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April 12th, 2008
Hey there friends and readers,
 So
another year has gone and hockey season is over. You know what I don't
get? Just as we enter the first heat wave of the year in Canada, with
the temperatures at an all time record high, hockey is JUST getting
over. I mean, isn't hockey a winter sport? Don't you need
ice and snow and for it to be cold? I never can understand this, but then again, I don't watch hockey. I
know, I know. What kind of Canadian guy doesn't watch hockey? Isn't it
a prerequisite to be Canadian and watch hockey? When people find out
I'm not interested they look at me like I have two heads, like the other
day for instance. I get in an elevator and there’s another guy standing
there and as the doors close he looks at me and says "so, what do you
think of Crosby?" I reply, "He was a pretty good singer but I prefer
Sinatra a lot more, and Crosby wasn't ever gonna get the father of the
year award." As the guy is looking at me in utter confusion I get to my
floor and walk off.
However, despite my lack of interest in hockey, we'll get to hockey
later on in this column. I have other things to talk about first, not to
mention a few articles to announce.
First up, our newly renovated House of 100 Horror Reviews is now
complete. Over the years our House of 50 Horror Reviews was one of our
most popular features so I decided to expand the article to an
impressive 100 film reviews, with the help of a group of film buffs and
horror experts whose opinions I trust and respect, including Verne
Pickford, Ronn Sutton, Ralph Townsley and Joe Caruana. What made our
final 100? Check it out for yourself at...
HOUSE
OF 100 HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS
And then, our latest comic book interview
is up. Last month I had the great pleasure to talk to Ralph Tedesco and
Joe Tyler who are the founders of Zenescope Entertainment and the creators
of their flagship titles Grimm Fairy Tales and Return to
Wonderland. We talk about their books and future plans at

THE
NEW BROTHERS GRIMM: A
CONVERSATION WITH ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT’S RALPH TEDESCO AND JOE TYLER
And btw, if you've
never read a Zenescope comic you really should. I am currently
purchasing every book under their banner. Some of the best independent
comics being written today.
And
talking about independent comics, not long ago I became aware of a brand
new comic that is in the works by a young upcoming comic writer named
Sam Johnson called Geek Girl. Being one of the finalists in a
contest called Independent Press Idol, being run by Dimestore, Geek
Girl is a premise that really appealed to me and that I was willing
to throw myself behind and have our site promote and back. Just as many
people have helped us, I am always willing to promote new writers, so I
contacted Sam and asked what we could do to help Geek Girl to
become a reality. Last week Sam called me from his home of Sheffield,
England and we did a short interview so he can tell you in his own words
all about Geek Girl and Independent Press Idol:
PCA: So you’re
doing a comic book called Geek Girl which is part of Small Press
Idol. Tell us about your book and a bit more about the contest, and how
we can help Geek Girl become published.
Sam Johnson: Well
Small Press Idol is run by Dimestore Productions. Dimestore Productions
is a small press comic company and they have an anthology book called
Mysterious Visions which comes out very regularly. Basically, what
this contest is, is that we’re on round three which is the public vote
round. What has happened is that twelve people have gotten to this
round. There were two rounds previously. The first round you submit
the cover and the pitch and the judges select who gets through that
round, and then whoever gets through that is the first public vote round
where we submit details about the characters and then we got through
that. We came in fifth in that round. And now in the third round the
top three get a #0 issue published, the next three get a cover feature
in Mysterious Visions and the four below get a back up in Mysterious
Visions. So basically what is going on now is that you need to pimp
people to vote for you to determine what level that you get published
at. The fact that you are in this round means that you are getting
published.
PCA: So that means
that Geek Girl is going to be a reality.
Sam
Johnson: Yeah. I don’t know how soon because that depends on the
schedule of Mysterious Visions if that’s where we end up, and the
cover issues get first priority. But if you get the top three and you
get a #0 issue that’ll come out in July. The final round of the contest
is who can sell the most of the #0 issue and whoever sells the most gets
prize money and a four issue mini series.
PCA: So let’s talk
about your book. Tell us about Geek Girl! Give us your pitch.
Sam Johnson: Well,
basically what it’s about is a “Little Miss Popular” named Ruby Kaye
who’s a not quite “it” girl at the obnoxious level of Paris Hilton, but
she’s at college and is one of the cool kids. So she hangs with all the
beautiful people and she has a kinda cliquey, trendy girlie crowd. So
they cross with these brainiac geeks that invented these super tech
glasses that endow the user with super strength and flight and because
they sort of play these guys in a game of strip poker and because the
guys are drunk they loose the glasses to Ruby. So the initial intention
of these glasses, which were invented by a guy named Trevor, was because
he had a crush on someone and were created so he could compete with her
boyfriend and to give him an edge. So he looses them to Ruby and she is
donning the glasses, but there is a glitch in them and including giving
her super powers they also make her super klutzy and the result of that
is that it alienates her with her clique and she finds out who her true
friends are.
PCA: So that’s how
you keep Ruby from being a horrible stereotype.
Sam Johnson:
Yeah. Well you see in the story that there are levels of bitchiness and
she’s not a bitch. She’s just basically in this group because she’s
hot. A lot of the people are horrible. Some are not and this comes out
once
her
social mechanisms are somewhat detrimentally affected by these glasses
and the true sides of everyone comes out.
PCA: So could you
say that it’s sort of a spandex and cape version of the 80s movie
Heathers?
Sam Johnson: In
some ways it is. In some ways it’s a flip on the Clark Kent thing
because the tradition is that the geek becomes super strong and perfect,
but Ruby is perfect but her super powers makes her loose all her social
skills and popularity so it’s kind of a twist.
PCA: Is this the
first strip you’ve ever done?
Sam Johnson: I’ve
created comics for a while. I’ve had a number of things picked up and
then fall apart but this year is when things have really started to
happen. I’ve got something coming up in the next issue of Negative
Burn in issue 20 (by Desperado). I have a story in that called
Gold Town which is about a daughter who is off to become a big movie
star and gets sucked into the world of porn and her dad, who kind of
looks like a big black bad ass, but isn’t, but uses the look to throw
his weight around to try to track her down. I also have a story coming
out called Cabracini Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman that got picked up by
Brainscan to be done as a web-comic. She’s this ex-crack head hit
woman. It’s quite queer.
PCA:
So let’s go back to Geek Girl for a minute. Now you have a
character in your book named Karen Carpenter. As a Carpenters fan, I
found that to be really funny. Was that unintentional or will you have
some in-jokes about the Carpenters in the book.
Sam Johnson: No,
that was absolutely deliberate. Basically, she got the name because her
Mum was an obsessive Carpenters fan so she got the name Karen Carpenter
and she is trying to distance herself from it. She has changed her name
to Karin with an “I” because she has no time for it at all. As I said
in the character pitch that she sees people as Victoria Beckham as a
role model. She doesn’t appreciate anyone drawing any similarities to
Karen Carpenter. Karin is the uber-bitch of Ruby’s clique and part of
that is because she has had to constantly deal with Karen Carpenter
cracks since she was a kid and that’s why she’s twisted.
PCA: I think that’s brilliant! Why Karen Carpenter? Why not Toni
Tennille?
Sa m
Johnson: It just popped into my head. No particular reason.
PCA: Well I love
the way you think. I laughed out loud when I read that. So tell us
about the series villain. He sounds pretty intense.
Sam Johnson: Well
one of the things the judges have particularly liked is the villain
named Mister Mash Up. He has seemed to have caught their imaginations.
He’s from another dimension. His father is a kind of demonic type and
he’s the result of his father having a very short affair with a goddess
so he’s the bastard son of Satan in a way. He’s a kind of black sheep.
So since he was the weak link of the family and got picked on a lot his
Dad gave him the power to turn into the clone of anyone so basically he
can turn into anyone he wants because the idea is that he can kick ass
guy that can take on anyone and he won’t have any problems. However,
his Dad hates him so the twist is that he is really brittle, so even if
he turns into a kick ass guy, if he gets whacked he just cracks. So
this has left him very twisted and he’s left his dimension and come to
Earth to take out his venom by tapping into peoples minds and find out
who they hate and basically turn this vessel into a clone of them and
torment the hell out of them and he uses it to makes peoples a misery.
Also, being that he is an albino he wears a brimmed hat to protect his
delicate complexion.
PCA: So tell us
about the people you’re working with on this.
Sam Johnson:
There’s James Reed who’s a professional letterer who I worked with on
Cabracini as well and Sally Thompson who is the colorist and the
artist.
PCA: So how can we
all support Geek Girl?
Sam Johnson: The
best thing to do this is to go to
this link and vote. You
can also go to www.fanbabes.com and you’ll also all kinds of pin ups and
stuff about the characters and all you need about to know about the
comic.
So
there you go folks. Geek Girl needs your help so make sure to
click here, sign up to
Dimestore Productions and vote for Geek Girl and support
Sam and his team. You have until June 13th to help out, so let’s make
Geek Girl a reality. Good luck Sam and let us know how things
work out.
Finally,
let’s go back to hockey for a momen t.
Now as I discussed above, I have no interest, knowledge or love for the
sport. However, if you live in Canada, and perhaps even if you don't,
you may be aware of the news that the CBC has given up the classic theme
song to Hockey Night in Canada. Now if you're not a Canadian
this concept might be a little abstract, but the theme song to Hockey
Night in Canada is not only one of the most recognized songs in
Canada, after possibly only the national anthem, but by being used by
the program for over forty years, the song has become, in a way that I
can't even explain, a part of our cultural identity. Even for me, who
couldn't give a damn about the sport, has a nostalgic love and
understanding for the Hockey Night in Canada theme. Everybody
who has lived in Canada, being a hockey fan or not, understands the
meaning and emotion behind that song, and the majestic uplifting melody
is enough to raise a sense of excitement in anyone. When I read the
news that CBC was ditching the song because they didn't wa nt
to pay for it anymore, just like many Canadians I thought "what the
hell! They can't do that!" It was odd, because while I have no strong
feelings about the sport, I immediately wanted to don a hockey jersey
and make my way over to the CBC building in Toronto to join the
protest. It's strange really. Over the last week I have read with
interest, and had numerous conversations with people about this subject
and everybody, both hockey fans and people like me, all have the same
strong emotions connected to the Hockey Night in Canada theme. I
have
never
seen such passion, not to mention cultural identity, connected to a
television theme song. It has been unreal.
So by now most people have heard that CBC's rival network CTV has saved
the Hockey Night in Canada theme song by purchasing it under
CBC's nose and will be using it for their hockey broadcasts. While many
purists are not happy with this, I don't care as long as the song is
saved, being used for hockey broadcasts and owned by a Canadian network
(rumor had it that an American network was making bids for the song as
well). However I have another proposal. I think we should do something
else with the song. I personally feel that the Canadian government
should scrap Canada’s national anthem, O Canada, and officially replace
it with the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. I'm serious!
It’s a far better
song and O Canada has never, ever, seen the outpouring of love by the
public like the Hockey Night in Canada theme song has. Oh Canada
is a dull and lame song which is embarrassing to sing. The Hockey
Night in Canada song kicks major ass. Also, I think more people
would agree that we are joined by a nation through the Hockey Night
in Canada song more then O Canada. I mean, O Canada has never,
ever, sparked so much passion in the hearts of Canadians like the
Hockey Night in Canada theme song has in the past few weeks. So, even as someone who probably
will never watch a hockey game in his life, I totally feel this is
something that should be done. It'll make sure the song lives
forever...and it'll be played before every hockey game that way too.
I'm not kidding folks. This is not a satirical piece. I really think
this.
Anyhow, now that you all think I'm mental I'll stop here.
Stay tuned because there is more to come...
Uh...great. Now I got the Hockey Night in Canada song stuck in
my head. Doo doo doo doo doooo. Do doo doo doo da doo. Doo doo doo da
dadada da dadada daaaaaa....
Sam Tweedle
Pop Culture Addict
_______________________________________________________________________________________
May 26th, 2008
Hey there friends and readers,
So
I have a confession to make. Do you know what I’ve been doing for the
last three days? I’ve been catching up with all my friends at Seattle
Greys by watching downloaded episodes of season four of Grey’s
Anatomy. I’ll admit it. I’ll admit it. I am a Grey’s Anatomy
junkie. I just can’t get enough of that show. However, after three
seasons of being hopelessly smitten wit h
Izzie Stephens, aka Katherine Heigl, I now have a new crush on Greys own
“Cousin Oliver” Chyler Leigh in the role of Meredith’s kid sister Dr.
Lexie Grey. Man oh man. Total déjà vu for the old pop culture addict.
This is totally the same thing that happened when Michelle Trachtenberg
joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mind you, Lexie
Grey is at least legal. Anyhow, I need to take a break from
Grey's for a while because I’ve barely gotten any work done for
three days now. So my TV to catch up on. So little time to do it.
Anyhow,
I decided today that we’d dip back into PCA’s mailbag for another round
of our popular reader’s mail column! We get letters each and every week
from pop culture fans all over the world, sharing ideas, memories and
insights and part of keeping this pop culture journey alive is sharing
those letters with you. We always love hearing from you folks so always
feel free to write in at
popcultureaddict@gmail.com.
However, before we get to the letters I am proud to announce our latest
article. Just in time for the triumphant return of the New Kids on the
Block PCA proudly takes a look at the man, the music and the legacy of
the legendary Tommy Page! What? You don’t know who Tommy Page is?
Well of course you don’t. Nobody seems to remember this guy. A one hit
wonder from the early 90’s, Tommy Page rode to stardom on the coattails
of the New Kids on the Block and enjoyed a short time as a minor teen
magazine poster boy before quickly disappearing into obscurity.
However, imagine my surprise when I recently found out that Tommy Page’s
influence over the current music scene is far more wide spread then I’d
ever had imagine, and he truly did leave a mark on music – we just
forgot about him. Get reacquainted with Tommy Page in

TOMMY CAN YOU HEAR ME?: REMEMBERING
TOMMY PAGE
or
TOMMY WHO?
Okay. Well one of the most popular letter topics we get is dedicated to
our coverage of the Herman’s Hermit feud between front man Peter
“Herman” Noone and drummer Barry Whitwam.
Our
interview last month with Peter Noone about the feud got a fair
amount of attention, and as usual, a fair amount of letters. I’ve
already devoted entire columns to Herman’s Hermits mail, but I would like
to share this letter from Noonatic Beryl R. from England. Beryl writes:
"Hi
Sam,
I
read with interest your article/interview with Peter. At the end you say
it doesn't matter which Herman's Hermits you see it's the music that
counts. Well I disagree! I have just been over to Florida to see
Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone and had a fabulous time seeing
them 12 times in 4 days at Busch Gardens. I saw Barry’s group a couple
of years back in a 60's show here in the UK and I can tell you there is
no comparison, Peter wins hands down. Barry's lot were out of tune and
most of the music didn't even sound as it should for the songs I have
known and loved since I was 13 back in the 60's.
Peter is a far superior entertainer. He is the only Herman and I think
if Barry wants to perform under the name Herman's Hermits he should do
as Peter does and add his name, then people can make an informed choice
of who the are going to see and support.
Thanks for the articles.
Beryl (in the
UK)"
Hi
Beryl. Thanks so much for writing.
I am glad that you enjoyed my interview
with Peter Noone. I am very happy to be able to feature his thoughts
and opinions on my web-site and I feel very privileged to have been able
to feature two alternate points of view from two opposing Hermtis.
According to one music journalist that got in touch with me I am the
only source thus far that has been able to do this.
You know, Peter Noone has some of the most devoted and passionate fans
in the world, and the Noonatics have proven to be a very interesting and
vocal group. I’ve enjoyed the letters that they have written to me over
the last year.
Anyhow, I think you may have misunderstood what I meant at the end of my
interview with Peter Noone. At the end I don’t say that “it doesn’t
matter which Herman’s Hermits that you see.” I say “It doesn’t matter
to me who calls themselves Herman’s Hermits these days as long as we
still have their music.”
This is in no way a judgment
on who plays the songs better. I saw Peter Noone in concert last
summer, which was what sparked my interest that led to these interviews,
and he does a great show. It was the best concert I went to in the
summer of 2007. I have never seen Barry's band, but I can tell you that
Barry Whitwam is a very nice and well spoken gentleman and I
not
only respect him very much, but I do believe many many parts of his
story.
My
personal opinion on Herman's Hermits is this - there is no such thing as
a band called Herman's Hermits anymore. Herman's Hermits is something
of the past. Peter Noone is Herman, today, tomorrow and forever. Peter
Noone is the voice, the sound and the face. There is no denying this
fact. However, the fellows who tour with him in his band, no matter how
good they are (and they are fantastic musicians IMO) are NOT the
Hermits. The only Hermits are Barry, Keith, Karl and Lek. I'm not sure
why Peter feels he has to continue using the name Herman's Hermits
instead of simply just being known as Peter Noone, or Herman. Gwen Steffani doesn't
call herself No Doubt. Ozzy Osbourne doesn't call himself Black
Sabbath. See what I mean? Peter Noone's name alone, or at
least his moniker Herman, should be big enough to draw a
crowd.
Peter Noone is a bonafide 1960s icon, a brilliant performer and legend
in the pop industry. That will always belong to him.
However,
on the other side of the coin, why I believe a lot of Barry's story (for
instance, I have seen a scan of the high court order documents with my
own eyes), Peter's words really hit home when he said "It is an
agreement between me, Karl Green, Derek Leckenby and Keith Hopwood and
NOT a lifetime permit for Barry Whitwam to call himself Herman's
Hermits. It was a ten year deal between me and the four Hermits. Not me
and Barry and whoever he wants the other three to be this week." Nobody
has EVER put it in better perspective then that. Just as I don't
believe that Peter Noone can claim to be Herman's Hermits without the
Hermits, for Barry to call himself Herman's Hermits is just ridiculous.
Barry is a Hermit. Barry is part of that legacy. But he is a single
Hermit. With Keith and Karl he could be the Hermits and that'd be
fair. Only with Peter can he be Herman's Hermits. I have nothing but
the highest respect for Barry Whitwam an d
I think he is one of the nicest people I've ever interviewed. I don't
want to cheapen his legacy, and I believe a lot of his version of his
story (not all of it, but a lot of it). However, I agree the whole
thing is daft. For Barry to call himself Herman’s Hermits would be like
Ringo Starr going on tour without Paul, George and John and calling
himself the Beatles. Barry is probably living in a dream world, but in
his defense he is trying hard to hold on to his little niche in the pop
world. I can understand that and sympathize.
What I guess I mean when I say I don't care who calls themselves
Herman's Hermits is the fact that there may no longer be a true version
of the band, but we HAVE THE MUSIC! The ULTIMATE Herman's Hermits are
those original recordings that were produced by Mickie Most and created
by Peter and Barry, along with Keith, Karl and Lek. Without all five of
them, in my opinion, the magic is gone.
As
I said in my conclusion, I believe in parts of Barry and Peter's story.
People need to make their own decision, and the fans will decide who to
side with. Personally, I'd see a Peter Noone concert before a Barry
Whitwam one, but it doesn't mean that Barry's voice should be silenced,
nor that his version should be ignored. Thanks again Beryl, and I hope
you’ll wish everybody in the Noonatic community the fondest wishes from
myself and everyone at PCA.
Herman's Hermits isn't the only popular topic. Over the last month
we’ve also received an astonishing amount of mail on our feature
about the sensational and tragic
Hollywood deaths of three entertainers the world never got to know –
Peg Entwistle, Karyn Kupcinet and Danny Lockin. Two of the letters
in particular were quite fascinating. The first comes from Kathy Mechan
who runs Danny Lockin’s website at
http://dannylockin.com in which I used heavily during my research on
Danny’s life. Since our article about Danny went up Kathy and I
have had a delightful correspondence and Kathy has been very kind in
sharing new information and exchanging pictures. In one letter
Kathy wrote to me she outlined the origins of her own interest in
Danny’s life, as well as offered more information about this tragic
dancer. Kathy writes:
"Hi Sam!
I'm
glad to hear that I helped out on Danny's story-just to let you know I
have a bit more I am going to be putting on the site.
Unfortunately, I never met Danny; but I became a fan of his, after my
son played Barnaby in his school play and I later saw Danny play Barnaby
in Hello Dolly! It was absolutely amazing, the amount of talent he had!
He was the best part of the movie, in my opinion. I became a huge fan
right then and there! When I looked him up, to my utter astonishment, I
found next to nothing, except he'd been horribly murdered in 1977. So I
decided to help him out, so to speak. After some determined hunting, I
found his uncle and took a chance and wrote to him. He was awfully nice
and even though he's in his 70's and just got out of the hospital, he
sent me a packet of all the pictures and news clippings he had of Danny,
some of which I have put up on the site. He said he was guessing on some
of the facts and didn't want to be quoted.
Danny's fath er,
Joe, grew up in
Iowa,
and went to college at Univ of California. His mother Jean, was the
daughter of a doctor from Nebraska. She taught dance lessons all over
Sioux City Iowa for 5
years, until she married Joe in 1937. Right after they were married,
they moved to Honolulu, where Joe worked in management at a Dole
pineapple plantation. Eventually, they moved to the smallest island,
Lanai, where Danny was born in 1943. Joe died in
Anaheim 2 years after moving to
California, in 1961.
Jean left Anaheim sometime after Danny died, but stayed in
Orange
County,
moving to a town called Fountain Valley, a short distance away. Maybe
she moved to a nursing home, I don't know for sure. She died May 26th,
1990 in Fountain Valley Medical Center, aged 78, of pneumonia. Not that
it matters too much, but there appear to be several Lockins in the LA
area, it seems they were cousins who moved from Iowa and Wisconsin in
the 30's. So, it wouldn't have been a strange thing for Danny's parents
to move to LA when they did...family was already there, and Joe having
lived there to go to college. Also, I found a little trivia on
Danny...he was in gymnastics in high school, and did quite well, scoring
2nd in tumbling in a big tournament against another Omaha team.
Watching Hello Dolly, you can plainly see his gymnastic ability in
action! When I watched the movie I noticed his moves, and having done
gymnastics in HS myself, I thought...Wow! He would have been a great guy
to have on someone's gymnastics team!...And sure enough! And in
tumbling! It all makes sense now!
It's too bad about his losing his drivers license! He said his favorite
down-time activities were swimming and driving. It must have been hard
to go back to being driven around. I wonder how many times you get
caught DWI in California before they take your license away?
Another thing that Danny's uncle told me and I found strange, is that
Danny's mom Jean did not tell him how Danny died until a couple of years
after he was killed. She told him he died in a car accident. Variety
magazine also reported it as an auto accident immediately after Danny
was murdered but changed it to murder a few days later.
I
have tried to attach the picture of The Two Checkers. They are in their
costumes behind big dark glasses. Let me know if it came thru OK. I
have another one of them in just sitting back to back for a publicity
photo. I will also be putting both of them on my site soon. Aren't those
the silliest costumes? Definitely good for a comedy team! Danny and
Neal played in the greater Omaha area, and sometimes had a hard time
getting work, because of the race thing. I don't know if you can read
the newspaper clipping on my site, but Danny said they actually were
flown out to NY for an audition for a TV show, and were basically
laughed out of the room because of Neal's race! A couple of years
later, they were called back and got the same reaction.. must have been
hard for little kids to understand.
I
intend to try to contact other actors who worked with or knew Danny, and
hope they can recall stuff about him. There's lots to be done to piece
his life back together.
I
totally agree with you...Danny was more than an actor that was
gruesomely murdered. He had a life and left so many wonderful memories
for so many people. He deserves to be remembered, and that's the main
reason I started the site. He was fading away into obscurity. No
pictures. No wikipedia page. No real, informative websites. Now he has
my site, another smaller one, a myspace page AND your wonderful
article about him! I intend, when the website is finished, to do a wiki-page
and update all the sites which don't seem to have any info on him.
Thank you again for helping me keep Danny's story
alive.
Best wishes,
Kathy"
Once again, I want to thank Kathy for all the
information she has shared with us, not to mention for maintaining a
site like
www.dannylockin.com. I first began
researching Danny’s story in 2006 and at that time there was barely
anything about Danny’s life on the internet for the exception of details
of his murder. While that was interesting, no celebration of his life
existed. It has been through Kathy’s hard work and dedication to an
actor she never even knew that Danny’s memory is being kept alive. It’s
dedicated people like Kathy who are the true everyday heroes of the pop
culture journey. Make sure to check out her site for more
information and photos celebrating the life of Danny Lockin.
And speaking of people with some interesting stories to tell, I received
another letter about both Danny and Karyn from actor David Dillon who
has his own “two degrees of separation” from both of these tragic
figures. However David’s letter offers us a lot more stories to ponder
that goes beyond even my article. David writes:
"Hi,
Sam,
I
was flipping channels tonight and watched a bit of "Hello, Dolly!" and I
recalled that an old friend of mine had told me that Danny Lockin had
been murdered. So, I Googled him and came across your website.
The pieces about Danny, Peg Entwistle and Karyn Kupcinet were very
interesting. (I knew who Peg was and knew the story of her death, but
never knew she was Brian Keith's step-mother ... very interesting.) I
thought you might be interested in a couple of things regarding Lockin
and Kupcinet.
I
knew Karyn Kupcinet's parents well. I worked in Chicago theatre and
P.R. for many years, and had a lot of contact with Irv as a result.
But, it was his wife Essee I knew better. She was one of my "Moms" in
Chicago theatre and was very supportive of my work and helped me out a
number of times by working on benefits, lending her name to events,
being on Boards, etc.
When I was just starting out, I saw Irv and Essee interviewed on TV and
Essee made the statement that in her work supporting the theatre, she
tried never to say "no" to anyone. I heard a "ding" go off in my
head. So, I found her home phone number, called her up, introduced
myself and told her I was starting a theatre company. A few days
later, we had lunch together and thus started two decades of interaction
with her. I asked her about the never saying no statement, and she
explained that she made a vow to herself when Karyn was murdered to
always support up and coming theatre artists. She kept that vow to her
death and many, many of us in Chicago theatre owe her a debt.
She
had a wonderful sense of humor and for a society lady, she never minced
words. Once, she got Shelley Winters to agree to do a show for us and
we had a planning lunch at the Monroe Yacht Club with Essee and Heather
Morgan Bilandic (of the J.P. Morgan family and former first lady of
Chicago married to Mayor Michael Bilandic.) I was about to head to
Delaware to teach for the summer and upon my return, Shelley would be in
Chicago and Essee would arrange our first meeting. After lunch, Essee
pulled me aside and said "And YOU had better look out!!" I wondered
why she would say that ... was Shelley difficult?? She continued
"Because Shelley's gonna WANT you!!" For some reason, Essee was
convinced Shelley would want to jump my bones. Now, this was 1981 or
so, several years after "The Poseidon Adventure." I froze. I spent
the entire summer agonizing over what to do when Shelley came on to
me. I was 24 at the time and terrified. I finally resolved that I
would sacrifice myself for the good of the show and if Shelley wanted me
to do her, I would. When we met that September, she hardly gave me a
second look and I was enraged. I thought "What am I, chopped
liver??" Essee and I always laughed about that in later years. As it
turned out, Shelley was unable to do the show when we needed her because
of some family problems, but I encountered her many times after that and
adored her.
 Anyway
... Essee told me once that she knew before anyone else ever uttered the
rumor, that Peter Lawford was in Marilyn Monroe's apartment the night
she died and that there was indeed a major cover up involving the
Kennedy family and Miss Monroe's death. I told her she should write a
book and she told me she was often asked, but that she never would. She
felt that all the people she had known had trusted her with their
confidences and she would never think of betraying them.
The
thing is, whether or not they ever said it officially, she and Irv
always believed it was Andrew Prine who murdered Karyn. In fact ...
and I might be wrong about this ... Irv wrote a book late in his life
and I believe he stated his theory in that book. You might want to
read it. It is an interesting chronicle of
times gone by when the gossip columnist was indeed a confidant. I read
it, of course, and as I said, it is my memory that he finally DID go on
the record about his belief that Prine was guilty.
Regarding
Danny Lockin ... this is just a bit of trivia which I think you might
like being a pop culture fan. The friend who had told me he'd been
murdered was Georgia Engel of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Everybody
Loves Raymond," etc. I produced a production of "Nunsense" in Chicago
starring Georgia and we became dear friends. That friendship lasted a
number of years, until I wrote a hit off Broadway play about being gay
in which there were seven naked men onstage. Being a devoted
Christian Scientist, Georgia always had problems with homosexuality.
She could deal with gay people as long as it was not discussed. Once I
did such an openly gay thing, I no longer existed to her. Be that as
it may, Georgia's very first professional job was as Minnie Fay in the
Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" starring Ethel Merman and in
which she played opposite Danny Lockin. Not sure you knew she was his
costar. She always spoke of his remarkable talent, but had a difficult
time with knowing he was gay and lived on the edge. If I am not
mistaken, she told me he had trouble with recreational drugs. I always
suspected his death involved gay sex and possibly alcohol, drugs or
kinky sex simply from what a difficult time she had discussing it and
the obvious judgment in her tone about him.
Anyway ... just thought you might be interested in these little tidbits.
Good luck with the site ... pop culture is a fascination of mine as well
... not so much current stuff as the vintage stuff and legends.
Be
well,
David Dillon"
Hi
David,
Thank
you so much for such an informative and interesting letter full of
trivia, insight and grit. It isn’t very often we receive letters such
as yours. You really have met some interesting people and have plenty
of interesting stories to tell. For you to share them with us is a real
treat.
I
am charmed by your friendship with Karyn Kupcinet’s mother Essie. It
must have been awful for Essie to have lost her daughter so tragically
at such a young age, and then to have her daughter’s memory be tainted
with rumors of conspiracy. However, it’s good to know that her death
didn’t destroy Essie’s spirit nor involvement in the community of
Chicago. She sounds like a very dear lady.
Your
statement about Peter Lawford is particularly intriguing. You know, I
have been researching Peter Lawford and his Rat Pack cohort Frank
Sinatra’s involvement with the Kennedys for a number of years, and I
have a few of my own controversial theories about the Rat Packers doing
some of the Kennedys' dirty work. I truly believe that their
involvement in JFK’s campaign was even a factor in his eventual
assassination, although totally unintentionally. One day I hope to publish my own theories in either an article or perhaps a book, although
my biggest fear is either being sued by the Sinatra estate, or having
two thugs named Bubba and Rocko at my door with brass knuckles and a
crowbar that want to talk to me about my controversial ideas.
I
also feel that the statement about Andrew Prine being the true killer of
Karyn Kupicent is quite bold, but you are not the only reader who has
contacted me and said the same thing. Perhaps we’ll never know the
truth, but it’d be interesting to know if Andrew Prine sleeps at night.
 Finally,
while it is indeed fascinating that Georgia Engle played Minnie Faye
opposite of Danny Lockin, it is very sad and unfortunate about her
feelings with homosexuality and that she'd allow it to end a friendship. I suppose a lot of that may be a generational thing.
Engle's is from a generation where homosexuality was not talked about
nor accepted, thus perhaps it is still a taboo and uncomfortable subject
for her. I find that many people who grew up prior to the 1970s
still have issues with homosexuality. It's not right, but they
haven't adapted to our modern way of thinking. However, despite
this, there is no room for homophobia in our modern world, and
especially when it comes to the world of show business. Many of my personal
favorite pop culture icons were/are gay including
Brian Epstein, Jodie Foster, Robert Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Jack
Larson, George Takei (who I am pictured with on our home
page),
Clive Barker, The Village People (who will be featured in an upcoming
PCA
article), Matthew Waterhouse, Raymond
Burr,
Liberace,
Anthony Daniels, T.R. Knight, Rufus Wainwright and Johnny Mathis.
This also is true for my
two literary idols, Truman Capote and Roland Barthes. I have also heard
stories from a number of celebrities and individuals in show business
that I have encountered and interviewed about other major celebrities
that are huge in show business today who are not yet out of the closet,
but whose identities I have promised to not reveal publicly. This, of
course, is only a very small list of important gay contributors to the
pop culture journey. The gay community has had so much to offer
entertainment and the history of pop culture. Its such a shame that
today there are still people in the industry that can’t accept this.
Anyhow David. Thanks so much for sharing your stories and I hope that
we’ll hear from you one day again. Its stories like yours that keep this
journey alive, and keeps the history of pop culture flowing.
Finally I received a letter from a reader who only identified himself as
“R’ in regards to my 2004 article about obscure scream queen Fawn
Silver, start of Ed Wood’s and AC Stephens’ cult classic Orgy of the
Dead. Fawn Silver has been a figure who has intrigued many visitors
over the years to our site because of her mysterious disappearance from
the pop culture radar in the late 1960s. Anyhow, R does some searching
of his own and writes:
"Sam,
Hi. I read your piece on Fawn Silver and was prompted to do some
research. Some sources indicate that she was aka Fawn Silverton. She
was an exotic dancer states one source. She appeared in pictorials
(e.g., "Heiress of the Month" in Millionaire Magazine ca. 1966). Some
say she was on the television show Batman more than once.
Keep researching!
--R."
Well
perhaps this is time for me to open a huge can of worms. The majority
of the information you’ve provided to us R. is true. Fawn Silver did go
by the name Fawn Silverton and she did do a pictorial for Millionaire
Magazine and was an extra in at least one episode of Batman (I am not
sure which one unfortunately). Fawn Silver, however, was never an
exotic dancer. How do I know this? Well…about a year ago I
successfully tracked down Fawn Silver’s whereabouts. Through some
research, some luck, and some detective work I managed to find a trail
to the mysterious actress which led me to a phone number and an
address. After building up enough courage I called Ms. Silver and spoke
very briefly to her, however I was quickly passed over to her husband
who cross examined me about how I discovered the whereabouts of his
wife. After explaining in full detail I was told, basically in not so many words, that
Ms. Silver was not interested in talking to me, nor was she interested
in being found. I have never written about this encounter because I
wasn’t sure how to up until to now. Furthermore, I feel that Fawn Silv er
keeps a fair bit of romantic mystery by people not knowing where or who
she is. Sort of the same way that the cult of Bettie Page grew over the
decades until she came out of hiding. I am sure that Ms. Silver has her
own reasons for wanting
to keep her anomonity and not to share those incredible stories that she
has to tell, and I feel it is such a shame that she does not embrace her
place in the pop culture journey. She has no idea the legion of fans
that she has, nor the people who honesty do care and remember her short
film career. Yet, out of respect for Ms. Silver and the privacy of her
family I will not reveal any information about her identity nor her
whereabouts. Perhaps one day it is a story I can tell, and one day I
hope the time will come when I can reveal all. However I will tell you
that Fawn Silver is alive and, I believe, made a good life for herself
outside that of a B movie actress. Her story did not end in romantic
tragedy, but that doesn’t make her any less interesting. Fawn Silver is
still a B movie actress who is awaiting her place as a major cult
figure. Unfortunately, without people knowing her story there is yet to
be a story to be told. Believe me when I tell you that I find it
torture to know the way the story ends but not be able to reveal it.
That is one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with on the pop
culture journey, but what makes me different from the scum that
disguise themselves as entertainment journalists is that I respect the
privacy of the people I write about, and I respect their wishes. Thus,
for the time being, Fawn Silver’s story will sit under my hat.
However thanks for
the letter R., and thank for finally allowing me an outlet to tell this
story.
Anyhow folks, there
is plenty more mail I’d like to get to but this column has gotten longer
then usual. That, and I want to watch another episode of Grey's
Anatomy before I go to bed. Please, keep those letters coming in to
us. You keep the pop culture journey alive by writing to us and I
personally read and reply to every e-mail.
Stay tuned,
Sam Tweedle
_____________________________________________________________________________________
May 23rd, 2008

REMEMBERS
JOHN
PHILLIP LAW
1937-2008
“An angel doesn’t make love. An angel is love.” – John Phillip Law
Moments
ago I received an e-mail from our contributing editor Charlotte Smith
about the passing of John Phillip Law, a legendary member of the pop
culture journey, and one of cult cinemas’ most beloved stars. Law died
on May 13th, 2008. He was seventy years old.
Although his name
may not be immediately recognizable, during the 1960s John Phillip Law
joined actors such as David Hemmings and Terrance Stamp as being one of
the biggest studs to come out of the European cinema. However, unlike
his counterparts, John Phillip Law was actually an American who found
more popularity in
Europe
then his home continent. Perhaps you’ll remember him as sexy super
thief Diabolik in the 60’s European comic film Danger: Diabolik.
However, we covered John’s career earlier this year here at PCA in our
feature Eclectic Barbarella: Because Barbarella Was More Then Just Jane
Fonda for his portrayal of Pygar the Angel, the role most film buffs
immediately connect John too. The image of John Phillip Law with his
blank stare, sprouting angel wings and in a loin cloth are nearly as
iconic as images of Jane Fonda as sexy space adventurer Barbarella
herself. However John Phillip Law did much more then just play angels
and super thiefs. He had a very long and colorful career in movies and
the stage in both North America and Europe, and while he was never charismatic enough to be a major leading man, he
was popular enough with film fans to hit pop culture gold again and
again.
The
son of a sheriff and a showgirl (that’s the plot for a movie all in
itself), John Phillip Law grew up in the Hollywood hills, but instead of
trying to make it in the
competitive world of movies, Law wisely went to New York City and
trained as an actor at the New York Neighborhood Theatre, which lead him
to the Broadway stage. A few minor roles in movies followed, but John
made his first impact when he was spotted by director Norman Jewison
while acting in Europe, who cast him in the 1965 film The Russians
are Coming, The Russians are Coming. Choosing to stay in Europe, John quickly made a comfortable career playing in various European
productions and spaghetti westerns alongside actors such as Lee Van
Clef, Michael Cain, Carroll Baker and future co-star Jane Fonda.
However he’d hit pop culture gold with his first starring role as
anti-hero Diabolik in Dino De Laurentiis and Mario Bava’s production of
the popular Italian comic strip Danger: Diabolik. Despite the
fact Diabolik didn’t fare well in North America, at the time of
it’s release, this fast and sexy film has gone on to be a cult classic
today, and one of the favorite films of the 1960’s for thousands of film buffs
worldwide. John proved popular with Dino De Laurentiis as a leading
man, who would cast him a year later in his next project, also b ased on a comic strip, Barbarella. Playing the blind and gentle
agent Pygar, John Phillip Law strengthened his status as one of the
1960’s super studs by pulling the heartstrings of both Jane Fonda and Anita Pallenberg. Again, Barbarella was not a hit during its release,
but it is undeniable one of the biggest cult films in the history of
cinema, and has been hailed as a
60’s masterpiece in recent decades. As a result of his major involvement
in the film, John Phillip Law’s place in pop culture was sealed. Later
noteworthy starring roles saw John as Baron Manford Von Richthofen in
Roger Corman’s The Red Baron (no, Snoopy was not in the film),
Sinbad the Sailor in Ray Harreyhausen’s production of The Golden Voyages of Sinbad, “Little Brother” in Dennis
Hopper’s counter culture flop The Last Movie, and a last minute
replacement as star of Jacquelyn Susann’s The Love Machine.
However, for the majority of his care er John Phillip Law remained in Europe
where he was a far better received leading man then he was in North
America. Phillip Law’s final movie, Chinaman’s Chance,
starring an oddly eclectic cast consisting of Reggie Lee,
Ernest Borgnine, Olivia Hussey and Coolio is slated to be released later
this year.
By the 1980’s John
had returned to America where he did a number of guest roles in series
such as The Love Boat and Murder She Wrote, and for a
short time played the role of Jim Grainger on the classic CBS soap opera
The Young and the Restless. However, by the 1990’s John had
become a staple at sci-fi conventions and autograph shows where he would
entertain fans with his stories of being one of Europe’s biggest sex
symbols, and signing pictures of him as Pygar the Angel. That’s the way
that we’ll always remember John Phillip Law. As an angel.
______________________________________________________________________________________
May 5th, 2008
Hi there friends
and readers,
Man
we got some exciting things going on over here at popcultureaddict.com.
First bit of business is a very special new interview to announce. This
one jumped out at me from nowhere, and despite the fact that I haven’t
even announced it yet, over 500 people have already read it after only
being on our site for a little over a week As many of you probably
remember, last summer I did an interview with Herman’s Hermits drummer
Barry Whitwam which not only brought our web-site a lot of attention,
but proved to be quite controversial. Barry gave us a revealing look at
the darker side of Hermit history and discussed rivalries, legal issues,
backstabbing and painted a very unflattering picture of Herman’s Hermits
legendary front man Peter “Herman” Noone. For months afterwards we were
flooded with mail which represented both sides of the debate. Many
readers backed up Barry’s story, but a far larger and more vocal fan
base, calling themselves Noonatics, defended Peter and his legacy.
Eventually we heard from Peter Noone himself who, to put it mildly, was
not pleased. Anyhow, with much negotiation, Peter Noone agreed to tell
his side of the story via an e-mail interview. Much of the interview is
the Peter Noone is what you’d expect – witty, clever and funny.
However, this interview shows another Peter Noone that you’ve never seen
before: confrontational, controversial and unapologetic. Hold on to
your hats as we hear Herman’s version of the Herman’s Hermit rivalry in:

DANDY!: PETER NOONE STRIKES BACK!
Also, I would
suggest that you revisit our interview with Barry Whitwam to put this
interview in context. Make sure to also read:
MEMOIRS OF A
HERMIT: SETTING THE
RECORD STRAIGHT WITH HERMAN'S HERMITS' BARRY WHITWAM
Now
I just want to stress that our feature with Peter Noone is in no way
meant to cheapen our interview with Barry Whitwam. While Peter Noone
will always be the icon, Barry Whitwam has a valid story to tell too.
I also want readers to know that I am not endorsing, nor siding with
Peter or Barry. Both Barry and Peter, in my opinion, have valid
points to
make in this story, and it is up to you, the reader, to come to your own
conclusions on the true history of Herman’s Hermits.
However, I
am very
proud that Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict is the only source that
has succeeded in interviewing both Peter Noone and Barry Whitwam,
and is the only source anywhere that is providing both sides to the
Herman’s Hermit feud.
BTW – I am
currently working on arranging an interview with another former teen
idol. I don’t want to jinx myself by saying to much before things are
finalized, but I did receive a phone message last week from this former
heartthrob, and he sounded very positive about talking to us. I am
bursting at the seams with anticipation over this one. Stay tuned later
in May with a possible announcement. However I’ll give you folks a clue
to his identity. This individual is on this Tiger Beat Magazine
cover!
Anyhow,
in the last week I’ve, once again, been sent a number of e-mails
questioning my opinion on yet another Disney girl. Now before the news
turns into “olds” like it did with Vanessa Hudgens in our last column, I
figure that I will make an official statement on where PCA stands on the
controversial photos of Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus that were
photographed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair.
Well, before I express my opinon, I think that there are a few important
things to remember about this affair. First – Miley Cyrus is not a
little girl and she knew what she was doing. Sure, she may be a minor,
but she is not a retard. Give the kid some credit. She knew what was
going on and I don’t believe for a second that she was manipulated nor
exploited. Second – her parents and her handlers, who have been doing a
cracker jack job on keeping this kid on
the straight and narrow, were also
present at the time and they also knew what was going on. If something
goofy was going on they would have intervened. Third – the photos w ere
taken by Annie frikkin’ Leibovitz who is possibly the leading celebrity
photographer in the business. She is not Larry Flint. She is not
Edward Klaw. This is not kiddie porn. I think the most offensive thing
about the photos isn’t the content, but the fact that they are
incredibly unflattering pictures and Miley looks terrible. If Miley was
embarrassed about anything it should be that these really aren’t good
pictures of her. As to the uproar of the earlier pictures of Miley
revealing part of her bra and on a guys lap? Holy crap folks! Who is
upset about this? Are these complaints coming from the US Bible belt?
I think every parent upset about these photos needs to put this in
perspective. My suggestion to each and every one of them is to go to
your local newsstand and pick up an issue of Penthouse Magazine
and get a lesson about what pornography really is and a clear cut
definition of offensive, exploitation and bad taste. So my official
stance on the Miley Cyrus photos is this. They are not offensive, but
they are also not good pictures. Yet I’m willing to go a bit further.
Until further notice PCA supports Miley Cyrus in everything. You heard
me. Everything. I don’t like her music (if those twits at my local
radio station play “I Can’t Wait to See You Again” one more morning in
the half an hour I listen to the radio I’m gonna call in a bomb threat)
and I’ve never seen her show, but I have seen and read interviews with
her and I’m very aware about who she is and, thus far I figure that
Miley Cyrus is one of the most charming and smartest young stars on the
pop culture radar. So until she becomes a crazy crack whore PCA
supports Miley Cyrus. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with being a
crack whore. I do own all of Amy Winehouse’s albums. In fact, a bit of
crack could improve Miley’s music…
Anyways…
So
all week I was planning to dedicate this space to explain why I rip on
Ben Mulroney so much. However, last night me and some friends went and
saw Iron Man, the latest movie from Marvel Entertainment, which
sparked a whole new topic for today. So you’re off the hook Ben
Mulroney….for now.
Now Iron Man is not
a character I have ever really liked very much. In fact, in twenty-five
years of collecting comic books I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a
single issue of Iron Man in my life. However, imagine my surprise when
I would consider the Iron Man movie to be possibly one of the best
superhero movies ever made! It’s true! Robert Downey Jr. is
unbelievable as Tony Stark and his on-screen chemistry with Gwyneth
Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts is so brilliant that they become the
most endearing screen couple in a superhero movie since Toby McGuire and
Kirsten Dunst. Furthermore, the script is smart and sticks incredibly
faithful to the original material, and the film is a perfect mixture of
action, adventure, political commentary, drama and hum or.
Iron Man surpassed all of my expectations.
But I have been
doing a lot of thinking about comic book movies lately.
You see, as we are nearing the hundredth horror movie review, and about
to close the doors to
PCA’s House of Horrors, I have begun to gather
comic book/strip inspired movies for our next big movie feature
reviewing the best fifty comic movies. I’ll be starting with 1934’s
Joe Palooka and ending with the best of this summers comic book
features, which include Iron Man, Speed Racer, Hellboy
II, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight. In fact,
I saw a trailer to The Dark Knight last night, and despite the
fact that it looks rather impressive, I still can’t help but wonder why
in the world we need another Batman movie. I mean, what the hell is
going on over at Warner Brothers Studios that they have so little
imagination that they feel that we need another Batman movie, and one
featuring the Joker no less. I mean, it’s been less then twenty years
since Tim Burton’s Batman with Jack Nicholson as the Joker! What
is this? A remake? Am I the only one out there that
feels that not enough time has gone by to justify a remake?
Now
you gotta excuse my cynicism but this is where it stems from. I am a DC
Comics fan. I have always read DC over Marvel. However, despite this
fact, I can’t deny that Marvel is putting out the best superhero movies
in film. I mean in eight short years we’ve gotten three Spiderman
films, three X-Men films, two Fantastic Four films, two Hulk films and
feature films about such B listers like Daredevil, Elektra, the
Punisher, Ghost Rider and now Iron Man. By 2011 Marvel is
planning to bring another Iron Man film, as well as Thor, Captain
America and the Avengers to the screen. Now what has DC given us?
Well, DC has been putting out big budget superhero movies since 1978
with Richard Donner’s classic Superman starring Christopher
Reeves. However in the last thirty years DC has given us five Superman
movies, six Batman movies, and a lackluster film featuring Supergirl, a
Steel movie nobody saw an d
a totally disastrous film called Catwoman, but not having
anything to do with the original Batman character. See a trend here?
Now I am not including all the DC Comic movies that have not been a part
of the regular DC Universe (ie. Vertigo’s Swamp Thing and
Constantine, Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta and the upcoming
Watchmen ect.) in this criticism, but despite the fact that Warner
Brothers owns the rights to the greatest super hero characters in the
world, they seem to lack enough vision to bring any of these characters
to the big screen for the exception of Superman and Batman themed
franchises. What the hell? I mean, Marvel has given us Ghost Rider,
Elektra and Iron Man for crying out loud! Don’t you think that Warner
Brothers could have at least put together a Wonder Woman, Green Lantern
or Flash movie by now? I mean if Warner Brothers had as much vision
when they started in 1978 as Marvel Entertainment does now, we would
have not only had all three of those by now, but also Captain Marvel,
Green Arrow, Hawkman, Aquaman and countless others. Can you imagine
characters like Jonah Hex, Zatanna, the New Gods, the Creeper,
Metamorpho, Elongated Man, the Blackhawks, Wildcat, the Outsiders, Black
Lightening, the Doom Patrol, the Challengers of the Unknown or Sgt. Rock
on the silver screen? I mean, wouldn’t that be cool? All of these
franchises would be amazing films, and they are all just as popular as
Iron Man. Yet, at the rate that
Warner Brothers is going we’ll see a Millie the Model and a Brother
Voodoo movie before we even get a Wonder Woman one.
Yet
another reason that Marvel Entertainment’s movies are superior to the
DCU ones is that they take every effort to maintain the original source
material. Sure, they make changes here and there. Some of them are
necessary (eliminating the outdated space race theme in the Fantastic
Four) and other are not necessary nor good (the Sandman killing Uncle
Ben and Peter Parker forgiving him, Frank Castle’s entire family being
gunned down by mafia hit men at a family reunion ect), but for the most
part the iconic character and story we love to remember is still
present. However Warner Brothers doesn’t know how to leave stuff
alone. The best example of this is the Halle Berry disaster Catwoman.
Why could we not have a Selina Kyle movie? I mean, really? Now Warner
Brothers has forever screwed up that franchise. Other stupid
ideas, like having the Joker kill Batman’s parents instead of Joe Chill
in Tim Burton’s Batman, and Superman fathering a bastard child in Superman Returns just makes me shake my head at
what Warner Brothers is even thinking. There is a reason that your
characters are famous. Because the fans like the story just the way it
is. Leave it alone! Batman Begins had the right idea by just
giving us a decent Batman origin story that followed the source
material, but it was far too late. I mean, by the time we got a decent
Batman movie the world was sick and tired of Batman movies.
I constantly here
rumors of DC projects over the internet. From a Geoff Johns scripted
Metal Men movie, to Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman, to Jack Black as Green
Lantern .
Yet these projects never seem to make it past the rumor stage. I fear
before DC ever gives us a decent movie featuring a character other then
Superman or Batman that the world will be tired of superhero movies. I
just hope somebody with enough vision and imagination will join Warner
Brothers soon and give us something to rival the Marvel Entertainment
juggernaut.
So in
conclusion…see Iron Man.
It’s really good.
Anyhow, that’s all
for tonight folks. I’ll be back soon with more news and rants next
week…and I got my sights on you Ben Mulroney. Watch out!
Stay tuned because
there is more to come.
Sam Tweedle
Pop Culture Addict
_______________________________________________________________________________________
April 17th, 2008
Hi there friends and readers!
Looks
like were running back on schedule here at Confessions of a Pop Culture
Addict. After a month of technical difficulties, set backs and trying
to play catch up we’ve finally gotten things back to normal, which means
back to this weekly Announcement column. I’m hoping as spring turns to
summer that I’ll be able to keep this feature running smoothly and
regularly again. God knows I’m not running out of things to talk about.
But
before we go onto this weeks topics, we have a brand new article to
announce. Over in the movie section I take a look at the short lives
and the tragic deaths of three actors you have probably never heard of.
They didn’t make much of a mark on the pop culture radar, but everybody
who ever appears in a movie, does a walk-on on a TV program or
even has a regional one hit wonder are a part of the pop culture
journey. Sadly, these three young and talented people had their journey
cut short in sensational ways. Come and read about Peg Entwistle, the
Broadway actress who couldn’t make it into pictures so dove to her death
from the top of the Hollywood sight; Karen Kupicent, a beautiful TV
actress whose unsolved murder has been linked to the JFK assassination;
and Danny Lockin, the Hello Dolly! co-star who met his end in a
homo erotic torture spree, but whose killer got away with murder!
Yet while their deaths make them interesting, this article is also about
their lives, and a celebration of who they were and what they achieved.
I hope you’ll help keep their memory alive by reading:



THE SHORT LIVES AND SENSATIONAL DEATHS OF PEG ENTWISTLE, KAREN KUPCINET AND DANNY LOCKIN: THREE ACTORS WHO
HOLLYWOOD FORGOT
So,
as a lot of comic book fans know, this weekend (April 18th-20th)
is the New York Comic Book Convention. For more information for the
con go to their official web-site at
http://www.nycomiccon.com. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend
the convention, but I’ll tell you, I sure wish I was. Almost all my
favorite people in the comic book industry, including many that I have
never met before, are all going to be there under one roof. This is,
literally, the comic book event of the year. However, a number of the
folks that have been featured over the years at PCA will be in
attendance including
Neal
Adams,
Dale Eaglesham,
J.
Torres as well as my good friends
Janet Hetherington and
Ron
Sutton. I hope that if you’re at the convention you’ll stop by and
tell them that you read their interviews at Confessions of a Pop Culture
Addict.
 And
to get you in the mood for the convention, how about this for a treat!
Earlier this week Ronn Sutton sent us an exclusive preview of his latest
work on an upcoming feature in Fear Agent #22, coming out this
June from Darkhorse Comics! Ronn has teamed up with writer Hilary Barta
to bring a brand new story featuring Heath Hudson, the last of the Fear
Agents. To get a better look at Ronn’s work, click on the individual
images for a full page image. I want to thank Ronn and Hilary, as well
as Fear Agent creator Rick Remender and Dark Horse’s Dave Land
for letting us give you this sneak peek!
BTW – Ronn and Hilary Barta are also currently
collaborating on a brand new horror comic for a yet to be revealed
publisher. Of course, Ronn was pretty secretive about what that meant,
but then you know those comic guys. They don’t reveal much until it’s
all ready to go. Secretive lot. However, watch this space for more
information on Ronn and Hilary’s next project. Also, if you’re at the
New York Con Ronn will be signing copies of a limited edition print of
his Vampire: The Movie poster featuring the late Malia Nurmi.
Stop by and say hi to Ronn and the folks at the Camp Festival Booth and
get your copy. Also make sure to pick up a copy of the DVD as well I
own it and it’s a real treat.
And
what's going on with Janet Hetherington? This got lost in the shuffle
of all the repair work that we’ve had going on with the site, but a few
weeks ago Janet got in touch with me to tell me about her latest project
that she’s pitching at
www.zerostoheroes.com. In the same fashion as her all ages
supernatural/romance strip Eternal Romance, Janet’s latest
project is titled Agnes Culpepper, which looks to be a bit like
That Girl meets Bewitched. Anyhow, Agnes Cuulpepper
needs your support and votes in order to be a reality. Sign up to
Zeros2Heroes and check out Janet’s pitch and support Agnes Culpepper…and
do it soon. Time is running out for Agnes Culpepper to be considered
for publication. Your vote does count. Of course, for more
information you can talk to Janet herself this weekend at the New York
Comic Con at the Eternal Romance booth.
And
while we are on the subject of comics, I have been going just bananas
over Young Liars, Vertigo Comics brand new monthly by Stray
Bullets creator David Lapham! If you haven’t taken a look at this
book yet you NEED to head to your nearest comic book shop and PICK THIS
BOOK UP! First issue came out last month and it was, by far, the best
first issue of a comic book I’ve read since Preacher. Revolving
around a brain damaged girl named Sadie Dawkins and Danny Noonan, the
boy who loves her, the first issue of Young Liars introduced us
to a whole cast of wanna-be hipsters and losers who live, love and fight
amongst the bright lights of Manhattan’s club scene. Immediately an
interesting cast of characters and a whole batch of twists and sub-plots
were set up in a single issue, making me immediately want the next
issue. It is clear that Lapham has a whole world of adventure awaiting
for Sadie and Danny. And then last week the second issue arrived, which
was so great that it leads me to believe that this could be the best
comic book series that has been put out by DC Comics SINCE Preacher
(and, btw, I consider Preacher to be pretty much my all time
favorite comic book series...and I've read a lot of comics). This
flashback issue takes a break from the chaotic action from the first
issue and gives us a bit of insight into Danny’s life and tells of how
he and Sadie first met and lemme tell you, some demented stuff goes on!
Young Liars is the kind of character driven crime drama and
intrigue that David Lapham became famous for when writing Stray
Bullets. Don’t dare miss this series friends! Don’t think….just
leave your house right now, find these two books and buy….Buy…..BUY! If
you need a good reason to go to the New York Comic Con this weekend it’s
to find a copy of Young Liars!
Finally,
let’s change the topic completely for a few minutes. This is real
old news, but over the last number of months
I have gotten a number of e-mails and messages from readers asking my
opinion about the current scandal featuring amateur naked candid photos
of High School Musical
star Vanessa Hudgens that somehow ended up on the internet last
September. Well originally PCA was not going to cover this
story because, quite frankly, what happened to Vanessa was just nasty
and we are not a tabloid. In fact, I’m not even going to do much
of a recap
about what happened, so if you want to know about
that you’re going to have to go to an entertainment site with less
integrity then ours. However, after numerous enquires from readers, and
after reading Vanessa’s official “apology," I figure I'd throw my hat into the ring, but I figured I'd do
so in a form of an open letter to Vanessa herself:
Hey Vanessa,
Sam Tweedle from Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict here. Man. That
was a bit of bad publicity that you got You know, that’s
really nasty what happened to you and that just isn’t going to go
away soon. Y ou
can be sure of that. Yet, despite the bad publicity I think that you
handled it as best as you could and I hope everything works out for
you. Anyhow, I read today about how you talked about your “lack of
judgment.” Well kid, you’re young and you want to know what? Lots of
kids your age do that sort of thing. You didn’t do anything really all
that shocking. Believe me. I did TONS of crazy things when I was your
age, some far more shocking then even that and there is a time and a
place for that kind of behavior and that is between that age of 18 and
30. Get all that out of your system while you’re young before you end
up being my age and do something REALLY embarrassing. Trust me; if you
were in Europe nobody would have probably batted an eyelash at this
whole affair. Yet, Middle America conservatives that are preoccupied
with family values are probably going to want to burn you and ban you
now. Why? Well mainly because they are small minded peons who are
upset because they don’t have your success, or the opportunity to have
all the success you’ve had. That and they probably wish they were you.
I’ve read a few critics questions if this set back is going to ruin your
career. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Lots of other stars along
the pop culture journey
have
made pretty huge mistakes and they’ve come out okay. Look at Hugh Grant
and Rob Lowe? Well maybe not Rob Lowe. Looks like he's in trouble
again. Well, despite this, both he and Hugh are still getting
work. Heck, Hugh Grant is more popular then ever! As long as you
have the talent, and you keep your head about you, I think you have a
long career in Hollywood. But you know you could use this fiasco to
your advantage as well. Remember that no news is necessarily bad news.
Allow this sudden notoriety to boost you up instead of drag you down.
Now I think the Disney Co. would be absolute morons to drop you from
their House of Mouse, but if they do don’t look at it as a bad thing
kid. Believe me. Getting trapped in the Disney machine isn’t
necessarily a blessing because you’ll never be allowed to grow up and
become more then a teen sensation. I mean, has anybody heard from
Hillary Duff lately? Finally, I don’t know if you really need to
apologize to anybody for this. If anybody needs to be apologized to
it’s you. Whoever pulled that nasty stunt has some explaining to do
Vanessa, and when you find out who did that to you I hope you bootfuck
them.
All the best from
everybody here at PCA, and best of luck,
Sam Tweedle
Pop Culture Addict
_______________________________________________________________________________________
April 8th, 2008
Hey there friends and readers!
We're
back! Some of you may have noticed last week that our site
disappeared from the internet for a few days, and when we returned some
of our latest features were missing. Well, the Gremlins got in our
system (damn I should have never fed them after midnight) and we were
suffering from a few technical difficulties last week. However,
Candace Shaw was on the case and she was able to get PCA back on line,
and earlier today we ironed out the last of the bugs. So here we
are again friends, ready to continue our collective pop culture journey!
And that's a great lead in to announcing PCA's latest article.
Long before he created the role of Victor Newman on the popular soap
opera Young and the Restless, German actor Eric Braeden had his fingers
deeply dipped in the pop culture honey pot where he appeared in nearly
80 different roles playing Nazis, enemy agents, spies and other nasty
characters on pretty much every action/adventure program of the 1960s
and 1970s. Menacing everyone from Kojak to Mary Tyler Moore, Eric
Braeden was television's most prolific bad guy. Join us as we
follow Eric Braeden's career from The Rat Patrol to Titantic in:

TONIGHT
ERIC BRAEDEN SHALL EAT YOUR SOUL: A LOOK AT THE PRE-SOAP
CAREER OF TV’S BLACK KNIGHT
Anyhow, due to some of our technical problems over the last week PCA
has had to move to a brand new server. However, I want to just
send out a word of thanks to our good friend Pete Fo rde who has been
hosting PCA for over a year now. When we nearly crashed our last
server in February 2007 due to the flood of readers that suddenly were
looking at the Lamest Superhero article, Pete graciously took on our
web-site and for a year has been taking care of things on that end.
Personally, I don't know what is involved to keep a server running, but
I want to thank Pete for all he did for us. We really appreciate
everything Pete.
Also, as I prepare this column right now word has spread about the
death of Charleston Heston. Despite if you loved him or loathed
him, either because of his acting or his politics, nobody can deny the
importance of Heston on our cultural landscape. I will deal more
with Charlton Heston's legacy later this week in this space, but for
now my thoughts go out to his family, his friends and his fans.
Okay. Now lets get down to some long overdue business. A
number of months ago I received a book called True Confessions of a Fan
Boy by James and Johnny Jacobs. Written by two brothers, True
Confessions of a Fan Boy is a light hearted look at the fan boy
subculture written by a guy who has taken it a bit to far, and his
brother who can't understand the whole thing. Each chapter has two
sections - a long one written by James, portrayed as a man in his
underwear in the fun illustrations that decorate the book,
explaining his obsessions and habits surrounding toy/comic/card
collecting and his obsessions with GI Joes, and a second by Johnny, seen
as a man with a paper bag over his head, which pretty much states "what
the hell is going on with this guy?" As I began to read the book I
found it to be a highly entertaining read, filled with situations and
obsessions that I could relate to. However, as the book continued,
and more and more of James' eccentricities began to be described I began
to get sort of disturbed. Are these guys for real? They HAD
to be putting me on! Were they taking the joke a bit to far?
Then I began to wonder....if this is reality, am I like James and I
don't realize it? Well I needed to get to the bottom of the truth
of this book, and to perhaps get a little bit of solace Contacting
the authors, Johnny agreed to talk to me one night in a lengthy phone
conversation where he assured me that, yes, everything I read in this
book is 100% true and, no, I am probably not in as bad shape as his
brother. Johnny was a great guy and I enjoyed talking to him so
much that we decided that we would do a joint interview between myself
and both him and James about the book. So earlier this winter the three of us
talked for about an hour about their funny, yet often dark, True
Confessions of a Fan Boy. Now for the sake of space I'm going to
leave out James' One More Day rant (to say the least, he was not happy)
but this is my talk with James and Johnny Jacobs about their highly
entertaining book:
Sam: Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me guys.
Anyhow, for the sake of my readers, could the two of you quickly explain
what True Confessions of a Fan Boy is about, where the idea came from,
and a little bit about yourselves.
James:
Basically, what this book does is it tells the story
of what happens when you take a hobby or take a side of life too far and
what this book encompasses is essentially where you know everyday you
have people like this - people like me - who are fan boys who go out in
society, they do their thing, they collect what they do. However
what the premises of this book is that it takes it to a different level.
A level that Johnny and I feel nobody else can take it to where their
collection pervades their life so much that it affects the way that they
live.
Johnny: And obviously, that in mind, having that we have the
true fan boy James and, for lack of a better term, the anti-fan boy, as
long as we were doing a project this ambitious, we wanted to paint both
sides of the story so readers can see two sides. What it's like to
be a fan boy and then what its like to be from the outside looking in and
to watch this and, have, in my opinion, a normal opinion.
Sam: And then hilarity ensues.
Johnny: Well we wanted to make sure that as long as we were
doing this that we put enough parody and humor in there that it would be
tolerable because, in my opinion, I think this story is, and you
can correct me James if you think I'm wrong, would be way to depressing
if we didn't throw the level of humor in it that we did.
James: It would, because if you actually look at it on the
surface it's sad and I admit that about myself, that in my view it may
be normal, it could be a sad way to lead an existence. And anytime
in life that you have a sad situation you really do have to see the
humor in it. If you don't see the humor in it you'll either go
crazy or you'll go depressed and slit your wrists and that's really the
direction we wanted to take this book to is that we take a depressing
situation but we put a slice of humor into every piece of that.
Sam: But James, is your life really depressing? Because
when I'm reading the book you don't sound like a very depressed guy.
James: Well here's the thing. My life itself, no, it's
not. The depressing part comes in the excess of what this is
because, essentially, what you read in this book sounds like I'm an
addict. And I am an addict. Toys, comics, baseball cards,
everything that I collect has become an addiction. The depressing part
is the fact that it has taken over my life and when I'm not out there
working and hanging out with friends and being a normal person, I keep
telling myself that I can't believe that I'm in my 30s and I'm still
doing this to such an extent. I'm not cutting down. In fact,
if anything, I'm collecting more and more and it feel like something
that I can't stop. It's like it's taking over and I can't take
control over it.
Sam: Well you do know your not alone, right?
J |