Mila Kunis: 'People Can Lose Weight If They Want To'

Well, for me it's not whether I can lose, but if I want to. I think that's what she's getting at. See London's Daily Mail, "'People who say they can't lose weight are lying': Mila Kunis on how losing 20lb for Black Swan changed her views on body image."

More at WeSmirch.



PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Big Day at U.S. Open of Surfing!

Well, we're back.

I hung out with my youngest son while my oldest tooled around Huntington Beach with some friends from school.

We parked at 12th Street and Pacific Coast Highway, just North of the Sun'n Sands Motel:

Here's the scene looking toward the pier from the BMX grandstands. Vendor booths are under the tents. The Skullcandy sound booth is at right:

Actually, I didn't have time to watch surfing. I usually do, but I couldn't leave my youngest kid alone. But Los Angeles Times has a surfing report, "Brett Simpson is eliminated at Nike U.S. Open of Surfing":

So we mostly hung out by the skateboard ramps:

The weather was awesome. Good for a couple of Pacíficos:

Hundreds of thousands of fans visit the U.S. Open every summer. It's mostly young people, guys with board shorts and girls in bikinis. One thing I found interesting is how people write on themselves, with erasable ink, I guess. Mostly these are good-natured messages, like "Free Hugs Here," seen on a lot of the young guys. That said, I saw one hot little number in a bikini with a slashed line running from her bikini top to her bottoms, with an arrow pointing to her private area with the message, "INSERT HERE!" Well, I'm all for truth in advertising! And honestly, some people have no problem writing "F- Me" all over their bodies. I asked my oldest son about that and even he was surprised. He then showed me his Skullcandy tatoo, so what can you do:

Heckuva lot better than "F- Me", that's for sure!

'Hey Jude'

It's ranked #8 at Rolling Stone's all-time best song list, "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

I'm taking my boys to see the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil in a couple of weeks, so bear with me on the continued Beatles postings, LOL!

Raunchy Women Highlight Summer Movies

I'm going to have catch some of these on cable, as we're behind on our summer movie-going, but this story made the front-page at yesteday's Los Angeles Times, so here you go: "In summer comedies, women belch just as well as men."

Shaun White Interview After Winning Vert Competition at X-Games 17

I snapped this shot of Shaun White's interview from the big screens inside the Nokia Center:

And here's the clip from the X-Games channel:

And a roundup of yesterday's results, at LAT, "Shaun White saves his best for last in Skateboard Vert."

Heading to X-Games

Okay, I'm heading out with my boys to Staples Center. I watched the big air finals last night on ESPN. And at LAT, "Bob Burnquist knows how to win gold at X Games."

Check back for a report late tonight, or probably in the morning ...

Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies

I caught True Lies on AMC early yesterday morning. Jamie Lee Curtis is hilarious.

VIDEO: Shaun White Snowboard Gold Medal 2010 Winter Olympics

And an interview at New York Times, "30 SECONDS: With Shaun White":

Q. Did you ever think as a child that boarding would allow you to earn millions of dollars in corporate deals and sponsorships?

A. I knew there was a certain level that I could get to within the sporting world. But as I continued with my career, not only did I grow, but the sport grew. All of a sudden, all of these doors opened to me. It’s been amazing. I guess I was born at the right time.

Q. You enjoy playing guitar. Who are your favorite guitarists?

A. Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Angus Young.

Q. Are you a better snowboarder or skateboarder?

A. Probably snowboarding, just because the tricks come easier. It’s easier for me to learn a new trick snowboarding because skateboarding is so technical. You’re not strapped into the board and any slight movement of your foot, your board goes flying away and the run is over.

Q. Tell us something no one knows about you.

A. I don’t really like the cold. I have asthma. When I go up into those mountains, I can’t breathe, man. I’m like, “It’s freezing up here.”

RELATED: "The Shaun White Interview," at TransWorld Snowboarding, October 2003.

X Games 17: Shaun White

The vertical skateboarding competition is set inside the Nokia Theatre.

Shaun White was on Leno's last night: "Shaun White Interviewed on ‘The Tonight Show’ July 26 (Video)."

Filming the Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake Sex Scenes in 'Friends With Benefits'

Seriously.

'Friends with Benefits' director Will Gluck discusses how he did it, at Entertainment Weekly.

Give your actors time to get to know each other. Justin and Mila had never met before, but instead of making them do trust falls or a ropes course I decided to shoot the first half of the movie in New York City. I figured spending 16 hours a day working together out in public, surrounded by 8 million people, would give them time to foster “chemistry.”

Well they sure look good.

Previously: "Mila Kunis a Conservative Hottie!"

'Twilight Saga' on Showtime

I'm watching movies. My oldest son was watching "Twilight" when I came downstairs earlier. We have it on DVD, but Showtime's playing the full saga and I kept watching. A nice break from reading and watching cable news all afternoon. (My youngest son's working on his Legos. More about that later. He's got some new ones.)

Mila Kunis a Conservative Hottie!

Argues David Swindle, at Pajamas Media, "Mila Kunis on Casual Sex: ‘It’s like communism — good in theory, in execution it fails’."

PREVIOUSLY: "Mila Kunis GQ Photoshoot August 2011."

Mila Kunis GQ Photoshoot August 2011

At the video, Mila Kunis responds to the news of Sgt. Scott Moore's invitation to the Marine Corps Ball.

And at Gentlemen's Quarterly, "A GQ&A with Mila Kunis":

Also at GQ: "...And She's Funny, Too: Photos."

'Rizzoli & Isles' Second Season Premieres Tonight

Should be starting in a few minutes on the East Coast.

See Atlanta Journal Constitution, "‘Rizzoli & Isles’ Angie Harmon, Sasha Alexander riding high as second season starts." And New York Daily News, "'Rizzoli & Isles' review: Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander have great female friend chemistry."

And a great Angie Harmon interview from last year:

Impressions: The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

I mentioned previously how moved I was by the show in Las Vegas. Charles Spencer, writing at The Telegraph UK in 2006, really captures the feeling:

Everything that was bold and beautiful, fresh and funny, sad and just plain silly about the Beatles comes together in this ravishing and almost indecently spectacular show. It's what old hippies call a head-trip, a constant 90-minute rush of dazzling sights and sounds.

But for those of us who grew up with the Beatles - and the first record I ever bought was She Loves You, aged eight, in 1963 - this latest piece from Cirque du Soleil is also overpoweringly moving. For it achieves the apparently impossible, allowing you to hear the Beatles with fresh ears. At times you seem to be listening to the music of your childhood and youth as if for the first time.

Spencer's a progressive, but folks might put aside ideological reservations and just enjoy the show. We were kids once. "Let It Be" is my most powerful Beatles memory as a child (and "Hey Jude" is right up there), and sometimes nostalgia is overpowering. And recall that recently I've been moved by George Harrison's songs, and it turns out that the one entirely original song at LOVE is Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." It's just so impressive all around.

I'm taking my kids to see LOVE next time we're in Las Vegas. They'll have to listen to some of the CDs, but they're already familiar with a whole lot of The Beatles from hanging out with me, my musical tastes, and from just the radio environment.

Leftists Freaked Out Over News of John Lennon as Republican

Well, mostly Jon Wiener at The Nation, although Joel Achenbach, at WaPo, "can't imagine" John Lennon as a Republican. Cute, isn't that?

But see James Delingpole, at Telegraph UK, "Was John Lennon a secret Reagan Republican?"

Over at the leftie Nation, historian Jon Wiener is having a massive sense of humour failure at this outrageous slur on a man probably second only to Che as an icon of international left-wing street credibility.

Exactly.

This story is so last month, but I couldn't get it out of my mind this week while visiting The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil.

'Get Back'

Okay, this clip's from early in the show. Notice at how the dividing curtains fall at about 45 seconds. The theater is divided into quadrants. The curtains are up as guests are seated. Later throughout the performance projections onto large screens are used as part of the performance. There are also a couple of transitional segments with musical choreography projected as well. The crashing bricks here represent something of the Beatles' origins and search for meaning of the rubble of the war. From the commemorative booklet:

The action suddenly stops cold and we flash back further still, to the chaos and devastation of war. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is destroyed. But there is hope:

'A Day in the Life'

More video:

'Octopus's Garden'

Okay, I promised more from "Love."

"Octopus's Garden" is toward the last third of the performance. I'm looking around for some clips from earlier parts of the show, which begins with background from the Beatles' origins in Liverpool during WWII.

I love this, in any case.

Bonus: Ringo live clip. He was touring last month, and spoke to the 5th anniversary audience by satellite feed.

The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil

My wife and I have seen three performances so far by Cirque du Soleil. The shows are simply outstanding, but nothing's left me with the same feelings as the LOVE production. I'll be writing about it this weekend, and posting music videos and commentary. I've never been an absolute Beatles junky. The show was transformative, however. I can see better than ever how important The Beatles are to American culture. And not just from the show, which was so good — exquisite even. It's the fans, the excitement, and the demand for it all. I'll save some thoughts for later this morning. Here's the brief advertisement at the Mirage YouTube page:

The BBC had a write up in 2006, "Love unveils new angle on Beatles."

And last month, at Las Vegas Sun, "Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono lead celebration for ‘Love’ anniversary."

See the write up at Rolling Stone, "Paul McCartney Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of the Beatles 'Love' Show: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon also attended Las Vegas performance."