While at work years ago, I saw thousands of movie star interviews. In one of them, Neeson talked about being offered the male lead in Pretty Woman, but deciding that the moral arc of the thing -'hooker with heart of gold'— was distastefully trite (paraphrase). He wasn't mocking the movie, which became one of the romantic touchstones for a generation of film fans, and he affirmed that Gere had done a better job with the role than he could have done. The guy seemed sensitive to the ethical considerations of the work he was casting out into the world.

Schindler's List wasn't exactly puppies and flowers, but it seems notable that the more exploitatively violent titles didn't turn up in Neeson's catalog until, in late middle age, his beloved wife was killed in a gruesome accident— As if he'd said to himself Screw it, if there's no conventional happiness, I'll just make a metric fuckton of money now.

That's not to denigrate the work: The telephone threat scene in that one movie (ah, Taken) has been quoted and satirically reworked a million times by friends and business partners over the years. It's obviously poignant for people in a way that we might not have expected from a mundane action picture. I mean, I've seen that dialog turned into a comic masterpiece about *folding laundry.*

And Kevin Bacon stepped up the violent acting after he and the missus got cleaned out by Bernie Madoff; after all, baby needs a new pair of shoes.

In other news from 𝑨𝒎𝒚'𝒔 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒚𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑯𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒕: I always thought this was a notably handsome & psychedelic passage of music from a not-very psychedelic guy. You only hear it for about the first minute of Caddyshack, under the opening titles.

Twitterz—

• This collision would have been fun to watch from the highest peak of the larger island. Note timestamps.

• A motorbike. Gotta imagine the first recoil would have ripped the front tire off.

• Remarkable smartphone cinematography.

• Mean or stupid, but funny either way.

Isnt Liam Neeson one of those anti gun crusaders? Who takes lots of money for glorifying firearms in his movies?

I mean if I stopped watching movies made by hypocrites I could pretty much just turn off the damn box. Which I pretty much do anyway.
Can’t even watch tennis anymore. Too political

Here's a readable if unavoidably gossipy piece about Eric Schmidt, whose personality is more interesting than you might think… Everyone seems to agree he was a serious contributor to the Google miracle, if not himself one of the Silicon Valley's remarkable geniuses.

See the later passages, about the impact of #meToo. Hard to believe that was five years ago... Seems like yesterday.

Pro tip:

"The advantage of recoilless guns lies in their light weight and relatively high performance. Their light weight characteristic descends from the absence of a recoil when the weapon is fired."

http://www.robertsarmory.com/rrifle.htm

I still say that front wheel is not long for its single-side attachment, especially if deployed off-road, as seen in the subsequent reply.

Americas sleep soundly knowing I will never be a "pro," tipped or otherwise.

You can print it out and keep a copy in your wallet or purse.

This is NOT about Johnson & Johnson, which makes Covid vaccines, okayamundo?

But (via Cosh), what were they thinking?

*gossipy piece about Eric Schmidt*

I'm no fan of open-marriage folk like Eric The Rich, but that guy seems surrounded by the shallow, the grasping and the greedy:

“We went there before Dennis Rodman,” Cohen says

"Schmidt was cheap. They would buy shoes for him at Cole Haan." [Gognote - I've known billionaires who would agree that $250 shoes are not "cheap" shoes.]

"... Deng was clearly jealous of Schmidt and Shields. “Lisa will never have my style, grace,” Deng wrote. “I achieved my purpose of Eric saw me looking so gorgeous and so fantastic and so young, so cool, so chic, so stylish, so funny and he cannot have me. I’m not ever feel sad … about losing Eric … Plus he is really really ugly. Unattractive … and fat. Not stylish at all try to wear hip clothes.... I’m so so soo soooo happy I’m not with him.”

Deng in particular seems like a lamprey on the prowl.

Here, while married to Rupert 'Gold-Plated Boxer Shorts' Murdoch, she writes about her love for Tony Blair:

“Oh, shit, oh, shit,” she wrote. “Whatever why I’m so so missing Tony. Because he is so so charming and his clothes are so good. He has such good body and he has really really good legs Butt . . . And he is slim tall and good skin. Pierce blue eyes which I love. Love his eyes. Also I love his power on the stage . . . and what else and what else and what else . . . ”

Well, yeah. But...

No, yeah. You're right.

I've never had sex with anyone famous, but apparently the pattern is that you, also being famous, have sex and talk to each other about how third parties (usually not present) know who you are. Is there any other reason to be interested with Wendy Deng?

Here's an all-time favorite blog post investigating such matters: How to Talk to Your Kids About the Paris Hilton Sex Video. See especially #1 because it's relevant and #3 because it's funny.

"Is there any other reason to be interested with Wendy Deng?"

There is no reason to be interested in Wendy Deng, unless you're teaching your kids to avoid ladder-climbing greedleeches and their ilk.

And you should teach them, because they're expensive and painful to remove.