A day after Billy Bob Thornton said Canadian audiences were like mashed potatoes without gravy, the actor professed his love for the Great White North.
“I love Canada, absolutely,” said the 53-year-old actor.
Thornton talked quickly to reporters on Thursday night before a performance with his band, the Boxmasters, in Toronto, Ontario. The group was opening for Willie Nelson.
The proclamation was a sharp contrast to comments Thornton made on Wednesday of last week when he was an uncooperative guest on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Q radio program.
During that appearance, the Oscar-winning star of Sling Blade sparred back and forth with host Jian Ghomeshi and found time to insult Canadian crowds.
Thornton, who was interviewed alongside his Boxmasters bandmates, took issue with Ghomeshi’s introduction, which included references to the star’s career as a Hollywood actor, director and screenwriter.
For much of the interview, Thornton refused to answer any of Ghomeshi’s questions directly, instead mumbling “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” or some variation thereof in response to most questions.
Thornton said Ghomeshi’s producers had been instructed ahead of time not to talk about his film career at all.
Thornton mainly seemed sensitive to any comment that implied that his band which he described as “cosmic cowboy music” was not his full-time passion.
When pressed for details on his musical influences, Thornton elliptically provided a non sequitur about a magazine he subscribed to called Famous Monsters of Filmland and a model-building contest he once entered.
The actor’s belligerent appearance on the show has already become a veritable viral sensation. More than 1.2 million viewers have watched the clip on YouTube.
From cosmic music to exploring the cosmos, NASA’s sense of humor is being put to the test. The US space agency is facing a serious dilemma after a popular television comedian, Stephen Colbert, hijacked an online contest sponsored by NASA to pick a name for a new module on the International Space Station.
Colbert’s suggestion for a name? His own.
His victory may have had something to do with his repeated appeals to fans of his show, The Colbert Report, to vote for him.
With the help of his fans — called the “Colbert Nation” — the comedian’s name easily won the online poll at nasa.gov, rocketing past NASA suggestions “Earthrise,” “Legacy,” “Serenity” and “Venture.”
NASA announced on Friday that astronaut Sunita Williams will unveil the name tomorrow on Colbert’s television show.
The space agency declined to reveal the name until the show and is not obliged to bow to popular demand. The contest rules state that while NASA will take into consideration the results of the voting they are not binding.
Voting online is also a way for people to choose their favorite Simpsons character. The US post office wants folks to vote early and often among the five new stamps honoring the nation’s funniest dysfunctional cartoon family.
The Simpsons stamps will be issued May 7, portraying Homer, his wife, Marge, their son Bart, daughter Lisa and baby Maggie.
The characters, created by cartoonist Matt Groening, have become pop culture icons in 20 years on television.
The US$0.44 stamps are on display at www.usps.com/simpsons and votes can be cast at that site until May 14.
American singer and actress Jennifer Lopez has won a cybersquatting case against a US Web operator who registered two Internet addresses that used her name for commercial profit, a UN agency said on Thursday.
The disputed domain names, jenniferlopez.net and jenniferlopez.org, directed users to a Web site that generated paid advertising revenues, according to the ruling issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
An independent arbitrator ordered the domain names transferred within 10 days to the Jennifer Lopez Foundation, which filed the complaint. The charitable foundation promotes better access to healthcare for women and children.
The Grammy-nominated singer, widely known as J.Lo, joins other celebrities in ousting cybersquatters through the dispute procedure, including Pierce Brosnan, Tom Cruise, Celine Dion, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Madonna and Julia Roberts.
Lopez registered her name as a trademark in the US in May 1999.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist