Hello, everybody. "The Dark Knight" may have surpassed "Spider-Man 3" to have the all-time opening weekend gross with $158 million, but the big story that stemmed from it was that star Christian Bale was arrested but not charged for assault on his mother and sister in London where the film had its premiere. A statement from lawyer Simon Smith says, "Christian Bale attended a London police station today, on a voluntary basis, in order to assist with an allegation that had been made against him to the police by his mother and sister. Mr. Bale who denies the allegation, co-operated throughout, gave his account in full of the events in question, and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the police. At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr. Bale." Bale was out on bail and will be at the Barcelona "Dark Knight" premiere on Wednesday.
As I said, "Dark Knight" opened big with a record $158 million, easily enough to overtake "Spider-Man 3's" $151 million haul two weeks ago. The first "Spider-Man" in 2002 earned $114 in its opening weekend, and in the May 18-19, 2002 "Plain Truth", I gloated about it in yet another gem from the archives as the tenth anniversary of The Allen Report/AllenBlog continues:
Now, to a certain film by George Lucas with one of the most famous movie themes of all time: "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones". It opened on Thursday with midnight screenings across the country and yes, eager fans (most who probably don't have a job) have lined up for days, even weeks anticipating the release. But yes, it does have some mega competition with "Spider-Man". We already know about its huge $114 million take opening weekend (easily beating "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's" $93 million), and the over $200 million they raked in in one week. And of course, the receipts will continue to trickle in on the international side; it's well on its way to make the all-time Top Ten. To make things better, sales of the action figures from the film have grossed over $1 billion. That's right -- $1 BILLION!!! Not since the "Superman" or "Batman" series of films (save the Adam West/Burt Ward one) or even "X-Men" -- also from Spidey's creator Stan Lee -- have we ever seen so much money accumulated from a movie based on a popular comic book character, and that may continue next year with "The Hulk" and "X-Men 2".
Oh, speaking of "Batman", I remember seeing a throng of people with Batman shirts coming out of a previous showing when it came out in 1989 after buying my ticket for the next one. This was at the old Goldstream Theaters, by the way.
It was simple: Many of us have been familiar with Spider-Man for decades from the comics and the old cartoon series, and the long, long wait was indeed worth it for the movie to come out. And speaking of the movie, those fans didn't need to line up outside the multiplex for weeks. All they did was stand in line for minutes to buy their tickets right up front (or on the Internet in advance if they wanted to), get their munchies, take their seats, bore themselves with 15 minutes of trailers, and on with the show!
By the way, the sequel has already been planned; filming starts early next year and May 4, 2004 is the date you might want to mark on your calendar. That's when it's guaranteed to be released.
As to whether or not "Attack of the Clones" will beat "Spider-Man's" opening weekend record? According to George Lucas, not by a longshot. His film is shown in 1,500 less screens than the web slinger's, so even though those loser geeks have stood in line for God knows how long does not mean it will topple over $114 million this weekend. But it has made over $30 million in its first day.
"Spider-Man" would hold on to that $114 million record for two years, until "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" collected a whole lot more booty: $135.6 million worth, followed by the aforementioned "Spider-Man 3."
Of course the huge contribution to "Dark Knight's" record-breaking success is Heath Ledger's posthumous performance of the Joker, which puts all others to shame (I'm talking to you, Jack Nicholson and the late Cesar Romero). And already, the early Oscar buzz for him has already begun.
The four-year indecency drama known as "Nipplegate" is officially buried, and Justin Timberlake poking fun at it on the ESPY Awards may have been the final chapter. On Monday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the Federal Communications Commission's original $550,000 fine against CBS for Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's breast and pierced nipple at the very end of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
When the whole thing blew into proportions four years ago, I made the indecency debate the subject of "Safe Route, Sleazy Route 2", a special commentary I did sometime in spring 2004. And once again from our archives, here it is in an abbreviated version:
Indecency (n.) Shamelessness, shamefulness, offensiveness, outrageousness.
For decades, that word has appeared on and off the television and radio airwaves. On broadcast television, however, the networks and stations have done everything in their power not to cross that boundary, except of course if you're Jerry Springer. And with the exception of Howard Stern, radio personalities have always kept their content in good taste, especially if there's children listening to them.
But on Sunday, February 1, 2004, in front of sports' biggest stage, everything changed forever.
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake heated things up during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show with Timberlake performing "Rock Your Body." Right at the very end when Timberlake sang the line "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song", he ripped off Janet's top showing off more than she wasn't expected. A portion of her red lace bra was supposed to be revealed, but instead, her right breast and a pierced nipple ring were exposed to a worldwide television audience. The two in shock and awe mode left the stage in disbelief, while across the country, telephone lines immediately jammed up CBS' switchboards. Later, the apologies started to flow.
The next day, the madness began. Network and cable news programs as well as "Entertainment Tonight" and other similar shows around the world were all over the incident with reactions and discussions, while foreign papers showed photographic proof. And of course, the late night jokesters wasted no time running Janet and Justin into the ground. The Federal Communications Commission, however, wasn't laughing. At the end of the week a record 200,000 letters of complaint were received, compared to the 60,000 over Nicole Richie mouthing off at the Billboard Music Awards in December.
The FCC began investigating into all this, and decided to up the indecency fines ranging from $27,500 to $275,000. As a result, CBS and ABC had to put five-minute and five-second delays on their respective Grammy and Academy Awards telecasts in case what happened at the Super Bowl would never, ever do so again.
Now, the debate of how far is too far on TV has been waging for decades, going all the way back to the Golden Age. The word "pregnant" was very obsecne for 1953, when "I Love Lucy" did an episode in which Lucy gives birth (the "P" word was never uttered, by the way). Flash forward to the mid-'60s, with "Peyton Place" as the first primetime soap opera to include sexual dialogues to their storylines. The boundary-pushing "All In The Family" and "Charlie's Angels" with their pre-cable term "Jiggle TV" would later follow in the '70s. And in the '90s, with Fox already on the air and UPN and The WB to be next, syndication's "The Jerry Springer Show" and ABC's "NYPD Blue" were next to push the envelope even further.
As for cable and satellite? Well, almost all the rules have been broken there with WWE wrestling, MTV, HBO, pay-per-view, and soft-core porn movies on Cinemax and Showtime late at night.
Unless if you happen to live in a medium-sized market like Anchorage or a small one like Fairbanks, you know the morning and afternoon radio personalities have always kept their act together, especially with young children listening. But if you happen to be in say, New York, it's a completely different story.
In an August 2002 "Plain Truth", I began with the phrase "Sleaze ya later!", referring to New York afternoon DJs Opie and Anthony being fired from their station for broadcasting a Virginia couple having sex from St. Patrick's Cathedral. I said the two have been at the bottom of the radio food chain for years; even Clear Channel wouldn't hire them if their lives depended on it.
One person who has really felt the wrath of the FCC for years has been Howard Stern, whose debauchery have collected millions of dollars in fines and the other month cost key stations owned by -- who else? -- Clear Channel. The latter happened in the wake of Janet and Justin; the previous day, Florida area DJ Bubba the Love Sponge (formerly Todd Clem) was fired by Clear Channel. The crude acts on his show, by the way, led to a fine totaling $750,000.
As for Stern, it didn't stop there. Clear Channel have recently pulled the plug on him permanently, even though the Infinity stations will keep him on the air for who knows when.
But several "clean" radio personalities including Ryan Seacrest have always stayed far away from the "shock jock" antics the other guys have been doing just for one thing: Ratings. That's because they have them.
After all, it's been never like this 30 or 40 years ago with the AM stations before the Top 40, urban, and rock formats migrated to FM in the late '70s and early '80s.
Back to television now. About those hot and steamy love scenes on daytime soap operas? Well, unless you watch those "telenovelas" on Univision, they might have to be cooled down quite much.
And as for Springer? It's his daily (or nightly) rauchiness that made his show become the Worst TV Show of All-Time according to "TV Guide." Like many of us, I was hooked on that show as it was well on its way to becoming the #1 talk show, beating Oprah Winfrey. Of course I liked its early years when it tackled serious topics like the "mole people" or a family living in a car. But sometime later Oprah got the ratings back, while the brawls that made Jerry's show famous were toned down thanks to beefed-up security.
To make things even worse, the jazzy theme music and talk show style were out and the WWE attitude was in. And then, it became more idiotic. Besides the usual "Jerry! Jerry!" chants, there was "Fight Naked!", "Go to Oprah!" (if somebody from the audience said something serious to the guests), "Sit down loser!", "You suck!", etc., not to mention the constant sound effects like a cow mooing or the boxing bell whenever the guests start to get it on. There's also that stupid hillbilly music which has the audience in a brief hoedown; a girl named Angie (or somebody else) as their pole dancer; and the next-to-last segment which is half-insults, half-"Girls Gone Wild" with the females flashing for "Jerry beads." On one episode, a woman in her mid-60's -- that's right, her mid-60's!! -- did just that! Oh well, at least the "Final Thought" has always remained since day one.
Just like "Access Hollywood" (which I explained about in "Safe Route, Sleazy Route I"), "Jerry Springer" is becoming more and more and more like a comedy and freak show than a talk show. I wouldn't be surprised if their current season is their last.
By the way, a couple years ago Bill O'Reilly did a primetime special called "The Corruption of the American Child." During the TV segment, no clips of Springer were shown, not even a mention of the show itself. Maybe he was too chicken or something.
The special didn't even bring up video games, which are a part of television. Sure, Pac-Man, Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, and "Final Fantasy" have challenged and amazed us over the years, but "Resident Evil" and "Grand Theft Auto" had pre-teens coming back for more...more and more violence, that is.
Decades ago, everything we watched on TV or listened to the radio seemed very wholesome for almost all ages. But as trends changed over the years we had to follow suit as we were trying to break away from the same old rut.
So, as far as the "I" word -- indecency -- is concerned, Janet and Justin may have started the war, but this is going to be one battle that'll continue to be waged for a long time...or until John Kerry is elected President in November, whichever comes first.
Indecency is one of the many exits in the Safe Routes and Sleazy Routes of pop culture we've been taking regularly; who knows when there'll be a U-turn in sight.
That summer, Howard Stern announced he would be moving his radio antics to Sirius Satellite Radio effective 2007.
And last but not least...summertime is grilling time all over America, from ribs to steaks to hot dogs and burgers. And speaking of burgers, a huge battle is being waged as to who has the most expensive burger in the world.
A Burger King in London has The Burger, which would set you back $185 U.S., while the FleurBurger 5000 at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is a mere $75. But the most expensive burger meal belongs to the Palms Casino on the other side of the Vegas strip, with a Carl's Jr. six-dollar burger and a 24-year-old bottle of French Bordeaux to wash it down with. The price tag: A mouth-watering $6,000!!!
I dunno about you, but with the economy still on life support largely thanks to the shutdown of Indymac Bank, I can create a burger that won't bust your budget. The meat would beef, turkey, and lamb all mixed together with herbs and spices, topped off with romaine lettuce, sun-dried Roma tomatoes, French-fried onions, and of course the usual condiments all on a nice potato bun. Jalapeno peppers? Forget it!
It'll be called the Allen Burger, and I may demonstrate it at my 30th birthday party this fall. And the price? Absolutely nothing, but tasting it would feel like you bit into a $100-plus burger. With that said, so long and stay strong.
