2009 Oscar Nomination Ballots mailed to 5,777 academy voters

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) reports that 5,777 Academy voting members received their 2009 Oscar Nomination Ballots. Academy voters have until Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 5 PM to return their completed ballots.

According to AMPAS, the ballots will be tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which also collects the ballots as they're returned. The ballots are numbered with respect to Academy voter. The accounting firm will check to ensure that there are no duplicate ballots and that the count is fair and accurate.

Jon Farveau is watching Academy screeners, are you?

Academy members like Iron Man 2 Director Jon Farveau have already started watching movies to determine who they're going to vote for. Jon Favreau tweeted:

Spending Xmas with family watching Academy screeners. Where the heck is Moon? Is Sony nuts? I want to see Rockwell vs Rockwell.
2:15 PM Dec 25th from Echofon

Meanwhile, the legendary Nikke Finke at Deadline.com/Hollywood reports her voicemail and email inbox's filling with negative Oscar campaign messages and that the race is turning "nasty, nasty, nasty."

Then what Finke writes is down right funny. Like the report that at a party thrown for Brothers' star Tobey Maguire by Leonardo DiCaprio, some female member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association asked Shirley MacLaine if her legs "were still in good shape", to which MacLaine reportedly pulled down her pants for her to see! Best to visit Nikke's site for the rest; it's a doozy!

Stay tuned!

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren: from Rachel Uchitel and IMG to now

I guess my second Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren video was right, after all..

UPDATE: Someone who could not resist being immature and calling names, said that I got it wrong and blogger Geoff Shackelford said it was a hoax. So I checked Geoff's blog, and discovered that Geoff did not write that at all!! I put this out for evaluation and wrote that I believed it, not that it was the actual truth. And here's the first version of the email, posted by Furman Bisher at his blog.

When the subject is an athletic star like The World's Greatest Golfer, Tiger Woods, who's just gone through the most amazing public display of personal problems, it's hard to keep any news from reaching the public eye.

Today, I received a copy of an email about what really happened between Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren and Rachel Uchitel that was sent to me via a friend, who in turn got It from another friend.

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren trying to work it out

When I received it - which was about an hour ago, plus from now - at first I thought less of it, then I read it. There's a lot here that really appears to make sense. I decided to run with it but essentially made it readable, and added "breaks" to give you a "who's who" explanation where necessary.

I saw that the Atlanta Journal Constitution and AOL FanHouse ran versions of this before me. But I did not see a real study of its contents in either case. Here's the email, cleaned up somewhat by me, with paragraph breaks so that it's readable. The bold words and sentences are my additional notes as are the photos.

Also, I have no idea who "Franklyn Dickson" is, but I found someone in the entertainment industry listed at Linkedin and have contacted that person. I was not asked to hide Mr. Dickson's identity, so I elected not to do so, thus establishing a public back trail to that possible source.

From: Franklyn Dickson
Subject: inside story on Tiger

I actually believe this:

I have a Member who lives 10 houses down from Tiger in Isleworth.  As we know Tiger's agent is Mark Steinberg. My Member plays golf and is real good friends with another IMG Agent, who is very good friends with Steinberg and they share the same office.

This information came from the other IMG Agent to my Member, and then to me today, and according to them is up to date as yesterday when my Member left Orlando.
On Thanksgiving Day, after he and Elin and the family had Turkey Dinner, he spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching football and texting Rachel (Uchitel, who's alleged to have been Woods' mistress).

Rachel Uchitel 

After each received and sent text message he would clear his message box to rid himself of the evidence.  Sometime in between there, one of his Orlando buds called him to see if he wanted to get together at the Clubhouse to play poker with the guys, to which Tiger said yes.  Tiger left the house around 7:30 to go play poker, and left behind his cell phone... and one message he had forgot to delete from Rachel. 


When Tiger returned home around 11:30 - 12 that night, Elin confronted him about the text message in the phone, and the started a heated discussion to its regards.  According to what I was told, there was more "incriminating evidence" than just the text message (i.e. photos).

Tiger tried to play it off to Elin by telling her she was reading too much in to it, and did not know the story, etc.  Tiger went upstairs to chance into his gym shorts and t-shirt, came back down, and Elin confronted him again; to which Tiger gave the same story.

Tiger sat down in a chair in the living room, and Elin sat acorss from him urging Tiger to just come clean.  Tiger stuck to his guns and denied everything.  At one point Tiger turned away to look at the TV, and as he turned back, Elin hit him on the right side of the face with the head of a 9 - iron.

When she struck Tiger, she put a huge gash in the right side of his face next to his nose (causing his nose to bruise some), and virtually knocking two of his upper teeth out, and breaking the bone on the upper right side. Tiger ran scared as hell out of the house (which is why he had on no shoes) with Elin swinging the golf club throughout the hallway to the garage (i.e causing the severe damage which has been reported).

Tiger hopped in the Escalade and tried to leave; and as we know Elin knocked out the windows in the Escalade.  When Tiger crashed, Elin panicked and was not sure what to tell the police (which is why there are two conflicting stories from her).

When this happened.  Elin immediately called Mark Steinberg to tell him what happened, and Mark told Elin to tell him what hospital they were going to, and he would meet them there. 


Tiger Woods and IMG's Mark Steinberg 

Tiger is transported to the hospital with Elin in the ambulance, and as they arrive Mark is there waiting for them. The people from the hospital and the doctors take Tiger in for X-Rays etc to check out the damage caused. The doctors tell Mark there is not much they can do to repair the teeth and the gash, but the doctor knows a cosmetic dentist and plastic surgeon in Phoenix who will make Tiger look as if nothing happened.

Tiger tells Mark to get the jet ready and "lets head to Phoenix to get this
done."  Friday after Tiger is released from the hospital, he does not return home.  He and Mark board the plane for Phoenix.  If you remember, FHP (Florida Highway Patrol) kept showing up at Isleworth to talk to TIger, and was told by another FL attorney (who Tiger hired for PR reasons) Tiger was not ready to talk.  (That person is Orlando Lawyer Mark LeJane)

Well now we know why... he was in Phoenix, and did not arrive back in Orlando until either late last Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. The surgeries were more intense than what they had originally planned, which meant Tiger was in PHX longer than he should have been.

Upon arriving back in Orlando, Tiger and Elin have been in intense marriage counseling sessions (up to 6 to 7 hours a day) every day!  Both Tiger and Elin have told the counselors they love each other, and want to make the marriage work.

The reports you are reading on TMZ and RadarOnline are about 30 percent accurate at best according to Mark. 


In regards to Tiger's boat being in Palm Beach this week, along with Rachel; that part is true.  However, Tiger is not on the boat, and is not in Palm Beach; and Rachel is not on the boat.  Her parents live 6 blocks from where the boat is, but that is it.

Tiger has not returned to his house at Isleworth since the day of the accident except for the therapy sessions. IMG has enlisted the assistance of one of its most recognized sports figures, and Tiger has taken up residence in his neighborhood; Bay Hill.

IMG contacted Arnold Palmer because of the high regard in which Tiger holds Arnold. Arnold has agreed, and IMG has said if anyone can get through to Tiger, Arnold may be the only person who can, based on his public persona when he was at the height of his game as well.

The moving trucks being shown on TMZ and RadarOnline are moving out pictures and furniture which was damaged during their Thanksgiving Day argument; not of her moving out. Yes, Elin has retained a divorce attorney (Sorrell Troupe), but has not filed any papers, and as of yesterday had no intention on doing so.

Tiger has not made any public appearances or statements due to the surgery and plastic surgery he had in PHX. It will be about another month if not more before he gets in front of a camera.  Yes, Tiger is hitting golf balls late at night at Bay Hill out of their teaching center (which is equipped with lights). 


That is as up to date as I have........

My reason for posting this, separate from the idea that it makes sense (if we were to see Tiger Woods before his facial injuries lessened it could put Elin in legal trouble) and has a number of players - people involved - in the right place, is my anger with how some in media, particularly HLN's Nancy Grace, have played "fast and loose" with information regarding Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren. Yes, Grace herself has taken care to use terms like "alleged" and "reportedly" as have I, but she never corrects her guests and then slips and says that Elin's in Sweden without even making a qualifying statement.

Stay tuned.

TMZ.com should explain JFK photo hoax - more to story

Now that The JFK Photo Scandal is history - and a fast, one - TMZ.com really has to explain how and why it got caught up in this photo-fish-finding expedition.

The real photo.

I write that because TMZ enlisted so-called experts who said the photo was real. But were those experts paid for their work? If so, checkbook journalism may have failed the one organization alleged to have made an industry out of it.

TMZ has made a living on being first with information the mainstream media was not even aware of how to get. And it's been accurate far more often than not. But this case reveals a "chink" in the armor of the suit of TMZ's success.

They got so caught up with the idea that the photo was real, they never stopped to consider that it may not be real.

The fake photo.

I also wonder how old the TMZer who led this effort were? Old timers who know about the Playboys of the period were quick to question the photo.

I can't wait to hear and read TMZ's explanation. I'm not happy they were wrong, nor am I sad. Just fascinated.

Stay tuned.

JFK photo a fake - real Playboy 1967 no-JFK photo here

Ok, the matter of the TZM.com JFK Naked sexy women on a yacht photo issue - now called "the JFK photo scandal" is closed.

Someone over at Democratic Underground got the photo from an archived copy of the 1967 Playboy issue my source said contained the actual photo. That magazine is Playboy, Vol. 14, No. 11, November 1967, P. 137. (Article name "Playboy's Charter Yacht Party".)

Here's the photo:

Now, as of this writing, I've beat TMZ.com to the punch.  

Naked sexy women on boat with JFK and Ted Kennedy? NO!

My source, a person who wishes to be known as "Peter B in Wisconsin" has found his copy of the Playboy he says contains the actual photo the TMZ.com picture is based on.

Is this photo a fake? 

If you recall, TMZ.com claims to have found and verified a photo that they say shows then-Senator John F. Kennedy sunning on the deck of a yacht that's populated with naked sexy women. (It's possible they could be naked and not sexy, you know.)

The Playboy edition Peter B says the photo is in, is this:

Playboy, Vol. 14, No. 11, November 1967, P. 137. (Article name
"Playboy's Charter Yacht Party".)

If anyone has a copy of the mag, please go and get it.

UPDATE: confirmed as in question by TMZ.com

But I think we can call the TMZ.com photo issue at the least still very questionable until we see the Playboy Mag.

I just hope TMZ.com doesn't say it was just testing bloggers!  Well, we passed it, anyway!

Naked women on boating trip with JFK and Ted Kennedy? Fake?

I just received a rather cryptic email that the TMZ.com photo of Naked women on a boating trip allegedly with JFK and Ted Kennedy, may be a very good fake after all.

The person who wrote me claims that the original photo appeared in Playboy in the mid-60s.


Stay tuned.

The Dallas Aesthetic - Barrett Brown

In this video, Raw Story's Barrett Brown makes his second video after discovering video-blogging. Here, we get a tour of his mother's husband's house. (I guess his stepfather, eh?)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama give address

Before he left for Hawaii and family for Christmas, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama gave this rare joint address. They took time to honor those who serve overseas for America.

Iran protests - death toll reaches eight, four in Tabriz

Protests against the Iran Government have led to eight deaths, including reportedly the nephew of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Iranian police allegedly shot Ali Mousavi in the head during protests in Enghelab Square in Tehran , according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Here's video posted on YouTube at Iranprotest channel:





=

Stay tuned.

JFK and Ted Kennedy on a yacht with naked sexy women?

Did President John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy hang out on a yacht with a bevy of naked women - topless and bottomless - in August of 1956? And if so, why wasn't the photo discovered until now?

This photo:

Courtesy of TMZ.com

In perhaps its most incredible find yet, TMZ.com has revealed a photo that, if universally confirmed, could have altered the course of World History.

The photo allegedly shows John F. Kennedy catching some rays on a yacht (he's said to be on the left) while above and around him are naked women. Some of them are skinny-dipping; others lounging. It looks like Hugh Hefner's Playboy dream. TMZ also links the photo to reported accounts that then-Senator JFK and his brother Ted Kennedy and Senator George Smathers had taken a two-week Mediterraneanboat boating trip where they reportedly entertained a number of women.

But is it real? TMZ.com claims it is:

TMZ had multiple experts examine the photo -- all say there is no evidence the picture was Photoshopped. The original print -- which is creased -- was scanned and examined for evidence of inconsistent lighting, photo composition and other forms of manipulation. The experts all concluded the photo appears authentic.

Professor Jeff Sedlik, a forensic photo expert, says the print appears to be authentic. Sedlik says the photo is printed on paper consistent with what was used in the 1950s. The emulsion on the surface of the print has numerous cracks -- the result of aging and handling....

Forensic analyst Sedlik superimposed an image of Kennedy taken at the Democratic National Convention in August 1956, just days before Kennedy went on the Mediterranean cruise. Sedlik says the features from the two pics almost precisely sync up. TMZ has also had two Kennedy biographers examine the photo -- they also believe JFK is in the picture.

TMZ.com claims that they got the photo from the son of a "man who owned a car dealership on the East Coast" who would brag about it. But here are my questions: first, who took the photo? Second, how did they come to be in position to take it? Third, how did such a controversial photo lay undiscovered for so long? Fourth, who was really on the boat? Fifth, if it's real, who was instrumental in arranging for it not to be discovered.

I'm sure you can think of even more questions than I've offered.

Stay tuned.

Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor - war of words

The issue of Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor is turning into a war of words pitting "Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor" forces versus "Max Baucus drunk on Senate Floor" believers.

Senator Max Baucus (D - Montana) had launched a spirited debate against Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker on Heath Care Reform. In the process, his tired, angry, articulate tirade was such that online Conservatives activists elected to make a charge that Max Baucus was drunk.

The fact is that Max Baucus was not drunk and correct in his attack against Republicans who did not break ranks to join Democrats in backing Health Care Reform. Rightpundits explains that Baucus' "core argument is that those who oppose healthcare reform are somehow lacking courage.."

Baucus is right for a very basic reason.

We've had the same Health Care System for 60 years and over 30 million Americans are without insurance. It, by nature of what it takes to mount a change to a culture takes courage to do so.

We have line after line of scores of Americans who line up in support of Heath Care Reform because we need a better system.  The Republicans have only opposed what Democrats have developed and not came up with a better system themselves.  In this the Republicans are not only the "Party of no" but the "Party of lazy".

It takes significant brain work to really sit down and crunch the numbers, craft the legislation, and think about and simulate its impact, then go back to the drawing board.  There's just no evidence that the Republican Party has done that.

Every time Republicans are in power, nothing is done to significantly improve and change the Health Care System so we don't have the access problem.

Nothing.

So Max Baucus was right. It does take courage to support change. And Max Baucus wasn't drunk.

Senator Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor

There's a video going around that claims Montana Senator Max Baucus is drunk on the floor of The Senate as he spiritedly takes on Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker in a talk about Health Care Reform.

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)

In fact, the video that started the Conservative's nasty attack on Baucus is from Think Progress, which pointed to Baucus' articulate claims of Republican partisanship"

I want to tell the Senator that that is not what happened. I was in the room constantly, constantly. I talked to those Senators many many times. That is not what happened. I”ll tell you what did happen. Your leadership pressured them, pressured them, pressured them not to work together. There is no European style effort in that room, that is a totally untruthful statement. Totally untruthful statement. None whatsoever….That assertion of working towards a European solution is entirely untrue. It’s entirely false.

Now, if you can read that, and you can, then you have to agree Baucus was not "slurring" or "drunk" , or "slobbering" when he was speaking. Otherwise he could not have got off such a great blast against Wicker.

And Conservatives know it.

Rather, Baucus was just plain tired and really angry. The product of long hours of debate against Republicans who just don't play fair at all.

Baucus made a great point. People like Maine's Republican Senator Olympia Snowe were really interested in passing health care reform, but were relentlessly pressured into not doing so. Personally, I think they're on the wrong side of history.

Stay tuned.