News & Politics - Entertainment News #7 ~ We Aren't Living in an Information Age, We Are Living in an Entertainment Age

quaist · 05-17-2013, 12:45 AM

Entertainment News #6 ~ Let Us Entertain You (Again)
Critical Analysis of The Social Issues Surrounding The Vampire Diaries Thread #1
Politics and celebrities - do they mix?

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Credit for the thread title goes to Tony Robbins.

In the last thread, we were discussing Angelina Jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy performed on her and go public with it.

A list of some of the last posts:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Wow about Angelina! It must have been an incredibly difficult decision for her to make, and then to go public? Amazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avatar

My biggest respect to Angelina Jolie doesn't go to her because of the procedure per se as much as her (public) reaction to it - she didn't go all woe-is-me, nor did she go all look-how-strong-I-am ... instead she used it to create awareness. Well done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnykerr

That's the part that really impressed me as well.

Of course, and this needs to be said, she's not the first celebrity to have done so.

Sharon Osbourne went public with her double mastectomy story within the last year and Christina Applegate maybe within the last few years.

I think the difference there is that both Ms Osbourne and Ms Applegate proceeded with their operations following a cancer diagnosis, whereas Ms Jolie was acting purely preventively.

Also, let's face it, Angelina Jolie is an international superstar. People can debate all day and all night about whether her level of fame has been earned or is justified or whatever, but the fact remains that she's known throughout the world, which is perhaps not the case for the other two ladies.

So this was massive news.

Earlier, the matter of costs was raised. And it is an unfortunate fact that, under the current health system in the United States, the costs of such genetic analyses remain prohibitive. According to CNN's report last night, the Affordable Health Care Act would change that, except for those companies who have successfully lobbied to maintain their loopholes.

For the rest of the industrialized world, that sort of genetic research is fortunately already covered, I believe. At least, it is here in Canada (or, let me be specific, my mother the scrub nurse has been telling me similar stories for years and she wasn't working in a hospital in a particular ritzy area, so I always assumed it was available to everyone).

I think part of what Ms Jolie was trying to do with revealing her story was raising awareness so that women know what their options could be, if they so chose, but also raising awareness of the fact that it's unfair that the cost would prevent any woman from having similar recourse.

**sunnykerr** · 05-17-2013, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Cannes film festival suffers $1m jewellery theft

More than $1m (777,000 euros) worth of jewels have been stolen from a hotel in Cannes, French police say.

The jewels were to be loaned to stars appearing at the famous annual film festival on the French Riviera.

They were taken from the hotel room of an employee of exclusive Swiss jewellers Chopard in the early hours of Friday morning.

Police say the thieves ripped the safe containing the jewels from a wall of the room at the Novotel hotel.

Festival officials said the Palme d'Or was not among the stolen items.

The event's top award is also made by Chopard, which is an official sponsor of the festival.

Celebrities choosing the Swiss firm's gems for their red carpet appearances at this year's festival include Julianne Moore, Lana Del Rey and Cindy Crawford.

The theft happened a few hours after the festival was shown The Bling Ring, a new film by director Sofia Coppola.

The film is about teenagers who find out when celebrities are attending red carpet events in order to break into their homes and steal their designer clothes, bags and shoes.

Source

To my mind, this isn't nearly as interesting a story to discuss, but if it can provide a launchpad for new conversation...

I wonder why they mentioned that the theft happened the night after the showing of the movie about a series of thefts. I mean, the contrast is interesting, but surely the one didn't cause the other.

quaist · 05-19-2013, 12:12 PM

Quite some happenings at this film festival indeed...

Shots fired at Cannes film festival, actors flee for cover

**sunnykerr** · 05-19-2013, 08:12 PM

And that was all more or less the same day, wasn't it?

Mind you, kinda hard to feel bad for people experiencing that kind of luxury, even though I wouldn't have wanted to have been caught in gunshots... even blank ones.

quaist · 05-20-2013, 11:40 AM

As far as I know, both incidents happened the same day, yes.

Well, given that the people on stage and in the crowd during those gun shots didn't know that it was just a dummy... Must have been quite a shock.

**sunnykerr** · 05-20-2013, 04:28 PM

I can easily imagine how panic must have set in.

Who expects that sort of thing to happen at a classy affair like that, you know?

quaist · 05-21-2013, 12:05 PM

Probably no one, as I'd expect the presence of security guards and the likes to be rather high in Cannes

**sunnykerr** · 05-21-2013, 07:13 PM

Yeah, I would expect the same.

I suppose it goes to show that you can't expect to be safe just because you feel like it.

Yet, I find myself unwilling to argue the case for increased paranoia.

**sunnykerr** · 05-27-2013, 05:28 PM

Ordinarily, I wouldn't care about this. It's a private matter.

But, in light of recent discussion on Angelina Jolie's choice to come public with her double mastectomy...

Quote:

Angelina Jolie's aunt dies of breast cancer

Angelina Jolie's aunt has died of breast cancer, nearly two weeks after the Hollywood star said she had had a double mastectomy to avoid such a fate.

Debbie Martin passed away at the Palomar Medical Centre in Escondido on Sunday, aged 61, the hospital said.

Mrs Martin was the sister of Jolie's mother Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer in 2007, aged 56.

Her husband, Ron Martin, said the sisters had both had the same mutated BRCA1 gene, which Jolie inherited.

"Angelina has been in touch throughout the week and her brother Jamie has been with us, giving his support day by day," he told E! News.

"They both loved Debbie very much and although Angie is not able to come right now, she has sent her love and support, which was very nice."

Mr Martin also praised the actress for electing to have a double mastectomy, telling the Associated Press: "Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did."

On 14 May, the 37-year-old wrote in the New York Times that she had had the operation after doctors estimated she had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer.

"I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk as much I could," she explained, adding that her chances of developing breast cancer had now dropped to less than 5%.

The BRCA1 gene is present in everyone but only mutates in one in 1,000 people. Anyone with the mutation has a 50-80% chance of developing breast cancer.

Source

No wonder she had herself tested, right?

There's still a financial disparity to address in many parts of the world, but I have to say that I really get it now.

Avatar · 05-28-2013, 01:57 PM

Oh wow. Yeah, that kinda rams it home, doesn't it?

**sunnykerr** · 05-28-2013, 04:22 PM

^ That's pretty much what I was thinking when I was reading that.

When you have a family history of cancer, any kind of cancer, your doctors are always super vigilent about early warning signs and the like.

I can't imagine how more intense that gets when it's a kind of cancer that is known to have hereditary components to it and then when you've got two direct relatives who died as a result of it.

**sunnykerr** · 05-29-2013, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Jon Bon Jovi waives concert fee in crisis-hit Spain

The US rock star Bon Jovi has revealed that has waived his fee at a concert in Madrid next month, in light of the country's economic crisis.

The unusually cheap tickets for the gig have already sold out.

They were on sale for between 18 (£15; $23) and 39 euros, compared to the equivalent of 76 euros which the average ticket cost for a concert in Manchester, UK next week.

Bon Jovi said he feared many fans would not be able to afford the full price.

The 51-year-old told Spain's El Mundo newspaper that when he was planning this summer's European tour, Madrid had originally been left-off the list of venues over fears that the event might not sell out because of Spain's economic crisis.

But not wanting to let his Spanish fans down, he said he decided that he would perform in Madrid on 27 June for free.

Source

Now, obviously we can all start saying "what about Greece? what about Portugal? what about this other country, also going through an economic crisis?"

And obviously he can spare the money and obviously this is a one-off.

Still, it's kinda classy, isn't it?

**sunnykerr** · 06-01-2013, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Cheerios ad featuring interracial family sparks backlash

A new television commercial that features an interracial family having some fun with the popular Cheerios cereal brand has sparked an onslaught of racist comments online.

The 30-second TV advert, which debuted in the U.S. last week and was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, shows a young biracial girl asking her mother if the popular breakfast cereal is "good for your heart."

Her white mother, sitting in the kitchen, answers yes. The little girl then runs away, clutching the yellow cereal box. Next, the ad cuts to the girl's napping father, who is black, before he awakes on the couch with a pile of the cereal on his chest.

The "Just Checking" ad closes with the world "Love" on the screen.

But since the ad first aired, its message touting the cereal’s health benefits has been shadowed by thousands of hateful comments online.

On YouTube, where the spot had registered close to 900,000 views on YouTube by Saturday afternoon, comments have now been disabled.

According to Adweek, the shut down came after a slew of commenters made references to Nazis, "troglodytes" and "racial genocide" in their messages about the video.

On Reddit, a social news website where users can upload content, a string of racist messages were also posted. "Should be for multi-grain cheerios" said one commentator. "Why are we celebrating race traitors and ugly monkey children?" posted another.

But despite the racial backlash, General Mills said they are standing by their ad. "At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all," Camille Gibson, the cereal brand’s vice president of marketing told Gawker in a statement.

General Mills said they are not considering pulling the ad, pointing to the fact that many consumers have also responded positively to the television spot.

On YouTube's approval counter which registers the number of likes and dislikes, there were 11,924 "thumbs up" as of Saturday afternoon, compared with 1,005 "thumbs down."

A number of Reddit readers have also posted positive comments, saying they thought the ad was "cute." And on the General Mills Cheerios Facebook page, over 2,200 people gave the ad a "thumbs up."

"Kudos to you for keeping it real!!," posted one Facebook user.

The ad was created by New York ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi.

Source

It never ceases to amaze me how some people will seize on any opportunity to display their feeble-mindedness to the world.

I can respect the right of people to have arse-backwards opinions if that's what they want to do, but to get that up in arms about a freaking advert is ludicrous.

Look around. It's the 21st century. We have all kinds of families now. Get over yourselves.

baelfire24 · 06-01-2013, 07:17 PM

RIP Jean Stapleton. She will be missed.

Quote:

Jean Stapleton Dies at 90

Jean Stapleton, the versatile actress who will forever be remembered for her long-running role as the dim-witted but deep-hearted Edith Bunker on the groundbreaking 1970s sitcom All in the Family, died Friday at her home in New York City, her family confirms.

Stapleton, who was 90, succumbed to natural causes.

Having already established a career during the 1950s and early '60s for playing nosy neighbor roles in such Broadway smashes as Damn Yankees, Funny Girl and Bells Are Ringing, in which she played the owner of the titular answering service, Stapleton entered the TV pantheon with her high-pitched comic voice (which was a gross exaggeration of her own), perfect timing (especially when Edith would be slow to catch on to something) and unrelenting love for her husband Archie Bunker (even while overlooking his bigotry, which she never shared).

"The civil rights issue went right through our series ... That was marvelous stuff," Stapleton, touching upon All in the Family's timeliness, said a few years ago in an interview with the Archive of American Television. "There's nothing like humor to burst what seems to be an enormous problem. Humor reduces it to nothing and wipes it out. That's what humor does. That was a great part of that show in terms of every issue."

With her highly quotable malapropisms – Edith thought VD stood for Veterans' Day – and dogged devotion to the impossible Archie, Edith Bunker was not only hilariously funny, but compassionate and deeply affecting – facing such (for primetime TV) breakthrough issues of her day as breast cancer, menopause and sexual assault.

Winning three Emmys for the role, Stapleton played Edith to Carroll O'Conner's Archie from 1971-79, then asked to be written out of the show as the series continued under slightly different formats.

Instinctive as Edith may have been, she was nothing like the well-educated, well-spoken Stapleton, who was born Jeanne Murray in New York City, the daughter of outdoor advertising salesman Joseph E. Murray and concert singer Marie Stapleton Murray.

While attending Hunter College she made her acting debut in summer stock at age 18 before graduating to Off Broadway and Broadway (she repeated her stage roles in the movie adaptations of Damn Yankees and Bells Are Ringing) and eventually parts on early TV dramas and comedy shows.

It was also during the stage run of Bells Are Ringing, in 1957, that Stapleton met and married William Putch, a concert promoter who also ran the 453-seat Totem Pole Playhouse summer stock theater in Pennsylvania – where, for the next quarter century, even at the height of her TV stardom, Stapleton would appear.

Controversial Comedy
As Stapleton was shooting a character role for producer Norman Lear's 1971 movie comedy Cold Turkey, about a Midwestern town whose entire population tries to give up smoking, Lear was attempting to sell his adaptation of the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part to one of the American TV networks. The domestic version was to be set in New York City's blue-collar borough of Queens and called All in the Family.

Finally, CBS put it on the air, and the one-time character actress became a leading lady – and a household name. The show's ratings shot to No. 1, though the series itself was seldom without controversy over the issues it tackled and the in-your-face manner in which they were presented. Stapleton not only embraced the controversy, but lent herself to the social issues, becoming, for instance, a vocal proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Once she left All in the Family she continued to make TV appearances, such as when in 1996, as if to counteract her trod-upon Edith persona, she played the imperious sister of Doris Roberts's character on Everybody Loves Raymond.

She also appeared in the movies Michael and You've Got Mail, and returned to her stage roots, touring in a critically acclaimed one-woman show about Eleanor Roosevelt – a real-life role she had also played in the 1982 CBS movie Eleanor: First Lady of the World.

Bill Putsch, with whom Stapleton had two children, Pam and John, died in 1983. While Stapleton told PEOPLE at the time that she was unable to talk about her grief, she did say, "I am going about my life one day at a time."

And she did just that, continuing to act until her retirement and remaining, to this very day, one of everybody's favorite TV relatives.

Source: Jean Stapleton Dies at 90 - Death, Tributes, All in the Family, Jean Stapleton : People.com

**sunnykerr** · 06-01-2013, 07:27 PM

Yeah, I hesitated between posting that story and the one about the Cheerios commercial backlash.


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