After the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began its strike against Hollywood studios Monday, production ceased on TV shows such as Two and a Half Men, Back to You and The Office, and hundreds of crew and cast members from those series began receiving layoff notices.
Other shows ending include Til Death, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Rules of Engagement and The Big Bang Theory.
Other shows have enough new episodes produced in advance to last a few more weeks without repeats, leaving viewers largely unaware of the strike fallout for the time being.
Nightly talk shows that rely on a steady stream of topical jokes and skits were the first to be affected. At least eight such programs, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, were forced into reruns the first day of the strike.
The strike began when the two sides failed to reach a deal on writers' demands for a greater share of revenues from the Internet.
On a happier Hollywood note, French architect Christian de Portzamparc has been chosen to design the world's largest and most ambitious museum dedicated to the history of film and the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said yesterday.
Sid Ganis, the president of the group that annually hands out the Oscars, says he hopes to see ground broken on the 3.24 hectare site in 2009 and have the museum completed by 2012.
But there are a few problems, readily admitted, by Ganis and de Portzamparc: the museum still has to be designed and a budget still has to be arranged.
On the East coast, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will appear in the film version of Sex and the City, due for release next year, his spokesman said.
Bloomberg, appearing as himself, filmed the cameo appearance earlier this week in New York, his spokesman said, revealing only that "the mayor was playing himself and doing the kind of things that mayors do."
Bloomberg follows in the footsteps of former mayors Ed Koch and Rudolph Giuliani who appeared as themselves in the sitcom in 2001 and 2004 respectively.
Borat, the fictional Kazakh reporter who caused a diplomatic stir with his moviemaking adventures in the US, is back with Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of US and A and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Borat Sagdiyev, a clueless and offensive journalist created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, made television and movie audiences laugh and cringe but angered the government of Kazakhstan for portraying the former Soviet country as misogynistic, anti-Semitic and backward.
Earlier this week, he said that he preferred Kazakhstan to the US and encouraged everyone to "look on my guidings book and then come visit. Bring your whole family and stay at Astana Funworld Resort - it have beautiful beaches, almost totally free of land mines and the sea is guarantee to have no jellyfish, shark, or any other marine life."
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
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