Archive for July 2nd, 2008

oh-give-me-a-break

Top Gear rapped for alcohol use

Motoring show Top Gear has been criticised by the BBC Trust after viewers complained about “highly irresponsible” footage.

The Polar Special featured hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May drinking while driving as they tried to reach the Magnetic North Pole last year. The trust said the scene “could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol”.

The show’s executive producer said they were beyond the jurisdiction of drink driving laws in international waters. The trust was also told that neither presenter was shown “drunk or out of control of the vehicle”.

The BBC Trust said the scene “was not editorially justified in the context of a family show pre-watershed”.

However, it added that at present in the UK, “it is legal to drink a small amount of alcohol and still drive”.

In the same show complaints were also made about scenes showing frostbitten genitalia. The trust said there was “a clear editorial purpose for the inclusion of an image of a frostbitten penis, which had been shown for “a medical rather than a sexual purpose”.

Current Mood:Cynical emoticon Cynical

oh-fuck-no

Columbia Pictures has set an untitled comedy that will star Sacha Baron Cohen as master detective Sherlock Holmes and Will Ferrell as Watson, his crime-solving partner. The comedy is inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales. Though the thrust is different, the Baron Cohen-Ferrell pairing is the second major studio project featuring the supersleuth, as Warner Bros. is prepping the Anthony Peckham-scripted drama “Sherlock Holmes” with director Guy Ritchie.

Borat and Ferrell? shoot me now, please! Not since Jackie Chan did a remake of Jules Verne’s Around the world in 80 days has such an abomination been brought to the screen.

Having gotten the bad news out of the way though, the Guy Ritchie version might be very interesting, if they get the tone right.

Current Mood:Aggravated emoticon Aggravated