Third Child for Tonight Show’s Melendez
Here’s something else for Tonight Show announcer John Melendez to shout about: He’s become a father for a third time.
Oscar David Melendez weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. when he arrived via Caesarean section at 12:27 a.m. Sunday at California’s West Hills Hospital and Medical Center. The baby is believed to be the first born in the San Fernando Valley in 2006, the Associated Press reports.
“It’s just funny that my husband’s the one who usually is in the spotlight,” said mother Suzanna Melendez, 39. “To pick how you come into this world and have it be New Year’s Day is pretty funny to me.”
Oscar’s two siblings are 9- and 5-year-old sisters.
“Three kids already, I might have to ask Jay Leno for a raise,” Melendez, 40, said of his “Tonight” boss. “That’s a lot of mouths to feed.”
Before joining the NBC late-night program, Melendez was known to Howard Stern fans as “Stuttering” John, who carried out caustic red-carpet interviews for the shock jock.
Sarcasm has not abandoned him or his wife, either. Both have been joking about their new child’s name. “He’ll either be a boxer or a fashion designer,” Suzanna Melendez said.
Alfred Hitchcock on How the Introduction of Sound Hurt Cinema
I just discovered this quote from master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, talking about how the introduction of sound and dialogue had in many ways hurt cinema:
“The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema; the only thing they lacked was the sound of people talking and the noises. But this slight imperfection did not warrant the major changs that sound brought in. In Many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema. They are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking.’ When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try first to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between… To me, one of the cardinal sins for a scriptwriter, when he runs into some difficulty, is to say ‘We can cover that by a line of dialogue.’ Dialogue should simply be a sound among sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.”
Idol hopeful’s stripper past confirmed, won’t be booted
Don’t tell Frenchie, but despite confirming that David Hernandez was a stripper in a mostly male night club, only quitting as recently as September 30, 2007, sources say he will not be removed from the show. FOX declined comment, but Idol executive producer Ken Warwick did make a statement (that has since been removed from most stories I’ve seen this morning; his comments were there last night and now those reports say that both FOX and Idol declined comment).
He said, “We’re never judgmental about what people do to earn a living. They’ve got to put food in people’s mouths.” Also mentioned, and since removed, was the never revealed stripping past of first season contestant Nikki McKibbin, as well as an expanded explanation for Frenchie Davis’ dismissal in 2003.
See, it wasn’t only because she had appeared topless on a website, but because of other activities that website was affiliated with (I think it was exploitation of children or something, but I could be misremembering). Not that she was affiliated with those things, but the site was. So if Dick’s Cabaret goes down on any charges that they’ve hired minors to strip or served alcohol to minors, I guess Idol would remove David?
The guidelines are so fuzzy. The bottom line is, Idol forgives David his past indiscretions and as far as the show itself, will pretend they never happened. Like you should. What will be particularly interesting to see is how much longer he lasts in the competition. Often scandals are quickly followed by Idol hopeful departures; see Robbie Carrico getting cut the same week rumors started flying about his wig — er, I mean alleged wig.
Is it America responding that it takes more than chops to be the next American Idol. If so, despite a solid performance, maybe tomorrow night will be the end of the road for David Hernandez, which would probably be a stay of execution for the likes of Luke Menard or Danny Noriega. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he did go, largely in response to this.
Punisher: War Zone Moves to December. Director Lexi Alexander Implies Lots of Blood.
Confident female action movie directors with veddy dirty mouths rock. Lexi Alexander (above), the candid director behind Punisher: War Zone, has posted an update for the semi-quiet Marvel reboot on her tidy official site. She informs that the film was screened for studio brass this month, that it went reasonably well, and she seems cool with the flick now moving from its original September 12th release to December 5th.
Ms. Alexander on the “studio experience”…
“Well, thank God [the screening] went well and, although I’ll probably have to compromise on a few minor notes, it’s not nearly as bad as some of my filmmaker friends predicted it would be. I guess I got away with an actual okay studio experience (knocking on wood since it’s not quite over yet).”
And her NSFW thoughts on Frank Castle (played by Rome’s Ray Stevenson, above right with his stunt double) now raining/reigning blood during the jolly holidays; she includes a nice shout to the comic book/action fans rah-rahing for a hard R-rating (the kids are getting restless)…
“[The studio] also moved our release date to December 5th, which is, according to my reps, a much, much better date. I myself would have thought that people will think twice about going to see an extremely violent movie the closer it gets to Jesus’ B-day, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever other holy holiday you’re celebrating. Well, the box office records prove different and instead, all you sick fucks get more blood thirsty that time of year. (And I say that with lovingly affection, cause I’m relying on all the sick fucks to show up).”
We haven’t seen much at all from the latest Punisher, but I really like Alexander’s attitude thus far. She just kinda gives ‘r and if I had to choose, after being strapped to a lawn chair, between watching Punisher: War Zone or the similar Max Payne (which is rumored to be going PG-13: Rockstar Games, wassup with that?) 100 times in a row, I’d choose the former off loony intuition. Crush much?