Hollywood Trivia
December 9, 2005
Hollywood Trivia originally published in Topica Newsletters
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POLANSKI IN TROUBLE AGAIN
Director ROMAN POLANSKI can’t seem to keep his reputation out of the mud. The Polish-born filmmaker, who fled the U.S. in the late 1970s following statutory rape allegations, is now being sued by Artisan Entertainment, according to a report in Variety. The suit alleges that Polanski pocketed more than $1 million from production money used in the making of his latest film, “The Ninth Gate.” Because the film was shot in France and eventually exported, a value-added tax (VAT) refund was applied to the production costs. Rather than turn over the refund as specified in various contracts, Artisan says Polanski “brazenly deposited the money in a private account” and “has refused all requests to return the money.” And this is just the insult to the real injury: The $30 million film grossed less than $19 million domestically.
WHO WILL REPLACE MULDER? Read the rest of this entry »
Back to School: Wired Education
December 9, 2005
Back to School: The Benefits of a Wired Education
originally published in Family Circle/Computers Made Easy
In the great To Do List of Life, there are always a number of items that are forever being bumped to the bottom. What with family, kids, work and the simple day-to-day coping of modern living, big projects often tend to get put on the back burner. Sometimes, they boil away for good.
Probably the most common of these perpetually put-off endeavors is the idea of going back to school. Wouldn’t it be great to finish that undergrad degree, or maybe get another? How about an MBA that could equal a bigger salary, or even that long-contemplated master’s degree?
The happy news is that it is now arguably easier than it has ever been to continue your education as an adult — via online courses conducted primarily, and sometimes entirely, over the Internet. In fact, adult education and what is called “distance learning” are experiencing a kind of renaissance by leveraging the uniquely interactive nature of online learning. Read the rest of this entry »
Planning a Wedding Online
May 26, 1999
CNN.com
(IDG) — One of the first things you learn when planning a wedding is that there’s an entire industry dedicated to selling products and services to would-be brides and grooms. This industry is essentially invisible to you until you get engaged; then it comes crashing down like a 500-foot tsunami.
My fiancée and I are getting married in about three weeks, and like any self-respecting wired couple of the ’90s, we used the Internet to help plan the big event. It’s no surprise that the wedding industry has migrated in force to the online world. The Web is crawling with thousands of companies trying to sell everything from party favors to honeymoon packages. And several full-service wedding planning sites address the roughly seven billion questions, details, and obstacles that arise during wedding planning. Read the rest of this entry »
