Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Haley Sweetland Edwards: "We Are All Americans: The World's Response to 9/11" (Mental Floss)
A decade ago this week, people all over the world stood shoulder-to-shoulder in mourning, solidarity, sympathy and friendship with the people of the United States. Here are a few of those international reactions, both organized and spontaneous, that occurred in the days following September 11, 2001. In London, the Star Spangled Banner played during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, while traffic came to a standstill in The Mall nearby. In Beijing, tens of thousands of people visited the U.S. Embassy, leaving flowers, cards, funeral wreaths and hand-written notes of condolence on the sidewalk out front.
Michael Moore: I was the most hated man in America (Guardian)
In his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Overnight he became the most hated man in America. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Here Comes Trouble, he tells of the bomb threats, bodyguards and how he fought back.
The Worst Kindle eBooks Ever Written
I was stunned when I read it. The ebook was only a few pages long - and nearly all of its text had been cut-and-pasted from somewhere else. Specifically, it came from Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia with a page about nearly everything - and everyone. Someone had looked up a popular celebrity, then transformed their Wikipedia page into a biography that they were selling as a digital ebook. For $18.95…
Roger Ebert's Journal: "Melancholia" descends on Toronto
More than in previous years, I'm noticing the laptops in the audiences here at the Toronto Film Festival. Some of the bloggers seem to be beginning their reviews as the end credits still play. Then you see them outside, sitting on a corridor floor, their computers tethered to an electric umbilical, as they type urgently. Of course many of them share their opinions in quick conversational bursts, and a consensus develops. Most films good enough for an important festival, I think, require a little more marinating.
Sarah Michelle Gellar: mother of one, actress of two (LA Times)
The former 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' star, back at work after taking time off to have her first child, juggles dual roles in her new CW series, 'Ringer.'
Bill Wyman: Disaster Movies (Slate)
The four brilliant 9/11 films that get overlooked.
Roger Ebert: Review of "The Corporation" (3 stars)
How corporations evolved into people.
Henry Rollins: The Cool Sounds of September (LA Weekly)
… I definitely feel affected by cooler weather and the shorter days, which send me toward different records than I listen to in the summer months.
Seth Colter Walls: In Defense of Rap Rock (Slate)
The only thing from the '90s no one has nostalgia for.
Jessica Grose: Questions for Mary Timony (Slate)
The Wild Flag singer and guitarist talks about the band's debut album, the perils of wearing a bear mask, and the virtues of Guitar Hero.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer hung around til mid-afternoon.
Saturday, 10 September, 2011
Creative Arts Emmy Awards
"Boardwalk Empire" captured a leading seven trophies at the creative arts Emmy Awards, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Justin Timberlake earning TV comedy series guest-star honors.
Paltrow, recognized for "Glee," and Timberlake, a winner for hosting "Saturday Night Live," were no-shows at Saturday's ceremony for technical and other achievements. It preceded the main Sept. 18 Emmy show.
HBO earned a leading 15 awards Saturday, followed by PBS with 10, Fox with nine, CBS with seven and NBC with five. ABC won three awards, behind the four each for Discovery Channel and History.
The creative arts ceremony will air Sept. 17 on ReelzChannel, which earned three awards for the controversial miniseries "The Kennedys." The 63rd annual prime-time Emmy ceremony, with "Glee" star Jane Lynch as host, will air live the next night on Fox.
Creative Arts Emmy Awards
Complete list of Creative Arts Emmy Award Winners
Admonishes Capital Punishment
Werner Herzog
Filmmaker Werner Herzog pointed to Nazi Germany on Friday to make his case against capital punishment at a screening of his latest documentary "Into the Abyss," examining a grisly death penalty case.
"I'm against it, but I don't even have an argument," he told an audience at the world premiere for his film at the Toronto International Film Festival, adding: "I have a story -- the story of Nazi Germany."
He pointed to mass executions by the Nazis during the Second World War of people due to their religion, for being disabled or a foreigner.
"No one from my generation, none of my peers, is for capital punishment," said the 71-year-old German director. "It's as simple as that."
Werner Herzog
Deauville Winner
'Take Shelter'
Director Jeff Nichols won the top prize at the 37th festival of American film in Deauville, France, on Saturday for "Take Shelter", besting 13 other feature-length entries.
The film starring Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham and Katy Mixon, portrays the life an unassuming man afflicted by nightmares.
The festival's jury was headed by French writer and director Olivier Assayas.
The top prize last year was awarded to "Mother and child", directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington.
'Take Shelter'
Under Bollywood's Spell
Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe is the latest Western actor to fall under Bollywood's spell, he admitted on Saturday at the world premiere of the Indo-Canadian film "Breakaway."
The actor, following in the footsteps of Olivia Newton John, who announced at last year's Toronto film festival that she was in talks to star in her first Bollywood film and other Hollywood stars now filming in Mumbai, told a press conference: "If hockey in the movie is the way that these characters learn about assimilating, me doing this movie is how I learned about Bollywood."
Likewise, his Indian co-stars Akshay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi said they were keen to repeat their first "very successful" North American filming experience in Toronto. "I want to make more and more films here," Kumar said.
He said Bollywood, which signed a cooperation agreement last year with Hollywood and is in talks for a similar pact with Canada, is eager to expand its global appeal.
Rob Lowe
In Hot Wate
SpongeBob
The cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is in hot water from a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that program can cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds.
The problems were seen in a study of 60 children randomly assigned to either watch "SpongeBob," or the slower-paced PBS cartoon "Caillou" or assigned to draw pictures. Immediately after these nine-minute assignments, the kids took mental function tests; those who had watched "SpongeBob" did measurably worse than the others.
Previous research has linked TV-watching with long-term attention problems in children, but the new study suggests more immediate problems can occur after very little exposure - results that parents of young kids should be alert to, the study authors said.
Kids' cartoon shows typically feature about 22 minutes of action, so watching a full program "could be more detrimental," the researchers speculated, But they said more evidence is needed to confirm that.
The results should be interpreted cautiously because of the study's small size, but the data seem robust and bolster the idea that media exposure is a public health issue, said Dr. Dimitri Christakis. He is a child development specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital who wrote an editorial accompanying the study published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
SpongeBob
Oliver's Son
Sean Stone
Sean Stone, son of Oliver, seems like a chip off the old block.
Fresh off the plane from Tehran, the famous filmmaker's son defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an interview this weekend and supported Iran's right to a nuclear program as a defense against threats from Israel.
The 26-year-old documentary filmmaker met exclusively with TheWrap at the Toronto Film Festival, offering some unconventional views.
Criticizing the Iranian government is "like someone coming to your house and saying the father shouldn't hit the kids," he said. "Who are we to tell them how to rule their country?"
"Iran is ruled by law," he said. "People don't like Ahmadinejad, but that doesn't warrant a war or an uprising."
Sean Stone
Group Draws Increased Scrutiny
Hackers
Anonymous is not so anonymous anymore.
The computer hackers, chat room denizens and young people who comprise the loosely affiliated Internet collective have increasingly turned to questionable tactics, drawing the attention of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal investigators.
What was once a small group of pranksters has become a potential national security threat, federal officials say.
The FBI has carried out more than 75 raids and arrested 16 people this year in connection with illegal hacking jobs claimed by Anonymous.
Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has issued three "bulletins" warning cyber-security professionals of hacking successes and future threats by Anonymous and related groups, including a call to physically occupy Manhattan's Wall Street on Sept. 17 in protest of various U.S. government policies.
Hackers
Last Night
Proms
Chinese piano superstar Lang Lang wowed them, Wagnerian soprano Susan Bullock got a laugh as a "British Brunnhilde," but the stars of the Last Night of the BBC Proms were standing in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall.
The 700 or so "Prommers" who pay 5 pounds ($8) each for standing room in the cavernous, sold-out 5,000-seat oval hall on Saturday night gave almost as good a show as they got from the soloists, the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner and the 140-strong BBC Symphony Chorus.
Sporting everything from British Union Jack vests to horned Viking helmets, and armed with a formidable array of noisemakers, flags and spluttering balloons launched in a valiant but vain attempt to reach to the hall's vertiginous ceiling, the Prommers kept up their side of the bargain for a high-spirited celebration of the end of the Proms season.
They cheered the stagehands and the musicians tuning up, and generally set the tone for an event on the musical calendar as important for some as the Wagner festival in Bayreuth or Vienna's New Year's Concert.
Proms
Weekend Box Office
'Contagion'
"Contagion" infected enough moviegoers to catch the top spot at the box office.
Despite the breakout success of "Contagion," it was the lowest grossing weekend of the year so far for the film industry, according to Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. Dergarabedian said that's typical for the weekend after Labor Day and expected business to pick up in the coming weeks as the Academy Awards race begins.
"The Help," the acclaimed DreamWorks Pictures drama distributed by Disney about black Southern maids speaking out during the civil-rights movement, slipped to No. 2 with $8.7 million after three straight weeks at the top, bringing its domestic total to $137 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Contagion," $23.1 million. ($2.1 million international.)
2. "The Help," $8.7 million.
3. "Warrior," $5.6 million.
4. "The Debt," $4.9 million. ($1.5 million international.)
5. "Colombiana," $4 million.
6. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," $3.8 million. ($12.5 million international.)
7. "Shark Night 3D," $3.5 million. ($500,000 international.)
8. "Apollo 18," $2.9 million. ($425,000 international.)
9. "Our Idiot Brother," $2.7 million.
10. "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World," $2.5 million. ($425,000 international.)
'Contagion'
In Memory
Andy Whitfield
Andy Whitfield, who played the title role in the hit cable series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has died at age 39, according to representatives and family.
Whitfield died Sunday in Sydney, Australia, 18 months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, manager Sam Maydew told the Associated Press.
Andy Whitfield - who was born in Wales and moved to Australia in 1999 - was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the legendary Thracian slave in "Spartacus," a role made famous by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film.
The series proved a breakout hit for the Starz network and made waves with its graphic violence and sexuality.
Whitfield appeared in all 13 episodes of the first season that aired in 2010, and was preparing to shoot the second when he was diagnosed with cancer.
While waiting for Whitfield's treatment and expected recovery, the network produced a six-part prequel, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena," that aired earlier this year with only a brief voiceover from the actor.
Whitfield's previous credits included appearances on the Australian TV shows "Packed to the Rafters" and "McLeod's Daughters."
Andy Whitfield
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