Anna Nicole Smith’s deadly drug struggle revisited in Lifetime biopic

Anna Nicole Smith’s wild and unbelievable life story will be revisited tonight with the Lifetime move Anna Nicole, directed by American Psycho director Mary Harron. It’s based mostly on facts that emerged from Anna Nicole’s Supreme Court case detailed in a New York Magazine article called “Paw Paw and Lady Love.”
The Playboy Playmate’s life was driven by a thirst for attention, fame, money, and anything else that could get her high: food, sex, pills, alcohol.
When she died February 8, 2007 there were nine different drugs found in her system, including an the extremely powerful sleep medication chloral hydrate. She was also suffering from an infection on her butt (believed to be from an injection site,) and had developed an intestinal virus and blood infection. During court testimony for a 2010 drug conspiracy trial that investigated her lawyer Howard K. Stern and two doctors, Anna Nicole’s nanny Nadine Alexie and her daughter’s father Larry Birkhead testified about the extent of her drug use during her last months. Nadine said Anna Nicole had tried to kill herself twice using the chloral hydrate medication, and that at one point she counted 18 different medications Anna was taking, including multiple sedatives and opiates. According to Birkhead, among the drugs she was taking were Methadone, Klonopin, Topamax, Ambien and Vicodin. Her toloerance to these drugs was extremely high, but she would insist to Birkhead that she needed them because she was in pain.
The real pain she was trying to mask was probably emotional. She had just given birth to her daughter Danielynn and lost her 20-year-old son Daniel from a drug overdose all in the same day, which must have been immeasurable pain. She also may have been suffering from mental illness. During the trail Dr. Nathalie Maullin, a psychiatrist who treated Anna Nicole in 2006 when she was pregnant and brought into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center withdrawing from Xanax and Methadone testified that she thought Anna Nicole had “a borderline personality disorder” and a prescription pill addiction.
“My thoughts were these were very hard core medications to be giving for the kind of pain she was demonstrating,” said Maullin. “She was on medication that seemed like overkill for the type of pain she was in.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, here’s the definition of borderline personality disorder:
With borderline personality disorder, you may have a severely distorted self-image and feel worthless and fundamentally flawed. Anger, impulsiveness and frequent mood swings may push others away, even though you may desire to have loving and lasting relationships.
Symptoms of borderline personality disorder include:
Impulsive and risky behavior, such as risky driving, unsafe sex, gambling sprees or illegal drug use
Awareness of destructive behavior, including self-injury, but sometimes feeling unable to change it
Wide mood swings
Short but intense episodes of anxiety or depression
Inappropriate anger and antagonistic behavior, sometimes escalating into physical fights
Difficulty controlling emotions or impulses
Suicidal behavior
Feeling misunderstood, neglected, alone, empty or hopeless
Fear of being alone
Feelings of self-hate and self-loathing
Anna Nicole airs tonight at 8 EST on Lifetime.

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Jessica Korda fires caddie midway through her round

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — On a wild day at sun-drenched, seaside Sebonack Golf Club — high winds, strenuous pin placements and only one player under par in the third round — most everyone at the U.S. Women's Open was on edge from their first tee shot.

Disagreements between player and caddie were frequent as shot selection and the flight of the ball were up for debate on nearly every shot.

IN CHARGE: Inbee Park leads by four shots

LEADERBOARD: U.S. Women's Open

That was a burden for some more than others, and a shouting match between Jessica Korda and her caddie, Jason Gilroyed, ended up in an unusual dismissal.

Korda fired Gilroyed after nine holes and put her boyfriend, Johnny DelPrete, on the bag. Korda went on to bogey the 12th hole. She shot 40 on the front nine but came home with a 36 on the back for a 4-over-par 76.

2013-6-29 jessica korda johnny delprete
Jessica Korda waits on the 15th tee with her caddie/boyfriend Johnny DelPrete.(Photo: Scott Halleran, Getty Images)
She is tied for sixth, 11 shots behind Inbee Park, who was the only player to break par.

"We had a couple of disagreements here and there, and I wasn't in the right state of mind. I knew I needed to switch and just have a little bit more fun out there," Korda said. "It's a U.S. Open. It's tough out there. It just wasn't working out.

" … It was tough for me, because I care about Jason a lot. He is a great guy. That's just how it happens sometimes in life. That was one of those things today that it just unfolded. It was very hard for me to do. I'm not that type of person to take these things really easily. For me it was very hard to tell him that and it took a lot for me."

Gilroyed could not be reached for comment.

DelPrete was following Korda when he suddenly had a new job.

"I just told him, 'Johnny, grab the bag, let's go.' " Korda said.

Korda said she does not know if she will rehire Gilroyed. However, while her boyfriend will be on the bag for the final round, he will not become her regular caddie.

DelPrete plays professionally on the Web.com Tour.

"I think everybody has problems every week," Korda said. "You blame the caddie, the caddie blames you. It's just up in the air. I just felt like enough was enough today. I just wasn't mentally ready for it."

Korda's sister, Nelly, 14, was the youngest player to make the cut this week. There is little chance she will fire her caddie — it's her father, former tennis star Petr.

Nelly Korda shot 79.

PHOTOS: Saturday at the U.S. Women's Open

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Michael Jackson Death Anniversary: Remembering The King Of Pop 4 Years After His Untimely Death

It's been four years since Michael Jackson died, on June 25, 2009, from cardiac arrest caused by a lethal combination of prescription drugs. His death, later ruled a homicide, shocked fans and musicians across the world.

Jackson rose to fame in 1964 as the youngest member of his family's Motown group, the "Jackson 5," and continued to dominate the music industry with best-selling hits such as "Thriller," "Billie Jean" and "Beat It."

Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael Jackson II, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson.

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Ellen Page Says Naughty Dog 'Ripped Off' Her Likeness For 'The Last Of Us'

To be honest, I don’t think Ellie from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us looks all that much like actress Ellen Page.

But a lot of people do. And it’s true, the original models we saw of Ellie certainly bore a resemblance to Page, even though the “Juno” star wasn’t voicing the role.


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Photos: The Last Of Us
Then Beyond Two Souls was announced, and it turned out Page was starring in David Cage’s PS3 exclusive. Over the intervening months, the version of Ellie in The Last of Us underwent some changes.

But even before those changes, I would argue that Jodie from Beyond Two Souls looks much more like Ellen Page than Ellie from The Last of Us. Which makes sense.

Ellie might have been inspired by Ellen Page, but she could really be any skinny white teenage girl with brown hair. And even if she was inspired by her…I fail to see the issue. Game characters and animated characters are often inspired by real people. Ever see Pixar’s Up?

In an Ask Me Anything on reddit, Page sounds off on the comparison.

“I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness,” she said, “but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated.”

They do say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Of course, this is all much ado about nothing. Page isn’t really throwing a fit about it, just giving her honest opinion, and The Last of Us is an amazing game, likeness or no.

Hopefully Beyond Two Souls will be just as good, though it’s going to be hard to top The Last of Us.

Update:

Kotaku has a comparison shot that definitely highlights the resemblance between the two more:

I disagree, however, that their voices are remarkably similar.

Source : forbes.com

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Supermoon will rise in weekend night sky

The largest full moon of 2013, a so-called "supermoon," will light up the night sky this weekend, but there's more to this lunar delight than meets the eye.
On Sunday, June 23, at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), the moon will arrive at perigee — the point in its orbit its orbit bringing it closest to Earth), a distance of 221,824 miles. Now the moon typically reaches perigee once each month (and on some occasions twice), with their respective distances to Earth varying by 3 percent.
But Sunday's lunar perigee will be the moon's closest to Earth of 2013. And 32 minutes later, the moon will officially turn full. The close timing of the moon's perigee and its full phase are what will bring about the biggest full moon of the year, a celestial event popularly defined by some as a "supermoon."
You can watch a free webcast of 2013 supermoon full moon on SPACE.com on Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 June 24), courtesy of the skywatching website Slooh Space Camera.
While the exact time of the full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to casual observers. The moon will appear full a couple of days before and after the actual full moo most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full": the shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell in a casual glance whether it’s present or on which side it is.
During Sunday's supermoon, the moon will appear about 12.2 percent larger than it will look on Jan. 16, 2014, when it will be farthest from the Earth during its apogee.
Supermoon's big tides
In addition, the near coincidence of Sunday's full moon with perigee will result in a dramatically large range of high and low ocean tides. The highest tides will not, however, coincide with the perigee moon but will actually lag by up to a couple of days depending on the specific coastal location. [The Moon Revealed: 10 Surprising Facts]
For example, for New York City, high water (6.3 feet) at The Battery comes at 8:58 p.m. EDT on Sunday, or more than 12 hours after perigee. From Cape Fear, N.C., the highest tide (6.5 feet) will be attained at 9:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, while at Boston Harbor a peak tide height of 12.3 feet comes at 12:48 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, almost 2 days after the time of perigee.
Any coastal storm at sea around this time will almost certainly aggravate coastal flooding problems. Such an extreme tide is known as a perigean spring tide, the word spring being derived from the German springen, meaningto "spring up," and is not — as is often mistaken — a reference to the spring season.
Spring tides occur when the moon is either at full or new phase. At these times the moon and sun form a line with the Earth, so their tidal effects add together (the sun exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.) "Neap tides," on the other hand, occur when the moon is at first and last quarter and works at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times tides are week.
Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. We have already noted that this month the moon is 12.2 percent closer at perigee than at apogee. Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force at this full moon compared to the spring tides for the full moon that will coincide with apogee next January.
Huge moon at moonrise
Usually the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.
Or is it?
When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.
So a perigee moon, either rising in the east at sunset or dropping down in the west at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost appears that you could touch it. You can check out this out for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset for your area by going to this website of moonrise times by the U.S. Navy Oceanography Portal.
Happy moon-gazing!


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/06/21/supermoon-rises-in-weekend-night-sky-sunday/#ixzz2Wuo5Y8IC

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Review: 'World War Z' is scary good fun

Editor's note: This review may contain spoilers.
(EW.com) -- Just about every zombie movie I can think of is set, for the most part, in tightly defined spaces where groups of survivors huddle to fend off the flesh-hungry hordes outside.
"World War Z," which may be the most entertaining and accomplished zombie thriller since George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (1979), has touches of that suspenseful high-tension claustrophobia. Yet it's a very different sort of zombie feast (far more than, say, "The Walking Dead"). It's vast and sprawling and spectacular; it's the first truly globalized orgy of the undead.
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The director, Marc Forster, is a filmmaker whose work I've never particularly liked (he made the genteel "Finding Neverland," the overblown "Monster's Ball," and the Bond dud "Quantum of Solace"). Here, though, working from the 2006 Max Brooks novel "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," he shows a new audacity and flair.
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"World War Z" is epically scaled, but it's not a messy, noisy, CGI-bogus, throw-everything-at-the-audience sort of blockbuster. It's thrillingly controlled, and it builds in impact.
The film opens with music that's meant to remind you of Tubular Bells, the chilling theme music from "The Exorcist," and that's followed by a collage of actual TV news snippets cleverly edited together to suggest a world already tilting toward the abyss.
In Philadelphia, where Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), his wife (Mireille Enos) and their two daughters (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) are driving from their suburban home toward the center of town, we're plunged into the first disquieting evidence of the zombie virus, the warning signs of breakdown: giant traffic jams, a street-corner explosion, cops whizzing by, and, finally, a zombie — or is it just an angry, desperate civilian? — crashing up against the windshield.
Brad Pitt: From 'Dallas' to 'World War Z'
When people in "World War Z" get bitten and turn into rabid undead freaks, the conversion happens frighteningly quickly, without a lot of fuss. They lie on the ground for a moment, then get all twitchy, as if they're receiving an electroshock treatment, and their eyes bulge up to the heavens in rage.
Gerry, a former U.N. investigator, spends most of the film traveling around the world, searching for the origins of the virus (and a possible cure), yet metaphorically speaking, we're already cued to see what has brought about this onslaught. "World War Z" is rooted in the current mood of economic panic and terrorist fear and impending chaos. It presents the zombie army as a culmination of what it's going to look like if and when the bottom falls out of our society.
An early scene set in South Korea, where Gerry looks over the dusty remains of Patient Zero, has a hushed creepiness, but "World War Z" finds its own unique atmosphere of large-scale disorder after Gerry arrives in Jerusalem, where the Israelis have erected a wall around the city to keep the zombies out. The wall doesn't work. As the zombies — and there are thousands of them — shimmy up the side of it, in a squirmy hill of bodies that spill over the top of the edifice, the action hits a raw nerve of peril, a feeling that nothing can keep them out.
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"World War Z" lifts some of its vérité-apocalypse mood, as well as the terrifying speed with which the zombies move, from Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" (2003). Yet this is a much more varied and surprising movie, built around a soberly commanding performance by Pitt as the family man who must leave his wife and daughters on a U.N. command ship as he hops from one trouble spot to the next.
As Gerry, Pitt is cool, fearless, tense, compassionate and brutally tough (at one point, he chops off the hand of a soldier to save her from going zombie). He's feral grace under pressure.
The stakes for survival keep getting raised. A zombie attack aboard an airplane has a nightmarish this-is-really happening intensity (though it does give the film a semi-preposterous moment, when the plane starts to go down). Then Pitt arrives at a World Health Organization facility, where he must brave sterile white corridors dotted with zombies to get inside a lab vault.
The film lets us linger for a bit on what the zombies look like — one's a gnashing Miles Davis clone, one clicks its teeth in close-up like a demented gopher — and the story's blend of terror and ingenuity attains an intoxicating, jittery finesse.
"World War Z" turns the prospect of the end of our world into something tumultuous and horrifying and, at the same time, exciting. It's scary good fun. Grade: A-
See the original story at EW.com.

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Instagram Video Vs. Vine: What’s The Difference?

Instagram just launched video functionality. Glorious, 15-second, editable video functionality. Complete with image stabilization.

So what does this mean for Vine? In the end, the competition should give users plenty to be excited about, whether you’re a Vine loyalist or an Instagrammaholic. And both apps will likely continue to thrive, as I’ve stated a few times already. Where Instagram’s user base is mostly made up of people documenting their feet, coffees, and pets, Vine has attracted a group of users who are pleased by the challenges set forth in the app.

Instagram’s filters, longer video length, stability technology and already-ingrained user behavior will keep its video offering very similar to its photo offering. People will now just post videos of their feet, coffees, and pets. At the same time, Vine’s growing community of creatives and tinkering designers will likely continue to blossom, as well.

But to end my endless list of predictions, let’s go ahead and take a hard look at how these platforms are different:

CREATION
Let’s start with length.

Vine videos are approximately 6.5 seconds long, if we’re getting specific. Twitter and Vine put a lot of science and research into this length, determining that it’s the perfect length for video consumption, and forces the creator to think outside of the box in order to tell a story succinctly. It’s very Twitter-esque.

Instagram video allows for 15 seconds of video, which could feel long for the Instagram video viewer, but roomy and quite comfortable for the creator.

Editability?

Well, both platforms let you shoot multiple, disjointed clips and string them together. However, Instagram will let users delete the last clip that they shot in a series, just in case it was a bad take. You are not allowed to delete the second clip in a series, without deleting the fourth and third first. In other words, you can only remove the most recent clip taken.

Vine, on the other hand, doesn’t let you edit at all. Still, the founders this morning teased the ability to create multiple drafts within the app, which would allow for a little more freedom creatively.

Neither Vine nor Instagram will let you pull video from your camera roll. Both insist that you shoot your Vineable or Instagrammable video within the respective apps. Sorry, folks. However, both apps will instantly save your Vined or Instagrammed clips to the camera roll for later use.

They also have front-facing camera functionality in common. Both Vine and Instagram will let you switch back and forth between front- and rear-facing cameras while shooting.

This feature was originally not available on Vine, but came in an update shortly after the app launched. Both apps also let you mention other users to tag them in a Vine.

In true Instagram style, the Facebook-owned app has indeed provided filters for its new video-sharing function, and they’re brand new filters from the same old photo filters we’re used to. There are 13 new filters in all, and each of them are specifically designed with video in mind.

Vine does not offer filters, and I don’t imagine that the app will do so anytime soon. It appears that Vine is still interested in giving creators tools to make interesting, beautiful moving imagery, but I predict that those tools will be in line with higher quality videos as opposed to more convenient creation. In other words, I expect to see features like voiceover, or perhaps a tool that helps creators make more seamless animation-style Vines, to land on the network.

One feature that got a lot of “Oohs” and “Ahhs” from the press conference crowd was Instagram’s Cinema feature, which helps stabilize video shot within the app. Though image stabilization software is said to sacrifice image quality in other ways, most of the time, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for Instagram’s ever-growing user base. Instagram filters, brightness settings, etc. certainly mess with a photo’s quality enough to begin with, but with the reward of looking tanner, or capturing an unnaturally blue sky.

Vine has no such feature, or at the very least hasn’t mentioned anything like it.

Sharing options haven’t expanded for either app, but Instagram has Vine topped on this front. Where Vine only lets you share to Vine, Facebook, and Twitter, Instagram lets you share videos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and foursquare, as well as through email.

However, it’s worth remembering that Twitter’s Vine has full Twitter card support, meaning Vines display right in your Twitter stream. Systrom famously turned off Twitter Card support to push more traffic to Instagram.com back in December.

Both apps let users geo-tag their locations, but only Instagram offers a photo map letting you surf users photos based on location.

CONSUMPTION
The Instagram stream remains much unchanged. Videos are still a perfect square, just like photos, but with a cute little camcorder icon adorning the top right corner. Both apps will autoplay videos, but Instagram seems to offer a little two-second buffer waiting for you to pause there in your stream before it plays. Vine is more quick-fire.

Neither app has options for silencing video within the mobile apps, unless you turn sound off on your entire phone.

On desktop, Vines can be muted. Instagram videos can not be muted. Vine has also offered users the ability to embed Vines via desktop, which is a feature Instagram did not include for on Instagram.com.

Another, bigger difference with regards to consumption is the fact that Vine videos loop, while Instagram videos only play once. This gives Vines a more gif-like quality, especially when tethered to that shorter, six-second limit. Instagram videos are more of a story with a beginning and an end.

It’s also worth mentioning that Vine’s stream may look radically different soon, though. Today’s tease of new UI tweaks showed a new, full screen layout for the Vine stream that removes the space normally held by likes and comments.

SO…
Vine already has a solid user base of video-sharing addicts. They craved snackable video-sharing before an app like Instagram could give it to them. The limits placed upon them by Twitter’s disposition towards brevity makes Vines that much more creative, and the looping aspect throws a dash of Gif into the mix. And we all know how popular Gifs are.

That said, Instagram video will surely slow Vine’s growth to an extent. Instagram built a video-sharing product for the masses. There’s plenty of time to shoot a video, you can make it pretty with a filter, and they’ll even help you with a steady hand. But Instagram video’s mass market appeal only makes Vine’s niche, creative-focused breed of video-sharing that much more niche, and creative-focused.

Time will tell how the two compete in the market, but in the meantime we should all grab a bowl of popcorn to watch the story unfold. Even if it takes a while, there are plenty of Vines and Instagram videos out there to wade through.

Source : http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/20/instagram-video-vs-vine-whats-the-difference/

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