September 14, 2009
The summer of 2009 is history ... in more ways than one. According to entertainment-tracking website The Numbers, 2009's summer box office take was the biggest ever. Moviegoers plopped down $4.31 billion from Memorial Day to Labor Day, topping 2007's previous record of $4.16 billion. [the-numbers.com, 9/8/09 stats]
A big chunk of this summer's box office record came courtesy of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which has grossed $401.1 million in the United States (and counting), putting it at No. 9 on the all-time box office receipts list. Internationally, the Transformers sequel has snagged an additional $430.0 million, for a total take of $831.1 million. [boxofficemojo.com, 9/14/09 stats]
QUOTE: "If 2009 is remembered for anything in American cinema, it might be as the year grown-ups and Hollywood finally agreed to call it quits. This is the year when such slick, star-driven, adult-oriented movies as State of Play, Duplicity, The International and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 underperformed at the box office. And when talking-toy movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe raked in millions." —Washington Post staff writer Ann Hornaday [washingtonpost.com, 8/23/09]
QUOTE: "What happened to serious American movies? I ask because the best ones, such as The Hurt Locker, no longer get anything resembling a wide release, while Michael Bay's idiotic Transformers 2 movie opened on over 4,200 screens. ... And consider this: Locker cost about $11 million to make. It's a work of genius. Revenge of the Fallen had a budget almost 20 times that, and it's a work of crap. The public decides, you say? Fine, I have no problem with that, but when did you last see a movie that engaged your mind a week or a month later? Doubt was nearly a year ago. Ditto The Wrestler and The Reader. Having scanned production schedules, I can tell you there's nothing like these on the horizon ... but you can bet your ticket stub there'll be further adventures for the Transformers and the G.I. Joes." —Stephen King, in his regular Entertainment Weekly column on the state of pop culture [Entertainment Weekly, 9/18/09]
On the heels of the toy-based films Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Warner Bros. has announced it's developing a film based on LEGOs. [nydailynews.com, 8/12/09]
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that students who watch historical movies tend to substitute Hollywood fiction for the facts—even when they've read an accurate account in a textbook. When students were told about a film's inaccuracies, the movie version still trumped the actual events about 50% of the time. "What we found is that there's something really special about watching a film that lets people retain information from that film, even when they had read a contradictory account in the textbook," said psychologist Andrew Butler. [msnbc.com, 8/12/09 stats, c&e]
QUOTE: "[The studio] wanted as much skin as possible, 'cause it's an R-rated movie, and you want to deliver to the audience that signs up for that. I definitely didn't want to make a movie that was exploitative and misogynistic ... but I definitely had pressure, like, 'Why don't you have a girl just pull off her top?'" —Sorority Row director Stewart Hendler [newsweek.com, 9/11/09]
Goodbye, Paula. Hello, Ellen. Fox has announced that comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has been tapped to fill the judge seat left vacant on American Idol following Paula Abdul's recent decision not to return. Idol executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz said of the decision to hire DeGeneres: "Beyond her incredible sense of humor and love of music, she brings with her an immense warmth and compassion that is almost palpable. She is one of America's foremost entertainers, and we cannot wait to have her join our team." For her part, DeGeneres believes she'll bring a fan's perspective to America's most-watched television show. "Hopefully, I'm the people's point of view because I'm just like you," she said on her show. "I sit at home and I watch it. ... I'm not looking at it in a critical way from the producer's mind. I'm looking at it as a person who is going to buy the music and is going to relate to that person." [usatoday.com, 9/9/09; people.com, 9/9/09]
Speaking of buying the music—or not—Ellen's talk show has been sued by a group of record companies for copyright infringement. Specifically, the labels allege that the so-called "dance over" segment of her show (in which Ellen dances through the studio audience) has broadcast more than 1,000 songs without ever paying for a license to use that music. [rollingstone.com, 9/11/09; billboard.biz, 9/11/09]
Beyoncé, Lady GaGa and Green Day were the big winners at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, with each nabbing three awards. Beyoncé took VIDEO OF THE YEAR honors for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." Lady GaGa was dubbed BEST NEW ARTIST, and her performance of the new single "Paparazzi" provided some of the night's most bizarre moments as she danced in lingerie, covered herself in faux blood and played dead as she was hoisted into the air at the song's conclusion. In the end, though, she battled for attention with Kanye West. As 19-year-old country singer Taylor Swift accepted her award for BEST FEMALE VIDEO, West suddenly appeared onstage, grabbed the mic and said that he thought Beyoncé should have won because she had "one of the best videos of all time." [MTV, 9/13/09]
QUOTE: "It's like you stepped on a kitten." —singer Katy Perry, in a tweet to Kanye West regarding his treatment of Taylor Swift during the Video Music Awards [mtv.com, 9/14/09]
Actress Patricia Mauceri, whom Fox News characterizes as a "devout Christian," has portrayed Carlotta Vega on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live for the last 14 years. But the 59-year-old actress was recently fired after objecting to the way her deeply religious character was being asked to deal with a storyline involving homosexuality. [foxnews.com, 9/4/09]
A radio host in Maryland recently staged a hoax intended to drum up media attention ... and to reveal the sad state of fact-checking in journalism today. A morning-show host who goes by the moniker Kane on 99.5 FM (which broadcasts in Washington, D.C.) says he orchestrated the ruse as an experiment. The hoax included an intern who called himself William Taylor and wore a sign that read, "I cheated [on my wife]. This is my punishment." Several media outlets took the bait, and began reporting on the story without bothering to investigate whether it was genuine or not. When criticized for his deception, Kane wrote on his Twitter account, "MEDIA: ur getting it ALL wrong. if it was publicity, I'd have my name on it. YOU made it a story by not checking your facts. Don't blame me." [washingtonpost.com, 9/3/09]
Similarly, German TV station RTL has concocted a video that supposedly shows Michael Jackson hopping out of a coroner's van alive. CNN reports that the station said it was made to show how easy it is to spread rumors online. "We sent out a press release before we did the video to alert everyone that it was fake, but once posted it spread really fast," RTL spokeswoman Heike Schultz said. [cnn.com, 9/1/09]
QUOTE: "The second that I decided I wanted to be in front of the camera ... I aspired to be like Britney Spears in the tabloids. So it's kind of something you sign up for in the beginning and if you really want it ... that comes with it." —actress Lindsay Lohan, on intentionally mimicking Britney's bad behavior for the sake of staying in the spotlight [msnbc.com, 9/11/09]