>> The Switch
>> Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
>> The Other Guys
>> Salt
>> Inception
>> Cyrus
>> The Last Airbender
>> Grown Ups
>> Toy Story 3
>> The Human Centipede

Opening 9.10.10
>> Resident Evil: Afterlife (R) [trailer]
>> Bran Nue Dae (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Heartbreaker (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> I'm Still Here (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Legendary (Limited) (PG-13) [trailer]
>> Lovely, Still (Limited) (PG) [trailer]
>> The Romantics (Limited) (PG-13)
>> The Virginity Hit (Limited) (R) [trailer]

Coming To DVD/Blu-Ray 9.7.10
>> Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season [buy]
>> The Office: Season Six [buy]
>> Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season [buy]
>> Jillian Michaels: Shred-It With Weights [buy]
>> Criminal Minds: Fifth Season [buy]

Las Vegas: Satan Vacations Here
by Victoria Alexander
March 5, 2007

QVegas magazine, International Belly Dancing Convention, Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, Anna Nicole Smith, Beacher’s Bowling League, Heavenly Castration, The Bishop, and more...

QVegas. Last Tuesday I went to the March launch party of QVegas at Krave with the cast of “Crazy Girls” performing. (Photo by Stephen Thorburn) Every month QVegas magazine hosts a party and all email subscribers are invited.

This month QVegas magazine features “Ugly Betty’s” Vanessa Williams. QVegas Magazine: The Gay and Lesbian Voice of Las Vegas, Nevada

The International Belly Dancing Convention. The IBDC held a VIP Publicity Party and Press Conference on Thursday evening with a cocktail reception, Middle Eastern dinner, belly dancing stars and a fantastic show at the South Point Casino Resort. This semi-formal gala launched IBDC’s first Las Vegas event.

The evening introduced us to the new international belly dance craze. We were treated to 5 unique and dazzling performances. Belly dance has leapt outside the confines of its Middle Eastern folk tradition and is now merged with completely different styles: Brazilian rhythms, Indian influences, Las Vegas showgirl style and trance music production numbers.

Starting on July 30th and running to August 5th, IBDC will also feature spectacular shopping in a Modern Bazaar environment with hundreds of vendors from around the world, Belly Dance performances and workshops, and multiple categories of Belly Dance competitions judged by dance professionals. There will even be an area where amateurs will be able to perform. The IBDC’s competitions will be broadcast internationally and winners will receive substantial cash prizes and round-trip tickets to Egypt.

On the evening of Friday, August 2nd, there will be a lavish awards ceremony and the Crowning of The Belly Dancer of 2007. There will also be two weekend mega-concerts featuring the biggest stars of the belly dance industry.

Michael Browning of Gold Star International has envisioned a seven-day mega-convention that will change how club dancers, strippers, and showgirls dance. In keeping with the empowerment movement, Michael insisted that Belly Dance can spread harmony and peace around the world. He didn’t mention it also will tighten loose stomach and abdominal muscles. So, forget those stripper pole lessons and join the belly dance empowerment movement.

Everyone I spoke to at the gala – all innocents to the new face of Belly Dance - is now looking forward to the convention. I’ve already ordered my Belly Dance custom-made costume. International Belly Dance Convention Las Vegas IBDC (Photos below from Stephen Thorburn)

Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. CNBC is running a contest using play money with the winner receiving an annuity worth $1 million. My friend Jeff Mishlove has written a 50 page ebook giving contestants much valuable information that could be used to enhance one’s chance in this contest. Take a look here. Jeff advised: “It is a game, I suppose of about 30% skill, and 70% chance.”

Save Dannielynn Hope. I’ve been transfixed with the Anna Nicole Smith saga running on CourtTV. I even signed the petition to be sent to the Bahamian Government to free hostage Dannielynn from fake father Howard K. Stern. If you agree and want to sign the petition, it is here.

Now that Anna Nicole Smith is buried in The Bahamas, I am sure that in short order she will be moved to a more fan-friendly location in the U.S. How many visitors to Graceland have a passport to go to The Bahamas?

Anna treated Stern like a mosquito. He, in turn, kept her drugged, manipulated, and reduced to infantilism (On one of her comedy specials, Kathy Griffin talked about spending some time with a baby-talking Anna. Her people were spoon-feeding Anna). In my opinion, Stern finally got his revenge on Anna. He’ll keep all the rights to her image, but doesn’t have to put up with her anymore.

Stern is so reviled, the only way he can redeem himself is if we find out that Daniel was Dannielynn’s father.

And Anna’s weird Will? It will be quietly voided. I believe Stern fashioned that clause in Anna’s Will disinheriting any other children since he knew she would never marry him or have a child with him. And who is the lawyer that prepared that Will?

The Will explicitly leaves out anything for anyone other than Anna’s son, now deceased, Daniel Smith. "I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," the now-infamous clause reads.

Beacher’s Unprofessional Bowling Association. Chad Weiner from Beacher’s Madhouse called to invite me to participate in Beacher’s Unprofessional Bowling Association (B.U.B.A.) at Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes. How does one bowl with acrylic nails? Do I have to wear used bowling shoes?

Jeff Beacher and his cast of characters will descend on Pure Managements newest venue, Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes at the Rio All Suites Hotel, beginning Monday March 19 and every Monday for the next 12 weeks. Lucky Strike Lanes will be hosting B.U.B.A., a 128 team single elimination bowling tournament. The winning team will receive a free flight to the Bahamas and complimentary rooms at Atlantis.

This being a Beacher’s production, there will be stilt walkers, acrobats, a lady rolling in glass, The World’s Oldest Male Stripper (He’s at the free buffet at Scores Las Vegas every day from 5 to 8PM), Go-Go Girls and more. Strip Clubs will be facing off against other Strip Clubs, Fire Departments will battle each other, and Nightclubs will take on other Nightclubs. You can create your own team of 6 players. There is a marginal entry fee of $50 for a team of 6 players (with additional cost for Lane and Shoes). Email chad@beachersmadhouse.com.

Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom. "...and there were some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men; and there be eunuchs, which were made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven's sake..." (Matthew 19:12, KJV).

I’m briefly setting aside the humorous Hyam Maccoby book “The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity” to read Laura Englestein’s book “Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom, A Russian Folktale.” Talmudic scholar Maccoby is often referenced in the religious books I read. He hates Jesus with an unrealistic passion dressed up as scholarly commentary. His jealousy of Christianity is transparent – this is why I enjoy him so much! Maccoby’s bold contention – that Paul made it all up. Jesus said and did nothing – is not convincing me.

In the late 18th-century Russia and lasting into the 1930s, a religious sect called the Skoptsy ("the self-castrated") avoided sexual temptation by removing all of the male genitalia and mutilating the female genitalia and breasts. The sect reached 100,000 to 300,000 followers, with about half of the sect so castrated. Englestein’s book has many photographs of the Skoptsy and it is fascinating reading. Amazon.com: Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale: Books: Laura Engelstein

The Zodiac, Now The Bishop. This week I saw preview screenings of “Black Snake Moan,” “Wild Hogs,” and “Zodiac”. I also saw “The Abandoned” and “Volver.” “Zodiac” is a long movie with lots of suspects and details but no pay-off. “Zodiac”, as you all know, is the story of the self-nicknamed San Francisco Bay Area serial killer who was never caught, even though he nagged and taunted the police and media for years. In fact, he never shut up! He wrote letters, sent puzzles, made calls and even went on radio shows and took questions from callers. (While folks told me I was one of the minority of critics who did not like “Zodiac,” the ticket-buying public seems to have agreed with me on opening weekend.)

Now comes “The Bishop.”

Investigators believe a man is suspected of sending at least a half-dozen threatening letters to financial institutions over the past 18 months and mailing two dud pipe bombs that arrived a day apart in Kansas City and Chicago in January. In his letters, The Bishop has demanded that financial companies move the prices of certain stocks to certain levels, often $6.66 - an apparent reference to the Antichrist, said corporate counterterrorism expert Fred Burton.

Burton, whose security firm has been hired by financial companies to find The Bishop, said the pipe bombs were assembled with crucial components deliberately left out, in what was probably a warning. Next time, Burton said, the bombs could be real.

Instead of finding The Bishop himself, Burton says it could require help from the public (since, if it wasn’t for the Unabomber’s brother, Ted would still be living in a shack in the woods). Postal inspectors are offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information.

Burton has pegged The Bishop to be between 25 and 35 but is unable to say so far what his occupation might be, or whether he has a family. Thanks Corporate Counterterrorism Expert! Burton said The Bishop's belief that he can alter stock prices suggests he suffers delusions of grandeur.

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