Badin vs. Fredericktown
Miamisburg graduation 2012
Valley View vs. Greenville
Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2005 > December
December 2005
Look, ma! Real blood!!!!
And speaking of good moments in not terribly good movies….
I decided on a lark recently to rent “High Tension,” just because I hadn’t fulfilled my cool-French-chicks-in-gory-slasher-films quotient for the week. And while it’s actually pretty good (um, for a French slasher film) I did notice one very interesting thing about it: The blood turns black.
No, really, think about it. Have you ever cut yourself shaving? Sure, you have. Have you noticed that when blood dries, which it does pretty quickly (that whole coagulation thing, you know) that it changes from bright red to nearly black?
Welllllllll, apparently most of the people who make movies have never cut themselves shaving. I can count on one hand the movies I’ve seen in which the actors weren’t wearing bright, shiny red stage blood that never changes color, no matter long ago it was supposedly shed.
Yes, yes, this is obviously a pet peeve of mine. I admit it. But the makers of “High Tension” didn’t let me down. On this point, they stick to extreme realism — which has the effect, very subtly, of making the movie even scarier, right from the get-go.
Remember, it’s always the details that matter.
Permalink | |
Dayton going crazy for Egyptian art…
OK, ya’ll folks in Dayton are going a bit nutty for ancient Egyptian art… not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
With just five days to go, the Egyptian art exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute is on track to become the museum’s biggest draw ever. The DAI had hoped to attract 125,00 visitors to “The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt� during its four-month run. Director Alex Nyerges said Thursday that based on daily attendance so far this week, he expects to fall just about 100 guests short of that number. “We anticipate hitting our target,� he said. “I’m ecstatic.�
Well, he should be. The museum spent $3 million to bring the show to Dayton, and even with corporate underwriting from NCR, this was a big financial gamble. Budgeting at 125K for visitation was ambitious and a bit risky… Risky enough that about two weeks ago, the DAI didnt’ think they would hit that number … not even close. Visitation was steady but under expectations until about two weeks ago, when it zoomed up. All those kids home from college, perhaps?
The next-largest exhibition, 1997’s “Eternal China� show of ancient artifacts, drew about 115,000 people. The show of glass work by Dale Chihuly was next, with about 110,000 when it was here five years ago.
Quest includes more than 100 royal relics, from gold jewelry to massive granite statues and fragile woodan mummy cases, all from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It’s a good show that gives a neat crash course into the ways the ancient Egyptians tried to move into the afterlife. There is a lot to see, but the neatest part is a full-scale reproduction of the royal tomb of King Thutmosis III, one of the most powerful pharaohs ever. It’s grand, and you can spend 20 minutes just following the guided audio tour of how the king would have gotten to heaven, which is told in the heiroglyphics on the walls.
The traveling show closes here Jan. 3 and moves to Grand Rapids, Mich.
DAI visitation is averaging 3,000 people a day. They gave gotten more thabn $200,000 worth of new memberships, Nyerges said — twice the amount they expected. Since the show broke even at 56,000 visitors, they’re pretty delighted with this turnout so far. “Daytonians are legendary in the way show show up and support things,” he said.
Daytime visitors can expect a wait of up to an hour, but the museum is open till 10 p.m. daily until Quest closes, including New Year’s Eve.
“It’s best to come after 5 or 6,� Nyerges said. “You can go through without any lines — and what better way to start the new year?�
Thinking of going? Here is the info you need. Learn and enjoy!!!!
What: The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt.
Where: Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park N.
When: Closes Tuesday at 10 pm
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through Tuesday. Closing time returns to 4 p.m. after the special exhibition closes.
Admission: $17 for non-member adults; DAI members free. Memberships can be purchased at the museum.
For more information: 223-5277 or www.daytonartinstute.org.
Permalink | |
‘The French Connection’? OF COURSE!
So, the National Film Preservation Board has released its annual list of the 25 films have been placed into the National Film Registry … thus recognizing them as such important contributors to the feel and fabric of our culture that they must be preserved forevermore.
This year’s list contains the usual mixture of the popular and the obscure — there are old 1920s bits that even the geekiest film nut has likely never heard of, along with documentary footage from 1906 of the San Fran quake and fire and even footage from a church taken in the 1940s.
And then there are the popular films, which are a fascinating cross-section of what moviedom has to offer. “Baby Face,” from 1933, is an odd movie that features a very young Barbara Stanwyck literally sleeping her way to the top of the business world; it’s notable for having been made before Hollywood imposed production codes and morality standards on itself, and also features a bit part by a John Wayne.
That great scam-artist, buddy-picture “The Sting,” is on the list; even though it wasn’t as good as the first Paul Newman-Robert Redford teamup, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” it’s notable for the retro-fashion trend it briefly ignited in the early 1970s, when it came out.
Another Paul Newman flick, the wonderful “Cool Hand Luke,” is on the list, and deservedly so — not least for its contribution of the classic line, “What we have here … is a failure to communicate” to the lexicon.
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High” pretty much launched an entire genre of films, that of the stoner-kids-at-play.
“Toy Story” is, of course, a milestone in the history of film, the movie that put hand-drawn animation in its grave.
But of course… the best movie on the list is “The French Connection.” It’s the greatest police movie of all time. It’s got the coldest bad guy of all time. It’s got the greatest car chase of all time. It’s got the greatest buddy-cop partnership of all time. It’s got the greatest tearing-a-Cadillac-to-pieces scene of all time. It’s got the silliest movie line in history, too.
And of now, people will be able to hear it down through the ages — preserved forever.
All righty, all together now: Do you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?
Well, doesn’t everyone?
THE LIST
“Baby Face” (1933) _”The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man” (1975) _”The Cameraman” (1928) _Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, S.C., May 1940 (1940) _”Cool Hand Luke” (1967) _”Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982) _”The French Connection” (1971) _”Giant” (1956) _”H2O” (1929) _”Hands Up” (1926) _”Hoop Dreams” (1994) _”House of Usher” (1960) _”Imitation of Life” (1934) _Jeffries-Johnson world championship fight (1910) _”Making of an American” (1920) _”Miracle on 34th Street” (1947) _”Mom and Dad” (1944) _”The Music Man” (1962) _”Power of the Press” (1928) _”A Raisin in the Sun” (1961) _”The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) _San Francisco earthquake and fire, April 18, 1906 (1906) _”The Sting” (1973) _”A Time for Burning” (1966) _”Toy Story” (1995)
Permalink | |
Hollywood comes to Dayton
Hey! Word is that Oakwood’s own Allison Janney … yes, the “West Wing” one … stopped at the Dayton Visual Arts Center’s ARTtoBUY holiday gift gallery over Thanksgiving weekend while she was back home for the holiday.
According to the latest edition of Sketches, the DVAC quarterly newsletter, the actress gave a rave review: “Wonderful stuff,” is the quote they report.
Darn it, we were outta town that weekend.
The gallery is at DVAC’s space at Fourth and Ludlow streets downtown. Everything for sale was made by local artists, and most of it’s priced to sell. For hours and such, visit www.daytonvisualarts.org.
And stay tuned for more news on DVAC’s January move to its bigger new space on Jefferson Street. Maybe they’ll get a big TV star to stop by someday.
Permalink | |
Enya + John Lennon + Lindsay Lohan =
just another strange musical week at “brain droppings” !!
dear readers, peruse, comment and enjoy… but do remember:
liking/disliking one song by one artist has nothing to do with liking/disliking something else by another artist…
one artist’s work frequently has nothing to do with another’s, nor does one’s response to it…
hating one song by an artist does not mean you hate all his/her other work…
liking work by an artist does not mean you think they are a genius, just that you react favorably to that work…
blogs are not finished/completed pieces of writing, necessarily, like colums. they are blogs, which is a different critter…
and singing a madeup elfish language to pander to your fans is STILL icky … and unfortunate, if you used to have some smidgen of credibility to begin with…
for the record, i liked Enya back when she still sang in English…
Icky Enya
Um, ok, THIS is a bit icky… on her new CD, “Amartine,” Enya sings several songs in something called Loxian, which i’m pretty sure is the elf language from the Lord of the Rings…
Now, i know you need to know your audience and all … but ain’t that just a little too cutsie-wootsie?
Ick ick ick
Catching up with Harry Potter…
Caught the newest HP installment last weekend, and I think it might very well be the best of the bunch so far, tho I admit I’m one who kinda hates to see the kids grow up… I do find myself rather missing the charm and delight of the first two movies…
Surviving ‘Survivor’
All right, the latest “Survivor” is all done, and it was another success. What are the keys to its continued success?
I’ve got a few guesses.
• Hotties … sorta. The cast members are very well chosen to good-looking, but not outside the realm of everyday people you might know, and even the best-looking of the bunch still exude a normal-person persona that is uncommon on TV.
• It’s always the same characters. Why do we like war movies? Could it be cuz we’re comforted by the old traditional cast of characters in which every fictional film platoon contains the city guy, the farm guy, the old guy, the rookie, the lady’s man, the geek, etc… “Survivor” closely follows the same personality archetypes, knowing that it feels natural and right to us to watch.
• Tradition. They wisely stuck to the Tribal Council format, torches and all, recognizing that they had created a new contemporary tradition, if you will, that was reminiscent of the times we think we remember of campfires as kids. Again, they tap into visceral cues that they work over and over again in familiar ways, so that the show falls into ritual cycles that are addictive.
• Challenges that really aren’t. Now, I know that lots of us are too out of shape to do a lot of the stuff they have the contestants do, but face it — most of the challenges are not outside the realm of things many of us could do ourselves. That keeps the game real.
• Life is a replay of Junior High School. Face it, don’t we all wish we had that second chance to tell off the popular kid and say what we wish we’d said to that backstabber/heartbreaker/meanie/whatever? Well, “Survivor” gives the losers that very chance.
• Probst the host with the most. Jeff P. may not get enough credit for keeping the game going as he does. He’s turned into a smart, steady personality that blends a bit of umpire, coach, shrink, big brother and hall monitor into a single being — and, like I said, isn’t life really just a replay of Junior High? Uh-huh.
That’s what I think, anyway….
Permalink | |
Garth and Trisha and their weight-loss program…
Um, ok, not to be like TOO catty or anything, but did Garth and Trisha make an agreement to each gain about 50 lbs before they tied the knot?
For better, for worse, for larger for fatter… MeeeeOW…
RICHARD PRYOR WAS THE GREATEST.
Well, one thing was certain at the sad news of Richard Pryor’s death: We’ll never be looking back and saying, “Ah Richard, we hardly knew ye.”
We knew just about everything about Pryor that one could possibly know about somebody who wasn’t your spouse, sibling or roommate. We knew about nearly every thought, feeling and fear. We knew about his dreams, his fantasies, his paranoias, his phobias. We knew all about his addictions, his predilictions, fixations and fascinations. We what he liked to eat, what he liked to smoke, what he liked to — well, you get the idea.
We knew because he told us — and he made us laugh our butts off at the same time, and to also see ourselves — far much more of ourselves than we often wanted or wished to — in his wild, freefall comedic ravings.
Richard Pryor, you see, was a genius.
The news that he died Saturday at age 65 from a heart attack was sad, but hardly surprising. What would have been surprising would have been for him to live another 10, 20 or 30 years into something that resembled normal old-agehood, for Pryor didn’t live the way most of us do.
He was married six times. He grew up in a whorehouse run by his grandmother. He thought his mother was his sister for most of his life. He was a fearsome drug addict. He nearly burned himself to death freebasing coke in his house. He was a gigantic movie star. He was filthy rich and world-famous; he was also direly poor and saw his career bottom out.
He lived a full, amazing life of bizarre highs and lows. And yet, none of that is what he’ll be remembered for.
Pryor invented modern comedy.
OK, OK, there will be fans of George Carlin out there who will say he cleared the standup path for Pryor, but he always came at his material more obliquely and intellectually, choosing social commentary as the bedrock of his style.
Others will point out that Lenny Bruce paved the way for the use of obscenity that for a while was considered Pryor’s main claim to fame, and he did indeed to do that. But Pryor was much, much more than simply a dirty comic.
The truth is, it’s actually harder to imagine any of today’s comics getting away with the stuff they do, or even existing stylistically, without Pryor having been there before them. Robin Williams’ free-association ravings? Pryor. David Chappelle’s high-wire race-baiting? Pryor. Chris Rock’s angry-black-guy tripping? Pryor. Name anybody working today, and he was there first setting the template.
He dug deep into the guts of his own fear and pain and turned them out for all of us to see — and to laugh at. He exposed the inner recesses of his own turmoil, and showed us the universal truths that lay inside one person’s individual distress.
Add to all this the simple fact that he had a unique comic gift of timing, mimickry and delivery, and you had a winner who spent nearly a decade as the only funnyman you had to get a whiff of.
Pryor came along at a time when comedy was ready for change and made the most of it. He tore up a stage. His concert movies are legendary, and worth checking out if you haven’t seen them.
Here’s an example that says it all. After he came back from his infamous flameout in 1980 — in which he set himself on fire when he was mixing coke and heroin in the dangerous, ether-based mixture that predated crack, and in which which he burned off about half his skin — he did a long concert-movie routine about his time in the hospital. He managed to turn the debriding process of his burned flesh into a hilarious, painful sketch nobody else could have, or would have tried to, pull off. It was almost as though he was thankful to have had the experience, so that he could make humor from it. Whew.
And then at the end, he turns himself into one of the most perfect comedy punchlines ever filmed. If you’ve seen it, you remember; if you haven’t, I won’t spoil it.
Just say there are some lights that don’t ever really go out.
Richard Pryor, R.I.P.
Lindsay Lohan: Better than expected
All right, i’m already on record elsewhere in this blogspace as having found a way to enjoy and appreciate the latest CD from Ashlee Simpson, and I long ago admitted a fondness for girl rock (hey, Radiohead and Snoop Dogg, too, so shut up). Anyway, what the hell? Why not try the new Lindsay Lohan album, right? What do I have to LOSE at this point? Credibility? Hah.
When you’re as famous as Lohan — or, more to the point, when you are Lindsay Lohan — you can’t even change your hair color (which she did) without disproportional over-reaction from media, critics, fans and other hypesters. So when you release an album, the fur really starts to fly.
Predictably, some critics are bashing her for sounding too much on her second album — ”A Little More Personal (Raw)” — like all the other teen-age pop tarts, while others have criticized her for overindulging in personal, introspective lyrics. I’ve read at least three reviews that use the word “karaokeâ€? in describing the two covers Lohan does.
Let’s admit it: the girl can’t catch a critical break. Lohan is too gorgeous (uh-huh), glamorous, smart, rich and popular — not to mention young and talented — for her work to get a straightforward, or even fair, reception at this point. But truly — is her recent appearance change, for which she was criticized, any different from what Madonna’s done over the years and been declared a genius for? Is there anything wrong with a 19-year-old making music that is clearly aimed at fans her age? It’s generally what popular musicians do to remain popular. Is it wrong for a young woman to write about the things that are bothering and/or hurting her feelings? Usually, it’s what writers are encouraged to do.
All that said, is “A Little More Personal” perfect? Of course not; it’s the second album by a teenager who made it knowing she’d be harshly criticized no matter how it turned out.
Is it pretty good? Yes, it is. The music is exuberantly catchy and tight. Lohan’s not a bad singer at all, and she knows that it’s all about showbiz.
She gets credit, too, for taking on heavy stuff. The cornerstone tune, Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father) is about her absent dad, and it brims uncomfortably with honest-seeming heartache. Oh yeah — it’s also a darn good pop-rocker; plenty of folks with more experience couldn’t quite have pulled it off, I’d say.
Overall? I’m sayin a grade of B.
The dorkiest song in history.
Yes, let it be known at the outset of this rant that I like John Lennon. I like him a lot.
And I’ve been sad about his violent, untimely passing since the day it happened 25 years ago Thursday. Like many of you, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news — at a college party in a friend’s apartment at Miami U. We were all horrified.
And I was pleased by all the tributes and stories about the anniversary that ran on TV and in the papers.
But I knew a dreadful thing would happen, and sure enough, it did: I heard the song “Imagine” all day long.
It was on every radio station… on NPR, on the pop stations.
And as usual, it brought up the usual response that the song evokes in me: My gag reflex.
You see, I HATE that song. I think it’s the stupidest, dorkiest song ever written by a major artist. It’s like Mozart playing “Chopsticks.” It’s light years beneath Lennon’s abilities as a songwriter, thinker or performer.
Think about the lyrics: I mean, really think about them. They’re kindergarten-level bubble-head babblings that wouldn’t even sound smart if they were written in crayon. Lennon crafted doggerel and knew it. Even on his doofiest days — and we all have doofy days, surely — he couldn’t have meant anything so simpleminded to stand as his greatest song.
But there it was, all over the place on Thursday, ruining one tribute after another. Sigh.
This is not, btw, a first-time rant on my part. I wrote this in a column years ago and got lots of hate mail for it. Oh, well. If I never hear “Imagine” again, that will be fine.
Because there are about 500 other great John Lennon-penned songs to hear that I’d rather remember him by. And I don’t think he’d think poorly of me for thinking that way.
Cool new rap-rock from Fort Minor
Good new disc: “The Rising Tied” by Fort Minor — the new solo project by Mike Shinoda, the rap voice from Linkin Park.
The funny thing about Linkin Park is that while the band looms exceptionally large on the rock landscape (they’ve sold more than 30 million albums), they have never emerged as well-known mainstream faces. I mean, you may know the band, but do you know what they look like, really?
For Shinoda, this can odd mixture of fame and anonymity can cut both ways. The plus is that he can announce proudly that one of the two voices of Linkin Park is now doing his own thing; the minus is that even some fans of the band might not feel necessarily compelled to check out something by a guy they wouldn’t even recognize in the grocery store.
Except that failing to do so would mean they were missing a pretty darn good album.
Fort Minor is the moniker for Shinoda’s solo project. He’s the MC for Linkin Park, the rap to Chester Bennington’s throat-shredding rock. With smart producing help from Jay-Z (who made a mash-up disc with Linkin Park in 2004), Fort Minor is a bracing, intelligent blast of hip-hop with strong hard-rock overtones that’s better than most of Linkin Park’s stuff.
Shinoda’s a good rapper in terms of rhythm and tone, but his real strength is as a writer, where he proves to have a strong social/political conscience — even writing about his grandparents’ time in a Japanese-American internment camp during WWII; not your typical hip-hop topic.
In fact, when Shinoda inevitably gets around to the macho chest-thumping we’re used to, it sounds hollow based on what else he’s shown he can do — and how much better it is.
Overall, I’m givin it an A-, and I’m liking it more and more every time I spin it.
Permalink | |
Yay! More ads at the movie theater!!!
Just what we needed!!!
USA Today’s business page Tuesday has the headline, “Film fans can expect more advertising on big screen.”
Advertising analysts say to expect an annual increase of about 15 percent on the amount of pre-movie commercials through the next three years. Which means that in five years, there will be as many minutes of advertising as there are minutes in the movie you were supposedly there to see.
Sooooooooo, can they think of any OTHER snazzy ways to keep us from wanting to go the megaplex?
Let’s see… there’s already screaming babies and loud kids at movies where they have no business. There’s already the whole cellphone thing, the rule by which some idiot is bound to sit RIGHT BEHIND YOU and during the movie answer his/her phone and say, “Nuthin. Watchin a movie.”
There’s the pricey snacks, which pound-for-pound constitute the most expensive food on the planet.
And then there are the ads, which were the things movie theaters used to promise you were something you could leave at home, on TV.
Sigh.
TV looks better and better.
INXS is back with that new guy
All right, whether you’ll admit it or not, we KNOW lots of you watched “Rock Star: INXS,” in all its muddled, fist-pumping, surreal and slightly horrifying glory.
And now, here is what it wrought: Not just a new DVD of the best — their word, not mine — performances from the show, but also the new CD with the reconstituted band that was what the whole affair was to be about.
That disc, “Switch,” features singer J.D. Fortune, the winner of the show, and the band that was left, um, hanging, if you will (sorry) when former lead singer Michael Hutchence accidently checked out a few years back.
And how is it? Well, it’s not great art — but then, INXS never was. But it’s reasonably solid, thumping rythmic rock with some sass and attitude — which is pretty much what the band was back with Hutchence. Fortune tries, but lacks, Hutchence’s feral, sexy snarl and lurking-danger persona. But he shows signs of someday being able to come up with his own strong frontman presence.
It’s not there yet, but give him time. Or least another album. It’s not like the guy has a lot of experience, or anything.
Permalink | |
All Xmas music, all the time…
… on Lite 99.9 FM, from dawn to dusk…
Inspired?
Insipid?
I know what I think (um, go ahead and guess) … but what do YOU think?
My gnarly experience with Trans-Siberian Orchestra
As many of you already know, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is coming back to town this weekend (sunday at the NutterHouse; check Ticketmonster for details), bringing their very unusual holiday show for another strange spin through the Miami Valley.
I’ll unfortunately have to miss this one, but as your fearless Arts Guy, I can report that I do have prior TSO experience, which I will now share.
They used to perform at Memorial Hall (sigh… i miss that place, but that’s another blog), and about five years ago we went with some friends who LOVED … no, REALLY LOVED … the TSO. We got tix late, alas, and so were sitting in the front row, but it was waaaaaaay over on the very edge of the floor in the corner of the auditorium, near the exit.
So the TSO comes out, and they are kinda this weird hybrid of Christmas schmaltz, ’80s hair metal, Pops-style classical music, carols, Hallmark Hall of Fame melodrama, Polar-Express-style storytelling and a Queen concert, all rolled into one. Lemme tell you, there is nothing like them … and based on your reactions to the description I just gave, you can decided whether that is necessarily a good thing or not.
ANYWAY, the show was very loud, even by rock concert standards. And they blew out a whole bunch of dry-ice fog, which quickly wafted into the area where we were sitting. And the fog set off the fire alarm, but the concert was so loud nobody heard it going off. We could see the light flashing, cuz it was right next to us, but our friends just thought that was part of the show.
Anyway, the lead guitarist/bandleader, this enthusiastic nutty guy that I will call the Gnarly Surfer Dude, for that is what he looked like (altho one in a tux; yes, it’s a holiday show) disappeared from the stage and lo and behold, to my amazement, popped out of the exit and SAT DOWN RIGHT NEXT TO ME IN THE FRONT ROW, PLAYING HIS STRAT THE WHOLE TIME VERY LOUDLY, SHAKING HIS LONG HAIR AND GRINNING MANIACALLY AT ME, OUR FACES JUST INCHES APART, and he is saying something like “DUUUUUUDE!” and I don’t know what to reply, frankly, and he keeps playing and smiles a big smile like we’re buds now and then he jumps (!) up and runs off and does it to somebody else, and the crowd of course goes WILD.
And after that, I was simply spent.
There is no moral to the story, but I had to tell it anyway. Happy TSO to all, and to all a good Dude.
Permalink | |
Who sez Julia Roberts is worth $20 million?
Um, OK … the Hollywood Reporter just came up with its latest survey on which actress makes the most money per film, and the results are both surprising and not.
The “not” part is that Julia Roberts is still in the top, making $20 million per picture.
Rounding out the list is the more surprising part. The next few:
• Nicole Kidman, $16-17 million
• Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore, $15 m
• Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz, $10-15 m
• Jodie Foster, $10-12 m
• Charlize Theron, $10 m
• Jennifer Aniston, $9 million
Now, while it’s interesting to see that women actresses are finally closer than ever to getting paid in the same range as men (closer, but not quite; several actors make as much as Roberts, while she’s the only female), what struck me about the list is that very few of the top actresses actually seem all that bankable to me.
For instance, Theron. Even though she has an Oscar, has she proven yet that her movies earn that much? Does anybody go to see the latest Charlize Theron movie just because she’s in it?
Same with Aniston — she’s on lots of covers, but has she driven box office yet? In fact, the weird thing about Roberts making so much money per picture is that almost none of her picutres make all that much money. She hasn’t had a real hit since “Pretty Woman,” in fact, that was a million years ago in Movie Time.
Jodie Foster makes sense — not only is she enormously talented, but she delivers audience. “Flightplan” is one of the biggest hits of the fall, despite lukewarm reviews. People like Foster and show it.
My question would be: Where’s Catherine Zeta-Jones? If Zellweger is worth it (and I’d argue that she’s on the list largely on the bankability of “Chicago”), wouldn’t her cohort in crime also deserve to be earning about the same?
Where’s Kirsten Dunst? Can anybody imagine the last two (or the next two, for that matter) Spider-man movies without her? She’s a key player in the best movie franchise of the moment. Show her the money!!!
And my big big question mark? Where the hell is my favorite, Naomi Watts? Both “Ring” movies did pretty well, and the first was a huge hit — entirely on her shoulders. And Peter Jackson’s already said he can’t imagine anybody else in “King Kong” but her.
“Kong” is gonna be huge — and not just because of the ape. This time next year, Watts should be Queen of All, and that’ll be just fine.
