What you find when you are bored

While I was searching for something of interest in entertainment news, I happened upon an old item in the Huffington Post. Now I don't normally read that blog, as I tend to disagree with the views there - massively. But I had seen an interesting press release from N.O.W. (while following up a different post) and thought I'd check it out.

The post was of course about women's breasts. It was a poll to judge who has the best breasts. It followed up a similar poll asking the same thing of men. Well actually it was chests for both groups, but we know for women they mean breasts.

Out of the 19 choices of Hollywood starlets, there were quite a few women not on the list. But there were a couple of big names as you might expect. And of course the group chosen was geared to the young, and White, women of Hollywood.

The top 5 according to the poll (on the site since Sept 26th)?

Salma Hayek, Heather Graham, Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry, and Christina Hendricks in that order. Which really surprised me. I have no idea what goes on in the minds of some of these guys voting on this list.

My favorites were: Beyonce
, Christina Hendricks, Salma Hayek, Kendra Wilkinson, and Scarlett Johansson in that order.

But here is the real interesting question. If you could chose any actress, alive or dead, who would you pick as #1? It's not that easy a question but let me make it harder. Let's ask who had/has the best body? And inevitably I think the personalities and talent of the women being considered plays into the answer. But who would you pick to have had the best body of all time (foreign actresses count too - as long as they were in at least 1 U.S. film)?

And for my female readers, pick the best male body of all time. Same rules apply.

Let's see what real people thing about this.

Entertainers and the USO - giving to our troops

In the discussion of Iraq, Afghanistan and U.S. military forces there have been many things said over the years. During the early part of the Primaries, particularly the Democratic Primaries, it was a focal point of public interest as well as political campaigns. But for all this commentary one of the things that was often missed were the troops themselves.

I must admit that I too failed on this point. So much discussion focused on the how and when of ending the wars little was spoken about how the troops were and what was being done for our returning soldiers.

I was reminded of this most recently when I received information about an ongoing USO tour. The USO gives back to our troops that are stationed overseas and fighting on behalf of our nation. No matter the political interests of all of us here at home, we all should appreciate the voluntary service that our troops provide for us.

This USO tour is a small piece of that appreciation, but for our troops it is an important one. And in this tour Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine General James E. Cartwright, the Ying Yang Twins, model/singer Mayra Veronica and comedians Gabriel Iglesias and Edwin San Juan are all taking part.

“It’s incredibly difficult to be stationed far away from family and friends,” said General Cartwright. “The goal of this USO tour is to bring a touch of home to those serving around the world, to put smiles on our troops’ faces and to provide great memories that will last a lifetime.”

In addition to appearing in the USO tour, the Ying Yang Twins will also be releasing a new song on i-Tunes – Wild Out. Proceeds collected from the sale of this song will be donated to the Brooke Army Medical Center, to help veterans.

I for one am glad to hear of these entertainers and their efforts to give to our troops. The above group joins a long line of celebrities and entertainers that have met our troops, overseas and at home, for decades via the USO. Some recent entertainers that have joined USO tours include:

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Trace Adkins, Baby Bash and Anna Kournikova, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, Boyz II Men, Gary Sinise, Brad Garrett, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Irby, Max Martini and Robert Patrick, Toby Keith, Tichina Arnold, Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith, Miss Teen USA 2007 Hilary Cruz, Scarlett Johansson among many others.

Celebrating and honoring our troops is not a political act but one of honest appreciation and thanks. For that I think every entertainer that joins a USO tour needs to be acknowledged. I don’t have space for that here but you can go to the USO’s website to learn more. www.uso.org

And I should mention one other thing. The USO is at its core made up of volunteers that give their time to support our men and women in uniform. They work 24-hours a day, seven-days a week, and the majority of them are not as visible as the celebrities and entertainers mentioned above. It is through that work, and the donations of people like you and me, that events like the above are possible.

Good news for Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, and Marvel

Well a bit of good news is always a nice way to start the week. And to that end is the news that Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson got married. The couple was engaged recently, and thankfully their wedding was not the usual circus of paparazzi and media and rumors that tend to occur these days.

I wish the 2 of them the best. I hope that they can have a marriage like that of Paul Newman and his wife Joan Woodard.

In more potentially good news Marvel Comics is moving forward with their movie empire. With the success of the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man (to say nothing of the success found in Spiderman’s and the X-Men’s 3 films) Marvel closed a deal top have Paramount distribute 5 of its next films. Those films will include the sequel to Iron Man, a film on Captain America, The Avengers and Thor.

Now I am happy to see that Iron Man will not only get a sequel, which we knew would be coming, but that Marvel is looking to get one of it’s biggest titles out – Captain America - even though they recently murdered him. It is interesting that in a time of war, and national conflicted emotions over these wars, Marvel has decided to highlight a character that was created by war and symbolizes the absolute belief that America is the greatest good in a bad world. Captain America is hardly a liberal, and considering how liberal Hollywood is their choice stands out.

Thor though is a movie I expect will do poorly. He just isn’t an interesting character by himself. Norse god, ancient misogynistic beliefs, and macho pig might all be terms that would easily describe him. And those are all elements that would prevent his acceptance by a wide portion of the movie audience. But given the right script and actor anything is possible. Though I think this will rank right up with the first Hulk movie.

Also a potential letdown is the choice of The Avengers. This team of super heroes could be like the first X-Men movie, and be good. But more likely is the failure of the movie and its ultimate similarity to the Fantastic Four movies. There are too many characters, with too many abilities to describe to an audience that has no clue about any of that. There is no theme that drives the plot for movie-goers without necessitating a big back-story. It’s just too much all at once. And most of the members of the Avengers just aren’t interesting enough.

The big secret may be that the 5th choice of Marvel will likely be the SHIELD movie. There have been 2 prior versions of Nick Fury so far, both have been abysmal. But they say the 3rd time is the charm. This could be the film that breaks Marvel’s back, or guarantees that future scriptwriters will give up on new ideas altogether.

Actually what am I saying? There really haven’t been any new ideas in Hollywood for almost a decade. Virtually every movie made in that time has been a retread of a book, comic book, television show or prior movie. Looking forward we have more Batman, Watchmen, Sin City, video games, television shows and such on the horizon. It’s really a shame that Hollywood has lost the last few brain cells they had.

Still I am looking forward to the Watchmen, Iron Man 2, Captain America, and HALO.

In My Name - Will.i.am, celebrites, dignitaries, and you around the world

I realize that over the last couple of weeks the main issue facing the nation has been the bailout of the financial markets, and the mortgage crisis that spurred it. But that is hardly the only thing that has been happening in the world, or this nation.

While the major news media has been forecasting bail out deal after bailout deal, which keeps getting denied by various Senators and Representatives, and predicting what might or might not happen if the deal does or does not get done they have forgotten to cover celebrities, entertainers, and dignitaries that are reminding the world of the promises made to end poverty and combat disease.

In 2000 world leaders came together in the United Nations to create the Millennium Development Goals. The promise was to end poverty in the world, reduce those afflicted by pr the potential of diseases like Malaria and AIDS, increase access to healthcare, and improve the opportunity and quality of education by 2015. We are now halfway to that date, and far too many nations have forgotten about the promise they made. But concerned people have not.

Will.i.am has been in the forefront of multiple celebrities, entertainers, and world dignitaries and Youtube in generating attention to the promise made by our leaders. For 2 days he and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Scarlett Johansson, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Wyclef Jean, Fergie, Angelique Kidjo, Kristin Davis, Elle Macpherson and many others, not to mention organizations including GCAP, Oxfam International, Save the Children and Comic Relief, have joined together to create the new channel on Youtube called “in my name”.

On this channel you the public and citizenry of the world have the opportunity to introduce yourself, your nation, and your message to the leaders of the world and your country to live up to the promises they made in 2000. Youtube will be accepting your videos, or video pettion if you prefer, until November 1st. At that point Will.i.am will be taking the best videos and mashing-up to form a single video set to the new song In My Name (dedicated to this cause) that will be presented to the entire United Nations.

We can only hope that world leaders will be moved by this expression of international care and attention. We must demand that moved or not, world leaders act as they have promised us they will. I am reminded of a line from a great movie you may have seen (and if you didn’t go see it) called V for Vendetta

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

The fear in this case is that we, the people have not forgotten what was promised on our behalf, nor those that are in need. That we hold the true power our Governments use, and determine how that power should be used.

The major media may not care that so many across the world remember the promises made, but I like many others do. And I believe that me must be held to our words. Because the world is not a varying number of individual countries but in the end just a collection of people, and none deserve to live in poverty or with sickness or in hunger.