This is perfect. I have always said that the people in this town, each with lovely personalities, are not all that attractive as a whole. Not that there is anything wrong with that - we're just not New York City or London. Almost every day I cross the path of someone downtown and think, "damn, that person looks like a character from Lord of the Rings".  Well, someone else must notice this too because they are casting a few films here and only casting freaky looking people. 

Film's casting call wants that 'inbred' look

By David M. Brown (funny coincidence, I'm going to meet this guy tomorrow at a university event)
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters -- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people.

"'Regular-looking" children need not apply.

"Extraordinarily tall or short. Unusual body shapes, even physical abnormalities as long as there is normal mobility. Unusual facial features, especially eyes."

The announcement requests "a 9-12-year-old Caucasian girl with an other-worldly look to her."

That's the gist of an open casting call for paid extras for "Shelter," a horror film starring Julianne Moore that will begin shooting in Pittsburgh in March.

The casting call scheduled for Sunday invites "men and women of all races, 18 or older," to try out as extras, according to the announcement from Downtown-based Donna Belajac Casting. But the extras wanted for the West Virginia scenes evoke images of "Deliverance" and "The Hills Have Eyes." 

(What do the people of West Virginia think about this?)  "It's the way it was described in the script," Belajac said Monday. "Some of these 'holler' people -- because they are insular and clannish, and they don't leave their area -- there is literally inbreeding, and the people there often have a different kind of look. (Did she just say "holler people" to the national media?) That's what we're trying to get." 

Belajac said the announcement was not meant to stereotype people from West Virginia. But state officials and a history professor called it "unfortunate" that such unfair views of people are being repeated.

"They clearly are not trying to create the image of a quaint, homespun mountain family," said Kevin Barksdale, assistant history professor at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. "Clearly, what they're trying to establish is this notion of the hillbilly monster."

Here's another one that I found:

Casting agent Nancy Mosser is looking for skinny, grungy actors and extras. The film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that will star Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron will begin shooting in the Pittsburgh area in March.

It's set in a post-cataclysmic America. The few survivors who were not seared by an unspecified fiery disaster are divided into two classes -- barbaric cannibals or their prey.

Men and woman ages 18 to 50 are needed for eight speaking roles and 30 extras.

Producers are looking for people with minimal muscle tone (my favorite adjective phrase of the day!), long stringy hair and a starved, ravaged appearance. They need men capable of growing a full beard.

Also needed: a thin man of any ethnicity who is missing one or both legs. No previous acting experience is needed for this role.

 

 

In the 1980s I was obsessed with the comic strip Bloom County.  I knew all the characters by heart and I loved the political overtones to everything - although now that I'm older and much, much wiser I realize it was wacky liberal propaganda - but I still loved it.  I like the spin off comic from the 1990s, The Outland, but not nearly as much. 

One of the reasons I'm thinking about it today is that Bill Gates is here at the University today giving a "farewell" speech of sorts to our students before he gives up Microsoft altogether and starts running his foundation full time.  There was a software company in Bloom County called Microsquish.  Does anyone else remember this? 

I have a rather strange and dry sense of humor and now that Bloom County is no more, and has been for ages, I have replaced it with my love for a comic strip called Get Fuzzy.  It's about a single guy in Boston who lives with his cat and dog as if they were all roommates, the animals can talk.  Bucky the cat has a cousin from the North of England called Mack and the following strip is one of the funniest I have ever seen.  It helps to know that Sheffield and Cornwall are on opposite sides of the country of England. 

Russell Crow has let himself go.  It’s possible that the gain is for his role in the film State of Play or another upcoming project, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Now that I think about it though, if I had his money I'd let myself go too.  F it.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the losing team printed merchandise that can't be sold? 

From WTAE Local Pittsburgh News

SEWICKLEY, Pa. -- New York Giants Super Bowl XLII gear is flying off shelves, but what happens to the losing New England Patriots' merchandise?

Shirts, sweatshirts and hats, all printed with the Patriots as the Super Bowl winners, arrived at the World Vision warehouse in Sewickley on Tuesday. Many of the shirts say "19-0" -- a reference to the Pats' quest for a perfect record. Instead, the Giants' victory ended the AFC champions' season at 18-1.

The losers' gear will be packed and sent to third-world countries by World Vision, which works to improve the lives of poor children in more than 100 countries.

Misprinted merchandise for the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers, who lost to the Giants and the Patriots in the NFC and AFC championship games, will also be sent to other countries.

I'm still rather jet lagged, John and I came back from Las Vegas last night.  I have to say, regardless of all the hype and the advertising and word of mouth, I was pretty indifferent to the whole experience.  And, as usual, several funny things happened to me that I look forward to telling you about.

We stayed in a "spa suite" at Mandalay Bay that had a floor square footage that was bigger then the first floor of my house.  Those of you unlucky enough to have ever been in my kitchen would know that I'm not exaggerating.  The hotel had an Asian design flair that wasn't too over the top - like a faux feng-shui action going on. 

This photo doesn't even show 1/2 of the room, behind the camera is a huge flat screen TV and the bathroom was completely out of control with a whirlpool tub and another flat screen TV. 

The only thing that perplexed me was the sofa slash bench thing next to the windows.  It wasn't very comfortable or easy to get in and out of.  In fact, it was completely nonfunctional from any angle.  It was used extensively as a coat hanger.

The mini-bar and snacks tray had electronic sensors that would charge your room every time something was lifted up and not put down in 15 seconds.  Can you imagine if you had children?  "Hello? Front Desk? Please take off the charge for the $32 bottle of Vendage Merlot AGAIN please...."

Because our hotel was at the end of the strip it was a bit quieter then the other hotels/casinos.  The only people I saw who were a bit... ahem.... beneath a certain class of individual were two strippers passing through and these guidos from San Diego.  I doubt they were sober enough to remember me.  The one on your left asked me "do you think we're attractive?  Because we can't get any girls to talk to us.  You're the only person to talk to us tonight."  I'm thinking to myself, "yeah, you'll be perfect to post on my blog!"  But I was nice enough not to say anything rude. 

We were there in Las Vegas mostly to attend and help our friends DR and Barb work the "Shot Show" which is the largest firearms and military accoutrement industry show in the world.  It's not open to the public.  We helped with that most days from 10am to 4pm which left only our evenings open to explore.  Because of that we actually didn't see too much more then our immediate surroundings.

There is another hotel connected to ours called THE Hotel.  The place was so hip I felt like a complete midwestern goomba just standing in the lobby.  Warhol paintings everywhere.  Real ones. 

I spent the majority of my afternoons wandering around Shot Show and trying to clandestinely take photos of people in really ugly shirts.  As you can imagine, due to the subject matter, this wasn't hard.  I regret that I never got a photo of the guy in the puke green blazer with the lemon yellow plaid pattern but he was too aware of his surroundings. 

I did see R. Lee Ermey, "Gunny" from the History Channel.  His shirt wasn't at all ugly. 

This shirt has little deer heads all over it.  I wonder if his wife made it.

Poor bastard.

One evening after the show we wandered into the nearby Wynn Hotel and Casino.  It really is rather lovely and one of the newer establishments.  When I walked into the ladies room I noticed the sink right away.  Do you think it looks hip and urbane or do you think it looks like a dressed up communal urinal in a prison? 

The oddest thing about this place, in my mind, was the wall paper choice.  Let's say you are an interior designer and you've just landed the contract for the new Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  Your client tells you they want everything modern yet sophisticated with marble accents and rich autumnal colors.

So this is what you give them.  And they actually buy it!

Oh my god, it's like the wall paper from my grandmother's guest bathroom in Glen Burnie Maryland.  Why lord, why???? and they repeat it in the floor designs!  Make it stop!!! 

Because of the connections of our friends who we were there with, we got special invitations to the Glock Reception. This is the most highly coveted event by all 200,000 participants of Shot Show.  Because of this, I thought they would rent out some really swank night club, the kind of place Paris Hilton shows up to for an attending fee.  The kind of place that makes $26 martinis for the hoy paloy.  But alas, it was in the Wynn Ballroom and wasn't any nicer then somebody's 1,200 count wedding reception. 

They had this show that's running somewhere in Vegas now, impersonators of the rat pack, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Old Blue Eyes Frank.  Although they looked nothing like the real rat packers (the Sammy character even sported a cheap wig) they sounded exactly like them.  So if you closed your eyes, sat back with a warm glass of sparkling wine, you too could experience the cheese just like it was 1964.