FameCrawler : war

Tropic Thunder: Have They Gone Too Far?

Whit Honea — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:47:00 GMT

Tropic Thunder stars some of our favorite celebrity dads: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., and Tom Cruise, and it opens on Friday. It is already pissing people off.

Apparently the film makes a lot of fun at issues that some find taboo. The majority of complaints are coming from the various groups that represent people with mental disabilities. Dozens of people from these organizations picketed the premiere of Tropic Thunder.

The movie is about a group of Hollywood actors that blur the lines between fiction and reality. The actors themselves are characterized as stereotypes and many of their actions are unthinkable- it's a comedy.

The uproar stems from a movie within the movie in which Stiller's character has portrayed a mentally disabled person in order to achieve Oscar consideration, spoofing the likes of Rain Man, I am Sam and Radio, to name a few. Their handling of the subject matter and the wordage used to describe the character isn't PC, and for better or worse, such things are no longer deemed acceptable, not even in a comedy.

A Dreamworks representative says, "We have had productive discussions with representatives of disability advocacy organizations and look forward to working with them closely in the future. However no changes or cuts to the film will be made.

"Tropic Thunder is an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses, and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations. The film is in no way meant to disparage or harm the image of individuals with disabilities."

I'm torn on such things. On a personal level, the one I teach my children, I am 100% against discrimination against anyone based on anything (within reason), but as a whole I'm sick of America being handled with PC gloves. I prefer a society with a backbone, not hurt feelings and lawsuits (the favorite pastime out here in CA).

I like a little offense in my comedy. I get what Stiller is doing and it sounds funny. I want to laugh at something because it is absurd and ridiculous- things I know better than. Unfortunately, not everyone does know better and often the result of such comedy is that it carries out of the theater and into the daily scheme of things. It's a catch-22.

What do you think?

Source/Source

Lara Logan Bags Dad in Baghdad

Whit Honea — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:34:00 GMT

Emmy winner and ex-CNN correspondent Lara Logan was recently promoted to CBS' chief foreign affairs correspondent. Her career seems pretty solid. Her love life is more like a soap.

She is in the process of a divorce from her estranged husband Jason Siemon. She broke-up with CNN correspondent Michael Ware in November and started dating a married federal contractor named Joseph Burkett she met in Iraq.

Burkett is in the process of getting a divorce from his wife Kimberly. They have a 3-year-old daughter.

Logan is pregnant with Burkett's baby, due in January. She says that she and Brukett plan to marry and that she's "looking forward to being a mom."

Yes, this is getting more attention than the war she is covering. Something, somewhere, ain't right.

Source/Photo

Yakkity, Yak, It's Baby Jack (Black)!

Whit Honea — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Jack Black was attacked while filming his latest movie in Hawaii.

Jack and his fellow Pips, Robert Downey, Jr., and Ben Stiller, were filming Tropic Thunder when a pregnant yak took a dislike to the comedian, throwing him "10 feet in the air." She must have seen Shallow Hal.

The next day the yak, named Bertha, gave birth to a calf which the yak's owner named Baby Jack. Neither Bertha or Big Jack were available for comment.

Source/Photo

Miley Cyrus' Parents are to Blame: The World According to Jamie Lee Curtis

Whit Honea — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:49:00 GMT

Jamie Lee Curtis knows a thing or two about posing topless. Of course the uproar over her doing so was that it was for the cover of the AARP magazine, and apparently she's too old for such frivolity. Miley Cyrus, at 15, posed pseudo-topless for Vanity Fair. She's too young.

Americans like our topless models in the 18 - 40 range.

Jamie Lee Curtis is laying the blame on Miley's parents. That isn't to say that Annie Leibovitz didn't go a bit far in her attempt at art, and yes, Miley should have realized that her posing for the pictures in question would cause her career some unwanted criticism. They deserve their share of the responsibility.

People are also bitching about Disney to the point that they felt the need to comment. Disney has nothing to do with it. That's like Nerve Media being blamed for me posing for those awkward photos last weekend. Hey, I needed the money. I didn't call Nerve to okay it, and Disney didn't have any say in Miley's spread.

But I digress. Here's what Jamie Lee Curtis wrote in The Huffington Post:

I woke up this morning concerned about the world food shortage and Korean defectors attempting self immolation in protest of Beijing and was astonished at the amount of attention a young woman named Miley Cyrus was getting for a topless, or shall I say backless, photograph in Vanity Fair.

Just to connect the dots, I too have weathered a recent bout of hysteria over a supposed topless, or shall I say strapless, photograph in a magazine. In my case it was an understanding that the photo in question be shoulders up regardless if I was wearing a suit of armor, chastity belt, wet suit, strapless bra or nothing. It is, was and will always be irrelevant and only became an issue when it was publicized as "topless". All the nipple loving/leering people wanted to know...was it true? Kids I know asked their parents and me if I had posed topless. Saturday Night Live in a funny parody alluded to it as well as the efficacy of Activia yogurt and we all had a good laugh and it sold magazines and it is/was over. Now this. (Video Below)

Apparently young Ms. Cyrus has apologized for something she was told would be artistic and now feels embarrassed about. I feel for her. Of course she is embarrassed. She is a young girl. She shouldn't have to deal with any of this. I don't feel that she was duped. I know the integrity of Ms. Liebovitz and the magazine and I know there were people present at the shoot that should have been looking out to make sure that this didn't happen. In the offending photo she looks tousled and soft and vulnerable and yes...even sexy. She is fifteen after all, and the word sex is starting to come up. I seem to remember a fourteen/fifteen year old Brooke Shields commenting that nothing came between her and her Calvins. There would be no problem if Ms. Cyrus doesn't represent something that is counterintuitive to that image.

In the article in the New York Times Business Section, a Disney executive is quoted, saying "For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back." In the world of constant scrutiny how can a young person not violate this and develop a mind, body and spirit of their own? Look at the '50s and the idols of that time. Many gay men with beards...sham marriages. Young stars trying out their sexuality secretly. My own mother (pre-show business) was married at 14 to be able to explore her own passions.

Today's generation of performers have had to navigate the treacherous shoals of adolescence in full frontal viewberty [sic] of the peering voyeurism of the media and it's voyeuristic participants. We have watched them as they stumble out of the safety of childhood, not that being a professional actor as a child is safe, but that is another blog, into the glare of celebrity, rehab, prison, teen pregnancy and now this, a backless shot of a young girl. It was called "artistic'. If we keep a young person's natural sexuality in check during their performing years what happens to it? It has to come out. Daniel Radcliffe is starring in Equus which includes nudity and parodied his natural urges (hilariously) on Ricky Gervais' EXTRAS. He has had to carry the weight and morals of Harry Potter and Warner Brothers and can now, as Harry has grown up and the series is nearing its end, tread lightly into adult fare and explore his art.

When these young people get all dressed up for award show red-carpet events don't we all comment how beautiful, stunning and grown-up they look in their strapless/backless dresses and heels and tousled hair? None of this is new. None of this should be news. But it is news because it is a business. It is all Business. It is called Show Business. Show Abyss-ness! I call it Show-OFF Business. You throw a child into the jaws of a business and they will get eaten.

I know how Miley feels. I too was a little embarrassed by my recent topless "scandal" and the subsequent parodies, but I am an adult woman. I protected myself during the shoot and I can take the heat. I only wish that her guardians had protected her.

Eddie Vedder Wants No More

Whit Honea — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:26:00 GMT

Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam fame, has been doing some pretty decent solo work. First he did the soundtrack for Into the Wild and now he has some songs in the documentary Body of War created by Phil Donahue. The video below is from the latter. It is a song called "No More," and I'm guessing that Mr. Vedder, being a father, knew the emotions it would stir. Take a minute and check it out:

Source: Popbytes

Nicole Kidman to Play Valerie Plame

Karen — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:34:00 GMT

MTV News is reporting that Nicole Kidman will play outed CIA agent Valerie Plame in an upcoming movie about her life.

“Nicole Kidman,” director Doug Liman revealed. “She’s perfect if you’ve ever met Valerie. Nicole was supposed to play Jane Smith in ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith.’ We owe a movie together! That’s an unrequited thing between me and an actor where I fell in love with them for a role and never get to consummate it.”

The biopic promises to tell the truth, and Liman has found a way to do it without any government objections, “I have a really, really insane take on how to tell it. It’s so outrageous,” Liman enthused. “Ultimately, I’d be doing something no one has ever done before. Therefore it’s automatically appealing to me. I’m just starting to explore whether [what I have in mind] is even possible to do.”

MTV is also reporting that Valerie herself is giving her full support on the project. Sounds intriguing.