Seth Macfarlane

Seth Macfarlane: Alex Seth & Almost Live Comedy Show was a nice little half odd hours in between episodes of Family Guy Seth MacFarlane’s. Working with Alex Borstein, who voices Lois Griffin MacFarlane out in a nightclub, which included an orchestra and an audience.

MacFarlane has a good singing voice and is very skillful in how they can switch in and out of character voices such as Peter and Stewie Griffin. This had the effect of softening some of his trademark eccentricities. He sang a bit of “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music, and while Borstein acted as if she, being Jewish, was offended by the choice, I was impressed by how well they sang MacFarlane.

A joke too long in which mocked Borstein voice speaking Marlee Matlin was also paid much less than a scandal that Matlin was allowed to leave the stage and rip into the hosts.

Another segment featured unequal “discarded screen tests”, as Bea Arthur imagined hearing for Kathy Griffin Showgirls and testing for the piano. Borstein weakly tried both imitations. MacFarlane, moreover, did a great Ed Wynn-Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.

Hedge their bets against viewers who can not stay for 30 minutes of live action making bad jokes or just beeped, MacFarlane including some Family Guy clips and cartoons, such as Stewie have to advertise for Sherlock Holmes and the Ninja Assassin . (Warner Bros. Pictures as the advertiser only intervened after Microsoft weaselled of their commitment.)
Source: watching-tv.ew.com

Curry Glassell

Latest news Updated, Curry Glassell:A dozen top-flight Texas lawyers are polishing their courtroom armor for a high-stakes battle set to begin next week over the division of a half-billion-dollar estate and how much of it will gild the Houston art scene.
The daughter of oil pioneer and cultural philanthropist Alfred C. Glassell Jr. is contesting his most recent of nine wills, claiming lawyers coerced him into shrinking her share of theestate and bequeathing it to charity.

Glassell died at age 95 in October 2008. He was a founder of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. and the Glassell School of Art. He left behind an enormous estate worth around $500 million that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in stocks and bonds, millions more in oil leases, thousands of acres in ranches, pre-Columbian and Indonesian art treasures, and a $5.8 million home near the River Oaks Country Club.

Lawyers haggled in court Wednesday in preparation for a jury trial scheduled to start Monday in which some of Houston’s powerful may be called to testify to help determine which of Glassell’s wills should be followed.

Alone on one side of the dispute, arguing in favor of a 1998 will, is the oilman’s daughter Curry Glassell.

She is a 52-year-old single mother of two who attended the New School, a Greenwich Village-based progressive university. She’s active in the “Good Vibes for You” bottled water company and lists herself as an “Access Consciousness” facilitator.
Opposed by brother, mom

On the other side of the lawsuit is a formidable crowd. It includes her younger brother, Alfred Glassell III, who followed his father’s footsteps into the River Oaks Country Club and society column charity balls; their father’s widow, Clare Attwell Glassell; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Glassell Family Foundation, a charity run by Alfred Glassell III and expected to benefit Houston art. This group wants Probate Court Judge Kathy Stone to abide by the last will, signed in 2003.

In the 2003 will and the 2000 will before it, though there are individual gifts and a life estate for his widow, the bulk of the estate would go to the MFAH and the Glassell foundation. Curry Glassell claims those two wills, which leave her some land and about $1.6 million after taxes, were designed by Vinson & Elkins lawyers who pushed a sick, possibly demented old man to give more to philanthropy.

“For decades, Mr. Glassell’s wills provided substantial gifts to his daughter and his two grandchildren. Only at age 87 did his will change to dramatically reduce those gifts. Curry Glassell contends that her father was heavily influenced to reduce these gifts by others he trusted at times when he was vulnerable,” said Jack Lawter, one of her lawyers, in a written statement Wednesday.

Her lawyers argue that the elder Glassell was frail when Vinson & Elkins lawyers steered him into giving most of his daughter’s inheritance to a charity overseen by her brother and family friends.
Could end up with nothing

If she wins, Curry Glassell and her brother each would take some $100 million and land. If she loses, they would take around $3 million and land. She could lose even that if the jury finds she contested the will in bad faith and should be excluded under a provision barring gifts to anyone who questions the will.

“She’s grasping at slender reeds,” said Joe Jamail, one of the museum’s lawyers. He said Vinson & Elkins does the museum work pro bono and had nothing to gain. A spokesman for the law firm said its lawyers may testify in this ongoing litigation and therefore have no comment.

“Contrary to what Curry Glassell’s attorneys at law claim, she was not disinherited by Mr. Glassell, who provided adequately for her during his lifetime and provided for her and her two children in his will,” Jamail said.

Alfred Glassell Jr. was chairman of the museum’s board and built its teaching school, which bears his name. He donated major pieces from his own collection of Asian, pre-Columbian and African art, including exquisite gold.

The trial is expected to include testimony about what Curry Glassell and her brother already have been given by their father and what his mental and physical condition was when he signed the 2003 and 2000 wills.

“She was given this money, and she squandered it,” James McCartney, a lawyer for the widow, said of Curry Glassell in court Wednesday.

Witnesses in the will fight could include the museum’s Peter and Frances Marzio, financial guru Fayez Sarofim, a cadre of Vinson & Elkins lawyers and experts to speculate on the elder Glassell’s mental state.

Explosion hits Gulf facility in Puerto Rico (AP)

An explosion at a Gulf gasoline facility Friday rocked a neighborhood outside Puerto Rico’s capital, causing minor injuries and forcing evacuations as firefighters raced to prevent additional blasts.

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Explosion hits Gulf facility in Puerto Rico (AP)

Home sales rise 9.4 pct in Sept., beats forecast (AP)

AP – Home resales rose in September to the highest level in more than two years, beating expectations, as buyers scrambled to complete their purchases before a tax credit for first-time owners expires.

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Home sales rise 9.4 pct in Sept., beats forecast (AP)

Apple spits at Windows 7: You can’t trust Microsoft

In its response to the Windows 7 launch, Apple suggests that there’s one simple reason you shouldn’t buy the new operating system: Microsoft is not to be trusted.

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Apple spits at Windows 7: You can’t trust Microsoft

KISS drummer speaks out about male breast cancer

Founding KISS member Peter Criss knows that many of his male, rock music fans are macho, so he is making the rounds to tell them that rocker guys like him can suffer from the disease, too.

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KISS drummer speaks out about male breast cancer

Family Guy Lois Griffin Sexy, Marge Simpson

People who watch “Family Guy” are used to a strong case of the random and bizarre. This week is no different, as we’re treated to a seemingly appropro of nothing Superfriends intro credits and two seemingly unrelated storylines (Quagmire discovers internet porn, finally; and Peter falls in love with a Kathy Ireland cutout from the 90s). But after Lois has a health scare, we get to the kosher meat at the heart of the show: Lois is Jewish, which of course has predictably zany effects on her bizarre family.
After viewing the episode, titled “Family Goy,” it occurs to me that the seemingly out of place intro is actually a perfect callback to the role that Jewish comic book writers had on the industry. Many comic book heroes – Superman and Spiderman among them — were created by Red Sea pedestrians, as an outgrowth of outsider status. And in today’s TV cartoon families, Jewish identity is a theme that’s played for both semi-serious inquiry as well as laughs. Both the Simpsons and South Park devoted episodes to finding out what it means to be Jewish: now it’s time for Judaism to get the Griffin treatment,

For people who think that the concept of “spoilers” applies to Family Guy, you’ll want to end your reading of this piece here and go directly to Hulu to view the episode. Everyone else, continue after the jump.
Predictably, there are broad stroke trappings of Jewishness that the Griffins embrace and lampoon – Peter’s Star of David plus chest hair, plus his insistence that people call him by his Hebrew name (“chcchchchchch”); Lois puts on a Passover seder; Stewie chants a brachah (blessing) over holiday candles; and Ben Stein plays a monotonous rabbi. Plus, the characters make their regular quota of Star Wars and Indiana Jones jokes. But there are deeper moments

Their friend Max notes that “becoming Jewish doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that involves spiritual education and good works.” This is of course lost on the intellectually stunted Peter, who exasperated, echoes generations of kids forced to go to Hebrew school: “Leave it to a Jew to take all the fun out of being a Jew.” Later, Peter, newly convinced that his family needs to remain Catholic, explains that “we believe in the Easter Bunny – he died for our sins in that helicopter crash,” which comments on the chasm between a holiday’s actual meaning and the commercialized, materialistic versions that pervades people’s cultural and religious literacy.

At the end of the day (or in this case, the episode), Jesus saves, explaining to Peter that Judaism and Catholicism are “two sides of the same coin.” When Brian tries to include Islam is also in that same spiritual family, as part, Jesus cuts him off: “Let’s not muddy things up here.” By the episode’s end, Peter is confused. Which religion should he be? he asks Jesus. Well, at least that moment I won’t spoil.
Source: blog.beliefnet.com

Meg Griffin

Megan “Meg” Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. She is the oldest child of Lois and Peter Griffin at 17 years old, sister of Chris and Stewie. Meg attends James Woods High School as a senior, where she unsuccessfully struggles for acceptance and popularity.
Personality

Meg is a disturbed and self-conscious teenage girl. Her self-consciousness causes her to desperately try to be part of the cool crowd, but this only results in her getting coldly rebuffed by Connie D’Amico, a selfish, egocentric and irresponsible teenage girl. She is also usually at the bottom of the family’s pecking order and the butt of Peter’s jokes due to her homeliness, tendency toward social awkwardness and lack of popularity. However, another student named Neil Goldman is attracted to her. She has been so self-conscious about herself that she engaged in dangerous sexual behavior just for attention.

Voice actors

On the season 1 DVD commentary for the Drawn Together episode “Hot Tub”, Cree Summer claims she was offered the role to play Meg but was dismissed by the producers due to being of the wrong ethnicity for the character. Meg was voiced by an uncredited Lacey Chabert for the first season, and by Mila Kunis in subsequent seasons, though some of Chabert’s work became second-season episodes due to production order. Tara Strong provided her singing voice in “Don’t Make Me Over” and Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

* Rachael MacFarlane (pilot)
* Lacey Chabert (1999–2000)
* Mila Kunis (2000–present)
* Tara Strong (singing voice)

Appearance

Meg typically wears a beanie-like hat and glasses. She also commonly wears a pink and white shirt, blue jeans and white faux Birkenstock clogs. She is slightly shorter than her younger brother Chris. Meg is self-conscious about her appearance (“I’m so fat and gross.”) She possesses a belly bulge, which is only noticeable when she is seen in profile. Although portrayed as an ordinary looking girl, most people apparently consider her extremely unattractive in; with the exceptions of Glenn Quagmire, Neil Goldman, Mayor Adam West, Kevin Swanson, and the on-off characters: Ron, Jeff the nudist, and Michael, a medical intern. Her supposedly plain appearance and weight problems are often used for frequent comedy ploys for example in Don’t Make Me Over a few people light themselves on fire after just looking at her. Another running gag involves characters mistaking Meg for a boy.
Source: wikipedia.org

Van Jones Breaks Silence On Resignation: ‘Nothing But Love For Obama’

On September 15th, Van Jones addressed his friends and supporters about his recent resignation with the following e-mail message.

Dear Friends:

My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. I resigned from the White House on Sept. 6, and I have remained silent since then–in keeping with my promise not to be a distraction during a key moment in the Obama Presidency.

Over the past several days, however, many people have been asking how they can help and what they can do.

The main thing is this: please do everyth

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Van Jones Breaks Silence On Resignation: ‘Nothing But Love For Obama’

Burt Reynolds Checks Into Rehab

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Burt Reynolds has checked himself into rehab, a rep for the star confirmed to Access Hollywood on Wednesday.

“After a recent back surgery, Mr. Reynolds felt like he was going through hell and after a while, realized he was a prisoner of prescription pain pills,” the rep said in a statement to Access. “He checked himself into rehab in order to regain control of his life.”

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Burt Reynolds Checks Into Rehab

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