Struck Down by the Man

It has happened again. About six months ago my web log was crippled when my YouTube account was permanently disabled. A little daunted, but still resilient, I brought my videos back via a site called Veoh.com. Now my Veoh account has been deleted following similar complaints of copyright infringement. I'm not going to rehash my reasoning behind why I think the copyright holders should rejoice in people like me. Instead I will slowly start to rebuild my online video collection. Eventually I hope to bring them all back to this web log again. Regulars to my site will be able to watch the "My Videos" label climb its way back up list on the right as I rework the web log entries with videos.

Entertainer of the Month: John Ratzenberger

A new feature being launched here at Entertainment News is Entertainer of the Month. Last week I left some clues about this month's honoree and today I can reveal that John Ratzenberger is March's Entertainer of the Month. As I mentioned before, he appeared in Superman and Superman II as "Controller #1," The Empire Strikes Back as Major Derlin and Ghandi as "American Lt., driver for Bourke-White." However, Ratzenberger is best known as know-it-all postal carrier Cliff Claven on Cheers, a character he has played on a total of 6 shows*. One of the Cliff's greatest and, at the same time, worst moments was when he appeared on Jeopardy! (seen belows, 4:51). More recently, Ratzenberger competed on Dancing with the Stars. He also hosted the Travel Channel's John Ratzenberger's Made in America in which he spotlighted various domestic manufacturing firms. And of course what John Ratzenberger feature would be complete without mentioning his voice work with Pixar. His voice talents have appeared in all eight Pixar animated features from Toy Story to Ratatouille. Here's to hoping John Ratzenberger continues to have a flourishing career. * Cheers, St. Elsewhere, The Tortellis, Wings, Frasier and The Simpsons

Sneak Peak

Coming next week in a new item called Entertainer of the Month, Entertainment News will pay tribute to an American screen legend whose film and television career has spanned more than three decades. He has appeared in such Hollywood blockbusters as Superman, Superman II, The Empire Stikes Back and Ghandi. He starred in one television's most successful sitcoms. This writer/director/producer has also lent his voice talents to Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story II. His celebrity was cemented when this multi-talented entertainer appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Who is it? You'll have to check back in a few days. That's what we in the business call a teaser.

Super Bowl XLII

I don't have much to say in the form of commentary on the game. The Super Bowl long ago stopped being about football. Besides, it was a New York team versus a Boston team. It's too bad they both couldn't lose. This will probably go down as one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever, which is a shame, because only the fourth quarter was any good. The rest of the game was really boring. As for the commercials, which we all know are the best part of the Super Bowl anyway, there were only seven commercials worth commenting on. The rest of the companies wasted their money in my opinion, which we all know, counts for nothing. For the past few years T-Mobile has run a series of ads featuring Dwayne Wade trying to get into Charles Barkley's Fave 5. During the Super Bowl, he finally succeeded, but with unforeseen consequences. The series is funny, but has gone on too long. I'm sure this particular ad will get replayed to death on TNT and ESPN during NBA games. FedEx once again delivered a solid ad. Their giant carrier pigeons were a nice touch. The best thing about FedEx commercials, is that afterward, you still remember that they are plugging FedEx, instead of other ads that are funny but the message gets lost. The E-trade ad with the talking baby that rents a clown was dumb and certainly nothing new, but I laughed anyway. Shaq as a jockey was kind of funny, but that's not even the best Vitamin Water ad. The older one featuring Brian Urlacher and Michael Strahan playing badminton was better. A few years ago Pepsi Twist managed to bring the Osmonds and the Osbournes together for a commercial. With perhaps an even greater dichotomy, Bridgestone had an ad featuring both Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons. I never thought I'd see that. Plus, I caught myself laughing when the driver of the car accelerated toward Mr. Simmons. It was another year of uninspired ads from Budweiser. The only exception was the cross-promotional ad for Semi-Pro featuring Will Ferrell. That one was funny. My favorite commercial of the Super Bowl was the Audi ad that parodied the famous horse head scene from The Godfather. What's better, is the actor in the commercial was Alex Rocco, who was actually in The Godfather. Granted, he played Mo Greene and not the studio boss from the original scene, but it was still a nice touch.

Happy Birthday, Anthony LaPaglia

Entertainment News would like to wish a happy 49th birthday to Anthony LaPaglia. The Australian born actor is probably best known for his Emmy-nominated dramatic work as Special Agent Jack Malone on Without a Trace. And while he's very good on that show (or used to be before the show's creators stopped getting creative with story and character development), he's also good in comedic roles as well. His guest appearances on Frasier won him an Emmy, but some loyal readers might know him better as Joe the easy-going store manager in the 90's teen comedy Empire Records. However, my favorite Anthony LaPaglia performance is as Mike Myers' friend Tony in 1993's So I Married an Axe Murderer. Below is a video (3:29) from said film featuring a series clips of Mr. LaPaglia opposite Alan Arkin, another actor who can do both comedy and drama well.

A Crap Country

This video goes out to my friend Boubacar, aka, The Other Black Guy. He is from Guinea, a country in West Africa that has recently been through a great deal of turmoil. Still, Ali G isn't willing to give it any love. Below is a clip (1:09) from Da Ali G Show starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G. For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a British import that airs on HBO in the US. In it, Cohen travels the country participating in various activities and interviewing people disguised as one of his three alter-egos, the most famous being Borat (the other two being Ali G and Bruno the fashion reporter). In this particular episode, he visits the United Nations.

Dirty Psychic

I apologize to the thousands, OK hundreds, OK maybe dozens, alright, four or five loyal readers* for my hiatus from posting Entertainment News items. With the birth of my son, blogging has taken a back seat. But despite the writers strike seriously hindering the current television season, I've still managed to watch too much TV. My favorites like The Office and its fellow Thursday night comedies have been drastically cut, so I have been forced to go elsewhere on the dial and in the process I have discovered two gems that had previously gone unnoticed by me. The first is Psych on USA. It's about a guy who so adept at observing details around him that he's convinced the Santa Barbabra Police Department that he is a psychic. He uses his abilities to solve crimes in a theatrical fashion. They had a marathon the other day and I was able to catch up on some episodes. I highly recommend it. The second show I watch every now and again is Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on The Discovery Channel. Unlike most educational/vocational reality shows on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, TLC and HGTV, this show actually has a funny host. In it, Mike Rowe, an average schmoe, travels around the country and spends a day doing all manner of messy blue collar work from earth worm farming to sewer cleaning. It makes for good TV. One new show that really had me disappointed is the new American Gladiators. It's like the show's creators did all that they could to make the contestants as annoying as possible. It's hard to watch when I can't make myself root for one contestant over the other. Hopefully the strike will end soon and my usual shows can return. * In actuality, my web log has been getting quite a bit of traffic lately as it has averaged between 100 and 120 visitors a day over the past month.

Visitors Welcome

It's been a while since I last visited the topic of humorous Google searches that brought people to my web log. My most visited post is Casting Call where I asked readers who would play you in the movie about my life. Countless visitors found their way here by way of image searches for Jeremy Piven on John Stockton. The funny thing is, the Google Image Search for John Stockton brings up the image of Jim Caviezel, whom I said would play John Stockton from that time we met when I was nine. My posts on 1980's Entertainment are also still popular with web surfers. Below are some of the more interesting search phrases over the past few months. (The hyper links are to blog entries that discuss those topics, although usually not in the searcher's intended context.) 1970s Darth Vader style neck brace Rush Limbaugh used the n-word Sarah Chalke nose job Cheerleaders are dancers that have gone retarded display picture "is such a smelly word" Crazy Irish Soccer Announcer Ghost of John Candy Smallville Beautiful Cast Too much promotion of Eva Longoria on nba finals Nicole Eggert lives 90's fashion Will Smith How many dogs played the part of Buddy in Air Bud? How do you make a Jewish black guy? Where is the Mountain View Motel used in the movie Fletch? Keith Olbermann on Football America bad move by NBC Yoga Booty Ballet fat women stupid True story of friends forgetting to put the ladder down on the yacht Greatest voices of all time Does Mike Farrell like Wayne Rogers? The Sixth Sense Mischa Barton Jerry Supiran chubby Frodo Don't Wear the Ring HBO version Is Punky Brewster a spin off of Happy Days? Carmen Electra in Winter Wonderland Live every week like it's Shark Week Black guy in Predator Alienated middle-aged Jewish lawyers Who are the Hollywood triple threats? TNT sports announcer Craig Sager Dog biting own foot The breakdown of the mafia Defining musical artist of each decade Little Drummer Boy, William Shatner Alan and the Chipmunks movie What is the allegory behind the Ninja Turtles?

The Best of Kevin

Since the last two episodes of The Office were light on Kevin moments, here's a video I strung together (5:06) featuring the Best of Kevin Malone (played by Brian Baumgartner) from Seasons 1-3. If you look closely, you might notice evidence of Kevin's secret relationship with Pam. Or you might see me manipulating the video to make it seem like there was a secret relationship between Kevin and Pam. A bit of trivia: Brian Baumgartner was once roommates with Ed Helms, who plays Andy Bernard on The Office. You can see my Andy Bernard videos here and here.

Can we have our money now?

I love funny product placement. A previous example on this web log featured Carl Weathers plugging Burger King. In the video shown below (0:49) we have cast members of 30 Rock shilling for Verizon Wireless. Some day I'll include the clips of The Office with the paper shredder from Staples.