Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

BIG VICTORY FOR MADONNA AS AFRICAN ADOPTION FAILS

Entertainment, Media | Posted by Charles C. Cotton
Apr 03 2009

MadonnaSeemingly unable to talk about people who actually have talent (versus raw ambition, overly energetic constitutions and well funded publicity agents) or people who’ve shown the public something they want to see and/or hear for 15 years, the media is BUZZING of the latest story on Madonna’s failure to adopt a baby from the African nation of Malawi.

A win-win for the former “pop” star who seems to be constantly fighting to get her name in the media!

I always was amazed at how Elizabeth Taylor managed to keep her name in the tabloids decades after her performing career ended and did so without having to resort to such stunts.  I forgive Ms. Taylor for her over-stayed presence, however, as she redeemed herself very well through her aids activism at a time when it wasn’t fashionable.  I should also point out that Ms. Taylor didn’t “grace” us with one bad performance after another past her prime, or marry a movie director for little more than keeping her movie “career” going.

Madonna, on the other hand, has not been content to merely adopt children in need, rather, she has to do it in a way which would garner her as much PUBLICITY (cue fanfare) as she can.  Of course she didn’t invent this wheel.  The adoption-for-publicity-tour has been well traveled by the similarly over-rated Angelina Jolie, who has also failed to impress me time and again.

UnderstandMalawi for most of us who didn't know where it was, if Madonna were to adopt one of the many thousands of children looking for homes in her locality, she would not get the world wide publicity (maybe not even national publicity) that she’s getting from looking to adopt from some obscure African country (is it a country, or some kind of territory?  Newsflash: no one CARES.)  (the map is shown here as an educational service).  It would have been equally possible for Madonna to have kept the whole affair PRIVATE, but we can see that wasn’t part of the PLAN.

Kudos to Madonna for a Win-Win Victory!

If you’re asking why I would write that, you don’t get it.  If you “got” it, then you’d know that the whole thing is for the purpose of global publicity.  That being the case, once an adoption was made, unless the child somehow managed to garner further headlines, the publicity “ride” would be over, but the price would be on-going, and the price would be not just money but the most valuable of things: TIME.

But Madonna’s managed to pull out a major coup in that not only has she gotten the publicity she was looking for, but she now doesn’t have the burden of having to raise the kid (or rather, pay to have a nanny raise the kid).

Funny thing, on the morning of this writing, a woman interviewed on the BBC radio suggested that, even in the light of the failure to adopt this child, Madonna should pay some stipend for helping with its on-going needs.  NICE TRY!  Gotta love you Brits!  Oh, WHY are you guys so fascinated with Africa?

But Madonna’s gotten her cake and she gets to eat it too!  Congratulations, Madonna!  We’re still talking about you!

Spalding Gray found dead

Entertainment | Posted by Charles C. Cotton
Mar 08 2004

LINK TO STORY

Spalding GrayIt is as I feared, but the kinda-famous monologist Spalding Gray was found dead after weeks of not being found.  The story of his missing and now of his death are easily found, but at this time, I wish to share my personal experience with his work.

While Gray appeared in many movies, including a couple which set to capture his live monologues, these films did not succeed, in my opinion, to capture the energy and talent that he projected in a live forum.

The closest he came to capturing the experience were a couple of PBS specials he made – the best one used a single static camera pointed at him.  In it, he sat at a desk with a shuffled stack of cards.  He revealed each one showing the title of one of his stories and that’s how the show went.

The other show was more of a show as it used actors to illustrate the story of his buying a home.  The voice over style that was applied was very reminiscent of the stories of the late Jean Shepherd whose work was immortalized in The Christmas Story, It Runs In The Family, and numerous other PBS specials.

One movie “Swimming to Cambodia”, which is available on home media (DVD, VHS) started out like one of his monologues, but digressed into a distracting series of sound and lighting effects, none of which were in his live presentation.

Compared to Shepherd, Spalding Gray’s work was more introspective and bordered on the self indulgent at times.  He only tried to be funny at times, and resisted attempts at being funny, (although his monologue about buying a house was hilarious) which made his humorous stories only more so because of their honesty.

Gray was the victim of a terrible car crash, which crippled him and threatened his career as an actor.  It seems he never got over it.  He attempted suicide, but came back from it.  It seems this time, after having seen the movie “Fish Story”, he gained a sense of peace and developed the courage to do it again.

Knowing that we will never see any more from Spalding Gray, he will be missed.