Fan Fare

from Photographers Blog:

Off the runway at NY Fashion Week

Reuters photographer Brendan McDermid shares his experience covering New York Fashion Week, with the logistics of shooting backstage, the shows and everything in between.

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.

No one wins in David Letterman blackmail arrest

David Letterman, victim, victor or philanderer?

The married “Late Show” host’s revelation that he had sex with female staff members from his show, and that he worked with authorities to have an alleged blackmail culprit arrested, places Letterman in the odd position of having apparently vanquished a social parasite, but at the same time having his dirty laundry uncovered in the process.

Certainly, the audience was on his side during Letterman’s 10-minute exposition of what he first described as a “little story” he wanted to tell them. The audience clapped and laughed at even the most awkward moments of his tale, such as when he admitted to, as he put it, the “creepy” detail from his life at the heart of the alleged extortion plot, namely that he had sex with women who work on his show.

At one point, an apparently befuddled Letterman said, ”Now why is that funny?”

The question is whether Letterman’s television audience is also inclined to laugh off the whole affair. It seems no one can win in this whole debacle, not Letterman, not his family and not the women who were involved with him.

Certainly, Letterman himself seemed chastened by the whole thing, saying that he was motivated to protect his family and also his job.

“48 Hours” producer Robert Halderman has been arrested in the alleged extortion plot. (Read about that here). Celebrity news website TMZ reports that Halderman was forced to pay about $6,000 a month in child support back in 2007, in what will surely be picked apart as a possible motive for his alleged $2 million extortion scheme.

Marvel’s super-heroes look to invade cell phones

In a sign of the merchandising potential the Walt Disney Co bought with its $4 billion purchase of comic book house and movie studio Marvel Entertainment,  Marvel on Tuesday teamed up with ring-tone company Vringo to launch a new service — cell phone videos of characters like Wolverine, Captain America and the Fantastic Four.

Customers can view animated clips of Marvel characters on their mobile phones, and turn them into video ringtones. In addition to video ringtones, Vringo also has a service that allows customers to call their friends, who would then see a Marvel super-hero or villain on their phones, and identify the caller that way.

The Marvel video clips available on cell phones can be seen here.

Disney officials have cited the merchandising potential of Marvel as one reason that the deal makes sense for them. Now that we know that Marvel characters who have long graced lunch boxes and T-shirts can invade cell phones, can the day be far away when we see your iPod comes equipped with Spider Sense? If it can ward off bad music purchases, it’s all good.

Audrina Patridge talks about new slasher film “Sorority Row”

Hollywood starlet and tabloid favorite Audrina Patridge takes to the big screen in horror movie “Sorority Row,” which opens September 11.

She plays a sorority girl who ends up being the victim of a prank gone wrong — which later sparks a killing spree at the sorority.

She talked with Reuters about the film and her upcoming reality TV show on MTV, which you can read here.

In the video below, she shares what her favorite horror movies are, talks about her character in “Sorority Row” and dishes on bonding with her fellow castmates.

It turns out, Patridge said, that on the set there was none of the cattiness that colors “The Hills,” the top-rated reality series on MTV that made her a celebrity. Click below to watch the video.

Michael Jackson “alive” hoax video came from German TV station

German television station RTL has admitted to producing that video that emerged last month and appeared to show Michael Jackson alive and getting out of a Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office van, which spread quickly after it was posted on the Internet.

The station told U.S. news outlet CNN on Tuesday that the video was produced to show how easily rumors can spread online, such as the rumor that Jackson faked his death, used a coroner’s van as his private, incognito “taxi” service and then emerged in the bowels of a building, where he no doubt is hard at work cutting another album for later sale, Tupac-style.

Well, Jackson is definitely dead, in fact sadly his family will gather for his burial on Thursday in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. But until then, his fans can always pretend he is alive by watching this German production. The video is below. In the meantime, do Fan Fare readers believe the German station was acting in good faith by producing this video, and claiming it was all for the good of public experimentation?

Robin Williams talks about heart operation

Robin Williams, who stars in the movie “World’s Greatest Dad” opening on Friday, had a brush with mortality back in March when he had to undergo surgery to replace a faulty valve in his heart.

He talked to Reuters about the movie, and you can read that here. But in the video below, sitting next to his friend and comedian Robert “Bobcat” Goldthwait – the filmmaker behind “World’s Greatest Dad” – Williams discusses the heart operation.

The video begins with Williams describing his growing realization during his “Weapons of Self-Destruction” comedy tour that something was wrong with his health. Check out the blink-and-you-miss-it impression of actor Christopher Walken that Williams does midway through the video.

It’s a riff on Walken’s “more cow bell”  comedy sketch from “Saturday Night Live” available here, only Williams is talking about the cow valve that doctors sewed onto his heart. Williams plans to resume his comedy tour next month.

Michael Jackson’s doctor speaks out

Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal doctor to Michael Jackson who was with the King of Pop when he suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25, has spoken out in a video statement. And you can read about it here. But to watch his own words, click below.  

Will this video do anything to dampen the public interest in Murray that has arisen since the police probe into Jackson’s death? On Monday, an attorney for Jackson’s mother, Katherine, reportedly said she is considering filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray. But while police are investigating Jackson’s death and the treatment he received from doctors, they have not formally charged Murray or anyone with any wrongdoing.

Another side of Bob Dylan: Kinky domestic violence

Bob Dylan is entering the torture-porn comedy arena with a new video from his chart-topping album.      The on-screen action in “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” follows a bloody battle between an attractive young woman and her older male captor in a seedy motel room. After stabbing him she escapes, runs him over with a car, and then smacks him — with a passionate kiss.      Dylan doesn’t actually appear in the video, having perhaps learned from “Tight Connection to My Heart” and a handful of features that acting is not his strong suit.      His Columbia Records label does not know if he has even seen it. The company has carte blanche with his videos, and its main job is “to push the envelope, to try not to be predictable,” said Greg Linn, Columbia’s vice president of marketing.       The video premiered Tuesday on the cable channel IFC and its Web site. The company “jumped at the chance” to get an exclusive two-day window, said Craig Parks, IFC’s vice-president of digital media. IFC said the video was the right fit for its audience, which skews towards young male hipsters. But it garnered a hostile reception from fans, judging by comments posted on the Dylan fan Web site Expecting Rain.      The low-budget video was filmed in one day last month at the Astro Motel in downtown Los Angeles, with Australian filmmaker Nash Edgerton directing actors Amanda Aardsma and Joel Stoffer.      The actors did most of their own stunts, said Aardsma, who likened her feisty role to the one played by Rose McGowan, in Robert Rodriguez’ zombie thriller “Planet Terror. ” “The next day, I was pretty bruised and battered,” she said.      The video explores the thin line between love and hate. “It leaves you wondering whether they’re in a relationship or she’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome,” Aardsma added.      Linn said “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” was chosen over other cuts from “Together Through Life,” because it’s a thought-provoking tune that “sums up the whole record.” Romantic musings are prevalent on the album, but there’s also a dark side, and label executives started “vamping” from there in sketching out the video’s concept, he said.      The song could be seen as slightly creepy. “Oh well I love you pretty baby, You’re the only love I’ve ever known,” Dylan sings. “Just as long as you stay with me, The whole world is my throne.” Or it could just be a simple love song.

The album, meanwhile, fell four places to No. 5 on the U.S. pop album chart on Wednesday. In the U.K., it has just begun a second week at the top.