For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that the Armstrong family has been on lockdown for oh, five days. Probable Norwalk virus, me almost being admitted to hospital due to Norwalk and pregnancy. You know, usual stuff (aka the worst). But, the show has gone on without me and so much has happened. I want to catch you up on a few things that you may have missed and one that you really shouldn't this week. Everything from the SAG Awards, to Chris Brown at it again.
First, some gossip. Liberty Ross, the wife of Rupert Sanders officially filed for divorce last week. She's asking for joint custody, alimony and for him to pay her legal fees. That seems to be letting the dude off really easily, if you ask me. But she's probably a better person than I am.
There are a bunch of photos of the lovely Hilary Duff going around that aren't too flattering, and they've started the "has she or hasn't she?" plastic surgery tongues a-wagging. Some of the photos just look awkward, but, maybe? If she has, I wonder if it's true that Hollywood has gotten so tough that a woman as young as Hil needs to get injections to get roles. This is a whole other can of worms I'll open on another day.
Jeremy Renner has admitted to getting his now ex-girlfriend pregnant, and we know who she is! A 22-year-old Canadian model named Sonni Pacheo. I haven't heard of her either, but good for her, I guess? He's got her living with him in his LA home, so who knows how this will turn out (poorly, I'd imagine).
Onto the SAG Awards. This awards show is the by-us-for-us awards where all the ACTRA and SAG members vote on fellow actors in film and television. I tend to find these awards to be more telling of quality than say, the Globes or Oscars because these are all based on the approval by peers. The big surprise of the night was Jennifer Lawrence winning for Silver Linings Playbook. She seemed just as surprised. Glad I'm finally getting the chance to check this one out this week. You can find a full list of the SAG Award winners (including Tina Fey AND Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock!) over at USA Today.
Finally, in a why the hell is he still making music situation, Chris Brown attacked singer Frank Ocean in Hollywood the other night over something so trivial, you may not believe me when I tell you.
The two men fought over a parking spot. Of course, Brown denies starting the fight saying he was attacked first, but eyewitness accounts say otherwise. Ocean says he's hurt his hand quite badly and may not be able to give his full intended performance at the Grammy Awards in two weeks.
WHY IS THIS MAN STILL AROUND?
Last week, Oprah sat down for a two-part interview with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong on her OWN channel. The interview was at times both painful to watch (Lance seemed really to be trying hard to come across as honest which made him seem to be even bigger of a liar), and strange (Oprah, at times seemed to fawn over Armstrong). But what has come about since the interview? Mostly hurt and anger. The interview was the most watched TV in Canada—over 2.5 million viewers—and had everyone on Twitter talking. This was the thing we were talking about last week. But what's happened since then?
Hurt, anger, stress, and reactions from friends and fans alike. Since the interview, two of Armstrong's biggest Hollywood supporters have come forward to talk about the interview, the admission and the scandal. And it seems they aren't too pleased either. Matthew McConaughey, who was questioned about his pal Lance while promoting a film at the Sundance Film Festival this week, said he was, "pissed off." He added, "I was mad. Then I got kind of sad for him. First off, I had a part of me that took it kind of personally, which I think a lot of people have."
McConaughey added, however, that he's feeling optimistic for his friend entering a "new chapter" in his life and moving forward. A new chapter, indeed.
Reports started surfacing almost as soon as the first part of the interview was done that Armstrong had, in fact, even lied to Oprah! There were interviews, anger, and tears. The whole situation is getting so convoluted at this point, that I'm starting to despise the man, his myth and the machine surrounding it. But, Lance still has his supporters.
Many people are claiming that his work with his former foundation, Livestrong, has been life-affirming and quite helpful for people living with cancer, however, the charity has been dogged for years over how money is spent. Just this month, it was reported that the "charity" barely funds any research and that the majority of the money they raise goes to promoting the Livestrong brand, and up until this scandal broke, promoting Lance himself and their for-profit lifestyle website.
So, Lance has made millions upon millions of dollars based entirely on lies and he claims he didn't ever "feel" like he was "cheating," and we're supposed to forgive him? Many claim he is now stepping forward because he wants his life-long sport ban lifted so that he can compete in Olympic Triathlon. He's willing to throw others under the bus, place blame and "call out" other team members, doctors and team leaders (almost like a mafia rat) in order to compete as an Olympian again. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the American public as well as the government do not want an internationally disgraced man representing their nation on the world stage. What a massive, ignorant ego.
Who does this guy think he is? Lance Armstrong?
So, spill it! What do you think about Lance Armstrong's recent admission to doping?
Earlier this week, Disney Interactive invited bloggers and writers from around the world to participate in a news conference to present their newest gaming platform. This is something that Disney's been working on for a long time and you can tell they are deeply invested in just by the excitement exhibited by the day's three presenters: Disney Interactive Co-President John Pleasants, Academy Award winning Director and head of the Disney-Pixar Animation Studios John Lasseter and the VP and GM of Avalanche Software, John Blackburn. As a gaming parent, my interest was piqued and I just couldn't wait to see what they had in store for us.
What was presented to us was Disney Infinity, a whole new cross-console platform that takes the best of gaming, play, and creativity to combine into one mega-experience. The aim, said Pleasants, was to create a whole new, unexpected gaming experience based on the idea of childhood play: something all three men had been working on while building the Toy Story 3 video game. The idea behind the movie franchise and the game is simple: when kids are involved in creative play, they just pull all their different toys out of their toy box and create new scenarios and adventures. Why couldn't they do that in a digital game? This is how Infinity was born.
Infinity works in 3 ways. First, there are stand alone games called Play Sets. These games are set in the world of each of the characters. For example, Capt. Jack Sparrow has his own playset and can play with other characters from the Pirates franchise in a pre-populated world. The play sets are more like your standard video game. Going forward, I think each Disney/Pixar property will have it's own playset. But here's where Infinity differs—you buy a starter pack of software, but the games are unlocked by beautiful vinyl figurines that can be collected and played with by kids. The more figurines you collect, the more toys you can add to your virtual Toy Box.
The Toy Box is what's different here. As John Lasseter said in the conference, kids just "pull their toys out and play" creating different stories and tableaus and they wanted to take that creative play, that active imagination and move it into a digital world. Users can take all their different characters and build their very own video games creating scenes and adventures never before even dreamed of by the studio.
Pretty neat, huh?
The price points aren't low, so I suspect that this will not be a cheap endeavour, but for serious gaming families and those who have kids who are interested in digital creative building, this will be a worthwhile investment. The starter packs will be coming out in June this year (starting at $74.99) featuring Sully, Capt. Jack and Mr. Incredible and by year's end, they expect to have many more playsets available (staring at $29.99), hopefully eventually having the entire Disney/Pixar universe available to combine in an infinite number of ways.
I, for one am pretty excited about this although I don't think my wallet will be.
So, spill it! Will you be getting your kids into Disney Infinity?
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