And All The Kings Men... (Part 2)

posted by Armadillo Joe

While we're talking about Hollywood-style worst-case scenarios, I thought the cartoon to the right was pretty funny.

I don't think this worst-case scenario is quite as funny:

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

Nor this one:

Worst case scenario unfolding in Gulf: Oil leaking from seabed, methane building up

Nor this one:

Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy the Eastern half of the US

Nor this one:

Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?

Ever see the movie "Deep Impact"? Remember the scene on the fishing pier when Tea Leoni (playing a TV news reporter) challenges James Cromwell (playing a seemingly disgraced White House official) because she thinks she's uncovered a presidential affair and he's the unwitting fall guy who resigned claiming to want to spend more time with his family? Only later does the audience find out that there was no affair and that he resigned because the entire White House knew the comet was going to destroy the earth and he really did want to spend time with his family before armageddon, the "affair" was just a ruse to cover his departure and throw the press and public off the scent of the impending global disaster.

Well, it seems Hollywood can't make shit up that won't eventually happen in real life. No, a comet isn't barreling toward the earth and no White House officials are pretending to resign to hide a larger crisis. But I'm not convinced that Tony Hayward's relaxing trip to a fancy yacht race was as much a tone-deaf PR blunder by a narcissistic gazillionaire as a rich man's indulgence in a private pleasure for possibly the last time. Because jailtime is in his future? Maybe.

But maybe something worse. But then I'd just be speculating.

Sydney Pollack Dead at 73

NY Times: LOS ANGELES — Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday at home here. He was 73. The cause was cancer, said the publicist Leslee Dart, who spoke for his family.

Tentative Deal Is Reached in Writers’ Strike

NY Times: An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appeared close on Saturday, as union leaders representing 12,000 movie and television writers said they had reached a tentative deal with production companies.

Just in time for the Academy Awards.

Writers's Strike May Be Settled Soon

1010WINS: LOS ANGELES - A breakthrough in contract talks has been reached between Hollywood studios and striking writers and could lead to a tentative deal as early as next week, a person close to the ongoing negotiations said Saturday.

The two sides breached the gap Friday on the thorniest issues, those concerning compensation for projects distributed via the Internet...