"Monsters"; "Haunting" packs the theaters this weekend

(Production still courtesy DreamWorks)

After a very slow weekend last weekend at theaters nationwide, theatergoers returned in force to see "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "The Haunting In Connecticut". Latest box office estimates show "Monsters" taking #1 this weekend with just a little over $58 million and "Haunting" taking the #2 spot with an estimated $23 million.

The other new release for this weekend "12 Rounds" made a disappointing debut, taking just over $5 million, being beat out by last week's releases - "Knowing" at #3 making just under $16 million, "I Love You Man", bringing in just over $12.5 million, and "Duplicity" which made around $7.5 million this weekend. Also beating out "12 Rounds" was the Dwayne (I keep telling you guys...don't call me "The Rock" anymore!) Johnson vehicle "Race To Witch Mountain" bringing in a little over $5.5 million in its third weekend in theaters.

This weekend's Top Ten at the box office (Sunday estimates):

1. Monsters Vs. Aliens
2. The Haunting in Connecticut
3. Knowing
4. I Love You, Man
5. Duplicity
6. Race to Witch Mountain
7. 12 Rounds
8. Watchmen
9. Taken
10. The Last House on the Left

My score this weekend...8 out of 10 for that magical 80%...again. Maybe next weekend I'l get the perfect score!

Does The American Dream still exist?

This weekend in Lansing the “Dreams and Lifestyle Expo” was happening at the Lansing Center. Exhibitors of many genres filled the exhibition hall telling us all about how to plan for our financial future, showed us luxurious items we could all attain to possess like boats, motorcycles, hot tubs, and backyard putting greens and waterfalls. And, yes, the ShamWow booth was there. Seems the ShamWow is everywhere.

On Friday, during the Intelligence Briefing on the morning show, the discussion turned to “The American Dream”. Because of the down economy, Americans are learning to make do with less. We fix things instead of dispose of them; we economize instead of splurge. A 40-inch TV instead of a 100-inch plasma screen, for example.

However, we discussed a down side to this as there have been reports of the waste management industry suffering economic and employment hits. Seems being in the garbage business isn’t as lucrative of a business opportunity as it once was. People hanging on to things longer; “making do” with what that have instead of the old social pattern of buy new and dispose used on a frequent cycle.

Los Angeles Times Op-Ed writer Thomas Friedman wrote recently to suggest that the recession is a symptom of a more fundamental problem with "the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years”. A recent report in the satirical publication, The Onion, quoted an employee of a Chinese plastics factory expressing amazement and disbelief over the "sheer amount of garbage Americans will buy."

So, with all this “gloom and doom” that our current economic woes have beset us, does “The American Dream” still exist? We seem to have reached a financial apex where attaining it is not only economically unsustainable, but it hasn't generated any real wealth for the average American, either. Housing prices are beginning to fall rapidly, but the average middle class American still hasn’t the means to purchase a home. Credit is still tight, and incomes – even with two of them in a household – aren’t sustainable enough to take on a major financial obligation.

How much is enough? Right now is seems more and more each day that our former mindset of consumption as a way of life can no longer sustain itself. It appears that our society has reach critical mass when it comes to our spending habits. And with reports of recalls of dollar store useless plastic trinkets from China, combined with increased awareness and practice of “being green” by reusing and recycling, we no longer are even interested in cheap baubles, toys and useless junk.

Do we still need that second fridge in the basement recreational room or the third one in the garage? Do we still want to pick up the latest electronic innovations the moment they are released…the bigger plasma TVs, the hottest BluRay disc players, the newest G3 web-enabled cell phones that can email, text, surf the web, and make coffee? I thought the main purpose of a cell phone was for making and receiving phone calls.

Are we still so much absorbed in having so many things that we continue salivating for that elusive Shiatsu scalp massager? Do we still have the belief that “he who dies with the most toys wins”? My guess is that the average American has abandoned that mindset in favor of having less and still trying to be substantive in what we have. I know that has been mine.

I realize that to turn things around, we need to increase confidence in our economy and begin to spend in the marketplace again. Thus, helping manufacturers and service oriented companies turn around and bring jobs back into the financial stream. But, has the whole financial sector bail-out thing soured our stomachs to the point of not trusting our leaders in government when they preach to us to have this confidence? If credit lines have disappeared and there is no longer investment in future growth, then when will this be rectified so that we can get back on track…if we ever will?

We as Americans have conditioned since the end of WWII to reach for the stars in obtaining The American Dream. Work hard and you’ll advance economic status, and be able to obtain your dreams, and then have the lifestyle you desire. But, as many have discovered, all this hard work and investing has led to dashed hopes and shattered dreams. Because part of what we have included in the meteoric climb of “Keeping up with the Jones’s” is to borrow and spend what we don’t have readily available in the moment. Kind of like the old robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak.

I guess the realization is that we have to live with less. Not poor, but simpler. Spend only what we actually have, not what we can borrow and put on credit, especially with financial institution credit tightened to less than a trickle. And while we do, we wait to see how the whole financial mess shakes out.

The mindset of borrowing to purchase the American Dream until there is more debt than actual cash flow is not new. It, in fact, was one of the main reasons for the Great Depression in the late 1920s and 1930s. Once again, it seems we have refused to learn from history. Hopefully this time we do.

Monsterous opening for "Monsters" and "Haunting", while "12 Rounds" down for the count

Both "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "The Haunting In Connecticut" had forceful debuts on Friday, with "Monsters" taking the #1 spot on Friday with nearly $17 million and "Haunting" at #2 with a little over $9.5 million.

"Monsters" opening day came in shy of DreamWorks Animation's previous picture, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa", which opened at $17.6 million, and doing better than last March's "Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who" witch started at a little over $13 million.

"Haunting" opened better than similar genre movies "The Unborn (2009)" and "Boogeyman", and, in terms of attendance, was only slightly behind "The Amityville Horror (2005)".

The other new flick opening this weekend, "12 Rounds", fell flat at the box office, opening to a meager $1.6 million. "12 Rounds" did less of an opening day than John Cena's previous vehicle, "The Marine", which did nearly $2.5 million on its opening day.

Hanging on strong for a second week were "Knowing" with a little over $4.5 million on Friday, "I Love You Man" with a little under $4 million, and "Duplicity" bringing in a little over $2 million.

My predictions for the top 10 movies for this weekend:

1. Monsters Vs. Aliens
2. The Haunting in Connecticut
3. Knowing
4. I Love You, Man
5. Duplicity
6. 12 Rounds
7. Race to Witch Mountain
8. Watchmen
9. Taken
10. The Last House on the Left

Will this weekend's new releases help theaters out of the doldrums

With last weekend's movie ticket sales off 6% from the same time last year, and attendance at theaters last weekend the lowest it has been in eight years, movie theaters are hoping for the new animated vehicle Monsters Vs. Aliens and supernatural thriller The Haunting In Connecticut to help relieve the movie going doldrums. Also the wrestling-theme comes to the big screen in the adventure thriller 12 Rounds, coming out this Friday as well. A recap of the big three releases out Friday in theaters:

Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG; IMAX 3-D; Tru 3-D and conventional screens; DreamWorks/Paramount) When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. The military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of Monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, the President is persuaded to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction. My vote: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

The Haunting In Connecticut (PG-13; Lionsgate) Based on a chilling true story, Lionsgate's "The Haunting in Connecticut" charts one family's terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner's clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover. Now unspeakable terror awaits, when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash a new kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family. My vote: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

12 Rounds (PG-13; 20th Century Fox) A man’s girlfriend/Fiancé is kidnapped by a jewel thief and is must stop at nothing to get her back. The difference this time John Cena plays a cop Detective Danny Fisher who a year ago helped the FBI capture a known fugitive Miles Jackson. The film set out to be a revenge film the villain getting revenge on Cena’s character for the accidental death of his girlfriend. Danny must complete a game aptly called "12 Rounds". This is where the film really picks up with huge action scenes and better plots twists. My vote: 3 out of 5 stars.

Memories come in all shapes and sizes

Yesterday was a very busy day. One filled with emotion, panic, worry, hope, relief and sadness. And each emotion was backed up by a memory from times past.

My oldest twin boy Jason suffered a head injury yesterday. An 11-year-old boy being an 11-year-old boy. Swinging by his arms between two tables, he slipped and fell hard - right on his head. He was in bad shape.

When my ex-wife called with the news, everything stopped. Emotions flooded over me. Then the memories hit. At first the recent time line recall of Natasha Richardson and her accident last week. Hit her head, everything seemed fine at first then…gone. You can imagine what that memory did to a dad who can freak out about his kids at the drop of a hat.

Then the “longer ago” recall began to take effect and I flashed back to my auto accident in 1999 where I was rear-ended at 70 MPH while stopped dead on I-94. By all rights, I should have died. Crushed the vehicle I was in into a sardine can. Then I began remembering the worried look in the eyes of my then 2-year-old twin boys as they saw me in ER – on a morphine drip with tubes and wires and my face badly damaged with teeth missing and facial parts rearranged – barely hanging on.

Thankfully, Jason is OK. The CT came back negative for hematoma. He now sports a huge bruised bump on his noggin the size of a golf ball. I will talk to the doctors today about having an EEG done just to play it safe.

However, one more event yesterday brought back the flood of emotions and memories. The event was not as traumatic, but still brought back the recall.

While I was waiting for the results of Jason’s CT scan, I went to an area of the hospital with WiFi internet to check email on my laptop. It was then I found out the news that former Tiger great George Kell had passed away at age 86 in Arkansas.

The flood of emotions hit me again. Sad to hear of the Hall Of Fame 3rd baseman and Tiger broadcaster’s passing. However, this time, the memories took me further back… back to a time of my childhood that filled my heart with much fondness.

Growing up as a kid in Metro Detroit in the 1960’s, you followed Detroit Tiger baseball two ways – on the radio and on the TV in black and white. Of course, going to Tiger Stadium as a kid, the vision of all the lush green interior was amplified in a kids mind, especially since the only other way I saw it was on our big old Airline black and white TV. Yeah. TV in black and white. With only channels 2 -13 until we got the UHF converter box. Yep, there was a converter box long ago…before the current DTV one.

And on the TV doing the Tiger games was George Kell. Kell was a former player with the Tigers in the late 1940s through the early 1950s. He had a laid-back drawl that just made you feel at ease, giving you everything you needed to know about the game’s progress. Much like his radio counterpart, the Hall Of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell. It figures, since Kell’s first stint at calling play-by-play was with Harwell doing a Baltimore Orioles game when Kell was injured .

Baseball was a big part of my childhood. Playing catch with my grandpa, Little League, pick-up games at Cherry Hill and Levagood Park, as well as Ford Field (the original one in Dearborn - long before the stadium Ford Field in Detroit was built).

My dad would tell me of George Kell’s glory days as a player with the Tigers. “Best 3rd baseman to ever play the game.” he would recall. Kell won the batting title in 1949 while with the Tigers, beating out the immortal Ted Williams by a fraction of a batting average percentage - .3429 to William’s .3247.

The following year was George Kell’s best. He walloped 56 doubles, led the league with 218 hits, and set personal highs with 101 runs batted in and 114 runs scored. He hit .340, second to Billy Goodman of the Red Sox in the race for the batting title. No one would hit as many doubles in any year until 2000, when Todd Helton slugged 59 for the Colorado Rockies.

George Kell joined the booth after Tigers broadcaster Mel Ott was killed in an automobile accident in 1958. On George’s recommendation, Ernie Harwell came to Detroit in 1960 as the radio voice of the Tigers, beginning a legendary 42-year career with the team.

"He had two outstanding careers, one as a baseball player, one as a baseball announcer," Harwell said yesterday. "He was certainly an icon in Detroit and Michigan."

I met George Kell in the latter years of his life when the Tigers were the ALCS in 2006 and Kell threw out the first pitch. It was quite a moment meeting such a great baseball man – both player and broadcaster. He was truly a class act – one of the nicest guys one could ever meet.

So, yesterday was a memory day for me. Memories of childhood and childhood play, the fun, scrapes and bruises that come with it as well. And memories of a great and gentle man who excited generations of baseball fans and Tiger fans as well.

New DVD Releases Today

Here are some of the new titles arriving on DVD today:

Movies:
* Bolt
* Quantum of Solace
* 2 Fast 2 Furious: 2-Disc Limited Edition
* The Cake Eaters
* The Fast and the Furious: 2-Disc Limited Edition
* The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift -- 2-Disc Limited Edition
* Happily N'Ever After 2
* Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five
* Lilo & Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition
* Never Say Never Again: Collector's Edition
* New York City Serenade
* The Odd Couple: Paramount Centennial Collection
* To Catch a Thief: Paramount Centennial Collection
* Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood

TV:
* A Woman Called Golda
* Andy Richter Controls the Universe: The Complete Series
* The Riches: Season 2
* Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- A Galaxy Divided

Jennifer Aniston ended relationship with John Mayer because of his Twitter 'obsession'

Jennifer Aniston has reportedly ended her relationship with musician boyfriend John Mayer because he is obsessed with Twitter, it has been alleged

People claiming to be friends of the actress have told sources that she finished the affair after discovering Mayer, 31, spent hours on the networking website, despite telling her he was too busy to get in touch with her.

The pair started dating in April 2008, but have broken up several times. However, they appeared inseparable at the Oscars last month.

A source claimed Aniston decided Mayer was not committed enough to her and called time on their romance having found hourly updates on his Twitter page.

The source said: "John suddenly stopped calling her or returning her emails and when she would finally catch up with him, he'd say: 'I've been so busy with work. I'm sorry I haven't had time to call you back."

The source added: "Jen was fuming. There he was, telling her he didn't have time for her and yet his page was filled with Twitter updates.

"Every few hours, sometimes minutes, he'd update with some stupid line. And in her mind, she was like 'He has time for all this Twittering, but he can't send me a text, an email, make a call?'."

It has also been claimed musician John made no attempt to cover up his Twitters.

The source said: "He didn't even deny it. He knew he was avoiding her. So when she called him on it and ended things, he just said OK, and that he was sorry it didn't work out.

"He took the break-up like a man."

Even so, shortly after Aniston's call, Mayer's Twitter update read: 'This heart didn't come with instructions.'

Another major daily paper folds...this time in our backyard

The Ann Arbor (Michigan) News, after 174 years, is folding in July and being replaced by AnnArbor.com, a new company that will publish a print newspaper twice a week and distribute a total market coverage (TMC) print product weekly, Publisher Laurel Champion told the newspaper's staff Monday morning.

"While this is an incredibly difficult decision for us, this is by no means the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor," Champion told the paper. The News is hosting community forums about AnnArbor.com on April 2 and 3.

The newspaper is owned by the Newhouse family's Advance Newspapers.

The news comes as three other newspapers owned by the Newhouse family's Advance Publications -- The Flint Journal, The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times -- announced they were cutting print publication to three days a week starting June 1. Advance owns eight daily newspapers in Michigan.

Major announcements have also been scheduled at Newhouse's dailies in Newark and Harrisburg, Pa.

Editing and production work for the state's four remaining Advance dailies -- the Jackson Citizen Patriot, The Grand Rapids Press, the Kalamazoo Gazette and The Muskegon Chronicle -- will be consolidated in Grand Rapids this summer, the Gazette reported.

Knowing gets the numbers to finish #1 at the box office

Leading up to the weekend, the numbers pointed to a first-place showing for Knowing, and that's what happened. The picture didn't need stellar grosses to top the weekend as March business has been lagging behind recent years. Overall weekend ticket sales were off six percent from the same time last year, and attendance at theaters this weekend was the lowest in eight years.

I Love You, Man the latest "Bro-mantic" comedy focusing on male-bonding came in second with an estimated $18 million. Duplicity, Julia Roberts' first proper star vehicle since Mona Lisa Smile, picked up a relatively modest estimated $14.4 million to finish at 3rd place.

Race to Witch Mountain dropped a sizable 47 percent to an estimated $13 million, ranking fourth for the weekend. Rounding out the top 5 this past weekend was Watchmen, which saw its audience evaporate again, failing to level off in its third weekend. The superhero drama generated an estimated $6.7 million, bringing its total to $98.1 million in 17 days. Its 62 percent drop was a new low among major comic book adaptations.

This weekend's top 10 movies at the box office (Sunday estimates):

1.) Knowing
2.) I Love You Man
3.) Duplicity
4.) Race To Witch Mountain
5.) Watchmen
6.) The Last House On The Left
7.) Taken
8.) Slumdog Millionaire
9.) Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail
10.) Coraline

(Mike's score: 80%. Respectable, but I'm a perfectionist...lol!)

Don't piss off fire fighters

Why you should never piss off fire fighters...

"Knowing" tops "I Love You Man" and "Duplicity" so far at the box office

Knowing debuted Friday with an impressive first day at theaters pulling in nearly $9 million in receipts on Friday, handily leading the box office so far this weekend. In a single day, the supernatural thriller featuring Nicolas Cage out-grossed the first weekend of another Cage future-seeing thriller Next, and its initial attendance was on par with similar genre movies The Forgotten and Deja Vu.

As I predicted on the Tim Barron Mornings program this past Wednesday, I Love You Man would not take the top spot this weekend. However, it did make an impressive showing to take #2 with a little over $6.3 million on Friday, landing smack-dab in the middle of the first days of similar comedies Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Those pictures' opening weekends came in at $19.2 million and $17.7 million, respectively.

The surprise for me was Duplicity. I thought the return to the big screen of Julia Roberts in this romantic caper would run neck and neck with Knowing this weekend. It brought in around $4.7 million on Friday, ranking it #3. Attendance for Duplicity's first day was slightly less than past titles Intolerable Cruelty and Matchstick Men.

Down 44 percent to an estimated $3.8 million, Race to Witch Mountain's second Friday was lower than the previous Dwayne (Don't call me "The Rock" anymore!!!) Johnson's previous Disney vehicle The Game Plan, but still managed to grab #4 in this Friday's box office receipts. However, The Game Plan's eight-day tally of $35.5 million was higher due to many kids being off school during that week for spring and semester break.

Rounding out the top 5, Watchmen continued to plummet, dropping 62 percent to an estimated $2 million for $93.4 million in 15 days. It was one of the sharpest declines for a third Friday for a superhero movie and nearly as much as Hulk at the same point.

Continuing to surprise at the box office: Coraline...still holding well among nationwide releases. The stop-motion animated feature made $630,000 or nearly as much as it did last Friday, even though it is being shown on 20% less screens around the country.

And it now seems that Paul Blart: Mall Cop is beginning to come nearer to the end of it's shelf life, falling just below the top 10 with a little under $600,000 for Friday. Still, the movie that most critics (including me) said would bomb at the box office took #1 the first two weekends it was out and had a respectible run in the top 10 for 9 weeks earning nearly $140 million.

My predictions for this weekend:

1.) Knowing
2.) I Love You Man
3.) Duplicity
4.) Race To Witch Mountain
5.) Watchmen
6.) Taken (I expect a little bump due to recent press of Liam Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson's death)
7.) The Last House On The Left
8.) Slumdog Millionaire
9.) Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail
10.) Coraline

Being single can suck

This past Tuesday marked the third anniversary of my return to single-dom…if that’s even a word. Not a momentous occasion by any stretch of the imagination.

There are no greeting cards for the anniversary of becoming single again. I could just see one in my mind’s eye, sitting in the rack in the card aisle at Meijer. The outside: “Happy Anniversary on being single…” Inside: “…LOSER!” You don’t get a cake, either, though you should. One of those Bill Knapps chocolate cakes with decorative frosting on top depicting a forehead with the universal thumb-and-forefinger at 90-degrees sign. You could market that and it would probably be a hot seller.

Best that one celebrating one’s anniversary of single-ness can do is go out and get drunk. Fortunately, this past Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. Which makes my anniversary of single-dom an international holiday where drinking is the acceptable celebratory behavior around the global community. Unfortunately, I had to do the radio thing the next morning and be as always sharp on my game, so the usual Bloody Mary was out. Thus my invention – the non-alcoholic Bloody Mary. Red Bull and V-8. Red Bull for that extra kick to get you started on an early morning after a night of straight shots of Irish whiskey…V-8 to help keep you regular through those same whiskey shots. Yummy.

After the morning show I like to go outside and decompress by watching the squirrels that live behind the station across the street in the woods. The same squirrels that Tim complains daily about on the show that pilfer food from his beloved bird feeder. The morning after my single-dom anniversary celebration of mirth and madness, I was witness to the aforementioned squirrels engaged in mating rituals. Though I'm normally unperturbed by my single-ness, I felt a twinge of jealousy. So, I yelled at them "Get a room!” They looked up at me for a second with an expression of annoyance as if to say, “Excuse me?!?” then continued on with their moment of raw animal husbandry.

As a single person, society and the trappings of media indoctrination has trained me to feel this way about my single-ness. I mean, look at Disney movies, which, unfortunately, I do quite a bit since not only am I single but a single dad whose kids love to go to these flicks. Whenever love is a focal point of the movie’s plot…which is about 95% of these vehicles…how many friggin’ animals are chasing each other? As least in Disney movies, they aren’t humping each other like crazed, sex starved rabbits on a mission to overpopulate the world. This is what Animal Planet on cable is for. This is why I don’t watch Animal Planet…I’d be throwing things at my TV.

You see, my problem with being single is that whenever I am interested in a woman, I wind up in the proverbial hell of single-dom known as “The Friend Zone”. And, of course, everyone around you has advice for you on how to beat this. Usually these well-meaning folk are younger that you and try to play themselves off as wise sages on the subject of getting the girl and having tons of sex. “You’ve gotta be the Alpha male, dude!” they say. Or “Let them pursue you.” No kidding! Having more years in the game than these wise sages for friends I’ve gone both routes, even using both in the same pursuit. Neither strategy has been a winner.

You can argue all you want…but men and women both want the same thing. The pinnacle of relationships. Finding a special person that is the perfect one, the perfect chemistry between the two of you, connection on all levels, and the most glorious sex two people could ever have for the rest of their natural lives. Dream on, people!!! In actuality our psyches tend to screw things up for us, thus rendering us clueless at times on how to pursue each other.

Guys tend to go overboard once they have experienced the “pretty parts” of a woman first-hand, and begin wearing their hearts on their sleeve, or as my uncle used to say, “…start thinking with the wrong head.” Then, blam! Women begin to think that all we want is the sex, even though deep down women do enjoy sex. And guys become all dejected and go home to porn and whiskey.

Or we tend to go after the wrong types. This usually is when we go after someone that doesn’t fit our criteria. Or someone who is not as into us as we first thought. The result? We then sabotage a potential good relationship that comes along with our fear that it will go bad. Then usually find a relationship that will eventually turn out bad. Problem here is once we wake up to this, the potential good relationship we blew off for the one we thought would be good, but went south, is now a gone prospect. Then we revert to spending the lonely evenings at home. Guys… booze and porn. Women…chocolate (or wine) and romance novels (or “chick flick” movie rentals)…which is just a woman’s version of booze and porn.

A guy meets a woman and they become friends. They get along great, go out on a social endeavor and wind up spending the night together. They seem to become close, until the dude expresses that always emotion-evoking sentiment “I love you”. Either in actual words or in actions. Then, all of a sudden it becomes a game of ying-yang. First she plays the “I’m just not that into you” card. Then the next moment spills her guts on what she wants in a relationship. Then, shazam! On to another guy and the first guy is given the silent treatment and treated like he’s not even a friend. Basically she’s stating to the first guy, “Well, now I have to find a new best friend." In my world that would tell me that I’m actually the one who needs to get a new best friend. Thanks for the heads-up. So much for the "got to be friends before you can be lovers" saying we've been fed by the likes of Delilah and other relationship experts.

So this weekend, I’m going to a Disney flick at the theater, and when the ‘love’ scenes come on, I’m throwing things at the screen. Then I’m taking a rifle to the station on Monday and have target practice on the frisky squirrels.

As my uncle used to say, “Women…you can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em, and you can’t shoot ‘em.”

Actress Natasha Richardson dead at age 45

(Photo - Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

FROM THE BURBANK BUREAU; March 18, 2009 5:50 PM PDT -- Natasha Richardson, the luminous British actress from one of the world's great acting families, whose performances ranged from the high-brow drama "The Handmaid's Tale" to the lightweight comedy "The Parent Trap" and the Tony-winning Broadway production of "Cabaret," died Wednesday. She was 45.

The wife of "Schindler's List" actor Liam Neeson and the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late film director Tony Richardson died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The cause of death was not announced but she had been hospitalized after suffering a devastating brain injury while skiing Monday.

"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha," said a statement released by publicist Alan Nierob. "They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."

Movie theaters; studios enjoy record-setting February

This February was the highest-grossing February ever, with the Liam Neeson film Taken leading the way.

Taken led February with $84.3 million, accounting for nearly 11 percent of the month's business. However, the box office was well spread out. He's Just Not That Into You came in second with $77.2 million for a ten percent market share, followed by Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail ($60.9 million), Friday the 13th ($59.8 million) and Coraline ($59.5 million). February had its disappointments as well, including Confessions of a Shopaholic ($32.7 million) and The Pink Panther 2 ($31.9 million) (the first Pink Panther remake was the top grosser of February 2006).

Business was up over ten percent from last year, which was the previous February best. Adjusting for ticket price inflation, though, February 2009 was effectively in a tie with February 2004 (fueled by The Passion of the Christ) and February 1997 (which had those two Star Wars special edition releases).

Meanwhile, a number of high-profile pictures ended their runs in February. Walt Disney ended Beverly Hills Chihuahua at $94.5 million and High School Musical 3: Senior Year with a $90.6 million final, both of which were holdover hits from the Fall. MGM ended Soul Men at a disappointingly meager $12.1 million. Warner Brothers vaulted Four Christmases on Feb. 12 with $120.1 million made, while The Weinstein Company said "adios" to Vicky Cristina Barcelona at $23.2 million. Disney ended Bolt at $114.1 million on Feb. 22, better than the previous Disney vehicle Meet the Robinsons but was far behind their Pixar releases. On Feb. 26, Paramount Pictures crated up Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa at $180 million, retaining approximately 83 percent of the attendance of its predecessor, and Fox Searchlight's The Secret Life of Bees ended its run with a $37.8 million final gross.

UPDATE: Natasha Richardson brain dead, off life support; unconfirmed reports that she has passed away

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

Several sources are reporting that Natasha Richardson was taken off life support at 1:30 PM EDT today, with some unconfirmed reports saying the Tony Award-winning actress has passed away this evening.

This is not unexpected. Several sources felt yesterday, when learning they were flying Natasha in to Lenox Hill, that this meant her condition was hopeless and they were just finding a place to be together with her and to say good-bye. One unidentified insider was quoted as saying, "Nobody goes to Lenox Hill who is really sick; if she had a chance to live, they’d have found another great brain hospital!"

The New York bureau reports Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson's mother, arrived in a car with darkened windows and was taken through a garage when she arrived at the Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. An hour earlier, Richardson's sister, Joely, arrived alone and was swarmed by the media as she entered through the back of the hospital.

Among grief-stricken visitors was actress Lauren Bacall, who attended the couple's 1994 wedding at their white clapboard farmhouse in rural Millbrook, 70 north of New York City.

Actress Meryl Streep and author Joan Didion also dropped by.

"There is no chance," a family friend told reporters earlier this afternoon. "It is a fact that her heart is beating, but she is brain dead."

Speculation continues to swirl around Natasha Richardson skiing accident

Conflicting reports last night had actress Natasha Richardson "brain dead" and being flown home to New York for a sad family farewell, or suffering from "brain swelling," a potentially catastrophic condition, but not necessarily the tragic end that many fear is at hand for the wife and mother of two, a member of Britain's most respected acting clan.

This much is known: Richardson was flown to New York yesterday afternoon after being treated at a Montreal hospital. On her arrival here, it was unclear whether she was being transferred to a hospital or a private home.

While friends and family gathered Monday evening for a vigil in NYC, where Richardson and Neeson call home, the 45-year-old actress' mom, Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, was photographed heading to Lenox Hill Hospital in upper Manhattan, presumably to be by her daughter's side.

Some published reports said the move came so that mother Vanessa Redgrave, the actress' two children and loved ones could say goodbye, before she's taken off life support. Richardson's representative did not return calls last night.

Richardson, 45, fell during a beginner lesson Monday at Canada's famed Mont Tremblant ski resort. A statement from the resort said the Tony-winning actress did not appear injured at first. She was taken to the hospital about an hour later after reporting a headache.

She was first taken to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Ste-Agathe, then transferred to Hospital du Sacré-Coeur in Montreal, reports said.

Richardson is married to actor Liam Neeson, who left the Toronto set of the movie "Chloe" to be with his wife, reports said.

The couple have two sons, Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12.

Thoughts and prayers to Natasha and Liam Neeson, as well as the families.

The newest model to hit the catwalk...with no clothes!

A new walking, talking robot with a female face that can smile and weighs just 95 pounds will be making its debut at a fashion show in Japan.

However, it will be a one "woman" fashion show because the robot hasn't cleared safety standards required to share the catwalk with real live human models.

The 5 foot 2 inch black-haired robot named HRP-4C will mainly serve to draw and entertain crowds.

Developers said the robot may be used at amusement parks or to perform as an exercise instructor.

Th female robot was designed to look like an average Japanese woman, although its silver-and-black body recalls a space suit. It will appear in a Tokyo fashion show next week - without any clothes - in a special section of the show just for the robot.

The continuing demise of newspapers

As of today, Seattle is a one-newspaper town.

Employees of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found out yesterday they had only one last edition to publish, the one that hits newsstands in the greater Seattle area this morning.

The Hearst Corporation tried to find a buyer for the P-I but failed, and some wonder if the next victim to collapsing print revenue will be another Hearst-owned publication, the San Francisco Chronicle... which many have speculated will be the next big newspaper operation to fold.

Seattle's other newspaper, the Seattle Times, is in financial trouble as well... even though the demise of their cross town rival increases the Time's prospects for long-term survival.

The P-I will still operate online, but just with a small, trimmed back staff of about 20 people, providing commentary, advice and links to other news sites, with some original reporting.

Michigan's Tobacco Quit Line has quit

In the wake of steep increases of taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products in Michigan taking effect on April 1, more people are wanting to kick the tobacco habit. In anticipation of this, state officials began offering smoking cessation products to those wanting to quit on the Michigan Tobacco Quit Hotline.

The hot line began last week to offer callers free nicotine patches, gum or lozenges to help them quit smoking or chewing tobacco. By Monday, the heavy volume of calls had overwhelmed the hot line.

State officials say the hot line will shut down until October because the department has run out of the free products. The new budget year starts Oct. 1.

The quit line was contacted by more than 65,600 callers in five days, and more than 400 staff members were fielding calls.

Nearly 2,200 people have enrolled in the quit tobacco program so far.

Weekend box office estimates - "Witch" takes the top; "Watchmen" crashes

(Photo courtesty of Buena Vista Pictures)

Looks like "Race To Witch Mountain" will take top honors this weekend with an estimated $25 million, while "Watchmen" dived a whopping 67 percent to an estimated $18.1 million for $86 million in ten days, trailing all previous superhero movies that debuted in the $50 million range through the same point. (I took my kids to see "Race To Witch Mountain" earlier today, keeping my streak of seeing #1's in the theater the weekend of their release alive)

The big surprise (for me as well as many others) was the continued strength of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop", which took 7th (instead of 9th as I predicted), beating out "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Miss March". "Miss March" squeaked into the top ten behind #9 "Coraline", barely beating out "Confessions Of A Shopaholic" at #11. With this weekend's recipts, "Mall Cop" will be hovering close to $138 million in its 9 week run. Not bad for a movie most critics (including myself) said sucked!

The Top Ten for this Weekend (estimates):

1.) "Race To Witch Mountain"
2.) "Watchmen"
3.) "The Last House On The Left"
4.) "Taken"
5.) "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail"
6.) "Slumdog Millionaire"
7.) "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (will this thing ever die?!?)
8.) "He's Just Not That Into You"
9.) "Coraline"
10.) "Miss March"

My Top Ten Picks accuracy score - 60% - not bad, but I usually do better. Dang that Kevin James...lol! Looks like his next movie deal he makes has a nice bargaining chip salary-wise.

Tight race for this weekend's box office king

A very tight race indeed on what seeming is a slow weekend at theaters nationwide.

Buena Vista/Disney's "Race To Witch Mountain" starring Dwayne (Don't call me "The Rock" anymore!) Johnson took a commanding lead at the box office this weekend with a paltry estimated $6.8M in recipts on opening day... a bit better first day than the last BV Johnson release, "The Game Plan", which debuted to a $6.3 million Friday on its way to a $23 million weekend last year.

"The Last House on the Left", the remake of the same-titled 1972 Wes Craven horror flick, opened in second with an estimated $5.6 million... a similar beginning as another Craven remake, "The Hills Have Eyes", which grossed $5.6 million its first day.

"Watchmen" in it's second weekend nosedived 78 percent to an estimated $5.4 million, lifting its total to $73.4 million in eight days. Watchmen's Friday-to-Friday drop was one of the steepest, rating slightly worse than "X-Men: The Last Stand" and the first "Hulk" movie. However, Watchmen should pass The Last House on the Left for second place due to the latter having a more front-loaded weekend due to its genre and newness.

My predictions for this weekend's box office top 10:

1.) "Race To Witch Mountain"
2.) "Watchmen"
3.) "The Last House On The Left"
4.) "Taken"
5.) "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail"
6.) "Slumdog Millionaire"
7.) "Miss March"
8.) "He's Just Not That Into You"
9.) "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (this thing just doesn't want to die!)
10.) "Coraline"

New nationwide releases scheduled for next Friday March 20th:

• "Duplicity" (Universal) Julia Roberts, Clive Owen -- CIA officer Claire Stenwick and MI6 agent Ray Koval have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first. (My rating: 3 1/2 stars)

• "I Love You Man" (Dreamworks) Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg (from SNL), Jane Curtin (SNL alum) and Jaime Pressly (from NBC's "My Name Is Earl") -- A comedy from John Hamburg where a successful real estate agent gets engaged to the woman of his dreams, discovers that he has no male friend close enough to serve as his Best Man, embarks on a series of bizarre and awkward "man-dates," meets a dude with whom he instantly bonds, causing his relationship with the fiance to get weird, ultimately forcing him to choose between his fiance and his new found "bro". (My rating: 2 stars)

• "Knowing" (Summit) Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Ben Mendelsohn, Adrienne Pickering, Nadia Townsend -- A single father and chairman of his town's historical society is summoned when a time capsule buried behind an elementary school in 1958 is prematurely unearthed because of a water-main break. The man, whose son attends the school, sifts through the contents and finds drawings of what 1958 tykes predicted the modern world would be like. It's all flying cars and fantasy stuff, with the exception of one chilling entry. One child predicted some of the most horrible events in recent history, and there's one that hasn't yet occurred, which the man attempts to prevent. (My rating: 4 stars)

Is Lindsay Lohan on her way to jail?

Seems the Lindsay has retained her Celebri-Tard status with word out of the Burbank bureau that an arrest warrant was issued Friday for the 22-year-old star of the 2004 movie "Mean Girls" and recent tabloid fodder feeder.

A judge at Los Angeles Superior Court in Beverly Hills issued the warrant on Friday and it carries a bail amount of $50,000. The issuance of the warrant could possibly be in connection with the probation issued on the conviction of a 2007 drunken driving arrest after she crashed her Mercedes-Benz into a tree, an L.A. police source said Saturday.

Has Ms. Lohan violated her probation and might be seeing the inside of the L.A. County Jail soon? I'm sure ET will have the in-depth report.

Bringing back the old WWE days...

A courthouse in Clearwater, Florida was the scene of an old WWE-styled trash talkin' as Hulk Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) took on his estranged wife's attorney Ray Rafool (gotta love the last name) in a verbal match while Rafool was talking to local reporters.

The spat started when lawyer Ray Rafool was answering questions about the divorce case for television cameras. He spoke after a hearing Thursday in which a judge granted the release of $225,000 in frozen assets for Hogan.

While Rafool spoke to the media, the towering Hogan tried to interject a comment from behind a row of cameras and reporters, and that's when the verbal smacking began:

Rafool: "Are you gonna to wrestle with me here? Are you gonna come across the cameras? Then be quiet."

Hogan: "It's a free world..."

Rafool: "No, it's not a free world, it's called professionalism."

Rafool (who had recently accepted an autograph from Hogan for his son, then delivered the stinging verbal blow that would rankle any World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler): "You're an actor. You're acting now."

Hogan (keeping his cool): "I hope your son enjoys the autograph. Thank you Hulkamaniac brother."

Then Hogan's attorney joined in and continued arguing with Rafool... just like any good WWE wrestler's manager would do.

I wonder if they have any of the old "Big Time Wrestling" shows out on DVD. The Shiek would clean both of these guy's clocks. Trust me... I know. He nearly kicked my butt years ago when I had him thrown out of a bar in Metro Detroit for being a drunken idiot.

The Shelf Life Of Octo-Mom

Recently there has been a lot of crazy behavior by several individuals – some of the glitterati persuasion…or as my radio partner refers to them: Celebri-Tards. Others are seeking glitterati status by their manic behavior. At the onset, the behavior by these individuals fuels the mainstream consciousness of conversation. Becomes water cooler talk. Gives the Hollywood tabloid TV shows like ET, Inside Edition and the like something to fill their airtime.

Just in the past several months we’ve had plenty to feast on. Michael Phelps’ “bong”. Christian Bale’s on-set tirade. And, of course, Octo-Mom. All these folk and their lack of sense feed our desire to be entertained by those more privileged than we doing something that makes us say to ourselves, “What the hell were they thinking?” And in a sub-concavical way is a type of surrogate confirmation to us that we have our heads screwed on the right way. Or do we?

The Michael Phelps “bong” incident? Seems like it was a forever ago. Christian Bale’s 4-minute rant of anger at a film crew member for something he did to break acting consciousness (though 30-seconds would have been more than sufficient in my book)? Already old news.

But the phenomenon known as Octo-Mom? For some perverse reason we seem to not be able to let go…sinking our entertainment “teeth” into this sick psychotic woman much like a coyote with a fresh piece of meat. But in my opinion, this “piece of meat” has far surpassed its shelf life and has become rotten, spoiled and ptomaine-laced.

California single woman Nadya Suleman, with no job and no means of support, decides she wants to be a mom. Goes to a fertility clinic to get pregnant. Bam! 6 kids. Decides she wants more kids and returns to fertility clinic. Ba-blam! 8 more. Then we see the woman. She has had plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie and turns out she’s obsessed with the star. Jolie says she’s nuts. She then hires a publicist. Has an offer to do a porn movie. Publicist quits – says she’s nuts. Hires a second publicist. 911 tapes are released of her psychotically wigged out and wailing that her child is missing when the child is walking around the block with grandma. Second publicist quits – says she’s nuts. Now there’s talk of a video of this woman giving birth to her 8 babies in the hospital room being shopped around for over a million dollars. More people dropping support for her – saying she’s nuts.

Trust me, I know a thing or two about psycho women. And Nadya Suleman is beyond psycho. She’s sick and needs to have the media plug pulled from her roller coaster, way the hell over 15-minutes of “fame”. The kids need to be taken from her. She needs to be committed…and a guarantee made that she’ll never give birth again.

I know also about kids. I am a father… a proud parent. And Ms. Suleman is no parent. She is an opportunistic, self-absorbed sociopath who has no business being a mother to children.

We, as a people, need to let go of this woman’s escapades as a form of titillating and entertaining fodder, and call it what is is. A sad example of the human race. And let go of it. Let it die. Enough outrage is out there that eventually the right thing will occur if we stop feeding the emotional pig that is Nadya Suleman. We as people, and especially us in media, need to stop buying into her duping of not only government agencies that pay her way (i.e.: our tax dollars), but the duping of ourselves into believing that this is tasty and entertaining gossip fodder for us to continue to gnaw on.

Spoiled meat will just make you sick.

Pride vs. Prejudice, Embarrassment and Fear

All throughout my years of public education growing up, every Social Studies teacher I ever had all referred to America as “the great melting pot”. People from all nations, cultures and walks of life coming to the US to seek a better life – all melding together as one big conglomerate of people known as “Americans”.

Those who have come to this land of ours throughout our country’s history have valued the opportunity to become Americans. But, even though they become Americans, they still carry a heritage…a history or ancestral quotient that in the most perfect of worlds will give them pride. However, this weekend, I had a profound discussion with a very good friend which opened my eyes to the sad state of the human condition around us and that sometimes pride battles elements that will quash it.

I am very proud of my German heritage. My family has deep roots in Deutschland. Mom’s parents were from the North Rhine-Westphalia part of the kingdom of Prussia (Gramps hailed from Ronsdorf which became part of Wuppertal just before WWII, grandma was from Düsseldorf). My dad’s dad came from Saxony in eastern Germany (Grandpa Holder was from Leipsig, the home of Johann Sebastian Bach of whom I am a direct descendant) and his Grandmother Gundlacht was from Württemberg, now known as Stuttgart…something I didn’t know until I spoke with my dad earlier today. With his health not being the best lately and his advanced age, I have embraced every opportunity to tap his memory about our family as much as I can…while I can.

Most people I know have family heritage outside of the US; Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, India, and more. And now, in this politically correct climate, all have embraced their heritage and exhibit pride in it. But our nation’s sometimes embarrassing history shows us that sometimes this wasn’t always the case.

As I mentioned before, the “melting pot” term always prefaced that people came to America “seeking a better life”. Irish immigrants came to this country in the late 1800s to escape the Great Potato Famine. Russian immigrants came to escape the Czarist rule, then Communism. But the one national origin that has seen the most immigrant influxes coming to the United States of America over time has been German. Germans form the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 49 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population.

German immigrants had been coming to the United States since the U.S. was a colony of Britain. The heaviest German immigration to the United States occurred between 1848 and World War I, during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. Many of the early immigrants came to the U.S. in search of religious freedom. Later, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815), individuals sought freedom from military involvement and political oppression, which created a poor economic climate, which continued through the entire 19th and part of the 20th century.

During World War I, German Americans, especially those born abroad, were sometimes accused of being too sympathetic to the German Empire. Several thousand vocal opponents of the war were imprisoned. Thousands were forced to buy war bonds to show their loyalty. The Red Cross barred individuals with German last names from joining in fear of sabotage. One man was hanged in Illinois, apparently for no other reason than that he was of German descent. The killers were found not guilty of the crime and the hanging was called an act of patriotism by a jury.

Then the lunacy that was Hitler came into play, and anti-war sentiment toward those of German descent became fever pitched. Between 1931 and 1940, 114,000 Germans moved to the United States, many of whom – including Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein – were Jewish Germans or anti-Nazis fleeing government oppression. Under the still active Alien Enemy Act of 1798, the United States government interned nearly 11,000 German-Americans between 1940 and 1948, similar to our country’s treatment of Japanese-Americans. Most were not yet American citizens. Some of these were United States citizens.

Civil rights violations occurred. Many German-Americans were arrested without warrant. Others were held without charge for months or interrogated without benefit of legal counsel. Convictions were not eligible for appeal. An unknown number of "voluntary internees" joined their spouses and parents in the camps and were not permitted to leave. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the anti-German sentiment aroused by World War II finally began to abate.

For the longest time growing up, I knew of my German heritage, yet my grandparents seemed ashamed to call themselves German. It wasn’t until many years later, once I learned the history of the prejudice and the fear it bred in German-Americans, that I finally understood why. My friend’s parents were German immigrants, and they too felt that this embarrassment by their parents to claim their heritage was wrong. Sadly, though, the American people once again demonstrated intolerance and lack of understanding in the past, much like we have continually demonstrated as a nation throughout our history.

But now, in today’s times, we have become more tolerant. Yet the fear remains. Deep wounds are hard to heal at times. But, to reassure my good friend, I am proud of my heritage. I am proud to be German. And I’m very glad they are proud of it as well.

My Search Is Finally Over!!!

For many years I have been searching for some pretty elusive things. The woman of my dreams…fame and fortune…the perfect pastrami sandwich (pastrami, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on double-baked rye). Some of these I may never find. Others, when I do find them, will put me in a comatose stupor. Some I have already found and have already at times put me in a comatose stupor. And the rest…would be pretty outstanding to find.

So, imagine my surprise, while driving in Jackson this weekend to the WalMart (to check on laptop computer prices for a good friend while waiting for daughter-princess' birthday party at The Parlour to end), to come across the following find:



For quite some time, I thought the days of real rock bands were pretty much over. Gone the way of selling out, the excesses of success, and the grubby, greedy hands of managers, agents and record labels. But, this past Saturday, at the light at Brown and West Michigan Avenue, there they were...The Last Real Rock Band!

I can now die a happy man. Unless, of course I find the woman of my dreams, eat the perfect pastrami sandwich, or the Detroit Lions ever make it to the Super Bowl.

Guess I’ll have to stave off death for a while longer on two of the above three...