The Daily Helping also loves Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. It’s not often she breaks from the hard news to touch on a story about the Seattle Mariners, but as mentioned, this is kinda special.  Please take a look at this clip, as Ms. Maddow shares the tale.

He was a writer on the landmark television show, “Caeser’s Hour” with the likes of Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.  He was the youngster in the room, and didn’t do too bad for himself.  His was a comedic career that spanned 50 years and along the way established himself as one of the true elite comedy writers of our time.

In order to get a good sense of his work, a simple list of his films and television shows should demonstrate just what a giant Larry Gelbart was and how there are few who have made us laugh for so many years.

He was the comedy writer who developed the TV series “M*A*S*H” and some 50-to 60 of it’s early episodes. He co-wrote the film “Tootsie” and made George Burns God in “Oh God!”

He wrote jokes for Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Judy Garland and Danny Thomas. He wrote the books for the musicals “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “City of Angels”, the latter being a huge hit on Broadway. He wrote one of the early HBO film adaptations, “Barbarians at the Gate” and as recently as 2003, wrote the satire, “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,  starring Antonio Banderas as the Mexican revolutionary who cuts a deal with a movie studio interested in filming his re-imagined life.

If there are skeletons in Mr. Gelbart’s closet, it would have to be his script for the terribly uncomfortable comedy about mid-life crisis, ” Blame it on Rio”; notable for the nudity of it’s two young actresses (Michelle Johnson and Demi Moore). In this movie, two fathers bring their daughters to Rio for a vacation and one of the fathers (Michael Caine) finds himself attracted to his friend’s daughter.

Gelbart apparently wrote a pilot for the sitcom, “Three’s Company”, but it didn’t sell.  With all due respect to the late John Ritter, Gelbart was better suited to the likes of Alan Alda and Loretta Swit.

He was one of the great ones.

The models are all referred to as Suicide Girls, and there’s nearly 2000 of them, each known by their first name or a nickname.  These aren’t Hef’s Girls Next Door. These girls are often well tattooed, pierced and sporting interesting hair styles and colors (and a few notables are quite bald).

What began as an alternative website has grown to quite a diversified industry. There are burlesque tours, dvds, radio shows and magazines. Their interviews include the likes of Deborah Harry, Bill Murry, Neal Gaiman, Nina Hartley, Dave Navarro and Woody Allen.  Their website which enjoys nearly 200, 000 unique visitors a month has columns on politics, music, film, celebrity, gaming and technology, philosophy, love and relationships, spirituality, and food. There’s more here than just pierced nipples and for that reason they boast that nearly 40% of their membership are women.

What’s with the name? The term “suicide girl” comes from the  novel, Survivor, written by Chuck Paluhniuk. He’s more widely known as the author of Choke and Fight Club.  The founders of Suicide Girls are obviously big fans. How big? Check this out…

The film adaptation of Fight Club is 10 years old. To celebrate the “girls” have gotten together for a very special pictorial. In homage to Tyler Durden and his bare knuckled comrades, the Suicide Girls have recreated a few of the more brutal scenes.  In order to see a few pictures from the series….click here.

The Academy Award Nominations were announced early this morning.  There were some minor surprises among those nominated and those that weren’t, but all in all it should be a pretty interesting award show.

Here are some of the major categories and a few of my thoughts on who might win.

BEST PICTURE
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
THE READER
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

I really believe that Slumdog Millionaire will win the big prize.  Golden Globe momentum and some terrific word of mouth make this a big favorite.  The Reader and Frost/Nixon don’t have a chance.  Benjamin Button surprises me that it’s here. The screenwriter for Button was the same one who wrote Forrest Gump.  That explains why I found them so similar.  I think The Dark Knight should have been there instead. Milk is a wild card, but doesn’t have Slumdog’s vibrant appeal.

BEST DIRECTOR
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
MILK – Gus Van Sant
THE READER – Stephen Daldry
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle

I really think Danny Boyle will win Best Director.  The lack of leads in any of Slumdog’s acting categories lets you know who the academy considers the star. It’s Mumbai and the man who put this carnival together.  I wish Gus Van Sant could win because it would inspire him to make more movies like this…and Good Will Hunting, and less like My Own Private Idaho and remakes like Psycho.  Ron Howard did an excellent job converting a stage play to a movie. That he made this interesting is also an achievement. Personally I think Darren Aronofsky should be recognized for his move The Wrestler.  Lets see what kind of performance Mickey gives his next director.

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins for THE VISITOR
Frank Langella for FROST/NIXON
Sean Penn for MILK
Brad Pitt for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Mickey Rourke for THE WRESTLER

Mickey Rourke was the only person with a Screen Actors Guild membership card who could have played Randy “The Ram” Robinson.  He’s done some trash talking about his only competitor in this category, Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.  Richard Jenkins is a character actor you’ve seen tons of times but didn’t know his name. (dead dad on Six Feet Under, for example). I know nothing about his movie but I do know that if he weren’t here…Clint Eastwood would be.

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway for RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
Angelina Jolie for CHANGELING
Melissa Leo for FROZEN RIVER
Meryl Streep for DOUBT
Kate Winslet for THE READER

Anne Hathaway should have won the Golden Globe  but Kate Winslet has been enjoying some love since the Golden Globes (despite her rambling and hysterical acceptance speech).  I think she’s been nominated quite a number of times and so this is going to put that streak to bed.   Melissa Leo is from a movie very few people have seen. (I haven’t seen her since she played a detective on Homicide back in the mid 90’s).  It sometimes feels like these obscure little movies are afforded a prerequisite spot amongthe more familiar nominees. That Happy Go Lucky actress will have to settle for her Golden Globe.

Meryl Streep, I think between Doubt and Mama Mia’, it’s hard to imagine a more ham-handed pair of performances in one year.  (Cuba Gooding comes close).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin for MILK
Robert Downey Jr. for TROPIC THUNDER
Philip Seymour Hoffman for DOUBT
Heath Ledger for THE DARK KNIGHT
Michael Shannon for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

It was a year ago yesterday that we learned Heath Ledger had died. The movie had not yet been released and there was talk of him winning this award posthumously.  Josh Brolin had a great year and had two great performances (he as W. in W.) It’s a shame he doesn’t win something. Downey Jr.’s nomination makes no sense.  This is more an MTV award nomination.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman could do a live action Mister Magoo and score a nomination.  Synecdoche, New York  was as hard to understand as it is to pronounce.  He’s still not going to win here.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams for DOUBT
Penelope Cruz for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Viola Davis for DOUBT
Tarija P. Henson for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Marisa Tomei for THE WRESTLER

I think it’s between these two.  Viola Davis and Marisa Tomei. Amy Adams and Penelope Cruz were legitimate nominees, but I think Viola and Marisa are in a different league.

One thing that I really don’t understand is how Springsteen’s ode to The Wrestler, written as a favor for his friend Mickey, failed to get a best song nomination.  Revolutionary Road had only one acting nomination and it’s for a supporting actor no one has heard of.  Not a good year for Leo DiCaprio or Sam Mendes.   A few people are surprised that the Dark Knight and Wall-E failed to get more love.  Sometimes we just have to settle for huge box-office.

I’m probably alienating 98% of my readership by delving into obscure pod casts found at the itunes store, but this recommendation should prove worthwhile to anyone with an ipod and an interest in comedy.

Penn Radio was an hour-long talk CBS radio show which ran from January 3,  ‘06 to March 2, ‘07. It starred Penn Jillette, the large, talkative half of Penn & Teller.   He was also the co-director of the movie,  The Aristocrats. This was a documentary that sought out comedians of every flavor and asked for their interpretation of one of the great dirty jokes of all time.  Those that participated run the gamut from Carrot Top to Tim Conway, Drew Carey to Don Rickles.

Penn invited a good number of these comedians to his Vegas home and interviewed them for the show.  The roster as shown on itunes will identify which shows had a special guest as opposed to those days where Penn and his friend, Michael Goudeau took to rants about magic, politics, religion and breastfeeding on airplanes.  These shows are fairly interesting, but you really want to target the interviews.

Penn has a huge ego and he shares a lot of personal stories with his guests. Fortunately the stories are genuinely entertaining and add to what is already pretty special rapport.

My favorite interviews are those with Fred Willard, Kevin Pollack, Drew Carey, Adam Carolla, Dennis Miller and yes, Howie Mandel.  Gilbert Gottfried is known for his obnoxious voice but his stories are hilarious and seems to be a favorite of most hard core stand up comedians.  There are several shows that feature Gilbert.

As I said from the start, it takes an appreciation for the subject matter to warrant such an obscure search. I don’t know how long such program archives are kept at the itune site, so please do check it out when you can.