It’s a sad day in Hollywood as Director/Producer/Actor Sydney Pollack has lost his battle with cancer. He was 73. First diagnosed nine months ago, Pollack died Monday night surrounded by friends and family.

Having lost my own dad to cancer in 2005, I am very sympathetic to the plight of his family and friends. My heart goes out to them all as these loses are never easy, no matter how “prepared” you might think you are for it. God bless you all and may he guide and comfort you in the days ahead.

Sydney Pollack first caught my attention after watching “Three Days Of the Condor” starring Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson and Faye Dunaway. Originally released in 1975, I first watched with baited breath in 1980 as a wide-eyed 10 year old. While I admit that first viewing left me with many a question, I have since re-watched this fine film many times and have come to truly appreciate the level of story telling this film possesses. Two years later, Sydney blew us all out of the water with a little film called Tootsie.

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It took me a while to come around. Not that I walked away from my first Cloverfield viewing disappointed or even unhappy, but something about it was a little ‘ehhh’ for me that first time. I loved a lot about it but something about it wasn’t quite right.

A couple of weeks later I managed to find a cam version of the film online, so I downloaded it and was surprised to see that I enjoyed it a bit more the second time. Which is saying a lot considering, it was only a cam version. The third time I found myself watching it, I knew I was hooked. Why?

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The man was nothing short of legend. Best known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, he will also be remembered for being one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak out openly against racism and was an active supporter of the civil rights movement. During the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr.

That he was still unafraid of controversy as he grew older was evident in his memorable 2000 NRA convention speech, where he raised a rifle over his head and declared that the Bill Clinton administration would take away his Second Amendment rights “from my cold, dead hands.”. Michael Moore would later try to take selfish, advantage of Heston’s NRA affiliation by ambushing Charlton in an interview for his 2002 film Bowling For Columbine.

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If you are an internet regular then chances are you’ve either heard of or seen the viciously, vile ‘2 Girls, One Cup‘ video. Most of you know this is simply one of the sickest videos to circulate the internet and the, pardon the expression, butt of many a joke and certainly the topic of many a question.

Why would anyone eat & play with shit? Why would anyone eat & play with someone else’s shit? Why would anyone eat & play with someone else’s shit on video? Alas, the list of possible questions is never ending, but there is a new video out that can shed a little light on these and many other questions.

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So by now you’ve all heard the rumor/truth that Patrick Swayze may/may not have 5 weeks to live due to a losing battle with pancreatic cancer (one of the bad ones). The National Enquirer broke the story but it was internet buzz that made it the hot topic to discuss.

I’ve never met him, since I don’t leave my cave, but I’d have to say he’s always seemed like a decent, good natured person. Certainly, anyone who can mock themselves like the SNL Chippendales skit with Chris Farley is definitely grounded and add to that the superb work in the ridiculous To Wong Foo and I’m laughing right along with him. He’ll always be linked to the chick-flick staples Ghost & Dirty Dancing (gack~) but he’ll go down in guy movie history for Road House and the legendary (WOLVERINES!!!) Red Dawn, a movie so great it gives a free pass to anyone involved in it (yes, even you C. Thomas Howell, relax).

The major news outlets have been catching up on the events surrounding this story & their spin is that he’s not as close to death as the Enquirer has been reporting and here’s hoping that for once, the networks are actually reporting the truth. From what I’ve heard about pancreatic cancer, though, the outlook would indeed seem bleak.

Patrick Swayze, may you fight the good fight and be one who comes through this with good health, you’ll always be big brother (”Do you want blindfolds?”) Jed to many of us.

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I don’t know a whole lot about Rachel Bilson so I can’t begin to explain why she is the most sought after subject on this morning’s Yahoo searches.

From what I can tell, she’s a young actress who’s greatest claim to fame was starring in a mediocre FOX teen drama “The O.C.” I see she is currently in the new (don’t call me cardboard) Hayden Christensen sci-fi thriller “Jumper”. So why are the internet masses seeking her out?

A quick search reveals she is sute enough to pop up on the major men’s magazine hottie lists. She scored a respectable 78 from Askmen.com and is currently #88 on the FHM Top 100 list (here’s the obligatory Stuff link).

She seems like a nice enough kid and anyone who looks this natural in a random candid airport pic must be at least semi-good looking in person. But what worries me most, and what should worry Ms. Bilson is the proliferation of massive Fanboy websites dedicated to her. For a low level “star” she certainly has caught the major attention of some hard working fans.

A quick glimpse at two of the most popular fan sites rachel-bilson.com and rachel-bilson.org shows that these blokes are dedicated! These sites have more work put into them than actual studio sites - yipes!

Rachel, you seem like a sweet girl so I suggest you get yourself some large bodyguards, a couple of guns and some serious intruder detection in your home because the crazies are out there and they are watching you!

Here’s a better pic for you lurchers.

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I’m not a big fan of mainstream media or overproduced praise-me productions highlighting how cool it is to be rich and famous in America so I therefore didn’t take much notice in last nights Academy Awards presentation. I popped in from time to time during commercial breaks while watching the much more thrilling Rock of Love, Part 2 and although I think Jon Stewart can be witty, I was immediately put off by his “vote Democrat” spiel so I didn’t stay long.

Of course, this morning you’d be hard pressed to avoid any mention of who won what last night & as such I hear that “Juno” won a best original screenplay award for Diablo Cody, the sex blogger turned Hollywood darling.

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I know you’re not supposed to talk about taboo topics such as politics, religion or anything to do with women’s rights because you’re just asking for trouble and there are supposedly no “right” answers, yet we all know that these subjects come up frequently enough that it pays to have an informed opinion about them. Here’s another b.s. topic that comes up a lot yet no one seems to have a clear answer - internet file sharing, namely the illegal downloading and sharing of big label music and movies. Illegal? Immoral? Unethical? Understandable? Pro? Con? What gives? Well, I’m here with my 2Cents to chime in on the subject and offer what I believe to be the absolute correct opinion.

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I was shocked, disappointed & deeply saddened when I saw the news that Heath Ledger was found dead today in a NYC apartment with a bottle of sleeping pills by his side. While I wouldn’t have said he was the best actor I ever saw, I did and do think he was a very good actor with the potential to be great. Many would say this was evident in his Oscar nominated performance in ‘Brokeback Mountain‘, a movie I never did see.

Heath had just finished filming his role, as the Joker, in the upcoming and highly anticipated sequel to ‘Batman Begins‘, ‘The Dark Knight‘. I can’t say for sure if this role would have been the one to push him into marquee movie star status, but the point is now moot as his fame is now all but insured ala Brandon Lee in ‘The Crow‘.

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Today is the premiere of the highly anticipated movie Cloverfield. Such a strange name for a sci-fi / monster flick. Hardly seems pertinent actually, but like the rest of the country and presumably the world, I have been anxiously waiting for the chance to see and finally figure out what “it” is.

So of course, I set out into the blog-o-sphere to see what I could find and came across this post from, Nicki, a NYC blogger. Apparently, she was privy to a special screening and wrote up an excellent, spoiler free review.

First off, I was surprised to find out this was filmed using hand-held camcorders ala The Blair Witch Project. This bit of info scared me at first. I enjoyed TBWP, it was totally different and certainly had just enough to grab me. Having said that though, it is hard for me to imagine this gimmick working in too many scenarios. Being that I tend to despise todays penchant for wildly moving cameras, especially during great action sequences, I immediately thought the worst. Nicki’s review shows she had the same reservations and I was pleased to find she had no trouble with the ‘amateur cam’ technique. This is good because I must say that alone would have had me waiting for DVD or even In Demand release.

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She first made headlines for being the “Long Island Lolita,” now Amy Fisher is making headlines again. You might remember Fisher, 33, drew mass media attention as a teenager in 1992 when an affair with Joey Buttafuocco ended with her shooting his wife, leaving her paralyzed. Now she’s made a name on the Internet after her husband sold a sex tape of theirs to an online video company.

Last August, while she and her husband, Lou Bellara, were seeking a divorce, an angered Bellara peddled private, x-rated videos of his wife to production company Red Light District out of Los Angeles. Bellara sold the video after Amy dumped him to start dating Joey Buttafuoco again. Now that they have managed to reconcile, this appears to be a giant “oops” move on his part. “Ah, yeah….sorry about that whole putting your ass on the internet thing honey….my bad!”

Fisher sued the video producer, trying to get the tapes back, but because they were legally his and he was making money off of them, Fisher says she agreed to an undisclosed settlement.

“I was very embarrassed, but I just embrace it. I don’t have any choice,” she said.

Fisher said the settlement was a one-time payout, and that any future profits from the video won’t go to her.

Not sure what to make of this. Along with Tonya Harding, Amy is one of those lost souls who manages to pop up on the radar every so often, and never in a good way. These women represent part of the decline we all face. Not just because they can’t seem to get their lives in some kind of moral order but because we all eat it up whenever we can. Myself included. Once I read about her sex tape I did what most you probably did and are doing…I looked for it.

What do you want…I am only a man.

Here is a preview I found.

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