Celebrity Student

Every once in a while we get a student at UCLA who is a celebrity in their own country. We've had actresses from Mexico, singers from Korea, and directors from Japan. But the arrival today of Takeshi Kaneshiro sent our entire student body into a tizzy.



Apparently he is a huge star in Asia, but relatively unknown here. None of the teachers knew who he was, but our students from Japan and Korea and Taiwan certainly recognized him and they wouldn't stop crowding the hallways trying to sneak a peak into his classroom or to snap a quick photo to email their friends back home.

We've had to have extra facilities staff on hand to keep the hallways clear of loitering students and to escort Mr. Kaneshiro quickly to and from the emergency exit before and after class. In fact, I gave up my classroom to his class because that room is closer to the emergency exit and to the administrative offices.

Although he is known for playing quirky roles in off-beat films, most American audiences will know him from Chunking Express or House of Flying Daggers. He's also quite a heartthrob for the young ladies, and being of mixed race (Taiwanese-Japanese) he is fluent in several languages.


With Ziyi Zhang in House of Flying Daggers

Luckily he's not my student so I don't have to deal with the chaos around him, but so far the teachers and students who have met him said he's actually a really nice guy who is here to study English and stay out of the limelight for a while. Yeah, good luck!

UPDATE: Takeshi lasted two days before the attention was too much for him and he left the English program. There were rumors of press and paparazzi on their way from Asia to hound him here. The students wouldn't leave him alone either. Someone apparently followed him into the restroom to take a picture.

Guess it sucks to be beautiful!

Jeff Daniels

Saw Jeff Daniels tonight at a SAG screening in Hollywood of his new film The Squid and the Whale. Set in 1986 Brooklyn, the movie was hilarious and touching. It deals with serious emotional family issues in a humorous but sincere way. Very surprising and fresh.

Jeff Daniels appeared after the film for an interview and Q & A session with the audience. He's always been a favorite of mine, consistently good in every role whether third-billed or starring. With a career spanning 29 years, as he pointed out twice in his comments, he has played in films as diverse as Dumb and Dumber, Gettysburg, Pleasantville, Terms of Endearment, and his first starring role, The Purple Rose of Cairo.

He's worked with some of the biggest in the biz: Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, and...Keanu Reeves (in Speed). His performance in The Squid and the Whale is a fine addition to his already broad palette of roles, and the spin is already headed toward an Oscar nomination, if you follow the early hype.

It is his capability for playing extremely diverse characters which has been the key to his success, said Daniels. Portraying a deranged cop in the drama 2 Days in the Valley and following with 101 Dalmations (which has yet to make enough money to pay any residuals, he griped) demonstrates a wider stretch than the average working actor, in terms of richness of character and budget.

Maintaining a normal family life with his wife and three kids in his home state of Michigan has been the trade-off in place of the typical Hollywood rewards of fame and wealth. Mr. Daniels has made a decent enough living dividing his time between blockbusters and independent features to finance his own dream theater company in Michigan which produces only original works by Midwestern American playwrights.

In person, Jeff Daniels definitely has star quality, but tonight he seemed more like "the star next door", wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots and a brown corduroy blazer with too-long sleeves. And he has surprisingly boyish good looks for a man 50 years old. He has also retained his thick blonde hair, which he kept fussing with during the interview.

Grounded in his success, he encouraged the striving actors in the 300-strong SAG audience to "be ready when your two minutes comes." Everyone who perseveres will have the opportunity someday to shine in a standard two-minute audition, but they must be prepared and in the right frame of mind to make success out of it.

Like the Boy Scouts say, "always be prepared."

Michael Jackson moves to Bahrain

As if this guy's life couldn't get any weirder, Michael Jackson has reportedly moved to the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain, according to the LA Times.

Jackson apparently moved there with his children shortly after his acquittal earlier this year on child molestation charges.

I don't know about you, but I'm not really very familiar with Bahrain. However, I just did some quick Internet research and it sounds like an interesting place.

Bahrain is a tiny island monarchy (665 sq miles) located east of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. The small population (less than 700,000 people) are mostly Arab Muslims, about a third of which are non-nationals.

Economically speaking, Bahrain is very well off due to its petroleum resources and the growing industry of refining imported crude, but the cost of living is considerably cheaper than, say, New York or London.

In 2004, Bahrain became the first Gulf state to sign a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The country gained its independence from Britain in 1971.

Maybe Michael's not so crazy after all. Nah.

Sources:
http://www.bahraintourism.com/subpage1.htm
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ba.html
http://www.bahrain.gov.bh/english/index.asp

Craig, Daniel Craig is the new 007

It's official: 37-year-old English actor Daniel Craig will the newest actor to play James Bond in next year's Casino Royale.

Full story here.

Who will be the next Bond?

We should know for sure by this time tomorrow...

Read CNN's story