Shoulda Known That'd Happen

If you've been avoiding the news for a while and vaguely recall something about director Roman Polanski being detained on child sex offenses, but you don't know what's happened since, then you've come to the right place!

To get you up to scratch, read my previous entries here and here. In that order. I'll tell ya folks, it was looking like he was gonna get extradited alright. Reeeal close. But, considering his sphere of influence, I guess I should've known better than trusting he'd face prosecution for his crime.

The Swiss have refused to send the bugger off to the US. That effectively means he's a free man, once again. If you think this is a victory for filmlovers everywhere, then perhaps you should read what The Smoking Gun's uncovered about the actual case. Sobering stuff.

 

I'll tell ya, it's amazing what celebrities can get away with. Amazing how easy it is to overlook their misdemeanors if they've got films, fame or whatever under their belt. If it's not Nicole Richie's harrowing 82 minutes in jail, then we've got elements of the fallout over Mel Gibson's insane rage. Y'see, some folks are asking the serious questions in light of his racist ranting and death threats. 

Like, is his career over?

Jeez louise. Didn't they hear what he was saying on those tapes? And the thing they're concerned about most is whether or not he'll make a movie again? Why, cos he'll be broke otherwise? The guy's freakin' loaded! Sheesh.

The funny thing, the same thing was being asked back in '06 after his infamous, drunken anti-semetic and "sugar tits" tirade. So, right now, it's just a waiting game, really. But such is the leeway we give our celebs.

Also, is it just a coincidence that Whoopi Goldberg came to Polanski and Gibson's defence? Hmmm...

Sprucin' Up the Place

I've decided to do a bit of a spring clean and an upholstery of the blog. It's been too bland for too damn long, I tells ya!

The new Blogger templates have got me all fired-up. I've even added a LinkWithin widget, of dubious merit, to make it look all magaziney. Yes, that's the technical term I'll use. Anyway, the blog's gone from this crappy thing:

Ugh.

To the wonderfully spiffy thing you now see before you. Sure, it's not perfect, but it'll do. I was going for a bit of a newsy, magaziney, gossip site kinda look. Hope I pulled it off. That LinkedWithin thing sure does spruce it up, too.

Ah, I can't be bothered thinking up or sharing anything witty at the mo. Just wanted to show what the blog used to look like before I gave it the once-over. Hahaha!

Mmm, but I can't leave ya totally empty-handed. So, here's a story about a dude who was beaten up over giving a shitty karaoke rendition of Dio's "Holy Diver". Wait'll you see the perp's surname. It seems like a joke, but rest assured, it's legit.

Evaluating Ya Mug

I've previously covered Internet Disease, now for something far more cohesive and way more constructive.

Christian Rudder composed an extensive survey on the use of profile pics for dating site, OkCupid, and the success rate of certain shots. The myth-busting results were quite surprising. Even to its author. Here's a teaser:

But the facts were stubborn: your face doesn’t necessarily matter. In fact, not showing your face can in fact be a positive, as long as you substitute in something unusual, sexy, or mysterious enough to make people want to talk to you.

Promoting Movies the Hard Way

It's a pretty competitive market in the film world. People go to many lengths to get their movies seen and generate the big bucks. But, I gotta say that the film release party for Danish sex comedy, Bordellet (1972), really took the cake when

famous Danish millionaire Simon Spies showed up, took off his clothes and started having sex with members of the film's female cast, in front of the press. The resulting photos naturally made front page news and are still reprinted frequently.

After extensive research (read: some light Googling), I suspect that the following photo from Rud Kofoed's "Ny dansk storfilm om Simon Spies", depicts the publicity stunt in question:

I should point out that the flick was Denmark's "first full-length hardcore pornographic feature film", so that might not be too surprising. However, what might be surprising, is that the movie was a mainstream release. That is, not solely intended for some back alley porno theatre. Mind you, 1972 also saw major distribution for Deep Throat. So, obviously, something was in the water that year.