Seriously? OMG! WTF?

RD: Have you ever thought about going back to college?
Smith: The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school. Traditional education is based on facts and figures and passing tests — not on a comprehension of the material and its application to your life. Jada and I homeschool our children, because the date of the Boston Tea Party does not matter.

RD: But there are some basics in education that need to be taught.
Smith: Of course there are. Reading, writing and arithmetic, because those are the languages of our country.

RD: When you say you homeschool, do you mean you actually teach them?
Smith: No, we have hired teachers who teach what we feel is important. For example, Plato’s Republic — kids need to know that. Why is that not taught in first grade?

RD: You think kids in elementary school should read Plato’s Republic?
Smith: Yeah. You cannot be an American without reading it and Aristotle’s Politics. That is what the forefathers of this country read, and they used them to create what I believe is the finest system of government that has ever existed.

RD: So, you don’t see any reason to go back to a formal education yourself?
Smith: I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.

RD: They put physics in a book, but I know I could never be a physicist.
Smith: The first step is you have to say that you can.

Reader’s Digest

Maybe I am old school, but I think a kid needs to know the basics? 

LIFE is imitating art for Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale on the set of the Sony Screen Gems thriller "Vacancy," in which a couple is trapped in a motel from hell. Except the real misery is on the L.A. set – and the combatants are Wilson and Beckinsale. Both have fallen ill while shooting, but the real problem is they can’t stand each other. One on-set source said Wilson is often hung over and late to the set, and when he does show, insists on bragging about "all the girls he hooked up with over the weekend and how drunk he got." The blond funnyman with the distinctive nose is also making diva-like demands. "He doesn’t want anyone on the set in his line of sight except the director," said another spy – and that includes his leading lady Beckinsale. Wilson is "outwardly rude and awful to Kate," the second source said. He often doesn’t show up for "reversal" shots, where he is off-camera but needs to be there for Beckinsale to relate to when she speaks. Instead, he sends a stand-in. "He is a total diva," the second spy said. But a Wilson pal disputes that account: "That is baloney. Luke is way too conscientious and uptight to ever be late. He is a consummate professional." The situation became so tense last week that when it came time for Wilson to shoot his reversals, Beckinsale is said to have sent out a picture of herself with a note that read, "Read your lines to this – it will be better for both of us." Beckinsale is much loved by the studio and crew. "This is her fourth movie with Screen Gems, and she is like family to them. I doubt Screen Gems will work with [Wilson] again," one source said. Leslie Sloane Zelnik, Beckinsale’s rep, said, "Kate loves this project and is enjoying filming." Wilson’s rep, Mara Buxbaum, dismissed the reports of tension, saying, "There’s no truth to this. "Vacancy" producer Hal Lieberman said, "We have a great production. The actors have been great. We are on schedule and on budget. Luke and Kate have been incredibly professional. I have enjoyed working with both actors."

Page Six

2 Things – First, obviously the writer doesn’t know which Wilson brother they are describing.  Second, this is not first time Kate Beckinsale has had a problem with a castmember…Claire Dains and her despised each other on the set of Brokedown Palace. So I believe the story.

Nicolas Cage is leaving Bel-Air. The actor has put his home in the tony community on the market for $35 million. He bought the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom spread eight years ago for a mere $7 million. The 11,000-square-foot Tudor-style home sits on an acre just above Sunset Blvd. It has a two-story entrance, a front yard fountain, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a two-bedroom guest house. Singer Tom Jones owned the home for 20 years before Cage, and before that it belonged to crooner Dean Martin. Home values in the area have increased 90 percent since Cage bought the place in 1998, according to DataQuick Information Systems. The 42-year-old actor won’t be lacking for places to stay. He owns other homes in Southern California, and earlier this year bought a castle in Bavaria and a private island in the Bahamas, according to People magazine.

Fox News 

Seriously that is $5 million a bedroom, what is he thinking? I think the house will stay on the market for a while unless he lowers the price, but I could be wrong?

Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn’t get past the gates of the White House. Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Also invited to the screening: O.J. Simpson, "Mel Gibsons" and other "American dignitaries." Cohen’s stunt was timed to coincide with an official visit by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is scheduled to meet with Bush on Friday. Nazarbayev and other Kazakh officials have sought to raise the profile of the oil-rich former Soviet republic and assure the West that, contrary to Borat’s claims, theirs is not a nation of drunken anti-Semites who treat their women worse than their donkeys. Shortly after Nazarbayev dedicated a statue in front of the Kazakh embassy, Borat denounced an official Kazakh publicity campaign running in U.S. magazines as "disgusting fabrications" orchestrated by neighboring Uzbekistan. "If there is one more item of Uzbek propaganda claiming that we do not drink fermented horse urine, give death penalty for baking bagels, or export over 300 tonnes of human pubis per year, then we will be left with no alternative but to commence bombardment of their cities with our catapults," Borat said. Cohen, 35, who is Jewish, recently co-starred in the recent U.S. box office hit "Talladega Nights" and has appeared in TV comedy series "Da Ali G Show" on U.S. cable channel HBO and Britain’s Channel 4. Cohen’s "Borat" comedy routine has drawn legal threats from the Kazakh government, which keeps a tight lid on criticism in its news media. Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko said he was worried that some may take the Borat routine seriously. "He is not a Kazakh. What he represents is a country of Boratastan, a country of one," Vasilenko told Reuters.

Reuters 

Am I the only one who does not get him? 

MARTIAL arts star Jackie Chan has confessed he appeared in a porn film three decades ago. Jackie, now 52, says he couldn’t turn down the role in dirty movie, All In The Family, because he was penniless. “I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don’t think it’s a big deal, even Marlon Brando used to be exposed in his movies,” he said. “The porn movie at that time was more conservative than the current films.” Jackie’s big break finally came in Rush Hour in 1998.

Bizarre

I do not know whether to laugh or be grossed out? Leaning towards being grossed out.

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