A giant has fallen. That's what flashed through my mind when my friend Brian Bloom
texted me about an hour ago with this. 'Newman. F*ck.'

I didn't want to check the net. I felt sick to my stomach.

There is what we consider the modern movie star and then there was Paul Newman.
His death has closed a door...and we will never see another one like him. He was
everything we consider when we consider the truly legendary. There's an amazing piece
on him in last month's Vanity Fair that shows exactly what kind of man he was: Both
selfless and sublime in his personal and professional lives. I recommend reading it.
It's really pretty staggering you when you take in the breadth of what he did with his
time on this planet.

We all crow about 'going green' and carbon emissions in the vast shadow cast by Newman's charitable and environmental efforts. When it was all said and done he'd donated nearly a quarter billion dollars to charities and set up camps in over 40 counties for kids with serious, life threatening illnesses.

People like that are irreplaceable.

I'm always asked in interviews, whom I would want to work with, living or dead and 'Paul Newman'
is always the first name I come up with.

I don't think that will ever change.

Please share your thoughts. Any memorable movies for you? Moments?

My personal favorite, Newman's turn as a downtrodden, alcoholic attorney in 'The Verdict' and it
comes at about the 3/4 mark in the film. Jack Warden is giving Newman a backrub and things are
looking pretty grim and Warden says 'There'll be another case...' and Newman says, three times, each one with more conviction 'There is no other case, there's only this one...' It's such a tremendous piece of film acting.

Gone but certainly not forgotten. I'm going to watch 'Cool Hand Luke,' tip and few back and go with
the misery for awhile.

JC

Guys:

Simple. Fill in the following with whatever you'd like to say. (Ayz, this one is for you, just
to freshen up the topics)

The biggest benefit of movies nowadays is.....

AND/OR

The biggest problem with movies nowadays is....

I'll post the one that catches the most flies.

JC

Pride and Glory
Opening October 24th
Starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell

Director Gavin O'Connor grew up in an Irish family of New York detectives. Maybe that's why his searing police drama feels so lived-in, heartfelt and brutally honest. Edward Norton excels as Ray, the cop caught between an old-school father (Jon Voight), a brother (Noah Emmerich) who looks the other way and a brother-in-law (Colin Farrell) who's lost his moral balance. O'Connor (Tumbleweeds, Miracle), who co-wrote the story with his brother Gregory, invigorates the cop drama, makes it personal again, but for two years his dynamite film has been trapped in the limbo of studio politics and the vagaries of distribution. You now have the chance to see O'Connor's labor of love. Take it.