A Famous Raw Foodist With a Checkered Past

Movie star Woody Harrelson is a raw foodist and environmental activist. I met him a few years ago at the Sarasota Film Festival, where I told him about my online magazine, www.RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com, and tried to set up an interview with him--but he dissed me. His convicted murderer father died last week and the following profile of Woody explains a lot about the paradox of his life.

Here's a small excerpt from this fascinating article:

Woody Harrelson is, by his own admission, a wild and crazy guy. On the one hand, he is a bleeding-heart Hollywood liberal straight out of central casting: a vegan, a peace activist, a warrior for the environment and an agitator for the decriminalisation of marijuana. On the other hand, he has quite a temper and a track record of drinking and brawling.

During one stint on the London stage five years ago, he got into a shouting match with a taxi driver, ripped out an ashtray and smashed the door to override the central-locking system. (Charges were dropped after he agreed to pay for the damage.) Last year, he grabbed a paparazzo by the neck outside a Hollywood nightclub and, according to a subsequent complaint, broke the viewfinder on his camera.

Just a couple of weeks ago, he got into a fight with a bouncer at a trendy watering hole in Venice, California, after he was told he could not leave the premises with a glass of wine in his hand. Two traffic cops writing a parking ticket on the other side of the street slapped him in handcuffs, but eventually let him go with a warning after it became clear he had damaged himself more than the bouncer. (He cut his hand on a broken wine glass.)

Help Spread the Word: Stop Global Warming; GO VEGAN!

I'm a raw vegan and I believe it's a great way to eat, for so many reasons. Most people in the world are carnivores and omnivores. When those people become vegetarians and vegans, they're moving closer to raw vegan. It so happens that in a United Nations report scientists found that when people switch to a vegan diet, it does more to prevent global warming than even switching to a hybrid car.

Buy a t-shirt or bumper sticker, send some to politicians, and spread the word:

Stop Global Warming, GO VEGAN!

Restaurant Chain's TV Commercial Inspired by Leno Show?

Have you seen the Subway TV commercial where the customers drive up to a fast food place and order things like "a double chin" and "thunder thighs"? The Leno show's been doing this kind of humor for years, when they call products what they really are. Did Subway hire Leno's writers? Or did they "borrow" this style of humor for their commercials?

What Women Want--Truer Words Were Never Spoken

I don't care what religion you are, or even if you're an atheist. But Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes here about what women want, and he's right on!

What woman doesn't want what he's writing about? I exhort men everywhere to take heed of the rabbi's wise words!

My friend Jill's feature film, Creating Karma, Wins Award at LA Festival

Jill Wisoff plays George's blind date in my short comedy video called Anomalies. Jill's an accomplished composer, musician, screenwriter, actress, and more. And now, Creating Karma, the first feature film that she's produced, directed, co-written and acts in, has just wrapped up its LA festival premiere at the 2007 Brilliant Light International Film Festival of Los Angeles, where it won the award for Best Narrative Feature Comedy in the category About Women By Women.

Creating Karma is about a corporate climber who becomes a poet after moving in with her new-age sister. The film is rounding off a festival year and is scheduled to screen in the Cannes Film Market for the international buyers. Jill writes: "With songs you'll leave the theater humming, it features top billed Karen Lynn Gorney of Saturday Night Fever Fame, Joe Grifasi, Carol Lee Sirugo, Jill Wisoff and Rahad Coulter-Stevenson as the puppet wielding love interest, with DP work by Carter Bissell and score by Joel Diamond."

Mazel Tov, Jill!!! I can't wait til it's gotten a major distribution deal!

My Wish Comes True Re: Cavemen Commercial!

News articles say that my wish--for Geico's Cavemen to become a TV show--is in the works!!!

Here are some excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article:

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0305wsj-geico05-ON.html

Although the project is at a nascent stage - there's no script and no cast - plans call for the comedy to be titled "Cavemen" and focus on a trio of prehistoric characters who battle prejudice in modern-day Atlanta. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC will pay for the pilot and show, if one eventually materializes. Geico, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will have no creative control but will receive a royalty payment for the use of the character.

The initiative for the cavemen pilot came from Joe Lawson, the writer behind the cavemen commercials and a Martin Agency employee, who decided in late fall to pursue a TV show. With Geico's approval, the ad firm hired entertainment services agency Management 360 to shop the idea to networks.

A spokeswoman for the ABC Television Studio, which will produce the pilot, said no executive would speak about the project because "it's way too premature to comment." She cautioned that there is no guarantee "Cavemen" will result in a prime-time show. ABC has ordered 15 other comedy pilots for the 2007-2008 television season and will likely give the green light to fewer than five for full-fledged series production.Much remains uncertain. It isn't clear whether ABC would use the three little-known actors who have starred in the ads. The three are identified by a person close to the agency as Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ben Weber and John Lehr. It's also not clear whether Geico would continue to use the cavemen ads if the series was to get off the ground, although ABC would see that as a positive, according to a person familiar with the network's thinking, as the ads would help promote the show.

Icons: Turtles and Cavemen

Because Comcast's turtles The Slowskys and Geico's cavemen are such compelling and complex characters, I look forward to their commercials. They trancend ordinary commercialdom. I mean, ordinarily, I hate TV commercials. These characters are so iconic, I'd like to see them in a TV series or a feature film. I can picture them in indy-style films like American Beauty. They're that real.

Free Online Myers-Briggs Personality Test

I was fleshing out my profile on StumbleUpon, when I stumbed upon an online Myers-Briggs personality test. I took a self-scoring one many years ago in NYC. When I did this online test a little while ago, I had a feeling maybe my score would be different this time, because I couldn't tell if I was answering certain questions accurately (perhaps lacking self-knowledge). But sure enough, like years ago, I came out once again as an ENFP. Very interesting indeed.

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

New Judy Pokras Artwork Shop

I'm excited to announce the opening of the new online Art by Judy Pokras shop.

The first items are now listed--t-shirts and notebooks and totes and baby clothes and more, all adorned with nifty original Judy Pokras artwork--and I'll be adding new items all the time, so stop by and take a look! It's a great place to find unique gifts.

Zlango, a Fun Language to Replace Text Messaging

Yoav Lorch has created Zlango, a "language" of cartoony icons to replace cell phone text messages. While it may be true that few adults (at least in the US) use text messaging, it would be a lot more fun to use with Zlango! It would probably catch on! But it would probably have to be called Zlango-messaging, because Zlango would eliminate the need for text. (Although Zlango doesn't prevent people from adding text to their messages.)

Zlango is a brilliant idea, and can actually go a long way towards helping to bring about world peace, by uniting everyone with one common language. Who knows, maybe one day it will win Lorch the Nobel Peace Prize.

One suggestion for Zlango: Because vegans (and raw vegans) would prefer to have an icon for food that didn't feature a hot dog, we hope there will be an optional Zlango icon for "food" that features someone eating a piece of fresh fruit.

Julie Bowen in the Movie Night Fall

I just finished reading Nelson DeMille's thriller Night Fall. I pictured Julie Bowen playing the book's character Kate, if and when this book gets made into a feature film. I hope the director's reading this! I hope it gets made into a film, and I hope they cast Julie. She'd be perfect!!!

He Could Play Ricky Nelson in a Biopic

If you go to singer-songwriter Jeremy Fisher's site and watch his video called "High School," you'll see a performer with more than a trace of resemblance to the late rock and roll heart-throb Ricky Nelson. Although the resemblance isn't apparent in the still photo on Fisher's home page, in the video he not only evokes a similar shyness to Nelson's. Fisher also resembles the '50s icon physically, and moves like he did.

Jeremy Fisher would be a great choice to play Ricky Nelson if a film were made about him. This is the kind of uncanny similarity directors rarely find when casting a biopic.

I'm a writer/director with a great instinct for casting; I had the idea that Teri Garr should play Phoebe's mother on Friends, and eventually she was cast in that role, although I had nothing to do with the show and knew no one involved in it.

Boston Legal and Dolphins Referring to Themselves By Their Own Names

"Bob's in a Picture!"

This Newsweek article says that dolphins name themselves with "their own unique signature whistles and clicks." That's not surprising, because they're known to be very bright. What I like even better is that, according to this article, dolphins say their own names a lot. This scientific discovery gives David E. Kelley new options for storylines for the next season of the wonderful Boston Legal. Does Bill Shatner's Denny Crain have a long-lost dolphin doppleganger who goes around proclaiming to other dolphins, "Denny Crain, Denny Crain"? Maybe the dolphin seeks Denny's representation in a defamation lawsuit?

A New Syndrome: Continuous Partial Attention

Steven Levy's brilliant essay in the March 27 Newsweek (click the above headline to read the article) says it like it is. Electronic gadgets have changed the fabric of our lives. We're so busy IM-ing, reading e-mail, checking our BlackBerries (if we have one--I wish I did), and being interrupted by cell phone calls and text messages, we're not able to commit to anything at hand. As a serious astrologer might say, it's as if Gemini had taken over our culture. As a sociologist might say, it's as if the psychological "fear of commitment" had extended to society at large. Going on a date in the days before cell phones was an idyllic time, because it was just you and your date. Nowadays--as sitcoms and real life reveal-- you're not out on a date with one person; you're out with him and all the people calling him on his cell phone. About 20 years ago, musing about how previous generations grew up without TV, I wondered what things the next generation would have that we didn't have as kids. The future is here and it's moving so fast, it's tripping over itself.

James Spader Sings Love Songs

That's the name of an album I wish I could buy.

It seems that women of all ages and marital status (and even some men, of all sexual preferences) are in love with Jimmy.

I have no idea if he likes to sing. But if he made an album of love songs, it would be a best seller. The people who idolize him would have his sexy voice all to themselves, in their heads or rooms or cars, as if he were singing to them alone.

I have no idea how to get this idea to Jimmy himself. Agents don't want to hear about ideas unless you're signed up with them, and besides, I'm no record producer. I don't know what my role would be. Idea person? The one who chooses the songs and writes the cover notes? I'd love to. I'm compiling a list of songs I'd like the album to contain. But of course it's up to Jimmy. What he feels like singing. If he feels like singing. Jimmy? What do you think?

Catching up with James Spader's body of work--and what a body!

Since I only fell in love with Jimmy recently (where was I all those years?), I've been renting or buying his movies and catching up with them.

So far I've seen:

White Palace
I found the storyline unbelievable, not because of the age difference between Jimmy's and Susan Sarandon's characters but because of their class difference. Also I didn't feel there was much chemistry between them.

Alien Hunter
(I happened upon this TV one night) I liked what Jimmy did with the role, although it's not my favorite film genre. Plus, I found the visuals too dark (color-wise, not thematically)

Secretary
I really enjoyed this, in spite of the strange subject matter. Jimmy did a great job, and so did Maggie Gyllenhaal. They were perfectly cast. I was surprised to see that the screenplay was based on a novella by someone I once worked with when I lived in NYC (Mary Gaitskill), only because I hadn't heard that her writing had turned into a big deal film. She and I were freelance legal proofreaders on the midnight shift, when she became a famous and critically acclaimed writer.

Pretty in Pink
Although there's not enough Jimmy in this film for me, I loved what there was, and really enjoyed the movie. Molly Ringwald is excellent and so is Jon Cryer, especially his lip-synch dance. The film also features the cute Andrew McCarthy.

Stargate
A woman who works in the local Blockbuster raved about this one. Jimmy plays a shy, good-hearted linguist. I loved Jimmy in it--I love him in anything--but this Star Wars clone was not the type of movie I can sink my teeth into.

[By this point, having watched all of the above films plus TV's Boston Legal, I was seeing how incredibly versatile Jimmy is from one role to the next. Unlike some actors who are the same from role to role, basically playing themselves, Jimmy's always a different character.]

Sex Lies & Videotape
I had seen this ages ago when it first came out in theaters and had forgotten much of it. It was quite wonderful seeing it now. And the screenplay was brilliant. I

Personal Shopper As Fairy Godmother

Yesterday I drove an hour to Tampa in search of a dress to wear to a black-tie family party in NY. I'd been looking for months. The problem isn't so much that I'm fussy (which I am, in spades). It's that designers aren't making dresses this season to fit my hourglass shape. I have to say here that my shape is all natural. Hasn't been enhanced. Which makes finding a dress that much harder.

The vast majority of dresses and tops this season are empire waisted. Not a good style for someone like me. I was ready to throw in the towel. Well, not the towel. (Where did that expression come from anyway? Boxing? Dishwashing?)

Then, in the way that fate sometimes has of putting the perfect person in your path, fate aligned me with a saleswoman in the WestShore Plaza Tampa Saks. The saleswoman, Dagny Rivers (who I think should be immediately promoted to the store president), had infinite patience, a lot more than I did. For hours, she brought me more and more things to try on, clothes best suited to my body type, which takes some vision when your own body type, like Dagny's, is tall and willowy like a model. All of the dresses, skirts and tops she found for me were wonderful, even if they didn't fit me (blame the designers for that, not Dagny), although some (like the Nanette Lepore skirts) were a bit more wonderful than others.

I felt like a movie star or a princess. I guess it's my Leo moon. Dagny went beyond the call of duty to snap photos of me in the various outfits, with my cell phone, which I then sent to my mother's cell phone. My fashion-maven mother called me back each time to give me her always-expert opinion.

Dagny made what would have been an ordeal that I wasn't willing to go through something fun! I told her that I would be writing about her, but that she might wind up getting too much business, which would then prevent her from doing what she does so well. So, if you do seek her out and find that she's too busy, this article might be why. (But maybe Saks will promote Dagny by then, anyway. In that case, Saks shouldn't worry, because the Peter Principle won't be operating!)

The Ultimate in Fashion

I certainly don't want to give a fast food chain any free publicity, because basically their food is bad for us. But this ad is, well, brilliant. Here's what the top of the ad says:

On this page:
Marielle Lorenz dress,
Ana Testa make-up,
McDonald's necklace®.

It took me a while to realize what the necklace is made of!

This Will Get You Dancing

Maybe you've seen this already, but it was new to me. It's a very funny animated short by the brilliant animated video director Dan Meth called Shake That Ass. It features a wild assortment of dancers, such as cartoon monsters, a little yarmulke-wearing boy, and the characters from Peanuts as African-Americans. Even if you don't think of yourself as a dancer, I dare you to sit still while you watch it.

Making of America--an online library

The New York Times has a piece in today's paper about a wonderful digital library of Americana. Here's a 1921 selection they highlighted from the archive:

Adventures of a Working Woman

In New York

By anonymous (an upper-class woman who set out to investigate the life of laboring women). 1921.

For years I had heard persons, men and women, declaim against the incomprehensible devotion of "shop-girls" to chocolate éclairs and gumdrops ... instead of a bowl of oatmeal and milk, or of "good, nourishing soup."

The first time I tried lunching on a bowl of oatmeal and milk I began to experience a most uncomfortable sensation under my apron before three o'clock. By five that sensation had become a sharp griping pain. The day following I tried soup. In the middle of the afternoon when Nora learned how I was suffering, she went scurrying around among the girls in various departments and returned with three gumdrops, which she made me eat.

After that when I had 10 cents or less to spend for lunch I invested in a chocolate éclair and gumdrops. Without a doubt such a diet does produce pale faces and a predisposition to tuberculosis. Experience taught me that it staves off the griping agony produced by hunger and standing on one's feet longer than any other food to be had in New York City for the same money. When a girl's wage is seven dollars a week, or less, 10 cents a day is all she can spend for lunch.