Hyman Strachman is a 92-year-old WWII vet from Long Island who has spent nearly a decade supporting the troops in his own special way: By sending them free-of-charge bootleg DVDs of first-run films by the box-load.
Ron Howard, TV's Opie, just directed the film version of Frost/Nixon, because the man knows Oscar-bait when he sees it. And also, sure, because it's politically relevant or something. Howard, the very definition of American Middlebrow, is not a political director, though this year he endorsed Obama because he is a Hollyweird liberal (like his godless pal Andy Griffith). At a recent screening of the film, Howard mentioned how the lessons of Nixon became newly relevant during the Bush administration. Shocking! Good thing Fox News anchor and noted objective journalist Chris Wallace was there to set him straight! Nixon was a crook, see, and Bush is a hero.
· Showtime and Stan Lee are indeed developing a drama about the life of a gay superhero, as Hero author Perry Moore hinted back in May. And he just happens to be gay, OK? He's not, like, Poppers Boy or Wonder Trannie. [Variety] · Michael Moore is shifting the scope of his next movie from foreign affairs to the U.S. economy, allowing him to return to the struggling backroads of Roger & Me's Flint, where he's shocked to find the "Rabbits: Pets or Meat" lady has expanded her roadside stand into HARECO—the world's largest bunny-distributing conglomerate. [THR] · Meryl Streep will star in a movie based on Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Finally! A cat movie from grownups! [Variety] After the jump: Which new dad is going to wish they never even heard the name David O. Russell in a matter of months?· ABC won the night with the Three Hours of Country Music Industry Auto-Fellation You'll Never Get Back Again Awards. [Variety] · Matthew McConaughey's life is about to be made a living hell by director David O. Russell in The Grackle, about a "barroom fighter in New Orleans who hires himself out for $250 to settle disputes." He then dispatches a couple of walleyed Malibu surfers to beat the shit out of the warring parties. [Variety]
This is Adam Smith, "also known as Steve Zacharanda," in Chicago on Election Night. He is a reporter for the Birmingham Mail, a newspaper in the UK. He's just been approached by a friendly Dutch person with a video camera. He seems to be filing a story, and he's definitely been drinking. Please watch his hilarious reportorial style—"I'm just a little bit pissed.... Thank god for the BBC, because I'm cutting and pasting, baby!"—after the jump. Click to view As the Telegraph reports:
Is anyone hiring experts in weights and measures? "L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley." So Eason was forced retired from the lab. We nominate him for a hundred Nobel Peace Prizes. [NewsObserver]
The dreamy beach warrior who rescued a drowning man and and made all other news irrelevant a week or so ago has been found! And he's "a humble hero who would rather sail off into the sunset than step into the limelight, his relatives said Saturday." Swoon! Could he get any dreamier? "Kevin Campion, a 30-year-old ship's captain from Seattle, doesn't mind if his lifesaving deed goes unrewarded, they said. 'He's a great guy and it's an amazing thing he did and actually I'm not surprised that he would do it,' said Kenn Christianson, the brother of Campion's stepmother, Sonya Campion. 'He's just not sure he wants the attention to be on him.'" Oh. Then I guess The New York Daily News wouldn't have another photo of him or anything. Wait, they do?
The recent spike in comics franchises and other superhero entertainment could soon take an especially fabulous turn if Perry Moore gets his way. The novelist and Chronicles of Narnia co-producer (pictured) blabbed to Vulture this week about negotiations to adapt his young adult novel Hero — about Thom Creed, "the world's first gay superhero" — for TV; Moore expects a deal with one of two unnamed networks any day now, but he isn't waiting around to affirm its credibility among gays, fanboys, gay fanboys, executives and myriad other demographic permutations:
NBC News anchor Brian Williams "loves his nickname," says Rachel Sklar over at HuffPo. The perenially upbeat media blogger dubbed him 'BriWi' at some point, we couldn't even begin to tell you why. Makes him sound like some newfangled networking device from Apple. Oooh, maybe he is! Thing is, when she mentions it to him in a video interview, he looks like he just wants to bolt. Or smack her, whatever ends the whole thing fastest.
Rep. Dem Yvette Clarke, first-term Congresswoman from Park Slope, "was one of just nine members of Congress who last week voted against House resolution 847, a symbolic bill that, among other things, acknowledged 'the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.'" SHE VOTED 'NO' ON CHRISTMAS. [The Brooklyn Paper]
The Arlington-based H.E.R.O. ("Hollywood lives...Heartland values") would like to let Hollywood know that this "speaking out against Iraq" nonsense has exposed them for what they arepeople who pretend to be other people in film and television! From a press release responding to Screen Actor's Guild President, Melissa Gilbert's statements that she was concerned about the possible return of a McCarthy-era "blacklist": "...what hasn t been talked about much is the other reason people are angry. Actors that we have grown up with, and watched every movie they made, actors like Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, Barbra Streisand and others have 'stepped out of their make believe roles.' In some cases, their outspoken views have forever changed the perception that the movie going public has for them. We can t look at them the same anymore, the wall between make believe and reality is shattered."
HERO responds to SAG President Melissa Gilbert [H.E.R.O.]
