Alan Bisbort: Bumper Crop of Truth (hartfordadvocate.com)
The only option left, at least as far as I can see, is to make Republicans on all levels -- national, state and local -- pay for the failure that is Bush in 2006. Let's allow Bush to destroy his own party, shall we?
Tim Smith: Casting stones at Baylor (advocate.com)
The author donated thousands of dollars and hours to his Texas alma matter. Then the supposedly Christian university turned him away, citing his "alternative lifestyle." No thank-yous, no apologies, and no refunds.
Gregg Shapiro: Interview with Brokeback Mountain Director Ang Lee (afterelton.com)
Ang Lee's latest film, Brokeback Mountain, a stunning piece of work about the unlikely and long-lasting intimate relationship between a pair of Wyoming ranch hands played by Heath Ledger (Ennis) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack), is one of the most anticipated movies of the year.
ROGER EBERT: Richard Pryor: 1940--2005
In the 1982 film, he dealt frankly with his cocaine addiction and his accident. The movie was filmed live over two nights. We sense at the beginning that he is shaky, but he gains confidence and builds into "the most talented one-man stage show in existence right now," I wrote in my review, effortlessly bringing to life a series of impressions ranging from Mafioso to water buffalos.
I can save you a lot of stress about the new reality/fiction/thriller "Syriana"…….George Clooney gets fat for the flick, George Clooney gets brutally tortured in the flick and George Clooney gets blown up at the end of the flick……this is what happens to an OUTED clandestine CIA operative !!!!!!
After pondering a possible angle to describe the extremely interactive, complicated and complex story lines of "Syriana"….besides "It's All About the Oil"!!!!…..I realized it is a story about 5 people with separate lives and relationships and they all in a way cross paths both literally and relatively in the course of the movie….and oddly enough how all 5, in different ways, lose their sons !
Bob Barnes (George Clooney - "The Peacemaker" (1997) - "Three Kings" (1999) - "Spy Kids" (2001) is an embedded CIA arms specialist in the Middle East, He lives separately from his ex-wife and their disgruntled young son…who thinks that his Dad is a Liar because he can't tell him "What's going on with his work!"
Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon - "Mystic Pizza" (1988) - "Good Will Hunting" (1997) - "Dogma" (1997) is a seemingly happily married (to Amanda Peet) Oil Broker and has two sweet young sons. They end up going together to an Oilmen's Resort where Bryan's youngest son has a terrible accident…with profound consequences !
Prince Nasir Al-Sabaai (Alexander Siddig - "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" (1987) - "Vertical Limit" (2000) - "Reign of Fire" (2002) is the idealistic son of a wealthy Arab Oil Magnate named Mohammed Sheik Agiza. The Sheik has another, less idealistic son, who will keep the oil flowing into the family's banks !
Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir) is the son of a Pakistani immigrant oil field worker. He has become disenchanted with his life and signs up with a fundamentalist Islamic group who trains young men to become Martyrs for Allah !
This movie was difficult to follow….so I didn't really try to put all the pieces together… I just went along with the momentum ….. and the impact and meaning came through at the end….along with many amazing details….
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'King Of Queens', followed by a RERUN'How I Met Your Mother', then a RERUN'2½ Men', followed by a RERUN'Out Of Practice', then a RERUN'CSI: The 2nd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Jack Black, Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, and Sinead O'Connor.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Jon Cryer, Amy Yasbeck, and Bob Marley.
NBC begins the night with the FRESH (unless you watch Bravo) 'Elton John: The Red Piano', followed by a RERUN'Las Vegas', then a RERUNMedium'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Anthony Hopkins, Howie Mandel, and Coldplay.
On a RERUNConan (from 9/16/05) are Lara Flynn Boyle, Steven Schirripa, and the New Pornographers.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 11/17/05) are Xzibit, Paul Rodriguez Jr., Keane, and Max & The Attack.
ABC starts the night on the East Coast with a FRESH'Wife Swap', followed by the LIVE'MNF Football', where the Saints visit the Falcons.
The night starts early on the left coast with the LIVE'MNF Football', where the Saints still visit the Falcons, followed by some local filler crap, then a FRESH'Wife Swap'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Washington Redskin Clinton Portis, and Korn.
The WB offers a FRESH'7th Heaven', followed by a FRESH'Related'.
Faux has a FRESH'Arrested Development', followed by a RERUN'Arrested Development', then a RERUN'Nanny 911'.
UPN has a FRESH'One On One', followed by a FRESH'All Of Us', then a FRESH'Girlfriends', followed by a FRESH'Half & Half'.
A&E has 'Cold Case Files', 'Flip This House', 'Scott Peterson', followed by a FRESH'Airline', then another FRESH'Airline'.
AMC offers the movie 'A League Of Their Own', followed by the movie 'The Graduate', then the movie 'Dazed And Confused'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'Creature Comforts' - Episode 2;
[2:30pm] 'Black Books' - Cooking the Books;
[3pm] 'Black Books' - Manny's First Day;
[3:30pm] 'Black Books' - The Grapes of Wrath;
[4pm] 'At Home with the Braithwaites' - Episode 5;
[5pm] 'Monarch of the Glen' - Episode 1;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Llandudno Junction;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 18;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Norden;
[9pm] 'Waking the Dead' - Episode 2;
[11pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Episode 10;
[11:40pm] 'Fawlty Towers' - Gourmet Night;
[12:20am] 'Fawlty Towers' - The Germans;
[1am] 'Waking the Dead' - Episode 2;
[3am] 'Tipping the Velvet' - Episode 1;
[4am] 'Tipping the Velvet' - Episode 2;
[5am] 'Tipping the Velvet' - Episode 3;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'West Wing', another 'West Wing', 'Project Runway', and another 'Project Runway'.
Comedy Central has 'Comedy Central's Last Laugh '05', an old 'Jon Stewart', an old 'Colbert Report', 'Comedians Of Comedy', 'South Park', another 'South Park', and 'Mind Of Mencia'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is George Packer.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Harry Smith.
History has 'America's Castles', 'UFO: Mexico's Roswell', 'Decoding The Past', and 'World War I: Jutland'.
IFC -
[6AM] Salvador (1986);
[8:15AM] Walking And Talking (1996);
[9:45AM] The Last Days Of Chez Nous (1993);
[11:30AM] At The IFC Center #8 (2005);
[12PM] Julian Po (1997);
[1:30PM] The Festival #4 (2005);
[2PM] IFC Short Film Collection II: December (2005);
[4PM] Local Hero (1983);
[6PM] The Run of the Country (1995);
[8PM] At The IFC Center #8 (2005);
[8:30PM] The Festival #5 (2005);
[9PM] Elizabeth (1998);
[11PM] Mediterraneo (1991);
[12:30AM] At The IFC Center #8 (2005);
[1AM] Elizabeth (1998);
[3AM] Mediterraneo (1991);
[4:30AM] Julian Po (1997). (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Surface', 'Stargate SG-1', another 'Stargate SG-1', and yet another 'Stargate SG-1'.
Sundance -
[12am] The Funeral;
[1:45am] Torture: The Dirty Business;
[2:45am] Darkman;
[4:30am] The Funeral;
[6:15am] Springtime in a Small Town;
[8:15am] Since Otar Left;
[10am] In Satmar Custody;
[11:15am] Branson: Musicland USA;
[11:30am] The Origins of AIDS;
[1:15pm] Who Is Bernard Tapie?;
[2:15pm] Motherland: A Genetic Journey;
[3:45pm] My Babushka - Searching Ukrainian Identities;
[4:45pm] The Inner Tour;
[6:30pm] TransGeneration: Episode 3;
[7pm] Hermitage-niks: A Passion for the Hermitage: Episode 2 - Guardian Angels;
[7:30pm] The Trade of Bone;
[8pm] Overnight directed;
[9pm] Torture: The Dirty Business;
[11pm] Iconoclasts: Zellweger on Amanpour. (ALL TIMES EST)
Actresses Julianne Moore and Salma Hayek pose during a press conference for the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo Sunday Dec. 11, 2005. Moore and Hayek will be the hosts for the concert to honor Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, who shared the award with the International Atomic Energy Agency for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
Photo by John McConnico
"Brokeback Mountain," a gay Western about two ranch hands who share a summer of love and then conceal their ongoing affair, was picked as 2005's best film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the group announced Saturday.
The movie, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, also earned director Ang Lee the critics' award for best director, and Ledger was the runner-up for the best actor's award.
The award for best actor went to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for his work in "Capote," which chronicled author Truman Capote as he pursued his true-crime book "In Cold Blood."
Other 2005 picks:
Foreign language film: "Cache."
Documentary/nonfiction film: "Grizzly Man."
Animation: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
Cinematography: "Good Night, And Good Luck."
Career Achievement: actor Richard Widmark.
Music recording artist Stevie Wonder (C) poses with his daughter Aisha and actor Jamie Foxx at the 2nd annual 'Grammy Jam' at the Orpheum theatre in Los Angeles December 10, 2005. The Recording Academy and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) present this event to celebrate the career and music of Stevie Wonder, featuring artists performing a set of his biggest hits. Proceeds from Grammy Jam will benefit the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) National Arts & Music Education Initiative.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Paramount Pictures on Sunday agreed to buy independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc. for nearly $1 billion cash in a deal designed to help both companies reverse their troubled fortunes.
The sale marks the end of an 11-year dream for Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey 'Sparky' Katzenberg and David Geffen, who had ambitious goals for DreamWorks that once included television, music, films and the Internet.
Paramount will pay $775 million in cash and assume $825 million in debt and other obligations, the company said.
The studio will finance the deal by immediately selling the DreamWorks film library, which Paramount values at between $850 million and $1 billion. The company said it is in advanced talks with several parties and expects to have a deal within weeks.
It will also have the right to make television shows using DreamWorks Animation characters.
Steven Spielberg's Munich, which centres on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and the oil-industry thriller Syriana were named Sunday among the American Film Institute's 10 best movies of 2005.
The other films AFI selected were: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, King Kong, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale and A History of Violence.
The institute also named its 10 best television programs, with honourees including 24, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost.
Using radar equipment along a wall of a landmark Hawaiian building, military specialists Saturday quickly located a time capsule buried more than a century ago by King Kamehameha V.
Historians knew the capsule contained priceless pieces of the islands' history, including photos of royal families dating back to Kamehameha the Great and a constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom. But until now the capsule's exact location was unknown.
"We found it within the first 10 minutes we were here," said Larry Conyers, a University of Denver professor who used ground penetrating radar to find the hollow spot in the northeast corner of the Aliiolani Hale building.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command located the capsule so it could be protected during future renovations or natural disasters.
In this photo provided by the Magic Castle, actor Jason Alexander, actress Talia Botone and World Champion of Magic Jason Latimer pose for a photo, at the end of Magic Aid at the Magic Castle, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005, in the Hollywood, section of Los Angeles. The benefit for Hurricane victims was the first event in the Magic Castle's history that was open to the public. Alexander was the host for the event.
Photo by Daniel Bernstein
In an age when stories spread instantly, ABC News executive Jon Banner says the idea of airing a daily newscast on the West Coast that is three hours old "is kind of an insult."
So when ABC announced last week that Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff were the new anchors of "World News Tonight," the network also said they'd work later hours than predecessor Peter Jennings. They will also anchor two separate live newscasts each night for viewers outside the eastern time zones.
The two live later broadcasts begin Jan. 5.
The new editions will be made at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET. Vargas and Woodruff will often repeat what they did earlier, but will have the opportunity to add details to a still-unfolding story, such as when U.S. marshals shot an airplane passenger last week in Miami. Sometimes stories of greater interest out West - brush fires in California, for instance - could substitute for stories that aired in the rest of the country, Westin said.
An actor who once played an aspiring mobster on "The Sopranos" faces murder charges along with another man in the death of an off-duty police officer, authorities said Sunday.
Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, was hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds suffered when the officer shot him after catching two men breaking into a home. Brancato's friend Steven Armento, 48, was also shot and in critical condition.
Brancato got his acting break as a 16-year-old in the Robert De Niro-directed film "A Bronx Tale" in 1993. He appeared in a dozen other films, including "Crimson Tide" and "Enemy of the State." On "The Sopranos," he played mobster wannabe Matt Bevilacqua in a half-dozen episodes before he was executed by the mob boss.
Actress Gina Gershon arrives at the 2nd annual 'Grammy Jam' at the Orpheum theatre in Los Angeles December 10, 2005. The Recording Academy and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) present this event to celebrate the career and music of Stevie Wonder, featuring artists performing a set of his biggest hits. Proceeds from Grammy Jam will benefit the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) National Arts & Music Education Initiative.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
A man who posted false information on an online encyclopedia linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations says he was playing a trick on a co-worker.
Brian Chase, 38, ended up resigning from his job and apologizing to John Seigenthaler Sr., the former publisher of the Tennessean newspaper and founding editorial director of USA Today.
Chase said he created the fake online biography in May as a gag to shock a co-worker who was familiar with the Seigenthaler family. He resigned as an operations manager at a Nashville delivery company as a result of the debacle.
The contributions of an animal that has been reviled, mocked and dined upon for centuries are being recognized in a Xavier University class highlighting American pig history.
"As I was doing research, I found pigs popping up in rather significant settings," said assistant history professor Karim Tiro, who teaches the class.
Few realize that swine sailed to the New World with Columbus, sparked wars between colonists and American Indians and helped pioneer the assembly line, he said.
He covers those and other topics in "A History of the Pig in America with Especial Reference to the City of Cincinnati Otherwise Known as Porkopolis."
A couple stands on a wall looking over the downtown core of Vancouver, British Columbia as an early morning fog begins to lift December 11, 2005. The fog blanketed all of the lower mainland offering a dramatic view from local mountains on the north shore of the city.
Photo by Andy Clark
Secret prisons in Eastern Europe. Illegal detentions. Suspects snatched off the streets and shipped without extradition to other countries for harsh interrogation. Government directives cloaked in secrecy.
A flashback to Stalin's Soviet Union?
Hardly.
Dismay over Washington's covert intelligence practices and the seizures of suspected terrorists has swept Europe. It has challenged the administration's credibility and tarnished the nation's status as the premier defender of human rights.
It has starred in a video, been widely recorded and graced the cover of a prestigious magazine.
But to dispel any doubt the ivory-billed woodpecker -- the Elvis of the bird world -- is back from extinction, searchers are combing a corner of Arkansas in an intensive six-month hunt.
On foot, in canoes and kayaks, even using cherry-picker vehicles that tower over the forest canopy, teams of volunteers and paid workers have been looking for traces of the big bird in the forests and swamps of the White River and Cache River basins, just west of the Mississippi.
A security guard keeps watch on a Christmas cake decorated with 223 diamonds, with a total of 170 carats, in Tokyo December 11, 2005. The 20cm tall fruit cake goes on sale at 200 million yen ($1.66 million).
Photo by Toru Hanai
The British embassy in Germany launched a new website for the 2006 World Cup on Friday that includes handy German phrases for England fans, such as "He was sick as a parrot" or "He puked his guts up."
The website is designed to help the estimated 100,000 English fans expected to travel to Germany for the 32-team tournament that starts in Munich on June 9 and concludes with the July 9 final in Berlin.
The web site contains information for fans and journalists that includes details about the World Cup venues, tips about German soccer culture and other bits of off-beat advice.
"Ihm war kotzuebel" (He was sick as a parrot) and "Er kotzte wie ein Reiher" (He puked his guts up) are in the guide as is "Wembley-tor" (Wembley goal) -- the controversial 1966 World Cup final extra time goal by Geoff Hurst when England beat West Germany.
By day he was a mild-mannered, buttoned-down reference librarian. By night - and on weekends and during vacations - David Dodd would shed his jacket and tie for tie-dye and morph into a Grateful Dead fan.
Dodd, who finds great joy paging through books and microfilm or surfing the Web to determine the exact origin of phrases and expressions, decided he would annotate the recorded works of the Grateful Dead.
Ten years later, he has come out with The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. The 480-page illustrated book was published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press in October. It has a lengthy foreword by the band's principal lyricist, Robert Hunter, who came out of seclusion long enough to pay Dodd the ultimate compliment: he said the researcher got it right.
Blade, a Shih Tzu, looks at the camera as he waits to perform at the annual Greater Miami Dog Club Show, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005, in Miami.
Photo by Alan Diaz
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