Pastor Rick Warren and Bill Maher: God deserves better friends and enemies.

It might be one thing if Orange County megapastor Rick Warren wanted to have an ecumenical conversation on faith and values and invite clerics from various religions--or even a private sitdown with the two Presidential candidates.  But to read that Warren spent some of yesterday basically inflating his ego ("I CAN SUMMON BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN McCAIN AND THEY WILL APPEAR BEFORE ME!!!) and mainstream recognition value by imitating last year's CNN "values" interview program (hosted by Soledad "gosh and golly" O'Brien) is disconcerting.  And, like Soledad, Warren asked a variation of "what's your favorite worst sin": http://news.aol.com/elections/article/mccain-and-obama-cite-moral-failures/135340?icid=200100397x1207606354x1200393589

In other religious news, Bill Maher's likely-to-be-smirky mockreligionumentary RELIGULOUS is getting an out-of-town tryout at the Laemmle multiplex in conservative Claremont, California.  Maybe Bill, director Larry Charles and distributor Lionsgate are trying to figure out how to manufacture some controversy for the film, which is about a month and a half away from its official release (this could mean some dumb, transparent tactic like hiring background actors from a nonunion agency to play outraged Christians for a fake-amateur YouTube video).  Here's a link to the Laemmle site: http://laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=17

Update (8/19/08): RELIGULOUS is playing in Claremont, as well as in the NYC area, for Academy Awards Documentary Feature qualification purposes.  Thanks to Jeffrey Wells for revealing this in HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/08/suburban_bookin.php

 

Tags: Rick Warren. THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE, Barack Obama, John McCain, Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Bill Maher, Larry Charles, RELIGULOUS

RIP Jerry Wexler: legendary producer of r&b/rock.

Jerry Wexler, who produced major recording artists from Aretha Franklin to Bob Dylan, has died at the age of 91.

Here's a link to a ROLLING STONE summary of Wexler's 20 Greatest Hits: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/22615303/wex_on_wax_twenty_essential_jerry_wexler_productions

And here's the RS obit for Wexler's life and career: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/22595667/the_record_collector_jerry_wexler_dies_at_age_91

Tags: Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan

James Franco: Real and Reel Poet/Writer!

From a recent GQ profile of newly-minted superstar (currently on view in PINEAPPLE EXPRESS) James Franco--also a recent grad of UCLA:

franco alternates between talking about his present academic and creative life with gusto and pulling in the reins, fearful of how such talk may come across. When I ask him what he is proud of that he has done so far, he seems incredulous that I might mean any of his movies and instead offers, “I got a poetry honorable mention at UCLA,” but when I try to ask him more about the poetry, he seems to shiver a little and is unwilling to elaborate. He knows how these things can seem. “It just sounds like, ‘Oh, the actor’s doing poetry,’ ” he demurs. “In that sense, it seems ridiculous to me. But I’m taking it as seriously as I can. I’m not calling up some café and saying, ‘Hey! I’m James Franco, I’m going to read the poetry I wrote about my motorcycle.’ I mean, I’m working with real poets. I’m doing it in as serious a way as I can.”

The full article (where Franco, among other topics, discusses his Ben Affleck period of taking Movie Star roles in films such as FLYBOYS--not as bad a film as Franco makes it sound) can be found at: http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_7397

And here's this factoid from Cinemablend.com:

James Franco has already won accolades for playing an icon of an earlier decade, when he starred as James Dean in a TV biopic about the troubled actor. But now he's tackling an even tougher real-life character, and one who doesn't exactly immediately make you think of Franco. The star of the upcoming Pineapple Express told MTV Movies that he'll play Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, a documentary that nonetheless will feature Franco in re-enactments as a young Ginsberg.

"I’m gonna play the young Allen Ginsberg, the days before he went bald and gained weight. The early Howl days," Franco told them. Now, the picture you see above is how we normally think of Ginsberg-- covered in facial hair, and a bit on the portly side. But check out the image here, of Ginsberg at a younger age when he actually wrote Howl, the landmark poem that made him famous. You can kind of see the resemblance, right?

Howl is known for being a tough, raw poem, but Franco claims he's read it many times, so at least he knows what he's up against. He's always been an actor to willingly take challenges, so it's exciting to see him sticking with a dramatic role like this one even with Pineapple Express about to reveal him as a bona fide comedian. OK, so the Ginsberg role will be a re-enactment within a documentary--- not exactly big enough for an Oscar nod. But you know with Franco in the part, you'll pay attention anyway.

And finally, here's a link to an essay called "Intense Emotional Experience" Franco wrote that was accepted by UCLA's WESTWIND writers' magazine for the Winter 2008 issue: http://www2.humnet.ucla.edu/westwind/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=31

Tags: James Franco, UCLA, Allen Ginsberg, HOWL, FLYBOYS, SONNY, FREAKS AND GEEKS, Judd Apatow, Hollywood actors who write poetry, Tony Bill, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

Latest random notes--ROLLING STONE, John Edwards, etc.

1. Let's start out with a NEW YORK TIMES article from Richard Perez-Pena regarding ROLLING STONE changing to a sort of ESQUIRE/GQ average-size glued-binding format from the oversized one used for most of the mag's 41-year history:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/business/media/11mag.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Don't worry.  Mr. Wenner and his minions will ensure that future issues will contain half-naked cover photos of Katy Perry and other pop starlets--plus the obligatory Random Notes references to Billy Joel (whether or not anything interesting is happening to him--part of the apparent bargain made around 1982 when Joel's aspiring-to-seriousness album THE NYLON CURTAIN was released).

2. Time for a Larry King-esque random note: Do you think that anyone at Universal who may have seen the new version of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED has gazed upon Ben Whishaw's son-of-Anthony-Perkins appearance (in the role of Sebastian Flyte) without thinking "let's make a PSYCHO reboot"?

3. Does anyone think John Edwards can reboot his political career after the timing of Rielle Hunter's refusal to determine her child's exact father?  I don't think Edwards can put the genie back into the bottle and get the mainstream media to walk away; hell, I think the bottle has shattered into a million little pieces (sorry).

Here's a link to a NEW YORK OBSERVER roundup of articles about Edwards and the media coverage of the affair: http://www.observer.com/2008/media/monday-morning-john-edwards-rielle-hunter-round

Plus here's another OBSERVER piece by Steve Kornacki called "The End of John Edwards": http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/end-john-edwards

Update (8/15/08): Here's Elizabeth Edwards' attempt through surrogates to control her story (apparently political ambition has been airbrushed out for the PEOPLE audience): http://news.aol.com/article/edwards-affair-left-wife-difficult/132807?icid=200100397x1207720257x1200415474

4. Can anyone talk about the death of musician/actor Isaac Hayes without mentioning Scientology?

5. Can anyone talk about John McCain without denigrating the elderly in general and McCain's age in particular?

Tags: John McCain, Isaac Hayes, Church of Scientology, John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards sex scandal, Rielle Hunter, Ben Whishaw, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED 2008, PSYCHO, Anthony Perkins, Universal Pictures, ROLLING STONE, Jann Wenner, Katy Perry, Billy Joel, THE NYLON CURTAIN

A plug for my reading Friday, August 15th at Santa Monica's Rapp Saloon.

Here's an e-plug for my reading about 20-25 minutes of poetry next Friday (August 15th):

 

terry mccarty

the first annual farewell tour

AT THE RAPP SALOON

in SANTA MONICA, california

FRIDAY, aUGUST 15TH

AT 8:30 P.M.

OPEN READING SIGNUPS AT 8:00 P.M.

 

From EAST BAY EXPRESS, October 3-9, 2007:

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ONOMATOPEIA

He's worked in major motion pictures as a stand-in for Joe Pesci and Wallace Shawn.  But then Terry McCarty started writing poetry with a sociopolitical edge.....

 

Recent chapbooks include BORN TO WALK, INSUFFICIENT GRAVITAS and YELLOW TREE RED SKY.  Another chapbook, part of RD Armstrong's Little Red Book series, will be published later this year.

 

The Rapp Saloon is located at

Hostelling International Building

(next to Buca de Beppo restaurant)
1436 2nd St in Santa Monica
(between Santa Monica Blvd. and Broadway).

 

http://www.rappsaloon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: TerryMcCarty, Southern California poetry, The Rapp Saloon, Jack Shafer, Pete Justus, Mani Suri, Dave Nordling, Joe Camhi, Brenda Petrakos

More YouTube fun.

Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper with Kelly Ripa on LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/regis-and-kelly-anderson-cooper-is-amazing/2141130014?icid=200100397x1207280608x1200378752

Somehow I don't think Brian Williams would stoop to discuss reality shows when being interviewed.

For those who don't watch E! and are curious about the post-VIEW career of the incredible Debbie Matenopoulos, here she is interviewing Robert Downey, Jr. on his role in TROPIC THUNDER (as well as gushing over Downey's late-blooming superstardom): http://worldofwonder.net/archives/2008/Aug/05/painfultowatch_video_of_the_day.wow

Tags: Kelly Ripa, Anderson Cooper, Debbie Matenopoulos, Robert Downey Jr., TROPIC THUNDER, LIVING LOHAN, LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY

NEW YORK OBSERVER: Bill Clinton dishes it out, but can't take it.

Here's an article from THE NEW YORK OBSERVER that examines lion-in-winter Bill Clinton, who still feels enraged from being on the losing end of last spring's primaries: http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/whats-bill-clinton-so-mad-about

Pay special attention to how candidate Bill treated rival Paul Tsongas in 1992.

Tags: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Paul Tsongas, 1992 Presidential primaries, 2008 Presidential primaries, Bill Clinton's fairy tale remarks

More random notes.

1. David Zucker, formerly of the ZAZ team that gave filmgoers AIRPLANE, POLICE SQUAD and TOP SECRET in years gone by (in today's pop culture, anything released before 1983 is usually considered irrelevant), has, like Ron Silver, become a born-again right-winger.  Therefore, Zucker has finished a comedy called AN AMERICAN CAROL to share his hard-right beliefs with a presumably-large audience.  Actors include Kelsey Grammer as General George S. Patton (I'm not making this up), Jon Voight (another ex-progressive) as George Washington and Kevin (brother of Chris) Farley as "Michael Malone"--easy guess as to which documentary filmmaker/provocateur is being parodied.

Jeffrey Ressner of the website POLITICO gives the full details:  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11959.html

2. There's a lot of easy snark over Los Angeles police chief Bill Bratton's dumb and sort-of-homophobic remark about Lindsay Lohan "going gay" re Bratton's opposition to ex-LA Police Protective Leaguer and now-Councilman Dennis Zine wanting laws to curb disruptive paparazzi feeding frenzies on celebrities.  But underneath the surface is a sort of psychodrama of warring LAPD cultures: Zine is one of those ex-hardline cops who probably would've liked to have been Chief himself and, since Bratton is an ex-New Yorker, Zine is throwing one of those "keep outsiders from controlling the LAPD" conniption fits which last occurred bigtime when the short-termed Willie Williams occupied the Chief's chair.

3. Update (8/2/08): 
Here's an inadvertent visual commentary on celebrity aging.  Witness a 50ish Kevin Bacon trying to remain relatively youthful and looking like Dana Carvey and an 83-year-old Tony Curtis (sans wig) looking like late-career Jackie Coogan around the time of Coogan's playing Uncle Fester on THE ADDAMS FAMILY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dIppZrDcM from an episode of THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW on BBC America.

 

 

Tags: Los Angeles Police Protective League, Graham Norton, Tony Curtis, Kevin Bacon, David Zucker, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, conservatives in Hollywood, Kevin Farley, Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Zine, William Bratton, LAPD