The ads are always a major draw when the Super Bowl plays. Some of those advertisements rely entirely on a major celebrity appearance and the advertisement usually succeeds epically or fails disastrously based on that appearance. Let’s take a look at three advertisements from last night’s Super Bowl and which ones were winners and which ones were losers:

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The clear winner is easy. When I heard Clint Eastwood would appear in a car commercial and have a pep talk with America, I expected something a little more light. Maybe they’d use his “Dirty Harry” image in some satirical way. Who knows. But, when the advertisement started playing, the entire room (which was previously filled with talk and laughter and some yelling) went silent. Everyone was glued and listened to every word that slipped from Eastwood’s mouth. It was a pep talk alright. And I say we band together and start a petition to nominate Eastwood for an Oscar for his little pep talk. The second he starts walking towards the screen, he consumes you in his shadow. He speaks from experience and he speaks almost as a godfather to us all. By the end of it I wanted to stand up and salute the flag. It makes one more and more excited to see Eastwood return to the front of the cameras for his next flick.

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‘THE HELP’ WINS THREE SAG AWARDS, STREEP AND CLOONEY LOSE

This is a good sign for “The Help,” which is a superb film. SAG is one of the most reliable Oscar bellwethers because so much of the Oscar voting pool is made up of actors:

[T]he big winner of the night was Tate Taylor’s The Help, which took home three of the five SAG film acting awards it was up for with Octavia Spencer winning in the Female Actor in a Supporting Role category, followed by Viola Davis taking the Female Actor in a Leading Role award, solidifying her lead over her primary awards season competition Meryl Streep. …

French actor Jean DuJardin pulled an upset himself by taking the SAG Award for Male Actor in a Lead Role for his performance in The Artist over the favorited George Clooney

Because I haven’t seen “The Artist,” or the films for which Clooney and Streep have been nominated, there’s no way for me to judge if this is fair. What I do know is that Clooney’s improved dramatically as an actor over the last decade while Streep’s become a parody of herself, and the snippets I have seen of “The Iron Lady” tell me nothing’s changed.

ANALYST: PAY TV PROVIDERS HAVE ENOUGH MUSCLE TO BLOCK COMPETITION FROM THE WEB

I don’t completely disagree, and there are a few points worth highlighting but also a few to add.

First off, what you’ll read immediately below is why you pay for a ton of crap on cable you don’t watch. Secondly, this is how crap nobody watches stays alive. Finally, and most importantly, this is how a VERY FEW monopolize our popular culture:

Six companies — Disney, News Corp, NBCUniversal, Time Warner, CBS, and Discovery — account for 90% of all viewing hours. They demand that their channels be sold in packages, ”and only that way[.]” …

Well, then what’s to stop an online service from creating a virtual cable company — offering packages of channels via the net but for less than current pay TV providers charge? You’d think there’d be room for someone to do that considering that that consumers pay Comcast about $79 a month for programming that costs the company about $29.

Three reasons follow, and each is valid:

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The millisecond the new HBO comedy “Veep” was announced conservatives figured it would be yet another slam against Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.

After all, Tina Fey’s impersonation of the former Vice Presidential candidate helped derail the McCain/Palin ticket, and celebrities love nothing more than slamming the hockey mom of five.

“Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus promises viewers won’t hear any new Palin cracks when the comedy, which focuses on a senator turned overwhelmed vice president, debuts next year. The “Seinfeld” alum tells Capitol File magazine via Politico the new series will be so fair and balanced we won’t even know which party her character calls her own:

“There’s talk of the opposition and that party and this party, but it is never identified. So this is not a partisan politics show in any way. What it is, though, is a show about political behavior. And that is where the comedy comes from.”

She added, “This is in no way a parody of [Sarah Palin] or any other female politician.”

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I was watching a Giants football game when I noticed that an opposing player’s chin guard was pink. Then I noticed his pink socks and other uniform parts were this god-awful color that I have always despised. My daughter told me that October is Breast Cancer month and I groaned at the idea of having to put up with seeing that awful shade instead of the glorious colors of autumn. 

I come from a cancer riddled family. My father died of stomach cancer; my sister of leukemia, a niece of pancreatic cancer; another of ovarian cancer. I would dearly love for us to find a cure but I wonder why it is that Breast Cancer has become the darling of Hollywood celebrities. AIDS research is another disease that gets more attention from Hollywood than any other.   

John Stossel reported back in 2009 on the Fox Business Website- “In 2001, AIDS research got $4,439 per patient from NIH, breast cancer $290, Parkinson’s $175.  Diabetes, which killed more people than AIDS and breast cancer combined, got $41.  Heart disease, the number one killer, got $58.”  (more…)

I was flipping through the tube last night, and found myself in an all-too familiar situation: watching reruns of Seinfeld.  Sure, you could chalk it up to my lack of a basic cable package, or it could be due to the fact that I’m no longer able to stomach Letterman’s increasingly senile, liberal spewage (and Leno is sort of hit-or-miss these days).  I would argue, however, that one reason stands above the rest: Seinfeld is honest.

The truth is that Seinfeld reflects the worst among us. It is made up of a memorable cast, all of whom play the most self-serving people you could ever meet. Self-absorbed, vain and often underhanded, the show is a perfect embodiment of many involved with the entertainment industry.  You’ve got to love its transparency. Unlike James Cameron (who is just as materialistic and self-serving as a George Costanza), you never have to worry about the show sermonizing the politically correct cause du jour.

Funnily enough, it is Seinfeld’s lack of a soapbox that spurs me to take a good hard look at myself more than any other show on television. How often do you find yourself disgusted at the selfishness of George or Jerry, only to realize that you’ve most likely acted similarly (if not identically) at one point or another? (more…)