Make way, Michael Moore! Move over, Morgan Spurlock! There’s a new documentary film-maker on the block and he’s half your size! Zachary Maxwell, 11, spent six months secretly filming the lunches being served at PS 130 in New York City. The food he was served may not have gotten many raves, but his covert expose’ “Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Documentary About School Lunches” sure has critics buzzing. Yuck – School Lunch Documentary Maxwell, at the encouragement and aid of his parents, used a hidden camera to record dozens of lunches served to himself and his classmates at his public school in New York’s Little Italy. While the menu descriptions read like those of gourmet restaurants, the reality on their trays left little to be desired. The New York City Department of Education responded to the film stating that they believe they serve healthy recipes and “delicious school meals that are low in fat, sodium and calories” and that they have “more than 1,000 salad bars in our schools to provide more healthful options to students.” Just not in PS 130, we guess? It’s an important topic in any case. The American Medical Association recently classified obesity as a disease , one which 17 percent of all U.S. kids suffer from. Maxwell’s 19-minute film, edited by himself and his father, has been shown at several film festivals already and will be screened at the Manhattan Film Festival on June 21. The 5th grader is quite proud of his accomplishments and is already working on his next project: A video yearbook of his class that each student will have as they all head off into the wild blue yonder of middle school. The budding filmmaker already has plans for that awkward period of his life, too. A film about “adolescence, puberty, and what middle school girls think about guys with braces.” So, The Real World meets Wonder Year s, then. Best of lunch luck to you, Zachary!
Former Catholic School Student Shoots Freaky Flick On School Grounds An ex-Catholic school student who says she was constantly taunted by her classmates once she decide to pursue a career in the adult entertainment industry recently paid an R-rated visit to her old stomping grounds and did the unthinkable. via Gawker “Aspiring Internet freaky flick star” Valerie Dodds says she was constantly mocked by her fellow classmates at St. Pius X High School for her decision to enter the adult entertainment business. So, to “get back” at them for their “rude” remarks, the 19-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska, native paid a visit to her old Catholic school to shoot a very special tribute dedicated to all the naysayers. “I held nothing back I used my fingers, my toys and even my crucifix in my p****,” she writes on her official freaky flick site. “I used every part of the school I could get into, payback is a b**ch ha ha.” Dodds knowingly broke the law when she trespassed onto campus grounds in order to film herself masturbating on the football field, but was still a bit surprised when she was ticketed for public exosure. This chick was wildin’!! Shutterstock Continue reading →
“Do Good” Dwyane is at it again! Dwyane Wade Surprises Miami High School Senior When He Shows Up To Her Prom Via MiamiHerald Dwyane Wade would have been in Chicago for a Heat playoff game Friday night if he hadn’t helped eliminate the Bulls with a big fourth quarter two nights early. So how did Wade fill the opening on his schedule? By attending the senior prom of an Archbishop Coleman Carroll student who had asked Wade multiple times to attend school events with her. Wade surprised Nicole Muxo and her classmates at the West Kendall school by showing up just before 9:30 p.m. at the LaJolla Ballroom in Coral Gables. Last month, Muxo asked Wade in a YouTube video to be her date for the prom. Wade explains why he decided to accept Nicole’s lofty request: “She continued to keep going for it – no matter how many times I said I am going to be busy,” Wade said. Wade said Muxo sent her a direct message on Twitter on Thursday saying: “This is the address, this is where I’m going to be just in the case.” Wade said “when I got that, I said, “I won’t be doing nothing tomorrow night and I can go and make this a memorable moment for her.” Wade called Muxo moments before walking into the prom “to tell her to have a good night” but did not tell her that he was outside. “And then I got off the phone and walked in. It was kind of cool,” he said. Awww, how sweet. Muxo told reporters that she invited Wade because “he’s my favorite player and I think he’s a positive role model.” Said Muxo: “I was so surprised. I didn’t expect it at all.” Muxo’s date, Laurent Chaumin, was a good sport. “At least we both know how to dress,” he said. Wade cracked, “I’m the third wheel. I’m like both their dates.” Afterward, Wade posted on Twitter: “I had a blast at Prom. Never be 2 scared to ask.” Closed mouths don’t get fed, and Nicole wants to eat. Image via Instagram Continue reading →
Sometimes TMI is just TMI, says writer and critic Dave White, reviewing Scotty Bowers’ Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars : “Stalker-y internet gossip site TMZ is its own TV show now and they’ve got a bus that runs all day long so tourists from Indiana can see where Chris Brown beat up Rihanna….It’s a time in Hollywood history when Mel Gibson takes up with his mistress, puts a baby in her, screams weird racist things on the phone , they laugh about it on The View and then Jodie Foster turns around and puts him in her next movie…And even if [Katharine] Hepburn was a lesbian with a bad complexion and [Spencer] Tracy a conflicted bisexual alcoholic, what purpose does it serve if I also know that Scotty Bowers provided her with as many as 150 paid female ‘companions’ over her lifetime?” [ Los Angeles Review of Books ]
Can’t get enough of this Friday’s Prometheus ? Then you’ll want to watch this shot-for-shot fan trailer that recreates every moment of Ridley Scott’s second Prometheus trailer with paper and flashlights, which is at once the antithesis of the effects-laden sci-fi pic and a neat-o celebration of its fantastical imagery. Plus: Paper Fassbender! Still hot. Obviously I have a fondness for animated fan trailers, but this one takes the form to a new level. It’s inventive, detailed, and meticulously reconstructed, and whoever drew these characters did an especially fine job on Paper Idris Elba. I’d probably watch an entire Prometheus movie made of paper. [via Film Drunk ]
The Perks of Being a Wallflower stars Three Musketeers cutie Logan Lerman as introverted-but-adorbs high school freshman Charlie (Lerman), who enters teen society searching for like-minded “misfits” and finds Emma Watson and Ezra Miller (last seen making a very different impression on his classmates in We Need to Talk About Kevin ). Is Charlie going to go all Angela Chase, narrating the brave new world of busting weird dance moves at Homecoming and standing up to bullies and shouting ironically at cheerleaders? If you’ve read Stephen Chbosky’s source novel of the same name, you already know what to expect — and it’s not quite as My So-Called Life -y as the trailer suggests. (Chbosky also writes and directs the film, with John Malkovich among producers who are onboard.) While we get a glimpse here of Paul Rudd as Charlie’s teacher, there’s not much of a peek at the rest of the cast, including Nicholas Braun, Johnny Simmons, Kate Walsh, Dylan McDermott, and Melanie Lynskey. Still… Verdict: In for the triple threat of young talent that is Lerman, Watson, and Miller alone. Bring the angst, kids. The Perks of Being a Wallflower hits theaters on September 14.
Rachel Ehmke, a Minnesota seventh grader, reportedly took her own life as a result of three months of cruel bullying at the hands of her classmates. Just 13, she was found hanged in her home on April 29 after suffering repeated abuse such as threats, being called a “slut,” “prostitute,” and worse. A text message allegedly circulated through the student body three days before her death, encouraging others to pick on her so she’d quit school. Rachel Ehmke Suicide Case Sparks Investigation The text, described by a parent as “pretty explicit,” came from a student at a different school, officials said. Regardless, it was too much for Ehmke. Her parents, Rick and Mary Ehmke, said Rachel – who pleaded with them not to report the bullying, so as not to inflame it – left a note that read: “I’m fine = I wish I could tell you how I really feel.” Somewhat surprisingly, Rick said he’s not going to pursue legal ramifications against those whose actions pushed his daughter over the edge. “They’re kids who made horrible decisions. If [they] would’ve known this would happen I’m pretty sure they never, ever would have done what they did,” her dad said. “Sadly enough, even those kids that know who they are will carry this baggage their whole life. That’s a sad thing too, it really is.”
‘X Factor’ finalist will make her Nickelodeon debut as Starr, an eccentric, big-voiced teenager. By Christina Garibaldi Rachel Crow Photo: MTV News Even though Rachel Crow was eliminated from “The X Factor” earlier than expected, most believed that it wouldn’t be the last time we would see the pint-sized teen. And they were right. In the four months since that night, the 14-year-old has landed a recording contract with Columbia Records and an overall talent deal with Nickelodeon . On Friday (April 6), Crow starts this next chapter in her career as she begins her guest starring role on the hit Nickelodeon series “Fred: The Show.” “I can’t even tell you how much fun I’m having,” Crow told MTV News on set last month. “It’s gonna be cool looking and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m on TV again!’ … It’s very exciting. I’m very happy with it. I’m having a great time; this is really fun. It’s not work when you come here, it is work, but it’s fun. It’s something that you want to go to. It’s really awesome.” Crow plays the role of Starr, a high school student who believes she is a talented actress and singer. Yet, to her classmates, she is seen as eccentric and somewhat awkward. “My character Starr is theatrical, she is wacky,” Crow said. “She’s very out there and very over the top.” In her debut episode, “Class Election,” which has a two-episode story arc, Starr tries to help Fred win a school election against his nemesis, Kevin, but when the election turns dirty, Starr decides to run against them both. During the episode, Crow shows off her sharp acting ability, but also reminds us what made us fall in love with her in the first place: her voice. “I do [sing], “Crow said. “I do a little bit and I just sing like wacky stuff like two words or a couple words and some wacky school anthems, it’s really fun.” Check out Crow on “Fred: The Show” on Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon. Are you excited to see Rachel Crow on “Fred: The Show”? Let us know in the comments. Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Rachel Crow
The schoolyard bully may be a stock character, a cliché, but in the world of Lee Hirsch’s earnest documentary Bully , he’s very real: The picture tells the stories of several kids — all of them from fairly rural parts of the United States — who suffer daily at the hands of their classmates, fielding everything from hurtful taunts to physical assault. Some of them, like 14-year-old Ja’Meya, fight back by blowing up: Fed up with her schoolmates’ gibes and insults, Jackson gets a hold of her mother’s handgun and brandishes it on the school bus one day, a tactic that earned her multiple felony charges and a long stint in a detention center. Others, like 17-year-old Tyler, break down and commit suicide. But the movie’s most poignant case is that of a kid who is still, at least during the span of time covered by the film, toughing it out against his tormentors: Alex is a smallish, graceful-gangly 12-year-old who deals with the cruelty of his classmates with a shrug and a sideways smile, as if he were somehow hoping his faux indifference would make them stop. His father lectures him, urging him to fight back, but we can see that sweet, open-hearted Alex is incapable of doing so — not so much physically as temperamentally. Alex’s story is the centerpiece of the movie, and of all the case studies here, it’s the one most likely to break your heart. Bully is effective as a document of the suffering that too many kids suffer at the hands of their cruel and sometimes possibly even psychopathic peers, particularly in parts of the country where the idea of “normal” is pretty narrow. All of the kids in Bully live somewhere in Middle America, which is not to say that bullying doesn’t happen in big cities. But if Kelby, a teenager from Tuttle, Okla., who faced persecution from her peers (and even from teachers) when she came out as a lesbian, lived in Berkeley, you wouldn’t be seeing her in this documentary. Kelby’s father speaks on-camera, saying that he offered to move the family to an area that might be more hospitable. Kelby, who comes off as self-assured and unflappable, refused the offer: “If I leave, they win,” she states plainly, although by the end of the movie, it’s suggested that all the aggression has worn her down. How can you not feel anything for a girl like Kelby? Bully cuts to the core of the way cruelty wounds these kids. But Hirsch isn’t content to let these stories speak for themselves; he attempts to fashion them into an instrument for change, and it’s there that Bully falters, particularly as it winds its way toward the end. The families of bullied children rally to make tearful speeches, light candles, release balloons into the air, and otherwise call for an official end to bullying. Their efforts are noble, and certainly understandable, but their goals are wispy — bullies, like the poor, are always with us, and no amount of joining hands is going to stamp them out. Bully is much better when it sticks to simple storytelling. And storytelling, not grandstanding, is the thing that just might grab the attention of, say, school administrators, people who can have some effect on how bullies are dealt with. Storytelling is also the only possible way to get through to the bullies themselves — though the only way those kids are likely to see the movie is if their schools arrange it. To that end, the Weinstein Co., which is releasing the film, appealed the MPAA ratings board’s original R rating . (The picture includes a little bit of spicy schoolyard language – which is part of the point.) After failing to sway the board into giving the picture a PG-13 — which would ensure that more kids would be able to see it — the Weinstein Co. decided to release the film unrated . That could cause some chains to forgo it, although AMC Theaters has announced that it will allow children under 17 to see the film with a parent, or without if the child presents a signed permission slip. But beyond the hope that a few really bad eggs who see the film will be converted, Bully is hardly persuasive as a call to action, not because it isn’t emotionally affecting (it is), but because it’s so adamantly preaching to the converted. The parents of bullied kids will totally get Bully ; they’re also the people most likely to go to see it, and they’re most likely to be appalled at the behavior of the school administrator who meets with Alex’s parents. They come to her office, distraught, in the hopes that she’ll finally do something to end their kid’s suffering — most recently, another kid has been seen poking at him with a pencil on the school bus. (After following Alex around school with a camera for a year, Hirsch became concerned for the child’s safety and showed his footage to Alex’s parents and to administrators at the Sioux City, Iowa, school he attends.) The administrator feebly reassures Alex’s parents she’ll do something about the situation and then turns the subject to her own grandchild, showing them a picture of the precious bundle, ostensibly to prove to them how much she cares about kids. Her cheerful unflappability is precisely the problem: Earlier, we’ve seen her deal with an instance of bullying in which she’s clearly being manipulated by the instigator. Maybe Bully will have some effect on the way school administrators handle the bullying problem. For Alex’s sake, you certainly hope so. That vague sort of righteous arm-waving we know as “raising awareness” certainly isn’t going to do him any good. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Even the first daughter deserves some R&R right? The POTUS oldest daughter Malia was spotted down on Oaxaca, Mexico with her classmates on a school sponsored spring break trip. Reports are that there was a pretty major 7.9 earthquake in Acapulco, Mexico which isn’t too far from Oaxaca. However there has not been any word that Malia or her classmates were harmed in any way. Check out the pics below. Don’t seem to be many other Black children…we’re just sayin’ More On Bossip! The Swirl: Meet Dwight Howard’s Colorful Assortment Of Baby Mamas [Pics] Played PT. 2: The Most Embarrassing Ways These Celebrities Got FIRED! You’re Outta Here! Shaq Dumps Hoopz And Calls Security On Her To Get Her Things! Twitter Files: Breezy Takes Karrueche To Cancun For Some Fun In The Sun Loving More On Bossip! The Swirl: Meet Dwight Howard’s Colorful Assortment Of Baby Mamas [Pics] Played PT. 2: The Most Embarrassing Ways These Celebrities Got FIRED! You’re Outta Here! Shaq Dumps Hoopz And Calls Security On Her To Get Her Things! Twitter Files: Breezy Takes Karrueche To Cancun For Some Fun In The Sun Loving
