Daily Duffster

Hilary Duff graces the cover of Cosmo, I guess either this month or next, and does the usual faux in-depth interview lifestyle nonsense that Cosmo has devolved to over the years.

The above pic is probably the best of the bunch in the issue. I'm not sure why they had to photoshop it so heavily . . . as much as I go on about Hilary's solid goodness, she is a naturally pretty woman. But they had to give her the hollowed out cheeks and smooth out her abs and thighs and stuff . . . all the things I like about her because . . . glamour! I guess.

The other pic in the layout that caught my eye was this one:

The pic is fairly uninteresting, but the quote in the lower left corner about how Hilary doesn't want to be "...that girl who's desperate to find a mate" cracked me up.

It was only last year that after her divorce from hockey player Mike Comrie, that Hilary turned to the fetid cesspool that is Tinder and began trolling for dates. She turned this trip into a short run reality series. A series about a well-known Hollywood star who couldn't find a date so she turned to social media to keep from being alone.

?!?!?!

How is that supposed to jibe with her comment attached to the Cosmo pic?

I suppose, as with politics and everything else these days, Cosmo figures the attention span of its readers is short enough, folks won't pick up on the irony.

I do have to give mad props to the Duffster's management team. She is constantly turning up in these magazines and doing tv interviews and the like. She has that one almost unknown show on television -- Younger, hasn't had a noteable role in a movie since 2008's War, Inc. and hasn't seriously put out any music since . . . heaven only knows when. Yet she has a net worth of nearly $25 million and turns up daily on celeb sites from the relentless attention paid to her by the paparazzi. Attention that sometimes makes me wonder whether it is all accidental encounters or something a bit more . . . deliberate.

But what the heck. She's almost 30 years old, is rich and famous and hot and sexy and seems to be coasting through life.

We should all have it so good. Right?

If you like your weather . . .

So I get up for work Saturday morning and as I'm getting dressed, I check the weather app on my phone like I always do this time of year. Says to expect a high in the low 60's. Okay, I always wear a t-shirt anyway, so . . . probably need my sweater during the day.

Right before I leave for work at 5:00a.m., I check the outside thermometer and it's 71° , and I'm thinking a 10+ degree drop during the day? Unlikely. So I don't worry about it.

By the time we start work at 8:00a.m. it's already pretty cold. And windy. Any rainy.

The whole yucky day goes by. When I get off work at 5:30p.m. it's in the low 50's. Plus with the high winds and high humidity from the cloudy rainy day, it feels like the low 40's.

This time I don't take any chances. Before I go to bed I turn the heat on, just in case. Sure enough, I wake up this morning and it is 32° on the nose.

Amazing. A 40° drop in 24 hours. Wow.

There used to be a joke back when I was a kid about Florida weather -- don't like it? Wait 5 minutes, it'll change.

I hope that old joke is going to work both ways :-)

Oh fer f*ck sake!

Remember way back here when I said I was worried about Deadpool's original director, Tim Miller, getting booted (or left on his own) from the production of the sequel? There were early reports that Miller wanted a more kick-ass action-y flick and Reynolds wanted to focus more on the humor and raunch of the character.

Yeah.

News out today that Reynolds thinks it would be absolutely fabulous if Deadpool could get a boyfriend/lover for the sequel.

groan

Now bear in mind, the entire plot of the original film, voiced by Reynolds himself, was this was a "love story" where Deadpool/Wade Wilson was on a mission to fix what had happened to him and win back the love of his life - Vanessa. The climactic fight was Wilson fighting to save Vanessa's life and then get back together with her.

And now in Deadpool 2 he's gonna be bangin' one of the other mercs? Maybe some underwear model? Are he and Vanessa going to be doing the threesome thing? Or is it not going to work out with her and he retreats into the arms of another man?

WTF?!

People who self-identify as LBGT account for less than 3.5% of the population. Transgenders are under .5%. Why must we constantly reinvent everything to accommodate a tiny minority of people who have chosen to be in that minority?

I'm not going to slam my fist down and proclaim that I'm boycotting the film. If they go this route, I'll probably still see it. But I'm going to be very disappointed at such shameless pandering on Reynolds' and the studio's part.

And before you say anything . . . I know, the comic version of Deadpool is fully what they refer to as pansexual. So don't get all "true to the source material" on me. They skip stuff in other movies that the studios/writers deem unnecessary to the basic plot of the film all the time. I've bitched plenty about that. Do we really need Deadpool to be gay? Is it necessary to the advancement of the movie? Or simply a "hey, look how NOH8 I am" thing?

Then why bother?

Step away from the casting couch -- part 2

Though critically savaged and divisive among fanboys, DC's latest movies -- Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman, have done quite well at the box office. Suicide Squad in particular has earned over $750 million and has given some impetus for spin-offs like a stand-alone Deadshot movie and also a Harley Quinn movie.

There had been talk of DC pushing ahead with a Birds of Prey movie focused on Batgirl/Oracle, Huntress, and Black Canary. But that may be on the back burner due to Margo Robbie's knock out performance as Harley Quinn. DC is now looking at a Gotham Sirens movie that would revolve around criminals Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy.

With Robbie having locked up the role of Quinn, the studio is slowly beginning to source possible candidates to play Catwoman and Ivy. Enter Megan Fox.

Fox has openly expressed interest in playing Poison Ivy and has a legion of sad little fanboys beating their . . . uhh . . . drums to get Fox in the movie. All I can say is NO. NO. NO!!!

Fox is one of the most lightly talented actresses working today. She hasn't proven herself capable of carrying a movie -- Jennifer's Body or Passion Play anyone? And the last thing I saw her in -- the TMNT movie a few years ago, her acting consisted of being out of breath all the time. Seriously. She panted through the entire movie. It was so distracting. I cannot imagine her as one third of the primary actors in a movie.

If I wanted to be snarky about it, I could suggest she's physically better suited for the Catwoman part as her relentless facial surgeries have already given her the catface:

While I can't imagine Anne Hathaway reprising her role as Catwoman, I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if she did. But there's a lot of actresses who could handle these roles and perhaps the studios should look away from the obvious, as they did when they cast Robbie as Harley Quinn.

I saw Melanie St-Pierre in a truly horrible movie called Garm Wars - the Last Druid. I liked her look enough to check around and see what else she had done. Nothing remarkable it would seem, but she has an interesting look. I could see her as either of the two ladies in the trio:

Here's hoping the studios look at Fox's track record in her filmography and go with some fresh faces that might actually be able to bring some acting ability to the set and not just a look.

---

There's a bit of synchronicity in this post. The first "step away from the casting couch" post was about the producers of the live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell looking at casting Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusinagi. Of course they went ahead and did it. Principle shooting is under way and trailers and images have made their way online. Here's a cap of Scarlett in the film's opening sequence:

If you're unfamiliar with the original anime, that odd suit she's wearing is the film's attempt to find a PG-13 version of the Major's thermoptic camouflage. In the anime, the major is nude when she uses the camouflage, but since her body is an android, she has the shape and contours of a woman without the human . . . uhh . . . well, I think you know where I'm heading with this. Suffice it to say, I think they could have found some midground between Johansson's look here and the anime that might have been a bit more pleasing to this dedicated fan.

They are saying the opening sequence is a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening sequence of the anime. From what I've seen in the trailers, I'm guessing I have a different definition of shot-for-shot than they do. Also, they aren't following the anime in terms of plot either. The original had an AI program achieving consciousness and attempting to escape. What I've seen in the trailers seems like something else. We'll see.

Oh. The other bit of synchronicity? That would be the movie Garm Wars. It was written and directed by Mamoru Oshii . . . the director of Ghost in the Shell. Who, by the way, loves the live action version of his anime. But if you've seen Garm Wars, you might wonder about his taste in live action films.

Megyn Kelly leaves FOX News

Reports are out today, including tweets from Kelly herself, that FOX's number two personality is leaving the network and will go to work for NBC.

Supposedly, Kelly will have a Monday through Friday one-hour program during the day and anchor some sort of weekly news program on Sunday evening. Along with doing the breaking news thing and specialized reporting/commentary stuff.

Kelly has hinted over the last year or so about her desire to assume a more Barbara Walters-ish on air persona. I guess this is what she's attempting here.

12 years at FOX as a proponent of conservative politics and viewpoints . . . how long will that last at NBC? If she changes her political views to fit in with her new employer, what should we make of her time at FOX?

Update:
This is more of an addendum than an update . . . but back when Greta van Susteren left FOX, I mused that should Trump become President, I wouldn't be surprised if Greta turned up in a Trump Administration.

Well, color me surprised.

Greta has turned up at the DNC's media arm -- MSNBC.

van Susteren was Trump's number one slobbering fan long before Sean Hannity belly groveled over to join the party. And she nightly worked hard to deflect any criticism of the man about whom she once cooed "Oh I just think he's so clever." After joyfully mentioning on Rachel Maddow's show the other night that she's good friends with many of the MSNBC/DNC on air personalities and how she and her husband frequently dine out with Maddow, one wonders . . .

As with Kelly, were van Susteren's political beliefs borne of convenience or core values. Guess we'll seen soon.

One more time -- this should about do it for Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey got TKO'd the f*ck out the other night by Amanda Nunes in 48 seconds in the first round.

In 2015, Rousey was riding high as the undefeated bantamweight (I think) Champion. She was submitting other fighters in the first round with her signature armbar, posing for magazines, lining up movie deals, etc. Then came Holly Holm:

Holm didn't just kick Rousey's ass, she destroyed her, and the myth of Rousey's invincibility along with her. A superior puncher, Holm had Rousey on her heels barely seconds into the first round, and tko'd her 59 seconds into the second round.

Rousey did the usual title loss thing that even the guys do -- she put on about 20 pounds with the milkshake and donut diet, did the rounds of talk shows and magazine interviews speaking out on body shaming and so on. But pretty soon she realized that she only had relevance inside the ring. Holm had lost the title, so I guess she figured she could take out whoever had it by the time she whipped herself back into fighting shape.

Somewhere along the way, she and/or her trainer seemed to forget about teaching her the basics of how to avoid being hit in the face. Because her stand upright and still style of fighting along with what appears to be a glass chin has lead to two devastating losses in a row. The template's out there for any fighter who wants to take her on. I don't see how she can come back from this. Or should, frankly.

Either develop some acting skills or take a look at pro wrestling, 'cause I'm not sure where she can go from here:

Daily Duffster -- Hilary Duff starts the new year in a bikini

And no complaints from me . . .

Update:
Oh look . . . apparently Hilary brought more than one bikini for her little vacay in Hawaii:

Wow. Just wow.