Joe Weider, a child of the Great Depression who built a bodybuilding empire, has died at the age of 93. The cause was heart failure, said his publicist. Weider grew an empire of magazines, fitness equipment, doubtful dietary supplements and Olympic-style contests featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. As a teenager in Montreal, he hated being roughed up by neighborhood hooligans, discovered bodybuilding in a magazine and bought into it for life. He developed a V-shaped torso with bulging biceps and abs like Michelangelo’s David, and was still ripped and jut-jawed in his 70s and 80s. In the intervening decades, Weider moved to the United States as a young man, founded many of the world’s most popular bodybuilding magazines. He founded Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Men’s Fitness and Shape. They had 25 million readers and were crammed with photos of greased bodybuilders. Celebrities were also drawn to Weider. Among them: Sylvester Stallone, Cher and Schwarzenegger , who considered Weider a mentor and knew him well. Riding waves of post-World War II fascination with bodybuilding, Weider and his brother Ben founded the International Federation of Body Builders. He sponsored the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia contests and other competitions for men and women for over 60 years and in some 170 countries.
If you’re a Tyler Perry fan and your home could use a few conversation-starting posters on the wall, then you’ve come to the right place. Movieline is giving away one fun — and funny — prize pack to commemorate the March 29 opening of Tyler Perry’s Temptation, written and directed by Tyler Perry and featuring Kim Kardashian in the Madea role. (I kid!) All you need to do to enter is reside in the United States and write a slow-jam haiku (in the 5-7-5 form) about Kim K. It’s up to you if you want to include Kanye West or Perry or the plot of the movie. It just needs to be Barry — as in Barry White — good. Just make sure to leave it in the comments section. The deadline is Noon Pacific time on March 28, and a winner will be picked the following day. If you rise to the occasion, here’s what you’ll win: -Teaser Poster -2nd Teaser Poster -Final Poster -T-Shirt -Paper Fan -Silicone Wristband -Breath Mints (That’s not a typo) For inspiration, here’s the official synopsis for the movie and the trailer: An explosive romance about forbidden desires, TYLER PERRY’S TEMPTATION tells the provocative story of Judith, an ambitious married woman whose temptation by a handsome billionaire leads to betrayal, recklessness and forever alters the course of her life. Go to it. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Yes, this clip of Glinda The Good Witch ( Michelle Williams ) and a pre-wizard Oz ( James Franco ) traveling to the Emerald City by bubble in the Sam Raimi -directed Oz the Great and Powerful is pretty phantasmagorical, but let’s give credit where credit is due: Do you, um, realize that Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne has been traveling by bubble since at least 2006 — and he don’t need no stinkin’ computer-generated assistance. For those with short memories (and those who were ‘shrooming at Lollapalooza in 2006 when the Lips took the stage), here are a couple of video clips that will enable avid fans of traveling by bubble to analyze and compare and contrast the stumble-step techniques of Franco and Coyne as they each take a spin. After watching both, I’m sure you will agree with me that all of the R&D money that went into the Segway should have been invested in bubble travel. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
War Witch star Rachel Mwanza is headed to Hollywood, and she’s earned her close-up. On Wednesday, Tribeca Film announced that 16-year-old Mwanza has been granted a visa to travel to the United States to attend the Oscars and the Independent Spirit Awards this weekend, where War Witch is nominated, respectively, in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best International Film categories. And it’s time for the American media pays as much attention to her as it did to Quvenzhané Wallis . If you didn’t hit the film-festival circuit last year, where War Witch turned heads and won awards, then you might not be familiar with Canadian director Kim Nguyen’ powerful movie about Africa’s children of war. But I hope that’s about to change now that Tribeca Film is about to make War Witch available to American audiences starting Feb. 26 on various VOD platforms and, theatrically, beginning March 1 in New York City. War Witch is the anti- Beasts of the Southern Wild , and I’m not knocking the Benh Zeitlin’s e xcellent film when I write that. Both movies show us dangerous, chaotic worlds from the perspective of a wise and courageous girl who is forced to grow up fast. Both films hinge on the mortality of parents and use mystical components to tell their stories, and both films convey the message that hope and love can be found among the ruins. But War Witch ultimately proves to be the more powerful film because it is reserved and unsentimental where Beasts of the Southern Wild is effusive and romantic. Mwanza, who had been abandoned by her family and was living on the streets of Kinshasha when Nguyen cast her, plays Komona, the heroine of War Witch and the movie’s narrator. Within the first scenes of the movie, her parents are killed in horrifying fashion — suffice it to say she is present — when African rebels lay waste to Komona’s village and enslave her and the other child residents as soldiers to fight against government forces. “Respect your guns. They are your new mother and father,” the children are told as they embark on squalid lives of killing and dying. Komona is designated a “war witch” by the guerrilla leader after she is fed “magic milk,” a white tree sap with hallucinogenic properties that enables her to see the ghosts of the dead, including her parents, who warn her of impending attacks. Nguyen’s film is remarkably free of artifice and politics, and Mwanza’s stoic performance is its cornerstone. And if I can be sentimental for a moment, her performance has changed her life. The makers of War Witch have provided her with a caretaker and are now overseeing her education. For more on the movie, check out this extended featurette and here’s hoping some enterprising publicist engineers a photo op with both Wallis and Mwanza. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitte r. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
She sure looks like a nice lady and not one to be voting six times under other people’s names and such… Via Fox News: The Obama/Biden lawn sign remains proudly planted in front of Melowese Richardson’s Cincinnati home, three months after the presidential election. It seems that President Obama has an especially ardent supporter in the veteran Ohio poll worker. Richardson told a local television station this month that she voted twice for Obama last November. She cast an absentee ballot and then voted at the polls as well. “Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.” Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” Richardson vowed when asked about the voter fraud investigation that is now under way. Richardson is one of 19 people suspected of illegal voting by the Hamilton County Board of Elections in the last election. Richardson’s granddaughter, India Richardson, confirmed to Fox News that her grandmother voted for her, by submitting an absentee ballot in her name. India told Fox News that she is not angry, and gave her permission to cast her absentee ballot. “It wasn’t a big deal,” she said. But election authorities say voting more than once, or in someone else’s name, is a big deal because it is illegal and threatens the credibility of the nation’s election system. As part of a new effort to root out any voter fraud, Secretary of State Husted has ordered all 88 of the state’s county Board of Elections to hold public hearings on any credible voter fraud allegations or claims of voter disenfranchisement during the 2012 election. He said any substantiated allegations should be turned over to prosecutors. “Once the election is over, and once the winner is declared, everybody forgets about it. I want to make sure that we don’t forget about it, that we make sure we do, essentially, an audit of that process to ensure that we know what happened, and then use that evidence to guide us going forward. … We need to learn from that last election so that we can be better before the next one gets here.” “Fraud does happen,” noted Husted. “Most attempts are caught by the system. But there are cases that do slip through, as this one does, and we need to make sure that we really send a strong message, that if you do this, you are going to be held accountable. It might mean fines, it might mean jail time.” Voter fraud, said Husted, “undermines public confidence in democracy, and that’s why we need, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, to root out all cases of voter fraud.” SMH. Thoughts???
Happy Presidents Day! True American heroes don’t come any truer than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two giants of history honored today. The very first President of the United States, Washington led the rebellion over Great Britain, then helped oversee the birth of this great nation’s constitution. Four score and seven years later, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, steadfastly vying to preserve the union his predecessors fought so valiantly for. Long story short? Both were the best of their time, and remain legends today. Ranking their achievements and indelible marks is close to impossible. But who’s your favorite of the two? Vote below! And the Winner is? Abraham Lincoln Click Here To Vote for Abe George Washington Click Here To Vote for G-Dubs They were both A-plus chief executives, but which U.S. President do you love more, Abraham Lincoln or George Washington? That’s what we wanna know! View Poll »
Pope Benedict XVI is on his way out , does that mean this brother is next in line for the papalcy? Via NYDailyNews reports : With Pope Benedict XVI’s bombshell announcement Monday that he plans to step down, all eyes are on his potential successors, including one that may become the first black pope: Cardinal Peter Turkson. The Roman Catholic Cardinal from Ghana, the current president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is among the leading candidates to assume the title of pontiff as it is rumored the Vatican may look outside Europe for its next leader. Turkson, 64, was born in Wassaw Nsuta in western Ghana on Oct. 11, 1948 to a Methodist mother and Catholic father. He entered the seminary as a child and moved to New York to study at St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer before he was ordained as a priest in 1975. In October 1992, Pope John Paul II named Turkson the Archbishop of Cape Coast, the former capital of Ghana. Turkson served as president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference from 1997 to 2005 and during that time, was appointed the first-ever cardinal from Ghana. “We love him,” Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, metropolitan archbishop of Accra, the current capital of Ghana, told the Guardian. “For Ghanaians he was our first cardinal, and to be made cardinal in his 50s was a big feather in our cap.” In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Turkson the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, a high-profile position that sent him around the world for mediation talks. The position put Turkson near tthe top of the list of potential papal successors. Bookmaker Paddy Power has odds of Turkson becoming the pope at 3-1 — a prediction that is not entirely out of the blue for the cardinal, who acknowledged the possibility of a black pope in a press conference in 2009. “Why not?” Turkson said, arguing that when you agree to become a priest, you must be open to the idea of becoming a Pope. “All of that is part of the package.” Turkson added that the time was especially ripe given the election of President Barack Obama. “And now it is Obama of the United States,” he said. “And if by divine providence — because the church belongs to God — if God would wish to see a black man also as Pope, thanks be to God.” If elected, Turkson would also be the first non-European to serve since the Great Western Schism. Turkson would not be the first pope to hail from Africa. Some scholars believe that Victor I, who served from 189 to 199, was the first black pope, the Telegraph reported. Information from the time, however, is not conclusive. Turkson is not the only potential papal candidate outside of Europe. Other possible successors include Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria and Cardinal Mark Ouellet of Canada. SMH @ bookies taking bets on the papalcy. That ain’t very Christian of them. AP
Mr. “I am the healthiest fat person” Chris Christie sure got a little touchy when a doctor said he was too fat to be president…. Via Philly Mag: Yesterday, CNN decided to ask a doctor if Chris Christie was too fat. The doctor, who used to work at the White House, and helped Bill Clinton shed 30 pounds, did not mince words. “It’s almost a like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before running for office,” said Connie Mariano. ”I’m worried about this man dying in office.” Chris Christie, as is his wont, went on the offensive. He called her a “hack” and said she should “shut up.” Oh, it’s on. “I find it fascinating that a doctor in Arizona — who’s never met me, never examined me, never reviewed my medical history or records and knows nothing about my family history — could make a diagnosis from 2,400 miles away,” Christie said told Bloomberg. “She must be a genius. She should probably be the surgeon general of the United States, I suspect.” Responded Mariano, upon being dutifully contacted by a reporter for comment: “You don’t have to be a doctor to see that he is obese.” Also, she added, “I’m not a hack.” Lmao. She’s absolutely right. Poor Chris needs to shut up his damn self and hop on a treadmill. He’s always defending his weight , poor thang
Jennifer Hudson took to the Superdome field in New Orleans this evening, belting out “America the Beautiful” prior to Super Bowl XLVII. But the Oscar winner didn’t do it alone. She was joined by students from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Watch the moving tribute to our great country below now, as Hudson and and those affected by December’s horrific tragedy honor the United States: Jennifer Hudson and Sandy Hook Chorus – “America the Beautiful”
