John Bisignano, former ESPN motorsport journalist during Senna's timeframe, accepts the Dean Batchelor Award on behalf of Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey for the documentary, "Senna". Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)
"Senna" Bestowed MPG's Best Of The Year Dean Batchelor Award
"Senna" ... the critically acclaimed documentary about the racing spirit and history of F1 driver Ayrton Senna just won the overall "Best Of The Year" Dean Batchelor Award - Excellence in Automotive Journalism for 2011!
Established by the Motor Press Guild in 1995, the Dean Batchelor Award recognizes excellence in automotive journalism as exemplified by the man it is named after – Dean Batchelor.
The Award singles out individuals demonstrating outstanding achievement in the profession of automotive journalism. Each year MPG presents the Dean Batchelor Award to the journalist judged to have produced the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry.
How many ways are there to abuse a person? How many ways can someone be made to feel inferior? Apparently, in the 1950s and 1960s, Mississippi Junior League types were expert at oppressing not only their fellow citizens who happened to be Black, but also anyone else who didn’t meet their silver spoon standards.
Sadly, in the Deep South, there is still this us-them attitude among many Whites and African-Americans. There are pockets of racial hatred and oppression everywhere, but in places like Louisiana and Mississippi—and all those other places that don’t accept that the Civil War is over or that the South lost—social segregation flourishes.
Beautifully, sensitively acted, The Help recreates Jackson, Mississippi, circa 1963-4, where two worlds co-existed, the elite, rich, young, white families and their Black domestics—the maids who cleaned homes, raised other people’s children, and were insulted, bullied, and treated like property. The maids weren’t second-class citizens; their employers barely considered them people, treating them with an embarrassing degree of insensitivity.
In the early days of the civil rights movement, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) returns home to Jackson after graduating from college, intent on becoming a serious writer. She returns to the privileged life in which she was raised, and to all her equally privileged friends, most of whom are married and have children. They gossip, play bridge, go to parties, and engage in similarly amusing activities. They all have “help.” As Skeeter begins to appreciate how superficial their lives are and observes how they treat the women who serve them, she decides to write a book entitled The Help, about the relationship of her friends to their maids, told from the maids’ point of view.
She secretly embarks on her project with the help of Aibilene one of her friends’ maids (Viola Davis), although no others are willing to collaborate for fear of losing their jobs. Influenced by civil rights activists and the assassination of Medgar Evers, both Skeeter and the maids are ready to shake up the status quo. When one of the maids is brutalized by the police, all of them decide to cooperate with Skeeter.
Strong performances distinguish The Help, particularly Stone, Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard as the insufferably smug, bigoted Hilly Holbrook who gets her come-uppance at the hands of a maid she fired, Octavia Spencer as maid Minny Jackson (who gets her revenge), Allison Janney as Skeeter’s mother, and (especially) Jessica Chastain as the white, but socially unacceptable, Celia Foote.
There are many unlikely humorous moments in The Help, making it a glossy revision of what life was like in that time and place. However, they give the audience a sense of what “should have been,” a semblance of fairness in an unfair world.
Is The Help an accurate depiction of a certain segment of 1960s Jackson? Knowing that there are still areas in America where “White folks” and “Black folks” are socially segregated despite legislated integration, one suspects that it is rather close. The Help will be available on DVD and Blu-ray December 6, 2011. It is an intelligent, thoughtful, and thought-provoking look at a chapter in our social history.
In line with major events, Alicia Keys self-hosted annual charity Black Ball which was scheduled for November 3 in New York was announced well in advance. Now that the event, having successfully concluded is reported to have raised a staggering $3 million; all the proceeds going to benefit the singer’s own non-profit Keep a Child Alive Foundation which is dedicated to helping HIV/AIDS victims in the African continent.
Welcome to catclub the different clubrestaurant. Nestled in the Hollerich district at the heart of the city of Luxembourg, catclub opened its doors ten years ago to quickly become a playground for the cosmopolitans and locals in the know. Its trendy decor complete with doomed ceilings, and candle lit interior make it a sexy experience from when you first walk in the door. The space is a powerful blend of comfort and style with a touch of smoldering decadence. Catclub's warm and sexy interior makes our discriminating restaurant and clubber feel at ease in the open space of rich materials and beautiful design.
Part restaurant, part chilloutbar and part clubbing, catclub always stays at the forefront of music and taste of its restaurant, mixing new sounds and cuisines from all genres with style and perfecion. Catclub c’est le mélange des genres, dans un cadre design et contemporain, de style industriel très tendance,l’ambiance est cosmopolite et animée. Catclub est établie depuis 11ans, il fait partie du premier restaurant à thème au Luxembourg. Ici vous avez de l’espace et encore de l’espace, vous déambulez selon votre humeur soit au Cat Club restaurant ou bien au bar avec ses deux terrasses. Liberté totale pour déjeuner ou dîner selon ses envies du moment: cuisine continentale ou pourquoi ne pas savourer une cuisine thaïlandaise et pour les curieux de cuisine du monde des thématiques gastronomiques seront proposées tout au long de l’année avec la venue des chefs entres autres du soleil levant et bien d’autres surprises. Voilà une destination pour épater vos amis et clients, pourquoi ne pas finir la soirée au bar, des grandes soirées à thèmes sont au programme avec du live music de classe internationale. DJ’s résidents tous les jours du mercredi au samedi. Pour la petit histoire et les indiscrétions, ici de nombreux films ont été tournés, dont un avec F.Ford Coppola, les stars de cinéma et de la politique se frottent aux habitués, que ce soit Catherine Deneuve, Christophe Lambert, Mélanie Griffith et bien d'autres.
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LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- George Clooney's
hand is in a cast, but not due to a motorcycle accident as some outlets
have reported. The actor was involved in an accident with a car -
specifically, the car door vs. his hand!
Despite various
online reports out of Europe claiming the actor broke his hand while
riding his Harley Davidson around Lake Lugano, near the border of Italy
and Switzerland, the actor's rep told Access Hollywood what really happened to the star's hand.
"There was an accident and he did break his hand," Clooney's rep, Stan Rosenfield, told Access.
"He was not riding a motorcycle, it was not in Switzerland... He was on
his property in Italy and he shut the car door on his hand."
Clooney was treated at the private Ars Medica clinic in Gravesano, Switzerland, located near his Lake Como, Italy home.
"The
doctor has given him 30-40 years more to live, and no live animals were
harmed during the wrapping of the hand," Clooney's rep joked, "The only
reason he went to the hospital was to get a temporary cast put on."
This is not Clooney's first road bump. In 2007, the actor and then-girlfriend Sarah Larson
collided with a car while riding his motorcycle in New Jersey. The
actor suffered a hairline fracture on one of his ribs along with some
scrapes and bruises. Larson broke her foot during the accident.
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