In 1789, the total U.S. federal government debt was $190,000.
By 2009, total U.S. debt grew to $11.6 trillion, highest in the world.
SLEEPING ON TOP OF MARILYN MONROE:
For $4.6 million, you can sleep with Marilyn Monroe ... for all of eternity.
A woman in Los Angeles removed her dead husband from his crypt --
which is located right above Marilyn Monroe's at the Westwood Village Memorial Park and Cemetery --
and has put the plot for sale on eBay.
The cemetery is also home to the likes of Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Don Knotts, Rodney Dangerfield and Donna Reed. Bidding ends at noon Monday
LBN-COMMENTARY By SHARON WAXMAN:
( Quentin Tarantino and Sharon Waxman )
Say what you like about Harvey Weinstein.
( Mr and Mrs Harvey Weinstein )
But when it came to marketing Inglourious Basterds, he hit it out of the park.
The movie beat even the highest box office projections by more than $10 million.
Thats worth a closer look.
Here are the raw elements:
A period film.
Mainly in French and German.
With subtitles.
An ensemble cast of mostly Europeans.
And more than two and a half hours long.
Not exactly the makings of a summer blockbuster hit.
But thanks to some very savvy salesmanship, you wouldnt have known any of that from the poster, the trailer or any of the cast interviews.
That looked like raging, rocking, Grindhouse-meets-Saving Private Ryan.
( for full report see below....)
THE RANT LIST By ERICKA T. BASS:
1. Anderson Cooper bores the crap out of me.
2. If somebody would give me a map of the world, I would piss on Scotland for letting that murdering terrorist out.
Oh, yeah, I would piss on Libya, too for their sicko heroes welcome to the scumbag.
3. I may live in Hell but I have a lot of fans who live right next to me.
4. Memo to Starbucks - want to improve service? Lose the tip jars.
5. Whenever I phone the Bank of America, the idiot customer rep invariably begins, sounding like a robot zombie, "How may I exceed your expectations today?"
To which I always want to say "Look, whore, if you even begin to approach my expectations I will consider it a miracle."
6. Sarah Palin may be a psycho but I would still like to see her topless!
***Shout back at Ericka T. - E-mail: LBNElert@TimeWire.net (Please put Ericka T. Bass in the subject line).
Note:
The comments of Ericka T. Bass are those of her and her alone and don't necessarily reflect the opinions of the LBN E-Lert, Covenant Artists Management or its staff.
LBN-RECOMMENDS By
SEAN COMBS (Singer and Designer):
I wear Raf Simons, he needs to give me some free suits as I wear him so much, but I always pay.
I think its important to keep shopping at the moment.
LBN-COMMENTARY BY JEFF WALD (Veteran Hollywood Manager)
What are your addictions?
I was at one time addicted to cocaine, pot, and cigarettes.
Those addictions ended in 1986.
I am now addicted to my wife and children, the sun, my business, politics, music, movies, the news and my friends.
These addictions to me are much healthier.
LBN-QUOTE:
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. -
Thomas Jefferson.
Weinsteins Sell 'Basterds' to the Masses -- Cool!
Say what you like about Harvey Weinstein.
But when it came to marketing “Inglourious Basterds,” he hit it out of the park.
The movie beat even the highest box office projections by more than $10 million.
That’s worth a closer look.
Here are the raw elements:
A period film.
Mainly in French and German.
With subtitles.
An ensemble cast of mostly Europeans.
And more than two and a half hours long.
Not exactly the makings of a summer blockbuster hit.
But thanks to some very savvy salesmanship, you wouldn’t have known any of that from the poster, the trailer or any of the cast interviews.
That looked like raging, rocking, Grindhouse-meets-Saving Private Ryan.
The trailer was all about Aldo Raine (Pitt) indoctrinating his band of Jewish soldiers in the cult of brutality (scalping! cool!) they intend to impose on the Nazis.
But in reality, that’s a minor piece of the film.
Instead, Tarantino has made an extremely sophisticated World War II fantasy, layered with rich characters, taut dialogue and (in my book) at least two scenes that will be written about in cinema study classes (the opening scene, and the one in the bar; if you haven’t seen the movie I’m not going to ruin it for you).
Brad Pitt is in neither of those scenes.
Dirty little secret: Pitt is in barely one third of the film.
But the Weinsteins needed young males to open this movie.
And so they pulled a brilliant bait and switch, selling the movie on Pitt’s stardom and Tarantino’s slice-and-dice reputation from severed ears in "Reservoir Dogs" to piles of samurai-ed corpses in "Kill Bill." (Not to mention "Grindhouse.")
“We had two very marketable elements -- Quentin and Brad Pitt,” Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical marketing at The Weinstein Company, told me on Sunday.
“We wanted every bit of marketing we put out there to have elements to tell the message that this film kicked ass, with some gallows humor.”
But here’s the thing about good filmmaking.
Audiences that went to the movie expecting to see Brad Pitt rampaging across Europe were not disappointed.
They were rewarded with a good story and interesting characters -- though not what they were sold in advance.
Exit polls were high, the Cinemascore was A-. Score one for good story-telling.
My 15-year-old son went on Friday afternoon with a bunch of his pals; they were expecting rock-and-roll violence.
They didn’t get it.
“It wasn’t what we expected,” said Jeremy.
“But it was a really good movie.”
Twitter helped too.
The Weinstein Company shrewdly invited top Twitterers, including Sarah Silverman (261,000 followers) and Tony Hawk (1.4 million followers) to the premiere, to help spread the word.
And it seems pretty clear that a “Twitter effect” at the box office helped propel the word of mouth to a much higher box office total -- nearly $38 million -- than was anticipated.
That is happening every weekend now: Good films get a boost from Twitter.
Bad films sink faster than ever.
Which reminds me: With Tarantino’s success this weekend, it’s hard not to notice the failure of the film of one of his oldest chums, Robert Rodriguez.
"Shorts’" opened in almost the exact same number of theaters as “Basterds” (3,100) and took in a sad $6.6 million, with a $2,126 per screen average, according to Hollywood.com.
That film is the first and last collaboration between Warner Bros and the Abu Dhabi Media Company’s Imagenation film fund.
The deal, I’ve confirmed with Warner Bros, has evaporated.
Perhaps Rodriguez could use a little of that Harvey marketing magic.
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