“I’m allergic to a certain level of contrivance.”
– Larry Charles
When the Borat movie was released last year you couldnt even count the number of publicity appearances that Sacha Baron Cohen made in character. Those appearances, along with creating a hysterical and powerful movie, turned Borat into a monstrous hit and a cultural phenomenon that crossed all lines of gender, race and politics.
Much of the attention for the film was given, and rightly so, went to Cohen, but for most movies the director is always an essential element. Borat‘s director is Larry Charles, previously best known for his writer/producer work on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. Charles also directed another mop topped Jew named Bob Dylan in Masked and Anonymous. I got a chance to talk with Charles about creating the movie, the politics behind the scenes and how he got those people to say such outrageous things.
“All of us want to offend every single person.”
– Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
You may not recognize or be able to pronounce the name Cherry Chevapravatdumrong but over the next few years she will become one of your favorite writers. Already a valued member of the Family Guy writing staff Chevapravatdumrong has written some of my favorite recent episodes such as “Sibling Rivalry” where Lois decides to gain a lot of weight and “Prick Up Your Ears” which has a Christian group take over sex education class at James Woods High School. Chevapravatdumrong has teamed up with SuicideGirls favorite Alex Borstein to write the new Family Guy book, It takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One, which is the companion book to the upcoming episode where Lois becomes mayor of Quahog.
I’ve had a crush on Sandra Bernhard ever since her spread in Playboy years ago. But even before that I loved her comedy and her work in films like Hudson Hawk (Ball! Ball!) and her great role on Roseanne. But Bernhard is best known for her acerbic comedy showcased in the many CDs she has released. Her latest is Everything Bad and Beautiful, and it’s her best yet.
“It was an important film to be made.”
– Chris O’Dowd
Chris O’Dowd’s breakthrough role was playing uber geek Roy Tenneman in the Emmy Award winning British sitcom The IT Crowd. His character is well endowed in the information technology department but not so blessed when it comes to social skills. It’s safe to say, however, that in real life the exact opposite is true.
The highly personable Irish actor, who’s starring in three upcoming films – The Boat That Rocked (written by Richard “Bridget Jones” Curtis), Hippie Hippie Shake (with Sienna Miller and Derek Jacobi), and Gulliver’s Travels (with Jack Black and Emily Blunt) – displayed a distinct lack of prowess when it came to dealing with digital phone technology during SuicideGirls protracted attempt to interview him.
The first time Chris called in, he’d just embarked on a hike in the cell phone black hole that is Hollywood’s Runyon Canyon park. Thus our conversation was unintentionally aborted just as it had begun. It would take a total of five phone calls, including two more entirely aborted ones, before our interview was complete.
The Wolfpack is back and in perfect form as The Hangover Part II opens in theaters and brings with it a sequel that rivals the original.
After a nearly half a billion dollar first film, director Todd Phillips brought the heat to amp up the energy for a second feature following Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug, this time as they travel to Thailand for a wedding. It’s Dr. Stu Price (well he’s really just a dentist) taking his vows this time, but he’s bringing his nearest and dearest to his fiancée’s homeland for the ceremony.
Little did I know that the Scottish guy that took over Howard Hessemans role on Head of the Class, Billy Connolly, would go on to become one of the funnier comedians working today. But over the past ten years Connolly has gotten more acclaim as an actor in films like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Last Samurai and SuicideGirls favorite Boondock Saints. But his new film, Fido, showcases Connollys best role yet. Fido is set in an alternate universe in 1950s America. A mysterious gas came down to Earth and turned all dead people into zombies. After the great zombie war, secure towns have been established, and with the help of a special collar, zombies can become servants, and in some cases, peoples lovers. Connolly plays Fido, a zombie that has been brought into a family where the father is terrified of zombies. But the little boy in the family, Timmy, is being ignored by father and decides to adopt Fido as a pet. I got a chance to interview Billy Connolly during the Fido junket in Manhattan.
The other day I came across a picture which had the caption: “OMG, I love macaroni so much. I’m such a nerd.” This irked me to the very core of my being. Your quaint quirks don’t make you a nerd. Going to see a comic-based movie doesn’t make you a nerd.
Jeff Foxworthy has his famous You Might Be A Redneck If… sketch, and with the rising mainstream popularity of geek culture, there comes a necessity to distinguish true nerds from recent converts, so I thought I’d come up with a similarly styled list of rules to help separate the fo’ realz from the wannabes.
Now, many other lists say that nerds must wear glasses (preferably with tape around the bridge), speak Klingon (binary, C++, or some other geeky language), and have all the social graces of an ostrich with its head in the sand, but these should not be the required defining hallmarks of a great, eclectic group of hardcore fans of all things geek: video games, science, science fiction, comics, etc.
We are more than the negative stereotypes that have often been levied against us. So without further ado, I present my homage to Foxworthy and true geekdom, You Might be a Nerd if…
