producer Ismail Merchant. She was the epitome of Hollywood glamour at the premiere in a tight-fitting skyblue gown. Hollywood curses on films have about the same credibility as Hollywood ghosts, which I&;ve written about for the National Enquirer, embroidering the tale of Ozzie and Harriet haunting their old Hollywood home.  But with Lindsay Lohan&;s well-publicized troubles, the near-death of Dennis Quaid&;s young twins and now this, perhaps the Parent Trap should join the list.   

Tags:Natasha-Richardson, Parent-Trap-Curse Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood-deaths | 1 Comment &;