Movie Morsels 72: Magic Mike

It's been quite a long while since I've indulged in a Hot Men post and this is the perfect thing to break the drought! You may or may not know that Channing Tatum was an exotic dancer back in his salad days; you also may or may not know that a movie is in the works based on his experiences during that time. (He actually mentioned wanting to make such a movie way back when he told all about his burnt penis last year.) Now, a movie about male strippers pretty much has my interest from the get-go. I mean, even if it's a male Showgirls it's still worth a look-see just for curiosity's sake. But! This one stars these guys, which means they could read the phone book for two hours and it'd still be pretty easy to sit through.

Channing Tatum - the mentor

Alex Pettyfer - the protege

Matthew McConaughey - the club owner

Matthew Bomer

William Levy

Joe Manganiello

Am I right or am I right? Sure, it'll probably be super cheesy but who cares?!

8/24 UPDATE: According to People en Espanol (via dlisted), William Levy has dropped out of the movie. Bummer!!! :o(  He would have been some nice eye candy. Mew.

Man w/ Hot Man Success! Almost.

They took off their shirts, at least! I will say, though, that I feel like this is a crossing Bear would've made only in his boxers had he not had a newbie companion. Still, I'll take what I can get. :o)

These are the Top 5 Jake moments, according to EW.com.

TV Tidbits 96: Man w/ Hot Man

Woohoo!!! Jake Gyllenhaal is heading to Iceland with Bear on the season premiere of Man vs. Wild (July 11)! The press release says Jake spent 2 days with Bear, though I don't think that translates to two episodes of two hot men. :o( And I'm a little bummed it's an arctic climate since I doubt there will be any doffing of tops (or bottoms). But maybe they'll have to swim through an icy lake... Fingers crossed!

Here's Discovery's slideshow o' Jake photos.

UPDATE (06/29): Even better! Here's a little promo for the episode:

When Hot Men Aren't Hot

I don't know how many of you saw the Yahoo! story about Christian Bale that was featured on yesterday's home page but I, of course, checked it out. It was... not really so great, to be honest. Now, you know I loves me my Hot Men and Christian in particular but this particular feature is a fantastic example of why I would much rather admire from afar than actually date or be married to a Hot Man. (Besides the fact that Robert is perfect for me, of course. That goes without saying.) Many of my Hot Men are actors and, as such, change their looks with each new role. Would I like to ogle Christian as Bruce Wayne? Absolutely. As Trevor Reznick? Not so much. And as what I can only imagine to be a starring role in a never-to-be-announced George Harrison biopic? Definitely not.

<-- George or Christian? Only Ravi Shankar knows for sure...

Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!

This week has been a virtual extravaganza of trailers for movies with Hot Men! Unfortunately (for me), I don't actually find most of them hot in their respective films. :o( Johnny Depp is always a hit-or-miss kind of guy for me but Christian is usually pretty good, even when the movie is dreck. (Actually, that's a lie. As I was typing that sentence I thought of The Machinist and Rescue Dawn so I guess Christian's really rather hit-or-miss himself. Hmm. Depressing.) Andrew Garfield looks the most promising in his trailer, but his overall Hotness has yet to be confirmed. (Have YOU seen him in anything else? Didn't think so. He will, however, be the new Spider-Man so there's definite Hot potential there.) Still, I haven't had a Hot Men post in aaaages so here you go!

Here's a too-skinny-and-balding Christian Bale in The Fighter:

(Mark Wahlberg has never really done anything for me so his being a topless boxer isn't a huge draw.)

Here's Andrew (and Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley) in the trailer for Never Let Me Go:

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro; and believe it or not, even though it sounds like a smart person's book, I've read it! Robert actually bought it for me several years ago because he'd read a lot about it and thought I'd enjoy it. I did like it but it's very... different. For me, anyway. And had I not read the book, I don't think I'd have any idea what's happening in the trailer. Which, on one hand, is good - nothing really gets spoiled. But on the other, I don't think I'd be drawn to the movie at all! The trailer that was shown at the London Film Festival sheds a little more light on the film's plot:

The big reveal is a little more revealed here and while it makes things seem more interesting, I feel like it sort of ruins the intrigue of the story a bit. Either way, I'm glad I've already read the book!

And here's Johnny Depp (and Angelina Jolie) in the trailer for The Tourist:

Johnny's character seems very cute, personality-wise, but I've never been a fan of shaggy men. And Angelina's British accent isn't the worst on screen but it's still sort of distracting. Will Robert see this movie? Eh. Hard to call. We haven't been going to the movies all that often lately and this one doesn't scream "ROBERT!" We'll see.

On a sort of similar note, here's a little behind-the-scenes video of Conan O'Brien's recent promotional photo shoot. You can read a little about it here.

a-ha: Norwegian for Awesome

I know, I know, I know, I know - I said I was going to post more often and then promptly ditched the blog. But it's not true! I was waiting for something in particular to happen before posting next and just today it happened. And just what is this fabulous thing, you ask?! Well, a-ha updated their site with reviews and photos of the concert Robert and I saw on the 16th. I KNOW! It's almost too awesome for words.

Now, I was a barely casual fan of a-ha going into the concert; I only knew about 5 of their songs off the top of my head. But, after seeing them in concert I am officially goo goo for a-ha. Those of you that have talked to me already know that it's true. They're just so good! And soooo maligned as a One Hit Wonder!!!!!! It really frosts my cookies. In fact, just to rub salt in the wound, I happened to be watching VH1 Classic's '100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s' in the hotel room before heading out to the concert and who should appear at #3 but a-ha and "Take on Me"! The nerve!!!! Now, while part of me was at least happy that they were in the top 5 (if you're going to misrepresent the band with the OHW label they should at LEAST be one of the best ones of all time, right?) the other part of me wanted - and still wants! - some clarification on just what criteria VH1 Classic is using to determine who is a OHW. Because, as I see it, a group that has two Top 20 singles ("Take on Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV") as well as the privilege of performing one of the James Bond themes ("The Living Daylights." Okay, so they wrote for one of the Timothy Dalton 007 films - it's not their fault nobody liked the D-man!) is NOT a OHW. "Oh," you say, "VH1C probably is only counting songs that made it into the Top 10 on the Billboard charts." Wrong! Midnight Oil is in the list and their supposed OHW ("Beds Are Burning") only made it to #17! So just what DOES make someone a One Hit Wonder, VH1 Classics?! 'Cause I need to see some continuity here. Hmpf. Needless to say, I was all worked up before heading to the Club Nokia to see the band. And can I just point out (again) that both L.A. shows were sold out? Granted, it wasn't the world's largest venue - it seated about 2,500 - but still! Both shows! SOLD OUT! Because there are some good folk out there who appreciate severely under-appreciated and fabulous music. (Hey - it's pretty much just America that lost interest in a-ha. They're still super huge in Europe. And pretty much everywhere else [especially South America]. I know what you're thinking but no - they're not David Hasselhoff. They're popular and critically acclaimed elsewhere. Sheesh.)

(photos: a photo of the blasphemous segment on VH1C; Robert reading while I watch 4 hours of OHWs)

And it's not just me; Robert, who didn't really know any songs going into the show (except for the ones I made him listen to while driving down I5...) also agreed that it was a great show and that he was surprised at how much he now likes a-ha. I have converted him! Even though he thinks it's annoying Morten is so darn dreamy. (I think the part of the concert Robert liked best was seeing that Morten is [sadly] thinning a bit up top. It's true. Don't get me wrong - he's still hunky (he seems to get better with age, too, oddly enough) but he is losing a bit o' hair at the back. I was a wee bit bummed.) We didn't even have very good seats but with the way the venue was set-up, we still wound up with a pretty good view of the stage. I was a little disappointed with the crowd's level of participation (I was totally the dork waving and clapping and do whatever I was asked. And not just for the next eight-count, either, other loser-y audience people!) and with the fact that the band didn't do a ton to denote that it was their last-ever show in the U.S. but otherwise it was a fantastic show. They didn't even have an opening act - it's like the concert was made just for me! *sigh* I am having a-ha withdrawal. :o( Be sad for me.

If you are interested (and, really, after my rousing endorsement, how could you not be?!), HERE is the link to a bunch of other links for articles, reviews, etc., for all of a-ha's North American dates.

And here are a couple of fan videos from the show:

(Ol' Morty can still hit the high notes - whew! I'd seen some clips of the tour on YouTube and he sounded good but you never know... Back in the day, I went to an 'N Sync concert and JC Chasez could most definitely not hit his high notes. The show was one fontrum moment after another. So glad this was not the case with Morten!)

(The little montage they showed before the first encore.)

And since you can never have enough a-ha, HERE is the link to their Flickr page May 16th concert set of photos.

Robert and I heading into Club Nokia. Don't we (and by "we" I mean Robert, myself and my 4 extra chins) look excited?!

Me wearing my super cool a-ha shirt on the journey home. Robert wore his Nada Surf shirt so we looked like a matching pair... of dorks.

Bye bye, a-ha. I will miss you. But I'm glad I got to see you.

Music Minims 09: a-ha

I bought Robert and me some el cheapo nosebleed section tickets to a-ha's 'Ending on a High Note' tour last week and everyone I've told* has had the same reaction: " 'Take On Me' a-ha? I didn't know they were still around!" And while I am far from an a-ha groupie - I can't name the other two dudes in the band and I am only truly familiar with a handful of songs - I do enjoy the songs I know and thought catching them on their final tour would be kind of cool. Robert was surprisingly amenable to going so I snatched up the tickets and we're off to see them in May. (They're only playing in NY, Chicago and L.A. and we're seeing them on the final date of their final stop in the U.S. Lucky! Plus, the L.A. show the night before ours is sold out so there are some closet a-ha fans out there.) So! Just so you know there are lots of other songs in a-ha's repertoire, here are a few that I especially like. And, conveniently, Morten looks hooooooooooooooooooooot in most of the clips so, y'know, win-win.

(Oh, Morten is so dreamy in this performance. Yummers!!!)

(This is the video for the title track of their most recent album)

*Except for Work Mel. When I told her she said "a-ha?! But they only had one song! "I wear my sunglasses at night..."" To which I responded, "That's not a-ha, stupid! That's Corey Hart. Duh." And it is. See?

Speaking of Hot Men...

check out the cover boy for the upcoming issue of Details:








Weehoo!!! Just the little pick-me-up I needed. :o) The article is 5 pages long so I'll spare you a cut-and-paste job. If you'd like to partake, however, click here. If you want to avoid the pesky reading bit and just want to look at some more pictures, click here.

Hot Men x 2 + Movie = Meh.

Well, for all the hullabaloo I made about Public Enemies you'd think I'd have managed to see it before last Saturday night. But, I didn't. I think Robert got burned so badly when I dragged him to Troy (he thought the fight scenes might make up for the fact that it was a Brad Pitt movie - they didn't) that I don't think he was too keen to hop in the car and see Public Enemies in the theater. (Which is actually okay. I must have had extenuating circumstances that made missing it okay at the time because let me assure you - if I had REALLY wanted to see the hot men on the big screen, we would most definitely have seen them on the big screen! Moving on...)

Where was I? Oh, yes - Public Enemies. Well, Robert and I Netflix'd it last weekend and I have to say I was mightily disappointed. Christian Bale + Johnny Depp + hot period clothes + respected director (Michael Mann)? Should've been a HUGE win!! But no. It was a slow, boring, somewhat nonsensical mess. In fact, the 10 minute 'making of' featurette was much more informative and interesting than the 2-hour movie so that tells you something right there. And my crushing disappointment got me to thinking: Most movies with more than 1 Hot Man are crap. The aforementioned Troy? Disaster. Velvet Goldmine? Unwatchable. Terminator Salvation? Cockapoops. How can this be?! It's cruel. Cruel, I tell you!! It's like the old 'two good-looking people make ugly children' rule* - too many hot men in a movie dissolves the plot. Such a drag!!

* There are always exceptions to such rules. For instance, Halle Barry and Gabriel Aubry's daughter is gorgeous. And The Prestige was a good movie despite featuring both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman in leading roles. (Though Hugh's creepy facial hair in the movie sort of dampened the hotness. Maybe Enemies would've been better if Johnny had sported his weird porn 'stache throughout more of the film... )

Hot Men Alert: Ewan McGregor in Out

Oh, Hot Men... it's been so long since I've posted anything about you. Where have you been? And why have you been gone so long? I don't know the answer to those questions but I do know that a good way to perk-up this long and dreary week is a healthy dose of Ewan! :o)

First, a few photos of Ewan at the Berlin Film Festival promoting The Ghost Writer.






Next, an interview with Ewan in Out magazine:

Sydney, Ewan McGregor’s sand-colored poodle mutt, is pooping on a well-kempt lawn in Los Angeles. He eyes the horizon, birds chirp, and McGregor readies the bag. Suddenly, a black Kerry terrier appears, held by a peroxide septuagenarian wearing a too-loose vintage Brentwood marathon T-shirt and too-tight spandex shorts. Sydney, torn by two competing passions, seems unable to decide whether to lunge immediately or finish his business. His eyes dart back and forth. Then, in a beige flash, Sydney makes up his mind, leaving the poop half in and half out. Moments later, sheepishly, tenderly, McGregor tidies Sydney up with a napkin cadged from Le Pain Quotidien. “Ah,” he murmurs quietly, “my wee man, Syd.” The tone of the day is set.

An hour later, the three of us are sitting on a picnic bench atop Inspiration Point at the summit of Will Rogers Park in Pacific Palisades. Well, two of us are sitting. McGregor’s lying on the bench, face up, bum westerly, legs spread in the air, illustrating an early professional mishap of onstage nudity. The incident in question involved one inopportunely placed vase full of water, two spills (the vase’s and, shortly thereafter, his), a racy Joe Orton farce, and a front row of British pensioners, alarmed and titillated by the fast-approaching naked rear end of the then 21-year-old Scot. “So I’m sliding toward the front row of the audience like this,” he says, “butt naked, and thinking, What of the front row? They just got my bumhole coming straight at them.” For those unlucky enough not to have been there, McGregor hasn’t been shy since.

There are two things my mother knows about Ewan McGregor: He wrote Atonement, and he loves dropping his trousers. One out of two ain’t bad. “I always try not to limit myself in all respects,” explains McGregor in a Scots brogue softened by years in London and, more recently, in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, Eve, and three daughters. “Sexuality is just one of them. I could understand saying ‘I would never do gratuitous nudity.’ Wait. No. I probably would. I’d probably be quite happy to.” In fact, as my mother correctly remembers, he has. Since his first full-frontal exposure -- during a rehearsal for a play about the Holocaust at Guildhall School of Music and Drama -- hardly a year has gone by without McGregor’s privates being committed to celluloid. “I remember getting a kind of rush out of that first time, a slight feeling of power about it, you know?” recalls McGregor. His butt, since its magnificent sliding debut in What the Butler Saw, has been seen by millions and his penis has appeared on-screen so often -- in Trainspotting, in The Pillow Book, in Velvet Goldmine -- it deserves its own Oscar nod.

The far-flung legend of McGregor’s penis, casting its long shadow over the Hollywood Hills -- though accurate -- distracts from a quietly courageous and wildly varied acting career. He’s not just some one-trick cock-flashing pony. That the long-delayed and finally upon us I Love You Phillip Morris -- a very good, very, very gay film slated for release in March -- isn’t an aberration but one of McGregor’s more mainstream films testifies to his unusual oeuvre. Like many of McGregor’s choices, I Love You Phillip Morris is an uneasy film. Based on a true story (and a 2003 book by Steve McVicker) the movie follows Steven Russell, played by Jim Carrey, a charming con man and an incorrigible escape artist. In 1995, during a stint in the Harris County Jail in Houston, Russell meets Phillip Morris -- played by McGregor as a blond Southern belle of a man -- in the jail’s library. Morris was reaching for a copy of The Federal Reporter on a high shelf. Their eyes met, sparks arced, Russell came on hard, and Morris, happy as a cat, purred and arched into the hand that pet him.

Had what follows not been exhaustively cataloged by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, it could easily be dismissed as fantastic prison pulp: Russell goes to prison (Theft, Case No. 618544), Russell and Morris fall in love. Russell escapes prison (Escape, Case No. 727973), finds Morris, the two live lavishly. Russell goes to prison (Aggravated Theft, Case No. 723526). Russell escapes prison, finds Morris, the two live lavishly. Russell goes to prison, escapes prison, finds Morris, the two live lavishly until Russell gets caught and goes to prison for good (Escape, Case No. 9,856-C). Russell -- Inmate No. 00760259 -- has a maximum sentence that would keep him imprisoned until July 12, 2140 -- 47,595 days after the film opens.

Despite the fact that it stars perhaps the most bankable star in Hollywood -- the worldwide gross of Carrey’s movies is more than $4 billion dollars -- and, opposite him, its most talented, I Love You Phillip Morris, has languished undistributed domestically for more than a year, even after a strong showing at its Sundance debut in 2009. “At Sundance everyone assumed it would be snapped up,” says McGregor, “but it wasn’t.” Perhaps one reason is that the central character is an unlovable (or uneasily loved) sociopathic scammer. But a more likely reason is that in cells, on bunks, on boats, before sunsets, after sunsets, on divans, over ottomans, without panning away or dissolving to white, the two men kiss, fondle, fuck, blow, suck, hold hands, dance, murmur, and eye. In short, they act like lovers do, and, because both Morris and Russell are openly gay men and their gayness seems not to trouble them in the slightest, this is a dicey commercial proposition. “There was talk,” says McGregor, “that Disney fended off the release until after A Christmas Carol came out. They didn’t want kids thinking [Carrey’s] Ebenezer Scrooge was a bender.”

When it appears on American screens, I Love You Phillip Morris will be, to some extent, down-gayed. (Or perhaps it’s ungayed, degayed, or less-gayed.) As part of a bid to find U.S. distribution, the film has been recut, leaving out some of the gayest moments. After a rather touching episode of Florida Key fellatio, for example, Morris spits over the side of the boat into the Atlantic Ocean. “There were two alternatives,” explains McGregor. “There was the spit, and there was a really nice slow swallow, where I look at him and just do a loud swallow. I really like that one, but I guess they went for the more obvious spit over the side.”

Nevertheless, I Love You Phillip Morris is loudly and insistently gay. Carrey, as Russell, sees dicks in everything: clouds, baguettes, himself. At one point, he yells, Scrooge-like, “I’m gay, gay, gay, gay, gay.” But Carrey playing gay is 80% Jim Carrey and 20% the character. In McGregor’s slightly coquettish Morris, however, there are only trace elements of Ewan McGregor. In his place, there’s a sly character, part wolf, part sheep, and wholly formed.

“I’m very keen that it’s a gay movie,” McGregor insists. “There was quite a lot of talk at Sundance that ‘Well, it’s not a gay movie. It’s a film about guys who happen to be gay.’ And I was thinking, it’s nothing but a gay movie. It’s about a gay couple, about a man’s sexuality, and he comes out. It’s not the point of the film, but let’s not pretend it’s not a gay film.”

Though I Love You Phillip Morris may be some sort of Rubicon for Carrey, McGregor has kissed boys his entire career. “The first bisexual character I played was in [1996’s] The Pillow Book. There’s tons of sex in that film. We didn’t even bother putting clothes on between scenes. I had quite a full-on sex scene with a 75-year-old Japanese guy,” he recalls. “We’re kissing, and I remember going, He’s got a mustache and that’s kind of weird. Oh! That’s definitely a scrotum. That’s odd.”

Though his silver daddy moment was somewhat lost in the Trainspotting scrum, McGregor’s next movie, Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine, wherein he plays a barely disguised Iggy Pop to Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s epicene “David Bowie,” brought his propensity, willingness, and talent for kissing men to a wider audience and, in so doing, provided the raw footage for a fantasy reel of dreamy leading men locking lips. In fact, upon reflection, theirs might be about the most satisfying gay kiss ever committed to film. It’s got all you need: gold lamé, an Oscar Wilde quote (“The curve of your lips rewrite history”), the deceptive vulnerability of McGregor with his wide grin, the cruel-seeming beauty of Meyers. Oh, and eye shadow -- dark, glam pools of it. “I remember when I kissed Johnny,” says McGregor. “It was just a rush at the end of the day. It was just an electrical moment, because you look around and some of the British electrician guys -- who are all mainly closeted homosexuals, I think -- were sitting around going ‘Fuck, no.’ But I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it’s quite an interesting proposition. Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good.”

Judging from his career, lots of things seem to get McGregor’s blood up. The actor is less guided by the usual Hollywood obsession -- the bottom line -- than by a healthy full-blooded sense of adventure. (In fact, as of 2008, he’s the official face of Adventure, a cologne by Davidoff.) Twice, McGregor has circumnavigated the globe on a motorcycle with his friend Charley Boorman, the first time latitudinally, the second time longitudinally. (The trips formed the basis of two television shows, Long Way Round and Long Way Down.) His roles are those of an inquisitive mind, hungry to feel more and also feel different, not necessarily those of an acquisitive one. And thus, his career is less a direct path to the A-list than a meandering peregrination, beset by low-grossing spurs and indie digressions. But what Hollywood might see as dead ends, McGregor considers his best work. “When it gets to the top end, they’re really reluctant to step out of any box, which is why the movies become very bland,” he confesses. “When people come up to talk about a movie like Velvet Goldmine, it’s much more interesting than talking about, for instance, Angels & Demons.”

So, though McGregor fought in the Battle of Naboo, he’s also jerked off as James Joyce (in Star Wars episodes 1 through 3 and Nora, respectively). He’s been a song and dance man in the strange Down With Love and the stellar Moulin Rouge and an action figure in Black Hawk Down. But in lesser known movies like Young Adam, Stay, The Pillow Book, Phillip Morris, and in the forthcoming movie Beginners, by indie auteur Mike Mills, McGregor gives breath and depth to characters rarely written and even more rarely lifted from the page into a body. “I’m always interested in playing different people, in different situations,” he says, sitting bolt upright, suddenly serious and eyeing the Pacific Ocean stretching below us. “It doesn’t matter to me whether someone is in love with a man or a woman. I find the idea of love and romance interesting. I’m a sucker for it. I like playing someone who’s falling in love because I like the sensation of it.” He pauses to give Syd an affectionate pat. “People do extraordinary things when they’re falling in love.”

I Love You Phillip Morris opens on April 23.

---
(I wrote about ILYPM back in April '08 and again that August so when they say the film has been languishing on the shelf for a long while, they're not exaggerating. Will I see it in the theater? That's a tough one; Robert is usually very supportive and indulgent of my hot men movie proclivities but I think this one is going to be a hard sell...)

A Little Garfunkel, A Few Heroic Pets

I feel a little reluctant to post yet another story/article about dogs because, as my sister so helpfully pointed out last weekend, dog posts have overtaken hot men posts on the blog. The horror!!!! I don't know what's happened to me... Or why my hot men haven't been more in the news of late. So just know that a hot men post is in the works.* Or very soon will be. I can't give you guys the wrong idea of what's important now can I?

While I wait for hot inspiration to strike, however, I will share a somewhat ramble-y story with you. The dog park where we usually take Garfunkel has been closed the past few weeks due to inclement weather so Robert has taken to walking the Funk around the neighborhood. A while back he met up with two other Meadowbrookers that had black Labs that play (off leash) together in a little grassy area in the complex. So Robert's become friends with the two dog owners and they often text Robert to let him know they're meeting up or they wave from the sidewalk below our patio and Garfunkel's resulting pig squeals alert us that it's his playtime. The last couple outings, however, Garfunkel has taken to chasing after a cat and not coming back when called. His two little friends seem to do just fine with outside distractions but Garfunkel cannot seem to let a cat... or a passerby... saunter pass without tearing off to molest it. Kimmie's dad and Trooper's mom both agree that Garfunkel has way more energy than their respective pets - even though they're all roughly the same age - and Robert's very disheartened at Garfunkel's behavior. He works with the Funk on recall a lot but when push comes to shove and the dog's distracted, he's just not going to do it. Garfunkel is so good at other commands and, honestly, he really isn't a hyperactive dog (he loooooves snoozing on our bed at all hours of the day). We just can't seem to curb him of his chasing instinct.

Robert and I were talking about it (again) last night after a particularly disastrous play date and I told him about Ricochet, a dog I'd read about on one of my puppy blogs. Ricki was raised from birth to be a service dog - seriously, there is video on her site of her owner starting to train her before she could open her eyes - but as she matured she became more and more interested in hunting birds and other prey. That, of course, put the kibosh on her service dog career; Ricki is now a SURFice dog, surfing for particular charities and/or specific disabled athletes. What's my point here? Well, that some dogs really do have Achilles heels that may prevent them from doing certain tasks. If a woman who started training her dog at 13-days-old can't break her dog of its hunting habit, we certainly aren't going to have any success with Garfunkel!!! Now, I'm not saying that with more (aggressive) training Garfunkel won't learn to come back 9 instead of 7 times out of 10. I'm merely saying that it's possible that his hunting/chasing drive is stronger than other dogs' and he may never, ever learn to come back EVERY single time he's called. Or maybe I'm delusional and full of crap. Who knows?

The other point to my story is to link to this story in USA Today about heroic pets, of which Ricki is one. See? It's all come full circle, people. Or almost, anyway.


* Sam Worthington is my new boyfriend so most likely he'll be the subject of any upcoming posts. Now, I normally don't like jumping on the current hot man bandwagon - I loved Ewan and Christian WAY before anyone else, dang it! - but his hotness cannot be denied. I toyed with making him my boyfriend after Terminator: Salvation but waited to see if his hotness would endure. Seeing as it was the best thing about Avatar for me (though I did like other things about the movie and the movie as a whole... calm down, Biji and Robert), I'd say it has. Whew!

A Hot Men Movie Morsel

Oh, Hot Men. I haven't posted about you in so, so long. I have missed you. And Ewan? I haven't seen you since last year! My, my... How the time flies. ;o)

Luckily for me, Ewan has started making the festival rounds to promote The Men Who Stare at Goats. (Yeah, George Clooney's in it, too, but he's never done anything for me. Sorry.) The film is based on the book of the same name and stars Ewan as a reporter investigating a "top secret unit within the American military whose purpose is to develop mind-control powers for 'psychic spying.'" I'm never a huge fan of Ewan's American accent - though it could definitely be worse - and the plot sounds pretty iffy on paper. But the trailer actually looks kind of funny... And even though Robert and I are the only people on Earth who didn't love Jeff Bridges as The Big Lebowski, I am always oddly drawn to Jeff Bridges' movies. He's a cutie.

Anyhoo, check out the trailer and see if you agree that it makes the movie seem at least a little bit more interesting than you thought it was going to be:

I also snagged some photos of Ewan at the Venice Film Festival. Admittedly they are not his best - but a less-than-his-best Ewan is still a lot better than many other actors in my opinion. ;o)

Hot Men Alert: David Beckham

Just in case you were thinking "Wow, Lauren's been so busy she hasn't posted anything about hot men for ages! I miss those hot men posts," here's a little something for you. It's tempered by the fact that it's not solely a Beckham video - and I don't really dig his Hitler hair - but he still looks awfully nice. And, again, stupid photoshoot greasers just rubbing it in my face that their job is to oil up hot bods while mine is to pour over the incomplete paperwork of doofi (that's the plural of doofus). Pleh.

007 Popsicle

Hee! I just found this on EW.com and I think it's fantastic:

In honor of National Ice Cream Week in the UK, Del Monte Superfruit Smoothies has sculpted a limited edition popsicle in the shape of Daniel Craig's nude torso. The frozen treat -- said to come in blueberry, pomegranate, and cranberry flavors and be under 100 calories each -- is the result of a poll of more than 1,000 women, the majority of whom wanted the image of Craig, emerging from the water in Casino Royale, immortalized.

Yummers! And I mean that in ALL senses of the word. :o) A pomegranate-flavored replica of Daniel Craig's chiseled bod in my very own hands?!! Delectable! Delicious! A fabulous idea! (I'd probably be too embarrassed to eat such a confection anywhere outside the privacy of my own home but still... ) Stupid America. We never have any fun ice cream treats.

P.S. For a, ahem, naughtier take on the 007 'sicle, click here.

Movie Morsels 52 - Public Enemies

A new 'trailer' for Public Enemies debuted during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday so, of course, I must fulfill my Hot Men oath and pass it along. Great googlymoogly - Johnny Depp looks FOIN in this movie!!! Ha cha cha!

My New RealiTV 'Boyfriend' (take 2)

As you know, Robert and I are regular viewers of Bravo's Make Me A Supermodel and every season there is one episode that is better than the rest - the naked episode. Last year's was pretty good, but the contestants had to be made up into the four elements and Perry just was NOT as hot with his junk shaved and tucked, you know what I mean?

Anyway, this season's naked episode was MUCH better!! I haven't seen it yet (Robert is somewhat reluctant to watch the naked episodes for some unknown reason...) but I did fast-forward to my boyfriend's photo shoot and was not disappointed. :o) Me liked. Who is my boyfriend? Jonathan. He's British, he's ripped and he's LOVERLY! Plus, he's a winner so he's definitely making it to the finals. I think I may be kicking Ronnie to the curb for this one...




Haaaaaaaaaaargh. :cP Yummers.

Hot Men Happy Friday!!!

A little behind-the-scenes action on David Beckham's newest spot for the Motorola Aura. YUMMY. Me likes. (Me also wonders who gets to grease up Beckham for a living? I never get the oiler jobs!! It would be my luck to get hired the same week Beckham pledged never again to go shirtless... and someone like Dennis Rodman is hired to take his place. Just like when I fought to get the water polo team photos for my yearbook assignment senior year - only to find out Aaron Severson had opted off the team. I had to spend my time taking photos of Scott Schroeder in a Speedo. It was dreadful!!) Anyway, enjoy!!

Movie Morsels 45: Terminator Salvation

I've known that Christian Bale is on the cover of April's Empire magazine for a few days now but I didn't want to post anything until I found the full scan of the article. Well, I found it this morning and so here it is! The issue is a special one commemorating 25 years of Terminator - it's also the first official interview with Christian post-rant. It looks like a good read if you're at all interested in the upcoming Terminator Salvation - there are some cool breakdowns of the machines - but it also may contain "possible spoilers" so just keep that in mind...

(There are 10 separate images on which to click...)

Hot Men Depression... Lessened.

I know you all know this already but I still feel I would not be doing due diligence if I didn't post ol' Christian's apology as well as his rant. As you know, Christian called in to LA's KROQ to apologize for his boorish behavior.

There are at least two men with whom Christian Bale is not professionally done: Los Angeles DJs Kevin and Bean.

After a week of unrelenting press coverage in the wake of his leaked onset rant, Bale unexpectedly chose to break his silence over the incident on KROQ radio's popular morning show, taking full responsibility for his Terminator Salvation explosion.

"It's been a miserable week for me," Bale told hosts Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter. "Listen, I know I have a potty mouth; everybody knows this now.

"The thing that I really want to stress is I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that.

"There is nobody that has heard that tape that's been hit harder by it than me. I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable. I hope that that is absolutely clear."

As for what brought on the much-played rant, Bale said that the day's shooting was particularly intense and that "I put so much into what I do and care so much about it and sometimes the enthusiasm just goes awry.

"I'm embarrassed by it. I ask everybody to sit down and ask themselves, have they ever had a bad day and have they ever lost their temper and really regretted it immensely."

Not that he doesn't understand the public's insatiable desire to hear—and mock and remix—the audio.

"Feel free to make fun of me at my expense; I deserve it completely."

Bale, who could easily have chosen any worldwide media to deliver his mea culpa, said he selected KROQ because had been listening to the morning show's mockery and incessant playing of his rant all week.

"I spoke with you guys a few years back; you seem like good guys and I wanted to talk with you about it," he said, before adding that the DJs' take on his rant made him laugh. "Believe me, this is no punk."

Kevin and Bean, meanwhile, had a slightly more humbling take on why they were chosen.

"You can talk to a guy who tries to high-five a blind dude or you can talk to Kevin and Bean; those are your options in the morning," they said.

(For those doubting the validity of the scoop, Bale's rep Jennifer Allen has confirmed that it was the actor, and not the station's dead-on Bale impersonator, Ralph Garman.)

As for any residual hard feelings between Bale and the object of his on-set rant, the actor said it ceased being an issue shortly after the outburst.

"We have resolved this completely...I have no intention of getting anyone fired. There is no problem whatsoever."

You can also click here to listen to the entire clip.

I'm honestly a little surprised he did this; he's usually SO under-the-radar and reserved that he rarely ever comments on anything. But, perhaps he felt that this warranted an "apology" as opposed to a "comment" (unlike the whole mother/sister kerfuffle earlier this summer). Not that it really matters - I think most people have picked their sides on the 'douche or not' debate, don't you?

Hot Men Alert: David Beckham

Hi-ohhhhhhh!!! David's newest Armani underwear ads have been released and yowza!! Looks like I have some new photos for my screen saver at home!!!!