-
Jan26
Saturday Fluffernutter: Amy in video/investigation/rehab; Britney's paparazzi pal; The Razzies; RIP Suzanne Pleshette and Heath Ledger.
The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.
The new James Bond movie has a title: Quantum of Solace. Formerly called Bond 22, filming is moving along well. This week it was reported that filming 
will move to Bregenz in western Austria, on the edge of Lake Constance in April. Quantum of Solace is currently filming in London with Daniel Craig back as James Bond, Bond girls Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko and villain Mathieu Amalric.Trouble Child Amy Winehouse was seen smoking what appears to be crack in a video obtained by Britain's The Sun newspaper this week (the offending puff is at about the 2:00 mark). Coming in the same week as Heath Ledger's death, the video is disturbing, to say the least. Police have obtained a copy of the video and are investigating. Winehouse meanwhile has apparently gone, gone gone into rehab, hopefully for real.
It's Razzie time again, when the folks at the Golden Raspberry Awards give out their hardware for worst movies and performances of the past year. I Know Who Killed Me, the Lindsay Lohan vehicle topped the list with nine nominations, however, Eddie Murphy set a record with five personal nominations - and one wasn't his wedding video.Oliver Stone has announced he is making a movie about President George W. Bush starring Josh Brolin as the President. Stone promises it won't be "a hatchet job."
Of course it won't, Hollywood loves and respects it's president.This week's Led Zeppelin rumour, courtesy of Ramble On: Jimmy Page will hold a press conference in Tokyo Monday, presumably to announce new Led Zeppelin shows: don't be holding your breath, however. It seems unlikely the press shy Page would make such an announcement independently.Britney dates paparazzi; Britney dumps paparazzi; paparazzi sells intimate pictures of their relationship. Hey, it's what paparazzi do, did nobody tell Britney this? But really, they were only together two weeks, how intimate can the pictures be?
Through all this, his wife has filed for divorce. Didn't Britney steal K-Daddy from some other woman too? And what, prey tell, will the presiding judge on the divorce make of intimate pictures he took of Britney Spears while still married?Saddened to hear the news of Suzanne Pleshette's death at age 70. She always seemed a classy lady in an industry routinely short of class of any kind. Bob was right, however: she should have worn sweaters more often.It's hard to come up with something to say about Heath Ledger's sudden death at age 28 this week. In an age when much of the world is expecting a Britney/Lindsay/Amy death notice at any time, did anyone pick Heath Ledger to die of, what appears to be at this stage, a drug overdose. He seemed one of the more down to earth young stars and his passing can only be seen as a shock and a tragedy - especially so for his young daughter, two year old Matilda.
What is strangest in all this though is why anybody, upon finding somebody lifeless in bed, would call Mary-Kate Olsen. Ashley, sure, but dear God! call 911, then Mary-Kate Olsen.0Add a comment
-
Things are now getting ugly at Ledco as the company filed for bankruptcy last night causing workers blocade the plant, both last night and this morning. The CAW is announcing they have now occupied the plant:
CAW members at Ledco Limited tool and die facility in Kitchener have taken over their plant this morning after the company filed bankruptcy last night.
The CAW has been told the workers will not get their much deserved severance pay for their service. The union will continue to occupy the plant until the company agrees to pay the severance.
It's hard to blame the poor guys who just lost their job, but you have to wonder if the CAW has no shame: this closing is directly attributable to their refusal to negotiate, and now they are occupying the plant demanding the company do just that.1View comments
-
With news that Kitchener's Ledco suddenly closed the doors Wednesday after the CAW refused to negotiate wage and benefit cuts, you have to wonder what is up and coming in this falls Big Three contract negotiations.
Reports this week said GM "had scrapped plans to build some rear-wheel-drive sedans in Oshawa, which could reduce planned output at Canada's largest auto manufacturing complex by 250,000 units per year." However, GM employees can relax, as Buzz Hargrove has assured them GM is committed to Oshawa:I'm confident that they not only want to build there, they're obligated to: Mr. McGuinty's government put $235 million into the Beacon, Paul Martin's government put $200 million in, and our local union bargained a new agreement
And if they don't commit to Oshawa, will taxpayers get their $½ Billion back? Remember last fall, GM committed to 16 new vehicle programs at their US plants, the same plants that gave wage and benefit concessions in a new contract signed in September.
Which takes us back to Ledco:Elgin Dezell, a 30-year veteran of the plant, said he was in favour of accepting a wage cut to save his job, but his position was at odds with his union.
So the question for Buzz is, does the CAW, today, still refuse to negotiate wage and benefit cuts? And if so, what car will GM put in Oshawa when they are done putting 16 cars in US plants?
"The company gave (the union) until 3 o'clock in the afternoon to change their stand," he said. "We were willing to give the company something, but the union would not allow that. That puts us out on the streets."
Dezell organized an employee vote in the hopes of persuading his co-workers to accept a 25 per cent wage cut and 20 per cent benefits cut...
Dezell said 29 of his unionized co-workers showed up for the vote, with 23 voting in favour of the pay cut.
Tim Mitchell, president of Local 1524 [Canadian Auto Workers], said the vote was not authorized by the union and did not reflect the wishes of the majority of the workers...
The CAW has a policy of not negotiating wage and benefit cuts.
Mitchell said he was prepared to discuss a number of cost-cutting alternatives with company managers but they refused to budge from their position.
"They took the position that nothing short of the specific demands they made would be acceptable in that facility," he said. "Then they walked away from negotiations."
Mitchell said he had not had any meaningful discussions with Ledco management since December...
Kim Austin, human resources manager at Ledco, said that when the decision was made to close the plant in the late afternoon, there wasn't even enough time to write individual letters to employees.1View comments
-
Maybe it's two isolated cases, but when was the last time two stories in a week featured get tough judgements?
"This was a particularly heinous crime. It has shocked the conscience of right-thinking people across the country," a solemn Ontario Superior Court Justice David McCombs ruled yesterday in denying her bail.
"I have concluded that this is one of those rare cases where detention is justified ... in order to maintain confidence in the administration of justice."
Don't judges usually say "this was a particularly heinous crime..." just before they respond as if it isn't? Perhaps if she been caught with a gun when they arrested her, bail would have been easier to give:"The main principle is general deterrence," said Justice Alexander Sosna. "These offences have been and continue to be a serious problem in our community."...
"As unfortunate as these circumstances may be, they do not determine the ultimate sentence," said Judge Sosna. "It is my responsibility to impose a sentence on an exemplary citizen who has committed a serious crime."
Deterrence? Responsibility to impose sentence? What about your responsibility to the criminal?
Just two cases, but perhaps it's the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps we are seeing the start of tougher justice from judges who are getting the message - Canadians want crime to pay.0Add a comment
-
...that it's stress related?
Me, I love the idea that Toronto catholic school taxpayers pay her "expensive restaurant bills... on weekend nights where the bill is delivered around midnight", Then they get to pay for her "plus sized clothing and lingerie."0Add a comment
-
Last April I posted about the Maple Leafs returning to the glory years of the 1980's. As I noted, the only thing worse than the music back in 1987 was the Leafs. And since I posted that article less than a year ago, things have gotten so much worse; so much so that a few weeks ago the Sun had a full page picture of Harold Ballard on the cover of the sports section.
Things, however, are looking up Leaf fans, as the team today fired John Ferguson and announced it is bringing back Cliff Fletcher as the teams interim GM. It's like 1991 all over again, optimistically leaving those dreadful 80's behind, a brighter future, the pride returns &tc. Oh glory days!
Far be it for me to pooh-pooh this idea too much. Frankly, Fletcher is tailor made for the kind of tearing apart and trading away the Leafs need right now. But feel free to wake me when the Leafs enter the 21st century. Then, and only then, may I maybe care again.0Add a comment
-
The real issue here is not about a weak or fearful press becoming "more responsive to Muslim sensitivities than to truth or the concerns of any other group," ... or about pandering to any segment of society.
Rather, it is about cultural sensitivity, social responsibility and common sense. Freedom of speech is not and never has been an absolute. "The most stringent protection of free speech would not," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote, "protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre." This right carries with it a need to be responsible for one's actions.
Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and creator of Doonesbury, sums it up best: "Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world." Exactly...
Let's change the visual for a moment. One of the cartoons basically portrayed the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist.
So, how would a Catholic react to a cartoon of Christ sexually abusing a child, published at the height of the controversy about Catholic priests sexually abusing boys?...
Newspapers have an obligation to their communities to inform, entertain, educate and explain, to place events in context, in such a way as to make them not only understandable, but useful. Newspapers also have a duty to provoke and challenge -- to act as a conduit for discussion and debate.
But there is a world of difference between discussion and debate and engaging in sweeping generalizations and racist stereotyping...
Just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should do it.
The above was written by Jim Jennings at the Toronto Sun in Feb 2006, explaining why they did not publish the now infamous "Muhammad cartoons". I called it cowardice at the time, and it's still cowardice. So it's interesting that today Michael Coren writes in the same newspaper about Ezra Levant, the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and "the real reason the cartoons were not published, of course, is that people were terrified of the consequences.":
"We know they're lying and they know they're lying." Exactly! It was so then, it is so now. Yet Michael Coren takes the New York Times to task for it's pretentious explanation, is the Toronto Sun's any less so? And as Coren very accuatly points out, that quote about "Catholic react to a cartoon of Christ sexually abusing a child" is nonsense. They sure wouldn't kill the cartoonist, and if they did the Toronto Sun would be the first ones to publish the cartoon to give the story it's proper context.Actually the real disgrace here is that the Western Standard was the only Canadian publication to print the cartoons. They should have been featured in every media outlet in the country, in that they made international news. The ostensible reason that they weren't published was that they were, yet again, offensive.
So bloody what? Canadian newspapers publish cartoons that are offensive to Christians, for example, dozens of times a year. Tolerating that which offends is part of being an adult, being sensible and being part of an adult, sensible county with an adult, sensible culture. Or at least it was.
The real reason the cartoons were not published, of course, is that people were terrified of the consequences. In some cases editors had private security companies give them estimates of how much it would cost to protect their buildings. Which is not only cowardly, but deeply insulting to Canadian Muslims, who are some of the most moderate in the Islamic diaspora.
The editors at the good old New York Times pretentiously explained why they wouldn't publish pictures of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. They could, they said, adequately explain the cartoons in words. Odd, then, that in the same week they printed a photograph of an alleged artwork depicting the Virgin Mary covered in excrement. Suddenly their ability to describe had abandoned them.
The stench of double standard and fearfulness is as heady as the perfume from an Arabic harem.
We know they're lying and they know they're lying.
The media's cowardice on this issue is a major reason Ezra Levant is in front of the Human Rights Commission: if Western Standard wasn't the only publication printing them, they likely wouldn't have had a complaint. Yet the news media, outside of a few editorials, has been silent on this issue. (MPs staffers didn't even know it was an issue.) Once again those who have the most to lose by the crushing of free speech in this country seem to be uninterested in it's demise.
Of course, if it was the Sun's right to publish pictures of Karla Holmolka that was at issue, they would be all over it. What shouldn't need explaining to them, but clearly does, is next time it may Karla taking them to the human rights commissions, claiming her rights are violated by surreptitious pictures printed in the Sun, and they will have already forfeited the argument:
Words to lose by.
Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world.1View comments
-
The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.It was baby weekend last weekend in the fluffernutty world of Hollywood. Christina Aguiera, Toni Collette and Nicole Ritchie all gave birth last weekend. Also on the list is Christine Kim, wife of comedian David Alan Grier. Congratulations to all.
On other baby news, gorgeous Courtney Thorne-Smith, star of Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerd in Paradise, has had a boy, her first. It is Smith's and media consultant husband Roger Fishman's first child.Courtney Love is hoping to get Scarlett Johansson to play her in a biopic based on her last husband Kurt Cobain.
Well, I suppose if Charlize Theron can play Aileen Wournos, then Scarlett Johansson can play Courtney Love but what's the point? The life of Courtney Love is hardly Oscar winning material and hell, being Courtney Love isn't exactly career enhancing so how much lift can you hope to get playing her?It's over. Finished. Finito. We may now never find out how Dr. House's fellowship games play out. The 2007 - 08 TV season is done. The Los Angeles Times reported this week that four studios have cancelled "dozens of writers contracts, effectively conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged."
Time to set those TiVo's you got for Christmas to "next year."The scandal in the music world this week is that a number of singers have been implicated in using steroids to enhance their performance. Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean may have, it is reported, received or used steroids or human growth hormone. The drugs may apparently help the vocal chords from becoming strained. If you consider that an asthmatics puffer is steroids this makes some sense. Why you should care if they are taking them, I still haven't been able to figure out: will they be putting an asterisk beside their Grammy wins now?A good news Britney Spears story: Four paparazzi were arrested late Wednesday night on misdemeanor reckless driving charges after chasing Spears in the San Fernando Valley. Good work by the officers involved who while on routine patrol "observed the four drivers speeding and making unsafe lane changes in the San Fernando Valley near Plummer Street and Woodman Avenue shortly before 11:30 p.m."Farewell to Bobby Fischer who died yesterday at age 64. An undisputed chess genius, Fisher, who beat Boris Spasky in 1972 to become the world champion, Fischer became an extreme eccentric who all but disappeared from public life in his later years. Cause of death is unknown at this time.
0Add a comment
-
My desk is piling up with a weeks worth of newspapers and articles that I meant to get to. Instead, I'm going to do a one off post on the stuff that caught my eye the past week or so:Tuesday a week ago, I commented on an excerpt from David Frum's book in which he called for a Pigovian carbon tax. I cited Terence Corcoran, specifically his No Pigou Club in the post.
Not surprisingly, Corcoran also replied to Frum's assertion that a carbon tax is good conservative policy in an article last Friday, All Things To All People, which now appears on the No Pigou Club web site. Corcoran does a really nice job of pointing out the flaws in Frum's argument:That's the miracle plan: Break the enemy's back by taxing your own citizens. As for the details, well, like all miracles, it's hard to figure them out.
Ouch.Speaking of the No Pigou Club, it has moved. Financial Post has put their comment section online, at http://www.financialpost.com/fpcomment. It features regular editorials and columns by the FP writers, Terence Corcoran, William Watson, Peter Foster and Lawrence Solomon. As well it is home to some feature items, such as the No Pigou Club, The Deniers and Junk Science. Links will be put on my sidebar in the very near future.Best line I read in the last week comes from an FP article by Robert Sopuck, In Defence of a Big Juicy Steak. In it, "Sopuck argues that avoiding meat in favour of plant products will not ensure more efficient use of the Earth's resources, as cattle critics contend."
The line in question is in the second last paragraph:As for the red-meat-is-bad-for-you argument, I take the view that if you give up fat (and sugar and alcohol, too, for that matter) you may not live longer; it will just seem that way.
I can't wait to get on the summer BBQ circuit to use that line.I've been waiting for the right moment to say this for a long time, but I really like Christopher Hitchens. That may be a bit heretical for a Tory and God knows I find his obsessive atheism a bit tiring, but the guy can flat out write. Whether I agree or disagree with him, and it's usually a 50-50 thing, I always find his writing compelling. This week I happened to agree with him on an article called The Case Against Hillary Clinton: Why on earth would we choose to put the Clinton family drama at the center of our politics again?Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security: The case against Hillary Clinton for president is open-and-shut. Of course, against all these considerations you might prefer the newly fashionable and more media-weighty notion that if you don't show her enough appreciation, and after all she's done for us, she may cry.
And that's just a portion the last paragraph. Hitchens rarely if ever pulls his punches, and it makes him a must read wherever he turns up.0Add a comment
Add a comment