Tuesday, August 29
Football and Tom Cruise: two American institutions finally joined
Financially disowned by Viacom’s Paramount Pictures two weeks ago, actor and creepy scientologist Tom Cruise found new financial support for his film projects today through Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. The Washington Post reports that Snyder and Paula Wagner, Cruise’s production partner, revealed the unlikely financial union in a joint press release. The terms of the agreement? According to the Post, “a two-year deal with Cruise’s production company [for Snyder and partners] to pay between $3 million and $10 million annually for development and overhead costs in exchange for the opportunity to finance film projects and to profit from any hit movies.” The challenge? Whether Snyder will reap any monetary reward from films titled Deathrace 3000 and I Married a Witch, listed as possible projects of Cruise/Wagner Productions on the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com.
Wednesday, August 30
Turkeys better than mustachoed effetes
Yet again, Hokie faithful have more to celebrate than Cavalier comrades: Today’s Washington Post college football preview picks Virginia Tech to finish second of six teams in the ACC Coastal Division while picking UVA to finish fourth. The Post also puts VT No. 15 overall in its preseason rankings and calls the November 4 Virginia Tech-Miami match the ACC “Game of the Year.” Along with depth charts and schedules to study (neither team is facing any decent nonconference competition), fans can read profiles of Tech’s place kicker Brandon Pace and UVA’s defensive end Chris Long (son of NFL legend Howie Long).
Thursday, August 31
Wrong on so many levels
Five former employees of Whisper Ridge Behavioral Health System have been indicted on sexual abuse charges, according to today’s Daily Progress. Two face charges for indecent liberties with a child, including former director of operations Bianca Nicole Johnson and former mental health specialist Bryan Antwann Vaughan. Designed to offer mental treatment for adolescents suffering from anything form depression to sexual abuse, Whisper Ridge, a for-profit company once named the Brown School of Virginia and the Millmont Center, has undergone multiple facelifts to avoid State closure. It has recently shed its old CEO, many employees and many patients: Only six adolescent clients are currently served at the 60 bed facility.
Friday, September 1
Politics are stranger than fiction
On September 24, Albemarle author John Grisham and his best-selling friend Stephen King will grace Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater for a fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb. The Daily Progress reports this week that tickets for the event “will be tiered at $100, $500, and $2,100,” and will be available “at Webb’s headquarters on the Downtown Mall after Labor Day.” Grisham plans to read from his upcoming nonfiction effort, An Innocent Man. Webb will both speak and read from some of his own works, which include six novels. Whether King will read selections from his novels or give a narrative of the 2006 Virginia Senate race in a spooky voice is yet unknown. Asked to comment on Webb’s fundraiser, Republican Senator George Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, said: “Since his whole campaign is based on fiction, having two fellow fiction novelists campaign for him is not a surprise.”
