Forecast Calls for Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller is up to his old tricks again with his new film, Tropic Thunder, which comes out this Wednesday, August 13, is about to hit theaters across the country. The comedy, also starring Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., is about a group of actors who set out to make the biggest war film ever get involved in an actual war that’s being fought near their filming location.

Tropic Thunder is an homage to Hollywood war epics from “Platoon” and “Apocalypse Now” to “Saving Private Ryan” and “Rambo.” What will most certainly be the most talked about part of the film will be Downey Jr’s portrayal of Kirk Lazarus, in blackface.

Check out what The Oregonian has to say:

The comedy has garnered a lot of buzz in the last year because Robert Downey Jr. appears in it as an Australian actor so committed to his craft that he undergoes a procedure to have his skin turned brown to play an African American soldier.

Now, that is a lot to ask an audience to swallow in 2008, with an African American presidential candidate and older media stars getting fired and suspended for various racially insensitive faux pas. Blackface is a complicated bit of ancient Americana, and most folks are happy it’s gone the way of other dastardly forms of “entertainment.” So, it would seem to be a third rail of film comedy.

The thought behind this is that the award-winning Lazarus has actually undergone surgery to “be black” in an effort to pull off a more convincing portrayal of what is supposedly a character who existed in real life. To be sure that the film would not be considered too offensive, Stiller showed it to the NAACP for feedback, and several African American film journalists have reacted positively to Downey’s hilarious portrayal.

I’m sure that as always, Stiller will turn in a masterpiece and Tropic Thunder will be a box office success. Thoughts?

Issac Hayes, Known for Shaft and South Park, Dies at 65

The man most recently known as “Chef” on South Park, has died. Or as they would say on the show “Oh my god, they killed Chef. You bastards!”

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill earlier this afternoon. Hayes was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The cause of his death is not yet known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes got the world prepared for disco and for what became known as urban-contemporary music featuring singers such as Barry White.

From CNN:

Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff’s department said.

No foul play is suspected, the agency said in a written statement.

Hayes was a longtime songwriter and arranger for Stax Records in Memphis, playing in the studio’s backup band and crafting tunes for artists such as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave in the 1960s.

He released his first solo album in 1967, and his 1969 follow-up, “Hot Buttered Soul,” became a platinum hit.

In 1971, the theme from “Shaft” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and won an Academy Award for best original theme song. The song and the movie score also won Grammy awards for best original score and movie theme.

Truly a sad day in both the music and television industry for such a great talent. Issac Hayes will surely be missed.

Olympic Coach's Father In Law Killed in China

A Chinese man stabbed the in-laws of the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball coach, killing his father in law and injuring the other while they visited a Beijing tourist attraction on Saturday.

From the Associated Press:

The victims were Todd and Barbara Bachman, parents of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman who is married to men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. Bachman's father was killed.

The assailant also stabbed and injured a Chinese tour guide with the Americans. He then committed suicide by throwing himself off a 130-foot-high balcony of the ancient landmark the Americans were visiting, the 13th century Drum Tower, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Neither of the Bachman's were wearing US Olympic gear so it is believed that this was a random act of violence. This is definitely a very difficult and sad start to the Olympics for the Americans and my heart goes out to the entire Bachman family.

Is There a Kill Switch on the iPhone

Antone Gonsalves of InformationWeek has written a very interesting article for the publication about the discovery by a hacker that the iPhone can download a list of "unauthorized" applications and disable them.

From the article:

A hacker who discovered a mechanism on the iPhone that downloads a list of unauthorized applications from Apple has challenged speculation that the technology is an application "kill switch." Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the books iPhone Forensics and iPhone Open Application Development, said on his blog that there's no evidence to support the conspiracy theories that traveled throughout the blogging community as a result of his discovery.

"We do not know just how active this mechanism is," Zdziarski said. "It might vaporize applications. It might simply prevent them from using the GPS [global positioning system]. For all we know, it could trigger world war three, or it could cause some computer somewhere to spit out recipes for buttermilk pancakes."

Zdziarski discovered in the iPhone a cache that can hold a list of unauthorized applications and a URL to a page on Apple's servers. The URL is apparently used to download a new list from time to time.

PC World blogger Brennon Slattery has a very insightful blog posting on this as well.

From the blog:

As of today, iPhone tethering NetShare, movie listing generator BoxOffice, and the idiotic $1000 "I Am Rich" app-which did absolutely nothing-have vanished from the iTunes App Store without notice.

But to be clear, these applications have not been murdered by a mysterious Apple "kill switch." The so-called "kill switch" remains more mystery than anything else. Zdziarski confesses on research notes posted to his site he knows little about what the code he found does: "We do not know whether this mechanism is active, or what exactly it does."

Nevertheless iPhone developers are beginning to say "hey, wait a minute" as they ponder developing software under the influence of Apple's apparent fickle whims. Many are now asking questions about this "kill switch" wondering could their hard work vanish from iPhones at the flip of a switch?

Interestingly enough, as far as I have seen, Apple has yet to comment on this finding. With the iPhone being such a widely popular device, it will be interesting to see what develops from this finding, if anything. Thoughts?

Bernie Mac Dies

The New York Times is reporting this morning that stand up comedian, television and movie star Bernie Mac, 50, has died of pneumonia. Mac was the star of "The Bernie Mac Show" and also had starring roles in such films as "Bad Santa" and "Mr. 3000".

From the article:

Mr. Mac, an imposing stage presence with a line of scabrous insults, parlayed his success as a stand-up comedian onto the big screen in a string of comedies that cast him in cameo roles, usually as wily con men like Pastor Clever in “Friday” and Gin, the store detective in “Bad Santa.” He also excelled as short-tempered misanthropes, notably in his starring role as Stan Ross, the nation’s most hated baseball player, in “Mr. 3000.”

In 2001, the Fox network took a gamble with “The Bernie Mac Show,” an unconventional family comedy with Mr. Mac portraying a childless married comedian who reluctantly takes in his sister’s three youngsters when she goes into a drug-treatment program.

The irascible Mr. Mac made a different kind of TV dad, “more Ike Turner than Dr. Spock,” Chris Norris wrote in a 2002 profile for The New York Times Magazine. Mr. Mac’s special style of tough love — “I’m gonna bust your head ’til the white meat shows,” he warns his surly teenage neice — set the show apart from other family sitcoms and raised a few critical eyebrows, but audiences saw enough of the character’s soft center to find the show touching.

This is a sad loss for Hollywood as Mac was a great talent. It's amazing that with the advances in medicine today, pneumonia is still a common killer.

Babies born 8/8/08 at 8:08 are Both 8 pounds, 8 ounces

Talk about unbelieveable!

The Associated Press is reporting that Hailey Jo Hauer and Xander Jace Riniker were each born on August 8, 2008 at 8:08 a.m. weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces!!!

From the article:

Xander, born at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the eighth grandchild for his mother's parents. And he's not the only one in his family with an unusual birthday: His 2-year-old brother, Kael, was born on 4/5/06.

Lindsey Hauer thought staff at Lake Region Hospital in Minnesota were joking when they told her the time of her daughter's birth. And then she got a call from the birthing suite noting Hailey's weight.

Time for those families to get a lottery ticket!!!

John Edwards Admits to Affair

John Edwards has admitted publicly that he had an affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on February 27, and interestingly enough, no father's name is given on the birth certificate which was filed in California.

The Los Angeles Times has a full timeline of the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair.

This announcement by Edwards could be an enormous blow to the Democratic Party, and possible Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Although Edwards is not in the running for the Democratic nomination, conclusions could be drawn by voters and could swing many key undecided voters to the side of Republican nominee John McCain.

From the Associated Press:

Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign.

Acknowledging a sex scandal he had dismissed as "tabloid trash" only last month, Edwards said he had told his wife and family long ago, but "I had hoped that it would never become public."

After the story broke Friday, Edwards released a statement that said, "In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public."

"I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices," he said. "With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006, and today I take full responsibility publicly."

What is it with politicians and affairs. Do they think that they won't get caught? Don't they realize that they have cameras following them 24/7? We all remember the drama of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Did he think that his wife Hillary would not find out? Obviously not. Either that, or they don't care.

This will not have an effect on my vote but I'm left to wonder if it will have an effect on others. Thoughts?

Facebook Responds to Security Threat

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has followed up on yesterday’s post with an update on the Facebook worm with a response from Facebook’s head of security, Max Kelly.

From TechCrunch:

Facebook head of security Max Kelly, a former FBI computer forensics examiner, wrote a blog post tonight addressing the worm attacks on Facebook we wrote about earlier today. His advice to Facebook users: report suspected malware, and try not to share your password with anyone. Kelly also says Facebook blocked the ability to link to the malicious website from anywhere on Facebook, although a black list approach like this is a never ending battle.

Thanks Max for that great advice! At least Facebook is taking the initiative to get this taken care of, although attacks such as these tend to be an ongoing battle in today’s society.

Security firms have warned that social networks such as Facebook and MySpace are breeding grounds for security attacks becuase they have massive user bases, numerous outside developers working on the Web sites and lots of ways to spread malware to unwitting users. The worm was first flagged by security firm Sophos, just days after another one had been discovered by Kaspersky Labs.

Sugarland Founder Sues Band

I guess that it was only a matter of time until this happened.

According to the Associated Press, Kiersten Hall is suing the two current members of the group Sugarland for $1.5 million.

From the article:

According to a lawsuit filed late last month in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Kristen Hall was to get a cut of the group’s profits even after she left in 2005 for a solo career. Hall says in the lawsuit that she has been excluded from the group’s profits since she left.

CMT also has an interesting blog on the lawsuit.

You have to wonder what is going through the minds of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush right now. The band has achieved so much in such a short amount of time. I was surprised when Hall left the band in early 2006 as they were just seeming to increase steadily in popularity at that time. Their songs have since been in heavy rotation not only on the radio, but on GAC and CMT as well. They have won numerous industry awards, Nettles has performed with the likes of Bon Jovi and their newest album, “Love On the Inside” just came out last month.

Time will tell how this plays out. My feeling is that if you wanted to receive a cut of the band’s profits, you never should have left in the first place. Thoughts?

Worms Invade Facebook!

Interesting posting by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch today about a new worm virus which is targeting Facebook members’ comment walls.

From the posting:

The worm spreads when a compromised user’s account is used to send message to others with a title such as “LOL. You’ve been catched on hidden cam, yo:” and a link to a random URL. The linked website is a YouTube-like page that shows a video player along with what looks like a standard browser message to update your Flash installation. Clicking on the button begins a malware installation of a file called “codecsetup.exe.” We didn’t go so far as to install the software, but our guess is that it zombies your computer, installs a keylogger, and other fun stuff.

CNET also has an article on this topic which gives some more detailed information.

Sophos, a security software and research firm, has warned that social network Facebook is the battleground for a new malware attack targeting members’ comment “walls”. Sophos says that this is probably not the same as a social-network worm that Kaspersky Labs flagged last week.

Green Bay Legend Brett Favre Traded to the Jets

It’s hard to believe that I am even saying these words: Brett Favre, quarterback of the New York Jets. It still has not sunk in. The trade, which took place last night, had been anticipated, but until it was made official, no one really believed that Brett Favre could play for anyone but the Green Bay Packers, could he? Rachel Nichols of ESPN made it official last night.

The New York Times has a great article about the state of mind of Packers fans, 24 hours after what will probably go down as the biggest trade in Packers history.

From the Times:

Only a small number of Packers fans turned out at Lambeau on Thursday, when the players lifted weights and watched film but did not practice. There were no sign-waving protestors waiting for Packers General Manager Ted Thompson when he left the complex via the loading dock at about 2:30 p.m., driving a blue Cadillac Escalade and wearing a baseball cap.

Reminders of Favre are everywhere. A fan whose backyard borders Lombardi Avenue across from the stadium has this painted in green and gold on his fence: “Hawk Eyes His Prey, Victory Not Favre Away.”

And now, life without Favre begins in Green Bay. The question remains, was this in Favre’s best interest? The jury is still out.

In my opinion, Favre should have stayed in Mississippi and retired as a Packer. Coming back, while it may be what he wants, may not be the best for his legacy. He will arguably go down as the greatest player in Packer history, but he did not RETIRE as a Packer. He could come back this season, throw for a couple dozen touchdowns, a couple thousand yards, and take the Jets to the playoffs. Or he could not. Remember, he is going to a team which has had trouble winning, much less making the playoffs over the past decade.

He is also playing in New York now. And the media, and the town, will only expect him to win. A lot of pressure for a quarterback who has seen his best days in the past.

I wish Brett the best of luck. He’s going to need it in New York!

Trailer Choir: They're Off The Hillbilly Hook!

If you have not heard of them yet, you soon will. The band is called Trailer Choir and they are currently opening for Toby Keith on his current tour with Montgomery Gentry. Their first hit is called "Off The Hillbilly Hook" and it can be found on the new sound track for the movie Beer for my Horses.

CMT has a great posting today which includes the Unplugged at Studio 330 performance of "Rockin' The Beer Gut".

If you get the chance, check out this band and the album. I have this feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more of Trailer Choir in the future!

Nashville Star Crowns a Champion

After weeks of competition, Melissa Lawson, a 32-year-old working mother of five from Arlington, Texas, was named the winner of Nashville Star during last nights season finale on NBC.

From the Associated Press:

Melissa Lawson beat fellow finalist Gabe Garcia on Monday night for the title on the country music reality series. Shawn Mayer came in third.

Lawson wins a record contract after performing in Nashville for 11 weeks.

The series has launched the careers of Miranda Lambert, Buddy Jewell and Chris Young. It switched to NBC this year after five seasons on cable's USA Network.

In winning the competition, Lawson received the grand prize package of a Warner Brothers record deal, a special performance at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games on August 12 and a brand new Toyota Tundra.

As clouds of confetti blew through the theater, Lawson debuted her new single, “What If It All Goes Right”, which is produced by Nashville Star judge John Rich. The song is scheduled to hit country radio this morning and will most certainly get routine airplay.

Many felt that Gabe Garcia was the front runner going into the show. I can say that I too believed that Garcia would win the competition and believe that in the long run, will have the better country music career. Although Lawson is a talented singer and a heartwarming story, the curse of Nashville Star will more than likely be her downfall.

Look back at past winners and tell me where their careers have gone. You notice on many of the reality talent shows that in most cases, the runners up and others tend to be the bigger stars. Only time will tell how Lawson's career will play out but I only wish for the best for her and her family. I also hope to hear from Gabe Garcia and Shawn Mayer shortly. They obviously have the talent to make it, the question is, will they succeed?

Actor Morgan Freeman in Serious Condition Following Car Accident

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman has been injured in car accident in Mississippi and is in serious condition in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Associated Press is reporting that Freeman was in a wreck shortly before midnight Sunday and paramedics had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle.

Freeman is my all-time favorite actor from such films as Driving Miss Daisy, Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, Gone Baby Gone, The Bucket List and most recently, The Dark Knight. Known for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice, Freeman has become one of Hollywood's most popular and respected actors. My prayers are out to Freeman, his family and his fans.