Filed under: Gay & Lesbian, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand

I always get a kick out of hearing Stephen Fry's take on different matters. There's nothing like usually-solid rationale mixed with humor -- that's why dudes like Stephen Colbert are so big. In March of last year, I shared his views about America's obsession with British accents. He pondered the possibility that Americans are fooled into thinking performances by British actors are good because of their accents. Now the BBC reports that he's taken on a more serious topic and is giving his two cents on this current tendency to congratulate straight people for taking on gay roles. You know -- Jake and Heath (or any other actor) is lauded for daring to take on the role, as if it is some super-challenging deed.

According to Fry: "People say: 'Ooh, how brave of you.' Why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man?" He goes on to discuss the fact that gay actors aren't called brave for kissing women, and continues: "It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman -- I'll kiss a frog if you like. It's difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn't difficult." You can always count on Fry for a humorous, yet rational, take on an issue. There is a definite stigma attached to male-male sexuality in any form. Ladies can kiss and cavort until the cows come home, but once two stubbly faces smooch each other, all hell breaks loose.

If only we could all be as evolved as Captain Jack, who believes orientation classification is "quaint."

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HONG KONG, Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF), a leading provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, announced today the worldwide launch of the "Tokio Hotel - the official mobile game."

Just thumbtacking this onto the National Society of Film Critics awards announcement below: The director of the Best Experimental Film winner, "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," is our man John Gianvito, assistant professor on the Visual and Media Arts faculty at Emerson College. Here's his Emerson page -- it's not too late to sign up for his spring courses, boys and girls -- and here's Mark Feeney's appreciative take on "PMATWW," plus a brief Phoenix review. Also, a funny, insightful blog entry from a Syracuse student who got sucked into liking avant-garde film by the movie.

Congratulations, Professor Gianvito. Any plans to put it out on DVD?

About them Golden Globes: Too bad about the party we'll be missing, and I guess Dad finally realizes Mom's serious about the trial separation. But what about us children? We always suffer the most.

Whether this bodes ill for the Oscars is anyone's guess -- I'm betting the Academy dog-and-Jack Nicholson show either gets severely downsized or cancelled altogether -- but these developments pose an interesting thesis: What would the pop culture calendar look like without the Oscars? What would Hollywood do without the impetus to matter? Would the end-of-the-year slate become unmoored; would tony British adaptations start popping up in March? (Lord knows we could use them then.) Or would the studios stop releasing the artsy stuff entirely and devolve into all Spidey sequels all the time? We may have the chance to find out.

Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Ever since The Hollywood Reporter commented on the "as-yet-unslotted" release date for Transformers 2, the entire online community was buzzing with rumors the film had officially been delayed. While director Michael Bay continues to leave cryptic fanboy-ish messages on his blog ("Transformers 2 is coming soon!!!!"), IESB managed to sit down with robot producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to get the real scoop on where, exactly, the highly-anticipated sequel is at right now.

When asked whether they had a start date in mind to begin shooting, Bonaventura said they were currently targeting June 2. Seems pretty reasonable; things should be going along as planned, right? No so fast ... Bonaventura also claims work still has to be done on the script -- a lot of work, it appears -- and that cannot happen until the strike is over and done with. He says, "We're no where because of the strike, we won't know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we'll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He's designed a lot of great stuff already. He's got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he's ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it's the target date we'd like to go for but, you know, we've got to get some writers to help us."

Bonaventura was also asked about the sequel's budget, but didn't divulge much except for saying that "Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody." Am I the only one afraid of Michael Bay wanting to deliver a "bigger" anything? So there you have it: They're working on it, but until the strike is over, not much can be done.

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NEWARK, Del., Jan. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Theater Xtreme Entertainment Group, Inc. (OTCBB:TXEG) (http://www.theaterxtreme.com), a nationwide retailer and installer of real movie theaters for the home, has reached agreements with certain of its accredited investors amending certain provisions of debentures due in November 2007.

So this is it. The writers' strike has struck. There will be no Golden Globes. The reason sounds complicated. But the gist is that NBC (one of the objects of the strike) put the onus of whether to do the show on the Hollywood Foreign Press, which decided to cancel the whole thing. So on Sunday, there will be a news conference, at which time the winners will be announced. Maybe I'm sad. Maybe I'm happy (I can watch "The Wire"). Maybe Ryan Seacrest will spontaneously self-destruct. Now everybody's worried about what will become of the Oscars. But who cares? Queen Latifah's hosting the People Choice Awards tomorrow! And aren't the people what matters in all of this. Hopefully, they voted for the return of better award shows.

P.S. As I type this a woman is shaving off David Letterman's beard. ("Hey do you have time to do my back?") And open-shirted guest Tom Hanks looks like a half-way sexy politician. I'd caucus him.

RIDGEWOOD, N.J., Jan. 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The first CES was held in June, 1967 in New York City and has been one of the biggest technology trade shows since. Some notable product introductions in the past have been the camcorder and the compact disk player, and we've made serious advances since then. Last year, it was the dual formatted DVD players that support both HD and Blu-ray discs.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Newsstand, Politics

Well, well ... seems the scales may finally be tipping in the WGA's favor here. First the fall of the Golden Globes, and then the news that Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's United Artists were making a side deal with the WGA similar to the deal struck earlier with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants. Now the Weinsteins, according to this story in the New York Post, are also close to making a "me too" deal, and Deadline Hollywood Daily is also tossing out rumors of Lionsgate and Lucasfilm coming around.

Neither Cruise nor the Weinsteins are stupid; making independent deals with the WGA can only give them a huge advantage over the major studios, and the more the independents strike deals, the more like arrogant assholes rich guys the moguls look. And you've gotta love any deal that makes Tom Cruise and the Weinsteins look like the nicest guys in the room, right?

It seems as though the WGAs strategy of making deals with the independent studios might not have been such a bad idea after all ... could this signal the beginning of the end of the writer's strike? Stay tuned ...

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Filed under: Awards, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand

This just in from Deadline Hollywood: Though an official word has not hit the internets just yet, DH is reporting through their sources that NBC has indeed gone ahead and canceled the Golden Globes telecast currently scheduled to air live on January 13. Instead, what they are going to do is air a news broadcast announcing the winners. DH says: "It will consist of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handing out Golden Globes to the winners, who will then pick up the awards and pass through a press room for photos and interviews." Sounds sort of lame, but at least the media will get their photos of the actors and actresses all dolled up (should they decide to dress for the event), which will come along with quotes and what have you.

By the sounds of it, there won't be any sort of ceremony whatsoever; kind of like a high school graduation where you walk up to the podium, shake hands with the Principal, and walk off stage. (Only instead of walking off stage to your parents smiling faces, you get a room full of media asking all sorts of boring questions.) Fun! Score one for the WGA -- they've brought down one awards show, now let's see if this thing carries over to the Oscars, which, once the whole Globes thing is over, will probably become a very hot topic. We here at Cinematical will still go ahead with our Globes prediction post later this week, and we'll bring you the winners as soon as they're announced. See the full list of Golden Globe nominees over here, or head on over to Moviefone's official Golden Globes page.

UPDATE: It's official.

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HOUSTON, Jan. 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensemble Theatre will begin the new year with a regional premiere production of world renowned playwright August Wilson's classic play, Gem of the Ocean. Wilson commences on his 20th century charting of "black folks" in America with families scattered, souls dispersed, and all of them tossed and driven from sea to shining sea, passage to passage.