Did anyone watch?
Betty White solidified her status as TV’s golden girl of the moment by drawing big ratings for her Mother’s Day hosting gig on Saturday Night Live. [The episode] averaged an 8.8 household rating/21 share in the metered markets. That is SNL’s highest rating in 18 months
(via Deadline)
A new song has leaked from Christina Aguilera’s long-awaited fourth LP called “WooHoo” featuring rapper Nicki Minaj. This is the fourth song we’ve heard off Bionic, which comes out June 8th.
There was Not Myself Tonight, which I liked but isn’t great, then there was Bionic and You Lost Me both which I loved–but we only have bootleg live performances of. I hope this becomes a single, Christina really should tap into the urban market. If you want to listen to the new “WooHoo” track produced by Polow Da Don, click below.
A new trailer for the Phillip Noyce-directed action/thriller Salt just debuted a few days ago and thus far the film seems to be getting pretty good buzz. It stars Angelina Jolie and Liev Shreiber. Here’s the plot summary:
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who is Salt?”
To be honest the film doesn’t excite me very much. I’m not a huge Angelina Jolie fan. I think she’s one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood. I do think she’s talented, but in limited roles. Girl, Interrupted and Gia for example, she was fantastic. Life or Something Like It, not so much.
That said, I’m all about more action films starring women, and Jolie is one of the few women in Hollywood who is actually bankable when it comes to these types of films. And I did love Wanted (which apparently has a sequel in the works, though she declined to be a part of it).
Here’s the trailer.
A look back at several prime-time moments from American network television over the past 25 years reflecting changes in portrayal of gay male characters in prime-time soaps.
It would be interesting to look at which has portrayed the lgbt community better–primetime soaps or daytime soaps. If Young and the Restless is any indication, I’m going with the former.
Newsweek has an article on ten black women in North Carolina who are either missing or dead, in what might be a case of a serial killer. The murders began in 2005, and have received no national attention until now–except not really.
Ten women have been found slain or have been declared missing in Rocky Mount, N.C., in recent years. But the rest of the country hasn’t heard about a possible serial killer stalking the young women in this Southern town of 60,000. The latest victim, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, was identified on Oct. 12. Why have the Rocky Mount homicides been largely ignored?
It’s impossible to deny that these stories would have received more attention had the victims been middle to upper-middle class suburban white girls, and the article discusses that very issue.
Jack Price, the gay man whose bashing by two thugs in Queens, NYC three weeks ago was captured on surveillance video, left the hospital yesterday following six days in a coma, six days on a respirator, and four surgeries. He lost the vision in one eye.
Here he speaks to local news about his attack, which he says he never wants to see the video of, and comments on the allegations that the men beat him because he was soliciting for sex.
It seems this is a preview of a “Gay In America” special that’s supposed to be similar to CNN’s previous “Black In America” special that aired earlier this year. I sincerely hope that the special goes beyond the “Down Low”.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s late wife Coretta Scott King and eldest daughter Yolanda King were vocal gay rights supporters but one of King’s other daughters Bernice King has on the other hand been very anti-gay and has even marched in anti-gay rallies against same-sex marriage.
Now that Bernice has been named the first female leader of the Southern Black Leadership Conference, black publication Daily Voice is asking King to renounce her previous anti-gay bigotry.
She should renounce the anti-gay bigotry of her recent past. That bigotry was on shameful and insulting display in December 2004 when she and thousands of marchers stood at the gravesite of her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., and denounced gay marriage. The implication was that King might well have stood with her and them in their protest against gay rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. King’s fight against bigotry and discrimination, all bigotry and discrimination, was relentless and uncompromising. If anything that day, King would have been across the street from his gravesite with the hundred or so other counter-demonstrators. They loudly shouted that what Bernice and the marchers were doing at her father’s gravesite and in his name, was a travesty and a disgrace. King sullied her father’s name to show her enmity to gay marriage. She also sullied her mother’s too.
A few years before Bernice’s gravesite antic, Coretta Scott King issued a public statement forcefully denouncing anti-gay bigotry and made it perfectly clear that her husband would be a champion of gay rights if he were alive. [snip] On its website SCLC clearly says “its mission is to challenge all people of good will, of every persuasion, who believe in the principles espoused by Martin Luther King, Jr. to join us.” Presumably that’s the mission of its new president. She can prove it is by publicly renouncing her anti-gay bigotry.
I certainly won’t hold my breath.
I don’t know if any of you heard about this, but I had to post it ’cause I found it both poignant and hilarious, especially coming from a straight guy. Some background:
Kansas City Chiefs Larry Johnson has been suspended by his team after conducting a series of unnecessary remarks aimed at head coach Todd Haley after the team lost 37-7 against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, and one of his Twitter followers.
The Twitter follower reffered to an incident where Johnson spat at a women in a nightclub, to which then Johnson commented on the followers profile photo calling it a “fag pic” and “ Christopher Street boy” which is a reference to a Pride march route in New York.
(via Pink News)
Then Jay Smooth (founder of longest running hip-hop radio station and most known for hip-hop blog Ill Doctrine) laid his ass the hell OUT.
Video below.
Jay was selected by Salon.com as one of the “sexiest men living”.
This isn’t the first time that Spike has talked about this issue so I’m not sure why the media is just now picking up on it (though it’s possible it is the first time he’s specifically mentioned Tyler’s name), but I have to say everything Spike is saying is what I’ve been saying all along about this man’s “films” if that’s what you want to call them.
And yes, Ed Gordon is absolutely right. Black people have no one to blame but themselves for these types of movies constantly being put out by Hollywood. It isn’t white people showing up to the theaters giving this man record box office receipts. And I’ll say the same thing I say to feminists who complain about today’s chick flicks. If you don’t show up for the good ones, don’t complain. Where were you when Miracle at St. Anna was released? Where were you when Akeelah and the Bee came out? If no one goes to see these films, Hollywood will not put them out.
There’s so many problems with Tyler’s films I don’t even know where to begin. But this Entertainment Weekly article puts most of the issues quite eloquently.
