Annette Funicello, arguably the most famous Disney Mousketeer of all, died today in Los Angeles due to complications from MS. Funicello was born in 1942 in Utica, New York, to Italian-American parents. She moved to Southern California with her family at age four. She sang, danced, and modeled and was discovered at the age of 12 by Walt Disney when he saw her perform. He invited her to audition for his new television show for children, “The Mickey Mouse Club”.... Read more
Gene Siskel, left, and Roger Ebert are shown in a 1994 file photo.(Photo: Associated Press) Today American film critic, Roger Ebert (1942 – 2013), died at age 70 from the effects of salivary gland and thyroid cancer that he had been battling for eleven years. He started reviewing films in 1967 for the Chicago Sun-Times and continued through several television shows (the most popular “Siskel & Ebert” was with fellow critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune who died in... Read more
The Hollywood Reporter announced Tuesday that Dreamworks and Participant Media have obtained the rights to the Boston Globe’s yearlong investigation of clergy sex abuse in Massachusetts. The investigation by the Globe’s “Spotlight Team” of reporters and editors led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston. The 2002 revelations have had worldwide repercussions for the Catholic church that continue today in terms of allegations, settlements and pastoral policy. The Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for... Read more
April 1 Part One ET/PT 9-11PM (check local listings) April 2 Part Two ET/ 9PM-12AM (check local listings) Independent Lens/Frontline Robin Charboneau is a young divorced single mother of two, an Oglala Sioux woman living on the Sprit Lake Reservation in North Dakota. We first meet her as she walks home in subzero weather after twenty days in a rehab facility for alcohol abuse and its causes – extreme sexual abuse form a young age. Once home she invites... Read more
Are the irises dead Have they lost their bloom? Are they shrunken and shriveled Are they gone so soon? Is their deep purple less And their curl no more? Have the irises drooped Taking color from my world? Or do they live In rich purple blues? Do they sand alert Catching spring’s early dew? First the bold crocus breaks Hard winter’s dirt Then the scented hyacinth With springtime flirts And my irises stand At attention... Read more
Hanoverhill Starbuck (1979-1998) was a Canadian bull that sired 200,000 daughters around the world — just under 37,000 in Canada alone. He also sired 209 proven sons, all through artificial insemination. 685,000 doses of his semen was sold in 45 countries globally, earning almost $25 million. David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) is a 42-year old loveable ne’er do well whose code name was “Starbuck” at the Montreal fertility clinic where he was a habitual donor 20 years ago — and... Read more
In “The Croods,” the prehistoric caveman Grug (voice of Nicolas Cage) is the head of the Crood family. These beings believe they are the only creatures of their kind in existence. They live somewhere on the earth in a dark cave and only go out during the day if necessary. Grug tells the younger members of the family — Eep (voice of Emma Stone), Thunk (voice of Clark Duke) and Sandy (Randy Thom) — the same bedtime story every... Read more
When it was announced March 13 that the church had a new pope who had taken the name Francis, the first thing that popped into my head was, “St. Francis was the first one to reach out to Islam.” This fact had just recently had been reinforced when I screened a new documentary from Franciscan Media, “In the Footprints of Francis and the Sultan: a Model for Peacemaking.” Talk about great timing for the release of this two-part DVD... Read more
Deadline Hollywood broke the news this morning that Nikos Kazantzakis 1954 novel “Christ Recrucified” has been acquired by Grindhouse Pictures, a company that seems to have only one other film to its credit, “Gabriela“, 2001. The new film will be re-titled “Christ is Risen.” Click here to read the entire article on Deadline Hollywood. Amazon’s description of the novel says: “The inhabitants of a Greek village, ruled by the Turks, plan to enact the life of Christ in a mystery play... Read more
What were you doing when the white smoke began to rise from the Sistine Chapel last Wednesday? Left to right, Ellen Russell, SSJ, Joanne Connolly, SSL, Regina McLaughlan, SSJ, M. Thecla Paolini, FSP – photo by Rose Pacatte, FSP On that morning of Wednesday March 13, I was in our book center here in Culver City chatting with Sister Joanne Connolly, SSL, who had come in to do some shopping. At about 10:45am our Sister Marie James called... Read more
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