That’s how I’m gonna feel for the rest of the day. Even when you know it’s coming, sad news is still sad news.
Oscar-winning actor and philanthropist Paul Newman has died at home in Westport, Connecticut, of cancer. He was 83. See the Los Angeles Times obituary here.
The actor was famous for films such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Exodus,” “The Hustler,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “The Verdict,” but also for his many years of charity work.
Paul Newman co-founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, with author A.E. Hotchner in 1988. The international organization arranges free camping experiences for children suffering from cancer and other illnesses and gives aid to their families.
More than $200 million, all the after taxes profits from his food company, Newman’s Own, was donated to charity over the past 15 years.
Yes, he was a good actor. Yes, he was damn hot. But that’s not all.
Say what you want about “Hollywood Values.” This is a pretty great thing to do.
The trio of actors who replaced Heath Ledger in his final film have donated their fees for the movie to the late star’s young daughter.
Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp all signed up to take on Ledger’s character in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Gilliam said: “They didn’t take money - it goes to Heath’s daughter.”
… Gilliam said: “The great thing about it was when Heath died those three actors came along and saved the day. It’s now four actors creating one character….
“The three actors were totally heroic coming in because this doesn’t happen very often, where there is a tragedy and very famous and successful actors come in and say OK we’ll do whatever it takes to help. To be part of that is wonderful.”
Although Ledger had not updated his will to include his daughter Matilda or his ex-partner Michelle Williams, his family promised that she would be an “absolute priority”.
I don’t know what they’re salaries were for this film, but these guys pull down some significant bucks. Depp, as of 2006, commanded $15 million per picture. Law pulled in $9.5 million for Closer in 2004. And Farrell banked $10 million in 2006. I don’t know what Ledger’s salary was, or how much these guys were paid for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, but I think they ought to be applauded for this, as well as for their performances.
The hubby and I took what I call a “marriage health day” yesterday. It’s when we take the day off from work, drop the kids off at daycare, and head into the city for a “daylight date.” We usually have breakfast, take in a movie, and grab lunch. We just spend time, y’know, being a couple, and taking a few minutes to remember what brought us together eight years ago in the first place. By then it’s usually time to go get the kids. This time, the movie had special resonance for us.
As soon as we heard that Meryl Streep had agreed to star in Mama Mia! we knew it would be our next “date movie.” (Normally, we have entirely different tastes in movies. I tend toward darker, dramatic fare, and documentaries. He prefers comedies and light fare.) We’d gone to see the stage version at the National Theater when we were dating. Later on, the Abba song from which the show and movie borrowed their title became part of a special memory for our family.
Well, I’m sure there’s going to be something wrong with this movie. It’s irreverent — and probably smart, funny, and more than a little sarcastic — and it’s about religion. Oh, and it stars Bill Maher. So, given the subject matter and all, it’s probably not nearly deferential enough.
But it sure looks good. I may not see Religulous in the theaters, but I’ll stick it in my Netflix queue when it come out on DVD.
Note: Today is Blogging for LGBT Families Day, the purpose of which is “to indicate that not all families fit the traditional model of one mother and one father.” A good number of my posts today will be in keeping with that theme. So, stay tuned for more here. You can head over to Dana’s for regular updates, and a full listing of participants, blog posts, etc.
Fathers’ Day is rolling around again, and it promises to be a special one (if also an exhausting one) in our house. Parker will make a couple of cards at school, which we’ll display on the fridge. Dylan … well … provided that the teething process isn’t bothering him too much that day, will give us several big grins throughout the day.
The hubby and I will exchange cards, a few extra hugs, and probably just enjoy watching Parker and Dylan. We might sit down on the sofa after the kids are asleep and watch a movie, if I can get something via Netflix that we’ll both enjoy. (We have completely different tastes in movies. I prefer dramas and documentaries &0133; some indies and some kinda “dark” … and he prefers mostly comedies.) Or maybe there’s another option. Asha at Parent Hacks points out that Amazon is having a huge Father’s Day DVD sale
This is a note to Hillary Clinton’s gay friends. (And she’s talked about you guys, so I know you’re out there.) It may be a bit stereotypical, but as gay men we have a special duty to our female friends, to sit them down from time to time and — gently — tell them the truth for their own good. It may be something as trivial as the wrong dress, or an outdated hairstyle. Or it may be something as serious as the need to get out of an unfortunate entanglement with a boyfriend who should be an ex>-boyfriend.
Well, guys, from the sound of things you haven’t done your job, or haven’t done it very effectively. So, here’s what needs to happen.
One of the films that probably influenced me the most as a burgeoning gay boy back in the 80s was Bad Boys. I’m not sure how I saw it. I think I may have been changing channels, and came across it. I don’t remember whether I was at home or somewhere else, but I remember I stopped changing channels the minuteSean Penn appeared on the screen.
I was around 14 when it came out in 1983, and by then I’d already figured out that I liked other boys. I’d already come out to some of my high school classmates. So, when I saw Sean Penn swagger onto the screen, I was mesmerized. It didn’t hurt that he bore a strong resemblance to a (straight) classmate I was madly in love with. At the time, I was sure I wouldn’t mind at all being locked up with Sean Penn. I wouldn’t mind locking lips with him either.
I can count on one hand the times that an Oscar win caused me to jump up and down in the middle of my living room, out of excitement. And there are even fewer that have brought a tear to my eye. Tonight was one of them, when Freeheld won for Best Documentary Short Subject. (I only hope the reason the server was down when I wrote this is because so many people were visiting it as a result of the Oscar win.
When I first read the story of Laurel Hester, and her dual battles against cancer and discrimination, I blogged it, and blogged it, and blogged it, because I wanted to do whatever I could to make sure her story was told. So did so many others. I only hope this win will mean that more people will hear this story, and more people will ask themselves whether stories like this one ought to happen. And if the answer is no, I hope they ask themselves what they’re going to do about it.
It’s almost Oscar time again. I have to admit, when Oscar night rolls around again, it makes me nostalgic for some aspects of my pre-parenting life. (Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t take anything in the world for stuff like Parker handing me a birthday card me made himself yesterday, or playing on the floor with Dylan and hearing him laugh.) Time was, by the time the awards rolled around, I would usually have seem most or all of the nominated performances and films. If I went to an Oscar party and joined the Oscar pool, I’d make a decent score and even win on occasion.
Now, if I’ve seen one or two nominated films or performances, I count myself lucky. That’s because getting to a movie nowadays requires slightly less planning than the Normandy invasion. Maybe more. If it isn’t available on Netflix, chances are I won’t see it.
But I have seen lots of movies over the years. And after seeing this list of the 10 best Oscar Best Pictures of all time, I thought it might be fun to compile a list of my own. Read the rest of this entry »
Ed Note: This was so much fun, I decided to update the post with a few more casting choices and bump it back up to the top of the blog.
I admit it. I’m one of those people who reads the tabloids while I’m standing in line at the grocery store. (I figure I still have some time before Parker figures out what I’m reading.) I already knew that Oliver Stone is planning a Bush biopic. What I didn’t know was that Josh Brolin will portray Dubya. At least not until I noticed a tabloid headline blaring that Brolin’s stepmom, La Streisand, is furious that he’s doing the part, (and Brolin is allegedly furious that she’s furious) because she’s worried that Dubya might get a sympathetic portrayal. (Meanwhile the folks at Fox & Friends are worried that Streisand’s stepson in the lead role means it’ll be a “hit piece.”)
The tabloid piece got me thinking: who else would I cast in the picture? Brolin is the only cast member listed right now, so the rest of the cast is anybody’s guess. The folks at Radar have already taken a stab at guessing. And while they’ve made some interesting choices, including a few I would have also made, I think there’s still room to make some suggestions of my own. (And, Oliver, if you’re reading this, all I ask is a brief walk-on and/or casting credits.)
The holiday wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory “Jesus is the reason for the season” commentary, and this year Roland S. Martin provides it.
This whole push to remove Christ from the Christmas season has gotten so ridiculous that it’s pathetic.
Because of all the politically correct idiots, we are being encouraged to stop saying “Merry Christmas” for the more palatable “Happy Holidays.” What the heck are “Seasons Greetings”? Can someone tell me what season we are greeting folks about? A Christmas tree? Oh, no! It’s now a holiday tree. Any Christmas song that even remotely mentions Christ or has a religious undertone is being axed for being overtly religious. And I’m sorry, forget X-M-A-S. Malcolm X? Yes. X replacing Christ? No.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m very respectful of other religions. I don’t want anyone to be afraid of discussing the Jewish faith when we address Hanukkah. And we shouldn’t dismiss Muslims when the annual pilgrimage to Mecca is held during December. In fact, Americans are so ignorant of other faiths that we can all learn from one another.
But this seeming backlash against Christianity is bordering on the absurd, and we should continue to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.
I don’t disagree with Martin on some points, but the overall tone of his column is basically the same old “Christian appropriation of everything” theme. Much as the “Christian nation” rhetoric serves to remind us that the country does not really belong to the rest of us, the “Christian holiday” rhetoric serves to chide us that if the rest of us non-believers celebrate the holiday we are by default celebrating Christianity, its tenets, and mythology.
But it’s not true. Jesus hasn’t been “removed from Christmas,” so much as he was grafted onto it in the first place. And he wasn’t the “reason for the season” until the season was appropriated by the Christian church. So, it’s appropriate that we’re reminded that “the season” predates Martin’s “reason.”
Yeah, I should probably do a post-debate wrap up, but to be honest I’m still waking up and catching up on my blog/news reading this morning. And that effort is now being hampered by this timewaster from the new Simpsons movie site, which lets me create a “Springfieldian” version of myself.
If you haven't yet, take the time to stop by Box Turtle Bulletin, where they have been doing a great series of day-by-day posts on the Matthew Shepard murder. Today's post is a particularly heartbreaking one, about the moment ten years ago when Dennis and Judy Shepard walked into their son's intensive care room and saw him for the first time since the attack. It also links to the earlier posts in the series.
Its sounds like a joke, but it's true. You know the economy has gone South when folks around in Macon (or anywhere else in the south) are going to restaurants and not ordering sweet tea.
Big news. Clay Aiken is gay. Bigger news. So is Lindsey Lohan. Or, at least, she's been dating a woman "for a really long time." I don't know what counts as "a really long time" for Lohan. But kudos to Aiken, at least, for finally coming out. The closet is no place to raise a kid.
See, stuff like this is the reason I don't use Google Ads already. I tried it for a while, but I kept getting advertisements for James Dobsons' books on my posts, and I never found an easy way to block them other than entering the URL into the Google Ads filter every time I discovered one. No thanks.
If you want just one reason to vote for Obama instead of John McCain — and you're someone who cares about reproductive freedom or the right to privacy — the words "Supreme Court" should be enough. If not, consider that George W. Bush appointed more than 300 federal judges during his term, and ask yourself how many more like these you want to see on the bench.
Watching: "Constantine's Sword (2007)", about the evangelical takeover of the United States Air Force Academy, and wondering... ( http:/ ... 6 days ago
Reading: A guy who got 10 years in a mortgage scam that sounds an awful lot like what some financial firms were doing. Difference? Nobod ... 1 week ago
Laughing at: John McCain. Here's some free advice, Senator. Don't tell a lie and then dare the media to catch you in it. Don't believe m ... 1 week ago
One of the films that probably influenced me the most as a burgeoning gay boy back in the 80s was 
Ed Note: This was so much fun, I decided to update the post with a few more casting choices and bump it back up to the top of the blog.
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