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”
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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