Sadly, the dirty dancer is now a ghost for real, but before he left us he made some of cinema’s most iconic films. Would you rather sway with Swayze or make pots with Patrick? This is the first in a new series of battles we are doing for our pals at Metro.co.uk. To read this Swayze battle, click HERE.

The Irish Government has just released a report by a Commission of Inquiry into the response of the Church and State to abuse carried out in the Roman Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Dublin between 1975 and 2004. 

The report makes clear, as Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern highlighted at a press conference to launch the report, that in many cases action wasn’t taken against the abusers out of deference to their role as priests. 

At the press conference, Dermot Ahern, said: “The persons who committed these dreadful crimes will be pursued and punished.”  He went on: “justice, even where it may be delayed, will not be denied”; and he added: “a collar will protect no criminal.”

Justice, it seems, is finally coming for the many innocent victims of this scandal.

In 1978, a 13-year-old girl was drugged, plied with alcohol and buggered by a respected much older man.  The abuser admitted his crime but fled the jurisdiction before he could be sentenced.  The abuser has never expressed regret or contrition for the abuse and has spent the past 31 years fighting extradiction and justice.

The abuser in this case is the film director Roman Polanski.  He too is subject to deference and respect which has led to a whole range of people from the actress Whoopi Goldberg to the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defending him. 

After he was arrested by Swiss authorities acting on a US arrest warrant, Hollywood greats circulated a petition calling on his immediate release.  Stars such as Woody Allen, Asia Argento, Martin Scorcese, and Tilda Swinton are amongst the signatories, according to Associated Content.

Now, what if Roman Polanski wasn’t a talented multi-award-winning film producer but a Roman Catholic Priest?

Would Father Polanski receive as much public support?

Polanski has spent the past 31 years, effectively on the run.  In two weeks time the Swiss justice system will decide whether or not he will be extradited to America. 

And yet he is now set to spend those two weeks on bail – staying in a house close to the French Border.  I’m no expert on the Swiss legal system; but in the UK you generally can’t expect to be released on bail if you’ve already fled justice and have spent 31 years on the run.  You are considered a flight risk.

To prevent him fleeing, the Swiss court which granted bail has seized his passport.  That might be useful in a place like Britain, which, unless you have access to your own boat, you can’t easily leave without passing through passport control.  The Swiss borders, however, allow you to drive through with only random vehicles being pulled over for further checks.

Should he be minded to do so, he would easily be able to drive to France where the French government will happily supply him with a fresh new passport and protect him from further extradition claims.

The protection of Catholic Priests who abused children and the cover-up of their crimes was wrong.

The protection of Roman Polanski who abused a child and the celebration of his crime is also wrong.

Intro:

I start my adventure into the land of Whoopi today, November 20th 2009.  This day will be written about in history books, and I shall be as highly regarded as Lewis and Clark.  Netflix will be my Sacagawea, my Native American Indian lady leading me through this land of the Whoopi, and we shall embark on this journey as soon as I finish making nachos in the microwave oven.  My Netflix account has a few Whoopi movies lined up, or “queued” to all those familiar with hipster Netflix lingo, for instant viewing, and I have chosen one of the more highly regarded of her films to start with, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” My choice wasn’t simply based on reviews of the movie, it’s just really hard to resist a tagline like, “A man named Jack has got her Jumpin’ and the world may never be the same!”  Though, it also helped that I consider my expedition an adventure, and the film’s full title is Jumpin Jack Flash: An Adventure in Comedy.  It just seemed like a match made in heaven, or at least an uninteresting coincidence.

For those of you who do not know the story of Jumpin’ Jack Flash here is a summary of the plot from Netflix filled in with thoughts from yours truly:

Terry, played by Whoopi Goldberg (YAY WHOOPI!), is a banker with an international clientele, gets a cryptic message from an unknown source. After decoding the missive (The fucks a missive?), Terry finds herself in the middle of an international espionage ring with bodies piling up faster than the line at a faulty ATM machine (What does this even mean!? Did someone write a joke in the summary you will only understand after you watch the movie?  Son of a bitch…). Directed by Penny Marshall, this riotous comedy also stars Annie Potts, Carol Kane, Jeroen Krabbe and Roscoe Lee Browne (Who were never heard from again, except for Penny, who partied with the Fonz, and therefore is immortal…Google it)

Movie Poster!

My predictions:

Whoopi is going to get herself into a whole heap of trouble, and she’s inviting me on her laugh riot adventure into the mystical world of banking!  This is going to be a fun trip!  As far as plot points go, I predict there will be a faulty ATM machine…Also, the movie was made in 1986, and during this time period whenever there’s an “international espionage ring” of some kind, it simply means the Russians are going to fuck shit up.  Yes, so the movie is going to playing like a banker’s version of Red Dawn, without the nice glutes of Patrick Swayze, or the whole ‘Russians invading the United States’ thing.  And so, these Commie bastards are going to fuck up Whoopi’s ATM machines, and she’s going to be all like, “AWWW HELL NO!”  Then, she’s going to fly over to Russia, and just start punching people in the face.

Movie:

0:00:00 – Movie Buffering, taking time to look up what missive is

0:00:11 – Dictionary.com claims “missive” is:

“–noun

1. a written message; letter.

–adjective

2.sent or about to be sent, esp. of a letter from an official source.”

Now I truly feel retarded

0:01:02 – “The President forgot Hawaii was a state, and referred to it as ‘Our strongest ally’” Oh Whoopi!  Your movie is already great!

00:01:46 – Whoopi has appeared!  She’s waking up in her PJs and has penguin slippers!

Jon Lovitz Loves His Banking Job!

00:05:49 – Entered work, which is surprisingly a bank…She works with ancient computers, which nowadays are on par with our most intelligent paper weights.  Jon Lovitz is in this movie!  First line, “You ready to saddle up and ride this software?”  Classic.

00:08:22 – Phil Hartman too?  “You could crush bowling balls between those thighs.” Classic #2.  Comedians are funny.

00:11:59 – Jumping Jack Flash sent her a message on her computer!  It said “Yankee Pot Roast Was Delicious.”  Confused by message, and suddenly in the mood for pot roast.

00:15:56 – Whoopi rocking out to the Rolling Stones in her penguin slippers, you go girl!  “Jagger Step!”

00:16:41 – Whoopi thinks second verse of Jumpin’ Jack Flash is “I was raised by two lesbians.” And then says “Lesbians? Com’n Mick!  Fuck a duck!”  Oh boy!  This may be the greatest movie ever made!

00:29:21 – JACK IS BRITISH INTELLIGENCE!  Gosh Whoopi, the things you get yourself into

00:31:24 – Jim Belushi?  Really?  Movie just lost all credibility.  I’m now crying in fetal position yelling, “WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH MY BABY!?” at the heavens

00:35:33 – She stole a frying from Jack’s apartment, and is now being held at gunpoint by…Jim Belushi.  I’m now back in my corner crying again in the fetal position yelling “IT WAS ONLY ONE TIME!  IT WAS JUST ONE TIME!” to the heavens.

00:35:55 – She knocked him out with the frying pan; I’m slowly recovering from my Jim Belushi trauma

00:37:00 – There’s people’s names and numbers etched in to bottom of frying pan, and she’s totally calling them!

00:38:10 – “Oh this is great!  I’m down here 1:30 in the morning at the docks!  I should just pin a 100 dollar bill on my ass and scream ‘VICTIM HERE!  VICTIM HERE!’”

00:40:27 – Hahahaha she just got pushed off the dock into the Hudson River, she’s going to be super dirty when she gets out.  You can’t scrub that shit off with soap and water, stuff in that river is highly advanced dirty dirt

00:41:04 – She can’t swim!  She can only doggy paddle!  It’s so cute!

00:41:41- “What is it with you people? Every time you see a black woman there has to be a pimp or a john? What, do you think there’s good business on the pier for hookers? Do you think I’m giving blow jobs down there to goldfish?”

Whoopi Suddenly Turns White!

00:46:10 – “The K mother fucking GB?”  It’s the RUSSIANS!  They’re fucking shit up!

00:55:44 – Big stunt scene where Whoopi is falling off a roof, and when they cut to a shot of her back as she struggles to climb back on the roof, and she is suddenly white, and very muscular.  Must be some kind of super power, thus proving again…Whoopi is super.

00:58:55 – Whoopi’s dress is caught in a paper shedder!  Oh the hilarity of your situation Whoopi!

01:12:30 – Russian guy stole a tow truck and started towing a phone booth Whoopi was in across town…and I have to pee really badly

01:13:53 – Back from bathroom and…OH GOD NO!  NOT JIM BELUSHI AGAIN!  All those horrible repressed memories of According To Jim surfacing…and Blues Brothers 2000…and K-9!  SOMEONE MAKE THEM GO AWAY!

01:26:14 – She got shot in the ass with a tranquilizer, and I’m officially bored.

01:31:37 – They make New York City look so clean…

That's One Way To Get A Dress Off

Hotdogs And Beans For Supper

01:34:56 – SHE JUST BIT A DUDES JUNK!  He goes “Cancel the message!”  and she’s all like “I’ll cancel something better!”  Then chows down on the guy’s bits and pieces like it’s an all you can eat buffet!  Wasn’t she in Disney movies?  Does Disney know she was capable of biting weewees off?  What about the children?  What message are we sending the children?  We put Jim Belushi and a penis biter in children’s movies?  What the fuck kind of movie is K-9 anyway Jim?  What the hell were you thinking?  Why can’t you make good career choices?  IT’S TEARING ME APART

01:35:29 – “HEY FRED!  Take a picture of me next to the dead guy!” Oh Jon Lovitz, you just saved my Whoopi adventure

01:41:45 – Holy crap!  Jack Flash is the Brazil guy from that movie Brazil in which I’m still confused as to the exact reason the movie is named Brazil if it has nothing to do with Brazil, except for that song Brazil that plays every once and awhile.

01:43:00 – Movie over, roll credits…What the hell is a Best Boy?

Afterward:

Almost all my predictions were wrong.  There was no broken ATM, it was nothing like Red Dawn, nor even it’s lesser-known sequel Steel Dawn.  Whoopi didn’t fly to Russia either and slap some bitches, which definitely would have been a much better ending.  In my defense though, Netflix fucking lied to me!  “…with bodies piling up faster than the line at a faulty ATM machine…”  Bodies?  There were no bodies!  There was A body!  One!  Singular!  Uno!  And what’s with the horrible comparison to a broken ATM machine?  It makes no frigin’ sense, and has nothing to do with the actual movie.

One thing was made clear by the movie though, we need Whoopi to combat terr

WTF is a Best Boy?

orism.  She has shown she can do more with a giant toothbrush then most can do with an AK-47.  If she were our first line of defense we wouldn’t need a second.

Fighting Liberty and Gingivitis For All!

Also with her crotch biting abilities no one would mess with her.  Though I do believe the crotch biting was simply to bring in a feminist perspective of the world to a high action comedy.  The movie is all about a woman taking charge of her own life no matter what gets thrown in her path.  She is, by definition, a bra burning, humpback, raving feminist demanding respect from the “man” that’s holding her down.  With KGB agents, the “man” in this situation, after her, she knows she will overcome, and save Jumping Jack Flash’s life.  She will do whatever it takes, even if that means taking a few balls in the mouth for the team.

I would highly suggest this movie to anyone who loves rocking out in penguin slippers to Rolling Stones tunes, or, like me, Scooby Doo slippers rocking out the Mamma Mia soundtrack.  I believe it won every single Academy award for the year of 1986, and is banned in 6 nations.  The banning from other countries actually is fairly recent, because Star Jones made them do it after her furious fury of a rampage when she got booted off the View.  Not wanting to be eaten by Star Jones, these countries just agreed to ban anything to do with Star’s replacement, Whoopi Goldberg.  For those of us that are fans of Whoopi though, I have great news.  President Barack Theodore Winston Obama has announced that he is making the members of the View the 4th branch of the US Government, due to Whoopi’s ability to deal with international affairs, as proven through “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”  It is a happy ending for everyone now!  YAY!

As I was about to call it a day, I saw a video link from a Facebook Page I joined called “Definitely Filipino” about the CNN Hero of the Year. It say’s: Acceptance speech of OUR 2009 CNN HERO and the thumbnail picture of Efren Penaflorida was attached to it.

Prior to being feted as such, Efren is relatively unknown. At such a young age of 28, he has accomplished something that not many people his age or even older had accomplished or will ever accomplish in their entire life..that is, changing the lives of others–for the better.

He created the group called “Dynamic Teen Company” which aims to teach basic reading and writing to children living on the streets in the hope that it will be a diversion to hooking up into gang activities like vandalizing, bullying others or even raping young girls.

Their classroom is a ubiquitous push cart wherein volunteers teach children with age ranging from 2-14 years old. Since 1997, approximately 10,000 members had taught over 1,500 “children of the slums”. To sustain this activity, they make and sell crafts or collecting items to recycle.

Moreover, those children that they taught upon getting the inspiration to learn more and strive to have a better life has also become volunteers for future students.

CNN selected 10 nominees for this year’s Hero of the Year which is now on it’s 3rd year. These Heroes as what the tagline says “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Impact” was selected by a distinguished panel comprising of leaders and humanitarians such as Gen. Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Sir Elton John, Phil Jackson, Shakira among others.

The Gala Tribute attended by an audience of 3,000 was held in Kodak Theatre, Hollywood last Saturday, November 21 and will have its premiere on Thanksgiving, November 26.

Apart from the prestigious recognition, Efren received USD 100,000 to continue his advocacy. More than 2.75 million votes were received online in CNN.com in a span of 7 weeks. Proof of the impact CNN Heroes of the year has brought us in 3 years time.

Presenters include Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Neil Patrick Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Dwayne Johnson, Eva Mendes, Randy Jackson, Greg Kinnear, George Lopez and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Here is Efren’s acceptance speech. While delivering it, he was visibly shaken and emotional maybe upon realizing he won such a great recognition and soon will be watched by millions of people worldwide.

“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry,” Peñaflorida said upon accepting the honor. “Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.”

“So to each and every person inside in this theater and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers … you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be.”

His speech is short but so meaningful and inspirational. May this recognition give him and his team more energy and passion to continue helping needy children have the education they deserve. It is such a pride and honor to the Filipino people to be given such award. Hope this would also open the eyes of many of us to help someone in need whenever we can. All the small efforts we exerted can be a life-changing experience for others.

For the full story of the CNN Hero of the Year gala night, please click the link below.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/11/16/cnnheroes.tribute.show/index.html

Update: According to ABS-CBN news report, Efren said 90% of the prize money will go to his organization and the remaining 10% to the Church and none for him..really a selfless act. May your tribe increase.

Mabuhay ka Efren! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang lahing  Pilipino!

Today on Alphabet City:  Jon Paul makes a pass at a pop-star’s husband. Guest stars: Gloria Estefan, Teri Hatcher.

Thank God for Publicists.  PR professionals enjoyed Even Jesus Had a Publicist enough to catapult that post’s popularity ahead of the two sex-related stories One Night in Bangkok and Hello, Meat Grindr.  Until then, I was beginning to think that only the most prurient details of my life might be enticing to readers.

As a relative newbie to the blogosphere, I wasn’t aware of how much global traffic would be driven to a relatively innocent story about a gay bathhouse in Bangkok.  Hopefully, the readers from Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mumbai, Russia and the Middle East who found Alphabet City by googling “Bangkok massage” enjoyed some of the tamer episodes.

It’s not just the Internet where sex seems to be a connector.  Live sex tales seem to be popular as well as I discovered on Thursday night when I headed back to one of The Moth’s storytelling nights.  Having learned from my disappointing experience in Like Moths to a Flame, this time my friend Shannon and I stood in line outside SoHo’s Housing Works Bookstore & Café starting at 6pm for doors that opened at 7pm.  Theme of the night was “Lost”—and I don’t mean the TV show.  The host of the night, author Dan Kennedy, began the show by saying, “I don’t know why we bother to give the night a theme, because somehow you will turn it into a story about sex.”

And 4 out of 5 storytellers agreed—the first ones up all related their tales to something sexual.  First up was a guy who lusted after his friend’s girlfriend, followed by the guy who last week nearly caused a riot outside Nuyorican Poets Café with his vigilante storytelling.  He spun a tale of unrequited love/sex in the aisles of a Virginia Food Lion.  Then there was a zany story of a religious cult leader deflowering the storyteller when she was 14.  Although intriguing, her tale was much longer than required 5 minutes and at one point included the line “to make a long story short…”  Isn’t that generally the point of time limits and editing?  And I’m still not sure what to make of the nut case whose story included a long riff on the power of being a virus in the Matrix (originality?), and a ski trip to Aspen with a cougar girlfriend whom he volunteers to have sex with an actor/author with whom I was not familiar.  He ended with a lecture about how friends hold you back.  In this case, I wish they had.

While the night was odd, I’m glad I went because now I have a clear strategy.  The next Moth StorySlam theme is “Nerve,” and I was thinking about telling the Whoopi Goldberg Oscar story—I had the “nerve” to pick it up.  But now I’m rethinking.  Maybe a story with a little bit of a sexual angle—like the time I had the nerve to make a pass at Gloria Estefan’s husband while escorting Teri Hatcher to VH-1’s Divas Live.  CLICK HERE to enjoy this excerpt from Alphabet City’s Episode 6: Sex in the City and let me know what you think.

Originally uploaded by indian nomad

if the whole australian public had satellite dishes at the back of their backyards instead of foxtel boxes, i wonder how less racist and ignorant and more accepting they would be…

just watched the last bits of an interesting doco on sbs which has left me quite distressed about the laws we have in this country (of which details i’m not allowed to discuss in this blog)…

http://www.sbs.com.au/schedule/SBSONE/2009-11-17/SBS%20Sydney

and i thought there wasn’t anything interesting on tonight! was watching the best of the paul hogan show…darn it!!!

had quite an ear bleeding when i was glimpsing the view today relating to the current terrorism trials there

wish there were more whoopi goldberg’s in this world

Dear Miss Goldberg,

I’d like to wish you a happy 54th (54? Really? you look about 70) birthday.

In noticing it’s your birthday, it also shows that you are still alive and [sadly] not dead.

I implore you, and pray to every god, that you will be crushed by a huge meteor one day, but I digress.

Happy 54th birthday, may it be the last birthday you share with us. (:

Recentemente eu postei no twitter uma pequeno observação sobre a lei da selva que impera no metrô do Rio de Janeiro, mas sinceramente eu nunca vi as coisas chegarem a este ponto.

Cacetada amigo, a Yoko Ono aplicou uns golpes que deixaram a Whoopi Goldberg até atordoada. Pura arte oriental!

Via Haznos.

Yesterday the women of The View got into a heated exchange regarding the recent Carrie Prejean visit. Whoopi Goldberg said that the ex beauty queen acted rather “bitchy.” They also discussed her Larry King Live appearance. Prejean threatened to leave the show because she said King’s questions were inappropriate. Prejean is on the talk show circuit promoting her new book, but she has also had to discuss a recently released “sex tape.” Her former boyfriend has released tapes she gave him to the media. Prejean claimed she was 17 when the tapes were made, but her boyfriend said she was 20 at the time. He also said she called him and asked him to lie about her age. Let’s just take a minute to talk about him. He is truly the scum of the earth, but he is a cautionary tale. Do not give anything to anyone that you want to stay private. It won’t and if you achieve any level of fame it will come back to haunt you. I am no fan of Prejean but I am a fan of fairness and to allow her boyfriend to cloke his own identity while releasing these tapes and photos is simply unfair.

WORD

garrulous [gar-uh-luhs, gar-yuh-] adj. 1. excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, esp. about trivial matters 2. wordy or diffuse: a garrulous and boring speech

BIRTHDAY

John Dickinson (1732), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850), Richard Mulligan (1932), Garry Marshall (1934), John Hammond (1942), Joe Mantegna (1947), Chris Noth (1954), Whoopi Goldberg (1955), Jimmy Kimmel (1967), Steve Zahn (1967), Gerard Butler (1969)

STANDPOINT

If you put a gun to my head (and I’m by no means suggesting you do that), and asked me, given a choice, what’s my favorite leisure time activity, I’m relatively sure the answer would be watching a Philadelphia Flyers game with either my brother Jer or my best friend Harv, and preferrably both because we are all of the same mind when it comes to the game of hockey. (If I could pick a third person to be there, it’d be my good friend Joe, but he resides in Connecticut and it’s not really practical for him to drive down for games. I’m sure you realize this without me explaining it.)

I am completely certain 99% of you, in a similar circumstance, would offer a different response. (Although, that’s your loss because, even if you don’t like hockey, Jer and Harv and Joe are three solid dudes to hang with.)

Knowing what an excellent judge of character I am, I’m positive it wouldn’t be my choice of company you’d find fault with – it’d be my choice of actually watching hockey. Which no one seems to do these days.

When it comes to watching professional sporting contests, the game of hockey is fighting an uphill battle. And here’s why.

This country loves two sports the most – football and baseball. Again, you may disagree, and that’s totally fine. But for the purposes here, I’m going to adhere to the idea football and baseball are the two sports most everyone couldn’t live without as if it’s a legitimate fact. Which, despite your opinion, is completely true.

Why are football and baseball so popular? Well, lots and lots of reasons. Most everyone of you grew up playing one or both of these sports, or wishing you could. Also, you know all the rules due to the fact the commentators endlessly disect each and every at-bat/play. In addition, of all the televised sports, football and baseball simply offer the opportunity for more bathroom breaks and the chance to talk to your buddies about the game without actually talking during it. There are more, but, in the interests of space and keeping your attention, I’ll stop at those three.

With hockey, hardly any of us have ever played it. (No, NHL ‘94 for the Sega Genesis doesn’t count. Although, I’d listen to any argument to the contrary.) Unless you make a deliberate effort to do so, some of the less-obvious rules are hard to figure out. Lastly, it’s a game you need to pay attention to – talking about the game is reserved for the few commercial breaks and the two 15-minute intermissions.

For those reasons, and probably 200 more, the game of hockey just doesn’t jive with most everyone out there. And, while I’d love to, I can’t say as I blame you. It’s easy to watch a baseball game with friends, even when not everyone in the room particularly cares about the outcome because everyone pretty much knows what’s going on. Same with football games but they have the added bonus of having become excuses to eat a lot of food and drink a bunch of beers which I’m a huge fan of.  They’re major social experiences in a culture becoming more and more devoid of them. I can’t find fault with wanting to spend your time away from work, time away from your kids, time away from whatever, in a relaxing atmosphere where you can yell at the television and rarely use your brain. (That last statement was sincere, not sarcastic.)

Me? I enjoy watching a sport that encourages me to think, requires my attention and leaves me, win or lose, with a weird sense of fulfillment. I love baseball and I kinda like football. But neither give me the same thrill.

And so, I’m a hockey fan.

QUOTATION

You can’t navigate me. I may do mean things, and I may hurt you, and I may run away without your permission, and you may hate me forever, and I know that scares the living shit outta you ’cause you know I’m the only real thing you got. → Ethan Hawke (as Troy Dyer in Reality Bites)

TUNE

Admittedly, this is bad timing after my whole music snobbery rant, but I drove around all over the place yesterday, and I’m trying to become less dependent on my iPod, and attempting to revisit my vaunted CD collection. In any case, I listened to Fountains of Wayne the whole time. Not widely considered an important cog in the machinery of essential music. But, fuck it. I like the band just the same. Especially “No Better Place.”

GALLIMAUFRY

→ I’ve no idea why I like these HTC television ads so much, but I do. Here’s my favorite.

→ Joselio Hanson, a backup CB for the Phiadelphia Eagles, has received a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Dude. Come on. You’re a backup CB. Really necessary?

→ I tweeted this last night, but for those of you not hip to the Twitter thing yet, I’m encouraging everyone I know to listen to the music of my buddy Emerson B. Go hear his tunes on MySpace. Follow him on Twitter. And get out to one of his shows. If, for no other reason, than you might be able to hang with me.

Since it’s Whoopi Goldberg’s birthday and it was the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street’s first broadcast a couple of days ago:

Astazi actrita implineste 54 de ani !

On November 13:

1715  Dorothea Erxleben,  first German female medical doctor, was born.

1841 James Braid first saw a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually called hypnotism.

1850 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer, was born.

1906 Eva Zeisel, American industrial designer, was born.

1916 Australian Prime Minister  Billy Hughes was expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.

1934 Peter Arnett, New Zealand-born American journalist, was born.

1955  Whoopi Goldberg, American actress, comedian, and singer, was born.

1971 The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.

1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, melting a glacier, causing a lahar that buried Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.

1990 David Gray killed 13 people at Aramoana.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

There I was on a mild Saturday evening in October sitting expectantly on a red-cushioned chair of a theatre, but not the mossy chair of any old theatre – it was the great London Palladium. And there I sat dressed in trendy attire (it was my first time at the Palladium, Shakespeare’s Globe had only ever required comfortable shoes) waiting with bated breath for the first signs of Deloris Van Cartier… the star-studded Sister of the cult classic movie (and one of my childhood favourites) Sister Act! And boy was I about to be dazzled away!

The plot was relatively untouched from the smash-hit movie of the 90’s (which may come as no surprise, although great relief for all of the hardcore fans like myself, as the musical is a Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment production): when Disco diva Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder committed by her mobster-man Shank, she is put in protective custody in the one place she won’t be found – a convent! And whilst forced to play nun she ends up bringing life to the Sister Hood whilst dodging the relentless efforts of Shank and his cronies to try and find her – for better or for worse…

The musical was a sensation to watch with enough sequined ensembles, glittering rosaries and an ever-rotating Virgin Mary to overwhelm my eyes forever. But the props weren’t the only feature to blow me away from start to finish; the superb musical performance of the entire cast, with special mention to Patina Miller (who plays Whoopi Goldberg’s immortalized character Deloris) was fantastic. There had been a lot of raised eyebrows before the launch in May (“How would anyone be able to replace Whoopi?” Queen Mary’s Daniel Meyer questioned back in March’s edition of Cub) but she did a wonderful job. And if she was feeling the pressure of playing a smash-hit heroine made legendary by the awesome Whoopi Goldberg back in the 90’s, then she showed no sign of it as she bellowed out most convincingly, the Alan Menken’s numbers to perfection.  And that is speaking of the great Alan Menken himself; the 8 time Oscar winner with credits including the Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and most recently the hit movie Enchanted.

But the catchy, uplifting songs (“Fabulous Baby” being one of my feel-good favs) only complimented a great acting performance by the cast; the likes of Sheila Hancock (Mother Superior), Chris Jarman (mobster boss Shank) and Ako Mitchell (lovable policeman Eddie), not forgetting Claire Greenway and Julia Sutton for the roles of Sister Mary Patrick and Sister Mary Lazarus, were a delight to watch.

It is a must see and if you have some saved up cash you must get yourself down to the Palladium and experience the razzmatazz for yourself because you won’t be disappointed! Rather leaving the old-dog theatre feeling contagiously cheerful! So cue the choir, because Sister Act, you are fabulous!

Rating 10/10