maninblack

I think the difference between Kingpin, Fury and Spidey is that the first two aren't perceived as being on the same level as Spidey. They're not marquee chracters, so Marvel is less likely to revamp Peter Parker as an ethnic minority.

Who or what the hell is a "Guillermo del Toro?"

Clearly, you've never met an actual Hispanic person in your life

hope he enjoys his one season there.

I'm sadly leaning toward this, considering how impatient Real's upper management are with their coaches.

I wouldn't mind being proven wrong, though.

Istanbul: Lewis Hamilton told fellow-Briton Nigel Mansell to get his facts straight on Saturday after being branded "manufactured" by the former Formula One world champion.

Speaking to an audience at Britain's Hay literary festival on Friday, Mansell suggested the McLaren driver had enjoyed an easy path to the sport after securing backing from McLaren at an early age.

"People have said to me 'what do I think of Lewis Hamilton?' and I've said 'Well it's fantastic what he's achieved but he's been manufactured''," the 1992 champion, who had to fund his own way into racing, was quoted as saying.

"How many people from seven years of age have been given two and a half million (pounds) to go karting?"

Hamilton, questioned about the comments after qualifying on the front row at the Turkish Grand Prix, was visibly taken aback.

"Wow," gasped the 25-year-old, who became Formula One's youngest champion in 2008. "Clearly he has not been reading the right stories or he just has not got his facts right.

"I wasn't signed up until I was 13, so I would love to see where the rest of that money was since I was seven.

"I just think he is clearly ill-informed and doesn't have the right information," added the Briton.

"He has his right to his own opinion, which doesn't really bother me. I don't really care about his opinion.

"He is a world champion, he was a great star and I look up to him, but I wouldn't have expected that from him."

Hamilton, who will be chasing his first win of the season on Sunday, made a sensational debut in the sport in 2007 after being brought up through the junior categories by McLaren.

The first black world champion, he emerged from a family with no motor racing pedigree. His parents divorced when he was two, the father holding down multiple jobs to keep the family afloat while his mother worked in a care home.

His grandfather emigrated from the West Indies and worked on the London Underground system.

"I don't know how he (Mansell) was funded when he was younger, but for us it was virtually impossible to find money. It got more and more expensive," said Hamilton.

"My parents paid all the way until I was 13, by re-mortgaging the house. They were broke."

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_lewis-hamilton-stung-by-ill-informed-nigel-mansell_1389678

Source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/del-toro-quits-as-director-of-the-hobbit/

The creative team for “The Hobbit,” the long-awaited live-action film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel about the diminutive fantasy hero Bilbo Baggins, has shrunk. Over the weekend the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said he was departing the project as its director, amid uncertainty about a start date for shooting and the future of the studio releasing it.

In a statement posted Sunday on the Tolkien fan Web site TheOneRing.net, Mr. del Toro, whose films include “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the “Hellboy” movies, said: “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming ‘The Hobbit,’ I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.”

The online post said that Mr. del Toro would remain a screenwriter on “The Hobbit,” which is planned to be released in two parts in December 2012 and December 2013, and produced by New Line Cinema and MGM. Last year MGM, which also owns the film rights to the James Bond franchise, put itself up for sale, and is continuing to seek potential buyers for the studio, which carries $3.7 billion in debt.

Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and a writer and executive producer of “The Hobbit” films, said in the online posting that he was sad to see Mr. del Toro step down as director but understood his decision.

“The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years,” Mr. Jackson said.

Mr. Jackson said he and his producing team would meet this week with studio executives “to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for ‘The Hobbit,’” adding, “We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work.”

Sounds like an exciting race. Too bad my sports channel bumped it off in favor of another event

We can always hope that Mr. Stern diligently reminded his officials that a Lakers vs Celtics rematch is the actual most desired scenario for this year's Finals

Hopefully the Cavs don't hire John Calipari.

And oh look, the Magic finally realize they're in the fricking Eastern Conference finals!

Honestly I don't think it'll be that big a deal. These marvel movies haven't exactly been "Dark Knight" grounded in reality so once they think of a plausible reason for him to be "magical" then I'm sure it'll be fine. He'll prob end up being something along an X-Man type deal where he has this power....or a Hulk type deal where somehow his physiology has changed giving him a power of some sort.

The difference is that The Rings controlled different elements, whilst the power of the X-Men and The Hulk are biological. They're still over the top, but there's that slight tiny bit of realism in there (literally, minuscule ) that adds to it not being cheesy. The Rings if I recall are magic, whilst Mandarin is a Sorcerer. Though the more I think about it, the more I think the Marvel world will be different once Thor comes out in terms of what they can get away with.

Maybe they'll swerve us and reveal that this movie version of Thor is really Beta Ray Bill ._.

There's a rumor going about the internets that's LeBron's very poor showing in the playoffs was because he found out Delonte West was sleeping with him mother

RE: the Mandarin...I think the director said he wanted to put him in the first Iron Man movie, but opted to save him for a sequel. I think Mandarin's planned for Iron Man 3 or Avengers.

Finally got the chance to watch it with some friends last night. I liked it. I didn't get the vibe that Stark came across as an unsympathetic character.

The part about Howard Stark (a very good casting choice for this role, with the nods to the Mad Men character) providing Tony with the solution for his palladium problem does seem contrived, but I'm willing to live with it.

James may not be patient enough to want to go to a Nets team that just didn't do very well at all.

For what it's worth, Manny Pacquiao won his election bid to become a congressman in his home country, but he says he's still looking to do that match with Mayweather.

http://politics.inquirer.net/politics/view/20100517-270465/Pacquiao-Ill-fight-as-boxer-congressman

If LeBron doesn't put up 30, 9, 8 then people are going to debate whether he put max effort into a game. It's silly. His team was atrocious last night, no man can make up for his entire team just playing gutless basketball.

James made a triple double, and they're still gonna hang the Cavs' elimination on him...after they fire Mike Brown ¬_¬

I don't get why Formula 1 keeps wanting to target the American audience. It was a fragile market anyway considering the US doesn't take to sports not their own creation that much. Then came Indy 2005, where the market was - rightly - killed off due to Jean Todt sandbagging any changes to make that race safe just so Ferrari could get an easy 1, 2. I'd like them to look at new European GP's instead so they can at least get an audience. Like Russia, that sounds like a good idea.

The only reason I can think of is to help promote the carmakers who are competing in F1. If I recall correctly, the cancellation of races in North America was one of the (minor) reasons Toyota gave for leaving F1. Sure, they didn't do very well as a race outfit, but at least they're able to put their brand out there in front of millions of American eyeballs and all that.

Would have preferred Vettel or Massa winning this first race. Props to Alonso for making his moves when it mattered.

Schumacher at sixth place isn't a bad result. We all have to start from somewhere.

Yes, Webber was overshadowed by Button and Barichello, but he did a great job getting the win.

I think if Barichello was fast enough to take advantage of the first safety car, we may have had a much different result.

I think you may be right. They just posted the projected scores. If Button keeps this up, he'd have enough points to win the championship. One point more than his closest competitor (Reubens), even if Reubens wins Abu Dhabi and Button scores zilch.

If this happens, it'd be the third straight year the title is decided by one point.

EDIT: Fuck, a punctured tire? Barichello really is jinxed.

EDIT: Congrats Jenson!

Holy fuck, three cars get taken out in the first lap AND Kimi catches fire in the pitlane!

I wonder if that Sao Paulo GP jinx that hounds Barichello will kick in again this year.

What about doing F1 in Scotland? I read they're trying to secure an agreement with Ecclestone for that.

Holy fuck a couple of near-misses, and then Algersuari bites it.

Good to see him walk away from that crash.

Renault looking like they would be willing to leave F1 probably saved them from getting any hefty fines.

If the McLaren spy scandal was exposed this year instead of 2007 (with the shitty economy forcing big teams to actually leave F1), I think they wouldn't have been penalized the way they were.

I worry for Ferrari if and when Alonso moves there. First the McLaren spy scandal and now Renault's race-fixing <.<

And now Kanye West can insult your favorite website.

http://kanyelicio.us/

Just add your domain name after the final forward slash.