No Crims in the Mouse House

Well, no overseas criminals that is.

I mean ones who were caught and caused a big old tabloid blitzkrieg.

Yes, I mean her.

The moral of this story: if you're going to do a prank with any shred of illegality...don't get caught.

The Final Manhattan Video Log

Alas, it is time to leave and I offer some thoughts on departing, US politics, and realise that I am not skilled in webcam tours.

I am forever debted to everyone who I have encountered during my 8 years here.

Special thanks go to (forgive me for using initials): AS, MN, PZ, KM, AB, JE, CB, RB, KV, AW, and DS.

As well as God and my mother, although since I'm not religious, I'll just go with my late father and my mother. 

Sure Sandra...Sure

AFP has an article/interview with Sandra Bullock promoting her new film The Proposal.

Standard puff piece with one interesting twist: She says she hates romantic comedies.

She claims The Proposal is more in the classical 1930s-40s type of comedy in that it has a bit of drama.

Uh huh.

She also says that she "likes her comedy too much to bastardise it with romantic comedy."

Well, you have your moments, Sandy.

I wonder if she's gotten in touch with the marketing department, because they certainly seem to think it's your standard issue Sandra Bullock rom-com.

Sunday Jukebox Bows Down

Remember Insooni? Well, she released her 17th album last month and it's a killer one. 

The lead off single is Fantasia, and it's well...the only word I can describe it is f.i.e.r.c.e. (She's 52 years old as of April.)

Respect.

If only I can arrive into Australia like this.

It's Pride Week in Shanghai

Who knew? I didn't.

Apparently it was meant to be low-key.

My God...I'm Leaving Just As This Place Is Getting Good

There are things I thought I would never see come to fruition in the US that are happening now:

• A black president
• Government ownership (temporary, but still) of several major corporations.
• Politicians and the public actually making a concerted effort for increased accountablity for high-ranking executives.

And guess what, it's hitting Hollywood too.

Anyone who has ever studied or even looked at the entertainment industry from a financial perspective knows that it is a money pit, the depths of which are only escaped by Churros bought at Citywalk, an apartment building going with GE for its appliances, Miley Cyrus going on tour, or that new billboard on the LIE. 

Greater financial transparency in respect to the entertainment industry could unleash a wave of humility in an industry where humility is a cardinal sin. 

I do not expect this to be a radical overnight change, but perhaps instead of trying to get several overblown popcorn movies and shows that subidise the bombs, we might see a more balanced slate of entertainment wherein both the aim and reach is more measured: Are not several modest successes made with modest budgets not as valuable as 2 gigantic super hits that make up for a slate/season filled with turkeys? (Or should I say "peacocks?")

I am not saying that my vision is the likely outcome, but the fact that we have Variety telling all these execs that they aren't immune from the national mood is quite mind-blowing. 

I have to pity them on some level, because the ones who would be leading the angry mob are the actors, and after the SAG battle and the WGA battle, there are some seriously pissed off creatives.

Sunday Jukebox Prepares for Pride Month

Yes, she's likely lip syncing.  Still, it's clear that she has no issue whatsoever in being a gay icon of Korea.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Pride Month, so to kick off the festivities here is a tour-de-force performance by Uhm Jung-hwa accompanied by a bevy of drag queens and some very versatile male backing dancers back in 2006. 

I pity the poor popster(s) that had to follow that performance. (More than half of those KPop pretty boys didn't know what to think.)

The drag queen that opens the whole medley is the definition of an intense performer.

Well, his last name is Downer

The former Australian Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer (very ironic that name) wrote a caustic-but-interesting article in the Adelaide Sunday Mail wherein he sleights his countrymen for being idiot whingers abroad who expect the government to do anything and everything for them when they get into trouble.

It's rather interesting to read Downer's own whinging, since on the whole we [Americans] don't hear much about our own getting into trouble overseas unless it's tragic or somewhat comic (Michael Fay)...mostly because so few of us ever leave the country period. (One could even argue that the American media does a very good job in scaring us out of leaving the borders.)

A little background on Downer, courtesy of Wikipedia: he is an Australian Liberal (right-wing, not centre-left as in Canada), and he did try to get the job as Prime Minister, so I can't help but think that his musings might be a way to keep himself in the public eye. He was also the longest serving Foreign Affairs minister in Australian history (and shortest serving leader of the Liberal Party).

Nonetheless, an interesting read.

Meanwhile in New Zealand (part 35)

Westpac is afraid of a witch hunt for that employee who accidentally gave a gas station owner a NZ$10 million overdraft.

Westpac NZ customerts aside, I don't think anyone is out there screaming for her head on a pike. 

If anything, the public would like her to get back to work ASAP.

Think before you speak

Chris Rock once said that ATMs need to have some sort of screen that comes up after 3 am which would ask the person using it if they truly do need that money.

The same thing seems to applies to television cameras.

It's quite interesting reading and seeing news from the Antipodes, particularly when one has an American perspective. Despite the occasional moaning about political correctness (which is truly just "the golden rule" secularised), I think Americans on the whole try to keep our language in check at least when in front of a television camera. 

Case in point: a shooting in Sydney's Kings Cross (think Times Square pre-Giuliani) the weekend before last. 

A reporter asks a woman what happened, and she just says it like she saw it with the words that came quickest to her. (Watch the clip from Nine News via TVNZ). 

I always thought wog reffered to people from the Meditteranean (both sides of it)  all the way to India. According to Answers.com, however it means just those from the African side of the Meditteranean all the way to India. It's likely from the term "Golliwog," which was basically another version of Sambo. Yeah, it's a real peach of a phrase.

And the report isn't kidding about all the YouTube hype over her, although how bizarre is it that a R-rated crime description would send someone into 15 minutes of fame territory?

Not quite as bizarre is the fact that she didn't even see the shooting.

If this sounds like something one of the Newscorp rags would salivate over, well, they certainly have.

By the way, "Skinny" did survive the shooting. That she would describe him as skinny should've been the first hint that she didn't see anything.

Yet, she thinks everybody would enjoy her prank.

Sunday Jukebox Asks "Can We End This 80s Revival?"

The oughties are truly a decade in search of an identity, and it seems that the only one it could poach easily was the 1980s.

Well, comrades, I think we are finally about to say goodbye to the Eighties Part II.

Not because it's 2009.

Not because the financial sector is turning around (with government assistance).

Not even because ABC is reviving V.

Comrades, the proof that the Eighties Revival is over is the video for SHINee's Juliette: A song which itself is a cover of a Corbin Bleu song, whose entire career musically is based upon early 1980s Michael Jackson.

Revel in the 80-ness all around.

Now can we end this foolishness, please?

It's Really The Filler Between Commercials...For Now

It seems appropriate after this week of Upfront news that Newsweek's Pop Vox publishes a defense of TV cancellations as evidence of how television networks are more ambitious than we give them credit for.

I partly agree, and disagree. 

My disagreement being mostly that the television networks need to desperately find a new business model as technology and modern life in general is quickly rendering the advertiser/sponsor system dated.

Not that subscriber/advertiser is the best solution, but it's slightly better.

If You Shoot It, They Will Come?

According to a poorly edited article from TVNZ's ONE news, Ghostbusters III is a go, with the core original cast all signed on. 

Leave well enough alone.

And I'm referring to the theme song. It'll be hard to beat On Our Own, at least in my mind.

The Crooked Preacher

Only in Milwaukee, kids, only in Milwaukee...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is doing a five part series about Michael Lock, a local crime boss who was also a preacher. 

Anyone who appreciates true crime stories will find it rather fascinating how Lock skillfully balances piety with running an organisation that dabbled in drug running, prostitution, and a few legitimate businesses. 

'Tis a shame that Underbelly is based on organised crime in Australia, this story would otherwise fit in perfectly.

What You'll See on the Eye This Fall

CBS has announced its schedule for 2009-10:

• RIP Without A Trace (I guess Cold Case and its sappiness were just that much cheaper.)
• Get ready for NCIS Tuesdays, because the spinoff is going to be airing after the original.
• The Mentalist moves to Thursdays opposite Jay Leno and Private Practice. CBS's Thursday lineup regains some of its lustre.
• Medium goes from NBC to CBS, which was its natural home anyway. If they don't do crossover episodes with Ghost Whisperer, I'll be shocked.

Darwin's Just Not Into You

I found this rather amusing:

According to a comprehensive study by Charles Darwin University, the city of Darwin (in Australia's Northern Territory) is a bit of a turn off for women due to its male-oriented environment.

And yet, I don't quite see it becoming the next Palm Springs.

Scenes from the Battle for Fall Programing

Courtesy of Daily Variety:

• ABC cancelled Samantha Who? (Bugger, but Better Off Ted might make up for the loss). The thing that did Samantha in? Money + A lot of new series.
• Ugly Betty moves to Friday at 10 PM!
• Kelsey Grammer & Patricia Heaton are back...on ABC...on separate sitcoms. I have my doubt as to whether either will survive, but who knows.
• Law & Order regular lives on to chime for its 20th season for NBC, although it will only run for 16 episodes.
• Sherri Shepherd of The View gets her own sitcom...on Lifetime.

TVNZ hits hard..on gossip

Do check out this interesting and peculiar interview from TVNZ with Bridget Saunders who is "New Zealand's first Queen of Gossip." 

Quite interesting that she's leaving her job to go write a book about bad sex.

Charming.

It's Upfront Week

That fun time of year when the networks roll out their lineups for advertisers...and foreign networks. 

Here's a list of some of the current survivors (courtesy of Variety):

• Samantha Who? (ABC). Apparently it was on the bubble due to costs and ratings with that Thursday move. It'll come back as a sitcom shot in the traditional, multi-camera way. (I don't know how switching from single to multi-camera is cheaper, but I like the show.)
• Castle (ABC). As long as they don't fall into the same trap as Moonlighting, I'm fine. 
• Better Off Ted (ABC): Thank god for that.
• Ugly Betty (ABC): I like the show, but it's got 2 more seasons left max.
• Cold Case (CBS): Fate of Without A Trace is uncertain. (I liked The Unit, but it does need to be put out to pasture.) 

The upcoming season will mark a big return to the sitcom according to Variety, with a focus on wacky families and "families," (ensembles that act like one). I pray this doesn't mean that we're going to go through the same sitcom hell that characterised the late 80s/early 90s. 

Monday Jukebox wonders if they thought it through

Courtesy of Allkpop.com comes this clip of Korean Air employees parodying Super Junior's Sorry Sorry. 

Maybe it's just me, but airline employees singing a song called Sorry, Sorry is a bit of a misfire. It's like saying "we screwed up" before you even did anything.