It just keeps getting better and better for “Britains Got Talent” superstar Boyle
By Stacey Silberman
HOLLYWOOD (Hollywood Today) 4/19/09 - Susan Boyle visits CNN’s “Larry King Live” with Piers Morgan, gets swept up into Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter race, is invited to sit with Oprah, and has now hit upwards of 50-million views on YouTube since she debuted April 11.
The new it girl is taking the world by storm as many jump aboard her bandwagon. “Her story is just so inspiring,” said 11-year old singer Sabrina Silberman. “It gives me the courage to perform even when I’m really nervous. If she can do it, than so can I.”
Simon Cowell has also promised Boyle a record contract and has guaranteed it will be a huge hit like previous operatic contestant Paul Potts. She is now slated to go on tour as well.
NEW YORK (Hollwyood Today/RushPRnews) 02/14/09–Valentine’s Day is a day for couples to celebrate their love and for Hallmark to make a killing… RushPRnews decided to step out of the box for this year’s Valentine’s day. Instead we thought we’d bring you a different take on couples, with a top ten list of Hollywood Cinema’s most mismatched couples.
MONTREAL (Hollywood Today/RushPRNews) 02/12/09- The 81st Annual Academy Awards are only ten days away, and the nominated films are starting to be released on DVD, although most are still in theaters. Among this week’s releases, only one has made its way to the Oscars, but these two others are well-worth discovering. Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
photo by Derek Berg: Auhor Michael Brandow and his faithful companion Sammy
NEW YORK CITY (Hollywood Today -RushPRnews) 01/18/09 – Got a moment? Own a dog? Live in a large metropolitan city (with nice sidewalks) somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy? Well, Michael Brandow is the guy you want to go to. He’s the author of an important dog lover’s book titled “New York’s Poop Scoop Law: Dogs, Dirt and Due Process”, and it’s a must-read for anyone with dogs and a big city address. Rural folk don’t need to bother. Brandow’s book is not your average commercially-published trade book sent out into the world by savvy New York editors sitting in their glass offices high above Manhattan’s dirty streets. In a publishing twist to end all publishing twists, the book — which some critics are hailing as “a pioneering new history of doggy culture” — Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
MINNESOTA (RushPRNews)12/19/08 - Can the Eagles keep their hot streak alive or fold under the pressure and miss the playoffs? The loser of the Ravens vs Cowboys matchup will most likely not qualify for the playoffs while the winner is almost guaranteed to be playoff bound. Which of the two Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
Sunday Drivers: Dixon wins crown over Helio and Indy women, Johnson takes Richmond
By David Mirsky
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/8/08 — With inches to spare in a record photo-finish, Scott Dixon took home the big 2008 Indy Championship trophy after a season of battling racer and Dancing with the Stars’ finalist Helio Castroneves.
Plus Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton had his win stripped away in a Ferrari passing duel which did not pass the judges notice, but will appeal in a surprisingly busy race weekend.
Normally, the first week in September is not supposed to be anything special for motorsports. Just a couple of races with a couple of different winners, right…wrong. From Belgium, to Virginia, to Chicago this weekend proved to be anything but typical. There were some crowns, and some frowns on the speedways this weekend.
First, congratulations to Indy Car’s 2008 champion, Scott Dixon and the Target-Chip Ganassi team, who captured the title on the final race of the regular season. Chicagoland hosted the Indy Car Peak Anti Freeze 300, where either Helio Castroneves or Scott Dixon was going to be crowned Indy Car champion, and it was anyone’s guess who it was going to be. Dixon just needed to finish the race in 8th place to win the crown, where Castroneves had to win the race with Dixon finishing in at least 9th place to capture the championship. For most of the race, Dixon played it safe, staying out of everyone’s way, but still maintaining his position in the top ten, while Castroneves was a bit busier. Castroneves spent most of his day leading the race, and fending off anyone who wanted to lead the race. It came down to the final lap of the race, and that final lap came down to the last lap, actually, the last foot of the last lap. And that was the distance that Helio Castroneves beat Scott Dixon to the finish line…it turned out to be a photo finish for the Penske team, and the tightest margin of Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
With the passing of Gustav, Republicans brush aside politics and raise funds to help victims
By Brian Frederick
ST. PAUL, MN (Hollywood Today) 9/2/08 — “I know the hard choices that fall solely to a President. John McCain’s life has prepared him to make those choices,” said President Bush via satellite from the White House. The president is the first since Lyndon B. Johnson to not attend his party’s own convention. Bush stated his need to remain at the White House to monitor the effects of hurricane Gustav, which largely bypassed the city of New Orleans and was downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday.
The Republican convention was delayed by John McCain in order for Republicans to focus on the needs of the country first vs political posturing. For many viewers perceiving Bush‘s absence based on poll numbers, it’s still difficult for many to comprehend the lessons learned from hurricane Katrina and New Orleans lack of preparation for a major hurricane in its 400 hundred year history. The requirement for Bush to stay in Washington and take federal action necessary to prevent another flooding of a city literally built 12 feet below sea level appeared warranted, and Bush was criticized over his late handling of Katrina.
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/2/08 – Republican Presidential candidate John McCain said he knew of the unwed teenage pregnancy in the home of running mate Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin before he picked her over better-known candidates.
The mother of five whose placement on the ticket was meant to reinforce traditional values has confirmed her daughter is five months pregnant, and the GOP is scrambling to gauge the impact. The family and the campaign said they had hoped to keep the matter private.
Yet President Bush is set to speak tonight at the Republican Convention, and while he will not likely address the latest revelation about Palin, any message about family values may have been red-lined from his speech – though his own daughters have been a handful.
This comes at the beginning of the convention when the public is looking to discover more about Palin, a surprise choice by McCain.
By all accounts Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska, first woman Governor of Alaska and the youngest Governor of Alaska is a mother with five children and exactly the conservative running mate liberal John McCain, 72, needs to balance the Republican ticket. As two-time mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002, Palin, 44, ran an unsuccessful campaign for Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
(Hollywood Today) 8/09/08 — Chicago comic Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.
Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.
The comic born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough could cut an imposing figure. He stood six-foot-three, was built like a fullback and carried himself with a bouncer’s reticence. But perhaps the strongest weapon in the Chicago comedian’s arsenal was that voice, that amalgam of thought and a delivery that could rise like a tidal wave, outpace a Gatling gun and remained, to his last days, loud and unapologetic.
He wasn’t scared, he told us time and again, to tell anyone what he thought, to say what others were afraid to say. That fearlessness wasn’t always welcome, considering Mac didn’t get his big break until his 30s. His family thanks everyone for the well wishes and concern.”
Disney dodges a bullet, Eva nipple censored, Paris for Prexy and Heath-Olsen laid to rest by DEA
By Jody Babydol Gibson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 8/7/08 –EVA’S BREASTS
Gas prices are giving us pain at the pump, IndyMac’s breaking the bank, our homes are in foreclosure, and now they’re not letting us see gorgeous Eva Mendes’s nipple too? That does it! What is the world coming to?!
Apparently, Calvin Klein who brought us Marky Mark’s abs along with the big bulge in his underwear during those earlier controversial billboard ads is making news again with his new televised commercial for Obsession perfume which has the networks in such an uproar they have it banned in some places! The ad features a luscious Eva sprawled out on the bed in a sexy negligee and just when you think you’ve seen it all out comes Eva’s nipple! I say bring it on. Paleez! Americans are under enough pressure trying to get through the John McCain ads- don’t take Eva’s nipple away from us too! Maybe the sponsors will shed some mercy on us and agree to show it after 10pm when the little ones are asleep…
PARIS’ POSSE
Who is writing Paris Hilton’s material?! Move over Tina Fey- you’ve got some competition. “I’ll see you at the debates, bitches,” she said to U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, according to Reuters. Paris gets an A+ for marketing and let’s face it guys she looked hot, hot, hot announcing her candidacy in a revealing one piece leopard suit. This week the talk was Paris Hilton’s commercial with a satirical attempt to ingratiate herself into the political arena and her opening line “Some white haired dude featured me in his commercial so I guess that means now I’m in the race” was absolutely priceless!
And of course the added mention of “But I’ll just have to change the White House pink” had me on the floor! Rumor has it her mom is the one who writes a lot of her material which at the very least is not only scandalous, but so very, very Paris! Watch out Mad TV someone’s got a director’s chair with your name on it!
HEATH LEDGER”S MARY LAID TO REST
This week the news was that the Feds plan to drag poor Mary Kate Olsen all the way down there in her tight skinny jeans to testify in the death of heartthrob actor Heath Ledger. Perhaps the Feds think they were more than “friends” since it had been reported that they were dating and let’s face it she’s no novice having been linked with that hot billionaire young Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III, also known as the former boyfriend of Paris Hilton.
But what does all this have to do with the price of tomatoes in Bangkok? Well, everyone knows more top secret information has been passed through “pillow talk” which is more powerful than any military strategy so maybe the Feds feel Mary Kate might have been privy to some Top Secrets here too…We’ll just have to stay tuned to find out.
At presstime, the controversy surrounding Mary-Kate Olsen’s involvement in Heath Ledger’s death has come to a close.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has decided to suspend its criminal investigation into the source of the narcotic painkillers that contributed to the popular actor’s overdose death, relieving Olsen of the need to testify before a grand jury.
DISNEY’S MIRAMAX BARELY ESCAPES “PORNO” RATING
Director/actor Kevin Smith, known for his highly popular teen films like “Clerks, “Chasing Amy” and “Jay and Silent Bob (him) Strikes Back,” barely dodged an NC-17 rating this week for his latest film, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” with Seth Rogen (“Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” Pineapple Express”) and Elizabeth Banks. That’s almost the equivalent of an “X” rating and would have killed the film off to its primary audience.
The film, about a down-and-out couple trying to make ends meet with an adult film, is more a bright spoof of those movies, and hardly hard-core. The movie board Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
SAG union continues to make demands beyond what any other guild got, and the result is a disruption in movie production and a threat that could erode all the union has won in the past -still, 139,000 actors– many mad as hell
By Alex Ben Block
HOLLYWOOD, CA. (Hollywood Today) 6/6/08 – The Screen Actors Guild is becoming the Hillary Clinton of the Hollywood labor movement – asking too much, isolated and alone, and staying at the negotiating table too long. SAG’s brinksmanship already guarantees that there will be a significant disruption in movie production even if there is no strike. And now efforts to undermine the recently negotiated AFTRA contract not only could blow up in SAG’s face, but may also expose the soft under belly of the largest actor’s union and just how big a threat it faces in coming years.
SAG finds itself the last in a long line of guilds to negotiate a contract in this round, and it remains unwilling to accept the basic deal that the writers, directors, craft unions and other actor’s guild have already accepted, threatening yet another strike. Even the effort to ramp up for a strike will have dire consequences for an American film and TV industry still recovering from the 100- day WGA work action, which cost California 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output this year, according to a new report from the Milken Institute.
The very threat of an actor’s strike is already having consequences. Major movie distributors have stockpiled movies in case of a strike, and have put off new production that might be impacted. While some companies can get waivers, the biggest players have simply shut down operations while they wait it out. Even if there is a quick settlement, which remains unlikely, the stock pile of movies assures there will be a disruption in production, probably this summer. In other words, it will take weeks, or months, to work off the stockpile before the production cycle gets back to normal.
Like Hilary Clinton, SAG won’t give up even though it has become clear it can’t win the battle on the terms it has laid out. Instead of looking for a graceful exit, and a deal that will keep its members working and the industry going, SAG leaders still beat the war drums. The reality of the situation, however, is about to come home. SAG is expected to call on its approximately 44,000 members who also belong to AFTRA to vote down that guilds new deal.
America Experiencing Steepest Drop in Driving Reveals Brookings Research
