Monday, June 23, 2008

Hollywood Comedian George Carlin is no more

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.
Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”
Mr. Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1965. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.
But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. “The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight’s forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”
Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons,” to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a recurring part as Marlo Thomas’ theatrical agent in the sitcom “That Girl” (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie “With Six You Get Egg-Roll,” released in 1968.
By the end of the decade, he was one of America’s best known comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas.
That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. Carlin. “I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”
In 1970, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Mr. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in “drugs and bawdy language.” There was an immediate backlash. The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and, months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger, hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his material.
By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement? The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.
“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”
The material seems innocuous by today’s standards, but it caused an uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early ’70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978, their ruling was supported by the Supreme Court, which Time magazine reported, “upheld an FCC ban on ‘offensive material’ during hours when children are in the audience.” Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.
By the mid-’70s, like his comic predecessor Lenny Bruce and the fast-rising Richard Pryor, Mr. Carlin had emerged as a cultural renegade. In addition to his irreverent jests about religion and politics, he openly talked about the use of drugs, including acid and peyote, and said that he kicked cocaine not for moral or legal reasons but after he found “far more pain in the deal than pleasure.” But the edgier, more biting comedy he developed during this period, along with his candid admission of drug use, cemented his reputation as the “comic voice of the counterculture.”
Mr. Carlin released a half dozen comedy albums during the ’70s, including the million-record sellers “Class Clown,” “Occupation: Foole” (1973) and “An Evening With Wally Lando” (1975). He was chosen to host the first episode of the late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. And two years later, he found the perfect platform for his brand of acerbic, cerebral, sometimes off-color standup humor in the fledgling, less restricted world of cable television. By 1977, when his first HBO comedy special, “George Carlin at USC” was aired, he was recognized as one of the era’s most influential comedians. He also become a best-selling author of books that expanded on his comedy routines, including “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?,” which was published by Hyperion in 2004.
Pursuing a Dream
Mr. Carlin was born in New York City in 1937. “I grew up in New York wanting to be like those funny men in the movies and on the radio,” he said. “My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious of language and words.”
He quit high school to join the Air Force in the mid-’50s and, while stationed in Shreveport, La., worked as a radio disc jockey. Discharged in 1957, he set out to pursue his boyhood dream of becoming an actor and comic. He moved to Boston where he met and teamed up with Jack Burns, a newscaster and comedian. The team worked on radio stations in Boston, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, and performed in clubs throughout the country during the late ’50s.
After attracting the attention of the comedian Mort Sahl, who dubbed them “a duo of hip wits,” they appeared as guests on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar. Still, the Carlin-Burns team was only moderately successful, and, in 1960, Mr. Carlin struck out on his own.
During a career that spanned five decades, he emerged as one of the most durable, productive and versatile comedians of his era. He evolved from Jerry Seinfeld-like whimsy and a buttoned-down decorum in the ’60s to counterculture icon in the ’70s. By the ’80s, he was known as a scathing social critic who could artfully wring laughs from a list of oxymorons that ranged from “jumbo shrimp” to “military intelligence.” And in the 1990s and into the 21st century the balding but still pony-tailed comic prowled the stage — eyes ablaze and bristling with intensity — as the circuit’s most splenetic curmudgeon.
During his live 1996 HBO special, “Back in Town,” he raged over the shallowness of the ’90s “me first” culture — mocking the infatuation with camcorders, hyphenated names, sneakers with lights on them, and lambasting white guys over 10 years old who wear their baseball hats backwards. Baby boomers, “who went from ‘do your thing’ to ‘just say no’ ...from cocaine to Rogaine,” and pro life advocates (“How come when it’s us it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken it’s an omelet?”), were some of his prime targets. In the years following his 1977 cable debut, Mr. Carlin was nominated for a half dozen Grammy awards and received CableAces awards for best stand-up comedy special for “George Carlin: Doin’ It Again (1990) and “George Carlin: Jammin’ ” (1992). He also won his second Grammy for the album “Jammin” in 1994.
Personal Struggles
During the course of his career, Mr. Carlin overcame numerous personal trials. His early arrests for obscenity (all of which were dismissed) and struggle to overcome his self-described “heavy drug use” were the most publicized. But in the ’80s he also weathered serious tax problems, a heart attack and two open heart surgeries.
In December 2004 he entered a rehabilitation center to address his addictions to Vicodin and red wine. Mr. Carlin had a well-chronicled cocaine problem in his 30s, and though he was able to taper his cocaine use on his own, he said, he continued to abuse alcohol and also became addicted to Vicodin. He entered rehab at the end of that year, then took two months off before continuing his comedy tours.
“Standup is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my survival and my way of being,” Mr. Carlin once told an interviewer. “This is my art, to interpret the world.” But, while it always took center stage in his career, Mr. Carlin did not restrict himself to the comedy stage. He frequently indulged his childhood fantasy of becoming a movie star. Among his later credits were supporting parts in “Car Wash” (1976), “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “Dogma” (1999).
His 1997 book, “Brain Droppings,” became an instant best seller. And among several continuing TV roles, he starred in the Fox sitcom “The George Carlin Show,” which aired for one season. “That was an experiment on my part to see if there might be a way I could fit into the corporate entertainment structure,” he said after the show was canceled in 1994. “And I don’t,” he added.
Despite the longevity of his career and his problematic personal life, Mr. Carlin remained one of the most original and productive comedians in show business. “It’s his lifelong affection for language and passion for truth that continue to fuel his performances,” a critic observed of the comedian when he was in his mid-60s. And Chris Albrecht, an HBO executive, said, “He is as prolific a comedian as I have witnessed.”
Mr. Carlin is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law, Bob McCall, brother, Patrick Carlin and sister-in-law, Marlene Carlin. His first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died in 1997.
Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”
Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.”

"Finding Amanda" official Trailer

Saturday, June 21, 2008

MMA award for Pyramid Saimira group

Chennai, June 20: The Pyramid Saimira group has been selected by the jury of the Madras Management Association (MMA) for the prestigious MMA Award for Managerial Excellence for 2008.The award, called the 7th MMA Award for Managerial Excellence 2008, will be given away at a function in Chennai on June 27, 2008.Congratulating group chairman and managing director, P S Saminathan, MMA president S Gopal said the award was for the company’s work in the services sector category.The award will be given away during the valedictory preceding MMA’s 52nd annual general meeting scheduled for Friday, 27 June 2008, in Chennai.In the communication to Saminathan, Gopal requested him to present “their best practices in a seminar on ‘Managerial Excellence’ which precedes the awards function for a duration of about 20 to 25 mins followed by interaction with the audience for about 10 minutes”.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Jamie Lynn Spears gives birth to Baby Girl

Britney Spears has become an aunt--her teenage sister Jamie Lynn has given birth to a baby girl. The Zoey 101 actress, 17, is reported to have checked into the Mississippi Southwest Regional Medical Center in McComb, Mississippi, at 4 a.m. local time on Thursday, where she welcomed the unnamed tot, according to The National Enquirer. And Britney was on hand to help--she was photographed arriving at the hospital early that morning. The baby is Jamie Lynn and her fiancé Casey Aldridge's firstborn. The teen star stunned the Spears family when she announced her pregnancy news last year, at the age of 16.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Poster of most expected flick, 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is an upcoming American adventure film that follows The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. It is slated for release on August 1, 2008.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is directed by Rob Cohen and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Bob Ducsay, Sean Daniel, Stephen Sommers and James Jacks produce the film.
Plot The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor stars Brendan Fraser as explorer Rick O’Connell, along with his son Alex (Luke Ford), wife Evelyn (Maria Bello, taking over the character from Rachel Weisz) and her brother, Jonathan (John Hannah). They must stop the resurrected Han Emperor (Jet Li), a mummy awoken from a 2,000-year-old curse who threatens to plunge the world into his merciless, unending service with his Terracotta Army.
Production
In November 2001, director Stephen Sommers, who directed the previous Mummy films, said about directing a third Mummy film, "There's a demand for it, but most of the gang would only be up for it again if we could find a way to make it bigger and better." In May 2004, Sommers expressed his doubts about having the energy to make a third Mummy, though the cast of previous films had expressed interest in returning. In December 2005, a review of a script written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar was about a Chinese mummy (China's first emperor, who wants to take over the world with his army of accursed warriors in 1940. The idea of the Han Emperor and his army is based on the real-life Qin emperor Qin Shi Huang, who was buried amidst 10,000 painstakingly-carved terra cotta soldiers, called the Terracotta Army, believed to date back to 210 BC.
Cast In March 2006, actor Oded Fehr said Sommers had told him a third film was in development and being written, with only Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz's characters returning for the sequel. The following September, director Joe Johnston was offered the helm by Universal Pictures, who hoped to start filming early in 2007. Later in the month, Weisz expressed interest in reprising her role. In January 2007, Universal announced that Stephen Sommers, director of the first two Mummy films would not be attached to direct the third film. It was then announced that Universal entered talks with director Rob Cohen to take the helm from Sommers as the director of the third Mummy. Later in the month, the story was revealed to center around Brendan Fraser's and Rachel Weisz's characters, as well as their now grown-up son. Negotiations with the actors were in progress at that time. In February, casting began for the role of Alex O'Connell. In addition, the character of Jonathan, and previously portrayed by John Hannah, will return for the sequel. Also in February, director Rob Cohen mentioned that Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh will star in the movie although the official confirmation was not published until May.
In April, Fraser re-joined the cast for The Mummy 3, though Weisz did not due to the script issues. The film was shot in Montreal and China. The movie was reported to be titled The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In April, Luke Ford was cast as Alex O'Connell, and in May, Maria Bello was cast to replace Weisz in the role of Evelyn. Bello reported during an interview that the new "Evy" is different from the original "Evy". "She has the same name, but she's quite a different character." said Bello.
Marketing The Mummy Movie Prequel: The Rise & Fall of Xango's Ax, a comic book limited series by IDW Publishing, will be published to promote the film. The comic explores the relationship between Rick and his son Alex. Sierra will make a game version of the Mummy 3 which will be released in July of 2008 in North America. The trailer for the film debuted on May 16, 2008.
Music The score is composed by veteran composer Randy Edelman. The soundtrack will feature numerous different Chinese and Middle Eastern ethnic instruments along with classic British folklore, and is expected to be released sometime in July or August before the film's initial release. The trailer music, DNA Reaction, is better known as one of the musics in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer.
Sequel
Actress Maria Bello stated in an interview that another Mummy film will "absolutely" be made, and that she has already signed on.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Universal Studios reopens after fire accident

Universal City, Calif(USA): Tourists applauded firefighters Monday as Universal Studios reopened, while investigators examined the ruins of some of the most famous sets in Hollywood to find the cause of the spectacular weekend blaze.
Massive fire at Universal Studios A massive fire on last Sunday at Universal Studios that destroyed a giant sound stage, a video library and several movie sets is under control, say fire officials in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County fire Insp. Daryl Jacobs said that as many as three blocks of movie facades as well as the courthouse square set used in the Michael J. Fox movie Back to the Future have been destroyed.
"The facades are constructed of heavy timber and they tend to burn quite freely," said Jacobs.
At a news conference, Los Angeles County fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said the fire began on what's described as the "New York street" set, moved on to the King Kong exhibit and then over to buildings housing a sound stage and video library.
"A total of five structures within the New York exhibit, including one sound stage, were lost," said L.A. County fire inspector Frank Garrido,
Various reports say either the video vault or the King Kong building are still burning as plumes of smoke continue to blacken the skies above L.A. Firefighters were able to rescue hundreds and hundreds of video canisters. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 videos and reels were damaged.
The fire did not affect another film vault, which contains archival footage.
Ghost Whisperer sets damaged The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Fire officials say they have concerns about the malfunction of internal sprinklers, which prevented firefighters from battling the blaze from the inside.
Universal president Ron Meyer said the fire damaged two sets for the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer and obliterated the set used by the Clint Eastwood-directed film The Changeling, which premiered last month at the Cannes Film Festival.
Meyer also said a commercial had been shooting this weekend on the lot's New York street. The executive went on to praise the Los Angeles and Burbank fire departments. "They are real heroes, they contained a fire which could have burned horribly out of control … We were very lucky today."
Some 400 firefighters went to the scene to keep the fire from spreading. Three firefighters went to hospital with minor injuries.
Universal City — a 180-hectare site which includes sound stages, outdoor sets and a theme park — sits 15 kilometres northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The Universal Studio lot was founded in 1915 and has now experienced a total of seven fires.
Studio spokesman Eliot Sekuler confirmed the King Kong exhibit is destroyed. The exhibit — featuring a giant ape which bellows — is a stop on the studio's tram tour. The theme park will still open on Sunday although the studio tour may be affected. Two mock New York and New England streets used for movie making and tourist displays were "a total loss," he said.
According to Meyer, "the entire property will be open for business as usual on Monday." "Nothing irreplaceable was lost. We have duplicates of everything that was lost," said Meyer, who confirmed that two locations for TV series were affected but did not divulge any other details.
Fire Capt. Frank Reynoso says the blaze broke out just before dawn Sunday and at least one explosion was heard.
Many famous films such as Psycho, ET, Transformers and Jurassic Park have used the studios. It's also the setting for shows such as Desperate Housewives, Scrubs and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.