Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom!
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. All new content is being published there, not here, so please check it out and comment. Buzz is bigger and better, including politics, sports, world news, gadgets and the same entertainment news that you’re familiar with. Same staff, just more stuff! We wanted to expand our content beyond just entertainment — or why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!? We love those sites, but this is our twist on things — we do the buzz roundup — what’s the Internet buzzing about today?!
Buzz Roundup on Obama’s Economic Team
On Monday Obama named New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner to the post of the Treasury Secretary. Former Treasury Secretary under Clinton Lawrence Summers was named the Director of the National Economic Council in the White House. Obama also called for a stimulus plan that will “give a jolt to the economy.” – from Obama Politics
Barack Obama is bigger than Jesus
Much as Barack Obama has kindled unprecedented interest in presidential politics, so too has he prompted a flood of merchandise, collectibles, television deals and book contracts.
Presidents have always inspired such capitalism. But marketing experts say the historic nature of this election and the strong brand that the Illinois senator’s campaign cultivated have sparked incredible demand for all things Obama.
“It’s the biggest thing for publishing since Harry Potter,” said Dermot McEvoy, a senior editor at Publishers Weekly, an industry trade journal.
The effects of Obamamania are trickling down. Vendors have taken to the streets and the Internet to sell Obama-themed T-shirts, buttons, bobblehead dolls, coffee mugs, wine bottles, magnets, greeting cards, neon signs, mobile phones and framed art prints. Despite worries about the economy, consumers are snapping them up.
“This is phenomenal — I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” said Edward Robert El, 64, a street vendor in downtown Los Angeles. He sold more than 3,000 buttons featuring photos of Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
- from LAtimes
GM Working On New “Cadillac One” Limo For Obama
After President Obama takes the oath of office in January, he may have a new black limousine to go along with his not-so-new White House. General Motors is believed to be putting the final touches on a new First Car. An analysis of unauthorized photographs taken while the car was being tested last summer on public roads suggests that the presidential ride will be a truck-based Cadillac. It will presumably replace the Cadillac that President Bush has used since 2005.
This new car will be a Caddy like no other. Photos by a spy photographer who hunts future models that haven’t been publicly revealed for magazines and websites, provide clues about how specialized presidential transportation has become since the first White House fleet was ordered for William Howard Taft in 1909. Taft rode in a stock White steam car or a conventional Pierce-Arrow, but the next president will travel in a fortress-like vehicle that was mostly built from scratch.
- from Boston
Obama daughters asked to appear on “Hannah Montana”
President-elect Barack Obama’s two young daughters have been invited to appear on popular kids television show “Hannah Montana,” actor Billy Ray Cyrus said an interview aired on Monday. Cyrus, the father of “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus and also an actor on the hit Disney Channel show, said the show had asked Malia, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, to take part in an episode possibly around April.
“They probably will. The invitation is there,” Cyrus told Access Hollywood in an interview. “You know the ‘Hannah Montana’ film comes out in April. Maybe something might happen around then.”
Pressed for details, Cyrus said; “I can’t, I can’t. I have got to keep a secret.”
- from here
Google CEO on Obama tech czar job: No thanks
Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Friday he would not serve as technology czar in Barack Obama’s administration if he was asked.
“I love working at Google and I’m very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no,” Schmidt said in response to a question from CNBC host Jim Cramer in an appearance on his television show.
Schmidt, who was one of the president-elect’s most high-profile supporters, was in Chicago Friday as part of Obama’s 17-person economic transition economic advisory board. The group met to discuss how to deal with the ongoing financial crisis.
Schmidt said he detected a sense of urgency in Obama, who he expects to “listen carefully” and act. The meeting was one of “great seriousness,” he said.
- from Reuters
Sean Penn talks about “My President”
“I was sitting on the edge of the bed with my family watching our new president-elect,” actor/director Sean Penn said Thursday night as he collected the Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the Los Angeles chapter of BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. “I have never been able to put the word ‘my’ before president before,” he added, prompting loud applause from the British-American film industry crowd that also honored actors Tilda Swinton and Don Cheadle and director Stephen Frears. – from Reuters
Daniel Craig, ready for a black James Bond
Daniel Craig, an outspoken Barack Obama supporter (despite not being a U.S. citizen) thinks it’s time not just for a black president, but a black James Bond.
Craig, the first blond Bond, told the British press, “After Barack Obama’s victory, I think we might have reached the moment for a coloured 007.
“I think the role could easily be played by a black actor, because the character created by Ian Fleming in the ’50s has undergone a great deal of evolution and continues to be updated,” he said. “I’ve always been a fan of Obama. The political ideas that have emerged from his speeches seem to me to be genuine.”
Craig is signed on for a third Bond film, but has dropped hints that he might not be onboard for that installment. Reasons he cited in the past included everything from the ink on the contract not being dry to the bad economy.
- from MSNBC
Al Gore on Finding a Real Purpose for Web 2.0
Forget about swapping party pictures on Facebook and other “gee-whiz stuff,” says former Vice President Al Gore. “Web 2.0 has to have a purpose.”
And since it’s Al Gore, you know that purpose has got to be green.
“The purpose, I would urge all of you — as many of you as are willing to take it up — is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth,” Mr. Gore said Friday evening at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
In other words, Web 2.0 should be used to fight global warming. He didn’t say exactly how, but that didn’t stop the audience from giving two standing ovations to the Oscar-winning movie director, venture capitalist, money manager, book author, cable television mogul and Nobel laureate.
Mr. Gore said that he feared that his advocacy work, spearheaded by his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has not done its job. “I feel, in a sense, I’ve failed badly,” he said. “Because even though there’s a greater sense of awareness, there is not anything anywhere close to an appropriate sense of urgency. This is an existential threat.”
Mr. Gore called on President-elect Barack Obama to set a national goal of getting 100 percent of America’s electricity from renewable and non-carbon sources within a decade.
- from NYtimes
