Mila Kunis a Conservative Hottie!

Argues David Swindle, at Pajamas Media, "Mila Kunis on Casual Sex: ‘It’s like communism — good in theory, in execution it fails’."

PREVIOUSLY: "Mila Kunis GQ Photoshoot August 2011."

Mila Kunis GQ Photoshoot August 2011

At the video, Mila Kunis responds to the news of Sgt. Scott Moore's invitation to the Marine Corps Ball.

And at Gentlemen's Quarterly, "A GQ&A with Mila Kunis":

Also at GQ: "...And She's Funny, Too: Photos."

'Rizzoli & Isles' Second Season Premieres Tonight

Should be starting in a few minutes on the East Coast.

See Atlanta Journal Constitution, "‘Rizzoli & Isles’ Angie Harmon, Sasha Alexander riding high as second season starts." And New York Daily News, "'Rizzoli & Isles' review: Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander have great female friend chemistry."

And a great Angie Harmon interview from last year:

Impressions: The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

I mentioned previously how moved I was by the show in Las Vegas. Charles Spencer, writing at The Telegraph UK in 2006, really captures the feeling:

Everything that was bold and beautiful, fresh and funny, sad and just plain silly about the Beatles comes together in this ravishing and almost indecently spectacular show. It's what old hippies call a head-trip, a constant 90-minute rush of dazzling sights and sounds.

But for those of us who grew up with the Beatles - and the first record I ever bought was She Loves You, aged eight, in 1963 - this latest piece from Cirque du Soleil is also overpoweringly moving. For it achieves the apparently impossible, allowing you to hear the Beatles with fresh ears. At times you seem to be listening to the music of your childhood and youth as if for the first time.

Spencer's a progressive, but folks might put aside ideological reservations and just enjoy the show. We were kids once. "Let It Be" is my most powerful Beatles memory as a child (and "Hey Jude" is right up there), and sometimes nostalgia is overpowering. And recall that recently I've been moved by George Harrison's songs, and it turns out that the one entirely original song at LOVE is Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." It's just so impressive all around.

I'm taking my kids to see LOVE next time we're in Las Vegas. They'll have to listen to some of the CDs, but they're already familiar with a whole lot of The Beatles from hanging out with me, my musical tastes, and from just the radio environment.

Leftists Freaked Out Over News of John Lennon as Republican

Well, mostly Jon Wiener at The Nation, although Joel Achenbach, at WaPo, "can't imagine" John Lennon as a Republican. Cute, isn't that?

But see James Delingpole, at Telegraph UK, "Was John Lennon a secret Reagan Republican?"

Over at the leftie Nation, historian Jon Wiener is having a massive sense of humour failure at this outrageous slur on a man probably second only to Che as an icon of international left-wing street credibility.

Exactly.

This story is so last month, but I couldn't get it out of my mind this week while visiting The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil.

'Get Back'

Okay, this clip's from early in the show. Notice at how the dividing curtains fall at about 45 seconds. The theater is divided into quadrants. The curtains are up as guests are seated. Later throughout the performance projections onto large screens are used as part of the performance. There are also a couple of transitional segments with musical choreography projected as well. The crashing bricks here represent something of the Beatles' origins and search for meaning of the rubble of the war. From the commemorative booklet:

The action suddenly stops cold and we flash back further still, to the chaos and devastation of war. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is destroyed. But there is hope:

'A Day in the Life'

More video:

'Octopus's Garden'

Okay, I promised more from "Love."

"Octopus's Garden" is toward the last third of the performance. I'm looking around for some clips from earlier parts of the show, which begins with background from the Beatles' origins in Liverpool during WWII.

I love this, in any case.

Bonus: Ringo live clip. He was touring last month, and spoke to the 5th anniversary audience by satellite feed.

The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

My wife and I have seen three performances so far by Cirque du Soleil. The shows are simply outstanding, but nothing's left me with the same feelings as the LOVE production. I'll be writing about it this weekend, and posting music videos and commentary. I've never been an absolute Beatles junky. The show was transformative, however. I can see better than ever how important The Beatles are to American culture. And not just from the show, which was so good — exquisite even. It's the fans, the excitement, and the demand for it all. I'll save some thoughts for later this morning. Here's the brief advertisement at the Mirage YouTube page:

The BBC had a write up in 2006, "Love unveils new angle on Beatles."

And last month, at Las Vegas Sun, "Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono lead celebration for ‘Love’ anniversary."

See the write up at Rolling Stone, "Paul McCartney Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of the Beatles 'Love' Show: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon also attended Las Vegas performance."

Emma Watson and Co-Stars Say Farewell to 'Harry Potter' Films

At London's Daily Mail, "Tearful Emma Watson and her Harry Potter co-stars give an emotional farewell at final film premiere."

Also at Telegraph UK, "Emma Watson steals the limelight at the Harry Potter premiere."

Angie Harmon Squelches Rumors That 'Rizzoli & Isles' Characters Are Lesbian

Well, this story gives me a chance to blog Angie Harmon!

At Los Angeles Times, "'Rizzoli & Isles' — are they or aren't they?":

The first season of TNT's crime drama "Rizzoli & Isles" featured an episode with the title "I Kissed a Girl." Its stars, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, played on a softball team, shared some intimate dinners, drank wine over candlelight and hopped into the same bed for girl talk.

But this is not a gay show.

Series creator Janet Tamaro described Harmon's Rizzoli and Alexander's Isles as a "power couple" — the center of a buddy drama, one that broke cable ratings records in its debut run and returns for its second season July 11. But the women are not together, as in together.

Tamaro chalks up the rampant are-they-or-aren't-they discussion to throwing "two gorgeous actresses together who have great, natural chemistry." She contends that Harmon's tomboyish homicide detective and Alexander's stylish medical examiner "are straight women who don't fear the interest in or the speculation about their relationship."

That hasn't stopped gay pop culture blog AfterEllen from dubbing the show, "totally gay, it just doesn't know it yet." Or another lesbian blog, CherryGrrl, from creating a "Rizzoli & Isles" drinking game, advising viewers to take a shot for interaction between the title characters that includes "stares lasting longer than three seconds," "sleeping in the same bed/couch/squad car," "adorable bickering which generally relates to sexual tension," or "complaining to each other about their inability to find a compatible mate, all while being completely compatible mates." The Washington Post even pointed to a hunky visiting FBI agent as a short-lived distraction from the "faintly lesbian undertones that the show keeps trying to establish."

Harmon, a veteran of "Law & Order," said she's familiar with the online chatter and that it's "super fun" to play a role that has some same-sex romantic vibes. She's relishing a character who's gruff and aggressive, the polar opposite of her own girlie personality, she said.

But as close as they are, Rizzoli and Isles are just best friends, she said. Really.

"I hate to disappoint, but these characters are straight," Harmon insisted. "If we lose viewers because of it — sorry!"

And that's amazing, that Harmon would note the possibility of LOSING viewers if the characters weren't gay. Reminds me of my post the other day, on the anti-hetero bigotry of Dan Savage. It's hard out there if you're straight. See: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists."

The Rizzoli & Isles page is here, on TNT.

'I think everyone was kind of suspicious how I was going to be a sexual being, missing key pieces of equipment'

Says British actress Imogen Poots, at Interview:

[CARY] FUKUNAGA: Can we talk about boobs and why they’re necessary for Fright Night?

[IMOGEN] POOTS: Oh, the boob situation. I had to have a bra that made me look like I had bigger boobs because, you may know from being my friend and hanging out with me, that’s not a big situation, regarding my bust [laughs]. So we had to try all these props. I think everyone was kind of suspicious how I was going to be a sexual being, missing key pieces of equipment.

FUKUNAGA: Did you feel like somebody else?

POOTS: I did. The first bra we tried on was so big I got kind of emotional, and Craig Gillespie, the director, was standing there, and the tears were brewing in my eyes—and I’m sure I was blushing so much. I said, “I just feel like a cartoon.” And Craig turned to me and was like, “Okay. We’ll take them a size down.”

There's a Fright Night trailer at the interview, but she's seen here across Michael Douglas in "Solitary Man":

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz Married!

What a couple!

I like them both a lot.

At London's Daily Mail, "The name's Craig, Mrs Craig: Rachel Weisz marries James Bond star Daniel."

The Bond films are great, although I liked Craig in "Defiance," which I wrote about at the time, a couple of years back:

And I enjoyed Rachel Weisz's sexy, stoical character in "Enemy at the Gates," a thrilling World War II film. Both of Weisz's parents escaped the Holocaust:

VIDEO: Katy Perry Rolling Stone Photo Shoot

At London's Daily Mail, "'I wanted to lose my ample curves': Katy Perry reveals her unusual teenage dream to Rolling Stone."

And at Rolling Stone, "Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story."

Peter Falk, 1927-2011

My parents let me and my sisters stay up to watch "Columbo" back in the day.

But I'll never forget seeing Falk in "Wings of Desire," in 1987:

An obituary is at Los Angeles Times, "Peter Falk dies at 83; actor found acclaim as 'Columbo'." And at New York Times, "Peter Falk, Rumpled and Crafty Actor on ‘Columbo,’ Dies at 83."

'Courage, New Hampshire' Premiers Sunday

At Hollywood Reporter, "Tea Partiers Create Their Own TV Show and Production Company (Exclusive)."

Also at Big Government, "‘Courage, New Hampshire’: Tea Party’s Shot Across Liberal Hollywood’s Bow." It's playing at the Krikorian Theater in Monrovia, but tickets are sold out. The program's going to DVD, so something to keep to look forward to.

No doubt. WaPo's Rachel Weiner concurs, "Can liberals start their own tea party?" (via Memeorandum).

Britney Spears at Staples Center

A concert review, at Los Angeles Times:

And pics: "Britney Spears’ Femme Fatale Tour — Is Britney Having Fun Yet?"

'X-Men: First Class'

When we saw "Super 8" a couple of weekends back, the movie previews were wicked: "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Captain America," Green Lantern," "Zookeeper," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2," and "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1."

I thought my youngest son would give me fist-bump during "Transformers," but it might have been a little scary, so he kept his fist to himself. But when "Captain America" previewed, he looked over and said, "You and me, you and me!", so I guess we're going to that one.

Anyway, on Father's Day my oldest boy said let's go to the movies, and we saw "X-Men: First Class," which as great. That said, mixed reviews at Los Angeles Times and New York Times:

Facebook Restores Roger Ebert Page After 'Jackass' Controversy

His Facebook page is here.

Lame though.

Turns out that Ebert was on both Facebook and Twitter, talkin' trash on Ryan Dunn, who died Monday in a car crash in West Goshen, Pennsylvania. CNN has a report. And Philidephia Inquirer and Wall Street Journal. Also at Gossip Cop, "Roger Ebert’s Facebook Page Taken Down Amid Ryan Dunn Controversy."

Ebert has a write up at his blog, "Friends don't let friends drink and drive." The dude loves the controversy.

Background on Ryan Dunn at The Other McCain, "‘It Appears He Was Drinking Heavily Before Climbing Behind the Wheel …’"

U2 Live at Angel Stadium Anaheim

At LAT, "Live Review: U2 at Angel Stadium":

U2, formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1976, returned to the Southland to make up for two concerts they were forced to cancel when singer Bono, 51, injured his back during rehearsals last spring.

During that forced intermission, other real-life hurdles challenged the notion that the band was indestructible. U2’s two principal songwriters, Bono and guitarist The Edge, teamed up with director Julie Taymor for a Broadway adaptation of Spider-Man called “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” that has become the butt of jokes, the scene of injuries and the target of scathing reviews for nearly two years.

In an early critique of a preview "Spider-Man" performance, Times critic Charles McNulty called the music created by the two “a cacophonous brew.” The refurbished show officially opened last week, and the new reviews aren’t much better. Add to that Thursday's news that the California Coastal Commission had rejected The Edge's development proposal, decried by many conservationists, to build five mansions on an undeveloped site above Malibu, and, well, this hasn’t been a great year for U2.
So the question pre-concert became: How deep were these wounds? Could the power of music help redeem a band that throughout its career has declared over and over again its desire and ability to do just that? Basically, could U2 still bring it?

At the beginning of the concert, not really. Starting with “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” the band sounded muddled, the engine of the music not yet warm, the stadium not yet tuned, the fans experiencing the initial adrenaline rush but not yet buried inside the rhythms. And “I Will Follow,” the first cut on the band’s first album, "Boy” (1980), hasn’t aged well, even if it pulls at the nostalgia strings for many; the rhyme scheme is young and clumsy, the guitar line relatively simple and undynamic.

And when, during “Get on Your Boots,” two rolling bridges that connect different parts of the circular stage first rolled into place and The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton played in the middle above the crowd, the maneuver felt very 2009; too staged, too postured, and a touch clumsy -- even though the song is one of the danciest, most propulsive songs in the band’s catalog.

But something magical happened about 20 minutes in, during “Elevation.” Maybe it was the overjoyed crowd bellowing the song’s “Woooo-oooo” chorus in unison, or the way the lights reflected off the masses. Whatever it was, it rushed across Angel Stadium like a cold front, leaving in its wake the sacred sensation that all music lovers seek. The sound and vision clicked, the world started sparkling, the audience moving and singing as one. The moment swirled as Bono went carnal on us: “Higher than the sun, you shoot me from a gun,” he declared to his lover, and the thousands did it too. “I need you to elevate me here/At the corner of your lips/As the orbit of your hips’/Eclipse.