Singer Rihanna talks about her life, career and the night her former boyfriend Chris Brown beat her on ABC’s “20/20” at 10 p.m. Friday.
According to a release from ABC News, Rihanna says it was “humiliating” and “traumatizing” to admit the assault took place and that it was “wrong” that she went back to Brown afterwards.
“That’s embarrassing that that’s the type of person that I fell in love with,” Rihanna told Diane Sawyer in her first television interview discussing the assault. “So far in love. So unconditional that I went back. It’s humiliating to say this happened. To accept that? It’s a traumatizing experience.”
Her decision to go back to Brown, she said, was a mistake. “I stayed. I even went back after he beat me, which was wrong,” she said. “But again ... I’m a human being, and people put me on a very unrealistic pedestal. And all these expectations, I’m not perfect.”
The 21-year-old star acknowledged that Brown held her in a headlock twice that night and bit her on the ear and fingers.
After months of silence since the February beating, Rihanna decided to speak publicly about the ordeal so she can be a voice to help others who may be in danger of returning to abuse.
“It’s completely normal to go back. It’s not right. I learned the hard way, but again, this is what I want people to know,” she said. “When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn’t be held responsible for going back.
“Even if Chris never hit me again, who is to say that their boyfriend won’t? Who’s to say that they won’t kill these girls?” she said. “These are young girls, and I just didn’t realize how much of an impact I had on these girls’ lives until that happened.”
After a nine-month hiatus, Rihanna is back on the music scene with a new hit album, “Rated R,” signaling a return from a time of intense loneliness following the assault.
“One of the most lonely times I’ve been was in the past few months because nobody understands what it’s like,” she said. “There are a lot of women who’ve experienced what I did, but not in the public. So it made it really difficult. I just felt like, ‘Oh my God, here it goes, my little bit of privacy.’”
In August, Brown was sentenced to five years of probation, six months of community service and one year of domestic violence counseling for assaulting the 21-year-old pop singer the night before the Grammy Awards.
Ken Auletta, who writes the “Annals of Communications” column for The New Yorker, has access to many of America’s heavy-hitting media moguls. Here’s the major “take away” from his new book, “Googled”: those media moguls aren’t so heavy hitting anymore.
Traditional media — referred to as “old media” often in this book, ain’t that sweet — is in crisis. Even the most casual reader is aware of this. Those who work in media are, I assure you, *very* aware of it. Here are the headlines in case you’ve missed them: newspaper circulation and advertising are down; television viewership is fragmented and the broadcast networks have lost huge chunks of audience share; Internet advertising is up but brings in a fraction of the dollars that traditional media advertising does.
In “Googled,” Auletta offers little hope this trend will reverse itself. He interviews many people involved with media, from newspapers and magazines to television, book publishers and the music industry. No two people completely agree on what the future might look like in terms of media consumption, but they all agree that one possibility is a complete steamrolling of traditional media models.
Google, while not to blame, has everything to do with this.
As Auletta writes in the book’s opening lines, “The world has been Googled. We don’t search for information, we “Google” it. Type a question in the Google search box, as do more than 70 percent of all searchers worldwide, and in about a half a second answers appears.”
It’s amazing, really, but like all amazing technological advances (GPS in cars, smart phones and — my favorite — air conditioning) it is quickly taken for granted. Certainly Google has made a wealth of information available to all the world, for free (well, minus the cost of an Internet connection). And that was the goal of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two engineers who wanted to make information easily accessible.
So why is this leading to chaos in media? Because Google, searching for ways to monetize their search engine, began selling advertisements to run alongside search results. The price is fairly low, but it makes money for Google because of the massive number of people — some three billion — visiting its search page every day. We’re talking truck loads of cash — Google had revenues of $21.7 bllion in 2008, and CEO Eric Schmidt predicts the company could become the first 100 billion dollar media company.
In short, Google built the better advertising mouse trap. Advertisers have flocked to the Web’s low cost, targeted advertising pioneered by Google. This isn’t the only reason that traditional media is in trouble, but Google has become a target of choice for frustrated traditional media types. The complaints got worse after the launch of Google News, a very handy aggregator of the day’s news that has siphoned readers away from daily newspapers and news media Web sites. Google counters that it is linking to news Web sites, giving them clicks.
Much of the book is like this — a back and forth between the complaints of traditional media titans and Google’s leaders, who often come across as naïve as the Google corporate motto, “Don’t Be Evil.” There is also quite a bit about the Google culture, which includes allowing employees to use 20 percent of their time to work on their own projects and stock options that have made many Google employees rich.
But what’s more interesting are the ideas from Google leaders and others in Silicon Valley about the possible future. For example, Marc Andreessen, creator of the revolutionary Netscape browser, predicts the Web will soon have 2.5 billion users worldwide. “When has the music industry and the movie industry and the TV industry ever had a market that big to deal with before? And when has the distribution ever been this cheap? An entrepreneur looks at that and says, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a monster opportunity.’ Somebody who is protecting an existing business says, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to go out of business!’ Now, they’re both right. It depends on whether they radically make the changes they need to make.”
Smart phones like the iPhone and the Android (which uses software from a company Google bought) are just the beginning of a radical change in mobiles, which will continue to improve in quality. Auletta reports that some day, phones might have progressed to a point where you simply point it at a building and all the stores, restaurants and other businesses will pop up on your screen, as well as the pertinent telephone numbers and Web addresses.
Like it or hate it, Google has been a large part of the digital revolutuion that is changing the way the media world works, and the conclusion of most of those interviewed here is that people either need to adapt or get trampled. Whether Google continues to dominant advertising or a rival takes over, the new culture of media consumption that puts control into the hands of the user, not the media companies, is here to stay.
Loud, angry, foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay (who is really a pussycat after he blows off steam) is bringing a new culinary competition series to Fox. Its working title is “Masterchef.”
The series will take wannabe chefs who simply cook as a hobby and have absolutely no experience in the food industry and attempt to turn one of them into top professional chefs. The show is already a hit in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Contestants will be put through the paces with various challenges as they compete head-to-head to create delicious dishes judged by world-renowned chefs. The series will serve as a platform for people from all walks of life who want to follow their dream of working as a professional chef.
The show probably will debut sometime in 2010.
Barbara Walters will sit down with former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for a five-part series of ABC News interviews to begin airing on “Good Morning America” Nov. 17, the morning her highly anticipated book “Going Rogue: An American Life” is released.
The wide-ranging interview will cover her public life as governor of Alaska and her vice presidential run in 2008, as well as her private life. This is Walters’ first interview with the political figure.
Portions of the interview are scheduled to air on “Nightline"on Nov. 17, on “Good Morning America” on Nov. 18 and on “20/20” on Nov. 20.
Listeners of WMNF, 88.5 FM, know Duncan Strauss as one of the “Sonic Detour” DJs as well as the host of his own “Talking Animals” program. During the ‘80s, though, Strauss toiled in print for The Los Angeles Times, covering, among other things, music, working with the Times’ Robert Hilburn, one of the most well-known rock critics in the business.
Hilburn recently published a memoir, “Corn Flakes With John Lennon and Other Tales From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life,” recounting times shared with Lennon, Bono (who wrote the forward) and Bruce Springsteen.
Hilburn will speak by telephone with former co-worker Strauss from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday during “Sonic Detour.” Hilburn ran with rock’s greatest for nearly 40 years and has plenty of stories to tell.
“Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome, America. A Final Night with George W. Bush”
Stars: Will Ferrell
Rated: Not rated, but contains profanity, brief nudity and mature material
Running time: 115 minutes
Release date: Nov. 3
My take: Wow. Even I was surprised that Ferrell “took it there” during some bits of this show, particularly the one involving the penis, which I will not attempt to describe, what with this being a family-friendly kind of blog (most of the time). Generally speaking, haters of George W. Bush will find this knee-slappin’ hilarious and Bush supporters will pretty much be appalled or bored (jokes about Bush’s lack of verbal skills have been old since about ’02). I found some moments laugh-out-loud funny, particularly the way Ferrell skewers Bush’s silver-spoon attitude of entitlement and superiority. Other bits fell a little flat, including much of the “Bush as cowboy” section. There’s plenty of bawdy humor that is easier to enjoy when you are in the comfort of your home and no one can judge you. I was constantly amazed at how Ferrell absolutely nails the former president’s facial expressions and verbal ticks. I also found some of this oddly sympathetic to Bush, mostly the way Ferrell humanizes him, so Bush-haters might not be entirely pleased.
Extras: One of the disc’s best bits is the “Bush interviews Bush” section, in which Ferrell plays the president both as cowboy and in his presidential suit attire.
Who will like: People who detest former President George W. Bush and people who enjoy satire of public officials and aren’t put off by penis jokes. And, I suppose, Bush supporters with a sense of humor.
Forget waterboarding. Reportedly, terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay may have been subjected to blaring music including songs by The Bee Gees, Britney Spears and James Taylor, as well as the Meow Mix jingle and themes to “Sesame Street” and “Barney.”
A coalition of musicians including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Jackson Browne have filed a series of Freedom of Information Act petitions requesting the full declassification of secret U.S. documentation on the strategy of using music as an interrogation device at Guantanamo and other detention centers. Apparently, blasting music might have been used as a strategy to coerce information from terrorist suspects before 2003.
An investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee cited one detainee who was subjected to hours of the Drowning Pool’s “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.” Other detainees have been quoted as saying they were blasted with hours of the music of Eminem, Bruce Springsteen and the Bee Gees played at loud volumes as a sleep deprivation technique.
A Freedom of Information Act request filed Oct. 22 names 35 musicians or songs that it says may have been used against detainees at U.S. military detention centers, including the one at Guantanamo Bay.
The National Security Archive—the Washington-based independent research institute that filed the request—is seeking documents that “contain explicit references to the following bands or songs”:
• AC/DC
• Aerosmith
• Barney theme song (By Bob Singleton)
• The Bee Gees
• Britney Spears
• Bruce Springsteen
• Christina Aguilera
• David Gray
• Deicide
• Don McLean
• Dope
• Dr. Dre
• Drowning Pool
• Eminem
• Hed P.E.
• James Taylor
• Limp Bizkit
• Marilyn Manson
• Matchbox Twenty
• Meatloaf
• Meow Mix jingle
• Metallica
• Neil Diamond
• Nine Inch Nails
• Pink
• Prince
• Queen
• Rage Against the Machine
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Redman
• Saliva
• Sesame street theme music (By Christopher Cerf)
• Stanley Brothers
• “The Star Spangled Banner”
• Tupac Shakur
The comedy series “Scrubs” will return to ABC for its ninth season on Dec. 1 with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 9:30 p.m.
The following Tuesday, “Scrubs” will air at 9 p.m. and be followed by the season debut of “Better Off Ted” at 9:30 p.m. The critically acclaimed comedy is in its second season.
I’m always interested to talk to writers after I have read their work. They almost never quite match in some way. Peter Straub, for example, scared the wits out of me years ago with Ghost Story (maybe “unnerved me” would be closer to the truth), and his collaboration with Stephen King, The Talisman, was first-rate fantasy. And then I met the man at a USF event, and he was just the most polite, soft-spoken guy. We drank coffee and iced tea together, is what I am saying.
Tampa Bay resident Susan Kearney was a surprise, too, for different reasons. She writes what the romance industry calls “hot” romance (i.e., sexy). And then you talk to the lady and she’s just as “normal” as can be. Where I was expecting leather and lace, I got a fairly big sci-fi geek.
I like Susan Kearney. So much so that some praise I once wrote is included in her new book, Lucan, which is the first in a new series she is writing, The Pendragon Legacy. The first book centers on Lady Cael, the high priestess of her people who is supposed to live a life without physical pleasure—until a myterious man named Lucan enters her life and tempts her to break her vow. And we’re off and running with some science fiction adventure and massive sexual tension!
Kearney’s done well with her romance novels, of which she has quite a few. You can find out more about her by visiting her website right here. She’s got a nice photo of herself along with a video about the new book and information about the series.
Fans of exotic animals and good food—and no, I don’t mean cooking the one to make the other—will be glad to realize that we are rolling up on that time of the year when Lowry Park Zoo holds its annual Zoofari fundraiser. This means a couple of things: 1) your entry cost will help the zoo pay for taking care of its many animals and 2) you can eat tons of good food. Convenient, eh?
(By the way, of course I realize I am writing about “going out.” Maybe I should just change the name of this blog to, “Everything that interests me today.”)
I like Zoofari, which happens Saturday (Nov. 7), for the same reason I like every all-inclusive event that features great food and drink—once you pay your entry fee (in this case, it starts at $80)—you are done and can sample at will. And there will be food worth sampling. Restaurants include GrillSmith, Ceviche, First Watch, Longhorn Steakhouse, Sonny’s Real Pit BBQ and G. Elliot’s Brunchery and Catering. Some new eateries making their first appearance at Zoofari include Giordano’s, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Datz Deli (I’m a big Datz Deli fan—in fact, here’s their website.)
Sister Hazel will play the mainstage, while Tampa’s own The Vodkanauts wil also play.
This is one of those local events that everyone should go to at least once, in my humble opinion. Follow this link for more information.
The spineless weasel of a president, Charles Logan, is making a return visit to “24” during the upcoming eighth season, Fox announced today.
Gregory Itzin will reprise his acclaimed role as the disgraced former president. He was last seen after being shockingly stabbed by First Lady Martha (Jean Smart) in season six. Itzin’s return to “24” will bring together the series’ two Emmy-nominated presidents for the first time when sitting President Allison Taylor (Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones) reluctantly enlists Logan to assist with an escalating international diplomatic crisis.
The Emmy Award-winning drama starring Kiefer Sutherland returns for its next day with a two-night, four-hour premiere event Jan. 17 (9 to 11 p.m.) and Jan. 18 (8 to 10 p.m.) on FOX.
Season eight resets in New York City, where a retired Jack Bauer (Sutherland) is unwillingly drawn back into the action after learning of a plot to assassinate Middle Eastern peace-keeping leader Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor). Meanwhile, Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) and Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) return alongside CTU newcomers Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) and Cole Oritz (Freddie Prinze Jr.).
The longest running comedy in TV history is celebrating its 20th year with on on-air scavanger hunt.
The Fox network is paying “homarge” to “The Simpsons” with the network’s first-ever on-air scavenger hunt beginning Monday and continuing through Nov. 13.
Fans can watch Fox each night to find “Simpsons” shout-outs, tributes and clues featured in primetime programming and on-air promos.
One lucky winner will receive a trip for two to Los Angeles to attend a “Simpsons” table read with the Emmy Award-winning voice cast and producers, a home entertainment system, “Simpsons” DVDs and merchandise, and tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood, home of The Simpsons Ride.
Viewers 13 years of age and older who spot shout-outs can log on to http://www.fox.com/scavengerhunt each night to test their knowledge for an opportunity to unlock daily downloadable extras and to enter to win the grand prize. The deadline for submissions is 2 p.m. Nov. 14. For complete official rules, guidelines and more information, visit http://www.fox.com/scavengerhunt.
“Best. 20 Years. Ever.,” a year-long global celebration launched in January, will culminate in January 2010, the 20th anniversary of the series’ debut.
The Children
Directed by: Tom Shankland
Run time: 85 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: “The Children” is the best film yet to be released by director Sam Raimi’s direct-to-DVD distribution company, Ghost House Underground.
It’s a slow boil nightmare that pops at just the right times with impressive gore, gallons of blood and enough squirmtastic moments where you can’t help but think, oh crap, kill the kid.
Essentially a fresh take on the “something’s wrong with…” genre, director Tom Shankland has fashioned a creepy as hell ode to human frailty. If your children turned against you for no reason, even those as young as 5 years old, could you…would you…fight back and kill them to save yourself? The answer that he concocts is wonderfully twisted with some characters behaving rationally, some behaving exactly like you might expect in the face of such a hellish turn and some getting killed so brutally and unexpectedly that you are taken by surprise.
The Thaw
Directed by: Mark A. Lewis
Run time: 94 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Oh Val Kilmer, what were you thinking?
“The Thaw,” the latest eco-terror horror film to consider what terrors might be unleashed on our world by global warming, looks to tiny parasitic, prehistoric worms to generate suspense.
The end result is kind of ho-hum.
The worms aren’t that terrifying. The cast, buoyed by Kilmer’s fading star wattage and up-and-comers Aaron Ashmore and Martha McIsaac, is tolerable. But the will they, won’t they escape certain doom premise gets tired pretty quick and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
If this type of eco-horror interests you, here’s a suggestion: Check out Larry Fessenden’s 2006 indie offering, “The Last Winter.” It’s a far superior film based on the same concept.
Seventh Moon
Directed by: Eduardo Sanchez
Run time: 87 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Eduardo Sanchez, forever to be known as one half of “The Blair Witch Project,” returns with “Seventh Moon,” a plodding but effective chiller about evil spirits and zombies and hell that gets a lot of credit just for being set in China, not the normal locale for an American horror film.
Amy Smart, a go-to genre actress who has lent considerable charm to such crazy, over-the-top B-movies as “Crank” and “The Butterfly Effect,” carries the water throughout, racing by foot across a foreign countryside, trying to avoid white-faced, ashen-bodied, flesh-eating spooks.
Offspring
Directed by: Andrew Van Den Houten
Run time: 79 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: I don’t know why, but I just don’t like movies based on the novels of Jack Ketchum. Call it a personal bias, even though I’ve never read a Ketchum book.
But for whatever reason, “The Offspring,” much like “The Lost,” “The Girl Next Door” and “Red,” the other movies based on Ketchum’s work, just didn’t connect with me.
Sure, it has wonderful gore – including a wicked scene early on where a woman stumbles into her kitchen to discover a handful of savage, flesh-eating children carving up her loved one – but I just lost interest as characters got dispatched quickly in this short, bloody offering.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Crazy kids, creepy Chinese ghosts, prehistoric worms and cannibal tribespeople.
Buy/Rent – Buy “The Children”; Rent the rest.
Release Date – Oct. 6, 2009
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
Genre: Horror/Sequel
Directed by: Declan O’Brien
Run time: 92 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Usually, by the second direct-to-DVD sequel, most horror franchises are beginning to show the strain of taking an idea well past its breaking point.
But the “Wrong Turn” franchise is an anomaly.
The first film was a surprisingly good “people trapped and hunted by inbred hillbillies in the woods” creature feature. The second film, “Dead End,” was actually better than the first in terms of gore. And now, “Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead,” surpasses all expectations by being both gory good and enjoyable, despite its lesser budget and weaker script.
This time around, there are two groups being hunted in the West Virginia mountain country: A group of young adults on a white-water rafting trip and a busload of dangerous inmates from the local maximum-security penitentiary.
The rafters get dispatched quickly and easily, including both a gratuitous bare boob getting drilled with an arrow shot and an eyeball being blown out by arrow tip. It’s an impressive start.
The prison scenes drag through too much dialogue with an unnecessary subplot of one guard’s final prisoner transfer before he retires.
But once the guards and inmates are on the road, things pick up quickly and people start getting cut in half, ripped apart, encased in razor wire nets and generally eviscerated with gory glee.
This is not an intelligent thriller, by any means. But it’s fun and fast-moving and even though the third batch of hillbilly mutants aren’t as memorable as the ones from the first two films, they’re still creepy and resourceful.
This is a definite winner on a slow night at the video store, and for fans of the series, it won’t disappoint.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes: Louise Cliffe, who can’t act for anything, but gets naked with ease.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Considerable.
Drug use – Yes.
Bad Guys/Killers – It’s round three for the West Virginia hillbilly mutants whose ranks show no sign of thinning.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Three featurettes, “Action, Gore and Chaos!” “Brothers in Blood” and “Three Fingers Fright Night”; deleted scenes.
Release Date – Oct. 20, 2009
The Wizard of Oz – 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Genre: Fantasy/Classic
Directed by: Victor Fleming
Run time: 102 minutes
Rating: G
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: Witches, munchkins, flying monkeys, talking lions.
Seventy years later, it’s hard to believe that one of the world’s most beloved movies, complete with songs and sappy sentimentality, was actually one of the first live-action fantasy movies ever produced.
Would “The Wizard of Oz” even work today with the glut of such fantasy series as Harry Potter and Twilight and the infernal reliance of Hollywood to use CGI to mimic all types of fantastic situations? I like to think it would.
But back in 1939, it’s amazing to think about the risk that MGM took in creating a movie that was essentially a subversive take on an alternate reality not unlike the high-brow concepts of TV shows and movies like “Fringe” and “The Matrix.”
Even the makeup effects and low-fi technical wizardry of turning Bert Lahr and Jack Haley into a lion and a tin man, respectively, and having Margaret Hamilton fly and be crushed by a house, hold up much better than any movie as old as this one should.
Watching “The Wizard…” in gorgeous Technicolor high-definition, you can’t help but see the inspiration for some of our greatest visionary directors working today from Tim Burton to Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to Steven Spielberg.
Director Victor Fleming and his screenwriters took great care to treat even the most fantastic creations as real from the flying monkeys to the munchkins. The mildly frightening scenes of the witch and the scary forest still resonate with a child’s fear of the unknown.
And the ultimate message, that there is no place like home, still rings true without slapping you across the face with Big Important Ideas, as Hollywood is so wont to do these days.
That there are still people who have never experienced this movie is a crime, but hopefully this deluxe rollout will have a significant hand in changing that. This is a movie made for today’s technology – widescreen, flat-panel TVs and 1080p pixel resolution combined with superior Dolby TrueHD sound.
One thing’s for sure: No one cut corners when it came to the goodies that accompany this 70th-anniversary set, which is limited to 243,000 copies only.
The collectibles alone – Limited-Edition Crystal Watch, replica 1939 Campaign Book, 52-page commemorative “Behind the Curtain of Production 1060” coffee table book and Movie Budget replica sheet – are a movie geek’s dream come true.
Combined with the 16-plus hours of bonus material, it’s almost overwhelming.
For anyone who ever followed the Yellow Brick Road, this is a fan’s ultimate destination.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Glinda the good witch or the Wicked Witch of the West, take your pick.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Wicked witches, tornadoes and flying monkeys.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – “The Life and Times of original author L. Frank Baum and early screen adaptations of the Oz books”; the early Baum-based silent film, “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” and the complete “The Magic Cloak of Oz”; documentary profile of director Victor Fleming; the television special, “The Dreamer of Oz,” starring John Ritter; footage from the 2007 Hollywood Walk of Fame salute to Munchkins; the six-hour studio chronicle “MGM: When the Lion Roars.”
Release Date – Sept. 29, 2009
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