Category Archives: Film and TV

BRUNO MARS LOSES VOICE, CANCELS ALL SCHEDULED CONCERTS

imageHollywood, California – Just weeks after his triumphant half-time show performance at this year’s Super Bowl, tragedy has struck Filipino American pop sensation Bruno Mars. He has all but lost his voice, prompting him to cancel his concert tour at least for the next six months and pending his further prognosis.

It all happened this week when Mars was a guest in the  Ellen (Degeneres) show. While waiting in his dressing room for his cue to come on the show, Mars suddenly felt the urge to munch on some pringles set on the snack table in the room. After having a few pieces of the potato chips, he felt a painful lump in his throat. He immediately drank a can of cold pepsi to try to get rid of the lump, but to no avail.

A television studio nurse was called in to examine Mars, but nothing could be done to alleviate the pain he was experiencing. Mars was then transported to a nearby hospital where a team of doctors successfully removed the chips caught in his voice box.  But alas, it was too late. Mars had lost his voice. image13.jpg

Doctors said that while the loss of voice is temporary, it would take at least six months of rehabilitation and voice therapy to get the singer fully back in shape.

(Ellen Degeneres contributed to this report)

OSCARS OVERWHELMED BY 2014 DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM SUBMISSIONS

imageHollywood, California – The 86th Oscar Awards for films made in 2013 will not be handed out until March 2nd this year, but already, film submissions for the 2014 documentary short films have flooded the offices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.  Thanks to Facebook.

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Facebook has started rolling out short documentaries, starring each of its millions of users worldwide.  The Academy has ruled that every single one of these Facebook movies is eligible for an Oscar nomination under the documentary shorts category.

While Academy rules  require that to be eligible, a film must first be screened in either L.A. or New York, members of the board of governors of the Academy were in agreement that since Facebook has a world-wide reach — including L.A. and New York, the Facebook movies are indeed eligible for nomination.

With millions of submissions expected through the 2014 season, the Academy’s big challenge is narrowing the field to 5 nominees. Compare that to only 40 documentary short submissions in 2013.There sure will be a lot of campaigning between now and the 87th Oscars.  If you have submitted your Facebook movie for a possible documentary short nomination, you might want to see the list of Academy voters who will be deciding your fate. The list is available on the website of NeverTooEarlyMoviePredictions.

Michael Moore,  one of the Academy governors and outspoken liberal documentary filmmaker who won an Oscar for “Bowling For Columbine” says he is very excited about the prospect of this unprecedented number of documentary film submissions this year. “This will certainly be the banner year for film documentaries,” he added.

COCA-COLA JINGLE CLIMBS TO THE TOP OF INTERNATIONAL MUSIC CHARTS

imageManila Philippines – Coca-Cola’s “America The Beautiful” commercial which made its debut at last Sunday’s Super Bowl  may have ignited thousands of racist and bigoted tweets and comments on social media, but that hasn’t stopped the jingle – sung in different languages – from climbing the music charts worldwide.

From China to Mexico to Israel, the Coke jingle zoomed to the number one song and music video, as it did in the Philippines. It didn’t matter that the jingle has all but one Tagalog line in the commercial’s final cut. Filipino American Leilani recorded the entire first verse of the 1913 Katharine Lee Bates lyrics in Tagalog, but only the line “sa ibabaw ng mga frutas” (above the fruited plain) was included in the commercial.

Music lovers from all over the world were obviously delighted to see their native language featured in a television spot that was viewed by hundreds of millions of people.

What a difference one line makes.

As for the bigoted social media tweets and posts? The commenters can eat their hearts out, followed by a sip or two of Coke.