And the Winner Is... And What It Says About Us
The Oscars began life as a marketing campaign on the part of the major Hollywood studios. Awards were negotiated behind closed doors with an eye toward advancing the film business and keeping everyone...
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Why No One Cares About This Year's Oscars
So the Oscars are Sunday night and the big news seems to be that no one gives a rat's ass. There was a story in the New York Times last week in which the writer and the people he interviewed seemed...
View Article5 Life Lessons Scandal Can Teach Our Kids (When They're Old Enough to Watch It)
Oh, Scandal. It was an innocent recommendation from friends, two seasons of DVDs bought, and then three weeks of my life lost to your intrigue. And that was only the screen time. How much longer have...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Liz Taylor
"I THINK America's too sensitive about everything. When you consider America was made because some Puritans left England because it WASN'T puritanical enough, that puts things in perspective," says the...
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The Five Greatest Disney Villainesses of All Time
Sure the heroines of Disney's Frozen are all the rage, but a good, wicked Disney villain is ALWAYS fun to watch. Here's a list of the five greatest Disney villainesses of all time. Maleficent Not only...
View ArticleWatch This And Win Your Best Picture Oscar Bet
Who's taking home this year's Best Picture Oscar? In this quick segment, we look at the best predictors of who will win Best Picture, to give you a good overall idea of where the race stands so far,...
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Erykah Badu Reveals All About Her 'Lo Down Loretta Brown' Persona [VIDEO]
When she's behind the turntables, call her Lo Down Loretta Brown, not Erykah, thank you. But now, the reason behind Badu's alter ego's namesake has been revealed. The dynamic hip-hop neo-soulstress,...
View ArticleWhy Oscars 2014 will be a Breakthrough Moment for Boomer Marketing
Marketers take note: On March 2, the Academy Awards will shine the world's brightest spotlight on stars like Best Actress nominees Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, as well as a variety of films with...
View ArticleHow Mississippi Burning Helped Get Justice for Slain Civil Rights Workers
In June 2005, a frail octogenarian, Edgar Ray Killen was wheeled from a Mississippi courtroom, having been convicted on three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of three young Civil Rights workers 41...
View ArticleMy Cry Meter Predicts 12 Years a Slave Will Win Best Picture
With only a couple of days until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces winners for the 86th Academy Awards, I was able to finally view the last of of the Best Picture nominees on my...
View ArticleVoices of Pain and Peace
No matter how bad it gets, we can look inside ourselves and find hope, possibility . . . the future. And when we find that, we know what it means to build peace. "It's like I'm in a never-ending battle...
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Talking with Johnny Winter, David Weinreb, Holly Golightly and Brendan...
Talking with Johnny Winter Mike Ragogna: Johnny, how the heck are you? Let's talk about your four-CD box set, True To The Blues: The Johnny Winter Story. This is a celebration of your triumphs and...
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The Academy's Celluloid Ceiling
The red carpet for the Academy Awards rolls out on Sunday, when hopefuls, hacks, and superstars alike chase the most coveted prize in show business. If you look only at the categories for acting, women...
View ArticleZaki's Review: Non-Stop
In my discussion of 3 Days to Kill last week, I made note of how star Kevin Costner's turn as an aging CIA hitman was essentially mimicking the Liam Neeson action model that's served the...
View ArticleReThink Review: Son of God -- What Would Jesus Watch?
Ten years ago, I went to a movie theater to watch Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ with a friend of mine who is a doctor, curious to see if the charges of the film's anti-Semitism were true. As...
View ArticlePlease, Oscars: Don't Give 'Dallas Buyers Club' Any Awards
(Note: there are some spoilers here!) Who is "Dallas Buyers Club" for? It's not for anyone who identifies as LGBT. The movie is resolutely not about them. Is it for homophobes, who can learn from the...
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What's the Fat Problem With Girls?
Photo Credit: GQ.com "I think that I may be the voice of my generation," Hannah Horvath, the character that Lena Dunham plays on her hit HBO drama Girls, told her parents. "Or at least a voice...of a...
View ArticleKeeping Memories Alive Through Candid Conversation
Click here to watch the TEDTalk that inspired this post. Anderson Cooper and Liam Neeson courageously engaged in a conversation on 60 Minutes that we rarely see on prime time TV. Cooper interviewed...
View ArticleParenthood Season 5, Episode 15 Recap: 'Just Like At Home'
The separation that no one thought would actually happen but is somehow still a thing is at the heart of Parenthood's post-Olympics return. As the crew copes with the Julia-Joel fallout, there's a...
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Huffington Magazine This Week: Between Two Worlds
In this week's issue, Lila Shapiro travels to Salt Lake City, Utah, to talk to recently married gay couples in the state. Lila meets Sally, 48, a former Mormon who married Brenda, her longtime partner...
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