'Best of TBH Politoons'
JD PICKS
THE WINNERS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
GEORGE CLOONEY. NOT ONLY FOR A GREAT PERFORMANCE BUT FOR A GREAT BODY OF WORK IN 2005. I CALL THIS THE "HECKAVA JOB CLOONEY" AWARD.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
AMY ADAMS. THIS WAS MY FAVORITE INDIVIDUAL FILM PERFORMANCE LAST YEAR. IF SHE DOESN'T WIN THEN THERE IS NO GOD. I CALL THIS "Y'ALL COME BACK" AWARD.
BEST ACTOR:
PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN: THIS GUY IS ALWAYS WORTH WATCHING AND THIS PERFORMANCE IS HIS TOUR DE FORCE. I CALL THIS THE "NOW YOU WILL LIVE THREE YEARS LONGER" AWARD. (A STUDY SHOWS THAT THOSE THAT WIN AN OSCAR LIVE ON AVERAGE THREE YEARS LONGER THAN THOSE WHO LOSE.)
BEST ACTRESS:
REESE WITHERSPOON. AW SHUCKS. A HARD WORKING GIRL FROM THE BACKWOODS OF NASHVILLE DOES GOOD. I CALL THIS THE "YOU GO GIRL" AWARD.
BEST DIRECTOR:
ANG LEE. BECAUSE "HE KNOWS WHEN TO HOLD THEM, KNOWS WHEN TO FOLD THEM, KNOWS WHEN TO WALK AWAY AND KNOWS WHEN TO RUN..." I CALL THIS THE "RIDE 'EM COWBOY" AWARD.
BEST PICTURE:
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. HEY! IT'S THE BEST PICTURE AND BESIDES WHEN EVER YOU GET THE CHANCE TO PISS OFF THE CREEPY CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN ASSHOLES YOU TAKE IT. I CALL THIS THE "GIVE THE JESUS FREAK JERKS THAT REFUSE TO SEE THE FILM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT ON MONDAY" AWARD.
JD
Thanks, JD!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff: Gitmo: The Worst of the Worst? (villagevoice.com)
As described to me by Tom Wilner, a Washington-based attorney for a number of the prisoners, and further detailed in the following February 9 National Public Radio account by Neil Koslowe, another attorney for a detainee there, the hunger strikers are tied down to a metal restraint chair as officers "force open their mouths and then they shove down their mouths through thick tubes in their noses nutritional supplements mixed with milk of magnesia and other ingredients. Removal of the tubes is often violent. The prisoners get nauseous, they vomit. They defecate over themselves. They urinate over themselves."
PAUL KRUGMAN: George the Unready (The New York Times)
If good luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, bad luck is what happens when lack of preparation meets a challenge. And our leaders, who think they can govern through a mix of wishful thinking and intimidation, are never, ever prepared.
Ellen Goodman: The marriage gap (Washington Post Writers Group)
There are times when political polling reminds me of one of Liz Carpenter's favorite stories. Back in the Carter administration when the indomitable Texan was working on women's rights, she asked a university president how his campus was broken down by sex. "Well, ma'am," he answered thoughtfully, "liquor is more of a problem."
Tim Harford: Why New Orleans Won't Recover (slate.com)
For New Orleans, a charming place for tourists but a desperate clump of poverty and poor schooling, the question is not whether the current reconstruction plans will create a thriving city-they will not. It is whether there are any that could.
Jack Shafer: Methamphetamine Propaganda (slate.com)
The government and the press are addicted.
Trav S.D.: The patron saint of the uncool (villagevoice.com)
"My building used to be all immigrants. The other day I saw a dude walking out carrying golf clubs. I almost had a coronary. But I'm not going to let this neighborhood be just a big watering hole for A-holes. There are so many places where you can go and drink, but not so many where you can go and drink and see art. Freaks have never been more needed on the Lower East Side than right now."
Please E-Mail President Bush and Tell Him to Stop the Torture at Gitmo
Please E-Mail Your Other Elected Officials and Tell Them to Stop the Torture at Gitmo
Make an FOIA Request
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
No new flags.
Golden Raspberry Awards
Razzies
American actress Jenny McCarthy stole the show at the Razzies, the spoof Oscars ceremony, in Los Angeles last night, receiving three awards - worst picture, actress and screenplay - for her risqué romantic comedy Dirty Love.
Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Paris Hilton also won prizes at the ceremony, mocking the worst films of 2005. Cruise had been nominated as worst actor for War of the Worlds, losing out to Rob Schneider for Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. But Cruise did win in the new category of "most tiresome tabloid target", for the public spectacle of his romance with actress Katie Holmes.
Kidman and Will Ferrell were picked as worst screen couple for Bewitched, while Hayden Christensen was chosen as worst supporting actor for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
For more, Razzies
'Brokeback' Named Best
Independent Spirit Awards
The cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" won best picture and its director Ang Lee was named best director Saturday at the Independent Spirit Awards, which played out as a potential prelude to the Academy Awards.
"Capote" took the best-actor award for Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is the favorite to win the same prize at the Oscars for his role as author Truman Capote. The film also earned writer Dan Futterman the best-screenplay award.
Felicity Huffman, also an Oscar nominee, was named best actress for "Transamerica," in which she delivers a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery. The film's director, Duncan Tucker, received the award for best first screenplay.
The ensemble drama "Crash" won for best first feature by a director (Paul Haggis) and best supporting actor for Matt Dillon, who also has an Oscar nomination for his performance as a racist cop.
The supporting-actress prize went to Amy Adams for "Junebug," who is nominated for an Oscar for her role as a sparkling Southern waif.
For the rest, Independent Spirit Awards
Receives Legion of Honor
Norman Mailer
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer received France's most prestigious award, the Legion of Honor, at a Friday evening ceremony.
H.E. Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the United States, presented the medal to Mailer on behalf of President Jacques Chirac at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
Mailer lived in Paris after World War II and studied at the Sorbonne before publishing "The Naked and the Dead," the 1948 war story that earned him instant fame. He was previously awarded the insignia of Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 1983.
Norman Mailer
Honored by Springsteen's Tribute
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger has never been one to spend much time listening to records, explaining, "I'd rather go hiking in the woods or sailing down the river."
But the dean of American folk music says he'll spin Bruce Springsteen's new cover album, "We Shall Overcome/The Seeger Sessions," as soon as he gets a copy. The collection of songs popularized by Seeger is scheduled for release April 25, a week before his 87th birthday.
"Bruce called me last week and told me it's coming out," the genial master of the five-string banjo said Friday from his home in upstate New York. "Bruce is a great guy and it's a great honor for him to have recorded some songs that he learned from me.
"I get more credit for many of these songs than I should. All I did was be one of the first people to record them," Seeger said of tunes like "Erie Canal," "John Henry" and others that describe the lives of the hard working and oppressed.
Pete Seeger
Soul Train Names Award After
Stevie Wonder
The Soul Train Music Awards recognized one of the genre's legends on Saturday, naming an award in Stevie Wonder's honor.
He received a bronze statue of himself at a tribute hours before he was to present the first annual Stevie Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award to R. Kelly during the 20th annual Soul Train ceremony.
"I would say to anybody getting this honor: 'Wear me well,'" said Wonder, flanked by sculptor Artis Lane and "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius.
Stevie Wonder
Newest Edna Turnblad
John Travolta
He was the teenage prince of disco in "Saturday Night Fever," the dreamy leader of a high school gang in "Grease" and a mob hit man in "Pulp Fiction." Now John Travolta will be playing a mom.
The 52-year-old actor has been cast as Edna Turnblad, the mother of an aspiring teenage dancer, in an upcoming feature film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical "Hairspray," which was based on the 1988 cult movie of the same name, distributor New Line Cinema said on Friday.
In the original movie by director John Waters, the part of Edna was played by the late transvestite performer Divine. Stage and screen actor Harvey Fierstein won a Tony Award for the role on Broadway.
John Travolta
Withdraws From 2006 Tour
James Levine
Music director James Levine has been forced to withdraw from the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2006 American tour, which starts this week, because of the lingering effects of a fall, the orchestra announced Saturday.
Levine fell and injured his shoulder during ovations Wednesday and missed performance the next two days. Doctors told Levine he didn't break bones but have ordered him to continue resting to relieve pain.
He will miss what would have been his inaugural tour with the orchestra as music director.
James Levine
Syndicated TV Sitcom
Tyler Perry
After bucking Hollywood tradition on the feature side, actor-filmmaker Tyler Perry is preparing to do the same in television.
Perry, whose comedy "Madea's Family Reunion" opened at No. 1 at the box office last weekend with a $30 million, has signed a deal with independent firm Debmar-Mercury to distribute his original comedy series "House of Payne" in first-run syndication.
The half-hour series revolves around the comical situations that ensue when a multigenerational family lives under one roof. Perry is serving as director, executive producer and one of the writers on "Payne" but will not star in the show. It's understood that he might make guest appearances at some point, however.
Tyler Perry
Judge Files Lawsuit
Mills Lane
The referee whose action led to Mike Tyson's temporary banishment from boxing for biting Evander Holyfield's ear has sued his former law partners.
Mills Lane claims in his district court lawsuit filed Friday that the Reno law firm of Lane, Fahrendorf, Viloria and Oliphant stopped payments to him after he suffered a March 2002 stroke, although he continued to be a partner until July 2005.
Lane attorney John Ohlson said when the partnership was formed in 2001, the agreement called for Lane to be a "rainmaker," a partner whose name and reputation alone would draw new clients.
Lane, 68, a former Reno judge and district attorney, refereed 102 championship fights involving such boxers as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Larry Holmes.
The stroke damaged the part of Lane's brain that controls speech and the right side of his body.
Mills Lane
Won't Pull Jessica Alba Issue
Playboy
Playboy won't pull its March issue over actress Jessica Alba's claim that she was made an unwitting cover girl to fool readers into thinking she is nude inside, the magazine said on Friday.
"Playboy has done nothing wrong, so there is no reason to pull our issue off of newsstands," spokeswoman Lauren Melone said.
Alba accuses Playboy of violating her rights and misleading the public by getting a publicity photo from her 2005 movie "Into the Blue" from Sony Pictures and running it on the cover -- complete with a bunny logo superimposed on her bikini top.
Playboy
Huge Crater Found in Egypt
Kebira
Scientists have discovered a huge crater in the Saharan desert, the largest one ever found there.
The crater is about 19 miles (31 kilometers) wide, more than twice as big as the next largest Saharan crater known. It utterly dwarfs Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is about three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in diameter.
The crater was discovered in satellite images by Boston University researchers Farouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim.
El-Baz named the crater "Kebira," which means "large" in Arabic and also relates to its location on the northern tip of the Gilf Kebir region in southwestern Egypt.
Kebira
Over 4000 Participants
'Knitting Olympics'
More than 4,000 knitters in some 20 countries who took part in an informal Knitting Olympics did their final purling and cursing last Sunday as they struggled to finish projects during the closing ceremonies of the real Olympics.
The Knitting Olympics was suggested by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who writes a knitting blog called www.yarnharlot.ca/blog from Toronto, Canada.
She urged her readers to choose a project -- a challenging one -- cast on during the opening ceremonies and finish during the closing ceremonies, even if it meant ignoring families, jobs and housework.
More than 4,000 knitters e-mailed her to sign up. There were "teams" from 22 countries, but most of the knitters appear to be from Canada and the United States, according to entries on the blog.
'Knitting Olympics'
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