DOUBT (2008, directed by John Patrick Shanley, 104 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Producer Scott Rudin has demonstrated a show of faith by putting acclaimed playwright John Patrick Shaley in the director’s seat for the first time in eighteen years to helm the film adaptation of Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning religious drama, Doubt. The Oscar-winner screenwriter of Moonstruck gave up film directing eighteen years ago after directing the cult bomb Joe Versus the Volcano. While placing faith in Shanley’s unimaginative direction may have been misguided, it is not enough to sink a film with a script whose writing is […]
ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN: ‘Deepthroat’ Dead At 95
NEW YORK TIMES: W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95 and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif. In 2005, Mr. Felt revealed that he was the one who had secretly supplied Bob Woodward of The Washington Post with crucial leads in the Watergate affair in the early 1970s. His decision to unmask himself, in an article in Vanity Fair, ended a guessing game that had […]
ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING: Papers Declare Al Franken ‘Projected Winner’ Of Minnesota Senate Seat
HUFFINGTON POST: Democratic challenger Al Franken finds himself on the cusp of winning a seat in the United States Senate after Minnesota’s canvassing board awarded him a host of challenged votes during deliberations on Thursday. As of 8PM ET, the Minneapolis Star Tribune projected that Franken would finish the recount process with a lead of 89 votes, positioning him to become the 59th senator caucusing with Democrats in the upcoming Congress. The gains came as the canvassing board sifted through hundreds of ballots that Coleman had contested during the recount process. On Friday, the canvassing board will consider another 400 […]
MUST SEE: The Three Stooges As Iraqi Journalists
[TheFlickeringWindow: At a news conference with President Bush, three knuckleheads are caught in a custard conspiracy involving pies and cream puffs. The three men are identified as Howard, Fine, and Howard.] * ASSOCIATED PRESS: The investigating judge in the case of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President George W. Bush says the man shows signs of being beaten. Judge Dhia al-Kinani said Friday that the journalist had bruises on his face and around his eyes.The journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, was wrestled to the ground after throwing the shoes during a Sunday news conference with Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister […]
EARLY WORD: CocaineSexJams For The Broke
DAVE P: YES!!! CSS has decided to move their show from the TLA this Friday so that they can play the Making Time $2 Bill Holiday Freakout.This Holiday party will surely be a total RAGER!!! And YES!!! It’s still just $2!!! RELATED: MillerCoors LLC will stop producing and marketing caffeinated alcoholic drinks, including the current formulation of its top-selling Sparks brand, under a settlement with more than a dozen state attorneys general. The beer giant had come under fire from attorneys general and consumer-advocacy groups for allegedly targeting underage drinkers through its marketing of Sparks. “Attorneys general from around the […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Composer Erran Baron Cohen‘s latest CD Songs in the Key of Hanukkah offers a new take on traditional sounds. He talks about the album — and about collaborating with his brother Sacha Baron Cohen on the movie Borat. Recorded in London, Berlin and Tel Aviv, the compilation of songs combines klezmer, reggae, electronica and hip hop as it reinterprets classics. The album even features New York rapper Y-Love rhyming in Yiddish. Erran is a founding member of ZOHAR Sound System and DJ’s internationally and in London clubs. ALSO, you have to be pretty dedicated to your work to set […]
GAMBLOR: The Donald Sues For Second Chance
PHILLY CLOUT: Donald Trump sued the state Gaming Control Board in federal court this afternoon for rejecting in 2006 his bid to build a casino on the site of the former Budd Co. plant in Nicetown with a group of investors*. Trump is asking a federal judge to overturn the state-awarded gaming licenses for SugarHouse in Fishtown and Foxwoods, which was approved for a South Philly site but is now considering relocation to the Gallery at 11th and Market streets. The lawsuit says Trump and his investors spent more than $10 million in planning for their Nicetown location and were rewarded […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Assorted Inconvenient Truths’ Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
CHARLIE DON’T SURF: Actor Sam Bottoms, AKA Lance The Surfer In Apocalypse Now, Dead At 53
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Sam Bottoms, a film and television actor who played the role of California surfer-turned-GI Lance Johnson in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now,” has died. He was 53. Bottoms died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles of glioblastoma multiforme, a virulent brain cancer, said his wife, Laura Bickford. Bottoms was 20 in 1976 when he was cast to play surfer Lance Johnson in “Apocalypse Now,” in which he was one of the young sailors who accompany Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) up river in a gunboat for his rendezvous with Marlon Brando’s renegade […]
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK: Obama Picks Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Stem Cell Pastor For Inauguration
FAITH IN PUBLIC LIFE: Rick Warren, whose recent remarks on issues ranging from war and torture to sexuality and abortion have generated some justifiable pushback lately, will give the invocation at the inauguration. The pick was news to us. But he’s not the only one who will be praying from the podium on January 20. Rev. Joseph Lowery a civil rights icon and supporter of same-sex marriage, is giving the benediction at the end of the event. I can’t read the administration’s mind, but my guess here is that they’re crafting an inauguration meant to appeal to voters who voted […]
WORTH REPEATING: Man Bites Blog
BY KELLIE C. MURPHY Rebelling against the machine comes naturally to Skwire. Born in Newport, R.I., he grew up during the Reagan years and became an early frequenter of the local punk rock music scene, learning how to rage with political groups like the Dead Kennedys and MDC. He moved to Philly in 1999 to pursue his musical ambitions and settled in Kingsessing, one of the oldest settlements in the city. He says the area was the perfect fit, because he wanted homeownership and a yard—without going broke. Skwire realizes how out of place he looks in his predominately black […]
BREAKING: Obama Is TIME’s ‘Person Of The Year’
TIME: David Von Drehle’s masterly story on our Person of the Year not only sketches out what’s on Obama’s mind but also reveals new details about how and when he realized that his first 100 days had to start on Nov. 5, the day after voters elected him to become the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office. Von Drehle also tells us — with Obama’s help — how we should hold the new President accountable. Beyond his mastery of the issues, Obama revealed a more personal note: a slightly rueful sense […]
SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS KEPT CLEAN: 35 Years After Death, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Finally Gets A Headstone
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren plot lacking any memorial. Today, a beautiful, rose-colored monument bears respect to one of America’s most influential artists of the 20th Century. Sister Rosetta’s monument was partially funded by a benefit concert at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA on January 11, 2008, that featured performances by gospel and spiritual music legends—The Dixie Hummingbirds, Odetta, Marie Knight, Willa Ward, The Johnny Thompson Singers, and […]