I still love buying school supplies

By Dino Sossi, From Monday’s Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Sep. 06, 2010 12:00AM EDT

I still feel a swell of excitement when I reminisce about Mom ushering me onto the bus each August when I was a little boy. This wasn’t a typical shopping trip downtown. This was something special.

I wasn’t in a state of euphoria because of the promise of a new velour shirt or corduroy pants – both brown, of course. It wasn’t about buying a baseball glove. Or new music. No, it was all about our final destination.

The school supplies store. Pardon?

To be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot to do growing up in a small town like Sarnia, Ont. To a provincial boy of limited means but seemingly unlimited imagination, the school supplies store was the place. An amusement park popping with paper. A magical midway of multicoloured markers. A freaky funhouse of full-size folders.

Mom instilled a sense of independence in her young brood. She would let me, my older brother Carlo and little sister Paula wander through what felt like an endless bazaar of academic tchotchkes.

But aimless I was not. Even at the ripe old age of 9, I had all the telltale signs of a Type A personality. I didn’t carry around an Alex P. Keaton briefcase. I didn’t have a written to-do list. But I did have a mental one.

Only after the remove provided by graduating to professional life did the greater importance of travelling to a school supplies store and puzzling over pens and paper reveal itself.

Buying school supplies was serious business. And being one of seven kids made their purchase even more important – there wasn’t a penny to be wasted. Choices needed to be made. The right ones. And testing the merchandise was the only way to go.

Mastering cursive writing in Mrs. Tonelli’s Grade 4 class necessitated smooth ink flow. Little did I know that what seemed like a year-defining issue, weighing the pros and cons of fine v. medium-tipped pens like a pint-sized Plato, was just the beginning. There would be an endless array of increasingly bewildering decisions involving academia. And, of course, the tortuous journey to adulthood.

To the adult eye, the school supplies store was just another cathedral of crazed cardboard consumerism, less to be savoured than survived. But to the whimsical nature of a pre-pubescent boy, it represented something infinitely more significant.

Pushing open its mammoth creaky doors and breathing in its mixture of ink, erasers and books invoked an intoxicating spell whispering promises that would magically come to fruition upon my return to school. The wonder of discovery. The camaraderie of friends. And the butterflies of expectation.

Today, as an adult who has earned degrees in Canada and England and has enrolled once more at Columbia University, the idea of buying school supplies and the reality of revisiting full-time studies represents something even more profound. Only after the remove provided by graduating to professional life did the greater importance of travelling to a school supplies store and puzzling over pens and paper reveal itself.

My Peter Pan-like existence, the slow-building pressure of adulthood punctuated by recurring respites in university, feels like a form of resistance to the conventional narrative associated with the working world. Professional environments have a tendency to value us solely based on our ability to produce. And those who produce the most, at the fastest rate and to the highest quality, are the most valuable. Unfortunately, the rest of the traits we have spent a lifetime developing to become well-rounded human beings are oftentimes deemed irrelevant.

During post-secondary studies, in this veritable Shangri-la on the precipice of adulthood, people are viewed more holistically and given a number of opportunities to display their full bloom. Being inspired in an oak-panelled lecture hall, reading a musty old book or coming to terms with a novel idea is bewitching to a person like me who is motivated more by personal development than by comfort. But this is only the backdrop.

It provides all the tools necessary to interweave the frayed cloth of lessons learned, but regretfully ignored, and seamlessly fashion my identity into a new kind of fabric that is richer and more detailed than before.

No longer am I simply the athletic son or dutiful nephew. I am neither the earnest high-school student nor the socially awkward outsider. The freedom afforded by this radical change of scenery, a place that is welcoming because it is the site of a perpetual convergence of new souls also seeking acceptance, provides me with carte blanche.

I am a daydreaming author shifting my wondering eyes away from the heavens and toward the blank first page of the greatest story I will ever write. My own. And maybe, just maybe, if I exercise sufficient care, am daring in my exploits and finally capable of marshaling every ounce of my conviction, perhaps this is the year I will become the person I always wished to become. A new world of possibilities awaits. What could be better?

Dino Sossi is a Canadian living in New York.

Stop Waiting for Superman – A Prescription to Fix Our Ailing Schools? A Review of the Film “Waiting for ‘Superman’”

By Dino Sossi, MST Times, Nov 24th, 2010

“Look, I’m just a storyteller. When I make a film, I never want the film to become a vehicle of social propaganda.” – Norman Jewison

Educating children is emotionally taxing. Their natural curiosity, inherent playfulness and seemingly boundless joie de vivre create an insatiable demand for constant attention in its fullest and most detailed form. Keeping a single child happy and productive necessitates a complex, improvisational pas de deux. Teachers normally lead these interactions, making a series of adjustments subtly synchronized to the variations in attitude and demeanor of children often capricious in attention and temperamental in mood. Even the most masterful educators can quickly reach their limit in patience trying to tame a reluctant solitary learner. Multiply this number several fold to mimic the practicalities of the typical classroom environment makes the task incredibly difficult. Adding burdensome social, political and institutional impediments challenges teacher and student still further, making the ideal of a nurturing educational environment for all nearly impossible.

“Waiting for ‘Superman,’” a new film by Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of the environmental tour de force “An Inconvenient Truth,” acts as a welcoming guide to what has devolved into a bewildering educational labyrinth. It is clear from his career that Guggenheim is unafraid of tackling challenging fare within the documentary form. As hard as it may be to believe, by producing “‘Superman,’” Guggenheim has chosen subject matter that is potentially more difficult to chronicle and even more polarizing than climate change. He has taken another controversial, complicated system that is deeply influenced by stubborn stakeholders with conflicting agendas as it teeters at the edge of disaster. But instead of building a moral argument for fighting global climate change, Guggenheim focuses on something equally important – chronicling the dire state of the American public education system.

Similar to the battle over climate change, education is an interdependent ecosystem with multiple players and territorial policy makers. The most damaging effects occur in closed-door meetings and the pen still remains mighty. As a result, its subject matter does not naturally lend itself to documentary filmmaking. Given the complexity of public education, with its byzantine layers of bureaucracy, Guggenheim wisely grounds his narrative by focusing on the personal toll it inflicts on five students – Anthony, Bianca, Daisy, Emily and Francisco. Each is a highly sympathetic child who does not deserve to suffer at the hands of an uncaring, monolithic, Leviathan-like system, their lives slowly crushed by its fumbling, ham-fisted grip.

Guggenheim is a master documentarian who incorporates a vast array of statistics, personalities and storylines with minimal costs to pace, intelligibility or emotional resonance. He cooks up a thick gumbo of hard facts and soft tugs at the heartstrings –the simple aspirations of these children are heart wrenching when juxtaposed against the seemingly unavoidable obstacles they face in a system that should facilitate but instead tragically impedes. If you are banished to a failing school, alternatively called “academic sinkholes” or “drop-out factories,” your chances of graduating are incredibly small and future prospects correspondingly dwindle still further. The system is terribly convoluted. There are multiple levels of government, conflicting funding agendas, and inconsistent curricular standards. The challenges are seemingly endless, the bureaucracy stifling to creativity, initiative and efficacy, costs inevitably borne by young innocents who are ill-equipped to pay. Although he is not uniformly effective in communicating the problems plaguing the system, Guggenheim gives sufficient detail to convey its complexities but not too much to overwhelm. Many people have experienced these problems personally while in school, or heard them from others still buckling under the weight of the system, but are unsure of neither their provenance nor gravity.

You can argue with some of Guggenheim’s aesthetic choices like the veritable veneration of the Harlem Children’s Zone(HCZ) and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools respectively. This treatment presents several problems – their clear success does not represent the uneven performance of charters as a whole, their expensiveness may prohibit them from becoming replicable en masse, and children rejected by these schools are left to wither away in places they clearly wanted to flee. The quality education their guardians desperately crave puts the children’s uncertain futures in sharp relief, exacting psychic costs that are undoubtedly real but difficult to measure.

Also, there is at least a touch of irony when a film titled “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” which decries the impact of a solo hero who may never come, focuses on a couple of iconoclastic educational innovators – the irrepressible Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of the HCZ as well as the steely-willed former Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system, Michelle Rhee. Their heroic work caused tectonic shifts in their respective educational communities but may not represent the painful reality of most jurisdictions where massive reform is necessary. You can also question the value of what feels like an easy vilification of teachers unions, and more specifically, the American Federation of Teachers and its president Randi Weingarten. Her already difficult job, protecting the livelihood of teachers who have been historically underpaid and gratuitously exploited, probably became tougher because of this documentary.

But perhaps Guggenheim is selecting a few narrative pressure points to advocate on behalf of a larger, more profound theme. Public education can always use greater funding aimed at improving crucial student outcomes such as increased literacy and numeracy scores. It is somewhat disingenuous to disagree with this as a starting point. And perhaps crafting a story that champions some themes at the expense of arguably equally valid others is a compromise he felt necessary to make.

As a rhetorical device, Guggenheim appeals to the American ethos that helped fashion, for better and worse, the country we find ourselves in today. Perhaps advocating on behalf of the innovation promised by charters and against the inflexibility of unions is the shrewdest opening gambit. To create a narrative counterpoint against these young student protagonists, it appears that something needed to be demonized. And it is relatively easy to do this at the expense of the straw men of teachers unions and bloated faceless bureaucracies, though arguably unfair.

We speak about public policy within an increasingly polarized discursive space where areas of commonality are increasingly rare. An anemic economic recovery in the aftermath of a global recession has added heat to already incendiary and vitriolic public debate – more nuanced recommendations for the future be damned. Perhaps Guggenheim appeals for the innovation which has fueled the US economy and rails against union-mandated collectivism that is antithetical to the rugged spirit of American individualism in the hopes of creating a point of convergence in an increasingly stratified political spectrum. For the sake of the prospective dropouts who will inevitably be left to recover from the social, psychological and financial scars inflicted by a broken education system, let’s hope that Guggenheim’s prescription is correct.

“Waiting for ‘Superman’” screened as part of the Constitution Day Celebrations and was hosted by the Teachers College Office for Diversity and Community Affairs. The faculty panel included remarks by Jeffrey Henig, Aaron Pallas, Michael Rebel, Erica Walker, Barbara Wallace and was moderated by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz.

Please find more information about Dino Sossi, a current doctoral student in the CCTE Program, athttp://www.dinosossi.com/

Top Story on ‘Rick’s List’? He’s Not the First to Fall

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger

Was it just a dream? The meteoric rise, and even more precipitous fall, of Rick Sanchez happened so quickly it felt like, well, none of it actually happened. Snapped from relative broadcasting obscurity in Florida by CNN, Sanchez quickly made a strong imprint on the cable news network. His flamboyant, in-your-face style, seemingly more FOX-like in form than CNN, earned him a devout following. This led to an expanded time slot and even more air time.

After calling Jon Stewart a “bigot” recently on the radio show ‘Stand Up With Pete Dominick,’ among other incendiary comments, Sanchez was fired from CNN. To try to make sense of this fiasco and what it means for Rick, PopEater revisits some classic media faux pas and what happened to these silly birds who fell from their nests.

Tucker Carlson: Caught in the ‘Crossfire’
Does Jon Stewart have a hate-on for CNN hosts? Stewart was once a welcome guest on CNN’s flagship debate show ‘Crossfire,’ hosted by Tucker Carlson of the political right and Paul Begala on the left. Little did they know Stewart’s Trojan Horse of comedy was full of an army of stinging criticism. An exchange of classic heated barbs left Stewart unscathed and Carlson’s career in tatters.

http://www.youtube.com/v/aFQFB5YpDZE?fs=1&hl=en_US

Result? A couple of months after the episode, ‘Crossfire’ was axed. Why? Because of the excessive “noise level” of these kinds of shows according to the CNN president — largely explaining his reasoning along the lines of what Stewart said. Carlson is now a conservative commentator for Fox. Begala is a researcher and college teacher.

Conan O’Brien: NBC Messes Up Late Night TV. Again
This event was so recent, does it even count as history? It’s about as strange to write a historical account of Conan’s departure as it is to shoot a film about the origins of Facebook. Sorry, they did what?!?

NBC was roundly criticized for lacking a succession plan when then-reigning late night TV champ Johnny Carson retired, causing a battle between contenders to the crown Jay Leno and David Letterman. To prevent a recurrence, NBC announced that Conan would replace ‘The Tonight Show’ host Jay a full five years before the latter comic’s retirement. After deciding that his new gig, a prime time show with mediocre ratings, wasn’t making him happy, Leno let his displeasure be known.

http://www.youtube.com/v/uW4ydnGQfqM?fs=1&hl=en_US

Result? The bad? Conan voluntarily gave up his dream job, not wanting to push ‘The Tonight Show’ to a later time slot and making it ‘The Tomorrow Show.’ As a result, Jay suffered dearly in the press for changing his mind. The good? Conan made $45 million from the loss ($12 million went to his staff), earned heaps of good will and brokered a deal for a new show on TBS. And Dave was able to release some of the pent up bitterness that had been boiling inside for years in positively gleeful comedic fashion.

Tom Cruise: Falling Off Oprah’s Couch
Tom Cruise used to be the quintessential All-American boy. Wholesome. Winning smile. Every girl’s dream. And then he went temporarily bonkers. First was his declaration of love to Katie Holmes on Oprah’s couch. He really really loved Katie. We mean really. And he wanted everybody to know it. By screaming. And then jumping on Oprah’s couch. And then screaming some more. And if that wasn’t enough, Tom followed that up a month later with a heated interview with ‘The Today Show’s’ Matt Lauer regarding his main area of expertise – postpartum depression. We’re not making this up.

Result? Cruise’s film career took a bit of a dive as his box office tallies dropped. ‘Knight and Day’? Yep, his career has gone from bright shiny days to dark stormy nights. This craftiest of Hollywood survivors needs more appearances dancing on the MTV Video Music Awards and comedic films like ‘Tropic Thunder’ with Ben Stiller to rejuvenate his reputation.

Joaquin Phoenix: A Lot of People Move from Music to Acting. But the Other Way Around?
In the long wacky history of live television, a lot of weird stuff has happened. And this may be among the weirdest. Joaquin Phoenix, star of ‘Walk the Line’ and ‘Gladiator,’ was absolutely out of his mind during an interview on Letterman. Best word to describe their encounter? Awkward. Luckily comedy-maestro Dave was able to spin the strangeness into tons o’ laughs. After declaring that he was giving up acting for rap (!), it seemed Phoenix was lost.

Result? Phoenix was in the Hollywood wilds for months after this broadcast. Then ‘I’m Still Here,’ a mockumentary directed by Casey Affleck (brother of, well, you know who), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, putting Phoenix’s erratic behavior into question. Was it real? Was it an act? Now it seems like the second. We’ll see.

Bill Maher and Russell Brand: Too Soon. Too Soon!
9-11 was a horrific national tragedy that scarred this fine country. Afterward, there was an obvious need to discuss America’s future. But right away? Not so much.

Bill Maher, on his ironically titled show ‘Politically Correct with Bill Maher,’ spoke about the terrorists in a way that was incredibly difficult to hear. Brand, working for MTV in London at the time, wore an unfortunate costume right after the attacks.

http://www.youtube.com/v/97KllcZidKQ?fs=1&hl=en_US

Result? ‘Politically Incorrect’ was canceled either due to this controversy (according to Maher) or insufficient advertising (ABC). Maher now hosts ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ on HBO. Brand was fired from MTV, moved to the US, starred in Hollywood comedies and became engaged to Katy Perry. Katy, if you decide to fire Russell from this relationship, please let us know.

Dr. Laura: There are No “N’s” in Laura
‘The Dr. Laura Program’ host Laura Schlessinger ran face-first into a media wall when she dropped the N-bomb not once, not twice, but eleven times (!) to a caller during her radio show. To defuse the controversy, Laura went on soon-to-be-retired Larry King’s TV program to defend her comments.

Result? During the ‘Larry King Live’ interview, Laura promised she wouldn’t renew her radio contract at year’s end.

George Carlin: Comedic Provocateur Says the Words You Can’t Say on Television
Carlin’s groundbreaking ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television’ routine was no gaffe but instead a sideswipe on FCC speech laws. Carlin made comedic history with this much-lauded routine, probably one of the biggest artistic freedom of expression cases post-Lenny Bruce.

Result? A radio broadcast of the routine eventually led to a decision by the Supreme Court that helped establish the degree that the federal government can regulate speech on the airwaves. Dr. Laura would be proud.

So What Does This All Mean for Rick Sanchez?
Imploding publicly live, or on tape, doesn’t necessarily mean endsville to your career. Sanchez is toxic and won’t be on air regularly anytime soon. But as these examples show, this may not be the last we see of ‘Rick’s List.’ Although some of you might want it to be.

Prediction? Sanchez will apologize for his comments, go on tour for his new book ‘Conventional Idiocy’ (I think I smell a new chapter), let the ruckus die down and get picked up by a broadcaster desperate for ratings. Give it 6 to 12 months. Memories are short, people like to forgive and hey, everybody loves a comeback story.

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Katie Couric on “Waiting for ‘Superman’”

Katie Couric on \”Waiting for \’Superman\’\”

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Katie Couric on \”Waiting for \’Superman\’\”

@katiecouric

Talking Ourselves to Death: Is This the End of Dr. Laura?

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger

America is the land of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. And liberty. Oh yes friend, liberty. And no liberty is more celebrated than freedom of speech. Although talking frankly is the lifeblood of democracy (and reality television!), some of us wag our tongues just a teensy weensy bit too much.

‘The Dr. Laura Program’ host Laura Schlessinger ran face-first into a media wall when she dropped the N-bomb not once, not twice, but eleven times (!) to a caller during her radio show. To defuse the controversy, Laura went on soon-to-be-retired Larry King’s TV program to defend her comments. During the interview, Laura promised she wouldn’t renew her radio contract at year’s end. We’ve seen this act before — an oral mishap here, a mea culpa there, a period of laying low and then the maligned villain comes back from banishment saying that she has been redeemed only to offend once again.

Popeater explores some celebrated cases where our broadcasting friends put their proverbial Manolo Blahniks in their mouths and see who made it back from the brink.

Don Imus: He Don’t Got Game. The Women’s Basketball Game That Is
Perhaps the Imus debacle was the most similar example to Dr. Laura’s talk radio implosion. After being baited by his executive producer, Imus referred to players on the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” Ouch! Enter the NAACP, Al Sharpton and a long line of others demanding Imus’ head. After an apology, suspension and months of solitude, he returned to the airwaves on ABC Radio.

Howard Stern: The King of All Broadcasting Fines
The FCC fined Clear Channel Communication $495,000 for its 1993 broadcast of ‘The Howard Stern Show’ where his crew spoke about their sexual practices and a personal hygiene product called, wait for it, “Sphincterine”! In stores now! There were 18 alleged indecency violations during the show. Although Clear Channel later fired Stern for violating its new decency standards, Howard never had to cry poor. He eventually relaunched on Sirius Satellite Radio which is free from FCC standards, signing a five-year $100 million-per-year budget for production, staff and studio construction costs. What? Are the studios made of platinum?!? He was also paid a stock bonus of $218 million for surpassing a subscriber quota. Brother Howard can you spare a dollar? Make that $218 million dollars.

Charles Rocket versus Norm Macdonald & Jenny Slate: The Rocket Flames Out While Macdonald & Slate Continue to Burn
The news anchor desk is normally a place of solemnity populated by the likes of Murrow, Cronkite, Brokaw, Jennings and Rather. But the Weekend Update desk on ‘SNL’ isn’t one of those places. Initially helmed by the great Chevy Chase, this SNL staple has survived since the show’s inception and included Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Colin Quinn and more recently Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers. But the highwire act of live comedy can be deadly. Just ask Charles Rocket. Former anchor Rocket once dropped the F-bomb during an end-of-show segment and promptly lost his job. Several years later, the acerbic Norm Macdonald dropped the same word while coughing during an Update segment and Jenny Slate said it during a sketch on her network debut ensuring her place in the annals of SNL history. The new result? No immediate dismissal and viewers were treated to more Norm and Jenny. Mom, look how forgiving we’ve become.

Opie and Anthony: Sketchy Sketches
Let’s just say the relationship between Shock Jocks Opie and Anthony and the FCC has been tumultuous. The duo’s first fine was a relatively modest $21,000 for some jingles, the song “I’m Horny for Little Girls” and a segment titled “Guess What’s In My Pants.” I know what’s not in your pants — $21,000. The second fine was bigger. Much bigger. Thirteen CBS Radio/Infinity-owned stations were fined $27,500 apiece for airing the “Sex for Sam” broadcast for a grand total of $357,000. But that’s just chump change compared to the amount that passed hands later. Viacom, Infinity’s parent company, coughed up substantially more, settling for $3.5 million to cancel pending indecency violations. Although still edgy, the hosts have behaved better. But only slightly.

Michael Richards: The Post-’Seinfeld’ Curse
Oh camera phones, how you’ve made the intimately private so blatantly public. Toiling in relative comedic obscurity after ‘Seinfeld’ (‘The Michael Richards Show’ anyone?), Richards derailed what was left of his career when he unleashed a searing stream of racist epithets during a stand-up performance at West Hollywood’s Laugh Factory. Unfortunately for Richards, what normally would have been an unfortunate incident confined to attendees became an international brouhaha after it was captured on camera phone. A heartfelt apology on ‘Letterman’ assisted by Jerry Seinfeld helped slightly. A more recent appearance on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ with his former ‘Seinfeld’ castmates may have helped more. We’ll see.

George Carlin: Comedic Provocateur Says the Words You Can’t Say on Television
Carlin’s groundbreaking “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” was no gaffe but instead a sideswipe on FCC speech laws. Carlin made comedic history with this much-lauded routine, probably one of the biggest artistic freedom of expression cases post-Lenny Bruce. A radio broadcast of the routine eventually led to a decision by the Supreme Court that helped establish the degree that the federal government can regulate speech on the airwaves. Dr. Laura would be proud.

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Tags: amy poehler, howard stern, jerry seinfeld, Laura Schlessinger, tina fey

Pretty Boy Curse: How DiCaprio & Depp Overcame their Looks to Become Kings of the Movie World

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger, Posted Jul 13th 2010 08:00PM

Good looks giveth. And good looks taketh away.

In the visually-oriented medium of film, it pays to have an exquisite face — a visage that people love to look at, a lively emotional conduit that burns an impression in the mind’s eye long after the last film reel spins to a halt. And the prettier the face the better. Studies have shown that even babies respond more positively to certain types of faces, especially ones with symmetrical features.

Two of the biggest film stars in the world, Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, both graduated from being just another ‘Tiger Beat’ magazine teen idol to becoming full-fledged, card-carrying members of that most exclusive of clubs — international movie icons. Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, for your careers’ sake, please take note. But not the type of notes that Lindsay Lohan has taken…

From Rock ‘n Roll High School to Undercover Cop — A Little Bit of TV History Starring Johnny Depp:
After rocking in relative obscurity as a wannabe music star, Johnny Depp broke free of his old Kentucky home, loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Hills that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars. But this hillbilly didn’t come to Hollywood to look at stars. No, he came to become one. Luckily Depp’s then wife, Lori Anne Allison, introduced him to Nicolas Cage (‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’). It was Cage who gave Johnny one of his biggest breaks — a simple piece of advice. Try acting. And Mr. Depp did. Oh did he ever. After becoming popular with the teen set in the undercover cop drama ’21 Jump Street,’ Johnny felt trapped by the ludicrous demands of being a heart throb and wanted a new direction — a career on his own terms. After starring in the slasher flick ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’ other roles soon followed, including ‘Ed Wood,’ ‘Benny & Joon’ and others. The memorable ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ under the idiosyncratic direction of the massively creative Tim Burton, also was produced. Burton’s influence helped push Depp down the proverbial rabbit hole, falling off the beaten path, transforming from high school locker pinup boy to eccentric character actor.

Overcoming ‘Growing Pains’ — “Show Me That Smile Again… The Best is Ready to Begin”:
Legend has it that Mamma DiCaprio came up with her son’s unique name during a visit to an Italian art gallery. Young Leo literally kicked inside his mother’s womb while she stood in front of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Even while just a teensy weensy teen, DiCaprio had a memorable role in the popular television show ‘Growing Pains’ opposite screen dad Alan Thicke, father of R&B singer-of-the-moment Robin Thicke, portraying a troubled teen. He later starred with Robert DeNiro in ‘This Boy’s Life,’ one of his first major film roles. Later, being a lead in Baz Luhrman’s hyperkinetic tragedy ‘William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet’ opposite Claire Danes began to stoke the fire of “Leomania.” But an unexpected collision was waiting to happen. A collision between a big boat and an even bigger piece of ice.

Standing on The Brink — A Growth of ‘Titanic’ Expectations:
Let’s say you’re in your early-20′s and on the cusp of movie stardom. The influential, and notoriously “gets-his-own-way,” film director James Cameron, fresh from success in ‘Aliens,’ ‘The Abyss,’ two ‘Terminator’ films and ‘True Lies,’ approaches you with a script about a big leaky boat. Doesn’t sound promising, does it? But wait, there’s more. The boat sinks. It’s a period piece. Oh, and it’s a romance. Sounds like surefire box office gold! So what do you do? Do you avoid the iceberg that would hit if the mega-movie drowns under the awesome weigh of its own colossal pretensions? Or do you plow full steam ahead, caution be damned? If you’re Leonardo DiCaprio, you dive in. Needless to say, the rest was, as they say, cinematic history.

Given how much time has passed, it’s easy to forget the tsunami-like tidal wave that ‘Titanic’ caused way back in the late 90s. It earned a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations, winning 11. It spawned a most stupendous public speaking faux pas — the once-in-a-lifetime “King of the World” speech from Cameron during his Best Director Oscar triumph. It’s tragic romance between Leo and Kate Winslet poured a big bag load of Sweet’N Low into one of Celine Dion’s most saccharine hits — “My Heart Will Go On.” Oh, and I almost forgot. It also became the highest grossing film of all time. It was the ‘Avatar’ of its day — coincidentally enough also directed by a certain Mr. James Cameron. And not only that, it catapulted Leo into the epicenter of the Category 5 hurricane that would become his paparazzi-filled life. Just like Depp after his own experience with television overexposure, DiCaprio faced some crucial choices that would float, or sink, his career.

Riding to Success: How DiCaprio and Depp Managed to Stay on the Bucking Hollywood Bronco:
Both DiCaprio and Depp benefited from a number of factors which contributed to their film success and kept them from being unceremoniously chewed up and spit out by Hollywood’s “now he’s famous, now he’s not” star-making machine.

• “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” Somebody Get Me a Director!:
DiCaprio and Depp cultivated career-defining relationships with masters of the film form. DiCaprio has starred in several films with arguably the most important American filmmaker of his generation, Martin Scorsese — replacing former muse Robert DeNiro.

Meanwhile Depp has been in a number of films with the king of big screen surrealism, Tim Burton. Each maestro has his own patented look and feel. The gritty, New York-style crime infested dramas of Scorsese; the dreamlike — or is that nightmare like? — canvases of make-believe for Burton. These directors’ iconic aesthetic choices provided a backdrop against which their actor collaborators could play. With Scorsese, his films’ often unrelenting bleakness are mediated through DiCaprio’s intensity. In Burton’s, his flights of fancy give poetic license to Depp’s signature quirkiness.

• The Bad Boy. But Not THAT Bad a Boy — The Fine Balance of Acting Like a Movie Star:
Some people are film actors. Others are movie stars. Both DiCaprio and Depp have done an excellent job of acting like movie stars. For example, they’re liberal like many Hollywood biggies but not too liberal to turn off mainstream film goers. DiCaprio drives a hybrid car and provided a voiceover for the environmental documentary ‘The 11th Hour.’ Depp has criticized American military aggression to the German media but later softened his stance.

They were also youthful hell raisers, but not embarrassingly so. DiCaprio has a laundry list of high-profile relationships over the years including current on-again, off-again girlfriend, Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli. Depp dated Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Moss and now is in a long-term relationship with French singer Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his two children. Unlike Tom Cruise who became a tad unhinged a couple of years ago, DiCaprio and Depp do what we would most likely do if we were young, rich, handsome and famous — date stunningly gorgeous people, enjoy ourselves and trash the occasional hotel room. You know, the regular movie star shenanigans.

• Get Out of the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean. You Can’t Be a Teeny Bopper Forever — Growth in Film Choices:
Both DiCaprio and Depp have chosen movies that highlight their acting wares and expertly evolved their tastes over time. They started off with notable roles in television teen fare — see ‘Growing Pains’ and ’21 Jump Street’ above. Then they graduated into progressively more mature work. DiCaprio starred in ‘Gangs of New York,’ ‘The Departed,’ ‘Blood Diamond’ and ‘Revolutionary Road.’ Depp inhabited an array of characters in ‘Chocolat,’ ‘Secret Window’ and ‘Finding Neverland,’ among others. Both have avoided the kind of paralysis characteristic of starring in recurring roles that force them into unsustainable stereotypes. They have ventured both forcefully and unapologetically into a variety of cinematic challenges which have stretched them and their audiences’ conceptions of who they are as actors. This has allowed them to grow as artists and bring along their fans for a satisfyingly unpredictable ride.

• It’s All About the Benjamins — Box Office Dependability:
Finally, is there anything more necessary to a sustainable film career than healthy box office tallies? DiCaprio proved early on that he could pull in a mass audience with ‘Titanic,’ the highest grossing film of all time when it was released. He has also topped the $100 million dollar mark in the critically well-received ‘Catch Me If You Can,’ ‘The Aviator,’ ‘The Departed’ and ‘Shutter Island.’

Depp’s early choices stalled the cash flow at the beginning of his career. First, he washed away the hairspray and stopped the pretty boy poses of his early TV days and stayed true to himself in smaller indies before hitting it big with the most recent Burton films. After smaller receipts, the Depp/Burton wonder twins topped $200 million in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ But it was Depp’s Keith Richards-like incarnation as Captain Jack Sparrow in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ trilogy that reaped a staggering bounty. Each film topped $300 million. Both DiCaprio and Depp have earned billions in box office revenue over their careers and show no signs of slowing down the money train.

Coda — Keep On Keepin’ On. Climbin’ The Slippery Slopes of Mount Hollywood:
It has been a long strange trip for our boys. Plucked from non-descript backgrounds and becoming young TV phenoms, box office supernovas and eventually respectable leading men, Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp have been Hollywood icons for years. And it appears as though if they keep managing their careers as elegantly as they act, they will be with us for a while to come.

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Tags: johnny depp, leonardo dicaprio

Look Who’s Leaving, Too: Stars Who Left Hit TV Shows

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger, Posted Jul 5th 2010 02:00PM

Nothing lasts forever. (Except cellulite.) But when it comes to celluloid, not even the best shows can hang on indefinitely.

Steve Carell is leaving ‘The Office’ after next season, Larry King will switch off the mic this fall and Oprah will step down from her daytime TV throne next year — so how will these shows (or the holes they leave in their timeslots) fare without their star attractions? Before we get to that answer, let’s saunter down memory lane and examine what happened to old hit shows when their head honcho or honchette, leading lady or proverbial King of the World, left for lives outside the magical box of television.

‘ER’ — George Clooney
George Clooney is the model for transitioning from the small screen to the big one. After appearing in an unfortunate number of failed TV pilots, Clooney finally shot to television superstardom as maverick doctor Doug Ross on ‘ER.’ He parlayed his summer vacations into a fledgling movie career until he had enough cachet to become as big as, well, the George Clooney we know today. ‘ER’ stayed atop the Nielsen ratings for years, despite the departures of not only Clooney but also Eriq La Salle (Dr. Peter Benton), Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark Greene) and even the show’s longest-running star, Noah Wyle (Dr. John Carter).

‘Law & Order’ — Chris Noth, Michael Moriarty, Jerry Orbach
‘L&O’ is the king of television cast turnover. It feels like everyone who has ever been an actor in New York has been on, and then not on, ‘L&O.’ Some went big, literally — Chris Noth (Det. Mike Logan) portrayed Mr. Big in ‘Sex and the City.’ Others went small — Michael Moriarty (District Attorney Ben Stone) puttered around in minor roles until winning an Emmy in ‘Jimmy Dean.’ Others went to a brighter, happier stage in the sky — Jerry Orbach, who played the wickedly acerbic Lennie Briscoe, died in 2004 after a long run on ‘L&O’ and even longer run on Broadway in such shows as ‘The Fantasticks.’ While it was recently canceled, the show held on strong for years, spawning successful spin-offs in the process.

‘Saturday Night Live’ — Chevy Chase (and pretty much every other funny person in Hollywood)
‘SNL’ is the pipeline for Hollywood comedic acting. One of the show’s earliest crises was the loss of its first breakout star, Chevy (‘Weekend Update’) Chase. But the series was the little engine that could and kept right on chugging, losing talent almost as fast as it birthed it. After Chase, the show’s losses became Hollywood’s gain. John Belushi. Bill Murray. Dan Aykroyd. Eddie Murphy. Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Robert Downey Jr. Will Ferrell. Jimmy Fallon. Tina Fey. Whew — that’s just some of the names!

‘House’ – Jesse Spencer, Jennifer Morrison, Omar Epps and Kal Penn
This show literally cleared house after season three, as the Vicodin-popping doctor banished Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) while Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) resigned in protest. After recruiting a new diagnostic team the following season, replacement doctor Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) was eventually written out of the show to accommodate Penn’s political aspirations. He was named Barack Obama’s associate director of public engagement. After the chopping block at the end of season three, ‘House’ went from No. 7 in the Nielsen ratings to No. 8 the following year, and has remained in the high teens ever since.

‘CSI’ – William Petersen
‘CSI’ is the poster child for smooth transitions between major characters. After losing the cool professionalism of William “Grissom” Petersen, ‘CSI’ was able to entice an even bigger name into the fold — the bassy gravitas of Laurence “Ray Langston” Fishburne (Morpheus from ‘The Matrix’). The show has seen some signs of ratings decline (ending the year at No. 4 in the Nielsen ratings during the transition from Petersen to Fishburne, and No. 8 this past year), but this long-running ratings hit still has some life left in it.

‘M*A*S*H’ — McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers, Larry Linville
‘M*A*S*H’ benefited from having its anchor, star Alan “Hawkeye Pierce” Alda, for its entire run. And despite the loss of its former commanding officer, Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), Swamp-mate Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) and comedic foil Frank Burns (Larry Linville), Mobile Army Surgical Hospital #4077 just kept administering laugh after laugh, culminating in the highest Nielsen rating ever for a show finale until it was surpassed by Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.

‘Cheers’ — Nicholas Colasanto, Shelley Long
Similar to ‘M*A*S*H,’ which was able to replace like-with-like, ‘Cheers’ kept its Nielsen ratings up by replacing older characters with similar new ones. Hot-headed blonde Diane (Shelley Long) Chambers’ saucy attitude was followed by the raven-haired Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) Howe. The untimely death of dimwitted older barkeep Nicholas (Ernie “Coach” Pantusso) Colasanto was offset by the dimwitted younger barkeep Woody (Woody Boyd) Harrelson. After making it to its fourth season, the show remained in the Nielsen top 10 until last call in season 11.

‘All in the Family’ — Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers
Rob Reiner wasn’t producer Norman Lear’s only choice to portray Mike “Meathead” Stivic, the left-leaning counterweight to Archie Bunker’s outrageousness. There also was Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss. But when combined with Gloria (as portrayed by Sally Struthers), they provided a little ying to Archie’s yang. When they left, the show was bereft of some of Archie’s fatherly love.

‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ — Regis Philbin
Is there a more popular name in television than Regis Philbin? From ‘The Joey Bishop Show’ (1967 to 1969) to ‘Live with Regis and Kathie Lee,’ the first season of ‘America’s Got Talent’ to his late night appearances on ‘Letterman,’ the man is everywhere on the small screen. According to the Guinness World Book of Records, the Reeg has spent more time in front of a television camera than any other person in history — including Ron Burgundy. But when a syndicated daytime version of the show was announced and Regis left ‘Millionaire,’ Meredith Vieira took over the new one and neither she, nor the series, has looked back, though it became a slightly different animal.

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Tags: American Idol, larry king, steve carell, The Office

Georgia Jagger Gives Taskmaster Mick the Slip

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger, Posted May 11th 2010 01:35PM

Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall must be in a State of Shock (rimshot!). Despite grounding daughter Georgia May in late April, she broke the ban by attending a high-profile event hosted by Chanel, reports the Daily Mail. Georgia, 18, jetted to St. Tropez, the chic French resort, to model in Chanel’s ‘Cruise 2011′ show. Her high-flying folks are concerned her partying ways are jeopardizing her school exams scheduled this summer.

This isn’t Georgia’s first public clash with her parents. She canceled a planned appearance at a party on King’s Road in Chelsea after being informed she had to remain at home to study. The stakes are high. Her school in Surrey charges £10,000-a-year, close to $15,000. Sir Mick was also a bright bulb, having studied at the prestigious London School of Economics.

Although young, Georgia’s chomping at the bit may not be premature. She has earned a fair degree of success at the modeling game in short order. Reports say she has earned approximately $900,000 from a three-year deal with Hudson, a jeans manufacturer. She has also graced the cover of ‘Vogue’ magazine, and has been the face of campaigns for Versace and Rimmel. She was voted British Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards last December.

The Chanel event was high-powered. Fashion doyen Karl Lagerfeld screened his short film, ‘Remember Now,’ which was followed by the the Chanel ‘Cruise 2011′ show.

Mick and Jerry have tried to be understanding regarding Georgia’s rebellious ways, but were pushed to the edge last January, when photographs surfaced of their daughter sniffing a substance at a pub near the family home during a party. “Although Georgia is adamant drugs were not taken on her birthday, Mick and Jerry curtailed her partying from that point on,” revealed a source.

The parental ban does show some flexibility and may allow the young Vogue-poser to continue with her highly lucrative gig as a part-time model.

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Tags: georgia jagger, mick jagger

Tyra Banks to Publish ‘Modelland,’ a Fantasy Novel

By Dino Sossi, AOL’s Popeater Blogger, Posted May 11th 2010 12:07PM

Tyra Banks has taken one more step towards her quest to become Queen of All Media. From model to talk-show host, actress, singer and reality-show host, her latest venture is becoming an author of fiction. Fantasy fiction.

“I said I was going to do it, and here it is!” crows Banks, 36, in a message to fans on her website. “It’s for all the girls and guys who want a lot more FANTASY in their lives … and some fierceness and magic, romance and mystery, crazy and wild adventures, and yeah, some danger too. It’s my novel called Modelland (pronounced “Model Land”) that takes you to a fantastical place you’ve never seen, or heard about, or read about before … Where dreams come true and life can change in the blink of a smoky eye.”

‘Modelland’ is the debut novel of a three-book deal Banks signed with publisher Random House. Although there were hints, neither plot details nor a release date have been announced. The project has appeared to have been simmering on Banks’ mental back-burner for quite some time.

“Modelland has always been a part of my mind and my heart,” said Tyra, who was the first African-American model on the cover of ‘GQ,’ ‘Sports Illustrated’ and ‘Victoria’s Secret.’ “I’m excited that you’ll be able to read about this magical world that’s been living in my dreams for so many years.” She previously won a Day Time Emmy Award for her work on ‘The Tyra Banks Show.’

Tyra has published a book previously. ‘Tyra’s Beauty, Inside and Out’ gave women tips to highlight their natural beauty.

Given all her success, do you think Tyra has what it takes to become the new Oprah Winfrey? Or Martha Stewart?

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Tags: martha stewart, oprah winfrey, Tyra Banks