"I don't know anyone who doesn't think that Sony Pictures and Sony Music were smart to purchase that rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson preparing for his concerts before his untimely death -- even if the pricetag started at $50M. Not only does the trailer clearly show this is an intriguing motion picture, but those who've seen the actual movie tell me it's riveting. (And they don't even like Michael Jackson or his music...) So it should come as no surprise that Sony is boasting this morning that sales around the world for the pic, which supposedly has a 2-week release (and which we all know will be extended) are humongous." (NikkiFinke/DeadlineHollywoodDaily)
"SOFIA Coppola and boyfriend Thomas Mars are going strong. The 'Lost in Translation' director and the lead singer of French rock band Phoenix, who have a 3-year-old daughter together, hung out all night at the after-party for the band's Central Park show at new pingpong club SPiN. 'They were holding hands the whole time,' says an onlooker. Also watching the tournament at the club on Friday were DJ Paul Sevigny designer/actor Waris Ahluwalia and SPiN co-owner Susan Sarandon." (PageSix)
"David Arquette called in (The Howard Stern Show) to promote his wife's new show, 'Cougar Town,' and Howard immediately asked about the couple's wild Sunday parties. David confirmed the reports ... Howard wondered why Courtney didn't come in herself to promote the show, so David explained: 'I believe if you're a nice person, she might be coming in soon...no cock jokes.' Howard laughed: 'No cock jokes? You kidding me?' ...Howard asked David what he knew about his sister Rosanna's brief relationship with Paul McCartney, but David was evasive: 'I knew some things. My sister's the greatest. She's a muse for musicians.' David said he did meet Paul while the pair were dating but blamed 'their personal dynamic' for the break-up: 'I think he wanted somebody a little closer to him.'" (HowardStern)
"The President of the United States is going to Copenhagen to boost Chicago's chances at hosting the 2016 Olympics. Oprah, apparently, is not enough (Averted Gaze). I have a pet theory that this is some brilliant angle by Axelrod to deprive Mitt Romney of a leg to stand on in 2012. Drudge -- bless his dead soul -- is predictably doing his very best to block the President's efforts. Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma is probably praying for Chicago -- and the President -- fails. So it goes with the party of 'No.' The problem is: President Obama has no guarantees. He could conceivably fail on the international stage at a critical point in his Presidency." (AirAmerica)
"The theme of last year’s PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction gala was 'Promises, Promises,' which was clever for a moment when Congress was debating a bail out bill, the presidential candidates were debating each other, and the rest of us were trying to assure our loved ones we would survive the emerging economic meltdown intact. That moment is behind us now, for better or worse. If you are reading this, you survived something, and maybe you’re wiser to boot. So hand it to PEN/Faulkner for ably branding our sociological flow; this year’s theme was 'Revelation.' The group’s 21st Anniversary Celebration was, as before, held in the wood-paneled, high-ceilinged, book-lined Renaissance theater and rooms of The Folger Shakespeare Library, which, in ironic contrast, sits within the tense high security zone that surrounds the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the office buildings of the House and Senate .. The guests included: ... Susan Eisenhower ... Sen. Thad Cochran .. Rep. Ed Markey .. Jim Lehrer .. Michael and Susan Pillsbury .. Clarence Page, Bill and Alison Paley, George Pelacanos .. Deborah Tannen." (WashingtonSocialDiary)
"The women of Afghanistan, left behind as their men fought, did what the women of World War II did—used their wits and resourcefulness to preserve some semblance of civilization. The Taliban’s backward vision of a radical Islamist state was a utopian fantasy. Except in the rural villages of the south, women before the Taliban worked as doctors, judges, teachers, broadcasters, and budding politicians. Now Afghan women are terrified we will abandon them again. Anne McBride, who observed the elections last month, emailed me: 'The women I met at polling stations risked their lives to come out and vote, but they are angry that the Taliban ruined their lives and are willing to risk it. They are not tolerant of half-steps for women.' Are we really considering throwing them back into the dark, leaving them even more vulnerable after their return to freedom? Anyone in doubt about what fate we would again consign them to should read a compelling 2002 memoir, My Forbidden Face, written by a 21-year-old author under the pseudonym Latifa. She was a high school graduate in Kabul about to go to college and living the life of a normal teenager with a mother working as a busy doctor until the Taliban rose to inflict a life of virtual house arrest and terror. Forbidden to leave the house for college, allowed no TV or magazines and only the crazy boredom of Koranic chanting on the radio, Latifa writes of the creeping death of sloth and depression, lying around a dark house waiting for nothing. 'The Taliban,' she says, are 'a nasty germ, a dangerously militant microbe that propagates by spreading a serious disease insidiously fatal to the freedom of women.'" (Tina Brown/TheDailyBeast)
"Michigan Republicans sense a prime opportunity to take back their state governor's seat in 2010, after two terms with Democrat Jennifer M. Granholm. But the state party is far from unified over who their best candidate is to take on likely Democratic nominee John Cherry. Two polls released last week -- one by non-partisan Inside Michigan Politics and by GOP firm Mitchell Research & Communications Inc. -- showed state Attorney General Mike Cox continues to lead a crowded Republican primary field, with U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra not far behind. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, technology entrepreneur Rick Snyder and state Sen. Tom George are also in the mix. None of the candidates topped 30 percent, however. The poll for the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics found that a quarter of likely Republican voters were undecided and the Mitchell Research poll found nearly a third were unsure. Cox and Bouchard lead Cherry in head-to-head match-ups, the two polls show." (CQPolitics)
No comments:
Post a Comment