Shake it Baby

According to Google Trends, ladies in lavender is one of the top 100 searched for things on the ‘net over the last day. I have absolutely no idea why because the film is from 2004 and I don’t think there is any current news about it. I doubt it was even nominated for any recent film awards because it’s now comparatively old.

Anyway, if you’re doing a search for Ladies in Lavender, here are a couple of videos from YouTube I managed to locate.

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For horror movie lovers, you’ll be interested to know that Ellen Page has just been cast to appear in horror movie “Drag Me to Hell.”  This film is a follow-up to Sam Raimi’s “Spider Man 3.”  Not much is known yet about the plot but what we do know is that Page will be playing a character that has been given a supernatural curse.

“Hell” was written by Raimi and his brother Ivan and filming is set to begin on 17 March 2008.  It’s said that this film will go back to the style that characterizes his earlier productions such as “The Evil Dead” and “Army of Darkness.”

A Brief Biography of Ellen Philpotts-Page

Ellen Philpotts-Page was born on 21 February 19987 and despite her young age she has already been nominated for a Golden Globe, an Academy Award and has appeared in Juno, Hard Candy plus X-men:  The Last Stand.

Page’s career began when she was only 10 years old where she appeared in a TV film Pit Pony.  This success opened many parts in small Canadian films and TV shows.

In 2005 she played a starring role in Hard Candy which was described as “one of the most complex, disturbing and haunting performances of the year”.  Not only was she playing the title character but the role even gained her an Oscar nomination.

If you are impressed by Ellen Page’s acting talent you will be delighted to know that there are a number of films that are still to be released over the next year including An American Crime, The Tracey Fragments, The Stone Angel; and Smart People.  Wow, hasn’t she been busy?

In addition to this Page will also be appearing in Whip It! which is Drew Barrymore’s first attempt at directing.  Then she’ll also be starring in Jack and Diane along side Olivia Thirlby who also co-starred Juno.

Ellen Page was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to parent’s Martha Philpotts and Dennis Page, she went to Halifax Grammar School and then graduated from Shambhala School in 2005.  Page then moved to Toronto on her own when she was only 16 so that she could play her role in a Canadian TV show, Trailer Park Boys.  However when she’s not all over the world acting, she resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Bryan Burrough who has worked as a financial journalist for Vanity Fair writes in his book about the crime wave that swept America in 1933 and 1934.  He has a personal interest in this period because it was his grandfather J. Edgar Hoover who helped man a roadblock at Arkansas during a hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.

At the time, police jurisdictions ended at state borders, the FBI was only in its infancy, the highway was spreading across America and fast cars along with machine guns were readily available.  Also this was the time of the Great Depression where 13 million Americans were out of work and they blamed it all on the banks.  This all made for the perfect climate for bank robberies which saw Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Barkers rise to fame.

J. Edgar Hoover was eager to see the small agency become the FBI that we know of today and he did so by promoting is “America’s Most Wanted” in the media.  When the FBI eventually gunned down John Dillinger outside a movie theatre in 1934, this helped catapult Hoover to even more fame.

The book goes on to examine FBI files which have only just relatively recently been released.  These files paint a very different picture from the propaganda Hoover fed the media at the time.  Foremost for Burrough, the book is about how the FBI evolved from a bunch of incompetent amateurs to the slick and professional crime-fighting organization it is today.

Reviews:

“Fantastic….Bryan Burrough has pieced together one of the great American stories, and tells it like gangbusters.” David Von Drehle

“Public Enemies is a fabulous read….Great reporting and lots of new information. I loved it.” James B. Stewart

“A rollicking, rat-a-tat ride….Iconoclastic and fascinating. A genuine treat for true-crime buffs, and for anyone interested in the New Deal era.” Kirkus Reviews

“Burrough…has written a book that brims with vivid portraiture….Public Enemies is excellent true crime with all the strengths and limitations this implies.” Mark Costello, The New York Times Book Review

“Burrough has captured the vivid details of outlaw life on the run….I couldn’t put this book down.” Dominick Dunne

“[S]uperb — readable, thorough, and critical.” Denver Post

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