She passed up Oscar-winning roles and is now playing a talking cat. Should life have worked out differently for Bette Midler?

In theory, promoting a film like Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore should be the easiest thing in the world. You just have to pitch up, tell everyone that it’s a fun family film, and then go home. You could, if you felt that starring in a film about some talking animals had somehow compromised your artistic credibility, simply admit that your children wanted you to be in it. That’s what Chris O’Donnell said, and nobody thinks any less of him.

What you don’t do, though, is follow Bette Midler’s lead. Midler, who plays the eponymous Kitty Galore character, seems to be intent on promoting Cats And Dogs 2 by listing all the other disastrous career choices she’s ever made in her life. In an interview with Metro this week, she waded through them one by one, saying: “There was Sister Act, which was written for me, but I said: ‘My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple’ … I also didn’t do Misery and Kathy Bates won an Oscar for it.”

In addition, Midler also reportedly rejected Chicago – she was rumoured to have been offered any role she liked – which went on to win six Oscars. And these are just the roles that she turned down. Presumably, she didn’t have enough breath to list all the horrible projects that she did make, like The Women and Nicole Kidman’s remake of The Stepford Wives and The First Wives Club, not to mention her toe-curling sub-Nanny sitcom Bette a decade ago.

 But Midler’s honesty does raise an interesting question – what if she hadn’t turned down those roles? Would the films still have gone on to enjoy huge success, or would her involvement have put people off?

Obviously we’ll never know for sure, but Bette’s larger than life persona and vocal ability do seem tailor-made for films like Sister Act and Chicago. Misery, though, is a different beast entirely. You could spend days, maybe even years, trying to form a mental image of Midler done up in Kathy Bates’s dowdy Annie Wilkes outfit, mallet in hand, and never fully picture it.

Even if she had taken up the offers of Sister Act and Chicago, success would not have been guaranteed. Sister Act was Whoopi Goldberg’s last big film before she lapsed into the same funk of voicing funny animals in cartoons that Bette Midler finds herself in now. And Catherine Zeta-Jones may have won an Oscar for Chicago, but have you seen The Rebound? Don’t worry, neither has anyone else.

So maybe Bette Midler should just accept her lot. Everyone makes mistakes, and she hasn’t made nearly as many as other stars. Even the most cursory glance through notstarring.com should tell her that. Geena Davis turned down Jodie Foster’s role in Taxi Driver. Happy Go Lucky’s Sally Hawkins turned down Kate Winslet’s role in Titanic. Brooke Shields turned down Basic Instinct, A Fish Called Wanda and Scarface. And Debra Winger? She turned down American Gigolo, Arthur, Blue Velvet, Ed Wood, Ghost, Indecent Proposal, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Sleepless in Seattle. However bad she feels about her lot, Bette’s still got some way to go before she notches up a portfolio of missed opportunities that vast. Plus, don’t forget she’s in a film about a funny talking cat at the moment, and you’re not – so who are you to judge?

Thanks Guardian UK.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

Rumours have been circling the internet that President Barack Obama appeared in a music video as a young man.

A smiling man who bears a striking resemblance to the future president appears fleetingly in “Whoomp (There It Is)” – a successful 1993 release by hip-hop outfit Tag Team.

The mystery man appears at the 1 min 1 second mark in the video and is talking a on a large mobile phone while wearing a hat and sunglasses.

Suggestions that the future leader of the free world, who is a fan of hip-hop, had found time in his pre-presidential days to join a video shoot swept the internet.

Further weight was given to the unlikely suggestion when it was noticed that the man in the video plays dominoes with his left hand. President Obama is left handed.

However, sadly for conspiracy theorists, in 1993 Mr Obama was already 31 and heavily involved in political and community activism in Chicago.

Members of Tag Team who spoke to the Gawker website said the president’s doppelganger was in fact a friend of theirs, a Los Angeles rapper called LA Sno.

Thanks Daily Telegraph.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

Fire crews investigating a mysterious stench found an elderly couple buried alive under mounds of garbage in their Chicago home, authorities said Tuesday. The couple, in their seventies, were found Monday night, fire department spokesman Larry Langford said. The fire department team forced in the door of the South Side home and found an overpowering smell, piles of food waste and trash. 

A spokesman for Jackson Park Hospital, Margo Brooks, said the two were admitted and remained listed in critical condition at noon Tuesday.

Police had initially been called to the two-flat apartment building by neighbors who had not seen the couple in some time and wondered about their welfare. Police called in the fire department because of the stench and the team that entered wore hazardous materials suits.

An 83-year-old neighbor, Hattie Fields, said the couple had lived in the building for years. Police declined to identify the couple.

“I’ve been here since 1965 and I can’t remember if they were here then or not,” she said.

She said that she used to see the woman sitting on the front porch as she walked by but no longer could because the hedges had not been trimmed for years and had grown level with the second floor of the building, obscuring the view.

She said she was fairly certain that no one else lived in the building, although there were unoccupied apartments on the first floor and in the basement. She said signs of neglect were obvious.

“The back yard is also full of debris,” she said.

 She said she used to see the man going out and getting in his truck to go to work in the morning, although not lately.

 Thanks TBO.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

No one knows how a tabby cat named Charles traveled the 1,300 miles from his New Mexico home to Chicago, but he’s set for a complimentary flight home on American Airlines in a carrier donated by an Albuquerque business.

Charles disappeared about eight months ago while his owner was out of town and a friend was caring for him.

“Oh, I was crushed, and I found out while I was away volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, and I was so upset because I was in New Orleans so there was nothing I could do,” said Robin Alex, of Albuquerque.

Then earlier this week, Alex received a call telling her Chicago Animal Care and Control had picked up her wandering cat as a stray. Staffers reached out to Alex after finding that Charles had a tracking microchip embedded between his shoulder blades, said the agency’s executive director, Cherie Travis.

But Alex said she could not afford the round-trip ticket to Chicago to bring Charles home, so she was afraid he might be euthanized.

Enter fellow Albuquerque resident Lucien Sims. Sims said he has a tabby cat who strongly resembles Charles, and was moved when his mother sent him an online story about Alex and her pet.

Most importantly, Sims was on his way to Chicago on Thursday for a wedding, so he said he would go to the shelter, pick up Charles and bring him back to New Mexico.

Sims has made all the arrangements for Charles’ return, including getting a company to donate a cat carrier and American Airlines to waive the cat’s travel fee.

Travis said Charles is definitely ready for his next adventure.

“He’s in good condition,” she said. “He needs a good brushing. He’s got a little bit of a cold – a little bit of an upper respiratory infection – but otherwise he’s in great condition.”

Thanks My Way.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

In less than a month, the reality of doomsday will come to life in a ground-breaking internet-based “reality show” that places a dozen people underground for an entire year to find out how humans would survive a catastrophic event. The Vault, launching April 2010, will be broadcast over the web and for a moderate price the world will have the opportunity to watch what happens.

Spawned by doomsday enthusiast and writer Russ McCullough, The Vault evolved out of Russ’s own fears about the end of the world. “I personally believe at least one of the predictions will happen,” says Russ. “But for me, the most important question is not, IF it will happen, but what you will DO if it happens?”

Created by a group of business-minded visionaries at Inlighten Film Productions, The Vault will film for an anticipated year, posting daily episode updates to the website. Located at an undisclosed location in the Central United States, The Vault will take place in an original fallout shelter built during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Outfitted with cameras at every angle and little more than the basic supplies they’ll need to survive, the cast will be tested in a variety of ways, primarily the isolation itself. There will be no access to LIVE media of any kind including television, radio, newspapers or current events. In addition, there will be no cell phones or communication with loved ones. The Vault will be virtually and literally sealed off from the entire world – we can see in, but they cannot see out.

Advising on the psychological implications of the premise and helping to select the personalities most apt to handle the stresses of the situation is Dr. Larry Grimm of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“We anticipate these cast members will go through a full range of emotions from fear and panic to depression and stress,” remarks Dr. Grimm. “The societal norms that typically set the parameters of acceptable behavior will eventually weaken. A new micro-society will develop.”

To test this micro-society, there will be organized “interventions” that represent the challenges they would face if this were not a test. They will be asked to make difficult decisions, learn new skill sets, resolve conflicts and ultimately evolve. As in the real scenario, their performance will determine their fate.

The ultimate goal is to see exactly how a group of people would respond if the predictions about society’s end come true. It’s a group dynamic that has never been tried before, according to The Vault’s Executive Producer, John St. Anthony. “We’re in uncharted territory here. This is not ‘scripted reality.’ This is real. No one knows what will happen in The Vault but we believe it’s a critical question to answer and we know the world will want to watch.”

For more information on The Vault or to subscribe, please visit the website at www.thevault12.com.

About The Vault

The Vault is a groundbreaking internet-based reality show placing about a dozen strangers in an underground fallout shelter for a year. Airing in April 2010, the objective is to see first hand what life underground will be like for a group of strangers who just might happen to survive should the doomsday predictions come true.

About Inlighten Film Productions

Inlighten Film Productions is a visionary media company using break-through production strategies to give voice to innovative, original ideas that ordinarily would not have the capital to hit mainstream media.

SOURCE Inlighten Film Productions

Thanks Breitbart.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]

Police in Illinois said a woman arrested after an altercation with a taxi driver called 911 from jail to say she was “trapped” in the facility.

Cmdr. Mike Anders of the Naperville police said Carly Houston, 29, of Chicago, was arrested early Sunday morning after her taxi driver asked her for specific directions to her intended destination and she allegedly “yelled, screamed, cursed and extended (both) middle fingers at the cab driver and threatened bodily harm” against him, the Naperville (Ill.) Sun reported Tuesday.

The driver pulled over at a BP gas station, where witnesses were “alarmed and disturbed” by the passenger’s behavior, Anders said.

Houston was arrested after police arrived and she refused to pay the taxi fare.

However, Anders said Houston incurred further charges at the police station when she used an allowed phone call to dial 911 and report she was “trapped inside the detention facility.”

She was charged with misdemeanor charges of making a false 911 report, theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.

Thanks UPI.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

Once again, the people have spoken, and this time they quoted what Dick Cheney said to Pat Leahy.

Less than two weeks ago, The New York Times said that so much as a “tighter-than-expected” victory for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley would incite “soul-searching among Democrats nationally,” which sent Times readers scurrying to their dictionaries to look up this strange new word, “soul.”

A close win for Coakley, the Times said, would constitute “the first real barometer of whether problems facing the party” will affect the 2010 elections.

But when Coakley actually lost the election by an astounding 5 points, the Chicago boys in the White House decided it was the chick’s fault.

Democratic candidate Martha Coakley may be a moral monster, but it’s ridiculous to blame her for losing the election. She lost because of the Democrats’ obsession with forcing national health care down the nation’s throat.

Coakley campaigned exactly the way she should have.

As a Democrat running in a special election for a seat that had been held by a Democratic icon (and another moral monster) for the past 46 years in a state with only 12 percent registered Republicans, Coakley’s objective was to have voters reading the paper on Friday, saying: “Hey, honey, did you know there was a special election four days ago? Yeah, apparently Coakley won, though it was a pretty low turnout.”

Ideally, no one except members of government unions and Coakley’s immediate family would have even been aware of the election.

And until Matt Drudge began covering it like a presidential election a week ago, it might have turned out that way.

Coakley had already won two statewide elections, while her Republican opponent, Scott Brown, had only won elections in his district. She had endorsements from the Kennedy family and the current appointed Democratic senator, Paul Kirk — as well as endless glowing profiles in The Boston Globe.

And by the way, as of Jan. 1, Brown had spent $642,000 on the race, while Coakley had spent $2 million.

On Jan. 8, just 11 days before the election, The New York Times reported: “A Brown win remains improbable, given that Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1 in the state and that Ms. Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has far more name recognition, money and organizational support.”

It was in that article that the Times said a narrow Coakley win would be an augury for the entire Democratic Party. But now she’s being hung out to dry so that Democrats don’t have to face the possibility that Obama’s left-wing policies are to blame.

Alternatively, Democrats are trying to write off Brown’s colossal victory as the standard seesawing of public sentiment that hits both Republicans and Democrats from time to time. As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews explained, it was just the voters saying “no” generally, but not to anything in particular.

Except when Republicans win political power, they hold onto it long enough to govern. The Democrats keep being smacked down by the voters immediately after being elected and revealing their heinous agenda.

As a result, for the past four decades, American politics has consisted of Republicans controlling Washington for eight to 14 years — either from the White House or Capitol Hill — thus allowing Americans to forget what it was they didn’t like about Democrats, whom they then carelessly vote back in. The Democrats immediately remind Americans what they didn’t like about Democrats, and their power is revoked at the voters’ first possible opportunity.

Obama has cut the remembering-what-we-don’t-like-about-Democrats stage of this process down from two to four years to about 10 months. Folks, I’m convinced that if we all work really hard, we can get it down to three months.

Four years of Jimmy Carter gave us two titanic Reagan landslides, peace and prosperity for eight blessed years — and even a third term for his feckless vice president, George H.W. Bush.

Two years of Bill Clinton gave us a historic Republican sweep of Congress, which killed the entire Clinton agenda (with the exception of partial-birth abortion and felony obstruction of justice) — and also gave us two terms for George W. Bush.

And now, merely one year of Obama and a Democratic Congress has given us the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in 31 years.

In other recent news, last November, New Jersey voters, who haven’t voted for a Republican for president since 1988, threw out their incumbent Democratic governor, Jon Corzine. In Virginia, which Obama carried by 6 points a year earlier, a religious-right Republican won the governor’s office by 17 points.

Sen. Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, won his last election in 2006 by 28 points — the largest margin for a Democratic Senate candidate in that state in a quarter-century.

Since voting for the Senate health care bill last Christmas, the once-bulletproof Sen. Nelson not only gets booed out of Omaha pizzerias, but he has also seen his job approval rating fall to 42 percent and his disapproval rating soar to 48 percent. (Meanwhile, the junior senator from Nebraska, Mike Johanns, who voted against the bill, has a job approval rating of 63 percent.)

The Democrats have no natural majority because they have no fundamental principles — at least none that they are willing to state out loud. They are like a drunken vagrant who emerges from the alley to cause havoc every few years. They are the perpetual toothache of American politics.

To be sure, the fact that 52 percent of Massachusetts voters are racist, sexist tea-baggers — i.e., voted for a Republican — means only that the Democrats just went from having the largest congressional majority in a generation to the second largest. But this was “Teddy Kennedy’s seat.” And it was in Massachusetts.

Now, no Democrat is safe.

But the country just got a lot safer.

Please head over to anncoulter.com… Great!

Thanks AnnCoulter.com

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]

A Chicago man could be unwrapping the hundreds of Christmas gifts spread around his apartment for days, even weeks.

Trouble is, they aren’t really presents. They’re his own belongings meticulously wrapped by friends as a prank while he was out of town.

Louie Saunders’ packages contain everything from couch cushions to the beer in his refrigerator.

His friend Adal Rifai masterminded the scheme after Saunders gave him a spare key. It took 16 people, 35 rolls of wrapping paper and eight hours to finish the job.

Saunders tells the Chicago Sun-Times he’s only been able to unwrap about 10 percent of the packages.

He jokes that the upside is that, with each package he unwraps, he finds something inside that’s just what he needs.

Thanks My Way.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

Chicago police said they arrested a man who had only $2 to show for a string of four apparently unarmed robberies.

Police Lt. John Franklin said a 37-year-old man was arrested Tuesday night in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood after four people in the area reported a man in a bright orange coat had attempted to rob them, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday.

Franklin said the robberies gained the man a total $2, which was recovered at the time of his arrest. He said all of the victims positively identified the suspect and none of them reported seeing a weapon during the incidents.

The suspect was taken to a hospital for observation after swallowing a large amount of drugs while in custody, Franklin said.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

This in from Breitbart.com If anyone really cares but Abel Kirui led compatriot Emmanuel Mutai to a Kenyan one-two in the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships here on Saturday.

Kirui clocked a championship record of 2hr 06min 54sec around the picturesque course in central Berlin, ahead of Mutai (2.07:48) with Ethiopia’s Olympic bronze medallist Tsegay Kebede finishing in third (2.08:35).

It was only the second marathon victory after Vienna last year for the 27-year-old Kirui who finished second behind Haile Gebrselassie during the Ethiopian’s then-world record run in the 2007 Berlin Marathon.

Kirui, brother of fellow marathoner Mike Rotich, was also appearing in a Kenyan singlet for the first-ever time, having chosen to compete here over an appearance in the Chicago Marathon.

In the absence of world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, Kenya’s Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru, Morocco’s two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib and Kenya’s defending champion Luke Kibet, the race was wide open.

The field remained tight until the 16km mark when Kebede attacked and strung out the pack. But he was soon reeled in.

By kilometre 27, a five-strong lead group had broken clear – the Kenyan trio of Mutai, Kirui and Robet Cheruiyot, Ethiopian Deriba Merga and Rwandan Dieudonne Disi.

A wobbly Disi suddenly came to a halt, however, to take a breather. He managed to continue a short distance further before stopping altogether and being helped off the course.

Kebede and compatriot Deressa Chimsa kept up their chase on the breakaway quartet around the sun-baked course which included cobbled streets in and around the Brandenburg Gate.

After 1:35 of the race, four-time Boston Marathon winner Cheruiyot fell off the pace.

And by the 35th kilometre 10 minutes later Mutai and Kirui built up a decisive lead over Merga, who finished fourth at the Beijing Games but has this season won both the Boston and Houston marathons.

With 5km remaining Kirui edged away from Mutai and built up a lead of 100 metres.

The 24-year-old Mutai, who only has one previous marathon podium finish to his name – when he won the Amsterdam Marathon in 2007, managed to finish the course despite being physically sick as he ran the final kilometre

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]

Ha ha. An 86-year-old woman from Chicago who’s been arrested more than 60 times pleaded guilty to the latest charge against her after being accused of stealing wrinkle cream and other items from a grocery store. She just wanted to look good.

Ella Orko was arrested Aug. 2 after authorities say she stuffed $252 worth of items into her pants, including cosmetics, salmon, batteries and instant coffee.

Orko had been charged with felony shoplifting, but that was reduced to a misdemeanor in exchange for her guilty plea Monday.

Judge Marvin Luckman sentenced her to two days in jail, which is what she’s already served.

Aww. Poor lady.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with:
 

Pet Airways Take Flight Today

Today is the first flight for the husband-and-wife team’s Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y.

All commercial airlines allow a limited number of small pets to fly in the cabin. Others must travel as checked bags or in the cargo hold—a dark and sometimes dangerous place where temperatures can vary wildly.

Binder and Wiesel used their consulting backgrounds and business savvy to start Pet Airways in 2005. The last four years have been spent designing their fleet of five planes according to new four-legged requirements, dealing with FAA regulations and setting up airport schedules.

The two say they’re overwhelmed with the response. Flights on Pet Airways are already booked up for the next two months.

Pet Airways will fly a pet between five major cities—New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. The $250 one-way fare is comparable to pet fees at the largest U.S. airlines.

For owners the big difference is service. Dogs and cats will fly in the main cabin of a Suburban Air Freight plane, retooled and lined with carriers in place of seats. Pets (about 50 on each flight) will be escorted to the plane by attendants that will check on the animals every 15 minutes during flight. The pets are also given pre-boarding walks and bathroom breaks. And at each of the five airports it serves, the company has created a “Pet Lounge” for future fliers to wait and sniff before flights.

The company will operate out of smaller, regional airports in the five launch cities, which will mean an extra trip for most owners dropping off their pets if they are flying too. Stops in cities along the way means the pets will take longer to reach a destination than their owners.

A trip from New York to Los Angeles, for example, will take about 24 hours. On that route, pets will stop in Chicago, have a bathroom break, play time, dinner, and bunk for the night before finishing the trip the next day.

Awesome.

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [Mister Wong] [MySpace] [Netvouz] [Newsvine] [OnlyWire] [Propeller] [Shoutwire] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!]
Tagged with: