Boston, U.S.A. - In the two-way mirror that often is a reflection of life or art, another trend is forming. The worlds of literature and Hollywood are colliding again, this time with a focus on cryonics, the science intended to reanimate people after death and freezing.

The debut novel from Bruce E. Spitzer, Extra Innings , about baseball great Ted Williams returning to life through cryonics, was published last month by Bear Hill Media. Extra Innings was featured recently in Sports Illustrated Magazine and ranked in the top 25 on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list for sports fiction.

A cryonics movie, Freezing People is Easy, is in pre-production in Hollywood and will shoot in the fall, reportedly starring Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken.

Inspired by Bob Nelson’s memoir We Froze the First Man and an episode of Chicago Public Media and Public Radio International’s This American Life, Freezing People is the story of Nelson’s first cryonics attempts in the 1960s. Errol Morris will direct. Producers include Steven Zaillian and Garrett Basch of Film Rites. Toronto-based Entertainment One announced that it will distribute the picture worldwide.

TV got into the act last winter when Larry King announced on CNN that he wanted to be cryonically preserved. Can reality TV be far behind?

Unlike Freezing People, which looks back at the beginnings of cryonics, Spitzer’s Extra Innings looks forward, featuring Ted Williams reanimated in 2092. In real life he was cryonically preserved after death in 2002. In his imagined return, Williams plays again for the Red Sox, bats against a robot “Botwinder” pitcher that he abhors pilot’s jets for the Marines, and struggles in a future world beset by global warming and flooding.

“The narrative resonates with the consequences of the major issues we face in our world today—the steroids debate in sports, global warming, corporate greed, technology run rampant, and the moral ambiguity of war,” says Spitzer. “It’s a societal and personal journey. Flawed in his first life, Williams must decide in the second, what’s more important: the chance to win his first World Series or the chance to be a better man?”

Extra Innings, adds Spitzer, is not only about science, baseball, redemption, and the quest for meaning in this life and the next, it’s humorous as well. “Similar to what we’re likely to see in Freezing People, you can’t help but poke a little fun at the idea of returning to life after being frozen.”

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New York, U.S.A. – “The Comedy Awards” (#comedyawards) are back and better than, well, last year, when the second annual event airs on COMEDY CENTRAL on Sunday, May 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Some of the biggest names in comedy, including Chris Rock, Kristen Wiig, Ty Burrell,Tracy Morgan, Will Arnett, Hannibal Buress, Chevy Chase, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Annie Mumolo, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Adam Scott, and Jon Stewart joined the night’s big honorees Don Rickles and Robin Williams to honor and celebrate the world of comedy.

Highlights from the show include:

• Robert De Niro and Jon Stewart presenting Don Rickles with the “Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence”
• Patton Oswalt presenting Robin Williams with the “Stand-Up Icon Award”
• Politically-themed fun as Tracy Morgan contemplates joining the Secret Service and Key & Peele bring out President Obama’s Anger Translator Luther
• Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (literally) wrestling over their award for “Best Comedy Film”
• The night’s big winner Louis C.K. wondering if four awards is maybe a few too many
• Chris Rock riffing on whether or not the nominees are actually funny
• And much more…

Fans are encouraged to visit www.thecomedyawards.com to vote for their digital favorites in categories including Best Comedy App, Best Comedy Podcast, Best Remix, Mash-up or Supercut and  Funniest Person on Twitter.  Voting for these categories will be open through Sunday, May 6, when “The Comedy Awards” premieres on COMEDY CENTRAL

“The Comedy Awards” is led by its Board of Directors which include such luminaries as: Carol Burnett,James Burrows, Greg Cavic, Stephen Colbert, James Dixon, Budd Friedman, Jim Gosnell, Rick Greenstein, Brad Grey, Caroline Hirsch, Sharon Jackson, Blair Kohan, Martin Lesak, Steve Levine, Jamie Masada, Adam McKay, Jimmy Miller, Conan O’Brien, Peter Principato, Joan Rivers, Jay Roach, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Rory Rosegarten, Michael Rotenberg, George Schlatter, Mitzi Shore, David Steinberg, Jon Stewart, Lily Tomlin, Sandy Wernick and Geof Wills.

The Board of Directors is responsible for the selection of the nominees.  The nominees are then sent out to over 1500 working members of the comedy community to determine the winners.

“The Comedy Awards” has once again joined forces with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) to endow The American Comedy Fund.  Without a union or other protection, many comedians face unique challenges to succeed and survive.

The Fund provides much-needed financial assistance, health benefits and other resources for comedians across the country during times of need, crisis or transition.  The American Comedy Fund is administered by EIF in collaboration with the Motion Picture & Television Fund and The Actors Fund.

Don Mischer, Casey Patterson, EVP, Event Production, Viacom Entertainment Group and Charlie Haykelare the Executive Producers.  Juliane Hare is Producer.  Beth McCarthy Miller, the Peabody and DGA Award-winning and Emmy-nominated Director, directed “The Comedy Awards.”  “The American Comedy Awards” was created by George Schlatter.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.comedycentral.com

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Jason and Julie (Adam Scott and Jennifer Westfeldt) are single thirty-something Manhattanites. They’ve been best friends since college, they live in the same building, trust each other implicitly – and aren’t remotely attracted to each other.

As the film opens, they meet at a chic downtown restaurant for a dinner with their closest friends, two married couples: Leslie and Alex (Maya Rudolph and Chris O’ Dowd), funny and frank — and Ben and Missy (Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig), such a sexy pair that they are in fact having a quickie in the restaurant bathroom when Julie and Jason arrive.

Jason notices the behavior of some unruly children being seated at the table next to them – and he and Julie riff on how inappropriate it is to bring kids to such a sophisticated place. But their comic rant is cut short when Leslie suddenly blurts out that she’s pregnant.

Mortified, Julie and Jason turn on a dime and congratulate their friends wholeheartedly – and earnestly:  it’s the first of their close friends to take the plunge. Leslie and Alex reassure them that they would never bring their kids to a fancy restaurant – they’re gonna be cool parents, and nothing is going to change.

Fast forward to four years later – and everything has changed.

Leslie and Alex have two kids, Missy and Ben have a newborn – and Jason and Julie, still single and childless, find themselves taking a long expensive cab ride to Alex and Leslie’s apartment in Brooklyn – on Jason’s birthday. They have brought the wine, the food, the cake, Julie has brought the only birthday gift for Jason – and when they arrive, the mood is not remotely festive. Their friends are sniping at each other, harried and utterly consumed by the demands of parenting.

On their way home from what proves to be a funny, entirely chaotic and thoroughly unsatisfying birthday celebration, Julie and Jason end up in a bar, wondering what’s happened to their friends – who now seem overwhelmed, exhausted, angry, humorless  – altogether unfamiliar.

Is this what happens when you have kids? Julie and Jason riff on whether you can maintain true romance in your life – and also have children. Jason offhandedly suggests that maybe they should have a kid together and beat the system – be with their kid half the time, and pursue unfettered, uncomplicated romance the other half.

It’s a funny joke… or is it?

Julie and Jason have their baby – Joe – and all is well. They are the most competent, functional, loving pair of unmarried, unattached parents one could hope to see (much to their friends’ chagrin), and they both start to date. Jason meets Maryjane (Megan Fox), a lithe Broadway dancer who is Jason’s physical ideal and Leslie introduces Julie to Kurt (Edward Burns), dashing, tall, impossibly kind – and recently divorced, with two kids of his own.

Have Julie and Jason beat the system?

Nothing proves as simple as they’d hoped. Their friends – who can’t help feeling they are part of the system Julie and Jason have set out to “beat” – are threatened by their friends’ choice and how well it seems to be working. And Julie, even as she gets more and more deeply involved with Kurt, finds herself falling hard for Jason – despite the fact that she’s thought of him as a brother for nearly two decades.

Having kids proves to be the crucible through which all of these friends’ lives are forever changed – in sweeping and surprising ways. There is great comedy and enormous feeling in this story about discovering the love of your life in the way you were least expecting.

‘Friends With Kids’ is set for major release in cinemas around the USA on March 9.

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