ORPHAN BLACK Ep 5 Trailer
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Beyoncé reunites with Destiny's Child in Costa Rica for Kelly Rowland's wedding
It looks like Tim Witherspoon, manager of former Destiny’s Child star Kelly Rowland, is about to put a ring on it. Rowland and Witherspoon seem ready to say “I do” in Costa Rica this weekend, and the rest of the Destiny’s Child crew will be on hand for the ceremony.
The Immigration Administration confirmed to the daily La Nación that Beyoncé Knowles is back in Costa Rica, along with Rowland and Michelle Williams, the third member of the multiplatinum-certified “Bootylicious“ group. The R&B trio arrived at Daniel Oduber international airport in Liberia, Guanacaste on Thursday, the newspaper reported.
No word yet on whether Beyoncé’s husband, rap mogul Jay-Z, will attend.
Queen Bey visited Costa Rica last time in November on vacation with Jay-Z and their daughter, Blue Ivy. The first family of hip-hop and R & B visited Arenal Volcano and the beach in Guanacaste.
Destiny’s Child made five albums between 1998 and 2004, winning two Grammy awards for the R&B hits “Say My Name” and “Survivor.” Beyoncé, Rowland and Knowles comprised the most recognized line-up of the girl group, but the trio announced an end to Destiny’s Child in 2005 while touring for their final studio album, appropriately titled, “Destiny Fulfilled.”
Images from the wedding haven't been released yet, just this selfie.
source | 1& 2
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Depp's Transcendence May Have a Point...
Sometimes Stephen Hawking writes an article that both mentions Johnny Depp and strongly warns that computers are an imminent threat to humanity, and not many people really care. That is the day there is too much on the Internet. (Did the computers not want us to see it?)
Hawking, along with MIT physics professor Max Tegmark, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, and Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell ran a terrifying op-ed a couple weeks ago in The Huffington Post under the staid headline "Transcending Complacency on Superintelligent Machines."It was loosely tied to the Depp sci-fi thriller Transcendence, so that’s what’s happening there. “It's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction," they write. “But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake in history.”
And then, probably because it somehow didn’t get much attention, the exact piece ran again last week in The Independent, which went a little further with the headline: "Transcendence Looks at the Implications of Artificial Intelligence—but Are We Taking A.I. Seriously Enough?" Ah, splendid. Provocative, engaging, not sensational. But really what these preeminent scientists go on to say is not not sensational.
"An explosive transition is possible," they continue, warning of a time when particles can be arranged in ways that perform more advanced computations than the human brain. "As Irving Good realized in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a 'singularity.'"
Get out of here. I have a hundred thousand things I am concerned about at this exact moment. Do I seriously need to add to that a singularity?
"Experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right?" they go on. "Wrong. If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, ‘We'll arrive in a few decades,’ would we just reply, ‘Okay, call us when you get here–we'll leave the lights on?' Probably not. But this is more or less what is happening with A.I."
More or less? Why would the aliens need our lights? If they told us they’re coming, they’re probably friendly, right? Right, you guys? And then the op-ed ends with a plug for the organizations that these scientists founded: “Little serious research is devoted to these issues outside non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future of Life Institute.”
So is this one of those times where writers are a little sensational in order to call attention to serious issues they really think are underappreciated? Or should we really be worried right now?
In a lecture he gave recently at Oxford, Tegmark named five "cosmocalypse scenarios" that will end humanity. But they are all 10 billion to 100 billion years from now. They are dense and theoretical; extremely difficult to conceptualize. The Big Chill involves dark energy. Death Bubbles involve space freezing and expanding outward at the speed of light, eliminating everything in its path. There's also the Big Snap, the Big Crunch, or the Big Rip.
But Max Tegmark isn’t really worried about those scenarios. He’s not even worried about the nearer-term threats, like the concept that in about a billion years, the sun will be so hot that it will boil off the oceans. By that point we’ll have technology to prevent it, probably. In four billion years, the sun is supposed to swallow the earth. Physicists are already discussing a method to deflect asteroids from the outer solar system so that they come close to Earth and gradually tug it outward away from the sun, allowing the Earth to very slowly escape its fiery embrace.
Tegmark is more worried about much more immediate threats, which he calls existential risks. That’s a term borrowed from physicist Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, a research collective modeling the potential range of human expansion into the cosmos. Their consensus is that the Milky Way galaxy could be colonized in less than a million years—if our interstellar probes can self-replicate using raw materials harvested from alien planets, and we don’t kill ourselves with carbon emissions first.
"I am finding it increasingly plausible that existential risk is the biggest moral issue in the world, even if it hasn’t gone mainstream yet," Bostrom told Ross Andersen recently in an amazing profile in Aeon. Bostrom, along with Hawking, is an advisor to the recently-established Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, and to Tegmark’s new analogous group in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Future of Life Institute, which has a launch event later this month. Existential risks, as Tegmark describes them, are things that are “not just a little bit bad, like a parking ticket, but really bad. Things that could really mess up or wipe out human civilization.”
The single existential risk that Tegmark worries about most is unfriendly artificial intelligence. That is, when computers are able to start improving themselves, there will be a rapid increase in their capacities, and then, Tegmark says, it’s very difficult to predict what will happen.
Tegmark told Lex Berko at Motherboard earlier this year, "I would guess there’s about a 60 percent chance that I’m not going to die of old age, but from some kind of human-caused calamity. Which would suggest that I should spend a significant portion of my time actually worrying about this. We should in society, too."
I really wanted to know what all of this means in more concrete terms, so I asked Tegmark about it myself. He was actually walking around the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson with his kids as we spoke, periodically breaking to answer their questions about the exhibits.
"Longer term—and this might mean 10 years, it might mean 50 or 100 years, depending on who you ask—when computers can do everything we can do," Tegmark said, “after that they will probably very rapidly get vastly better than us at everything, and we’ll face this question we talked about in the Huffington Post article: whether there’s really a place for us after that, or not.” I imagined glances from nearby museum-goers.
"This is very near-term stuff. Anyone who’s thinking about what their kids should study in high school or college should care a lot about this.”
“The main reason people don’t act on these things is they’re not educated about them,” Tegmark continued.“I’ve never talked with anyone about these things who turned around and said, ‘I don’t care.’” He’s previously said that the biggest threat to humanity is our own stupidity.
Tegmark told me, as he has told others on more than just this occasion, that more people know Justin Bieber than know Vasili Arkhipov—a Soviet naval officer who is credited with single-handedly preventing thermonuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That knowledge differential isn’t surprising at all. More people know Bieber than know most historic figures, including Bo Jackson. That’s especially hard to swallow after learning this week from Seth Rogen that, in fact, “Justin Bieber is a piece of shit.”
Tegmark and his op-ed co-author Frank Wilczek, the Nobel laureate, draw examples of cold-war automated systems that assessed threats and resulted in false alarms and near misses. “In those instances some human intervened at the last moment and saved us from horrible consequences,” Wilczek told me earlier that day. “That might not happen in the future.”
As Andersen noted in his Aeon piece, there are still enough nuclear weapons in existence to incinerate all of Earth’s dense population centers, but that wouldn't kill everyone immediately. The smoldering cities would send sun-blocking soot into the stratosphere that would trigger a crop-killing climate shift, and that’s what would kill us all. (Though, “it’s not clear that nuke-levelled cities would burn long or strong enough to lift soot that high.”)
“We are very reckless with this planet, with civilization,” Tegmark said. “We basically play Russian roulette.” The key is to think more long term, “not just about the next election cycle or the next Justin Bieber album.” Max Tegmark also does not care for Justin Bieber.
That’s what this is really about: More than A.I., their article was meant to have us start thinking longer term about a bigger picture. The Huffington Post op-ed was an opening salvo from The Future of Life Institute, of which all four scientists are on the advisory board. The article was born of one of the group’s early brainstorming sessions, one of its first undertakings in keeping with its mission to educate and raise awareness. The Future of Life Institute is funded by Jaan Tallinn, founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa (remember Kazaa, the MP3-“sharing” service that everyone started using after Napster?). Tallinn also helped found Cambridge's Centre for Existential Risk. The world of existential risk is a small one; many of the same names appear on the masthead of Berkeley’s Machine Intelligence Institute.
“There are several issues that arise, ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence to biological warfare to asteroids that might collide with the earth,” Wilczek said of the group’s launch. “They are very serious risks that don’t get much attention. Something like climate change is of course a very serious problem. I think the general feeling is that already gets a lot of attention. Where we could add more value is in thinking about the potentials of artificial intelligence.”
Tegmark saw a gap in the intellectual-cosmological institute market on the East Coast of the United States, though. “It’s valuable to have a nucleus for these people to get together,” he said. The Future of Life Institute’s upcoming launch event at MIT will be moderated by Alan Alda, who is among the star-studded, white-male [?] Scientific Advisory Board.
The biggest barrier to their stated goal of raising awareness is defining the problem. “If we understood exactly what the potentials are, then we’d have a much better grip on how to sculpt it toward ends that we find desirable,” Wilczek said. “But I think a widely perceived issue is when intelligent entities start to take on a life of their own. They revolutionized the way we understand chess, for instance. That’s pretty harmless. But one can imagine if they revolutionized the way we think about warfare or finance, either those entities themselves or the people that control them. It could pose some disquieting perturbations on the rest of our lives.”
Automatic trading programs have already caused tremors in financial markets. M.I.T. professor Erik Brynjolfsson’s book The Second Machine Age likewise makes the point eloquently that as computers get better, they will cause enormous changes in our economy. That’s in the same realm of ideas, Wilczek said, as the recent Heartbleed virus. With regard to that sort of computer security and limited access to information, he says, "That is not a solved problem. Assurances to the contrary should be taken with a big grain of salt.”
Wilczek’s particularly concerned about a subset of artificial intelligence: drone warriors. “Not necessarily robots,” Wilczek told me, “although robot warriors could be a big issue, too. It could just be superintelligence that’s in a cloud. It doesn’t have to be embodied in the usual sense.”
Bostrom has said it’s important not to anthropomorphize artificial intelligence. It's best to think of it as a primordial force of nature—strong and indifferent. In the case of chess, an A.I. models chess moves, predicts outcomes, and moves accordingly. If winning at chess meant destroying humanity, it might do that. Even if programmers tried to program an A.I. to be benevolent, it could destroy us inadvertently. Andersen’s example in Aeon is that an A.I. designed to try and maximize human happiness might think that flooding your bloodstream with heroin is the best way to do that.
Experts have wide-ranging estimates as to time scales. Wilczek likens it to a storm cloud on the horizon. “It’s not clear how big the storm will be, or how long it’s going to take to get here. I don’t know. It might be 10 years before there’s a real problem. It might be 20, it might be 30. It might be five. But it’s certainly not too early to think about it, because the issues to address are only going to get more complex as the systems get more self-willed.”
Even within A.I. research, Tegmark admits, “There is absolutely not a consensus that we should be concerned about this.” But there is a lot of concern, and sense of lack of power. Because, concretely, what can you do? “The thing we should worry about is that we’re not worried.”
Tegmark brings it to Earth with a case-example about purchasing a stroller: If you could spend more for a good one or less for one that “sometimes collapses and crushes the baby, but nobody’s been able to prove that it is caused by any design flaw. But it’s 10 percent off! So which one are you going to buy?”
“But now we’re not talking about the life or death of one child. We’re talking about the lives and deaths of every child, and the children of every potential future generation for billions of years.”
But how do you put this into people’s day-to-day lives to encourage the right kind of awareness? Buying a stroller is an immediate decision, and you can tell people to buy a sturdy stroller. What are the concrete things to do or advocate for or protest in terms of existential risks?
“Well, putting it in the day-to-day is easy. Imagine the planet 50 years from now with no people on it. I think most people wouldn’t be too psyched about that. And there’s nothing magic about the number 50. Some people think 10, some people think 200, but it’s a very concrete concern.”
But in the end of our conversation, all of this concern took a turn. “The reason we call it The Future of Life Institute and not the Existential Risk Institute is we want to emphasize the positive,” Tegmark said, kind of strikingly at odds with most of what I’d read and heard so far.
“There are seven billion of us on this little spinning ball in space. And we have so much opportunity," Tegmark said. "We have all the resources in this enormous cosmos. At the same time, we have the technology to wipe ourselves out.”
Ninety-nine percent of the species that have lived on Earth have gone extinct; why should we not? Seeing the biggest picture of humanity and the planet is the heart of this. It’s not meant to be about inspiring terror or doom. Sometimes that is what it takes to draw us out of the little things, where in the day-to-day we lose sight of enormous potentials. “We humans spend 99.9999 percent of our attention on short-term things,” Tegmark said, “and a very small amount of our attention on the future.”
The universe is most likely 13.8 billion years old. We have potentially billions more years at our disposal—even if we do get eaten by the sun in four billion years—during which life could be vast and wonderful.
tl;dr: Scientists reference Depp's movie in argument that AI could possibly destroy humanity in the near future.
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Ariana Grande And Iggy Azalea Tease Their Hair And Their ‘Problem’ Video
Arianators be on the lookout, because Ariana Grande’s “Problem” video is “coming soon.”
The 20-year-old pop star, who got an assist on the track from Iggy Azalea, gave fans a sneak peek at the upcoming video on her Instagram, posting two sexy pictures from the set.
Shot in what appears to be black-and-white and directed by the Young Astronauts, Ariana is seen rocking a stylish itty-bitty leather dress, white knee-high go-go boots (which she sported during her performance at the iHeartRadio Music Awards) and a high ponytail as she sings atop a vintage motorbike.
It seems the video is keeping with the retro vibe she has been sporting of late, with another photo showing the pint-sized diva standing alongside Iggy (with only their outfits in frame) wearing a black-and-white leather crop top with matching skirt.
Luckily for Arianators and Azaleans, Iggy took to her Instagram to show the top half of the look, with Iggy looking super glam in big, blonde 1960s mod-style hair.
Earlier this week, we caught up with Iggy during “Live from MTV,” where she revealed that the lyric video for the single sets the tone for what’s to come in the official clip.
“It’s in the same theme,” Iggy said. “We are not going to be killing people in a lyric video and then do bubble gum or something in the video; it’s the same realm. It’s fairly evident that the theme is kind of mod and monochromatic. Mod girl would be the theme, I would say to the whole single film.”
Source
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Zoe Saldana Reveals Sex in Between Subway Cars
Marco Perego sounds like one lucky man.
During an interview with SirusXM show Sway in the Morning this week, Zoe Saldana got very candid while talking about her sex life.
While reading a fan question, the 35-year-old actress said, "Where's the craziest place you've had sex thus far?"
"I am part of the mile high club," Saldana revealed, adding, "I'm from Queens, so whatever. There is a train from like Coney Island all the way back into the city, and it was between two train cars."
"But I'm a lady now," she added with a laugh. "I'm a lady."
This isn't the first time Saldana has opened up about sex. Last year, before marrying her artist hubby, the Star Trek star revealed her favorite sex position, which she called "phenomenal."
"I have to say, for a long time I was a bit lazy so I didn't like to be on top, but I'm really digging it," Saldana said. "But I've found things that work...because I have really long legs, you just make them sit or lay on a pillow, or two pillows, that way they're like a little elevated, so I won't be so, like, doing a split because my legs are really long."
Source
TMI post?
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GOT IT FROM MY MAMA: 39[18] photos of musicians with their moms
To celebrate Mother's Day coming up this weekend, here are 39 sweet shots of music stars hanging with their mamas.
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1) Lordeand her mother Sonja Yelich attend the 56th GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on January 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
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2) Drake and his mother Sandi Graham attend the Songwriters Hall of Fame 42nd Annual Induction and Awards at The New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 16, 2011 in New York City.
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3) Katy Perryand her mother Mary Hudson attend the album release party for 'One of the Boys' at Capitol Records on June 17, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
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4) Taylor Swift and her mother Andrea Finlay attend the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
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5) Ciara is joined by her mother Jackie Harris as she receives the keys to her hometown city of Riverdale, Georgia on October 19, 2006.
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6) Britney Spears and her mother Lynne Spears attend the 1999 Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, California.
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7) Demi Lovato and her mother Dianna Hart are seen on January 30, 2009 in New York City.
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8) Jennifer Lopez is joined by her mother Guadalupe Lopez at attend Jennifer's Surprise Birthday Party at the Edison Ballroom on July 25, 2009 in New York City.
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9) Miley Cyrus and her mother Tish Cyrus attend the 'Bangerz' Record Release Signing at Planet Hollywood Times Square on October 8, 2013 in New York City.
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10) Christina Aguilera and her mother attend Christina's Hollywood Walk Of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 15, 2010 in Hollywood, California.
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11) Selena Gomez and her mother Mandy Cornett arrive to the "Raise Hope For The Congo" event held at Janes House on June 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
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12) Avril Lavigne and her mother Judith-Rosanne Loshaw attend the album release party for 'The Best Damn Thing' on April 17, 2007.
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13) Jaden Smith, Willow Smith, and their mother Jada Pinkett-Smith arrive at Nickelodeon's 25th Annual Kids' Choice Awards held at Galen Center on March 31, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.
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14) Jay Z poses with his mother Gloria Carter during an evening of "Making The Ordinary Extraordinary" hosted by The Shawn Carter Foundation at Pier 54 on September 29, 2011 in New York City.
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15) Beyoncé and Tina Knowles pose backstage at the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show Press Conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on January 31, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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16) Alicia Keys and her mother Teresa M. Augello attend the Keep A Child Alive's Black Ball Redux 2012 at The Apollo Theater on December 6, 2012 in New York City.
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17) Zendaya Coleman poses with her mother Claire Stoermer at the Q012 Performance Theater on October 17, 2013 in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
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18) Cher and her mother Georgia Holt appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on April 30, 2013 in New York City.
MORE AT THE SOURCE
Happy Mother's Day, ONTD! :3
![]()
1) Lordeand her mother Sonja Yelich attend the 56th GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on January 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
2) Drake and his mother Sandi Graham attend the Songwriters Hall of Fame 42nd Annual Induction and Awards at The New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 16, 2011 in New York City.
3) Katy Perryand her mother Mary Hudson attend the album release party for 'One of the Boys' at Capitol Records on June 17, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
4) Taylor Swift and her mother Andrea Finlay attend the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
5) Ciara is joined by her mother Jackie Harris as she receives the keys to her hometown city of Riverdale, Georgia on October 19, 2006.
6) Britney Spears and her mother Lynne Spears attend the 1999 Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, California.
7) Demi Lovato and her mother Dianna Hart are seen on January 30, 2009 in New York City.
8) Jennifer Lopez is joined by her mother Guadalupe Lopez at attend Jennifer's Surprise Birthday Party at the Edison Ballroom on July 25, 2009 in New York City.
9) Miley Cyrus and her mother Tish Cyrus attend the 'Bangerz' Record Release Signing at Planet Hollywood Times Square on October 8, 2013 in New York City.
10) Christina Aguilera and her mother attend Christina's Hollywood Walk Of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 15, 2010 in Hollywood, California.
11) Selena Gomez and her mother Mandy Cornett arrive to the "Raise Hope For The Congo" event held at Janes House on June 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
12) Avril Lavigne and her mother Judith-Rosanne Loshaw attend the album release party for 'The Best Damn Thing' on April 17, 2007.
13) Jaden Smith, Willow Smith, and their mother Jada Pinkett-Smith arrive at Nickelodeon's 25th Annual Kids' Choice Awards held at Galen Center on March 31, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.
14) Jay Z poses with his mother Gloria Carter during an evening of "Making The Ordinary Extraordinary" hosted by The Shawn Carter Foundation at Pier 54 on September 29, 2011 in New York City.
15) Beyoncé and Tina Knowles pose backstage at the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show Press Conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on January 31, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
16) Alicia Keys and her mother Teresa M. Augello attend the Keep A Child Alive's Black Ball Redux 2012 at The Apollo Theater on December 6, 2012 in New York City.
17) Zendaya Coleman poses with her mother Claire Stoermer at the Q012 Performance Theater on October 17, 2013 in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
18) Cher and her mother Georgia Holt appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on April 30, 2013 in New York City.
MORE AT THE SOURCE
Happy Mother's Day, ONTD! :3
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The Deeper Meaning of “True Detective”
“True Detective” is a TV series about the investigation of satanic ritual murders carried out by mysterious men. While the season ended in a rather straight-forward matter, the plethora of symbols and references peppered throughout the episodes send out profound messages about forces subtly influencing society. We’ll look at the deeper meaning of the first season of “True Detective”.
Warning: Gigantic spoilers ahead!
Taking place in the swampy backwoods of Louisiana, True Detective captured audiences’ attention with its interesting characters and dark atmosphere. Through its eight episodes, the series followed two detectives as they uncovered a series of ritualistic murders that were rumored to be carried out by rich and powerful men. While, week after week, fans of the show obsessed over small details in order to “crack the case”, the series ended in a rather plain matter: The murderer was a dirty, crazy, stereotypical redneck who was identified by the detectives a few episodes beforehand. There was therefore no mind-blowing plot twist (i.e. one of the detectives was behind it all) or shocking high-level conspiracy. And that left many fans somewhat disappointed.
However, looking back at the references, the symbolism, and the enigmatic dialogue peppered throughout the episodes, one can indeed wonder why some aspects of the story (i.e. Marty Hart’s family life) were so extensively developed while they were of no relevance to the final outcome of the investigation. Was the series, through these alternative storylines, trying to communicate something that went beyond the actual investigation? Something that encompasses us all?
Despite the straight-forward conclusion to the story, there is a deeper message communicated throughout the series: that the ritual murders were not simply the product of the mind of lone crazy redneck – they’re the result of a deep-seated mindset, a toxic environment that goes back several generations and affects all aspects of society. This concept can be summed up in one word: “psychosphere” – a word detective Rustin Cohle uses in the first episode. Through a variety of symbols and messages, True Detectives shows us how the sick obsessions of the elite ultimately seep through the everyday lives of the masses.
Let’s first look at the premise of the story...
Read the actual interpretation at the source - it's a bit long, but definitely worth the read.
some of what this person writes borders on tin foil hat territory, but some of the stuff he/she picked up on is pretty interesting (like the aluminium & ash / beer cans & cigarettes analogy) and I overall agree with the gist of the interpretation. so what do you think, ONTD? is this spot on or serious reaching? personal theories?
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All Marvel TV Shows and Movies Can Be Binge-Watched on Netflix Next Year
Could Marvel Studios' complete library be Netflix-bound? Well, that seems to be the case, according to Marvel's own Joe Quesada. Quesada implied that all of Marvel's movies and TV shows would be available to stream on Netflix in 2015 (presumably to coincide with the Daredevil series launch).
Here's the quote from Quesada, following a plug for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "By the way, it only gets better, because soon everyone will be able to binge-watch the Marvel Universe on Netflix in 2015." The reveal was then accompanied by an image of Marvel's The Avengers (which is already on the streaming site), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.
We took this announcement to mean that, yes, Marvel's entire movie and TV library will become streamable next year. We've since reached out to Marvel and Netflix for comment, but they couldn't offer any further details. As always, we'll keep you posted as more info becomes available.
As chief creative officer, Quesada's involved in the many aspects of Marvel's multifaceted operations, from live-action TV to animation to movies to comics to video games. Quesada discussed nearly all of the above in a wide-ranging chat, including the "Daredevil" Netflix series slated to debut in 2015, the soon-to-wrap first season of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and the recently announced "Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes" video game scheduled for release this fall.
Albert Ching: Joe, by the nature of your position, you've got your hands in all of the creative sides at Marvel, but is there any one thing in particular that's demanded most of your attention recently?
Joe Quesada: I think right now the focal point for me is the upcoming Netflix stuff. That's really where a lot of my attention is being directed. It's also a hard question to answer with any degree of accuracy because I'm always being pulled in a bunch of different directions. It's always a matter of what day you're asking.
The frustrating part of the nature of my job -- in publishing, we worked with long lead times, but we could generally talk about stuff within a three months window. With the stuff that I work on now, we work with excruciatingly long lead times that are years out. It makes it very, very difficult for me to get out there publicly and start talking about things, or even hinting about things, because they are so far out and there are so many moving pieces. So these days my stance has to be a little quieter than usual -- maybe that's why people don't quite know exactly where I am or what I'm doing, because it is all very covert. I'm like a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. unit that's out there in the wind. [Laughs] Even here at Marvel, sometimes the staffers don't know if I'm in New York or LA because I get called out last minute or I may be going out for stuff that's of a sensitive nature. While it's all amazingly exciting, for someone like me who loves to talk about all things Marvel, it's the hardest part of my job not being able to talk about all the cool stuff in the pipeline.
With the Netflix shows, we know a little bit about it at this point -- the list of shows, that "Daredevil" is the first one going into production, and that Drew Goddard is heading that series up as showrunner. Have you been working closely with the writers on that one? What's your level of involvement with "Daredevil"?
Quesada: I've been working very, very closely with the entire team on all levels of the show. I think everybody knows my relationship with the character of Daredevil, and how important the character is to me -- not just on an emotional front, but on a professional front. How DD brought me back here to Marvel, and how instrumental he was to even me being in this particular position I'm in today. I'm very involved with the show, as well as everything that we're doing with the Netflix shows. I'm incredibly excited, plus the dark and gritty noir world of DD and the Netflix characters, it's kind of where I live so it naturally attracts me to begin with.
It's fair to say a lot of people weren't satisfied with the last live-action "Daredevil." How much is the goal to really get it right this time, and maybe erase some of the negative thoughts people had with the past live-action Daredevil?
Quesada: Let me be clear, we're not going into this show with the idea of trying to erase the memory of anything that came before or really any preconceived notions whatsoever. We're going into the show trying to create something that's incredibly exciting, incredibly engaging, and will give our fans something that they love, something that's unexpected, something that's going to keep them coming back for more. That's really, ultimately, the goal of this: How do we produce a "Daredevil" TV show on Netflix, that's going to be viewed the way that people view content on Netflix, in a way that's going to be compelling, feels unique, while bringing something that is not only true to the character, but providing something unexpected as well.
Right now Marvel has both a show on a traditional network, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," and multiple Netflix series in the works. What do you see from the creative side as some of the advantages of the Netflix format, and the "everything all at once" rollout that their shows get?
Quesada: One of the advantages is really from the planning stage -- obviously it's much easier to work with a smaller number of episodes than it is with a larger number of episodes. We can sit there and look at 13 episodes and plan it out as a very large movie. It makes seeing the bigger picture a little bit easier.
You can't deny that there will be binge-viewing. You know that there are going to be some Marvel fans that when this show premieres, they are going to go on to Netflix, and they are going to sit there for 12 to 13-plus hours, and watch the entire thing all the way through. It's going to happen. The Netflix model offers us the advantage of being able to construct the show in a manner that is very different than a weekly network TV show. Even the way that you parse out information and reveals within the show can be different than you would on weekly TV. With weekly TV, you sit there and go, "The audience may not want to wait two or three weeks to get this particular bit of information." Whereas with Netflix, we might be able to hold onto a particular piece of information, because they may just watch it two hours later.
It's a different kind of construction. The simplest way to put it in comic book terms is that it's the difference between writing a monthly comic series as opposed to writing a graphic novel. You can tell the same story within the same page count in both formats, but you may parse out that information or construct your story differently because of how it's going to be delivered and consumed.
We're talking about comic book-based TV shows, which really exploded this past development cycle. There have been an unprecedented number of comic book-based shows from a variety of publishers in development -- just this past Thursday came the news that The CW picked up "The Flash" and "iZombie," and NBC picked up "Constantine." Marvel has multiple shows in the works, and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." on the air -- as someone closely involved with comics and Hollywood, are you surprised at all to see this seemingly exponential increased interest from TV networks in comic-based material?
Quesada: No, not at all. It's something that I predicted and hoped would happen a long time ago, so it doesn't surprise me at all that this is where we are today. As I said many, many years ago when I used to do these columns for you guys on Fridays, it's just a matter of the rest of the world catching up to realizing just how cool the material that's being produced in comics has been for decades now.
And a lot of that has to do with so many amazing writers and directors who were weaned on comics, saying, "You know what? I want to work in this world. I want to produce these shows. I want to work with these characters." They know how great the material is. And guess what, they've proven to be amazingly popular, and they make money on a worldwide basis-- when they're done well, of course. So, yeah. It doesn't surprise me at all.
Ever since 2000 and the "X-Men" movie taking off and creating a wave that we're still riding of comic book-based movies having major success, people have wondered, is there a ceiling for this? Is there a burnout point? It seems there definitely hasn't been yet. TV is a different world, though. Do you see there being as much room for comic book-based television shows to thrive as much as there has been in movies?
Quesada: I think there's tons of room. It's all a matter of variety. By the way, you bring up the "X-Men" movie -- I would say it happened before this. I think that "Blade" was the real eye-opener for a lot of people, because "Blade" was a comic book-based movie that did incredibly well, but it was a movie that did incredibly well based on a character that wasn't all that popular or remotely iconic. What he was was a great character who was perfect for reinterpretation. I think people looked at that and said, "Wow, there is stuff to be mined here." Imagine you take a character like this, who wasn't immensely popular, but you did a little bit of a twist here and there, and it worked for the big screen. What happens when you take something that's already immensely popular and iconic?
I just think it's a matter of approach, making sure that the material is great. Our fans view them as comic book-based movies, but I think a lot of people in the general public don't necessarily view them as, "I'm going to the next big comic book movie." They look at them as, "I'm going to the next big action-adventure summer blockbuster."
This is something I've been hearing now for over 10-plus years. "When is the wave going to die? When are people going to say, 'I'm sick of comic book movies'?" You know what? I'm sick of people saying that. Because it's enough already. We're always looking for the other shoe to drop. Everybody who is in our industry, everybody who loves what we do, from the creative side to fandom, we've been here forever, and we keep coming back for more, as long as the books are good, as long as the stories are great, regardless of whether they are Marvel, DC, Image, Dynamite, superheroes, alternative, indie, corporate-owned, creator-owned, licensed, paper, digital -- it doesn't matter where they're coming from. People just want great stories.
We're not the western. I don't think that's going to happen. As long as people want action-adventure blockbuster movies, comic book movies will be here. If someday, the temperament of the world changes, and people decide, "You know what? All we want are small, indie, low-budget movies," then yeah, maybe we'll have a dry period for the big-budget comic book-style movie. But it won't just be comic book movies that will be suffering, it will be everybody who does those big blockbuster kind of movies. I think the sky's really the limit for us, as long as we as a collective industry continue to produce great material.
And let's not forget that our industry produces smaller stories, too. It's not all big muscles and giants robots and lizards. As far as I'm concerned the best creative minds on the planet are working in our industry and I keep seeing more and more brilliantly creative kids jumping on board -- and not just at Marvel -- and that bodes incredibly well for our future. So if there's a ceiling, I certainly can't see it.
If we're talking about comic book-based TV shows, we have to talk about "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," which wraps its first season next week and really was something new for Marvel in a lot of ways.
Quesada: Yeah, and I think it was something unique for television as well -- a TV show that played within a universe that was set up in a cinematic world, and that reflected that cinematic world. In that sense, it's also a very, very unique television show, and a very unique way of constructing a television show. It's very, very special in those regards, as well and I couldn't be happier that today it was finally announced that we were renewed for a second season. Coulson lives, baby!
As a part of that process, what was it like putting that together, and then watching this first season unfold? At least in terms of people's perceptions of it, it's been something of a roller coaster -- starting with huge ratings and a lot of excitement, then something of a backlash from a lot of critics and fans, and now it's seemed to turn around and a lot of people are saying, "I changed my mind, I like it now!"
Quesada: That's just the essence of making anything in the entertainment business. People are going to like what you do, they're not going to like what you do -- you put out the best product you can, and hope for the best. We knew exactly where the show was going, we knew exactly where it was going to end, we knew the events of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" -- the actors didn't know, but we internally did know exactly what was going to happen, and how it was going to all be flipped on its ear. It was just a matter of getting to that point. I'm glad that people are picking up on what the big picture was and how we were setting it up from the beginning. It's going to be a fantastic season finale that's going to turn things on its ear, again.
With what the show has been able to accomplish in its first season, is there anything you're particularly proud of?
Quesada: I'm proud of everything about the show -- the writing staff, the cast, the crew, everything we've been able to do to integrate into the Marvel Universe. Remember, it's a very difficult assignment because the Cinematic Universe, like the comics universe, is constantly growing and changing and our show has to grow along with it and reflect those changes. But I'm also proud of how we've been able to keep the secrets, and keep everything about not just what was going to happen with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," but the secrets of what was going to happen in "Cap: The Winter Soldier" out of the reach of prying eyes and noses. That could very easily have leaked out, and it never did. I'm very, very happy with the way that the show has turned out, the way the show is wrapping up, and more importantly what we're setting up for season two which brings us right back to an earlier point in this interview. I'm bursting inside to talk about all the cool things that are coming up, all the changes and twists and turns, but now I have to sit here for the next several months biting through my lip.
Moving on to some other aspects of Marvel, at the "Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes" announcement last week, you described the game as another "evolutionary leap" for Marvel. From your perspective, what makes that game such a big deal for the company?
Quesada: First of all, I think it's a great game. I really do. I think the game is so inviting to not just kids, but also to parents and adult fans. It is definitely going to be an immersive experience in which mom and dad can play with their daughter or son. It really is an all-encompassing thing. That's a big part of it.
There's the "Toy Box" feature in which you can get really creative with the game, which I think is really a great, great function. It allows you to have an interactivity with the Marvel Universe, which is always something that's been very, very important to us, whether it's been from the early days when Stan had his letters page, and the Soapbox, where there was a lot of fan interactivity, telling us how they felt about the universe, and what they wanted to see in the universe up to today where we still have that same relationship with our fans -- this is just another extension of that. The characters of the Marvel Universe live in the real world, so any time we can get our fans to interact with them on any level, to me, is a perfect scenario. There are a lot of things about "Infinity" that are really, really attractive. It encompasses all age groups, a lot of playability in so many different ways and tons of creativity.
And also, the actual figures themselves are so darn cool that there's a collectible aspect to them, as well. I used to be a gamer. I have to stay away from games because I need to keep my job. Yes, I have a problem, I'd rather not talk about it. So for me, I told the "Infinity" crew -- "Hey, I'm just going to buy the figures, because they're so darn cool." If you were to visit my home office, I've got tons of Hot Toys Marvel collectibles, Randy Bowen statues, stuff like that. That's my sort of comic book fetish. These toys are so cool that I'm going to be buying them just to put them on display along with the rest of my stuff. I think the "Infinity" team did a great job capturing the Marvel characters and even giving a sense of movement and attitude to the figures that makes them look like they're going to spring to life.
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Cheryl Hines Engaged To Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are planning to tie the knot!
"Yes, they are engaged," a source close to the situation tells PEOPLE of the couple, who began dating in 2012.
This will be the second marriage for Hines, 48, and the third for Kennedy, 60, whose second wife, Mary, committed suicide in the family's Bedford, New York, home in May 2012.
The Suburgatory star sang the praises of her environmentalist beau at an event in L.A. in March.
"I really like this guy," she said at the UCLA event that honored the attorney, calling the father of six "a devoted dad and an all-around good guy."
SOURCE
Marrying a Kennedy... What could go wrong?
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Lady Gaga makes her sister cry at the Artpop Ball, Taylor Kinney talks about their relationship
Taylor Kinney Drops a Lady Gaga Bombshell: She Hikes in Heels! (Kidding, That's Not at All Surprising)
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It's pretty obvious that Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney enjoy working up a sweat together.
But Gaga's brand of exercise isn't for everybody. (Well, maybe it's for Victoria Beckham...)
"We'll hike together," Taylor Kinney recently told Glamour about his longtime girlfriend. "I'm always giving her flak, like, 'Babe, you can't wear your heels when we're hiking.'"
Considering Gaga's penchant for mile-high footwear, we wholeheartedly believe the Chicago Fire hunk.
And when it's too hot to hike? Or too cold? Or when they just don't feel like hiking?
"We've been painting a bunch lately, too," Kinney revealed. He played coy, however, when it came to what (or whom) exactly they've been painting.
"I can't tell you—I'll have to leave it up to the imagination," the 32-year-old actor, who's also on the big screen in The Other Woman, said. "There's a lot of laughing. I think that's the basis of a healthy relationship. We laugh a lot."
So their recent selfie-taking session would suggest.
Asked how he and his eccentric superstar love keep it together in the spotlight's glare, Kinney said simply, "I have no desire to talk about rumors. But I think we just complement each other. I'm proud of her, and I'd like to believe she's proud of me. We're kindred spirits."
As for Gaga, "I'm just really happy," she told Howard Stern in November regarding her relationship.
"I am lucky to be with somebody that has a great job...We don't have any rules about calling each other at certain times. We'll go days at a time without talking," she explained.
"Then we'll talk every day. The way that it really works is, we trust each other. He's on his journey, and I'm on mine., and we're gypsies—and then when we're together we're really in love."
Not to mention, they paint.
Source
Source
It's pretty obvious that Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney enjoy working up a sweat together.
But Gaga's brand of exercise isn't for everybody. (Well, maybe it's for Victoria Beckham...)
"We'll hike together," Taylor Kinney recently told Glamour about his longtime girlfriend. "I'm always giving her flak, like, 'Babe, you can't wear your heels when we're hiking.'"
Considering Gaga's penchant for mile-high footwear, we wholeheartedly believe the Chicago Fire hunk.
And when it's too hot to hike? Or too cold? Or when they just don't feel like hiking?
"We've been painting a bunch lately, too," Kinney revealed. He played coy, however, when it came to what (or whom) exactly they've been painting.
"I can't tell you—I'll have to leave it up to the imagination," the 32-year-old actor, who's also on the big screen in The Other Woman, said. "There's a lot of laughing. I think that's the basis of a healthy relationship. We laugh a lot."
So their recent selfie-taking session would suggest.
Asked how he and his eccentric superstar love keep it together in the spotlight's glare, Kinney said simply, "I have no desire to talk about rumors. But I think we just complement each other. I'm proud of her, and I'd like to believe she's proud of me. We're kindred spirits."
As for Gaga, "I'm just really happy," she told Howard Stern in November regarding her relationship.
"I am lucky to be with somebody that has a great job...We don't have any rules about calling each other at certain times. We'll go days at a time without talking," she explained.
"Then we'll talk every day. The way that it really works is, we trust each other. He's on his journey, and I'm on mine., and we're gypsies—and then when we're together we're really in love."
Not to mention, they paint.
Source
Source
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shailene woodley x instyle 6/2014
photographed by giampaolo sgura
(fave)
source
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Kanye West Tweets On Mother's Day
Kanye West took to Twitter this Mother’s Day for a sweet and simple greeting to his mom, the late Donda West. After losing his mother back in 2007 to postoperative complications, the rapper posted a picture of the sky, with a message that read “hi Mom.”
Source
:(
It don't gotta be Mother's Day, or your birthday for me to just call and say, Hey Mama
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Lindsay Lohan Swears She Had Miscarriage Under Oath in $5 Million Lawsuit
Lindsay Lohan has sworn under penalty of perjury she suffered a miscarriage...which means she better be telling the truth, or she could land in jail.
Lindsay made the declaration in new court docs in a $5 million lawsuit over her clothing line 6126.
You'll recall, Lindsay was given a reprieve from responding to the lawsuit while she was in rehab last year -- but even after getting out she failed to respond...so she lost the case.
Lindsay wants to undo the damage and she's using her miscarriage as an excuse.
In the new court docs, Lindsay writes, "I have been overwhelmed since leaving rehab and dealing with my sobriety and a miscarriage."
There's been tons of speculation that Lindsay made up the miscarriage story to garner buzz for her Oprah show -- or maybe just to get sympathy votes -- but these are legal documents...which means she's under oath.
If it comes out that Lindsay lied in the docs...under penalty of perjury...she could face jail time.
Nothing new (lol).
source
hope this convinces the people who were saying she was lying before...
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‘Game Of Thrones’: What To Expect From ‘The Laws Of Gods And Men’ + Viewing Post
Tonight is dark and full of terrors, especially where a certain Imp is concerned.
On tonight’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” titled “The Laws of Gods and Men,” it’s finally time for Tyrion Lannister to stand trial for the murder of King Joffrey Baratheon — a crime that he most certainly did not commit, even though everyone in the Seven Kingdoms believes otherwise.
What can we expect from Tyrion’s day in court? And what else will happen on “Game of Thrones” tonight? Here’s what to expect:
The Trial of the Century Begins
The last time he stood trial for a crime he didn’t commit, Tyrion nearly found himself on the wrong end of the Moon Door, thanks to his signature snark. In all likelihood, Tyrion didn’t learn his lesson from that brush with death. Expect the former Master of Coin to give plenty of lip and bad attitude when standing before his father, Tywin, and fellow judges Mace Tyrell and Oberyn Martell. It might not be the best move for Tyrion, but it’ll be a heck of a show for us.
Dragons are Officially Terrifying
Tywin and his court in King’s Landing have more to worry about than Tyrion and the trial. In previews for tonight’s episode, Tywin expresses his concern about Daenerys Targaryen’s recent conquest of Meereen. The Khaleesi has an army, and she has dragons. Now that she’s on Tywin’s radar, can we expect an imminent confrontation between Daenerys’ Essos forces and the wider world of Westeros?
Stannis Sails East
There’s another developing danger lurking in Essos, one that the Lannisters are only just beginning to appreciate: The Iron Bank of Braavos. The Lannisters owe endless amounts of money to these dangerous financiers — and based on the preview, Stannis Baratheon, the self-declared one true king of Westeros, is taking a meeting with the Braavosi bankers. It’s bad news for the Lannisters, and great news for viewers, as we’ll finally get a good look at the home of Syrio Forel.
Greyjoy Crashes the Party
We haven’t seen
Source
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The Amazing Race All Stars - S24E11 - "Hei Ho Heidi Ho"
goes to...
DAVEANDCONNOR!!!
They ran their worst leg of the race and STILL came in first! They're amazing!!
Leo & Jamal came in last and were Philiminated. :-(. Perpetually 4th!! I wouldn't mind seeing them come back a third time, I like them.
This week's rankings:
1. Dave & Connor
2. Caroline & Jennifer
3. Brendon & Rachel
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6. Flight Time & Big Easy
7. John & Jessica
8. Margie & Luke
9. Joey & Meghan
10. Mallory & Mark
11. Natalie and Nadiya
With one final leg, here are what the team standings look like:
Average Standings after 11 legs:
1. Dave & Connor: 2.27
2. Brendon & Rachel: 3.81
3. Caroline & Jennifer: 4.45
Go for the gold, Connor!!!! Slay those disgusting Brenchels!!!
Source: TV
The final 3! Who do U want to win??
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Fighting Patriot: Stunts and More in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
“I have a long-standing relationship with Marvel,” states Thomas Robinson Harper who was the stunt coordinator for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). “I did the first Iron Man [2008] and Iron Man 2 [2010], as well as re-shoots on Thor [2011]. I was asked by Louis D’Esposito [Avengers: Age of Ultron] to come in and meet with the Russo brothers [You, Me and Dupree]; we hit it off and the rest is history.” The previous experience with the world of Tony Stark came in handy when having to deal with the adventures of Steve Rogers. “Working on the first two Iron Man projects gave me an idea on what Marvel likes to see as far as action; I stepped it up from there.” Harper made “videovis” for every action scene which was presented to Anthony and Joe Russo. “They would give me an idea what they wanted and I would go shoot a test; we would meet again, take out what they didn’t like and add to what they did like.”
An essential element of being a stunt coordinator is deciding when a stunt double should replace a principle cast member. “30 plus years of doing stunts gives me the experience to make the call as well as working with the actors for almost four months before we started shooting,” remarks Thomas Robinson Harper. “It gives me a good idea what they can and can’t do safely.” Two key collaborators in pulling off a successful action movie were Visual Effects Supervisor Dan DeLeeuw (Night at the Museum) and Special Effects Supervisor Dan Sudick (Cowboys and Aliens). All three of us work as a team to determine the final outcome of the film. There was constant communication between all three of our departments.” Assisting Harper were Chris Carnel (American History X) and James Young (Limitless). “Chris was my Fight Coordinator and his job was to coordinate all of the fights with the stuntman. James Young was my Fight Choreographer and the Winter Soldier double; he worked closely with Chris and me to choreograph and shoot the ‘videovis.’”
Each character has distinct fighting style in Captain America: The Winter Soldier with World War II super-soldier Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) utilizing a combination of Parkour, Brazilian Ju Jitzu, karate, and boxing when battling his enemies. “We mixed many styles to show that he had done his homework since he thawed out.” Russian assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) who goes by the name Black Widow joins forces with her Avenger counterpart. “She has her own style that I developed on Iron Man 2.” A new member of team is an ex-military paratrooper who pilots a wing pack known as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) aka Falcon. “His fighting is all flight based.” Though living in the modern world, Rogers encounters a former wartime buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who has been turned into a brainwashed and enhanced killing machine called Winter Soldier. “We wanted his style to be brutal and ruthless.” Also making a big screen appearance is counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team operative Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo). “We did more of an S.E.A.L. team style with his fights.”
There is no shortage of fights in the conspiracy thriller which required each of them to be distinct. “It’s not easy,” admits Thomas Robinson Harper. “We did a lot of testing and if it looked to close to another fight we would keep changing it until it felt right.” A major battle takes place in a confined space just after Steve Rogers asks, “Does anyone want to get off of this elevator?” “10 guys fighting in an elevator is really hard just because there is no room to do anything.” Falcon encounters the Winter Soldier on top of a S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier. “We wanted to show how brutal Winter Soldier could be before he fought Cap.” Beneath the massive aircraft a physical confrontation unfolds in the surveillance hub dome between Captain America and Winter Soldier. “Fighting on catwalks and set pieces that are unstable and slippery has its own set of problems.” Contributing her fighting prowess was Black Widow who is part of a covert operation to reclaim the S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel the Lumerian Star captured by French mercenary Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre) and his band of Algerian pirates. Working on the ship was really hard because the ship has such tight quarters, except for the Cap Batroc fight.”
Not all of the stunts involved fighting such as helping Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) to take flight. “Getting the Falcon to fly right was done by my stunt riggers with a lot of testing by Aaron Toney, his stunt double.” Captain America has a great ability to leap. “Again all done on wires by the stunt riggers lead by Shawn Kautz.” Black Widow seamlessly swings down and runs onto a roadway. “This was done in three parts and involved both of her stunt doubles, Heidi Moneymaker [After Earth] and Amy Johnston [Raze].” The project was filled with pleasant surprises. There would be a least one time everyday that I would say, “Wow! That came out better than I expected.” The reason for that is the stunt people I have working with me to create these stunts are without a doubt the best in the world, from the stunt riggers to the doubles and every ND stunt person that worked on this film.” Unfortunately, Thomas Robinson Harper will not be contending for an Oscar. “Have you ever wondered why there is no category for stunts in the Academy Awards but there is for Documentary Short Subject? Me too.”
SOURCE
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Humans of New York (HONY) Captures the Met Gala
Photographer Brandon Stanton’s portrait blog, Humans of New York, is a celebration of the people he encounters on a daily basis as he roams New York City with his camera: distinct individuals, all, but none of them as known to the world at large as the celebrity guests who walked the red carpet into the Met Gala last night.
Nevertheless, he approached them the same as he does any stranger he meets in the street. “I’m a believer in the ordinary person, that the ordinary person is just as important and has an equally unique perspective on the world as someone who is famous or perhaps more privileged,” he said.
Shooting the Met Gala, he acknowledged, “became a surprisingly interesting experience” because the nature of a gathering of such proportions meant he had to slightly alter his process.“Usually I approach someone alone out in the world. Here, I had to interrupt conversations, and people might have a cocktail in their hand.” The results, he discovered, from Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka (“who said very tender things about each other”) to Bryan Cranston, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and Anna Kendrick, yielded refreshingly ordinary-extraordinary results.
![metgala-06_235405358458.jpg_gallery_max]( "metgala-06_235405358458.jpg_gallery_max")
“He broke up with me once. For a day.”
![metgala-09_235408381844.jpg_gallery_max]( "metgala-09_235408381844.jpg_gallery_max")
“All that matters is love and friendship. Everything else is just a game.”
![metgala-11_235410591692.jpg_gallery_max]( "metgala-11_235410591692.jpg_gallery_max")
“One time we were driving through Italy, and we were listening to a radio station that played nothing but melodramatic Italian love songs. So we started inventing translations. The stories we made up kept getting more and more ridiculous, until soon we were both in tears.”
![metgala-12_235411828718.jpg_gallery_max]( "metgala-12_235411828718.jpg_gallery_max")
“What's your favorite thing about her?” “She still gets giddy when she sees a firefly.”
Photography by Brandon Stanton
Source
Nevertheless, he approached them the same as he does any stranger he meets in the street. “I’m a believer in the ordinary person, that the ordinary person is just as important and has an equally unique perspective on the world as someone who is famous or perhaps more privileged,” he said.
Shooting the Met Gala, he acknowledged, “became a surprisingly interesting experience” because the nature of a gathering of such proportions meant he had to slightly alter his process.“Usually I approach someone alone out in the world. Here, I had to interrupt conversations, and people might have a cocktail in their hand.” The results, he discovered, from Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka (“who said very tender things about each other”) to Bryan Cranston, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and Anna Kendrick, yielded refreshingly ordinary-extraordinary results.
“He broke up with me once. For a day.”
“All that matters is love and friendship. Everything else is just a game.”
“One time we were driving through Italy, and we were listening to a radio station that played nothing but melodramatic Italian love songs. So we started inventing translations. The stories we made up kept getting more and more ridiculous, until soon we were both in tears.”
Photography by Brandon Stanton
Source
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Weekend Box Office Wrap-Up: Rowdy Neighbors Steals #1 From Spidey
Raunchy comedy trumped super hero action as North American audiences flooded multiplexes to see the buzzworthy new film Neighbors which captured the number one spot with a thunderous opening shoving last week's champ The Amazing Spider-Man 2 into second place in only in second weekend.
Universal's latest R-rated comedy winner debuted with strength grossing an estimated $51.1M over the weekend from 3,279 locations for a powerful $15,575 average. Starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, the well-reviewed laugher about young parents with a baby who battle a fraternity that moves in next door in their quiet neighborhood surged past lofty expectations to generate the second best opening weekend ever for an R-rated comedy not based on a popular brand. Only Universal's Ted was bigger with a $54.4M debut in June 2012.
Neighbors enjoyed broad appeal which helped to deliver the numbers. Men and women alike were excited and many age groups found the plot intriguing. Plus the two lead actors pull from different segments of the moviegoing audience leading to more business. Rogen's comedy from last summer - This Is the End - was also outrageous and earned strong reviews, however its all-star cast pretty much pulled from the same fan base. Former teen heartthrob Efron brought a different crowd to the table. Also helping was the fact that studios have done a lousy job this year delivering broad comedies so ticket buyers were eager to go out and experience a laugh riot.
It's been three years since anything other than an action movie has hit number one in the summer kickoff month of May. That says a lot about how hard it is for a film like Neighbors to hit the top spot. The much-hyped sequel The Hangover Part II did it in late May 2011 with a phenomenal $85.9M debut which still holds the record today for debuts of all R-rated comedies. Studio research showed that the audience was 53% female and 53% over 25.
The CinemaScore was a mediocre B so it will have to be seen what kind of legs it shows. The next major direct competitor will be Seth MacFarlane's Ted followup A Million Ways to Die in the West opening three weeks later and there is the Memorial Day holiday weekend before that so the road ahead looks bright for Neighbors for the rest of May. Overseas debuts drove in a healthy $34.4M weekend - led by the U.K. and Australia - for a global tally of $85.5M very early on in the run.
Bumped down to the runner-up position after just one week with the crown was the super hero tentpole sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which fell a sharp 59% to an estimated $37.2M. That put Sony's cume at $147.9M after ten days of release plus Thursday night previews which is 11% below the same point in the run of 2012's Spidey reboot. The decline was in the same ballpark as Marvel's other summer kickoff sequels like Iron Man 2 (59% in 2010), Iron Man 3 (58% last year) and Spider-Man 3 (62% in 2007).
This is an event sequel featuring one of the most recognizable characters in existence with all the production and marketing dollars in the world at its disposal. It should be attracting a larger crowd than this, especially with a production cost alone of over $200M.
The final take should end in the friendly $210-220M neighborhood making it the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film ever domestically despite having the highest ticket prices. It could end a full $50M shy of the $262M of its predecessor from two years ago and it certainly will not beat Captain Avenger: The Winter Soldier which was more successful at satisfying comic fans recently and will soon crack the quarter-billion mark.
Sony has two more Peter Parker installments already on the calendar for 2016 and 2018 so it needs to find a way to reignite fan excitement for the franchise and deliver a product that pumps up audiences. But as with many action franchises, international markets are making up for shortfalls from North America. The overseas weekend haul of $69.5M boosted the offshore cume to $403M and the global gross to $551M. $750M is still possible.
The Cameron Diaz hit The Other Woman held up well given the intense competition it faced from a new runaway hit comedy entering the marketplace. Fox's former number one dipped 36% in its third weekend to an estimated $9.3M raising the sum to a solid $61.7M. Faith-based hit Heaven Is For Real kept bringing in the business in its fourth lap with an estimated $7M, down a slender 19%, putting Sony at $75.2M to date. Reaching $100M is now a possibility.
April sequels followed. Disney's Captain America: The Winter Soldier eased only 28% to an estimated $5.6M vaulting its domestic haul to an impressive $245M. With $450.6M from overseas markets, the Avenger raised its worldwide cume to a robust $695.6M. Toon Rio 2 fell 34% to an estimated $5.1M for $113.2M overall for Fox.
Two smaller new releases debuted to modest results. The PG-rated comedy Moms' Night Out bowed to an estimated $4.2M from only 1,044 locations for a lukewarm $4,023 average. Outreach to the faith-based crowd helped the Sony release to attract a respectable audience despite the moderate number of theaters, but the grosses were not at the same level as for this year's many hit dramas which targeted Christian moviegoers. Reviews were poor.
The animated film Legends of Oz brought in similar sales with an estimated $3.7M opening weekend but its average was much worse at a dull $1,421 thanks to an aggressive release in 2,607 sites. New distributor Clarius saw terrible reviews and the brand was not strong enough to bring out paying family audiences. The CinemaScore grade was an encouraging A, though.
Divergent clung to the top ten for an eighth weekend with an estimated $1.7M, off a mere 22%, for a $145M total and over $254M collected worldwide. Relativity's action film Brick Mansions dropped 60% to an estimated $1.5M for a $18.3M cume.
Below the top ten, The Grand Budapest Hotel became Wes Anderson's highest-grossing film ever as it grossed another $1.5M in its tenth frame, according to estimates. The Fox Searchlight hit has banked $53.7M to date and may end its domestic run near the $60M mark.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $126.3M which was down 16% from last year when Iron Man 3 stayed at number one with $72.5M; and down 21% from 2012 when The Avengers remained on top with $103.1M.
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