In Case You Missed It: Dr. Evil Schools North Korea's Kim Jong-Un on How to be Evil (Saturday Night Live)

I forgot this. As far as I know, this is the first time that Mike Myers has shown up on SNL unannounced, unlike say, Andy Samberg or Kristin Wiig, who are liable to turn up any given week. And funny too that the character of Dr. Evil started as Myers' impression of SNL producer Lorne Michaels!

Negotiating with Terrorists: Sony Scraps The Interview

James Franco and the movie's Kim Jong-un

This movie, frankly, looks stupid. Harmless. Like any of a dozen other Seth Rogan, Judd Apatow-esque movies, destined to run on Comedy Central in perpetuity. It is also hardly the first time North Korea has been directly lampooned in Western media (Team America: World Police comes immediately to mind, as well as 30 Rock). So, why--even if the subject of the assassination of Kim Jong-un sounds dire--would such a fluff of a movie even register beyond a chuckle? I know Jong-un has a reputation as a complete nutbar, but this kind of puts him in "Dandy" from American Horror Story: Freak Show territory, doesn't it? A spoiled rotten sociopath with a dramatically out-of-scale reaction to a perceived slight. I guess that actually sounds about right.

Still, I'm a bit disheartened that it appears to have worked. Sony looks to be dumping the movie entirely. It can't be a great loss. But it's going to become a black market, highly sought-after item, and it is bound to get out. Once an unofficial version does get out (it will) there will be no stopping its distribution. It will very likely attract more viewers than it could have ever hoped to, had this whole flap never happened.

[Excerpt]

It’s Official: Sony Scraps ‘The Interview’

Sony Pictures has made official what has been painfully obvious to everybody since yesterday morning, when hackers threatened to blow up movie theaters if The Interview was released next week. The studio has officially scrapped its release plans. Sony had little choice here, after the major theater chains announced earlier today they would not display the film given the threatening circumstances. . .

Read more at: Deadline Hollywood

Sarah Palin Loves Kim Jong Il?

No, not really. She just stuck her foot in her mouth again. Now, her fans will dredge up that "at least she didn't say there are 57 states," and will lobby cartographers to change the designations of "North" and "South" on maps to better reflect Sarah's understanding of the world. 

[Excerpt]

Palin: ‘Obviously, We’ve Got To Stand With Our North Korean Allies’

In recent days, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has hinted in her clearest language yet that she is seriously considering a run for the presidency in 2012. Many observers have argued that Palin could never win because of her embarrassing lack of expertise, knowledge, or interest in foreign policy. . .

 

Read more at: Think Progress

FOX "News" Still Cant Say Nuclear

I just finished watching Real Time with Bill Maher on the DVR, and when it was over, started flipping through the HD channels. I landed on FOX "News," for some reason, which was showing "America's News HQ" which would be a sad title were it true.

But what really made me yell at the TV is that both the host (a man named Kelly), and the guest, Gordon Chang, while discussing North Korea's missile test, both pronounced the word "nuclear" as "new-cue-lerr." And if you don't know it that is wrong. So wrong, it is the George W. Bush way of saying the word. And they did it over and over again. The host also said "bellergerant," but that didn't bother me so much.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, good ol' FOX still managed to ding President Obama with the framing of each segment. There isn't even a pretense anymore on FOX "News" that this is actually "fair and balanced." It's nothing more than a slogan. Perhaps it is supposed to be ironic?

UPDATE: I left FOX "News" on for noise, and it was really more of the same. Every show, every segment was very, VERY clearly from a right-wing standpoint. Every tease for "after the break" would be posed as a question, usually framed in such a way as to put down the Obama Administration. Also, the second biggest target seems to be "the media." "Is the media doing it's job. . ." is the framing used here, usually claiming that the "MSM" is too soft on the administration. And by "the media," FOX clearly thinks of itself as outside the mainstream media. They are half right. They ARE part of the media, but they are NOT a legitimate news source.