Showing posts with label Clint Eastwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clint Eastwood. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Awesome Quotes: Clint Eastwood on Gay Marriage
"These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. They go on and on with all this bullshit about 'sanctity.' Don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
First Look: Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'J. Edgar'
Anthony Breznican
Aug 12, 2011
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/08/12/first-look-clint-eastwood-and-leonardo-dicaprios-j-edgar
No kid says he wants to be J. Edgar Hoover when he grows up.
He was America’s Top Cop for five decades, but somewhere along the line, the FBI founder went from protector to tyrant in the minds of many Americans.
Hoover unified the federal police force, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence... then went sadly astray, abusing his power, manipulating elected officials and, most damningly, wiretapping and intimidating civil rights leaders. That tragic arc is at the heart of director Clint Eastwood’s drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the notorious G-man.
“I started to become curious about the ‘why,’” says screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Oscar-winner for 2008’s Milk. “He did wonderful things for this country, but why did he ended up doing so many things that were heinous and harmful? I think it was all in the name of trying to fill that void, where love goes, with public admiration. This is a guy who from his earliest years was told he could never express the love he felt.”
Was Hoover was gay or straight? The movie leaves it open to interpretation, according to Eastwood, but one thing is undeniable — he was an achingly solitary man. And there was far more to him than that.
“Well, I grew up with Hoover in the 30’s and 40’s as The G-man,” says Eastwood. “He was always the authority; always sort of the top cop. Certainly the FBI was considered somewhat revered, and [we were] somewhat in awe, I guess. When you talk to FBI agents now who’ve worked with him, they all have different opinions of him. A lot of them liked Hoover very much, liked working for him very much.”
The movie J. Edgar tracks him from his early days, building the FBI into an actual law enforcement agency, instead of the powerless entity they were before.
“They were just guys going around asking questions. Almost like reporters, trying to create a story to give to the localized police, and the police are the ones that had all the power,” says DiCaprio. “It was almost like our country was fractioned off into little city-states that have their own jurisdiction, and here comes a man that creates a federal police force where you’re held accountable in our country for your actions and your deeds.”
He also pushed for a federal fingerprints database, and helped popularize the use of scientific evidence to convict criminals. “We’re not simply relying on testimony from eyewitnesses that can often be misleading and can take you in different directions,” DiCaprio says. “He brought forensics into it. The modernized way that we convict people and people are put on to trial and the evidence we use is all a result of the way J. Edgar Hoover designed the FBI.”
Then of course, after amassing so much power, things went astray...
“Here’s this guy starting the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then goes on to stay for 48 years through eight presidents,” Eastwood says. “Of course nobody could fire him, because he had something on everybody.”
But what did they have on him?
Practically nothing, actually — apart from rumor and innuendo.
“He knew what he could do to everybody else by finding out what their life was like, but on the same token, everything in his life was pretty much kept between he and Helen Gandy and Clyde Tolson,” said Eastwood, referring to the Associate FBI Director, rumored to be Hoover’s lover, played by The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer. Gandy, Hoover’s secretary, is played in the film by Naomi Watts, filling out that secretive FBI triumvirate.
While the screenwriter, Black, believes it was Hoover’s suppressed sexuality that twisted him into the ultimate control freak with ultimate enforcement power, the screenplay keeps things somewhat ambiguous. After all, the premise is that failing to be able to feel something for another person is what warped Hoover, leading him to see everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Robert F. Kennedy as enemies of the state.
Eastwood says he didn’t want to make a definitive statement about whether Hoover was gay, since that history is far from certain: “Some people might interpret it that way. Some people might say [he and Tolson] were just inseparable pals. Or maybe it’s a love story without being gay, I don’t know. But it’s very interesting, the way Lance laid out the script. It was nicely written. It didn’t go to the obvious.”
DiCaprio plays Hoover into his bulldog-esque later years with prosthetic makeup, though it was never easy getting into the man’s skin, especially as the lawman became the outlaw.
“I think that he was always an outsider,” says the actor. “I think that’s what this story is about, how he sort of lost touch towards the end of his life, to say the least.” By the time he died, DiCaprio says, Hoover was obsessed with “pretty far-fetched, bizarre, highly paranoid stuff.”
Oh, Leo, if Hoover were alive today, you’d be so wire-tapped right now.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Eastwood on Hoover film: DiCaprio in, Phoenix out
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69A4GP20101011
Eastwood on Hoover film: DiCaprio in, Phoenix out
NEW YORK | Mon Oct 11, 2010
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Director Clint Eastwood on Monday shot down rumors that Joaquin Phoenix might return to acting by portraying J. Edgar Hoover's protege and purported lover in a biopic on the controversial, first FBI director.
Eastwood told Reuters that Leonardo DiCaprio was definitely lined up to play Hoover. But Phoenix, who recently revealed his charade to quit acting and become a rap singer, was not in talks to play Clyde Tolson.
"No. I don't know where that came from...didn't he become a rapper?" Eastwood said, when asked about recent reports Phoenix was being considered for the role. Phoenix had taken on rapping in a hoax that surrounded the making of a mock documentary film called "I'm Still Here" about his supposed transition.
Oscar-winning director Eastwood did say that DiCaprio definitely wants the role of Hoover. "It's a great role for him," Eastwood said, adding that the film's makers were "in the process" of signing contracts with DiCaprio.
The Hollywood legend, who after turning 80 years-old this year, is about to release his latest directorial effort "Hereafter" that tackles mortality and possibilities of an afterlife, said his next project on Hoover would focus on many aspects of the man's complicated life.
"He was a very complex person. The homosexual aspect is just one of many. I would say that's the least of his problems. But he was also very clever, whether rightfully or wrongfully, he was very clever about keeping himself in a certain position in life, so it is an interesting study," Eastwood said.
Hoover, who died in 1972, was the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he served nearly four decades at the helm of the U.S. law enforcement agency.
Following his death, Hoover fell under sharp criticism for keeping secret files on prominent citizens, politicians and celebrities, including Martin Luther King, Jr. He also became the subject of conjecture over whether he was gay and if Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI, was his lover.
Eastwood said that by growing up in the 1930s and 40s, he could capture the mythology of Hoover in pop culture at the time, which had "comic books with him on the cover with machine guns and all that."
"He is a fascinating character, and I think I am the right person to do it , not because I knew him or anything, but I did grow up with him," Eastwood said. "He was an iconic figure."
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Eastwood on Hoover film: DiCaprio in, Phoenix out
NEW YORK | Mon Oct 11, 2010
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Director Clint Eastwood on Monday shot down rumors that Joaquin Phoenix might return to acting by portraying J. Edgar Hoover's protege and purported lover in a biopic on the controversial, first FBI director.
Eastwood told Reuters that Leonardo DiCaprio was definitely lined up to play Hoover. But Phoenix, who recently revealed his charade to quit acting and become a rap singer, was not in talks to play Clyde Tolson.
"No. I don't know where that came from...didn't he become a rapper?" Eastwood said, when asked about recent reports Phoenix was being considered for the role. Phoenix had taken on rapping in a hoax that surrounded the making of a mock documentary film called "I'm Still Here" about his supposed transition.
Oscar-winning director Eastwood did say that DiCaprio definitely wants the role of Hoover. "It's a great role for him," Eastwood said, adding that the film's makers were "in the process" of signing contracts with DiCaprio.
The Hollywood legend, who after turning 80 years-old this year, is about to release his latest directorial effort "Hereafter" that tackles mortality and possibilities of an afterlife, said his next project on Hoover would focus on many aspects of the man's complicated life.
"He was a very complex person. The homosexual aspect is just one of many. I would say that's the least of his problems. But he was also very clever, whether rightfully or wrongfully, he was very clever about keeping himself in a certain position in life, so it is an interesting study," Eastwood said.
Hoover, who died in 1972, was the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he served nearly four decades at the helm of the U.S. law enforcement agency.
Following his death, Hoover fell under sharp criticism for keeping secret files on prominent citizens, politicians and celebrities, including Martin Luther King, Jr. He also became the subject of conjecture over whether he was gay and if Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI, was his lover.
Eastwood said that by growing up in the 1930s and 40s, he could capture the mythology of Hoover in pop culture at the time, which had "comic books with him on the cover with machine guns and all that."
"He is a fascinating character, and I think I am the right person to do it , not because I knew him or anything, but I did grow up with him," Eastwood said. "He was an iconic figure."
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
30 years after 'Empire,' Boba Fett strikes back in a big way
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-03-25-empirestrikes25_CV_N.htm
30 years after 'Empire,' Boba Fett strikes back in a big way
"He had that Clint Eastwood vibe to him": In The Clone Wars cartoon airing in April on The Cartoon Network, a teenage Boba Fett leads a motley crew of bounty hunters.
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
3-25-10
The upcoming 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back is turning into a fete for Fett.
Boba Fett, the galaxy's most fearsome bounty hunter, was just a supporting character in the original Star Wars sequel, but his cult-favorite status has placed the masked mercenary at center stage in plans to commemorate the movie, which opened May 21, 1980.
There will be new toys, a convention and special screenings hosted around the world. But the biggest development: A teenage version of Fett will appear next month in the popular Cartoon Network show The Clone Wars, bridging the generational gap between fans of the original trilogy and kids reared largely on the prequels.
Who is he? That question is what makes him so popular.
Mostly silent, his face hidden behind a sinister helmet, he wore green Mandalorian armor (a race of Star Wars galaxy warriors) and seemed to unnerve even Darth Vader. "No disintegrations!" Vader warned him in Empire— the context of which still remains a mystery.
As fans guessed at his background, Fett stood out in the film by using cunning and camouflage (in the form of jettisoned space junk) to track the Millennium Falcon, leading Vader to a fugitive Princess Leia in Cloud City, and freezing Han Solo in carbonite as a trophy for gangster Jabba the Hutt.
Much of Empire's heralded dark tone can be laid directly on Boba Fett.
"Well, he started out as a character in the famed Christmas special," notes George Lucas, referring to the comically bad 1978 TV program — which he has since hidden away like an awkward high-school prom photo.
"I thought the idea of a storm trooper-ish kind of guy with rocket packs who was actually a hero — not just a nameless, faceless guy — had a chance for pizzazz. So, we made an über-storm trooper and I called him Boba Fett. I liked the idea that he was a bounty hunter and carried six-shooters. ... After the (Christmas show), we put him in the films. And then after that, he became more and more of a popular character."
The special featured Fett as a cartoon. He wouldn't appear in live action until two years later, when Empire premiered. Meanwhile, kids who collected Star Wars action figures could mail in proof-of-purchase tags to get a free Fett toy.
Dave Filoni, now the supervising director of The Clone Wars, still remembers getting his. "It came to my house in a little white box," he says. "I knew this had to be the coolest guy in the Star Wars universe — and he hadn't even done anything yet!"
When the movie finally revealed Fett as a villain — merciless, but still mysterious — the character stood out even among Yoda, the tiny, ancient, alien Jedi; gambler-turned-politician Lando Calrissian; and the film's big revelation — Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father.
"It speaks to individuality," Filoni says. "The storm troopers look cool, but they're all the same. Boba Fett looked like he'd been through a lot, like he must have a lot of stories. He had that Clint Eastwood vibe to him."
Filoni kept that in mind when bringing Fett into The Clone Wars. The character begins on the show April 23 and continues in the season finale April 30.
"What makes Boba Fett interesting is the mystery," Filoni says. "So I'm very careful about how much we reveal. When you watch the movies later, even if you've seen all the Clone Wars episodes, the mystique is still there. It's not like I'll turn on all the lights in the room."
Some clues have emerged
But after three decades, countless Lucasfilm novels, short stories, comic books, video games, and three feature-film prequels, fans finally know much, much more about Fett's origin.
In 2002's Attack of the Clones, it was revealed that the storm troopers are all replicas of one notoriously tough bounty hunter, Jango Fett (actor Temuera Morrison). Boba, it turns out, is also a clone — but one created without the subservience of the others, and raised by Jango as his son.
We last saw the child Boba (played by Daniel Logan, who voices the character in The Clone Wars cartoon) utterly alone, staring contemplatively into the face of his slain father's helmet.
What does he want in the animated series? "If there's one word: revenge," Logan says.
That's bad news for the Jedi, who took out his double-dealing old man. But it could be good news for real-life fathers and their kids by uniting older fans with the young in a shared appreciation for all things Fett.
Star Wars superfan Tom Pniewski, 44, co-host of the podcast We Talk Clones, says his 10-year-old son is a big Commander Cody fan (a major character from the cartoon) but hasn't developed the same appreciation for the beloved bounty hunter.
"Bringing Boba Fett on as a 12-year-old and 13-year-old means those tweens can catch on to him and attach to the character," Pniewski says. "For me, he doesn't need the explanation. But maybe for this generation he does need that."
As much as fans crave a return of the character, there's an inherent risk, too. "Their love is so profound that it almost becomes like this is sacred text. When you start messing with that, even when the creator starts messing with that, the fans take it personally," says Alexandre O. Philippe, director of the new documentary The People vs. George Lucas, about the love-hate relationship some hard-core Star Wars fans have with the franchise.
However, if Fett's appearance on The Clone Wars manages to please both old and young, Philippe says, "that would be great! But (older) fans have been so cranky for so long, it's difficult to figure out how they'll react."
Man behind the mask
One older fan who is curious about the new Fett story line is Jeremy Bulloch, the English actor who brought Fett to life in Empire and Return of the Jedi.
All of the character's back story is news to him. "I never had a script!" Bulloch says. He was just given his lines on the set and instructed to look menacing.
"The least you do with a character like Boba Fett, the stronger he is," Bulloch says. "He moves in a very slow way. Like a snake, a cobra. He stands up — then he strikes, and it's all over. And he goes back into this pose."
Boba Fett is one of the veteran character actor's smallest roles, but it has made him famous the world over. Bulloch credits three things for the popularity:
•The costume, which includes a grappling hook and wrist-mounted flame-thrower, not to mention that famous rocket pack. "And he has Wookiee braids," Bulloch says. "It's like a scalp, like the Indians. He just hangs them over his shoulder." They are never explained, but suggest bad things could be possible for Chewbacca and his kind.
•The prey, specifically the smart-aleck smuggler played by Harrison Ford, who owes galactic gangsters more money than his life is worth. "Of course Boba Fett captures Han Solo, so he gains respect for that," Bulloch says.
•The backtalk. Not only does Vader seem wary of Fett's recklessness, but he also gets scolded by the bounty hunter when Fett fears he will kill Solo instead of turning him over as a prize. "Not many people do that and get away with their lives," Bulloch says with a laugh.
While the costume made Fett iconic, it was horribly awkward to wear. Much of the character's trademark stillness came from the heaviness of the suit. "My main aim was to stand upright," Bulloch says. "It looked so cool, but to wear it was unbearable."
That's another thing many fans have come to appreciate over time. Adam Homan, 38, a metal sculptor from Tucson who has been a life-long Star Wars fan, recalled making his own Boba Fett armor for a Halloween party when he was a college student.
"At the end, I made my way to the door, saying goodbye to people, and there was this little table by the door with all these Hummel figurines and collectibles. And as I turn to leave, the jetpack just sweeps across this table — and smash," he says.
No one was interested in telling Boba Fett it was no big deal. "This gal was on her knees on the floor, trying to piece them together with her hands, saying, 'These were my grandmother's!' "
In that moment, a childhood wish returned — flight. "There was no way to play it cool," Homan says. "If the rocket pack had actually worked, I would have just fired right out of there."
Friday, December 11, 2009
Oscars 2010: expect an open field
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8359404.stm
Monday, 30 November 2009
Oscars 2010: expect an open field
By Neil Smith
Entertainment reporter, BBC News
With three months to go before the Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, early indications suggest it will be one of the most open races in years.
Actor Alec Baldwin will co-host next year's Oscar ceremony
Indeed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have anticipated this by opening the best picture category up to 10 movies, as opposed to the usual five.
That is not the only change either. In order not to coincide with the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the 2010 Oscars will take place a fortnight later than this year's were.
It will also boast not one but two hosts, the comedian Steve Martin sharing the presenting duties with actor Alec Baldwin.
The 2010 Oscar nominations will not be announced until 2 February. Already, though, industry pundits are identifying potential runners, riders and also-rans.
Here, then, is a rundown of some of the stars, films and film-makers we may be hearing more of in the weeks and months ahead.
BEST PICTURE
You have to go all the way back to 1944 for the last time 10 movies were shortlisted for the best picture Oscar.
On that occasion Casablanca won the prize, picking up additional awards for its director and three screenwriters.
However, the decision to expand the field again is less to do with recognising more movies than with appealing to a wider audience.
The general perception is the Academy celebrates niche pictures aimed at an art-house crowd - a notion it hopes to challenge by adding more populist nominees to next year's line-up.
It is expected, for instance, that JJ Abrams's well-regarded Star Trek film will find a berth among this year's hopefuls.
James Cameron's ambitious 3D blockbuster Avatar may also feature, with some tipping District 9 - a science-fiction adventure about bug-like aliens who become refugees on Earth - as an outside bet.
Take away the District and you have another potential contender - Nine, the big-screen version of the Broadway musical inspired by Federico Fellini's 1963 Oscar-winner 8 1/2.
Director Rob Marshall has some previous in this department, having steered Chicago - another stage to screen transfer - to its best picture Oscar in 2003.
Clint Eastwood has become a regular fixture on Oscar night and is sure to be in contention again with the sport-based Invictus.
The drama - like District 9 - is set in South Africa and tells of how president Nelson Mandela united the country behind its World Cup-winning rugby team in 1995.
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's drama about three bomb disposal experts stationed in Iraq, is generating a lot of positive buzz.
Some optimistic pundits are also tipping another, rather different war movie as a best picture contender - Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's flamboyant epic about commandos in Nazi-occupied France.
A safer bet might be Precious, the hard-hitting tale of a high school student coping with obesity, illiteracy, illegitimate pregnancy and sexual abuse.
No less gruelling is The Road, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel that could muscle into the final 10.
McCarthy, you may recall, also penned No Country for Old Men, the book Joel and Ethan Coen adapted into an Oscar-winning hit.
The Coens are back this year with A Serious Man, a comedy drama based on their childhoods in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel about a murdered child, is another book-inspired work that may make the shortlist.
And with Pixar's Up heavily tipped to win the best animated feature Oscar, some are expecting it to be in with a shout in the best picture category as well.
BEST ACTOR
For many years, Morgan Freeman battled to turn Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, into a film.
The fact he finally gets to play the South African icon in Invictus might therefore win him some consideration from the Academy's famously sentimental members.
Morgan Freeman is reunited with director Clint Eastwood in Invictus
George Clooney missed out on a best actor Oscar last year when Daniel Day-Lewis beat him to the coveted prize.
Their respective performances in romantic comedy Up in the Air and the aforementioned Nine opens up the possibility of a rematch.
Strangely enough, Viggo Mortensen was also nominated that year and may be so again for The Road.
Homegrown interest, meanwhile, is sure to focus on Colin Firth, considered a strong contender for his role as a grief-stricken gay academic in A Single Man.
Other possible nominees include Matt Damon, whose performances as an FBI whistle-blower in The Informant! and as South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar could conceivably see him cited in both the best actor and best supporting actor categories.
There is a chance Jeff Bridges might also make the cut for his role as a hard-drinking country music singer in Crazy Heart.
BEST ACTRESS
Last February Kate Winslet received this award for her portrayal as a former concentration camp guard in The Reader.
And early indications suggest Britain's best chances of Oscar success in 2010 will also be found in this hotly contested category.
Dame Helen Mirren, who received this award in 2007 for The Queen, is tipped to feature again for her role as Tolstoy's mercurial wife in The Last Station.
The smart money, though, is on newcomer Carey Mulligan, whose performance as a precocious 1960s schoolgirl in An Education has been tipped for glory on both sides of the Atlantic.
Australia's Abbie Cornish may also land a nomination for her role as John Keats's neighbour in the period drama Bright Star.
The endearingly full-figured Gabourey Sidibe, star of Precious, is another fresh talent who could be recognised.
Serial Oscar nominee Meryl Streep, meanwhile, will surely be up for an award for which she has been nominated a remarkable 12 times.
Will her next nod be for her portrayal of eccentric cookery guru Julia Child in Julie and Julia, however, or for her upcoming turn opposite Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin - yes, them again - in romantic comedy It's Complicated?
Monday, 30 November 2009
Oscars 2010: expect an open field
By Neil Smith
Entertainment reporter, BBC News
With three months to go before the Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, early indications suggest it will be one of the most open races in years.
Actor Alec Baldwin will co-host next year's Oscar ceremony
Indeed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have anticipated this by opening the best picture category up to 10 movies, as opposed to the usual five.
That is not the only change either. In order not to coincide with the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the 2010 Oscars will take place a fortnight later than this year's were.
It will also boast not one but two hosts, the comedian Steve Martin sharing the presenting duties with actor Alec Baldwin.
The 2010 Oscar nominations will not be announced until 2 February. Already, though, industry pundits are identifying potential runners, riders and also-rans.
Here, then, is a rundown of some of the stars, films and film-makers we may be hearing more of in the weeks and months ahead.
BEST PICTURE
You have to go all the way back to 1944 for the last time 10 movies were shortlisted for the best picture Oscar.
On that occasion Casablanca won the prize, picking up additional awards for its director and three screenwriters.
However, the decision to expand the field again is less to do with recognising more movies than with appealing to a wider audience.
The general perception is the Academy celebrates niche pictures aimed at an art-house crowd - a notion it hopes to challenge by adding more populist nominees to next year's line-up.
It is expected, for instance, that JJ Abrams's well-regarded Star Trek film will find a berth among this year's hopefuls.
James Cameron's ambitious 3D blockbuster Avatar may also feature, with some tipping District 9 - a science-fiction adventure about bug-like aliens who become refugees on Earth - as an outside bet.
Take away the District and you have another potential contender - Nine, the big-screen version of the Broadway musical inspired by Federico Fellini's 1963 Oscar-winner 8 1/2.
Director Rob Marshall has some previous in this department, having steered Chicago - another stage to screen transfer - to its best picture Oscar in 2003.
Clint Eastwood has become a regular fixture on Oscar night and is sure to be in contention again with the sport-based Invictus.
The drama - like District 9 - is set in South Africa and tells of how president Nelson Mandela united the country behind its World Cup-winning rugby team in 1995.
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's drama about three bomb disposal experts stationed in Iraq, is generating a lot of positive buzz.
Some optimistic pundits are also tipping another, rather different war movie as a best picture contender - Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's flamboyant epic about commandos in Nazi-occupied France.
A safer bet might be Precious, the hard-hitting tale of a high school student coping with obesity, illiteracy, illegitimate pregnancy and sexual abuse.
No less gruelling is The Road, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel that could muscle into the final 10.
McCarthy, you may recall, also penned No Country for Old Men, the book Joel and Ethan Coen adapted into an Oscar-winning hit.
The Coens are back this year with A Serious Man, a comedy drama based on their childhoods in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel about a murdered child, is another book-inspired work that may make the shortlist.
And with Pixar's Up heavily tipped to win the best animated feature Oscar, some are expecting it to be in with a shout in the best picture category as well.
BEST ACTOR
For many years, Morgan Freeman battled to turn Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, into a film.
The fact he finally gets to play the South African icon in Invictus might therefore win him some consideration from the Academy's famously sentimental members.
Morgan Freeman is reunited with director Clint Eastwood in Invictus
George Clooney missed out on a best actor Oscar last year when Daniel Day-Lewis beat him to the coveted prize.
Their respective performances in romantic comedy Up in the Air and the aforementioned Nine opens up the possibility of a rematch.
Strangely enough, Viggo Mortensen was also nominated that year and may be so again for The Road.
Homegrown interest, meanwhile, is sure to focus on Colin Firth, considered a strong contender for his role as a grief-stricken gay academic in A Single Man.
Other possible nominees include Matt Damon, whose performances as an FBI whistle-blower in The Informant! and as South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar could conceivably see him cited in both the best actor and best supporting actor categories.
There is a chance Jeff Bridges might also make the cut for his role as a hard-drinking country music singer in Crazy Heart.
BEST ACTRESS
Last February Kate Winslet received this award for her portrayal as a former concentration camp guard in The Reader.
And early indications suggest Britain's best chances of Oscar success in 2010 will also be found in this hotly contested category.
Dame Helen Mirren, who received this award in 2007 for The Queen, is tipped to feature again for her role as Tolstoy's mercurial wife in The Last Station.
The smart money, though, is on newcomer Carey Mulligan, whose performance as a precocious 1960s schoolgirl in An Education has been tipped for glory on both sides of the Atlantic.
Australia's Abbie Cornish may also land a nomination for her role as John Keats's neighbour in the period drama Bright Star.
The endearingly full-figured Gabourey Sidibe, star of Precious, is another fresh talent who could be recognised.
Serial Oscar nominee Meryl Streep, meanwhile, will surely be up for an award for which she has been nominated a remarkable 12 times.
Will her next nod be for her portrayal of eccentric cookery guru Julia Child in Julie and Julia, however, or for her upcoming turn opposite Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin - yes, them again - in romantic comedy It's Complicated?
Up In The Air gets four top awards
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8394545.stm
Friday, 4 December 2009
George Clooney movie Up In The Air gets four top awards
In the film, Clooney plays a man who fires people for a living
George Clooney's latest movie Up In the Air has been named best film by the National Board of Review.
The NBR - seen as the first major prize of the US awards season - also named Clooney best actor alongside Morgan Freeman for Invictus.
Up In The Air director Jason Reitman said he was "overwhelmed with gratitude" at the honour.
His movie also won best supporting actress for Anna Kendrick and best adapted screenplay.
'Anxiety and anticipation'
The film, about a man (Clooney) who fires people for a living, is already creating an Oscar buzz.
Previous NBR best film winners, such as No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire, have gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Reitman's father, Ivan Reitman - who directed Ghostbusters - is a producer of Up In The Air.
"I'm simply overwhelmed with gratitude for the many honours the National Board of Review has bestowed upon Up In The Air," Jason Reitman said.
"I'm thrilled for George, I'm thrilled for Anna, and of course, most thrilled for my father."
Freeman plays Nelson Mandela in Eastwood's film Invictus
Reitman went on to admit that the days leading up to his movie's release date are filled with "anxiety and anticipation".
He then thanked the NBR for "making today perfect".
The best director prize went to Clint Eastwood for Invictus, which tells the story of former South African President Nelson Mandela's embrace of the national rugby team.
There were also prizes for Carey Mulligan, who was named best actress for An Education and best supporting actor went to Woody Harrelson for The Messenger.
Best animated film went to Pixar's Up and The Cove, about the slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese village, won best documentary.
The NBR special filmmaking achievement award went to Wes Anderson for his stop-motion animated The Fantastic Mr Fox, which he co-wrote, directed and lent his voice to.
The judges on the National Board of Review, consist of film historians, students and educators.
The awards will be handed out 12 January during a a New York gala hosted by Meredith Vieira.
Friday, 4 December 2009
George Clooney movie Up In The Air gets four top awards
In the film, Clooney plays a man who fires people for a living
George Clooney's latest movie Up In the Air has been named best film by the National Board of Review.
The NBR - seen as the first major prize of the US awards season - also named Clooney best actor alongside Morgan Freeman for Invictus.
Up In The Air director Jason Reitman said he was "overwhelmed with gratitude" at the honour.
His movie also won best supporting actress for Anna Kendrick and best adapted screenplay.
'Anxiety and anticipation'
The film, about a man (Clooney) who fires people for a living, is already creating an Oscar buzz.
Previous NBR best film winners, such as No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire, have gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Reitman's father, Ivan Reitman - who directed Ghostbusters - is a producer of Up In The Air.
"I'm simply overwhelmed with gratitude for the many honours the National Board of Review has bestowed upon Up In The Air," Jason Reitman said.
"I'm thrilled for George, I'm thrilled for Anna, and of course, most thrilled for my father."
Freeman plays Nelson Mandela in Eastwood's film Invictus
Reitman went on to admit that the days leading up to his movie's release date are filled with "anxiety and anticipation".
He then thanked the NBR for "making today perfect".
The best director prize went to Clint Eastwood for Invictus, which tells the story of former South African President Nelson Mandela's embrace of the national rugby team.
There were also prizes for Carey Mulligan, who was named best actress for An Education and best supporting actor went to Woody Harrelson for The Messenger.
Best animated film went to Pixar's Up and The Cove, about the slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese village, won best documentary.
The NBR special filmmaking achievement award went to Wes Anderson for his stop-motion animated The Fantastic Mr Fox, which he co-wrote, directed and lent his voice to.
The judges on the National Board of Review, consist of film historians, students and educators.
The awards will be handed out 12 January during a a New York gala hosted by Meredith Vieira.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Goldman bankers arming selves for fear of uprising
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/claim-goldman-bankers-arming-fear-populist-uprising/
Claim: Goldman bankers arming selves for fear of ‘populist uprising’
By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Bankers to think of themselves as 'Clint Eastwood' types: reporter
Senior executives at Goldman Sachs are so afraid that they could be the targets of a "populist uprising" against banks that they have taken to arming themselves, says an unconfirmed report at Bloomberg News.
Citing only an unnamed "friend" at the New York-based investment bank, columnist Alice Schroeder alleged that "senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank."
"They're concerned about social unrest, they're concerned about the fact that we've got a country where a quarter of the kids are on food stamps and they've become a symbol of greed," Schroeder said in an interview at Bloomberg TV.
Schroeder, a former insurance analyst known for her biography of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, reported that the New York Police Department responded "preliminarily" to a freedom-of-information request by saying the names of some Goldman executives appear on the list of people licensed to carry firearms.
"I don't think this should lead people to think that there are a bunch of pin-striped bankers hunkered down with Uzis, protecting themselves from the populace," Schroeder said, adding that the trend among Goldman bankers started before the controversy over Goldman's huge bonuses exploded earlier this year.
Schroeder says she was half-joking when she wrote in her column that "this is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer."
Schroeder also suggested that Goldman employees may well want to cultivate this sort of image, as gun-toting tough guys:
Talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall- Streeters like to think of themselves. Even those who were bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one hand with the Glock in the other. The last thing they want is to be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in lynching them.
Dan Carter at Air America speculates that the alleged Goldman gun rush may be a sign that the company is preparing for another round of controversial bonuses:
It seems patently obvious: Goldman is preparing to unload another monstrous round of bonuses. Instead of scaling back on their multi-million dollar end-of-the-year wads of cash in an effort to quell a bit of the outrage, Wall St. executives are challenging the public to pry their bonuses from their cold dead hands. The cowboys of finance have taken that title literally and are preparing--no daring--any would-be vigilantes to make a move.
"It’s never good when anyone buys guns, particularly not rich weenies with persecution complexes," Matt Taibbi half-jokes on his True/Slant blog. Taibbi is credited with focusing the public's anger over the bank bailout at Goldman Sachs with his Rolling Stone article "Inside the Great American Bubble Machine," which alleges that Goldman played a pivotal role in every asset bubble that has plagued the US economy over the past 80 years.
Taibbi sees some humor in Goldman employees' alleged gun frenzy.
"There’s even the impossible-to-resist image of a future accidental shooting of some innocent hot dog vendor on Park Avenue, followed by the inevitable P.R. response from Goldman in which the bank claims that the only thing its employees are guilty of is 'being really good at shooting people,'" Taibbi quips.
If the Bloomberg report is accurate, it would hardly mark the first time that America has seen armed bankers. "Before bank insurance, before the FDIC, a bank's vault cash was its sole source of funds to cover its customers' withdrawals," write Beverly and Curtis Wayne in the ABA Banking Journal:
[In the 19th century] at the National Iron Bank in Falls Village, Conn., tellers were held accountable for the funds they handled. The bank took pains to help them protect those funds; bank robbers were mostly deterred by the elaborate bronze teller cages.
Upon completion of his teller's course, each National Iron Bank teller was issued a Colt .44 revolver. Confronted by a robber, the teller was trained to reach forward into a specially made recess, grab the .44, and deter the robber.
Claim: Goldman bankers arming selves for fear of ‘populist uprising’
By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Bankers to think of themselves as 'Clint Eastwood' types: reporter
Senior executives at Goldman Sachs are so afraid that they could be the targets of a "populist uprising" against banks that they have taken to arming themselves, says an unconfirmed report at Bloomberg News.
Citing only an unnamed "friend" at the New York-based investment bank, columnist Alice Schroeder alleged that "senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank."
"They're concerned about social unrest, they're concerned about the fact that we've got a country where a quarter of the kids are on food stamps and they've become a symbol of greed," Schroeder said in an interview at Bloomberg TV.
Schroeder, a former insurance analyst known for her biography of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, reported that the New York Police Department responded "preliminarily" to a freedom-of-information request by saying the names of some Goldman executives appear on the list of people licensed to carry firearms.
"I don't think this should lead people to think that there are a bunch of pin-striped bankers hunkered down with Uzis, protecting themselves from the populace," Schroeder said, adding that the trend among Goldman bankers started before the controversy over Goldman's huge bonuses exploded earlier this year.
Schroeder says she was half-joking when she wrote in her column that "this is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer."
Schroeder also suggested that Goldman employees may well want to cultivate this sort of image, as gun-toting tough guys:
Talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall- Streeters like to think of themselves. Even those who were bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one hand with the Glock in the other. The last thing they want is to be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in lynching them.
Dan Carter at Air America speculates that the alleged Goldman gun rush may be a sign that the company is preparing for another round of controversial bonuses:
It seems patently obvious: Goldman is preparing to unload another monstrous round of bonuses. Instead of scaling back on their multi-million dollar end-of-the-year wads of cash in an effort to quell a bit of the outrage, Wall St. executives are challenging the public to pry their bonuses from their cold dead hands. The cowboys of finance have taken that title literally and are preparing--no daring--any would-be vigilantes to make a move.
"It’s never good when anyone buys guns, particularly not rich weenies with persecution complexes," Matt Taibbi half-jokes on his True/Slant blog. Taibbi is credited with focusing the public's anger over the bank bailout at Goldman Sachs with his Rolling Stone article "Inside the Great American Bubble Machine," which alleges that Goldman played a pivotal role in every asset bubble that has plagued the US economy over the past 80 years.
Taibbi sees some humor in Goldman employees' alleged gun frenzy.
"There’s even the impossible-to-resist image of a future accidental shooting of some innocent hot dog vendor on Park Avenue, followed by the inevitable P.R. response from Goldman in which the bank claims that the only thing its employees are guilty of is 'being really good at shooting people,'" Taibbi quips.
If the Bloomberg report is accurate, it would hardly mark the first time that America has seen armed bankers. "Before bank insurance, before the FDIC, a bank's vault cash was its sole source of funds to cover its customers' withdrawals," write Beverly and Curtis Wayne in the ABA Banking Journal:
[In the 19th century] at the National Iron Bank in Falls Village, Conn., tellers were held accountable for the funds they handled. The bank took pains to help them protect those funds; bank robbers were mostly deterred by the elaborate bronze teller cages.
Upon completion of his teller's course, each National Iron Bank teller was issued a Colt .44 revolver. Confronted by a robber, the teller was trained to reach forward into a specially made recess, grab the .44, and deter the robber.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Darth Vader 'comment' to Luke Skywalker
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/5304310/Darth-Vader-comment-to-Luke-Skywalker-is-most-misquoted-film-phrase.html
Darth Vader 'comment' to Luke Skywalker is most misquoted film phrase
A comment supposedly made by Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy has topped a list of phrases most often misquoted by film fans.
10 May 2009
The words "Luke, I am your father" are familiar to millions of fans of the George Lucas films.
They are widely believed to have been uttered by Darth Vader when he confronts Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back - but in fact they do not feature in the film.
Second place in the poll was taken by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with the evil Queen's quote 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall - who is the fairest of them all?'.
The actual line begins 'Magic Mirror, on the wall'.
In third place in the poll of 1,500 film fans, by LOVEFiLM.com, was Dirty Harry - played by Clint Eastwood - saying "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
In fact, he says "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?"
And while "Play it again Sam" may be forever linked with Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart's actual line is "You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!"
Fifth was Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, who did not say "Hello Clarice" but instead said "Good evening, Clarice".
Star Trek's Captain Kirk did not say "Beam me up, Scotty", with the closest he ever came to this phrase was a less pithy "Scotty, beam us up".
Darren Bignell, Communications Manager for LOVEFiLM, said: "Iconic film lines are part of everyone's vocabulary these days, but it's interesting how years of quoting have had a Chinese whisper effect on accuracy."
The Top Ten Movie Misquotes (below in misquoted form) were as follows:
1. "Luke, I am your father" - Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
3. "Do you feel lucky, punk?" - Dirty Harry (1971)
4. "Play it again, Sam" - Casablanca (1942)
5. "Hello, Clarice" - Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. "Beam me up, Scotty!" - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
7. "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn" - Gone with the Wind (1939)
8. "If you build it, they will come" - Field of Dreams (1989)
9. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto" - The Wizard of Oz (1939)
10. "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" - The Graduate (1967)
Darth Vader 'comment' to Luke Skywalker is most misquoted film phrase
A comment supposedly made by Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy has topped a list of phrases most often misquoted by film fans.
10 May 2009
The words "Luke, I am your father" are familiar to millions of fans of the George Lucas films.
They are widely believed to have been uttered by Darth Vader when he confronts Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back - but in fact they do not feature in the film.
Second place in the poll was taken by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with the evil Queen's quote 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall - who is the fairest of them all?'.
The actual line begins 'Magic Mirror, on the wall'.
In third place in the poll of 1,500 film fans, by LOVEFiLM.com, was Dirty Harry - played by Clint Eastwood - saying "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
In fact, he says "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?"
And while "Play it again Sam" may be forever linked with Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart's actual line is "You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!"
Fifth was Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, who did not say "Hello Clarice" but instead said "Good evening, Clarice".
Star Trek's Captain Kirk did not say "Beam me up, Scotty", with the closest he ever came to this phrase was a less pithy "Scotty, beam us up".
Darren Bignell, Communications Manager for LOVEFiLM, said: "Iconic film lines are part of everyone's vocabulary these days, but it's interesting how years of quoting have had a Chinese whisper effect on accuracy."
The Top Ten Movie Misquotes (below in misquoted form) were as follows:
1. "Luke, I am your father" - Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
3. "Do you feel lucky, punk?" - Dirty Harry (1971)
4. "Play it again, Sam" - Casablanca (1942)
5. "Hello, Clarice" - Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. "Beam me up, Scotty!" - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
7. "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn" - Gone with the Wind (1939)
8. "If you build it, they will come" - Field of Dreams (1989)
9. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto" - The Wizard of Oz (1939)
10. "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" - The Graduate (1967)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Clint Eastwood goes gunning for PC killjoys
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1155360/Clint-Eastwood-goes-gunning-PC-killjoys-saying-laugh-race-based-jokes.html
Clint Eastwood goes gunning for PC killjoys by saying we should laugh at race-based jokes
By Allan Hall
26th February 2009
Clint Eastwood, who is promoting his new film Gran Torino, says political correctness has gone too far
Clint Eastwood believes the rise of political correctness is no laughing matter.
He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races.
The Hollywood actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes.
'People have lost their sense of humour,' he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
'In former times we constantly made jokes about different races.
'You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.
'I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "Jose the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought.
'It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
''I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
His comments come in a week in which BT suspended 30 call centre staff after they had circulated an Irish joke by email.
BT, however, insists other serious matters were involved and that a joke was not the sole reason for the suspensions.
Clint Eastwood goes gunning for PC killjoys by saying we should laugh at race-based jokes
By Allan Hall
26th February 2009
Clint Eastwood, who is promoting his new film Gran Torino, says political correctness has gone too far
Clint Eastwood believes the rise of political correctness is no laughing matter.
He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races.
The Hollywood actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes.
'People have lost their sense of humour,' he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
'In former times we constantly made jokes about different races.
'You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.
'I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "Jose the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought.
'It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
''I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
His comments come in a week in which BT suspended 30 call centre staff after they had circulated an Irish joke by email.
BT, however, insists other serious matters were involved and that a joke was not the sole reason for the suspensions.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Eastwood says he won't be back as Dirty Harry
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iu9MTGvYJPnhMaCuGmG2W6-IE2xwD90PIFN80
Eastwood says he won't be back as Dirty Harry
5-20-8
CANNES, France (AP) — Clint Eastwood will not be back as Dirty Harry, but Angelina Jolie might want to give it a try. Eastwood was asked Tuesday at a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival if he would be reprising the role of Harry Callahan, the renegade cop of "Dirty Harry" and four sequels.
As he laid to rest the notion that he might revive Harry, Jolie chimed in: "I am."
"Dirty Harriet and the `Tomb Raider' will play it," Eastwood joked about Jolie, whose screen credits include the "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" flicks.
Eastwood was at Cannes for the premiere of his missing-child drama, "Changeling," starring Jolie. The 32-year-old actress was in Cannes for both "Changeling" and her animated comedy, "Kung Fu Panda," which premiered at the festival last week.
Eastwood, who turns 78 on May 31, went on to add that "Dirty Harry would not be on the police department at my age, so we'll move on from that."
The Cannes lineup this year features a retrospective of Warner Bros. classics, including 1971's "Dirty Harry," which comes out in a new DVD edition with the other four films in the series on June 3.
The character has become an icon: a vigilante cop fighting bureaucracy on behalf of victims. For Eastwood, though, it was an exciting detective story first and foremost.
"Whatever reaction it had, it was great fun at that time," Eastwood said. "It was a fantasy role. You point a .44 Magnum at someone and say, `Do you feel lucky?'"
Eastwood says he won't be back as Dirty Harry
5-20-8
CANNES, France (AP) — Clint Eastwood will not be back as Dirty Harry, but Angelina Jolie might want to give it a try. Eastwood was asked Tuesday at a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival if he would be reprising the role of Harry Callahan, the renegade cop of "Dirty Harry" and four sequels.
As he laid to rest the notion that he might revive Harry, Jolie chimed in: "I am."
"Dirty Harriet and the `Tomb Raider' will play it," Eastwood joked about Jolie, whose screen credits include the "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" flicks.
Eastwood was at Cannes for the premiere of his missing-child drama, "Changeling," starring Jolie. The 32-year-old actress was in Cannes for both "Changeling" and her animated comedy, "Kung Fu Panda," which premiered at the festival last week.
Eastwood, who turns 78 on May 31, went on to add that "Dirty Harry would not be on the police department at my age, so we'll move on from that."
The Cannes lineup this year features a retrospective of Warner Bros. classics, including 1971's "Dirty Harry," which comes out in a new DVD edition with the other four films in the series on June 3.
The character has become an icon: a vigilante cop fighting bureaucracy on behalf of victims. For Eastwood, though, it was an exciting detective story first and foremost.
"Whatever reaction it had, it was great fun at that time," Eastwood said. "It was a fantasy role. You point a .44 Magnum at someone and say, `Do you feel lucky?'"
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Eastwood's termination
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clint26mar26,1,6197147.story
Eastwood's termination: 'Somebody got a bee under their bonnet'
The actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks board in the wake of his opposition to a toll road. But he says he holds no hard feelings toward Schwarzenegger.
By Michael Rothfeld
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 26, 2008
SACRAMENTO — After Clint Eastwood learned last week that his friend Arnold Schwarzenegger no longer wanted him on the state parks commission, he spoke with Bobby Shriver, the governor's brother-in-law, who had also been dropped. Somewhat incredulous, they joked about it, each saying the other should be more offended.
"I talked to him the day we were not reappointed, or as Donald Trump would say, 'You're fired,' " Eastwood said in an interview, his gravelly impression of Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent producing a kind of Dirty Harry-meets-the Terminator effect.
"So we laughed about it," Eastwood said, "and I said, 'Me? But you're his brother-in-law!' and he said, 'But you're his friend and longtime mentor!' "
The governor has said that he decided not to reappoint the men, who were first named to the Park and Recreation Commission in 2001 by then-Gov. Gray Davis and reappointed by Schwarzenegger in 2004. He said their terms had expired and he wanted to give others a chance to serve.
But Eastwood and Shriver have attributed the governor's move to their opposition to a plan to build the Foothill South toll road through San Onofre State Beach, a park in Orange County that is popular for its surfing and scenery. The project was defeated by the California Coastal Commission in February.
"I think it was just somebody got a bee under their bonnet at the right moment, so there we are," Eastwood said. Of the governor, he added: "I guess he felt we were going to be guys who were going to be obstructionists for anything through state parks."
Schwarzenegger declined to be interviewed Tuesday. He and other supporters say the six-lane toll road, which would have run past the Trestles marine estuary, would have relieved traffic in Orange County. The governor also asserted that it would have reduced global warming.
Eastwood seemed at peace with last week's events. He said there are no hard feelings between him and Schwarzenegger, 60, a fellow Republican and "a friend of mine for a very long time."
But he seemed perplexed because his opposition to the road predated by more than two years the governor's endorsement of it in January. He said that he told Schwarzenegger long ago of his reservations and that the governor urged him to follow his conscience.
"You're not going to get people who are interested in state parks who want to build freeways through state parks," Eastwood said. "So I don't know what the big surprise was there."
Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Surfrider Foundation and the California State Parks Foundation, said they submitted a letter to state Senate leaders Tuesday requesting a hearing into the oversight of state parks. They based their request on Schwarzenegger's treatment of the two commissioners, his proposal to close 48 parks because of the state's fiscal crisis and his support for development in parks.
"It is difficult to recall any time in California's history when our world-class system of parks has been more at risk from a range of threats," says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. The governor's office said he has backed billions of dollars in spending to protect and preserve parkland.
Eastwood, 77, the former mayor of Carmel, has advocated for parks under four governors in both political parties, starting with George Deukmejian. He has made public service announcements and appearances, including one created by environmental groups opposing the toll road. In that clip, he spoke of surfing at San Onofre with James Arness of "Gunsmoke" fame and guys with nicknames like "Hammerhead," after he arrived in Los Angeles as a young man in the 1950s, before surfing was a craze.
Eastwood, who refers to himself as a conservationist, said he is by no means obstructionist. Though he agreed with the Coastal Commission on the toll road, he clashed with that board as recently as 2006, when it rejected a golf course and housing development that he and business partners had proposed at Pebble Beach, near his home in Monterey County. Adversaries in that fight praise his work for parks.
"From everything I saw, he was a terrific parks commissioner," said Peter Douglas, the Coastal Commission's executive director. "It just happened that when he was calling the shots on that project at Pebble Beach, he wasn't listening to what we were saying about what the law allows and doesn't allow. But that's behind us now."
Mark Massara, director of the Sierra Club's coastal programs, fought Eastwood on the Pebble Beach project and worked with him against the toll road. "He has a reverence for open space and public property," Massara said. "It's deep and abiding and sincere."
Although Eastwood said he first learned that he would not be reappointed from one of the governor's aides, Schwarzenegger called later and apologized that the situation had played out as it did. Eastwood said he told Schwarzenegger not to worry about it.
"I'm a grown person," Eastwood said. "I'm not a kid."
"The parks is a voluntary job, and it's just a job you do, when they need you. It was fun. . . . They make changes, and that's their prerogative. It's not like I need a day job."
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Eastwood's termination: 'Somebody got a bee under their bonnet'
The actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks board in the wake of his opposition to a toll road. But he says he holds no hard feelings toward Schwarzenegger.
By Michael Rothfeld
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 26, 2008
SACRAMENTO — After Clint Eastwood learned last week that his friend Arnold Schwarzenegger no longer wanted him on the state parks commission, he spoke with Bobby Shriver, the governor's brother-in-law, who had also been dropped. Somewhat incredulous, they joked about it, each saying the other should be more offended.
"I talked to him the day we were not reappointed, or as Donald Trump would say, 'You're fired,' " Eastwood said in an interview, his gravelly impression of Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent producing a kind of Dirty Harry-meets-the Terminator effect.
"So we laughed about it," Eastwood said, "and I said, 'Me? But you're his brother-in-law!' and he said, 'But you're his friend and longtime mentor!' "
The governor has said that he decided not to reappoint the men, who were first named to the Park and Recreation Commission in 2001 by then-Gov. Gray Davis and reappointed by Schwarzenegger in 2004. He said their terms had expired and he wanted to give others a chance to serve.
But Eastwood and Shriver have attributed the governor's move to their opposition to a plan to build the Foothill South toll road through San Onofre State Beach, a park in Orange County that is popular for its surfing and scenery. The project was defeated by the California Coastal Commission in February.
"I think it was just somebody got a bee under their bonnet at the right moment, so there we are," Eastwood said. Of the governor, he added: "I guess he felt we were going to be guys who were going to be obstructionists for anything through state parks."
Schwarzenegger declined to be interviewed Tuesday. He and other supporters say the six-lane toll road, which would have run past the Trestles marine estuary, would have relieved traffic in Orange County. The governor also asserted that it would have reduced global warming.
Eastwood seemed at peace with last week's events. He said there are no hard feelings between him and Schwarzenegger, 60, a fellow Republican and "a friend of mine for a very long time."
But he seemed perplexed because his opposition to the road predated by more than two years the governor's endorsement of it in January. He said that he told Schwarzenegger long ago of his reservations and that the governor urged him to follow his conscience.
"You're not going to get people who are interested in state parks who want to build freeways through state parks," Eastwood said. "So I don't know what the big surprise was there."
Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Surfrider Foundation and the California State Parks Foundation, said they submitted a letter to state Senate leaders Tuesday requesting a hearing into the oversight of state parks. They based their request on Schwarzenegger's treatment of the two commissioners, his proposal to close 48 parks because of the state's fiscal crisis and his support for development in parks.
"It is difficult to recall any time in California's history when our world-class system of parks has been more at risk from a range of threats," says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. The governor's office said he has backed billions of dollars in spending to protect and preserve parkland.
Eastwood, 77, the former mayor of Carmel, has advocated for parks under four governors in both political parties, starting with George Deukmejian. He has made public service announcements and appearances, including one created by environmental groups opposing the toll road. In that clip, he spoke of surfing at San Onofre with James Arness of "Gunsmoke" fame and guys with nicknames like "Hammerhead," after he arrived in Los Angeles as a young man in the 1950s, before surfing was a craze.
Eastwood, who refers to himself as a conservationist, said he is by no means obstructionist. Though he agreed with the Coastal Commission on the toll road, he clashed with that board as recently as 2006, when it rejected a golf course and housing development that he and business partners had proposed at Pebble Beach, near his home in Monterey County. Adversaries in that fight praise his work for parks.
"From everything I saw, he was a terrific parks commissioner," said Peter Douglas, the Coastal Commission's executive director. "It just happened that when he was calling the shots on that project at Pebble Beach, he wasn't listening to what we were saying about what the law allows and doesn't allow. But that's behind us now."
Mark Massara, director of the Sierra Club's coastal programs, fought Eastwood on the Pebble Beach project and worked with him against the toll road. "He has a reverence for open space and public property," Massara said. "It's deep and abiding and sincere."
Although Eastwood said he first learned that he would not be reappointed from one of the governor's aides, Schwarzenegger called later and apologized that the situation had played out as it did. Eastwood said he told Schwarzenegger not to worry about it.
"I'm a grown person," Eastwood said. "I'm not a kid."
"The parks is a voluntary job, and it's just a job you do, when they need you. It was fun. . . . They make changes, and that's their prerogative. It's not like I need a day job."
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Is It Time for Clemens to Dial Nanny 911?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/sports/baseball/26araton.html
February 26, 2008
Sports of The Times
Is It Time for Clemens to Dial Nanny 911?
By HARVEY ARATON
The nanny, it turns out, speaks English and speaks it well, idioms and all.
A reading of an online transcript and a telephone call to the press office of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that Roger Clemens, aided by political muscle, distorted the linguistic skills of a former employee and grandmother of two.
“And her English, as I understand it, is not that good,” Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican and ranking minority committee member, cued Clemens at the Capitol Hill hearing earlier this month.
“It is not that good,” Clemens replied, seizing the opportunity to make the masses understand why the nanny had to be summoned to his Houston Ponderosa before her interview with committee investigators — for her own good, of course.
But Steven G. Glickman, counsel to the majority and a participant in the telephone interview, indicated through a committee press officer that the unnamed nanny spoke English that was only accented, not deficient.
For instance, when told she had the right to representation, the nanny replied she didn’t have a lawyer before adding: “But I’m not afraid, I’m telling the truth, so bring it on.”
Make her day.
Sounds like an opening line scripted by Clint Eastwood, or Clemens, the cold-blooded gunslinger from 60 feet 6 inches away, but now closer than ever to staring down at Jeff Novitzky, the I.R.S. special agent and sultan of steroid-enforcement swat.
Monday came the news that a draft letter was drawn up last week by committee staff members for the purposes of referring the Clemens case to the Justice Department. Get those scorecards ready. The real game, not the exhibition spitting contest the Clemens and Brian McNamee camps have waged all winter, may be about to begin.
You wonder: Is Clemens finally seeing the big picture, fearing that a hastily stitched tapestry of tall tales dating to 1998 is about to unravel?
It should by now be fairly well established that he was at José Canseco’s place in South Florida when they visited with the Blue Jays that year in June to drop off his family, or to take a tour of the property or a performance-enhancement tutorial.
We also know that Canseco has said Clemens was not at the party, while the nanny said that Clemens was at the house but she did not recall a party, while a photograph that reportedly has surfaced places Clemens at the possible party, while Clemens has a golf receipt to prove that while he might have stopped by, he wasn’t there long enough to party or be party to any discussion of drugs.
•
Questioned about the dizzying timeline of Clemens’s appearance and exit, the nanny — again, not as verbally challenged as Davis understood her to be and Clemens agreed she was — cut to the heart of the matter, as it relates to the possibility of meaningful disclosure.
“Well, first of all, that’s kind of hard to tell because I wasn’t with him 24/7,” she said, speaking to the absurdity of the ongoing party dissection, 10 years after. With the exception of the Republican cheerleaders who allowed Clemens and his lawyers to set this smoke screen during the hearing, who actually believed it was ever germane to the McNamee claims of injecting Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone?
Surely not Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat and committee chairman, who made himself clear after the hearing that he did not think much of what Clemens had to say. Common sense tells us that Waxman is driving the bus and ready to hand Clemens, if not McNamee, off to Novitzky and the Balco bashers that brought down Marion Jones and brought perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Barry Bonds.
Obviously, an investigation by the Justice Department does not guarantee an eventual indictment on perjury charges, à la Jones and Bonds. It does mean that Clemens’s public relations campaign against McNamee and anyone whose version of events contrasted his own has failed. In the court of public opinion, and to the committee members who did not want his autograph, the more Clemens went on the attack, the less believable he was.
When he publicly aired a secretly taped telephone conversation with McNamee, his former trainer sounded distraught over having to give him up to George Mitchell, not like some deluded soul bent on destroying an all-time great. When Clemens was confronted with the damaging testimony of Andy and Laura Pettitte, his attempts to question his protégé’s comprehension skills made you wonder if Clemens comprehended the gravity of his denials, under oath.
•
Everyone’s reputation was deemed sacrificial to save his own. His agents took hits for his troubles. His wife, Debbie, was exposed as an H.G.H. user. The nanny, whose interview included an eloquent expression of affection seven years after she left Clemens’s employ, was made to sound like someone who had just slipped into the country in the back of a truck.
Bring it on, Clemens kept saying, while everyone around him took a hit. Now there is a draft letter that probably leads to a criminal investigation. No turning back now. No promise of relief up ahead. For his last act in baseball, he may have to go the distance.
E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com
February 26, 2008
Sports of The Times
Is It Time for Clemens to Dial Nanny 911?
By HARVEY ARATON
The nanny, it turns out, speaks English and speaks it well, idioms and all.
A reading of an online transcript and a telephone call to the press office of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that Roger Clemens, aided by political muscle, distorted the linguistic skills of a former employee and grandmother of two.
“And her English, as I understand it, is not that good,” Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican and ranking minority committee member, cued Clemens at the Capitol Hill hearing earlier this month.
“It is not that good,” Clemens replied, seizing the opportunity to make the masses understand why the nanny had to be summoned to his Houston Ponderosa before her interview with committee investigators — for her own good, of course.
But Steven G. Glickman, counsel to the majority and a participant in the telephone interview, indicated through a committee press officer that the unnamed nanny spoke English that was only accented, not deficient.
For instance, when told she had the right to representation, the nanny replied she didn’t have a lawyer before adding: “But I’m not afraid, I’m telling the truth, so bring it on.”
Make her day.
Sounds like an opening line scripted by Clint Eastwood, or Clemens, the cold-blooded gunslinger from 60 feet 6 inches away, but now closer than ever to staring down at Jeff Novitzky, the I.R.S. special agent and sultan of steroid-enforcement swat.
Monday came the news that a draft letter was drawn up last week by committee staff members for the purposes of referring the Clemens case to the Justice Department. Get those scorecards ready. The real game, not the exhibition spitting contest the Clemens and Brian McNamee camps have waged all winter, may be about to begin.
You wonder: Is Clemens finally seeing the big picture, fearing that a hastily stitched tapestry of tall tales dating to 1998 is about to unravel?
It should by now be fairly well established that he was at José Canseco’s place in South Florida when they visited with the Blue Jays that year in June to drop off his family, or to take a tour of the property or a performance-enhancement tutorial.
We also know that Canseco has said Clemens was not at the party, while the nanny said that Clemens was at the house but she did not recall a party, while a photograph that reportedly has surfaced places Clemens at the possible party, while Clemens has a golf receipt to prove that while he might have stopped by, he wasn’t there long enough to party or be party to any discussion of drugs.
•
Questioned about the dizzying timeline of Clemens’s appearance and exit, the nanny — again, not as verbally challenged as Davis understood her to be and Clemens agreed she was — cut to the heart of the matter, as it relates to the possibility of meaningful disclosure.
“Well, first of all, that’s kind of hard to tell because I wasn’t with him 24/7,” she said, speaking to the absurdity of the ongoing party dissection, 10 years after. With the exception of the Republican cheerleaders who allowed Clemens and his lawyers to set this smoke screen during the hearing, who actually believed it was ever germane to the McNamee claims of injecting Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone?
Surely not Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat and committee chairman, who made himself clear after the hearing that he did not think much of what Clemens had to say. Common sense tells us that Waxman is driving the bus and ready to hand Clemens, if not McNamee, off to Novitzky and the Balco bashers that brought down Marion Jones and brought perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Barry Bonds.
Obviously, an investigation by the Justice Department does not guarantee an eventual indictment on perjury charges, à la Jones and Bonds. It does mean that Clemens’s public relations campaign against McNamee and anyone whose version of events contrasted his own has failed. In the court of public opinion, and to the committee members who did not want his autograph, the more Clemens went on the attack, the less believable he was.
When he publicly aired a secretly taped telephone conversation with McNamee, his former trainer sounded distraught over having to give him up to George Mitchell, not like some deluded soul bent on destroying an all-time great. When Clemens was confronted with the damaging testimony of Andy and Laura Pettitte, his attempts to question his protégé’s comprehension skills made you wonder if Clemens comprehended the gravity of his denials, under oath.
•
Everyone’s reputation was deemed sacrificial to save his own. His agents took hits for his troubles. His wife, Debbie, was exposed as an H.G.H. user. The nanny, whose interview included an eloquent expression of affection seven years after she left Clemens’s employ, was made to sound like someone who had just slipped into the country in the back of a truck.
Bring it on, Clemens kept saying, while everyone around him took a hit. Now there is a draft letter that probably leads to a criminal investigation. No turning back now. No promise of relief up ahead. For his last act in baseball, he may have to go the distance.
E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com
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