All football, all the time: the NFL launches the NFL Network. Yeah. I just hope Time Warner picks it up for the fall. Here's the NFL's offical press release.
Vid: July 2003 Archives
After seeing Pirates of the Caribbean and enjoying it greatly (an opinion that Mike Whybark shares), I came across this keyboard (via the ever-industrious Amy Langfield).
As for the movie itself? It's a great deal of fun. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush compete to see who can chew more scenery (one movie critic dubbed Depp's performance "The Lavender Pirate"). Orlando Bloom (Legolas in LoTR) and Kiara Knightley (the blonde tomboy in Bend it Like Beckham, brunette here) are appropriately pretty all the time and appropriately dashing when the script calls for it as the straight leads. The marvelously talented Jonathan Pryce and Jack Davenport are, unfortunately, wasted in relatively minor roles as a colonial governor and a British commodore, though Davenport has moments here and there when he realizes that he's in far over his head.
I'm not entirely happy with the ending (for one thing, it misses a wonderful chance to pay homage to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly), but it's still a wonderfully fun couple of hours at the movies.
I've noticed a recent surge ("surge" being relative here, but she's now only second to the ever-popular Leah McLaren in my search results) in hits for Ludivine Sagnier.
Ms. Sagnier is, if you recall, the young actress who appeared as a coltish tomboy in 8 Women last year; she's currently starring in the summer art-house hit Swimming Pool.
Of course, reviews like this may be the real reason behind her sudden popularity. Might have to add another movie to the must-see list this summer...
I just caught the first episode of what looks to be the highly addictive new series The Restaurant, and I gotta say, I think that that's the first time I've ever seen two product placements in the opening credits.
The plugs in the show were really annoying and forced, too.
Of course I'm going to watch next week's show.
There is justice in this world:
J.Lo and Affleck: We Will Never Work Together Again.
Admittedly, I think the last Ben Affleck movie I saw was Shakespeare In Love and the only Jennnifer Lopez movie I've ever seen (unless you count bits of Money Train and The Wedding Planner caught whilst flipping through channels on cable TV) was Out of Sight, so it's not like I'll be personally impacted that much by the news...
Update: The New York Post has a story on the initial reaction to Gigli; some choice quotes are "It's very bad storytelling," and "It's horrible ... the worst movie ever made."
