General

The 2008 MTV Movie Awards will air, LIVE, on Sunday night, June 1. You can go to MTV.com to vote for your favorites.

The Nominees for the “2008 MTV Movie Awards” are below, with my personal picks in bold. It’s been such an AMAZING year for movies and performances that I had to tie quite a few times. As with any awards show, so many movies, actresses, actors were overlooked. Sweeney Todd, Ocean’s 13, Fractured, 3:18 to Yuma, and Live Free or Die Hard should have been considered for movie. Johnny Depp and George Clooney, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd), Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling all gave amazing performances.

BEST MOVIE
– Juno
– Transformers
– Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
– I Am Legend
– Superbad
– National Treasure: Book of Secrets

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE
– Will Smith — I Am Legend
– Shia LaBeouf — Transformers
– Denzel Washington — American Gangster
– Matt Damon — The Bourne Ultimatum
– Michael Cera — Juno

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE
– Ellen Page — Juno
– Keira Knightley — Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
– Katherine Heigl — Knocked Up
– Amy Adams — Enchanted
– Jessica Biel — I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

BEST VILLAIN
– Johnny Depp — Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
– Denzel Washington — American Gangster
– Angelina Jolie — Beowulf
– Topher Grace — Spider-Man 3
– Javier Bardem — No Country For Old Men

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
– Johnny Depp — Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
– Adam Sandler — I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
– Jonah Hill — Superbad
– Seth Rogen — Knocked Up
– Amy Adams — Enchanted

BEST FIGHT
– Matt Damon vs. Joey Ansah — The Bourne Ultimatum
– Tobey Maguire vs. James Franco — Spider-Man 3
– Hayden Christensen vs. Jamie Bell — Jumper
– Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet — Never Back Down
– Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan vs. Sun Ming Ming — Rush Hour 3
– Alien vs. Predator- Aliens vs. Predator — Requiem

BEST KISS
– Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer — Disturbia
– Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey — Enchanted
– Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung — Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix
– Ellen Page and Michael Cera — Juno
– Briana Evigan and Robert Hoffman — Step Up 2 The Streets

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
– Zac Efron — Hairspray
– Seth Rogen — Knocked Up
– Jonah Hill — Superbad
– Michael Cera — Superbad
– Chris Brown — This Christmas
– Nikki Blonsky — Hairspray
– Megan Fox — Transformers
– Christopher Mintz-Plasse — Superbad

BEST SUMMER MOVIE SO FAR
– Iron Man (If you haven’t seen this incredible movie, do so. I’ve seen it twice!)
– Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
– Sex and the City: The Movie
– Speed Racer
– The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Be sure to vote for your favorites.  Then take your mom, wife, and/or girlfriend to dinner.  With Mother’s Day coming up, she won’t be expecting an early “bonus” treat!  Then?  The best part… Take her to see Iron Man.  GREAT MOVIE.

Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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Sadly, one of my all-time favorite actors recently died. He did, however, get to live a long, rewarding life and make a huge impact on the entertainment world - whether he was battling apes or delivering the 10 Commandments. Of course I’m referring to the one and only, larger than life Charlton Heston. When I was really, really young….and my interest was beginning to be held by the male population, Charlton Heston (along with Clint Eastwood) were early crushes. While most girls my age were enthralled by celebrities of our own generation (Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson, Mark Hamil…) - I was much more attracted to the tough guys from the past. Besides, around my house, that’s the sort of thing my dad always had on. Old movies and the Rockford Files. (I liked him, too!)

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen the Planet of the Apes movies - each and every one of them. I love this series! Campy? Sure. But I can’t get enough of the whole experience - from the UNBELIEVABLE music to the first sign of an ape… I’m glued to the screen right till the end. Each and every time.

We’ve lost a great, great actor and person. Damn dirty death!

I would like to say this (although I try to keep political and social opinions off of most of my blogs…especially my entertainment ones) - I wish people would quit harping on Charlton Heston’s views on guns/gun control. This is America, and everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. They’re free to express themselves as well as their opinions. If someone, today (with the world as it is now) doesn’t agree with Mr. Heston’s views on guns - they have to remember that he came from a different generation than the rest of us. The world when Charlton Heston was growing up - and even the one he lived in as an adult in his 30s and 40s - was vastly different from the one we face today! We have no way of knowing what his opinions would be if he were a 35 year old man in the 2008. He might have had the same opinions (which would have been his right) or he might have had complete opposite opinions (also his right).

I’d just rather concentrate on his entire life - not a tiny portion of it.

Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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Shop MTV is coming out with an AMAZING-sounding collection for Charlton Heston fans: The Hollywood Collection: Charlton Heston - For All Seasons.

From the website:
Expected Release Date: May 6, 2008
Order this item now and we will ship it to you as soon as it is available.

This documentary video, part of The Hollywood Collection, features the life and work of actor and political conservative Charlton Heston.

After growing up in a rural part of Michigan, Heston migrated to the urban landscape of Chicago to attend a high school for the dramatic arts. He attended Northwestern University, where his talent and passion for acting increased with his participation in school theater productions. Then he moved onto the Broadway stage and eventually to the movie soundstages in Hollywood.

Heston, known best for his epic film roles as such biblical characters as Moses in Cecil B. De Mille’s The Ten Commandments and as the title character in William Wyler’s Oscar-winning production of Ben-Hur, speaks openly in this video about his career, family, and his politics. This video also shows movie footage, including a rare 1942 student film of a young Heston. There are also interviews with family, co-workers, and friends, including Gregory Peck.

Sign me up!

More Charlton Heston Pictures, Posters and Prints:

Charlton Heston Photo
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Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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The Omega Man Poster
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Ben-Hur Photo
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Julius Caesar Poster
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Planet of the Apes Photo
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Charlton Heston Photo
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If you’re a soap fan you probably remember the darling little gossip, Amy Vining on General hospital. She was a pretty nurse and was, quite frankly, one of the funnest things about the soap she was on. (It’s a soap I don’t even watch any more because they forgot the meaning of the word fun!)

The actress who brought Amy to life was Shell Kepler. Shell was from Ohio - her family moved to California when she was 10. When her run on GH ended, she went into business for herself, marketing clothing on the former Home Shopping Club. She said in a 1994 interview that her “Lacy Afternoon” collection had sales topping $20 million that year alone!

Sadly, Shell passed away friday. The details of her death haven’t been released, so I have no idea what she actually died from. She was only 49 years old.

…stay until after the credits (even though they’re, like 12 minutes long). Don’t leave your seat - trust me.

Cloverfield debuted with $41 million, a record opening for January - making it the “monster hit” people were predicting it’d be.

I’m about to become one with my kitchen, so the computer and I will be estranged for a few days. I wanted to wish you the merriest of Christmases before heading off to the kitchen, though.

Enjoy every single moment with your family, remember you’re making memories that will last forever…not just for you, but for everyone you love as well. Smile and laugh till it hurts, eat till the cook blushes, and love everyone unconditionally. Treat each present as though it’s exactly what you’d always hoped for and live life like it was meant to be lived.

Most of all, be sure to thank God for the greatest Gift ever given and the sweetest Love ever shown!

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones - and I’ll see you on the 26th!

Joi

These Elvis & The Beatles Collectible Salt and Pepper Shakers would make any Elvis and Beatles fan twist, shout, and generally just rock it out. Click the image or the link to take a closer look. I believe the web site also has matching mugs - at least they did at one time! I’m afraid I was distracted this time by these adorable salt and pepper shakers. Like a lot of people, my mom always collected S&P shakers. These would be a deliciously original addition to such a collection!

One of the most entertaining television personalities ever, Joel Siegel, died today, after a battle with colon cancer. He was only 63. He died surrounded by friends and family in New York.

He’ll be missed.

I find the best sites and products through sponsored advertising! That’s, of course, where companies pay bloggers, like me, to review them. They aren’t paying for a thumb’s up or a thumb’s down, per se…they’re just paying for use of our thumbs. Where we point them is pretty much up to us.

Fortunately for all involved, if someone’s willing to pay someone to review them, they’re confident in what they have to offer - and, experience has taught me that this confidence exists for a good reason. What they have is good, and they know it.

So, yes, the following is a sponsored review post about a website - but it’s also a website and a service that I’m more excited about than any I’ve seen in a while.

Why the Hubbub, bub? Quibblo.com is just what I’ve been looking for….and if you have a blog or a website, it’s what you’ve been looking for, too, even if you don’t realize it.

You sign up with Quibblo - which takes under 2 minutes - then you’re able to create a poll of your own. You select the question, the answers, and even decide if your visitor gets to select one or more than one answer. It’s not only fun for you as well as your visitors - it lets you get in and poke around inside their mind. You could, conceivably, ask them which part of your website/blog is their favorite, what they’d like to see added to your website/blog, what topics they’d like to see you discuss, what subject they’d be interested in seeing another blog about, etc.

I have actually put up two polls already! I put one on my Self Help Blog, Self Help Daily. I’ll keep an eye on the answers and will be able to tell how I can most serve my visitors. If they want more information on Relationships, for example, I can then work twice as hard reading more about and researching this particular field. I can get inside their minds and see what they’d really like to know more about…..rather than just giving them what I assume they want to know more about.

I’ve also put a poll on one of my Celeb websites - Keira Knightley Fans . We’re always on the look-out for new celeb sites to put up, but we have a limited knowledge about which celebs fans would be the most interested in - which celebs they’d frequently visit a website for. By putting polls up on the websites we have……websites with great traffic from fans who have proven their interest level and loyalty…. we can, again, get inside their minds and find out what they’d be most interested in - and most likely to visit!

Then, when we have the website ready to launch, we can post a message on that particular website (in this case, the Keira site) and say something like, “Here’s the website you asked for!….” The fans instantly feel a kinship with this site - after all, they’re responsible for it’s launch!

If you have a website or blog about, say, dogs in general - you could ask which breed your visitors would be most interested in reading more information about. Then, if, say…. Bulldog won, you could either:
1. Write more posts/articles about this handsome breed of dog - and one of my alltime faves, btw. I have an invisible bulldog named Duchess, but I don’t like to brag.
2. Put up a blog devoted entirely to bulldogs with a group of visitors you can count on.
3. Or…you could start making some extra Christmas money by preparing an e-b00k all about Bulldogs. (Duchess is available for interviews - but her rates are ridiculous.)

Of course, you could simply use the polls to provide a little extra fun for your visitors. You could put them on your MySpace or personal blog to gauge your visitor’s views and opinions on anything from Paris Hilton to Global Warming.

Check out Quibblo.com and make a poll or quiz today - or, do like me and go completely wild. I’ve only just begun….so, yes, watch for one on this blog later today!

Joi

P.S. Again, the above was a sponsored post - but all of the raving and exclamation points were purely mine.

Here’s another interesting book, also involving Lucy. This book takes a look at sex as it’s portrayed on television - how things have changed between shows like “I Love Lucy” and the (often crass and vulgar) shows that are on today.

On Lucy, the word pregnant wasn’t even allowed - kind of hard to imagine now, isn’t it? Things have changed SO much it’s amazing - and not all the changes are good. I admit, some things were carried a bit far in the 50s and 60s - like Lucy and Ricky, Laura and Rob, and even Fred and Wilma having to sleep in separate twin beds! That always killed me….. How did they want us to think Ricky, Richie, and Pebbles came about?

The book sounds pretty interesting - click what has to be one of the longest link titles in the world to read more about it:
One Foot on the Floor: The Curious Evolution of Sex on Television from I Love Lucy to South Park.

Joi

Buckwheat
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My adorable little Buckwheat - he has no idea just how much I love him!! Whenever I watch the Little Rascals, I find myself disapointed if he pulls a no show….and, then when he does show up, I awwww so much that I can’t concentrate on what’s going on.

Love him muchly. I wish I knew more about the actor who played him. I need to do some research. I’m just afraid that, like so many stories from child actors, the story won’t be a happy one. Especially considering the time he lived in and the fact that he happened to be a black child actor. I don’t think I could stand the thought of an unhappy “Buckwheat!”

Joi