Either/Or, Episode 3
In Either/Or, we take two people in similar pursuits, and you choose between them. It can be based on any criteria: professional ability, personality, intellectual prowess, physical pulchritude, or who you’d want backing you up in a knife fight. It really doesn’t matter: just choose Either/Or.
Super Heroines: Either Maggie Gyllenhaal in “The Dark Knight”:
Or Gwyneth Paltrow in “Iron Man”:
Super heroes: Either Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight”:
Or Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man”:
Either/Or: Episode 2
In Either/Or, we take two people in similar pursuits, and you choose between them. It can be based on any criteria: professional ability, personality, intellectual prowess, physical pulchritude, or who you’d want backing you up in a knife fight. It really doesn’t matter: just choose Either/Or.
Either Katy Perry, who has the No. 1 single on Billboard, “I Kissed a Girl”:
Or Rihanna, who has the No. 2 single on Billboard, “Take a Bow”:
Either “Step Brothers” star Will Ferrell, Or “Step Brothers” star John C. Reilly:
Bale Needs Bondsman
Christian Bale
This is no way to celebrate. From the Associated Press:
Batman star Christian Bale was arrested Tuesday over allegations of assaulting his mother and sister, police and British media said.
British media had reported that Bale’s mother and sister complained they were assaulted by the 34-year-old actor at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of his latest film, “The Dark Knight.”
The women made the allegation at a local police station in southern England on Monday, Britain’s Press Association news agency said.
Asked whether Bale had been arrested, a police spokesman did not refer to him by name but said: “A 34-year-old man attended a central London police station this morning by appointment and was arrested in connection with an allegation of assault.” He said the man was still in custody but gave no further details.
The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because force policy did not authorize him to be identified. British police do not name suspects before they are formally charged.
U.S.-based representatives for Bale didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment. Repeated phone calls to Bale’s London representative went unanswered.
The Sun newspaper said police didn’t question the actor Monday because they didn’t want to interfere with the premiere of the movie.
Wales-born Bale first made a splash as the child star of Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” in 1987. His screen credits also include “American Psycho,” “The Machinist” and “Batman Begins.”
In “The Dark Knight,” Bale reprises the role of wealthy playboy Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego Batman, a brooding vigilante superhero still scarred by the murder of his parents.
The film, which stars the late Heath Ledger as Batman’s nemesis The Joker, took in a record $158.4 million at the box office in its opening weekend in the U.S. last week.
The defense? Scarecrow’s hallucinogens, of course. You can’t drive, you can’t think straight, and you can’t keep from pummeling Mum. How will this affect box office? In the short term, it won’t hurt, but look at what happened to Russell Crowe: he lost his temper a few times, and before he knew it, he was filming “A Good Year.”
Timberlake Loves Sports
As Kev noted recently, it’s becoming more difficult to hate Justin Timberlake these days, even with “The Love Guru” in his filmography. Witness his marathon performance last night on “The Espy Awards.” And no, I haven’t converted into a sporto, but I saw this during my workout today (that didn’t help my case, did it?), and it’s a testament to his shocking evolution as a showman. I didn’t get half the references, but that’s called justice in some circles.
Either/Or, Episode 1
In Either/Or, we take two people in similar pursuits, and you choose between them. It can be based on any criteria: professional ability, personality, intellectual prowess, physical pulchritude, or who you’d want backing you up in a knife fight. It really doesn’t matter: just choose Either/Or.
Either Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer”:
Or Holly Hunter of “Saving Grace”:
Either Keith Olbermann of MSNBC:
Or Bill O’Reilly of FNC:
Costner Loves Lisa
On Friday, I spent six hours in line at the Apple Store. An hour from now, I’m interviewing Kevin Costner. And here, direct from 1983, is the synergistic fusion of my last few days, an ad for the Mac’s predecessor, Lisa.
A Special Announcement
Chase McInerney
Starting on Monday, I’ll be taking vacation, but Staticblog will be kept alive and fit through the fine, diligent, perfect-posture typing of comments section master scribe Chase McInerney.
McInerney and I met when we were both members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, covering the dissolution of the marriage of Carrie and Eddie Fisher at hands of that homewrecker, Montgomery Clift. Well, everyone else thinks it was Liz Taylor, but Chase knew the real story, and it can all be read in his extraordinary autobiography, My Life Under the Casting Couch: Lifting the Lingerie Curtain on the Real Hollywood.
Enjoy Chase’s wit and grammar while I’m gone — He’s a true gentleman to keep this blog going while I’m knocking back Sidecars in Monte Carlo. I’ll see you when I return, and I’ll bring you back some chips and maybe a refrigerator magnet.
Cheers,
George Lang
Rose Goes Gonzo With Wenner, Carter and Gibney
Charlie Rose leads a discussion of Hunter S. Thompson with Jann Wenner, Graydon Carter and Alex Gibney, the great documentary director (“Taxi To the Dark Side,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) who helmed “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.” As Idolator points out, Rose drops in a bizarre reference to alleged plans by Conde Nast to acquire Rolling Stone, and it looked like, for a moment, Wenner lost his tan.
There Are Mash-Ups, and Then There Are Mash-Ups
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Via Idolator, here is a bizarre curio for your consumption: "Love Will Tear Us Together" by The Captain & Tenielle feat. Joy Division.
On George Carlin, 1937-2008
George Carlin
Four days before he died on Sunday at age 71, The Kennedy Center announced that George Carlin would be this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Carlin was never much for formal recognition, so the timing of his passing could not have been more appropriate.
I saw Carlin only once, in 1990 in a performance at the DeAnza College Performing Arts Center in Cupertino, Calif. While it’s hard to recall specifics of his set, what I always held in awe was Carlin’s ability to find ironic juxtapositions and isolate the outright lies in conventional wisdom. With this laser-like skill at parsing language and sussing out the culture’s fine art of obfuscation, Carlin had an uncommon gift, and if he had chosen to use that gift in the polar opposite direction, he could have been a wizard on Madison Avenue.
As he is eulogized today, Carlin is mainly regarded as a comedian of the counterculture, but that is specifically incorrect, and I’m not sure that such an animal exists. He was a member of the counterculture whose knowledge base and focus was aimed at the culture at-large. His comedy was fueled by righteous anger at the collectively dumb things that we do as players in society and the globally stupid things done by our surrogates.
Chase pointed out to me that there’s some irony in Tim Russert and George Carlin dying so close together, since they both had acutely sensitive b.s. detectors. But while Russert had entre to the halls of power, Carlin was screaming outside the security gate. Society needs both players to keep things straight.
