Maria Menounos gets two new jobs

2011-07-03T23:46:00.001+05:00

Entertainment Tonight correspondent Maria Menounos, who was named one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2004, is ditching the syndicated newsmagazine show for new jobs on Access Hollywood and The Today Show.

The 27-year-old reporter and actress will act as a West Coast contributor for Today and as a special correspondent for Access Hollywood. The tabloid-style celebrity news show is a direct competitor to Entertainment Tonight.

"I'm so thrilled to be part of the NBC

family," stated Menounos. "To be working at such a cutting-edge show like Access, and have the opportunity to be a part of the number one morning news program on television is so exciting."

While rumors have suggested that Menounos was pushed out of her job on Entertainment Tonight, sources say that Access Hollywood wooed her away from its rival with a more lucrative contract.

Executive producer Rob Silverstein says, "We've always been huge fans of Maria and believe she has the skills, attitude, and style that fits Access Hollywood perfectly."

Menounos has also worked as an international correspondent for Channel One News, which is broadcast in high school classrooms, and has appeared on The WB's One Tree Hill and in this summer's action film The Fantastic Four.

Idiocracy starring Luke Wilson, directed by Mike Judge

2011-05-20T13:23:00.000+05:00

Every once in a while, a really smart movie comes along that shows you just how stupid modern society is by shoving it in your face. "Idiocracy" is precisely such a film. Filled with purposeful profanity (it actually drives the storyline) and brilliant parody, Idiocracy manages to cough up nearly 90 minutes of hilarious commentary on just how stupid modern society has become today.

The storyline is simple: A career military desk jockey of average intelligence is cocooned in an experimental hibernation machine for 500 years. (By accident, of course. It's the military we're talking about here.) When he awakens, he finds himself in a world populated and run by complete idiots -- the result of 500 years of reverse natural selection, where the stupid people fornicate the most, and the smart people stop having children. (Sound familiar, anyone?) The result of it all? A tabloid quality, corporate-controlled world of idiotconsumerswhose thought processes are limited to the three-word phrases pounded into their heads by relentlessadvertisingcampaigns. Phrases like, "Money is good" or "Plants needelectrolytes."

What's so great about Idiocracy is not merely how funny it is, but rather howaccurateit is at constructing a future society extrapolated from the real trends of modern-dayAmerica. Today, for example, corporations have taken over control of the Food and Drug Administration. In Idiocracy, asportsdrink company simply BUYS the FDA and replaced the entire Food Guide Pyramid with sports drink ads.

Water is no longer consumed at all in the Idiocracy world -- consumers have been taught thatwateris only for toilets -- and sports drink liquid is used to water the crops (which are mysteriously dying). This is much like modern medicine today, where doctors, sunscreen manufacturers and even the American Cancer Society insists that sunlight is bad for yourhealth, and that what you really need are expensive prescriptionmedicationsto solve your health problems. Or they think that "Restless Legs Syndrome" is some mysterious musculo-chemical disorder rather than simply a deficiency in dietary magnesium.

But the best part about Idiocracy is the creative use of language. It's loaded with profanity, but it's not gratuitous profanity. It actually has a purpose: it describes the linguistic framework into which all communication and thought processes have devolved. The most popular TV show, for example, is on the "Violence Channel" and called, "Ow! My Balls!" (Think YouTube.com with five hundred years of juvenile videos.) Fast foodproductsare named, "Big Ass Fries!" and the court system operates as a name-calling contest where people are deemed guilty because they, "talk like fags" by using intelligent-sounding words.

This is actually not that far from the state of affairs today in the United States. Political elections are won on rehearsed sound bites and acting skills, TV news has devolved into a violence-dominated ratings game hosted by supermodels with surgically-enhanced lips, and the population is so drugged up onmedicationthat they can't think straight, drive straight or even vote straight. In fact, I think Idiocracy is overly optimistic about the future of western culture: I think it will only take a hundred years, not five hundred, to reach the level of widespread stupidity depicted in the film. Sometimes I think we're half-way there already.

Consider this: In the movie, words used in signage or advertising are spelled using precisely the same spelling found on the internet today in chat rooms, bulletin boards and gaming sites. And the zombie-likeconsumerismdepicted in Idiocracy is only a slight exaggeration of the behavior of consumers today who actually guzzle down gallons of Gatorade,thinkingit's good for them because it contains "electrolytes." (Gatoradeis mostly just salt water with artificial coloring additives). Sports drink? Guess again.

In fact, all you have to do is walk into any Wal-Greensstoreand you get a full preview of the world shown in Idiocracy: In my opinion, the products are junk, most of thefoodis loaded with harmful additives and the medications are anchored at the back of the store to encourage consumers to buy more candy bars and soda while they pick up their medications for diabetes and heart disease. Wal-Greens is so much like the world of Idiocracy that they should have sponsored the whole film.

I also appreciate the in-your-face style of Mike Judge (also the creator ofOffice Space) who pulls no punches in showing the future Starbucks as a place where you can get a latte AND a hand job for one low price. Fuddruckers becomes Buttf****rs, and hospitals are run by idiot staffers who punch large icon buttons that visually depict whatever health emergency the patient seems to be having at the moment. This has actually been put in place atfast foodrestaurants in modern times, where employees punch the icons of food items rather than keying in prices (because most of today's youth are too mathematically inept to handlemoneyanyway, utterly lacking the ability to count back fifty-six cents in change, for example, or even calculate a ten percent discount in their heads).

What really struck me about Idiocracy, though, is how familiar the main character's observations are to me personally. When I walk around certain areas of a U.S. city today, such as a Blockbustervideorental store, I often feel just like the main (smart) character strolling through the idiot future world shown in the movie. I don't claim to be genetically gifted with massiveintelligence, but I do follow excellent nutritional practices, I take no medications or drugs, and I watch notelevision. As a result, I often find myself surrounded by people of such low functional intelligence that they seem like characters ripped right out of the movie. (And I'm not talking about retarded people or mentally handicapped individuals. I'm talking about people who SHOULD be smarter, but aren't.)

So who's stupid in society today? People who buy the $29 warranty plan on a $150 DVD player at Best Buy. People who buy the car rentalinsurancecoverage at $10 / day even though they already have insurance. People who habitually play the state lottery and characterize it as an "investment plan." People who have a $50 deductible on theircarinsurance because they can't afford more than $50 out of pocket if there's an accident. People who think vitamins are too expensive but pharmaceuticals are a bargain because they get a 10 percent discount on some hare-brained Medicare plan. People who spend more on their credit cards to get more "miles" or "cash rewards," not realizing that the interest they pay on those cards far outweighs any such benefits. People who refinance their homes to pay theircredit card debt, and then rack up newcredit carddebt, thinking theirhomeis some kind of limitless cash-dispensing ATM machine. The fact is, most people just don't have the IQ to handle living inmodern society, at least not when there are financial decisions that need to be made.

So thumbs up to Mike Judge for showing us the way our world really is by depicting a future world that might actually come to pass. You may or may not find the movie funny, depending on your tolerance for ass jokes, but if you can get past the toilethumorand see the real message about how stupid modern society really is, you'll probably laugh your head off.

The acting is great (especially Terry Crews, who gives an energetic and appropriately outrageous performance as President), the CG work is outstanding (the indoors shots of Costco are mind-blowing), and the script is smart and tight. Idiocracy is at least as much fun asOffice Space, but with a far more ambitious message. It's not a movie for everyone, but critical thinkers who also have a sense of humor will absolutely love it.

A Salute to Smokin' Lady Assassins

2011-05-20T11:13:00.000+05:00

hollywood

Maria Menounos gets two new jobs

Idiocracy starring Luke Wilson, directed by Mike Judge

A Salute to Smokin' Lady Assassins