- It’s always embarrassing when the rider for a musician or
actor gets out following a concert or appearance, especially when that rider
shows off their diva tendencies such as only eating certain color M&Ms or
only drinking bottled water chilled to a specific temperature. Usually, the
person getting exposed publicly for being a pampered, self-centered ass hat
isn't the embattled president of a world power, but welcome to the life of
Brazilian President Michel Temer, who has promised to pull Latin America's
largest country out of recession and doesn’t seem to understand how to go about
doing so. That much is evident when you take a closer look at a list of items
for 2017 presidential plane trips and see entries such as 500 cartons of
Haagen-Dazs ice cream, 1.5 tons of chocolate cake, 1,102 pounds of dry ice,
1,500 liters of coconut water, 500 units of truffles, 200 units of presidential
breakfasts with Greek yogurt, provolone, Brie cheese and buffalo mozzarella and
50 each of Tablito, ChicaBon and Cornetto ice-cream treats. The list leaked out
late last year and a Brazilian public that has seen its country foot the bill
for two major international sporting events in the past three years and go
through a major financial crisis that led to the ouster of its previous
president was understandably upset at the contents of said list. Amazingly,
within a few hours of it leaking, the government announced the order had been
canceled. In other news, Brazil is still stuck with a subpar president……..
- There are few things worse than casually uttered championship
guarantees by athletes. One uttered casually by a player who might not even be
a member of the team for which he’s guaranteeing a title is on the list. Enter
likely free-agent-receiver-to-be Alshon Jeffery, a known PED user who had only
52 receptions for 821 yards and two touchdowns last season because he served a
four-game PED suspension, yet on his way out the door for the year guaranteed
the Chicago Bears (3-13) would win the Super Bowl next year. "I guarantee
you we'll win the Super Bowl next year,” Jeffrey told the world after the Bears
just finished their worst season in franchise history and missed out on the
playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years. The fan base that saw its favorite
team without its best receiver for a quarter of the season didn’t want to hear
any of that and the rest of the football world just laughed it off as the
nonsensical musings of a delusional, proud athlete. Jeffrey, who is headed to
free agency unless the Bears apply another franchise tag to him, at least found
some support within the organization he may be about to leave. "My initial
reaction was, 'I like that he said that,'" Bears general manager Ryan Pace
said. "That shows an important player on this team and how he feels about
this locker room.” Head coach John Fox agreed, noting that, "You've got to
think it and believe it before it happens." Yes, but it also helps if the
person who guarantees it is still around to make it happen. Either way, next
year’s Super Bowl will happen without the Bears and unless he signs with a much
better team, without Alshon Jeffrey……….
- No one looks good in a DUI mugshot. You’re clearly not
sharp, your appearance is far from its best and your disposition is likely
negative. Given those circumstances, pretty much anybody plopped down in front
of the camera at the local jail is going to submit one of the ugliest photos
ever taken of them. However, not everyone responds the way Joseph Talbot does
when their DUI arrest becomes the news of the day in the hamlet they call home.
Talbot was arrested by state police in Wayne County and charged with driving
while intoxicated. He also earned additional charges for refusing to be
fingerprinted or photographed after he told troopers he didn’t want his mugshot
in the paper, which is a) not in the police’s control and b) something you
should consider before you have eight beers at the local watering hole and then
get behind the wheel. But Talbot was clearly adamant about the issue because
after he was released, he took his crusade to keep his crime private by buying
hundreds of copies of a weekly upstate New York newspaper in an unsuccessful
effort to keep others from reading about his drunk driving arrest. Trying to
silence the 12,000-circulation Times of Wayne County after it obtained a
mugshot from the county jail and printed it along with a story is a bold step
and according to the owner of the paper, Talbot bought nearly 1,000 copies at
$1.25 each. In the process, he made himself an even bigger story than he
otherwise would have and multiplied his embarrassment by 1,000 in the process,
along with wasting an additional $1,250 on top of what his DUI arrest will
already take out of his pockets……..
- He’s never really rediscovered his “Dawson’s Creek” mojo,
but maybe a turn as electronic DJ and producer Diplo can do the trick for actor
James Van Der Beek. JDVB is reportedly set to hold down that very role in a new
TV series, one that has the rather unimaginative title, ‘What Would Diplo Do?’
The show will reportedly see Van Der Beek portray a fictionalized version of
the Major Lazer star and this ambitious new show will arrive on Viceland later
this year and has been described as “Louie meets WorldStarHipHop crossed with
This Is Spinal Tap.” The description of Van Der Beek’s fictionalized Diplo is
one of a man with the skills on the turntables to send tens of thousands of
people into a frenzy, but - in a shocking turn that never happens on television
shows or in movies - is a mess when it comes to his personal life and dealing
with people on a more direct scale. What’s interesting is that the show is
written by Van Der Beek, who will also executive produce it alongside Diplo
himself. Because the show will air on Viceland, the network that History
Channel 2 morphed into last year, Viceland head and director Spike Jonze will
also help steer the show. JVDB has a history of playing Diplo, having previously
portrayed the DJ in a Mad Decent Block Party promo video called ‘Day In The
Life Of Diplo.” Do many more of these projects and it could morph into
something creepy and stalker-ish, but for now, it merely looks like an actor
who has never found a way to replicate the success he enjoyed with a WB teen
drama two decades ago and has found someone to hitch his wagon to and ride out
of the shadows of D-list-Ville and back to something remotely resembling
relevance in the here and now…….
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