Friday, November 21, 2008

First (and hopefully LAST) Paris Hilton comment

A comment from an old thread in my Gmail account, referring to That Person, after someone mentioned who should NOT be used in a future casting call for the Sue Storm/Sue Richards character in a future Fantastic Four movie:
She was already miscast as a human. Now let's not make any more responses involving that grotesque creature. Every time the name of the terrible spawn is mentioned, her power grows.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Stupid Headline

There's a headline on the front of today's NY Daily News about the Yankees offering free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia $140 million, which would be the most expensive contract for a pitcher IF Sabathia signs, $2.5 million more than the contract the crosstown Mets signed Johan Santana to just last year. But some genius at the paper chose to advertise the story by focusing on the pitcher's weight -- he weighs 290 pounds -- and then they broke that down to $482,000 per pound.

If this was supposed to sound like the offer was somehow tied to his weight, it didn't take into account that a smaller man would be making *more* per pound. If he were 210 pounds, for example, he'd be making almost $667K per pound; a 175-pounder with the same offer would be getting $800K per pound.

Maybe it was just a stray point, just something to throw on the front page, which is possible since the actual article doesn't mention Sabathia's weight at all. But whatever the rationale, it was stupid.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Meeting of the Presidents

Yesterday I saw a paper with a cover photo of the Obamas and the Bushes in front of the White House, as I'd imagine most papers had in the US. But apparently none of Bush's people involved with arranging the photo-op thought about how this photo would work wih a tabloid paper like the NY Daily News. With the paper fully opened out, it's a wraparound photo of both couples; but on the newsstand it's the Obamas on the front cover and the Bushes on the back. To most people, apparently, that's just about right. Oh well...

A Black James Bond?

Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, says that Barack Obama's election as US president may open the way for a black James Bond, which Craig says the audience is ready for. But NY Daily News entertainment critic adds that Craig is quick to admit that Ian Fleming "no more envisioned a black Bond than he envisioned his suave spy driving a station wagon."

So why bring it up? Sure, after 40+ years of dark-haired Bonds, the audience accepted the blond Craig. But at this point, 45 years after Dr. No, I think if some producer wants to introduce a suave black spy character, he should be Bond-like, not Bond himself. A black James Bond would be too much change after all this time.

But when I decided on this post, the idea popped into my head of someone who I think could have killed in such a role if he'd had the acting ability.

Brown. James Brown.

I'm not saying that The Godfather didn't have acting ability, I just don't know if he did or not. The only acting I'd ever seen him do was a cameo in Jackie Chan's movie The Tuxedo -- though I know he did some cameos in movies before -- but they don't really count because he was basically playing himself.