NEWS

•  Jon Heder wakes up dead online - Hollywood Reporter
•  The new Hollywood Screenwriter:  Mutlitasking, multiplatform - Hollywood Reporter

NONSENSE

•  Well, fat-suited - dlisted.com

•  10 Dance movie scenes guaranteed to make you squirm - StuffMagazine.com

 NEWS

•  "Mamma Mia" overseas dancing queen - Variety
•  Vlad's glad "Last Day of Summer's" coming - Variety
•  Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms get Hangover:  Gimmie that hair of the dog - Variety

NONSENSE
It's a glamour profession...

•  George Bush actor and crew busted at Stray Cat bar brawl - Shreveport TImes
•  Eva Longoria has short hair (Actual headline. I did not make this up!) - Just Jared 

NEWS

•  Panda kicks China BO butt - The Independent
•  Actors act out - Variety
•  10 Comics to Watch - Variety
•  Spook spoof at mouse house - Variety

NONSENSE 

•  Cher to wed Hell's Angels boy toy - Metro.co.uk 
•  Eddie Murphy on Homeland Security watch list:  He's made another bomb! - USA Today
•  Ernie Hudson busts the Ghostbusters - kotaku.com 

NEWS

•  No shit Sherlock:  Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Farrell in Holmes Pic - Variety
•  New York Times hooks up Prom Date - Variety
•  Matadors:  Male cheerleaders gotta dance with Adam Shankman and Anne Fletcher - Variety
•  Judd Apatow and Andrew Kurtzman pitch Mythological Veterinarian - Variety   

NONSENSE

 
•  Top 20 goofy celeb baby names - Hey, Goofy's not taken! - LA Times
•  Ed Bedley Jr. and Bill Nye in eco grudge match - CBS2
•  Posh Spice trapped in horror plane flight! - News.com.au 

 
George Carlin 1936-2008, comedian and social critic

NEWS
•  Carlin leaves us with a lot more than seven words - Variety
•  Scot Armstrong takes Dreamworks to school - Variety
•  Indie comedy Nailed is nailed again - Variety
•  First Take:  HottieBoombaLottie gets sizzling buzz at LA Film Fest - Hollywood Reporter

George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words - relive the obscenity - YouTube 

 
NONSENSE
•  Comedy linked to mental illness - so that's the problem! - The Independent
•  Joan Rivers senior potty mouth moment - The Guardian
•  Kid makes Michael Jackson watch porn.  Wha?? - Now Magazine
•  Cat fight!  Keira Knightley steals Sienna Miller's Lady - Daily Mail  

EVERYTHING ELSE
• 23 movies that make men cry.  Oh, sure, there's lots of baseball and war movies on the list,
  but here's a surprise:  Love, Actually puts that glisten in their eyes, too, the little dears -
  eHarmony
 • 25 fave Hollywood hookers.  Now this list, we get – Entertainment Weekly
•  Russell Brand live in Hollywood! Is Hollywood ready for that? - LA Times
• Gay marriage's effect on your Hollywood career?  It's OK if you're already out - ABC News
• Bobcat Goldthwait to direct Robin Williams in Greatest Dad: Is this going to work or is this
  gonna be a Kilkenny Cats kind of thing?- Cinematical
• The Kilkenny Cats thing - CatQuotes

NEWS
• Find the Funny posts the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, edited for comedy – Spit Take
• The official Forbes Celebrity 100 list – Forbes
• Top comedy names dropped off this year's Forbes Celebrity 100 list (Hey, what happened
   to Adam Sandler?) – Forbes
• Apatow finds Funny People – Chortle
• Mulan writer gets Jeannie out of the bottle and onto the big screen – Mania
• BBC to offer its entire catalogue on its website - Gizmodo

Hugh Grant as Hugh Grant, Mike Meyers as Austin Powers

NONSENSE
• Elizabeth Hurley: Hugh is kinda like, no, just like Austin Powers.  Yeah, Baby! – Telegraph
• Comedy Central celebrates Paul Lynde’s birthday – Comedy Central Insider
• Man laughs so hard, he gets arrested.  Wait a minute, isn’t that like hauling in the tart and
  letting the john go free?  I say, lock 'em both up!  - Chortle

EVERYTHING ELSE
• Arianna Huffington chronicles families' reactions to Cusack's satire War, Inc.  - Huffington Post
• Comedy Central is b-i-i-i-g business – Forbes
• Aussie comedians, writers, and animators dish about The Simpsons – The Age

SPIT TAKE

The Forbes Celebrity 100 list

Forbes has just published their annual Celebrity 100 list, and comedy stakes out a big chunk of it.  Created by their own algorithm that factors in money and buzz (as defined by press, TV, and web hits), the list can be sorted by name, pay, press, etc.   They’ve also included lots of articles, features, and videos.  We especially like their picture galleries, where you can select actresses, athletes, chefs, whatever.

Missing, however, is a sort tool for comedy, so we at Find the Funny have done that for you.

The Top 25 Comedy Celebrities

 Below is Find the Funny’s list of the top 25 celebs from the comedy world (TV, film, theater, stand-up, etc.) who have made this year’s Forbes Celebrity 100.  You’ll recognize your faves, but some new names on the list, most notably phenoms Tyler Perry and Miley Cyrus, give an idea of where comedy is trending.

Johnny Depp tops our list, thanks to his eccentric work in the Pirates of the Caribbean series and the dark comedy Sweeney Todd.  He ranks #6 on the Forbes list, just behind Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, and David Beckham. 

The Drop-offs

Noteworthy, too, are the comedy celebs that have dropped off.  No more Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughan, or Jeff Foxworthy.  They all made plenty of money, not to worry, but that’s not enough to make the list.

The Top 20 Comedy Money Makers

And speaking of money, just for fun, we’ve also put together a Top Twenty Money Makers list – just comedy, of course.  Tyler Perry, who with his Madea series has created a sub-genre unto himself, tops our list at an eye-popping $125 mil.  He ranks #6 on the Forbes list, sorted by pay, after J.K Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Bruckheimer and Steven Spielberg.   Pretty hotsy-totsy company, wouldn’t you say?

>> check out the Forbes Celebrity 100 list
>> see the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, sorted by pay
>> read about the Drop-offs
>> see the picture galleries

 
NEWS
• Reiner and Reiner to receive Achievement in Film Award - Variety
• Smurfs' big screen adventure – Guardian
• Hugh Grant Lost for Words with Zhang Ziyi  – Guardian
• Australians in Film fund Heath Ledger scholarship – USA Today
• Schwimmer directs Brit-com remake – TV Squad
• HBO partners with Funny or Die – Entertainment Weekly
• Jack Black exits Man-Witch – EW
• Raboy to direct Ice Cube in Janky - Hollywood Reporter
• Rogen's web vid Apocalypse turns feature for Mandate  - Variety
• Bleibtreu to work in Akin's comedy Soul Kitchen - Hollywood Reporter
• What Just Happened is about to happen; release date set for Levinson's comedy about Hollywood - Hollywood Reporter

NONSENSE
• USA Today’s picks for new Smurfs movie – USA Today
• A director’s style can affect viewer’s brain activity (I’m in control, ha-ha!) – ScienceDaily
• Get yer Disney movies here! Free online downloads – Reuters
• Pix: The Apatow Circle – Dose
• Lebowski doc to screen at Lebowski fest for Lebowski fans - Paste 

 
EVERYTHING ELSE
• Hollywood (suddenly) hearts chix flix – LA Times
• Reframe, the new place on the web for overlooked, indie or small films – New York Times
• Spaced next Simon Pegg-Edgar Wright project? Nothing’s out of the question – Chortle
• Got $78 Mil?  Brit prod co to raise money online for Richard Attenborough film – Film Stew
• Donate here -  A Gift for Dickie

 
EVERYTHING ELSE
• Jody Hill’s formula for success: Lots of shitty day jobs + your Tae Kwon Do club + credit
  cards = Foot Fist Way – New York Magazine
• From The Great Dictator to Monsieur Verdoux, Chaplin made politics his playground – New York Times
• First Sex & the City, now Kit Kittridge: An America Girl, proving girls rule at the box office – New York Times
• Comedy: Why live is always better – Chortle

NONSENSE
• Tina Fey, you’ve just topped the Hot 100 List! Oops, sorry, this list is voted on by Lesbians,
  not men.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that) – Philly
• Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole plays at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  It’s not quite
  like the drive-in, but somehow  we think Billy would get the joke - New York Times
• Carell on That Kiss!  Hint: it’s The Rock - USA Today
• Brit parents complain over “wankers” on The Simpsons – Chortle

EVERYTHING ELSE
• The Next A-List: Move over, Julia Roberts and Will Smith, here are 15 actors to Watch, and
  some of them are even funny, too! - Entertainment Weekly
• An Adam Sandler Sampler: 16 Roles You Loved – Entertainment Weekly
• Jack Black tries out Kung Fu, the real stuff, not just the voiceover – USA Today
• Preview: It’s summer! Send in the clowns! - USA Today
• Nick Swardsen on being that guy, you know, that guy – New York Magazine
• Harold & Kumar: new kind of heroes for a new kind of world – Guardian

GUFFAW
by William L. Graham

Cue testosterone-jacked announcer voice:  In a world where independent studios crash and burn like killer meteors, and distributors drown in a Tsunami of credit-card-financed dreck, where comedies suffocate you with shit jokes and tubby actors dangle their digglers in your face;  there comes a man -- one man who will stand up, who will put his StarMeter on the line, who will hold his boom box above his head and shout out to the world:  “Hey, man. Go see my film.”

And you should go see War, Inc.  I’m not gonna go all lefty on you, but truly, “In a world” where it is tougher and tougher to get anything made, War. Inc. is that rare animal that uses humor to take on a very dark, very adult subject.  And if it wasn’t already hard enough to get such a film out, the Neo-Con attack machine - including those who created “Swift Boating” as campaign sport - is coming after Johnny.  These guys are in full Cujo froth, which tells me you can criticize the war, but don’t you dare criticize my profits.

Get the whole story from Larisa Alexandrovna at the Huffington Post.  She helpfully includes a list of the theatres where War, Inc. is playing.

Meanwhile, I’m voting with my $10 at the movies.

>> read the whole story - Huffington Post
>> read Cusack's political satire War, Inc. finds its aud - LA Times
>> read Being the new John Cusack - Slate 

>> GUFFAW is a new blog by writer-director and Find the Funny founder William L. Graham.  Look for occasional amusing insights into the world of indie comedies.