Wolverine leaks a torrential downpour
Wolverine's mad 'cause you pirated his movie
Wolverine has escaped from 20th Century Fox's secret labs and is rampaging across bit-torrent sites. The bootleg of the film, a spin-off from the blockbuster X-Men comic book franchise, may be missing the score and many special effects, but it's available a month before the premier, in near-DVD quality, without watermarks or a time code.
Reports claim that it's an early workprint, at least 10 minutes shorter than the release, and that action sequences may be "less gory" than in the final version.
“No Syfy” campaign launched
The backlash against NBC-Universals rebranding of "Sci Fi" has opened a new front: LA-based graphic designer Aaron Harvey has started up a "No Syfy" website and Facebook group.
In a parody of Syfy's meaningless new tagline "Imagine Greater" Harvey calls on NBCU to "Imagine Better" and declares,
Instead of making inane branding changes that you say were approved by fans, why not address the quality of the channel, the addition of wrestling and ghost hunting, the dearth of real science fiction programming? Programming that would make you money.
Amusingly, NBC-U may have anticipated some of the blowback, as it appears they registered "SyfySucks.com" on January 30, via Corporation Services Company— which also holds registration for Syfy.com. Stupidly, however, they failed to lock down "Syfy.org" or "Syfy.net"— both of which are currently generic landing pages.
RIP SCI FI; WTF IS SYFY?
Rebranding of Sci Fi Channel to "Syfy" shows the channel is bereft of imagination.
A bunch of mindless jerks
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes"
Apparently, the same can now be said of the marketing bozos at the channel-soon-to-be-formerly-named-SCI-FI (or is it "Sci Fi" or "SciFi"?) See, some branding genius (London's Landor Associates) Michael Engleman, hired last year by NBC-Universal was convinced that the term "Sci Fi" had a bad connotation: it bespoke of complicated stuff, like science... and um, fiction. And people who liked that kinda thing were frankly undesirable.
So said one of the Sci Fi Channel's founder (and now "TV historian") Tim Brooks:
The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.
(Because, of course, you can't build a channel identity on that sort of thing!)
See, the problem—contrary to critics—wasn't that the shows they broadcast sucked, or that there weren't enough compelling reasons to watch the channel, it's that the network name wasn't cool enough.
Solution? A new name!
George Clooney’s new girl: game show contestant Stephanie Katie Moeser
For the last couple of days, I'd been noticing a strange trend-- a sudden rush of searches for my over a year old posting about one "Katie Moeser" formerly a contestant on FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics.
I got some flack for hinting that she wasn't entirely genuine about her background. Turns out my ruminations on her past were not only on the mark, but the tip of the Moeser-iceberg. So in the interests of, well, vindication, here's the scoop.
See, the adorable Miss Kate-- or is it Stephanie?-- has recently been seen in the sushi-eating company of one George Clooney. TMZ did a bit of digging and discovered that lil' Katie has been a serial-game-show-goer:
“George Clooney may have finally met a bigger player than himself -- 'cause it seems his new lady friend is a semi-professional game show contestant.
We figured out Clooney's sushi date from last weekend is either named Katie, Kate or Stephanie Moeser -- depending on which of the four different game shows she's been on.
Whats-her-name was on "Hollywood Squares" in late '03/early '04, "The Price is Right" in '06, "Trivial Pursuit" in '08 and "Don't Forget the Lyrics" in '07 -- where she won $350,000, despite having an ear-shattering singing voice.”
