We the People of the United States…are some weird dudes. A clever but clearly tongue-in-cheek petition to build a Star Wars-style Death Star isn’t the only petition that’s been started on the Obama administration’s much-debated We The People website.
That’s the place where ordinary citizens can log in and lobby for change. When a petition registered on the site gets 25,000 signatures, the administration issues an official response to it, which, you might guess, means that there are quite a few wackadoo proposals on the site.
In addition to the Death Star proposal, which needs more than 21,000 signatures before its Dec. 14 deadline, there is also a petition started by “Sean M” of San Francisco that seeks to establish a “new legal system of motorcycle riding ‘Judges’ who serve as police, judge, jury, and executioner all in one.”
If you saw Dredd 3D or are a fan of Judge Dredd comics, you’ll get the reference. If you’re like me, you’ll also start thinking of Karl Urban riding in formation with leather-clad Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg who also know how to scowl effectively.
And for you gamer fans, nathan p of Columbus, Ohio has petitioned the administration to build a statue of Halo hero Master Chief on the White House lawn, noting: ”He deserves more praise for what he has done.”
Compared to those last two petitions, the Death Star proposal at least has some satirical bite, nothing that its construction will “spur job creation…and strengthen our national defense.” It could also boost Disney’s stock.
It will be interesting to see if any of these petitions makes their 25,000-signature deadlines, which all fall at the end…
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I don’t know if Colin Farrell is stealing that horse’s hairstyle or if the horse is stealing Colin Farrell’s hairstyle (SPOILER ALERT: It’s the first one). Here’s Colin Farrell on the Brooklyn set of his new movie Winter’s Tale and based on these pictures and his overall look, he’s either playing an Amish boy bander circa 1991 or he’s playing a pilgrim hitman who was into New Wave before New Wave was a thing. Whatever the case may be, I still would and he’s got so much kitchen grease in his hair that we wouldn’t even need to buy lube!
The tumultuous America of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln was undoubtedly a man’s world, but behind the legendary 16th President of the United States — one of the greatest figures in American history — stood a fascinatingly complex, shrewd, and passionate woman: Mary Todd Lincoln. “Without a Mary Todd,” asserts Oscar-winner Sally Field, who portrays the paradoxical First Lady opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, “there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln.”
Spielberg’s Lincoln, adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner from Doris Kearns’ biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, brings the iconic Lincoln to life at the close of the Civil War, just prior to his 1865 assassination. Reenacting Lincoln’s precarious inter-party political dealings and dogged commitment to passing the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln depicts a pivotal, history-making period in the President’s career, taking care to highlight the impact made by his most under-acknowledged political partner — wife Mary Todd.
And what indelible contributions did the emotionally volatile, smart, and savvy Mary Todd make to her husband’s legacy? Field sat down with Movieline to discuss the fantastically complicated First Lady of Lincoln — wife, mother, society figure, and trusted advisor — and why, as an actress “of age,” roles like these come along far too rarely.
They say behind every great man is a great woman, perhaps especially so in Lincoln’s case, but the world in their time wasn’t quite up to speed with that thinking. Did you feel a certain responsibility to represent strong womanhood knowing that you were one of very few female characters in this cast?
No. It wasn’t my task to do that. I could not feel that. That would have been absolutely in my way. I was given this great opportunity to portray…
With a TMZ cameraman and a reporter from Radar at his side, Michael Lohan tried and failed to get Lindsay Lohan into rehab on Friday. One of TMZ’s sources (fun fact: “One of TMZ’s sources” is Latin for Michael Lohan) says that LiLo’s entire team including her manager and lawyers want her to dry up in rehab, because she’s eating Adderall faster than a Kardashian’s pussy eats black dick and she’s drinking a bottle and a half of vodka every day (“What’s wrong with that?” says you as you open a second bottle of Popov at 8:30 in the morning). I know, a bottle and A HALF? What kind of self-respecting alcoholic doesn’t finish all of the second bottle? For shame.
Michael has e-mails proving that LiLo’s manager, entertainment lawyer and criminal defense lawyer Shawn Holley were all in on the intervention that didn’t happen. But since that intervention didn’t happen, Michael is moving on to Plan B. I wish what I meant by that was that Michael Lohan plans to shove a bunch of Plan B pills up into his peen hole so he can never procreate again since he has no business being anybody’s father, but that’s not what I mean. Michael tells TMZ that he’s going to go to the court this week and ask for them to force LiLo into a conservatorship. Even Michael
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Also in Monday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs: Hip-hop artist Kid Cudi is joining a romantic comedy; Ben Stiller teases Zoolander; Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders gets a new gig; And Shiloh Fernandez joins Gregg Araki’s latest.
R.I.P. John Clive
John Clive, who appeared in films including A Clockwork Orange, the Pink Panther and The Italian Job, has died at the age of 79. The actor and author, who was also the voice of John Lennon in Yellow Submarine and went on to become an international bestselling author, passed away following a short illness, his family said on Monday, The Guardian reports.
Mike Epps to Play Richard Pryor in Nina Simone Biopic
Mike Epps will play Richard Pryor in Nina, the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana. In a supporting role, Epps will play Pryor, who opened for the singer when they two were starting out in the early 1960s. Pryor had terrible stage fright and Simone, in her autobiography, recalled how she regularly rocked him into calmness, THR reports.
Kid Cudi Boards Romantic Comedy Two Night Stand
Hip-hop artist Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has joined the cast of Two Night Stand, the indie romantic comedy starring Analeigh Tipton and Miles Teller. The story centers on two people who meet online and get together for a one-night stand. The couple get snowed in the next morning and are forced to spend more time together, THR reports.
Ben Stiller Reprises Zoolander Role
The actor, 46, showed up alongside designer Tommy Hilfiger and Daily Show host Jon Stewart at Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs at New York City’s Beacon…
When the credits rolled on The Master, I found myself thinking two things: Joaquin Phoenix is going to be nominated for an Oscar, and damn, I could use a drink! Watching Phoenix as feral Freddie Quell make moonshine from torpedo fuel, paint thinner and what appeared to be darkroom chemicals garnished with a mangy citrus fruit reminded me how inspiring it is to see a good mixologist at work. And that spurred me to find one who could invent a proper high-alcohol homage to Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie and Phoenix’s character that would not require masterminding a heist on The U.S.S. Curtis Wilbur.
My search led me to Rachel Sergi (right), who first caught my attention with Dario Argento-inspired The Suspiria, a potent little number she worked up using grain alcohol, which, by the way, was used as torpedo fuel by the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Sergi, who studied film at San Francisco State University, is Beverage Director at Jack Rose Dining Saloon in Washington D.C., and, after seeing The Master, she created the (Not So) Slow Boat to China exclusively for Movieline. She says the also-powerful cocktail, pictured at top, was inspired by the movie’s maritime references and that weird little moment at the end of the movie where Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd sings Frank Loesser’s ”(I’d Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China” to Freddie.
Without further adieu, here is Rachel’s most excellent recipe, complete with instructions on how to make the Pink Peppercorn tincture and White Pepper Syrup used in the drink. Now, get out your cocktail shakers and enjoy one.
(NOT SO) SLOW BOAT TO CHINA
1.5 oz.…
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