Entries Tagged 'Entertainment' ↓

Excellent NY Times pic by photog Christopher Polk, above top, documents Kanye West’s September 13, 2009 bogart of MTV’s Video Music Awards 2009 stage. The act led to his web site apology, above, that same night, but not before he was ejected from Radio City Music Hall.

Best part: Taylor Swift’s “Huh?” expression, and the fact that the hostess in the back doesn’t even know what’s happening yet, either.

Random thought I had today: With the King of Pop’s death in June, the price of superstar conceptual artist Jeff Koons‘ famed 1988 sculpture, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, above, must be rocketing in value. (Made in an edition of three, plus an artist’s proof, one of the life-sized, 42 in. x 70 1/2 in. x 32 1/2 in. porcelain tchotchkes sold at auction for $5.6 million in 2001.)

Indeed, legendary art dealer Larry Gagosian, who reps Koons, right, told The New York Times back in July that if one of the creations

was to come up for sale now, it could make more than $20 million. “And that’s conservative,” he added.

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Who’s the hardest? In the above photograph by BET exec Stephen Hill, rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z, right, and I take a break from our semi-annual lunch at New York City’s Sequoia restaurant to reenact a dramatic scene from the 1981 sci-fi horror film, Scanners.

To watch him make my head explode, tune in to Black Entertainment Television, next week, Thurday (9/10) evening night/Friday morning, at midnight 7 pm, and check out Food for Thought: Conversations with Jay-Z.

There, for a whole hour, Hot 97 NY on-air personality Angie Martinez, sportswriter Stephen A. Smith, and I will take turns ice-grilling America’s most wanted emcee about his music, business, and philosophy. Make sure you peep it. I think it’ll blow your mind, too.

Gay Tony‘s hitman, Luis Lopez, lights up the night

The audacious geniuses of Rockstar North are back, appropriately, with a vengeance. (That is, if you can believe the word of someone who used to work for the parent company.)

The Ballad of Gay Tony, second Xbox downloadable episode for the multi-million-selling Grand Theft Auto IV, is out October 29th. (The biker thriller, The Lost and The Damned, was released on February 17.)

The first of Gay Tony‘s, certainly, several trailers, each deepening the sordid narrative of the game’s fictional Liberty City, dropped yesterday. Titled, “You’ll Always Be the King of This Town,” it’s a whirlwind of beautifully chaotic scandal.

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Whoa: Check out this dramatic, new teaser poster, above, from Jamie Foxx’s upcoming thriller with 300‘s Gerard Butler, right, Law-Abiding Citizen.

In the story, notes IMDB.com,

An everyday guy [Butler] decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets his family’s killers free. His target: The district attorney [Foxx] who orchestrated the deal.

Directed by F. Gary Gray (Set It Off; The Negotiator; The Italian Job), Law-Abiding Citizen breaks the rules on October 16th.

[via impawards.com]

Flame on: TRON: Legacy light cycle gets the blazes outta here

For the recent Comic-Con, Disney released light cycle footage, above, from the upcoming TRON: Legacy, the 2010 sequel to 1982’s geek classic, TRON.

So why am I not feeling the new stuff?

Take a look for yourself, below. First, the original trailer, then their visual effects test.

Thoughts?

Kotobukiya’s new 1/8-scale Black Widow, above, from Marvel’s Mighty Avengers comics, is the latest in the Japanese master figurine maker’s series of bishoujo or “pretty girl” superheroines. Based on an original design by illustrator Shunya Yamashita, and sculpted by Yu Ishii, the Soviet superspy’s black second skin

accentuates every curve and the long lines of her legs, which end with stiletto heeled boots. Hugging Natasha Romanoff’s waist is a stylish belt adorned with her red hourglass symbol, and on her arms are golden wristbands. As the sexy spy whips around to look behind her with a pistol at the ready, her intricately carved hair floats in the air behind her. Black Widow stands provocatively atop a specially-designed base.

Constructed from PVC and ABS plastics, 7 3/5 inches tall, Black Widow arrives in an stylish window box, ready to whirl into action. Only $59.99, direct.

[via tomopop.com]

Two-and-half weeks ago, actor Kirstie Alley, famed of ’80s TV sitcom Cheers, Jenny Craig weight loss ads, and sashaying in her hosiery on Oprah, told me, on Twitter, that African-Americans and Italians are “more free and fun and light hearted” than, I guess, people who aren’t African-American or Italian.

When she said this, I was actually dumbfounded. Twice, it turned out. Figuring out what to say, however, became my own mini-education in talking about race.

First, background….

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Saw Star Trek, above, last night. Twice. Needless to say, it completely and totally rocks. Don’t wait for the DVD: This is a theater must-see.

One detail, though: The IMAX format is growing in popularity, but not all the IMAX theaters are those massive five-story ones, like at the Air & Space Museum, in Washington D.C., or at Lincoln Center, here, in NYC.

For example, the one where I saw the movie, at AMC 25 on 42nd St, charges $17.50 for a single, precious IMAX ticket, but the screen is basically the same size as pretty much any of the 25’s big screens. The film was digitally-projected, and the sound was enormous, but if you’re looking for that monster IMAX screen, go elsewhere.

But Star Trek, man: I think the coolest aspect of it, and the reason that the movie, in 10 days, has grossed nearly $150 million domestic—besides those $17.50 tickets—is that producer/director J.J. Abrams truly found the correct way to reboot the series. He brings it up to date, but in a way that draws in people who don’t care about Trek, as well as those who care about nothing else.

This being the movie biz, Abrams’ job was to, especially, cater to the former, which he does courtesy of a good-looking, enthusiastic cast, especially Chris Pine, as Capt. James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Mr. Spock, Zöe Saldana as Lt. Uhura, and Eric Bana as the villainous Nero..

Meanwhile, for those of us who care passionately about such issues as, for example, what a starship sounds like when it goes to warp, the movie is nothing if not a revelation. In-jokes abound, and even in serious moments, of which there are many, the director nods to people who, say, know why, on a critical mission, Kirk and Sulu (John Cho) don’t get the red flightsuit.

Without question, Star Trek is going to be the movie to beat this summer. In fact, when the flick is over, the first thing one asks themself is, “When’s the next one?”

Here’s another question: I can think of at least one other much-beloved  sci-fi series whose name starts with the word Star, and which desperately needs a remix.

J.J. Abrams: You available?

At MEDIA ASSASSIN, we work to make our heds particularly catcy, but, in this instance, need any more be said? It’s Crispin Glover on Happy Days!

I know what you’re thinking: Crispin Hellion Glover, the actor whose note-perfect George McFly in 1985’s Back To The Future broke him out—and whose subsequent appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and in the ratfest remake Willard (here, he sings Michael Jackson’s “Ben”) weirded audiences out—was on Happy Days?

Yep. In November 1983, the seventh episode of the 11th and final season—long after Happy Days had both literally and figuratively jumped the shark in September, 1977—Glover appeared as truant Roach in the series’ “Vocational Education” piece.

Crispin Glover! Not even the fact that he’s sharing the scene with noted “series killer” Ted McGinley as Roger, the school principal, dilutes the joy of this.