"Glee" vs. Newsweek, iPads disrupt sleep and Pixar gives up on "Newt"

- Quite the tiff has arisen between Newsweek and Fox’s singing-centric drama Glee. The fight started when Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh wrote a piece about gay actors playing straight roles. Setoodeh, who is himself gay, basically stated that gay men cannot pull off a convincing portrayal of a straight man. In the article, Setoodeh criticizes Glee star Jonathan Groff, who is gay, as coming off like like a “theater queen” on the show. It also describes Sean Hayes’ performance in Broadway’s Promises, Promises, thusly: “It’s weird seeing Hayes play straight.” That led Hayes’ costar, Kristin Chenoweth, to condemn the article as “damaging, needlessly cruel and mind-blowingly bigoted.” Glee creator Ryan Murphy then entered the brawl throwing his own haymakers in an open letter, urging people to boycott Newsweek until it apologizes for the article . In part, the article reads: “I would like to join my good friend Kristin Chenoweth on her condemnation of a recent Newsweek article written by Mr. Ramin Setoodeh, in which Setoodeh basically says that out gay actors should go back into the closet and never attempt to play straight characters. This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful. It shocks me because Mr. Setoodeh is himself gay. But what is the most shocking of all is that Newsweek went ahead and published such a blatantly homophobic article in the first place…and has remained silent in the face of ongoing (and justified) criticism. Would the magazine have published an article where the author makes a thesis statement that minority actors should only be allowed and encouraged to play domestics? I think not.” Murphy goes on to say that even though Setoodeh has proclaimed himself to be a fan of the show, that love of Glee makes his words no less offensive. Murphy goes on to, “Give me a call, Ramin…I’d love to hear from you. I’ll even give you a free copy of our Madonna CD, on which we cover “Open Your Heart,” a song you should play in your house and car on repeat.” All in all, I have to say that the backlash over this article is a little surprising. A gay guy is commenting on the ability of other gay guys to play straight roles and although Setoodeh is stereotyping a bit, people of a certain race or sexual preference are generally given a little more leeway when talking or writing about people of like race or sexual preference. I foresee this one coming to a happy resolution in which Setoodeh makes nice with everyone at Glee and the boycott of Newsweek comes and goes quietly……….

- Confidence is a must for anyone involved with the New York Jets in any capacity these days. Not only does head coach Rex Ryan bring immense swagger to the J-E-T-S, but owner Woody Johnson seems to be drinking the same Kool-Aid and as a result, he has the insane notion that the team will sell its remaining personal seat licenses before the regular season begins. Johnson’s primary purpose in making those comments seems to be assuring fans that they do not have to worry about home games being blacked out on TV. Of course, Johnson won't reveal the actual number of remaining PSLs, saying only that he feels good about the prospects of the Jets being able to sell them all. Reports out of New York put the actual figure in excess of 10,000, so that is a pretty freaking tall order. Fans just aren’t down with paying a massive fee for the right to pay more money, which is what a PSL boils down to. You plunk down a massive wad of cash and that payment buys you the chance to purchase extremely expensive tickets to games. The Jets are taking a hard line on PSL sales, stating in no uncertain terms that if there are any remaining unsold PSLs, the team will not make them available on a game-by-game basis because it would be unfair to existing PSL holders. How they expect to fleece 10,000 fans into investing several thousand dollars for PSLs and season tickets in an economy that continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel, I’m not sure. However, the confidence the team is showing on the field will look like small potatoes if Johnson is able to make good on his vow to sell all of the PSLs and pull of that miracle………..

- Lovers of Pixar’s original animated films, I have some bad news for you. The much-anticipated Newt won’t be hitting theaters come 2012 after all. Pixar’s own blog had the news first (shocker), letting fans know that the movie is not only off the schedule for 2012, but that it may be dead all together. The project, about two newts forced to procreate even though they hate each other, has been canceled. It had been beset by scheduling conflicts almost from the start, pushing its scheduled release back from summer 2011 to summer 2012.) According to a source within Pixar speaking on the condition of anonymity, the studio prefers to focus on Cars 2, Monsters Inc. 2, and Pixar’s first fairy tale Brave for release in 2011 and 2012, “We have taken Newt off of our development schedule to allow our creative teams to focus on these upcoming projects,” the Pixar Blog post read. As always, good to see a studio shun and/or abandon original concepts and movies in favor of churning out sequels of films that already have an established fan base and reputation that all but guarantee a solid result at the box office. Way to show that originality, creativity and a pioneering spirit have no place in the movie business, Pixar. Stick to the same tired, worn path that you’ve taken in the past and don’t dare venture out into anything new, different and risky…………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! This edition of everyone’s favorite overview of social dissidence ‘round the glob is extra special because it involves an attempted coup combined with the seizure of multiple government buildings. All of this is unfolding right now in Kyrgyzstan, where supporters of ousted Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev seized government buildings in three southern regions of the impoverished nation as part of a coup attempt. The country’s interim government is doing its best to hold them off, but Bakiyev’s supporters are fired up and they don’t seem to care that their man isn’t even in the country at the moment. f Bakiyev, who fled the country a month ago after an uprising, so he is likely watching from a distance with a huge smile on his face. The rioters seized the buildings in the cities of Osh, Jalalabad and Batken. That alone would be enough to pump me up, but they also went the extra mile, kidnapping the governor of Jalalabad region and attempting to take control of the area's main airport in Osh. "This is the work of Bakiyev's supporters," said government spokesman Farid Niyazov. "They have one goal: to seize power... But they will fail." Shut it, Farid. Give respect where respect is due and these brave dissidents deserve it in heaping helpings. They kidnapped a governor, seized government buildings, nearly captured an airport and did so with no deaths reported. I call that a pretty successful day on the Riot-O-Meter, no doubt. The interim government doesn’t exactly have ironclad support from the country’s 5.3 million citizens and has struggled to establish control. The southern part of the country is a powder keg of unrest, with the Ferghana Valley, Central Asia's most flammable and ethnically divided corner, ready to erupt at any time. The uprising in support of Bakiyev is viewed in a negative light by the United States, which views the ousted leader in a rather negative light. Ironically, the interim government wants Bakiyev to return - except they want to extradite him from his refuge in the former Soviet state of Belarus and put him on trial for corruption and allowing troops to fire into crowds of protesters on April 7, killing dozens. Controversial Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has refused to extradite Bakiyev, so this has the potential to get ugly in a hurry. As always, I need not take a stance in support of either side in this issue and instead choose simply to revel in the glory of these great riots. For example, how can you not love Bakiyev's supporters in Jalalabad taking the local governor hostage after seizing control of the regional administration building? In the aftermath of a failed coup attempt the previous day, these angry dissidents simply regrouped and came up with a new plan. So riot on, angry Kyrgyzstani citizens, and while you’re at it, see if you can’t make a few extra vowels in your nation’s name one of your demands………

- Believe it or not, working until the wee hours of the morning on your laptop, tablet or desktop computer may not be good for you if you are then trying to get to sleep. According to new scientific research, consumer electronics may be harming our ability to sleep when we use them right before bed time because the gadgets may actually fool our brains into thinking it's daytime. Researchers like Phyllis Zee, a neuroscience professor at Northwestern University and director of the school's Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology, are saying that use of electronic devices immediately prior to sleep can can disturb sleep patterns and exacerbate insomnia,. "Potentially, yes, if you're using [the iPad or a laptop] close to bedtime ... that light can be sufficiently stimulating to the brain to make it more awake and delay your ability to sleep," Zee said. "And I think more importantly, it could also be sufficient to affect your circadian rhythm. This is the clock in your brain that determines when you sleep and when you wake up." The issue has come to the forefront with the release of Apple’s iPad, which many consumers say they use for reading at night in bed, a time when the brain thinks the environment should be dark. The iPod differs from previous electronic reader devices because it emits its own light, which shines directly into the reader's eyes from a relatively close distance. Because of that, the iPad and similar devices have the real potential to disrupt sleep patterns more than a television on the other side of the room. "I wish people would just take a boring book -- an old-fashioned book -- and [read] by a lamp. Make sure that it's not too bright -- just so you can read," said Alon Avidan, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at UCLA. "And if they do that, I think they'll feel a lot better and they'll be able to relax." Not to delve too deep into the biological side of things, but at our core, human beings are wired to be awake when the sun is out. Our eyes contain receptors for measuring light and when they are hit with steady supplies of light for a prolonged period of time, the brain gets the message that it is time to be awake and alert. Shutting off the iPad and attempting to go to sleep then becomes more difficult because the brain is receiving the exact opposite message. It stops secreting a hormone called melatonin, which makes people sleepy. Exacerbating the problem is that eyes are especially sensitive to blue light, which is common during the day and prevalent in computer screens and phones tend to put out a lot of blue light could intensify the screen's awakening effects, even if the light isn't all that. At present there is little research on how iPads and similar devices may affect sleeping patters, but it is definitely a topic worth exploring. It’s also worth nothing that to this point, the phenomenon of trouble sleeping after late-night iPad use is relatively infrequent. Will the problem become more pronounced as iPads become more widely embraced and used? I doubt it will ever turn into a full-fledged crisis, but every medical problem or condition is blown out of proportion nowadays, so go ahead and assume that this won't be the last you hear of this issue. As for me, I am an avowed disliker of the iPad and don’t plan on throwing away several hundred dollars for a glorified iPod touch any time soon, so no worries for me…………