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Sep 2011 14

by A.J. Focht

Last Wednesday saw the first big batch of DC’s new 52 released. Reviews were as mixed as they were for Justice League #1 the previous week. A few of the comics were praised here and there, but there seems to be one clear winner for the week. Animal Man #1 has caught everyone’s attention, and I have yet to hear a bad word about it. For reviews on all of last week’s releases, check out Nerd Bastards‘ full report.

Potential major *SPOILERS* for The Avengers have been leaked. If you don’t want to know who the big secret villain is, just skip the next paragraph.

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Sep 2011 13

By Fred Topel

“I want to write to what seems like a fitting ending to the series.” – Charlie Day

FX introduced the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to the Television Critics Association with their series of four unique TV spots. With one spot for each character, they feature the gang in overly dramatic situations that are innately hilarious, because it’s the gang.

Charlie Day’s was a Miracle Worker spoof where Danny DeVito teaches him to read and pump water. Charlie’s character is known to be illiterate. After the gang’s presentation to the critics, I got some quality time with Day as he walked from the stage to his next interview. It was a little shorter than the usual interview, but still a solid walk and talk. The Sunny gang and I go way back. At one TCA party, I rode Santa Monica pier rides with Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney, and I was on the set of their classic “Charlie Writes a Musical” episode.

Day created the show with Howerton and McElHenney and hired Kaitlin Olsen for the FX show. Danny DeVito joined the show in season two, and the gang has relentlessly practiced hilariously bad behavior. They regularly take the politically incorrect position on hot button topics like abortion and the economic crisis (see episodes like “Dee and Dennis Go On Welfare”).

As with any success, movies came calling. Day has costarred in studio comedies like Going the Distance and Horrible Bosses. His next movie will be Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Sunny is signed for at least two more seasons on FX and Day addressed all of that, plus his standards of The Green Guy and Charlie’s crush on the waitress in the time we had.

Read our exclusive interview with Charlie Day on SuicideGirls.com.

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Sep 2011 09

by Daniel Robert Epstein

“You really do have to fight.”
– Joe Eszterhaus

Joe Eszterhaus enjoyed a significant run as the number one screenwriter in Hollywood. He worked on popular films like Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and Basic Instinct, but by the mid-90’s he had suffered a couple of major misfires (Showgirls, Jade) and was dealing with some health issues. Eszterhaus stopped working for Hollywood and began penning books. His latest is The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood which is pages of hysterical and insightful anecdotes about screenwriting in Hollywood.

Read our exclusive interview with Joe Eszterhaus on SuicideGirls.com.

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Sep 2011 07

by A.J. Focht

Wednesday August 31st marked the beginning of the DC universe relaunch. The first edition of Justice League was released with mixed reviews. Regardless of what the critics thought about DC’s decision to reboot, thanks to healthy pre-orders, Justice League #1 is was the best selling comic of the year before it even went on sale. The first issue managed to sell out in a few days; the second order only lasted another couple of days. DC has now called for the third printing of the comics.

The DC reboot isn’t the only place that Superman’s costume got an overhaul. Close ups of Henry Cavill’s suit from Man of Steel reveal it looks a little like a scaly diving-suit; honestly, if you removed the crest and painted it orange and blue, it would make an excellent outfit for Aquaman. The images are missing the traditional cape, meaning director Zack Snyder is either going sans cape, or it’s going to be done in CG.

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Sep 2011 07

By Nicole Powers

“You can’t have a AAA credit rating with a junk rated Congress.”
– Harry Markopolos

Harry Markopolos has a way with numbers. It’s this innate ability that led him to uncover Bernie Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme almost a decade before market forces ultimately leveraged a confession out of the spectacularly crooked investment fund manager.

In 1999, while working as a portfolio manager at Rampart, a Boston based investment management company, Markopolos had been asked to reverse engineer a fund offered by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC so his firm could compete by offering a similar product. After studying Madoff’s marketing material for a mere 5 minutes, Markopolos realized that the results the fund claimed to achieve were highly improbable, a further 4 hours of mathematical modeling proved the stated returns were categorically impossible by legal means.

Smelling a rat, Markopolos assembled an informal investigative team to probe Madoff’s operation further. In May 2000, when Madoff’s scheme was only a $3 to $7 billion fraud, they submitted their first whistleblowing report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It was summarily ignored. Frustrated but undeterred, Markopolos’ tenacious group, dubbed The Foxhounds, submitted numerous subsequent memos (in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008) offering even more evidence, to no avail. A 2005 missive had what one might consider to be an attention-grabbing title -“The World’s Largest Hedge Fund Is A Fraud” – but even this failed to get an appropriate response from those charged with policing Wall Street.

It was only following the crash of 2008, when Madoff’s investors were clamoring to liquidate their assets and he was unable to meet their demands, that the man responsible for the largest act of financial fraud in world history was forced to fess up. By then, Madoff’s “fund” had grown on paper to a value of $65 billion. In the following days, the complete and utter failure of the SEC came to light, as press outlets – who had also been alerted by Markopolos, but by and large had declined to report his findings before Madoff’s arrest – competed to interview the “Madoff whistleblower.” With egg on their faces, the government also sought out Markopolos’ knowledge and expertise, and on February 4, 2009 he delivered some riveting televised testimony in front of the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Subcommittee.

In March 2010, Markopolos published a book chronicling his investigations into Madoff and the utter incompetence he bore witness to during his dealings with the SEC. Called No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, it became a New York Times bestseller. A new film, Chasing Madoff, based on the book is currently in cinemas. SuicideGirls caught up with Markopolos, who now works as a freelance investigative accountant exposing Fortune 500 wrongdoing, to talk about Madoff and the current state of play in our financial markets. We also asked him to focus his considerable financial acumen our nation’s balance sheet and assess the future prospects of our economy. Given Markopolos’ track record, his conclusions about America’s should-be junk status are indeed cause for concern, if not outright alarm.

Read our exclusive interview with Harry Markopolos on SuicideGirls.com.

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Sep 2011 06

By Fred Topel

“I doubt I’m going to be playing characters in their ’20s for a little while.”
– Britt Robertson

Britt Robertson is starring on a new show, The Secret Circle. Based on the books by The Vampire Diaries’ L.J. Smith and produced by Kevin Williamson, who also worked on the vampiric show, Secret Circle already has a bewitching fan base before it’s even on air. Last week Robertson was driving to the set at 3 PM for an evening shoot. She had a new movie opening and wanted to get the word out, so through the crackle of her cell phone we got an interview.

The Family Tree is an edgy indie dramedy about the Burnett family. Robertson plays Kelly Burnett, a provocative teenager who uses profanity to push her mother’s buttons. She even takes off her shirt at the breakfast table, though classily this scene is filmed from behind. Mrs. Burnett has an accident that gives her amnesia, so while the family deals with that drama, Kelly also gets involved with a fellow student and teacher’s secret relationship.

Robertson has been playing teenagers for some time, even though she’s now 21. She’s got one of those faces that still passes for 16, which can be an asset in casting calls. Her most visible role has been as Lux Cassidy on The CW’s drama Life Unexpected, which lasted two years. She also had a cameo in this year’s Scream 4.

On The Secret Circle, she plays Cassie Blake, who moves to the town of Chance Harbor after her mom’s death. There, the children of the other five witch families try to expose her to the secret past from which her mother always tried to protect her. Five episodes into her new show, this is still a new world for Robertson, so after discussing her new movie we caught up on the witchcraft of The Secret Circle.

Read our exclusive interview with Britt Robertson on SuicideGirls.com.

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Sep 2011 02

by Blogbot

This Sunday, September 4th, SG Radio’s in-studio guests will be Bravo TV’s Millionaire Matchmakers, Destin Pfaff and Rachel Federoff. Now in its 5th season, the highly addictive reality show follows the romance fortunes of members of the infamous Millionaire’s Club, a Los Angeles-based matchmaking service strictly for those with extremely desirable bank balances (this last week’s ‘The Prince and The Geek’ episode was a classic!). Destin and Rachel will be offering up dating advice worth its weigh in gold, and will also be talking about Destin’s new movie, Sushi Girl (which he co-produced and co-wrote –– see trailer), a killer thriller which stars Sonny Chiba (Street Fighter), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Noah Hathaway (Neverending Story), and newcomer Cortney Palm in the title role.

Tune in to SG Radio this Sunday September 4th (10 PM til midnight) for two hours of dating advice and movie talk – and don’t let your moma listen in!

Listen to SG Radio live Sunday night from 10 PM til Midnight on Indie1031.com

Got questions? Then dial our studio hotline digits this Sunday between 10 PM and midnight PST: 877-900-1031

Busy on Sunday? Then find all our podcasts on iTunes and listen at your leisure.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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