Matt.weiland

It’s always kind of uncomfortable writing about celebrities after they’ve died on the Internet because there’s a certain exploitative quality to it that doesn’t sit well. In fact, some of the tributes that came out hours after Paul Walker’s death felt a little dishonest, and I got the sense that some bloggers were in a kind of competition to see who could say the nicest things about Paul Walker and his movies, and in many cases, those bloggers and movie critics were the very ones who had maligned Walker as an actor throughout his career.

As Vince wrote on FilmDrunk, writing about celebrity deaths in the social media age can get really weird. Daniel Carlson, I thought, wrote the most honest, touching eulogy of Paul Walker on the Internet, and by being honest about Walker as an actor, he was better able to pay his respects to Walker the man. But all the words that the Internet has written about the generosity and kindness of Paul Walker this week were absolutely deserved, as the report below can attest.

A few years ago, Walker was browsing in a high-end jewelry store, where a man who had just returned from a tour in Iraq was looking at engagement rings with his fiancee. When his fiancee spotted a ring that she “really really liked,” her soon-to-be husband saw the $9,000 price tag and said, “I’m sorry honey, but I really can’t afford that.” After they left the store, however, Walker paid for the ring, the couple got a call to return to the store, and were floored to learn that the ring had been paid for by an anonymous saint.

The jewelry clerk was sworn to secrecy (and didn’t even reveal it to the couple), but in the wake of Walker’s death, she decided to tell the story, and a really sweet story it is.

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, the studio behind Fast and Furious put a nice little tribute together for Walker and posted it to YouTube this morning.

(via)

If you happen to find out who this jerk-ass non-tipper is, you are hereby ordered to yell "U Mad?????" right in his face, many times over.

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I used to throw my controller across the room when I got frustrated. These days, with touch screens and gyroscopes and motion sensors, that's probably not such a good idea. I'm well out of the video game loop by this point, but I can tell you this: I damn sure wouldn't want my console enforcing its puritan morality on me.

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We’ve all heard about what happened to Ted Williams after he died. His son John-Henry Williams had his body transferred to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona where they froze his body in the hopes that, one day, medical science could reanimate The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived. There has been controversy and litigation…

A police officer arrested three teens last week as they were standing outside a store in downtown Rochester, New York. Their crime: Waiting for a school bus.

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It seems that Christoph Waltz and Keith Richards will be part of the cast of Pirates of Caribbean : Dead Men Tell No Tales. Keith Richards will be back as Captain Teague and Christoph Waltz could play the new villain, Captain Brand. It'll be great if this is officially confirmed as Christoph Waltz who played in Quentin Tarantino "Unglorious Bastards" and "Django Unchained" as well as in Roman

By Seth Kubersky

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Welcome to the first installment of PotterWatch 2.0, Touringplans.com’s Harry Potter Construction Update. This recurring photo gallery series will follow the construction of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley in Unversal Studios Florida and other related expansion at Universal Orlando Resort. So grab your broomstick and sail with us to London!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley (Universal Studios Florida)

First up is Kings Cross station, departure point for the Hogwarts Express train to the other park.

Looking a little further down the London waterfront, towards the entrance to Diagon Alley:

The Wyndhams Theatre facade, based on a famous West End location.

Grimmauld Place, home of Sirius Black:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade (Islands of Adventure)

Hopping over to IoA, here a look at the limited progress made recently on the Hogsmeade train depot in what is currently Lost Continent.

We’ll conclude with a look at demolition on the funnel cake stand in Port of Entry, which is being replaced by a Starbucks.

Rumor Roundup

We’ll close out this edition with a couple of the latest Harry Potter construction rumors. As always, rumors are for entertainment purposes only; take these items with a large grain of salt:

• According to online informant HateToFly, the Hogwarts Express trains have completed their first test voyage, successfully traveling from one station to the other. There is still much work still to do on the trains, especially the interiors.
• Exactly which vendors are involved in Diagon Alley’s E-ticket Gringotts ride is a closely guarded secret, but after interrogating several important industry players at IAAPA last week, I’m willing to wager a nickel on the following: the ride’s roller-coaster track is provided by Intamin (California Screamin’), the ride vehicles and/or linear induction propulsion system is by Premiere Rides (Revenge of the Mummy), and the special effect Kuka arms and motion simulator bases are by Dynamic Attractions (Soarin’, Forbidden Journey).

Subscribe to our Universal Orlando Crowd Calendar to get the best wait-time data and touring plans, and check back soon for the next Wizarding World of Harry Potter construction update!

 

PotterWatch 2.0: Harry Potter Construction Update (11/23-25/2013) is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

The Batkid world tour hit Times Square this morning, as 5-year-old Make-A-Wish superhero Miles Scott popped up on Good Morning America earlier today — in full costume, obviously — for a segment that recapped and briefly updated his story. Most of the video is nothing new, especially if you were following the story as it was happening a few weeks ago, but it’s still the most adorable thing in the world, and his dad said stuff like “This has kind of been like the after-party for him. Chemo … it’s all he’s ever known. He was diagnosed at 18 months. But this is kind of a way to celebrate that ending,” which is both wonderful and heartbreaking, so maybe carve out a few minutes and watch it if you have the time.

If you don’t have the time, however, allow me to suggest zipping ahead to the 4:45 mark, at which point young Miles is sent to save musician and noted carbonated beverage pitchman Pitbull from the Joker, after the supervillain locked him in the show’s green room. Now, if this were any other story, I would point out how absurd it is that the Joker’s big diabolical plot involved imprisoning a popular rapper in a comfortable room full of snacks and bottled water in a crowded building in the middle of New York on a Monday morning, or that maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to leave Pitbull in there for an hour or two, but that would be a very silly thing for me to do in this scenario. Instead, I’ll just post the video and let you watch Batkid whup the Joker’s ass. As God intended.

(via THR)

I hope you're happy, you disgusting animals.

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It was a year ago today that the Buttfumble was gloriously created on a Thanksgiving evening game in MetLife Stadium. The perpetrator of the Buttfumble, Senor Nacho Sanchez, has been mostly quiet this season on account of being injured since the preseason. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to be denied from being an embarrassment in some fashion. To that end, he’s now rocking cornrows. Who knew anyone would ever miss the headband?

[via]

It’s an understatement to say that a lot characters die in George R.R. Martin‘s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire. ma_petite_choufleur has conveniently visualized every death in the books, each with a colorful flag bookmark.

photos by ma_petite_choufleur

via reddit, Geekologie

As much as we’d love to see Stringer Bell shouting “Sweet Christmas!” in the Luke Cage Netflix series, recent stories claiming Idris Elba was in talks with Marvel to play Cage are a based on a misunderstanding. In a recent interview with HuffPo, Elba said he “wouldn’t mind being the lead in a superhero movie”. When asked which superheroes he’d like to play, he said, “I don’t really have any superhero that I like. There was talk about Luke Cage at one time — I thought Luke Cage was a pretty interesting character. They were going to do it, but I don’t know what happened…”

Some outlets took that to mean he was in talks with Marvel for the role at some point and ran with the story. However, if you reread what he said, he only mentioned that there was talk about a Luke Cage movie, not that he was involved in any of those projects. Big difference between “there was talk” and “I was in talks”.

On a more interesting note, Idris Elba also mentioned he dressed up as Superman for Halloween, which is all the excuse we need to post these pictures of Idris Elba as Superman DJing the party at BOXPARK.

(Banner image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com. Inset pictures via @BOXPARK.)

A stash of "intimate photos" starring Nicolas Cage and his ex-girlfriend/baby mama Christina Fulton were allegedly swiped from the latter's home earlier this year by a handyman.

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In a single decision, the once-confusing move of FX branching out into FXX has been justified: the Simpsons are going to…Namibia, I mean, cable syndication! According to Deadline, FXX “has landed the exclusive cable as well as VOD/non-linear rights to the longest-running comedy series in TV history in a deal also set to make TV history as the priciest off-network pact ever, expected to fetch at least $750 million, and the first one to include full digital rights,” which is a fancy way of saying: NO LONGER WILL I HAVE TO DEAL WITH MY LOCAL FOX AFFILIATE ONLY SHOWING EPISODES FROM THE PAST THREE CRAPTACULAR SEASONS.

Also, “full digital rights” = online streaming via VOD = never leaving the house again. Goodbye, social life.

(Via Deadline)

pleatedjeans:

In the 1980s a newspaper mixed up the captions for Dennis the Menace and The Far Side, twice! The results were hilarious. via

“FUN” WITH LARRY DAVID. The photo you see above is:

1) The promotional poster for season nine of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
2) Larry David watching the New York Knicks play basketball.
3) How I look and feel inside, 24/7.

If you guessed 2 and 3, well, hot dog, we have a weiner. The Knicks are the “Everybody Hurts” of basketball teams.

(via Getty Image)

This video of a dolphin having sex with a headless fish corpse isn’t especially movie related, but I think you’ll agree that the way the editor set the video to James Bond-y spy music is very cinematic. And anyway, I’m trying to realize my goal of being the number one Google result for “masturbating dolphin.” God willing. I’ll need your help, each and every one of you.

In any case, it appears to be some kind of river dolphin, which uploader Alexandros Malikides says he filmed at the zoo with his family, sticking its penis in a headless fish carcass, which if we’re to judge by the dolphin’s face, is an act that is immensely pleasurable. As commenter Donkey Hodey once opined, “Dolphins kill for fun and sexually abuse lesser species. They’re like the redneck of the sea.”

Thanks to Uproxx’s animal rape expert Robopanda for the tip (via I09). (Although, is it still considered rape if the animal is already dead? Discuss.)

A father's attempt to teach his son a lesson for taking his truck without permission ended in tragedy Monday after a local police officer shot the teenager dead.

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Jaws (1975)

Polish artist Michal Krasnopolski has created a wonderful series of minimalist movie posters for classic films that are each based on a very simple grid. The grid consists of “a circle and two diagonals inscribed in a square.” His full collection of 26 posters are available to purchase online from Society6.

It surprised me how many posters I could create based on this very simple approach. There’s an enormous strength in simplicity; the fewer elements, the more we engage our imagination.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Superman (1978)

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

images via Michal Krasnopolski

via According to Mac, My Modern Metropolis

“Hey, the Winnipeg Jets aren’t half bad!”
“No, they’re ALL bad!”
“ho ho ho!”

In the tradition of the adorable Steve Stamkos groupie and that dead Flyers lady with the puck in her face comes the latest exceptional NHL fans, this one in the form of a guy in a Waldorf mask at Sunday’s Winnipeg Jets/San Jose Sharks game.

If you don’t recognize the name, Waldorf is 1/2 of that condescending old man team that sat in the balcony during ‘The Muppet Show’ and made everybody feel like shit for trying. I can only assume Statler was in the bathroom. Here’s the mask in action, followed by our morning links:

(via Rumors and Rants)

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather
- Follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and Burnsy @MayorBurnsy
- Like us on Facebook.

Morning Links

The Mandible Claw Podcast, Episode 13: We Forgot The Alamo |The Mandible Claw|

Norm Macdonald Spent The Morning Trolling Lena Dunham And Judd Apatow On Twitter |UPROXX|

McDonald’s Might Soon Spoil Your Children With Toys On Demand Cranked Out By 3D Printers |UPROXX|

‘Mr. Men And Little Miss Game Of Thrones’ Characters Will Kill You With Cuteness |Warming Glow|

Anderson Coopers Loves Miss USA’s Sweet Transformers Costume |FilmDrunk|

Miley Cyrus Walked The MTVA EMA Red Carpet In An Awful Tupac & Biggie Dress |TSS|

Darrell Wallace Jr. Takes Practice Very Seriously And Will Punch You In The Face About It |With Leather|

Justin Tucker Wiggles It … Just A Little Bit |KSK|

LEGO Just Won Christmas With This Heartwarming Father-Son Commercial |Gamma|

Sunday On The Rocks |A Thing You Should Go To In Real Life|

Tumblewords By Minicore Studios Is Fun (And Really Beautiful) |Tumblewords|

How To React To Fallon Fox’s Loss |LobsterSting|

An Incomplete List of Things That Are Not Bullying |Axis Of Ego|

As you may recall, last year Bilbo and friends sold out in truly spectacular fashion, allowing the dark wizards of salt and saturated fat at Denny’s to attach their names to vaguely vulgar sounding dishes like “Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies” and “Gandalf’s Gobble Melt”. Considering the scorn heaped upon the first Hobbit menu, you’d think Bilbo would be reluctant to throw-in with Denny’s again, but then again, this is a guy willing to wake a dragon to line his pockets. Bilbo is a greedy motherf–ker — don’t ever let him tell you different.

And so, in the spirit of greedy motherf–kery, the second Denny’s Hobbit menu!

Yum yum! I think we need to examine some of these food-like items in greater detail!

In step number twenty-seven of Disney’s thirty-four step plan to be associated with every form of entertainment ever, Marvel has announced they will develop at least four original series for Netflix, with an initial focus on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, followed by a The Defenders miniseries.

The four, thirteen-episode series will start streaming in 2015 and will culminate with “The Defenders” miniseries event about a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters. The deal is Marvel’s most ambitious foray into live-action storytelling. (Via)

If you check your birth certificate, you’ll see that Disney actually owns you, too. Anyway, two things: 1) It’s peculiar that Jessica Jones will get a show before DC’s Wonder Woman, and 2) please, please, please hire Casey Affleck to play Daredevil. Sick one of your hired goons on him, Disney. After all, you own him/all of us.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

THIS IS NOT A TEST. THOUGH SHE TRIED HER BEST, JON HAMM’S GIRLFRIEND JENNIFER WESTFELDT HAS NOT SUCCEEDED IN FORCING JON HAMM TO WEAR UNDERPANTS. IT IS CLEAR THAT HE IS ONCE AGAIN GOING COMMANDO ON THE SET OF MAD MEN. I REPEAT: IT IS CLEAR THAT JON HAMM IS ONCE AGAIN GOING COMMANDO ON THE SET OF MAD MEN. IT IS UNCLEAR WHETHER HE HAS RETURNED TO HIS OLD NO UNDERPANTS WAYS FOR GOOD, OR WHETHER OT WAS ONLY ”FOR THIS PARTICULAR WARDROBE CHOICE AND SCENE.” FROM E!:

The 42-year-old actor was spotted walking around the Mad Men set on Thursday, Nov. 7, in Los Angeles and opted to skip his underwear for this particular wardrobe choice and scene.

The always dapper star, who portrays Don Draper on the AMC hit series, was sporting light gray formfitting dress pants, which, if we’re being frank, showed off his package.

Accompanying the slacks, he wore a white crisp dress shirt, a black tie and a black belt. His hair was slicked back and he was holding his phone.

Hahahahaha. My favorite thing about having to read garbage all day for work is getting to the part of the garbage — and it happens in almost ALL of the garbage — where they describe the picture next to the garbage article that the garbage article is about. “Ohhhh.” “So that’s what I’m seeing here.” “Huh. I thought it was a grey tie.” Oh, right, anyway: PLEASE FIND THE SAFEST ROUTE TO YOUR EMERGENCY FAINTING COUCHES. THIS MAY BE THE ROUTE YOU’VE PRACTICED, BUT BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR WOMEN WHO MAY HAVE NOT MADE IT TO THEIR FAINTING COUCHES AND WHO MAY BE CROWDING THE WALKWAYS WITH THIER LIFELESS BODIES. WE’LL BE BACK TO REPORT ANY MORE NEWS AS SOON AS MORE NEWS IS GIVEN TO US. HAHA. THAT’S HOW NEWSMEN CUT TO COMMERCIALS DURING EMERGENCIES, RIGHT? THOSE EXACT WORDS? OKAY. GOODBYE.

The Parenting Panel shares why they chose to take their babies to Disney theme parks

Dan Cortese is an actor/director/TV personality perhaps best known for his stint as host of MTV Sports in the early 90s, as well as playing Perry Rollins on Veronica’s Closet and Vic Meladeo on What I Like About You. He’s also guest-starred on a number of shows over the years — perhaps most memorably as Tony, Elaine’s super cool, athletic, good-looking “mimbo” boyfriend who George man-crushed on on Seinfeld — and was the official spokesman for Burger King’s “Your Way, Right Away” campaign in the 90s.

Presently, Cortese — a skilled Twitter trash talker — is the host of Guinness World Records Unleashed, a show that features people trying to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. It returns with a new season tonight on truTV.

Dan was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule recently to answer a few questions from us.

1. You walk into a bar. What do your order from the bartender?

Walking into a bar isn’t the important part, being able to walk out is.

2. Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter?

What is this “Twitter” you speak of?

3. What’s currently waiting for you on your DVR/TiVO?

Dust…I work in real time…except slower.

4. It’s your last meal — what are you going out with?

That doesn’t sound like a meal, that sounds more like a date…

5. What websites do you visit on a regular basis?

espn.com

6. What’s the most frequently played song on your iPod?

Currently “Are You Mine” – Arctic Monkeys

7. The first face that comes to mind when you think “punchable”?

My own

8. What’s your favorite meme?

Is that any relation to NeNe

9. Dogs or cats?

Dogs

10. Best concert of your life was…?

U2 private show

11. What book are you most likely to give as a gift?

Don’t give books as gifts, I give wine & and Olive Garden gift card.

12. What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

truTV hired me to host Guinness World Records Unleashed

13. South Park or Family Guy?

A: South Park

14. You have an entire day to do whatever you want. What would you do?

Play Twister with Guinness World Records Unleashed Trophy Girl Kelly Turner

15. What movie can you not resist watching if it’s on?

Braveheart & Shawshank Redemption

16. Android or iPhone?

iPhone

17. Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

In a kitchen

18. The last movie you saw in a theater?

Porky’s

19. Who was your first celebrity crush?

Abe Vigoda

20. What would you cook if Nic Cage was coming to your house for dinner?

Let’s just say, I definitely wouldn’t cook the bunny.

Previously: Brandon Johnson

RUN, don’t walk, to the Halloween Carnival over at Big Thunder Ranch at Disneyland.

Not for the adorable character meet and greets…

Not for the amazingly talented pumpkin carvers…

And not for the toe tappin’ tunes of Billy Hill and the “Haunted” Hillbillies… .

Why do you need to run? Because they have Fried Apple Burritos.

Reminiscent of the old school McDonald’s fried apple pies (you know, before they healthy’d em up and started baking them), this super yummy Fried Apple Burrito is basically an apple pie chimichanga. 

For $6.00 you will be served a piping hot, crispy, generously portioned tube of fried apple awesomeness.

The inside is loaded with a hot apple pie center; lots of soft apple chunks mixed with a tiny bit of holiday spice.  Trust me when I say you will not regret the purchase of this situation. SO good.

Overall

The Fried Apple Burrito is by far one of my very favorite Halloween Time treats this year. It’s here through November 3rd and is available only at the Halloween Carnival in Big Thunder Ranch. Hours are 10:30am-6:00pm daily.

I sure hope that it will be back for years to come. Or even better? Make it permanent somewhere on property. Pretty please!?!

Have you been over to the Halloween Carnival at Big Thunder Ranch?  Did you splurge on a Fried Apple Burrito? If so, did you love it as much as I did?

Heather Sievers is the Disney Food Blog’s Dining in Disneyland columnist. See more of her columns here!

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Orlando Restaurant Picks

• La Luce by Donna Scala - Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
• Bull and Bear Steakhouse - Waldorf Astoria Orlando

Related posts:

1. Dining in Disneyland: New Mickey Sour Powder Caramel Apple and Goofy Caramel Apple
2. Dining in Disneyland: The Holiday Specialty Caramel Apple (A.K.A. the Peppermint Beast)
3. Dining in Disneyland: An Apple A Day Keeps the Dirt Away?

Saturday Night Live received near universal praise for its recent Wes Anderson spoof, “The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders,” and rightfully so. The two and a half minute fake horror film trailer wasn’t just funny, it also managed to nail the signature look, style, and tone of Anderson’s films, which added an extra layer to the whole thing that really drove it home. And now, thanks to the show’s director of photography, Alex Buono, we know how they pulled it off.

Earlier this week, Buono wrote a lengthy account of the making-of and behind-the-scenes maneuvering surrounding the sketch, and it is truly fascinating. The majority of it deals with the technical aspects of mimicking Anderson’s style — camera types, color schemes, aspect ratios, finding a suitable, woodsy Anderson-style setting in or around Manhattan, etc. — but the most interesting part, for me, was the ending, where Buono writes about the team of sleep-deprived editors and staff still making small changes and last-minutes fixes to the trailer even after the Edward Norton hosted episode had started to air live on the East Coast.

We pick up the story there:

There are two major deadlines for the Film Unit. The Dress Rehearsal starts at 8pm – for which the goal is to have the spot fully mixed and color corrected, but sometimes it’s not quite there yet. Then, of course, the live show starts at 11:30pm, and you’d think that would be a pretty hard and fast deadline …. except in this case, when Rhys and Adam were truly down to the wire – scrambling to finish revision notes from the dress rehearsal, minor voiceover changes and final color fixes. Rhys was downstairs in the studio edit bay where the final picture and mix are married together and uploaded to the live switcher. As Rhys was watching down the final cut, he noticed two errors: one shot slipped into the cut without being “un-squeezed” and another repositioned shot had lost its repo. We all know that these kinds of errors happen all the time, but they rarely happen when you are literally gun-t0-the-head, minutes away from a live broadcast.

It’s now well past 11:30pm — but our spot technically wasn’t airing until after the 2nd commercial so we’re basically in penalty time. Rhys is racing to explain to Adam over the phone which shots need to be fixed. Now remember: I hadn’t slept in what feels like days at this point and all I recall is Adam working his stylus at lightning speed, whispering to himself, “It’s gonna be close…it’s gonna be reeeeal close…” Too close, in fact — as Rhys was then told by the studio that we were out of time; they would have to run the version with the errors. CUT TO: CLOSE UP – Rhys’ face, crushed in defeat. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Rhys, Adam had just uploaded the fixes to the server, then raced over to the live monitor and just held his breath as our spot went live exactly 20 seconds later.

What none of us knew at the time is that the studio associate director, Matt Yonks, decided to roll the dice and play the fixed spot directly to the air. The spot was literally still loading into the switcher as it was being broadcast out. Holy crap. Thank you, Yonks!

And then, on the 17th floor of 30 Rockefeller Center at about 11:50pm, there was a flurry of high-fives and fist-bumps and woop-woop!’s as our spot – fixes and all – made the air.

And I guess that’s how we did it.

I really recommend reading the whole thing, especially if you’ve got a bit of an inner film geek in you. Then, go back and watch the sketch again. It’ll blow you away.

(via @BillWasik)