Update: Comedic Actors, the 40-year curse

Last year, I wrote a post about how a lot of leading comedic male actors who thrive on energy or a wacky personality lose their box office mojo in their early 40s.   Think Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Dan Ackroyd, etc.

Sadly, now we can add to that list Will Farrell.  Entertainment Weekly opines that Land of the Lost is the unsuprising latest entry in a string of box office flops Farrell has made since hitting the big 4-0.

Schtick, after awhile, just gets old.  So does seeing a man approaching middle-age act immaturely.  I still love Will, though.  Anchorman will never be equaled.

Kim Jong Il’s Son a Twin?

Kim Jong-Un and purported twin (AFP)

Multiple news sources are reporting that ailing Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il, has selected his third son, Kim Jong-Un, as his heir.  Very little is known about Jong-Un, who is about 26 years old, apart from that he was educated at a boarding school in Switzerland.  The year and date of his birth are unconfirmed.  The only picture available of the younger Kim shows him as an 11 year school child.

BBC is now reporting that Jong-Un may have a twin sibling, also educated in the West.  The Washington Post has linked the young heir to a dark, grainy black and white photo of an androgynous adult presumed to be a member of Kim Jong Il’s immediate family.  The picture is said to have been taken at a 25th birthday celebration on Korean Arbor Day in 2008.  If the individual in the picture is Jong-Un’s twin sister, or Jong-Un himself, that would place his date of birth on April 5, 1983, making him 26 years old.

Che Website Clamoroso!

Like Food?  Wish you were drenched in the Tuscan sun?  Enjoy reading travel tips from insightful Amis abroad?

Then check out Madeline’s Plate.

SOX!! AGAIN!!

Dice-K, the only Boston pitcher who appeared up to the task in the American League Championship Series, took the mound last night with the Sox down 3 games to 1 against the Tampa Bay Rays.  The defending World Champs looked flat, almost lifeless.  Their leadoff, Ellsbury, couldn’t buy a single.  The hero, Ortiz, a faded giant.  The Captain, Varitek, an automatic out.  After the Sox won game 1, the Rays had reeled off 3 straight:  a duel of home runs in game 2, followed by two absolute shallackings at Fenway, in which the Sox’ bullpen looked not only mortal, but shaken.  Beckett nursing an injury.  Lester, quite hittable.

Game 5 started out looking to be more of the same.  The Rays’ Upton, a surprise powerhouse in the series, cranked a two-run homer off of Dice-K in the 1st.  Pena followed suit in the 3rd.  4-0, Rays.  Fenway faithful nervous.  Evan Longoria, the rookie of the year, added another shot and the Rays led 5-0.  Rays fans could feel their first World Series Trip coming.  For the next three innings, neither team could gain traction, but then in the top of the 7th, the Rays got two more.  7-0 Rays.  Floridians got the champagne out of the fridge.

But …

Blame Canada

I am off on vacation for a couple of weeks in Canada, so forgive me if I miss Obama’s or McCain’s announcement of a running mate. I know all three of you will be disappointed not to have my snarky take. And Ted will be apoplectic if nothing comes up on his “Sarah Palin + John McCain” google search.

Keep the faith. Final guess is still Obama/Kaine vs. McCain/Romney, but here’s hoping for Biden and .. Romney.

Hamdan sentenced to 5 months … but indefinite detention

Thursday, a military judge sentenced Salim Hamdan to five and a half years in prison for his conviction for material support of terrorism (as opposed to the life sentence prosecutors asked for). He will receive credit for at least 61 months of the six years that he has already been held at Guantanamo Bay, and his sentence could be completed as soon as December. However, because under the current system the President is the final arbiter of release, President Bush may choose to continue to hold Hamdan indefinitely, despite the adjudication. There’s a great article on the matter here.

Let me reiterate the facts: the Pentagon’s big test-case in the military tribunal system produced a conviction of essentially five months for being Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur. But the U.S. President could still hold Hamdan until he dies.

VP 7.0: Darkhorses ride in; Hillary a possibility

Now your two favorite posts rolled into one!

It’s the 11th hour (ok, maybe 10th) for the VP searches, and a couple of names are floating in from left field … i.e., from the House of Representatives. For weeks, Nancy Pelosi has been pushing Congressman Chet Edwards, who represents the Crawford, TX area. He has served for 18 years, his district is heavily Army, and he has a strong reputation on veteran’s issues. On the GOP side, it appears that the McCain team is vetting Rep. Eric Cantor of Richmond, Virginia. Both men are quite handsome. Other than that, it’s unclear why they should be taken seriously.

Of the two, only Cantor has an outside chance of being chosen. He’s the same age as Obama, could shore up Virginia for McCain, and is Jewish, which might help in Florida. But he doesn’t pass the Commander-in-Chief-in-Waiting test, and would risk exacerbating concerns about McCain’s age.

In other McCain news, Sarah Palin may want to invest in Alaska real-estate, because she’s not moving to DC anytime soon. Last week, she praised Obama’s energy policy as the rest of McCain’s surrogates were busy attacking it.

As for Obama, he spent a couple of days traveling around Indiana with Evan Bayh. While they praised each other to high heaven, Obama assiduously avoided dropping any VP hints.

With that, here’s versions 7.0 of Obama’s and McCain’s Veepstakes:

www.paris4prez.com

Click the above picture for Paris Hilton’s response to John McCain’s ad that took her image in vain. I am loathe to post something about Ms. Hilton, but this deserves to be seen for two reasons: 1) it highlights how incredibly bad John McCain’s media team is, and 2) it’s pretty funny.

If you don’t know, McCain put out an ad degrading Senator Obama by comparing his celebrity to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (watch the ad here).

After accusing Obama of skipping a visit to troops in Germany because he couldn’t bring cameras (false: Obama was told by the Pentagon that it would be considered a campaign visit, and not an official one, so Obama withdrew) and airing an ad directly blaming Obama for high fuel prices (completely disregarding George Bush and the central role of the Iraq War in the plummeting value of the dollar), McCain’s people are digging for new lows. “Let’s use the image of a fallen pop princess with crippling emotional issues to disparage our opponent!” It not only wasn’t fair to Senator Obama, it was disrespectful to Britney Spears, a private citizen who has never done a damn thing to John McCain.

And it was a double jerk-move to Paris Hilton: her parents are big donors to the McCain campaign. So Paris’ response is apt and funny. McCain should personally apologize to Hilton and Spears … and fire his moronic media team.

Ambiguous result in terror conviction

Today, an American military panel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, convicted Salim Hamdan of material support for terrorism. He was acquitted of conspiracy, but still faces a possible life sentence.

This was the first conviction by the controversial military tribunals and an ambiguous “victory” for the Bush Administration.  The failure to secure a conviction on the more serious of the two charges, conspiracy (i.e., actual participation in terror activities) does nothing to quell concerns about the legality and morality of the highly scrutinized military tribunals.

VP timing: Last Chance to Beat the Olympics!

Will either McCain or Obama announce his running mate this week?

** UPDATE:  Obama is taking vacation the week I suggested that he’ll announce his VP.  So, uh … maybe look for McCain to announce Aug. 11-15 **

It looks like the candidates are playing a game of VP chicken: neither one wants to announce too early, but the Olympics are lording over August, certain to suck up press coverage and dampen the announcement’s positive (or negative) impact. Given how political the games in Beijing already are and the strong possibility of some sort of large-scale civil unrest, international incident, or terrorist attack (a bombing today in western China killed 16 people), world events could literally take center stage.

So it’s either now or … next week.