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Very, very entertaining and funny broadcast, last night's THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO with Russell Crowe guesting, an uncomfortable Larry the Cable Guy joining later, and wrapped with an endearing musical performance by Willie Nelson.

From website CONSTANT CROWE, there are media files of the entire broadcast -- Crowe's appearance is concentrated in files 02 and 03.

Leno02142008-01a.wmv (78MB) [Monologue]
Leno02142008-01b.wmv (82MB) [Opening]
Leno02142008-02.wmv (43MB) [Russell - Part One]
Leno02142008-03.wmv (54MB) [Russell - Part Two]
Leno02142008-04.wmv (69MB) [Larry The Cable Guy - Russell also appears]
Leno02142008-05.wmv (30MB) [Willie Nelson and Russell appears for close]

I tried uploading the downloaded files to my server but it was like waiting for a snail to cross an asphalt highway -- I have no idea why because I have a huge amount of as-yet unused bandwidth and FTP capability. So, I've linked to them, as above, which I hope will be alright and viewed easily by trafficking over to Constant Crowe.

Speaking of Russell Crowe, he's been named as one of three Ambassadors for Sydney, Australia -- Crowe will be featured in a media campaign in the U.S. later this year to promote Sydney, Australia.

And, the DVD for AMERICAN GANGSTER is due out in a few more days. I have not yet seen this film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington (weighty interview with the two actors here), but am looking forward to the DVD (purchase and) viewing after reading such great press about the film -- though I'd have purchased the DVD anyway, whatever the press, based upon it being Scott's work with Crowe and Washington, either/or or any.

Another film starring Crowe --- 3:10 TO YUMA -- was out on DVD a month or more ago and what a film it is. Remarkable to see Crowe play a truly bad man, though honest to a point of near chivalry of sorts. Christian Bale, also starring, is equally remarkable as a vulnerable but heroic, stoic struggling rancher in the 1880's Old West in relationship both antagonistically and sympathetically to Crowe's villian. Supporting Actor Ben Foster, too, is not to be missed, does an exceptionaly job as an utterly snarly junior-bad-man as sidekick to Crowe's villianry.

The production quality of 3:10 TO YUMA is genuine and exceptionally well done accordingly -- the lighting is especially dear, as is the very accurate degree of ranch-worn working rural wear of all the characters: very well done, no betrayals by contemporary cosmetics in site.

I've yet to see any film starring Crowe that I haven't bought on DVD and enjoyed about as much as any I could and have, including the odd A GOOD YEAR, despite the critical bans of that lighter-weight tale. Crowe's a fine actor and continues to renew my faith in filmmaking and filmmakers.

Speaking of which, I read a February 11, 2008 interview with Ridley Scott -- probably my most admired, favored film director and producer and certainly an incredibly prolific artist what with the ongoing spate of excellent, unique titles he has and continues to direct and/or produce -- and Scott is now prepping to make ROBIN HOOD starring Russell Crowe as none other than Robin Hood. Should be lively! And wonderful, I'm thinking! 'Can barely manage to wait for that one. He and Crowe have just wrapped the production of BODY OF LIES co-starring Leonard DiCaprio, so, Crowe's a busy guy! So is Scott, by the way.

Thank Heaven our world with us in it has these wonderful artists, each and every one of them.

At the most optimistic, this silly video from Cat Head Theatre might get an otherwise uninterested person started (it.is.hoped) toward enjoyment of the literature by William Shakespeare and HAMLET, if not already.

But my favorite filmed performance of Shakespeare's HAMLET is by Franco Zefferelli, starring Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, Paul Scofield as The Ghost, Ian Holm as Polonius and Helen Bonham Carter as Ophelia. Ennio Morricone -- my favorite film composer -- provided the score.

Here's a comprehensive site about HAMLET by William Shakespeare.

And, here's a basic but quite reliable description of what the play is all about:

Once you get past the minor difficulties posed by the language, you'll probably enjoy "Hamlet" -- and not just for its action.

"Hamlet" is the first work of literature to look squarely at the stupidity, falsity and sham of everyday life, without laughing and without easy answers. In a world where things are not as they seem, Hamlet's genuineness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity make him special.

Hamlet is no saint. But unlike most of the other characters (and most people today), Hamlet chooses not to compromise with evil.

Until I viewed Zefferelli's rendition of HAMLET, I was unaware of Mel Gibson's full-fair dramatic abilities as a performer but full and utter this performance by Gibson is as Hamlet, perhaps his finest work in dramatic arts yet accomplished.

But the entire production is a substantial work of art and if anyone up to now has been dissuaded from reading or watching HAMLET performed, I highly encourage the viewing of Zefferelli's film, HAMLET.

About Morricone, he's set to compose the score for the upcoming film, THE UNTOUCHABLES: CAPONE RISING, in which Nicholas Cage is confirmed to star as Al Capone while younger in his life (this is a prequel to THE UNTOUCHABLES in which Capone was later in life).

Cage will reteam with "Snake Eyes" director Brian DePalma for the project, playing a younger version of the character made famous by Robert DeNiro. "Capone Rising" is a prequel to DePalma's 1987 classic "The Untouchables," and will revolve around the early dealings between Capone and Irish cop Jimmy Malone, a role that garnered an Oscar for Sean Connery.

And, as to that Jimmy Malone co-starring role, "...rumors continue to swirl that Sean Penn or Colin Farrell will be cast as the younger Connery..." If it's ruin that's the goal, they'll go with Penn and forego Farrell but if it's a great movie they're after, they'll sign Farrell as quickly as possible.

Enjoy the cats in the meantime.

Author Pete Earley has written an excellent, insightful review of sorts at one of my favored websites, crimelibrary.com, of the film, THE GOOD SHEPHARD.

The film is a captivating view experience written for the screen by Eric Roth, that tells a fictionalized tale related (somewhat) to actual characters and historic events. Reading what Pete Earley writes as to the reality of the individuals and events that Roth relied upon to create his fiction makes the film more disappointing than I already thought it was due to the lack of onscreen chemistry between several of the actors (who all independently deliver convincing performances) -- I got the impression that the relationships between some was acting-about-acting. However, the film delivers on an entertainment level due to the interesting and continually developing fictional story line, while Earley's article points out the contradictions and misleadments involved. What I'd have preferred to view was the real story and not the imagined people of Eric Roth's and the other players involved in this fictional "reinterpretation."

The American traitor John Walker Jr. once said the best way to hide a lie is by wrapping it in layers of truth. It's a trick that not only serves spies, but also clever Hollywood scriptwriters. Such is the case with The Good Shepherd, a cloak-and-dagger thriller that purports to tell the story of the Central Intelligence Agency's early days as seen through the eyes and career of Edward Wilson, the movie's main character. Played by Matt Damon, Wilson is patterned after the legendary spy-catcher, James Jesus Angleton.

But how much of the movie is true and how much is Hollywood sizzle?

As with nearly all -- if not all -- these on-screen fictionalized renditions, liberties are taken with actual events, characters and organizations (in various combinations), and what inevitably results among Liberal society and other impressionable, fear-motivated people is that what lives on are questions, doubts and malignments based upon a familiarity with a fictional story and not with actual history and the result is people like the nutty Rosie O'Donnell and various persons who write on the Huffington Post -- to name just a few Liberal gossip breeding-grounds. And what is missed if not omitted entirely from our collective human society is familiarity and understanding of the real people who live among us with all their facts and stories relatively straight. The result is a high degree of social espionage based upon the kinds of distortions that people like Eric Roth get to call "fiction."

I question the personal responsibility involved here as an author, the presumption upon the power of words and especially, words performed on the big screen, used to represent. I love fiction as much as anyone, if not more, but I don't love misrepresentation when it is situated within the real while presupposing to misrepresent the real.

Eric Roth says he wanted to create a "GODFATHER"-type character similar to that of Michael Corleone, as to his intent in writing THE GOOD SHEPHARD, but I do question as to why Liberal Roth would focus that story as he has:

...Roth wrote an original script and during his research, he became interested in Angleton. Roth soon began picturing him as his Michael Corleone character. "I get nervous when I mention the Godfather because critics immediately begin comparing The Good Shepherd to it and it has to live up to those same standards or you're in trouble," Roth said. "But I am referring to the Godfather in the sense of this being a family story — of focusing on one individual and telling a larger story through his eyes and experiences. The character arch between Edward Wilson and Michael Corleone has certain similarities. You start with a somewhat innocent guy who is as smart or smarter than anyone else involved with him and then you see him progress until he is better than anyone else at what he does and you then see what getting there has done to his personality."

Although Roth drew heavily on Angleton's life for his portrait of Edward Wilson, he quickly pointed out that The Good Shepherd was not meant to be a biography. Several characters and scenes were invented to add drama. However, Roth said that when he invented a scene, he tried to base it on a historical fact -- "something the CIA has done in the past."

I respect Eric Roth's ability to create wonders in screenwriting -- his characters developed so specifically, plots woven expertly, dialogue real enough to be believed if not sometimes a tad wan but working -- but when an author uses actual humans who have lived actual lives, set among events they were involved in and then makes up additional doings and commisserations that then affects world history without the cautionary footnotes upon which the story is woven (as are also the redeveloped, fictionalized characters performing the personnas of actual identities but in fictional terms), it takes on the presence of bad dreams or worse, false history.

All these efforts and the least that we might strive to understand is the truth: about what really happened, about who people really are or were. In the case of the (actual) persons relied upon to create THE GOOD SHEPHARD, I'm sure we'll never know. But the fiction will live on in event-honored moments.

Reference:

And here we read the very unreality that I've been discussing, referenced as the real, unfortunately, by Roth himself -- and his impact upon the interviewer is equally telling:

Interview with Eric Roth at CHUD:

Question: It's interesting that you talk about the myth of the CIA, because this might be one of the most realistic CIA movies ever.

Eric Roth: I think ever. I'm not trying to brag, but it probably is the most realistic -- maybe The Spy Who Came In From the Cold or Smiley's People would have the same reality-based quality to it.

Question: Why did you want to go so real?

Eric Roth: I think I try to be as real as I can. If you look at my movies -- well, maybe Forrest Gump isn't real -- but The Insider and Ali and Munich, you know what I'm saying? I think I do try to always be real. Even when I did Forrest Gump I tried to imagine that in some kind of real context; in other words what if you're a guy who is limited or mentally challenged and has the ability to pop up in historical events -- how would that affect him? I looked at it as a real person. Phil Hendrie, the radio guy, he had this show about how the real Forrest Gump died.

US photographer Spencer Platt wins premier award

The international jury of the 50th annual World Press Photo Contest selected a color image of the US photographer Spencer Platt of Getty Images as World Press Photo of the Year 2006. Click here for the award winning picture.

The picture shows a group of young Lebanese driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombings. The picture was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah when thousands of Lebanese started returning to their homes.

View WINNERS GALLERY 2007 and the World Press Photo's "online magazine."

Wonderful article (as also personal experiences) by Dawn Eden in TIMESONLINE:

"CASUAL SEX IS A CON: WOMEN JUST AREN'T LIKE MEN"

A woman's perspective and story of miraculous salvation, yes, but I wonder how little the difference is for men.