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Those of you who regularly read this column know that I have been cautioning for months that it was too early to start to fret about the NFL negotiations with its Players Association. It is no longer too early. Let the “fretting” begin.
This week the collective bargaining agreement between the parties expires, and the parties seem to agree that this should be treated as a deadline. Of course, collective bargaining agreements expire all the time in the private and public sector while negotiations continue and nothing much

In kinda shocking news, the patently mediocre Gnomeo and Juliet is still benefiting from the utter lack of real kid-flick competition for one more weekend and actually reached number one in its third weekend. Dropping just 26% in weekend three, the third-rate toon has still grossed $75 million and has a shot at $100 million. I’m sure Disney is just as flabbergasted by the stunning success of this one as I am. This was basically considered a dump until just a month or so

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to attend QVC’s annual pre-Oscar party at the swanky Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. It was a night of stars, and a heavy Los Angeles downpour as well. The party was so well attended that they had to shut down Doheny Dr. for a period of

Business card Secret Police agent Serpa Maciera used in his job as a “snitch.”
The saga of undercover agents, of moles within the ranks of opposition groups, far from alarming me, made me yawn. When they show one of those “heroes” on official television, I feel like I’m watching a fictional serial, where the characters are actors, the script has been written by someone with literary talent, and the scenes were filmed over and over until they seemed convincing. The strategy of the secret police has been overly exploited on our small Cuban screens, too common a part of our Cuban reality. The idea is to make us believe that any friend, family member or even our own children could be some kind of Mata Hari, ready to make a case against us; to convert distrust into a paralyzing element.
I met Carlos Serpa Maceira once when he came to my house because he wanted to open a blog, and wanted me to help him in the

As we face ever disturbing new events on the world stage (Egypt! Libya! Wisconsin! – did anyone ever dream Wisconsin would be in the same sentence as those other two?) it’s almost comforting every once in awhile to crawl back to the hearth next to the idiot box for a dose of so-called Reality TV. In the past I’ve occasionally rubbernecked episodes from the megalomaniacal empire that is Tyra Banks’ and Bankable Productions’ America’s Next Top Model for kicks. And thus and so, here I am again, observing (albeit with a jaundiced eye) the Birth of Cycle 16 of said program.
It should be noted that ANTM is now a worldwide franchise, with versions having been seen in over 120

The Irish election can be summed up in the experience at one polling station in Dublin at 7 a.m. on Friday morning last just as the voting began and recounted on national television by one of the guest experts, Dr. Michael Marsh of Trinity College.
First in the door was a young man with suitcase in tow heading for the emigrant plane to America but stopping off first to cast his vote against the Fianna Fail government whose policies had forced him to abandon Ireland.
If there was ever a symbolic moment that was it, a harbinger from the Gods of the carnage to come as the party that has led Ireland for most of it’s 85 years was decimated beyond recognition.
From 77 seats in the 2007 election and over 40 per cent of the vote, they slumped to 20 or so seats and 17 per cent of the vote.
They have ended up with only one seat in Dublin, the capital city, the equivalent of a political neutron bomb.
Several of the famed family dynasties, the Lenihans, Coughlans, Haugheys, all took direct political hits and their legacies may be at an end.

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There’s a classic Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz as losers who hit on women, strike out, and comment about why they pass them by out loud. The “Girl Watchers’” famous lines are typically “hello” as they stroll along, and “gooooodbye” as they walk right passed them. That was the vibe — well, sort of — at the Film Independent Spirit Awards red carpet on an unseasonably brisk, windy Saturday afternoon on Santa Monica beach. Some stars braved the cold, but most arrived on the red carpet and made a bee-line through passed the press line for warmer pastures

Charles Ferguson’s mind goes where others dare not travel. In 2007, when movies like Lions for Lambs and Home of the Brave were proving Iraq toxic at the box office, Ferguson released No End in Sight, an engrossing examination of the Bush administration’s post-invasion blunders. That film earned Ferguson an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary.
The director has been nominated again this year for his second film, Inside Job, an infuriating look at the cronyism that triggered the 2008 financial meltdown, which destroyed millions of jobs and torched trillions of dollars in worldwide capital.
With this second film, Ferguson cements his position as an essential voice in the documentary world, a filmmaker who tackles the same subjects as Michael Moore without the goofy theatrics or

If justice is served in Hollywood tonight, the people and films I predict in the video below are the ones who will take home Oscars.
Do you agree with my choices? Leave your comments and let me know. Also, for my thoughts on the selection of Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts for this evening’s telecast, watch my commentary here.
You can also check out my reviews of some of the films I call out in the above video, including: True Grit, Blue Valentine, Black Swan, The Fighter, The King’s Speech and The Social Network.
And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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Hot of the success of scoring the 2014 World Cup and 2012 Olympics, the beautiful Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is preparing for its own celebration: Carnival.
Every year, throngs of locals pile into neighborhood samba schools to rehearse elaborate dances. They take pride in every step, from joining the schools to the finished dance, and encourage the community to pile in and enjoy a dance with them. Months later, the dances will include homemade costumes and towering floats, and are entered into Carnival, where the winning samba school scores notoriety and prize money to pour back into their

For the second time in about seven months, Consumer Reports has taken a swipe at the iPhone 4′s antenna flaw.
The non-profit organization’s review of the Verizon iPhone 4 which appears free on its site (not all CR reviews are available online to non-subscribers) points out that like the AT&T version of the iPhone 4, the Verizon model “has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions.” In testing, the researchers at CR found that “covering tiny gaps in the metal band that runs around the skinny edge of the Verizon iPhone caused “meaningful decline in performance.”
The flaw only manifests itself in areas of marginal reception and — as the magazine points out — can be completely avoided by not touching that part of the phone or by placing a rubber bumper around the case to prevent such contact.
As a result of this flaw, the magazine has proclaimed that “we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smart phones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings.
In general I’m a fan of Consumer Reports — I like that they are not beholden to advertisers and that they purchase the products they review. And I’m far from an Apple fan-boy. I don’t even own an iPhone — I’m an Android user.
But that doesn’t mean that Consumer Reports is

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Oscars 2011: The King's Speech seeks crown

I miss Bob Hope. Oscar meets ageism. Why doesn’t Hwood do a film about ageism?
It’s been done, has it? Well, do a sequel. It’s a new story this Oscar race.
Melissa Leo felt she had to pay for stunning photos of herself at fifty to be used as press shots because the glossy magazines would not give her beauty recognition because they felt she was too

The Academy Awards are tonight and as we wait to see what James Franco and Anne Hathaway have in store for us and the nominees get in their fancy clothes, here’s a look back at some of my favorite movie-themed videos from the past year.

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Earlier this week, at the US-Ireland Alliance’s “Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film” event, Julia Roberts presented Paul Rudd with an “Honorary Irishman” award. Showing a touch of Irish-envy, she remarked, “Maybe I can become Irish. My middle name is Fiona, which is a step closer to being Irish than Paul Rudd was five minutes ago.” That’s essentially an engraved invitation to a genealogist like myself (a half-Irish one at that) to go digging.
Ms. Roberts, it turns out, is a classic American

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If you want to win the Oscar pool, why not use my ballot? If you triumph, you can lord it over your friends. If you lose, you can blame me. It’s a win-win!
BEST PICTURE — The King’s Speech
(I’d vote for Toy Story 3. Like The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, it’s a capper to a great trilogy and one of the most successful and acclaimed franchises in Hollywood

The words of a Tunisian poet helped spark revolution in his native country, then spread to help fuel the revolution in Egypt, and continue to inspire protests flaring up throughout the Middle East. Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabi’s poem “Will to Live,” written when Tunisia was struggling under French colonialism in the early 20th Century, captured the emotions of Tunisian protesters in their most recent struggle for democracy, and proved a powerful, unifying cry for freedom. “Will to Live” includes the following lines, which are memorized by school children throughout the Arab world (translated, of course):
If one day, a people desire to live,
then fate will answer their call
And their night will then begin to fade,
and their chains break and fall.
Protesters could be heard chanting these lines in the streets, and frequently displayed them on t-shirts and

Grace, like love, is not a thing of the mind. It doesn’t act upon our demands but appears on its own, unannounced and unexpected. Grace is the benevolent loving sign that life is good again and that we have, for an instant, connected to our source.
One of my favorite poems on grace, entitled “The Sun Of Grace,” is from spiritual teacher and philosopher Sri

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article, “Feeling Invisible? Readers Weigh in and Speak Out,” and hundreds of women responded by leaving comments and sharing. So many felt invisible after turning 50, but an equal number said, like me, that they’ve never felt better. Without fail, those who were writing their own futures were physically active, eating healthy foods, engaged with the world and were confident and proud of their age. Follow their lead: Embrace your age and your life, and your future will be yours to write.
Full disclosure: This is not another one of those articles listing all the ways we can make ourselves look

–Sir John Weir, physician to King George VI and to four generations of British monarchs
“The King’s Speech” depicts the compelling story of King George VI and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. Lionel Logue was neither a physician nor a conventional speech therapist, but his treatment strategies were impressively successful.
The British Royal Family has been known for being exceedingly conservative and embodying traditional ideals of family and public service, but they are also known to have special appreciation and even advocacy for certain unconventional treatments that really worked, whether conventional medicine accepted them or not. Such were their experiences with

I’ve had a few recent run-ins with dark-chocolate M&Ms. Here’s what happens: I’ll grab a few of the candies then sit down at my computer to meet a writing deadline. Type a few words, then walk back the cabinet for more M&Ms. Two

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a recognized cause of cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer.For younger women, there is now a recommendation for a three-part vaccine (Gardasil) that may protect against two of the many forms of the high-risk strains of HPV. (Young men have not been advised to have this vaccine as yet.)
The FDA approved the use of the HPV vaccine to prevent anal HPV. But the FDA has not yet approved the use of this vaccine to prevent HPV at all in women over the age of 30.
Here’s why: as women age, our immune systems are no longer as effective in responding to vaccinations such as