- Scarlett Johansson isn't objectionable to getting naked, she just wants full control over when and where those images are seen. A few months after naked pictures she snapped with her cell phone camera leaked online, Johansson voluntarilyed doffed her clothes for a role and it’s no ordinary part in an also-ran film. She has signed to play the role formerly filled by Janet Leigh in “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho,” a tale chronicling the late director's modest horror movie that eventually morphed into an American cinematic classic that is widely regarded as one of Hitchcock’s finest films. For the new project, Johansson will reenact the classic shower scene in which Leigh's character, a secretary who goes to the Bates motel after embezzling money, is violently murdered by Anthony Perkins' disturbed motel owner-manager, Norman Bates. That sort of violence was unheard of even in movies at the time and filming it so impacted Leigh that she famously swore off taking showers because of the scene's chilling impact. The original movie was released in 1960 and Leigh passed away in 2004. In addition to Johansson, Anthony Hopkins will play the part of Hitchcock and Helen Mirren has signed on to essay the role of his wife, Alma Reville. It will not be a straight documentary-style effort, as the plot will focus on the relationship between Hitchcock and Reville as he undertook a project that studios were loathe to embrace because of its violent subject matter, not to mention its protagonist being a cross-dressing serial killer. Johansson’s shower scene reportedly took seven days to film, which had to be extremely taxing on all of the men on the set…………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Lest the French and their violent uprising against President Nicolas Sarkozy during a campaign stop in southern France seize all of the headlines in western Europe, a group of Spanish students in Barcelona stepped up Wednesday and clashed with police, setting fire to garbage containers during protests against education spending cuts. Ironically, Barcelona saw the most violent uprising in nationwide protests. The irony comes from the fact that residents of the city and surrounding Catalan region consider themselves an autonomous entity within Spain, yet there some of its residents were joining in a massive uprising. Police sparred with rioters outside the stock market in Spain's second largest city after a few inspired protestors broke away from a peaceful rally of thousands and began throwing rocks and anything else they could find and hoist. In addition to the rocks being thrown and the dumpsters set on fire, rioters also smashed a bank window before a small group made their way toward the University of Barcelona and took refuge in a plaza inside the campus. Protestors claimed police broke out their truncheons to hit protesters and fired rubber bullets. They also alleged that protestors did not start breaking things until police attacked them. A police spokesman would not give details of what methods they used against demonstrators nor confirm how many protestors were arrested. Once the conflict began to die down, a group of protestors broke off and headed down an avenue toward the Mobile World Congress, the huge cell phone trade show being held this week in Barcelona, but a line of police kept them away from the convention center hosting the event. (Sadly) non-violent protests also took place in Madrid and Valencia as students rose up against steep austerity cuts…………
- In the wake of an investigative piece published this week in Sports Illustrated that detailed a total lack of control within the UCLA men’s basketball program over the past few year, especially between 2006-09, it was actually a former player kicked off the team who has taken the biggest hit. Tales of drugs, partying, drinking and infighting peppered the story, but the “star” of the piece was former UCLA forward Reeves Nelson. Nelson was dismissed from the team on Dec. 9, nearly three months before the piece dropped. In it, he is accused of urinating on a teammate's clothes and intentionally injuring players. Author George Dohrmann wrote that Nelson stalked players and intentionally tried to injure them. One specific story has Nelon intentionally yanking on a teammate’s surgically-repaired shoulder and knocking him out for several weeks and another has him giving a teammate a black eye in an off-campus fight. Nelson, currently playing in Europe, heard the allegations and didn’t like them one bit. Through his attorney, he denounced them as "yellow journalism at its worst." In a radio interview, Los Angeles-based lawyer Keith Fink (real last name) blasted the story and its author. "He all out says the guy is a criminal. He criminally stalked and assaulted players. And he tries to pinpoint six or seven instances," Fink said. Fink claimed to have text messages from players Nelson allegedly assaulted, all denying the incidents took place. Coach Ben Howland said during a conference call that he never witnessed any players intentionally injuring others and characterized the stories Dohrmann wrote about as false. "Never was there any -- during my watching and being there for every minute of every practice -- an assault where I felt like it was prudent that there was some kind of assault going on," Howland said. Unfortunately for Fink, his own client allegedly confirmed the stories to Dohrmann and expressed regret for them. “On all that stuff, I have no trouble admitting that I lost control of my emotions sometimes. I take responsibility for my actions. I'm really just trying to learn from the mistakes I made on all levels," Nelson said. As a quick aside, urinating on someone else’s clothes is not a mistake; it’s an act of cowardice, immaturity and a crime. Fink can defend his client because he’s paid to do so, but he might want to come up with a better explanation than, “I don’t know,” when asked why Dohrmann might fabricate such incidents for his story…………..
- Toll duckers in Massachusetts (or merely traveling through it), you’re going to need to step your game up. The state of Massachusetts has had enough of those who plow right through the toll both and don’t stop to pay. Officials know they can't fight the battle alone, so they are teaming up with their counterparts in New Hampshire and Maine so each state can have better luck getting scofflaws to pay. Previously, Massachusetts would simply send an easy-to-ignore notice to an out of state driver outlining the fines and tolls owed. The state then relied on an honor system when it came to payment, according to Transportation Secretary Richard Davey. “If they didn’t pay us, if they didn’t write us a check and send it in, there was really no way for us to go across the border and collect that toll,” Davey explained. Allowing out-of-state drivers to blow them off ended up costing Massachusetts transportation officials big, to the tune of $800,000 last year alone. However, Davey says there is much more to the story. “When we add in the toll violations, it is in the millions. We are talking anywhere from 5-10 million dollars on an annual basis,” he said. He sees the new tri-state agreement as a weapon that will chase down many more lawbreakers. “If a person does not pay us and has a certain amount of violations, New Hampshire will stop their license and registration renewal until they pay that toll violation in Massachusetts. And vice versa, if you are a Massachusetts resident who hasn’t been paying your fair share in Maine or New Hampshire, we will hold up your license and registration here in the Commonwealth,” Davey vowed. The agreement, of course, banks heavily on the fact that those traveling along the three states’ turnpikes are from one of those three states. For toll dodgers from elsewhere, continue to ignore the toll booths as you have been…………
- Want some positive environmental news? You’ve come to the wrong place. The wicked smart Ivy Leaguers at Columbia University have crunched the numbers and learned that because of industrial emissions, the earth's oceans are acidifying faster now than at any point in the past 300 million years. That’s assuming one believes the world is actually 300 million years old, of course. In a blog post, The Earth Institute at Columbia University explained that the acidity of the oceans has increased 30 percent in the past 100 years due to carbon emissions by human beings. Even though the amount of carbon in the air and oceans has fluctuated naturally over time, the pH drop cannot be explained by that fluctuation alone. Instead, the institute explained that oceans soak up excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere like a "sponge" and called the pH decline as "unprecedented." In fact, oceans are currently acidifying faster today than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years when carbon levels spiked naturally. Big ups to industrial emissions on that one. Should the trend continue, various ocean species could be in danger. "(I)f industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace," said Barbel Honisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the study's lead author. "What we're doing today really stands out. We may lose organisms we care about." Honisch led an international team of researchers that examined hundreds of paleoceanographic studies and determined that there was only "only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed even remotely as fast as today," the official release said. To provide another ray of light, researchers postulated that the Earth may be “entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change.” Sounds like a party…………..
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