The End of Days: April 21, 2011

A pretty dead day in movie news.
Tribeca opened with a not-very-good doc, but got a 3-song concert out of Elton John… which really is the Tribeca Film Festival’s brand to date. This is all they have. What happened to Geoff Gilmore heating things up?
Jeremy Renner gets Bourne. Great. With all respect to Renner, who is a great actor, it’s nothing like a coup. The film will have to be sold from the ground up.

Deadline Hollywood paid Alison Hope Weiner for her sycophantic interview with Mel Gibson (no doubt arranged by Gibson’s loyal handler and the Summit PR team that are Nikki’s bestest friends). Summit is releasing The Beaver and must be desperate for something from Gibson. Weiner claims she gave the interview to Deadline because, “editors at other media outlets seemed inclined to use this story to pursue their own agendas.” You mean, like expecting you to behave like a journalist when you get access to someone with a sordid history? I mean, seriously, not a single real question in the entire interview. People might have bought it, but not EW… to soft for EW! I can softball with the best of them. I don’t need to get into anyone’s personal life to ask them about a movie. But if the only way you address the elephant in the room is to ask whether the smell offends your subject and then offer to clean up all the shit yourself because life is so hard for them… you are a lay down hack. Gibson gets to be forthcoming… and not say a single thing of note. But that’s why they handed him to someone safe… even while Deadline is trying to claim there were no ground rules. Pete Hammond does a tougher interview. Some examples of the weighty questions:
“Do you try to stay fit?”
“Is it hard to have a new baby at your age?”
“Let’s talk about The Beaver. It’s getting amazing reviews — there was just an incredible one by Richard Roeper.” (I believe in Foster and hope the movie is great, but Richard Roeper? The game show host? Really?)
“How did you find yourself in the position to make some of these many bad choices?”
“Did you ever question that you chose the wrong occupation — especially when the tapes were released? Did you think that, ‘I’m sick of this and I chose the wrong job’?”
“People don’t know very much about who you really are. You had this public persona that seemed easy-going and always happy and joking.”
“It seems like you’ve become really uncomfortable with your fame.”
“Don’t you find that a lot of your industry friends have different political beliefs than you?”
And my favorite… “You were going to do a small part in Hangover II. How did you respond to being asked to do that and then having cast members not want you in it? How did it feel to have them allow a convicted rapist [Mike Tyson] in the movie and not you?” which she follows up with, “That’s a very Hollywood hypocritical moment.”
Congratulations, Nikki… you bought yourself the least revealing interview from a guy who stopped giving interviews because someone might ask a real question since Eddie Murphy turned up on Inside The Actors Studio. Maybe Ms. Weiner can get that gig when James Lipton retires. And maybe you’ll set some higher standards for your site someday… but I ain’t holding my breath.
And Premium VOD launched on DirecTV. The Wrap is running an ad that allegedly has gone out to customers… though as a customer who receives my billing and everything else via e-mail from DirecTV, I have gotten nothing. Moreover, the “ad” looks like it has to be a page on the DirecTV website, as it has links at the top to “My Account,” My Programming,” etc, like on the website. But there is NO sign of Home Premium on the website and a search of the term or of Just Go With It leads nowhere. The only offering of any kind that I have been able to find remains the link on the guide, right next to all the other $5 movie rentals, that I noted earlier today on The Hot Blog.

Obama defends U.S. deficit plan, sees common ground

Reuters) - President Barack Obama drew a sharp line on Tuesday between Republican and Democratic plans to cut the deficit, but he said a deal could be reached despite ideological differences between the two sides.
Democrats and Republicans agree that $4 trillion needs to be slashed over roughly a decade, Obama told a town hall-style event in Virginia. But the two parties disagree on what to cut to get there.
"The big question that is going to have to be resolved is: how do we do it?" Obama told students at a community college. "I don't want to lie to you, there is a big philosophical divide right now."
The president was promoting his plan for cutting the deficit a day after Standard & Poor's threatened to strip America of its prized triple-A credit rating. The Wall Street ratings agency cited concern that Washington's polarized politics would make it difficult to reach a debt deal before the 2012 presidential election.
Obama, who is traveling around the country this week to advocate his deficit proposals, did not show any greater flexibility over his demands that taxes go up for the wealthiest Americans.
His Treasury secretary, seeking to reassure investors that America would not lose its top-notch rating, took to the airwaves to dismiss S&P's action as politically tone deaf.
"Actually, I think things are better than they've been if you want to think about the prospects for improving our long-term fiscal position," Timothy Geithner told CNBC television, adding there was "no risk" the United States would lose its triple-A rating.
Obama did not directly refer to S&P's action in his comments to the Virginia student group.
How to cut the $1.4 trillion deficit has already become a major issue in the 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns, and both sides are trying to show they have the best plan.
A Washington Post poll on Tuesday showed Obama's approval ratings near record lows because of deepening economic pessimism among Americans. The survey showed 47 percent approving of his performance -- a 7-point drop since January.
Republicans oppose Obama's efforts to let Bush-era tax cuts on top earners lapse after 2012 and question the president's readiness to commit to meaningful spending cuts.
Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, lambasted the president for avoiding specifics and focusing on tax increases.
"The president's plan to increase taxes is a direct assault on job creation and innovation that could throw our economy in reverse," he said in a statement.
"I'm disappointed that once again the president did not offer specifics about how to put America on a path to pay down our debt," he said.
Republicans sharply criticized Obama's plan for cutting the deficit, saying it was unveiled in a campaign-style speech aimed at voters and not at striking agreement in Congress. 
Both parties claimed ammunition from the S&P warning, but members of the conservative Republican Tea Party caucus saw particular vindication for their anti-spending platform, which helped hand Republicans control of the House in last year's congressional elections.
Vice President Joe Biden will host a meeting with members of the Congress on May 5 to discuss deficit reduction.
Republicans in Congress named two top lieutenants to the Biden panel: Cantor and Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. Democrats have appointed four members to the group.
Brian Riedl, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said an agreement that to cut $4 trillion from the deficit over 10 to 12 years was still "not even close to what we need to avert a fiscal calamity." (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson, Kim Dixon, David Lawder, Steve Holland, and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Doina Chiacu

Transportation Official: Controller Incident is 'Ridiculous'

OBERLIN, Ohio—

An incident at the Cleveland Air Transportation Center in Oberlin, that resulted in the suspension of an air traffic controller and his supervisor, has gotten the attention of National Transportation Secretary, Ray Lahood.

The FAA says the controller, who has not been identified, was watching a movie on a DVD player while he was on the job directing air traffic early on Sunday.

For a three minute period, the controller's microphone was open and the soundtrack from the movie was being transmitted over a frequency that prevented aircraft from communicating with the control center. A military pilot alerted them of the incident by calling in on an alternate frequency.

On Tuesday, Lahood said he was aware of the incident and said it should never have happened.

"The incident in Cleveland where the controller was watching a movie is outrageous, it's ridiculous, it's not the kind of behavior that we will tolerate and we have suspended the controller and we have suspended the controller's supervisor. We are going to conduct an investigation and get to the bottom of it," said Lahood, in response to a Fox 8 News question.

It has also gotten the attention of Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland.

"I am the top democrat on the investigative subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the Federal Aviation Administration," Kucinich told Fox 8 News on Tuesday, adding, "I will tell you that I intend to be in close contact with the FAA regarding, not just this incident in Oberlin, but regarding exactly what the FAA is doing."

Kucinich says he understands the responsibility that the air traffic controllers have and believes there can be no distractions.

"You can't sleep on the job and you can't be watching movies on the job...that's obvious," said Kucinich.

A source very familiar with the operation at the Cleveland Air Transportation Center in Oberlin says the suspended air traffic controller has been on the job five or six years. The source describes him as ordinarily very responsible, calling Sunday morning's miscue an "isolated incident."

But, the source also says that Sunday morning's incident, and the larger scale concerns over fatigue among air traffic controllers, can easily be related.

The source tells Fox 8 News that the only reason any controller might want to take a DVD with them to work, is so that they have something to keep them from dozing.

The Cleveland Air Transportation Center directs traffic through one of the busiest corridors in the nation, as planes pass over the Northeastern United States and a part of Southern Canada.

Controllers there were the last to communicate with the terrorists who hijacked United Flight 93 before crashing it into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.

Drew McQueen, a representative of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association's local office in Oberlin, declined comment on Tuesday, referring calls to the union's national office in Washington.

In the nation's capital, Secretary Lahood made it clear on Tuesday that the agency was taking a sleep study -- currently underway -- seriously.

In a release on Monday, the FAA also said its policy "prohibits the use of portable DVD players and other devices from being used on the floor of the radar room."

Lahood insisted Tuesday that any air traffic controller who was sleeping on the job, or distracted in any other way would be suspended.

"I want the flying public to know that when a controller is at the tower looking at the radar screen, that they are doing it in the most professional way that they possibly can, and they are not deterred by the fact that they are not well rested," Lahood said.

The FAA would not provide anyone to answer questions from Fox 8 News on Tuesday. A regional spokesperson in Chicago said the agency's director would be speaking only to the national media.

Congressman Kucinich said details were also not provided to him. The agency said it has an investigation underway.

Copyright © 2011, WJW-TV

Obama's real 2012 concern: economic angst

Forget Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour or, yes, even Donald Trump. The biggest obstacle for President Obama as he seeks re-election may be the state of the American economy and not his Republican rival, a new poll finds.
The ABC News/Washington Post survey released Tuesday finds that 47% of Americans now approve of the president’s job performance, down 4 points in the last month and just off his all-time low of 46% in the heat of the midterm campaign.
Only 42% of respondents approve of how Obama is handling the economy, his lowest score since taking office.
The president on Tuesday begins a week-long, cross-country tour to try and convince voters he has the best plan to tackle the nation’s deficits and debt. Rising fuel prices and brinkmanship on Capitol Hill over spending have largely overshadowed his post-State of the Union “Winning the Future” message.
Seven-in-10 voters surveyed say the rising cost of gasoline has caused a financial hardship, including 43% who describe that as serious.
Looking ahead to 2012, 45% of respondents said they definitely will not support Obama’s re-election, compared to 28% who said they definitely will.
Republicans seem unhappy with the field of candidates looking to challenge Obama so far, however. Only 43% say they are satisfied with the field, down from 65% who said so at a similar point in the 2008 campaign.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, leads the field in a national horserace at 16%, while Trump scores 8%. Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, two prominent Republicans whose plans remain a mystery, score 6% and 5%, respectively, while the rest of the field registers no more than 2%.
In head-to-head matchups, Obama leads all potential rivals. Romney comes closest, trailing 49-45%.
The survey of 1,001 adults was conducted April 14-17, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
michael.memoli@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times