Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 31…

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Screwed Is The Word According To Leno - In an interview – Jay Leno summed up the recent NBC debacle -  “Conan got screwed. I got screwed,” Leno said. “This is TV. The reason show business pays a lot of money is so when you get screwed you’ve got something left over.” I think Conan will come back and he’ll be strong,” Leno said. “And we’ll all compete against one another. It should be me against Letterman, against Conan, against, and then you see who wins,” he said.

Miley slammed by critics in her first movie made outside her “Hannah Montana” character as it opened in U.S. theaters on Wednesday, but “The Last Song” was still expected to perform well at box offices. The weepy romantic drama, written by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks, was deemed melodramatic and formulaic and claimed only a seven percent approval rating on reviews aggregator rotten tomatoes. Cyrus, 17, who has said she wants to make a career in movies after five years playing Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana”, was widely savaged for her performance as a surly teen sent to spend the summer with her estranged father.

Last week, Wikipedia crashed and if you’ve tried to visit YouTube this evening, chances are good you were served with an error page. This comes a week after another “Tube” outage – but not to worry  A  redesigned YouTube is on its way, according to a post on YouTube’s official weblog. The site is changing its video pages to introduce several new features, including a playlist interface and revamped rating system, which favors a “like/dislike” rating system over a star ranking. It’s a change they first introduced two months ago to some users, and are now rolling out to all users worldwide.

Mr. Pop Archives – This Week In 2000 -

Al Gore and George W. Bush win in the Illinois primary.

On his own – Vladimir V. Putin defeats 10 other candidates and is elected as President of Russia.

Pepsi-Cola is teaming up with Yahoo. In the deal – Pepsi will place Yahoo’s logo on 1.5 billion bottles of Pepsi soft drinks as well as on television and radio spots and on in-store displays. Yahoo will provide computerized systems that enable consumers who buy 20-ounce Pepsi and Mountain dew bottles to instantly redeem points printed inside bottle tops.

At the movies –

Erin Brockovich

Final Destination

Romeo Must Die

Here on Earth

American Beauty

The Cider House Rules

The Whole Nine Yards

Mission to Mars

My Dog Skip

Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 30…

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Sour Strawberry – Four-time World Series champion Darryl Strawberry quit Celebrity Apprentice , becoming the third person in Apprentice‘s nine-season history to quit the competition.  The retired MLB player, 48, says he only quit because of exhaustion due to a long year and a busy schedule. “I just hit a point where I was totally exhausted. I was running around and I just had nothing left in the tank,” Strawberry said. “It wasn’t anything personal. It wasn’t about quitting.”

More Facebook Changes - Facebook is about to change the way it asks its users to connect to brands and celebrities on the site. Rather than ask people to “become a fan” of say, Starbucks or Lady Gaga, Facebook will instead let users click that they “like” the subject.  Facebook already lets people show that they like comments or pictures posted on the site, and it says users click that term almost twice as much as they click “become a fan.” Facebook says changing the button will make users more comfortable with linking up with a brand and will streamline the site.

A Smashing Record - The world’s largest atom smasher set a record for high-energy collisions  by crashing proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before. In a milestone in the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider’s ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron volts.

No Postal - The U.S. Postal Service would cut Saturday mail delivery starting in the first half of 2011 under a plan the agency will give its regulator tomorrow. The Postal Service, which forecasts a $238 billion budget deficit by 2020, says it would save about $3.3 billion in the first year from eliminating deliveries on one day and $5.1 billion a year by 2020.

Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 29…

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I Want My iPad – The demand curve for Apple’s new tablet computer crossed the supply curve sometime overnight Friday. By Saturday morning, the ship date for iPad pre-orders, originally set to guarantee delivery by April 3, had been pushed back to Tuesday April 12. Customers who had already pre-ordered are still scheduled to get their iPads next Saturday.

An Expensive Comic - The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has fallen again. A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue features Superman’s debut and is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. The same issue sold in February for $1 million. That number was quickly bested when a 1939 comic book featuring Batman’s debut sold for $1 million and change.

Ricky Martin Comes Out, revealing that he is gay. Ricky spoke about his fears, writing: “Many people told me: ‘Ricky it’s not important,’ ‘it’s not worth it,’ ‘all the years you’ve worked and everything you’ve built will collapse,’ ‘many people in the world are not ready to accept your truth, your reality, your nature.’ Because all this advice came from people who I love dearly, I decided to move on with my life not sharing with the world my entire truth…”

Left A Good Job In The Citi – The Treasury Department said it will begin selling the stake it owns in Citigroup Inc., which could result in a profit to the government of more than $8 billion. The government received 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup in exchange for $25 billion it gave the bank during the 2008 credit crisis. It said it will sell the shares over the course of this year, depending on market conditions. Like any investor, the government will likely hold on to its shares if prices fall steeply. However, Citi shares have steadily been rising with the broader market in recent months, which means the Treasury Department stands to pocket a hefty profit.

Mr. Pop Archives – This Week In 1991 -

Gulf commander H. Norman Schwarzkopf says he wanted to annihilate Iraq’s armies as Hannibal once crushed the Romans, but President Bush pulled him up short. In an interview with David Frost, Schwarzkopf also said Baghdad’s cease-fire negotiators “suckered me” into letting Iraq keep flying the helicopters it is now using against Shiite and Kurdish rebels.

HBO presents “Welcome Home Heroes” – a special Whitney Houston concert for the men and women of Operation Desert Storm. Simulcast on Westwood One Radio.

The Black Crowes are dropped as the opening act for ZZ Top for criticizing the tour affiliation with the corporate sponsor, Miller Beer. Actually, the criticism came from lead singer Chris Robinson.

Top albums –

Wilson Phillips – Wilson Phillips

The Soul Cages – Sting

Gonna Make You Sweat – C+C Music Factory

Shake Your Money Maker – Black Crowes

Television news –

A recent photo spread in “People” magazine shows the “Today” show’s Deborah Norville breast-feeding her new baby, causing much criticism.

ABC renews Rick Dees’ “Into the Night” – encouraged by a ratings uptick.

Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 27

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Likely His Final Public Appearance - Dennis Hopper was on hand as his star was dedicated on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. His lawyer and doctor told the judge overseeing his divorce this week that Hopper is dying of prostate cancer, but the 73-year-old actor was smiling broadly during the ceremony. “I just want to thank you,” Hopper told the crowd surrounding him. “That’s all I can do.” “Easy Rider” co-star Jack Nicholson stood behind Hopper as Hollywood star number 2,403 was revealed with Hopper’s name in front of the Egyptian Theater. Other stars on hand included director David Lynch and singers Johnny Mathis and Dwight Yoakam.

8 Is Enough For 24 - Fox confirmed today that after eight seasons, 24 will air its series finale on May 24. Star Kiefer Sutherland said that producing a ninth season for another network like NBC was not an option because he and executive producer Howard Gordon were ready to call it quits.

Hot Hits This Week In 2010 –

Rude Boy – Rihanna, Need You Now – Lady Antebellum,Nothin’ On You – B.o.B. fea. Bruno Mars,Break Your Heart – Taio Cruz fea. Ludacris; Imma Be – The Black Eyed Peas, Telephone – Lady Gaga fea. Beyonce, BedRock – Young Money fea. Lloyd and Hey, Soul Sister -  Train

Mr. Pop Archives – This Week In 1977 -

Two Boeing 747 jumbo jets flown by KLM and Pan Am collide and burn on a foggy airport runway in the Canary Islands, killing as many as 583 persons. It’s the worst disaster ever in aviation history.

Margaret Trudeau – 28-year-old wife of Canada’s prime minister is working on a free-lance basis for People magazine as a photographer.

Music news –

Andrew Gold, the foremost member of Linda Ronstad’s band, playing guitar and keyboards, is now a solo artist and is working on his second album. He says he’ll miss being part of the Ronstadt band. “I’ve had a great time with her and the guys. I’m sorry to see that end. I’m also sorry to see that financial security end. Being on my own is a bit scar financially.” Will Gold have a hit in his future?

Actress Diana Hyland, who stars in the brand new “Eight is Enough” series, dies after a brief illness. The show just premiered on ABC-TV. Here she is with co-star Dick Van Patten.

Muhammad Ali will provide the voice for a cartoon character based on him in “I Am The Greatest” – a new NBC Saturday morning cartoon to debut in September.

Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 25

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YouTube Outage - Google Inc., owner of YouTube, said an outage of the popular video-sharing site Thursday was technical and not caused by outside tampering. “YouTube is up again following a technical issue which has now been resolved,” a spokeswoman for Google said in a written statement. “We know how important You Tube is for people and apologize for any inconvenience the downtime may have caused.”

First Lady To Be  Honored By Nick -  At Nickelodeon’s 23rd Annual Kids’ Choice Awards this Saturday, First Lady Michelle will also be honored for her “Let’s Move” campaign to help cut down on childhood obesity. Also appearing -  Robert Downey Jr., Katy Perry and Tina Fey.

Pop Music Maestro Passes – Johnny Maestro, lead singer of “The Crests” and later, “The Brooklyn Bridge.” Johnny died from liver cancer at the age of 70.

June 18 is the debut day  for “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” the much-anticipated new attraction inside Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure park in Orlando.

More Allred Sleeze If You Please — Gloria Allred is representing a woman she claims conducted a “3 year relationship” with Sandra Bullock’s’s husband, Jesse James, the attorney said in a release. “I represent a beautiful model and business woman. She had an intimate 3 year relationship with Jesse James.”  “He pursued her and he had strong feelings for her. She is in the process of trying to decide if she will come forward.”