Come on… it’s Christmas. You knew you were going to get a Halo themed post as a present ((sidenote: heading back to DC over the next two days so until I’m settled I won’t have internet))!

Maybe I should just start a blog called “Pictures of Kristen Bell in a Bikini” because man I just can’t help posting them. This is from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” the new Judd Aptow movie that comes out in May. It’s also written and co-stars Jason Segel, so this is definitely a movie I’m seeing in the theater. You can watch the trailer here.

I’ve been playing “Assassin’s Creed” (an Xbox game) and its meh. The first hour of it is great, but then it gets really repetitive. If any of you have ever played “Spider-Man 2” and remember the “stop the muggings” or “get the balloon” task then you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say “really repetitive.”

The GREAT thing about the game is that Kristen Bell does voice over work in it, however her scenes are few and far between (The pic above is from Bell’s work on “Heroes” and the one below is an in-game screen shot of Assassin’s Creed).

Wow. Got to see “Stardust” since it’s out on video. I was supposed to see it last summer with someone but there was drama and we never made it to the theater. So I was super excited to watch it. It completely met my expectations. If you’re a fan of fantasy, romantic-comedies, or Neil Gaimen then definitely check out “Stardust.”

I was trying to find a picture of “Power Pack” and I ran across this interesting Jeff Smith comic strip (click the pic above to see the full comic). In it he talks about his experience on the day of 9/11.

It’s Friday so here is your weekly dose of Edit. This pic was taken like two weeks ago. I was playing “Halo” and stopped to go take a shower. When I got back, Edit was passed-out in my spot on the couch. The weird thing was that even though she was sleeping, her eyes were open.

Movie stills from “Hellboy II” are popping up all over the internet. I’m too lazy to post the 15-20 pics that were leaked, but if you google they are easy to find.

Stan Lee is telling the press that Marvel is planning a “Power Pack” movie.

“They’ve been talking about…now they’re not working on it but they have been discussing whether to do it–Power Pack.”

The Power Pack is the first team of preteen superheroes ever in the Marvel Universe and first appeared in their own comic book series in 1984. The series lasted a little over the year, but recenty its become an all-age book with nonstop crossovers with all the major Marvel Characters.

Sacha Cohen announced today that he will no longer appear as Borat or Ali G.

“When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing. It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it’s fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get’ with Borat again, so it’s a kind of self-defeating form, really.”

Either this is some master scheme (remember “Punk’d” saying it was canceled but then coming back for like three more seasons?) or the characters really are dead.

Sci-Fi announced today that “Stargate: The Ark of Truth,” the first of two direct-to-video movies based on the long-running “Stargate: SG-1″ TV series, will debut March 11 on DVD.

Don Vito was court ordered to not appear as “Don Vito” for ten years and is receiving a life probation after being convicted as a child sex assault charges. He must also receive mental health evaluations and undergo drug/alcohol treatment. The 51-year-old Margera was convicted on two counts of sexual assault on a child, after he groped three girls, ages 12 to 14 at an autograph signing in a Colorado skate park.

This really doesn’t surprise me since he was a major creep when I interviewed him for Ocean City Today.

Here’s a riddle for you: Name an eleven lettered word that everyone pronounces incorrectly. (Read on …)

This is a crazy art-project using found items. Dutch artist Theo Jansen made this from lemonade bottles and plastic tubes. The crazy part is that it WALKS. Even crazier is that its “brain” is made of bottles so that if there is a storm, the water causes it to lower its sails and dig into the ground. Videos and more pics are posted here.

Around eight movie-related promotional commercials are scheduled to air during February’s Super Bowl XLII for a record $2.7 million-$3 million per 30-second spot reports Variety.

Paramount and Marvel’s “Iron Man”, Sony’s Will Smith actioner “Hancock”, Adam Sandler comedy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”, and New Line’s Will Ferrell comedy “Semi-Pro” are all confirmed to be airing promos during the game. Universal, Warner Bros. and Fox also have bought time in the game but declined to disclose which films they would push. Disney is still considering which movies to offer, though it’s likely to be a choice between “Wall-E” and “Prince Caspian.”
Paramount will also do a promo for the comedy “Drillbit Taylor” during the pre or post-game show.

This post has been bumped to the top of the blog. If you haven’t done it yet, make sure you vote! Sarah, as in MY SARAH, rocks! She’s a top five finalist in the annual Bush’s Beans contest. Her entry is a pumpkin-bean burger and she needs your vote! Go here and make sure you give her a five star rating (you do have to register, but you don’t need to confirm it by email so it only takes a minute) and after you give her FIVE STARS copy down the recipe and try it out yourself!

It’s Thursday so here is your weekly “Halo” pic. Also, I’m going to do my best to keep the blog updated during the next week, but with the Holiday, news seems to be slowing down. But don’t worry, if anything big or exciting happens I’ll be the first to post it!

Still looking for the ultimate geek-gift for your dorky significant other? Then why not get them a real lightsaber? I know what you’re thinking. “Lightsabers aren’t real.” But that’s not exactly true. When they filmed the “Star Wars: A New Hope” they used flash-tubes as lightsabers.

You can find flash tubes online for anywhere between $40-$80 bucks depending on where you are looking and as you can see in the pic above, they seriously look like a lightsaber. In fact the one above was an anniversary gift a friend of mine recently got from his wife.

Apparently the WGA strike might affect the possible “Veronica Mars” comic. In an interview with TV Guide, Rob Thomas said:

“I had a second meeting with DC comics. I heard that the [WGA] didn’t want [TV writers penning TV-based] comic books during the strike as it would promote a network property. We’re investigating whether there are similar hurdles for a defunct TV series like Veronica Mars. Naturally, I won’t be writing it if the Guild doesn’t want me to, but we’re hoping that’s not the case.”

Spoilers are leaking to the internet about Christian Bale’s new terminator movie. Even though he is John Connor he is NOT the lead character. Instead the main character is Marcus, a Riddick-esque guy who was ‘put out of commission’ before the nuclear holocaust and wakes up on post-apocalyptic earth around 15 years before the future shown in the original “Terminator”.

No actor has yet been cast in the role but they will be required for all three films and will be the ’star’ of the new trilogy which is apparently getting good buzz from those who’ve read the script and all call it epic in scope and great in terms of action. That action includes battles with the rubber-skinned T-600 terminators, the differences between the humans and cyborgs are said to play a big part in the story, whilst the character of Reese (Michael Biehn in the original film) has a scene with Connor.

I get it. She’s 16 and she’s pregnant. I get that places like Perez or US Weekly would be going crazy over this. But this does NOT need to be the lead story at CNN! Not only that, but the CNN article isn’t even an article. It’s just reader reactions!

USA Announced today via a press release that “The Dead Zone” and “4400″ were canceled.

Jeff Wachtel, USA Exec VP Original Programming, regarding the demise of Dead Zone and The 4400: “We wish we could keep all our great shows alive forever. But we feel we need to give some of our new shows a platform to grow, and it’s with great sadness that we say goodbye to two shows that had a great run and helped create the resurgence of original programming on our network and on all of cable.”

I’m all for the death of “The Dead Zone.” The re-vamped version that aired last summer was horrible and a total betrayal to the fans that had stuck with it for five seasons.

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have made up, which means that Jackson will produce “The Hobbit” as a two-part film.

Said Peter Jackson, “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth. I also want to thank Harry Sloan and our new friends at MGM for helping us find the common ground necessary to continue that journey.

For those of you who don’t know, Jackson and New Line had a feud going because Jackson claimed he wasn’t given all the money he was due after “Lord or the Rings.” Up until now New Line wasn’t willing to give him any extra dough, but they’ve reached an agreement and the details of the deal are as follows:

• MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.
• Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.
• Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.

The two “Hobbit” films - “The Hobbit” and its sequel - are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of “The Hobbit” release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

I totally called this forever ago. NBC will start airing episodes of “Monk” and “Psych” in March. The shows will air on Sunday and these are probably the first of many cable shows that will soon be appearing on network TV.

“This is an excellent opportunity to showcase these two critically acclaimed cable hits,” NBC co-chairman Marc Graboff says. “It’s a win-win situation. The shows, both produced by our own Universal Media Studios, receive additional exposure while providing great programming for NBC.”

Updated: I bumped this post ’cause its just so freaking cool! I’ve met Julia Roberts, John Travolta, Brad Meltzer, and a slew of other celebrities, but I’ll tell you what. None of those times have made me as giddy as I am having been linked to by Jeff Smith… yes THE Jeff Smith.

He doesn’t say much, but what he says is more than enough:

Review of Dark Horse’s Art of Bone on Scott King’s site King Film. it turns into a really nice overview of Bone the comic.

Just knowing that a writer/artist I seriously respect read my post about how much “Bone” means to me… it’s just nice and the best X-mas gift ever.

The End of Days has arrived. Jim Smash liked something! None of us ever thought it would happen but on the 17^th day of the 12^th month of 2007, Jim Smash admitted enjoying the pilot for “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”

Over the weekend my sister and I almost went to the movies with her two kids. She wanted to see “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and I wanted to see “The Golden Compass.” So my sister said “I was talking to mom and she said not to see Golden Compass because it’s against god.”

That really upset me because the film/books aren’t like that! The groups that are bitching about “The Golden Compass” being against god are the same ones that are against Harry Potter for portraying pagan beliefs. They are bible-thumpers merely looking to stir up trouble. The sad thing is that its working because in two weeks the movie has only grossed $40 million domestically (it cost $180 million to make).

Forbes put together a list of the 15 richest fictional characters and Scrooge McDuck topped the list with a net list of $28.8 billion. Also on the list are Montgomery Burns, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, and Richie Rich.

They say fortune favors the bold–but it also favors the fictional. The characters that make up this year’s edition of the Forbes Fictional 15, our annual listing of fiction’s richest, boast an aggregate net worth of $137 billion. That’s enough to give $20 to every (real) person on the planet.

Flapping into the top slot on this year’s list is the first non-mammal to rank as fiction’s richest: Scrooge McDuck. Soaring gold prices mean the penny-pinching poultry’s hoard of coins and bullion is now worth more than you can shake a tail feather at.

Jim Smash was the first to share with me the fact that George Lucas sends out Christmas cards. So I was super fascinated when I googled and found this link which is a list of 30 years worth of Christmas cards sent out by Lucas.

The first photos from the set of “Dragon Ball Z” reveal what Justin Chatwin as Goku looks like, of course I know nothing about DBZ and I have no idea who Goku is.

Want to hear what the cast of Dexter has to say about the season finale? Then check out this video here (but beware there are spoilers).

Starting on Dec. 19^th, MTV and Paramount are offering “Jackass 2.5” online for free. The movie will last 64 minutes and is a compilation of unseen footage filmed during the production of “Jackass: Number Two.”

“Jackass 2.5″ will be available for free on Movielink for two weeks. In addition, the movie will be released on DVD through Blockbuster with an extra 45 minutes on Dec. 26. That same day, “Jackass 2.5″ will also go out on iTunes, Amazon and several other participating download-to-own services.

If you’ve ever played any RPG then I’m sure you’re familiar with Giant Rats. But guess this… an actual giant rat was discovered in Indonesia that’s 5 times larger than a city rat. I lived in Baltimore for a few years and the city rats there already cat/dog size. I can’t even image just how big a real life Giant Rat is.

“The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat,” said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. “With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.”

Side note: the comic above is from Penny Arcade and it is making fun of a game called Puzzle Quest, an RPG where your fight by playing a bejeweled like game.

Disney star, Ashley Tisdale, displayed her new nose this week. I think I might actually prefer her old one.

Holy Crap. A woman in Miami was married to 10 guys at the same time! The rich-from-marriage scheme lasted from 2002 to 2006. Personally, form the picture I’m surprised that many guys were willing to marry her.

I don’t really understand the significance of this, but apparently the universe is asymmetrical.

New observations from NASA’s long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft show the solar system is asymmetrical, likely from disturbances in the interstellar magnetic field, scientists reported Monday. Voyager 2 sailed near the edge of the solar system this past summer following its twin, Voyager 1, in 2004.

Omega Chase is now being posted on the Th3rd World site as well as on Drunk Duck. We are currently posting a page a day (mon-fri) and will continue to do so until the first four issues are online. Once they are up, we’ll start posting issues 5-8 (which are currently being worked on by the artist) and collect the whole thing as a trade.

I honestly didn’t think the whole WGA Strike situation could get much worse. Boy was I wrong. The WGA complained to the National Labor Relations Board saying that the media companies violated federal law by ending contract negations. The WGA released a press

“It is a clear violation of federal law for the [studios] to issue an ultimatum and break off negotiations if we fail to cave to their illegal demands,” the Writers Guild said in a statement Thursday. “It is the height of irresponsibility and intransigence for the [studio alliance] to refuse to negotiate a fair agreement with the WGA.”

If the labor board opts to investigate the charge and file a formal complaint, it could take 45 days for a hearing to be scheduled before an administrative law judge. A ruling against the studios could prompt an appeal, potentially tying up the case for months.

With the strike situation getting more and more complicated, the Late Night hosts are expected to make a return to TV sometime in January. Updated at 2:15pm: Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien will return on Jan 2nd without their writing staff. Letterman is seeking a private deal with the WGA so that he can return sometime in January with his staff.

Scheft also thinks having his boss on the air could help the writers’ cause: “David Letterman, on the air without writers … is the greatest ally the writers would ever have, because he would rail nightly,” Scheft told the Times. “He could be more influential as an on-air stone in people’s shoes. The leverage for us might be him and Jon [Stewart] and Conan [O’Brien] talking trash.”

There is precedent for hosts returning to work during a writers’ strike. Johnny Carson returned to “The Tonight Show” about two months into the 1988 strike, citing concern for show staffers who were going without paychecks. Letterman followed suit and memorably spent most of one episode getting a shave.

Terry Pratchett, the best-selling fantasy author and creator of the Discworld series, announced last week that he has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom “stroke”.

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet :o)

Non-gamers just LOVE Wii’s which is why the system is still nearly impossible to find. That’s why Nintendo and Gamestop have initiated an IOU program. Just go to any Gamestop, give them $250 and sometime before the end of January you’ll get a Wii. This is exactly what kids want for X-mas, to wake up, unwrap their gifts and find an IOU.