Curtains Open on Heath’s Hometown Honor
While excitable critics are abuzz about a possible posthumous Oscar nomination for Heath Ledger’s Joker, there’s a more immediate honor for the late star.
Ledger’s hometown of Perth, Australia, has named an $88 million playhouse after the actor.
West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter, accompanied by Ledger’s father Kim, this morning announced plans for the 575-seat Heath Ledger Theatre.
“Heath Ledger was an extremely talented actor, totally dedicated to his craft and internationally respected,” Carpenter said. “Honoring his memory in this way will ensure his acting achievements will continue to inspire young [Australian] artists.”
Kim Ledger was on hand for the tribute announcement, and said the Ledger family not only supported the naming decision but was quite touched by it:
“We feel so honored and intensely proud to know the government and people of West Australia are prepared to attach Heath’s name to this new theater project, which will provide Perth with an outstanding venue for years to come.
“Heath was deeply committed to his personal life within the arts environment the world over and an extraordinary giver of his time, kindness and money to aspiring or struggling artists from Australia and overseas. I have no doubt he would be pleased we are accepting the attachment of his name to such a worthy theater project.”
Adam Levine Gives Paps a Free Show
“I feel like Paris Hilton!” Adam Levine exclaimed while exiting Villa to a flurry of flashbulbs.
Indeed, the Maroon 5 frontman gave the camera-friendly heiress a run for her money last night. Not only did he flash the ubiquitous peace sign to the paps upon exiting the club, he also gave them a free (albeit unintentional) show.
Only, instead of flashing skin like Paris used to do, he displayed his vocal prowess: crooning karaoke on stage in earshot of the shutterbugs outside. We hear Hall and Oates was on his set list.
HBO to release Deadwood complete series DVD set
As if we didn’t need more proof that those two Deadwood movies are never, ever, ever, ever going to happen, HBO announced this week that a complete series DVD set is in the works for a late 2008 release.
TVShowsOnDVD picked up on the news while attending the 2008 Entertainment Merchant Association show. Above is the proposed box art for the collection - sort of like a big book that’ll hold all 36 episodes plus what’s sure to be plenty of bonus features.
To be honest though, I’m not too excited by this. Deadwood is easily one of my top-15 favorite shows of all time and, even though I quote it endlessly, the more I think about it, there’s not much replay value in it for me. I’ve seen every episode so many times and I know ’em all inside and out that I don’t have much need to buy the DVD set. I suppose it’s the same reason I’ve never bought any Seinfeld DVDs. Plus, the fact that the series isn’t “finished” still chaps my ass. What about everyone else though? Is this worth the money?
The Mole: Episode 4
“In my everyday life, the only place I hike to is Bloomingdale’s.” - Nicole
Wow, I think a lot of people lost their Mole pools tonight.
But before we get to that, let’s talk about those journals. I think tonight showed that, if the rules allow it (though Nicole is always bending the rules), players on this reality show should make duplicate copies of what they write in their journals. Or tear out important pages and stuff them down your sock or something. To some players, the journals are more of a pain because there’s too much info and they’d rather keep it in their head. To others, the journals are their lifelines in this game, and those players were probably very stunned tonight.
Hey, the show is in Argentina now! That’s great, because I didn’t want every episode set in Chile. The players are in Argentina, and the first challenge is “The Midas Rush.” The teams separate into two groups, the Selfish and the Selfless (Paul is on the selfless team??). They have to carry bars of gold up the mountain in backpacks and in their hands. The team up the mountain first gets an exemption. Of course, it’s not as easy as that. Jon explains that the team has to figure out which person gets the exempton, or no one gets it and they don’t get the money ($250 for each bar). Clay says he wants the exemption, which some find as suspicious. But they agree and he is safe. The players earn $14, 250.
Meanwhile, Craig dies.
OK, he doesn’t, but the big guy hardly makes it up the mountain without passing out, and when the team gets down to the bottom again, Craig is in and out of consciousness and an ambulance is called. He’s given oxygen and is sent to the hospital, which upsets the rest of the players on the ride back. Craig shows up at the cabin later and says that he has to take it easy. During this entire time, I looked really carefully to see if I could find some clue that this was all fake, like the oxygen mask wasn’t hooked up to anything or the window of the ambulance had a sign that said “Mole Onboard,” but no such luck. It would be a good way to hide out if Craig is the Mole, and a great way for him to rest and regroup his thoughts if he isn’t.
At dinner, Jon takes the players journals and leaves. The contestants wonder what’s up and if they’ll get them back. Jon returns and they play a “Who Said That?” game. During the game, Nicole purposely coughs and blinks her eyes rapidly to tip off Kristin that she said one of the quotes. It’s painfully obvious, so Jon takes that money away. Did she do this because she’s the Mole, wants to make people think she’s the Mole, or she’s just devious in general? Hmmmm.
Jon leads the group outside to a fire and asks for one person to sacrifice his journal. After some talk and odds/evens, Alex gives his to Jon. But there’s a twist: the person giving the journal keeps their journal, and the rest of the team journals are burned on a table in a (very dramatic) fire. The team thinks this sucks, especially Mark, who slightly freaks out and goes missing for a while. Again, is he really this way or is he the Mole? He certainly did write a lot in that thing.
So, did you pick Victoria as the Mole? I had it narrowed down to Mark and Victoria, and now I’m only left with Mark, because Victoria was executed! I thought she could have been the Mole because she was kinda low key and flew under the radar. Now I know not to pick people because of that. It’s funny, because Mark is one of my suspects for the opposite reason: he’s over the top, a little dramatic, vocal, a little confrontational.
So Mark is still one of my top suspects, but I might even add Nicole to the list. Early on she was so blunt that it seemed like it was way too obvious for her to be the Mole, but something happened tonight I haven’t figured out yet. Just before Victoria is voted out - because she finished the quiz 5 seconds slower than the person that she tied with - Nicole happened to mention that her plan was to go through the quiz really fast and hope for the best that someone else finished slower, and then a few minutes later something like that actually happens? I haven’t even figured all that out yet. The Mole wouldn’t do badly on the quiz, and it would be an odd bit of editing for the show to put that quote so close to what actually happens (though tricky and would throw us off), so it’s a little confusing to figure out.
Oh, it can’t be that obvious. I’m going with either Mark or Paul. And Mark said the word “asshole” tonight without being bleeped, which would have made George Carlin smile.