Richard I of England — Richard Lionheart to you and me — turns 851 today.He’s also called Richard the Lionhearted by some, and Coeur de Lion by the French.Earlier this year, the Daily Telegraph ran an odd little item about a night Richard spent in bed with Phillip II of France.
We’ve finally just seen Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. And what a laugh it was.We first read about the movie in a Vanity Fair article in 2004. The backstory, in brief: in 1981, after Harrison Ford wowed the world as Indiana Jones, a 10-year-old Mississippi kid named Chris Strompolos talked two friends into filming their own shot-by-shot version of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“The spectacle of… watching the two eternally boyish, care-free retired zillionaires try on shoes leaves a bad aftertaste.”Harsh reviews for the new Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld ad for Microsoft.It’s a headscratcher, true enough.
Was John McCain standing in front of an accidental photo on national TV last night?The political blog Talking Points Memo is also on the case.
George Lazenby, the forgotten Bond, turns 69 today.It was ’69, coincidentally, when he played superspy James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That was his only Bond film.He’s not the oldest actor to play Bond, not by a long shot. Sean Connery turned 78 in August, and Roger Moore turns 81 (!) next month. The current Bond, Daniel Craig, is a lad of 40.
“You know, I’ve been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”John McCain formally accepted the Republican nomination for president last night.
Paul Harvey is 90 years old.
“Charlie Brown has a big head, a little body and little feet. Normally, a human takes a step every 16 frames — about two-thirds of a second. But [Charles Schulz’s] characters would look like they were floating at that pace. After several experiments, I had them take a step every six frames — one-fourth of a second…
Courtesy of The Chicago Sun-Times, here’s the transcript of Sarah Palin’s speech to the Republican Convention last night.It seemed to go well. But did she really sneer at Obama’s work as a community organizer? “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” That’s one of the most mean-spirited comments I’ve ever heard in a political speech.
Taking things over the top: Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Bristol Palin, will now attend the Republican National Convention.Bristol is the 17-year-old daughter of GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Bristol’s pregnancy has been a surprise story of the last few days, and Johnston is now being pulled into the spotlight as well.
Don LaFontaine, movie voiceover legend, has died. (At Cedars-Sinai, natch.)
Citizen astronaut Christa McAuliffe would be just 60 years old today. She was a 37-year-old schoolteacher from New Hampshire when she died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned…
Paul Newman, taking his Corvette out for the last time?Newman has not confirmed that he is ill — in June he insisted he was “doing nicely” — but the rumors keep circulating.(Thanks to editor Paul Hehn for the tip.)
Here are two new profiles just requested by our friends at Ask.com: songwriter Kara DioGuardi and teen actress Demi Lovato.
Small-town Wasilla, Alaska has had a lot of press since Sarah Palin became the running mate of John McCain. Palin played high school basketball in Wasilla, was Miss Wasilla of 1984, and was the city’s mayor from 1996-2002.But just how small is Wasilla?
Michael Jackson is 50 years old today.ABC News asks him about his AARP card… then shows how he might have looked now without all that surgery.
Sarah Palin, the first female governor of Alaska, is now the first female Republican candidate for vice president of the United States.John McCain’s aides made the announcement to reporters this morning.
Happy birthday to Senator John McCain. He turns 72 today, having been born on August 29, 1936.Wow: Singer Buddy Holly was born the same year as McCain, 1936. Holly was 22 when he died — he’s been gone almost 50 years now. McCain rolls on.
The Democratic Convention is over and it’s official: Barack Obama is the first African-American presidential nominee of a major American political party. Congratulations to him.His website has the transcript and video of his speech from Denver’s Invesco Field.The Rocky Mountain News headline: ‘Obama accepts nomination, rocks Invesco.’