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

The World's Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl "Will you marry me?" The girl said,
"NO!" And the guy lived happily ever after and went fishing, hunting and
played golf a lot and drank beer and farted whenever he wanted.

Eye of the Storm

Amazing blog by a couple journalists stationed in the destruction zone of Hurricane Katrina. They give harrowing first-person accounts of surviving the hurricane and suffering through the aftermath.

Astounding photos as well.

Eye of the Storm

Fill Up Fast!

Gas prices are on the rise again and they may reach record levels by the upcoming Labor Day weekend. So save a few pennies and fill up early if you can.

With the summer driving season coming to an end, we should see some stabilization in the rate of demand, but in the long run gasoline will continue to grow more and more expensive.

Shapes of Things to Come

I'm glad I got to visit New Orleans when I did. The city will never be the same. In fact, it may eventually be abandoned all together as uninhabitable.

Unfortunately the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans and other Gulf cities is merely the beginning of the end for low-lying areas around the world. Not everyone agrees, but many scientists speculate that as global warming continues, more cities will be consumed by the oceans and those areas in the hurricane zone will be the first to go since the rate (and power) of hurricanes and other weather-related disasters is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades.

Perhaps New Orleans, already below sea level, will become like the mythical city of Atlantis, which was allegedly consumed by the sea.

Help the Victims of Katrina

Please join me in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina by donating anything you can to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane disaster relief fund.

If you don't have any extra cash to send now, consider donating all those spare pennies you have lying around! And as if the cause itself wasn't enough, remember your donations are tax-deductible.

It's a sharp reality check to see the massive destruction in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other affected Gulf cities. Hundreds of thousands have lost everything. In some cases their entire city has ceased to exist.

Makes my complaints about having to choose between 2% and whole milk for my coffee seem pretty trivial.

Motivational Posters

We've all seen those tacky motivational posters in offices. Don't you just hate them?

Well here's a web company that offers Demotivational Posters and they are frickin' hilarious! Here's an example:



Check out Demotivators for more...

Boys Keep Swinging

Boys Keep Swinging

These guys rock!

End of the Network All-Stars

With the death of Peter Jennings, all three major networks, NBC, CBS, and now ABC, have lost their network news anchor within the last year. It truly is the end of an era.

Peter Jennings dies at 67

ABC News anchor Peter Jennings dies at 67 - TV NEWS AND INFORMATION - MSNBC.com

I'm crushed.

Which Bowie Are You?

Which David Bowie are you?

An Evening At The Bowl

Had a nice treat Friday night when my tour boss Philip invited me to join his party at the Hollywood Bowl. We had wine and cheese and meats, and a delicious Key Lime pie for dessert. Philip's friends are all show people and artists, so there was much laughter and revelry.

The program was Great American Women, one of the Bowl's "Great American Concerts" series, and conductor John Mauceri was celebrating his 300th performance at the Bowl.

It was a lovely evening -- amazing how cool Los Angeles evenings can be even in the summer time -- and the show featured the Hollywood Bowl orchestra, three great divas, and fireworks!

The divas were opera star Debra Voigt, jazz maven Dianne Reeves (just off the plane from hometown Denver!), and Broadway legend Barbara Cook. Each woman held the audience captive with their unique interpretations of standard classics, both classical and popular.

Most endearing perhaps was 78-year-old Barbara Cook who forgot her words several times, but shrugged it off like a pro, at one point stopping the orchestra to start over. "This song is too good to mess up. Let's try it again, Johnny M," she said.

My favorite piece of the evening was the very first one played by the orchestra, Fanfare From "King's Row" by film composer Erich Korngold. This was obviously a huge inspiration for the music of John Williams and in fact one part of the theme sounded remarkably similar to the opening notes of "Star Wars".

Another highlight was a specially commissioned orchestral suite of Adam Guettel's The Light In The Piazza, which won a Tony this year for Best Original Score. Guettel premiered this suite at the Hollywood Bowl several years before the Broadway production and his glorious score brings back a romantic style of theater music not heard since the days of his grandfather, Richard Rodgers.

[I became familiar with The Light In The Piazza on my recent trip to San Francisco. After our Sideways tour through wine country, Betty played the cast album for me in the car.]

John Mauceri had everyone in stitches with his witty 15th annual "State of the Orchestra" address. What a charming and articulate man he is -- exactly the sort of person you would want sitting next to you at a dinner party.

Niebaum-Coppola Winery

Finally have time to post about my trip to northern California in June. Had a rare opportunity to visit San Francisco while my dear friend "Betty" was there conducting Les Miserables.

We've been to San Francisco so many times, there was not much left to do in the city, so we rented a car and took a drive through Napa Valley. Ironically, we stopped only at one winery and we didn't drink any wine! Apparently Francis is very proud of his wine: just a tasting costs $15.



The winery was the Niebaum-Coppola winery, owned by filmmaker Francis Coppola. It was a beautiful chateau setting originally operated by the Niebaum family. Very elegant surroundings, and a tiny museum on the second floor of the house documents Coppola's illustrious film career. There were tons of his awards (Oscars, Palms D'Or from Cannes, etc.), plus he had several props and costumes from the films on display, including the Godfather's desk and the Tucker automobile from his film of the same name. (Photos by Betty)



Later we drove to the coast to Bodega Bay, infamous filming location of Hitchcock's The Birds. Nice to see that some things never change. It's still a sleepy little fishing village with one major restaurant, The Tides, which is where the villagers were hiding from the birds in the movie. The original restaurant burned down back in the 1960s, but the current structure is on the original site. And naturally it's decorated with all sorts of photos and memorabilia from the film. Tippi Hedren has been back to visit several times on special occasions and several of her autographs are on display. (No photos unfortunately)

Flash:10th Planet Discovered

From Space.com:

Astronomers have discovered an object in our solar system that is larger than
Pluto. They are calling it the 10th planet, but already that claim is contested.

It is the first time an object so big has been found in our solar system since
the discovery of Pluto 75 years ago.

The announcement came just hours after another newfound object, one slightly
smaller than Pluto, was revealed. The new object, temporarily named 2003 UB313,
is about three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," Brown said.

For the full story, visit
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html

"Beam me up, Scotty" -- James Doohan Dead

Beam Scotty up to heaven...

James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty, Dead at age 85.

Tom Cruise Inc. - The numbers behind his celebrity. By Edward Jay�Epstein

Tom Cruise Inc. - The numbers behind his celebrity. By Edward Jay�Epstein

A fascinating and shocking article describing how Tom Cruise has cleverly used his celebrity and reputation to demand an unprecedented movie deal with Paramount Pictures.

For better or for worse, he is truly the biggest star in the world.