Saturday, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman’s death leaves Hollywood minus a legend

He was Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Cool Hand Luke, “Fast Eddie” Felson, Brick, Hud, Hombre, Harper and one half of “The Sting.” More recently, he was the voice of Doc Hudson in the Pixar hit “Cars” (2006).
An entrepreneur, philanthropist, race-car driver, 10-time Oscar nominee and epitome of the modern American rebel and anti-hero, he was the actor Paul Newman, who died Friday at age 83.
If Hollywood stars are our era’s gods and goddesses, Paul Newman was the 20th-century’s Adonis, an actor so good-looking it was freaky. Once, a rumor circulated that he injected dye into his corneas to get that trademark cornflower blue.
The Ohio-born Academy Award-winning leading man was indeed so handsome it blinded many to how talented he was. The accepted wisdom on Newman is that he got better as he got older.
Nonsense. If you could get past his looks, he was a great actor from the start. Just take a look at his Cannes Award-winning turn as the cunning, sexually aggressive Ben Quick in Martin Ritt’s “The Long, Hot Summer” (1958).
While he reportedly took out an ad in Variety to apologize for “The Silver Chalice” (1954), the lurid sword-and-sandal epic that was his feature debut, Newman was memorable even in that, demonstrating gravitas and charisma, although he soon left the Bible-movie field to Charlton Heston.
Educated at Yale Drama School and the Actors Studio, Newman toiled like all actors of his generation beneath the shadow of the great Marlon Brando. Newman made an admittedly Brando-esque early mark in Robert Wise’s 1956 sports drama “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” playing the troubled boxing champ Rocky Graziano, an earlier type of the Jake La Motta of “Raging Bull.”
The actor then exploded like a supernova in three 1958 films: the aforementioned “The Long, Hot Summer,” Arthur Penn’s “The Left Handed Gun,” as Billy the Kid, and opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the steamy Tennessee Williams-based “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Newman, who also played the male lead in“Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), would later direct his wife Joanne Woodward in a hit 1987 production of Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”
After the screen soap operas “The Young Philadelphians” (1959) and “From the Terrace” (1960), the actor gave another trademark performance in Robert Rossen’s “The Hustler” opposite Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie. He continued his collaboration with director Ritt (“The Long, Hot Summer”) in “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man” (1962), the acclaimed drama “Hud” (1963), “The Outrage” (1964), and in one of my favorite Elmore Leonard Westerns, “Hombre” (1967).
Newman first directed his wife, Woodward, in “Rachel, Rachel” (1968) to critical acclaim and teamed with Robert Redford for two of the screen’s pop classics - George Roy Hill’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “The Sting” (1973). Working again with Hill, Newman played an aging hockey player in the comic gem “Slap Shot” (1977).
The actor collaborated with many of the greatest directors of his time: In addition to Wise, Ritt, Hill and Rossen, Alfred Hitchcock (“Torn Curtain”), Sidney Lumet (“The Verdict”), Otto Preminger (“Exodus”), Robert Altman (“Buffalo Bill and the Indians”), James Ivory (“Mr. and Mrs. Bridge”), Sydney Pollack (“Absence of Malice”), warhammer gold Martin Scorsese (Newman’s Academy Award-winning turn in “The Color of Money”), John Huston (“The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean”), Joel and Ethan Coen (“The Hudsucker Proxy”) and Sam Mendes (“Road to Perdition”).
He brought Ross Macdonald’s gumshoe Lew Harper to life in “Harper” (1966) and “The Drowning Pool” (1975). Newman helmed “Sometimes a Great Notion” (1971), one of my favorite obscure films of the ’70s, a neglected Ken Kesey-penned drama about a family of Oregon loggers, co-starring Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick.buy warhammer gold
I was lucky enough to meet Newman years ago in Boston when I was covering the press junket for the great Boston-shot drama “The Verdict,” in which he delivers a colossal performance as an alcoholic Irish-Catholic attorney seeking redemption.
Let’s just say I was in awe.warhammer gold
Actors we admire, male and female, become a part of our spiritual family. Today, that family is in mourning.wow power leveling

Paul Newman’s death leaves Hollywood minus a legend

He was Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Cool Hand Luke, “Fast Eddie” Felson, Brick, Hud, Hombre, Harper and one half of “The Sting.” More recently, he was the voice of Doc Hudson in the Pixar hit “Cars” (2006).
An entrepreneur, philanthropist, race-car driver, 10-time Oscar nominee and epitome of the modern American rebel and anti-hero, he was the actor Paul Newman, who died Friday at age 83.
If Hollywood stars are our era’s gods and goddesses, Paul Newman was the 20th-century’s Adonis, an actor so good-looking it was freaky. Once, a rumor circulated that he injected dye into his corneas to get that trademark cornflower blue.
The Ohio-born Academy Award-winning leading man was indeed so handsome it blinded many to how talented he was. The accepted wisdom on Newman is that he got better as he got older.
Nonsense. If you could get past his looks, he was a great actor from the start. Just take a look at his Cannes Award-winning turn as the cunning, sexually aggressive Ben Quick in Martin Ritt’s “The Long, Hot Summer” (1958).
While he reportedly took out an ad in Variety to apologize for “The Silver Chalice” (1954), the lurid sword-and-sandal epic that was his feature debut, Newman was memorable even in that, demonstrating gravitas and charisma, although he soon left the Bible-movie field to Charlton Heston.
Educated at Yale Drama School and the Actors Studio, Newman toiled like all actors of his generation beneath the shadow of the great Marlon Brando. Newman made an admittedly Brando-esque early mark in Robert Wise’s 1956 sports drama “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” playing the troubled boxing champ Rocky Graziano, an earlier type of the Jake La Motta of “Raging Bull.”
The actor then exploded like a supernova in three 1958 films: the aforementioned “The Long, Hot Summer,” Arthur Penn’s “The Left Handed Gun,” as Billy the Kid, and opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the steamy Tennessee Williams-based “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Newman, who also played the male lead in“Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), would later direct his wife Joanne Woodward in a hit 1987 production of Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”
After the screen soap operas “The Young Philadelphians” (1959) and “From the Terrace” (1960), the actor gave another trademark performance in Robert Rossen’s “The Hustler” opposite Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie. He continued his collaboration with director Ritt (“The Long, Hot Summer”) in “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man” (1962), the acclaimed drama “Hud” (1963), “The Outrage” (1964), and in one of my favorite Elmore Leonard Westerns, “Hombre” (1967).
Newman first directed his wife, Woodward, in “Rachel, Rachel” (1968) to critical acclaim and teamed with Robert Redford for two of the screen’s pop classics - George Roy Hill’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “The Sting” (1973). Working again with Hill, Newman played an aging hockey player in the comic gem “Slap Shot” (1977).
The actor collaborated with many of the greatest directors of his time: In addition to Wise, Ritt, Hill and Rossen, Alfred Hitchcock (“Torn Curtain”), Sidney Lumet (“The Verdict”), Otto Preminger (“Exodus”), Robert Altman (“Buffalo Bill and the Indians”), James Ivory (“Mr. and Mrs. Bridge”), Sydney Pollack (“Absence of Malice”), warhammer gold Martin Scorsese (Newman’s Academy Award-winning turn in “The Color of Money”), John Huston (“The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean”), Joel and Ethan Coen (“The Hudsucker Proxy”) and Sam Mendes (“Road to Perdition”).
He brought Ross Macdonald’s gumshoe Lew Harper to life in “Harper” (1966) and “The Drowning Pool” (1975). Newman helmed “Sometimes a Great Notion” (1971), one of my favorite obscure films of the ’70s, a neglected Ken Kesey-penned drama about a family of Oregon loggers, co-starring Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick.buy warhammer gold
I was lucky enough to meet Newman years ago in Boston when I was covering the press junket for the great Boston-shot drama “The Verdict,” in which he delivers a colossal performance as an alcoholic Irish-Catholic attorney seeking redemption.
Let’s just say I was in awe.warhammer gold
Actors we admire, male and female, become a part of our spiritual family. Today, that family is in mourning.wow power leveling

Friday, September 26, 2008

Letterman vs. McCain, Round 2

You'd think the David Letterman-John McCain mini-feud would have blown over after a day, with both sides having better things to do (McCain had an economy to fix, Dave had to interview Paris Hilton), but on Thursday, neither side was shutting up about it. On the candidate's side, his spokesperson Nicolle Wallace went on NBC's Today and claimed the senator had bowed out of the Late Show at the last minute because he "felt this wasn't a night for comedy." Which was not the false excuse McCain had given Letterman. He'd told Dave he needed to fly to Washington right away to help solve the economic crisis, but he actually remained in New York until the next day and had been getting his face made up for an interview with Katie Couric during the Letterman taping he'd skipped, as Dave revealed via live feed. For his part, Letterman continued zinging McCain for weaseling out on him on a way that seemed inconsistent with his straight-talking war hero reputation. (Watch the meat of Letterman's mean but funny diatribe here.) Dave even brought up McCain's snub in passing during his chat with Hilton, who mentioned having been dissed by McCain herself.
Meanwhile, the fallout continued. Reaction was apparently mixed at CBS; Letterman employee Craig Ferguson backed his boss in this Late Late Show monologue, while CBS News staffers were reportedly livid that Letterman had embarrassed McCain (and, by proxy, Couric) by hijacking their feed. More than one pundit has suggested (here and here, for instance) that Dave's continued lampooning of McCain could have a real-world political effect; not that Dave's rants will persuade voters to pull the lever for Obama, but they could make voters see McCain in a less flattering light. A more cynical view suggests that Letterman will keep milking this feud for as long as he can, as he did his one-sided feud with Oprah, culminating in an eventual conciliatory visit from the senator which Letterman and CBS will hype for ratings, after which all will be forgiven, and Dave will go back to making jokes about George W. Bush's stupidity and Bill Clinton's libido (still comedy gold, even all these years later).
What do you think, PW-ers? Will Letterman's continued pounding have an effect on potential McCain voters? Is he just drawing this disagreement out for ratings' sake, or does he have a valid complaint? And if it is valid, has Dave gone from legitimately aggrieved to merely petty and petulant, or is his lampooning of the candidate still funny?

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Blown tire may have caused crash that killed 4 and injured Barker, DJ AM

A blown tire during takeoff may have caused a plane crash that killed four people and seriously injured former blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celeb music spinner DJ AM, officials said Sunday.
PHOTOS: LIVES AND CAREERS OF TRAVIS BARKER AND DJ AM
National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said a cockpit voice recorder captured the jet's pilot and co-pilot reacting to a loud noise during an otherwise-routine takeoff from a South Carolina airport late Friday.
PHOTOS: JET-SET TRAGEDIES
"The crew reacted to a sound consistent with a tire blowout," Hersman said at a press conference.
The recording indicated the crew was unable to control the private Learjet, which was going 92 mph when it skidded off the runway at Columbia's airport..
MORE ON DJ AM: HOW HE TURNED TABLES ON DRUGS, OBESITY
The plane burst into flames before slamming into a highway embankment.
Barker, 32, and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, 35, are expected to fully recover from the second- and third-degree burns they suffered in a miraculous escape, doctors said.
MORE ON TRAVIS BARKER: HIP DRUMMER HAS LONG MARCHED TO OWN BEAT
"Anybody who can survive a plane crash is pretty lucky," said Dr. Fred Mullins, medical director of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, at a separate press briefing Sunday.
Barker's ex-wife, Shanna Moakler, the mother of his two children, was at his bedside. They starred on MTV's "Meet the Barkers" after his run with the multiplatinum trio blink-182. wow power leveling
Goldstein made headlines with his engagement and subsequent breakup with Nicole Richie.
"I'm relieved," said Lara Long, 38, Goldstein's sister. "But it's also a really tragic situation." cheap wow gold
The dead included pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31; co-pilot James Bland, 52; Barker's personal assistant Chris Baker, 29, and his security guard, Charles Still, 25.warhammer gold

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Alleged O.J. Simpson robbery victim testifies

It's the first day of trial. Simpson faces more than a dozen charges, including kidnapping, in connection with a 2007 Las Vegas hotel episode.Expecting to sell O.J. Simpson collectibles to a wealthy buyer at a hotel here, memorabilia dealer Bruce Fromong was instead shoved, patted down and threatened with a gun by associates of the former NFL star, Fromong testified Monday.Fromong said that during the six-minute confrontation, Simpson shouted: "Don't let anybody out of this room. Nobody gets out of here." Simpson, Fromong added, accused him of stealing the memorabilia, yelling, "I thought you were a good guy!" Fromong described the scene during the opening day of Simpson's trial -- a muted event compared with his "trial of the century" in Los Angeles, where Simpson was acquitted in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.Although more than 500 journalists had requested credentials here, only about 50 showed up. And, unlike his murder trial, which attracted huge crowds, Simpson arrived Monday to a man carrying a banner reading, "Jesus saves sinners from hell."In opening remarks, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Chris Owens tied the alleged robbery of Fromong and another collectibles dealer to the 1997 civil jury decision that awarded $33.5 million to the heirs of Goldman and Simpson's slain ex-wife.Simpson hid valuable mementos with friends to avoid handing them over to Goldman's father, Fred, Owens said. One of those friends, a former agent, did not return those items to Simpson, Owens said. The former USC football standout, believing some of the items ended up in the hands of a memorabilia dealer, decided to set up a sting, the prosecutor said."You will be able to write that final chapter," Owens told the panel. "The chapter of arrogance and hypocrisy, and that will be the true verdict."Simpson, 61, faces a dozen charges in connection to the alleged robbery of Fromong and another collectibles dealer at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino. The most serious charge -- kidnapping -- carries a potential life sentence.Simpson maintains that he was trying to retrieve stolen items, including pictures of his children and his late parents. "This was a recovery; this wasn't a robbery," said Simpson attorney Yale Galanter in his opening remarks.Four of the men who accompanied Simpson on the day of the confrontation are cooperating with prosecutors and are expected to testify against him. Galanter said the witnesses were only looking to make a buck off Simpson."The only person on the planet that wanted all this property is this man here," Galanter said, patting Simpson's shoulder. "You can think whatever you want about his past, and you have been sworn to ignore it."Fromong said that on Sept. 13, 2007, he had no inkling that Simpson, a longtime friend, would be at the hotel. Simpson used to sing "Happy Birthday" to Fromong's mother over the phone and called Fromong when she died -- a memory that brought Fromong to tears.Fromong expected to meet a wealthy buyer in Room 1203. He had 700 to 800 items, including signed footballs, baseballs and sports photos; a picture that J. Edgar Hoover had signed for Simpson; and three of Simpson's ties.Instead, Fromong said, "the door burst open . . . and then people started rushing in." Warhammer goldOne man carried a gun in his waistband, Fromong testified. Another waved his weapon and snapped, "If we were in L.A., things would be a lot different," Fromong said."They took everything except for two baseball bats," Fromong said.eq2 platAt the defense table, Simpson alternated between staring at the jury and shaking his head in apparent disgust.Fromong's cross-examination was cut short after he complained of feeling dizzy and lightheaded. He has suffered four heart attacks since the incident, Fromong's attorney said. Under questioning by Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso, he said Simpson never physically threatened him. maple story mesosClark County Dist. Atty. David Roger asked Fromong whether he stole any items from Simpson. Fromong replied, "No, sir, I did not."

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hurricane Ike over Cuba, heading for Gulf Coast: NHC

Hurricane Ike was slowly weakening as it beat up Cuba Monday before marching across the Gulf of Mexico and heading for the oil-rich Texas-Louisiana coast later in the week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast in its 8 a.m. EDT report.
Ike was weakening over central Cuba but still packing Category 2 strength with winds near 100 miles per hour.
The NHC expects Ike to emerge from Cuba in about 36 hours as a strong tropical storm with winds of 39-73 miles per hour, then strengthen back into a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 111 to 130 mph within 96 hours.
The NHC expects the storm to crash into the Gulf Coast possibly as a Category 3 hurricane over the weekend.
Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas infrastructure along the coast.silk road gold
Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops like citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast to Texas.wow gold
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, the NHC said there was less than a 20 percent chance the remnants of Josephine would reorganize over the next 48 hours. The remnants were located about 1,200 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands.rappelz rupee
The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Martin, Barbuda, Antigua, Montserrat and Guadeloupe.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

New Orleans ready for mass return

The mayor of New Orleans has said that nearly 200,000 residents who fled the city because of Hurricane Gustav can start coming back early on Thursday.


But Ray Nagin warned that some city areas were still without power, the sewage system was damaged and hospitals had only skeleton crews.
Checkpoints have also been set up to prevent residents returning too soon.
On Monday, the worst of the storm missed New Orleans - the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
But Gustav - which has weakened rapidly after moving inland from the Gulf coast - caused major damage to the state of Louisiana.
The exodus was the largest evacuation in state history - with an estimated two million people fleeing the storm.
US officials reported eight storm-related deaths, according to the Associated Press news agency, adding to the 90 people Gustav killed across the Caribbean last week.
Separately, tropical storm Hanna has hit the Caribbean, causing heavy floods in the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti.
In Haiti, at least 19 people were killed, officials say.
Curfew remains age of conan gold
Mr Nagin said a mandatory evacuation order would be lifted at midnight Wednesday and that city residents could start returning early on Thursday.
"The message is: we want you to come into the city, check on your property, maker sure that you are comfortable and make an intelligent decision on whether you want to stay in this environment or not," the mayor said. Warhammer gold
He warned that New Orleans was still in a "vulnerable state" and that a dusk-to-dawn curfew would remain in effect for some time.
The city's rebuilt levees appear to have held back surging floodwaters, although officials are still urging caution.
Only 10,000 of New Orleans's population of some 200,000 remained in the city.
In 2005, three-quarters of New Orleans was flooded by a storm surge that claimed more than 1,800 lives in coastal areas.