If I lived in Austin, Texas, I would totally want to be friends with Laura Anderson and Anna Notario. Why? They opened a frozen banana stand in an homage to “Arrested Development,” a.k.a. The Funniest Show Ever. (On the series, the Bluth family owns a frozen banana stand, but if you didn’t know that already, you should get off of the Internet and start watching the show. Now.)
I watch a lot of TV and certainly, many times have thought that it would be fun to be an FBI agent/brilliant medical doctor/vampire slayer/Battlestar admiral, but these girls took being inspired by a favorite TV show to the next level. Well done!
Meanwhile, I will continue checking IMDB for news about the rumored “Arrested Development” movie…
Director Tim Burton is no doubt a master of creating imaginative and breathtaking movies, and his upcoming film, Disney’s “Alice and Wonderland” appears to be no exception. The movie is scheduled to be released on March 5, 2010 and stars Johnny Depp in his seventh film with Burton as the Mad Hatter. (Trivia: Can anyone name all of the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton collaborations?)
The movie also features Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. Burton has recently finished shooting, and the live action shots are being merged with the CG animation and motion capture, and then transferred into 3-D. From the promo pictures (which you can check out here), Burton has appeared to have given the classic story a surreal spin. It looks like complete eye candy and I can’t wait to see it. Here’s a taste:
Tennis Channel interviewed Roger Federer on Day 3 of the Championships at Wimbledon. This is hands down the most candid interview I have ever seen Roger give. If you’re a tennis buff, do not miss this interview. Hey Sherry! That means you!
Can anyone imagine if Andy Roddick could actually make it to the Wimbledon final and beat Roger??? Roger’s my pick to win (as he is everyone else’s), but I would love to see an upset in the final to a non-Nadal.
In honor of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen surpassing the $200 million mark during it’s first 5 days, click the link below to watch a sexy photo shoot of Megan Fox from last month’s Esquire.
This is from tonight’s BET Awards. It’s a somber duet rendition of “I’ll Be There” performed by Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo.
For another Michael Jackson related video, this one is a but on the other side of the fence. It comes from CBS’s Face the Nation. This is Bob Schieffer’s thoughts on “heroes vs. icons.” What do you think?
If you haven’t had a chance to see our director Jan Chen’s Rubbuds yet, make sure you make your way to www.rubbuds.com to watch it (or pull it from our archives last month). The hysterical 3-minute CG short is continuing to get some buzz on the internet. In fact, one of the major animation studios in Hollywood is eager to learn more about Jan, so hopefully this is a postive sign of things to come. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed!
As I wrote before, hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll get that video interview with Jan posted.
Have a media-inundated weekeend paying tribute to Michael Jackson, it’s still sorta hard to believe that he’s actually dead… and that he passed away just a mile or two from our studio. We all knew Michael threw his music and his many interviews over the years. Part of me almost expected some sort of bizarre goodbye speech that didn’t make any sense, just to give us a sense of closure. This was all too sudden though.
I was talking to our Office Manager, Sherry, on the evening of MJ’s death. She was reminiscing about his concert at the Great Western Forum here in LA back in 1979. Sherry described him as “The Greatest Performer Ever!” And as we all know, Sherry is not to name just anyone as “The Greatest” of anything. When Sherry speaks, people listen!
I’m a bit remorse that I never had the chance to see him perform live. I had hoped that if he ever made it to Vegas, I might actually get to see him. But most of us know at some level that when he announced that 3-year, 35+ concert tour complete with Vegas show, etc., there was really no way Michael would pull it off. I’m still waiting for him to finish that song about Hurricaine Katrina, “I Have This Dream.” In fact, I hope someone releases the song soon. It’s guaranteed to be a hit. Maybe they could split the profits with the charity and with the Sheikh.
To conclude my ramblings on Michael, I would argue that his passing may be one of the most widespread moments of global mourning ever. We are all reminded of Princess Diana as well as JFK and Elvis. Digital media really put Michael in a special place as generations across nearly all countries gained access to The King of Pop. There is this “shared-collective” of his music as well as the celebrity of his ever-growing absurdities. Michael Jackson was a musician. He was an entertainer. But he seemed to have done much more than just entertain us. He always wanted to heal the world, but in some ways, Michael Jackson himself has proven that he and his music were a universal currency that transcended the very boundaries of space that divide us on this planet. Despite all the allegations against him over the years, he spoke a messge of love and peace.
So rather than post a tribute video montage of Michael below, instead I’ve decided to post “Scream,” which was a duet with his sister Janet. It was released in 1996. I remember thinking it was the most amazing music video I had ever seen at the time. It was the first single to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was off his anthology HIStory.
Yesterday was a sad day in Hollywood with the deaths of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at a rental home in Los Angeles yesterday. He was rushed to UCLA Medical Center where he died. The cause of death has not yet been determined. While Jackson has gotten odder and more controversial in recent years (with his ever-changing face and child molestation charges), he will certainly always be remembered as a seminal music star, bridging the gap between R&B and pop music. Since his death yesterday, his album sales have shown a huge increase. Also, both Twitter and AOL Instant Messenger crashed for a short time yesterday with users spreading news his death. He was 50.
Actress Farrah Fawcett, probably best known for being one of “Charlie’s Angels,” also died yesterday, in Santa Monica. She had been struggling with cancer since 2006. She was 62 years old.
DUCK director Walter Santucci would love if you could vote for his film to air on PBS this weekend. It’s called Pachelbel’s Kanon.
Voting ends at 2 p.m. today. Please vote now! http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/category/vote/
Walter is part of the directing team Evil Catland.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton has been in the news this week for alleging that he was punched in the face by singer Will.I.Am’s manager outside of a Toronto nightclub.
Will.I.Am (of the Black Eyed Peas) reportedly asked Perez to stop writing about him and Perez responded by calling him gay and using other gay slurs against him.
Perez later said that he decided to use a gay slur against Will.I.Am because he thought that it would be the worst thing that Will.I.Am could hear. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation didn’t exactly see the logic in that and issued a statement asking for an apology. The statement said, “These are vulgar anti-gay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community. For someone in our community to use it to attack another person saying that it is, quote, ‘The worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear’ is incredibly dangerous.”
In response, Perez issued a statement on his website. (I tried to read the entirety of this statement, but couldn’t get through it. It would probably be in Perez’s best interest to just stop saying things.)
Ironically, Perez has been trying to make his gossip blog a little gentler and more advertiser-friendly lately … I can’t imagine that this ordeal will help his cause!
If I lived in Austin, Texas, I would totally want to be friends with Laura Anderson and Anna Notario. Why? They opened a frozen banana stand in an homage to “Arrested Development,” a.k.a. The Funniest Show Ever. (On the series, the Bluth family owns a frozen banana stand, but if you didn’t know that already, you should get off of the Internet and start watching the show. Now.)
h Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
