Nina Garcia, one of the judges from Bravo’s Project Runway series, has been fired from her day job as Fashion Director for Elle Magazine.  This probably comes as good or bad news for you depending on how you respond to her personality on the show, or if you’re a reader of Elle Magazine.  Still, it’s always sad to see someone lose their job and hopefully she rebounds soon.

It does raise questions about how this might affect her position on the show, though.  This also comes at a time when Lifetime and Bravo are fighting for rights to the show.  It would be sad to see one of the better reality shows go down to, well, a cat fight.

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Sir Arthur C. Clarke, best known to most as the author of the short story upon which 2001: A Space Odyssey is based, has passed away.  Beyond the obvious shame of losing one of the great science fictions authors of all-time, there is a sadness to seeing another one of the iconic writers of the 20th century pass away.

Writers simply do not achieve the level of fame that they once did, and Clarke’s generation may be one of the last to really achieve household name status by writing about ideas, instead of simply coy screenplay first-drafts.  He will be sorely missed.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

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In a move that smells of greed, the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, will be made into two films.  Rumors have persisted for months that the last Potter book was too dense to be made into a singular film, and now it has been confirmed.  The films will release as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I in November 2010 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II in May 2011. (more…)

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Warner Brothers has announced that starting with the March 25 release of Boonie and Clyde, some Blu-ray disc releases will get the book special edition treatment. Wait, a book? That’s right, Warner will be releasing special editions enclosed inside of books. The books themselves will contain production art, photographs and more. Other titles announced in this new series include Dirty Harry, Woodstock, Gone with the Wind and North by Northwest.

It’s great to see Warner trying something new with DVD packaging that actually adds some value to the film experience. Compare this with collectible tins, which usually only end up getting in the way, and you have what may be the start of a nice new trend. Still, there’s a big question mark over these releases and whether the included content will be worth the extra cash they are sure to cost.

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What are the best films about newspapers?  Here’s a hint–one you will guess easily and the other might take a slight bit of thinking.  The Quad City Times staff chose the obvious All the President’s Men, and also the less obvious The Paper.  Perhaps they were inspired by the final season of HBO’s The Wire, which is set in a newsroom.

Regardless, more interesting than the two chosen (which most could guess), were the ones called out for being so inaccurate.  Chiefly among them?  The Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed.  What’s particularly funny are the things they had a problem with, which included a copy editor having their own office.  Right, that’s inaccurate, but is that the worst artistic license you can imagine being taken?  They go on to complain about the resources it depicts the newspaper having.  That should be obvious to most as all we ever hear about is the newspapers starving.  No wonder The New York Times slimmed down its page size.

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Garfield the cat is many things, but few would label him as crazy.  His owner, Jon Arbuckle, on the other hand just might be.  Have you ever considered that Garfield might simply be part of Jon’s imagination, and not actually exist at all?  One individual has taken upon themselves to propose just this question by editing Garfield out of the daily comic strip.  What fans are left with instead is a strip that remarkably holds up, only as a a portrait of someone delusional, instead.  It’s slightly surreal, but also incredibly funny.

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