Last week, Yankee pitcher C.C. Sabathia made news when he explained that he lost 25 pounds during the off-season by kicking his Cap’n Crunch habit. “I used to eat it a box at a time,” he said.
Now, any fool knows that most breakfast cereals aren’t the best option if you’re looking to drop some pounds, so C.C. should have figured this out long ago. I interviewed C.C. after an Indians game in the locker room during his rookie season, and the towel around his waist could have been used as a tarp on the infield. The guy was huge.
That said, we can sympathize with the man, as most people know this stuff is incredibly addictive. We might not eat a box at a time like this 300+ pound athlete, but we’ve all been there where we couldn’t put the stuff down. You eat bowl after bowl, and then you can’t move for hours. The cereal companies know this so they spend millions on commercials trying to get you to try their stuff, hoping one bowl will get you hooked for life.
All videos should be this low-tech. The leadoff single from their upcoming Butch Vig-produced record Wasting Light (the first time Vig and head Foo Dave Grohl have worked together since Nevermind) is a hilarious throwback to the early days of music video, with a simple story and simple edits. Even better, it has Lemmy, drinking and driving and scoring some weed. Then, out of nowhere and for no reason, a beautiful babe appears. The nonstop screaming in the vocals is a bit much, but everything else about this video is awesome.
DreamWorks’ new sci-fi thriller, “I Am Number Four,” arrives in theaters this weekend, and although it’s not exactly what we expected from the trailers, there is one thing that might help convince you to check it out: up-and-coming Australian actress Teresa Palmer. She has a fairly small role when compared to the rest of the cast, but as the feisty alien warrior Number Six, Palmer exudes the kind of tough chick sexiness that only a handful of actresses have achieved – kicking butt and taking names with her cool superpowers and delivering so-bad-their-good lines like “Red Bull is for pussies.”
Palmer recently sat down with Esquire to discuss her role in the film and the upcoming period comedy, “Take Me Home Tonight,” and the magazine has a released a short video excerpt on their website. She also unleashed her sexy side in a photo shoot that proves while she may share an uncanny resemblance to “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart, Palmer is way hotter. Check out the video below and head on over to Esquire for more photos.
Funny story: Quentin Tarantino didn’t originally want to cast Diane Kruger as German movie star turned spy Bridget von Hammersmark in his WWII epic “Inglourious Basterds” because he didn’t believe she was really German. After finally convincing him otherwise, Kruger was awarded the role, delivering one of the film’s finer performances in the process – somewhat surprising considering she was so forgettable in films like “Troy” and “National Treasure.” We’re not the only ones who think so, either, as GQ‘s Devin Gordon is more than willing to admit in his latest piece on the former model.
Kruger recently visited the GQ studio for a photo shoot to promote her latest role alongside Liam Neeson in the action thriller, “Unknown,” and along with the sexy pic above (in addition to several sexier and more playful shots of the actress in animal fur and leopard print on the website), Kruger spoke briefly about the “Inglourious Basterds” incident and what it’s like working with Neeson. Click over to the article for more.
High school: it’s a rite of passage we all must endure. Some of us weep when it’s over, others can’t wait to say goodbye forever, but for better or worse, it’s an experience that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. The same goes for some of the many TV series that have been set in high school. Here at Bullz-Eye, we’ve polled our writers for their favorite shows within the genre, and the end result is, not unlike high school itself, a mixture of both comedy and drama.
12. Life As We Know It (ABC, 2004 – 2005): Lasting only 11 episodes before ABC unceremoniously yanked it from the air, “Life As We Know It” premiered during perhaps the most cancel-happy era in television. Developed by two of the producers of “Freaks and Geeks” (maybe the writing was already on the wall), the series may have ultimately been undone by poor ratings, but the Parents Television Council’s campaign against the show’s sexual themes certainly didn’t help. Then again, when you green light a series based on a controversial young-adult novel called “Doing It” that follows the exploits of a trio of best friends (Sean Faris, Jon Foster and Chris Lowell) navigating the highs and lows of adolescence, you can hardly pretend to be surprised when its characters discuss sex on a fairly regular basis.
Featuring a great cast of young up-and-comers that also included Missy Peregrym and Kelly Osbourne (yes, that Kelly Osbourne, who’s never been cuter than she was here), “Life As We Know It” certainly wasn’t perfect by any means, but it easily outshined similar shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “The O.C.,” particularly in its handling of its adult characters. The series wasn’t without the usual high school clichés, but the writers never shied away from edgier material, either – like a student having a secret affair with his teacher or a star jock dealing with performance issues – resulting in a smart, sweet and incredibly honest look at how sex changes everything. – Jason Zingale
11. Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC, 1975 – 1979): Despite suffering through remedial classes and acting far more rebellious than was deemed socially acceptable, Gabe Kotter (played by the suspiciously similarly-named Gabe Kaplan) still somehow managed to graduate from James Buchanan High School, but who would have thought that the dreams that were his ticket out would lead him back there? (John Sebastian did, of course, but that’s not really relevant to this discussion.) With his teacher certification tucked into his back pocket, Kotter returns to his alma mater and takes on the challenge of trying to educate the new generation of remedial students. Oh, sure, their names have all changed since he hung around – now they’re called Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), Freddie “Boom-Boom” Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), and Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes) – but they’re still “sweathogs” all the way.
Most would likely agree that “Welcome Back, Kotter” was at its best when it was still the original four Sweathogs, i.e. before Travolta slipped away from television, put on a white suit, and found big-screen success on the dance floor, but even at its funniest, few would probably describe it as the most realistic look into high school life.
“I don’t think anyone was trying to replicate the high school experience so much as they were trying to service those particular characters and write stories about them,” said Mark Evanier, who served as a story editor for the show. “If you could get a good joke out of it, great…though there were times I think we settled for a decent catch-phrase.”
While the words “up your nose with a rubber hose” lend credence to Evanier’s theory, the Marx-Brothers-inspired chemistry between the Sweathogs helps their slapstick shenanigans hold up nonetheless. And, besides, who needs realism when you’ve got Gabe Kaplan doing Groucho? – Will Harris
10. Glee (Fox, 2009 – present): Is it telling that one of the most popular current shows on TV came it at only the #10 spot? If nothing else, maybe it proves we here at Bullz-Eye aren’t prone to fads. Except that maybe we are, as “Glee” has made it onto our TV Power Rankings lists time and again since its debut. But this list isn’t about what entertains us in the broader sense; it’s about great high school shows. As entertaining as “Glee” can be, it has almost nothing real to say about the high school experience, and in fact most of the high school kids I know find it to be pretty nonsensical.
The one area that it seems to excel in as far as capturing the high school experience is in its ability to play romantic musical chairs with its cast of teenage characters. These kids are fickle, and the only guarantee that seems to come with a relationship on “Glee” is that sooner or later it’s going to end. Some props should probably also be given for their attempt to zero in on the bullying issue that so seems to afflict kids today, but “Glee” chose to unfortunately treat the topic with kid gloves rather than say something truly meaningful. None of this is to say that “Glee” isn’t one hell of an entertaining series, because it is, but anyone looking for something a little deeper would do best to dust off their old DVD of “The Breakfast Club.” – Ross Ruediger
