Really? You’re gonna blame the dead man?? Real classy Chris Christopher Darden Claims Johnnie Cochran Altered O.J.’s Gloves Nearly seventeen years after O.J. Simpson walked away from his murder trial a free man, a prosecutor at the center of the case has alleged that the lead defense lawyer tampered with a crucial piece of evidence. Former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Christopher Darden on Thursday accused Simpson defense lawyer, the late Johnnie Cochran, of “manipulating” one of the infamous gloves that the prosecution said linked Simpson to the grisly double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. After Simpson struggled to fit the gloves on his hands — in one of the defining moments of the racially charged trial that captivated the nation – Cochran famously admonished the jury, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” On Thursday, during a panel discussion about the trial at Pace Law School in New York City, Darden, a member of the prosecution team, declared: “I think Johnnie tore the lining. There were some additional tears in the lining so that O.J.’s fingers couldn’t go all the way up into the glove.” Darden said in a follow-up interview on Friday that he noticed that when Simpson was trying on a glove for the jury its structure appeared to have changed. “A bailiff told me the defense had it during the lunch hour.” He said he wasn’t specifically accusing anyone, adding: “It’s been my suspicion for a long time that the lining has been manipulated.” He said he had previously voiced similar concerns in TV interviews, but could not recall the details. Why is this ninja still holding on to this B.S. ALL these years later Image via AP Source
Tell ya one thing, that hospital is about to get fried in the impending lawsuit. The family of a Muslim grandmother was distraught to discover that her body had been desecrated while it lay in the morgue of the hospital where she died. Touching or eating pork was forbidden for the woman during her life, but a vandal draped her remains in bacon! A £5,000 reward is being offered by police after the body of a Muslim woman was found in a hospital mortuary, covered with rashers of bacon. The desecration was discovered when the family of the grandmother, aged 65, was waiting to see her body after she lost her fight with cancer. The Metropolitan Police’s racial crime task force was called in to investigate the incident, at Hillingdon Hospital in west London, and an extensive inquiry was launched. It is strictly against the Muslim religion to touch or eat pork and the woman’s family, who do not want to be identified, have been left deeply traumatized. Detective Chief Inspector Tony Hester, of Hillingdon police, said: “This is a particularly grotesque act which has outraged the family as well as the whole community. “Because of the nature of the incident a criminal investigation was immediately initiated and is still ongoing. DCC4 – Racial and Violent Crime Task Force – was involved in the initial investigation and officers from the Community Safety Unit are in constant liaison with them. “We are also, of course, keeping the family and local community informed of developments.” The crime was discovered as staff arranged for the body to be viewed by family members. Police have viewed CCTV footage and speaking to staff and others captured on video outside the mortuary. Forensic experts have also examined the bacon and the gown the woman was wearing. A member of the woman’s family told BBC London News the incident made them feel “physically sick. It was like a horrible nightmare. I get flashbacks, my brain goes numb.” “I witnessed her passing away and then for me to witness that again, it’s traumatic. I feel emotionally raped.” The woman’s daughter said it was like a nightmare that was still deeply affecting the family. “I thought someone who did this hated Muslims especially. I don’t know why they chose my mum. “In life you expect a lot of things, but something so shocking, you couldn’t even think it up in the worst horror movie. Evil, evil, people.” David McVittie, chief executive of Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust, expressed sympathy for the family and said everything would be done to find out who was responsible. “I am extremely sorry for the distress that the family of the lady concerned suffered as a result of this despicable incident and for any distress it has caused to the Muslim community. “I am shocked and outraged that such a thing has happened and will not rest until we have found the perpetrators of this crime.” The £5,000 reward has been offered by Scotland Yard and the hospital. The family is being represented by human rights solicitor Imran Khan. SMH this is horrible. Who would do such a thing to an older woman who died after losing her battle with CANCER? What the hell?!? It sounds like discrimination is just as bad in the UK as over here, if not worse! Source
Tell ya one thing, that hospital is about to get fried in the impending lawsuit. The family of a Muslim grandmother was distraught to discover that her body had been desecrated while it lay in the morgue of the hospital where she died. Touching or eating pork was forbidden for the woman during her life, but a vandal draped her remains in bacon! A £5,000 reward is being offered by police after the body of a Muslim woman was found in a hospital mortuary, covered with rashers of bacon. The desecration was discovered when the family of the grandmother, aged 65, was waiting to see her body after she lost her fight with cancer. The Metropolitan Police’s racial crime task force was called in to investigate the incident, at Hillingdon Hospital in west London, and an extensive inquiry was launched. It is strictly against the Muslim religion to touch or eat pork and the woman’s family, who do not want to be identified, have been left deeply traumatized. Detective Chief Inspector Tony Hester, of Hillingdon police, said: “This is a particularly grotesque act which has outraged the family as well as the whole community. “Because of the nature of the incident a criminal investigation was immediately initiated and is still ongoing. DCC4 – Racial and Violent Crime Task Force – was involved in the initial investigation and officers from the Community Safety Unit are in constant liaison with them. “We are also, of course, keeping the family and local community informed of developments.” The crime was discovered as staff arranged for the body to be viewed by family members. Police have viewed CCTV footage and speaking to staff and others captured on video outside the mortuary. Forensic experts have also examined the bacon and the gown the woman was wearing. A member of the woman’s family told BBC London News the incident made them feel “physically sick. It was like a horrible nightmare. I get flashbacks, my brain goes numb.” “I witnessed her passing away and then for me to witness that again, it’s traumatic. I feel emotionally raped.” The woman’s daughter said it was like a nightmare that was still deeply affecting the family. “I thought someone who did this hated Muslims especially. I don’t know why they chose my mum. “In life you expect a lot of things, but something so shocking, you couldn’t even think it up in the worst horror movie. Evil, evil, people.” David McVittie, chief executive of Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust, expressed sympathy for the family and said everything would be done to find out who was responsible. “I am extremely sorry for the distress that the family of the lady concerned suffered as a result of this despicable incident and for any distress it has caused to the Muslim community. “I am shocked and outraged that such a thing has happened and will not rest until we have found the perpetrators of this crime.” The £5,000 reward has been offered by Scotland Yard and the hospital. The family is being represented by human rights solicitor Imran Khan. SMH this is horrible. Who would do such a thing to an older woman who died after losing her battle with CANCER? What the hell?!? It sounds like discrimination is just as bad in the UK as over here, if not worse! Source
Worlds collide in the raunchy comedy For A Good Time, Call… , the sweet and salty tale of two reluctant roommates ( Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller) tentatively building a friendship as they embark on a phone sex business venture together. It’s a long-awaited starring vehicle for Graynor and Miller and a warmly funny offering in the current wave of raunchy R-rated female-driven comedies – and For A Good Time, Call… also marks the anticipated debut of shorts filmmaker Jamie Travis ( The Patterns Trilogy , The Saddest Boy in the World ), who here earns the distinction of inspiring Justin Long ‘s performance in the film and getting to direct Kevin Smith jerking off in his feature debut. All of the above may surprise those who’ve followed Travis’s work over the past decade, during which time the Toronto-based filmmaker burst onto the film festival scene with award-winning, impeccably-crafted short films (highly recommended and viewable here ) that dealt effectively in nostalgic sensibilities, a Wes Anderson-like mise en scene, and a stylistic formalism largely absent from his fast-talking lady comedy. But after years of searching for the right project, Travis fell for the script by real life friends Miller and Katie Anne Naylon and subsequently launched into his first feature on an incredibly packed 16-day shooting schedule. After premiering at Sundance and debuting in limited release this weekend, For a Good Time, Call… expands to additional cities on September 7. “I honestly don’t know how to direct a movie unless I love it,” Travis offered, looking back on the film. “I feel like that love needs to drive you, and without it what are you doing?” I fell in love with your Patterns trilogy and your short films, so when I heard that you were directing For A Good Time, Call… I was very intrigued — I’d been wondering when we’d see a feature from you. You must have been surprised that I was making what people will refer to as a “phone sex comedy!” It definitely wasn’t the kind of film I thought I was going to direct. I thought of myself as directing something I wrote myself because all of my short films, including the Patterns trilogy, are written from a personal place. So it was a great surprise when I read the script. Knowing it was a phone sex comedy, I didn’t know what to think. I was so pleasantly surprised by how sweet it is, and how it shows female friendship in a way I don’t think enough movies show. It took a vehicle like phone sex and hung female friendship on it in such a grounded way. I just loved it, so I couldn’t say no! You must have been reading a lot of scripts over the years. Yeah – I had been reading so many scripts, and had gotten a lot of interest from American agents and eventually signed with WME, all from my films being at the Toronto Film Festival and Sundance. And I found that in particular it was The Saddest Boy in the World that people could see how I could kind of go in a commercial direction from that. The Patterns Trilogy is pretty out there; I feel like that’s for a very specific kind of audience, which apparently is you, Jen Yamato. It is! But it’s funny, I had been reading scripts for five or six years and hadn’t taken a meeting on anything. There was nothing I was interested in, I was growing increasingly skeptical that I was ever going to direct someone else’s script, and then I read this one and fell in love with it. It was just so funny to me, it bounced off the page in a way that I hadn’t experienced reading other people’s scripts. I immediately knew that I was the right person to direct it. I felt like I got it, and I also could see a really bad version of the movie in the hands of the wrong person who didn’t really get it, and I felt like I got it. I immediately connected it to these great ‘80s movies with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn — Outrageous Fortune is a particular favorite of mine — and I loved that there’s a fine line of groundedness and also camp, a full-on female spirit. There’s a tricky tone to nail here. It’s a very sweet story about friendship between women, but it’s also raunchy, and that so much better reflects what real women are like than historically most movies about or for women have been. I mainly spend my time with girls — or more correctly, women — and my girlfriends talk dirty! They are brutally honest. And you’re right, I never see that in movies in a way that feels authentic to me. This script was written by two best friends, Lauren Miller and Katie Naylon, and they put so much of themselves into this script. You could really feel that, and it informed the whole project that it was loosely based on their real relationship. There’s this great quote from you, where the story goes that as you were lobbying for the directing job, you told Katie and Lauren, “You cannot let a straight man direct this movie.” [Laughs] I mean, certainly there are other people who could have directed this movie, I’m sure. But I did feel that as a gay man, and I don’t want to speak for all gay men, I have a certain reverence for women that is completely uncomplicated by sexuality or sexual tension. And I felt like that’s the spirit the film needed. It’s funny, because all the girls in this film — Ari, Lauren, and Katie, the writer — they all have their gay BFFs, and I felt like that perspective of reverence for women and for the kind of truthful aspects of female relationships — and I feel like I really get female relationships — I feel like a lot of that access comes because I am a gay man. You’re right — watching the film, I realized how so many of these scenes of phone sex or even just Katie and Lauren becoming close could easily have gone in another direction. That was my fear. This whole film was kind of a high wire act in tone. How do we have fun and keep it funny and keep it light and raunchy, but also find a way to keep the focus on the friendship between the girls? When I read the script I could see that someone, maybe a straight man, could read it in a whole other way, and could aim to titillate the audience or objectify the girls in their phone sex calls, and I hated that version of the movie in my mind. So I think I used this whole “a gay man must direct this movie” as a bit of a ploy to get the job, but at the same time it was my way of saying you guys have a sensitive tone here, and it would be very easy for it to go off the grid. But I’m sure there are many straight men out there who have great insight into female relationships. For me, it’s something I see among the gay men that I know; we just love women in a way that’s really uncomplicated. Speaking of which, I love the story of how Justin Long “found” his character. He plays Katie and Lauren’s mutual best friend, and after a conversation with you he decided he’d like to model the character on… you. How did you feel about that? Are you kidding me, I felt great about it! I basically wanted that, deep down in my subconscious mind. When that was the direction he wanted to take it in, I was very pleased. We had been talking about how to keep the character away from the stereotypical gay character that we see, and for me the most important part was not sexualizing the character as the lascivious gay man who’s chasing tail — because I’ve never been that guy, and those are not the gay men that I’m attracted to as friends or otherwise. I like the wholesomeness of [the character] — he has his own thing, he’s a budding comedian, and his real thrust in the film is trying to get his two best friends to be friends, which is a very human impulse to me. I remember we were having our first phone conversation and we were talking about the character and he might have mentioned hair extensions at one point and I was like, “Oh my God dear, no!” I think as soon as I responded to whatever he said about hair extensions he caught onto my voice and told me he liked the quality of my voice. And from then on he was following me around on set on the first day kind of mimicking my physical behavior, which was a little uncomfortable but I was also so busy making the film in the scenes that he was not in that I didn’t have enough time to feel terribly weird. But I think deep down in my subconscious it was very healthy for my ego. [Laughs] When you watch Justin’s scenes, do you recognize something familiar? It’s funny because I do see some of myself onscreen in him, and how could you not like that as a director? That calls to mind another tidbit about the production, which is that you shot it on an insanely fast schedule — something like 16 days? I know! It’s crazy. It was 16 days. My first short film, Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come To Dinner , is on Vimeo, and that was a 16 minute film that I shot in 16 days. So here I am shooting a 90-minute feature in 16 days – I have never worked that quickly, but you do what you need to do to tell the story. I knew that my usual style of filmmaking, which is very visual and the directorial voice is very present — I knew that I couldn’t just plunk my so-called trademark aesthetic on this movie. It had to be looser, and the strength of the movie was going to be on the performances and the comedy so we had to take a really simplified style to it because otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie! You may notice there aren’t so many wide shots in the movie, and that’s because when you have a scene between two people and you have 20 minutes to shoot it, the close-ups, in a comedy like this where it’s all about engaging the audience with the characters, are important. So there were a lot of sacrifices made to make this film in 16 days, but at the same time the 16-day schedule forced us to have this indie spirit. We were making this film which, based on its synopsis, is really a commercial comedy but it was made in a very indie way and I think that informs our approach and our spirit. I see that everyone was loving what they were doing in this film and I think that’s important. That separates it from the average studio comedy. Has it been tempting to make a feature that is more in the voice of your short films, the style that had become your signature? The thing is, I’m also bored with my own voice! I’m still doing what I love and what feels natural to me, and I do see a lot of my voice in For A Good Time, Call… — but every project is different. For example, there’s a project that I’m in love with right now where there’s a lot of room for my voice and it is kind of a perfect balance between a formal, stylized world and we’re inside the head of a really interesting, very special teenage character. Is it tempting to do something like I’ve done in the past? I feel like I want to meet in the middle. I want to write it myself, and writing is the hardest and most emotional part of the process for me. I’ve really found a comfortable nook in directing; my confidence has really grown and if I love a project and know how I want to execute it, it feels very natural to me. So I’m not at a point where I want to write right now. I’m getting a lot of opportunities, reading really great scripts, and had such a good experience working with collaborators so I’m following that path. But on the other hand I would never choose a project for money or do a completely broad studio comedy. If it doesn’t engage me on the page, I don’t consider it. And I don’t really consider what I do a job; I’m able to make a living in commercials and I love making commercials, and it enables me to not have to make my filmmaking decisions based on money. Five years from now I’ll probably be directing Mission to Mars 5 or something and maybe we’ll talk again, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. [Laughs] I honestly don’t know how to direct a movie unless I love it. I feel like that love needs to drive you, and without it what are you doing? That said, Jamie Travis’s Mission to Mars 5 would be the most beautiful installment of the franchise. [Laughs] That’s the thing — I do get to jump outside my own style in commercials, and if I got a 30-second commercial that was Mission to Mars -esque I would take it on and be so excited about it. But films are different; you put yourself into it so much, and I think there are only so many film projects that a director can make in their life. You have to be careful about your decisions. After Sundance, there were opportunities for sex comedies and it was like, well, hold on — I’m not a sex comedy director. I’m just a director. And while I see myself directing horror films or comedies or thrillers in the future, I really do love the idea of exploring different genres, it’s all about the first experience of reading the script. If it’s not the equivalent of reading a piece of literature, I’m not even going to consider it. It’s fun, as a longtime Jamie Travis fan, to see your world and the raunchy Judd Apatowian R-rated comedy world collide as it does particularly in your cameos. The cameos were a combination of our amazing casting directors in LA and our personal relationships. Obviously we got Seth because he is Lauren’s husband, and Kevin has a relationship with Lauren and Seth. To give you a sense, when I first came down to LA I was living with Lauren and Seth. This was a low-budget movie — I was the house guest who wouldn’t leave, so there was a real spirit there of everyone helping each other out and figuring out this movie. What was it like, in your big first feature, to direct Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen jerking off? Everyone was jerking off in this movie! Working with Seth was amazing — the cameos in particular were very much improvised. A lot of this movie, because we shot in 16 days, is not as improvised as you’d think. But the cameos were very much so. Seth is a brilliant comedic actor and you never know what he’s going to say. He always says something better than you could possibly imagine and takes it to places you didn’t see it going. And Kevin Smith, he came to set for I think three hours one day — we sat him down in the car and Ari was in the back seat saying her lines and I was talking to him through a walkie. What notes do you possibly give Kevin Smith as he’s, shall we say, in flagrante? He just invented it on the spot! In those situations where you’re working with comedic minds like that, it’s more like taking the elements of what they said and trying to refine it or combine the great thing they said here with the great thing they said there. But really with them and Ken Marino and Martha MacIsaac, it’s really about letting them go and shooting and shooting. That’s what we did, and it worked out for us. For A Good Time, Call… is in limited release. Watch Jamie Travis’s Patterns 3 , via Vimeo: Patterns 3 from Jamie Travis on Vimeo . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for his Academy Award-nominated turn as the prison inmate John Coffey in The Green Mile , died Monday weeks after suffering a heart attack on July 13. Duncan had been hospitalized since the attack, with fiancee Omarosa Manigault confirming his passing in a statement today. Duncan began his career as a celebrity bodyguard before breaking into Hollywood with roles like Bear in Armageddon and Coffey in The Green Mile which capitalized on his imposing stature, booming voice, and often gentle demeanor; after earning numerous accolades for his performance opposite Tom Hanks in the Frank Darabont film, Duncan went on to notable roles in films like The Whole Nine Yards , Planet of the Apes , The Scorpion King , Daredevil , Sin City , and The Island . Here’s a look back at Duncan’s work in The Green Mile . I loved watching Duncan in lighter moments – there was something wonderfully warm about him, a twinkle in his eye that hinted he was having a blast within every scene. Even on the red carpet, as in this completely random May 2012 interview from YouTube revealing that he’d never had a drink in his life, that spirit was infectious. [ NY Daily News ]
About six weeks after he suffered a cardiac arrest and needed his fiancee – Omarosa Manigault – to revive him and get him to the hospital, actor Michael Clarke Duncan has passed away. He was 54. Best known for his role in The Green Mile and most recently a series regular on Fox’s The Finder , Duncan reportedly died unexpectedly, though he was hospitalized at the time. TMZ sources say Omarosa’s mother was at Duncan’s side , while the former Apprentice star herself simply left the room for a short while and returned to the horrible news. While details are sketchy at the moment, the actor’s rep says his client never fully recovered from last month’s myocardial infarction. The rep adds in a statement: “[Omarosa] Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date.” Prior to his Oscar nomination for The Green Mile , the 6’5″, 300-pound Duncan served as bodyguard for such stars as Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J and Notorious B.I.G.
R.I.P…. Sad news out of Hollywod today as Micahel Clarke Duncan passed away earlier today. According to TMZ… Michael Clarke Duncan, star of such movies as “The Green Mile” and “The Whole Nine Yards,” passed away this morning. He was 54. According to our sources, his passing came very suddenly. We’re told his fiancee, Omarosa Manigault, was with him in his hospital room in Los Angeles and left for a short period of time. When she returned … he had died. Our sources say Omarosa’s mother was with him when he passed. Duncan’s rep tells TMZ the actor never fully recovered from the myocardial infarction he suffered on July 13. As TMZ first reported, Omarosa found Duncan in cardiac arrest and performed CPR and was able to resuscitate him before calling 911. The rep tells us, “[Omarosa] Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date.” Duncan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of John Coffey in “The Green Mile.” He worked as a bodyguard for celebrities like Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, and Notorious B.I.G. before he got his break. We’re keeping his family and friends in prayer. Images via WENN
Man Arrested For Slashing Sleeping Kids’ Throats Another senseless and sad crime committed against innocent children … A man is in custody and charged with the throat-slashing attack that killed a little boy and left his sister in critical condition in Camden, N.J., prosecutors said. Osvaldo Rivera, 31, of Camden, was arrested Sunday afternoon and charged with murder and attempted murder, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor’s office, The Associated Press reported. Rivera is in jail awaiting arraignment. Dominick Andujor, 6, died from his injuries. His 12-year-old sister was in critical condition at Cooper Hospital. This is a tragic and sad story. May the little boy rest in peace and justice prevail. Source Image via Shutterstock
Jay-Z’s first annual Made In America festival took place on the steps that Sylvester Stallone made famous in the classic film, Rocky. The landmark event spanned two days and brought out artists throughout the entire world ranging from Pearl Jam, Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music, Odd Future, D’Angelo and plenty more. One of the big surprise guests from the past weekend included a brief, mini-reunion of the Roc-A-Fella family. Continue
The violence in Chicago is out of control. With more than 300 homicides in the city since the start of the year, and no signs of change, the city is in crisis. Starting from Friday (Aug. 31) through the next day, seven people were shot, one of which was gunned down in front of his own mother, and siblings. Continue
