Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

Howard Bryant says he didn't assault his wife

Howard Bryant, senior writer for ESPN, and his wife say there is no truth to police charges that Bryant pinned her against a car and choked her outside a pizza parlor in Buckland, Mass.

The couple told the Springfield Republican that police used unnecessary force in arresting Bryant after he and his wife had a verbal argument.

Bryant’s lawyer Buz Eisenberg suggested the charges were racially motivated. Bryant is black; Veronique Bryant is white.

“This case is about the fact that racism still exists in America, and Howard Bryant is a victim of it,” Eisenberg told the Republican. He added later: “I believe that witnesses saw things through the lens of race and if it were a Caucasian male they wouldn’t have blinked at what they saw.”

Bryant, 42, pleaded not guilty Monday to domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest charges.

Here’s what he said about the charges:

“I am sad today because this attack on me by the Massachusetts State Police and the Buckland Police has made it necessary for me to defend untrue allegations and repair my reputation when one conversation with either Veronique or with me would have diffused the entire situation. Instead, the police chose aggression first over dialogue, threatened to taser me whenever I tried to speak, and all in front of my 6-year-old son.

“As a result, I have to defend a charge that I attacked both the woman I love and the police when nothing could be further from the truth.”

Veronique Bryant, who said she was not touched during the argument and has not pressed charges against her husband, stated:

“There was no investigation. The police made assumptions about my husband that weren’t true. I was never abused or in fear of Howard on that day or any other day. I wasn’t running from him or trying to get away from him. The police weren’t listening to me and they attacked him with violence with our 6-year-old watching.”

Police say Bryant hit a state trooper in the chest with his elbow. They say race had nothing to do with his arrest.

Bryant is author of the Hank Aaron biography “The Last Hero” and “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball.”  Before joining ESPN, he worked for several newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury.

Lawyer claims racism in arrest of ESPN reporter Howard Bryant (Springfield Republican)

Howard Bryant pleads not guilty (ESPN)

Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husbands because there’s gonna be a YouTube movie: “The Chronicles of Rick Roll.”

The film stars a bevy of people made famous by YouTube memes: Antoine Dodson (“Bed Intruder Song“), Bear Vasquez (“Double Rainbow“), Brian Collins (“Boom Goes the Dynamite“), Ben Schulz (“Leeroy Jenkins“), Gary Brolsma (“Numa Numa“), and Stephen and Jack Quire (“Greatest Freakout Ever“). If you haven’t seen all of those … do you have stairs in your cave?

Despite the title, this movie seems to be authentic. A trailer popped up Tuesday on — of course — YouTube, and finally went viral Friday. Producer Andrew Fischer told The AP that it’s a real movie and that he hopes for a theatrical release, though a distributor hasn’t been secured.

From the AP report:

“The next trailer will show that it’s not just some giant elaborate prank,” Fischer says.

The film is being shot on hi-definition digital. Fischer hopes for a theatrical release, but has not secured distribution. The Colorado-based marketing firm NURV, of which Fischer is CEO, is producing the film.

“Our goal is to utilize the fan base and the celebrity status that these household names have, even though they’re not in Hollywood, in order to produce something that maybe changes the way Hollywood looks at casting,” says Fischer.

Fischer says he would welcome cameos from more Internet stars.

The official website for “The Chronicles of Rick Roll” is RickRoll.com — a domain that couldn’t have been cheap.

Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

It fell as quickly as it rose. The explosive new Facebook app, Breakup Notifier, was banned from the social networking site Wednesday morning.

Only released early this week, Breakup Notifier allowed users to receive alerts the moment any of their friends changed their relationship statuses from “in a relationship” to “single.”

You can blame the over-aggressive Facebook stalkers for this one. Though Facebook was unclear about the reason for the ban, it hinted that the large volume of users had something to do with the decision, International Busines Times reports. High traffic to one app can cause technical problems on the website.

And since the app had more than 100,000 users within its first twenty-four hours, you can’t deny that there are a lot of lonely people in the world.

Now, it looks like you’re going to have to monitor your crushes the old-fashioned way: through obsessively refreshing their Facebook profiles.

Or, maybe instead of wishing a break-up on the object of your affection, move on to someone else. Don’t panic: with all the online dating services out there, you can probably still avoid actual face-to-face interaction.

Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

The former Miss San Anontio has been stripped of her crown in preference of a more virtuous beauty.

Domonique Ramirez, a 17-year-old who was crowned Miss Antonio last year, sued the Miss San Antonio organization for stripping her of her crown — and lost. Her offense? Weight gain, tardiness and taking unsanctioned modeling jobs.

Wait, let’s go back to that first thing again.

The pageant’s president, Linda Woods, said Ramirez didn’t live up to her job as beauty queen partly because she gained weight from “eating too many tacos,” according to Reuters.

Part of Ramirez’s duties were to remain the same weight as she was on the day of her coronation: 129 pounds at 5’8″.

Now, the pageant’s First Runner-Up, Ashley Dixon, will be the reigning queen of San Antonio. The perks include a scholarship and the chance to compete in the Miss Texas pageant.

After the judge’s ruling, Woods said “In Miss Dixon we have a talented, mature young woman who will encourage and serve as a positive role model for our youth.”

It turns out weight gain makes someone a poor role model. This sounds all too familiar: A year ago, a New Zealand beauty queen lost her crown for the unforgivable offense of dyeing her hair brown.

But losing the Miss San Antonio crown has some benefits: at least now Ramirez can model at her leisure and eat as many tacos as she wants — which sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

All you gotta do is throw some Wayfarers on an animated character these days to start an internet meme. (Take my personal favorite, Hipster Dinosaurs: “This volcano used to have integrity.”)

But now in an infinite circle-of-Ouroboros-type-deal, the ultimate example of mainstream pop-culture — the Disney character — can now express his or her ambivalence toward mainstream pop-culture.

And you know how hipsters love irony.

More: Hell.Yes.Hipster.Disney

Comments

|

E-mail

|

Print

So, you’re sitting there watching this year’s Oscar favorite, The King’s Speech, and thinking to yourself: I’m pretty sure this looks familiar.

Right?

That’s because the set used for Lionel Logue’s London office was previously used to depict an entirely different kind of male relationship as the set of the gay porn flick Snookered.

Ok, so it’s not in my DVD collection, but somebody at QueerClick figured it out.

AV Club:

…Movieline says it has received confirmation from single-named Snookered director Jonno that he indeed shot the film inside London’s 33 Portland Place—the same room used for The King’s Speech as well as Amy Winehouse’s video for “Rehab” (read more)