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Merry Christmas
Have a happy and safe holiday season!
Best of 2007
Top 10 Movies
Rozen, Leah
31 December 2007
HATS OFF TO A KILLER BARBER, A GOURMET RAT AND A BOURNE HERO.
ATONEMENT In a sweeping British romantic drama spanning multiple decades, a young couple (Keira Knightley and James McAvoy) have their future imperiled when a child tells a single ugly lie. Elegantly adapted from Ian McEwan’s prize-winning novel, Atonement is about the power of fiction to both hurt and heal. If this movie doesn’t do for dreamboat McAvoy what Titanic did for Leonardo DiCaprio, we’re all sunk.
MICHAEL CLAYTON Corporate thrillers don’t come smarter, tenser or more entertaining than this one. George Clooney, who just keeps getting better onscreen, dug deep as a weary corporate fixer whose conscience catches up with him. And you had to love his killer “gotcha” moment in the climactic scene. Read more
WHAT YOU OUGHT TO BE READING
The title sounds like a good headline for a George Clooney profile in Esquire magazine: “Rogue Male.” Actually, it’s a novel first published in 1939, and resurrected by New York Review Books in a 2007 reprint. Fans of fast-paced, stripped-down thrillers — tales that race along at such a breakneck pace that you halfway expect to see skid marks in the margins — will welcome this slick gem by the late Geoffrey Household. Read more
Successes came as a surprise for ‘07 box office champions;
Terry Armour Chicago Tribune
McClatchy - Tribune Business News  12-23-2007
Dec. 23—- Richard Zanuck has been at this movie business for almost 50 years. And after some 60 or so films, the 73-year-old producer still hazards to guess what spells success at the box office. Read more
George Clooney’s Most Memorable Christmas
“I was at college when my most memorable Christmas took place. Our neighbour was proud of his garden, so when my dog got into it, he shot its butt full of pellets. Fortunately the dog didn’t die. But in the middle of the neighbour’s garden was amanicured fir tree, so one Christmas Eve, I sawed it down and put it up in our house. No Christmas tree has ever meant so much to me.”
Clooney heads back to Darfur;
After he’s done with the dentist, Clooney heads back to Darfur; Actor continues to use his celebrity to raise awareness about famine and warfare;
William Keck
USA Today
In January, George Clooney will make his second trip to Darfur in hopes of bringing back video footage of the land ravaged by famine, disease and warfare. He’s been globetrotting, appearing recently at the Dubai Film Festival and being honoured last week (with Don Cheadle) by the Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome.
But not even a root canal could stop the Oscar winner, 46, from calling in with an update on his commitment to the troubled locale.
Q: First, how did your dental appointment fare?
A: Here’s the funny part. I got a redo of a root canal, and I thought, “Well, that’s bad.” And then (the dentist) goes, “Let’s go to work on this other tooth.” I was going to get an implant, and all of a sudden he’s in with a hammer and I lost a tooth, so I’ve got a hole in the side of my head. It’s really fun. It’s not just pain, it’s got a pulse.
Q: But you’ll be well enough by January to make your second trip to Darfur. What’s the plan?
A: I’m not a politician, so the reason I go is to (focus) attention there. So we’re going to try to get deeper into Darfur; try to get some cameras in to the tougher camps and have conversations. That’s basically all I can do. If you put famous people in front of very ugly sites, people will watch.
Q: I’m amazed you’re even allowed in.
A: If you’re the head of a country who is denying that all these things are happening, then you might welcome me in to say, “Show me all these bad things.”
Q: Is there one familiar face from your last trip whom you’re hoping to see again?
A: There was a little girl in a tiny camp in south Sudan who was holding my hand while I was throwing up from eating bad goat who didn’t look like she was going to last a year and a half. It would be nice if I saw her doing well.
Q: What has been accomplished since you and your father (Nick) spoke about Darfur on the National Mall in April 2006?
A: You want the truth? Absolutely nothing. People can march and pat each other on the back, and concerts will happen, and the simple truth is there’s still the exact same issues going on.
Q: Whom have you met with among the presidential candidates to discuss Darfur?
A: Barack (Obama) and I are very good friends, and we’ve spoken at length. I’ve also spoken to Joe Biden, but it’s an easy subject for all of them to be behind. No one’s for genocide. No one’s for people being killed because of their race or religion.
Q: If the U.S. government were to ask you to take on a more official role, would you?
A: Sure, (but) our government really isn’t in a position to fix things. What we need, and where I’m working the hardest, is to try to get more involvement from other Arab/Muslim countries.
Q: Have you been following your pal Brad Pitt’s crusade in New Orleans?
A: It’s a life choice for him and a big part of his life. Matt (Damon) does that, too. Don (Cheadle). A lot of the guys who are good friends of mine spend a good portion of their life doing this. In some ways, it’s easier for us because we have some financial security, so we can say, “OK, let’s stop worrying about ourselves and look out for other people.” What should you do with all this kind of attention? Should you get out of a car without wearing underwear?
Q: No, George. Please. Never.
A: You’ve never seen me. I look fantastic.
Q: How will you be spending the holidays?
A: I don’t do a big Christmas thing. I think Christmas at some point is for having a bunch of kids, so I just get through the holidays. I have a lot of work to do.
Q: Has being so involved with the heartache in Darfur affected your own level of joy?
A: It certainly reminds you to be ridiculously happy with your life. Once you see people suffering in the way these people are suffering, you feel very guilty about not suffering at all.
Q: Except for your root canal.
A: Yeah, I got to go to a dentist. You realize how of little importance the things that trouble you are.
Make It Right…
Brad Pitt was on GMA this morning talking about his project, Make It Right.
This is such an important project for the people of New Orleans. Although not related to George Clooney, I wanted to share this clip with you and encourage you to make a difference in your own, small way.
Milo Radulovich: He had a pivotal role in U.S. history
November 20, 2007
BY KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Milo Radulovich grew up in Detroit and ended his career as a meteorologist in Lansing, but in between he came to symbolize the beginning of the end of McCarthyism — the relentless campaign to purge the country of communists, real and perceived.
“He was one of my heroes,” said Al Fishman of Detroit, who is married to Mr. Radulovich’s sister, Margaret Fishman. “He put his finger in the dike to stop one of the worst times in our history.”
Mr. Radulovich, 81, died at a hospital in Vallejo, Calif., on Monday after a stroke earlier this year. He lived in Lodi.
He was a World War II veteran and 26-year-old physics student at the University of Michigan when told that he was being discharged from the Air Force as a security risk because of the actions of his sister Margaret and his father, John.
Their crimes? His sister had picketed outside the Book Cadillac Hotel when it refused a room to black entertainer Paul Robeson. His father subscribed to newspapers from his native Yugoslavia and had participated in a sit-down strike at Hudson Motor Car Co.
That was enough, for U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy, to get Mr. Radulovich tagged as a communist sympathizer.
He fought back, because he wouldn’t be able to get a government weatherman job with such a discharge on his record. When news of his fight broke, powerful television personality Edward R. Murrow took up Mr. Radulovich’s cause. The fight became the central theme for “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a 2005 Academy Award-nominated movie.
Mr. Radulovich eventually was cleared by the Air Force and went to work for the U.S. Weather Service, and Murrow used the case to turn public opinion against McCarthy.
Funeral arrangements aren’t final. Fishman said the family in Michigan plans a memorial service in the state soon.
In addition to his sister, Mr. Radulovich is survived by daughters Diane Berner, Kathy Radulovich and Janet Sweeney; two brothers; stepson Johnny Day, and a grandson.
Just because I like it :-)
Detroit Film Critics Society Announces the Best of 2007 Nominations and Winners!
PR Newswire (U.S.)DETROIT, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ — The newly founded Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the BEST OF 2007 winners in eight categories. The society was founded last Spring by a group of 17 Michigan film critics who write in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. Read more
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