mysid

If you've ever told Swiper, "Swiper, no swiping!" you MUST watch this "movie trailer" for an action-packed, live-action, Dora the Explorer movie:

It cracked me up, big time.

With all the talk in the media lately about a certain actor who shall remain nameless [*cough-TomCruise-cough*], his controlling behavior toward his soon-to-be-ex-beard-wife, and his whack-job religious beliefs, I reflected on the fact that I've had zero interest in watching any of his movies in a very long time. (I would however, probably watch Risky Business if I should happen across it on cable TV.)

I started to wonder, how much is my disinterest in watching anything recent with that person or several others (John Travolta, Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, Kirk Cameron, etc.) created by my dislike of their beliefs and actions due to those beliefs?

So let me ask you, if you were to learn that an actor had said or done something you considered racist, homophobic, or bigoted in any way, or if you were to learn that he/she belonged to a religion that you have serious issues with because of it's actions, or perhaps he/she was throwing his/her support behind a politician who you felt was serious trouble, to what extent would that effect your desire to watch that actor?

Would you still enjoy watching him/her as an actor, or would you be unable to separate your dislike of the actor from the character he/she plays?

Would you decide whether to go see his/her latest movie based solely on whether it looks like a film you'd enjoy, or would you be reluctant to to go see his/her new movies because you don't want to contribute to box office totals and thus indirectly fund actions that you find bigoted, hateful, or harmful?

Would you be willing to watch old reruns of his/her movies or tv shows, but be unwilling to go see his/her new movies for the reason above?

Presumably, it might all depend upon how severe the harmful/hurtful things he/she has done are. So how bad would he/she have to be before it effects how you regard him/her?

Sister Wives is an American reality TV program about a Mormon* polygamist family consisting of 1 husband, 4 wives, and a whole passel of children. I don't watch it regularly, but I've caught an episode here and there.

( Here's why I have the warm fuzzies for the family right now )

As I may have mentioned before, both of my daughters have been involved in Girl Scouts, but I refused to allow my son to join the Boy Scouts. He asked to join once, but I had to refuse due the anti-gay membership policy of the Boy Scouts of the USA. (I was scrambling to find an alternative for him when I realized that if they didn't have a cookie sale like the Girl Scouts, he wasn't interested anyway.)

Now I have even more reason to be proud of the inclusiveness of the Girl Scouts. A troop recently allowed a transgender child to join. Idiots are, of course, calling for a boycott of the upcoming annual cookie sale. Supporters of inclusiveness are using this as an excuse to buy more cookies!

Here's a link to the CNN story.

One of the communities in the LJ spotlight this week is ringer_tv, a community of fans for the new tv series, Ringer. The show has only aired one? episode so far, so I find it hard to believe it's such a thriving community that it caught the attention of the powers that be at LJ. I'd almost find it hard to believe that it already has such an active fandom that it needs a community--a "community" invented by the show's PR department seems more likely--except that it does star Sarah Michelle Gellar, so it may have had a ready made fan base.

But still, this brand new community for a brand new tv show really merited a place in the LJ spotlight already? It sounds like LJ got a pay off by the Ringer PR department.

I turned on the TV last night right in the middle of a game show I'd never seen before, and I kept it on long enough to get the gist of it. I wish I hadn't.

A woman in her pajamas and a big, burly pro wrestler game show host were standing in a driveway. Behind them was a car about to be towed. He was asking her trivia questions. I laughed when she didn't know the name of the Shakespeare play that character "Lady Macbeth" was in. But then, because she'd missed that question and some preceding ones, he towed the car away.

"OK," I thought. "Maybe she was trying to win the car but failed." Then I learned the title of show, Repo Games, and I started to get a very bad feeling.

( Yes, they were repossessing people's cars and making a game out of it. )

I can understand that sometimes people fall behind in paying for things that they've purchased, and that the lender has a right to repossess items like cars when they haven't been paid. As much sympathy as I have for the borrower on hard times, I have equal sympathy for the person who made a loan in good faith but who hasn't been paid back. And it's got to be a difficult job to be the person sent to repossess the item.

But this... Making a game out of it? Making people's unhappiness into entertainment? Sick.

What's next TV? Running Man?

From a news story about Hurricane Earl sideswiping the Outer Banks of NC:

Some 35,000 visitors and residents on the Outer Banks been urged to leave the dangerously exposed islands at the storm closed in, but hundreds of hardy souls chose to wait it out in their boarded-up homes.

I guess "hardy souls" is now a synonym for "idiots".

All week I've been looking forward to seeing John Barrowman on Desperate Housewives tonight. I actually remembered to watch, and he was barely on. Two scenes--two short scenes--and that was it.

But I must say that I liked his scenes with coffee shop guy. They defintely seemed to be flirting with one another--despite the fact that Barrowman's character was supposedly straight.

The utterly amazing copperbadge, alias sam_storyteller, alias Sam Starbuck has just posted the fifth and final chapter of a fabulous S1 Torchwood fic, Condition of Release. If you miss Jack/Ianto--and even if you don't--you must go read. Like everything Sam writes, it's mind-blowingly good.

And while you're at it, pop over to Completely Novel, where Sam has made the short list for the Author Blog Awards. He shares the list with some rather illustrious competition (Neil Gaiman, anyone?), and WE WANT HIM TO WIN! So go! VOTE for Sam Starbuck's blog, copperbadge. You'll have to join to vote, but it's free.