'Hobbit Race War,' and 7 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today
Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Jackass 3.5 is streaming your way soon... DreamWorks goes boy-hunting... John Waters kicks off list-season... Bad sex isn't really bad sex... and more...
· You know how to tell when the world's coming to an end? How about this: The AFP and the Weekly World News run essentially the same story about accused racism in the casting of Hobbit extras. The film's casting director was reportedly fired after running an ad seeking female actors with "light skin tones" and telling a Pakistani Briton that she was too dark to be considered. If I could sleep, I'd so be going back to bed right now. [AFP, Weekly World News]
· As previously reported, Jackass 3.5 is a thing and will be streaming online beginning in March. It runs 83 minutes and will comprise footage discarded from the recent 3-D theatrical smash as well as new material. [Variety]
· Speaking of which, John Waters has Jackass 3D -- "[a] scatological, gay, s/m, borderline snuff movie amazingly embraced by a wide, American blue-collar family audience" -- in sixth place on his annual Top 10 list. [ArtForum]
· More white-people casting news: DreamWorks needs a boy aged 11-13 for Welcome to People, the directing debut of A-list screenwriter Alex Kurtzman. Must be Caucasian and "able to memorize lots of dialogue." Oh! Oh! So ADD patients and amnesiacs are out? Outrage! Excuse me, BRB, I need to start a Facebook page for this. [Deadline]
· Does the annual Bad Sex in Fiction prize just reward British snobbery and prudishness? "Their attitude is: 'Next time you think of writing about sex, don't,'" said erotica guru Susie Bright. "I can't think of any other fundamental human experience that writers would be encouraged to keep to themselves." I dunno! I think there's something to be said for rejecting the conflation of lepidoptery and intercourse, right? What's next? Ichthyology and intercourse? Taxidermy and intercourse? Whatever -- I am an admitted prude; I have no animal in this hunt. You tell me. [Salon]
· Here's an interesting discussion about the nature vs. necessity of Internet trolls -- that bottom-feeding, single-cell organism I'd sooner suffocate and carve to ribbons than entitle to another breath on this site or any other. Oops! Sorry, not bitter. Troll away, assholes! [Atlantic Wire]
· Say what you will about the ethics and consequences of the ongoing WikiLeaks drama, but without it, we wouldn't have a US diplomat's account of attending a Dagestani wedding where the "gangsterish president of Chechnya [...] danced clumsily 'with his gold-plated automatic stuck down the back of his jeans.'" World history in the making, folks. [The Guardian]
· Hey, what's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, so they don't have the bomb? Well, then! Party in Pyongyang tonight! South Korean military get in free, BYOB. [38North]
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Comments
One of the criticisms of Tolkein, though, is that he was kinda racist himself. I mean, the only non-lily-white humans are under the thrall of Mordor, and hardly appear anyway.
We had similar racial discussions while waiting in line this weekend at Disney's Splash Mountain ride. It is dedicatd to that Disney property which no longer exists, "Song of the South", where it was deemed racist to have an Uncle Rhemus character speaking in "offensive" stetreotype language. Curious that caucasian characters can speak in similar fashion however and it is not racist.
GOD! Can these idiots get any worse?!? I'm sick of these loosers accusing every other thing as being racist. Avatar was racisit, because it had BLUE ALIENS, and the "villian" was refering to THE HUMAN RACE!
Oh, and those "twin autobots" as being racist. These are alien MACHINES! They emulate what they see on the web, our tv, etc. They obviously missed that part! They are communicating based on what is available to them.
Maybe the ones who are crying "racist" ARE the people who ACTUALLY ARE RACISTS!
We just had a fine example of a troll at the end of the "Irvin Kershner" post. This jackass takes the time to sign in and insult (actually, kind of a compliment) everybody for no good reason. Gotta love 'em! I am glad Movieline doesn't delete these people. They reveal something about humanity, plus they make me laugh. In terms of "hiding behind an avatar" I don't see it that way. I think of it more as branding. Most of us regulars have a link to our blog or twitter so if you follow the rabbit hole you could find out who we are. What good does it do to be known as Jake_Smith or Becky_Snodgrass123?
The Pakistani Briton would make a wonderfull goblin or orc I believe.. with likely little makeup needed to boot.. always room for them in Tolkiens works.