PaperBackSwap!

My brother just introduced me to this very cool online book swap.

We are a group of readers who share books with each other (NOT just paperbacks) for nothing more than the cost of postage! You can learn more about this exciting site by flipping through our PaperBackSwap book.

I just joined today, and have mailed out four of my paperbacks. You just pay the postage to send the books, and then you get a credit that you can use to have someone else mail you a book you want. I have stacks of books to get rid of, and I like that they'll be going to someone who really wants them. I spend so much on Amazon, this could really save me some bucks!

H. R. PufnStuf - the MOVIE??!!

OMG Witchiepoo!! IESB.net reports on two more possible Krofft movies after Land of the Lost:

Sid and Marty Krofft bringing back H.R. Pufnstuf and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters to the big screen.

The IESB was able to speak with legendary television producers Sid and Marty Krofft who revealed a few of their classic kid's television shows will next be seen in your local theater.
One of their most popular series is currently getting the big screen treatment, Land of the Lost is currently in production starring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel.

When asked which, if any, of their other classic TV properties is in line, Marty Krofft said, "We are working on it, we are close on Pufnstuf and Sigmund." When asked what studio he was working with, Krofft could only say that he was days from finalizing with a particular studio.

I saw EVERY episode of both!
To refresh your memory:

Tropic Thunder Viral Video

Irony Goes Viral
WENN: A comedy sketch that aired during the MTV Movie Awards in which Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. talk about making a viral video for their upcoming Tropic Thunder movie was pulled off YouTube after it became a viral video itself. According to several tech websites, YouTube removed the video after receiving a "takedown notice" from Viacom, MTV's parent. The takedown was originally reported by the website BeyondMadisonAvenue.com, which commented that it appeared to be "the epitome of irony. A viral video about virals not being allowed to go viral." Viacom, which has sued YouTube for $1 billion alleging copyright infringement, apparently has not demanded that the video be withdrawn from other video websites, including FunnyOrDie.com (which is where I found it!)

Christopher Eccleston joins Swank in Amelia

Yippee! WENN:

Former Dr. Who star Christopher Eccleston is set to travel back in time again as aviator Amelia Earhart's final co-pilot.

The British actor will play opposite Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor and Richard Gere in forthcoming biopic Amelia.

He'll portray Earhart's navigator Fred Noonan, who was with the famous aviator when she disappeared over the Pacific while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.

I adored Eccleston as Dr. Who, and I've been hoping to see him on the big screen. Swank I think will be perfect as Amelia Earhart. Coolio!

The History of Vibrators

Who knew? Andrew Sullivan pointed me to this fascinating article about the history of vibrators in The TimesOnline:

“People never expect that the Science Museum has over 40 examples of vibrators,” says Katie Maggs, its assistant curator of medicine. Indeed. The product leaflets of these machines claimed they cured not just hysteria but also deafness, polio and impotence. No doubt dropped arches, halitosis and dandruff were in there somewhere, too. These machines were advertised everywhere. Good Housekeeping ran a “tried and tested” on vibrators in 1909, claiming they brought a glow to the face.

I just bet they did!

Mamma Meryl!

Great article in the TimesOnline about the upcoming Mamma Mia! I didn't recognize that Stellan Skarsgard of Beowulf is in Mamma Mia!!

Reports from early test screenings are universally positive - the audiences who have seen it at a secret showing in San Diego came out raving about the transfer of the musical to the big screen.

The surprise?

That Meryl Streep, at 58, is athletic, has a big voice - clear, true and strong - and delivers the goods on Abba's classics without a trace of embarrassment. It is, obviously, her first musical, and the deep thinkers in Hollywood are amazed by the way she is apparently happy to demolish her reputation as a serious-minded Oscar-winning grande dame.

And yet Streep, who is known for her hard-to-live-with perfectionism and love of tricky bits of acting technique and odd accents, emerges from this film as a woman who is accomplished at physical comedy and actually funny when the occasion demands.

'Meryl is very good - it's a revelation,' says one who has seen the film, in which she plays Donna, the mother of a bride-to-be who is confronted by three potential fathers on the eve of her nuptials.

It transpires that Streep saw the stage show in New York with her daughter as a birthday treat and wrote a fan letter to the producers afterwards.

When it came to casting the movie, the letter was remembered and she was approached.
They called and said: "You probably won't be interested, but…"

I said: "Are you crazy? I would love to do this." It was a done deal,' said Streep.

There seems to have been a little on-set rivalry and tension between the men - not to mention anxiety - about how they were doing so far out of their usual leading-man comfort zones. It's a long way from playing Darcy to belting out Dancing Queen.

Brosnan, who, of course, played James Bond, was discomfited to be filming musical numbers at Pinewood directly after Daniel Craig's Casino Royale wrapped.

'I looked in the mirror and there was 007, and he was getting ready to expose himself to possible ridicule.
'One of my fears was that I'd be strutting across the carpark in sequined tights and I would bump into Daniel looking very Bond-like. It never happened, I'm pleased to say, but it was a recurring nightmare.'

Firth, though, seems to be the most embarrassed of all of them by the undignified performance he has given.

Firth said his singing voice was 'somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem'.

He added that the scene in which the three men appear in Lycra catsuits was particularly mortifying.

'There are bulges where there should not be bulges and no bulges where you wish there were.'

Read the rest here!

James McAvoy Interview

Great interview in The Times. Here's just one excerpt:

But still, being a hero has its perks. And this is McAvoy’s other confession. Yes, in the line of duty, he has had to kiss Angelina Jolie.

“It’s the only physical contact we have in the entire film other than when she beats me up – which she does a lot.”

Puckering up with the most famous lips in Hollywood was, he insists with a hint of a sigh, “Just another day, and the same old shit as usual. ‘Oh God, I hope she doesn’t think I’m getting off on this and I hope she doesn’t think I’m trying to… whatever.’ And she’s doing the same. So it’s always weird. Always strange, never nice.”

And here's something I hadn't heard before about his family:

James McAvoy was raised in one of Glasgow’s nominally rougher housing estates. After his parents (mum a psychiatric nurse, dad a roofer) split when he was seven, McAvoy and his sister went to live with their grandparents. For all the seeming unusualness of this domestic situation, he’s told me of the stable and loving environment provided by his hard-working grandparents. They kept him on a tight leash until he was 15, at which point, after hearing a talk by actor-director David Hayman at his school, he began to explore the idea of being an actor. Bit parts in Hayman’s The Near Room, First World War drama Regeneration and (on his first trip to London) The Bill led to a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In 2000 he moved to London and pretty much hasn’t stopped working since.

He remains close to his grandparents and his mum, often lauding them for their support. But his background has offered negative lessons too: after he received the Rising Star Award at the 2006 Baftas, his estranged dad popped up in the papers, selling his story and – much to McAvoy’s revulsion – photos of the actor as a boy. McAvoy hadn’t spoken to him in some 12 years. “I can’t really be bothered with it,” he said afterwards of his dad’s tabloid-mediated offer of an olive branch. “If I was less secure in myself, I might be more interested. But I know what made me, I know why I am the way I am.”

Read the rest here. It's three long pages full.

Tim Russert Dies - We have lost a giant

I am unbelievably choked up about this shocking news. I am a political junkie and I just loved the relish with which Tim Russert covered the political game. When he said "We now have a Democratic nominee," weeks ago, it carried such weight. Washington will never be the same, and I can't even imagine who will try to fill his shoes at Meet the Press. He was only 58 and died on the job of a massive heart attack at the Washington bureau, after returning from a vacation to Italy with his wife and his son Luke, who had just graduated from college. My prayers are with his family, and his whole extended family at NBC and in Washington.

Ed Norton and The Incredible Hulk on Jimmy Kimmel

Hilarious! "Did you SEE Fight Club?"

Nice Hair, Matt

Matt Damon walks to the set of his new movie, The Informant, in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The film, directed by Steven Soderbergh, stars Damon as Mark Whitacre.

Sarah Silverman, still feel the same way about Matt? LOL