October 2, 2011

50/50 Getting Warm Viewer Response/Cold Shoulder from Viewers

50/50 Getting Warm Viewer Response image

The new Seth Rogen/ Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer film 50/50 seems on its way tobombing at the box office, but critics have been loving the film. Our own Eric Eisenberg gushed over it in his five star review, but as anyone who follows Hollywood box office figures knows, the divide between critical acclaim and warm public reception is often very vast. Michael Bay has bought a lot of houses on the back of that conundrum, but here’s why 50/50 is a fascinating case. Moviegoers actually seem to be loving it.

The response on Twitter has been almost uniformly positive, and here at Cinema Blend we’ve noticed plenty of thumbs ups from our readers. Now, there’s two ways to look at this. 1) Everyone who was interested in the preview, rushed out, loved it as they expected and moved on with their lives. 2) 50/50 is in for a huge hold and possibly even an increase next week. One look at what The Help was able to accomplish on word of mouth would seem to indicate the plausibility of that second option, but it’s important to keep in mind The Help was far from a bomb even before everyone’s favorite aunt started imploring them to go see it.

I sincerely hope moviegoers find 50/50 in the coming weeks. It’s a wonderful film about a tough subject matter that’s worth seeing. Regardless of how this one performs, the independent film community will continue tackling gritty plots, but it would be nice to see disease and other taboos dealt with by studio-made films with real budgets. 50/50 should have been the one to open that door, but if the box office continues to be tepid, it seems unlikely we’ll get such frantic and joyful reality in the near future. If you like it, tell your friends. We'll all benefit in the long run.

cinemablend.com

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What is Chris Brown’s Problem? Gay? It should not be

This is a posting that appeared at flesh eating zipper and it makes a very good point about Chris Brown problem what ever it might be. But the interesting part is that it points out that if the tweets in which it seems that he is is true like many believe then, that should not be a problem. Of coarse that does not take into account that some of his followers are homophobic. But that is true with any big name performer. He might have more to gain than to loose in just coming out all the way instead of being stuck at the door of the closet. adamfoxie*.

I can’t stand celebrities. No, I’m not talking about Bruce Boxleitner or Max Brooks, I’m talking about Kardashian’s or the Spearses or the Lohan’s. All of this is a lie, of course, because I read The Superficial almost every day and there’s something so addictive about watching these people, through personality flaws, awful parenting, or purely appalling advice from their entourage, melt down so perfectly in such an incredibly public fashion. There is no greater a tragedy of the past few years than Chris Brown, who somehow wins the hearts and affection of so many stupidpeople despite his violently arrogant personality. But, why can’t he use some of this to his advantage rather than his detriment?

I’m not really here to talk about when he beat up Rihanna (which was stupid, stupid, stupid) or his walkouts from morning shows because he’s an chauvinistic idiot. He can have all those. Let’s propose Chris Brown is gay. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being gay, all of the gay people I know have are fantastic people, and while all of this comes allegedly because of some “leaked DMs” from some dude on Twitter, we’re all ignoring the $64,000 question:

If he’s gay, why doesn’t he take advantage of it?

Let’s be fair, his respectability can go nowhere but up. A gay man beat the crap out of Rihanna? Okay, that’s starting to make a little bit of sense. Have you seen his action movies? Like Takers? They’re damn awful! But what if Gay Chris Brown were an action star? What if James Bond were kinda black, didn’t act well at all, and was more interested in the greasy-haired French bartender than the dame bombshell? This sounds like a job for a comic book, but let’s be honest here: how many gay action stars do we have to look up to? We don’t. Now, I’m not getting all affirmative action-y about this kinda stuff, but I think there’s a bright future to be had here if Chris Brown, who very well might not be gay, was gay, and leveraged it successfully.

Posted by N

Eastenders actor weds long-term boyfriend in London

Peter Lloyd

Openly-gay Eastenders actor John Partridge entered into a civil partnership with his long-term boyfriend, last weekend.

The star of the long-running BBC drama then celebrated with many of his fellow cast-members at the Trafalgar Tavern pub in London's Greenwich.

The 40-year-old, who plays Christian Clark in the show, wed 29 year-old Jon Tsouras. They have been together for almost eight years.

Guests, who included Dancing on Ice's Jason Gardiner, partied until the early hours of the morning, The Daily Star on Sunday reported.

A source said: "The civil ceremony started at 4pm but the majority of the guests didn’t leave until 3am.

"It was a good old-fashioned East End knees-up and everyone was in good spirits for John’s special day. Once the formalities were over it really was all about celebrating and boy did they put on a good bash.

"The champagne flowed all night and everyone took to the dancefloor until the early hours."

Also at the ceremony from Albert Square was John’s on-screen mum-in-law-to-be Nina Wadia (Zainab Masood), his TV sister Laurie Brett (Jane Beale), Rita Simons (Roxy Mitchell), Zoe Lucker (Vanessa Gold) and Preeya Kalidas, (Amira Masood).

Former EastEnder Tamzin Outhwaite, ex-Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips and EastEnders boss Bryan Kirkwood were also spotted in attendance.

http://news.pinkpaper.com

Russell Brand Denied Entry to Canada, Forced to Postpone Show

by SIERRA MARQUINA

yfrog.com

Looks like Rosie O'Donnell may be the only one welcoming Russell Brand with open arms!

The British comedian was forced to postpone his comedy show in Canada after being denied entry into the country Saturday.

RELATED: Russell Brand Deported From Japan

The funnyman tweeted, "HELP! I'm gonna be late for Casino Rama show unless someone can force Canadian customs officials to let us land in Orillia!" while apparently still in the air en route to the show.

Brand, ever cheeky, then tweeted, "How do you manipulate customs officials? Wasn't Hitler's father a customs officer? I'm pretty sure he was." Things clearly were not going well with the comic who implored the border bureaucrats, "Let me in! I must perform at Casino Rama, Orillia tonight at 9 for 5,000 Canadians."

CHECK OUT: Russell Brand Calls Tabs "Silly" for Paralympian Row

Brand ended his Twitter banter in defeat: "Tonight's Casino Rama show postponed. I'm sorry. I can't enter Canada. We must abolish the borders between our nations AND our minds."

The exact reason for barring Brand, who was denied entry into Japan earlier in the year, is not known.

eonline.com

Michelle Bachmann TheGay turnStraight vice machine Has run Out Of Campaign $$}AHHHH

Michele Bachmann has an iPhone, needs money.

Michele Bachmann has a new e-mail blast out, and a new campaign "ad" on Youtube, both of which make it pretty clear that her campaign is totally, absolutely, utterly out of money. Over the last few weeks, Bachmann's fundraising e-mails have grown more desperate, and her videos are about the cheapest-looking presidential ads since the "I Like Ike" pins hit the market.

This looks like the beginning of the end. Bachmann has always relied on tens of thousands of small donations from supporters, and had to shovel a lot of money out the door to bring in that cash. Not only that, her campaign's one success -- her surprise win in the Ames Straw Poll -- was more or less bought by the Bachmann for President campaign.

With the all-important Iowa Caucus creeping right up around the corner, it's now or never for Bachmann. And it looks like never.

A couple of days ago, Bachmann's camp posted a new "video" to the campaign's Youtube stream that is an insult to modern technology. In essence, campaign manager Keith Nahigian narrates something like a Power Point presentation that goes on for four minutes, and would probably be graded "Incomplete" in an entry level marketing class.

Now, today, Bachmann has a new video that reports are saying attacks Rick Perry's position on immigration. But it's hard to confirm, because the shabby condition of the tape itself is so distracting that one can't really focus on the content.

Bachmann's last campaign video also used the very sophisticated "plant prop."

If Bachmann's last video seemed shot in a dentist's waiting room, this time it looks like the entire preparation involved setting up a tripod in Room 229 of the Holiday Inn Express. ("Oh, move that vase so that it's just over her shoulder, that'll class this up a bit.)

As recently as a month ago, Bachmann had enough dough to throw down for a very professional television spot, replete with jump cuts, slow pans, fade-ins, light piano accompaniment and a trustworthy-sounding narrator.

Now, Bachmann is just parking herself in front of plants, staring right into the camera, and talking. Either she's about to announce her candidacy for Stillwater City Council, or Bachmann for President has about $50 left in its bank account.

Earlier this week, an inside source told Politico that Bachmann's campaign fundraising situation is "dire," and others with knowledge of the campaign's finances say Bachmann for President will probably be in debt on its next FEC filings.

Back when she had money, Bachmann's campaign ads were a lot slicker.

Meanwhile, the New York Post -- which, like a broken calendar, is right twice a year -- says Bachamnn's campaign might be headed for an early end. The Post's sources lay part of the blame on Bachmann's refusal to make fundraising phone calls, with one saying, "She does not like to ask for money."

But asking she is. In an e-mail that went out today, Bachmann reminds her supporters that midnight tonight is the fundraising deadline for the third quarter.

"The Washington 'elite' are chomping at the bit to see the numbers our campaign reports, and I need your support today more than ever," says the e-mail, which is, oddly, signed-off, "Sent from my iPhone." (Sell the iPhone, Michele, that's got to be worth hundreds!)

Well, this is it, people. You can't get into the circus for free. If you want Michele Bachmann's campaign to keep staggering off further afield from mainstream American political sanity, you've got to drop a little change in the empty coffee mug she's holding out.

Come on, America. You owe it to Michele. You owe it to yourself.

We're never going to get another candidate quite like this one. Let's at least see where this goes.
By Mike Mullen via blogger

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An Eyewitness Account of Police Crackdown on Peaceful Demonstrators

Protesters from the week-old "occupation" in New York's financial district were arrested, penned up, and Maced on Saturday when the NYPD showed up to their march.

September 25, 2011 |

Protester arrested by NYPD. Via @NYCRevMedia on Twitter.

Photo Credit: @nycrevmedia on Twitter

Deep in the belly of the beast, among the financial district’s skyscrapers, next to derivatives traders in business suits and Rolex watches, you will find a one-block large democratic society, governed by consensus, whose features include free food, free professional childcare, an arts and culture area, medical and legal teams, a media center, constant music, a library and a stand with refreshments for the many police stationed to supervise the area. This is the one-week-old occupation of Wall Street, located at Liberty Plaza Park.

A group of protestors from the camp ventured outside the park and marched on Union Square Saturday morning, and around 100 of them were arrested. Police sprayed peaceful protestors in the face with pepper spray,threw them to the ground and assaulted them with elbows, dragged a woman around by the hair, jumped over barricades to grab and rough up young people, and, when all was said and done, laughed to themselves triumphantly. This is exactly the sort of violence and brutality American authorities routinely condemn when perpetrated against non-violent civilians demonstrating for democracy in Middle Eastern dictatorships, even as they employ horrifying cruelty right here.

Filmmaker Marisa Holmes was recently in Egypt, documenting the revolutionary movement there in its attempt to transform the ouster of Hosni Mubarak into a democratic society. Inspired by the movement there, she became involved with the group organizing the Wall Street occupation, hoping to emulate the Egyptians’ success in mobilizing the public to wrest their country from the brutal forces in power. Video shows police abusing her, confiscating her belongings and falsely alleging that she had resisted arrest.

In the aftermath of the mass arrests, Liberty Plaza was gripped by an agitated nervousness. Would the cops move in on us in an attempt to seize the square? What was in store for our comrades? Some of them texted people back at camp, giving brief glimpses into the fate they were meeting – a concussion incurred from police brutality on a marcher denied access to medical attention, a group locked in a van parked at Police Plaza, people clubbed about the head and chest with police batons.

As the reports came in and people in the camp began to see video and photos of the violence, nervousness turned to anger. These were our friends who had been brutalized for no reason apart from their earnest desire to avail themselves of their guaranteed First Amendment rights in order to call for a more just, more humane, more equal America. One young man implored those assembled, “There are people right now bleeding in handcuffs! Let’s march!”

As tempers rose, the NYPD let us know that they were, as one friend put it, “playing for keeps,” standing shoulder to shoulder and occupying every inch of the block of Broadway adjacent to the square, displaying the orange nets the same police force had used to corral demonstrators at 2004’s Republican National Convention. During a shift change, as the sun dropped behind the buildings to the west, dozens of cop cars, sirens and lights blazing, began to circle the plaza, intimidating its denizens. Rumors began to circulate that the cops were waiting for cover of dark to invade the square and avoid the watchful eye of the media.

After all, they had targeted the internal media team in the arrests, capturing, among others, Marisa. That would have been bad enough, but the cops stationed at Liberty Plaza were also spotted harassing the mainstream media and prohibiting news vans from parking in convenient locations. (One candidate response to having been busted being sadistic and pitiless by the media is to stop being sadistic and pitiless; another is to eliminate the media).

In a true democracy, though, knee-jerk reactions don’t happen. A consensus eventually emerged that a hastily-organized march to the precinct would divide the group, leave the marchers vulnerable to arrest and the camp vulnerable to seizure by the police, and heads began to cool and focus on the task at hand. A lawyer addressed the general assembly and reviewed the proper procedure for dealing with hostile police. Some campers volunteered to surround the media center to protect the livestream from potential police encroachment for as long as possible; an outreach committee went to work trying to recruit more occupiers. Community is a magical thing, and social solidarity is a reliable antidote to the aggressive impulse.

As of today, most of those arrested have been released; the rest, including Marisa, await arraignment. But the mood back at camp is defiantly jovial. The occupation will not be intimidated by state violence, will not be suppressed by a hostile police force and will not be discouraged by snarky hack journalism like that in the New York Times.

This group remembers that tea party dissenters were allowed to bring guns brazenly to town hall meetings, without being subjected to mace and arrest. Similarly, the crooked Wall Street thugs who obliterated the economy and then extorted the country for staggering sums of money have never faced police brutality or even justice. And the congress (a subsidiary of Wall Street), as it proposes huge budget cuts, is even jeopardizing the pensions of those cops whose batons bloodied my friends’ face.

If only they knew what really needed to be smashed.

AlterNet / By J.A. Myerson

Like We Didn’t Know: SETH Rogen “smokes a LoT of weed” when he writes movies

SETH Rogen “smokes a lot of weed” when he writes movies.
The actor-and-writer admits he relies heavily on marijuana during the creative process of a film because it relaxes him and takes away the pressure.

“I smoke a lot of weed when I write, generally speaking. I don’t know if it helps me write. It makes me not mind that I’m writing. And I don’t know if it makes me work better, but it makes me not care that I’m working. Who wants to work? But if you’re stoned, it doesn’t seem like work,” Seth told MTV.
Seth says smoking cannabis is nothing new to him as all his friends do it.
“I think a lot of people smoke weed. I think way more people smoke weed than the media likes to acknowledge,” he said.
“Maybe it’s just the people I’m around, but I don’t think so. Pretty much everyone that I know smokes weed sometimes — with the exception of my parents,” he seed.

showbizspy.com

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A Gay Veteran Reflects on Post DADT

BY: JOE THOMPSON

Being a gay Army/Desert Storm Veteran, people often ask my opinion about the "don't ask,
don't tell" policy. When it was first enacted, I thought it was a step in the right direction.
As the years went by, it became an outdated tool used for witch hunts and discrimination.
Some of the top soldiers in the United States Military were being fired for the sole fact that
they were gay.

Then DADT was finally repealed. We’ve been granted the civil right to serve in our military.
I am thankful that our country seems to be taking a step in the right direction. Let’s hope we
continue on this path to equality.

In the past few years, I have become reacquainted with many of my comrades from the 440th
Signal Battalion. We served together from 1988-1990 in Darmstadt, Germany. Upon becoming
reacquainted, I came out to them. Each veteran assured me that my sexual orientation was not
an issue and they supported me in my fight for equal rights; every one of them was in favor of
the DADT repeal. My comrades also let me know that my sexual orientation would not have been
an issue back when we served together. Some may have suspected I was gay, some may not,
but they saw me as a soldier, a friend and comrade, and that was what mattered to them. To my
comrades of the 440th Signal Battalion, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The time I served
with you helped shape me into the man I am today. It's men and women like you who made, and
continue to make, our military great.

As soldiers, our duty is to defend America and our country's way of life. And now, as it should be,
ALL qualified men and women, regardless of race, religious affiliation or sexual orientation,
can serve in any of our Armed Forces.

It’s a big step in the right direction on our journey to equality. Let’s continue to march together.

God bless America.
-Wil Whalen

gay.net

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We’R’ Making Real&Lasting Change on LGTB Lives, Sex, Service, Safety- The Pres.

Joe Solmonese and U.S. President Barack Obama wave to the crowds at the 15th Annual Human Rights Campaign National Dinner at the Washington Convention Center on October 1, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Riccardo S. Savi/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama addressed leaders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities last night at the Human Rights Campaign's 15th annual national dinner in Washington, D.C., emphasizing his administration's recent progress on LGBT issues including the repeal of the military's discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, passage of the Matthew Shepard Act hate crimes bill in 2010, his executive order that any hopital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid treat gay partners and straight partners equally, the lifting of the HIV travel ban, and the the first comprehensive national strategy to fight HIV/AIDS.

Two years ago, I stood at this podium, in this room, before many of you, and I made a pledge. I said I would never counsel patience; that it wasn’t right to tell you to be patient any more than it was right for others to tell African Americans to be patient in the fight for equal rights a half century ago. But what I also said, that while it might take time –- more time than anyone would like -– we are going to make progress; we are going to succeed; we are going to build a more perfect union.

And so, let’s see what happened. I met with Judy Shepard. I promised her we would pass a hate crimes bill named for her son, Matthew. And with the help of my dear friend Ted Kennedy we got it done. Because it should never be dangerous -- -- you should never have to look over your shoulder -- to be gay in the United States of America. That’s why we got it done.

I met with Janice Langbehn, who was barred from the bedside of the woman she loved as she lay dying. And I told her that we were going to put a stop to this discrimination. And you know what? We got it done. I issued an order so that any hospital in America that accepts Medicare or Medicaid -– and that means just about every hospital -– has to treat gay partners just as they do straight partners. Because nobody should have to produce a legal contract to hold the hand of the person that they love. We got that done.

I said that we would lift that HIV travel ban -- we got that done. We put in place the first comprehensive national strategy to fight HIV/AIDS.

Many questioned whether we’d succeed in repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.” And, yes, it took two years to get the repeal through Congress. We had to hold a coalition together. We had to keep up the pressure. We took some flak along the way. But with the help of HRC, we got it done. And “don’t ask, don’t tell” is history. And all over the world, there are men and women serving this country just as they always have -- with honor and courage and discipline and valor. We got it done. We got that done. All around the world, you’ve got gays and lesbians who are serving, and the only difference is now they can put up a family photo. No one has to live a lie to serve the country they love.

via examiner.com by Sarah Estrella

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