It’s too fucking bizarre to even blog about. Heath Ledger is dead at 28 years old. And I was just writing about him in my The Dark Knight post too. I seriously thought it was a joke when I glanced up from the front desk and saw on CNN’s crawl that he was found dead in his apartment, with a suspicion of drugs being involved. The first thing that I thought when I saw the words “found dead” was, “Well, are they sure?” It seems so surreal.

The poor guy was super talented too. Kind of brings back River Phoenix memories, actually. What a waste of talent and good looks. He would have had a long, healthy career.

Bouts of nostalgia and R.I.P. Brad Renfro

I almost dropped the Snapple that I was gulping when I clicked on Yahoo!’s page and was greeted by Former Child Star Dies with Brad Renfro’s picture next to it. Brad fucking Renfro. One of my childhood crushes. One of those kids who, like Elijah Wood, Sean Astin or Dakota Fanning, had such potential and who could definitely hold their own against such movie heavyweights as Sean Penn, Tommy Lee Jones, and Susan Sarandon. Brad Renfro of The Client fame. Dead at age 25.

For some reason most of the young heartthrobs that I used to gaze adoringly at the pages of Teen Beat, Tiger Beat and Bop! end up OD’ing on something or getting into freak accidents. Jonathan Brandis [The Neverending Story] died in a car accident. River Phoenix OD’d on cocaine. And now, Brad Renfro, dead at 25, of unknown causes. Although I have a sneaking suspicion drugs were once again involved.

Renfro has been in and out of rehab for most of his career. Though a tremendous actor, he had a striking similarity with his breakout character Mark from The Client: A bit of a bad boy and extremely troubled. Apart from wowing audiences with his first film, Renfro has been in various other commendable movies, including Apt Pupil, opposite Ian McKellen. Directed by Bryan Singer, Apt Pupil was one of those films that made you think, and it was also one of those films where Renfro was so good that you almost forgot that Ian McKellen was costarring in the film too. Renfro was also in The Cure, Sleepers, Tom and Huck and Ghost World.

It was pretty nostalgic for me to see someone I watched when I was a kid end up on the news like that. Dead at age 25. So young, with so much talent. R.I.P., Brad Renfro.

The bizarro Golden Globes

Thanks to the Writer’s Guild of America waging a now 3-month-long strike, the Golden Globe Awards has been reduced to a press conference. A pretty bizarre one at that. No glitz, no glamour, no close-ups of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt canoodling in their seats…it was sad and uneventful.

But it’s still the Golden Globes. It’s usually a prerequisite for the Oscars, if there will be an Oscars. Some are saying that the strike will end just in time to have the Oscars go on, but some aren’t as optimistic. But still, recipients of this year’s Golden Globes still having something to look forward to. Their win assures them of a good chance at getting their hands at that Mr. Oscar in February.

Atonement, the sweeping piece by Joe Wright based on the book by Ian McEwan, won the globe for best drama. No surprise, really, since entertainment gurus have long been predicting that the film will do well during awards time. Other expected wins were Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood for Best Actor in a Drama, and Javier Bardem’s super creepy murderer in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. Another expected win was Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the book by Jean-Dominique Bauby (an excellent read, if any of you are interested in some leisure reading). He took the globe for best director, although it was a pretty good bout between Schnabel, the Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men and Joe Wright for Atonement. However, the Coen brothers did win best screenplay for No Country for Old Men.

Most of the awards were expected. Cate Blanchett for her excellent portrayal of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There won best supporting actress, and Jon Hamm won for Mad Men, one of the best new shows on air.

As for surprises, Sweeney Todd won for best musical or comedy, which was surprising, since most expected Hairspray to win. Another surprise was Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose winning Best Actress in a Musical. Don’t get me wrong, she was excellent in the film. A lot of people were rooting for Nikki Blonsky in Hairspray or Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd.

The Golden Globes were utterly bizarre. Let’s hope the show goes on for the Oscars. Otherwise, those celebrities might go on a rampage now that they’ll have to return the dresses, suits and jewelry they had ready for the eventful night.

More entertaining than the Obsournes? Gasp!

A new rocker-fronted family has joined the reality TV roster: the Simmons family.Legendary tongue-wagging, KISS co-founder Gene Simmons has added his own family to the line-up of stars translating their lives to reality TV. After the huge success of The Osbournes on MTV, we now have Gene Simmons Family Jewels from A&E.

I love the show, not just because Gene’s kids are simply better-looking than the Osbournes, but because they really are a pretty interesting family. I’m not sure if it’s all for show, but they’re pretty fun to watch. Gene’s son Nick is pretty cute. He looks like he could be a sixth member of The Strokes. The episodes are hilarious. I just watched an episode where Gene made a bet with his son Nick that he could pass the California driving test with flying colors. Instead, he fails and has to stand in the middle of Beverly Hills with a neon pink sign that says: “I’m Gene Simmons and I am the world’s worst driver” or something.

Anyway, it’s a pretty fun show. Sure, people will say there’s plenty of similarity to The Osbournes, but there’s also a big and noteworthy difference: Gene Simmons Family Jewels isn’t 3/4 about picking up dog poop. And the kids are better-looking. Besides, no one really wants to see what Kelly Osbourne looks like in the morning. Or wait, scratch that. No one wants to see Kelly Osbourne at all.

I turn my camera on

Anyone with half a brain knows that a situation involving a video-enabled phone combined with any form of sexual activity never ends happily. So will somebody please tell me why supposedly smart girls are constantly being caught with their pants down [literally] out of sheer stupidity?

It’s one thing to have sex with someone, but to go to the extent of recording the act says something totally different about a person. But I just learned that this girl I once knew back in elementary school was involved in some sort of sex scandal that totally screwed up her good-girl image. I was appalled and shocked to learn that the same girl who was valedictorian of her class and popular around campus, turned out to have this fetish for recording herself having sex with her boyfriend. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t care what people do behind closed doors, but when you’re creating a situation where people on the outside are able to get into your personal life, you’re either a really unfortunate person with lots of bad luck, or a complete idiot.

It’s puzzling to know that a girl who seems to have everything going for her–beauty, brains, a reputable family, a fairly good-looking boyfriend and a bright future–can totally fuck things up with something as collossally stupid as recording herself having sex. I mean, hello? Hasn’t anyone heard of Paris Hilton? God. I mean, Paris Hilton’s sex tape thing I can totally understand. I mean, she’s a blonde bimbo with an IQ that’s below sea level. But when you have a girl who has so much going for her, it’s just baffling. It’s times like these when Voltaire’s words couldn’t be more true: Common sense is indeed not so common.

There must be something psychological underlying these sorts of things. Sweet, demure girls don’t just turn into nymphomaniacs overnight. Repression? Was she sick of the good-girl image she was always putting up for people? Multiple personality disorder? Did she have a good side and a sick, twisted dark half? Now, like I said previously, she could have had all the sex she wanted and nobody would care, but why put you and your partner at risk by making it possible for intimate details about your personal life getting leaked to the public? Especially when you’re leading sort of a double life–switching from Miss Perfect to some sex kitten.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of this post is just out of wonder. It confuses me how you can be smart and stupid at the same time. Okay, so maybe not stupid, but reckless. Now all I have is pity and sort of a sad amusement for the girl and her boyfriend. Oversexed teenagers everywhere are gleefully watching this couple having sex on their computers and cellphones. Hopefully people will think twice before whipping out their cellphones in the future.

Government warning: if you are a horny teenager who’s thinking of recording your sexual conquests for whatever kinky reason, forget Nike. Just don’t do it.

What’s newsworthy around the globe

USA
Howard Shelves “Da Vinci” Disclaimer

The Da Vinci Code director Ron Howard has rejected demands by Opus Dei to attach a disclaimer to his would-be blockbuster labeling the film as a work of fiction, spurring a rebuke from the religious sect. “It’s not theology. It’s not history. To start off with a disclaimer…Spy thrillers don’t start off with disclaimers,” Howard told the Los Angeles Times in Sunday’s edition.

The film features several scenes based on both traditional biblical passages and alternate theories put forth by Dan Brown’s mega-selling book. “It’s very controversial,” Howard said. “What Dan Brown did with the novel, we didn’t back away from in making the movie. I think what a lot of people have discovered–a lot of theologians–is this is a work of fiction that presents a set of characters that are affected by these conspiracy theories and ideas. Those characters in this work of fiction act and react on that premise.”

That echoed an earlier statement from Sony, which called The Da Vinci Code “a work of fiction, and at its heart, it’s a thriller, not a religious tract.”

On Monday, Opus Dei released a statement expressing disappointment at Howard’s decision.
“A disclaimer could have been a way for Sony to show that the company wants to be fair and respectful in its treatment of Christians and the Catholic Church,” said Brian Finnerty, Opus Dei’s U.S. spokesman.

The sect isn’t the only division of the Church that has taken major issue with both the film and book. The Vatican launched its own offensive against the flick last month, upgrading its disapproval of the book’s supposedly anti-Christian theories into a call for a full-blown boycott.
Monsignor Angelo Amato, the number-two official in the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office, called for the ban on the basis that the blockbuster novel was “stridently anti-Christian…full of calumnies, offences and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Church.”

Not all Church officials share the same grievances. Members of both Opus Dei and the Catholic Church in England and Wales announced plans to capitalize on the interest created by the book and will use the controversy surrounding the film as “teaching opportunities” instead of heresies. While the Archbishop of Westminster’s director of public affairs, Austen Ivereigh, has made a public statement regarding the Church’s official stance, the bishops themselves have remained aloof on the topic, instead taking the opportunity to publicly discuss the religion’s different sects and beliefs without attempting to spark an uprising. (eonline.com)

GUATEMALA
Ancient Maya Royal Tomb Discovered in Guatemala

A newly uncovered Maya tomb might be the resting place of the first ruler of Waka’, an ancient city on what was a major trade route. The tomb, uncovered deep in the jungles of Guatemala, contains a single skeleton lying on a stone bench, jade jewels, and the remains of a jaguar pelt, according to news reports. The structure was discovered on April 29 by archaeologist Hector Escobedo of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and graduate student Juan Carlos Melendez. It lies at the base of the site’s largest pyramid, which is about 60 feet (18 meters) tall.

Freidel says that “This may be the resting place of either the dynasty founder, a man we do not have a history for, or K’inich B’alam the First, the Maya king who allied with Siyaj Ka’k', conqueror of Tikal [a major Maya city] in AD 378.”

The royal tomb is the second found at the site. In the spring of 2004 Freidel and his colleagues discovered a queen’s tomb more than 1,200 years old and dated to the Late Classic period of Maya civilization. (national geographic.com)

ENGLAND
Bug-Eating Robots Use Flies for Fuel

At the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in England, researchers are designing their newest bug-eating robot—Ecobot III. The device is the latest in a series of small robots to emerge from the lab that are powered by a diet of insects and other biomass.

Over the last decade, Melhuish’s team has produced a string of bots powered by sugar, rotten apples, or dead flies. The biomass is converted into electricity through a series of stomachlike microbial fuel cells, or MFCs. Living batteries, MFCs generate power from colonies of bacteria that release electrons as the microorganisms digest plant and animal matter. (Electricity is simply a flow of electrons.) The lab’s first device, named Slugbot, was an artificial predator that hunted for common garden slugs. While Slugbot never digested its prey, it laid the groundwork for future bots powered by biomass.

In 2004 researchers unveiled Ecobot II. About the size of a dessert plate, the device could operate for 12 days on a diet of eight flies. (national geographic.com)

THE AMAZON
McAmazon

International — It is a globally known symbol: the golden arches can be seen in many countries around the world. But whatever the fast food giant wants you to believe the golden arches stand for, McDonald’s today stands for rainforest destruction. And that is one very ‘Unhappy Meal’ for the planet.

The Amazon rainforest needs no introduction; the mere mention of its name conjures up images of a huge untouched wilderness bursting with amazing life. But to McDonald’s and a handful of huge soya traders, the Amazon means something completely different. It means cheap land and cheap labour. Cheap land because it is often stolen, cheap labour because some of the people who work cutting down the forest or work on the farms in the Amazon are actually slaves. You heard it right, slaves.

How is it possible? Well, the soya traders encourage farmers to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soya monocultures. The traders take the soya and ship it to Europe where it is fed to animals like chickens and pigs. The animals are then turned into fast food products like McDonald’s McNuggets and many other products found in fast food outlets and supermarkets.

The journey from rainforest to restaurant might sound simple enough but it has taken a year-long investigation using satellite images, aerial surveillance, previously unreleased government documents and on-the-ground monitoring to expose. What we found was a global trade in soya from rainforest destruction in the Amazon to McDonald’s fast food outlets and supermarkets across Europe.

“This crime stretches from the heart of the Amazon across the entire European food industry. Supermarkets and fast food giants, like McDonald’s, must make sure their food is free from the links to the Amazon destruction, slavery and human rights abuses” Greenpeace forests campaign co-ordinator, Gavin Edwards.

Banks too have been caught up in the destruction of the Amazon. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, wrongly assessed a loan to Grupo Andre Maggi as being of ‘low environmental risk,’ despite evidence to the contrary. Other banks have also lent huge sums of money to the company without conducting their own environmental or social impact audits. So far, Rabobank, the Netherlands’ biggest agricultural bank has lent over US$330 million to Grupo Andre Maggi. Rabobank admitted that it didn’t do its own assessment of the risk of the loans, simply accepting the (flawed) assessment of the IFC.

So fast food and supermarkets, soya traders and big banks are all trashing the Amazon rainforest. (to ask McDonald’s to stop trashing the Amazon, visit www.greenpeace.org)

More White blood cells

Jack White and his wife, model Karen Elson, announced yesterday that they just had their first child together on Tuesday in Tennessee. They named their baby girl Scarlett Teresa.

Although the rumor turned out to be true that Meg and Jack White were husband and wife, and not siblings, as the couple had led many to believe, they are currently an ex-couple. Meg White was Karen Elson’s maid of honor at the wedding.

Before Karen Elson, Jack White had a relationship with Renee Zellweger, which dissolved in 2004. After which, Renee wed country singer Kenny Chesney. That didn’t work out either.

Anyway, although The White Stripes were extremely successful, Jack White has formed a new band called The Raconteurs.

Couch potatoes unite

I think it’s time I finally admit that I have a problem: I watch way too much TV for my own good. Not only am I endangering my already myopic eyesight, but I am slowly turning into one of those TV leeches that lies around in bed all day without taking her eyes off of the television set. Don’t they have AA meetings for these things?

For instance, I am probably way too obsessed with the fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal [Secretary, Mona Lisa Smile] and Peter Sarsgaard [Garden State, Red Eye, Jarhead] are like, engaged. Not that my world would end or anything, but seriously, did anyone knows this? I love Peter Sarsgaard! I love how he drawls when he talks. He plays a great villain character, too. If you guys saw The Skeleton Key (crappy movie, but hey, let’s give Kate Hudson a chance to stab at the horror movie genre) and Red Eye, you’d agree that Peter Sarsgaard is a pretty good meanie.
Also, who knew that Kylie Minogue was going out with Olivier Martinez [Unfaithful, S.W.A.T., Taking Lives]? Did you know? I just found out. It’s unfair that Kylie, dance music sex goddess, has a great career and has an uber-cute boyfriend.

This summer I have even more reason to stay home and stay glued to the tube. Season 3 of Nip/Tuck just premiered last Sunday. When the show began, I was like, “Christian dies?! What?!” As it turns out, the sneaky producers started the season by giving us a death scene for Christian where he’s lying sprawled on his bed, slain by the Carver. They even went so far as to shoot a funeral scene for Christian, which further misled the viewers (namely, me, who was gullible enough to actually believe this pathetic stint!). Anyhoo, as it turns out, it was Christian relaying his nightmare to Sean, etcetera. Basta it was a good premiere episode. Think What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? meets Scream meets Melrose Place.

Prison Break is mounting in suspense, as always, and I remember throwing a pillow across the room after watching last night’s episode. It’s so frustrating! Plus the new season of Veronic Mars also started and as always, Neptune’s very own Nancy Drew has some mysteries to solve. Oh yeah, and I once again got hooked on Survivor.

Basically what’s keeping me sane this summer are Drawn Together episodes on JackTV and late night Cartoon Network shows like Adult Swim. I remember there was this segment on Adult Swim where a viewer was asking, “Dear Adult Swim, which superhero do you think is great in bed?” and the answer would be, “Two words: Flame on!” Hahahahaha….Am I the only one who finds this funny?

Hmm. Apparently I am.

Anyway, so yeah. This is proof enough that I need to get out of the house. There must be some form of group therapy for this sort of thing, right? Anyone?

Girls who rock

Amy Adams

Amy Adams has a remarkable quality. She simply shines in every role she is in. Although she’s been in some pretty confusing, head-scratching roles in some pretty horrific movies [Cruel Intentions], she’s managed to find her niche in the film industry, playing comedic roles with such precision and charm that it’s almost impossible to dislike her. Her role in Enchanted as a fairy tale princess stuck in the real world was what sealed the deal for her as one of Hollywood’s newest breakouts. But I personally enjoyed her acting in 2005’s Junebug, starring opposite Ben McKenzie and playing a very pregnant but extremely talkative girlfriend. This girl is very likable, stunningly beautiful, and has that charm like no other celebrity. And if the picture to your left doesn’t seal the deal for you, you might be able to catch her in the recent release Charlie Wilson’s War with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, as well as in upcoming movies Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Doubt.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

I’m pretty biased, because Sarah has played my all-time favorite prime time heroine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But apart from being known for starring in the hit TV show and being cemented as one of TV’s biggest icons, Sarah has been given the title of scream queen, because she’s been in countless scary movies. I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (where she met hubby Freddie Prinze, Jr.), The Grudge, and The Return. As a testament to her hotness, she has also played pretty steamy roles, including the notorious Katherine in Cruel Intentions, where her make out session with Selma Blair caused waves all around. Now 30, Buffy’s a kid no more, and she’s taking on more serious but different roles, such as playing a porn star in Southland Tales, a pop star in The Air I Breathe and a grown-up Alice in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie. Besides, being able to pull off the above outfit should be testament enough to her coolness.

Rachel McAdams

Miss McAdams is now a household name thanks to two film roles: the delectably scandalous Mean Girls queen bee Regina George and the romantic lead Allie Hamilton opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. I personally adored her in Mean Girls, and I think no one else could have played that character. Way to break out, Rachel. Mean Girls was such a hit that it seemed silly not to cast the pretty actress. The Notebook stole teenage girls’ hearts and therefore plummeted McAdams to stardom. She then tried her hand at suspense with Wes Craven’s Red Eye, which she brilliantly performed in opposite the insanely cute Cillian Murphy. Her roles in The Family Stone and Wedding Crashers lent to a more comedic appeal. McAdams has shown her range in just so little time, and I think she’s going to go far.

Evangeline Lilly

She is just so pretty. But little do most people know, prior to scoring her Lost gig, this brunette beauty was traveling the globe, helping various communities and assisting in various environmental efforts. Beautiful and selfless, that must be a great package. Lilly is a tremendous actress on the show. Lost would not be the same without her playing Kate.

Kristen Bell

So who doesn’t like Miss Bell? She’s every geek boy’s dream girl, every girl’s dream best friend, every TV network’s dream casting choice, and she just happens to be really cute. Kristen Bell broke out as Veronica Mars, the Nancy Drew of the internet generation. Apart from being catapulted into fame by the show, she was also reintroduced to the big screen. Why reintroduced? She’s already been in movies like Pootie Tang, Reefer Madness, Spartan, and the remake of the Japanese horror film Pulse. She now has upcoming movies for release: Fanboys and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The most recent accolade on this tiny talent’s resume? A spot on NBC’s Heroes, playing the firecracker Elle. Her character has been one of the saving graces on the new season. Bell is so most wanted right now that she can turn down a spot on ABC’s Lost and not feel like she “lost” out (pun intended). She’s the most bankable TV star right now, and we know she loves where she’s at.

Natalie Portman

Who knew she could rap?

If you haven’t seen Portman’s hilarious and disturbingly convincing SNL rap video where she mouths off excessively, trashes sets excessively, and sports her badass bob post-V for Vendetta, you have seriously missed out.

Portman’s career has been blessed. She started on The Professional, earning praise for her role as a gun-toting teenager opposite Jean Reno. She has starred opposite actress heavyweights Susan Sarandon in Anywhere but Here, Ashley Judd in the Wal-Mart comedy Where the Heart Is, and joined an all-star cast for Mars Attacks! But Portman became a household name (or at least every Star Wars household’s) when she played Queen Amidala in the Star Wars saga. Although Amidala was her big breakout, I think the movie that sealed the deal (and the hearts of the indie music-loving, rumpled T-shirt-wearing male population) was her endearing role as Sam opposite Zach Braff in Garden State. She will forever be known as the girl who proclaimed that The Shins would “change your life”.

Portman has gone on to make more serious, mature films, such as Brokeback Mountain, V for Vendetta, and Closer, where she holds her own against Hollywood heavyweights Clive Owen, Jude Law and Julia Roberts. She also played a stripper, which was completely new territory. More recently, to demonstrate how much she’s grown as an actress and as a person, she has appeared nude in The Darjeeling Limited, a Wes Anderson film. I personally thought she was the only saving grace for that movie, which to me was a huge letdown.

Portman will be starring in The Other Boleyn Girl with Scarlett Johansson, a big-screen adaptation of the Philippa Gregory bestseller and is rumored to be starring in a new Francis Lawrence [I am Legend, Constantine] film about a reinvented Snow White, which sounds interesting.

What makes Portman so likable and bankable is not only that she’s insanely beautiful, super smart (she went to Harvard and graduated with a degree in Psychology) and has a healthy career, but because she’s also a great humanitarian. She’s used her influence in the music industry to create a compilation of songs from some of her friends in the biz. Big Change: Songs for FINCA will benefit FINCA, an organization that helps fight poverty in developing countries. The album included songs from M. Ward, Norah Jones, Devendra Banhart, and of course, The Shins.

El Terrible? I think not.

I watched the Pacquiao-Morales match on TV (yeah, like, 30 minutes after we knew who won, thanks to broadcasting idiocy). It wasn’t epic at all. Just wildly entertaining.

I swear, my mom seemed like she was high that day. She was wailing and moaning and doing un-maternal things in the name of Pacquiao. At first she was tuned in to the radio, because the stupid TV stations were showing way too many commercials and so the fight’s broadcast was delayed. When the commentators on the radio yelled that there was a technical knockout and that Pacquiao had won, she was screaming and rolling around on the floor like an animal being lynched. I disowned her right then and there.

But you don’t disown moms, I think. You can file for emancipation, though. Hmmm…
Anyway, so I’ve never been a huge boxing fan. I mean, it’s way too brutal for my taste. I mean, you’re being paid to throw punches at a guy who’s also paid millions to beat you up? Lovely. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton’s characters in Fight Club would love that, but I wouldn’t.

And so seeing Erik Morales, the so-called El Terrible, being beaten to a pulp by Pacquiao agonized me instead of filling me with joy. I was wincing everytime a close-up shot was done on Morales. His face was all swollen up–his nose looked like the size of a grapefruit, I swear. And his eyes were all squinty and bloodshot. For chrissakes, you gotta be way up on the sadomasochist scale to be a boxer.

But you gotta hand it to Pacquiao, man. The guy swings like an AK47. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Swingin’ and swingin’ like there was no tomorrow. I mean, he cornered Morales the entire freakin’ match. He was doggedly on Morales’ tail–surveying his opponent like a cat does his rodent prey (okay, what is it with me and rodents, anyway?). Morales couldn’t even catch a breath and already Pac-man was hurling fists at him.

Great game, man. Great game. So it didn’t exactly ignite a newfound love for boxing, but it sure got me all worked up. Anyone wanna be my human punching bag for a couple of minutes? I’ll give you a free burrito. Come on, step up!