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Popular culture, or pop culture: (literally: "the culture of the people") consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. Such elements are perpetuated through that society's vernacular language or an established lingua franca. It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the everyday lives of the mainstream. It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media and the many facets of entertainment such as sports and literature. Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even elitist "high culture." May 29, 2007 I enjoyed the gossipy format of last time's column so much that it's likely going to be a theme. There is little that more defines us as a culture than the news stories we follow and the people we admire or love to hate, so with only the isolated one-subject columns here and there, I will mostly be writing a potpourri of news bits because well, Enquiring Minds Want to Know. I had to restrain myself from writing the gossip bits all last week because they just kept pouring in, but during May, I knew that if I got started, nothing else would get done around here and it was an insanely busy month. It would be so easy to escape into the siren's song of gossip fun and way too easy to get completely lost in it, so I refrained. From here on out... not so much. : ) So here we go:
She has to appear
to fulfill her sentence by June 5th. Her lawyers have given up
the fight to appeal the sentence, motivated by the reduced sentence
and the offer to house her in "celebrity jail" away from the general
population of unwashed common folk. A spokesperson for
the actress says she has decided not to continue chemotherapy, but
will instead be treated by a radiation device implanted in the
cancerous area.
One of my favorite stars, based solely on charisma and acting chops, has been catching my attention in the past few years for his way of being in the world. Bruce Willis just keeps on shining and I want to take him home and love him up and feed him and cuddle him and call him George. First, he was soooo cool about Demi's involvement with Ashton Kutcher (even though AK said the first time he met Willis, he was afraid he'd "kick my ass."). Then he told OFF one of my archiest enemies, Oprah Winfrey for her blatant hypocrisy. Now he goes on record as telling Hollywood to just shut the complete hell up. His beef comes with stars who use their star status to pimp their causes and try to influence the minds of mere mortals. Says My Own Mr Wonderful, "I don't think my opinion means jackshit, because I'm an actor. Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds - thousands - of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor's mouth lately?" He goes on to say, "Although I liked George Clooney's documentary on Darfur." He even likes George. I'm dreamy and swoony to the extreme. I might need extra progesterone cream. As if that wasn't cool enough for us to want to elevate him to something like, I dunno, GOD, he went into a chatroom on the very popular website "Ain't It Cool News," signing in as "Walter B" and chatting with the folks there. Once he revealed his true identity, of course everyone there was completely skeptical and had no thought he was the real deal. Willis solved the problem by instructing them to "Send me your biggest doubter, who has iChat/video ability, and have them call. I will give that person my iChat address, and they will see me talking to them. I doubt if there is a way to fake that." They did, he did and then the lucky doubter posted the photo that came up on his webcam. That photo is here:
Rock and Roll legend and ex-husband of Tina Turner, Ike Turner, was arrested on a recalled felony narcotics warrant from 1989. LAPD officers pulled Turner over after clocking the musician doing 80mph on LA's 405 freeway. The cops ran a check and found the felony listed and threw the 75-year-old Ike in the slammer. By his own testimony, he "froze his ass off" and only had a banana and a cookie to eat. Once the error was revealed, Ike was released. He left the jail in his prison attire, but vowed to come back to fetch his $5000 suit. When asked why he cooperated with police officers when he knew the warrant was active in error, Ike responded, "Who knows? They might have been right!" You can see an interview as he leaves the jail here.
Elijah Wood is set
to star as Iggy Pop in the movie "The Passenger,"
a biographical film about the legendary rocker.
The movie follows Pop's early years with "The Stooges" and is scheduled for release in summer of 2008. Iggy Pop supports the project, but had no interest in taking part in it.
The third installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series ends in such a way as to raise great speculation over the idea of a fourth. Initial box office reports are through the roof ($156.1 mil from Thursday - Sunday) and the show's star, Johnny Depp, has said he's game for a 4th and eager to explore the story of Captain Jack Sparrow even further. The resistance is found in producer Jerry Bruckheimer who balks at the idea although does not completely discredit it. Says Mr B, "We've been working on this trilogy for 5 1/2 years, and the latest one was just a monster. It's always about making sure you have a great story with interesting plots, themes and characters. There is a possibility-- we'll see what happens." (LA Times) Dreamworks Animation, however, plans two more Shrek movies to make a total of five. Kill me now
And that, my
friends, is all for now!
(That's OK, Don't) Send In the Clowns People Who Have Clearly Lost Their Minds Anorexia Versus Genetics; Media Pressure Versus Body Type |
My very
favorite little poppet to pick on, Paris, finally got the bottom
line on her much-resented jail sentence. As it turns
out, her 45 day jail sentence will be reduced to 23 days, which she
will spend in a "special needs housing unit" at the Century Regional
Detention Center in Lynwood. She was given, get ready, "credit
for good behavior" by jail officials. How, you may ask, do you
get good behavior points before you go to jail? Just
show up, I guess. She appeared for her latest court date and
that impressed them enough that they cut her sentence in half.
Only three
months after her 60th birthday when she was told her cancer was in
remission, Farrah Fawcett received the sad news that the disease had
returned. The former Charlie's Angel star underwent surgery
and chemo last September after being diagnosed with intestinal
cancer. 
Following
the trend to take shows from years gone by and remake them into big
screen movies that satirize the source ("The Brady Bunch," "The
Beverly Hillbillies," "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Dukes of Hazzard,
for instance), a feature film of the 1980's TV hit "Magnum P.I." was
planned, but it's star said he wasn't interested. He feels
that such a project would compromise the integrity of the show and
explains, "I tell you what worries me - because I love Magnum
& we have loyal fans - is they take these TV show titles and they
buy them and they spend $100 million on special effects, and then
they make fun of them & trivialize it. Then they try and get the
actor who used to be in it to do some ridiculous cameo to prove to
the audience that it's OK and I will not do that." Goooo Tom!!
