Leslie Nielsen: Shirley a legend

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After a long period as a dramatic actor (see him in the 50’s-era sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet, or as the captain in The Poseidon Adventure), Leslie Nielsen found himself with that rare opportunity of achieving a second act in life. It all came together with a role in Airplane! a 1980 spoof on airliner disaster movies and one of the most successful film comedies ever made. Nielsen’s transformation continued when he starred in the Police Squad TV series as the bumbling detective Frank Drebin, a role that let him work his flat, deadpan delivery at the edges, smudging the distinctions between the TV and movie dramas of his past and the comedies that would make him a legend. 


He went on to revive the memorably doofus Drebin in the Naked Gun movie franchise, and he worked steadily in other movies and television series, and even did work in the theater. When he died Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the age of 84, Nielsen had starred in more than 100 films and 1,500 television programs, portraying more than 200 characters over the span of his 60-year career. When serious dramatic movie roles eluded him, or he eluded them, Leslie Nielsen reinvented himself as an actor. Rarely was the process of reinvention so irreverent, so indelible or so much fun to watch.                                                                                                                     

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Photo by Alan Light

Meet the Douglases

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Thanksgiving was a time to, well, give thanks for what’s important. For Michael Douglas, it was a family affair. Douglas, mending after the chemo regimen he underwent to control the throat cancer diagnosed earlier this year, was seen vacationing at EPCOT Center on Wednesday with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, son Dylan and daughter Carys. The Oscar-winning actor’s looking healthier now than in recent weeks. A smart rejoinder to those who’ve written him off already. Greed is good. Life is better.                                                             

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Cable interference

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For Internet and digital technologist Tom Evslin, the future of television viewing is available right now, through the increasing number of cancellations of cable TV subscriptions across the country. Evslin, blogging at the Fractals of Change Web site, cites a recent New York Times story that documents a rise in appeal for an “a la carte” pricing model. But Evslin goes further: “Why do we need channels at all? … This final disaggregation of content from access probably won't happen through regulation; it'll happen because of the self-interest of content owners and advertisers.”

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Keith Richards, growing up in public

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The profane, sentimental, visionary rock n' roll buccaneer archetype the world knows by first name alone has finally put his Life between covers almost 50 years after the humble birth of the Rolling Stones. Willfully meandering, emotionally honest, Keith Richards' long-awaited autobiography is rock history with the bark on, and the bite. Because he's deeply and fiercely lived the book he’s written, he’s written a book that lives. Michael E. Ross reviews.

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L.A.: Building the canvas of the street

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In Los Angeles’ Pico-Union neighborhood, Ricardo Guerrero, an enterprising street artist and musician, hopes to continue transforming “taggers” into skilled graffiti artists. In its four-year existence, the Graff Lab has provided an outlet for artistic hopefuls to express themselves in a streetwise context — and a spatially focused environment that doesn’t draw the ire of locals or the authorities. A wide range of creative expression is allowed, but one rule holds: No gangsters.

                                               Read more in the Los Angeles Times

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They did work it out: Beatles to iTunes

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War is over. 
After years of legal wrangling, years after the digital invasion, the Beatles are finally coming to iTunes.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, effective 7 a.m. Tuesday West Coast, 10 a.m. in the East, Apple’s iTunes Store will begin carrying the music of the Beatles, according to people close to the situation — in the process fixing a hole in the world’s dominant music-retailing service and offering iTunes users access to one of the sturdiest musical franchises in recorded history.

“They’re arguably the biggest band ever, and their music is now on sale on what has become the biggest music retailer,” said The Journal’s Ethan Smith. “It was a little weird that they didn’t have it on the iTunes store.”



The Apple-Beatles war has gone on in varying degrees for more than 30 years, predating the iTunes era; the earliest salvos concerned trademark infringement claims that, resolved, led to new squabbles when the iTunes store first launched.

Now, three weeks before the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, the oldest feud between rock music and technology, all the fussing and fighting, my friend, ends Tuesday morning.

                                                        Read the full Journal report here

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Trailer Hitch: Blood on the tracks …

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Ever get that feeling that it's all out of our control? Two new films opening Friday seem ready to capitalize on that sinking feeling common to everyday life. Unstoppable, the latest from Tony Scott, finds two train workers — a grizzled engineer (Denzel Washington) and a game rookie conductor (Chris Pine) trying to stop a runaway freight train loaded with hazardous chemicals and diesel fuel. It's the second train movie for Scott and Washington; both were aboard for the subway crime thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. For Pine (Captain Kirk in Star Trek), this conveyance moves a little slower than the starship Enterprise. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, this one may have legs. Or wheels.

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… and death from above

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Skyline, the new sci-fi feature from the Brothers Strause, finds the city of Los Angeles awakening to a new horror: mysterious blue lights descending all over the city, lights dispatched by an army of extraterrestrials that lure people like moths to a flame. And they've got company: What's first thought to be a local extinction-level event is happening all over the world. Six people work to keep  themselves from seeing the light. Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson and Donald Faison (Turk in Scrubs) star in this alien invasion thriller. Rotten Tomatoes is not optimistic: 20% (one critic called it "A minor step above a Sy-Fy Original sauteed with the theatrics of a "Melrose Place"-type nighttime soap").

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Seattle: Nirvana, in retro

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In three years Nirvana blindsided the worlds of rock music and popular culture. The group and its role in cultivating the grunge scene will be the focus of "Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses," an exhibition that opens at the Experience Music Project in Seattle next April 16th. Already being hailed as the most comprehensive of its kind, the exhibition will include 200 band artifacts and unseen photos of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl back in the day, before the deluge, while the wave was still building. 

                                            Check the Rolling Stone slideshow

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Conan gets back in the late-night swim

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Mostly minus the (masturbating) bear but definitely plus the beard he’s been sporting for months now on his enforced hiatus, Conan O’Brien returned to the airwaves on Monday. The most celebrated redhead in entertainment since Lucille Ball debuted his long-awaited TBS talk show with guests Seth Rogen, Lea Michele and Jack White (minus the other White Stripe). Perennial Conan foil Andy Richter was in tow, too. The verdict? For Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times, it’s so far so good. 

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The age of the Everygeek

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The United States — incurious, self-absorbed and nervous — is going through one of its phases, a period in which an aggressive anti-intellectual spirit has taken hold. But CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, one of TV’s most popular shows, is a success that runs contrary to the new dumbing down. For Virginia Postrel of The Wall Street Journal, it’s because the show’s uber-nerds are “a new kind of Everyman — representatives of a culture in which nobody's normal.”

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Brooklyn: An interview with Chappo

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If you’ve seen the iPod ads on TV this just-ended summer or had the radio on a respectably forward-leaning station, you’ve heard it: the sweet, spacey, strangely irresistible “Come Home,” The song, from the Brooklyn group Chappo, is part of the band’s equally infectious Plastique Universe EP, which has been building buzz and airplay since its release in April. The group — Alex Chappo and Chris Olson — has been eight ways busy since then. Just getting back up to speed after a triumphal stand at the CMJ Music Marathon, Chappo sat for an interview (thanks to the mercies of e-mail).

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