Jefferson King

Jefferson King
REPORTING!
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Saturday, May 29, 2010

DIFFERENT STROKES STAR DIES!

Actor Gary Coleman, beloved as the child star of “Diff'rent Strokes” but troubled as an adult, has died after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage. He was 42.

Gary ColemanColeman, who had been living for several years in Santaquin, Utah, south of Salt Lake City, was taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo on Wednesday. His brother-in-law initially said Coleman had fallen and suffered a head injury. Hospital spokespeople later said he had suffered a hemorrhage. By Friday morning, Coleman was in a coma and on life support.

Radar Online reported Coleman was taken off of life support Friday morning and later passed away. His wife, Shannon Price, and her father were at the hospital Friday.

Gary Coleman Arnold Diff'rent StrokesAfter playing guest roles on Norman Lear's "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times," Coleman was cast in the NBC comedy “Diff'rent Strokes,” which ran from 1978 to 1986. He and Todd Bridges played Arnold (right) and Willis, inner-city kids taken in by a rich businessman, his daughter and their housekeeper. As sassy young Arnold, Coleman was hugely popular, especially for his catchphrase, “Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?”

However, he struggled in his later years, after the show went off the air. Given his height -- he was 4'8" -- due to his lifelong battle with kidney disease, his opportunities for roles were somewhat limited. He twice underwent kidney transplants, in 1973 and 1984, and required daily dialysis.

Coleman continued to act, appearing in TV series including "Simon & Simon," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "The Drew Carey Show." He also had roles in movies including "Homeboys From Outer Space," and did voices in such films as "The Curse of Monkey Island." However, he never had the same level of success as during "Diff'rent Strokes."

He had been having health problems in recent months, suffering seizures in January and February of this year. The February seizure occurred while Coleman was on the set of "The Insider."

Coleman also had money problems, although at the height of his fame he was earning $100,000 per episode for "Diff'rent Strokes." He sued his parents in 1989 for mismanaging his finances; although he won a $1.3 million settlement in 1993, he filed for bankruptcy six years later.

And there were run-ins with the law. While working as a security guard in1998, Coleman was charged with punching a woman who asked for his autograph. He later said she was aggressive and he was afraid she would hit him. He pleaded no contest and paid $1,665 for her hospital bills.

There were several incidents with wife Price, including a July 2007 misdemeanor disorderly conduct citation in Provo after the couple were seen having a "heated discussion" and one two years later when both Coleman and his wife were cited for disorderly conduct and she was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Coleman also was booked in January on a domestic violence assault warrant.

Coleman and Price appeared on TV's "Divorce Court" in May 2008, but apparently were trying to save their marriage rather than end it.

Coleman remained popular despite his problems. He was one of the gubernatorial candidates in California's 2003 recall election, in which he finished eighth overall to winner Arnold Schwarzenegger, receiving 14,242 votes. The 133 other candidates included porn star Mary Carey and comedian Gallagher.

He also played a part, in a way, in hit Broadway musical "Avenue Q." A show about the struggles of young people to find their way in the indifferent big city, it follows a group of kids living in New York's Alphabet City. As the climax to them all singing how "It Sucks to Be Me," their building super shows up to join in -- and it's Gary Coleman. Of course, his struggles trump the whiny kids'.

Coleman was less than thrilled with the show's portrait of him, and threatened to sue, although he never did.

YOUR OUTA HERE GHOSTY!


Cancellations Despite talk of them being potentially resurrected at other networks, both NBC's original "Law and Order" and CBS' "Ghost Whisperer" will not be spared the axe.

Cable network TNT was rumoured to be pursuing the cancelled 'Law', but a spokesman for the network told The LA Times that they are "not in current talks, and we are not interested."

Meanwhile there was speculation that ABC was looking into picking up 'Ghost' as it co-produces the drama, but the network has officially confirmed it will NOT be acquiring the show.

HELLO HOBBIT ARE YOU THERE?


The Hobbit

Out doing press for "Splice" which he produced, director Guillermo del Toro tells Coming Soon that the "Lord of the Rings" prequel is still "not greenlit".

Why? The MGM legal tangles are still very much to blame. del Toro says "We’ve been caught in a very tangled negotiation. There can not be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved. They do hold a considerable portion of the rights."

The filmmaker also confirmed that they've literally only spoken once about shooting the saga in 3D and it isn't part of the plan right now. He has however been on the project for two years now and is "very, very prepared for when it is finally triggered."

FOOTLOOSE GETS NEW SHOES!


Rising 22-year-old actor Thomas Dekker ("A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles") has emerged as the top candidate to star in the new adaptation of "Footloose" for Paramount Pictures reports The Los Angeles Times.

Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer starred in the 1984 original, which told the story of a rebellious outsider who moves to a new town where music and dancing are banned and proceeds to shake everything up.

Both Zac Efron and "Gossip Girl" star Chace Crawford were previously attached to the lead role but ultimately dropped out. Craig Brewer ("Hustle and Flow") came on last month as director, replacing Kenny Ortega ("High School Musical").

Filming hopes to kick off sometime this Summer.

Jefferson King was in THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

This reporter sometimes actor, has this to report. He was in the upcoming, well its airing tonight at 9pm on HBO, called THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP starring Dennis Quaid as BILL CLINTON and Michael Sheen as the returning TONY BLAIR. This film feature made by HBO is a follow up to the smash hit movie, THE QUEEN. Watch Jefferson King in a short board room sequence, he is the one smoking and writing sitting next to Michael Sheen!

Don't miss it.

SEE THE TRAILER HERE

SMALLVILLE GOT ONE MORE LEFT IN IT

A very long running tv show, the modern day telling of Superman, the man of steel. Well, the boy of aluminium at the moment, but he has a lot of heart, and if I may say, the person meant to play Superman but actor Tom Welling has a big problem with wearing the tights! Interesting.

Talking of the next Superman movie entitled MAN OF STEEL, The Dark Knight director and auteur Mr Chris Nolan and his Brother are going to be taking the reigns to put back what they did for the failing Batman franchise. They will inject their magic on this one too and make the new Superman, who will not be played by Superman Returns Brandon Routh this time around. The search is on for a new one, the story portrays an already established Superman who isnt as strong as lifting planets strong like in the Christopher Reeves films, no this Superman is a bit of a playboy Clark Kent, but still manages to keep the innocence, and his parents are still going to be alive in this one. Anyway, I am straying from the Smallville point! Watch out for MAN OF STEEL , summer 2012.

Backtracking to Smallville now, the adventures were like X Files mixed in with Dawsons Creek. Then got darker into Supernatural mode and has evened out nicely to be true to the mythology.
The episodes follow a youngish Clark Kent (no spectacles) as he learns to harness his powers and geniously does not have them all from the start, he develops them as time goes on. Usually a new one or two each season. But still he cannot fly. He can jump though, really really high! So now on smallville, major Zod, his arch enemy has accidentally time travelled to Earth with a pick of his Kandorian buddies or army if you like, and raising havoc on Clarky poos.

The show has been cancelled so only one more season left. Bring back Micheal Rosenbaum I say, he was Lex Luthor and disapeared three seasons too early. So the last season should at least confirm that he is not dead. Nevertheless, its really good and covers things that we always wondered about how Superman got what he did, when he did and how he did. We still have Doomsday the monster that kills Superman in the future, to return and other cretins after his young blood. Will Clark learn to fly in time or will they leave it to a film to give us that. Oh and Lois Lane is really starting to fall for Clark. But of course they got a long way to go from working in the basement of the Daily Planet and Perry White has just joined the company as an editor. Sets it all up nicely.

Watch SMALLVILLE when you can. Hope you dont mind 9 seasons of it! That should pass some time.

By Jefferson King



LOST AND FOUND

Well we have finally seen the last ever episode of LOST!! Funny really, there was a time this reporter can remember when LOST was annoying a lot of viewers near the end of season 2, and the viewers wanted to know where it was all going? Why were they there, our stranded passengers of the Oceanic Airplane bound for, where else, but L.A. Of course, not U.K or another part of the U.S.A. So what happened then? Did we watch 6 years of this show to find out that they were already dead? Don't get me wrong, I am a fan, a fan touched by this genius format. But where did it leave us all? Where did it leave you? I would love to know, so send in your comments.

In the meantime, I am hoping to explain what I thought really happened.

The whole 6 seasons were all about Jack's quest, no, his fight to get some sort of hold on his out of control, rollercoaster life. All the other characters were an imagining perhaps of what would have happened had he known them, or in fact he did crash on that island, died and all the spirits were around him, the island was an inbetween before you move on to the unknown. So Jacob, was a sort of St Peter I expect, and his smoke monster brother was the rebel who wanted to change it all and bring evil to the outside world. So he was the devil, well sort of.

The other characters I think, were representing his fears and loves in his life. The wanting girlfriend, Kate, something he didn't have in his real life. A com padre right hand man, Sawyer, invented perhaps like a childhood adventure of Tom Sawyer and I suppose Jack was Huckleberry Finn. Then there was John Locke, perhaps one of Jack's patients in the past that he managed to save from being a cripple for the rest of his life and disallowed failure to remain in his stagnant dead mind. Moving on we have the British rebel rockstar, Charlie. Someone who may represent the out of control, creative side to Jack. Maybe he loved the Rolling Stones and other british rock bands in his youth and needed that comfort to build up his courage, his fearless youth. Who's next, yes Jin and Sun. I feel Jack was a cultured man, who may have visited Indonesia or Korea on his travels before or respected their culture, so perhaps the cute Korean couple gave him stability to help explain his failed marriage. The other characters I feel were also imaginings by Jack as he sat on that plane and wondered what they were all like. So he put his own spin on it. LOST will no doubt manage to amaze those viewers who decided to bail out of the LOST cruiser and not watch them all from end of season 2. I say to them, you are truly lost if you do not, you will not witness true greatness of our lifetime. The most highly watched and probably will remain the most highly watched piece of television of all time.

We will all miss the intensity, the moving soundtrack and the quirky emotional and uplifting characters of JJ Abrahms awe inspiring masterpiece.

By Jefferson N.E King