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from Fan Fare:
Yo man! “Twilight” hunk Robert Pattinson … as a rapper???
Thought you knew all there was to know about the "Twilight" movies and their stars?
Think again.
Heart-throb Robert Pattinson has revealed a surprising ambition before he turned to acting. Seems one of his first career aspirations was to be a rapper.
"I used to want to be a rapper when I was, like, 14," the British actor, now 24, said during an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" with co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, which is set to air on Thursday.
He recalled that he perfected his American accent by watching Hollywood movies. "But Kristen thinks I do the most terrible American accent."
"No, no I don't," Stewart laughed in response. "Occasionally, some word will come out, and I'll be like, 'We don't say that!' "
Rapper or vampire? How do you prefer your Pattinson?
from Commentaries:
Is Goldman Sachs evil?
Is Goldman Sachs really a "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"?
That's the view of journalist Matt Taibbi in a long article in Rolling Stone magazine. Taibbi blames the firm for almost single-handedly orchestrating every investment calamity since the Great Depression. And judging by much of the reaction in the blogosphere, Taibbi's view has become the accepted meme when talking about Goldman.
Yet that simple storyline, as compelling as it may be, is far from the truth.
The reality is Goldman is no more of a sinner than any other Wall Street bank. Is Goldman really any more responsible for the inflating and the bursting of the housing bubble than
But what does separate Goldman from the pack is that it consistently plays the trading game with a far more ruthless attitude.
Goldman's rough-and-tumble style is on display in the case of a former employee accused of stealing some of its secret proprietary trading codes. According to the criminal complaint, Goldman learned about the alleged skulduggery of its former employee, Sergey Aleynikov, sometime in mid-June. But the firm waited until July 1, right before the start of the Fourth of July holiday, to notify federal authorities of the theft.
Aleynikov's late evening arrest on July 3 forced an unusual holiday court appearance the next day in federal court in Manhattan. The terms of the bail were rather steep. And, of course, the banks were closed for the next two days -- all but insuring Aleynikov would spend a few more nights in jail.
It’s ok for others such as CIBC to take a loss thanks to GS, but it’s not ok for GS to take a loss via AIG so that Paulson (former GS CEO) has government bailout AIG to pay GS in full through AIG and to also give TARP to GS and to change it into bank holding company so it can have access to very low interest money that it can lend out for more. It’s good having connections with influence and power that can save your neck at just they right time that your rival Lehman Brothers didn’t. This is a form of plutarchy.
from Global News Journal:
Blood-suckers and blood-thirsty revenge: an interview with South Korean director Park Chan-wook
South Korean director Park Chan-wook talked vampires and the movie industry at an interview with Reuters in Seoul this week as his movie “Thirst” prepares to enter the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival which opens today. Park’s movie “Oldboy” won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004 and this is his first film in competition since then.
"Thirst" stars Song Kang-ho and Kim Ok-vin as a priest turned vampire and a femme fatale respectively.
Here is a transcript of the Reuters interview with Park, translated from Korean.
SPOILER ALERT: About halfway through this interview, Park speaks about the ending for “Thirst”
(Reuters pictures by Jo Yong-hak. Park Chan-wook at his office in Seoul and actress Kim Ok-vin)
Reuters: Your film “Oldboy” left such a deep impression with global audiences. A lot of people at Cannes are going to be comparing this film and “Oldboy”. How do you think these two films compare?
Park Chan-wook: Well, I made several other films after “Oldboy”, and now it feels like I only have dim memories of making that movie. So while shooting “Thirst”, I didn’t particularly have “Oldboy” in mind, nor did I try to make a better, or more interesting film than “Oldboy”. Of course audiences will be comparing the two. But as a person who made this film, it’s a difficult question to answer. I would like to direct the question to audiences and I’m curious about what they would say.
