Opening in theaters this week, DARK SHADOWS is director TIM BURTON’S spoofy big screen adaptation of the ’60s daytime TV soap opera that took the country by storm. A cult favorite, the gothic drama centers on vampire Barnabas Collins and his family as they deal with various creatures of the night. Under BURTON’S direction, the new cast features JOHNNY DEPP, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, CHLOE GRACE MORETZ, EVA GREEN, JONNY LEE MILLER, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and JACKIE EARLE HALEY. Despite being a producer on the film, DEPP says he’s not comfortable with the business side of getting movies made. During a recent interview, he admitted to us that all he really cares about is playing the role. (CLICK ON THE MEDIA BAR FOR AUDIO)
Airing tonight on CBS, the hour long first season finale of 2 BROKE GIRLS finds Max and Caroline conniving to attend a fashion gala at the Met in hopes of getting guest star MARTHA STEWART’S seal-of-approval on their cupcakes. Written and produced by MICHAEL PATRICK KING and WHITNEY CUMMINGS, the regular cast features KAT DENNINGS, BETH BEHRS, MATTHEW MOY, JONATHAN KITE and GARRETT MORRIS. A familiar face to many from her work on the big screen (THOR, THE HOUSE BUNNY), DENNINGS seamlessly made the move to TV. During a recent press conference to promote the show, she talked about wanting to act since she was a kid. (CLICK ON THE MEDIA BAR FOR AUDIO)
Opening in theaters later this month, MEN IN BLACK III is a time travel adventure that reunites WILL SMITH, TOMMY LEE JONES and director BARRY SONNENFELD as well as introducing JOSH BROLIN as a younger version of JONES’ character.‘The Avengers’ Cleans Up At Weekend Box Office
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Breaking all existing records for a three-day opening weekend, THE AVENGERS took in an estimated $200.5 M, making it far-and-away the box office champ. In the No. 2 position, THINK LIKE A MAN continued to hang tough with $8 M. Coming in third, THE HUNGER GAMES managed a healthy $5.7 M and, rounding out the top five are THE LUCKY ONE ($5.5 M) and PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS ($5.4 M).The Obama-Clooney Campaign Finance Ploy
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President Obama’s upcoming fundraising event with George Clooney is shaping up to be one for the record books.
On May 10, the 150 guests who are slated to show up at Clooney’s home are expected to drop $6 million into the president’s campaign war chest, all to try and keep the keys to the White House in Obama’s hands for another four years.
In an effort to really ramp up the cash flow, though, the Obama campaign has come up with a gimmick crafted to squeeze some money out of lower income folks and perhaps even unemployed ninety-nine percenters.
The scheme is expected to raise an additional $6 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter, doubling the expected original take. If all goes according to the Democrat plan, the resultant $12 million take will catapult the fundraiser into the category of the largest presidential campaign finance event in history.
Here is the design: The Obama campaign came up with an idea of a nationwide contest, dubbed “Obama, Clooney and You,” where for a donation of 3 bucks participants are entered into a raffle, and the ultimate winner of the contest is going to get to meet Clooney at his home.
Obama supporters were sent a slew of e-mails, texts, and tweets about the fundraising contest, urging them to make donations and take a chance on a Clooney glance.
An e-mail sent by the campaign asked the following question: “Want to meet George Clooney and Barack Obama — at Clooney’s house?” It went on to say that “he’s [Clooney’s] saving seats for two grassroots supporters like you and their guests. It’s just not a chance most people get — well, ever.”
All that “grassroots supporters” needed to do was to write a check for the suggested amount of $3 and they would get “a chance to hang out with President Obama at George Clooney’s house…”
If we go down Memory Lane, we can still see Obama, the fierce campaign finance reformer, decrying the evil influence of money and even saying that lobbyists would not be allowed to contribute to his presidential campaign.
However, according to the New York Times, the president repeatedly gives lobbyists extensive access, particularly when brought in by a big donor.
The Times noted that Obama “has made a point of not accepting contributions from registered lobbyists, a review of campaign donations and White House visitor logs shows that special interests have had little trouble making themselves heard. Many of the president’s biggest donors, while not lobbyists, took lobbyists with them to the White House, while others performed essentially the same function on their visits.”
Obama took the unprecedented step of criticizing the Supreme Court during a State of the Union speech over the Justices’ decision on the Citizens United case, which held that the First Amendment barred the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.
The president subsequently declared that he would not allow Super PACs to assist his campaign but later abruptly reversed himself on his no-SuperPAC money promise, letting it be known that Super PACs friendly to his reelection could be utilized by donors.
Even supporters have noticed that Obama has morphed into the fundraiser-in-chief, using Air Force One to transport him to more than 130 fundraising events.
The number of campaign cash-seeking events in which the president has participated exceeds the combined total of the five last White House predecessors during their first terms. Obama also appears to be scheduling his appearances in locations that will in one way or another benefit his reelection bid.
Now, with the goal of collecting a record sum of cash, the Obama campaign is using Clooney as the bait and encouraging people to give online betting at try.
In June of 2011, the president said, “There are days where I say that one term is enough.”
Obama apparently hasn’t had one of those days in a very long time.
As if THE AVENGERS breaking the weekend box office bank wasn’t enough to get comic book fans dancing in the streets, we’d just like to thank the stores that participated in yesterday’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY all over the country for making it even better. What started out 11 years ago with just a handful of publishers in just a few cities has grown to serious proportions with participants all over the world. Seriously, there were treasures to be had at your local comic book store…for FREE…and, it was a family-friendly, pro-social, good time for all. We made the rounds to our favorite neighborhood stores (COMIC SMASH in Studio City, EMERALD KNIGHTS COMICS and HOUSE OF SECRETS in Burbank) and, as in years past, they were the perfect hosts. Mark next year’s calendar for the first Saturday in May for a great comic-book time.
‘LAST CALL AT THE OASIS’ SPOTLIGHTS GLOBAL WATER CRISIS
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Oscar winning director Jessica Yu (Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of March O’Brien) and producer Elise Pearlstein (Food, Inc.) collaborate on Last Call At The Oasis, an ambitious documentary which attempts to put a universal as well as personal look at the global water crisis.
“The goal was to get a holistic view of what’s going on,” said Yu in an interview conducted this week. “I saw my role as to try to present as full a picture of all of our water issues and how they are interconnected. I wanted to place that at the feet of the people watching the film so they have some ideas on how to become involved.”
Jessica Yu talks about having Erin Brockovich involved in the project:
Last Call At The Oasis is now playing in select theaters.
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posted by Greg Srisavasdi (Twitter: @gsrisavasdi)
USA’s Popular ‘In Plain Sight’ Fades From View Tonight
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Airing tonight on the USA network, the series finale of IN PLAIN SIGHT brings to an end the exploits of Mary Shannon, a tough-as-nails WITSEC marshal who, over the course of five years, has had more than her share of quirky, off-beat adventures. This season alone saw Mary juggle her high-risk job with a newborn she wasn’t really thrilled with as well as deal with her feelings for the baby’s father and her relationship with her slavishly devoted partner (played by FRED WELLER).
In theaters later this month, MEN IN BLACK III marks producer/star WILL SMITH’S return to the big screen after a hiatus of almost four years. Directed by BARRY SONNENFIELD, the film’s cast also includes TOMMY LEE JONES, JOSH BROLIN, ALICE EVE, BILL HADER, JEMAINE CLEMENT and EMMA THOMPSON.
Before he was Bobby Ewing on the mega successful nighttime soap DALLAS, actor PATRICK DUFFY was one of television’s first comic book super-heroes on the short lived NBC-TV series THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS. As an amnesiac thought to be the last surviving citizen of the lost civilization of Atlantis, DUFFY’S character had extraordinary underwater superpowers. We sat down yesterday with DUFFY to talk about his role on the upcoming reboot of DALLAS and he reminisced about his days as a superhero and how losing that job may have been the best thing that could have happened to his career.
