{"id":210,"date":"2006-04-04T17:50:26","date_gmt":"2006-04-04T22:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/2006\/04\/04\/brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit\/"},"modified":"2006-04-05T21:54:13","modified_gmt":"2006-04-06T02:54:13","slug":"brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/2006\/04\/04\/brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Brevity is the Soul of Wit&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With that in mind, I offer the following observations&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Other than Sharon Stone, did any one actually think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonypictures.com\/movies\/basicinstinct2\/\">Basic Instinct 2<\/a> was a good idea? I have to admit I am so glad this movie failed, but I have to wonder what was said to the execs to convince them the sequel should be green lit. I guess they could have used the possibility of seeing Sharon Stone naked, but that would only work if anyone cared and if no one had laid eyes on her in the last 10 years. We all know that is not true, so what gives? <\/p>\n<p>On to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brokebackmountain.com\/\">Brokeback Mountain<\/a>, I don&#8217;t really care about this film and I am not going to bother arguing about it with anyone. I will however say it is the subject of some rather clever yet questionable marketing strategies for it DVD sales. The latest commercial touts it as &#8220;The Best Picture of Year&#8221; followed by announcing it an &#8220;Academy Award Winner&#8221;. Both of these statements are true. The critic quoted did refer to Brokeback as &#8220;the best picture&#8221; and it did win an Academy Award, but not for best picture. The audio just implies it did. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/11686715\/\">The real winner was Crash <\/a>which I liked, but I am not buying it on DVD either. I do think it is insulting and underhanded to insinuate your film won an award it clearly did not. Granted many people, like me, are aware the campaign is full of crap, but bragging rights belong to the winner, no matter how &#8220;robbed&#8221; people perceive the loser to be. There are no do-overs in baseball or at the Oscars among other things, Crash is the Best Picture Winner for this year, get over yourselves and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/NASApp\/cs\/ContentServer?pagename=thestar\/Layout\/Article_Type1&#038;c=Article&#038;cid=1144101012342&#038;call_pageid=968867495754&#038;col=969483191630\">give credit where credit is due.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the subject of marketing ploys and media manipulation, I can usually spot them a mile away. In general, I try to avoid them and not give them the time of day, but this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20060404.NOTE04-1\/TPStory\/TPEntertainment\/\">latest ploy<\/a> just deserves a WTF? moment.  An Indian Director, T. Rajeevnath, <a href=\"http:\/\/popwatch.ew.com\/popwatch\/2006\/04\/department_of_t.html#comments\">reportedly<\/a> is considering casting Paris Hilton as Mother Teresa in his new movie. He claims <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20060404.NOTE04-1\/TPStory\/TPEntertainment\/\">her features closely resemble those of Mother Teresa<\/a>. Yeah, that or everyone <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theregister.co.uk\/2006\/02\/14\/hilton_movie\/\">screaming WTF?<\/a> about your film will bring you much needed attention and hopefully increased funding. I don&#8217;t buy the <a href=\"http:\/\/movies.monstersandcritics.com\/news\/article_1097633.php\/Paris_Hilton_%3D_Mother_Teresa\">legitimacy of this guy&#8217;s story<\/a>, but it does make me wonder what you have to smoke to use those two women in the same sentence. <strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> EW, my other bible, has developed a list of other creatively awful casting suggestions, and you can add your own horrible combination<a href=\"http:\/\/popwatch.ew.com\/popwatch\/2006\/04\/department_of_t.html#comments\"> here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lastly, those bastards at my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.answers.com\/topic\/wuab-1\">local UPN affiliate <\/a>are preempting Veronica yet again this week that makes 3 weeks in a row! I officially hate them and waiting until Saturdays to see new episodes. I can&#8217;t wait for the move to Tuesdays as long as the Cavs aren&#8217;t playing then as well! OK, that is it for now&#8230;Weezie, it is SO your turn!!! Until next time&#8230;Cheers!<\/p>\n<p>P.S. Please pray for all of those affected by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/12146638\/\">horrible storms this weekend <\/a>and also for my diocese which received word of the appointment of <a href=\"http:\/\/wkyc.com\/news\/news_article.aspx?storyid=50345\">our new bishop today<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>P.P.S. I realized I promised you some wit and in case you don&#8217;t feel I have delivered, I thought I would give you a couple more tidbits to laugh about. 1.) This Easter, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/The_Office\/video\/office_psa_jellybeans.shtml#video\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t eat the black jelly beans. They taste digusting. It&#8217;s just my opinion, but it&#8217;s true.&#8221; &#8220;The More You Know&#8221;.<\/a> 2.) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eonline.com\/News\/Items\/0,1,18719,00.html?fdnews\">&#8220;Another perk of working on the set of One Tree Hill? There&#8217;s a good chance Chad Michael Murray will propose to you.&#8221;<\/a> If you don&#8217;t know <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eonline.com\/Insider\/Boards\/thread.jspa?threadID=16030&#038;tstart=45\">this story<\/a>, you&#8217;ve got to read this article; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justjared.com\/gossip\/2006\/04\/kenzie_daltons_engagement_ring.php\">what a scab!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With that in mind, I offer the following observations&#8230; Other than Sharon Stone, did any one actually think Basic Instinct 2 was a good idea? I have to admit I am so glad this movie failed, but I have to wonder what was said to the execs to convince them the sequel should be green [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randthought.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}