Short on players for practice, the Charlotte Bobcats found an extra body in the front office: Michael Jordan.
The Hall of Famer and Bobcats owner suited up for Thursday's workout, participating in a full-court scrimmage and showing a few of the old moves that helped make him a six-time NBA champion.
"He's Mike. He's been kicking our [butts]. He still has it," forward Gerald Wallace said. "He doesn't have this quickness, but he can score, he's a shooter. The last thing to ever go is your jump shot and he has that."
Jordan, who turns 48 next week, has been spending more time at practices and shootarounds, getting on the floor and doing some teaching. Thursday's practice was his most involved yet.
"He's holding these guys accountable and it's great. I love him out here," coach Paul Silas said. "He's teaching them how to protect the basketball, how to play hard on defense, how to talk. It's a good thing.
"The guys work a little bit harder when he's out here and rightly so because he's working hard. You're not going to let him do a job on you if you've got any pride."
Jordan, who didn't speak to reporters, was on the floor in an orange jersey. But Wallace said that didn't serve the purpose of the red "no contact" jerseys quarterbacks wear in football practice.
It meant only that Jordan was on the third team.
"We don't treat him like no quarterback out here," Wallace said. "We hit him."
Jordan became a part owner of the Bobcats with the final say on personnel moves in 2006 before buying the team outright last year. After making the playoffs for the first time last spring, Charlotte started 9-19 this season, leading Jordan to fire coach Larry Brown.
The Bobcats (22-30) have climbed back into playoff contention under Silas, although Wednesday's loss at Indiana left them a game behind the Pacers for the final postseason spot in the Eastern Conference.
Charlotte has been talking to teams about possible trades to improve the roster, but that won't include another Jordan comeback.
Jordan was slumped in a chair with ice bags strapped to both knees at the end of the workout.
"He can still shoot the basketball unbelievable and he can move well. But at his age, he couldn't do it for a long period of time," Silas said, smiling. "But short period of time, he can get it done, yeah."
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Updates Health
A few days after putting a comment on his Twitter account that he was cancer-free, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said Thursday that it was a "misstatement."
"You're never really cancer-free and I should have known that," Abdul-Jabbar said. "My cancer right now is at an absolute minimum."
The 63-year-old Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2008. He spoke Thursday at Science Park High School, after the screening of his new full-length documentary about the Harlem Rens basketball team, "On the Shoulders of Giants."
"It's not life-threatening," he said, "at this point in my life."
Abdul-Jabbar said when he was first diagnosed with leukemia, he didn't know what to think. He feared the worst.
"I thought I might be dead in a few months," he said. "I had a good friend [actor Bruno Kirby] who was diagnosed with leukemia and was dead within 30 days. I really had no understanding of what I was dealing with."
With the help of a medication called Gleevec, CML can be monitored better, and the chances for recovery are improved. Abdul-Jabbar is a spokesman for Novartis, the company that produces Gleevec.
"Medical science has made great strides over the last 20 years," he said. "People in my position are able to live their lives to the fullest. I'm very grateful for that. I'm lucky that they caught it in enough time, and I've responded well to the medication. If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now."
The basketball star-turned-author wrote a book about the Harlem Renaissance Big Five, also known as the Harlem Rens. They were a basketball team comprising African-Americans who fought to be a part of the game, only to be set back by the racism that plagued the United States before World War II.
The book chronicles the Rens as they made their way toward playing in the first non-segregated championship in 1939 against a team from Oshkosh, Wis.
Abdul-Jabbar's book became a documentary that was shown to approximately 1,000 Newark high school students Thursday. A panel discussion followed.
"The film has all the things I love," Abdul-Jabbar said. "It has basketball, jazz music and the history of African-American people. I think the film came out really well. I'm happy with it. I spoke with various educators and they believed that New Jersey would benefit from seeing it. It seemed to me that they were interested in it."
Perhaps it's the start of something special for Abdul-Jabbar.
"The main reason why I did the film is that it is enabling me to make the transition from a jock," he said, "and give me credibility as a scholar and a filmmaker. I'm going to continue to make that work."
Abdul-Jabbar made sure to get his message across to the nation's youth. On Wednesday, the film was shown to students at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, where Abdul-Jabbar grew up.
"You're the main reason why I did what I did with this film," Abdul-Jabbar told the students. "I want to challenge you to make Newark and New Jersey a better place. I hope to read about you doing good things in the future. So go forth, do your thing and be successful."
Abdul-Jabbar has scheduled another screening next week in Los Angeles.
"You're never really cancer-free and I should have known that," Abdul-Jabbar said. "My cancer right now is at an absolute minimum."
The 63-year-old Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2008. He spoke Thursday at Science Park High School, after the screening of his new full-length documentary about the Harlem Rens basketball team, "On the Shoulders of Giants."
"It's not life-threatening," he said, "at this point in my life."
Abdul-Jabbar said when he was first diagnosed with leukemia, he didn't know what to think. He feared the worst.
"I thought I might be dead in a few months," he said. "I had a good friend [actor Bruno Kirby] who was diagnosed with leukemia and was dead within 30 days. I really had no understanding of what I was dealing with."
With the help of a medication called Gleevec, CML can be monitored better, and the chances for recovery are improved. Abdul-Jabbar is a spokesman for Novartis, the company that produces Gleevec.
"Medical science has made great strides over the last 20 years," he said. "People in my position are able to live their lives to the fullest. I'm very grateful for that. I'm lucky that they caught it in enough time, and I've responded well to the medication. If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now."
The basketball star-turned-author wrote a book about the Harlem Renaissance Big Five, also known as the Harlem Rens. They were a basketball team comprising African-Americans who fought to be a part of the game, only to be set back by the racism that plagued the United States before World War II.
The book chronicles the Rens as they made their way toward playing in the first non-segregated championship in 1939 against a team from Oshkosh, Wis.
Abdul-Jabbar's book became a documentary that was shown to approximately 1,000 Newark high school students Thursday. A panel discussion followed.
"The film has all the things I love," Abdul-Jabbar said. "It has basketball, jazz music and the history of African-American people. I think the film came out really well. I'm happy with it. I spoke with various educators and they believed that New Jersey would benefit from seeing it. It seemed to me that they were interested in it."
Perhaps it's the start of something special for Abdul-Jabbar.
"The main reason why I did the film is that it is enabling me to make the transition from a jock," he said, "and give me credibility as a scholar and a filmmaker. I'm going to continue to make that work."
Abdul-Jabbar made sure to get his message across to the nation's youth. On Wednesday, the film was shown to students at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, where Abdul-Jabbar grew up.
"You're the main reason why I did what I did with this film," Abdul-Jabbar told the students. "I want to challenge you to make Newark and New Jersey a better place. I hope to read about you doing good things in the future. So go forth, do your thing and be successful."
Abdul-Jabbar has scheduled another screening next week in Los Angeles.
Sidney Crosby Expects to Return to Ice
ittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby says he expects to play this season after suffering a concussion, but there are no guarantees he'll be able to make a comeback.
Crosby visited the Penguins during Thursday's morning skate for the first time since leaving the team last week to visit his parents.
"I hope I'm back and I hope I play this year," Crosby said. "That's the thing with [concussions], you don't know."
Like any player returning from a serious head injury, Crosby is frustrated by the slow pace of recovery.
"It's out of my control," he said. "You just hope with time, the quicker the better."
Crosby has missed 14 games for the Penguins with complications due to a concussion. He will not be allowed to return to the ice until he is symptom-free. He still leads the team with 32 goals and 66 points and is fourth in the league in scoring.
Crosby, 23, said he left to get away, relax and not deal with the stresses that come with talking about his injury. He said it's impossible to know when he'll be able to play again and that he's just focusing on getting better.
Crosby was sidelined after taking hits to the head in successive games -- Jan. 1 against the Washington Capitals in the Winter Classic and Jan. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he's not alone on the injury front.
Center Evgeni Malkin, scheduled for season-ending knee surgery Thursday, won't be back until September. Center Mark Letestu is out four to six weeks with a knee injury that also required surgery. And the Penguins will also play the next four games without left winger Matt Cooke, serving a suspension handed down by the NHL on Wednesday.
To fill the lineup, the Penguins recalled four players from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League: forwards Ryan Craig, Nick Johnson, Brett Sterling and Joe Vitale.
The Penguins play host to the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, before a two-game swing through New York, facing the Islanders on Friday and the Rangers on Sunday.
Crosby visited the Penguins during Thursday's morning skate for the first time since leaving the team last week to visit his parents.
"I hope I'm back and I hope I play this year," Crosby said. "That's the thing with [concussions], you don't know."
Like any player returning from a serious head injury, Crosby is frustrated by the slow pace of recovery.
"It's out of my control," he said. "You just hope with time, the quicker the better."
Crosby has missed 14 games for the Penguins with complications due to a concussion. He will not be allowed to return to the ice until he is symptom-free. He still leads the team with 32 goals and 66 points and is fourth in the league in scoring.
Crosby, 23, said he left to get away, relax and not deal with the stresses that come with talking about his injury. He said it's impossible to know when he'll be able to play again and that he's just focusing on getting better.
Crosby was sidelined after taking hits to the head in successive games -- Jan. 1 against the Washington Capitals in the Winter Classic and Jan. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he's not alone on the injury front.
Center Evgeni Malkin, scheduled for season-ending knee surgery Thursday, won't be back until September. Center Mark Letestu is out four to six weeks with a knee injury that also required surgery. And the Penguins will also play the next four games without left winger Matt Cooke, serving a suspension handed down by the NHL on Wednesday.
To fill the lineup, the Penguins recalled four players from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League: forwards Ryan Craig, Nick Johnson, Brett Sterling and Joe Vitale.
The Penguins play host to the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, before a two-game swing through New York, facing the Islanders on Friday and the Rangers on Sunday.
Ray Lucas in Rehab for Painkillers
Ray Lucas didn't shy away from hits on the football field, a tough-guy quarterback who played more like a linebacker during his NFL career.
Turns out, all of the pounding took quite a toll. Lucas suffered from chronic headaches and depression because of the injuries during his eight-year career.
The 38-year-old Lucas recently checked into a Florida rehabilitation center for an addiction to painkillers, and is sharing his experience with fans in a Facebook diary to try to help others.
"Today in a session for the first time in my life I was dealing with the emotional impact of my departure from the NFL," Lucas wrote on Facebook on Monday. "This is the start of the fight & I AM WILLING TO FIGHT!"
Currently a studio analyst for SportsNet New York, the former Rutgers star was in Dallas last week doing radio spots before the Super Bowl. Lucas left Dallas and checked into Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches in Florida on Saturday to begin treatment.
Since announcing on Facebook he was checking into rehab, hundreds of fans have left messages of support.
"Nervous about everything, my palms are sweating," Lucas wrote. "This weather will be good for my body. Got a text from my mom. She & my family are relieved I am here. I am on my way to start my life over. Can't believe all the FB responses already. It's a good sign & the support is needed."
Lucas said former Buccaneers center Randy Grimes, a counselor at the facility who suffered from the same addiction, is a source of motivation for him.
"This place is amazing," Lucas wrote. "Having another player, Randy Grimes, who has been through it by my side is a difference maker."
Lucas served mostly as a backup with New England, the New York Jets, Miami and Baltimore before retiring after the 2003 season. Lucas threw for 3,029 yards with 18 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in 55 NFL games, including nine starts with the Jets in 1999 and six with the Dolphins in 2002. He also ran for 396 yards and four touchdowns in his career.
Lucas migrated from the Patriots with coach Bill Parcells to the Jets, with whom he had his most memorable year. In 1999, he went 6-3 as the starter and completed 59 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also rushed for 144 yards and a touchdown.
Lucas' most recent post was Tuesday night, after what appeared to be a particularly tough day.
"Day 3 of detox was filled with a lot of anxiety," Lucas wrote. "I was moved from the detox unit into the Seaside condos to start full days of various therapy sessions, group meetings & other treatment. I am nervous & feeling on edge."
Lucas had surgery on his neck and back in September, performed by Pain Alternatives Solutions Treatment (P.A.S.T), a network of New Jersey-based doctors who provide pro bono care to athletes in need, such as Lucas, Grimes and Christian Okoye.
"They saved my life!" Lucas recently wrote of P.A.S.T on Facebook.
An ESPN-commissioned study showed retired NFL players misuse painkillers at a rate of 4-to-1 compared to the general public.
Turns out, all of the pounding took quite a toll. Lucas suffered from chronic headaches and depression because of the injuries during his eight-year career.
The 38-year-old Lucas recently checked into a Florida rehabilitation center for an addiction to painkillers, and is sharing his experience with fans in a Facebook diary to try to help others.
"Today in a session for the first time in my life I was dealing with the emotional impact of my departure from the NFL," Lucas wrote on Facebook on Monday. "This is the start of the fight & I AM WILLING TO FIGHT!"
Currently a studio analyst for SportsNet New York, the former Rutgers star was in Dallas last week doing radio spots before the Super Bowl. Lucas left Dallas and checked into Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches in Florida on Saturday to begin treatment.
Since announcing on Facebook he was checking into rehab, hundreds of fans have left messages of support.
"Nervous about everything, my palms are sweating," Lucas wrote. "This weather will be good for my body. Got a text from my mom. She & my family are relieved I am here. I am on my way to start my life over. Can't believe all the FB responses already. It's a good sign & the support is needed."
Lucas said former Buccaneers center Randy Grimes, a counselor at the facility who suffered from the same addiction, is a source of motivation for him.
"This place is amazing," Lucas wrote. "Having another player, Randy Grimes, who has been through it by my side is a difference maker."
Lucas served mostly as a backup with New England, the New York Jets, Miami and Baltimore before retiring after the 2003 season. Lucas threw for 3,029 yards with 18 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in 55 NFL games, including nine starts with the Jets in 1999 and six with the Dolphins in 2002. He also ran for 396 yards and four touchdowns in his career.
Lucas migrated from the Patriots with coach Bill Parcells to the Jets, with whom he had his most memorable year. In 1999, he went 6-3 as the starter and completed 59 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also rushed for 144 yards and a touchdown.
Lucas' most recent post was Tuesday night, after what appeared to be a particularly tough day.
"Day 3 of detox was filled with a lot of anxiety," Lucas wrote. "I was moved from the detox unit into the Seaside condos to start full days of various therapy sessions, group meetings & other treatment. I am nervous & feeling on edge."
Lucas had surgery on his neck and back in September, performed by Pain Alternatives Solutions Treatment (P.A.S.T), a network of New Jersey-based doctors who provide pro bono care to athletes in need, such as Lucas, Grimes and Christian Okoye.
"They saved my life!" Lucas recently wrote of P.A.S.T on Facebook.
An ESPN-commissioned study showed retired NFL players misuse painkillers at a rate of 4-to-1 compared to the general public.
Mike Fisher Traded to Predators
The Predators have acquired forward Mike Fisher, who will be reunited in Nashville with his wife, country music star Carrie Underwood.
The Ottawa Senators traded Fisher to the Predators on Thursday for a first-round draft pick and a future conditional pick.
Underwood lives in Nashville, and the couple married last summer in Georgia. Fisher, 30, has 24 points this season and had been tied for the Senators' lead in goals with 14.
"I'm sure there was a lot of places and a lot of teams that would've coveted Mike," Nashville general manager David Poile said on a conference call Thursday afternoon. "But on the surface, the fit for Nashville with his wife certainly we're hoping is going to be an attractive situation for Mike and his wife."
The Predators hope to have his work visa completed Friday so he can be in the lineup Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
Fisher told SENS TV on the Senators' website that news of the trade was a bit of a shock that he still was trying to process. Going to Nashville made it easier because he said he is excited about being a part of the Predators.
"They're a very good team, and it'll be kind of like going home for me. I'm sure my wife won't be disappointed, either. But I think it's a great place for me and family and everything," Fisher said.
Underwood issued a statement, saying she and Fisher will truly miss Ottawa.
"Mike has been such a big part of the community, and I will never forget how they welcomed me with open arms," she said. "We obviously love Nashville, and the teams' decision for him to now play with the Predators is an exciting opportunity for Mike. I support him wherever he plays!"
Poile said the Predators have always liked Fisher and his game, from his scoring to killing penalties and playing on the power play. He averages more ice time per game than any forward on the Predators right now, and Fisher is also under contract for the next two seasons.
"This is not a rental like a lot of deals are at the trading deadline," Poile said in a conference call. "Mike is signed for the next two years so this is a deal that is hopefully going to help us down the stretch this year, but hopefully help us for a lot of years to come."
The teams began talking about this trade a week ago, and this deal is costly for the Predators.
The club is sending its first-round pick in the 2011 draft and a conditional pick in 2012 -- which would be a third-rounder if the Predators win a playoff series this year. The pick will escalate if the team wins two or more postseason series.
But Nashville is desperate to advance past the opening playoff round after reaching the postseason five times in the past six years, and Poile didn't have to part with any of his highly prized prospects or anyone on his roster to make this deal.
Nashville is currently five points behind the first-place Detroit Red Wings in the Central. Ottawa is last in the Northeast Division with 42 points.
"It's a fine line here in the NHL," Poile said. "We're obviously banking that Mike Fisher, along with the parts we already have, will just kind of complete our forward line and just make us a little bit better."
Fisher, 30, has 28 points in 75 postseason games, which immediately makes him the most experienced in the playoffs on the Predators' roster. He helped Ottawa go past the first round four out of six playoff appearances, including the 2007 Stanley Cup finals and the 2003 Eastern Conference finals.
The 11-year veteran has 167 goals and 181 assists in 675 regular-season games, all with the Senators. He was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward in 2006, and the 6-foot-1, 208-pound forward had career highs with 53 points, 25 goals and 10 power-play goals last season.
Predators fans should get to see more of Underwood as a result of the trade.
The five-time Grammy Award winner won the fourth season of "American Idol." She has sold more than 13 million albums with 13 No. 1 hits. She has also twice been named the Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year and is a three-time CMA and ACM Female Vocalist winner.
The Ottawa Senators traded Fisher to the Predators on Thursday for a first-round draft pick and a future conditional pick.
Underwood lives in Nashville, and the couple married last summer in Georgia. Fisher, 30, has 24 points this season and had been tied for the Senators' lead in goals with 14.
"I'm sure there was a lot of places and a lot of teams that would've coveted Mike," Nashville general manager David Poile said on a conference call Thursday afternoon. "But on the surface, the fit for Nashville with his wife certainly we're hoping is going to be an attractive situation for Mike and his wife."
The Predators hope to have his work visa completed Friday so he can be in the lineup Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
Fisher told SENS TV on the Senators' website that news of the trade was a bit of a shock that he still was trying to process. Going to Nashville made it easier because he said he is excited about being a part of the Predators.
"They're a very good team, and it'll be kind of like going home for me. I'm sure my wife won't be disappointed, either. But I think it's a great place for me and family and everything," Fisher said.
Underwood issued a statement, saying she and Fisher will truly miss Ottawa.
"Mike has been such a big part of the community, and I will never forget how they welcomed me with open arms," she said. "We obviously love Nashville, and the teams' decision for him to now play with the Predators is an exciting opportunity for Mike. I support him wherever he plays!"
Poile said the Predators have always liked Fisher and his game, from his scoring to killing penalties and playing on the power play. He averages more ice time per game than any forward on the Predators right now, and Fisher is also under contract for the next two seasons.
"This is not a rental like a lot of deals are at the trading deadline," Poile said in a conference call. "Mike is signed for the next two years so this is a deal that is hopefully going to help us down the stretch this year, but hopefully help us for a lot of years to come."
The teams began talking about this trade a week ago, and this deal is costly for the Predators.
The club is sending its first-round pick in the 2011 draft and a conditional pick in 2012 -- which would be a third-rounder if the Predators win a playoff series this year. The pick will escalate if the team wins two or more postseason series.
But Nashville is desperate to advance past the opening playoff round after reaching the postseason five times in the past six years, and Poile didn't have to part with any of his highly prized prospects or anyone on his roster to make this deal.
Nashville is currently five points behind the first-place Detroit Red Wings in the Central. Ottawa is last in the Northeast Division with 42 points.
"It's a fine line here in the NHL," Poile said. "We're obviously banking that Mike Fisher, along with the parts we already have, will just kind of complete our forward line and just make us a little bit better."
Fisher, 30, has 28 points in 75 postseason games, which immediately makes him the most experienced in the playoffs on the Predators' roster. He helped Ottawa go past the first round four out of six playoff appearances, including the 2007 Stanley Cup finals and the 2003 Eastern Conference finals.
The 11-year veteran has 167 goals and 181 assists in 675 regular-season games, all with the Senators. He was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward in 2006, and the 6-foot-1, 208-pound forward had career highs with 53 points, 25 goals and 10 power-play goals last season.
Predators fans should get to see more of Underwood as a result of the trade.
The five-time Grammy Award winner won the fourth season of "American Idol." She has sold more than 13 million albums with 13 No. 1 hits. She has also twice been named the Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year and is a three-time CMA and ACM Female Vocalist winner.
Emory Bellard, Creator of Wishbone, Dies
Emory Bellard, a former Texas A&M and Mississippi State coach credited with developing the wishbone offense when he was an assistant at Texas, died Thursday. He was 83.
Cathy Capps, director of the Texas A&M Lettermen's Association, said Bellard died at a care facility in Georgetown in Central Texas. She said Bellard had Lou Gehrig's disease.
Bellard was on Darrell Royal's staff at Texas in 1968 when the Longhorns developed a formation with three running backs that came to be known as the wishbone.
"Not only was he an outstanding coach as far as X's and O's were concerned, he taught well -- he was an excellent teacher of the game," Royal said in a statement. "To say he was an important member of our staff at that time is an understatement. He was a true friend, and that didn't change whether he was in Austin, College Station or Starkville."
Bellard coached at Texas high schools for more than two decades and won three state titles. His success landed him on the Texas staff, and while other assistants relaxed during the summer before the 1968 season, Bellard was busy trying to figure out a way to utilize a strong group of running backs after Texas endured three straight mediocre seasons.
Bellard's idea was to put a third running back a yard behind the quarterback, flanked by two more running backs a few yards behind to form what looked like a "Y." Quarterbacks had three options -- hand off to the fullback, keep the ball or pitch to one of the other running backs.
The wishbone was similar to the two-back veer, which Houston was using to become a threat in the Southwest Conference. The Longhorns rode Bellard's modification to a national championship in 1969, and Oklahoma made the offense nearly unstoppable in the 1980s.
"People all over the country and different levels of football adopted that offense," said former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, who was hired as an assistant by Bellard in 1972. "I think he was proud that the game he cared so much about, that he was able to make a significant contribution to it."
Slocum also credited Bellard with being among the first football coaches in Texas to recruit black players.
"I don't think he ever got the full credit for what he really did," Slocum said.
Bellard had a 48-27 record in seven years at Texas A&M before resigning during the 1978 season. He led A&M to three straight bowl games, including a win in the 1977 Sun Bowl. He was 37-42 in seven seasons at Mississippi State.
"From a historical standpoint, few men have ever done what he and Coach Royal did with the wishbone," Texas coach Mack Brown said in a statement. "They created a formation that brought an entirely new concept to the game of football.
"More than that, he was a great ambassador for the coaching profession, from the high school coaches to the assistants to head coaches who followed him. He had great ideas and was always willing to help young coaches by sharing them. He will always have a special place when it comes to Longhorn football."
Cathy Capps, director of the Texas A&M Lettermen's Association, said Bellard died at a care facility in Georgetown in Central Texas. She said Bellard had Lou Gehrig's disease.
Bellard was on Darrell Royal's staff at Texas in 1968 when the Longhorns developed a formation with three running backs that came to be known as the wishbone.
"Not only was he an outstanding coach as far as X's and O's were concerned, he taught well -- he was an excellent teacher of the game," Royal said in a statement. "To say he was an important member of our staff at that time is an understatement. He was a true friend, and that didn't change whether he was in Austin, College Station or Starkville."
Bellard coached at Texas high schools for more than two decades and won three state titles. His success landed him on the Texas staff, and while other assistants relaxed during the summer before the 1968 season, Bellard was busy trying to figure out a way to utilize a strong group of running backs after Texas endured three straight mediocre seasons.
Bellard's idea was to put a third running back a yard behind the quarterback, flanked by two more running backs a few yards behind to form what looked like a "Y." Quarterbacks had three options -- hand off to the fullback, keep the ball or pitch to one of the other running backs.
The wishbone was similar to the two-back veer, which Houston was using to become a threat in the Southwest Conference. The Longhorns rode Bellard's modification to a national championship in 1969, and Oklahoma made the offense nearly unstoppable in the 1980s.
"People all over the country and different levels of football adopted that offense," said former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, who was hired as an assistant by Bellard in 1972. "I think he was proud that the game he cared so much about, that he was able to make a significant contribution to it."
Slocum also credited Bellard with being among the first football coaches in Texas to recruit black players.
"I don't think he ever got the full credit for what he really did," Slocum said.
Bellard had a 48-27 record in seven years at Texas A&M before resigning during the 1978 season. He led A&M to three straight bowl games, including a win in the 1977 Sun Bowl. He was 37-42 in seven seasons at Mississippi State.
"From a historical standpoint, few men have ever done what he and Coach Royal did with the wishbone," Texas coach Mack Brown said in a statement. "They created a formation that brought an entirely new concept to the game of football.
"More than that, he was a great ambassador for the coaching profession, from the high school coaches to the assistants to head coaches who followed him. He had great ideas and was always willing to help young coaches by sharing them. He will always have a special place when it comes to Longhorn football."
X-Men: First Class (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
"X-Men: First Class" charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
Trailer:
"X-Men: First Class" charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
| Movie Name | X-Men: First Class (2011) |
| Director | Matthew Vaughn |
| Writer | Josh Schwartz Jamie Moss Ashley Miller Zack Stentz Jane Goldman |
| Producer | Gregory Goodman Simon Kinberg Lauren Shuler Donner Bryan Singer |
| Release Date | June 3, 2011 |
| Starring | James McAvoy Michael Fassbender Rose Byrne January Jones Kevin Bacon Nicholas Hoult Jennifer Lawrence Caleb Landry Jones Lucas Till Edi Gathegi Jason Flemyng Oliver Platt Morgan Lily Zoe Kravitz Bill Bilner |
| Genre | Action, Adventure |
| Studio | 20th Century Fox Marvel Entertainment Marv Films The Donners' Company Bad Hat Harry Productions |
| Distributedby | 20th Century Fox |
| MPAA Rating |
Arthur (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach (Russell Brand) has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge--choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can't buy, Naomi (Greta Gerwig), the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi's inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man, in this re-imagining of the classic romantic comedy "Arthur."
Trailer:
Irresponsible charmer Arthur Bach (Russell Brand) has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and the good sense of lifelong nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge--choosing between an arranged marriage that will ensure his lavish lifestyle or an uncertain future with the one thing money can't buy, Naomi (Greta Gerwig), the only woman he has ever loved. With Naomi's inspiration and some unconventional help from Hobson, Arthur will take the most expensive risk of his life and finally learn what it means to become a man, in this re-imagining of the classic romantic comedy "Arthur."
| Movie Name | Arthur (2011) |
| Director | Jason Winer |
| Writer | Jared Stern Peter Baynham Steve Gordon |
| Producer | Chris Bender Russell Brand Michael Tadross Larry Brezner Kevin McCormick J.C. Spink |
| Release Date | April 8, 2011 |
| Starring | Russell Brand Helen Mirren Greta Gerwig Luis Guzman Nick Nolte Jennifer Garner |
| Genre | Comedy, Romance |
| Studio | Summit Entertainment |
| Distributedby | Warner Bros. Pictures E1 Entertainment (UK) |
| MPAA Rating |
Rory McIlroy Sets Early Pace in Dubai
Rory McIlroy upstaged the world's top three golfers with a 7-under 65 Thursday to take the first-round lead at the Dubai Desert Classic, four shots better than No. 1 Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer and six ahead of an inconsistent Tiger Woods.
McIlroy, whose only European Tour win came in Dubai two years ago, had eight birdies to go with one bogey at the Emirates Golf Club. The seventh-ranked McIlroy took the early lead and held it. Sergio Garcia (67) and Thomas Aiken (67) trailed by two shots in windy conditions.
"I really had a lot of iron shots and got away with a couple of drives that I was quite fortunate to make birdies from," the 21-year-old McIlroy said. "I had a putt for a 64 on the last that didn't quite go in. But I'll take 65 in these conditions any day."
Woods shot a 71 and had problems early in the day, twice going to 2 over. But he eagled the 18th hole after hitting a 3-wood about 250 yards to the green.
"I struggled today with ball flight," he said. "My trajectory wasn't what I wanted on a lot of shots, and consequently, I could never get a ball pin high especially when the wind is blowing this hard."
Much of the buzz coming into the opening round centered on the grouping of the top three golfers. Westwood made several putts en route to four birdies. But he faltered toward the end, three-putting on 17 to miss out on another birdie and scoring a lone bogey on the 18th when his approach shot fell short of the green and nearly rolled into the water.
"I played solidly. I didn't make too many mistakes," Westwood said. "It was disappointing to shoot 1 over for the last two holes. One under would have been nice. All in all, 69 was a pretty good score."
Kaymer's approach shot on the ninth hole hit the grandstand and ended up in the water, leading to a double bogey. He finished with six birdies, including one on the 17th where his drive cut the corner on the 359-yard hole and ended up on the green. He narrowly missed an eagle putt.
"Yeah, it was OK," Kaymer said. "I hit a lot of good shots, and was a little bit unfortunate on the ninth."
Woods had trouble and flashes of brilliance during his round. The troubles were obvious by his body language -- he swore after an approach shot drifted left and slammed a club into the ground on wayward shot that led to his double bogey on the 12th hole.
He let out a sigh when a birdie putt came up short on the 13th. He badly missed an 80-yard chip on the 17th that ended up in the back of the green, leaving him with a 45-foot birdie putt.
"That was awful. Awful," he said of the chip. "It's something that I'm still working on technique, and unfortunately, sometimes I think about technique instead of feel."
McIlroy was runner-up in last month's Abu Dhabi Championship. The Northern Irishman came into the tournament saying he felt he should be winning more tournaments. Along with his win in Dubai, he won the Quail Hollow Championship in 2009. He said he was benefiting from the work he has done on his swing in the offseason and this week.
"With the big three being paired together, I tried to go in a little under the radar," McIlroy said. "It was nice to get a good round in there early."
Much like McIlroy, Garcia has been overhauling his game and trying to return to the form that had him ranked as high as No. 2. The Spaniard had been in the news more for missing cuts than winning tournaments -- though his game has improved with a top-10 finish in Qatar last weekend. He is ranked 79th.
"You know, it's slowly getting there," Garcia said. "Still needs to improve, and there will be some not nice rounds coming. This is just the beginning."
Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez (72) was in the mix until the final four holes, when he had two double bogeys.
There is more at stake this weekend than just the tournament title.
Westwood could lose the top ranking if Kaymer wins and he finishes lower than second, and if Kaymer finishes second and Westwood is out of the top 10. If Kaymer is tied for second, he could still become No. 1 if Westwood finishes out of the top 36.
Woods could move ahead of Kaymer if he wins and Kaymer finishes outside the top five.
McIlroy, whose only European Tour win came in Dubai two years ago, had eight birdies to go with one bogey at the Emirates Golf Club. The seventh-ranked McIlroy took the early lead and held it. Sergio Garcia (67) and Thomas Aiken (67) trailed by two shots in windy conditions.
"I really had a lot of iron shots and got away with a couple of drives that I was quite fortunate to make birdies from," the 21-year-old McIlroy said. "I had a putt for a 64 on the last that didn't quite go in. But I'll take 65 in these conditions any day."
Woods shot a 71 and had problems early in the day, twice going to 2 over. But he eagled the 18th hole after hitting a 3-wood about 250 yards to the green.
"I struggled today with ball flight," he said. "My trajectory wasn't what I wanted on a lot of shots, and consequently, I could never get a ball pin high especially when the wind is blowing this hard."
Much of the buzz coming into the opening round centered on the grouping of the top three golfers. Westwood made several putts en route to four birdies. But he faltered toward the end, three-putting on 17 to miss out on another birdie and scoring a lone bogey on the 18th when his approach shot fell short of the green and nearly rolled into the water.
"I played solidly. I didn't make too many mistakes," Westwood said. "It was disappointing to shoot 1 over for the last two holes. One under would have been nice. All in all, 69 was a pretty good score."
Kaymer's approach shot on the ninth hole hit the grandstand and ended up in the water, leading to a double bogey. He finished with six birdies, including one on the 17th where his drive cut the corner on the 359-yard hole and ended up on the green. He narrowly missed an eagle putt.
"Yeah, it was OK," Kaymer said. "I hit a lot of good shots, and was a little bit unfortunate on the ninth."
Woods had trouble and flashes of brilliance during his round. The troubles were obvious by his body language -- he swore after an approach shot drifted left and slammed a club into the ground on wayward shot that led to his double bogey on the 12th hole.
He let out a sigh when a birdie putt came up short on the 13th. He badly missed an 80-yard chip on the 17th that ended up in the back of the green, leaving him with a 45-foot birdie putt.
"That was awful. Awful," he said of the chip. "It's something that I'm still working on technique, and unfortunately, sometimes I think about technique instead of feel."
McIlroy was runner-up in last month's Abu Dhabi Championship. The Northern Irishman came into the tournament saying he felt he should be winning more tournaments. Along with his win in Dubai, he won the Quail Hollow Championship in 2009. He said he was benefiting from the work he has done on his swing in the offseason and this week.
"With the big three being paired together, I tried to go in a little under the radar," McIlroy said. "It was nice to get a good round in there early."
Much like McIlroy, Garcia has been overhauling his game and trying to return to the form that had him ranked as high as No. 2. The Spaniard had been in the news more for missing cuts than winning tournaments -- though his game has improved with a top-10 finish in Qatar last weekend. He is ranked 79th.
"You know, it's slowly getting there," Garcia said. "Still needs to improve, and there will be some not nice rounds coming. This is just the beginning."
Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez (72) was in the mix until the final four holes, when he had two double bogeys.
There is more at stake this weekend than just the tournament title.
Westwood could lose the top ranking if Kaymer wins and he finishes lower than second, and if Kaymer finishes second and Westwood is out of the top 10. If Kaymer is tied for second, he could still become No. 1 if Westwood finishes out of the top 36.
Woods could move ahead of Kaymer if he wins and Kaymer finishes outside the top five.
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
Red (Hayden Panettiere) is in training for the Sister Hoods. Now, teaming with Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Red must investigate the mysterious disappearance of Hansel and Gretel (Bill Hader and Amy Poehler).
Trailer:
Red (Hayden Panettiere) is in training for the Sister Hoods. Now, teaming with Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Red must investigate the mysterious disappearance of Hansel and Gretel (Bill Hader and Amy Poehler).
| Movie Name | Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) |
| Director | Michael D'Isa-Hogan |
| Writer | Cory Edwards Todd Edwards Tony Leech |
| Producer | Camilla Bray Iain Canning Joan Schneider Emile Sherman |
| Release Date | April 29, 2011 |
| Starring | Hayden Panettiere Glenn Close Patrick Warburton David Ogden Stiers Andy Dick Benjy Gaither Martin Short Joan Cusack Wayne Newton David Alan Grier Amy Poehler Bill Hader |
| Genre | Animation, Comedy, Family |
| Studio | Kingdom Feature Productions |
| Distributedby | The Weinstein Company Summit Entertainment(US) E1 Entertainment (UK) |
| MPAA Rating | PG (for some mild rude humor, language and action) |
Tate Forcier Transferring to Miami
Quarterback Tate Forcier is transferring from Michigan to Miami.
"Miami had the best opportunity," Forcier told ESPN. "There is so much positive energy around this program and I really want to be a part of it. I love these coaches and feel like they are the right guys for me. I had a great visit and I really want to be a part of the rebirth at Miami."
Forcier signed an aid agreement on Wednesday, making the transfer official. Under NCAA rules, he will not be eligible to play for the Hurricanes until 2012.
Forcier had narrowed his options to Kansas State, Washington, Arizona, Miami and Montana before choosing Miami.
Forcier backed up Denard Robinson last season after starting ahead of him when they were both freshmen during the 2009 season. Forcier threw for 2,647 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 20 career games.
The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Forcier, a native of San Diego, Calif., was ruled academically ineligible to play in the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl.
Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said Forcier was no longer with the program as he introduced coach Brady Hoke as Rich Rodriguez's successor.
Forcier was a prep star in San Diego who wound up starting for Michigan in his college debut.
Injuries stunted his success and the Wolverines lost seven of their next eight games. Robinson moved past Forcier on the depth chart last spring and started the 2010 opener, accounting for 383 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Connecticut.
Still, it's a significant pickup for first-year coach Al Golden, who wanted to add two quarterbacks in this year's recruiting class. Miami figures to have senior Jacory Harris and sophomore Stephen Morris vying for the starting job in 2011, with little depth after that.
Miami was 7-6 last season.
"Miami had the best opportunity," Forcier told ESPN. "There is so much positive energy around this program and I really want to be a part of it. I love these coaches and feel like they are the right guys for me. I had a great visit and I really want to be a part of the rebirth at Miami."
Forcier signed an aid agreement on Wednesday, making the transfer official. Under NCAA rules, he will not be eligible to play for the Hurricanes until 2012.
Forcier had narrowed his options to Kansas State, Washington, Arizona, Miami and Montana before choosing Miami.
Forcier backed up Denard Robinson last season after starting ahead of him when they were both freshmen during the 2009 season. Forcier threw for 2,647 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 20 career games.
The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Forcier, a native of San Diego, Calif., was ruled academically ineligible to play in the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl.
Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said Forcier was no longer with the program as he introduced coach Brady Hoke as Rich Rodriguez's successor.
Forcier was a prep star in San Diego who wound up starting for Michigan in his college debut.
Injuries stunted his success and the Wolverines lost seven of their next eight games. Robinson moved past Forcier on the depth chart last spring and started the 2010 opener, accounting for 383 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Connecticut.
Still, it's a significant pickup for first-year coach Al Golden, who wanted to add two quarterbacks in this year's recruiting class. Miami figures to have senior Jacory Harris and sophomore Stephen Morris vying for the starting job in 2011, with little depth after that.
Miami was 7-6 last season.
Oranges and Sunshine (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the childcare scandal of forcibly relocating poor children to Australia and Canada. Margaret reunites estranged families and brings worldwide attention to the cause. Deported children were promised oranges and sunshine but they got hard labour and life in institutions.
Trailer:
The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the childcare scandal of forcibly relocating poor children to Australia and Canada. Margaret reunites estranged families and brings worldwide attention to the cause. Deported children were promised oranges and sunshine but they got hard labour and life in institutions.
| Movie Name | Oranges and Sunshine (2011) |
| Director | Jim Loach |
| Writer | Rona Munro |
| Producer | Camilla Bray Iain Canning Joan Schneider Emile Sherman |
| Release Date | |
| Starring | Hugo Weaving David Wenham Emily Watson |
| Genre | Drama |
| Studio | See Saw Films Sixteen Films |
| Distributedby | Icon Film Distribution |
| MPAA Rating |
Report: Carmelo Anthony Talks Signing
As rumors swirl that Carmelo Anthony is heading to New York or Los Angeles, the Denver Nuggets forward said he's thinking about staying put.
Anthony said he would "take a real hard look" at signing a three-year, $65 million extension with the Nuggets if he isn't dealt by the NBA's Feb. 24 deadline, according to the Denver Post.
Last week, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard that the Knicks and Nuggets were discussing a trade that would involve the Wolves and land Anthony in the Big Apple. Then Tuesday, sources told Broussard that the Lakers and Nuggets had initial talks about a deal that would send Anthony to Los Angeles and Andrew Bynum to Denver.
That trade scenario surprised Anthony.
"I've never heard of that. That was a new one," he said, according to the Denver Post. "It is what it is. Everyday is something different. I guess now is the Lakers."
The Nuggets have had the extension on the table since June. The Knicks and Lakers would presumably want Anthony to sign an extension if they acquire him. Anthony has long said that he would like to play in New York and he owns a house near Los Angeles.
Since Anthony hasn't signed the extension, the Nuggets have explored trade talks instead of letting him walk as a free agent at the end of the season. This is the first time that Anthony has publicly said that he might re-sign with Denver.
Anthony said he would "take a real hard look" at signing a three-year, $65 million extension with the Nuggets if he isn't dealt by the NBA's Feb. 24 deadline, according to the Denver Post.
Last week, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard that the Knicks and Nuggets were discussing a trade that would involve the Wolves and land Anthony in the Big Apple. Then Tuesday, sources told Broussard that the Lakers and Nuggets had initial talks about a deal that would send Anthony to Los Angeles and Andrew Bynum to Denver.
That trade scenario surprised Anthony.
"I've never heard of that. That was a new one," he said, according to the Denver Post. "It is what it is. Everyday is something different. I guess now is the Lakers."
The Nuggets have had the extension on the table since June. The Knicks and Lakers would presumably want Anthony to sign an extension if they acquire him. Anthony has long said that he would like to play in New York and he owns a house near Los Angeles.
Since Anthony hasn't signed the extension, the Nuggets have explored trade talks instead of letting him walk as a free agent at the end of the season. This is the first time that Anthony has publicly said that he might re-sign with Denver.
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
The adventures of supernatural private eye, Dylan Dog, who seeks out the monsters of the Louisiana bayou in his signature red shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans.
Trailer:
The adventures of supernatural private eye, Dylan Dog, who seeks out the monsters of the Louisiana bayou in his signature red shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans.
| Movie Name | Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010) |
| Director | Kevin Munroe |
| Writer | Joshua Oppenheimer Thomas Dean Donnelly |
| Producer | |
| Release Date | |
| Starring | Brandon Routh Sam Huntington Taye Diggs Anita Briem Peter Stormare Kurt Angle |
| Genre | Horror, Mystery, Thriller |
| Studio | |
| Distributedby | |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 (for sequences of creature violence and action, language including some sexual references, and some drug material) |
Fans Sue Over Ticket Issues
The NFL has offered money, tickets, merchandise and more to roughly 400 fans who had to give up their seats at the Super Bowl. It might not be enough.
Approximately 1,000 fans sued the NFL, the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones on Wednesday saying they were deceived by not getting seats or received inadequate seats. The federal lawsuit, filed in Dallas, alleges breach of contract, fraud and deceptive sales practices.
"We think that this is a pretty straightforward matter," said Michael Avenatti of Eagan Avenatti, which is representing the fans, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "People did not obtain what they were told they were going to get."
The lawsuit seeks $5 million in actual damages for the plaintiffs -- but that number can be tripled under the state's trade law -- and unspecified punitive damages, according to Bloomberg.
Spokesmen for the Cowboys and the NFL had no comment.
About 1,250 fans were displaced after some temporary seating sections were not completed in time at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday in Arlington, Texas. Other seating was found for 850 fans, but 400 were forced to watch the game on monitors or use standing-room platforms.
The league initially said Monday those fans would get $2,400 -- three times the face value of the ticket -- and tickets to next season's Super Bowl. The fans also were allowed on the field after the game and given merchandise and food.
On Tuesday, the NFL added a second option: They can choose to attend any future Super Bowl instead of being limited to the 2012 game and receive round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations. If fans choose that option, they will not get the $2,400. They can wait until after the conference championship games each season to see whether their favorite team reaches the Super Bowl.
If fans choose the first option of next year's game plus the $2,400, the ticket is transferable, which means it can be sold on the secondary ticket market. It won't be transferable in the other option.
Some fans who were moved want compensation as well. Mike Dolabi said that when he paid for his seat license at Cowboys Stadium, he was promised "the best sightlines in the stadium" for the Super Bowl, according to Bloomberg.
Instead, some fans received "temporary metal fold-out chairs" in an attempt to break the Super Bowl attendance record, according to the complaint.
"The NFL and Jerry Jones sold something to fans they weren't able to deliver, and they knew they weren't able to deliver it," Avenatti said, according to Bloomberg.
The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 on Sunday.
The NFL said it is working with the Packers, Steelers and Cowboys to track down all of the affected fans. Contact information can be e-mailed to SBXLV@nfl.com.
Approximately 1,000 fans sued the NFL, the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones on Wednesday saying they were deceived by not getting seats or received inadequate seats. The federal lawsuit, filed in Dallas, alleges breach of contract, fraud and deceptive sales practices.
"We think that this is a pretty straightforward matter," said Michael Avenatti of Eagan Avenatti, which is representing the fans, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "People did not obtain what they were told they were going to get."
The lawsuit seeks $5 million in actual damages for the plaintiffs -- but that number can be tripled under the state's trade law -- and unspecified punitive damages, according to Bloomberg.
Spokesmen for the Cowboys and the NFL had no comment.
About 1,250 fans were displaced after some temporary seating sections were not completed in time at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday in Arlington, Texas. Other seating was found for 850 fans, but 400 were forced to watch the game on monitors or use standing-room platforms.
The league initially said Monday those fans would get $2,400 -- three times the face value of the ticket -- and tickets to next season's Super Bowl. The fans also were allowed on the field after the game and given merchandise and food.
On Tuesday, the NFL added a second option: They can choose to attend any future Super Bowl instead of being limited to the 2012 game and receive round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations. If fans choose that option, they will not get the $2,400. They can wait until after the conference championship games each season to see whether their favorite team reaches the Super Bowl.
If fans choose the first option of next year's game plus the $2,400, the ticket is transferable, which means it can be sold on the secondary ticket market. It won't be transferable in the other option.
Some fans who were moved want compensation as well. Mike Dolabi said that when he paid for his seat license at Cowboys Stadium, he was promised "the best sightlines in the stadium" for the Super Bowl, according to Bloomberg.
Instead, some fans received "temporary metal fold-out chairs" in an attempt to break the Super Bowl attendance record, according to the complaint.
"The NFL and Jerry Jones sold something to fans they weren't able to deliver, and they knew they weren't able to deliver it," Avenatti said, according to Bloomberg.
The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 on Sunday.
The NFL said it is working with the Packers, Steelers and Cowboys to track down all of the affected fans. Contact information can be e-mailed to SBXLV@nfl.com.
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) New Movie Trailer 2: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Plot:
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is a upcoming 2011 film, directed by Jon Chu. Paramount Pictures is developing a 3D Justin Bieber biopic that will hit theaters on February 11, 2011 (Valentine's Day weekend). The movie will include performances from his current concert tour.
Trailer:
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is a upcoming 2011 film, directed by Jon Chu. Paramount Pictures is developing a 3D Justin Bieber biopic that will hit theaters on February 11, 2011 (Valentine's Day weekend). The movie will include performances from his current concert tour.
| Movie Name | Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) |
| Director | Jon Chu |
| Writer | |
| Producer | |
| Release Date | February 11, 2011 |
| Starring | Justin Bieber |
| Genre | Biography, Music |
| Studio | MTV Films |
| Distributedby | Paramount Pictures |
| MPAA Rating |
Jane Eyre (2011) New Movie Trailer: Latest & Upcoming Movies
Jane Eyre is an upcoming film directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. The screenplay is written by Moira Buffini based on the 1847 novel of the same name by Charlotte Brontë. The film is set for release on March 11, 2011.
Trailer:
| Movie Name | Jane Eyre (2011) |
| Director | Cary Fukunaga |
| Writer | Moira Buffini |
| Producer | Alison Owen Paul Trijbits |
| Release Date | March 11, 2011 |
| Starring | Mia Wasikowska Michael Fassbender Jamie Bell Judi Dench Holliday Grainger Sally Hawkins Tamzin Merchant Imogen Poots Jayne Wisener |
| Genre | Drama, Romance |
| Studio | |
| Distributedby | Focus Features |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 (for some thematic elements including a nude image and brief violent content) |
Film of Beatles' First U.S. Concert to Screen Feb. 11 in Hollywood for First Time in 47 Years
This week is the 47th anniversary of the Beatles’ first U.S. visit and their initial appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that plunged the country into the deep end of Beatlemania.
Two days after that seismic telecast, the Fab Four played their first bona fide concert on U.S. soil at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., an event that was shown in movie theaters around the country in a closed-circuit telecast that has never been widely broadcast since.
But on Friday, the American Cinematheque will show the film of the entire concert for the first time since it was seen back in 1964, a film that also included pre-taped live performances by the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore.
Historian and Beatles enthusiast Domenic Priore (author of “Riot on the Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood”) will host the screening and will be joined by Beach Boys documentary director Alan Boyd and rock ‘n’ roll visual archivist Ron Furmanek and other guests in presenting the film.
Kinescope copies showed up in the 1970s on the midnight movie circuit, but the original videotapes that are the source of Friday’s screenings at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood have not been shown in public in 47 years.
Two days after that seismic telecast, the Fab Four played their first bona fide concert on U.S. soil at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., an event that was shown in movie theaters around the country in a closed-circuit telecast that has never been widely broadcast since.
But on Friday, the American Cinematheque will show the film of the entire concert for the first time since it was seen back in 1964, a film that also included pre-taped live performances by the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore.
Historian and Beatles enthusiast Domenic Priore (author of “Riot on the Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood”) will host the screening and will be joined by Beach Boys documentary director Alan Boyd and rock ‘n’ roll visual archivist Ron Furmanek and other guests in presenting the film.
Kinescope copies showed up in the 1970s on the midnight movie circuit, but the original videotapes that are the source of Friday’s screenings at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood have not been shown in public in 47 years.
Gladiator-Epic Fans Give Genre a Fighting Chance
While sleek, futuristic science fiction continues to have massive appeal — “TRON: Legacy” alone has raked in nearly $400 million worldwide — there’s a contingent of moviegoers out there who prefer to keep their action-adventure old school. Really old school.
Like papyrus-is-the-new-iPad old school.
And they’re going to be lining up this weekend to see “The Eagle,” starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell as a Roman soldier and his slave in 120 A.D. being chased across the Scottish Highlands by wildly painted tribal warriors. Of course, that’s after they’ve checked out the latest episode of Friday night’s “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,” the follow-up (and actually prequel) to last year’s “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” the violent, sexed-up foreplay-and-swordplay gladiator saga that was a big hit for the pay-cable network Starz.
From the biblical epics of the ‘50s to the toga dramas of the ‘60s through more recent hits such as “300,” “Gladiator,” “Braveheart” and TV series such as “Hercules,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Rome” and I, Claudius,” it seems there is always an audience out there that is as equally entranced by the ancient world as the modern — even if the genre is often dismissed as sword-and-sandal or toga trash.
But Tatum says he knows why such stories always appealed to him. “There’s a certain mystique and mystery in that age,” he says during a recent Dallas visit. “I don’t know if we can conceive of how people (lived like) that. Even though the Romans were very sophisticated, there’s only so much fire can do at a certain point. ... Because there wasn’t the Internet or cars, you couldn’t get away. People really valued how people close to them saw them. All you had was your word and your honor.”
“(These films) are visceral and primal,” says Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com, a film site that tracks box-office trends. “That era holds a fascination for a lot of moviegoers.”
But Dergarabedian concedes movies and TV shows like these do run a gauntlet of derision from some film fans and critics. “It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of movie genres,” he says. “It can’t get no respect.”
No one knows that better than those who teach the classics for a living. They understand why some view movies/TV shows about the eras with which they are fascinated with a jaundiced eye.
“That’s a legacy of the ‘50s, those great Roman biblical epics that were so serious. ... but there were fake beards and visible smallpox vaccinations,” says Matthew Brosamer, an associate professor of English at Los Angeles’ Mount St. Mary’s College, who specializes in the literature of Roman, Middle Ages and Renaissance eras. “Literate moviegoers didn’t respect them.”
Richard Armstrong, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Houston who has taught a course on how Rome is perceived in cinema called “Epic Masculinity,” says in an e-mail response that the accents also get in the way. “Part of it is that we have these odd conventions that the Romans had British accents, while all the Christians sound like they’re from Kansas.”
(Actually, in “The Eagle,” Scottish director Kevin Macdonald flipped the script and wanted American actors to portray Romans and British actors to play their slaves and occupied peoples. “He wanted to make a bit of a political statement,” Tatum says.)
Of course, there’s the undercurrent of homo-eroticism which was most famously lampooned in “Airplane!” with the line from the late Peter Graves: “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”
Not to mention sex in general which, in Hollywood’s eyes, Romans seemed to be having all the time with anyone, anywhere.
Armstrong thinks that Starz’ “Spartacus” series is aping the worst aspects of “Caligula,” the 1979 Roman Empire-era film produced by Penthouse magazine’s Bob Guccione that was derided at the time for being pornographic.
“‘Spartacus’ aspires to that level of transgression,” says Armstrong. “I think the constant juxtaposition of sex and utter brutality oversimplifies whatever it wants to say about the ancient world, and reflects more the worlds of cage fighting and the Playboy Channel than Rome, or Capua where it’s actually set. ... Pretty boring unless you’ve never seen naked people before.”
That sense that the ancient world strutted to a different moral drummer is why some think that so many are intrigued by that time period. We can live vicariously through these characters and accept behavior from heroes and villains that we would be repulsed by if set in the contemporary world.
“Why can we be titillated by sexual situations involving Roman slaves but would perhaps object to modern pornography about sex slaves? Putting those actions among those ‘decadent Romans’ lets us turn our fantasies to 11 while displacing all, or almost all, the guilt,” sums up Ricardo Apostol, assistant professor of classics at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University in an e-mail. He teaches a course called “Sword and Sandal: The Classics in Film.”
“Some people can consume it that way, as straight ‘awesome.’ Others, needing a little more distance, ironize it into a guilty pleasure or camp,” he continues. “But it all comes down to the same thing, and our projections onto the Romans say a whole lot more about us than they ever could about them.”
Yet, for all of that, they feel there is also an upside to all this Hollywood revisionism. “The best of the genre, as in the case of HBO’s ‘Rome,’ can help give a sense of the texture of ancient life — not so much the ‘facts,’” says Armstrong.
Sums up Apostol, “Spectacles like these not only get students in the door, they offer ready starting points for discussions. ... And, for students, it’s much more exciting and rewarding to hear that, no, Spartacus was not fighting against the institution of slavery, than it ever could be to hear random facts about a bunch of dead people that they never heard about. ... I can only say to Hollywood: Keep ‘em coming.”
Like papyrus-is-the-new-iPad old school.
And they’re going to be lining up this weekend to see “The Eagle,” starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell as a Roman soldier and his slave in 120 A.D. being chased across the Scottish Highlands by wildly painted tribal warriors. Of course, that’s after they’ve checked out the latest episode of Friday night’s “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,” the follow-up (and actually prequel) to last year’s “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” the violent, sexed-up foreplay-and-swordplay gladiator saga that was a big hit for the pay-cable network Starz.
From the biblical epics of the ‘50s to the toga dramas of the ‘60s through more recent hits such as “300,” “Gladiator,” “Braveheart” and TV series such as “Hercules,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Rome” and I, Claudius,” it seems there is always an audience out there that is as equally entranced by the ancient world as the modern — even if the genre is often dismissed as sword-and-sandal or toga trash.
But Tatum says he knows why such stories always appealed to him. “There’s a certain mystique and mystery in that age,” he says during a recent Dallas visit. “I don’t know if we can conceive of how people (lived like) that. Even though the Romans were very sophisticated, there’s only so much fire can do at a certain point. ... Because there wasn’t the Internet or cars, you couldn’t get away. People really valued how people close to them saw them. All you had was your word and your honor.”
“(These films) are visceral and primal,” says Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com, a film site that tracks box-office trends. “That era holds a fascination for a lot of moviegoers.”
But Dergarabedian concedes movies and TV shows like these do run a gauntlet of derision from some film fans and critics. “It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of movie genres,” he says. “It can’t get no respect.”
No one knows that better than those who teach the classics for a living. They understand why some view movies/TV shows about the eras with which they are fascinated with a jaundiced eye.
“That’s a legacy of the ‘50s, those great Roman biblical epics that were so serious. ... but there were fake beards and visible smallpox vaccinations,” says Matthew Brosamer, an associate professor of English at Los Angeles’ Mount St. Mary’s College, who specializes in the literature of Roman, Middle Ages and Renaissance eras. “Literate moviegoers didn’t respect them.”
Richard Armstrong, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Houston who has taught a course on how Rome is perceived in cinema called “Epic Masculinity,” says in an e-mail response that the accents also get in the way. “Part of it is that we have these odd conventions that the Romans had British accents, while all the Christians sound like they’re from Kansas.”
(Actually, in “The Eagle,” Scottish director Kevin Macdonald flipped the script and wanted American actors to portray Romans and British actors to play their slaves and occupied peoples. “He wanted to make a bit of a political statement,” Tatum says.)
Of course, there’s the undercurrent of homo-eroticism which was most famously lampooned in “Airplane!” with the line from the late Peter Graves: “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”
Not to mention sex in general which, in Hollywood’s eyes, Romans seemed to be having all the time with anyone, anywhere.
Armstrong thinks that Starz’ “Spartacus” series is aping the worst aspects of “Caligula,” the 1979 Roman Empire-era film produced by Penthouse magazine’s Bob Guccione that was derided at the time for being pornographic.
“‘Spartacus’ aspires to that level of transgression,” says Armstrong. “I think the constant juxtaposition of sex and utter brutality oversimplifies whatever it wants to say about the ancient world, and reflects more the worlds of cage fighting and the Playboy Channel than Rome, or Capua where it’s actually set. ... Pretty boring unless you’ve never seen naked people before.”
That sense that the ancient world strutted to a different moral drummer is why some think that so many are intrigued by that time period. We can live vicariously through these characters and accept behavior from heroes and villains that we would be repulsed by if set in the contemporary world.
“Why can we be titillated by sexual situations involving Roman slaves but would perhaps object to modern pornography about sex slaves? Putting those actions among those ‘decadent Romans’ lets us turn our fantasies to 11 while displacing all, or almost all, the guilt,” sums up Ricardo Apostol, assistant professor of classics at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University in an e-mail. He teaches a course called “Sword and Sandal: The Classics in Film.”
“Some people can consume it that way, as straight ‘awesome.’ Others, needing a little more distance, ironize it into a guilty pleasure or camp,” he continues. “But it all comes down to the same thing, and our projections onto the Romans say a whole lot more about us than they ever could about them.”
Yet, for all of that, they feel there is also an upside to all this Hollywood revisionism. “The best of the genre, as in the case of HBO’s ‘Rome,’ can help give a sense of the texture of ancient life — not so much the ‘facts,’” says Armstrong.
Sums up Apostol, “Spectacles like these not only get students in the door, they offer ready starting points for discussions. ... And, for students, it’s much more exciting and rewarding to hear that, no, Spartacus was not fighting against the institution of slavery, than it ever could be to hear random facts about a bunch of dead people that they never heard about. ... I can only say to Hollywood: Keep ‘em coming.”
'Insta-Movie' on Justin Bieber was Done in 6 Months
For decades, whenever a music or movie star popular with teenagers burst onto the scene, his or her rise to fame would be chronicled within months via what’s known in the publishing industry as an “insta-book.”
On Friday comes the “insta-movie.”
“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” part 3-D concert film and part glossy biography of the 16-year-old pop star, was conceived, produced, edited, marketed and released in little more than six months. That’s a time frame virtually unheard of in notoriously slow-moving Hollywood, where movies typically take years to gestate.
Hatched by a division of Paramount Pictures focused on bypassing the lengthy development process and produced by the duo behind the reality show “Top Chef,” the Bieber movie mixes cutting-edge, digital 3-D photography with grainy home movies and reality-show-style documentary footage to create a flattering portrait of the singer and his rise from small-town Canada to international stardom.
The resulting concoction is not only an attempt to cash in on a potentially short-lived phenomenon, but a model for hidebound movie studios to participate in a new media world in which fans create the popular culture as much as they consume it.
“Justin Bieber is a sensation created by fans on the Internet and we have to challenge ourselves to be relevant to that,” said Paramount film group President Adam Goodman. “There’s a place for the way we have done things for years, but with digital technology, we have the opportunity to move at lightning speed.”
The Ontario native was discovered by manager Scooter Braun in 2008 from videos Bieber’s mother posted on YouTube. Aggressive promotion on radio stations and social networks soon spread “Bieber Fever” to a rabid fan base that has bought 4.6 million of his albums. Last year, he was the No. 4 best-selling musical artist, according to Billboard, and the No. 3 most popular in concert, according to Pollstar.
Indeed, a movie is just about the only thing that the Bieber machine hasn’t touched yet. He’s already launched a merchandising and licensing bonanza with everything from watches to T-shirts, had a guest spot on “CSI,” published his autobiography and is getting ready for a global concert tour.
“Never Say Never” opens amid a barrage of both old-school and new-wave publicity. Bieber has appeared on MTV, “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” and stoked up his 7 million-plus Twitter followers (sample: “kinda crazy ... next week at this time #NEVERSAYNEVER3D will be in Theatres ... and u will finally see who I really am”).
People who have seen pre-release surveys say it’s impossible to predict how the $13-million budget movie will perform at the box office because Bieber’s fan base of teen and pre-teen girls is small but fervent.
The 3-D concert movie “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds” surprised many in 2008 when it opened to $31 million. But the similar “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” debuted to just $12.5 million the next year.
“Our normal ways of measuring are not reliable when you’re dealing with a fan base that’s an inch wide and a mile deep,” said Jim Gallagher, a consultant who previously was president of marketing for Disney, who worked on both the Cyrus and Jonas Brothers films when he was at the studio.
“Never Say Never” could potentially be bigger than those movies because of the growing prevalence of 3-D (and the accompanying ticket price surcharge). About 2,500 of its 3,000 theaters this weekend will be 3-D, compared with 683 for “Best of Both Worlds” and 1,271 for “Jonas.”
The idea for a Bieber movie came from Paramount Insurge, a division of the studio formed in the wake of the 2009 low-budget blockbuster “Paranormal Activity” to search for other unlikely and inexpensive projects, particularly those that germinate online.
Insurge staffers proposed a movie about Bieber last June and by the end of that month, a group of Paramount executives including Goodman and vice chairman Rob Moore were at his Minneapolis tour stop to pitch the idea.
But save for a few words as Bieber whizzed past the Hollywood executives on his Segway, they never had the opportunity to meet the singer or his entourage.
“I was told they just wanted to see the show with their kids, so I said ‘Sure, give them tickets,’” Braun later recalled, explaining how the movie big shots were initially ignored.
Nonetheless, the Paramount executives were sufficiently impressed by Bieber’s performance — and his fans’ hysteria — to later meet in Los Angeles with Braun, who already was mulling a direct-to-DVD movie.
By early August, Goodman recruited “Step Up 3D” director Jon Chu, whose first task was preparing a 20-camera 3-D shoot of an Aug. 31 concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Paramount spent millions to upgrade Bieber’s normal show, adding more dancers, pyrotechnics, high-definition screens, and recruiting guest artists such as Ludacris, Boyz II Men and Cyrus.
“We had 3 1/2 weeks to put it together and one chance to do it right,” Chu said. “I was scared about everything — what if a piece of confetti fell on a lens?”
As Bieber’s tour traveled from Toronto to New York, meanwhile, “Top Chef” producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz had two camera crews behind the scenes. They shot about 200 hours of the singer, his coaches and stylists, and were given another 30 hours of home movies featuring his preternatural musical talent.
The duo, who had no experience on a studio feature, shaped that footage into storylines just as they would on a reality TV program.
While the film was being edited in the fall, Paramount began activating Bieber fans.
About 60,000 spent $30 for tickets, along with 3-D glasses in the singer’s signature purple, to a sneak preview Wednesday.
The studio recently has aired ads that focus on Bieber’s inspiring rise-to-fame in hopes of appealing to parents whose wallets and chauffeur skills will be necessary for younger viewers.
Most films focused on pop artists have short box-office runs after fans pack theaters on an opening Friday.
But Braun believes “Never Say Never” will finally expand Bieber’s base beyond those who squeal when he shakes his bangs.
“I want all the haters who don’t understand who Justin is to see this,” he said.
Success also will bring more money to the Bieber machine.
People familiar with the budget said that the singer and Braun, who has a producer credit, forsook a large up-front fee in exchange for a significant portion of profits.
The studio is hoping money will roll in because it has a picture successfully rushed to capture a cultural moment. And with box-office receipts down 25 percent year to date, a must-see movie is exactly what Hollywood needs.
But just as superstars such as Bieber are difficult to create, turning “Never Say Never” into a blueprint could be tough. After all, its makers aren’t even sure what it is.
“We’ve been racking our brains to think of a name for this genre,” Lipsitz admitted, before her partner Cutforth came up with a suggestion: “I think it’s a docu-tainment event.”
On Friday comes the “insta-movie.”
“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” part 3-D concert film and part glossy biography of the 16-year-old pop star, was conceived, produced, edited, marketed and released in little more than six months. That’s a time frame virtually unheard of in notoriously slow-moving Hollywood, where movies typically take years to gestate.
Hatched by a division of Paramount Pictures focused on bypassing the lengthy development process and produced by the duo behind the reality show “Top Chef,” the Bieber movie mixes cutting-edge, digital 3-D photography with grainy home movies and reality-show-style documentary footage to create a flattering portrait of the singer and his rise from small-town Canada to international stardom.
The resulting concoction is not only an attempt to cash in on a potentially short-lived phenomenon, but a model for hidebound movie studios to participate in a new media world in which fans create the popular culture as much as they consume it.
“Justin Bieber is a sensation created by fans on the Internet and we have to challenge ourselves to be relevant to that,” said Paramount film group President Adam Goodman. “There’s a place for the way we have done things for years, but with digital technology, we have the opportunity to move at lightning speed.”
The Ontario native was discovered by manager Scooter Braun in 2008 from videos Bieber’s mother posted on YouTube. Aggressive promotion on radio stations and social networks soon spread “Bieber Fever” to a rabid fan base that has bought 4.6 million of his albums. Last year, he was the No. 4 best-selling musical artist, according to Billboard, and the No. 3 most popular in concert, according to Pollstar.
Indeed, a movie is just about the only thing that the Bieber machine hasn’t touched yet. He’s already launched a merchandising and licensing bonanza with everything from watches to T-shirts, had a guest spot on “CSI,” published his autobiography and is getting ready for a global concert tour.
“Never Say Never” opens amid a barrage of both old-school and new-wave publicity. Bieber has appeared on MTV, “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” and stoked up his 7 million-plus Twitter followers (sample: “kinda crazy ... next week at this time #NEVERSAYNEVER3D will be in Theatres ... and u will finally see who I really am”).
People who have seen pre-release surveys say it’s impossible to predict how the $13-million budget movie will perform at the box office because Bieber’s fan base of teen and pre-teen girls is small but fervent.
The 3-D concert movie “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds” surprised many in 2008 when it opened to $31 million. But the similar “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” debuted to just $12.5 million the next year.
“Our normal ways of measuring are not reliable when you’re dealing with a fan base that’s an inch wide and a mile deep,” said Jim Gallagher, a consultant who previously was president of marketing for Disney, who worked on both the Cyrus and Jonas Brothers films when he was at the studio.
“Never Say Never” could potentially be bigger than those movies because of the growing prevalence of 3-D (and the accompanying ticket price surcharge). About 2,500 of its 3,000 theaters this weekend will be 3-D, compared with 683 for “Best of Both Worlds” and 1,271 for “Jonas.”
The idea for a Bieber movie came from Paramount Insurge, a division of the studio formed in the wake of the 2009 low-budget blockbuster “Paranormal Activity” to search for other unlikely and inexpensive projects, particularly those that germinate online.
Insurge staffers proposed a movie about Bieber last June and by the end of that month, a group of Paramount executives including Goodman and vice chairman Rob Moore were at his Minneapolis tour stop to pitch the idea.
But save for a few words as Bieber whizzed past the Hollywood executives on his Segway, they never had the opportunity to meet the singer or his entourage.
“I was told they just wanted to see the show with their kids, so I said ‘Sure, give them tickets,’” Braun later recalled, explaining how the movie big shots were initially ignored.
Nonetheless, the Paramount executives were sufficiently impressed by Bieber’s performance — and his fans’ hysteria — to later meet in Los Angeles with Braun, who already was mulling a direct-to-DVD movie.
By early August, Goodman recruited “Step Up 3D” director Jon Chu, whose first task was preparing a 20-camera 3-D shoot of an Aug. 31 concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Paramount spent millions to upgrade Bieber’s normal show, adding more dancers, pyrotechnics, high-definition screens, and recruiting guest artists such as Ludacris, Boyz II Men and Cyrus.
“We had 3 1/2 weeks to put it together and one chance to do it right,” Chu said. “I was scared about everything — what if a piece of confetti fell on a lens?”
As Bieber’s tour traveled from Toronto to New York, meanwhile, “Top Chef” producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz had two camera crews behind the scenes. They shot about 200 hours of the singer, his coaches and stylists, and were given another 30 hours of home movies featuring his preternatural musical talent.
The duo, who had no experience on a studio feature, shaped that footage into storylines just as they would on a reality TV program.
While the film was being edited in the fall, Paramount began activating Bieber fans.
About 60,000 spent $30 for tickets, along with 3-D glasses in the singer’s signature purple, to a sneak preview Wednesday.
The studio recently has aired ads that focus on Bieber’s inspiring rise-to-fame in hopes of appealing to parents whose wallets and chauffeur skills will be necessary for younger viewers.
Most films focused on pop artists have short box-office runs after fans pack theaters on an opening Friday.
But Braun believes “Never Say Never” will finally expand Bieber’s base beyond those who squeal when he shakes his bangs.
“I want all the haters who don’t understand who Justin is to see this,” he said.
Success also will bring more money to the Bieber machine.
People familiar with the budget said that the singer and Braun, who has a producer credit, forsook a large up-front fee in exchange for a significant portion of profits.
The studio is hoping money will roll in because it has a picture successfully rushed to capture a cultural moment. And with box-office receipts down 25 percent year to date, a must-see movie is exactly what Hollywood needs.
But just as superstars such as Bieber are difficult to create, turning “Never Say Never” into a blueprint could be tough. After all, its makers aren’t even sure what it is.
“We’ve been racking our brains to think of a name for this genre,” Lipsitz admitted, before her partner Cutforth came up with a suggestion: “I think it’s a docu-tainment event.”
''The Kids Are All Right' producer enjoys Oscar race
Gary Gilbert says he didn’t foresee during the making of “The Kids Are All Right” that the film would get several Academy Award nominations and be competing for best picture on Feb. 27.
“Not at all, and you never do when shooting a film,” he says by phone. “In this day and age, you’re hoping that you just get some form of domestic theatrical distribution. But really, you have no idea while you’re shooting a film what the finished product is going to look like or be.”
But Gilbert did know that the film had all the right ingredients — a talented director, Lisa Cholodenko of “Laurel Canyon” and “High Art,” whose work he admired, a script co-written by her that he loved, and an A-list cast of Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
The small-budget independent film was shot in just 23 days. Gilbert’s responsibilities as one of the producers included overseeing the production on the set and working to get distribution for the film.
“The Kids Are All Right” has gotten the sort of glowing reviews that only a handful of 2010 movies received. Besides a best picture nod, it has earned Oscar nominations for Bening, Ruffalo and its original screenplay.
The story of two moms raising their two teenage children and the sperm-donor dad who comes into their lives, “The Kids are All Right” has been hailed as a funny, profound portrait of a family that connects universally with audiences.
“It’s very topical, the same-sex marriage part of it. However, what I think is very special about the film is that it’s not heavy-handed,” says Gilbert. “It doesn’t take a stance on same-sex marriages. It’s just a fact. It’s a premise of the story. And I think that people see that, just like any other family, they are exposed to the same challenges and problems as a conventional family.”
It’s been a relatively short journey for Gilbert from aspiring film guy to red carpet regular for the 2011 awards season. Ten years ago, he was on a journey to learn everything he could about the business. Then in 2004, “Garden State,” his first film as a producer, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to become a critical and box-office success.
Prior to that, Gilbert — who earned a degree in business administration from the University of Michigan — was involved in the world of mortgage banking. In 1985, he helped his brother, noted businessman Dan Gilbert, found Rock Financial mortgage company. The sale of the company more than a decade ago allowed Gary Gilbert to shift his focus to a new career.
“There was a period where I was just trying to figure out, well, what do I do with my life? What do I love? And I said to myself, well, I love film,” he says.
But in those days, long before the state’s current filmmaking incentives, people from Michigan didn’t necessarily go into the film industry.
“I was actually dreading people rolling their eyes when I was going to tell them that that was what I wanted to venture into,” he remembers.
According to Gilbert, he decided in 2000 to take about 18 months and not invest in any films, but instead arrange as many meetings as possible with anyone — agents, managers, directors, actors — who could help him learn the business.
After about two years, he says, “Garden State,” came his way. It starred Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, who is up against Bening for the best actress Oscar. Gilbert liked the material right away and financed the $2.5-million film, which sold at Sundance for $5 million. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, it made more than $26 million domestically.
Recently, Gilbert and his colleague at Gilbert Films, producer Jordan Horowitz, who also worked on “The Kids Are All Right,” have produced two made-in-Michigan movies: “Meet Monica Velour” with Kim Cattrall, which was shot in 2008 and opens in New York and Los Angeles on April 8, and “Cripple,” which features Aaron Paul, Lena Olin, Tom Berenger and Jeff Daniels and was filmed late last year.
“Cripple,” which Gilbert hopes to debut this year at the Toronto Film Festival, is inspired by a real-life metro Detroiter. A drama with plenty of comedy, it’s based on the memoirs of Adam Niskar, an employee of Quicken Loans who was paralyzed after a diving accident.
Gilbert has been working on developing the project, formerly titled “Right Angle,” for about eight years. His brother Dan, the chairman of Quicken Loans, is an executive producer and sole financier of the movie.
Scenes were shot at Quicken’s downtown office and Niskar has a cameo in the movie. “He did a phenomenal job,” says Gilbert.
As for a highly anticipated project that wasn’t made here, “Margaret,” a movie that Gilbert produced and co-financed with Fox Searchlight and that stars Anna Paquin, Matthew Broderick and Matt Damon, is set to be released this year after much delay due in part to multiple lawsuits. It’s directed by Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”).
For the past few weeks, Gilbert has been going to the award shows that take place before the Oscars. “The Kids Are All Right” won a Golden Globe for best picture — musical or comedy.
How does he prepare for all of this? “I get my tuxedo dry-cleaned every week,” he says with a laugh. “I think I need a new one for the Oscars.”
But he’s serious about what it means to receive a best picture Oscar nod. On the Oscar Web site’s official nomination roster, he’s one of three producers listed for “The Kids Are All Right.” Although it’s a cliche, he says it really is an honor just to be nominated. “It is something that will stay with me all my life,” he says.
“Not at all, and you never do when shooting a film,” he says by phone. “In this day and age, you’re hoping that you just get some form of domestic theatrical distribution. But really, you have no idea while you’re shooting a film what the finished product is going to look like or be.”
But Gilbert did know that the film had all the right ingredients — a talented director, Lisa Cholodenko of “Laurel Canyon” and “High Art,” whose work he admired, a script co-written by her that he loved, and an A-list cast of Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
The small-budget independent film was shot in just 23 days. Gilbert’s responsibilities as one of the producers included overseeing the production on the set and working to get distribution for the film.
“The Kids Are All Right” has gotten the sort of glowing reviews that only a handful of 2010 movies received. Besides a best picture nod, it has earned Oscar nominations for Bening, Ruffalo and its original screenplay.
The story of two moms raising their two teenage children and the sperm-donor dad who comes into their lives, “The Kids are All Right” has been hailed as a funny, profound portrait of a family that connects universally with audiences.
“It’s very topical, the same-sex marriage part of it. However, what I think is very special about the film is that it’s not heavy-handed,” says Gilbert. “It doesn’t take a stance on same-sex marriages. It’s just a fact. It’s a premise of the story. And I think that people see that, just like any other family, they are exposed to the same challenges and problems as a conventional family.”
It’s been a relatively short journey for Gilbert from aspiring film guy to red carpet regular for the 2011 awards season. Ten years ago, he was on a journey to learn everything he could about the business. Then in 2004, “Garden State,” his first film as a producer, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to become a critical and box-office success.
Prior to that, Gilbert — who earned a degree in business administration from the University of Michigan — was involved in the world of mortgage banking. In 1985, he helped his brother, noted businessman Dan Gilbert, found Rock Financial mortgage company. The sale of the company more than a decade ago allowed Gary Gilbert to shift his focus to a new career.
“There was a period where I was just trying to figure out, well, what do I do with my life? What do I love? And I said to myself, well, I love film,” he says.
But in those days, long before the state’s current filmmaking incentives, people from Michigan didn’t necessarily go into the film industry.
“I was actually dreading people rolling their eyes when I was going to tell them that that was what I wanted to venture into,” he remembers.
According to Gilbert, he decided in 2000 to take about 18 months and not invest in any films, but instead arrange as many meetings as possible with anyone — agents, managers, directors, actors — who could help him learn the business.
After about two years, he says, “Garden State,” came his way. It starred Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, who is up against Bening for the best actress Oscar. Gilbert liked the material right away and financed the $2.5-million film, which sold at Sundance for $5 million. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, it made more than $26 million domestically.
Recently, Gilbert and his colleague at Gilbert Films, producer Jordan Horowitz, who also worked on “The Kids Are All Right,” have produced two made-in-Michigan movies: “Meet Monica Velour” with Kim Cattrall, which was shot in 2008 and opens in New York and Los Angeles on April 8, and “Cripple,” which features Aaron Paul, Lena Olin, Tom Berenger and Jeff Daniels and was filmed late last year.
“Cripple,” which Gilbert hopes to debut this year at the Toronto Film Festival, is inspired by a real-life metro Detroiter. A drama with plenty of comedy, it’s based on the memoirs of Adam Niskar, an employee of Quicken Loans who was paralyzed after a diving accident.
Gilbert has been working on developing the project, formerly titled “Right Angle,” for about eight years. His brother Dan, the chairman of Quicken Loans, is an executive producer and sole financier of the movie.
Scenes were shot at Quicken’s downtown office and Niskar has a cameo in the movie. “He did a phenomenal job,” says Gilbert.
As for a highly anticipated project that wasn’t made here, “Margaret,” a movie that Gilbert produced and co-financed with Fox Searchlight and that stars Anna Paquin, Matthew Broderick and Matt Damon, is set to be released this year after much delay due in part to multiple lawsuits. It’s directed by Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”).
For the past few weeks, Gilbert has been going to the award shows that take place before the Oscars. “The Kids Are All Right” won a Golden Globe for best picture — musical or comedy.
How does he prepare for all of this? “I get my tuxedo dry-cleaned every week,” he says with a laugh. “I think I need a new one for the Oscars.”
But he’s serious about what it means to receive a best picture Oscar nod. On the Oscar Web site’s official nomination roster, he’s one of three producers listed for “The Kids Are All Right.” Although it’s a cliche, he says it really is an honor just to be nominated. “It is something that will stay with me all my life,” he says.
Author studies black migration to the North
When Miles Davis’ parents left Arkansas, they were among the early African-American migrants to leave the South for better opportunities in the North.
If they hadn’t moved to Alton, Ill., where Davis was born in 1926, the future jazz great probably would not have had the opportunity to learn and practice music, author Isabel Wilkerson says.
More than 6 million African-Americans left the South between World War I and the 1970s, dramatically changing the country.
“We’re still trying to comprehend the impact,” Wilkerson says.
For more than 15 years, she researched that impact for “The Warmth of Other Suns.” A journalism professor at Boston University, she talked by phone while on a train to New York last week. While Chicago bureau chief for The New York Times, she won a Pulitzer Prize for feature stories about the 1993 flood in the Midwest.
Her book is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award and has been cited on numerous lists as one of the best books of last year.
“It’s gratifying to see how people are embracing it,” she says.
Wilkerson says readers respond to different things, from the personal stories to the magnitude of a trend they may have been aware of only vaguely.
To explore this “Great Migration,” Wilkerson narrates in detail the intimate stories of three people as they relocate to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
She writes:
“The actions of the people in this book were both universal and distinctly American. Their migration was a response to an economic and social structure not of their making. They did what humans have done for centuries when life became untenable — what the pilgrims did under the tyranny of British rule, what the Scotch-Irish did in Oklahoma when the land turned to dust, what the Irish did when there was nothing to eat, what the European Jews did during the spread of Nazism, what the landless in Russia, Italy, China, and elsewhere did when something better across the ocean called to them. What binds these stories together was the back-against-the-wall, reluctant yet hopeful search for something better, any place but where they were. They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left.”
One of the migrants Wilkerson profiles comes briefly through St. Louis. Although St. Louis counts as the North, Wilkerson calls it a border crossing like Washington and Cincinnati, and not one of the major “receiving stations,” such as Chicago and Detroit.
Robert Pershing Foster’s first trip out of Monroe, La., is to visit his brother, a resident at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Foster eventually decides to become a doctor, too, and as a surgeon moves to Los Angles and builds an overflowing, lucrative practice treating many other migrants from Texas and Louisiana.
The migrations began in response to labor shortages during World War I, but another primary reason to leave was the South’s caste system.
Wilkerson describes the segregation and racism throughout the book, without ever mentioning a water fountain or restroom (“that was only the beginning of the caste system,” she says).
Every Southern black would have known or heard of someone who had been lynched, with lynchings occurring an average of every four days.
As she describes the Florida boyhood of George Starling, Wilkerson writes, “Surrounded as he was by the arbitrary violence of the ruling caste, it would be nearly impossible for George or any other colored boy in that era to grow up without the fear of being lynched ...”
At one point, George waits at a pharmacy for an ice cream. The pharmacist has his terrier jump on the counter and asks the dog, “What would you rather do? Be a nigger or die?” The dog lies down and plays “dead” as the white customers laugh.
Of course, for the 6 million and more people who left the South, many found a similar caste system in Northern cities, Wilkerson says. Miles Davis wrote bitterly of the racism he encountered during his life, and the East St. Louis riot of 1917 began, in part, because of the new influx of black laborers, who were not allowed to join unions.
Migrants “were met with hostility, yet they persevered,” Wilkerson says, becoming, or inspiring, writers like Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, August Wilson and Toni Morrison. Richard Wright became “the bard of the Great Migration,” she writes. He left Mississippi for Chicago and said he wanted to feel “the warmth of other suns.”
The migration did hurt the South, she says, which panicked when it realized it was losing cheap labor. But the culture didn’t change dramatically until the 1970s. Now, there is some “reverse migration,” with African Americans moving back, some in search of their “homeland.”
If they hadn’t moved to Alton, Ill., where Davis was born in 1926, the future jazz great probably would not have had the opportunity to learn and practice music, author Isabel Wilkerson says.
More than 6 million African-Americans left the South between World War I and the 1970s, dramatically changing the country.
“We’re still trying to comprehend the impact,” Wilkerson says.
For more than 15 years, she researched that impact for “The Warmth of Other Suns.” A journalism professor at Boston University, she talked by phone while on a train to New York last week. While Chicago bureau chief for The New York Times, she won a Pulitzer Prize for feature stories about the 1993 flood in the Midwest.
Her book is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award and has been cited on numerous lists as one of the best books of last year.
“It’s gratifying to see how people are embracing it,” she says.
Wilkerson says readers respond to different things, from the personal stories to the magnitude of a trend they may have been aware of only vaguely.
To explore this “Great Migration,” Wilkerson narrates in detail the intimate stories of three people as they relocate to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
She writes:
“The actions of the people in this book were both universal and distinctly American. Their migration was a response to an economic and social structure not of their making. They did what humans have done for centuries when life became untenable — what the pilgrims did under the tyranny of British rule, what the Scotch-Irish did in Oklahoma when the land turned to dust, what the Irish did when there was nothing to eat, what the European Jews did during the spread of Nazism, what the landless in Russia, Italy, China, and elsewhere did when something better across the ocean called to them. What binds these stories together was the back-against-the-wall, reluctant yet hopeful search for something better, any place but where they were. They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left.”
One of the migrants Wilkerson profiles comes briefly through St. Louis. Although St. Louis counts as the North, Wilkerson calls it a border crossing like Washington and Cincinnati, and not one of the major “receiving stations,” such as Chicago and Detroit.
Robert Pershing Foster’s first trip out of Monroe, La., is to visit his brother, a resident at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Foster eventually decides to become a doctor, too, and as a surgeon moves to Los Angles and builds an overflowing, lucrative practice treating many other migrants from Texas and Louisiana.
The migrations began in response to labor shortages during World War I, but another primary reason to leave was the South’s caste system.
Wilkerson describes the segregation and racism throughout the book, without ever mentioning a water fountain or restroom (“that was only the beginning of the caste system,” she says).
Every Southern black would have known or heard of someone who had been lynched, with lynchings occurring an average of every four days.
As she describes the Florida boyhood of George Starling, Wilkerson writes, “Surrounded as he was by the arbitrary violence of the ruling caste, it would be nearly impossible for George or any other colored boy in that era to grow up without the fear of being lynched ...”
At one point, George waits at a pharmacy for an ice cream. The pharmacist has his terrier jump on the counter and asks the dog, “What would you rather do? Be a nigger or die?” The dog lies down and plays “dead” as the white customers laugh.
Of course, for the 6 million and more people who left the South, many found a similar caste system in Northern cities, Wilkerson says. Miles Davis wrote bitterly of the racism he encountered during his life, and the East St. Louis riot of 1917 began, in part, because of the new influx of black laborers, who were not allowed to join unions.
Migrants “were met with hostility, yet they persevered,” Wilkerson says, becoming, or inspiring, writers like Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, August Wilson and Toni Morrison. Richard Wright became “the bard of the Great Migration,” she writes. He left Mississippi for Chicago and said he wanted to feel “the warmth of other suns.”
The migration did hurt the South, she says, which panicked when it realized it was losing cheap labor. But the culture didn’t change dramatically until the 1970s. Now, there is some “reverse migration,” with African Americans moving back, some in search of their “homeland.”
Karen Tei Yamashita achieves a grand ambition in award-winning 'I Hotel'
The late 1960s was the era of political movements, most of which — the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the women’s movement, the sexual revolution — have been well-chronicled.
Less well-known is the political awakening of Asian Americans during the 1960s, particularly on the West Coast. It is into this milieu that writer and UC Santa Cruz professor Karen Tei Yamashita sets her kaleidoscopic, experimental novel “I Hotel,” a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award.
“I Hotel” is fiction, not history. But to tell her sprawling story — centered in San Francisco over the course of decade, featuring scores of characters — Yamashita conducted more than 150 interviews and spent more than 10 years shaping the narrative. The result of all that work was one of the most acclaimed books of the year.
“I’ve always been a fan of big novels with lots of overlapping stories,” said the author.
“I Hotel” is unusually structured, embracing many different types of storytelling techniques. The book is set up as a series of 10 novellas, each chronicling a year from 1968 to 1977 with the International Hotel, a decrepit hotel on the edge of San Francisco’s Chinatown, serving as the setting and the catalyst for action throughout the book. The narrative weaves together a dizzying number of characters, voices and settings to map out the emergence of a community coming into its own.
Besides straight prose, Yamashita tells her story through comics, illustrations, songs, dance scripts, even a recipe.
“The material came first,” said Yamashita. “I researched that for about a decade — about seven years of that in a concentrated way when I came to Santa Cruz in 1997. I usually do a great deal of research in my books. And in this case I had to find a form to present the material and that’s when the experimenting came in. The 10 novellas seemed to be the most appropriate way to present such a layered history.”
Yamashita grew up in Los Angeles and, though she was a college student at the time in which her novel is set, she went to school in Minnesota. “I was aware of all of this, but probably with a limited vision or perspective.”
The 630-page “I Hotel” has about 30 central characters — and many more secondary characters — including young radicals and Maoists, housing activists, choreographers, musicians, a gay Chinese poet, a Japanese Black Panther, a Filipino chef, an artist who captured the Japanese-American experience in World War II detention camps. The tone of the prose reflects this wild, crazy-quilt approach, from oral history to satire.
The Washington Post said of the book, “As original as it is political, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.” The book was one of five finalists for the 2010 National Book Award that went to Jaimy Gordon’s “Lord of Misrule.”
Yamashita’s book serves as a reminder of the history of racism and discrimination faced, often under the notice of mainstream culture, by immigrants from all parts of Asia. “Asian communities were ghettoized. There were covenants in almost all big cities against renting out to Asians. I mean, there’s a reason why we were all living together.”
Even though it is considered by many critics as Yamashita’s magnum opus — her other novels include “Through the Arc of the Rainforest,” “Brazil-Maru,” “Tropic of Orange” and “Circle K Cycles — she said that “I Hotel” is only a small part of a broader mosaic of recent Asian-American political history.
“The book, while it is massive and thick, really only touches upon many of the aspects of it. I think it’s just the tip of a larger, more dense, more complicated story.”
Less well-known is the political awakening of Asian Americans during the 1960s, particularly on the West Coast. It is into this milieu that writer and UC Santa Cruz professor Karen Tei Yamashita sets her kaleidoscopic, experimental novel “I Hotel,” a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award.
“I Hotel” is fiction, not history. But to tell her sprawling story — centered in San Francisco over the course of decade, featuring scores of characters — Yamashita conducted more than 150 interviews and spent more than 10 years shaping the narrative. The result of all that work was one of the most acclaimed books of the year.
“I’ve always been a fan of big novels with lots of overlapping stories,” said the author.
“I Hotel” is unusually structured, embracing many different types of storytelling techniques. The book is set up as a series of 10 novellas, each chronicling a year from 1968 to 1977 with the International Hotel, a decrepit hotel on the edge of San Francisco’s Chinatown, serving as the setting and the catalyst for action throughout the book. The narrative weaves together a dizzying number of characters, voices and settings to map out the emergence of a community coming into its own.
Besides straight prose, Yamashita tells her story through comics, illustrations, songs, dance scripts, even a recipe.
“The material came first,” said Yamashita. “I researched that for about a decade — about seven years of that in a concentrated way when I came to Santa Cruz in 1997. I usually do a great deal of research in my books. And in this case I had to find a form to present the material and that’s when the experimenting came in. The 10 novellas seemed to be the most appropriate way to present such a layered history.”
Yamashita grew up in Los Angeles and, though she was a college student at the time in which her novel is set, she went to school in Minnesota. “I was aware of all of this, but probably with a limited vision or perspective.”
The 630-page “I Hotel” has about 30 central characters — and many more secondary characters — including young radicals and Maoists, housing activists, choreographers, musicians, a gay Chinese poet, a Japanese Black Panther, a Filipino chef, an artist who captured the Japanese-American experience in World War II detention camps. The tone of the prose reflects this wild, crazy-quilt approach, from oral history to satire.
The Washington Post said of the book, “As original as it is political, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.” The book was one of five finalists for the 2010 National Book Award that went to Jaimy Gordon’s “Lord of Misrule.”
Yamashita’s book serves as a reminder of the history of racism and discrimination faced, often under the notice of mainstream culture, by immigrants from all parts of Asia. “Asian communities were ghettoized. There were covenants in almost all big cities against renting out to Asians. I mean, there’s a reason why we were all living together.”
Even though it is considered by many critics as Yamashita’s magnum opus — her other novels include “Through the Arc of the Rainforest,” “Brazil-Maru,” “Tropic of Orange” and “Circle K Cycles — she said that “I Hotel” is only a small part of a broader mosaic of recent Asian-American political history.
“The book, while it is massive and thick, really only touches upon many of the aspects of it. I think it’s just the tip of a larger, more dense, more complicated story.”
Adam Sandler: The new Woody Allen? No, and yes
We humans divide ourselves into camps.
Liberals and conservatives.
Cat people and dog people.
Woody Allen fans and Adam Sandler fans.
Sandler, whose “Just Go With It” opens Friday, occupies a place in the hearts of Gen-Xers much in the way that Woody Allen is a cultural icon for baby boomers.
Those sounds you hear are the howls of protest and snorts of derision from graying movie watchers across the land. Mentioning the Woodman and Sandler in the same sentence? It’s an offense worthy of excommunication.
And yet, both men are immediately recognizable voices of their generations.
Woody Allen’s recent output has been variable — and that’s being charitable.
And despite the dozen or so Sandler movies in heavy rotation oncable, there’s really only one Sandler movie — “The Wedding Singer” — worth watching beginning to end more than once.
Allen’s movies are informed by his many interests: philosophy, psychology, cinema, politics, morality, literature, his Jewish heritage, romantic love.
Sandler’s works, on the other hand, are characterized by comic rage, slapstick sadism and a childlike impulsiveness. Playing the nemesis in a Sandler movie guarantees that you’ll be kicked, punched or otherwise assaulted in the groin.
So the simple answer is the two are nothing alike. And yet in many ways, Allen and Sandler are at least comedy cousins.
Both grew up Jewish in Brooklyn and attended New York University (Sandler graduated; Allen, the intellectual, was dismissed for poor grades).
Both got their first taste of performing in comedy clubs and cut their teeth on television writing (Sandler for “Saturday Night Live,” Allen for Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan and “The Tonight Show”).
Neither is much of an actor. Allen early on established the performance persona of a neurotic New Yorker and has rarely strayed from it. Sandler usually plays the arrested adolescent, though in recent years he has attempted to break out of that mold.
Allen devotes most of his time to film (he has also written Broadway plays and several books). Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions is responsible for the TV series “Rules of Engagement” as well as numerous movies starring Sandler’s comedy friends (“Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The Master of Disguise,” “Joe Dirt”).
Eric Melin, who covers popular entertainment at Lawrence, Kan.-based www.scene-stealers.com, understands Sandler’s appeal.
“Actually, I do not look forward to an Adam Sandler movie,” he said. “But I know a lot of people my age who grew up with Sandler, first on ‘SNL’ and then through films like ‘Happy Gilmore’ and ‘Billy Madison.’ To lots of people my age those are classic movies, the way ‘Animal House’ or ‘Caddyshack’ are classics for other generations. And they’ve left Sandler embedded in the culture.”
Melin said his favorite Sandler movies are those in which good directors place his misbehaving man/boy character in real world situations: Judd Apatow (“Funny People”), Mike Binder (“Reign Over Me”), James L. Brooks (“Spanglish”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Punch-Drunk Love”).
“I love ‘Punch-Drunk Love,’ where they took that angry kid persona to its furthest extreme. And in ‘Funny People,’ Judd Apatow tried to follow the logical progression of Sandler’s stock character into adulthood,” Melin said. “But, of course, those movies have all failed at the box office because they’re actually pretty bleak.”
Perhaps it all boils down to this: We cling to certain films and entertainers who were important to us in our formative years, from our late teens through our mid-30s.
Allen fans have seen him progress from inspired silliness (“Bananas,” “Sleeper”) to a world-class romance (“Annie Hall”) to funny/sad meditations on modern life (“Manhattan,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Husbands and Wives”) to amazing period pieces (“The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Radio Days,” “Bullets Over Broadway”).
To Sandler’s credit, he has gone beyond the gator-eating swampbillies of “The Waterboy.” But for every “Punch-Drunk Love” there’s a “Mr. Deeds.” For every “Reign Over Me” there’s a “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.” For every “Funny People,” there’s ... well, “Funny People.”
In the few interviews he has granted, Sandler seems perfectly content with starring in one semi-romantic comedy/borderline kid flick a year while producing a couple of other comedies for his pals and proteges.
Sandler’s potential to give us more, however, may be the one thing his critics and fans can agree on. The separation between the camps comes in each one’s desire to see what that “more” might be.
His core audience might be fine if that “more” is just more shots to the groin. But the rest of us would like to see him emulate Allen and bring his shtick above the belt to hit the heart and mind, as well.
———
COMING SOON
Adam Sandler: He wrote and produced “Born to be a Star” (April 22), a comedy about a young man from the Midwest (Nick Swardson) who follows his dreams of becoming a porn star. And Sandler produced and voices a monkey in “Zookeeper” (July 8), in which animals break their code of silence to help zookeeper Kevin James attract the woman he loves.
Woody Allen: He opens the Cannes Film Festival in May with the romantic comedy “Midnight in Paris.” Though the movie features a stellar cast — Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody — it has drawn the most press for the cameo by Carla Bruni, France’s first lady.
Liberals and conservatives.
Cat people and dog people.
Woody Allen fans and Adam Sandler fans.
Sandler, whose “Just Go With It” opens Friday, occupies a place in the hearts of Gen-Xers much in the way that Woody Allen is a cultural icon for baby boomers.
Those sounds you hear are the howls of protest and snorts of derision from graying movie watchers across the land. Mentioning the Woodman and Sandler in the same sentence? It’s an offense worthy of excommunication.
And yet, both men are immediately recognizable voices of their generations.
Woody Allen’s recent output has been variable — and that’s being charitable.
And despite the dozen or so Sandler movies in heavy rotation oncable, there’s really only one Sandler movie — “The Wedding Singer” — worth watching beginning to end more than once.
Allen’s movies are informed by his many interests: philosophy, psychology, cinema, politics, morality, literature, his Jewish heritage, romantic love.
Sandler’s works, on the other hand, are characterized by comic rage, slapstick sadism and a childlike impulsiveness. Playing the nemesis in a Sandler movie guarantees that you’ll be kicked, punched or otherwise assaulted in the groin.
So the simple answer is the two are nothing alike. And yet in many ways, Allen and Sandler are at least comedy cousins.
Both grew up Jewish in Brooklyn and attended New York University (Sandler graduated; Allen, the intellectual, was dismissed for poor grades).
Both got their first taste of performing in comedy clubs and cut their teeth on television writing (Sandler for “Saturday Night Live,” Allen for Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan and “The Tonight Show”).
Neither is much of an actor. Allen early on established the performance persona of a neurotic New Yorker and has rarely strayed from it. Sandler usually plays the arrested adolescent, though in recent years he has attempted to break out of that mold.
Allen devotes most of his time to film (he has also written Broadway plays and several books). Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions is responsible for the TV series “Rules of Engagement” as well as numerous movies starring Sandler’s comedy friends (“Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The Master of Disguise,” “Joe Dirt”).
Eric Melin, who covers popular entertainment at Lawrence, Kan.-based www.scene-stealers.com, understands Sandler’s appeal.
“Actually, I do not look forward to an Adam Sandler movie,” he said. “But I know a lot of people my age who grew up with Sandler, first on ‘SNL’ and then through films like ‘Happy Gilmore’ and ‘Billy Madison.’ To lots of people my age those are classic movies, the way ‘Animal House’ or ‘Caddyshack’ are classics for other generations. And they’ve left Sandler embedded in the culture.”
Melin said his favorite Sandler movies are those in which good directors place his misbehaving man/boy character in real world situations: Judd Apatow (“Funny People”), Mike Binder (“Reign Over Me”), James L. Brooks (“Spanglish”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Punch-Drunk Love”).
“I love ‘Punch-Drunk Love,’ where they took that angry kid persona to its furthest extreme. And in ‘Funny People,’ Judd Apatow tried to follow the logical progression of Sandler’s stock character into adulthood,” Melin said. “But, of course, those movies have all failed at the box office because they’re actually pretty bleak.”
Perhaps it all boils down to this: We cling to certain films and entertainers who were important to us in our formative years, from our late teens through our mid-30s.
Allen fans have seen him progress from inspired silliness (“Bananas,” “Sleeper”) to a world-class romance (“Annie Hall”) to funny/sad meditations on modern life (“Manhattan,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Husbands and Wives”) to amazing period pieces (“The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Radio Days,” “Bullets Over Broadway”).
To Sandler’s credit, he has gone beyond the gator-eating swampbillies of “The Waterboy.” But for every “Punch-Drunk Love” there’s a “Mr. Deeds.” For every “Reign Over Me” there’s a “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.” For every “Funny People,” there’s ... well, “Funny People.”
In the few interviews he has granted, Sandler seems perfectly content with starring in one semi-romantic comedy/borderline kid flick a year while producing a couple of other comedies for his pals and proteges.
Sandler’s potential to give us more, however, may be the one thing his critics and fans can agree on. The separation between the camps comes in each one’s desire to see what that “more” might be.
His core audience might be fine if that “more” is just more shots to the groin. But the rest of us would like to see him emulate Allen and bring his shtick above the belt to hit the heart and mind, as well.
———
COMING SOON
Adam Sandler: He wrote and produced “Born to be a Star” (April 22), a comedy about a young man from the Midwest (Nick Swardson) who follows his dreams of becoming a porn star. And Sandler produced and voices a monkey in “Zookeeper” (July 8), in which animals break their code of silence to help zookeeper Kevin James attract the woman he loves.
Woody Allen: He opens the Cannes Film Festival in May with the romantic comedy “Midnight in Paris.” Though the movie features a stellar cast — Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody — it has drawn the most press for the cameo by Carla Bruni, France’s first lady.
Super Bowl Star Clay Matthews Will Present Grammy Award
So what does Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews have in common with Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest and Keith Urban?
They’ll all be presenters at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
Matthews and other Packer players have been in the spotlight this week following their Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Grammy officials also say will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who performed at halftime, will be a presenter at the music awards.
Matthews, who drew nearly as much attention for his long hair as for his skills on defense, has a busy week with appearances scheduled for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
They’ll all be presenters at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
Matthews and other Packer players have been in the spotlight this week following their Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Grammy officials also say will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who performed at halftime, will be a presenter at the music awards.
Matthews, who drew nearly as much attention for his long hair as for his skills on defense, has a busy week with appearances scheduled for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Justin, Taylor & Katy Lead Kids’ Choice Nominees
Looking for more Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Swift in your life?
All of these young stars — and many more — have been nominated for a 2011 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award, airing on April 2.
Movie star/comedian Jack Black will host the festivities at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. This will be the third time he’s hosting the award show.
Some of the biggest stars in film, music, TV and sports are nominated at this year’s 24th annual Kids’ Choice Awards. Kids can begin voting for their favorites on March 7.
TELEVISION
Favorite TV Show
- Big Time Rush
- iCarly
- The Suite Life on Deck
- Wizards of Waverly Place
Favorite Reality Show
- American Idol
- America’s Funniest Home Videos
- America’s Got Talent
- Wipeout
Favorite TV Actor
- Joe Jonas
- Nick Jonas
- Cole Sprouse
- Dylan Sprouse
Favorite TV Actress
- Miranda Cosgrove
- Miley Cyrus
- Selena Gomez
- Victoria Justice
Funniest TV Sidekick
- David Henrie
- Jennette McCurdy
- Noah Munck
- Brenda Song
Favorite Cartoon
- The Penguins of Madagascar
- Phineas & Ferb
- Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated
- SpongeBob SquarePants
SPORTS
Favorite Male Athlete
- Peyton Manning
- Shaquille O’Neal
- Michael Phelps
- Shaun White
Favorite Female Athlete
- Danica Patrick
- Lindsey Vonn
- Serena Williams
- Venus Williams
FILM
Favorite Movie
- Alice in Wonderland
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- The Karate Kid
Favorite Movie Actor
- Jack Black (Gulliver’s Travels)
- Johnny Depp (Alice in Wonderland)
- Dwayne Johnson (Tooth Fairy)
- Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid)
Favorite Movie Actress
- Miley Cyrus (The Last Song)
- Ashley Judd (Tooth Fairy)
- Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
- Emma Watson
(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
Favorite Animated Movie
- Despicable Me
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Shrek Forever After
- Toy Story 3
Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie
- Tim Allen (Toy Story 3)
- Cameron Diaz (Shrek Forever After)
- Tom Hanks (Toy Story 3)
- Eddie Murphy (Shrek Forever After)
Favorite Butt-Kicker
- Steve Carell (Despicable Me)
- Jackie Chan (The Karate Kid)
- Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 2)
- Will Ferrell (Megamind)
MUSIC
Favorite Music Group
- Big Time Rush
- Black Eyed Peas
- Jonas Brothers
- Lady Antebellum
Favorite Male Singer
- Justin Bieber
- Bruno Mars
- Jay-Z
- Usher
Favorite Female Singer
- Miley Cyrus
- Selena Gomez
- Katy Perry
- Taylor Swift
Favorite Song
- “Baby” (by Justin Bieber, featuring Ludacris)
- “California Gurls” (by Katy Perry, featuring Snoop Dogg)
- “Hey, Soul Sister” (by Train)
- “Mine” (by Taylor Swift)
OTHER CATEGORIES
Favorite Book
- Diary of Wimpy Kid series
- Dork Diaries
- Vampire Academy series
- Witch and Wizard series
Favorite Videogame
- Just Dance 2
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
All of these young stars — and many more — have been nominated for a 2011 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award, airing on April 2.
Movie star/comedian Jack Black will host the festivities at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. This will be the third time he’s hosting the award show.
Some of the biggest stars in film, music, TV and sports are nominated at this year’s 24th annual Kids’ Choice Awards. Kids can begin voting for their favorites on March 7.
TELEVISION
Favorite TV Show
- Big Time Rush
- iCarly
- The Suite Life on Deck
- Wizards of Waverly Place
Favorite Reality Show
- American Idol
- America’s Funniest Home Videos
- America’s Got Talent
- Wipeout
Favorite TV Actor
- Joe Jonas
- Nick Jonas
- Cole Sprouse
- Dylan Sprouse
Favorite TV Actress
- Miranda Cosgrove
- Miley Cyrus
- Selena Gomez
- Victoria Justice
Funniest TV Sidekick
- David Henrie
- Jennette McCurdy
- Noah Munck
- Brenda Song
Favorite Cartoon
- The Penguins of Madagascar
- Phineas & Ferb
- Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated
- SpongeBob SquarePants
SPORTS
Favorite Male Athlete
- Peyton Manning
- Shaquille O’Neal
- Michael Phelps
- Shaun White
Favorite Female Athlete
- Danica Patrick
- Lindsey Vonn
- Serena Williams
- Venus Williams
FILM
Favorite Movie
- Alice in Wonderland
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- The Karate Kid
Favorite Movie Actor
- Jack Black (Gulliver’s Travels)
- Johnny Depp (Alice in Wonderland)
- Dwayne Johnson (Tooth Fairy)
- Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid)
Favorite Movie Actress
- Miley Cyrus (The Last Song)
- Ashley Judd (Tooth Fairy)
- Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
- Emma Watson
(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
Favorite Animated Movie
- Despicable Me
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Shrek Forever After
- Toy Story 3
Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie
- Tim Allen (Toy Story 3)
- Cameron Diaz (Shrek Forever After)
- Tom Hanks (Toy Story 3)
- Eddie Murphy (Shrek Forever After)
Favorite Butt-Kicker
- Steve Carell (Despicable Me)
- Jackie Chan (The Karate Kid)
- Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 2)
- Will Ferrell (Megamind)
MUSIC
Favorite Music Group
- Big Time Rush
- Black Eyed Peas
- Jonas Brothers
- Lady Antebellum
Favorite Male Singer
- Justin Bieber
- Bruno Mars
- Jay-Z
- Usher
Favorite Female Singer
- Miley Cyrus
- Selena Gomez
- Katy Perry
- Taylor Swift
Favorite Song
- “Baby” (by Justin Bieber, featuring Ludacris)
- “California Gurls” (by Katy Perry, featuring Snoop Dogg)
- “Hey, Soul Sister” (by Train)
- “Mine” (by Taylor Swift)
OTHER CATEGORIES
Favorite Book
- Diary of Wimpy Kid series
- Dork Diaries
- Vampire Academy series
- Witch and Wizard series
Favorite Videogame
- Just Dance 2
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
David Beckham Rescues Stranded Motorist
Becks to the rescue!
David Beckham helped a stranded motorist and his children on Wednesday.
Paul Long called into BBC Radio 5 Live to recount his brush with Becks after his car broken down in the middle of a busy road in Hertfordshire, England.
’‘Cars were buzzing past and I had two kids in the back but no one stopped, no one came to help,” Paul said.
“After 10 minutes I saw a car had pulled over into a lay-by in the distance. Its hazard lights came on, he continued. “A figure got out, wearing a hoodie. This sort of slipped down and as he got nearer it became apparent to me it was David Beckham.”
Paul was shocked to see that his roadside assistance came in the form of the world’s most popular soccer player.
“I said, ‘You’re David Beckham’ and then he nodded,” he continued during the radio interview. “He asked if we were OK and I said, ‘Could you give us a push over to the side?’ which he duly did. Someone else came to help as well.’’
After he and his kids were safe, Paul told the superstar athlete, “Thanks David, I love you!”
According to ITN, via Yahoo News UK, Beckham’s rep confirmed that he did indeed help the stranded driver.
David Beckham helped a stranded motorist and his children on Wednesday.
Paul Long called into BBC Radio 5 Live to recount his brush with Becks after his car broken down in the middle of a busy road in Hertfordshire, England.
’‘Cars were buzzing past and I had two kids in the back but no one stopped, no one came to help,” Paul said.
“After 10 minutes I saw a car had pulled over into a lay-by in the distance. Its hazard lights came on, he continued. “A figure got out, wearing a hoodie. This sort of slipped down and as he got nearer it became apparent to me it was David Beckham.”
Paul was shocked to see that his roadside assistance came in the form of the world’s most popular soccer player.
“I said, ‘You’re David Beckham’ and then he nodded,” he continued during the radio interview. “He asked if we were OK and I said, ‘Could you give us a push over to the side?’ which he duly did. Someone else came to help as well.’’
After he and his kids were safe, Paul told the superstar athlete, “Thanks David, I love you!”
According to ITN, via Yahoo News UK, Beckham’s rep confirmed that he did indeed help the stranded driver.
Alex Pettyfer & Dianna Agron Address Engagement Rumors
Are Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron engaged?
Access Hollywood caught up with the pair at the premiere of their new movie, “I Am Number Four” on Wednesday in Los Angeles where they set the record straight on swirling rumors of upcoming nuptials.
“No… no, no,” Alex told Access when asked if he was engaged to his “Glee” star girlfriend.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we asked if he has anything planned for Dianna.
“I got my date, this lady right over there!” the 20-year-old actor said pointing to a press photographer, approaching her and then asking her what her name was. “Kathy is my date!”
Photographer Kathy Hutchins, who was working at the premiere, told Alex, “And you’re going to have a great time!”
Access also spoke to Dianna at the premiere, but the “Glee” star remained mum on engagement rumors.
“Oh goodness,” she told Access when asked if she was engaged to the British actor and then quickly walked away.
They might not be engaged, but Alex appears to be smitten with his girlfriend and co-star.
“She’s just this classically beautiful, beautiful woman, who is this leading lady,” he said. “We’re so lucky to have her.”
Access previously reported that they were not engaged on February 3.
“I Am Number Four” hits theaters on February 18.
Access Hollywood caught up with the pair at the premiere of their new movie, “I Am Number Four” on Wednesday in Los Angeles where they set the record straight on swirling rumors of upcoming nuptials.
“No… no, no,” Alex told Access when asked if he was engaged to his “Glee” star girlfriend.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we asked if he has anything planned for Dianna.
“I got my date, this lady right over there!” the 20-year-old actor said pointing to a press photographer, approaching her and then asking her what her name was. “Kathy is my date!”
Photographer Kathy Hutchins, who was working at the premiere, told Alex, “And you’re going to have a great time!”
Access also spoke to Dianna at the premiere, but the “Glee” star remained mum on engagement rumors.
“Oh goodness,” she told Access when asked if she was engaged to the British actor and then quickly walked away.
They might not be engaged, but Alex appears to be smitten with his girlfriend and co-star.
“She’s just this classically beautiful, beautiful woman, who is this leading lady,” he said. “We’re so lucky to have her.”
Access previously reported that they were not engaged on February 3.
“I Am Number Four” hits theaters on February 18.
Celebs Warm Up The Crowd For NY Fashion Week
A catwalk of celebrities kicked off New York Fashion Week on Wednesday night, getting the audience all pumped up for the Red Dress runway show, which draws attention to a national awareness campaign about women and heart disease.
Denise Richards did the ‘70s look in a halter-top, empire-waist dress by Matthew Williamson, while ‘70s pinup Suzanne Somers went for a flared minidress with a jeweled waist by Ina Soltani.
Matthew McConaughey cheered on girlfriend Camila Alves in her sexy, tiny-strap asymmetrical gown by KaufmanFranco, snapping photos the whole show through, and Susan Sarandon let her daughter, Eva Amurri, soak up the spotlight in her high-neck lace dress by Chris Benz. Sarandon, dressed in an unassuming pink polo shirt and hair pulled back, quietly took her front-row seat just a few minutes before the show began.
No one strutted quite like actress Taraji P. Henson, in a Naeem Khan-designed beaded dress with a high slit, who milked her moment with the crowd, singing Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” OK, maybe Dita von Teese, wearing a Zac Posen number that emphasized her hourglass shape, one-upped her in the hip-swinging department.
Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield performed at the end of her turn, but one could have forgotten her day job as she wore a deep V halter dress by Nicole Miller.
Patti LaBelle hammed it up in her kimono-style dress by Zang Toi, and Linda Gray wore a Pamella Roland off-the-shoulder gown. Katrina Bowden went short in a flounce-front Oscar de la Renta.
Julianne Hough’s red Swarovski dress played into the heart-health theme with its sweetheart neckline and her necklace with crystals shaped into hearts.
By fashion standards, Alberta Ferretti’s eyelash pleat dress on TV personality Cat Deeley and Monique Lhuillier’s rose-covered ballgown, modeled by Garcelle Beauvais, were standouts.
The Red Dress show has become an annual event in February at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which officially kicks off Thursday for eight days of previews for the fall season. Some designers are further supporting the national heart disease campaign, sponsored by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, by auctioning dresses through the Clothes Off Our Back website.
Denise Richards did the ‘70s look in a halter-top, empire-waist dress by Matthew Williamson, while ‘70s pinup Suzanne Somers went for a flared minidress with a jeweled waist by Ina Soltani.
Matthew McConaughey cheered on girlfriend Camila Alves in her sexy, tiny-strap asymmetrical gown by KaufmanFranco, snapping photos the whole show through, and Susan Sarandon let her daughter, Eva Amurri, soak up the spotlight in her high-neck lace dress by Chris Benz. Sarandon, dressed in an unassuming pink polo shirt and hair pulled back, quietly took her front-row seat just a few minutes before the show began.
No one strutted quite like actress Taraji P. Henson, in a Naeem Khan-designed beaded dress with a high slit, who milked her moment with the crowd, singing Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” OK, maybe Dita von Teese, wearing a Zac Posen number that emphasized her hourglass shape, one-upped her in the hip-swinging department.
Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield performed at the end of her turn, but one could have forgotten her day job as she wore a deep V halter dress by Nicole Miller.
Patti LaBelle hammed it up in her kimono-style dress by Zang Toi, and Linda Gray wore a Pamella Roland off-the-shoulder gown. Katrina Bowden went short in a flounce-front Oscar de la Renta.
Julianne Hough’s red Swarovski dress played into the heart-health theme with its sweetheart neckline and her necklace with crystals shaped into hearts.
By fashion standards, Alberta Ferretti’s eyelash pleat dress on TV personality Cat Deeley and Monique Lhuillier’s rose-covered ballgown, modeled by Garcelle Beauvais, were standouts.
The Red Dress show has become an annual event in February at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which officially kicks off Thursday for eight days of previews for the fall season. Some designers are further supporting the national heart disease campaign, sponsored by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, by auctioning dresses through the Clothes Off Our Back website.
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