Over the years, there has been a growing trend among Hollywood starlets, and it’s not their sense in fashion. The image of the it-girl is younger, taller and skinnier than ever. And with the social media growing at a rapidly fast pace, young girls are bombarded with images of scarily thin starlets.

With that in mind, what message is Hollywood sending to females all over the world? And how are young girls coping with the pressure to be alarmingly skinny?

According to a recent study, 81% of ten-year-old girls are afraid of being fat, while 42% of girls in grades first through third claim they want to be thinner. Some question whether or not the media is having a negative impact on body image amongst females, and there definitely is a direct correlation.

‘In a recent poll, “79% of teenage girls who vomit and 73% of teenage girls who use diet pills are frequent readers of women’s health and fitness magazines.” Canadian researcher, Gregory Fouts has reported that over 75% of females in TV sitcoms are underweight while only 5% are of an average or healthy BMI (body mass index).

Gisele Bundchen is just one of the astonishingly thin starlets who was recently praised for her body. VOGUE magazine stated that Gisele, “strays from the rail thin body image of the quintessential supermodel,” yet, she stands 5’11’’ and is estimated to weigh a mere 115 pounds, which is 25% below her ideal body weight. In contrast, the average American woman is 5’4’’ and weighs approximately 140 pounds. This is a drastic difference from the average size of the female supermodel.

As the average woman’s weight has increased over the years, Hollywood stars are continuing to drop numbers on the scale. The diet industry has generated over 40 billion dollars last year as many average size women are resorting to diet pills and fad diets to lose those extra pounds and conform to the societial ideal of thinness. 

Many women progress from a single diet into pathological dieting and according to RadarPrograms.com, “one out of every three women and one out of every four men are on a diet at any given time.”

Starlets like Keira Knightley, Kate Bosworth, Mary-Kate Olsen, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, and Nicky Hilton are among several celebrities who have been publicly noted regarding their shrinking frames. Most recent, Angelina Jolie has faced a lot of questioning regarding her emaciated figure.

Jolie has stated in interviews that she goes on a crash diet that she refers to as her ‘movie diet’, in order to be pin-thin when the cameras start rolling. She has gone to such extremes as an intake of only 600 calories a day. When asked how she gets in tip-top shape before a fashion show, Adrianna Lima has revealed her secrets, which are a far cry from healthy. Lima claims she doesn’t eat any solid food for nine days before a show and refuses to intake any water while prepping 24 hours before the show starts.

As women all over the world read dieting advice such as this, there is one positive side to it. The Hollywood scene has become so obsessed with body image and size that magazines and fashion industries attempt to “buck this trend” of the stick-thin look, in search of new trends.

The Quebec magazine, Coupe de Pouce has recently been including more and more plus-size women in their articles while one of the world’s biggest fashion capitols, Milan, has decided to ban any “ultra-thin” model from the runway. Spain has joined in on the efforts by creating a project that includes measuring healthy weight women’s clothing sizes with laser.

If we could get advertisers and others in the Hollywood industry to start taking a stand in healthier living then there is a chance of change the statistics and to start making a positive impact on women and their body image.

The article Hollywood ‘Hunger Games’: What Message is it Sending to Females? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

From Reese Witherspoon and Natalie Portman’s stacked bracelets to Angelina Jolie and Jessica Biel’s diamond stud earrings, Hollywood’s leading actresses chose to celebrate their achievements with platinum jewelry at the 69^th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Platinum is naturally white, so it never changes color or fades, thereby maximizing the brilliance of diamonds and colored gemstones. It is the ideal setting for the red carpet. Following is a list of stars that celebrated the night’s achievements in platinum:

Angelina Jolie

-Platinum and diamond stud earrings (25 carats) by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and diamond ring (12 carats) by Lorraine Schwartz

Reese Witherspoon

-Platinum and European cut diamond drop earrings (9 carats each) by Fred Leighton
-A pair of platinum and diamond bracelets from 1900 by Fred Leighton
-Platinum and diamond bracelet from the 1920s by Fred Leighton

Natalie Portman

-Platinum and diamond drop earrings by Harry Winston
-3 platinum and diamond bracelets by Harry Winston
-Platinum and pear shaped diamond cluster ring by Harry Winston

Jessica Biel

-Platinum and round diamond opera length necklace worn down her back by Tiffany & Co.
-Platinum and round solitaire diamond stud earrings by (6.12 carats) by Tiffany & Co.

Emma Stone

­-Blackened platinum and ruby stud earrings (19 carats) by Lorraine Schwartz

Lea Michele

-Blackened platinum and diamond earrings by Lorraine Schwartz
-Blackened platinum and emerald ring (29 carats) by Lorraine Schwartz

Claire Danes

-Platinum earrings with princess cut diamonds by Bulgari

Jessica Alba

-Platinum earrings with diamonds (37.14 carats) by Bulgari

Kate Beckinsale

-Platinum and diamond mesh bowtie earrings by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and diamond braided cuffs by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and diamond geometric cuff by Lorraine Schwartz
*Total is 300 carats of diamonds

Jodie Foster

-Platinum and diamond earrings (8 carats) by Bulgari
-Platinum bracelet with 84 diamonds (42.61 carats) by Bulgari
-Platinum and diamond ring by Bulgari

Stacey Keibler

-Platinum and diamond cluster earrings by Chopard (9 carats)

Sofia Vergara

-Platinum and diamond earrings by Harry Winston
-2 Platinum and diamond bracelets by Harry Winston
-Platinum and diamond ring by Harry Winston

Jessica Chastain

-Platinum cluster earrings with pearl and diamonds by Harry Winston
-Platinum and diamond feather ring by Harry Winston
-Vintage platinum and diamond bracelet by Harry Winston

Emma Roberts (Warner Bros./InStyle party)

-Platinum and diamond cluster earrings (15 carats) by Chopard
-2 platinum and diamond cuffs (107 total carats) by Chopard
-Platinum and rose cut diamond ring (15 carats) by Chopard

Diane Lane

-Platinum chandelier earrings with yellow and white diamonds by Neil Lane
-Platinum cocktail ring with yellow and white diamonds by Neil Lane
-Platinum bangle bracelets with yellow and white diamonds by Neil Lane

Zooey Deschanel

-Platinum Estate ring from 1970 featuring pearl and diamonds by Van Cleef & Arpels

Dianna Agron

-Platinum bow bracelet with onyx and diamonds from the 1920s by Fred Leighton
-Platinum line bracelet with diamonds and onyx from the 1920s by Fred Leighton

Sarah Hyland

-Blackened platinum and multicolored diamond flower earrings by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and diamond ring by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and diamond cuff by Lorraine Schwartz

Piper Perabo

-Platinum and diamond cuff by Tiffany & Co.
-Platinum and diamond stud earrings by Tiffany & Co.

Debra Messing

-Blackened platinum, amethyst and emerald drop earrings by Lorraine Schwartz
-Platinum and emerald ring by Lorraine Schwartz

Julianne Moore

-Platinum earrings with diamonds and emerald bead tassels by Fred Leighton

Julianna Margulies

-Blackened platinum, green jade and diamond drop earrings by Lorraine Schwartz

Paula Patton

-Platinum and diamond “Firecracker” earrings by Kwiat
-Platinum and diamond bracelets by Kwiat

Madonna

-5 platinum and diamond bracelets by Neil Lane
-Platinum and diamond cocktail ring by Neil Lane

Helen Mirren

-Platinum pendant earrings with sapphire and diamonds from the 1950s by Fred Leighton
-Platinum barrel link bracelet with sapphire and diamonds from the 1930s by Fred Leighton

Queen Latifah

-Platinum and diamond chandelier earrings (30 carats) by Chopard
-Platinum and asscher cut diamond bracelet (40 carats) by Chopard

Andrea Riseborough

-Platinum and diamond necklace (25 carats) by Neil Lane

Jane Lynch

-Blackened platinum, black diamond and blue sapphire earrings by Lorraine Schwartz
-Blackened platinum ring by Lorraine Schwartz
-Blackened platinum bracelet by Lorraine Schwartz

Jane Fonda

-Platinum and diamond drop necklace (38 carats) by Chopard
-Platinum and diamond bracelet (43 carats) by Chopard
-Platinum and cushion cut diamond drop earrings (7 carats) by Chopard
-Platinum and diamond heart shaped rings featuring 390 diamonds (14 carats) by Chopard

Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

The article Stars Don Platinum Jewelry for the Golden Globe Awards appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

In the Land of Blood and Honey is the dramatic story of two lives, brought together only to be torn apart in the brutal realities of the Bosnian War. Angelina Jolie, Oscar-winning actress and Icon, is behind the camera for the first time. In the movie’s production notes, Jolie and the cast explains the journey they took to realize the full potential of In the Land of Blood and Honey.

Jolie recognized that the different emotions involved with each character’s relationships would require different approaches. “Rade and Goran tended to rehearse,” she recalls. “They wanted to rehearse. They had met and discussed it, and it was their way. That was fine with me. I felt that as they spent time together, and the more they got to know each other, play together, the more familiar they would be.

It wasn’t extensive, but it was the method.” Kostić felt that familial kinship as soon as he and Šerbedžija began working together. “He’s such a huge actor with this enormous body of work. I felt this father-son relationship immediately when I met Rade. I felt this great respect for him. We would spend an hour rehearsing before we would shoot a scene. I’ve worked with a lot of actors of that generation, and they never rehearse. Rade’s different.”

“With Zana and Goran, however, we didn’t rehearse,” says Jolie. “We wanted them to surprise each other. So often, one of them would have information the other one didn’t have. They could have the ability to be really looking at each other for information. We wanted that chess game to always exist between them.

I never encouraged them to be too comfortable with each other. You wanted them to keep a bit of distance so that they weren’t sure.” Kostić felt similarly. “I don’t really want to know what Ajla is thinking or feeling when Danijel is not there,” he says. “It gave our relationship a dynamic.

I knew what Ajla was saying to Danijel, but beyond that…The more we got into it, the more strongly we felt this trust as actors. We were trusted.” That trust was felt strongly by Marjanović as well. “The three of us—me, Goran, Angelina—worked as a team. From day one, it felt like we knew each other for a long time, that we were really good friends. As with any film, you have to feel the trust from your partner. This trust between us was never broken. Once you have that, everything can run smoothly.”

An important example for Jolie became the scene where Danijel discovers that Ajla has been raped. “In that scene, I knew that as an actor, if I was forced to do that in pieces and for too long, it would drain me and I would start to be conscious of my behavior; it would be very painful and not as organic.

We made sure that everything was ready on that day, that the cameras and lights were set, so that Goran and Zana were able to do it all in one go. There’s a cut in the edit, but we did shoot it all in one take. I came in and told them, ‘We’re gonna do this hopefully two times, and hopefully that will be it.

I know that it’s cold, and it will be very difficult, but if you can get into it, feel it, and give me everything you’ve got, I will not make you do this 30 times. It’ll be our job to come to you, to move around you, to sculpt it with the camera and the editing. But right now, give me everything you’ve got.’ We pushed through that morning, and it was a very physically and emotionally challenging morning for both of them. But then it was done.”

Location shooting occurred in Budapest, Hungary. “We wanted to shoot in Sarajevo, but the city doesn’t look like it did then,” says Jolie. “None of Bosnia really does, with the exception of a few pockmarked buildings, because—fortunately—it’s physically recovered. Budapest had a lot of empty space to shoot, and the architecture and landscape looked very similar.

At the time we shot our film, they opened a studio. It was a great place to shoot. But it was important to include shots that were genuinely of the area. There were a few days shot in Bosnia, like in the opening of the film—a lot of wide shots and plate shots. We needed to bring in the beauty of the country, the real landscape.”

The article Filming ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’: Maintaining Authenticity appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

As a first-time director, Hollywood star Angelina Jolie wanted great talent on the crew for her upcoming movie In the Land of Blood and Honey, who could create a comfortable working environment. “I wanted good people around this cast and this subject matter,” she says. “I wanted people with heart who wanted to do this for the right reasons.”

The first step was to find the producer who would nurture the project as closely as she would, and for Jolie, that was Graham King. “I don’t think anybody else would’ve done it beside Graham,” she says. “It’s a famously unpopular subject matter, especially with film. Financially, it’s not been a lucrative subject matter for producers.

I chose Graham because I’d worked with him before. He’s a very direct, no-nonsense person and I knew he’d just tell it to me straight. We would go head-to-head. If we had to fight something out, we’d come to a conclusion together. There wouldn’t be 30 executives to please.”

One of the first crew members she approached was her DP, Dean Semler. Australian by birth, Semler has built an impressive résumé in Hollywood, winning an Academy Award in 1991 for lensing Dances with Wolves. Jolie worked with Semler on The Bone Collector, and the two had remained close.

“I wrote to him, asking if he’d read the script and if he would recommend people I could call for this,” Jolie recalls. “I assumed he’d just give me a list of names that would be good for the film. But then he said, ‘I’ll do it.’ I couldn’t believe it.” Getting the look right was of paramount importance—a way of maintaining authenticity.

“Angie showed me a lot of photographs as references,” Semler recalls. “It was very inspiring to see how she wanted the film to look. She knows what she wants and will tell me exactly how she wants it to look.” Jolie knew that Semler’s highly versatile talent would be able to pull off the right balancing act between beauty and destruction.

“He’s so talented that you could look at a few of his films and none would look quite like the other,” she says. “Dean has such a confidence and ease. I knew that he would make it beautiful without making it so beautiful that it became poetic and not real. I knew that he would capture something that would have elegance to it, but not so overdone that you would become distracted by the photography.

It had to have beauty in it, though. We talked a lot about the fact that there was no electricity during the war. We had to work a lot with a single bulb, or windows—single light sources. We drew on Vermeer and Rembrandt, anything that we could think of that would bring us around to the challenges of lack of light.

It’s not a very expensive film, but the way he shot the film makes it look like it cost much more than it did.” Jolie had recently worked with production designer Jon Hutman on The Tourist, a film that had a very different approach to set design. But she knew that their working relationship would be right for In the Land of Blood and Honey.

“He’d never done a war film,” Jolie says, “and suddenly he was in rubble. We’d just come off The Tourist where everything was beautiful, and here he is in mud! He was so great to work with.” Costume designer Gabriele Binder brought a keen eye toward the authenticity of the period and of the location, something that Jolie greatly appreciated.

“I think one of the most misunderstood things about filmmaking is costuming,” Jolie says. “People often get acknowledged for great wardrobe for a period piece or some extreme drama, something that really stands out to the eye. But I think the hardest thing to do, hands down, is to make something look real.”

Binder agrees. “We tried to come close to the people who lived through the war, to their reality,” she says. “She understood the colors of that time, of 1990s Yugoslavia,” Jolie says. “We picked colors for each character that are so subtle you might not even notice.” “I knew lots of people in the areas of Bosnia that were excited to send me materials so that I could understand their clothes better,” says Binder.

“We had an idea about what we liked with color. We tried to stay with blues and browns—something very Eastern European. It’s not necessarily immediately beautiful, but as you look at it, you are drawn to it.” “Hopefully, they will feel like real people’s clothes, matched to real personalities,” says Jolie.

To do that, Binder spent a great deal of time with each individual actor in order to create unique costumes for their characters. “Gabriele talked to each actor in such detail that every single one of them, no matter how small their part, had a real say in who they were, and why they were dressed the way they were.

That’s very, very hard. In military uniforms, for example, everyone is wearing the same clothes, and sometimes they can look like they don’t suit the person wearing them – they can be too shiny, too new. . Gabriele managed to get past all of those hurdles. I think she’s extraordinary.”

Semler, Hutman, and Binder have all marveled at Jolie’s collaborative nature. But for her, that instinct seems perfectly natural. “I walked on that set every day so grateful and amazed that I was surrounded by so many talented, extraordinary people. It would’ve been foolish to not let them help guide the process,” she relates.

“I think that’s the most wonderful thing about filmmaking: the team. I never felt that as much as an actor because we’re separated from the crew. Emotionally, we’re in a place that we have to stay in. We live in that second world, the world inside the production. The crew works as a team, as a collaborative unit.

You inspire each other; you get excited by each other’s ideas. It’s the most fun part of the creative process. It’s wonderful to be a creative person, but to play, experiment and learn with others is really what we all want. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Every single person who worked on that film taught me so much.”

The article Angelina Jolie: A First-time Director Finds Her Team appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Between 1992 and 1995, the Bosnian war claimed the lives of approximately 100,000 people and drove more than 2 million people from their homes, as refugees or internally displaced persons. In a pattern of “ethnic cleansing,” militias attacked and expelled civilians in areas under their control to create ethnically pure enclaves.

It is against this backdrop that Angelina Jolie is making her directional debut this year with In the Land of Blood and Honey. After securing her script and the financing, Jolie set about assembling the right actors for the jobs. It had always been paramount to approach the casting process with sensitivity and care.

“When the roles were being cast, we had the casting director ask the actors what they’d gone through, what their backgrounds were,” she says. “I wanted to cast a Bosnian Serb as the lead actor, and a Bosnian Muslim or someone from a mixed family as the lead actress. I also wanted men from Serbia willing to work on the project, not just Bosnian Serbs.

That country’s involvement artistically was very important to me.” People from all backgrounds and creeds were asked to come together to tell this story. The first actor to come on board was Rade Šerbedžija. Šerbedžija plays Nebojsa, the Serb general whose invocations of tradition and nationalism have a strong sway over his conflicted son, Danijel.

Croatian Serb by birth and raised in Zagreb, Šerbedžija was known in Hollywood in the 1990s for playing foreign villains. While the character of Nebojsa certainly fell along the villainous spectrum, Šerbedžija sensed something richer and more resonant about him than most depictions of Serb soldiers during the war.

“I had been offered a number of roles in films about the war in Yugoslavia, and had refused quite a few,” he says. But Jolie’s script offered a different take on the war. “Angelina called me and we talked,” says Šerbedžija. “I liked her approach to the subject, and how she talked about it, her motives and her passion.”

For Šerbedžija, the scope was what set the film apart. “I think that the script Angelina wrote has the depth of a Greek tragedy, which is really hard to find in today’s movie making,” he elaborates. “That’s why I hope that by approaching the tragedy from an intimate angle, maybe it will help people understand the war as not one happening to some ‘strange people in a far country,’ but to people like them, complex people that get dragged in. It can also happen to them.”

For the rest of the cast, Jolie kept herself anonymous in order to avoid any coloring of the project for the auditioning actors. “The cast didn’t know who was behind the film, or the size of it; I kept my name off the scripts. I just wanted to know if they were responding to the material.” Zana Marjanović, a Bosnian Muslim who plays Ajla, the film’s protagonist, was convinced that the script was a local creation.

“Those scenes were so authentic. I was almost sure they had to have been written by a Bosnian writer! It seemed so familiar to me.” Such a response to the film’s story was crucial for Jolie. “I had already decided that we wouldn’t make the film unless the actors responded positively.”

Actor Nikola Djurićko, a Serbian who plays Serb soldier Darko, remembers when he discovered that Jolie had written the script and was to direct it. “The casting director said to me, ‘She liked you a lot,’” Djurićko says. “I asked, ‘Who liked me a lot?’ She said, ‘Angelina Jolie.’ I said, ‘Don’t you lie to me!’ It was like winning the lottery, because as an actor in Belgrade, you don’t expect to get an offer like that very often.”

Goran Kostić, a Bosnian Serb who plays Danijel, the tortured soldier who’s caught between his love for Ajla and his loyalty to his father, thought that it made perfect sense for the project to have come from Jolie. “When I first found out that it was Angelina who wrote the script, I was of course surprised. I thought, ‘why does she want to do this?’

Then when I thought about the subject matter and her humanitarian work, I realized that she wants to help the world, so of course, this film fits. It’s a natural progression, the next big step in her work.”

The character of Ajla is a Bosnian Muslim artist, a woman whose expressiveness and lust for life attracts Danijel. Those qualities also leave her confused about her feelings for him once the war starts. Such a complex individual required a performance from someone with a star-like presence. For Jolie, Marjanović has the transfixing qualities of a movie star.

“When Zana’s audition tape came on, I physically leaned forward,” Jolie says. “She’s someone who draws you in. She has something about her that very few people possess on screen. She has a mystery and a strength that I find captivating and powerful. She’s very much a woman to me. She represents what a woman is.

She holds the screen without having to do or say anything. That was so important for the character of Ajla, because she lives so much in silence. The actress had to be so complex and interesting that you could be fascinated by her just standing in a room. Zana has that, I was so lucky to work with such an extraordinarily gifted actress who had such a depth of emotion that she brings to the screen.”

Moviegoers can experience the full story in cinemas around the US on December 23, 2011.

The article Casting Authenticity – Angelina Jolie’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Set against the backdrop of the Bosnian War that tore the Balkan region apart in the 1990s, In the Land of Blood and Honey tells the story of Danijel (Goran Kostić) and Ajla (Zana Marjanović), two Bosnians from different sides of a brutal ethnic conflict.

Danijel, a Bosnian Serb police officer, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim artist, are together before the war, but their relationship is changed as violence engulfs the country. Months later, Danijel is serving under his father, General Nebojsa Vukojevich (Rade Šerbedžija), as an officer in the Bosnian Serb Army.

He and Ajla come face to face again and as the conflict takes hold of their lives, their relationship changes, their motives and connection to one another become ambiguous and their allegiances grow uncertain. In the Land of Blood and Honey portrays the incredible emotional, moral and physical toll that the war takes on individuals as well as the consequences that stem from the lack of political will to intervene in a society stricken with conflict.

“I wanted to make a film that would express, in an artistic way, my frustrations with the international community’s failure to intervene in conflicts in a timely and effective manner. I also wanted to explore and understand the Bosnian War, as well as broader issues such as women in conflict, sexual violence, accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the challenge of reconciliation.

“It was the deadliest war in Europe since World War II, but sometimes people forget the terrible violence that happened in our time, in our generation, to our generation.” With this in mind, Jolie began to write what became the script for In the Land of Blood and Honey, which she would eventually direct.

For almost five decades after World War II, the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina formed part of Yugoslavia, alongside the Republics of Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Macedonia, and the semi-autonomous Serbian provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. During this time, a rich web of ethnic and religious identities made Bosnia’s population of 4 million one of the most diverse in Europe.

Bosnian Muslims formed the largest part of the population, followed by Serbs, Croats, and other groups. All spoke the same language, and intermarriage was common. The Bosnian War erupted in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav Army, occupied towns and cities in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital, in an attempt to carve out a separate and ethnically pure “Republic of Serbs.”

The war would become the most devastating conflict in Europe since World War II. Jolie knew that this project was one that had to be treated with the proper respect and delicacy. “I went to people in the various governments, people in the international community, the UN and journalists who covered the war, and I asked, ‘Is this right?’

But the most important voices were the people from the area, the actors. They lived through the war. Although the people who covered the story — international journalists, international politicians — had important views, the people who were on the ground, whose families were affected, who were shot at, who were made refugees — they were the ones that I was the most nervous to send the script to and whose opinion I most valued.”

In the Land of Blood and Honey will be available in theaters December 23.

Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com

The article Angelina Jolie’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The movie script was originally written by Stan Chervin, the movie is being released through Columbia pictures and stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The movie was originally intended to begin production in June 2009 but days before filming began Sony put the film on hold.

The film script had elements in it that were non traditional for a sports movie. As such there were no interviews with real life players and as a result of this the film director Steven Soderbergh was let go. He was replaced by Bennett Miller and Adam Sorkin rewrote the script. The movie puts a different spin on the story of baseball.

Although there have been movies made about baseball before this is not a typical movie about baseball. The movie is about a man who had a vision to do something new in baseball. He was told he was leading a team of people who were rejected by the scouts and a team that couldn’t compete with the major teams because of lack of finances. Billy never gave up his dreams despite the obstacles in front of him.

Even in making this movie it was not an easy project to get off the ground because it doesn’t fall in the typical category of a sports movie. This was the reason for the dismissal of the original director. The movie is based on a non fiction book of the same name published by Michael Lewis in 2003.

Its amazing movie that really is inspiring and it’s a film that would be enjoyed by most people but especially those people who have always dreamed about taking on the system. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s and the guy who assembles the team, who has an epiphany: all of baseball’s conventional wisdom he has a big dream the desire to do something and the wisdom to pull it off.

He believes baseballs conventional wisdom is wrong. He is forced to basically reinvent the game on a very tight budget . He will have to outwit the richer clubs and work out how exactly is he going to do this. That’s what the film will desire to reveal to audiences. This one time jock will team up with ivy league graduate Peter Brand played by Jonah Hill, in the most unlikely partnership.

Together they recruit all the bargain players that the scouts have labelled them as flaws but they still have the ability to get on base score points and win the game. Many are saying that Beane is tearing the heart and soul out of the game. All Beane is doing is revolutionizing the game and changing the system to give evryone a chance to play.

The great thing about films like this are even though there are challenges in this case big teams with a lot of money, with faith and perserverance our dreams can be realised if don’t allow anyone to stand in our way.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.moneyball-movie.com/

The article Brad Pitt Takes a Spin on Baseball in ‘Moneyball’ appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Picture Audrey Hepburn, the beautiful, classy movie star, sitting to eat (perhaps breakfast?), walking through a crowded party or sitting in the backseat of a car.  What is the consistent image?  Take a look at the 1961 film classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, a role she called “the jazziest of my career.”  What is the one thing that is undeniably classy and memorable about her role in this and other films?  It is her extra long cigarette holder.  How was the iconic Hepburn, or Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and other classic “Bogie” films, as well as many, many other movie stars of the golden era of Hollywood, allowed to be shown smoking in public virtually anywhere they desired?  They, and the public at large, were unaware of the dangers of smoking.  The deadly dangers.

Now, you can sit down to dinner or cozy up at your favorite bar and channel your inner Audrey Hepburn.  Heads might turn, but you will be completely within legal limits.  Cigarettes indoors, in public?  How can that be?  It might not be at the end of an extra long cigarette holder, like the one Hepburn favored, but it will be completely healthy and harmless.  Electronic cigarettes are the newest trend, and a very good one at that.  What better way to quit smoking than to continue going through the motions without any actual tobacco intake?  Well, as long as it’s an e-cigarette, you can.

According to a study conducted by the American Heart Association, approximately 25.6 million men and 22.6 million women in the United States are smokers.  Would many of these Americans quit smoking if it wasn’t a constant, difficult struggle to do so?  Sources say yes.

E-cigarettes are the new electronic smoking alternative that look and feel like real cigarettes, and allow smokers to get the sensation of smoking without any tobacco.  E-cigarettes have no carcinogens.  Instead of burning tobacco or a comparable smoking product, the e-cigarette atomizes a liquid into a tar-free and odorless vapor.  It is up to the smoker whether the cigarette’s liquid contains nicotine or not.

The device is a battery-operated, long-shaped tube.  Most of these cigarettes mimic the appearance of a cigarette or cigar, giving the e-cigarette the most authentic look possible.  Others look like a ballpoint pen (biros).  While there are disposable e-cigarettes on the market, the majority are reusable and come with replaceable and refillable cartridges.

An electronic cigarette is broken down into several components.  The mouthpiece, often referred to as the cartridge, is fixed to the end of a tube.  There is a small cup inside the mouthpiece that contains an absorbent material that is drenched in a liquid.  This liquid contains varying levels of nicotine, if any at all.  The cartridge can be refilled or replaced once it’s empty.

The cartridge contains a liquid referred to as e-liquid.  The e-liquid can contain hundreds of flavors, including menthol.  For smokers who want nicotine, they can get an e-liquid containing nicotine that has been dissolved in propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin — both common food additives.  According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin are recognized as one of its GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) substances.  There are no known serious side effects with these ingredients and they have been used since the 1950s inside nebulizers and asthma inhalers.

The battery in most e-cigarettes is a lithium-ion battery and is rechargeable.  The battery powers the heating element, called an atomizer, and allows the liquid to heat up and vaporize.  Once vaporized, the liquid can be breathed in — inhaled.

In addition to the cartridge, there can also be a cartomizer.  A cartomizer is a one piece unit combining the cartridge with the atomizer.  It is screwed into the battery and used only once.  It is meant to be disposed of afterward, although, some people do refill them.  Cartomizers are the optimum choice for beginners because the cartomizers are sold prefilled with the flavor of choice.

The newest versions of e-cigarettes have a sensor that automatically starts the heating method when the device is sucked on.  Older versions use a button that needs to be pressed in during inhalation.  Most versions, especially the newer ones, have an LED, light emitting diode, that lights up when the device is made active to simulate the burning tip of a cigarette.

More research needs to be conducted, however, to test the safety of electronic cigarettes.  The FDA has refused some entry of shipments of these products coming into the United States since the components of e-cigarettes have not yet been tested for safety.  E-cigarette buyers will have to provide customs with a letter explaining the electronic cigarettes are for personal use.  “We basically don’t know anything about them [e-cigarettes],” Dr. Richard D. Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic said.  “They’ve never been tested for safety or efficacy to help people stop smoking.”

All the same, e-cigarettes are the latest trend and can even be seen on the big screen.  Johnny Depp “smokes” electronic cigarettes in the film “The Tourist.”  Depp plays Frank, an American tourist in Italy, who meets Elise (Angelina Jolie).  Depp’s character explains the benefits of e-cigarettes throughout the movie to Angelina Jolie’s character.  On a much smaller screen, e-cigarettes have been seen on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Whatever your motivation for trying out electronic cigarettes, it should be acknowledged that the choice to move toward a tobacco-free lifestyle is a difficult, but important decision.  E-cigarettes can, and have, helped smokers quit completely.  When reformed smokers feel a nicotine craving, they can “light up” an e-cigarette, feel the simulated sensation, and curb the craving.

Since e-cigarettes produce no second hand smoke, your neighbors and friends will be happy that you chose the alternative method of smoking.  Smokers will no longer have to struggle with the health and social stigmas associated with smoking.  One day, they will not have to struggle with smoking at all.

For now, sit down at your favorite bar, take out your electronic cigarette and try to remember how Hepburn did it.  You might get some unwelcome, uneducated glares, but let that be your cue to start educating others.

The article E-Cigarettes, Smoking Turns Electronic appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.