Today is the birthday of both Rupert Murdoch (Fox News!) and U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Antonin Scalia.
Rupert Murdoch turns 80, and Antonin Scalia turns 75. Perhaps they’re celebrating together, eating cake made of money and riding on a yacht powered by the sweat of the underclass.
In their honor, we present this classic tune by The Who, “Young Man Blues”:
Like me, you were probably just wondering, “how come I’ve never seen Adolf Hitler’s girlfriend in blackface?”
Jon Hamm of Mad Men turns 40 today.Still an imposing figure.
Since we’re all smack in the middle of the Season of Charlie Sheen, it’s time to drag out the Who2 biography of Charlie’s big brother, actor Emilio Estevez.
And while you’re at it, you may as well read the Who2 biography of their dad, actor Martin Sheen.
One of the all-time superstars of American jurisprudence, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was born on this day 170 years ago.
And then there were one and a half.Charlie Sheen was fired by the producers of Two and a Half Men today.
Yesterday I saw the new Matt Damon movie, The Adjustment Bureau. I didn’t know too much about it on the way in. Early on, my wife asked me, “is this based on a Philip K. Dick book?”I said, “I don’t know… if not directly, then indirectly.” I answer a lot of her questions that way — if not directly, then indirectly. As it turns out, The Adjustment Bureau is based on a Philip K. Dick short story, The Adjustment Team, published in 1954.
Today is the birthday of plant hybridizer and potato creator Luther Burbank. He was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1849.
Actress Joan Cusack gets smooched at the premiere of Mars Needs Moms at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles last night.
“Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of that era; like ‘steampunks,’ perhaps….”Letters of Note pins the term steampunk to a letter from sci-fi author K.W. Jeter in 1987.
Tomorrow the Indiana University Art Museum is opening an exhibit of more than 150 photographs by pop artist Andy Warhol.
The photos come from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Not to be confused with the Warhol museum.
While reading up on author Charles Portis, I came upon the transcript of a lengthy interview he did with Roy Reed in 2001. The interview was for a project about the history of Little Rock’s Gazette, a newspaper Portis worked at in 1958.
Charles Portis went on to become a novelist. He wrote The Dog of the South and True Grit.
You can find the interview by way of this unofficial tribute to Portis.
“Board members argued that Sirhan hasn’t spent enough time reflecting on his crime.”Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, has again been denied parole.It’s the 13th time Sirhan Sirhan has been denied parole. The “I was brainwashed” argument didn’t carry the day for him.
Our new biography of Michael Bay has just been posted, thanks to editor Paul Hehn at the Epics and Explosions Desk.
This week The Strand Magazine will publish a previously unknown short story by legendary mystery master Dashiell Hammett, the author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man.
The story, titled “So I Shot Him,” is one of 15 unpublished stories discovered by The Strand editor Andrew Gulli at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin.
Hammett’s family decided they would allow Gulli to publish one of the fifteen, and he picked “So I Shot Him.”
Here are some things to read about it:
Today is Robert Bork’s birthday! Yay, he’s 84 today.
It’s also the birthday of Justin Bieber — he’s 17. Yay!
Robert Bork, you may recall, became famous when he didn’t get the job as an associate justice for the United States Supreme Court. President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork in 1987, but Bork was rejected by a vote of 58 to 42. He went on to make a decent living as “the guy who got voted down.” He would add, “…and it was UNFAIR!”
Actor Jack Wild died on this day in 2006. Cancer of the mouth was the cause; he’d had most of his tongue and larynx removed in 2004, but the disease got him at age 53.
It’s easier to look bravely into the future when you’re holding an Oscar in your hand. Academy Award winners Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo and Colin Firth did just that last nigh
Melissa Leo and Christian Bale — mother and son in The Fighter — have swept the supporting actor awards at the 2011 Oscars.
Host — and Best Actor nominee — James Franco has provided plenty of good stuff for fans of Oscar night, thanks to his embrace of a new Twitter account and his lively Facebook page: