The Robin Williams Edition

Welcome back to the Entertainment Guru News and Views for this week in August, 2014. I wish I could be coming here with great news. Instead, I come with the death of a great comedian, actor and writer.

I walked in the door on Monday evening.. I was dealing with a pseudo-emergency in my head when I looked at my wife on the couch. She had opened her computer and was immediately met with bad news. By now you all know I am talking about Robin Williams.

Monday afternoon, Williams died of an apparent suicide. Williams was 63 at the time of his death. He had a well known battle with drugs and alcohol through his life. He also suffered from depression. He had checked in himself into rehab earlier this year in an attempt to fight his disease. As of this writing we don't if he was doing drugs or drinking at the time that he ended it all.

What we do know is the joy that Robin Williams brought into each and one's lives. There are some actors that are known for one thing or another that doesn't touch every single person's life. That doesn't take away from the talent that they have. But I highly doubt there is a person that has not enjoyed something from Robin Williams' tremendous career. From his turn as a teacher in an all boys' school in "Dead Poets' Society" to being a Genie in Disney's "Aladdin" to being Teddy Roosevelt coming back to life in the three "Night At The Museum" movies. That doesn't even include his Oscar winning performance as a teacher to a troubled genius in the film "Good Will Hunting". And that is just a small handful of his memorable movie roles. But he did so much more than that.

He recently starred in a CBS comedy called "The Crazy Ones" where he was the head of an advertising company along with his on screen daughter Sarah Michelle Gellar. But an older generation he was Mork, the lovable able in the 1978 comedy "Mork and Mindy".

Along side fellow comedians Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, he co-hosted the "Comic Relief"
telethon which benefited the homeless in America. The event ran for several years and featured famous and up and coming comedians such as Dana Carvey, Jim Carrey, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock just to name a few.

The list of comedians that he helped inspired would be long enough to fill a blog. His frantic style of comedy was one of a kind, just like the man himself.

We will never know what his mind frame was as he decided to end it all. Whatever it is, his demons got the best of him. And because of that the world lost an inspiration. Robin Williams was a genius, a dark genius but a genius none the less. It also goes to show that you could be world famous and it isn't enough to make you happy.

My hope in all this is that we shine a light on depression. It's not something you can "just get over". For people struggling with depression it is a daily fight. Some days are easy to cope, with aren't. There doesn't even need to be a cause to trigger one's depression. It just happens.

Entertainment Guru News and Views would like to offer our condolences to his family. We all lost someone, but it's nothing compared to your loss. To his friends, count your blessings that you had someone in your life as amazing as Robin Williams. And to his fans, your comedy and legacy will live on. Thank you for the memories, Mr. Williams.

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The Hypocritical Edition

I know this is normally an entertainment blog, but something that happened recently has kind of gotten my attention and I wanted a chance to speak about it. By now everyone knows what happened during the Boston Marathon last week. This isn't going to be about that, though I do have a lot to say about that as well. An entire city was locked down because of the attack for a few days. When the city basically reopened, there was a pre-game event at the Boston Red Sox game. During that event, Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz dropped an F bomb on National Television. I understand he was speaking from the heart and that's why the FCC didn't fine NESN for it. Now, let's say that you finally landed your dream job (or at least something that will allow you to possibly land your dream job) and you are nervous on your first day. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? I think we have all been guilty of this, right? Well, A.J. Clemente was a news anchor who finally got a chance to be on air. And what better way to start your new job then to drop an F Bomb on live TV. Not surprisingly, he was fired for it. Isn't this rather hypocritical though? I would like to hear your thoughts on this please?

Another RIP to throw out there, unfortunately. Comedian Jonathan Winters recently died. He was 87 years old. Not everyone knows the name, which is a shame. He was a very funny man that helped influence a lot of comedians in the last thirty years. He was a great improv comedian. My first memories of him was hosting a TV show about football bloopers. He was dressed as a referee. But to most people, he will be remembered as Robin Williams' son in the show Mork and Mindy.

While doing an interview for his new movie "Pain and Gain" Director Michael Bay was quoted for apologizing for his 1998 movie Armageddon. He isn't the only person I have heard apologize for the movie, or at least regret the movie. Billy Bob Thornton had said of all this movie roles, this is the one he regrets the most. He admitted to only making the movie for the paycheck. Michael Bay has now come forward to say that the quote was taken out of context and he regrets only how the movie came out because it was rushed at the end. I have heard a lot of people who trash this movie and I just don't get it. I freely admit to really enjoying this movie. Is it a perfect movie? No, not at all. But let's face it, there are a lot of movies that are not perfect. It is a great popcorn movie, regardless of the plausibility of it. Most movies are not based on anything that remotely can happen. In fact one of the reasons we go to the movies is to suspend reality. Does it make sense to send drillers to an asteroid to put a bomb it? No. But then again, a rich man dressing as a flying rodent to stop a man talking through a weird voice changer doesn't make sense either. But that didn't stop people from flocking to see Dark Knight Rises. There is no reason for a director to ever apologize for a movie.