quid.pro

I'm on Team Oprah too

There were some fascinating exchanges between Oprah and Jay, who sounded as though he thought Winfrey was going to be more sympathetic than she proved to be. Winfrey said, “David Letterman called you, I think, the ‘Big Jaw’ Leno… and you hit back by talking about his infidelity.” 

Leno said, “Well, I did a joke about that, yes.” 

”Even the audience went, ‘Ooo!’” noted Winfrey.
”But it was a good joke,” squeaked Leno. “Did you laugh when you heard it?”

“No,” said Oprah firmly, “I did not. I did not laugh. You know what, I thought that was beneath you.” Leno tried to defend himself. “But how many jokes like that have I done? I did one joke in the middle of the week and I never did another one. I had a cheap shot thrown at me, I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on.”
Oprah asked, “So you thought one cheap shot deserves another?” 

Leno said, “Yeah, it’s OK.” Then 
Oprah asked, “Do you feel you’re being unfairly portrayed by the media?” Leno said, “Yeah, I think so.”

via Ken Tucker's TV

Trying too hard for the Dude

I've been using the holiday to catch up with some of my older favorite movies. The Big Lebowski was first to be re-watched last week and it's still one of my all-time favorites. As Renee well put it when she forwarded me this link, journalism about Big Lebowski has become "a bit too precious reporting on the too preciousness of it all."

When putting the book together, Mr. Comentale said, he and his co-editor “immediately cut out all the papers celebrating the Dude as a hippie hero in a postmodern landscape.” That’s a sober choice. Admirers of the Dude are already dangerously close to becoming Internet-age versions of Parrotheads, the weekend-warrior Jimmy Buffett fans who tip back margaritas — and embarrass their children — while wearing flip-flops, board shorts, Hawaiian shirts and coconut bras.

“Trying to impress your academic colleagues and also make a dent in the popular market, that’s a fine line to walk,” Mr. Comentale added. “We wanted these essays to press the connection between the goofy and the profound.”

via www.nytimes.com via Renee

(On a separate note, I'd forgotten just how close to perfect Royal Tenenbaums is... but that's another story.)

Jeff Bridges has the best website ever

I've been spending a fair bit of time lately looking at and working with websites for celebrities, but Jeff Bridges absolutely rocks beyond anything I've seen. Renee gets props for forwarding me the site, it's amazing. Almost completely hand drawn by Jeff, don't miss his blog.

The dude abides indeed.

The Boss is 60 and confused

"Hello, Ohio!"

Bruce Springsteen to the Auburn Hills (Michigan) audience he was playing for. Finally Steve Van Zandt whispered in his ear that they were actually in Michigan (via Yahoo News)

Al Michaels traded for an 80-year old cartoon

Gotta love Hollywood. Buried deep in a New York Times piece about how Disney is re-imagining Mickey Mouse is the wonderful tidbit that Disney and NBC Universal settled an 80-year old dispute by trading a well known sportscaster for a cartoon character:

Mr. Iger solved a right problems [sic] with the game by making a deal with NBC Universal in 2006. In the negotiations, Mr. Iger persuaded NBC Universal to trade the Oswald rights for rights to Al Michaels, the sportscaster. NBC wanted Mr. Michaels for its new football franchise and Mr. Michaels wanted to go, but Disney held him in a longtime contract through its ESPN unit.

For background, Oswald was a cartoon rabbit that Walt Disney abandoned in the late 1920's in a dispute with Universal but Disney wanted to resurrect for a new video game, Epic Mickey. Al Michaels is a sportscaster with a little more humility about his value on the trade market.

Looks like Sillywood to me

Michael Arrington notes the parallels between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. First, from the Village Voice "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script":

You are not owed a read from a professional, even if you think you have an in, and even if you think it's not a huge imposition. It's not your choice to make. This needs to be clear--when you ask a professional for their take on your material, you're not just asking them to take an hour or two out of their life, you're asking them to give you--gratis--the acquired knowledge, insight, and skill of years of work. It is no different than asking your friend the house painter to paint your living room during his off hours.

Michael's response is at "Let’s Not Let Silicon Valley Become Just Like Hollywood" (and oh by the way, it has been for years):

Budding entrepreneurs, trying to break down the walls that separate them from your angel funding, need to grow up. Most of the time people don’t have the time to help you, and you shouldn’t aim hate at them for it. Instead, try a different angle or a different person. A simple thing – learn to read body language and don’t approach people at the wrong time (like right after they leave a stage and are surrounded by a dozen other people). Choose your moment. If your strategies don’t work, try something new.

Two great reads in one.

John Cleese finally accepts his marriage has ceased to be

This is what you get when you marry a woman who has written a book "How To Manage Your Mother."

The scale of his ex-wife's demands has reawoken a streak of savage comedy in Cleese, which had appeared to lie dormant since Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers, the 1970s television series that made him famous.

"I got off lightly. Think what I'd have had to pay Alyce if she had contributed anything to the relationship," he was quoted as saying of the settlement.

via Times Online

Disney museum renders animation innovation

The new Walt Disney Family Museum, in San Francisco’s Presidio national parkland, will not open until October, but, in a media preview tour this week, we were introduced to innovations such as the 13-feet-high Multiplane Camera and the optical printer.

via blogs.ft.com

Can't wait to go!

Nirvana vs Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit up

via Persephone

Wonderful!

Eternal MoonWalk

As we finish up the second straight week of crazy nonstop Michael Jackson coverage, you might be thinking that there couldn'€™t possibly be anything left when it comes to honoring the recently departed icon. However, we'€™d like to turn your attention to one particularly charming tribute, Eternal Moonwalk.

via Very Short List