- Pierce Brosnan has it backwards. The aging
British actor is no longer the ravishing young leading man he once was at the
time when he was pulling off the single-worst stint ever as James Bond from
1995-2005, but the target on which he has set his cinematic sights is all
wrong. Brosnan, who hasn’t been seen in a movie that really matters for years,
is clearly on the downside of his career. However, no one should actually
aspire to join the cast of the next “The Expendables” sequel; it’s the sort of
movie retirement home where one should go only once he or she has been banished
there in the same way some Eskimo tribes put their elderly on an ice floe and
push them out to sea once they can no longer hunt and have lost their
usefulness to society. No one told Brosnan that, otherwise he would not be
expressing an interest in joining the
geezer action franchise. Brosnan confirmed that he has been
approached by Sylvester Stallone about starring in a future installment of the
franchise and is open to the possibility. "I said to [producer] Avi
Lerner, 'If it works out and you have a good script, Avi, you know where to
find me if you still want me'," Brosnan said. "It's as simple as that
really. Sylvester Stallone is the one that's given us these wonderful platforms
for actors who have and had careers to go play and have fun and to entertain.
To bring a bunch of guys together who saved the world, fought the bad guys, and
put them all on the same stage, that's crazy good." No one should ever –
and outside of Brosnan – has ever described “Expendables” as crazy good, not
when it brings together action has beens like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley
Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas for a predictable and
geritol-fueled, slow-motion action limp that is neither riveting nor
impressive. “The Expendables 3”
opens later this summer and will add Jason Statham, Jet Li and Kelsey Grammar
(really?) to the mix and the future installment in which Brosnan could appear
is still an idea floating in the ether for now…….
- Classy move, unidentified thief in southwestern Ohio. Any
time you can thieve a custom racing
wheelchair Paralympian when he’s not looking and possibly crush his dreams of
reaching the next Paralympic Games in the process, you’ve got to do it. That
means big ups for the unidentified pilferer who lifted the specially made
wheelchair belonging to Phoenix native Erik Hightower over the weekend as he
was visiting his family in Bethel, Ohio. Hightower, who was born with spina
bifida and got into the sport of wheelchair racing 20 years go, was making a
visit to Anderson Hospital in Anderson Township when he made the fatal mistake
of leaving his chair in his cousin’s truck. That would normally seem like a
reasonable thing to do, what with not needing to race anyone in the maternity
ward and no chance that an impromptu 400-meter race happens in the cardiology
wing of the facility. But sadly, leaving the chair in the back of the truck
proved to be a fatal mistake. When Hightower and his cousin exited the
hospital, they were stunned by what they saw. "They were there for maybe
an hour. They came back out, and they told us the chair was gone,"
Hightower said. "I want to keep racing. I just broke a record.
I want to break more records. Without my chair, I can't do that.” He is now a
Paralympic wheelchair racer without a racing wheelchair and with events across
the United States, that’s a problem. The chair cost $5,000 and replacing it is
no small task for the reigning American record holder in the 100 meters. With an
aluminum body and carbon fiber wheels built just for Hightower, it’s not a
matter of going to a store and buying a new chair. "To me, it cost me
$5,000 to get it. But, to anybody else, it really has no value,"
Hightower added. "Hopefully it won't set me back too long. The top
guys in the world, they're training every day. I need to be out there
training every day so the next Paralympic Games in 2016, I can beat all these
top guys.” If the scumbag who stole the chair develops a conscience, Hightower
is willing to allow that person to return it without him pressing chargers. The
2008 Paralympian has filed a report with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office,
but so far nothing has turned up………
- Welcome back, Bryce
Harper. The bombastic Washington Nationals slugger returned to the Washington
Nationals' lineup Monday night after missing the previous 59 games because of a
torn ligament in his left thumb, but he didn’t need any time at all to get back
into form… when it came to making headlines off the field. Harper had barely
been reinstated from the 15-day disabled list when he publicly questioned
manager Matt Williams’ lineup for the team's 7-3 victory over the Colorado
Rockies in Washington. Harper openly questioned Williams' decisions hours
before the game, calling out a lineup that included Ryan Zimmerman at third
base, Anthony Rendon at second base, Harper in left field and second baseman Danny
Espinosa on the bench. "I think [Zimmerman] should be playing left.
Rendon's a good third baseman. He should be playing third. We've got one of the
best second basemen in the league in Danny Espinosa," Harper lamented. "Of
course, we want the best-hitting lineup in there. [But] I think Rendon playing
third and Zim playing left is something that would be good for this team. I
think that should be what's happening." It’s funny, but Williams never
mentioned soliciting lineup input from Harper or any other player and the
outspoken outfielder admitted he hadn’t “talked to nobody about anything” and
had “no clue” what prompted Williams’ lineup of choice. Regardless, public
cracking your first-year manager isn't a wise play, even if Williams handled
the situation like a pro when asked about Harper’s remarks. "Happy to have him back," Williams said. "When
he's out there, regardless of where he's at, we'd like him to catch it when
it's hit to him and hit it when it's thrown to him. ... I don't have any
comment other than that. ... Hopefully, I can write his name in there every
single day the rest of the year. That would be very important." Some of
Harper’s dissent seemed to stem from previous instances in which he said
he "loves" playing center field and hoped to be there when he came
off the DL. He did try to double back on his initial indignation by saying that
in the end, he was just happy to be back.…….
- Very few people apologize to Gypsies. For the vast
majority of the world, a Gypsy is the embodiment of annoyance; a transient vagrant
who crashes borders uninvited, doesn’t speak the local language and does little
but set up camp in unsanitary conditions and bother tourists for money. So give
credit to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny for doing what needed
to be done and apologizing to two Romanian Gypsy families who had their
children temporarily removed from their homes because they were blond and
blue-eyed. Sure, apologizing using one’s actual voice instead of a prepared
statement read in parliament as the government published a 134-page report into
police's October 2013 seizure of a 2-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl would
have been nice, but an apology is an apology on some level. In addition to a
rather uninspired written statement from the prime minister, Justice Minister
Frances Fitzgerald also met with the two families in private. Both politicians
were clearly looking to cover their own asses publicly after a report by Ireland's
child rights official, Emily Logan, found police had no firm evidence to
justify placing either child in temporary foster care. Logan concluded that
police actions were driven by prejudice, ignorance and a European media frenzy
over the alleged abduction of a blonde-haired girl by a Roma family in Greece.
Not so coincidentally, the Greek case also proved to be a false alarm. Will any
of this help Gypsies’ reputation and treatment across Europe in the many
nations where they now make their homes? No, but here’s hoping some of them
print out a copy of Kenny’s apology and tape it to the inside of the walls of
their tents………
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