Leni Riefenstahl Carice van Houten Berlin, Germany —I first talked about this last February when there was a tease article in Variety Magazine . The Jessie Owens story is coming to the big screen.   The film titled, Race  is starring  Stephan James   as Owens and he is joined Jeremy Irons  and William Hurt in this film.     Stephen Hopkins is directing the film.  Shooting  began this week in Berlin. The multi-talented Dutch actress, Carice van Houten  who happens to be my personal favorite has signed on to play the legendary German film director Leni Riefenstahl . Van Houten was cast in the once in a lifetime role of the accidental Dutch resistance hero, Rachel Stein / Ellis de Vries in Paul Verhoeven’s film, Black Book (2006).   That’s still is my favorite film of all time! Today, van Houten graces the Game of Game of Thrones  cast as the Red Priestess, Melisandre . Riefenstahl was a gorgeous dancer and...

Daniel Saulmon/Tom Zebra Los Angeles, CA — Daniel Saulmon , 42 better known as Tom Zebra is being held in a jail cell here since his 4:00 PM arrest on September 23 rd .  Saulmon was late for his misdemeanor citation received weeks earlier for flying his camera drone.   When Saulmon appeared later that morning they kept him waiting for hours and then was ordered held on a punitive $30K bail.  Saulmon spent five days in jail until his supporters were able to post his bail.   The crime Saulmon is accused of is flying his little plastic remote control Phantom 2 camera drone on Los Angeles park property.  The little known L.A. ordinance Saulmon was arrested on is not new.  It banned flying of remote controlled aircraft.  However this put on the books long before the little multi-rotor Phantom gizmos with cameras ever existed.   At the time they enacted this remote controlled aircraft law, the city council had no way to know the mu...

Phoenix, AZ —Last week Christopher Scott Gale approached a woman shopping at the Central Ave and Osborn Road Walgreens from behind.  Without provocation or a known motive he used a kitchen knife with an 8” blade to stab the woman at the base of her skull. The woman screamed and an off duty but armed federal officer in a checkout line quickly intervened.    The offender was standing over the wounded woman when the G-Man ordered the man to drop his knife and lie face down on the ground.   Responding Phoenix Police took the offender into custody. Gale told police that he purchased the knife at the WalMart located in the Christown Spectrum Mall because he wanted to,c “stab and kill someone.” Police reported in court documents that after stabbing the woman, Gale was face to face with her while the knife was protruding from her neck.   Allegedly Gale told her, “I’m killing you to save the world.” Rather than book Gale immediately in jail police...

Los Angeles, CA —Local news coverage here is as lame is it gets anywhere!   The entertainment capitol of the world and the second largest television market puts out  pathetic   minimalist crap instead of comprehensive news. It's downright shameful! What used to be called print media has now been forcibly   moved to the Internet and they now must adapt to publishing quality video or simply become history. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’re at the bottom position and pay grade in your news organization there’s no excuse for you being unable to make a broadcast quality news story if you come upon breaking news.   If you can’t put together a watchable story on your iPhone you need to get out of the news business.   You don’t have to be pretty or an award winning cinematographer to create a great news story.   You do need to be capable of using a little investigative effort and get some watchable video and simply tell your story. ...

Phoenix, AZ —The second attempt to get a verdict in the penalty phase of the Jodi Arias murder trial is about be get underway before Judge Sherry Stephens . Will it be death, life without parole or a 25 calendar year sentence?    Arias would get full credit for her years in pretrial custody.   Arias is understandably and desperately seeking some control over her defense and public relations matters.   The problem is that she’s woefully unqualified to make any of those decisions. The lawyers assigned to defend Arias are not exactly heavy hitters.   They are lightweights with limited skills and resources.   Arias has been widely criticized for her missteps at every turn.   This young woman is fighting for her life while dealing with complicated issues few of us will ever have to face.  For her there are no right answers.  Whatever she does turns out wrong.  The only thing I know about Arias for sure is she has given...