Evans Above

Watching the “Greatest Hits” summary of the various Live8 concerts around the world on CTV. Watching a recap of live8 toronto (which is really live8 barrie). Neil Young and most of the bands that performed there jammed on Young’s “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” and then segued into a rendition of “O Canada.”

Jamming is the one great thing that musicians have over most other artists. You can get newcomers and legends sharing the stage and trading riffs. A bunch of actors can’t do that in the same way.

One moment that wasn’t shown in the summary: Dan Aykroyd and Tom Green trying to shush the booing that greeted Celine Dion’s “live from Las Vegas” performance.

I’m watching the live8 coverage on CTV. The most important thing that people have to remember is that this is not a one day effort. It’s one thing for the crowd to shout “Yeah!” when Will Smith or Dan Aykroyd asks them to end poverty, but another thing for them to put pressure on their elected officials. Think of today as the first step on a long march.

Don’t forget to go to the Live8 site and sign the online petition.

The entertainment media has been focusing on the perceived box office slump compared to last year. Heck, even I’ve been guilty. The current example of a cinema slump article comes from AP’s David Germain, who notes that as of this weekend, “Revenues for the top 12 movies came in at $116.5 million, down 16 percent from the same weekend last year…”

The Hot Blog’s David Poland has been digging a little deeper and has previously mentioned the anomaly of last year, a year that included The Passion of the Christ, a film that drew folks to the cinema that usually avoid the multiplex. Passion was released by Newmarket, not one of the major studios. Poland likes crunching numbers and according to his financial footwork, “the studio business is, by this calculation, up by $301,427,400 this year.”

Paris Hilton says she’s giving up the public life in two years. If she doesn’t I think we should hold her to it.

The sex tape star told Newsweek that “I don’t enjoy going out anymore. It’s such a pain. It’s everyone saying, ‘Let’s do a deal! Can I have a picture?’ I’m just, like, ‘These people are such losers. I can’t believe I used to love doing this.’”

Gee, Paris, if it’s so bad couldn’t you just get outta our faces now?

In most first-person shooters, the player has to kill everything in sight, but that sort of freewheeling use of ammunition is usually frowned upon in most big city police departments. You know things like killing innocent bystanders and destroying property unnecessarily can sometimes take a toll on one’s police pension. That restraint gives an added tension when you enter a dance club in SWAT 4 that’s been taken over by rival gangs. You have to decide in a split second whether the person crouched in the corner is merely hiding from the violence or planning to shoot you and your fellow officers. That doesn’t mean that you are supposed to be killing all the bad guys either. The career mode of SWAT 4 gives higher points to successful arrests. Apparently, the legal system has this whole “trial by jury” thing that they like to do.

Some of the scenarios are quite disturbing, including a high-risk arrest warrant service on a __Silence of the Lambs__-like serial killer that had me turning on all the lights and reaching for a comedy flick. I guess killing ‘droids on a far-off space station doesn’t have the same personal resonance that quietly searching through a suburban home does.

If I did have one complaint, it would be that suspects die too easily. Several times my SWAT team confronted an hostile suspect that just didn’t want to give up easily. I’d aim for the foot or leg and he’d die just as fast as if I’d popped him in the head. In those situations, I should be calling for the paramedics and not the coroner.

SWAT 4 is rated M for mature.

Why is Entertainment Tonight spending so much time (and cash) covering the Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau wedding?

They’re showing interviews with Jann Carl, Mary Kay shopping for a wedding dress, and finally the ceremony and reception.

I realize that some people have a morbid fascination with stuff like this, but where does it fit into an entertainment news show’s mandate?

Why does every reject from The Apprentice create a website that is Flash only? Have they ever heard of accessibility?

It’s time to sell your TV.

First season Apprentice loser Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth will be trying to extend her fifteen minutes again as she has joined the cast of VH1’s The Surreal Life 5. Fellow Z-listers include Carey Hart, Sandi Denton, Caprice, Janice Dickinson, José Canseco and Bronson Pinchot.

If you’re into nightmares, take a look at Apprentice 3 “wiseguy” Erin Elmore’s site.

She’s one of those reality contestants who keeps going on about her beauty…let’s buy her a new mirror that works..

I also like how she kept saying she was a high-powered corporate attorney, yet now she’s the host of some local “what’s on” show in Philly. I can almost hear the 15 minutes ticking down.

Our hotel is just up the street from the Kodak Theater. There’s always a weird post-partum feel as they take the whole Oscar glitz down.