Bloggity Blog Blog

I have to admit, I am losing interest even in mocking the new anti-blog bloggers from Variety and The LA Times.
We have heard from neither writer since Friday

Chef Is Dead… Long Live Chef

An iPhone type in is hardly enough of a chance to celebrate a bad mutha Scientologist (hush yo mouth) like Isaac Hayes.
There are some great voices in this generation, but we haven’t really found the deep, threateningly sexy, makes you happy just hearing it voices like Hayes’, Jones’, White’s, Rawls’…
I can dig it. I thought the Stone/Parker to Hayes’ exit was one of the crueler things I have ever seen on air. They were right that he was being a hypocrite, but using his own voice against him… brutal.
Meanwhile, I wonder whether the voice of God, Mr Freeman, has some serious connections upstairs, having stayed out of the Rule of Three.
I raise a big, salty, chocolate ball in your honor. Few artists get to leave absolutely indelible marks in more than one medium. Hayes left us Chef, Shaft, and songs to which we can all make sweet love.

Klady's Sunday Estimates

Bernie Mac

Who said there were no second acts in American life? (rhetorical)
Bernie Mac had a fairly successful career as a stand-up and occasional movie actor before Spike Lee made and released The Original Kings of Comedy through a major studio, Paramount. But like Tyler Perry and many of the great comedians, he was really only a name inside his community, in this case, the Black community.
But from the weekend Original Kings opened to over $11 million – more than most thought it would gross in its entire run – Mac and Cedric The Entertainer (and to a lesser degree, Steve Harvey and Dl Hughley, who already had more of a following) broke out as go-to-guys for the industry. The first mega-break was Ocean’s Eleven, followed quickly by replacing $6 million Bill Murray in the Charlie’s Angels sequel. His own self-named show followed.
His opportunity to be a movie lead was cut short with Mr 3000, though it was a movie that deserved better. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s good fun and Disney couldn’t turn the trick.
Dimension’s Soul Men, in which Mac co-stars with Sam Jackson, has some positive buzz out there for its November release. The movie sounds like “The Moon-shine Boys,” with two retired soul men getting back together to put on one more show. Will it be another example this year of an actor getting that career breakthrough performance in the can and passing away before being able to enjoy it?
He was 50. Jim Henson died of pneumonia at 53. Scary. (Especially for us Libras, which both of them were.)
You hate to see guys like that miss their third act.

Klady's Friday Estimates – B4

As a remarkable run continues, The Dark Knight may go 4 in a row… a feat so remarkable it hasn’t happened since earlier this year. Sorry… along with ticket sale obsession, this is a stupid stat and part of why there is hype backlash on this movie, which is not backlash against the movie. Add to that the breathless, hyperactive, and inaccurate – inaccuracies that would be forgivable if they weren’t so emphatic and so lacking in perspective – and you have a very impressive mountain turned into a media molehill. Really.
Meanwhile, Pineapple Express is on track to gross right along with Superbad – a 5-day opening vs a 3-day, but they will do about the same in their first five days with Pineapple doing much less 3-vs-3 – and Knocked Up, for that matter, though Knocked had the longer legs, most likely because of its release date. In these last 4 Apatow Years, really only Walk Hard has been anything but a success. And it’s likely no coincidence that it is the only film outside of Apatow’s self-defined genre.
A $5 million increase in the first 3 days of the Pants (non-Joey) franchise is good… what it really means, we won’t know for a while. The first film did about 3 times the 5-day opeinng with weekly holds that shifted in the breeze… but the numbers were small enough that it never seemed eventful. Perhaps an outdoor campaign featuring a blurry image of ABC’s starlet servicing CW’s starlet and the tag, “OMFG… It’s their first girl-girl experimentation,” would have helped the franchise break out (non-acne).
Looking at the chart, it really strikes me how badly Disney blew the Swing Vote opportunity. An entertaining turn for adults is so missing from the marketplace… they had it… they blew it with a big-head one-sheet.
Mamma Mia! hits $100m today…. sixth musical ever and fourth in the last seven years. MM! gets there a week before Hairspray and is stronger on the crossing weekend by more than 50%. MM! may pass Dreamgirls tomorrow and will settle into being the #3 all-time musical sometime in mid-September.

Best Of The… 60s

I just noticed the 275 comments on the Parmaount thread, mostly regarding great old movies of the 70s.
So here are some places to play…

Best Of The… 80s

Best Of The… 90s

My First Crush Of 2008

It feels like The Celebration with a kind soul. Demme can paint the corners of dark and light as well as any director working. Hathaway is ready to break out as an adult. Seeing Winger makes me grin. Love the song. I am smitten.

On Edwards…

The John Edwards thing has been an open secret in “Hollywood’ for a long time. The Woman involved was attempting to blackmail Edwards on this for almost a year.
It seems to me that if the baby was actually his, he would have admitted it today, as DNA testing is inevitable. Perhaps it has already happened.
My best guess on what happened is that DNA testing was quietly done, that she knew he was not the father, and that the meeting in the Beverly Hills Hotel was a set up, by her, to get her payment from the National Enquirer even after finding out that it was not his (likely the other guy’s, who she was apparently having sex with in the same period).
It will be interesting to see whether Edwards pursues the blackmail end of this. My guess is, “no,” because it makes him look like he’s trying to make excuses. America forgives the bowed head, not the excuse maker. And thus, the hypocrisy of being a victim and a professional politician.
So… was the National Enquirer reporting the story or making the story? Yes, he had sex with that woman. No, the money was The Baby and it looks like it was not his. And here is the National Enquirer having it both ways.
None of this excuses MSM from not covering the story, especailly months ago when Edwards was being touted for the VP slot and every one of those pundits had heard the stories… and Edwards had even denied them. Did MSM do “the right thing” by staying out of it and not torturing Mrs. Edwards and their families?
This is the line that books are written about.
As things go, I knew someone who knew The Woman and was privately aware of her claims even before the National Enquirer started pushing this story. Neither of us know what the truth of The Baby is… just what The Woman was telling everyone who would listen.
Sadly, this all become a very destructive episode of “The Moment of Truth” in which she took the money at a couple hundred thousand (from the Enquirer) because she knew she couldn’t get the big money for answering the next question, “Is it John Edwards baby?” with a “Yes.” that would pass the lie detector.
And for Edwards’ part, he wouldn’t pay the blackmailer. He was just pig enough to cheat on his wife with a too easily available woman (is this a southern politician thing?) and fool enough to show up at The Beverly Hills Hotel himself, probably because it was The Woman’s “last demand” and he arrogantly thought he was about to clear the problem away, once and for all, never to be more than Page 22 of The Enquirer, at worst.
Being a self-deluding sucker is not excuse. But it’s a bit more interesting than the surface of it that MSM is still selling… no?

BYOB – Friday

I like Pineapple Express.
I wanted to love it.
Guess I should have been stoned.
It’s a movie that really demans no review. David Gordon Green did what he does. Apatow, Rogen, and Goldberg did what they do. James Franco gives one of the most memorable performances of the year, even if I kept finding myself thinking, “Seth & Evan were watching True Romance and said, ‘We want to see a movie about Pitt and Rappaport doing a deal, not Slater.” And thus… Pineapple Express!!!
Fun. Not too sticky.
My favorite pull-quote of the week is “No one’s going to listen to me. I’m just a guy with a big mouth and i just like to write every day.” Proud moments for the internets.
Sad to see Bernie Brillstein go. A good guy. Old school… but created some new ideas in his slot. Survived Brad Grey… unlike Paramount. A few great loyalties gave him a life of eventfulness.
Iron Man announces a Sept DVD release… to beat The Dark Knight out before their inevitable November date.
This weekend, it’s finally time to stay in for Chinese.

The Lex Rules… sigh…

This is so not something I want to be doing in any way…
Yet another note this morning…
“LexG’s postings have driven me from participating in the discussion like I used to, the all caps space hogging and thread hijacking has just left a bad taste for the entire Hot Blog experience as of late. And after reading his obnoxiousness on the Paris thread; less than a month since you’ve really tried to handle him and the whole Defamer thing…Well it just forces me to believe that he’s not going to respect you anytime soon and the only way to avoid this disruption is to just avoid The Hot Blog until there is a remedy.”
And so, as I continue to hear from decent people making civil complaints… “Scene.”
For the first and hopefully the last time, I am setting a different set of rules for one person.
I am not banning LexG.
What I am doing is putting him on Double Public Probation. One more run of drunken or crazy postings and he goes from “trusted commenter” to “authenticated commenter.” As it works now, all comenters authenticated by TypePad get immediate access to posting. If I have to “untrust” LexG, it means that I will allow only “trusted commenters” to post without my approval, which is mostly an issue for new commenters… which actually still sucks, since new voices are always a welcome thing around here.
To me, this would be the beginning of the end of the open forum here. I guess I could set up a system for people to be “trusted” by me – meaning everyone but Lex at this point – but part of what has worked for me on this blog for so long is that people have been mostly civil for mostly the right reasons. Not only don’t I want to be “daddy,” but I don’t want to manage a policed discussion. 1 becomes 2 becomes 3… not for me.
So there it is.
Of course, LexG 100% welcome to post his thoughtful comments, disagree with others, and even capitalize or OWN now and again. But enough with the WWE smackdown stuff… not only impolite but now quite boring.

DP/30 – Vicky Cristina Barcelona Star Rebecca Hall

She is little known in the US… the daughter of theater legend Sir Peter Hall and opera singer Maria Ewing… a co-star in the upcoming Frost/Nixon… and she steals the show, remarkably, from as strong a cast as a Woody Allen movie has had in years with sensational work by Bardem, career-best work by Penelope Cruz, and a near-perfect supporting cast.
It was a very last minute sit down, but the performance – which I finally saw on Monday night – demanded the effort. I wish I had more time to prepare and particularly, to investigate her work in Frost/Nixon… but I didn’t. And even more so… could Ms. Hall be Chris Nolan’s not-mouth-breathingly-celebrity-minded Catwoman?
Hmmm…
But I didn’t ask her that either.
What I did do was to have a fun chat with a bright, still honest (especially with herself), English-beauty actress who walked that near-impossible line between falling into the Woody-isms and a performance that was very much in her eyes, more than the use of language. She has the length and much of the charm of Julia Roberts, but has not yet found her “hook” as a movie star. And perhaps she never will. Perhaps she will just be an exceptional actress who wants to work long and hard enough to become Margot Channing someday… you tell me.
(Alt video… if needed)

Hyperbolic Headlines A Go Go

Someone at the LA Times clearly thinks that grossly misleading headlines are okay. Today’s head-scratcher is on John Horn’s piece “Wednesday is the new Friday in movie releases.”
Do I have problem with the LAT or anyone else noticing that there is a sudden run of Wednesday releases this month? No.
I do have a problem, however, with running this story, spinning all kinds of silly webs about why this is happening without offering basic facts.
1. There was a grand total of ONE wide-release on a Wednesday over the first three-plus months of the summer. And that was Hancock, which went on July 2 to capitalize – as is traditional – on the national holiday.
2. Last summer, there were FOUR wide-release Wed openings. Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix was the ONLY one that was done to capitalize on the spacing to increase an expected huge opening to five days. Live Free or Die Hard, went on June 27 because the July 4 movies were both set to go on a Tuesday, shortening Die Hard’s window to just 4 days if they went on Friday the 29th. And August dumps Daddy Day Camp and Balls of Fury added $1.5 million and $3 million to their opening totals by going 2 days early… bzzt!
The other two off-Friday wide openings last year were those two July 4 movies, opening July 3 to take advantage of he full holiday period. Transformers picked up $85 million before a $71 million 3-day and License to Wed limped out $7.4 million before a $10.4 million weekend. License turned out to have some nice legs and one wonders whether the stunt actually helped much in that case.
In 2006, there were only two Wednesday openings

BYOB – My Dog Did Not Eat My Homework…

… but Movable Type has been having outages from some sort of major infrastructure damage over the weekend… so erratic posting follows… sorry…
BTW – I keep wondering why there are suddenly “news stories” that are actually old news being recycled… like Sidney Kimmel shutting down, Paramount Vantage shutting down, David Bergstein being a jerk, and The Hollywood Reporter desperately seeking a buyer after Variety cut its throat for the final bleed out over a year ago… weird.
I’m also a little scared to find out that any smart reporter could write, “a news site I’ve never heard of, newsmax.com,” when newsmax has been top of the nasty right wing efforts to build a really good fake news organization (aside from FoxNews) for at least 3 election cycles. I avoid even clicking on a newsmax story, lest I give them a single page view to support their nasty little war of lies. But geez, I know who they are.