Monday, November 05, 2007

Media-Whore D'Oevres



"''I am shocked and saddened by the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council's 13-to-3 vote to keep me off their presidential primary ballot. Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history -- only ten votes -- I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle. It is time for this nation to heal." (Stephen Colbert/FishbowlNY)

"The box office was awakened this weekend from its fall slumber, as if it too had just been hit by the first cold spell of the season. American Gangster (No. 1) may have only grossed one and a half times as much as Bee Movie (No.2) nationally, but here in the city, it almost tripled the cartoon’s gross, averaging an astronomical $91,969 per theater. Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, broke all types of genre-specific records, en route to smashing the personal opening weekend records for both actors." (Observer)

"Actors Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, who star in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's latest film, 'No Country for Old Men,' will appear at Apple Store SoHo this Thursday, November 8 at 3:00pm to screen scenes from the movie and discuss the making of the film, which is adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel. Following the discussion, Brolin and Bardem will take questions from the audience. GQ magazine Senior Editor Mickey Rapkin will moderate the event." (Indiewire)

"After a year of retreat and reversal, Sri Lanka's ethnic insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) recently suffered another major blow with the killing of the head of its political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan, during an early morning air force bombing raid on 2 November. His death marks the most high-profile killing to date since the resumption of civil war in mid-2006 and it followed soon after the meticulously planned LTTE suicide attack, backed up by aerial support, on the Anuradhapura air force base on 22 October." (Janes)

"TELLY judge Louis Walsh claims Simon Cowell has had surgery to give him the pecs factor. The Irishman reckons his X Factor co-star has chest implants to look butch ... In fact Louis, 55, says ALL the other judges have gone under the knife. He insists: 'They all have new tits...and lots of other work done.'" (Newsoftheworld)

"Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), who chairs a powerful subcommittee that allocates foreign aid, urged State Department officials Monday to revisit the money the administration had requested for Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule on the people of his country. Lowey also recommended her colleagues on Capitol Hill to take a closer look at money set aside for Pakistan in next year's spending bills, creating the possibility that Congress will impose new restrictions on its foreign aid in the wake of Musharraf's executive order over the weekend." (Politico)

"Robert Morton, the former Letterman producer who was at the helm of NBC's 'Late Night With David Letterman' during the 1988 WGA strike, said Letterman and Leno feel compelled to back their union --even though, as performers, they could still be on the air Monday if they wanted. 'I think they have to show support for their writing staffs,' said the producer, who now heads Panamort Prods. ('The Mind of Mencia'). 'Even if they want to go back, they have to give their writers due respect.' It's widely expected the major latenight skeins eventually will return to the air, as they did in 1988." (Variety)

"The man credited with coining the phrase 'Moral Majority,' leading conservative Paul Weyrich, is endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) bid for president. Weyrich is the chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, and was the founding president of the Heritage Foundation." (TheHill)

No comments: