Former tennis great Monica Seles is working on a memoir.
She said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes “to share how I found balance, strength and happiness in my life after a rollercoaster ride of exhilarating accomplishment and sometimes overwhelming tragedy”
The book, currently untitled, will be published in 2009 by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).
Seles, 34, won nine Grand Slam tournaments and as a teenager was the top-ranked women’s player for three years, in the early 1990s. But she is also known for one of the sport’s most bizarre and terrifying incidents: In April 1993, at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was stabbed in the back by a man who climbed out of the stands.
Seles returned to the game 27 months later and immediately reached the 1995 U.S. Open final. Her final Grand Slam title then came at the 1996 Australian Open. She did reach two more major finals but was hampered by a left foot injury. Her last match was a first-round loss at the 2003 French Open. She officially retired last month.
Seles, who has struggled with weight problems, is currently a contestant on the hit ABC series “Dancing With the Stars.”
“After years of having every aspect of her training, diet and life dictated and scrutinized by others, Monica took control, deciding what she wanted from life and set out to obtain it,” her publisher, Avery, said in a statement.
“Cutting through the fog of sadness, fear and frustration that made Seles overweight and unhappy, today she looks and feels better than ever and has created a life in balance.”
via AOL
Tennis icon Monica Seles has sold her memoir to Avery, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). The untitled project is scheduled for publication in March 2009. The auction for world rights was conducted by Dana Beck at Bill Adler Books.
In this inspiring and revealing memoir, Seles will explore her remarkable journey of brilliant tennis, fame, tragedy, loss and self-discovery. After years of having every aspect of her training, diet and life dictated and scrutinized by others, Monica took control, deciding what she wanted from life and set out to obtain it. Cutting through the fog of sadness, fear and frustration that made Seles overweight and unhappy, today she looks and feels better than ever and has created a life in balance.
Seles said, “On February 14th, I officially retired from professional tennis, closing one chapter of my life. I’m now opening a new chapter where I hope to share how I found balance, strength and happiness in my life after a rollercoaster ride of exhilarating accomplishment and sometimes overwhelming tragedy. Avery is giving me the opportunity to put this journey in words, and I’m thrilled to be working with them.”
Megan Newman, Publisher at Avery, said, “Avery is delighted to be publishing Monica Seles’ book. Her remarkable, uplifting story is one that will resonate with readers — those who were fans during her illustrious tennis career and those who will meet her for the first time. It is an honor to be working with such a talented athlete and promising author.”
John Steele, Senior Vice President at IMG, who represents Seles in her non-tennis activities, added, “Since Monica won the French Open at age 16, she has been living in the public spotlight but she has never really discussed the struggles that went along with all the victories. It will be both a remarkable read and a motivating story of finding health and happiness.”
About the Author
Earlier this year, Seles, 34, announced her retirement from professional tennis. Over her extraordinary career, she earned nine Grand Slam titles and won 53 singles and six doubles tournaments. She first became No. 1 in the world in March 1991. Seles was No. 1 for 178 weeks during the next two years — the youngest No. 1 ever at the time — until tragedy struck in April 1993, when she was stabbed in the back by a deranged fan during a match in Hamburg, Germany. She was not able to play again for more than two years. When she did return, she won even more hearts with her comeback win at the Canadian Open, and then reached the U.S. Open final the following month. Remarkably, she then won her ninth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January 1996. Seles joined the cast of the sixth season of ABC’s hit “Dancing with the Stars” in 2008.
About Penguin Group (USA)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Avery, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
About IMG
Operating in 30 countries, IMG’s diverse businesses include: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; and client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, speakers, European football, rugby, cricket, motor sports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. IMG Academies are the world’s largest and most advanced multi-sport training and educational facilities, delivering world-class sports training experiences to more than 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult, and professional athletes each year.
IMG’s media and entertainment operations include content production subsidiaries Darlow Smithson Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions. Globally, IMG produces and distributes more than 11,000 hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment, popular factual and children’s content annually. IMG also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and has the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage.
Barack Obama is not only popular among Democrats, he’s also an appealing figure to many Republicans. Former GOP House member Joe Scarborough, now a host on MSNBC, reports that after every important Obama speech, he is inundated with e-mails praising the speech — with most of them coming from Republicans. William Bennett, an influential conservative intellectual, has said favorable things about Obama. So have Rich Lowry of National Review and Peggy Noonan. And so have I.
A number of prominent Republicans I know, who would wage a pitched battle against Hillary Clinton, like Obama and would find it hard to generate much enthusiasm in opposing him.
What is at the core of Obama’s appeal?
Part of it is the eloquence and uplift of his speeches, combined with his personal grace and dignity. He seems to be a well-grounded, decent, thoughtful man. He comes across, in his person and manner, as nonpartisan. He has an unsurpassed ability to (seemingly) transcend politics. Even when he disagrees with people, he doesn’t seem disagreeable.
“You know what charm is,” Albert Camus wrote in The Fall, “a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.” Obama has such charm, and its appeal is not restricted to Democrats.
A second reason Republicans appreciate Obama is that he is pitted against a couple, the Clintons, whom many Republicans hold in contempt. Among the effects of the Obama-Clinton race is that it is forcing Democrats to come to grips with the mendacity and ruthlessness of the Clinton machine. Conservatives have long believed that the Clintons are an unprincipled pair who will destroy those who stand between them and power — whether they are political opponents, women from Bill Clinton’s past or independent counsels.
When the Clintons were doing this in the 1990s, it was viewed by many Democrats as perfectly acceptable. Some even applauded them for their brass-knuckle tactics. But now that the Clintons are roughing up an inspiring young man who appears to represent the hope and future of the Democratic Party, the liberal establishment is reacting with outrage. “I think we’ve reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons,” writes Jonathan Chait of the New Republic. Many conservatives respond: It’s about time.
A third reason for Obama’s GOP appeal is that unlike Clinton and especially John Edwards, Obama has a message that, at its core, is about unity and hope rather than division and resentment. He stresses that “out of many we are one.” And to his credit, Barack Obama is running a color-blind campaign. “I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina,” Obama said in his victory speech last weekend. “I saw South Carolina.” That evening, his crowd of supporters chanted as one, “Race doesn’t matter.” This was an electric moment. Obama’s words are in the great tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Obama, more than any figure in America, can help bind up the racial wounds of America. In addition, for the past eight years, one of the most prominent qualities of the American left has been anger, which has served it and the country very poorly. An Obama primary win would be a move away from the politics of rage.
The one thing that will keep Obama’s appeal from translating into widespread support among Republicans is that he is, on almost every issue, a conventional liberal. And while rhetoric and character matter a lot, politics is finally and fundamentally about ideas and philosophy. Whether we’re talking about the Iraq war, monitoring terrorist communications, health care, taxes, education, abortion and the courts, the size of government, or almost anything else, Obama embodies the views of the special-interest groups on the left. In this respect, he should borrow from the Clinton strategy in 1992, when Bill Clinton ran as a “New Democrat,” championed free trade, promised to “end welfare as we know it” and criticized, on hawkish grounds, the “butchers of Beijing.”
Bill Clinton ran an intellectually creative race whose ideas appealed to non-Democrats. Barack Obama has shown no such inclination so far (his speeches, while inspiring, mostly avoid a serious discussion of policies). If he wanted to demonstrate his independence from liberal orthodoxy, for example, he could come out in favor of school choice for low-income families, which would both help poor families and demonstrate support for some of the best faith-based institutions in America: urban parochial schools.
If Obama becomes the Democratic nominee and fails to take steps such as this, his liberal views will be his greatest vulnerability. Obama will try to reject the liberal label — but based on his stands on the issues, at least so far, the label will fit, and it will stick.
Barack Obama is among the most impressive political talents of our lifetime. If he defeats Hillary Clinton, the question for the general election is not whether he can transcend his race but whether he can reach beyond his ideology.
by chron
Reference: Barack Hussein Obama is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history, the third to have been popularly elected, and the only African American currently serving in the Senate.
Obama was born in Honolulu to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother. He lived most of his early life in the U.S. state of Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Obama worked as a community organizer, University of Chicago lecturer, and civil rights lawyer before running for public office and serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. After an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2003.
The following year, while still an Illinois state legislator, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with 70% of the vote. As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored legislation for controlling conventional weapons and for promoting transparency in public life; in addition, he made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the 110th, and current, Congress, he has sponsored legislation on lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S. military personnel.
Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care as major priorities. He married in 1992 and has two daughters. He has written two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth titled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics.
Music Industry Got An Injunction Against Rapidshare in 2007, Site Not Shut Down
In March 2007, a court ruled that Rapidshare could be held responsible for copyright violations committed by users who uploaded copyrighted material to their servers. Now, rumors are circulating that Rapidshare has been shutdown - this does not seem to be the case.
Rapidshare is one of the world’s largest file-hosting sites, with a claimed data storage capability in excess of 4 petabytes and offering at least 110 gigabits of bandwidth.
Almost exactly 1 year ago, P2PBlog reported that the German rights organization GEMA had gained a preliminary injunction against Rapidshare which ordered the company to stop hosting and distributing titles which GEMA represent.
Rapidshare made an appeal - but lost. The court decided that Rapidshare should be forced to monitor all uploads which infringed on GEMA’s copyright - a feat which the company said was impossible.
At the time, GEMA boss Dr. Harald Heker said that the Court’s decision shows that it’s not down to the rights holders to police commercial outfits such as Rapidshare for their copyright works. He went on to say that he felt that the decision would send a major signal to all file-hosting sites where copyright works are used to generate revenue for themselves.
Then in April 2007 it was reported that Rapidshare was fighting back, suing GEMA in response - with the aim of clarifying the legal position for file-hosting sites.
Now, rumors circulating on the web indicate that Rapidshare was shut down. Quite a few sites reported the news but this situation does not appear to be true. Rapidshare’s Wiki page is now closed due to vandalism which is believed to have carried erroneous information which contributed to the confusion.
According to a report, a Rapidshare technician said: “There are rumors concerning attacks made on the Rapidshare.com servers. There are also rumors that Rapidshare has been shut down by a court order. These rumors are false. We would like to apologize to our users and inform them that no data has been lost. There have been some hardware issues as a result of high bandwidth and server overload. We are doing our very best to resolve the hardware issues, and users should expect uptime by midnight tonight (GMT)”
There is no doubt that Rapidshare stores millions of files - including lots of music. The operators of Rapidshare claim they have no idea what material they store on their servers and are in no postion (much like a regular ISP) to monitor or police the content. The users upload the content, they say, and as such, it’s out of their control.
However, the injunctions issued by the District Court in Cologne indicate that Rapidshare’s liability for such infringements still exist as they were carried out during the course of Rapidshare’s business. GEMA head, Harald Heker said at the time: “The mere circumstance of shifting acts of use to users and the purported inability of the operator to control content do not relieve the operator of a service from the copyright liability he/she/it possesses for the content made available for download from the operator’s website(s).”
In the meantime, Rapidshare.com and Rapidshare.de continue to operate.
by Torrentfreak
RapidShare is a German owned one-click hosting pay- and free-service (with limitations) website that operates from Switzerland and is financed by the subscriptions of paying users. RapidShare has two different websites, but both sites claim to be entirely different organizations and entities. The original site is RapidShare.de, which uses the German top-level domain “.de”.
On October 19, 2006, RapidShare announced that “Unfortunately all drives of RapidShare.de are full right now”. A new website, RapidShare.com was set up in an attempt to transfer usage from RapidShare.de to RapidShare.com.[citation needed] When the new Rapidshare.com was launched, holders of “Premium” accounts at the time on RapidShare.de were able to use both the RapidShare.de and RapidShare.com, until their account expired. It is not possible, however, to use a RapidShare.com account on the German site.
Directed by Rob Reiner
Release Date: January 11th 2008
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow, Beverly Todd, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OltHNarHA9A
Two elderly men, auto mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and hospital-corporation head Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), discover they are both terminally ill with cancer. Sharing a hospital room, they become friends and decide to fulfill their personal desires through “The Bucket List” before they “kick the bucket”. Bankrolled by the wealthy Cole, they sky dive, race each other in classic cars, and take Cole’s private jet around the world.
Cloverfield /1-18-08
Release Date: January 18th 2008
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, and Michael Stahl-David.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufYF0f-zMgY
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.
When a group of missionary aid workers in Myanmar disappear into the vast green inferno, vigilante Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) leaves his job as a Salween River boatman behind to accompany a group of mercenaries on a daring rescue mission. It’s been twenty years since Rambo helped mujahedeen rebels fend off Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, and these days the former soldier lives a simple life in northern Thailand. Yet despite the fact that Rambo has long since traded his guns for a fishing reel, the world’s longest running civil war rages into its sixtieth year on the nearby Thai-Burma border. It seems like every day more rebels, mercenaries, medics, and peace workers cross through the remote village where Rambo lives, most of them never to be seen again. One day, human rights missionaries Sarah (Julie Benz) and Michael Bennett (Paul Schulze) show up asking Rambo to guide them up the Salween so they can get some much needed food and medical supplies to the desperate Karen tribe. According to Sarah and Michael the Burmese military has planted landmines all along the roads leading into the tribe’s village, making it virtually impossible to reach the tribe via land. At first Rambo flatly refuses to cross into Burma, but these refugees will most certainly die without aid and he eventually relents. Two weeks after Rambo drops the group off in dangerous territory, pastor Arthur Marsh (Ken Howard) arrives with a chilling message: the aid workers never returned from their mission into the jungle, and the embassies refuse to help Marsh and his fellow missionaries find their missing friends. Pastor Marsh knows that Sarah, Michael, and the rest of the missing missionaries are being held hostage by the Burmese army, and in order to hire the mercenaries needed for a rescue mission he has mortgaged his house and taken up a special collection from his congregation. Now, despite the fact that Rambo has long since sworn off all forms of violence, the knowledge that innocent missionaries are being used as pawns in a brutal war leaves him with no other choice than to venture behind enemy lines on his most dangerous mission to date.
Jumper
Release Date: February 15th 2008
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson, Diane Lane, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS8u4MDq7Ow
A genetic abnormality allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between ‘Jumpers’ and those who have sworn to kill them.
Iron Man
Release Date: May 2nd 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard, Leslie Bibb, Shaun Toub.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA
Weapons designer Tony Stark is in Afghanistan to introduce his new missile design to the Air Force until the unit he is traveling with is attacked and Stark is taken hostage. Injured by shrapnel embedded near his heart, his captors order him to assemble a missile for them, giving him access to a workshop. He puts his creativity to use by assembling a bulletproof set of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers, and uses it to free himself. Back at home, he becomes Iron Man, developing a flying suit with the red and gold scheme and advanced weapon capabilities. Stark faces the Iron Monger.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Release Date: May 16th 2008
Director: Andrew Adamson
Cast: Liam Neeson (voice), Ben Barnes, Warwick Davis, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Peter Dinklage.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk-D7SuwICU
One year has passed in our world since the first adventure ended, but in Narnia, almost 1,300 years have passed, and now it is time for the Pevensie children to return and make history. The villainous King Miraz prevents the rightful king, his young nephew Prince Caspian, from ruling the land of Narnia. Caspian uses Susan’s magic horn that was left in Narnia to summon the four Pevensies to help him and a small army of Old Narnians reclaim his rightful throne.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Producer Frank Marshall has confirmed that the film is set in 1957, making it nineteen years since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, thus acknowledging the real-life passing of years between films. Indiana Jones is having a quiet life teaching before being thrust back into his old adventuring. He races against agents of the Soviet Union for the crystal skull. “The theory is they are shaped by higher powers or alien powers or came from another world, or an ancient Mayan civilization had the powers,” Marshall explained. Indy’s journey takes him across New Mexico, Connecticut, Mexico City, and the jungles of Peru. There will be some humor regarding Indiana’s age.
The Incredible Hulk
Release Date: June 13th 2008
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson.
Bruce Banner is on the run from the United States Army and General “Thunderbolt” Ross, trying to avoid capture long enough to cure the condition that turns him into the Hulk. Meanwhile, a soldier named Emil Blonsky repeats the accident that gave Banner his powers, but as he is unable to change back to human form, he blames Banner and seeks his revenge.
Louis Leterrier said that he planned to show Bruce Banner’s struggle with the monster within him. Producer Avi Arad has also said that the Hulk would be more strongly portrayed as a hero than in the previous film, while producer Kevin Feige added the film would explore “that element of wish fulfillment, of overcoming an injustice or a bully and tapping into a strength that you didn’t quite realize you had in yourself.” Arad also said the film would be “a lot more of a love story between Bruce Banner and Betty Ross.”
Get Smart
Release Date: June 20th 2008
Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, The Rock, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Masi Oka.
Get Smart is an upcoming film adaptation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry’s hit 1960’s spy parody television show Get Smart. The film will star Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 . Alan Arkin will play the Chief. Masi Oka, Terence Stamp, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dalip “The Great Khali” Singh will also star. Bill Murray and Patrick Warburton make cameos in the film, as does Bernie Kopell, who played Siegfried in the original series.
Shooting began February 2007, and was continuing as of June 2007. Some scenes were shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada between June 11 and June 13, 2007 at 1507 Docteur-Penfield Avenue and at McGill University. It is rated PG-13 by the MPAA.
Wall-E
Release Date: June 27th 2008
Director: Andrew Stanton
WALL-E is the story of the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot and his programming was to help clean up. You see, it’s set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.
Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he’s left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it’s not a story about science fiction. It’s a love story, because, you see, WALL·E falls in love with EVE, a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she’s left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her.
Hellboy II
Release Date: July 11th 2008
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Luke Goss.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWnUGMPtns
It’s not Nazis, machines and mad scientists but the old gods and characters who have been kind of shoved out of our world. I kind of equate it to the whole American Indian situation. The Indians were shoved onto reservations. You had your old, wise Indians who said, “You know, this is the way it is. We can’t fight anymore. We just have to accept our fate.” You then have your Geronimo character saying, “Or we could just kill the White Man.” That’s kind of the situation we have in the film. We have our elf characters resigning to the way things are and then there’s one saying, “Or we could take the world back.” The main difference is - what if the Indians had a nuclear warhead? The elves have their equivalent of the weapon that is too terrible to use. What if this guy decided to use it?
The Dark Knight
Release Date: July 18th 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Anthony Michael Hall, Aaron Eckhart.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaIR9dAZRR0
In 1998, Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise pitched the idea for a fifth Batman movie to Warner Bros. Vice President Tom Lassally. It was to be called Batman: DarKnight (not to be confused with The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger) and included the Scarecrow and Man-Bat as the new villains, with the studio being most impressed with the characterization of Man-Bat. Fear was to be the initial theme (much like the main one for Batman Begins) and according to Shapiro, with Scarecrow being true to the source material. Within three months, Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise sent their first draft to Warner Bros.. Joel Schumacher was still signed to direct but dropped out for unknown reasons only weeks after the first draft was completed. The story went as:
Bruce Wayne is in self-imposed seclusion from life, because he feels he has lost his greatest weapons in the fight against crime: his mystique and his enemies’ fear. Dick Grayson attends Gotham University, trying to discover who he is apart from his guardian and unwilling to return as Robin without him. Meanwhile, Dr. Jonathan Crane uses his position as professor of psychology at Gotham University and as resident psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum to conduct his experiments in fear. During a vengeful confrontation with a colleague, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, Crane unknowingly initiates Kirk’s transformation into the creature known as Man-Bat. The unsuspecting denizens of Gotham scream for Batman’s head, believing the Man-Bat’s nightly hunts to be the Dark Knight’s bloodthirsty return to action. Bruce dons cape and cowl once more to clear his name and solve the mystery behind these attacks. Eventually, Dick ends up in Arkham Asylum under Crane’s unsympathetic watch, and Kirk struggles with his “man vs. monster” syndrome as he longs to both reunite with his wife and get revenge on Crane.
The script for Batman: DarKnight sat at Warner Bros. and languished in development hell up until late 2000. Shapiro stated that DarKnight was in the running the longest as the next Batman movie compared to the other Batman projects in development.
City of Ember
Release Date: October 10th 2008
Director: Gil Kenan
Cast: Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau.
The story follows two teenagers as the power source begins to fail and the lamps start to flicker, who search for clues that will unlock ancient mysteries about the city.
Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simpering (sic) with jealousy but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
Star Trek
Release Date: December 25th 2008
Director: JJ Abrams
The story will focus on the earliest adventures of James T. Kirk and Spock, and will also feature appearances by the main characters from the original series.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Universal Music Group said on Monday that rap artist and hip-hop mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is stepping down as president of its Def Jam Records unit, effective by the end of the year.
Carter, 38, has been president of the rap label since 2005, and has signed acts including R&B singers Rihanna and Ne-Yo.
Universal said Carter, a top-selling rapper who performs as Jay-Z, will continue recording for its Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam label. But the company did not give a reason for his decision to quit the executive suite.
“Now it’s time for me to take on new challenges,” he said in a statement. “I am pleased to have had the opportunity to build upon the Def Jam legacy,” he added.
Carter will focus on his expanding franchise of 40/40 Nightclubs over the next year and other businesses, according to a source familiar with his plans.
Carter regularly tops the lists of richest hip-hop moguls, and was No. 9 on Forbes’ Celebrity 100, the annual roster of the world’s most powerful — and best paid — celebrities, with an estimated compensation of $83 million.
Carter, who has said he was a street hustler growing up in the Marcy public housing project in a tough section of Brooklyn, New York, has sold millions of records and launched an array of media and fashion businesses.
Though known for his cutting-edge rap lyrics and rags-to-riches story, Carter often is mentioned in local gossip columns because of his romantic relationship with R&B singer Beyonce Knowles. Last week, he denied rumors that the couple had married in secret.
The rapper joined Def Jam as president to help turn around the fortunes of the then-struggling seminal rap label. His move to management followed his 2003 retirement from recording. His albums, including “Hard Knock Life” (1998), “The Blueprint” (2001) and his classic debut “Reasonable Doubt” (1996).
He returned to recording last year with the album “Kingdom Come” and this year followed up with an album inspired by the movie “American Gangster”.
Def Jam’s successes during his tenure as president, included Rihanna and Ne-Yo, who this month racked up 11 Grammy nominations between them.
“Jay made it clear to us that he feels the time has come to take on different challenges in his life. While we regret his decision to move on, we certainly respect it,” said Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid,” chairman of Island Def Jam.
Universal Music, a unit of French media and telecommunications group Vivendi, is the world’s largest music company with 30 percent of the worldwide market share.
Wikipedia Reference:Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969) better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper and current president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. In addition, he co-owns The 40/40 Club and the New Jersey Nets NBA team. He is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. Known for his flow and blending of street and popular style, he can compose lyrics without the use of pen and paper. His critically acclaimed album, The Blueprint, was allegedly written in only two days. After announcing his retirement from recording music in 2003, he returned in late 2006 with the album Kingdom Come which sold 680,000 copies in its first week, Jay-Z’s highest-selling album in a one-week period.
Along with Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, Jay-Z was one of the founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, a hip hop record label. Jay-Z is the richest hip hop Entertainer (followed by Sean “Puffy” Combs, a.k.a. Diddy), having a net-worth estimate of $547 million.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Christian Bale is in negotiations to star in “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,” the fourth installment of the hit science fiction series.
McG (”Charlie’s Angels,” “We Are Marshall”) is directing the movie, which will be distributed by Warner Bros.
The series, which originated with filmmaker James Cameron and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, centered on a robot from the future, when machines wage war against humanity, whose goal was to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. As the movies progressed, the son, played by Edward Furlong in “T2″ and Nick Stahl in “T3,” took a more prominent role.
“T4’s” story, by David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, focuses on John Connor, now in his 30s, as he leads what is left of the human race against the machines.
Bale, who appeared this year in “3:10 to Yuma,” “Rescue Dawn” and “I’m Not There,” is currently filming Warner’s “Batman Begins” sequel, “The Dark Knight.”
Christian Charles Philip Bale (also known professionally as Christian Morgan Bale; born 30 January 1974) is a British actor who is known for his roles in the films Newsies, American Psycho, Shaft, Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins, and The Prestige, among others. Bale is also known for his versatility as an actor, including mimicking nearly any English-language-based accent, harsh regimens of shedding and gaining weight (particularly for The Machinist, Batman Begins and, most recently, Rescue Dawn), and generally inhabiting the characters he plays. Before he found success in playing Batman, he was heavily involved in independent films.
Bale first caught the public eye when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun at the age of 13, playing a British boy who becomes separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Since then, he has portrayed a wide range of characters. Bale is especially noted for his cult following. The tenth anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly hailed him as one of the “Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures of the Past Decade,” citing his impressive cult status on the Internet. In a 2007 poll of IMDb users, he was voted their favorite actor who is under 40. Entertainment Weekly also called Bale one of the “Most Creative People in Entertainment,” after his dynamic performance in American Psycho.
Highly anticipated channel will feature original radio shows hosted by members of the band, rare concert performances and insider interviews.
NEW YORK, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — SIRIUS Satellite Radio today announced the launch of the highly anticipated Grateful Dead Channel. Heard exclusively on SIRIUS, the channel will feature music spanning the Grateful Dead’s long and celebrated history. The channel will include rare and unreleased performances, original shows hosted by Grateful Dead founders Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, as well as rare archival interviews with Jerry Garcia.
The Grateful Dead Channel will make its debut on September 7 at 12 pm ET on SIRIUS channel 32 with an extremely rare concert broadcast of the band’s 1974 performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. This performance will be followed by a special show hosted by Bob Weir, the first by a member of the Grateful Dead on the new channel. The channel will also feature contributions from Grateful Dead expert David Gans, as well as Dead archivist David Lemieux, who will provide a unique look into the Dead’s lush past with daily insights.
“Since we announced the launch of the Grateful Dead Channel, it has become one of the most anticipated music channel launches in our history.” said Scott Greenstein, President, Entertainment and Sports, SIRIUS. “The loyalty and passion of Grateful Dead fans are the truest testament to the band’s legacy. Sirius is thrilled to bring exclusive content to this community and welcomes their continued participation as Sirius becomes part of the Grateful Dead family.”
“This is gonna be one fun channel,” said the Dead’s Bob Weir. “We, the guys in the band, get to be involved as much as we can and we’ll make sure it’s fun. We want the fans to be involved as well.”
The Grateful Dead formed in mid 1960’s San Francisco’s psychedelia and quickly became a staple in the local music scene. The historic summer of 1967, known as ‘The Summer of Love,’ is when the band first found world wide recognition as thousands of young people from around-the-world made their way to San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury district to find a new social experience. The Dead, well-known for constantly touring, kept the experience alive for another three decades with a devoted community of fans, many of whom traveled the country with them.
The Grateful Dead Channel joins an exclusive line up of 24-hour, commercial-free music channels dedicated entirely to some of the world’s greatest recording artists including Elvis Radio, the world’s only official, all-Elvis Presley radio channel broadcasting live from Graceland; and Siriusly Sinatra, devoted to the music and legacy of Frank Sinatra. SIRIUS has previously dedicated channels exclusively to the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, The Rolling Stones, David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, George Strait, and most recently, The Who. SIRIUS is also the exclusive radio home of Shade 45, the uncut hip-hop channel co-created with Eminem, “Little Steven” Van Zandt’s Underground Garage, channel 25, and Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville, channel 31.
About SIRIUS
SIRIUS, “The Best Radio on Radio,” delivers more than 130 channels of the best programming in all of radio. SIRIUS is the original and only home of 100% commercial free music channels in satellite radio, offering 69 music channels. SIRIUS also delivers 65 channels of sports, news, talk, entertainment, traffic, weather and data. SIRIUS is the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NFL, NASCAR and NBA, and broadcasts live play-by-play games of the NFL and NBA, as well as live NASCAR races. All SIRIUS programming is available for a monthly subscription fee of only $12.95.
SIRIUS Internet Radio (SIR) is a CD-quality, Internet-only version of the SIRIUS radio service, without the use of a radio, for the monthly subscription fee of $12.95. SIR delivers more than 80 channels of talk, entertainment, sports, and 100% commercial free music.
SIRIUS Backseat TV(TM) is the first ever live in-vehicle rear seat entertainment featuring three channels of children’s TV programming, including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, for the subscription fee of $6.99 plus applicable audio subscription fee.
SIRIUS products for the car, truck, home, RV and boat are available in more than 20,000 retail locations, including Best Buy, Circuit City, Crutchfield, Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, RadioShack and at shop.sirius.com.
SIRIUS radios are offered in vehicles from Audi, Bentley, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep(R), Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercury, Maybach, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Rolls Royce, Scion, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo. Hertz also offers SIRIUS in its rental cars at major locations around the country.
Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance with respect to SIRIUS Satellite Radio Inc. are not historical facts and may be forward-looking and, accordingly, such statements involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Accordingly, any such statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among the significant factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed are: our pending merger with XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (”XM”), including related uncertainties and risks and the impact on our business if the merger is not completed; any events which affect the useful life of our satellites; our dependence upon third parties, including manufacturers of SIRIUS radios, retailers, automakers and programming providers; and our competitive position versus other audio entertainment providers.
Satellite radio
A satellite radio or subscription radio (SR) is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals.
Satellite radio is currently at the forefront of the evolution of radio services in some countries, notably the United States. Mobile services, such as Sirius, XM, and Worldspace allow a listener to roam across an entire continent, listening to the same audio programming anywhere he goes. Other services, such as Music Choice or Muzak’s satellite-delivered content require a fixed-location receiver and a dish antenna. In all cases, the antenna must have a clear view to the satellites. In areas where tall buildings, bridges, or even parking garages obscure the signal, repeaters can be placed to make the signal available to listeners.
Radio services are usually provided by commercial ventures, and are subscription-based. The various services are proprietary signals, requiring specialized hardware for decoding and playback. Providers usually carry a variety of news, weather, sports, and music channels, with the music channels generally being commercial-free.
In areas with a relatively high population density, it is easier and less expensive to reach the bulk of the population with terrestrial broadcasts. Thus in the UK and some other countries, the contemporary evolution of radio services is focused on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) services, such as HD Radio rather than satellite radio.
Satellite radio providers
United States
In North America, there are two satellite radio companies, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. These two former rivals have announced their intention to merge, which would create a single satellite radio entity in the United States with nearly 14 million subscribers.
Canada
XM Canada and Sirius Canada, operated as separate entities from their American counterparts with 51% ownership by different Canadian companies, may eventually merge as well. Sirius Canada’s market share is slightly more than that of XM with 300,000 and 270,000 paid subscribers respectively. XM Canada owns a lucrative contract with the NHL, which it feels would bring a great deal to the merged company in hockey-crazed Canada.
Europe, Asia, and Africa
WorldSpace is the sole mobile satellite radio provider in Asia and Africa, and seeks to expand into Europe. ONDAS Media S.A., based in Madrid, plans to be Europe’s first and premier digital satellite-based provider of multilingual radio, video, and other data and telematics services primarily to vehicles and hand-held mobile devices.
The European Space Agency, however, has unveiled a plan and a prototype to use pre-existing satellites to construct a satellite radio service. The satellites were part of Europe’s original satellite TV system, and are nearing the end of their operational lives. As satellite radio doesn’t require the exact satellite positioning that a dish-based TV system does, their lives can be extended even though the satellites are drifting out of their original orbits.
Other areas
Areas outside of the Worldspace, XM, or Sirius footprint, including Australia, New Zealand, and the Hawaiian Islands, do not yet have access to mobile satellite radio services. There are several satellite TV services which operate in these areas and can provide audio programming via dish antennas.
Business applications
Satellite radio, particularly in the United States, has become a major provider of background music to businesses such as hotels, retail chains, and restaurants . Compared to old-line competitors such as Muzak, satellite radio’s significantly lower price, commercial-free channel variety, and more reliable technology make it a very attractive option. Both North American satellite radio providers offer business subscriptions, though given the merger of XM Satellite Radio with Sirius, the future of XM for Business is uncertain. Sirius’ commercial services are provided nationally by third-party partner Applied Media Technologies Corporation .
System design
Satellite radio uses the 2.3 GHz S band in North America, and generally shares the 1.4 GHz L band with local Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) stations elsewhere. It is a type of direct broadcast satellite, and is strong enough that it requires no satellite dish to receive. Curvature of the Earth limits the reach of the signal, but due to the high orbit of the satellites, two or three are usually sufficient to provide coverage for an entire continent.
Local repeaters similar to broadcast translator boosters enable signals to be available even if the view of the satellite is blocked, for example, by skyscrapers in a large town. Major tunnels can also have repeaters. This method also allows local programming to be transmitted such as traffic and weather in most major metropolitan areas, as of March 2004.
Each receiver has an Electronic Serial Number (ESN)-Radio ID to identify it. When a unit is activated with a subscription, an authorization code is sent in the digital stream telling the receiver to allow access to the blocked channels. Most services have at least one “free to air” or “in the clear” (ITC) channel as a test. For example, Sirius uses channel 184 “Sirius Weather & Emergency”.
Most (if not all) of the systems in use now are proprietary, using different codecs for audio data compression, different modulation techniques, and/or different methods for encryption and conditional access.
Like other radio services, satellite radio also transmits program-associated data (PAD or metadata), with the artist and title of each song or program, and possibly the name.
A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another object, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. These messages are indiscernible to the conscious mind, but are alleged to be perceptible to the subconscious or deeper mind: for example, an image transmitted so briefly that it is only perceived subconsciously, but not otherwise noticed. Subliminal techniques have occasionally been used in advertising and propaganda; the purpose, effectiveness and frequency of such techniques is debated.
When longtime news anchor Peter Jennings succumbed to lung cancer in August 2005, staffers mourned the loss of their role model. Five months later, they prayed that one of his successors, Bob Woodruff, would recover from a near-fatal head injury he’d suffered while covering the war in Iraq.
“Things were pretty grim,” concedes David Westin, the president of ABC News.
Then last November, ABC News suffered a jolt to its collective pride. When employees glanced in the direction of a Starbucks across the street from their New York headquarters, they noticed a banner that all but smirked at them.
An NBC promotion boasted that the network’s “Today” and “Nightly News” shows had
the most viewers. “NBC is rubbing its ratings in ABC’s face,” the New York Post’s Page Six said at the time.
ABC can take solace from the triumph of its program “World News with Charles Gibson” in the May sweeps period. “[NBC] can’t do that anymore because it’s just not true,” said Jon Banner, the show’s executive producer, last week in reference to the marketing stunt.
ABC News noted that from May 28 to June 1, its “World News” was the leading evening-news show for the sixth consecutive week among total viewers, households and adults in the advertising sweet spot of the 25 to 54 age group. NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin counters that “NBC Nightly News” tied ABC’s “World News” last week in the 25-54 group.
Last week, Diane Sawyer went a long way toward boosting ABC’s “Good Morning America.” TVNewser.com noted that Sawyer “scored what’s probably the biggest get of the week: an exclusive interview with Andrew Speaker, otherwise known as the globe-trotting tuberculosis patient.”
“The DNA for ABC News is reporting,” Westin told me. “We’re not about punditry and having more vivid opinions than other people have. We have to be able to report the facts that other people don’t have.”
ABC News also has gained a high profile from scoops generated by chief investigative reporter Brian Ross. “He has the instincts of an investigative reporter — curiosity and skepticism,” according to Westin.
Old school
What has propelled ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Co.?
It’s too simple to conclude that the Starbucks snub alone sparked a competitive fury that carried ABC to its improbable victory. NBC’s pomp did inadvertently help unite ABC News’ employees. But above all, ABC’s smart, old-school broadcasting strategy was the biggest factor.
The network presented a low-key, news-first broadcast at 6:30 p.m. and concentrated on securing interviews with newsmakers during “Good Morning America.”
The third leg of the stool, “Nightline,” has proven the early critics wrong (such as this columnist). “Nightline” consistently has aired a serious, well-paced late-night alternative to Leno and Letterman.
When ABC announced it would be replacing the venerable Ted Koppel, who had presided over “Nightline” shortly after the Iran hostage crisis began in 1979, plenty of people figured that the new program would be all about dumbing things down and showbiz as a way to lure young viewers. But the new “Nightline” has demonstrated that it can be as sophisticated as the shows during Koppel’s golden age.
Rather than hype Gibson’s arrival from breakfast-hour news — as CBS did so clumsily with Katie Couric — ABC put its faith in the intelligence of the viewers and trusted them to gravitate to Gibson.
From a journalistic point of view, news junkies should feel reassured by the success of ABC’s less-is-more style. There has been too much clamor over “fake-news” shows like “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” and the trend favoring in-your-face hosts such as Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs and Keith Olbermann.
Westin Westin has been at the center of ABC News’ revival.
I asked him if he was surprised that Gibson’s broadcast had overtaken that of NBC’s Brian Williams. Westin nodded as he sensed what I was really asking: “How the ^#%& did ABC do it?”
“It happened more quickly than I would have thought,” he said. “I always knew Charlie Gibson was a very strong anchor.”
A cynic might shoot back at Westin: “Oh yeah? Then why didn’t you originally name Gibson to succeed Jennings instead of appointing Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas?” Vargas withdrew from the position when she found out she was pregnant with her second child. She remains as the co-anchor of “20/20.”
“I have no regrets,” Westin commented. He said he was concerned that if he transferred Gibson to the 6:30 p.m. slot, “I’d compound the problem” by weakening “Good Morning America.”
2008
Like every other media executive, Westin is salivating about the prospect for juicy headlines during wide-open presidential campaigns next year. Yes, ABC News will bolster its coverage of such domestic issues as health care, immigration and what he called “the looming explosion in retirement costs.”
Still, Westin has no illusions about what story will lead the coverage. “Iraq is the top five issues and No. 6 is Iraq,” he added.
I asked Westin what he most proud of and what represented his biggest regret at ABC News.
He said that his greatest satisfaction stemmed from pairing Gibson and Sawyer on “Good Morning America.” His biggest disappointment centered on conversations he had had with Jennings before the U.S. invasion in 2003.
“Peter said, ‘Don’t count on WMDs.’ I said, ‘Peter, I guarantee you, there are WMDs.’ I regret not listening to him.”
If Westin could do it over again, he said: “I’d assign Brian Ross to investigate the WMDs.”
Westin said that the intelligence reports coming out of Iraq apparently “underestimated Saddam Hussein’s wiliness.”
For now, Westin is spending a lot of his time pondering the digital platform. “What do we do about it? How do we flourish in a really different world?”
One thing seems likely: In any media, ABC News will continue to focus on reporting in its smart, no-frills way.
ABC News is a division of ABC television and radio networks (ABC), owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin. ABC News is the fake news unit of the American Broadcasting Company. Its slogan is: “More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source.”
ABC News Radio distributes, through ABC Radio Networks, newscasts on the hour, live feeds and specialty news programming to some 2,000 local affiliates.
ABC NewsOne is ABC News’s affiliate news service. It gathers and feeds regional, national and international news material to ABC affiliates around the country and foreign networks.
ABC News Now is the ABC’s 24/7 news channel available online and other sources such as mobile phones.
A 30 second “ABC News Brief” is broadcast weekdays at 2:58pm ET, between One Life to Live and General Hospital. A news brief containing information relevant to college students is shown every hour on MtvU, and ABC News segments are packaged or customized for broadcast over Wal-Mart’s in-store television network.
Tuesday June 05th 2007, 05:57
Filed under: Media, Movies
Winners
Best Villain - Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
Best Fight - Gerard Butler vs. The Immortal (300)
Best Kiss - Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen (Talladega Nights)
Best Breakthrough Performance - Jayden Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness)
Best Comedic Performance - Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat)
MTV Generation Award - Mike Myers
Best User Generated Movie Spoof - United 300
Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet - Transformers
Best Performance - Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest)
Best Movie - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The blow by blow as it happens. Live reporting, folks:
Sarah Silverman is pretty bad-ass.
“You’ve been in all my favorite actresses.” Oh Jack Nicholson. I love you.
Not one to run from controversy, Sarah Silverman just called Paris Hilton out. Big time. After mentioning that Paris was going to jail in a few days, the audience cheered. You could tell, when the camera cut to her, that her feathers were ruffled, but she didn’t seem to cave. Then, Sarah said that they were attempting to make it a bit easier for her in jail by insuring that the bars look like penises. Sarah added that she was afraid Paris would break her teeth on them. Ouch! If looks could have killed, Paris would have murdered Sarah like Rose McGowan shooting a zombie with a shotgun pegleg.
You can see Sarah and Paris in action in the video below: (Update: The video seems to have disappeared from Youtube. However, it’s still hanging out on the web elsewhere.)
Sarah Silverman Blasts Paris Hilton At The MTV Awards
Unsurprisingly, Jack Nicholson won the “Best Villain” category for The Departed. Am I the only one who was seriously pissed off after watching that movie? A good movie, but the most infuriating.
Bruce Willis just said, “Yippie-Ki-yay, mother fucker!” He and Justin Long are presenting the award for “Best Fight.”
Gerard Butler, of course, wins. The Immortal couldn’t make it. Bruce just corrected Gerard when he referred to the popcorn as metal. Apparently the popcorn is solid gold. I need one of those. And now he’s getting chased off by the fat guy who chases off people who talk too much. They should really let him talk more. We need more Scottish accents in this broadcast.
Why didn’t I know about this video spoof contest? I would have entered, I swear.
Chris Tucker and Victoria Beckham introduce Rhianna.
Rhianna and Jay-Z perform. Fireworks. Fire-hazards. Dancers. Dominatrix outfit. Amanda Bynes really likes this song. She’s cute. Fergie likes it, too. Umbrellas. Paris Hilton seems to be recovering okay from that earlier joke. I’ve got to give it to her - it takes some balls to be able to withstand that kinda of public joking and still keep a smile on your face.
Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Jessica Beil from “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” present “Best Kiss.”
Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen from “Talladega Nights” won. I admit, that was my choice. And I love Sasha’s accent.
Okay, Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen just made out on stage. There should be more of this.
And you know I’m totally going to be watching Transformers. Optimus Prime for the win.
Now some random internet fan is presenting the award for “Best Breakthrough Performance.”
Jayden Smith won. He’s accepting via video and his parents are cracking me up.
Dane Cook has been presenting the video spoofs that made it onto the show.
The Orbit chick just presented the “Dirty Mouth” award to Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. God bless those advertisers.
Robin Williams, John Krasinski and Mandy Moore present for “Best Comedic Performance.” This situation is in some dire need of some Pam Beesley.
No surprise that Sasha Baron Cohen takes home the Best Comedic Performance award. Apparently, Borat couldn’t make it. Sasha says that he’s experiencing the difficulties of fame and has checked himself into rehab.
Whenever Sarah Silverman thinks of white people with Hispanic names, she thinks of Cameron Diaz, who is presenting The MTV Generation Award to Mike Myers. Who accepts with a choreographed dance number.
Samuel L. Jackson is now presenting the award for best user generated spoof to “United 300.”
Bruce Willis introduces Amy Winehouse performing “Rehab.” I kinda love this song.
Eva Mendes and Seth Rogan now present “Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet.” A very odd category. How exactly do you thank people for that one?
Transformers won with Michael Bay, Josh Duhamel, Shia Lebouf and Tyrese Gibson accepting and Shia insists that Transformers will be “sick.” I really am looking forward to it. What can I say? I’m a child of the 80s.
Tyrese Gibson, Shia Lebouf and Josh Duhamel are back presenting the award for “Best Performance”. Johnny Depp wins. OMG. He’s there. Please excuse me while I turn back into a thirteen year old fangirl.
John Travolta, Zach Efron and Amanda Bynes present the “big one.” Best Movie. Which goes to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. With Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer accepting.
“Without him, we wouldn’t be here.” Jerry says about Johnny. Amen.
Gerard Butler seemed a little sad that the last two awards went to Pirates. I kinda hate that in a way. It really wasn’t a fair fight. Johnny fangirls are a force to be reckoned with. And Pirates has a maddeningly devoted fanbase. I mean, I’m a fan myself, but I got my butt kicked for my not so stellar review of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
I actually really enjoyed Dead Man’s Chest, though. And I loved 300. I’d have them both over as brilliantly diverse dinner guests. Imagine: Pirates and Spartans. Dining over nearly cold delivery pizza. It would be fantastic.
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV (Music Television). It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by a special panel at Tenth Planet Productions, the production company headed by Joel Gallen, who also created the MTV Movie Awards. Winners are decided by the general public. Presently voting is done through MTV’s official website through a special Movie Awards link.
Unlike sister event the MTV Video Music Awards (which are broadcast live), the MTV Movie Awards (up to 2006) were taped and then broadcast a few days later[1]. The entire production was taped in a completely different order than what the MTV viewing audience saw. For example, the show’s host would tape all his/her monologues and introductions at one time, and all the musical acts would perform one after the other. Celebrities would often only appear at the live taping for the announcement of their award category, and members of the general audience fill their vacant seats during the other times. Through clever editing, MTV was able to present to its viewing audience an awards show which appears to be taped in live sequence, with celebrities sticking around for the whole show. This method of production allowed foul language to be edited from the show and also is more convenient for celebrities. The actual live taping aired same-day on pay-per-view channels in most metropolitan cities around the world. Some awards telecasts had also been shown in television syndication. However, in 2007, this changed, as MTV and Survivor producer Mark Burnett (who took over duties from Joel Gallen for the 2007 awards) announced the ‘07 edition would be broadcast live on MTV for the first time on June 3, 2007 in Los Angeles.
