Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

"I Love Jersey City" Images - For JC Museum Summer Exhibit

For those of us who love Jersey City, New Jersey, there's a way to show it. 

Jane Fonda - Patron Saint of Lost Causes [including her own healing]

Jane Fonda, patron saint of lost causes, is in the news again.  As usual, it's for betting wrong.  This time, as we all expected, her bad bet was on lover Lynden Gillis.  Given all this disappointment, reports John South in the April 14th NATIONAL ENQUIRER, she went off to the Mayo Clinic in hopes of putting herself together. That hasn't worked at all before.  But, why not keeping trying what doesn't work.

Paul Newman - Who Will Inherit the Territory of Cool

Even if the tabloids, such as GLOBE and NATIONAL ENQUIRER, are exaggerating Paul Newman's health problems, we know we were going to lose the king of cool.  That cool went beyond his film persona to how he lived comfortably with fame, one wife, and being part of a Connecticut community.  He and his house guest Robert Redford would go the ice cream place, and, yeah, stand in line.

David Denby - Will this be the last nicely paid film critic

Last week it was the last picture show in Orange, Connecticut.  The multiplex cinema closed down, which was no surprise since every time I was there in the afternoon to flee blogging no one else was.  It was so empty that I didn't even try to sneak into another film without paying another admission.  I already stood out.   Soon enough, after this last picture show there will be the last nicely paid film critic.  Who will have a need for a David Denby type?

Last Picture Show in Orange, CT - End of the Woody Allen Era of Spending Afternoons in MovieHouses

My absolute fave - the Cinema in Orange, Connecticut, right off I-95 - has been shut down.  Not that I'm surprised.  In fact, when I was the only one in the afternoon audience watching "No Country for Old Men," I interviewed the college kid in charge of Malted Milk Balls and Diet Coke.

Why We're Not Watching the Oscars

It isn't that the writers' strike broke us out of the habit of sitting and watching TV.  The real reason that we won't won't be watching the Oscars Sunday night is that we now make our own art forms and entertainment.  We are the Gen Web.  Hollywood or even indie film is not what we talk about.

Maybe Madonna Should Teach Marketing at Harvard B School

Perhaps we all do this: Fantasy ourselves artistic.  That may be why Madonna keeps trying to make a name for herself in creative pursuits like acting [ha-ha] and more recently directing.  Her film "Filth and Wisdom" has been so badly and universally panned that it may just be as unartistic as everyone says.  Whatever.  If Madonna, like most of the world's dreamers, can grow up, give up art and follow her natural strength - marketing - she may finally get respect.

Curse on the House of Brando - Son Christian Is Dead

Tony Brenna in the February 4th GLOBE predicted it could happen.  Brenna quoted Christian Brando's mother Anna Kashfi who said when her son was admitted to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital January 11th, "My fear is we're going to lose him."  He had been having trouble breathing.  Kashfit suspected that his history of substance abuse could have been involved.  Today, Christian Brando died.  The cause was indicated to be pneumonia.

Campbell Funeral Home - Upper East Side, Manhattan

Most of us will only have a shot at being in Campbell Funeral Home on the Upper East Side, Manhattan as a walkie talkie.  Dead, few of us will get in.  It's totally Upper-Upper Establishment Cool.

Heath Ledger [1979-2008] - Was an Obit Already On File

Another over-the-top talent is gone, way too soon.  Heath Ledger of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Monster's Ball" fame was found dead today at the age of 28.  Drugs might have been the cause.  Was this star, like his young peers in the performing arts, so doomed that the media had already written his obit and had it on file?