Bush Seeks to Boost Trans-Atlantic Ties

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush is promoting NATO expansion and trying to shore up ties with allies as he heads to Europe for a week. But many world leaders have begun looking beyond him as his second White House term winds down.

Bush was departing Monday for Eastern Europe, starting with a brief stop in Ukraine to tout that country’s democratic reforms.

The president then goes to Romania for his last summit with NATO leaders, where the alliance’s membership and the war in Afghanistan will be key topics.

Bush is also scheduled to visit Croatia and head to Russia for what will likely be his final meeting with Vladimir Putin as Russian president. Bush hopes to break a logjam between the two nations over a proposed U.S. missile defense system; Putin’s successor takes over in May.

"Star Wars" fans picket in support of delayed film

By Borys Kit and Gregg Goldstein

LOS ANGELES (Hollywoood Reporter) – Angry “Star Wars” fans, aggrieved about editing changes to an upcoming Weinstein Co. comedy inspired by the sci-fi franchise, picketed theaters playing the studio’s latest film, with both sides claiming some sort of victory.

Protesters, organized by a fan group calling itself the 501st, showed up in “Star Wars” gear on Friday at AMC Theatres in New York and Los Angeles that were playing “Superhero Movie.”

Smarter than its lowbrow brethren

Puerile and idiotic it may be, but Superhero Movie is nonetheless smarter than most of its lowbrow brethren in the Hollywood sub-sub-category known as the spoof movie. True, it doesn’t take much. And since films of this stripe are largely indistinguishable from each other — they all invariably star Leslie Nielsen, Pamela Anderson or, in this case, both — it may take a discerning sensibility to understand how the latest product by the team behind the Scary Movie franchise boasts a higher calibre of gross-out gags, flatulence jokes and celebrity-mocking potshots than one finds in most spoof movies. (A No. 1 box office hit back in January, the irredeemably dire Meet the Spartans was the latest example.)

Yet it’s difficult to write off a film that contains such unprecedented sights as a character attempting to smoke vanilla frosting with a bong, Nelson Mandela starting a fistfight with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a Thanksgiving turkey being stuffed with a house plant, a bottle of vodka and a live cat. There’s a kind of boneheaded ingenuity at work in the most memorable moments of Superhero Movie, a quality that briefly brings it up (or down) to the level of Airplane!, the 1980 disaster-flick parody that remains the gold standard for spoof movies. Two of the earlier film’s stars — Nielsen and Robert Hays — appear in Superhero Movie, which was also co-produced by Airplane! director David Zucker.

Earth Hour creeps across the globe

COPENHAGEN–From sprawling royal palaces to the coziest cafés, Copenhagen powered down tonight as the wave of global darkness that is EarthHour passed through the Danish capital.

Denmark’s Queen Magrethe II set the tone, ordering the dousing of lights at her winter residence at Amalienborg and matching shutdowns at the royal palaces of Fedensborg, Sorgenfri, Grasten, Marselisborg and the Hermitage.(Hope you all had a Happy Earth Hour!)-Daryl

In the world of mobile ad campaigns, boomers can’t get a signal

Are North American mobile phone companies missing the boat by ignoring the exploding boomer market in favour of hip gadgets and services directed at those in their teens and twenties?

Newspapers, magazines, television and billboards are flooded with cellphone ad campaigns aimed squarely at the youth market, whose love of text messaging, social networking and, yes, chatting for hours on the phone are what largely drive the profits of service providers and hardware manufacturers.

In contrast, the boomer generation, whose high disposable income is coveted by so many industries, seems to be strangely overlooked by the mobile phone sector.

A CBC without an orchestra can be sound step for Radio 2

Don’t mess with what we know and love – especially if it’s our music.

We treat our radio stations like an infant who has grown attached to her first teddy bear.

CBC Radio 2 has for years been the favourite plush toy for the country’s classical music listeners.

Like many a teddy, our radio network has lost its eyes somewhere along the way. The fur is stained and matted. The ripped fabric around the neck has let some stuffing spill out.

YOU MUST HAVE A WEBSITE

YOU MUST HAVE A WEBSITE

by Bob Fraser

THE ACTOR'S TOOL KIT #23

A while back I posted an old actor's joke to the many
acting groups I belong to. 

The joke goes like this: How many actors does it take
to screw in a light bulb? 

100. One to screw it in and 99 to sit around Starbucks
saying, "I could have done that - if I could only get
a break."

The reason this is a funny joke is that it reveals an
underlying truth - a truth about actors' attitudes. The
joke, however, caused many actors to react negatively. 

"That's not funny," was a common response.

Anyway, it caused a little stir. 

I posted the joke because the attitudes it reveals are so
widespread among actors, that they have become fodder for
jokes. 

Look, the fact that you know how to do a job is not
sufficient grounds to be offered the job. And please
don't wait for someone else to take action in order to
have your dreams come to fruition. My friends, if you
do, you'll be waiting a long time - like forever.

There is a lot of grunt work involved in convincing others
to hire you. If you don't do the grunt work, your avid
aspirations will not suffice. 

"Could have" is no consolation for a dream neglected. 

Don't ignore the truth just because it's in a joke.

On another subject, I have also made it clear, on occasion,
that I think every actor should own a computer - since it's
helpful for keeping records, printing résumés, sending
emails, finding auditions, sending and receiving faxes and
many other day-to-day chores. 

I've also urged all actors to get a web site.

There are nay-sayers, who rail against the computer and
all its works. 

One recently posted opinion stated that having a web site
was of no help to an actor. The main point of the post was
that casting directors were not out there, hiring actors
off of websites. 

And no one was looking for actors' websites, in hopes of
finding the "next big thing."

There are two false assumptions here. 

One, that casting directors hire actors - they don't.
(Producers hire actors. Casting folks are the personnel
office.) 

And two, that the whole idea of a website is that people
will look for it. 

If you approach this website business with the idea that,
"if you build it, they will come" - you will be sorely
disappointed in your results.  Doing that is like putting
a bumper sticker on a car in Oslo, Norway and hoping that
a big important director will eventually see it.

A website is nothing more than an electronic brochure.
It gives you "space" to promote the benefits of your
product - trying to land a contract for your services. 

Once you realize that your website is an opportunity to
sell yourself - and you begin to use it to sell - you will
start getting better results. It is worth doing your
homework to learn how to sell with your website. There are
lots of free guides about how to do that - out on the
digital highway.

A FEW RULES ... 

1. Get your own domain name -- HarrisonFord.com is much
better than the free "HarrisonFordareallygoodactor/Yahoo
communities/Hollywood.net/hford.html (... and you should
use your name instead of Harrison Ford, because that one
is already being used.)

Your own domain name is not expensive. It costs between 60
and 90 bucks a year to have space on a web server - and
when you order from most companies, they will throw in the
registration of your domain name for free. There are also
places that sell domain names for as little as $4.95 a
year (when you buy ten years - which isn't a bad idea if
you are planning to stick with one name during your career.)

2. Get professional help - there are thousands upon thousands
of people who do web design. Get one of them to help you. 

Again, it's not really expensive. I've seen designers who
will do the basic job for under a hundred bucks. Try looking
on google for one near you.

3. Don't wait for people to find your site.  Remember, this
is an electronic brochure and like all brochures you have to
"hand it out." 

Put your web site address on your resume, on your cards, on
your headshots, and heck, even a bumper sticker on a car in
Calcutta - or NYC if that's closer.

When you talk to casting directors, directors, other actors,
etc., make mention of your website.  Make it part of your
schmooze.  

Think of your website as a 'silent salesman' who is at work
24/7/365 - selling you.

BTW, that's why it should be done professionally. 

There's no point in sending people to an amateur-ish site -
it just makes you look, well... 

- like an amateur. 

"Reprinted from ACTOR'S TOOL KIT, the email course just for
subscribers of Show Biz How-To, the free e-zine for actors. 

Get your own subscription at: www.showbizhowto.com

© 2007 Bob Fraser Productions All Rights Reserved"

Food Court Musical

Carbon tariff may bring firms home

CALGARY — Imposing carbon tariffs on emerging economies with low manufacturing costs and high greenhouse gas emissions could drive some manufacturers back to Western countries, according to two economists.

Jeff Rubin, chief strategist and economist at CIBC World Markets, thinks such tariffs could emerge quickly. Countries in Europe are already becoming publicly intolerant of emissions elsewhere and the next president of the United States is expected to institute a cap on greenhouse gas emissions alongside the trading of carbon credits.

“It’s sooner than later,” Mr. Rubin said in an interview yesterday after the release of a report titled Coming Home, which was co-written with CIBC economist Benjamin Tal.

“I for one believe that it’s 2009, regardless if it’s a McCain, Obama or Clinton White House,” Mr. Rubin said. “When we put a price on our own emissions, our tolerance of those that don’t will quickly vanish.”

Mike Myers’ latest spoof, ‘The Love Guru,’ has Hindus concerned

By Sandy Cohen, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – As the people of Kazakhstan know all too well, mockery of culture and religion seems to be kosher in Hollywood, under the following conditions:

The humour must be so over-the-top, so beyond reality, that it could never be misconstrued as mean-spirited. That, and the targeted groups cannot be large enough, loud enough or organized enough so that their hurt feelings make an impact at the box office.

Just ask Borat. Though Kazakhs complained that their country and customs were grossly misrepresented in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” the film was a US$128 million domestic success – among the top-grossing films of 2006.