Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was previewed at Cinema Tuesdays at Nike Sportswear at The Montalban to a full capacity crowd. The special VIP pre-reception encouraged donations to AiF Heath Ledger Scholarship. After the screening, DJ Mark Rae of Rae and Christian, hit the decks as guests explored the Montalban’s very own magical Imaginarium. Cinema Tuesday’s remains one of LA’s best nights out and will return in the new year with more eclectic screenings, music and creative theme nights. In 2008 Australians in Film established the annual Heath Ledger Scholarship for emerging actors in honor of the late actor who was an ambassador of the group. For further information please visit www.australiansinfilm.org.?? For more information, visit the concierge desk at Nike Sportswear at The Montalbán, Nikesportswear.com, or flux.net.??Nike Sportswear at The Montalbán?1615 Vine Street?Hollywood, CA 90028?

I received a hate email from teacher Robert Peverely in response to one on my blog entries from May of this year. This man is a teacher of young children. Be very afraid.

“Gay people are defined by what they get up to between the sheets?
By labeling yourself as “gay” you set yourself up to be defined by what you are doing between the sheets.

I don’t define myself as “heterosexual” – especially to my children (or anyone else’s)
Keep your sexuality to yourself, and especially keep your sexuality and everyone else’s away from my elementary school children.

The best way to create “hate” for your sexuality is to push it all over other people. I don’t want to share my sexual interest with you and I have no interest in yours.

Enough said.”
Robert Peverley
rdpeverley@yahoo.com

My blog link: “Gay education at school is a good thing”
http://gingerliu.wordpress.com/gay-education-at-school-is-a-good-thing/

I think Robert Peverley protests too much. Throwing his hetrosexuality in my face.

I love California (I was born in LA) but as a Brit there are a few things I refuse to say:

1) Happy Holidays.    Look, it’s Christmas, alright?! I’m not on vacation in the Bahamas, it’s Christmas. Happy Christmas.
2) Soccer.     Look, it’s football, alright?! My hispanic friends and I know what to call the greatest game in the world. Football.
3) Awesome.   Look, it’s fabulous, amazing, brilliant, great, alright?!  As I don’t have an American accent, it just doesn’t sound right and anyway, it feels a little bit hippy. Fabulous.

I mentioned a few weeks ago what a mistake it was for the Twilight filmmakers to follow author Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon novel too closely and for losing their minds for having Edward go awol for much of the Twilight sequel: The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I mean, hello? Why was Twilight such a huge success? Exactly. So here you go, the LA Times says the movie suffers because of the lack of Edward and his full on love for Bella. What a shocker. Christ, I’m not even a teenage gal but this is what the gals want so what were the money grubbing filmmakers thinking?
Not that this will effect ticket sales. The Twilight Saga: New Moon has sold the highest pre sales tickets in American history. Teenage heart throbs only come once in a generation, so please, put Edward in the picture.

It is also sad to hear from Indiewire that the gals and women who backed Twilight will be left in the cold once more as another movie for the boys gets churned out. It happens all the time of course but this time it makes no sense when female fans proved to be the force behind Twilight’s success. And with Mr. Pattinson as THE heartthrob phenomena of more than a decade (he’s the real deal. e.g. John Travolta and Grease), producers choose to ignore and milk it. But none of this matters. These films are huge and the next one will be huge -the fan base is there, the PR is massive. Us gals get let down again -it’s like another bad date.

WEHO, Los Angeles. CA 09

“”You’re Practically A Man” is a personal essay about identity. The scars are from Abdominal Myomectomy, Uterine Fibroid Embolization (unseen) and Partial Hysterectomy, and represent the efforts I went through to try and keep my womb. I lost that fight to a fibroid the size of a six-month pregnancy. The fibroid weighed down on my bladder and I was lucky to get one hour of unbroken sleep at a time. I couldn’t go out anywhere because I constantly needed the bathroom. And once a month, during my period, I would bleed non-stop for two days and lose so much blood that I was too weak to stand. Hysterectomy was the final option.

The title of the essay refers to a woman’s comment made to me after I told her about my operations and represents the consequential view from some people that women are not whole unless they have children. A male friend of mine also commented that my hysterectomy was no big deal because I am a gay woman and gay women don’t have children.”

Ginger Liu is a graduate of London’s University of Westminster with a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Media Practice (Photography, Film, Multi-Media). Her work has been published in the UK and USA, and has appeared on MTV. She is a Hollywood based photographer, writer and publicist.

Arguably one of the best directors of his generation, Martin Scorsese spoke to The Daily Beast about his personal top ten scariest horror movies. He actually came up with eleven and what you would expect from a true auteur, picked movies that were form over substance or art over blood and gore.

Although my top eleven looks nothing like Scorsese’s list apart from similar picks like The Exorcist, The Shining, and The Entity, I do agree with the premise behind each selection. Scorsese chose movies that were stylish and artistic in creation and frights that come from what we appear to see or in fact what we don’t see. These films play on our basic fright instincts of darkness and our own imagination getting the better of us. This type of horror is vastly superior to full frontal blood and guts.

I respect Martin Scorsese as a true auteur and lover of film as an art form and although his list reflects the choices of a man born from a different generation, I am certainly intrigued by some of the black and white movies that I have yet to see. I look forward to spending the next week hunting them down and finding out if I actually agree with the man. I am a little surprised that classics like director Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) and the original silent movie, Nosferatu (1922) from director F.W. Murnau, aren’t on the list. For those of you who think that only contemporary horror is scary, I dare you to watch these two movies with the lights turned off.

Here are Martin Scorsese’s top eleven scary movies:

1)   The Haunting (1963)

2)   Isle of The Dead (1945)

3)   The Uninvited (1944)

4)   The Entity (1981)

5)   Dead of Night (1945)

6)   The Changling (1980)

7)   The Shining (1980)

8)   The Exorcist (1973)

9)   Night of The Demon (1957)

10)                 The Innocents (1961)

11)                 Psycho (1960)

I saw a short film the other day -a Berlin festival winner from a last year. Jenny Agutter starred in it. She was/is in her 50’s and very sexy. You know why? Because she has no botox, no facelift, no personal trainer. She was beautiful because she has lines and character.