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07-14-08 EUR ALL ON ONE PAGE
OBAMA STEERS CAMPAIGN AWAY FROM NASCAR: Presidential hopeful turns down request to sponsor car in Sprint Cup series.
*It certainly would've given a whole new meaning to the term "presidential race," but alas, there won't be a Barack Obama-sponsored car in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series after all.
The Democratic presidential hopeful had reportedly been in talks with NASCAR to be the hood sponsor of the No. 49 Toyota at the August 3rd race at Pocono. But Team Obama ultimately decided not to move forward.
Team spokesman Rhett Vandiver told The Associated Press on Friday that the team has made a sponsorship proposal to the Democratic presidential hopeful's campaign, as well as to the campaign of Republican John McCain and at least one third-party candidate.
The car, by the way, will be driven by Ken Schrader – who has given thousands of dollars to the campaigns of various Republican politicians.
PASSING STRANGE TO CLOSE THIS WEEK: Tony nominated show ends Belasco run on July 20.
*The Broadway musical Passing Strange is scheduled to close its run at the Belasco Theatre following the matinee performance on July 20, one day after Spike Lee films two performances before a live audience for a forthcoming film version.
In spite of near-unanimous rave reviews, the musical struggled at the box office throughout its six-month Broadway run. For the week ending July 6, it dipped below 40% of capacity and grossed $176,068.
Producer Gerald Schoenfeld of the Shubert Organization said in a statement: "We are extremely proud of Passing Strange and its many accomplishments on Broadway. That Spike Lee will film the show is a crowning achievement and represents a milestone in the American musical theater. We appreciate the support of the show's many ardent fans that have helped keep it running."
The show – with a book and lyrics by Stew, and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald – will have played 20 previews and 165 performances upon closing, according to Broadway.com.
During its run, Strange received 2008 Best Musical Awards from the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Village Voice Obie Awards. Stew also received the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.
MARIO VAN PEEBLES RETURNS TO 'DAMAGES': Filmmaker to reprise role in six episodes.
*Mario Van Peebles will make a return appearance on the FX series "Damages" for six episodes of its upcoming second season.
The actor/filmmaker reprises his role as Agent Harrison in the legal drama that stars Glenn Close as ruthless lawyer, Patty Hewes.
In season one, Hewes attempted to win a class-action lawsuit against the former CEO of a corporation (Ted Danson) on behalf of his former workers, by any means necessary.
Van Peebles, meanwhile, stays in the network family as director of FX's new drama series "Sons of Anarchy," which revolves around a notorious outlaw motorcycle club's efforts to protect their town from drug dealers and local corporate developers.
KEYS…ALICIA KEYS...FOR BOND THEME SONG?: Singer rumored to be top contender.
*Word has it that producers of the next James Bond flick want Alicia Keys to belt the theme song.
E! Online is reporting that the multiple Grammy-winner is rumored to be the top contender to sing the title track for the 22nd Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
So far, Beyoncé, Leona Lewis, Duran Duran, Jack White, Duffy and, most recently, Annie Lennox submitted songs for consideration, according to E! Amy Winehouse was also connected with the project, but she never finished recording her song with producer Mark Ronson.
"Quantum of Solace," starring Daniel Craig, is scheduled for release on Nov. 7.
CHRIS BROWN TO JOIN T.I. IN 'BONE DEEP': Thriller follows band of thieves with two detectives on their tail.
*R&B heartthrob Chris Brown is in final talks to star opposite rapper T.I. and Matt Dillon in the Screen Gems thriller "Bone Deep."
The project revolves around a group of criminals who plan a major heist at a money depot, with two detectives hot on their trail. Brown will play one of the members of the heist crew, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The singer made his film debut in the 2007 film "Stomp the Yard." He also co-starred in the holiday film "This Christmas," which premiered in November and earned $49 million at the box office.
Brown is also due to star in the Screen Gems sports drama "Phenom."
MARIAH ASKS FANS TO REMIX NEW SINGLE: Singer teams with startup social network to promote 'Lovin' U Long Time.'
*Beginning tomorrow (July 15), Mariah Carey is giving professionals and amateurs alike a chance to remix her current single "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time," the third release from her latest album, "E=MC2."
According to Billboard.com, a contest will be held on the Web site Indaba Music, a startup social network Web site for musicians. The online community, marketed as a destination for aspiring and established producers and artists, will be furnished with the complete stems of the Carey track for remixing.
"Mariah is the queen of the remix," manager Mark Sudack tells Billboard, citing the pop star's work with dance producers like David Morales -- for whom she resang the vocals of 1993's "Dreamlover" -- and Junior Vasquez, as well as hip-hop greats like Sean "Diddy" Combs, DJ Clue, Ol' Dirty Bastard and the Lox. "This contest is a way for her to continue being a pioneer in the remix world, potentially finding a new sound, a new power, a new energy in the online space, as opposed to just the go-to producers of the moment."
Entrants must join Indaba by creating a profile and can then download the song stems, work on their mix and submit it via the site by August 26. The Indaba community will pick its 10 favorite mixes via online voting. Three judges -- including Sudack, who co-executive-produced "E=MC2" -- will then select the winner. The producer of the winning mix will receive $5,000, be designated as Carey's No. 1 MySpace friend for four weeks and possibly have his or her work released.
OBAMA DOES DAMAGE CONTROL OVER BERNIE MAC: Comedian's humor too blue for blue crowd.
*Comedian Bernie Mac ruffled some feathers at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Friday night when some of his jokes apparently crossed the line.
The 50-year-old star of "The Bernie Mac Show" poked fun at menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and dropped some rather salty language during his 10 minute routine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago.
"My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'" Mac said. "I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.'"
According to the Associated Press, the punch line drew an angry response from at least one person in the audience, who said it was offensive to women.
"It's not funny. Let's get Barack on," shouted a member of the crowd.
Obama took the stage 15 minutes later and tried to smooth things over.
"We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."
Obama's campaign released a more formal rebuke of Mac's words in the following statement from spokeswoman Jen Psaki: "Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate."
IS SHONDA RHIMES PLOTTING IZZIE'S FUNERAL?: Word has it 'Grey's Anatomy' creator didn't appreciate Heigl's Emmy remarks.
*E! Online is reporting that "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes is planning to make Katherine Heigl's character Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens sleep with the fishes, which apparently would be fine with the actress, considering her red hot film career.
E! claims Rhimes will kill off Izzie because of Heigl's decision to remove herself from Emmy contention citing the lack of good material for her character this year.
"It's not good there," a source tells E! Online's Marc Malkin of the "Grey's Anatomy" set. "Shonda is pissed. They're thinking of killing her off. They want Izzie dead."
Malkin writes: "Going public with her Emmy complaint only increased speculation that she wants out of her contract to focus on her red-hot film career. Heigl may have picked up an Emmy last year, but since then she's become a box-office golden girl with flicks like 'Knocked Up' and '27 Dresses.'"
A rep for Rhimes said: "I haven't heard anything about that."
SNOOP DIGS DEEPER INTO COUNTRY: Rapper to team with Teddy Riley and DJ Quik for 'Johnny Cash Remixed.'
*Snoop Dogg was really serious about his newfound love for country music. In addition to his current single "My Medicine" with Willie Nelson, the rap star has signed on to join the upcoming project "Johnny Cash Remixed."
Teddy Riley and DJ Quik will accompany the rapper in a remix of Cash's 1956 classic "I Walk the Line" for the "Remixed" album, which is executive produced by Cash's son John Carter Cash.
The project will feature DJs and producers putting their take on Cash's material from Sun Records, the label he shared with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis before moving on to Columbia Records for much of his career.
Others set to contribute to the album, which will have a September vinyl release before its CD and digital release in October, include Pete Rock, the Heavy, Mocean Worker and Alabama 3, the last act being best-known for The Sopranos theme
In a statement released today, the younger Cash says his father would not have "Cry, Cry, Cry"-ed over this new venture. "He would have loved this remix record. While it stays true to the original recordings, this CD touches on undiscovered ground. This is what my father was about: staying true to tradition while creating groundbreaking new music."
MISS USA WANTS OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE: Crystle Stewart, 26, says he can count on her vote.
*"I like Barack Obama -- just his poise and the way he motivates people -- and that's something that draws me," said our current Miss USA Crystle Stewart of Texas, who competed last night in the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam.
"John McCain is an American hero," she said of the Republican Party hopeful, a senator from Arizona and former naval pilot who spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"I'm actually kind of torn because I think he's a great person, he's older and he might be a little bit wiser," she told AFP. "But Obama's on the higher end of the list," she added.
Stewart, who works as a motivational speaker, is writing a book called "Waiting to Win."
ITTY BITTY BITS: Taboo married; Boy George for Obama; rare Marley footage; Fabulocity line; Beyonce/Foxx in wax; Radio One's new DC station.
*Black Eyed Peas rapper Taboo married his fiancé Jaymie Dizon on Saturday at St. Andrews Catholic Church in Pasadena, Calif., their rep tells People.com. Taboo (real name: Jaime Gomez) and Dizon got hitched two days before the rapper's 33rd birthday. Guests included the groom's Black Eyed Peas bandmates will.i.am, Apl de ap as groomsmen, and Fergie, accompanied by fiancé Josh Duhamel. The best man was his childhood friend and manager Polo Molina.
*Boy George is planning to record a new ditty in honor of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama. "I've just written a new song called 'Yes, We Can' that was inspired by the Barack Obama speech," the former Culture Club cross-dressing frontman tells this month's issue of Vegas magazine. George, an ex-heroin user, has turned over a new leaf after numerous legal woes.
*Rare Bob Marley concert performances have been added to the nearly 500 recordings already available for download purchase at the music and memorabilia site Wolfgang's Vault (http://www.wolfgangsvault.com). The additions were made possible through a deal between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Wolfgang's Vault founder Bill Sagan. The downloadable content deal is for 10 years. If the concert is longer than 30 minutes, a full download is priced at $9.98, with concerts of less than 30 minutes at $5.98. Some one- or two-song performances cost $3.98. The site will continue to offer free streaming.
*The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that designer Steve Madden and Kimora Lee Simmons have made a deal for Madden to exclusively manufacture and supply all the shoes, handbags and belts for Simmons' new Fabulosity line at JCPenney.
*Wax figures of Beyonce and Jamie Foxx were positioned on Hollywood Blvd. Friday to promote the Hollywood opening of a new Madame Tussauds museum in 2009. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presented the figures, and joked with the press, saying, "It's already raising the stakes and shaking the scene," reports TMZ.com.
*Financially-strapped Radio One has picked up gospel station WPRS-FM in the Washington, D.C., market for $38 million, reports Baller Status. The Waldorf, Md-based station, also known as Praise 104.1 FM., was formerly owned by Bonneville Holding Co., and is home to the ‘‘Yolanda Adams Morning Show." The purchase comes following an $18.3 million net loss in the first quarter of 2008 and ongoing plans to relocate to a $100 million mixed-use project in Washington.
JEFFREY WRIGHT ARRESTED IN BAR FIGHT: Actor and Josh Brolin in Louisiana shooting Bush film.
*Actors Jeffrey Wright and Josh Brolin, co-stars of Oliver Stone’s forthcoming George W. Bush film “W,” were arrested during a bar fight early Saturday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to the Shreveport Times.
The actors, who are shooting the film in Shreveport, were reportedly caught up in a fight at the Stray Cat bar. When officers arrived just after 2 a.m., Brolin and Wright – who plays General Colin Powell in the film – along with other bar patrons allegedly attempted to impede police.
Brolin, who plays President George W. Bush, was arrested along with Wright and two others and charged with interfering with police, a misdemeanor. A fifth person, who was working as a “W” lighting technician, was charged with entering and remaining, resisting arrest and public intoxication.
Brolin was booked in city jail and released on a posted $334 cash bond. It was unclear as of press time if the other people involved were also released..
WOMAN SUES LAPD OVER HUSBAND’S DEATH: Widow says cops shot him because he was black.
*A woman is suing the city of Los Angeles alleging that police officers shot her husband to death because he was black, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Laura Cox, of Woodland Hills, seeks unspecified damages in her lawsuit against the city and five LAPD officers, claiming discrimination, civil-rights violations, wrongful death, negligence and battery.
The suit, filed Tuesday, counters the official police account of the March 1 events leading up to Maurice Cox's death.
Authorities said the 38-year-old man crashed his speeding truck into a tree on Crenshaw Boulevard in Hyde Park, threatened officers and refused to surrender for more than 15 minutes. He then tried to flee, holding an object that looked like a gun, officials said, prompting officers to shoot him.
He turned out to be holding a power adapter for a car cigarette lighter.
He died later that evening at California Hospital Medical Center. Laura Cox says in the lawsuit the crash left her husband disoriented, which is why he didn't respond immediately to officers who ordered him to surrender. The suit also denied he hurled any threats at officers or tried to get away.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which investigates all police shootings in the county, is likely months away from getting the results of the LAPD's internal inquiry into the shooting, spokeswoman Jane Robison said.
EUR FILM REVIEW: Meet Dave
Eddie Murphy Misfires as Brother from Another Planet
Film Review by Kam Williams
*In 1984, John Sayles directed The Brother from Another Planet, a thought-provoking, sci-fi comedy about an alien who washes ashore at Ellis Island and makes his way to Manhattan where he does his best to blend in because he’s being chased by a couple of bounty hunters who had followed him to Earth. Aside from being hilarious, what made that screen classic worthwhile was its touching on a timely theme in a meaningful manner.
For the film’s protagonist was an escaped slave who looked exactly like a black man. However, he had been persecuted back on his planet not on account of his skin color but rather because he was born with only three toes on each foot.
Ironically, his effort to survive in New York City was complicated by his having to accommodate himself to an unfamiliar form of prejudice, namely, American racism. Sayles’ overall aim was to make a subtle statement about bigotry of any form by showing how silly it would be to divide people into minority groups based on the number of their toes or along the lines of any other arbitrary physical characteristics.
Almost a quarter century later, we now have Meet Dave, a sci-fi adventure which borrows Brother’s basic premise, while conveniently ignoring the movie’s more cerebral aspects. The dumbing-down is no surprise since it stars Eddie Murphy who is again directed by Brian Robbins with whom he successfully collaborated last year on the equally brainless Norbit.
The familiar-sounding storyline starts with the crash of a human-looking spacecraft played by Eddie Murphy next to the Statue of Liberty (instead of on Ellis Island ala Brother). But we still get the idea that we’re dealing with the theme of America as a melting pot and a land of opportunity.
The rocket, we learn, is being operated by 100 tiny aliens under the command of a Captain also played Mr. Murphy. He guides the vehicle to Manhattan where the movie morphs into the kind of fish-out-of-water comedy we’ve seen countless times before, from Crocodile Dundee to Mr. Deeds to Elf to Enchanted. This repeatedly recycled scenario revolves around a naïve newcomer who must survive a series of ordeals on the mean streets of the city.
At this juncture, the plot thickens when Dave is hit by a car driven by Gina (Elizabeth Banks), a widowed-mom with a heart of gold. When she then brings the odd fellow home to recuperate, her precocious young son, Josh (Austyn Myers), immediately picks up on the fact that their guest isn’t normal.
For example, Dave defecates dollar bills and sharpens pencils by sticking them up his nose. Plus, he can be very literal, such as the occasion on which he shoved everything to the floor when asked to clear the table. These eccentricities don’t prevent Gina from developing a crush on innocent Dave, which simply cannot be reciprocated since he’s a machine after all.
Forget the love story, this is a flick to be savored for its asinine slapstick, the sort of infantile poop and fart fare likely to keep the tykes in stitches for ninety minutes. Besides Brother from Another Planet, Meet Dave shamelessly steals bits made famous by a few other films, such as In and Out’s coming out scene (“I’m Dave Ming!” instead of “I’m gay!”), and Chris Rock’s unsuccessful hail of a taxi from Down to Earth (“What, an alien can’t get a cab in this town?” instead of “I’m a black man again!”)
All in all, this unoriginal, derivative disaster is the worst sci-fi comedy since, well, since Eddie Murphy made The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
Poor (0 stars)
Rated PG for action, suggestive humor and mild epithets.
Running time: 90 minutes
Studi 20th Century Fox
To see a trailer of Meet Dave, visit: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rhDX0fTq7WY
EUR MOTIVATIONAL NOTE
"Aim for success not perfection... Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person." — Dr. David Burns
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
July 14: Singer Tameka Cottle of Xscape is 33. Musician taboo of Black Eyed Peas is 33.
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Independent author Jenna Marie Christian's wants you to know her mission is to Inform, Entertain, and Uplift her community. You can support her at: www.missjenaamarie.com
Submit your favorite Web site to us along with a 15-20 word (or less) description to info@eurweb.com.
BLACK HISTORY
July 14, 1891: Inventor, J Standard was awarded a patent for making the refrigerator. (Source: www.BlackFacts.com)
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