Daniel Craig (James Bond) In Drag, Dame Judy Dench On International Women's Day

Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond 007, and "M" well-represented by Dame Judy Dench, team up once again to make this effective video for International Women's Day, and WeAreEquals.org.

According to We Are Equals: "The two-minute short, specially commissioned for International Women's Day, sees 007 star Daniel Craig undergo a dramatic makeover as he puts himself, quite literally, in a woman's shoes."

This video, directed by Nowhere Boy Director and Conceptual Artist Sam Taylor-Wood, written by Jane Goldman from Kick Ass is the first James Bond movie or video to be directed by a woman.

In the video, Bond walks into an interrogation room under one light, as M starts peppering him with a series of questions on everything from pay inequality for women to domestic violence. Then M asks "For someone with such a fondness for women, I wonder if you’ve ever considered what it means to be one?"

Bond then walks off camera, then comes back into the interrogation room dressed as a blonde woman in drag. As M continues her questions, Bond wipes away a tear, and takes off his wig.

"Bond is challenged by M to think about gender inequality, says Sam Taylor-Wood, "and I hope that the film encourages viewers to do the same. Despite great advances in women's rights, statistics show that when it comes to the balance of power between the sexes, equality is far from being a global reality. As M reminds Bond, facing up to gender issues and the sometimes covert nature of sexism in the 21st century is something that we all have to recognise, confront and challenge."

Outstanding.

Frankly, I wish society would tackle Racism with the same gusto.

Meantime, hats off to Daniel Craig, Dame Judy Dench, Sam Wood-Taylor, Jane Goldman, and Barbara Broccoli, the producer of James Bond, and "Equals," the campaign for awareness.

Oakland's Larry Reid Wrongly Called Cannabis University Graduate

Like his Oakland City Council colleague Councilmember Desley Brooks (District 6 - Central East Oakland), Oakland City Council President Larry Reid (District 7 - East Oakland) also supposedly received a "Diploma of Certified Seedling," last year, and from the Oakland-based institution called UniCann.

Or did he?

The video's title - "Councilmember Larry Reid University of Cannabis graduate" - is just plain wrong. There's no video evidence of Councilmember Reid receiving the kind of diploma Brooks got last year. The video just has Larry expressing his gratitude for the location of the University of Cannabis facility in his District 7. Reid just says "Congratulations. Welcome to Oakland."

Here's the video:



It's no wonder the video's not being pushed via Twitter the way the video with Councilmember Brooks has been (and by members of the local and regional pot growing industry with Twitter accounts at @GroMaster, @M24Cabbage, and @calpotnews) - it's not accurate at all with respect to its title.

I'll bet Larry's going to bust a gut when he sees this.  And he should; they misrepresented him.

Larry Reid almost hates to be on video, or at least he consistently ducks doing a video interview with this blogger, so to see this video - like the Brooks videos, not touched by the general media until this space found them - is a surprise. But it's also a window into why Reid is careful to do videos of any kind - this video was title to by misleading and it is.    The Thinking Pot - the YouTube channel that uploaded the video, should change its title.

Indeed, that wasn't very thoughtful of them.

Charlie Sheen Fired; Will Smith Most Bankable Actor In Hollywood

While Charlie Sheen falls, Will Smith rises.

According to James Ulmer of The Ulmer Scale, a 100-factor list that tracks who's hot and who's not (also called a "bankability score") in the entertainment industry, as of this writing, Will Smith, best known as one part of the rap duo D.J. Jassy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, and for the TV show The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, and movies like Ali, and Independence Day, and Legend, is the most bankable star at the top of The Ulmer Scale.

Meanwhile, Two And A Half Men star Charlie Sheen, who was officially fired by Warner Bros today, is "tanking," according to a phone conversation this blogger had with James Ulmer, the list's creator.

Right now, Ulmer says Sheen, is "not bankable," and explains that Hollywood insurance bonding agencies may not be willing to take a chance on him because of the enormous costs associated with losing a day of shooting on a movie set because of, say, an actor's break to enter drug rehab.

What's The Ulmer Scale?

The scale look at "how risky it is to hire actors to make movies," says Ulmer. According to its website, The Ulmer Scale...

"...scores each actor's bankability by three different budget levels. The first is for "art house" movies costing up to $8 million; the second is for mid-range films in the $8 million-$30 million range; and the third level is for studio movies made for more than $30 million...The results of these surveys are then compiled and ranked by a 100-point index. Each actor is assigned four scores next to his or her name. There is one for each of the three different budget levels of a film (up to 100 points per budget level), as well as a total score adding up the previous three (the highest possible being 300 points). These scores are then assembled into The Ulmer Scale's proprietary A+, A, B+, B, C and D lists -- and the closely-watched "Uppers" and "Downers" lists of the biggest gainers and losers in star power.

Does Twitter Help Sheen?

Will Sheen's social media success help? Sheen's set the record time of reaching 1 million followers on Twitter, and has worked to monetize the medium for himself. "Right now," says Ulmer, "Sheen's toxic." Ulmer can't see that money will come pouring out for the son of Martin Sheen. Plus, Ulmer, who's based in Hollywood, says Charlie's not listening to the people who he's formed relationships with.

Hollywood's Not Happy With Sheen

One of those people is Two And A Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, who cancelled production of the last four episodes of the series after Sheen called him by his real name Chime Levine. Since Lorre's real name is Jewish, the comment was seen by some in the Jewish community as Anti-Semetic. But Sheen claims that since some in his family, including his mother, are Jewish, he wasn't being Anti-Semetic. Still, the damage is done. "Hollywood's very sensitive to Anti-Semetism," Ulmer said, "what Charlie said was something you don't do."

Will Smith and Johnny Depp Rise

Meanwhile, Will Smith, who currently commands about $20 million per film, chugs along. He scores 100 the top of a list that includes Johnny Depp with 95 score, Brad Pitt (88), Tom Hanks (87), George Clooney (86), Will Ferrell (85), Reese Witherspoon (85), Nicholas Cage (84)m Leonardo DiCaprio (81), and Russell Crowe (81).

What About The Women?

If you note, there's only one woman in Ulmer's Top 10 List, Reese Witherspoon, and the reasons given for this by Ulmer himself are eyeopening and unfortunate: "Hollywood is sexist," he says. "It's tough for women. And they're viewed as more bankable in ensemble roles." So that's why you don't see a lot of women action heros in movies, and it may be one reason why it's taken so long to get a movie version of "Wonder Woman" off the ground. Ulmer reports that the recession's made it harder for women to land well-monetized roles.

On his website, Ulmer says:

Women sustained the most wide-ranging losses. Former no. 1 female star Julia Roberts slipped 11 points to 12th place overall with 80 points, moving off the A+ list for the first time in 15 years due largely to her reduced workload in the past two years. However, Roberts still managed to come in second among women after top-seated Reese Witherspoon, who scored 85 points to earn 7thth place among all stars in The Ulmer Scale’s global bankability survey of film industry professionals. Witherspoon is the only woman to make the Hot List’s Top 10 List.

Hollywood's Losing Ground To The Web

While Charlie Sheen may not be bankable in Hollywood, one fact provides a ray of hope for the entertainment legend: Ulmer says that the overall larger number of platforms other than movies have damaged the overall value of Hollywood's actors. "Stars’ scores have shrunk because they must increasingly compete for eyeballs with all kinds of screens beyond the silver one," Ulmer reports on his website.

That may provide some comfort to Charlie Sheen. Now that he's fired from his gig on Two And A Half Men, Sheen will have more desire than ever to succeed online. His success could spell the beginning of the end of Hollywood's dominance in providing paid work for actors.

Stay tuned.

We could have Sheen that coming...

Well, according to Variety it's all over but the coverage as far as Charlie Sheen's time on Two-and-a-Half Men. CBS has reportedly sent Sheen a termination letter today, despite the well-publicized fact that Charlie had another season to go on his contract.

Citing "erratic behavior" CBS has pulled the plug on the star, but isn't saying if a decision has been made about the series itself. Given his recent appearances I'd say very few of us outside the TV industry are surprised, and probably relatively few inside are either - although in pursuit of the bottom line there's naturally some question about how much this publicity might have boosted Sheen's ratings.

If only we could get this much coverage for stories like how Congress is - or isn't - creating jobs, and why it's so important to fund wars that we don't have enough money to properly address poverty, hunger, public education, or the cost of health care.

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally thinks Sheen may have gotten carried away and had some challenges distinguishing himself from his successful character - and needs more professional help (even though Sheen didn't ask.)

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

Mike Destefano Of Last Comic Standing Dies

According to TMZ.com, Mike Destefano, one of five finalists on last year's Last Comic Standing, has died. Destefano had what was described as a "massive heart attack." According to his website, Mike had a busy schedule, with four shows coming up over the month of March alone, one he just completed in New Jersey.

Punchline Magazine, which covers the comedian industry, praised Destefano for his "brutally honest approach to stand-up comedy."

It seems that honesty came from a hard life.

Destefano overcame the death of his wife and drug addiction to place himself on a comeback path to stardom.

This video from Punchline and Matthew Gill, does, as they blog, give good feel for what Mike was like:



Mike Destefano. Remember him by watching his videos here.

BASHOF Event Is Tonight; I Won't Be There

Ok. A friend calls me and says that they're attending the Bay Area Sports Hall Of Fame Dinner BASHOF and that I should cover it as media. My friend is always looking out for new opportunities for Zennie62Media.com, and that's much appreciated.  It would be nice to have some video interviews from BASHOF, I thought.

So, on the encouragement of my friend, I sent an email to two people: Tom Martz the BASHOF President and his PR person, who was nice enough to get back to me about the press conference. So I planned to go over at 4 PM for the press conference. I didn't expect dinner, otherwise I guess she would have said so. But then, not having attended a BASHOF before, I didn't know.

So then I get this call out-of-the-blue from Martz. And since I didn't expect the call I asked who it was and instead of saying who he was Tom says "Who I am? Who are you? You contacted me!"

Since I had not called anyone at that number, I was confused. Then he said "It's Tom from BASHOF. We have NO SEATS AT THE DINNER." Dude was yelling at me!

Yeah.  Yelling.

So I calmly explained that I emailed to cover the event as press. Tom said the press conference was at 4; I said yeah, that's where I'm going to be.

But then he ranted again, "But there's NO SEATING AT THE DINNER. Why don't you check back with us NEXT YEAR earlier!

I don't like circuitous conversation and I sure as hell don't like being yelled at for nothing. I'm not some kid, and if so, that would be child abuse anyway. So I told him to stop being nasty. Tom said "I wasn't being nasty," and hangs up on me.

So, I sent an email stating that I wasn't coming. I'm happy BASHOF has so much press that Tom feels it's just fine to be mean to me. But it's not. I don't care who the person is, I will not put up with disrespectful treatment for one second. I don't treat people that way, so I'm not going to tolerate it when I'm treated that way.  Same goes for anyone who talks to a friend of mine in a disrespectful way in my presence. Don't do it.

And my constant message is that you can't just treat people any kind of way you want in a New Media environment.  You have to be nice.

If I were a name Tom knew, you know damn well he'd not have talked to me like that. Well, now he does know my name, but it's too late. The damage is done.

Good luck tonight BASHOF. I won't be there.  I'm not giving good media content to someone who talks to me like that for no reason at all, then won't apologize to me.

Forget it.  

Talk About The Academy Awards And Social Media

The Academy Awards ratings problems and the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences foray into social media were the central points of discussion on Friday's Tonya Hall Radio Show.

The guest was none other than yours truly, Zennie Abraham of Zennie62Media.com and Sports Business Simulations. Tonya basically let me talk for an hour; just kidding. It was a good "back-and-forth," but I think I could have used one more hour of conversation.

There's a lot to talk about on the Academy Awards and social media, but for Tonya's show, I essentially expanded on what I blogged here: Zennie on Improving The Oscars.

Here's the show:

The Tonya Hall Show - March 4, 2011

Friend of the show and well-known blogger Zennie Abraham

takes a look back at the 2011 Oscars with Tonya.

At any rate, The Tonya Hall Radio Show is broadcast out of Colorado Springs, Colorado and is on 1300 AM, The Sports Animal. This is something like the fifth or sixth time I've been on her show as a guest.

The Tonya Hall Show focuses on "The power of social media," and has some really great and interesting guests. Last week, for example, Tonya had as guests Kodak Chief Blogger Jenny Cisney, Alex Roach from Facebook, and Sean Percival of MySpace.  Check it out!