2nd October, 2008
4 Super-Hero Show Ideas the CW Rejected Before Picking up its New Robin Series
Many comic book fans were surprised when the CW announced it is picking up a new series called "The Graysons" that chronicles the life of Dick Grayson (known on TV as "DJ") before he became Batman's sidekick Robin. Is Robin a compelling enough character to carry his own TV show? And just how much will the network have to change the Batman mythos in order to create a dramatic series that works in the year 2009?
As it turns out, those are easy challenges compared to the other unlikely comic book characters the CW was considering adapting. Dateline Hollywood has obtained an exclusive development report from the network containing the top four super-hero concepts it almost approved before picking up "The Graysons":
4. Beppo's Laboratory: This proposed series would have focused on the civilian life of Beppo, the Super Monkey. Bepp, of course, stowed away on Kal-El's spaceship as Krypton exploded and gained super powers on Earth. "What's it like for a monkey with super strength and heat vision who has to live as a test subject in a laboratory to hide his secret identity?" asks the series proposal. "Rather than showing another monkey's super feats, we'll focus exclusively on Beppo's efforts to live a normal life: His struggles to learn sign language, his uncertain romance with fellow captive monkey Lana Langur, and his efforts to hurl his own feces without using super strength, which might cause death upon impact." The writers proposed waiting until season five or six to introduce Streaky the Super Cat and Comet the Super Horse as supporting characters.
3. Sub-Heroes: Rather than focus on the powerful and revered Legion of Super-Heroes, DC Comics' teenage super-team from the 30th century, "Sub-Heroes" tells the tale of the kids who didn't quite make the cut. This dramatic take on the characters whose powers were judged completely useless by the Legion. How does Porcupine Pete, whose body is covered in razor sharp quills, handle his first sexual encounter? How does one of Double Header's heads react when the other admits that he is gay? Note: In order to make the characters more appealing, CW executives wanted the subs to work as models and alternative rock band members in order to pay the bills on their clubhouse.
2. Ego, the Living Planet: Network TV has brought us hundreds of doctors, lawyers, and police officers, but never a living planet. "Ego" details the loves, loneliness, and tribulations of the universe's only sentient planet. "Ego is constantly bugging Thor and the Fantastic Four and whoever else he can find, but all he really wants is somebody to care about him," the network's notes explain. CW executives were said to be high on Brian Dennehy or Kirstie Alley to play the part of Ego.
1. Lightning and the Panther: This series would have brought together trailblazing super-heroes Black Lighting and Black Panther, who come from the DC and Marvel universes respectively, as roommates! In a hilarious sitcom billed as "Smallville meets Sanford and Son," the two aging heroes run a junk shop together and reminisce about their days as the first Black super-heroes. The only these cantankerous coots agree on is that modern day African-American heroes who don't use "Black" in their code names have lost their sense of racial pride!
Posted at 7:00 am | Comment (0)
23rd September, 2008
Nicole Richie in shock after ex-fiancé DJ AM injured in plane crash
Musician cheats death as collision kills 4
Nicole Richie is said to be amazed that ex-fiancé DJ AM survived a freak plane crash at the weekend.
The musician – real name Adam Goldstein - was left critically injured when a jet he was travelling in burst into flames on a runway in South Carolina, killing 4.
Paris Hilton's ex, former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, was also on the flight and is being treated for severe burns.
‘[Nicole] wishes only the best for Adam and hopes he recovers from this,’ a pal tells Us Weekly. ‘She's horribly upset about the people who died.’
Adam and Travis, 32, had been performing together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia.
Nicole, 27, dated Adam, 35, for 2 years until 2005.
Source
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15th September, 2008
Nearly 2,000 Hurricane Victims Rescued
This is crazy, man! I have my own peeps I need to see about. I don't think anyone could have expected this level of damage.
As teams persisted in the biggest search and rescue operation in Texas history, a new phase of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Ike was only beginning while thousands of people faced long stays in crowded shelters because their homes were damaged or destroyed.
The death toll from Ike rose to 28, but many of those were far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation's midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction.
Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm's path remained in the dark.Rescuers said they had saved nearly 2,000 people from waterlogged streets and splintered houses by Sunday afternoon. Many had ignored evacuation orders and tried to ride out the storm. Now they were boarding buses for indefinite stays at shelters in San Antonio and Austin.
"I have nowhere to go," said Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waiting for a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. She said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept as she told of officers rescuing her in a dump truck.
In hard-hit towns like Orange, Bridge City and Galveston, authorities continued their door-to-door search well into the night, hoping to reach an untold number of people still in their homes, many without power or supplies.
Many of those who did make it to safety boarded buses without knowing where they were going or when they could return to what might remain of their homes. Shelters across Texas scurried to find enough cots, and some evacuees arrived with little cash and no idea of what the coming days held.
Even for those who still have a home to go to, Ike's 110 mph winds and battering waves left thousands in coastal areas without electricity, gas and basic communications — and officials estimated it may not be restored for a month.
"We want our citizens to stay where they are," said a weary Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "Do not come back to Galveston. You cannot live here at this time."
Michael Geml has braved other storms in his bayfront neighborhood in Galveston, where he's lived for 25 years, though none quite like Ike. The 51-year-old stayed in the third-story Jacuzzi of a neighbor's house, directly on the bay, with family pets as waves crashed across the landscape. But amid the havoc, Geml asked anyone who would listen — even his rescuers — for an odd commodity: cat litter for his spooked feline.
"I'll never stay again," Geml said. "I don't care what the weatherman says — a Category 1, a Category 2. I thought I was going to die."
Kathi and Paul Norton huddled inside their house in Crystal Beach until it collapsed and was swept away. Their flag pole kept the house from collapsing on top of them, buying them a few seconds to escape, holding onto the staircase.
"You never know what a hurricane is like until you ride it on a staircase," said Kathi Norton, 47.
As she spoke outside the giant, warehouse-like shelter on a former Air Force base in San Antonio, busloads of new evacuees were arriving, bumper to bumper.
The hurricane also battered the heart of the U.S. oil industry as Ike destroyed at least 10 production platforms, officials said. Details about the size and production capacity of the destroyed platforms were not immediately available, but the damage was to only a fraction of the 3,800 platforms in the Gulf.
It was too soon to know how seriously it would affect oil and gas prices. You can read more about the devastation left by Ike on AOL.
Posted at 10:11 am | Comment (0)
30th August, 2008
Heath Ledger’s apartment available now for $26,000 a month
Home in which The Dark Knight star died available for $26,000 a month
Estate agents have been accused of cashing in on Heath Ledger’s tragic death by hiking up the price of his New York apartment.
The Dark Knight star died in the rented Soho flat after taking an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
The three-bedroom home is being advertised for ,000 (£13,000) a month – said to be ,000 more than its previous price.
‘You don't wait around in a hot rental market like this,’ an estate agent tells the New York Post.
‘As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat.’
Heath, who was 28 when he died, left behind a daughter Matilda, 3 next month
Tags: death, drugs, heath ledger, hollywood, new york, overdosePosted at 12:20 pm | Comment (0)
26th August, 2008
Remembering: Aaliyah is still one in a million
I turn on MTV and see Rihanna’s new video, “Disturbia.”
Its dark edginess has it at the top of the charts, and she reminds me of another pop star — Aaliyah. She had that same sweet but mysterious thing working for her, too.
Aaliyah should be my age. She should be releasing a new album. She should be here. But she’s not. Aaliyah died in a plane crash — Aug. 25, 2001, forever 22 years old.
And sometimes it feels like she’s been forgotten. It seems as though she was just famous enough to make headlines but not a big enough Hollywood star to be remembered after a year or two passed by.
I didn’t know her, but sometimes I miss her. She always came around at the perfect time, with just the right summer song.
When she died, I cried until my eyes were dry and sore. I was confused by my grief. I mean, really. Crying over a singer? But it felt like I’d lost a friend.
I know I’m not alone in this. Even though we don’t personally know them, entertainers connect with us through their work. And when they die, especially unexpectedly, we cry. Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Tupac Shakur — each had his following, and each his mourners.
Through her music, I felt Aaliyah was singing the songs of my teenage years, tearing pages out of my lovesick diary. Turn me inside out/Make my heart speak/Don’t want no one else/You are all I need.
Her beats were bass-heavy, hard enough for guys to like. But Aaliyah’s love-laced lyrics represented for the ladies. She truly represented a marriage between hip-hop and R&B.
I’ve read Internet blogs that dis and doubt Aaliyah’s accomplishments. Some were confused when Fader gave her the coveted cover of the magazine’s icon issue earlier this year. She’d been discounted as one of R. Kelly’s young girls, a mediocre star with only posthumous success. Sure, she was no Madonna or Janet Jackson, but she does qualify as a young icon. Her influence and inspiration permeate today’s pop music and culture.
Long before it was the norm for R&B pop stars to close deals with clothing lines and cosmetics brands, Aaliyah was modeling for Tommy Hilfiger. Before her death, she was supposed to star in the “Matrix” sequels.
Timbaland, the acclaimed producer partly responsible for the mega-stardom of Justin Timberlake, worked with Aaliyah first. He called her his muse. Fans of Aaliyah quickly became admirers of Justin.
Pop tarts such as Ciara and Cassie not only borrow from Aaliyah’s fluid dance moves, but they use her modest and sexy style, too. Aaliyah never showed too much. Her style was half-tomboy, half-girly.
I see a lot of pop stars who have borrowed from her street-sweet style. I wonder where she would have taken her music, how much she would have grown by now.
We will never know, but we can still be comforted by her music — three albums and a dozen or so random singles.
That’s the awesome thing about celebrities: They have a never-ending lifeline through their movies, music and interviews. I can put on an old album such as “One in a Million” and still get lost in Aaliyah’s breathy, sugary voice.
In a way, I can just press “play,” and she becomes again unforgettable. At least to me.
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Posted at 7:08 pm | Comment (0)
20th August, 2008
Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law donates money to Heath Ledger’s daughter
Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law have donated their earnings from new movie 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus' to Heath Ledger's daughter Matilda.
The actors - who replaced Heath following his death from an accidental prescription drugs overdose in January - wanted to give their money to Heath's two-year-old child with actress Michelle Williams to ensure she has a secure future.
The movie's director Terry Gilliam said: "The three actors were totally heroic coming in. This doesn't happen very often - where there's a tragedy like this, and very famous, very successful actors suddenly say, 'OK, we'll do whatever it takes to help.'
"They came, they did the work, they allowed the movie to be finished, they didn't take money - the money goes to Heath's daughter. That's extraordinary!
"I am so glad these guys are so humble. That's why they make a great addition to the film. It will be bittersweet seeing this movie knowing he was filming it only days before he died. This picture still hurts to see because as we all know he did die a couple of days after this picture was taken. My thoughts will always be with Heath."
Johnny, Colin and Jude will all play Heath's character Tony as he is transported into three separate dimensions, which he accesses via a paranormal mirror belonging to a travelling theatre troupe.
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IVideo News Network: Entertainment Tags: colin farrell, death, drugs, heath ledger, johnny depp, jude law, overdose, style
Posted at 7:19 am | Comment (0)