Quantum of Solace smashed UK box office records on its opening night last Friday, taking £4.9million in ticket sales and knocking Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire off the top spot with its £4million in 2005. Quantum even beat Casino Royale’s takings last year, proving that people are really warming to the new James Bond – rock on Daniel Craig!
Following on this news, The Telegraph reported on Monday that this summer has shown the best UK cinema attendance in 40 years. I guess it makes sense that everyone is going to the movies in these times of financial doom and gloom. It’s relatively cheap entertainment (if you don’t buy the popcorn) and will at least temporarily take your mind off the financial apocalypse out there.
Otherwise, all eyes have been on America this week leading up to their election. The whole world seems inspired and hopeful now that a black man has finally made it to the White House (hmm, maybe they should consider changing the name).
Check out Barack Obama’s speech:
Daniel Craig, a fan of Barack, recently said he reckons the world is now ready for a black 007. Well, why not?!
But just as you start believing that Americans are becoming a little bit more modern, a little bit more liberal, you realise that they still have such a long way to go when the legalisation of same-sex marriages in California was recently overturned by vote. Ellen DeGeneres, who got married to Portia de Rossi after the initial ruling in May, is reportedly “saddened beyond belief”…
…which is why I’m so pleased to hear that Sacha Baron Cohen is back in the States making fun of those backwards-thinking Americans.
The funny-man is shooting his latest movie [deep breath]: Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt, and recently gate-crashed an LA anti-gay marriage rally wearing a blond wig. Apparently he was embodying a new character, Straight Dave, a gay man trying to deny his sexuality by acting overly straight. No doubt another box-office hit in the making.
Now to some really REALLY exciting news:
Sex and the City – the sequel!!!
Bring out the marching band and the pompoms cos SJP, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis have all said yes to another movie and they should be shooting as soon as summer 2009. Let’s hope the storyline doesn’t disappoint.
Someone who never disappoints me is Jason Statham.
The martial artist Adonis is back with a third installment of his Transporter franchise. It’s called, wait for it…Transporter 3.
Frankly, it doesn’t make sense that I like these mindlessly-scripted-dedications-to-ultra-violence-for-the-uneducated-masses. But I do. Or maybe I just really enjoy the bits where his clothes mysteriously disappear…
Mr Statham, you can take me for a drive anytime…
It seems that on one hand people have voted with their eyes wide open, but on the other they have closed them by approving a motion that contravenes peoples’ human rights and gives out a message of intolerance and discrimination.
Since June this year, over 18,000 couples in the state have entered a same-sex marriage following a landmark state Supreme Court decision to strike the ban on gay marriage in California, as it violated the equal protection clause of the California Constitution. The status of their unions is now in jeopardy and thousands more will now be denied the right to marry the person they love. Amendments to ban gay marriage were also approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents, a motion which far right camapigners admitted was primarily aimed at gay couples.
For most, this week’s events heralded a new dawn with clear skies, but for some communities those grey clouds of discrimination are still very much present.
Thanks so much for your comment. It just shows that even in times of great change, there is still a great deal left to be done. And let us hope that media doesn’t forget about the grey clouds just because the sun is shining.