Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have been dating for two months, so it’s about time for the inevitable deluge of breathless stories about their progress toward the altar. Hollywood Life reports that they’ve been spotted wearing engagement rings, and cites an OK! story claiming the pair is “kind of pre-engaged,…
Continue reading …
Comic Con has turned into a launchpad for viral ad campaigns for upcoming films. This year, the first big one to be found is a very low-key promo for Elysium, the upcoming second film by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Given that District 9 got its first massive awareness push at Comic Con a couple years ago,we should have known that Elysium would have some presence this year. But the film just… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : /Film Discovery Date : 21/07/2011 20:00 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …
Comic Con has turned into a launchpad for viral ad campaigns for upcoming films. This year, the first big one to be found is a very low-key promo for Elysium, the upcoming second film by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Given that District 9 got its first massive awareness push at Comic Con a couple years ago,we should have known that Elysium would have some presence this year. But the film just… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : /Film Discovery Date : 21/07/2011 20:00 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …
Her father was scary. Vincent Gallo got vicious. And Jack Nicholson taught her never to give a brown present. Anjelica Huston tells John Patterson about a life among Hollywood royalty The last time I met Anjelica Huston was six or seven years ago in a luxury oceanfront hotel in Venice, California. It was windy and cold, Huston was still a smoker – we talked outside in the wind while she lit up like a naughty schoolgirl. Today, it’s a blisteringly hot day, she’s an enviably youthful 60, an ex-smoker now, sitting in the lounge of the luxury hotel next door, before a gigantic cinemascope window affording guests a million-dollar view of the Pacific, which looks seriously tempting in today’s heat. “I went in the ocean this year, the day after my birthday,” she tells me as we watch the breakers gently roll in, “and it was actually really nice. It’s like the Eiffel Tower is for Parisians, though, the beach in LA. It’s right there, but you barely even look at it most of the time.” Spoken like a true Angeleno. We’re here to talk about Horrid Henry: The Movie , a swivel-eyed comedy based on the children’s books by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross, in which she plays the screechy teacher, Miss Battle-Axe (we’re on the uglied-up Morticia Addams end of the Huston spectrum again). “It’s very British material to me, and I’ve always been strangely attracted to these extreme characters, like Miss Battle-Axe. I found her irresistible! I hadn’t seen the cartoon or the book, which I hear is second in popularity in Britain to Harry Potter. I guess you have to have a few seven-year-old children to really appreciate that.” How was it working with all those kids? “Most of my scenes were with Theo Stevenson [the titular bad boy], but English kids are so polite and enthusiastic, and not blase. I did that movie Daddy Day Care , with a bunch of five- and six-year-old American kids, and they were so sophisticated and scarily together compared with this group, who were sweet and happy and enthusiastic. The script was very charming, I liked the director, and it felt like a good idea to go and play in London for a while.” Huston arrives alone, no PR flak, no retinue, no muscle, just a slender, well-dressed and coiffed California woman of a certain age and, if you look closely enough, a striking, instantly familiar cast of feature. But today, in white pants, a simple blouse and open-toed sandals, she might as well be in disguise. She probably walked here today from her home nearby, unrecognised and unmolested. To be as unassuming and well-adjusted and as smart and, well, as normal as Anjelica Huston has turned out to be is, to say the least, unusual among the children of fathers as legendary – and notorious – as hers, the buccaneering, larger-than-life, genius-hero-monster John Huston , a maverick back when that word still meant
Continue reading …
Her father was scary. Vincent Gallo got vicious. And Jack Nicholson taught her never to give a brown present. Anjelica Huston tells John Patterson about a life among Hollywood royalty The last time I met Anjelica Huston was six or seven years ago in a luxury oceanfront hotel in Venice, California. It was windy and cold, Huston was still a smoker – we talked outside in the wind while she lit up like a naughty schoolgirl. Today, it’s a blisteringly hot day, she’s an enviably youthful 60, an ex-smoker now, sitting in the lounge of the luxury hotel next door, before a gigantic cinemascope window affording guests a million-dollar view of the Pacific, which looks seriously tempting in today’s heat. “I went in the ocean this year, the day after my birthday,” she tells me as we watch the breakers gently roll in, “and it was actually really nice. It’s like the Eiffel Tower is for Parisians, though, the beach in LA. It’s right there, but you barely even look at it most of the time.” Spoken like a true Angeleno. We’re here to talk about Horrid Henry: The Movie , a swivel-eyed comedy based on the children’s books by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross, in which she plays the screechy teacher, Miss Battle-Axe (we’re on the uglied-up Morticia Addams end of the Huston spectrum again). “It’s very British material to me, and I’ve always been strangely attracted to these extreme characters, like Miss Battle-Axe. I found her irresistible! I hadn’t seen the cartoon or the book, which I hear is second in popularity in Britain to Harry Potter. I guess you have to have a few seven-year-old children to really appreciate that.” How was it working with all those kids? “Most of my scenes were with Theo Stevenson [the titular bad boy], but English kids are so polite and enthusiastic, and not blase. I did that movie Daddy Day Care , with a bunch of five- and six-year-old American kids, and they were so sophisticated and scarily together compared with this group, who were sweet and happy and enthusiastic. The script was very charming, I liked the director, and it felt like a good idea to go and play in London for a while.” Huston arrives alone, no PR flak, no retinue, no muscle, just a slender, well-dressed and coiffed California woman of a certain age and, if you look closely enough, a striking, instantly familiar cast of feature. But today, in white pants, a simple blouse and open-toed sandals, she might as well be in disguise. She probably walked here today from her home nearby, unrecognised and unmolested. To be as unassuming and well-adjusted and as smart and, well, as normal as Anjelica Huston has turned out to be is, to say the least, unusual among the children of fathers as legendary – and notorious – as hers, the buccaneering, larger-than-life, genius-hero-monster John Huston , a maverick back when that word still meant
Continue reading …
Art dealer William R Acquavella says the painter died after an illness British artist Lucian Freud has died at the age of 88, his solicitor said. In a statement, Diana Rawstron, who has represented Freud for many years, said: “Lucian Freud, artist, born 8 December 1922 in Berlin, died peacefully last night [Wednesday 20 July] at his home in London.” The painter, a towering figure in the art world for more than 50 years, died after an illness, his New York-based art dealer said. William Acquavella said in a statement that he would mourn Freud “as one of the great painters of the 20th century”. Mr Acquavella added: “He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world.” Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate art gallery, said: “The vitality of his nudes, the intensity of the still life paintings and the presence of his portraits of family and friends guarantee Lucian Freud a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th century art. “His early paintings redefined British art and his later works stand comparison with the great figurative painters of any period.” • More details to follow shortly … Lucian Freud Painting Art guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Art dealer William R Acquavella says the painter died after an illness British artist Lucian Freud has died at the age of 88, his solicitor said. In a statement, Diana Rawstron, who has represented Freud for many years, said: “Lucian Freud, artist, born 8 December 1922 in Berlin, died peacefully last night [Wednesday 20 July] at his home in London.” The painter, a towering figure in the art world for more than 50 years, died after an illness, his New York-based art dealer said. William Acquavella said in a statement that he would mourn Freud “as one of the great painters of the 20th century”. Mr Acquavella added: “He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world.” Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate art gallery, said: “The vitality of his nudes, the intensity of the still life paintings and the presence of his portraits of family and friends guarantee Lucian Freud a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th century art. “His early paintings redefined British art and his later works stand comparison with the great figurative painters of any period.” • More details to follow shortly … Lucian Freud Painting Art guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sen. Al Franken made FOF’s Thomas Minnery look like a blithering idiot by calling him out of his faulty use of a study that he mischaracterized to attack gay couples. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) took on a representative of the conservative group Focus on the Family for mischaracterizing a study on “nuclear families” at a hearing on a bill which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Ac. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Franken noted that the group’s testimony listed the benefits of children “living with their biological and/or adopted mothers and fathers” as surpassing those of children “living in any other family form.” He observed they listed a Department of Health and Human Services study as backing that up. “I actually checked it out,” Franken said in reference to the study FOF’s Thomas Minnery has cited. He then observed it uses the term “nuclear families” without specifically mentioning “opposite sex married families.” “Isn’t it true, Mr. Minnery, that a married same-sex couple that has had or adopted kids would fall under the definition of a nuclear family in the study that you cite?” Franken asked. “I think that the study, when it cites nuclear families would mean a family headed by a husband and wife,” Minnery said. “It doesn’t,” Franken said, getting laughs from the audience. “The study defines a nuclear family as one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents to all the children in the family,” Franken continued. “And I frankly don’t really know how we can trust the rest of your testimony if you are reading studies these ways. ” Much of the Televangelists that are engaged in the DOMA debate do not care much for truth or accuracy. They only see their hatred of the gay community and play the Game of Thrones Nixon or the politics of dirty tricks that Nixon helped define . The Conservative Top of The Ticket blogger writes: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) needed a better defense witness than Tom Minnery could provide Wednesday after Rep. Al Franken exposed him for misrepresenting a study. Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and now a Democratic senator from Minnesota, used some of his comedic skills and razor-sharp timing to take down the Focus on the Family representative. He also used the curious technique of actually reading the study his witness cited. Hilarity ensued when Franken discovered that Minnery had misrepresented a Department of Health and Human Services definition of a “nuclear family” to better fit FOTF’s conservative worldview. — The Defense of Marriage Act was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein yesterday introduced a new bill , the Respect for Marriage Act, that would repeal it. President Obama has endorsed the new act. Once again the use of satire cuts to the heart of the matter better than long winded explanations.
Continue reading …
The BlackBerry PlayBook may not have exactly won over consumers en masse, but it looks like RIM can now at least put a feather in its cap when it comes to one of its key customer bases: government agencies. The company announced today that the PlayBook is the first tablet to receive the so-called FIPS 140-2 certification which, according to RIM, means that the US federal government can “buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information.” Of course, those agencies will still need to make sure to supply a BlackBerry smartphone as well so folks can access some of that information — although this may be one instance where that’s considered to be more of a feature than an omission. BlackBerry PlayBook receives certification for US government use originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Video Proves Chris Matthews Totally Distorted Ronald Reagan’s Position on Taxes
July 21, 2011 No Comment
On Wednesday's Hardball , Chris Matthews took a clip from a 24 year-old Ronald Reagan press conference and disingenuously passed it off as the Republican's take on “raising taxes to deal with the ballooning deficit.” Matthew's version was out of context and video from October 22, 1987 proves it. [See below for video. MP3 audio here .] After playing a snippet of Reagan that had nothing to do with taxes, Matthews touted, “That was, of course, the great Ronald Reagan in his own words back in October of 1987 about raising taxes to deal with the ballooning deficit.” The host continued, “Well today, many Democrats in Congress have picked up on Reagan's comments about raising taxes and are using the most revered of Republican' s words against his own party.” What did Reagan actually say on October 22, 1987? He asserted: RONALD REAGAN: …The spending is roughly 23 to 24 percent. So that it is in – it is what is increasing, while revenues are staying proportionately the same and what would be the proper amount they should – that we should be taking from the private sector. And I think that this is something we have to consider, if we're going to maintain prosperity. I will say this, with regard to taxes or sources of revenue: we must not do something that has an adverse affect – affect – on the economy. … But I'm going to tell you, I have not changed my opinion about ever accepting a tax that will have a deleterious effect on the economy, and most tax increases do. Taxing is not the policy, or the problem, with the deficit. The deficit is due to too much spending. Every dollar of increased revenue since 1980 – and that means including our tax cuts -every dollar of increased revenue has been matched by a dollar and a quarter of increased spending. Matthews was not being honest with his audience by trying to portay his brief clip as “the most revered of Republican' s words against his own party.”
Continue reading …