R.I.P. Gregory McDonald

I am a little behind on my rss feed so this may be old news to some but I just found out that Gregory McDonald passed away on September 7th.

For those not familiar with him, he was the author of the series of Fletch novels that the Chevy Chase films were based. Fletch, the movie, is brilliant and one of my favorites but the books, while different are equally as entertaining and I highly recommend them.

In honour of Mr. McDonald I think for lunch I will have a steak sandwich, a bloody mary and a steak sandwich and put it on the Underhill tab.

How Warner Brothers should "market" the New Batman film after Heath Ledger's passing...

There is a lot of chatter on the ole' interweb about Heath Ledger's death and how it will play into how Warner Brothers can and will market the upcoming Batman film THE DARK NIGHT.

No two opinions are the same and everywhere you look people are taking steps to remove Joker references from promotional materials.

I have thought a bunch about this because I have made it my mission to solve this little quandary.......and I have.

The solution is simple......do nothing.

Yep. Treat the character of the Joker exactly as he is, a fictional character. Now before you get all in a tizzy let me explain. Yes I think it is sad that Heath Ledger is dead but at the same time I would hate to see the vision of this film changed because they are afraid to use his image in a movie poster. At this point there is nothing WB can do to bring Heath back from the dead so whatever was planned should continue. Treat the Joker as the Joker and not the person who played him.

The type of people who are going to see this ONLY because it is his last film will still see it so there is no need to play into them or their wishes. So instead of pandering why not create some movie marketing magic and just keep on keeping on.

Before Ledger's passing this film was on track with some really innovative marketing campaigns. I say keep them coming and if it fits to use the Joker then use the Joker. Movies are about magic and for this movie not to become a carnival sideshow WB needs to keep with the Magic so that people want to see this film so they can be taken to another place and time......and not a memorial service.

Johnny Grant has died

I just read that Johnny Grant has passed away. For those who don't him, he was the unofficial "Mayor" of Hollywood and was one of the people who decided who got a star on the Walk of Fame.

I have blogged about him before and while his passing didn't effect me the same was as Charles Nelson Reilly....I am still sad to see him go.

saul

Celebrity Deaths and my hour (or so) with Evel Knievel

Evel Knievel passed away yesterday.

I have a bit of a morbid fascination with celebrity deaths since I can't really understand why people get so worked up about a death of someone that they have never met...but that is just me.....and that being said I wasn't really effected when I learned about Evel even though we spent an hour together chatting many years ago.

Some people are magnets for the opposite sex (or sex in general) but I am a magnet for celebrity interactions.......and here is my Evel Knievel story.

Many years ago I made my first trip to Las Vegas. I think I was 18 or 19 and tagged along with my parents for a trade show. I spent a week in Vegas and I was pretty bored by day 5 (I have been back many times and keep my trips to under 4 days so I don't get stimulation overload) and spent a lot of my evenings in the sports book of Caesars Palace watching the Baseball playoffs (Yankees vs. Mariners while Randy Johnson was still a Mariner). In the Sports book was a guy who looked as bored as me and was sitting drinking pop and completely unaffected by the surroundings so we got to talking. Me being a street proofed kid kept waiting for him to invite me up to his room but that invite never came...instead we talked about motorcycles and baseball and after an hour he said he had to go.

My attention went back to the baseball game and a waitress came over and asked how I knew Mr. Kneivel.

Me thinking this was a trivia question, answered that I knew him from watching Wide World of Sports.

She then explained that I had just been talking to him in real life and I probably had no idea.

...and I hadn't!

Said in your best Paul Harvey voice "AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY"



-saul

Merv Griffin passed away today......

I never saw the Merv Griffin show (his interview show) but am a big Jeopardy fan so in honour of the passing of Merv Griffith I am going to treat you to a clip from his show.

Just a head up.....this is a kinda "racy" clip since it deals with ethnic humour that is pretty dated. I like the clip because it shows how different TV was compared to now. If this clip aired today there would not only be firings but protests and such.

It really was a different world.



Oh ya.....Here is a Merv Griffin FUN FACT. Did you know he not only created Jeopardy but he also wrote the theme music!

-saul