Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Fans seek midnight romance under light of “New Moon”
Fans lined up Thursday night at movie theaters to be among the first to get bitten by the “New Moon” phenomenon, the sequel to last year’s “Twilight.” The vampire romance movie ended up setting a box office record of $26.3 million for those midnight screenings by drawing fans like the ones profiled in our Fan Fare video below.
Who will go to “New Moon?” Lots of teen girls, for sure, but also moms who are into the story, young women and the men they drag along on dates. Those groups are expected to snap up tickets to the tune of about $100 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices this weekend. That’s a lot of howling at the “New Moon.”
“New Moon,” of course, has generated plenty of buzz. Tracking firm Trendrr said that in the last three months, more than 100,000 “New Moon” related videos have been added to YouTube.com. Trendrr also said that on Thursday, Twitter.com received more than 91,000 posts related to “New Moon.”
But despite all that popularity, the Vatican is not on-board. This week, an official with the Catholic Church called the film “nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message.” This despite influential film critic Roger Ebert saying that the “Twilight Saga is an extended metaphor for teen chastity.” Who to believe?
For the uninitiated, “New Moon” is the second installment in the “Twilight” franchise based on the books by Stephenie Meyer. In the books and the movies, high school student Bella Swan (Kristen Stewartin the films) falls in love with the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). But in “New Moon,” there’s another boy competing for Bella’s affection, and that is werewolf Jacob Black, played by 17 year-old actor Taylor Lautner, photographed above at right. As a result, some fans going to “New Moon” are on Team Edward and some are on Team Jacob. As if any fan support is going to change which way Bella’s vampire-loving heart really leans.
Check out the video below.
“Dancing” loses its DeLay
Apparently, battling bug infestations and stubborn members of Congress is easier than making two bum feet do the Cha-cha-cha, as Tom DeLay has bowed out of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Of all the contestants on this season’s “Dancing,” DeLay definitely got the most attention when the cast was announced. But it turns out, he may not be missed all that much.
A poll from entertainment website PopEater.com found that 68 percent of respondents are not sad to see DeLay leave “Dancing.”
DeLay, a former bug exterminator and U.S. House of Representatives majority leader, said on Tuesday’s show that he is leaving because of stress fractures in both feet. “Dancing” is notorious for inflicting injuries on its cast members, inspiring talk that the show suffers from a “curse.” In truth, it’s just a program that demands a lot from cast members, who often come in physically unprepared.
It doesn’t look as if DeLay, whose nicknames over the years have included “Hot Tub Tom” and “The Hammer,” is leaving with any hard feelings. When he joined the program, his professional dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, teased the Republican DeLay by saying, “Tom is very conservative, so a lot of hip shaking is not up his alley.”
But speaking to US Weekly magazine after DeLay announced his departure, Burke said, “He taught me that politicians can dance!”
DeLay jokingly lamented, “I haven’t made her a conservative yet!”
I think it was neat that a major politician chose to be on “DWTS”! I have loved the show since it first came on and it’s appeal is that it attracts “stars” from all walks of life. It’s never good when the contestants are injured, and I and my husband especially hate that Cheryl won’t be dancing anymore this season. She is such an awesome dancer and she is just gorgeous too! She can make anyone look like a great dancer!
Director Kevin Smith steels self for 24-hour Twitter marathon
(Note: some strong language in quote and book title)
Filmmaker Kevin Smith has some faithful fans, the kind of movie buffs who — at least in the online world — would love to have an all-night chat with Silent Bob, Smith’s movie screen alter ego, ironically named because Smith is anything but silent. In fact, Smith is loquacious enough to fulfill his fans’ desire for nonstop conversation, by planning for a 24-hour Twitter marathon of questions-and-answers on Monday.
In a release announcing the “event,” Smith joked that he has spent a long time prepping for this day.
“I’ve been training for this my whole life, simply by being a lazy fat-ass who’d rather stare at a screen than better himself with a brisk constitutional,” Smith said in a statement.
Smith has some other training in the non-stop blabbermouth arena. Back in 2005, at a theater in his home state of New Jersey, Smith held a Q&A session with an audience that lasted from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. And he has often kept in touch with his fans online, going way back to the grungy 1990s.
Smith last year came out with the comedy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Smith told Reuters at the time that Americans are too uptight about sex, and that there is “no better way of knowing a person than knowing what their sex life is.”
Smith’s Twitter page is http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith, so that’s the place to go on Monday to hear him wax poetic or nostalgic or pornographic about anything he wants to discuss.
I have asked about a million questions….he hasn’t answered them yet!! Times p almost! 
Jackson’s Neverland fans: They came, they waited, now they can Beat It
When the family of Michael Jackson on Wednesday told the world to expect no public memorial at Neverland Valley Ranch, it came too late for the many fans and journalists who, in the hopes of seeing the King of Pop one last time, rushed to take up residence near his former retreat in central California.
Hotels in the area quickly booked up after media reports on Tuesday that said Jackson’s body would come to Neverland. A representative from one inn told celebrity website TMZ that it sold out in 20 minutes when the news broke. Authorities in the area braced for a crowd of mourners, and the inevitable overload of the rural area’s small road network.
Fans bearing flowers and wreaths gathered outside the gates of Neverland Ranch. Tim Brown told Reuters that Jackson’s death compares to Elvis Presley’s sudden demise in 1977. “No matter how you feel about him personal life, his music, really told a story that touched so many people,” Brown said.
The fans expected to see Jackson in a public viewing on Friday, but now that his family has said not to expect any memorial service at Neverland, all those fans will have to go home, or await official word on where the memorial will happen and rush over there. Of course, it’s not just fans who are left in the lurch. A representative at the Marriott Hotel in nearby Buellton told Reuters that his establishment was mainly full of journalists.
Michael Jackson was one of the greatest pop stars of all time, but give me a break – hanging out at the gates to his former residence in the hope of catching a glimpse of something? What’s that about? There’s no reason to do that and to think that his fans deserve better is absurd. Michael was an entertainer and fans paid for entertainment. He’s not expected to put on one last “show” in his casket for his “fans”. Let him rest.
