Behind The Approval Matrix

Double-Issue

2008-09-02T11:59:00.003-04:00

It appears that last week's issue was actually a double-issue! It wasn't written on the cover of the magazine, but there isn't a new Approval Matrix on New York Magazine's website, and the website has the same cover from last week's magazine posted.

No New Approval Matrix this Week : (

2008-08-25T08:23:00.005-04:00

It appears that once again, there is no Approval Matrix in this week's New York Magazine Fall Preview issue; however, it doesn't appear to be a double-issue, so we should be back next Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday, with a new Approval Matrix.

Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky vs. ANTM's Bianca Golden

2008-08-24T11:17:00.003-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky and her father were arrested on assault charges following a brawl involving the family of America's Next Top Model contestant Bianca Golden in a Caribbean airport, police said Friday.

The 19-year-old actress was released on bail, while her father, Carl Blonsky, remained in jail. Golden was also arrested and released on bail. Golden's mother Elaine was reportedly hospitalized with serious injuries.

"Things got out of hand in an argument over seats in the departure lounge, and several people were involved in an altercation," a police source tells PEOPLE. "There were some injuries involved."

Nikki Blonsky was charged with assault with actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of two years, and common assault, also known as threat of assault, with a 90-day maximum term.

Her father Carl was charged with grevious bodily harm, meaning the victim was injured so severely they needed immediate medical care. The charge carries a five-year maximum sentence. Carl will remain in jail for nine days until a hearing is set on his bail, police say.

Bianca Golden was charged with assault with actual bodily harm.
-- People

"Swing Vote"

2008-08-24T11:07:00.002-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Synopsis: Kevin Costner stars as Bud Johnson, an apathetic, beer slinging, lovable loser, who is coasting through a life that has passed him by, except for the one bright spot in his mundane existence, his precocious, over achieving twelve-year old daughter, Molly. She takes care of them both, until one mischievous moment on Election Day, when she accidentally sets off a chain of events which culminates in the presidential election coming down to one vote, her dads.

Suddenly, Bud Johnson, the nobody, becomes the voice for everybody when the world realizes that his vote will be the one that elects the next president. Politicians invade the small town of Texico, New Mexico and its unwitting inhabitants, waging war for Bud's vote.

-- NMFilm

TRAILER

Rachael Ray is the World's Top-Earning Chef

2008-08-23T06:10:00.002-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

She began winning audiences with catch phrases like "EVOO" (for extra-virgin olive oil) on her first Food Network show, 30 Minute Meals, in 2001. Today, she has four Food Network programs, including Tasty Travels and $40 a Day. Her nationally syndicated, Oprah-backed talk show, Rachael Ray, is averaging 2.6 million viewers this season, and her Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine has 1.5 million readers. She endorses Dunkin' Donuts too--all to the tune of $18 million a year. -- Forbes

2. Wolfgang Puck - $16 million
3. Gordon Ramsay- $7.5 million
4. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa - $5 million
5. Alain Ducasse - $5 million
6. Paula Deen - $4.5 million
7. Mario Batali - $3 million
8. Tom Colicchio - $2 million
9. Bobby Flay - $1.5 million
10. Anthony Bourdain - $1.5 million

"Disaster Movie" Trailer

2008-08-23T05:59:00.001-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Spanish Basketball Team's "Oriental Expression"

2008-08-23T02:15:00.003-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

In response to media outrage over the Spanish national basketball team making a slit-eyed gesture in a recent newspaper advertisement, the team's point guard, Jose Calderon, who plays for the Toronto Raptors professionally, issued a statement on his personal website.
-- Huffington Post

British Cinemas Banning Popcorn

2008-08-22T11:22:00.002-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

A combination of health-conscious cinemagoers rejecting sugar-coated popcorn and disgust at its distinctive smell is steadily spelling "The End" for the snack in some arthouse cinema chains, the Observer reported.

It quoted Daniel Broch, the owner of the renowned Everyman cinema in London's upmarket Hampstead district, who recently bought 17 more venues.

"I will de-popcorn every new venue I acquire," he said. "It has a disproportionate influence on the space in terms of its overwhelming smell, the cultural idea of it and the operational problems created by the mess it produces.

The Picturehouse Cinema, a chain of 19 cinemas across Britain, will experiment with popcorn-free screenings in September.

But other cinemas which tried to go popcorn-free found customers demanded it.

"Audiences in three venues... began asking for popcorn, so we provided it," said Richard Napper, the marketing director of the Curzon chain. --Yahoo! News

Clue Gets A Makeover

2008-08-22T11:14:00.005-04:00

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

The much-beloved murder mystery game Clue is getting a makeover. It's been on the shelves for 60 years, but game maker Hasbro has redesigned the game for a modern audience.

...the new game takes place at a modern mansion — at a party of the rich and famous.

The weapons have changed, the characters have bios and the mansion has new rooms, like a spa, a theater and a guesthouse. And the company added an element of suspense with a second deck of cards.
The new game has nine weapons instead of six. There is no more lead pipe, and the revolver is now a pistol. The company also added a trophy, an ax and a baseball bat.

The characters have changed, too. Miss Scarlet has a first name: Cassandra. Colonel Mustard left the military; he's a former football star. Victor Plum, formerly the professor who was always known as the smartest man in the room, became recast as a self-made video game designer — a dot-com billionaire.
-- NPR

Kenny Shopsin's "Eat Me"

2008-08-22T11:01:00.003-04:00

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kenny Shopsin hates publicity the way a magnet must hate metal filings. With a documentary, a New Yorker profile and several New York Times articles clinging to him, this supposedly reluctant restaurateur now adds to his own troubles by releasing a totally hilarious and surprisingly touching treatise on cooking, customer loyalty and family bonds. As his brood grew to include five kids, his Manhattan eatery shrunk in size, yet maintained its idiosyncratic 900-item menu (reproduced here in a 12-page spread). Recipes for more than 100 of the offerings are presented, including Mac n Cheese Pancakes and Blisters on My Sisters (sunny-side-up eggs placed atop tortillas and a rice and bean concoction). But the real treat is Shopsin's salty philosophizing. Sure, pancakes are tasty, but he reminds us that, They are flour and milk drowned in butter and some form of sugar. They're crap. And the customer is always wrong until they show me they are worth cultivating as customers. Two such well-cultivated customers were the writer Calvin Trillin and his wife, Alice. They pop up throughout the book, providing not only happy reminiscences, but a roux of poignancy as both Shopsin and Trillin become widowers, bonded together over the love of a decent meal, quickly rendered.
-- Amazon

Colbert's American Towns Named "Canton" Bit

2008-08-21T06:05:00.000-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Dealbreaker's Guide to Georgia vs. Russia

2008-08-21T06:01:00.000-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Here's part 1, and 2 of Dealbreaker's Q&A on WTF Is Going on with Russia And Georgia.

Mary Louise Parker in "Hedda Gabler"

2008-08-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Product Description

"Hedda Gabler" is one of Henrik Ibsen's greatest dramas. It is the story of its title character, Hedda, a self-centered manipulative woman who has grown tired of her marriage. To escape her boredom she begins to meddle in the lives of others with truly tragic results. Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" is a monumental achievement in dramatic tragedy. -- Amazon

Synopsis

In 1890, Henrik Ibsen premiered Hedda Gabler, a play questioning the role of women in Victorian society. Some audiences have viewed Gabler as a woman driven to desperation simply because her world has turned out to be less charmed than she hoped. For others, she is a victim of her times, unwilling to devote herself, as was expected of her, to the duties of home. Jon Robin Baitz has brushed away the cobwebs, and he serves as an ambassador from Ibsen's age to our own, preserving the intensity of the original but translating it into a spare, contemporary idiom. His adaptation provides an opportunity to understand the play through a lens shaped by feminism and a theatrical tradition beginning with Beckett. Trapped by the conventions of her age, Gabler is both a martyr and a female incarnation of Vladimir and Estragon, longing for a salvation that will likely never arrive. -- B&N

...stunning...amazingly contemporary in its considerations of the purpose of life, of the preservation of dignity and integrity...the big issues people don't dare to think about. And here is a staging that does not turn away... -- New York Times

Spiegelworld Returns to South Street Seaport

2008-08-21T05:59:00.001-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Impresario Ross Mollison announced today [July 3, 2008] that Spiegelworld 2008 will return to the South Street Seaport, Pier 17, for its third annual summer carnival, running August 6 to November 2, 2008. Once again, Spiegelworld will deliver a non-stop program of ground-breaking shows, intimate concerts, brazen burlesque, the city's top DJs and superb dining, all at one stunning location.

Mr. Mollison also announced that this year's Spiegelworld New York will present the world premiere of Désir, a daring new theatrical circus experience.

"Never before has such a lavish production been created for a Spiegeltent," Mr. Mollison said. "We have assembled the most beautiful aerial and acrobatic acts from around the world, some of which have never been seen before in such an intimate performance space."

Inspired by the sexual, intellectual and artistic adventurers of early 20th century Paris, Désir will take audiences backstage at the greatest nightclub the world has known.

Absinthe, the number one NYC summer event since 2006, will again take New York by storm with a brand new line up of talent from the seediest and sexiest cabaret dens of the world.

Spiegelworld 2008 will also feature the filthy-rich host of Absinthe, The Gazillionaire, in the premiere of his very own fully-staged variety show of questionable entertainment: The Gazillionaire's Late Nite Lounge, playing six nights a week in The Deluxe, with his band Fish Circus. -- Broadway World

China: Humiliation & the Olympics By Orville Schellcan

2008-08-20T10:31:00.002-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

The entire essay, China: Humiliation & the Olympics By Orville Schellcan, can be read here.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Coming to Soho

2008-08-20T10:24:00.003-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

(Photograph of Billy Joel and Mayor Bloomberg by Seth Wenig/AP)

By Billy Parker\Gothamist

Alongside Billy Joel and record exec Clive Davis, Mayor Bloomberg announced today that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will open its first annex in Soho. The 25,000 square-foot annex will open at 76 Mercer Street where for $26, music fans can see Bruce Springsteen's first car and the phone booth from CBGB's. Both were on display as Bloomberg made the announcement today.

he NYC branch will feature an "immersive theater," items from the Cleveland museum, and an exhibit called "New York Rocks" which will map NYC locations with musical significance and offer items like Billy Joel's notebook with lyrics for "The Stranger."

"We Are Together: The Children of Agape Choir" on HBO

2008-08-20T09:51:00.001-04:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

For Slindile Moya and other children living at the Agape Child Care Center in South Africa, music is a touchstone that brings them comfort and joy in times of happiness and loss. This documentary reveals the poignant story of this 12-year-old girl, her siblings and other residents of an orphanage for children who have lost their parents--mostly to AIDS. Shot over three years, the film focuses on Slindile's family and other residents who are members of the choir as they rehearse for a CD and a possible trip abroad to raise much-needed funds to expand the orphanage. --HBO

TRAILER

Invisibility Cloak

2008-08-19T05:04:00.003-04:00

2nd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley said Monday they were a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible to the human eye.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

"We are excited because this is a building block for the future," said researcher Guy Bartal. However, he added that developing an invisibility cloak is "a very big challenge" and "will take a lot of energy and time."

Speaking at a news conference at Etcheverry Hall on campus, Bartal and other researchers said the development of an invisibility cloak, a popular subject in science fiction and Harry Potter novels, is probably still years away.

But the new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
-- CBS5

"I'm Being Filmed by a Web Documentarian"

2008-08-19T05:03:00.000-04:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Random House Pulls Novel About Muhammed's [PBUH] Wife [AS]

2008-08-19T04:27:00.003-04:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Edith Honan\Reuters

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's [PBUH] child bride [AS], fearing it could "incite acts of violence."

"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The novel traces the life of A'isha [AS] from her engagement to Mohammed [PBUH], when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely.

Random House deputy publisher Thomas Perry said in a statement the company received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

7-Year-Old Fired for Being Ugly

2008-08-18T10:31:00.003-04:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

(GETTY/AFP composite image, with still grab from Chinese TV / August 12, 2008)

One little girl had the looks. The other had the voice.

So in a last-minute move demanded by one of China's highest officials, the two were put together for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, with one lip-synching "Ode to the Motherland" over the other's singing.

The real singer, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn't good looking enough for the ceremony, its chief music director told state-owned Beijing Radio.

So the pigtailed Lin Miaoke, a veteran of television ads, mouthed the words with a pixie smile for a stadium of 91,000 and a worldwide TV audience. "I felt so beautiful in my red dress," the tiny 9-year-old told the China Daily newspaper.

Peiyi later told China Central Television that just having her voice used was an honor.
-- ESPN

Paul McCarthy's Dog Crap Sculpture Blows Away

2008-08-18T10:22:00.002-04:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Richard Chang\OC Register

A giant, inflatable dog poop created by Los Angeles artist Paul McCarthy got carried away in the wind, brought down a power line and smashed a window of a children’s home in Berne, Switzerland.

The dog turd was part of an exhibition titled “East of Eden: A Garden Show” at the Paul Klee Centre (also known as the Zentrum Paul Klee). McCarthy’s piece was called “Complex Sh*t,” and is the size of a house. It reportedly had a safety system that was supposed to deflate the turd in bad weather, but the system didn’t work when a sudden gust carred it from its moorings and deposited it, after it wreaked some serious havoc, 200 meters away on the grounds of the children’s home.

McCarthy is a well-known performance and conceptual artist. He has taught art at UCLA since 1982. He’s known for debunking the myth of the heroic artist and for conducting some weird performance pieces with ketchup, blood and feces.

Michel Houellebecq's "The Possibility of an Island" Adaptation

2008-08-18T09:53:00.004-04:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Gwladys Fouché\The Guardian

It was the hottest question in French cinema: how would the enfant terrible of Gallic letters fare at adapting his own novel for the big screen? The answer: not at all well.

Michel Houellebecq was determined to film his novel The Possibility of an Island [La Possibilité d’une île ], the parallel story of a stand-up comedian joining a cult and his clone several generations in the future.

He is said to have switched publishers because the move would offer better guarantees he could direct the adaptation himself.

The Possibility of an Island was slaughtered when it premiered at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland at the weekend, with the author apparently playing hide-and-seek with reporters to avoid further embarrassment.

The premiere "turned into a farce," chuckled French daily Le Figaro, describing how critics sneered and laughed before voting with their feet and leaving the cinema. Outside, they hailed the movie "catastrophic", "ridiculous", and damned it as indulging into "bargain-bin philosophising"

Swiss newspaper Le Temps retitled the movie The Possibility of a Shipwreck. Early previews held in Paris were similarly harsh, spreading the word that The Possibility of an Island was the "dud of the season".

2008-08-18T06:19:00.000-04:00

The Approval Matrix: Week of August 25, 2008

Charlie Sheen Paid $825,000 Per Episode

2008-08-17T10:39:00.003-04:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Charlie Sheen, who plays a wealthy, womanizing bachelor on the top-rated sitcom "Two and a Half Men," made more than any other TV actor this year with earnings of $825,000 per episode, including money from his ownership rights in the show.

At the rate of 23 episodes per year, the typical number of shows broadcast each season for a comedy like "Two and a Half Men," Sheen would be pocketing just under $20 million a year for a role that also earned him three Emmy nominations.

Trailing Sheen in the No. 2 spot on TV Guide's list is fellow CBS star William Petersen, who takes home $600,000 an episode for portraying investigator Gil Grissom on the hit police drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." -- Reuters