Which character do fans respond to the most?
Generally they respond to Stewie, because he’s arguably the most complex character. He originally began as this diabolical villain, but then we delved into the idea of his confused sexuality. We all feel that Stewie is almost certainly gay, and he’s in the process of figuring it out for himself. We haven’t ever really locked into it because we get a lot of good jokes from both sides, but we treat him oftentimes as if we were writing a gay character.
Is it odd how much people care about this cartoon baby’s sexuality?
Yeah. We’ve had letters from homophobic fans in the past, and I sort of relish the idea of saying, “Yeah, well, you know what? Your favorite character, Stewie, is gay.”
LOST finally returns Thursday with the first of 8 all new episodes. After last season's amazing finale, viewers have been dying for this show to return.
According to the police, around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment, at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, to do household chores. At about 1 p.m., she went into Mr. Ledger’s bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom; she found him on the bed face down, with the sheet pulled up to his shoulders, and heard him snoring.
A masseuse, Diana Wolozin, arrived to give Mr. Ledger a massage about 2:45 p.m. At 3 p.m., after Mr. Ledger did not emerge from his bedroom, with the door closed, the masseuse called him on his cellphone but got no answer. She entered the bedroom and saw him lying in bed. She took a massage table out of the closet and began to set it up near his bed. She then went over to him and shook him, but got no response. Using his cellphone, she used a speed-dial button to call Ms. Olsen in California to seek her guidance, knowing Ms. Olsen to be a friend of Mr. Ledger’s.
According to the authorities, Ms. Wolozin told Ms. Olsen that Mr. Ledger was unconscious. Ms. Olsen said she would call some private security people she knew in New York, and hung up. Ms. Wolozin again shook Mr. Ledger, called Ms. Olsen a second time, and said she believed the situation was grave and would call 911.
Ms. Wolozin called 911 at 3:26 p.m. to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing. The call occurred less than 15 minutes since she had first seen him in bed and only a few moments after the first call to Ms. Olsen. The 911 operator urged Ms. Wolozin to try to revive Mr. Ledger, but Ms. Wolozin’s efforts were not successful.
Emergency medical workers arrived at 3:33 p.m., at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen. The medical workers moved his body to the floor and then used a defibrillator and CPR, to no avail. Mr. Ledger was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. By that point, two other private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen had arrived, as had police officers.
The police said that all five witnesses — Ms. Solomon, the housekeeper; Ms. Wolozin, the masseuse; and the three private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen — were fully cooperating with the authorities.
The police conducted tests on a rolled-up $20 bill found in Mr. Ledger’s apartment, but found no evidence that the bill had been used for anything improper. No illegal narcotics or alcohol was found in the apartment. Prescription sleeping pills were found near the body, but it is not known if the medication played a role in his death.
The police said they were looking to examine any surveillance videos from the apartment building and the surrounding area but were also awaiting the results of an investigation by the New York City chief medical examiner. The office conducted an autopsy early Wednesday morning but said that the results were inconclusive and that additional testing was needed.
Some good choices here in an otherwise drab year for the film industry. The Best Actress race is a complete snoozefest; hopefully, Ellen Page wins that. The race for Best Actor is good, but the underrated James McAvoy is missing for Atonement. I am picking Javier Bardem to win for No Country just because I am afraid he will come after me if I don't. (ok buddy, you can let go of the knife now...)Best Motion Picture of the Year
Achievement in Directing
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Original Score
Original Song
Achievement in Art Direction
Achievement in Costume Design
Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short Subject
Achievement in Film Editing
Achievement in Makeup
Best Animated Short Film
Best Live-Action Short Film
Achievement in Sound Editing
Achievement in Sound Mixing
Achievement in Visual Effects
FRIDAY, APRIL 25: Jack Johnson, The Verve, Raconteurs, The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, Madness, The Swell Season, The National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does it Offend you, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture in Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Professor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, The Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Bang, Lucky I Am.
SATURDAY, APRIL 26: Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars on Broadway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Carbon/silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, Dredg, The Bird and the Bee, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony Club, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Uffie
SUNDAY, APRIL 27: Roger Waters (“Dark Side of the Moon”), Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, The Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, The Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fav, The Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy Fuck, Black Kids, Black Mountain, The Annuals, Kid Sister w/A-Trak, Man Man, Duffy, I'm from Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, The Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen.
Tickets for Coachella go on sale Friday, January 25 at 10:00 AM via Ticketmaster. Tickat prices are as follows: 3-day general admission: $269.00 + Ticketmaster Fees. Single day admission: $90.00 + Ticketmaster Fees.
"Spurred by the day-old employment contract negotiated by the Directors Guild, Hollywood's writers and the major studios agreed Friday to resume their negotiations in hopes of reaching an agreement that would end the 11-week-old strike, according to several people close to the matter.
Writers Guild of America leaders plan to meet as early as Monday with News Corp. President Peter Chernin and possibly other studio chiefs, reviving talks that fell apart early last month, these people said.
Representatives of the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, declined to comment on the meeting.
But in an interview Friday, Writers Guild of America President Practic M. Verrone acknowledged that his union was ready to re-engage.
“Everyone wants us to get back into negotiations, and that’s what we intend to do,” Verrone said.
Verrone declined to give his assessment of the DGA deal, saying guild officials were still studying its contents. The guild’s negotiating committee will meet Saturday to discuss the directors' contract and make recommendations to Verrone and Executive Director David Young on how to proceed in their upcoming negotiations.
Though the directors' deal falls short of what the writers were seeking, it generally received positive reviews from several negotiating committee members and top writers.
“I’m really impressed how mindful the DGA was that the deal had to be good enough to put the whole town back to work,’’ said writer-director Scott Frank (“Minority Report,” “The Interpreter”), a member of the Writers Guild board. “They were under enormous pressure and they seemed to have delivered"."
LOS ANGELES -- Norm Chow, who tutored a pair of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks at Southern California, is returning as offensive coordinator at crosstown rival UCLA.
Chow, fired last week by the Tennessee Titans, joins the staff of new UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, the former Bruins quarterback who took the job late last month.
Before coming to USC and working with Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, the 61-year-old Chow groomed Heisman winner Ty Detmer at BYU. His coaching resume includes six quarterbacks who were first-round picks in the NFL: Palmer, Leinart, Philip Rivers, Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Marc Wilson.
UCLA quarterback Ben Olson was considered one of the top prospects in the nation when he came out of high school, but he has yet to live up to his billing with the Bruins.
Chow was the Titans' offensive coordinator for three years and was credited with helping Vince Young make the transition to the pro game. The Titans finished 10-6 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2003, losing 17-6 to San Diego in an AFC wild-card game.
But Tennessee ranked 21st in the league in total offense and became the first team with only nine touchdown passes to reach the playoffs in a 16-game season.
Chow, who has interviewed for several college head coaching jobs, was under Pete Carroll at USC for four seasons, including two national championship years. Before that, he worked with Rivers at North Carolina State following 27 years on the BYU staff.
“Two words describe this agreement -- groundbreaking and substantial,” said Gil Cates, chair of the DGA’s Negotiations Committee. “The gains in this contract for directors and their teams are extraordinary -- and there are no rollbacks of any kind.”
The was announced Thursday afternoon following six days of negotiations at AMPTP amid widespread expectations that the helmers would quickly reach an agreement with the majors. Deal, if ratified by the 13,500 DGA members, will take effect on July 1.
DGA touted a trio of new-media gains:
The town’s focus will immediately shift to whether the terms of the DGA deal will be acceptable to the WGA. A group of moderate writers have been pushing in recent days for the leaders not to reject the DGA deal out of hand but optimists believe that the DGA deal will be enough of a breakthrough on new-media questions to pave the way for a WGA pact.
“This was a very difficult negotiation that required real give and take on both sides,” said DGA president Michael Apted said in a statement. “Nonetheless, we managed to produce an agreement that enshrines the two fundamental principles we regard as absolutely crucial to any employment and compensation agreement in this digital age: First, jurisdiction is essential. Without secure jurisdiction over new-media production -- both derivative and original -- compensation formulas are meaningless. Second, the Internet is not free. We must receive fair compensation for the use and reuse of our work on the Internet, whether it was originally created for other media platforms or expressly for online distribution.”
The DGA deal opens the door for AFTRA to launch its delayed network code negotiations. AFTRA prexy Roberta Reardon delivered the first official reaction to the deal and noted that the net code talks will start by Feb. 19.
“AFTRA is encouraged by the news that the DGA has reached a deal with the AMPTP,” she said. “We have yet to have an opportunity to review the specifics of their deal but we remain optimistic that the Writers Guild will soon resume negotiations with the studios so people can return to work. AFTRA’s priority is to negotiate strong wages, residuals, benefits, and working conditions for talent in all TV day parts and formats and we intend to resume our own negotiations with the networks and major producers for the Network Code on or before Feb. 19.”
Warner Bros. let the options lapse on the young cast that director George Miller chose to play DC superhero staples. The studio, which had set Tuesday as its greenlight deadline for the pic, confirmed Wednesday the project is on indefinite hold.
Project now most likely won't get under way until late summer or fall at the earliest.
Cast members were informed late Tuesday their options would not be exercised, but they were also assured the studio is determined to make the film with them in it. But before that can happen, there are several problems to be resolved.
The studio's reasons included not getting the official response it needed on tax breaks from shooting in Australia. And while WB execs like the script they got from Kieran and Michele Mulroney, it would benefit from a little more work, something that isn't possible because of the writers' strike.
Some were surprised the studio didn't exercise cast options anyway. The deals gave WB the flexibility to exercise the deals immediately, or in July, and the actors will be making salaries in the low six-figure range. While Adam Brody, cast as the Flash, has a track record, most of the cast comprises such newcomers as Armie Hammer Jr., who plays Batman, and Megan Gale, who will play Wonder Woman.
The studio risks losing them to other film jobs. But it is likely most if not all the cast will make sure to be available starting late summer and fall, just in case. That's because of the starmaking potential of "Justice League."
Studio had set this week as the deadline to greenlight the superhero tentpole, which it was racing to get into production for 2009 release. That was always considered a dicey proposition, particularly when the writers went on strike, and because the film needs to be completed before the SAG deal expires in June.
