Conversion to Schrutebucks: 1 stanley nickel = (1 schrutebuck * 1 leprechaun)/ 1 unicorn

Cash Value: � � � 1 stanley nickel = $ (1 leprechaun/1000)/ 1 unicorn

A Harry Potter theme park just became a lot closer to being built. J.K. Rowling approved of the plans to build the park in Orlando. A month or so ago it was discovered that she had final say on the rights to a Potter Park and was being very picky about its design and layout.

“The plans I have seen look incredibly exciting and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed,” Rowling said.

The park would be scheduled to open in 2009 and is being built by Warner Brothers and Universal. There is also talks of launching the park with an 8^th Harry Potter book, though Rowling said on her website it wouldn’t be a novel.

“I have got enough story for seven books and I never planned to carry the story beyond the end of book seven. I might do an eighth book for charity, a kind of encyclopedia of the world, so that I could use all the extra material that’s not in the books – we’ll see!”

Sarah, when we lived together, would get MAD free food from her work. She would get stuff that was about to expire or items that were mistake shipments. In the last week before we moved she brought home a thee pound block of Roquefort cheese, which has an estimated retail price of $70.

At first we didn’t know what the cheese was. She knew it was cheese and it was free so she brought it home to me. We opened it up and were shocked to discover it was putrid. It was by far the worse smelling cheese I have ever smelled in my life. So of course I HAD to taste it! It was basically like a blue cheese only more blue-cheese-ish than normal blue cheese.

After some research I discovered that Roquefort is known as the “King of Cheeses” and is considered to be one of the most pungent cheeses in the world. It’s actually a type of blue cheese but is made with ewes milk and only comes from one specific place in France (which is why its so expensive).

So far I’ve put the cheese in a salad, on apples, on crackers, in pastas, in stir fry, on apple pie, and on broccoli. I still have about a pound left and I’m just trying to figure out what other cool things I can do with it.

I was disappointed with the “Heroes” season finale. Like everyone else in the blogsphere, I was expecting a badass Sylar vs Peter fight and didn’t get to see one, but what bugged me the most about the finale was that Nathan sacrificed himself to get Peter out of the city. It doesn’t make sense.

Peter absorbs other people’s powers. We’ve even seen him use Nathan’s flight power. So why the heck didn’t Peter just fly himself into the air? Yes its less dramatic but it makes more sense. Well series Tim Kring has the answers:

“Somewhere in there is the explanation for having Nathan grab his bro and do the flying man thing. But the real explanation is that we wanted Nathan to show up and save the day! Yes, I will admit that there’s a very tiny window of logic there,” Kring continues with a laugh. “But what can I say? It’s requires the proverbial suspension of disbelief.”

I like to think that the radioactive power overrode all of Peter’s other powers and that’s why he couldn’t just fly away on his own.

An Internet parody of “The Simpsons” has drawn the ire of 20th Century Fox. The studio is pressuring online video hub Broadcaster.com to remove “The O.J. Simpsons,” three animated clips that reimagine the Fox series starring the former football star. You can watch the animated clips here.

“We respect the rights of content owners,” Broadcaster CEO Martin Wade III said. “We are examining all the issues raised by the Fox request. Our goal is to be a respecter of content rights and at the same time find legal ways to bring our community members the content they enjoy.”

From what I know of media law, “The O.J. Simpsons” would be considered a satire and since it is an internet clip and not something made specifically for profit the makers of the video and Broadcaster are within their legal rights of airing it.

HBO has been known to let the better part of two years pass between seasons of its original series. That will emphatically not be the case with “Entourage” this summer.

The show’s current season is scheduled to come to an end Sunday, June 3. It will then be off the air for all of 14 days before a new season kicks off on June 17, where it will anchor a Sunday lineup that also features two new shows, David Milch’s drama “John From Cincinnati” and another comedy, “Flight of the Conchords.”

HBO has also set a premiere date for the second season of “Big Love,” which will migrate to Monday nights starting June 11.

The short turnaround for “Entourage” owes to the fact that the current episodes are part of the show’s third season, which was broken up into two parts, the first 12 airing last summer and the remaining eight saved for this run. The episodes starting June 17 are part of the series’ fourth season.

“John from Cincinnati,” which centers on a Southern California surfing family and stars Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay and Austin Nichols, is set to debut Sunday, June 10, following the series finale of “The Sopranos.” It will then move to 9 p.m. the following week.

Season two of “Big Love” will follow the polygamous Henrickson family, whose lifestyle had been exposed at the end of the previous season. “Flight of the Conchords,” which debuts after “Entourage” on June 17, centers on a pair of musicians from New Zealand trying to make it in New York.

While doing promotional work for “Shrek the Third” Mike Myers has mentioned his interest on making a new Austin Powers movie that would focus on Doctor Evil.

“I have figured out that the story will be taken from the point of Doctor Evil,” Myers said in an interview while promoting Shrek the Third. “It will be powered from Doctor Evil’s point of view.” Myers added: “That will be the first of a trilogy. … I’m just joking! … I haven’t figured it all out. Who knows?”

Myers says it takes him three to four years to do a movie and after he finishes his next flick, “The Love Guru,” he plans to start working on the next Powers film.

On the eve of the bowing of “Shrek the Third,” Mike Mitchell (”Sky High, “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo”) is in negotiations to direct “Shrek 4″ for DreamWorks Animation says The Hollywood Reporter.
Penned by Tim Sullivan, the fourth installment will chronicle the continuing adventures of Shrek and his buddies. Josh Klausner recently penned a rewrite.
The “Shrek” series is a massive moneymaker for Dreamworks, the first taking in $484.4 million worldwide, the second one a whopping $920.7 million.

This is why personal hygiene is important. A nine year old kept hearing “Rice Krispies” in his ear and when his mother finally took him to the doctors they discovered two spiders chilling on his ear drum.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser. Jesse was given the spiders — now both dead — as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

A new study proves that female cheetahs sleep around and it is common for them to have cubs from multiple mates. Not only does this suck for Cheetah husbands, but it apparently endangers the species.

“Mating with more than one male poses a serious threat to females, increasing the risk of exposure to parasites and diseases,” said Dada Gottelli, ZSL’s lead scientist for the research. “Females also have to travel over large distances to find new males, making them more vulnerable to predation, so infidelity is a heavy burden.”

This is my first born. His name is Edit and Sarah helped me pick him out. She also named him. I really wanted to name him “Re-Write” but she said that if I did everyone would call him “re-re” for short, so she suggested Edit. (Read on …)

Over the weekend, Kristin at E! posted a video clip where she interviewed John Glover (Lionel Luthor) about “Smallville.” In it she was asking about the season finale and several things came up. The first of which was that Chloe isn’t really dead. The second of which is that Annette O’Toole is leaving “Smallville.” The video clip has since been removed.

In the clip Kristin asked how they were going to handle Martha Kent being in Washington, D.C. and if they were going to film in D.C. John Glover looked really confused and said he didn’t know. Kristin asked again and he said “I’m under the impression that Annette won’t be back next year except for one or two guest appearances.”

The fact that E! and Kristin removed the video clip suggests that John Glover leaked way too much information ich leads me to believe that Annette O’Toole really has left “Smallville.”

Updated@7:31pm: I just got an email from a source at TV Guide saying Annette O’Toole has left “Smallville” for good. Thanks for confirming my scoop!

All of you regular readers are aware that I’m still very bitter about what happened with “Everwood.” Last year The CW renewed it but then at the 11^th hour they uncanceled “7^th Heaven,” which had already aired their series finale and canceled “Everwood” in it’s place. So all us “Everwood” fans had to say goodbye so that the The CW could have Reverend Camdem have an affair!

I was almost at my breaking point after the “Everwood” scanadal but I decided to have some faith in The CW. After all, it’s the child of The WB and The WB is what first hooked me to television. Specifically it was “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity” that made me a TV slut. So I just wasn’t ready to say “F* U” to The CW yet. But man, what a difference a year makes, huh? (Read on …)

Ausiello has a really good interview with Scott Paterson (Luke) about the end of “Gilmore Girls.” If you were a fan of the show you HAVE to read it!

What was your reaction to hearing that the show was ending?
Patterson: I kind of expected it, actually. And I think I was probably a little relieved, and disappointed at the same time. So many things went through me when I heard the news. I wasn’t terribly shocked. I know a lot of people were very optimistic, but I wasn’t one of them.

Kevin Smith posted on View Askew that he finished his next screenplay.

Finished a script a few minutes ago. The comedy. 146 pages. I’ll spend tomorrow taming it down to 120 pages or so. It’s really funny, really dirty, and really touching stuff. Granted, I’m biased.

Rosario Dawson is set to star in the $6-20 million comedy to be shot in Minnesota. Shooting will happen back-to-back with his low budget horror film “Red State” starting sometime this winter.

Now. onto Red State… well. not now. First I’m gonna sleep. Then I’ll take some down-time to work on this current bad boy before launching into the Red State script.

Neil Gaiman will be directing his first feature film later this year - an adaptation of his “Death: The High Cost of Living” mini-series. Gaiman met with Guillermo del Toro a few weeks ago over the project reports Film Ick who adds that shooting will likely begin Late Fall in the UK.

Shia LaBeouf remains the favorite to play the male lead Sexton Furnival, and that Death, or Didi as she calls herself in her mortal form, has snagged the interest of one famous young actress who’ll be announced soon. No news at all on who will play the Eremite or Mad Hetty.

Lisa is putting together some interesting numbers where she is trying to estimate just how many woman own comic book stores.

I used Diamond Distribution’s daily store profiles, called “From the Road Reports” to do an informal survey. (The picture shown is from our “From the Road Report” done when the store was about a year old - it’s VERY different now.) Now, not every comic book store has been profiled by Diamond on the “From the Road Reports.” And, some of the stores on there are no longer in business. Also, not every store listed is a comic book store - they just have Diamond accounts and sell products they get from Diamond. In addition, some of the information is probably old and might not be 100% accurate. But it was good enough for an informal survey I thought.

Now only if I had a Stanley-Nickel. :sigh: (P.S. I’m back, so expect normal posting to resume.)

The cover for “Heroes for Hire” #13 is being called a “tentacle rape” and many feel its even more offensive than the Mary Jane statuette. Marvel editor and chief Joe Q had this to say about it:

I think people are reading way too much into that cover than was ever intended. I heard terms such as “tentacle rape” being thrown around when that in no way is what’s happening, nor does it happen in the book. Those tentacles are the arms of the Brood who appears in the issue and is a major story point, the Brood have tentacles, sorry about that. (Read on …)

I finally made it through “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.” I first heard of the novel four years ago when it came up twice during the first season of “The O.C.” Seth, a crazy comic book fan, says he cannot be friends with Ryan if Ryan doesn’t read the book. Seth also gives it Summer and Anna during the first Chrismukkah episode.

It’s not that it took me four years to read the novel, it’s that it took me four years to really start the novel. Every time I opened the cover I would read the first five or so pages and get bored. I finally started it about three weeks ago and it was a long read. By long I don’t mean page count. I can easily read books with 1,000+ pages in a matter of days. It was a long read because of the pacing and the descriptive language used throughout the narration. It’s just slow going.

I’m happy I finished the novel. Not so much so because I enjoyed it and wanted to know how it ended, but more like I just wanted to be able to say “Oh I’ve read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.” What I find odd is that it’s won a Pulitzer Prize. It wasn’t a bad book, but it just didn’t feel like an “OH MY GOD THIS IS GREAT” type of book. …but now at least I can finally checkout “The Escapist” comics, which I’ve been putting off reading because I wanted to read the book first.

As a promotion for “Knocked-up” which I’m sooooooooo excited to see. You can go here and see what a baby would look like if you had it with one of the movies stars. For example check out precious Scottisha (click photo to make bigger) that is the love child of myself and Katherine Heigl.

Pop Candy has a good type-up of the “Star Wars” Celebration IV that went on in LA this weekend. She talks about costumes, contests, tattoos, TV shows and just about everything in between.� For example she went to a Panel which previewed the “Robot Chicken: Star Wars” Special and she had this to say:

As I Twittered earlier, the funniest part of the panel might’ve been when Green admitted auditioning for the part of Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 … in full blue makeup. He said he recruited the makeup artist on Buffy the Vampire Slayer to help, though “they admired my dedication and then politely passed.” The role, of course, eventually went to Alan Cumming.

Day 1 Day 2� Day 3 & 4

The Franklin Mint and 20^th Century Fox printed 40,000 quarters with the Silver Surfer on them to promote “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” A contest was also to be held where the first four people to find Silver Surfer quarters would win a trip to LA for a special screening of the film. But now the U.S. Mint is saying the quarters are illegal and made without proper permission.

The U.S. Mint said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and the Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine.

“The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,” according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.

There has been talks for the past few years that there would be another “He-Man” movie, but every time there are talks they just fall through. Well variety is reporting that another attempt for talks is currently taking place:

Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver are working with Mattel to turn “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” into a live-action film. The deal is contingent on Mattel formally approving an outline for the project.

I’ll believe a new “He-Man” movie is officially being made the day a “Watchmen” movie is officially made.

That’s right. I cried twice while watching it. Gotta problem with that?

Gone till tuesday. Enjoy Spider-Man 3 and Free Comic Book Day WEEKEND.

update: In honor of FCBD Sarah has actually made a blog post about comics, of course its still health related. If you are into health food, nutrition, or weird recipes, make sure you checkout Sarah’s blog.

update 2: Ok, last week was a really rough week and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, of course I have to also pack up the whole apartment because Sarah is moving this weekend (mostly) and we both for-real move out in a week exactly. Of course as of right now I still don’t know where I’ll be living this summer and don’t have a place to move to! Ahhhhhhhhhh!� So other than maybe a post about Upfronts (one my all FAVORITE times of the year) the blog will be realllyyyy quiet till I figure out and move to wherever I’m moving.

Updated (May 14th): NBC said today that “The Office” will return next year for 25 episodes and 5 of those will be an hour long. The network really wanted the shot to be permanently expanded, but weren’t willing to give the cast and crew decent pay bumps. But hey whatever… I’m happy to have even this!

NBC is considering expanding “The Office” to an hour, permanently. Rumors are flying all over Hollywood today that after last night’s nice ratings, NBC is seriously considering making the show an hour long. Of course we won’t know until NBC gives its Upfronts presentation in two weeks.

In other news, this season will have two endings. Right now Rashida Jones (Karen) has a TV pilot that might get picked up by FOX. If it does then Karen will leave the show in the season finale of “The Office,” which leaves room for Pam and Jim to finally get together. If Karen’s show isn’t picked up by FOX then she’ll be back for all of next season.

ABC will announce very shortly that “Lost” will end after two more seasons. The decisions was made mutually between the producers and studio. This may sound like a bad thing, but it isn’t. This gives the writers time to structure the last two seasons of the show in a way to totally wrap up all the characters and major mysteries.

Then, unconfirmed, is that “Lost” will once again be changing its timeslot for next year, and will be pulling a “24” by not coming back till January and then running uninterrupted by re-runs.

Also, and this is something that I cannot spoil, but there is a huge mind-blowing change coming for the show. The big game-changer will happen in the season finale and totally re-establish the status quo. Just be ready for it.

Happy “Spider-Man 3″ day! Since every blogger and their Aunt May is posting reviews of Peter Parker’s newest onscreen adventure, I thought I would do something different. I’m going to share the coverage of the first “Spider-Man” movie.

“Script coverage” is a Hollywood term for the analysis and grading of screenplays, often within the script development department of a production company. Even with big summer tent-pole movies, higher-up studio execs won’t read a screenplay until after some peon has already read it and written up coverage for it.

I got the script coverage of the original “Spider-Man” in my masters screenwriting class. The class (which just finished this week) was taught via satellite with a working screenwriter in L.A. So the document below was passed around Sony after David Koepp finished the second draft of “Spider-Man.” (Read on …)

Hollywood Reporter announced that hottie Liv Tyler has signed on to play Betty Ross in “The Incredible Hulk.” She will be joining Edward Norton, as Bruce Banner, in the re-start of the Hulk-movie-franchise.

Ross, a classic “Hulk” character from the comic book’s beginning in 1962, is Banner’s fellow scientist and an ally in his quest to rid him of his lurking monster deep inside. The movie will unfold with Ross estranged from Banner (Norton), but with the pursuit of the Hulk heating up and Banner on the run trying to cure his condition, Ross finds herself swept back into his life.

Film is set to start sometime this summer and no release date has been set for the film.

I just got word. “Gilmore Girls” is ending. I’m so upset about this. I mean even with this past season that wasn’t up to par I still want Rory and Loreali in my life! Basically the end of the show all stems from Lauren Graham’s and Alexis Bledel’s contracts being up. Here is the official press release:

“Announcing the final season of Gilmore Girls is truly a sad moment for everyone at The CW and Warner Bros. Television. This series helped define a network and created a fantastic, storybook world featuring some of television’s most memorable, lovable characters. We thank Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dan Palladino, Dave Rosenthal, the amazing cast led by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as well as producers, writers and crew for giving us this delightful gem for the past seven years. We would also like to thank the critics and Gilmore fans for their passionate support and promise to give this series the send off it deserves.”

TV Guide has additional news:

Multiple sources confirm that Warner Bros. recently made one final offer to Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel that included sizeable salary bumps for both in exchange for a shortened 13-episode season. As is now obvious, that offer was rejected.

The show’s cast and crew — many of whom thought an eighth season was in the bag — are said to be in a state of shock. “Everyone was pretty blindsided by this and still processing it at the moment,” reports a Gilmore insider. “Talks must have broken down very, very recently because it came as one hell of a surprise.”

The show’s series finale will air on May 15th.

The trailer for “Star Wars: Robot Chicken” has been posted online. The show started getting buzz last week when it was announced that George Lucas would be doing voice work for it.

“We were big fans of the work that Matt and Seth had done, so when they approached us with the idea to make a Robot Chicken episode dedicated to Star Wars we were really enthusiastic about it,” says Tom Warner, Senior Director of Marketing for Lucasfilm Ltd. “They caught the human and fun side of Star Wars and put an entirely different spin on it. We think Star Wars fans are really going to enjoy it.”

In addition to the ultimate get of having George Lucas himself voice his stop-motion animated likeness for the special, other noteworthy voice actors include Mark Hamill, Conan O’Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan, James Van Der Beek, Robert Smigel, Donald Faison, Abraham Benrubi, Breckin Meyer and Joey Fatone. The special will premier on Adult Swim on June 17^th.

It’s May Sweeps so every show is new every night! Even as cool as that is, even cooler is that Upfronts will be here in a matter of weeks. � Upfronts is when the Networks announce their fall line-up and we know for sure what shows are renewed and what ones aren’t. Upfronts will start on May 14th with NBC. ABC will go on the 15th, CBS on 16th, and both CW and Fox are on the 17^th. I’m dying to find out what shows will be back, specifically “Veronica Mars” and “Gilmore Girls.”

Marvel released a preview from Captain American #26 (the first new issue since his death). The Jesus-pose is cliché and it seems like they are going overboard by graphically showing his autopsy. I mean I have no problem seeing a gross autopsy, but it seems like they are doing it just to enphansize that Steve Rogers is dead.

In related news, the NEW Captian America will be revealed in “Fallen Son: Captain America.” From the previews, everyone is guessing Hawkeye will be the new Cap. Of course a month ago the internet was sure it was going to be Bucky (Winter Soldier).

“Spider-Man 3″ opened May 1st in 16 overseas markets and snared a whopping $29.2 million, easily beating both “Spider-Man 2″ ($15.6 million) and the initial “Spider-Man” ($10.6 million). In fact, in ten of the 16 countries it achieved the biggest opening day of all time with the film says Reuters.

France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Egypt, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand all saw records fall on the webslinger. By Sunday the film will have opened in 107 countries around the world.

EW is offering hints to “Heroe’s” season finale. There are five different covers this week and each supposedly offers a clue to what will happen in the season finale. If you go here you can see the covers. Then once there, go to the second cover and click the shard of glass by HRG’s hand, and it talks about how Peter died but then really didn’t. On the last cover click the petals and it talks about how Linderman can heal (most likely hinting at the internet rumors that Linderman will heal Nathan’s wife).

The CW was trying to make the 8^th season of “Gilmore Girls” 13 episodes instead of the usual 22. Negotiations have been going on for the past few weeks and it now seems that all talks have ended:

“It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen,” reports my Gilmore mole. “There’s no deal in place at this point, and there may never be. This is probably going to come down to the wire. Now it’s a game of chess. It could go either way.”

The CW wants the show to come back but both Lauren Graham’s and Alexis Bledel’s contracts end this season. Graham, who was given a producing credit, was open to another season but Bledel wasn’t and Graham is refusing to come back if Bledel doesn’t come back.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the CW’s upfront presentation — the unoffical deadline for a deal to be brokered — is scheduled for May 17. What’s so complicated about that, you ask? Well, that’s two days after the show’s potential swan song airs. In other words, if negotiations literally go down to the wire, we won’t know if we’re watching the season or series finale.

I forgot to mention that “Hundred Dollar Bill,” mine and Kevin’s short film, was screened at the Red Planet Film Festival. Kevin just told me today that we didn’t place, but at least I can officially say I’ve been screened in Hollywood.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! CBS is trying to cash in on NBC’s “The Office” by ripping off the show. They have cast David Spade in a “Michael Scott” roll and the show will focus on the ongoing relationship of Jen and Tom.

“The budding romance between Jen and Tom is really the foundation of the show,” said director Howard Gatson, who has made their connection “more believable” by casting more traditionally attractive actors in the roles. “People are going to tune in every week to see if Jen will ever leave her fiancé to be with Tom. And they’ll be so relieved when she finally does in episode three.”

Joe Quesada is hinting more and more that “Spider-Man: One More Day” will leave Mary Jane dead or at least her and Peter Parker’s marriage over.

QUESADA: The question of their marriage is finally going to be answered and I think old-time fans…for those who like the status quo will be pretty happy.

UPDATE: I have full spoilers with details posted here.