I The Behrend Beacon tumid - adj. - marked by swelling, swollen, enlarged At the construction site, a shovel dropped four stories and landed on Jeff. After we ran down there, we could spot him easily because Beacon Entertainer of the Week Jim Belushi Entertainment News in Brief 1/25 - 2/1 Brittany Spears Admits Mental problems The pop star was admitted to the emergency room with what she has called “mental prob lems.” She has sought help from a psychiatrist and the problems are “treatable,” according to her manager. Shows refuse to air video of Heath Ledger A recently surfaced video of Heath Ledger at a party where drugs were alledgedly used will not be aired by several shows, including “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider.” Rumors have said that the video shows Heath Ledger taking drugs on the day of his death. “Lost” returns to TV “Lost” returned to TV last week despite the ongo ing writers’ strike. Some analysts wonder whether the show has lost momentum due to the strike’s hiatus, but the wildly popular show has still generated a large amount of excitement. Upcoming releases: Movies Fool’s Gold -Feb. 8- A treasure hunter, played by Matthew McConaughey, search es for lost treasure with his wife (Kate Hudson). Rating: PG-13 Welcome > Home Roscoe Jenkins -Feb. 8- Martin Lawrence plays a radio DJ that returns to his small town fami ly after living in LA. Rating: PG-13 j Music Sheryl Crow -Feb. 5~ “Detours” «JtSBWr TT'Ri'RTAVfI TlVrß','l TT ;s; Josh Kelly -Feb. 5~ “Special Company” Rock Band turns wannabes into rock- ers with fusion of gaming and music Bv Evan Koser entertainment editor emkSl HK n psu.edu Getting w ith friends to form an “air band” has been taken to a w'hole new level with Harmonix Musie System's new game Rock Band, destined to change the music industry. The game Rock Band, released in the U.S. on Nov. 20 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 eonsoles. provides music fans with a “missing link" between air instruments and their real-life coun terparts. By the end of release month, the game had already sold more than 312.000 units. This was a huge surprise to the developers at Harmonix. a group located in Boston and started up by a couple of MIT stu dents wishing to make the experi ence of playing music accesible to the masses. At a whopping $l7O. the game comes with a Fender Stratocaster guitar controller and the new drum kit controller. The game allows up to four play ers. with two using guitar peripheries to emulate the bass and lead guitar, one playing the drums and one player imitating the vocals of the song. Much like Harmonix's previous game series. Guitar Hero, players are required on each of the levels of difficulty to accurately press buttons that correlate with on-screen scrolling notes, SAG Awards reach highest ratings in a decade By Connor Saitely entertainment editor cisso6o(p psu.edu The 2008 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, held on Jan. 28, featured a diverse mix of w inners. No Country for Old Men was the only movie to take more than one awards (Outstanding performance by a cast, Ourstanding performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem). Leading role awards for movies went to Julie • Christie(Away From Her) and Daniel Day-Lewis * (There Will Be Blood). American Gangster • rounded out the list as Ruby Dee look the best * supporting female role award. Day-Lewis dedi • cated his award to actor Heath Ledger, in remem * berance of the man's tragic death earlier in the Rockstar is quickly becoming a huge college success. with the exception of the vocalist who is required to accurately match pitch. ‘Tve played Guitar Hero." says first-semes ter freshman. Keith Stanton, “but I like that I can switch intstruments. 1 play with my friends and 1 do vocals. I like having that option to finally be able to switch around.” The game features a variety of songs with music spanning throughout the past four in established formats. And with each song run ning at twice the going rate of a legally down loaded song, gamers are more than willing to cough up two dollars to play a virtually unlim ited amount of songs. With things for the music industry beginning to look up and sales for Rock Band at a record high, gamers and musicians alike have high expectations for the future of music sales and quality gaming. month, The Sopranos shined in the list of primetime TV awards, winning all “drama series” awards. The popular show took three awards for outstand ing performances: Male Actor (James Gandolfini), Female Actor (Edie Falco), and Ensemble. Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey also took an award apeice for their roles in 30 Rock. The Office took an award for an outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. Kevin Kline (As you Like It) and Queen Latifa ( Life Support ) won awards for the best male and female actor in a TV movie or minisenes. Some critics of the show cry foul on behalf of actor Hugh Laurie, who did not get an award for his portrayal in TV series success House. Charles Duming, perhaps most well-known for his 1973 role in the Best Movie recipient The Sting , received the SAG’s “Lifetime Acheivement” award. The award, which includes recipients such as Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, and Clint Eastwood, honors actors for “outstand ing achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession.” Duming, who has made several appearances in many popular movies over the last 30 years, also had a very distinguished military career. He was among the first troops to land at Omaha Beach on D-Day, was taken prisoner during the infamous Battle of the Bulge, and was awarded the Silver Star and four Purple Hearts. One of the biggest stories of the SAG Awards ing gamers the option to buy more songs that are available for download. “New songs will be avail able for download every week, with players able to tailor their game to their favorite genres or bands” says MTV, publisher of the game. So what does this entail for the declining music industry? Just as musicians tested the novelty of down loads a few years ago by releasing songs online at the same time as on CD, MTV is working with labels to release playable versions of new tunes alongside their debuts Friday, February 1, 2008 Viewers dissapointed by Meet the Spartans By Connor Satfely entertainment editor cisso6o@psu.edu M’eet the Spartans debut this weekend was met with some success among viewers as the flick topped out Rambo for the number one spot The spoof of 2007’s 300 took in an estimated $18.7 million in its first weekend, narrowly edging out Rambo, which took $18.2 million. The spoof features King Leonidas, played by Sean Maguire, and his captain, played by Kevin Sorbo, as they try to defeat hordes of Persians with only 13 men. Xerces, played by Ken Davitian (Azamat in “Borat"), leads the invading troops, and Carmen Electra plays the part of Queen Margo. Leonidas's husband. The movie, however, for a large part failed to sat isfy its audiences, even though the crew of the movie also took a major part in the creation of Epic Movie last year. Yahoo movies' “User Rating" system gives the movie an average rating of a C-. By contrast, Rambo has a user rating of B+ and Cloverfiehi. which rolled in at fourth place with $12.7 million, got an average user rating of a B-. Comments on the net include such j: “Imagine death film'(lMDß). “Ki of like a hammer your skull"(Yahoi Movies), and man; more. Several usei try to warn potent: viewers away fi seeing the movie, ing it a “waste of and time" CONTRIBUTE) PHOTO One reason for the Actor Sean Maguire. movie s success dally could be simply because of the success of the movie it mocks. 300 was released last year and fea tured much of the same plot. It instantly became a classic amongst young adults and teens, spawning some of the most oft-repeated lines since Will Ferrell's Anchorman. 300 dragged in $2lO million in the box office during its release in theatres, and found success with younger viewers. While Meet the Spartans was met with gener al disgust by its viewers, it signals perhaps a more important trend: the spoof movie will not be going away any time soon. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, insists that "Fox has really locked on to something that's extremely popular." While this may be true, viewers can only hope that the next spoof movie that comes out has not only substance, but quality. show, however, came not from the award recipi ents, but from the show itself. The ratings for the show were up from last year, the highest since its move to cable in 1998, and an estimated 6.1 mil lion people watched it. However, many predic tions had the SAG awards reaching more success with viewers, but it did not even compare to the Acadamy Awards' success last year, which was watched by almost 40 million people. By contrast, American Idol reached almost 30 million viewers on Tuesday, and another 28 mil lion on Wednesday. The writers' strike posed many difficulties to award shows this month, but granted the SAG awards the right to hold their award show without having to cross picket lines in return for support. It appears that even with the writers' strike going on, the SAG is going to need to try even harder than their glitsy 2008 showing to pull viewers from other programs. The Oscars and the Acadamy awards still dominate in ratings. Daniel Day-Lewis dedicated his SGA award to Heath Ledger, days after the actor’s tragic death. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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