Can you point a gay person out on sight? New Study Shows The Your “Gaydar” May Actually Exist Nowadays, everyone believes that their “gaydar” is always on point. Well, a new study has just released its results and the findings are quite interesting. The University of Washington performed a study in which a group of 129 student volunteers were presented pictures of both men and women, straight and gay, that were void of anything “telling” – hair, jewelry or anything else that might lend to indicating a person’s orientation – for 50 milliseconds each. Based on looking at the eyes and noses of those in the pictures and how they may fit together on one’s face, the group was able to correctly guess the person’s sexual orientation about 50-60 percent of the time. Some were even able to guess correctly when the pictures were shown upside down although the percentage did lower. Read more at Madame Noire
Chuck Brown, a musician known as the “Godfather of Go-Go,” has died. The Washington, D.C. musical giant, born in Gaston, N.C., and perhaps best known for his group’s 1979 chart-topping hit “Bustin’ Loose,” was 75. Earlier this month, Chuck Brown’s family revealed that he had pneumonia. He canceled a planned performance in April due to health concerns. According to the AP, Brown was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. From The Washington Post ‘s obituary: “Known as the ‘Godfather of Go-Go,’ the singer, guitarist and songwriter developed his commanding brand of funk in the mid-’70s to compete with the dominance of disco.” “Like a DJ blending records, Mr. Brown used nonstop percussion to stitch songs together and keep the crowd on the dance floor, resulting in marathon performances.” “Mr. Brown said the style got its name because “the music just goes and goes.” Chuck Brown – Bustin’ Loose As NPR reported, “the name Chuck Brown might not mean a whole lot to people outside the Washington, D.C., area. That would be their loss.” R.I.P.
A trailer for Tom Hooper’s upcoming Les Miserables film leaked onto the interwebs today, revealing looks at Hugh Jackman in action in the musical adaptation. But nevermind the handsome, jaunty period stylings of 19th century France in turmoil as envisioned by Hooper; get an earful of Anne Hathaway’s warbly voice singing a tearful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream”… and sound off on her Fantine. Are you excited or worried, theater nerds? To be completely fair, this is the worst-quality video you could imagine for a trailer, which appears to have been filmed off of a computer. Even so, the footage looks great to me — sweeping shots, dynamic camera moves, Jackman’s Jean Valjean disappearing into the shadows. What’s most concerning is also the most important element of the film: The singing. According to reports from CinemaCon (where similar footage from the film was screened, including portions of Hathaway’s “I Dreamed a Dream” number), Hooper’s plan was to film most of the musical numbers with his cast singing live, which might explain why Hathaway’s voice sounds a bit unpolished. Or maybe that was intentional. Or maybe it’s just me. [Video removed at studio’s request.] Perez Hilton first posted the video today, along with fawning words for Hathaway’s performance: “If we had any doubts about this, they are GONE now!!!” Over at The Atlantic Wire , Richard Lawson called it “unsettling,” a reaction more in line with my own. My theater nerd pal (and Popular Mechanics editor) Erin McCarthy immediately sent over this video of stage goddess Lea Salonga singing the same number with a much stronger, yet still deeply emotional voice, but perhaps the comparison — or any comparisons, as the entire film’s cast is bound to suffer scrutiny — is unfair. Hathaway is a strong singer in her own right (see: The Oscars) but she’s probably deep in character as the desperate Fantine and her vocal interpretation may reflect that. Was it wise to film the largely sung-through story with live singing? That’s the biggest question so far as we await better looks at Hooper’s Les Mis , due in theaters December 14. [ Perez Hilton , Atlantic Wire ]
Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles’ The Dictator is indefensible and hilarious, an unruly thing that invites you to laugh at things you feel you shouldn’t. I’ve heard people — even some who like the picture — referring to The Dictator as offensive, and one of the guys sitting behind me at the screening laughed at some jokes and remained awkwardly mute during others. After one of these pauses — the vibrations of his uneasiness were traveling right through my seat back — I heard him say to his pal, “I’m not sure how I feel about this.” But as the end credits rolled he announced joyously, “That was great!” as if he’d endured an enema cleansing that made him feel a whole lot better afterward. Cohen has many gifts as a performer, and with The Dictator he reveals yet another one: He knows how to flush stuff right out of you. Cohen’s invented character du jour is a despot named General Admiral Haffaz Aladeen, ruler of the equally made-up North African state of Wadiya. Aladeen hates the West, hates Jews and regularly calls for the execution of anyone who undermines his authority, by, say, questioning his firm belief that nuclear missiles should be pointy and not rounded. His chief adviser is his Uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley), who chafes under Aladeen’s authoritarian rule and seeks to undermine him. After Aladeen survives an assassination attempt, Tamir persuades him to go to New York to address the United Nations, which has been sticking its nose into his sordid doings. Once he gets to the city — he makes his grand entrance on the back of a decorated camel — he’s kidnapped, stripped of his protruding steel-wool beard and medal-and-scrambled-egg-encrusted uniform, and forced to live as an anonymous immigrant with a tenuous grasp of the English language. It’s at this point that he meets Zoey (Anna Faris), a peacenik mighty-mite who runs a whole-foods store and who, in her desire to be fair and generous to all peoples, attempts to understand his motivations as he spouts all sorts of racist and sexist invective. Meanwhile, Aladeen — who has adopted the name Alison Burgers, for reasons so ridiculous that they’re better left unexplained until you see the film — attempts to reclaim his stature with the help of scientist and Wadiyan exile Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), who agrees to help him regain his mojo by bulking up in the nukes department. Cohen’s targets here include people who fly planes into buildings for religious reasons, people who hate Jews, and women with hair under their arms. As they used to say on Sesame Street , one of these things is not like the others, but those of you who like to cultivate fragrant jungles in your armpits will just have to deal. The satire in The Dictator is sharp but not exquisitely pointed, and the movie is better for it: It’s clear enough where Cohen’s sympathies lie — his jokes have a kind of sick buoyancy, instead of hammering you with their politics. Cohen’s humor is political, though in the end it may really only be humanitarian. At home in Wadiya, amongst his riches, his servants and his high-cost prostitutes (one of whom is Megan Fox, gamely playing herself), Aladeen likes to play video games, including a Wii-style amusement called “Munich Olympics.” I groaned, along with much of the audience, when he hit the “play” button, but there’s anger in the joke as well as audacity. Cohen doesn’t suffer bullies gladly, which makes a character like Aladeen an irresistible canvas for him. The Dictator is a written-and-rehearsed picture, unlike the extended prank Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan , and it’s probably the better film. As he did on that picture (and the more wayward Brüno ), Cohen again pairs with director Larry Charles, who’s acutely in tune with his rhythms. Charles — who has worked extensively in TV as a producer and/or writer on shows like Seinfeld , Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm , and who also directed the gloriously woolly 2003 Bob Dylan fever dream Masked and Anonymous — has by this point proved to be a great midwife for the ideas of oddball intellects. He gives some shape and heft even to Cohen’s silliest gags, like the one in which it’s explained that Aladeen amended the Wadiyan language so that “negative” and “positive” are the same word — this bit of silliness occasions a great little cameo for Aasif Mandvi as a doctor who’s trying to give a patient the result of his AIDS test. Add to that the pleasure of watching Cohen in all his long-legged, language-mangling glory: The Dictator works both as satire and as comedy, and the two don’t always mingle so easily. Cohen has a way of slinging lines that’s as casual as a cook flipping meat patties in a burger joint. “The police here are such fascists!” he says, aghast at the behavior of New York City cops, but he’s really just setting us up for the kicker: “And not in the good way!” By the time Aladeen has been in in New York for a while, his sartorial choices have been unduly influenced by crunchy-granola Zoey, to the point where he thinks nothing of wearing Crocs in public. When Nadal uses this footwear choice as evidence of how far Aladeen has fallen, the has-been tyrant can only agree: “Crocs,” he says dejectedly, “the universal symbol of men who have given up hope.” Cohen may be playing an autocrat, but he doesn’t let his ego run roughshod over his fellow actors. Anna Faris gets less screentime than Cohen does, but she stands up to him admirably, maybe because she’s willing to go just as far as he is for a laugh, even a painful one. As Zoey, a no-makeup martinet with firm ideas about equality among all peoples, she captures perfectly the tyrannical smugness of the tiny but powerful nation of white people known as Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Dictator , for all its liberal leanings, doesn’t let anyone off the hook, not even well-intentioned liberals. Cohen comes right out and says things that most of us, in polite conversation, wouldn’t dare. He knows it’s the impolite conversation that really gets things moving. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s Biz Break, Exclusive Media takes rights to Zac Efron/Dennis Quaid starrer; Universal picks up rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled bin Laden film; and with the initial craze over 3-D fading comes scrutiny over the medium. Weinsteins Take Rights to Cannes’ The Sapphires Starring comedian Chris Dowd and Deborah Mailman, The Sapphires will screen at the 65th Cannes Film Festival this Saturday. Wayne Blair directed the feature which is inspired by a true story about four young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from a remote mission as they learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertains the U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968. 10 Win 39th Student Academy Awards The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards were unveiled; the organization will host an awards ceremony June 9th. The winners in the Narrative category: Nani , Justin Tipping (American Film Institute); Narcocorrido , Ryan Prows (American Film Institute); Under , Mark Raso (Columbia University). Documentary: Dying Green , Ellen Tripler (American University); Hiro: A Story of Japanese Internment , Keiko Wright (NYU); Lost Country , Heather Burky (Art Inst. of Jacksonville). Animation: Eyrie , David Wolter (Calif. Institute of the Arts); The Jockstrap Raiders , Mark Nelson (UCLA); My Little Friend , Eric Prah (Ringling College of Art and Design). Alternative: The Reality Clock , Amanda Tasse (USC). Exclusive Media Nabs Rights to Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron Starrer At Any Price The film, directed by Chop Shop director Ramin Bahrani, also stars Kim Dickens and Heather Graham and revolves around rebellious Dean Whipple (Efron), who wants nothing more than to pursue his dream of becoming a professional race car driver, whilst trying to avoid the obligations to his family’s farming empire. But Dean’s ambitious father Henry (Quaid), whose manic pursuit of expansion has alienated the whole family, sets his sights on Dean’s succession. Around the ‘net… How 48 Hours at Large in L.A. Turned Fellini into a Maestro Fellini Black and White is set to explore what may have happened when the celebrated Italian film director Federico Fellini disappeared for 48 hours on his first visit to America, where he was due to attend the Oscar awards. Instead of a smooth trip to the 1957 ceremony, the man who was to make such classics as La Dolce Vita and 8½ almost missed the awards gala after going missing for two days somewhere in Los Angeles, The Guardian reports . Universal Takes International Rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s Untitled Bin Laden Film Universal took select international rights to the true story about the team that hunted and killed Osama bin Laden last year. Sony Pictures will release the film starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez in the U.S., Deadline reports . 3-D Comes into Sharper Focus Despite the format’s troubles, 2011 marked another record year for 3-D, with total box office revenue from 3-D movies hitting $6.9 billion, an 18 percent jump, according to provisional figures from Screen Digest, THR reports .
Florida A&M University President James Ammons has announced that the school’s famed marching band is being suspended for at least one more school year as…
With an imminent debut at one of the numerous, unrelated Riviera events orbiting the Cannes Film Festival, The Lucifer Effect has issued a trailer and a press release detailing the horrific, publicity-friendly happenings undergirding what its makers seem to believe will be the industry’s next found-footage phenomenon. It has footnotes and everything — as though David Foster Wallace and William Castle collaborated on some sincerely unholy afterlife marketing effort. You should see this! The pitch, that is, not the movie (though maybe that, too). First the trailer, which was hovering at a very, very spooky 13 views this morning: And now the press release just over the transom at Movieline HQ, which I really must provide without commentary, if only because it’s kind of its own commentary after a while. (To wit, who’s a fan of this new number order 1, 6, 3, 5, 2? Never mind.) ========= CONTROVERSIAL NEW BRITISH HORROR MOVIE, ‘THE LUCIFER EFFECT’ TO DEBUT AT CANNES NEXT WEEK Film reported to be ‘cursed’ and contain subliminal messages in a hidden frame storyline The controversial new British horror movie, THE LUCIFER EFFECT 1 will overcome its alleged ‘curse’ to debut at the Cannes Film Festival next week. The film has been in and out of the headlines following a number of bizarre incidents, disappearances and even police intervention during filming last year. ‘The Lucifer Effect’ first hit the headlines last year when one of the participants 6 was almost throttled by another cast member. Police seized the footage and the film was put on hold. However, despite the film’s original director 3 also having gone missing, the film has been completed by a new documentary film crew headed by Edward Boon and is now set to premiere at Cannes on 16 May. The film studies the social condition known as ‘The Lucifer Effect’ 5 – a psychological consequence that is said to occur when ‘good’ people are given power over others in an evil place. The effect was first investigated in the 1970s during the infamous Stanford Prison experiment. The Lucifer Effect producers recreated a modern day equivalent in an abandoned mental asylum 2 . The film also uses subliminal imagery and has a secret secondary storyline interwoven in hidden frames beneath the main storyline – the first feature film in the world believed to use this controversial technology. The use of subliminal scenes has added to the rumours of a curse. Reports of a curse originally surfaced due to the fact that the film features footage of disturbing events which occurred when the participants in the film held a Ouija board session during their brief stay in the asylum. Unlike other films that it has been compared to, such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’, the footage and events in ‘The Lucifer Project’ are actually real, there was no script, and the reactions of the participants are genuine, including the unfortunate assault. As a result police in Lincolnshire seized the footage and the film was put on hold, creating a lot of international media attention. The story was also widely covered in the British press. The film centers around eight people who volunteered for a role in a movie on buyamovierole.com , only to be locked inside a reportedly haunted mental asylum 2 for three days and nights, with no communication from the outside world and little food to eat. Since these events, two of the cast have been hospitalized with other cast members receiving counseling and treatment for depression and any possible after effects. All involved had signed release forms and given their consent before entering the asylum, although some of the actors are now looking to sue the film company for false imprisonment. It is reported that some of the cast believe the producers are still pulling their strings one year on. Adding to the stories of a curse is the fact that the director who oversaw the filming of the original events is also now missing. This is coupled with rumours that one of the actresses has been sectioned in South America. In order to investigate whether the alleged ‘curse’ can have any effects on the public at large, the film has added an innovative social media angle. When the trailer on the film’s Facebook and social networking pages is viewed, their webcam is activated, thereby involving the viewer in what is seen onscreen. Already, there have been reports of doors mysteriously opening and closing, shadows appearing and lampshades moving in the background. The producers added the webcam feature after the ‘curse’ reports surfaced to pick up on any paranormal activity once the film trailer had been watched. The producers say if anything interesting or unusual is recorded whilst watching the trailer there is a chance that the recordings will be featured in the final cut of the film when it is released. Watch the trailer here: http://www.thelucifereffectmovie.com – END – 1. For further information and Movie Trailer: www.thelucifereffectmovie.com [ Back ] 2. Rauceby Mental Asylum in Quarrington, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, was originally opened in 1902 as the Kesteven County Asylum, and from 1924-1933 the Kesteven Mental Hospital. In 1940, it was taken over by the RAF and renamed No. 4 RAF Hospital Rauceby with 1,000 beds treating crash and burns victims. The pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe worked here on members of his so-called “Guinea Pig Club”. The main hall burnt down in 1947 and the RAF handed the premises over to the newly formed National Health Service, which then returned to using it as a mental asylum. The site was closed in 1997 amid allegations of abuse. The site includes two graveyards, a mortuary, and a series of underground tunnels connecting wards. [ Back ] 3. Original Film Director, Tim Burke was Born 8 May 1979, Kensington, London, UK. Grew up in Bristol, Avon & Somerset. Bought a film camera at the age of 12, and formally learned his trade at the Panico Films School (now part of the London Film Academy), London, where he passed out top of his class. Using his extensive celebrity and entertainment industry contacts, Tim Burke founded the charity BuyaMovieRole, which, in 2010, raised money for charity by auctioning off donated movie roles. [ Back ] 4. “Enigmatic technique” takes acting improvisation to its extreme and is the complete opposite of the discredited “response directing” where actors are told what they should be feeling. Instead, he keeps actors as much in the dark as possible, as detached as possible from any production crew, then subjects them to frighteningly realistic situations and lets the actors react naturally to whatever happens. In this way, he seeks to film emotions that are genuinely felt rather than put on. The Lucifer Effect was Tim Burke’s first real exploration of this technique. [ Back ] 5. Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil is the title of an academic textbook for college psychology students by Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is best known for his Stanford Prison Experiment in which 24 normal students were assigned to be either “prisoners” or “guards” in a mock jail set up in the basement of the university’s psychology building. The planned two-week experiment was terminated after just six days due to the emotional trauma suffered by the participants where the “guards” rapidly became sadistic and with the “prisoners” descending into extreme passivity or depression. In 2004, Zimbardo testified for the defense in the court martial of a US military police sergeant guilty of torturing prisoners in Iraq. Zimbardo argued that few people could resist the powerful situational pressures of a prison and that the sergeant should not be given the maximum sentence. He drew on his study of this case to write Lucifer Effect. [ Back ] 6. Emrhys Cooper, Mohammed Al Turki, Hofit Golan, Natalie Celino, Liziane Villamil, Anouska O’Hara, Ryan Lutz, and Jack Walther all appear as themselves. [ Back ] ###
Yo these people are wildin. Conservative Newsletter Calls For Armed Revolution If Obama Is Re-Elected After surviving two terms with an idiot President who sent the nation into a war based on lies and allowed greedy banks and the mortgage industry to drive us into the worst recession ever but these wanksters wanna go and get their guns on the man who has tried to clean up the mess? SMH: A monthly newsletter published by the Greene County Republican Committee in Virginia is raising eyebrows for including a column in its March edition that calls for an “armed revolution” if President Barack Obama is elected to a second term in November. Among articles denouncing a University of Virginia initiative to implement a living wage for employees of the institution, questioning if Obama is “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President?” and an op-ed slamming the GOP establishment with generous use of capital letters, RightWingWatch picks out a column from the newsletter’s editor, Ponch McPhee. In it, McPhee urges readers to encourage other conservatives to vote in November. He goes on to warn that the consequences of not defeating Obama, a so-called “ideologue unlike anything world history has ever witnessed or recognized,” would be dire. “[W]e shall not have any coarse [sic] but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November,” McPhee writes. “This Republic cannot survive for 4 more years underneath this political socialist ideologue.” A disclaimer at the bottom of the publication apparently attempts to account for this type of rhetoric, noting that the contributors do “not reflect the opinion of the Republican Party whole or in part” and are only representative of the “individual” — in this case, the editor himself. It’s crazy how reckless these people get. Armed revolution? This guy is on that treason isht right now. He needs a ho sit down. Source
Last week, The Blaze reported on Bill Ayers’ speech to a group of University of Oregon students, where he declared that America’s “game is over” and predicted that “another world” is coming. (Related: Bill Ayers to University Students: America‘s ’Game Is Over‘ and ’Another World’ Is Coming) But it turns out, those were not the only significant comments in the speech. Later on, Ayers called the students… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 08/05/2012 08:55 Number of articles : 2
Thirty-five students from 20 U.S. colleges are eligible for the 39th Student Academy Awards, AMPAS said Wednesday. Academy members will view the finalists’ films at special screenings and vote to select the winners. Prizes include Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards, along with accompanying cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000. U.S. winners will join international students winners for a week of industry and social activities June 9 in Los Angeles. The list of finalists follows. Narrative : Benny , Huay-Bing Law, University of Texas at Austin Contra, el Mar , Richard Parkin, University of California, Los Angeles Hatch , Christoph Kuschnig, Columbia University Mr. Bellpond , A. Todd Smith, Brigham Young University Nani , Justin Tipping, American Film Institute Narcocorrido , Ryan Prows, American Film Institute The Recorder Exam , Bora Kim, Columbia University Requited , Madeline Puzzo, Point Park University Under , Mark Raso, Columbia University Documentary : Dignity Harbor: A Home Away from Homeless , Michael Gualdoni, Lindenwood University Dying Green , Ellen Tripler, American University Hiro: A Story of Japanese Internment , Keiko Wright, New York University Lost Country , Heather Burky, Art Institute of Jacksonville Love Hacking , Jenni Nelson, Stanford University Pot Country , Mario Furloni, University of California, Berkeley Reporting on The Times: The New York Times and the Holocaust , Emily Harrold, New York University Smoke Songs , Briar March, Stanford University Why Am I Still Alive , Hanzhang Shen, School of Visual Arts Animation Chocolate Milk , Eliza Kinkz, University of California, Los Angeles Cowboy, Clone, Dust , Matthew Christensen, New York University Eyrie , David Wolter, California Institute of the Arts The Jockstrap Raiders , Mark Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles La Lune et le Coq , Raymond McCarthy Bergeron, Rochester Institute of Technology Lizard and the Ladder , Aaron Bristow, Utah Valley University My Little Friend , Eric Prah, Ringling College of Art and Design Reviving Redwood , Matt Sullivan, Ringling College of Art and Design Shinobi Blues , Yue Liu, School of Visual Arts Alternative Falconer , Micah Robert Barber, University of Texas at Austin In Between Shadows , Tianran Duan, University of Southern California Last Remarks , Umar Riaz, New York University Peace at Home , Avital Epstein, Florida State University The Reality Clock , Amanda Tasse, University of Southern California SiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSi , Juan Camilo González, University of Southern California Terra Cotta Warrior , Bin Li, Rochester Institute of Technology Us , Alex Lora, City College of New York
