Actor John Cusack took a turn guest-blogging at BoingBoing today with some fun results. Channeling his inner Hunter S. Thompson, Cusack unleashed one of the better anti-Ronald Reagan rants we’ve read in quite some time, and pulled this bizarre video from the 1985-86 Superbowl.

Cusack’s thoughts:

As you can see in this video now, watching the performance was like diving into an ocean of bad fashion and forced smiles. Dr. Pepper dancing and Mom Jeans from shore to shore… pre-Prozac in motion…. military ballet… Mandatory cheers and quasi-religious cult patriotics… the glory of the empire. A choreographed tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. A celebration of diversity, unity, and fluorescent leggings.

Meanwhile, Reagan was dumping all the mentally ill and vets out on the streets to die, as a direct result of his policies.

Interesting story from Dave Maass of the San Diego CityBeat about the consequences of drunk, racist, violent Internet trolling.

Blood was boiling in late October 2008 as Election Day neared. The corpse of a bear cub, draped with Obama campaign posters, was left at a university in North Carolina. A mannequin dressed like vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was hung by a noose in a Halloween display in Los Angeles. And from his home computer in La Mesa, Bagdasarian was causing trouble on a Yahoo! Finance message board in the middle of the night.

“fk the niggar, he will have a 50 cal in the head soon,” Bagdasarian typed after midnight on Oct. 22 in a thread titled “Obama” on the website’s section for the recently bailed-out insurance mega-corporation AIG.

Twenty minutes later, Bagdasarian added: “shoot the nig…the country fkd for another 4 years+, what nig has done ANYTHING right???? Long term??? Never in history except sambos.”

Read more

Amidst wild speculation about the future of the trade pub, The Hollywood Reporter has sacked its publisher Eric Mika.

Nikke Finke has the story:

E5 Global Media CEO Richard Beckman just informed the staff about Eric
Mika’s exit. It’s hardly unexpected. Ever since Beckman was hired in
January, he has been telling people outside the trade — but, deliberately, not the staff — that he plans massive firings at The Hollywood Reporter because the company plans to abandon the traditional trade format and formula. Instead it will become a small online showbiz news aggregator, and a glossy magazine, and a cable TV programmer which all depend on whether The Hollywood Reporter brand itself is marketable. On the other hand, there is a real possibility that the new owners may just flip the property or take on outside partners instead of exploit it themselves. So the future of The Hollywood Reporter as we all knew it remains a big question mark right now.

Marketplace’s Gregory Warner probably offered more context than any other story on health care reform in a six minute radio segment than we’ve seen or heard all year. Yes, This American Life did a two part series on health care – but that wasn’t six minutes. Anyway, the story is fantastic and starts around minute 22 in the broadcast.

Frank Coffey sends us this gem from eTrueSports:

First Annual Jamie Fund Announced by Dodgers

Jimmy Choo Shoes Rushes To Donate

Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce today announced the formation of THE JAMIE FUND to help raise cash or checks for current/former/future Dodger co-owner Jamie McCourt who is currently “down on her luck” according to Fund officials.

Immediate needs for Mrs. McCourt include $25,000 monthly for spa treatments, $2,500 for weekly pedicures, and $10,000 for daily household expenses, including shopping trips to Rodeo Drive.

“Rest very assured that all funds raised will go directly to Jamie McCourt,” said a lawyer for the beleaguered McCourt who requested anonymity to avoid unwanted late night phone calls from his voluble client.

“Jamie is being more than reasonable. She is just asking that her basic living needs be cared for.”

Whole piece is here.

Times-Picayune reports:

David Mills, a staff writer and co-executive producer of the upcoming HBO drama “Treme,” died of a brain aneurysm Tuesday in New Orleans, an HBO spokesman confirmed Wednesday morning.

A former newspaper feature writer, Mills went on to write for some of the finest TV dramas of the era, including “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER” and “The Wire.”

Mills was 49 years old.

Wow, what a loss.

Alan Sepinwall the TV critic for The Star-Ledger, remembers his friend on his blog.

Photo credit The Times-Picayune Archive

We at FBLA felt was time to personally investigate the cultural phenomenon that is Chatroulette. And now we have, and we feel dirty.

Ricky Martin came out on his website a couple days ago, surprising exactly no one. He should have done this years ago, back when it would have been interesting. In this post-Ellen world, being lied to by blatantly queer but closeted celebrities gets boring real fast.

BBC News reports on speculation about the timing of Martin’s revelation:

Public relations expert Mark Borkowski said he suspected Martin might have been prompted to make his announcement to pre-empt a tabloid story on his private life.

“My suspicion is it needed to get out there quickly,” he told the BBC News website, pointing to Martin’s use of the instant messaging service Twitter.