Movie critic Roger Ebert hasn’t been able to use his voice since he had larynx surgery in 2006. But the CereProc company has made it possible for him to “speak” with a computer voice designed to sound like Roger Ebert.According to this article from Popular Science magazine, they used samples from the hours of DVD commentary Ebert did before he lost his voice.
Happy birthday to Theodore Geisel, the beloved children’s author known as Dr. Seuss. He was born on this day in 1904.We’ve had a lot of queries in the last 48 hours about his death: variations on, “How did Dr. Seuss die?” and “Doctor Seuss, how did he die?” It’s not clear if this is just standard curiosity, of if there’s a trivia contest out there and participants are on the hunt.
“Here for the first time is the first hard evidence that [John] Wayne volunteered for potentially dangerous service with the equivalent of today’s C.I.A., and the papers are not out of someone’s attic, but official government documents.”That’s the latest public defense of the World War II travails of John Wayne, courtesy of the politically conservative site Big Hollywood.
He had a Harvard Medical School degree, a thriving practice as an orthopedic surgeon, and a nice place in the South End with a Saab parked outside. Then, in the summer of 2002, while performing complicated spinal surgery, Arndt walked out on his patient — who was lying on the operating table, anesthetized and sliced open — so he could go cash his paycheck. The Boston Globe catches up with Dr. David Arndt.
Robert Conrad’s disputed birthday got us reminscing about his old TV commercials for Eveready batteries — the ones that briefly made a catch phrase out of “Go ahead — I dare ya!” He was the Energizer Bunny of his day.(He was also the go-to tough guy of the day, starring as World War II flyboy Pappy Boyington in the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep — part of the setup for the ads.)
[First published on March 1, 2010.][[wysiwyg_imageupload:2230:]]
Star Wars, perhaps the most successful science-fiction film ever made, breaks dozens of laws of physics but has been enjoyed by millions. Its more recent prequels break no more and are, to those of us who grew up with the originals, heartbreakingly worse.Actor David Mitchell reflects on “reality” in the movies.Movie crews don’t much care… until they’re filming a scene about filming a scene:
First it was King Tut Thursday — now here’s Woody Allen Saturday. A funny routine from 1965 that begins with the unlikely (for Woody) phrase, “Um… I shot a moose once.”
Apolo Anton Ohno, come on, man: you shoved him. These things happen. Just own up, baby!We’re talking, of course, about the men’s 500 meter short-track speed skating event on Friday night. Ohno finished second, but then was disqualified after judges ruled he had bumped Francois-Louis Tremblay on the final turn.
Today would have been the 78th birthday of singing legend Johnny Cash. He died in 2003 at the age of 71.It’s also the official release date of his latest record, American Recordings VI: Ain’t No Grave.Both National Public Radio and Rolling Stone magazine look back on his long career.