Month: April 2018

A U.S. media broadcast group ordered local news anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country,” — then accused other networks and some members of the media for pushing their own biases. Deadspin, a sports news and blog web site, created a mashup video that shows anchors around the country all reading the same statement. The video has since gone viral as VOA’s Jill Craig. reports.
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With her arms crossed and poised for action, “Wonder Woman” television actress Lynda Carter was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday as her most famous superhero character enjoys a big-screen revival.

Carter, 66, was introduced by longtime friend and CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and Patty Jenkins, the director of last year’s blockbuster film “Wonder Woman.”

“It seems impossible but I have been in entertainment for more than 50 years — do the math,” Carter told the audience along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles before the unveiling of the emblematic terrazzo and brass star.

“I have loved it all!” the former Miss World USA exclaimed.

Carter’s “Wonder Woman” character, which first appeared on the pages of DC Comics in 1941 and debuted as a TV series starring the actress in 1976, is seen as a forerunner to the empowered heroines that are taking center stage in Hollywood.

Jenkins, 46, said Carter inspired her as a girl and showed her that she did not have to choose between being rebellious or feminine, or attractive or strong.

“Her Wonder Woman made me believe I could have whatever I wanted, and even more importantly, it made me unashamed to want it,” Jenkins said.

“Wonder Woman” was only on U.S. television for three seasons, first on ABC and later on CBS where it finished in 1979. But the series, along with Carter’s performance, have given “Wonder Woman” a long legacy as a feminist symbol.

At times choking with emotion, Carter thanked her friends and family for their support as well as a nod to the men who helped stand behind women’s stories.

“From all of the wonder women out there, we love our men who stand with us and champion our causes and our voices,” Carter said.

“This is a day that I shall never forget,” she concluded.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and is major tourist attraction.
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Jason Clarke plunged into frigid waters, repeatedly, for his role as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in “Chappaquiddick.”

The Australian actor said his research about the accident that thwarted Kennedy’s presidential chances included jumping into Poucha Pond, the same waters the Massachusetts Democrat’s car crashed into in July 1969, killing Mary Jo Kopechne.

Clarke said the indie film, which is in limited release on Friday, doesn’t try to sensationalize the accident, which Kennedy failed to report for 10 hours.

He said the film sticks “to the facts as much as we could and to play it out without scandalizing, without going to the tabloid of it.”

“This man committed this act and he worked his way out of it with help and with his own moral journey to the other side, where he then became one of the longest-serving senators in history. I don’t think — partisanship aside — you can’t take away from what he did.”

Kennedy went to Martha’s Vineyard to race in the Edgartown Regatta and on the evening of July 18, 1969, attended a party at a rented house on Chappaquiddick Island. Guests included Kennedy friends and several women, including Kopechne, who had worked on the presidential campaign of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated a year earlier.

Kennedy and Kopechne, 28, left the party together and a short time later their car plunged into Poucha Pond. Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and said he made several futile attempts to rescue Kopechne, who was trapped inside.

Kennedy, who died in 2009, later described his failure to report the incident to police for 10 hours as “indefensible.”

Clarke visited the bridge and pond as part of his research for the film, even jumping in.

“It’s pretty much unchanged apart from the bridge itself has got guard rails and wider. There’s no other buildings. The Dike House is still there, the same place. It’s dark. There’s no lights on the road,” he said. “The water is dark and the current is strong.”

“I think I held my breath for five seconds to see where I came up. And I came up a big distance away,” Clarke said.

Kennedy’s underwater escape was recreated in the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Mexico. Clarke said the scene was hard to shoot not only because of the ocean’s cold water, but also because he had to get out of the car while upside down.

The film, an Entertainment Studios release, spends more time on the aftermath of the accident. Clarke said viewers should leave theaters with a greater understanding of Kennedy.

“You can be with Ted a bit. You cannot just externalize it and say bad, horrible, disgusting man. You might want to at the end, but you can be there for it: on the phone afterwards, the walk back, the swim, the lies, the made-up story — or perhaps it’s actually really what did happen. But you can actually stay there with Ted. Not enough to be a Kennedy, but enough to almost touch him,” he said.

Jim Gaffigan, who plays attorney Paul Markham, one of the co-hosts of the party that Kennedy and Kopechne left together, agreed.

“We all have earlier versions of ourselves that we’re not crazy about. At least I do,” he said. “So there is something very interesting about the journey that Ted goes through, and being exposed to his relationship with his father,” he said. “Look, it’s not a documentary, but there is an attempt to be objective and ask objective questions.”
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A museum in Los Alamos, New Mexico — a once-secret New Mexico city that developed the atomic bomb which helped end World War II — has put an exhibit from Japan on hold because of its theme of abolishing nuclear weapons.

The Los Alamos Historical Museum confirmed Monday that it will not host a traveling exhibit organized by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum until all parties can work out their differences over the theme.

The exhibit, which features articles of clothing, exposed plates, and other personal items from victims, aims to draw attention to the horrors of the bombs that destroyed both cities.

Heather McClenahan, executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Museum, said the museum’s board of directors felt uncomfortable about the exhibit’s call to abolish nuclear bombs. The New Mexico city is still home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons research centers.

The exhibit dispute comes as the Los Alamos National Lab competes with the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to continue production of plutonium pits. Those are critical cores which trigger nuclear warheads.

No new pits have been made since 2011. The Energy Department wants to ramp up production to 80 pits a year by 2030.

“The Los Alamos Historical Society will continue its dialogue with the museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in hopes that we can overcome cultural and linguistic differences and host exhibits that are respectful to all of our communities’ concerns and stories,” McClenahan said. “In other words, we hope this is not the end but the beginning of delving together into our history and the questions it raises.”

Requesting mutual respect

She said the historical society will not send an exhibit about Los Alamos scientists to Hiroshima and Nagasaki without significant dialogue and input from their museums.

“We would ask that the same respect be afforded to our community,” McClenahan said.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum official Tomonori Nitta told The Associated Press that officials were informed by the Los Alamos museum in mid-February that its board meeting turned down a current plan and that the Japanese museum missed a deadline for funding needed to hold an exhibit in 2019.

The sides also failed to reach consensus on nuclear disarmament details to be included as part of the event, Nitta said.

Nitta said that it is mainly up to the Los Alamos side to figure out ways to resolve the issue, and that he hoped that an exhibit can still happen sometime after 2019.

“If 2019 doesn’t work, we still hope to achieve an exhibit at a later occasion,” Nitta said. “We will continue to cooperate so that we can clear the hurdles and hold an exhibit.”

Takatoshi Hayama, an official at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, said no details have been decided and that officials are still hoping to put on an exhibit.

“We only wish people from around the world to see our exhibit and learn the reality of atomic bombings and their consequences,” he told the AP from Nagasaki.

The traveling atomic bombing exhibit is taking place in Budapest, Hungary, through end of August, before moving to France and Belgium later this year. The atomic bombing exhibits have been held in 12 other cities in the U.S.

In the 1940s, scientists working in the then-secret city of Los Alamos developed the atomic bomb as part of the World War II-era Manhattan Project. The secret program provided enriched uranium for the atomic bomb. Facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington, were also involved in the project.

The two atomic bombs were later dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II. More than 210,000 people in both Japanese cities were killed.

 
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Seven cities, or joint-bidding cities, have expressed interest in hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.

Canada’s Calgary, Austria’s Graz, Swedish capital Stockholm, Sion in Switzerland, Turkey’s Erzurum, Japan’s Sapporo and a joint bid from Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo, Milan and Turin are all in the initial process.

There is considerable Olympic experience in the field with Calgary having hosted the 1988 Winter Games and Sapporo having staged the 1972 edition. Cortina is also a former host, having organized the 1956 Winter Olympics.

The cities will now enter a dialogue stage until October when the IOC will invite an unspecified number of them to take part in the one-year candidature phase.

The IOC has overhauled the bidding process for Games after a sharp slump in interest from potential cities in recent years, cutting costs for bid cities and slashing the campaign time in half.

It has also simplified the seven-year preparation for Games organiers, reducing costs, upping the IOC’s contribution and allowing host cities more flexibility in planning for the Olympics and the post-Games use of facilities.

The IOC will elect the winning 2026 bid at its session in Milan in September, 2019.

“I warmly welcome the National Olympic Committees’ and cities’ interest in hosting the Olympic Winter Games,” said IOC President Thomas Bach in a statement.

“The IOC has turned the page with regard to Olympic candidatures. Our goal is not just to have a record number of candidates, but ultimately it is to select the best city to stage the best Olympic Winter Games for the best athletes of the world,” The IOC said there had already been interest for 2030, from the United States Olympic Committee among others.

The 2022 Winter Games will be held in Beijing after four other cities dropped out of the bid race for fear of soaring costs and size of the Olympics, leaving the Chinese capital and Kazakhstan’s Almaty as the only candidates.

More cities dropped out of the 2024 Summer Olympics race with the IOC opting to award them directly to Paris and in turn give Los Angeles, which had also bid for 2024, the 2028 Games.
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Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, a prominent writer and professor of gastroenterology known for creating groundbreaking medical thrillers, compelling horror and science fiction like “Beyond Metaphysics,” and “Fantasia” was laid to rest in Egypt Tuesday. 

Tawfik died suddenly on Monday. He was 55. A cause of death has not been released.

One of the most prolific and popular authors in Egypt, Tawfik wrote more than 500 paperbacks and titles, which appealed strongly to young Arabs. His instant best-selling “Utopia” is described as a grim and bleak futuristic account of Egyptian society in the year 2023, when Israel builds its version of the Suez Canal and the Middle East oil reserves are rendered worthless by a newly invented U.S. super fuel.  

Living in a dog-eat-dog society

In Tawfik’s Egypt 2023, the middle class disappeared and the future looked more nightmarish than in ‘The Forgotten Planet’ by American writer Murray Leinster.

Breathtaking and suspenseful “Utopia,” which was set for the big screen, takes readers on a chilling journey beyond the gated communities of the northern coast, an isolated U.S. Marine-protected coastal colony created by the rich and famous, where the wealthy are insulated from the bleakness of life outside the walls.

“The middle class, in any society, plays the role of graphite rods in nuclear reactors: they slow down the reaction and, if it weren’t for them, the reactor would explode. A society without a middle class is a society primed for explosion,” explains Tawfik in his critically acclaimed Utopia.

One of his most famous quotes, “the end of despots is something so beautiful, but, alas, we often don’t live to see it,” is widely published in Arabic by young Egyptians on social media.

Master of Escapism

Called “Godfather” by his readers, Tawfik is credited with introducing young Arabs to works by American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury, British author Sir Arthur Clarke and other sci-fi writers.

“Stories that lean on science or on technology appear as texts or information books to us in the Arab world, and we believe they won’t provide escapism. We have the imagination as a reader, but it’s just not yet developed enough to embrace science fiction and fantasy, or a plot that is weighted in gloom and horror,” he told a UAE newspaper.

Tawfik was one of the earliest Egyptian writers to specialize in horror, science fiction and fantasy, and his work included both illustrated books and novels, wrote the state-run Al-Ahram online in his obituary. His publishers say he is “the Arab world’s best-selling author of horror and fantasy genres.”

He was buried in his home city of Tanta in Western Egypt, where he was born in June, 1962. He is survived by his wife, a pulmonologist at Tanta medical college, and two children.
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Defence lawyers at Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges can call a witness they say will undermine his accuser’s credibility, a Pennsylvania judge said on Tuesday, reversing his ruling that barred the same witness from the first trial of the comedian once known as “America’s Dad.”

The ruling came on the second day of jury selection for the second trial where the 80-year-old entertainer will face charges that he sexually assaulted a staffer more than a decade ago at his alma mater, Temple University in Philadelphia. His first trial on those charges last year ended in a hung jury.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill also said defence lawyers could introduce evidence that Cosby made a payout to accuser Andrea Constand to settle the lawsuit she filed against him in 2005. Details of that settlement were not aired during the first trial and have remained secret for more than a decade.

Together, the two rulings will bolster the defence’s strategy to portray Constand as a liar who invented the incident to extort money from the comedian best known for his rose as Cliff Huxtable, the wise and witty dad on the long-running hit sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

The trial is scheduled to begin with opening statements on April 9 in the Norristown, Pennsylvania court.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia more than 14 years ago. The first trial end in a mistrial last June when the jury could not reach a verdict.

Cosby has denied allegations from more than 50 women that he sexually assaulted them. Constand’s accusations are the only ones recent enough to allow for criminal prosecution.

Defence lawyers had asked O’Neill to permit Jackson to testify that Constand, a former co-worker, once told her she could profit by accusing a famous person of sexual assault.

During the first trial, O’Neill barred Jackson from taking the stand as a rebuttal witness, ruling the statements were hearsay. But he changed his mind following both written submissions and oral arguments at pretrial hearings last week.

The prosecution’s case will also unfold differently this time. O’Neill has granted them permission to call five other Cosby accusers over defence objections. In the first trial, they could only call one.

Those witnesses are expected to testify about similar alleged sexual assaults as prosecutors try to show that Cosby engaged in a pattern of misconduct.
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A video with dozens of news anchors reading a script about “fake stories” put in stark visual terms what for weeks had largely been an academic debate about media consolidation and the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s efforts to promote a consistent message across its stations.

The 98-second video, posted on Deadspin Saturday, has already been viewed by millions of people and provoked a tweet by President Donald Trump supporting the corporation on Monday.

Sinclair owns nearly 200 local stations and had ordered its anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country.” Some outlets publish these “fake stories” without checking facts first and some people in the media push their own biases, the statement said.

The anchors give no specific examples. Sinclair, whose corporate leadership leans right, uses terminology familiar to Trump and his criticisms of “fake news.” In the message, the anchors say they “work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual.”

Timothy Burke, a video editor at Deadspin, said he read a CNN story last month about the script being sent to local stations and contacted a media monitoring service to collect examples of the statement being read on the air. After receiving more than 50, he fashioned them into a video that shows anchors reading different portions of the text, either simultaneously or one after the other.

He posted a “teaser” with a small portion of the video Friday night and it quickly attracted attention when tweeted by a Wisconsin journalism professor. Not wanting to see his work appropriated by someone else, Burke said he rushed to get the full video posted Saturday afternoon. It spread quickly, particularly when tweeted by celebrities like Judd Apatow and Jimmy Kimmel.

The video’s repetition illustrates Sinclair’s reach in a way mere numbers can’t, said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York.

“That’s what makes the video so powerful,” he said. “It illustrates a story that in some cases can read like a conspiracy theory. You can see by the video that it’s not.”

A Sinclair executive said Monday that he finds it curious that the company would be attacked for asking news people to remind the audience that unsubstantiated stories exist on social media.

“It is ironic that we would be attacked for messages promoting our journalistic initiative for fair and objective reporting, and for specifically asking the public to hold our newsrooms accountable,” said Scott Livingston, Sinclair’s senior vice president of news. “Our local stations keep our audiences’ trust by staying focused on fact-based reporting and clearly identifying commentary.”

After the story was reported on CNN and MSNBC Monday, Trump jumped to Sinclair’s defense.

“Funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticizing Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” he tweeted. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”

Meanwhile, CNN’s Jim Acosta was criticized by some conservative media outlets on Monday for shouting questions about immigration to Trump while the president and first lady were attending an Easter event on the grounds of the White House.

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” did a lengthy segment on Burke’s Deadspin video Monday, showing the words being repeated by several anchors. Co-host Mika Brzezinski said she was surprised some of the local anchors didn’t refuse to read it.

“This looks like something we would mock the Russians for doing during the days of Pravda,” said co-host Joe Scarborough.

Dan Rather’s website said that it was “sickening” to watch local journalists being forced to read something that trashes their own profession.

Deadspin received a hat tip from HBO’s John Oliver, whose “Last Week Tonight” did a lengthy story on Sinclair last season. “Nothing says ‘we value independent media’ like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again, like members of a brainwashed cult,” Oliver said.

Burke said he’s received a number of emails from people who work at Sinclair stations but he’s been too busy at his regular job posting sports videos to look into them.

“I’m glad it received a large audience,” he said.
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They chanted his name from the cheap seats: “Di-Vin-cen-zo, Di-Vin-cen-zo.” By the time Donte DiVincenzo was done doing his damage, Villanova had another title and college basketball had its newest star.

The redhead kid with the nickname Big Ragu scored 31 points Monday to lift `Nova to another blowout tournament victory – this time 79-62 over Michigan for its second title in three seasons. 

The sophomore guard had 12 points and an assist during a first-half run to help the Wildcats (36-4) pull ahead, then scored nine straight for Villanova midway through the second to put the game away – capped by a 3-pointer he punctuated with a wink over to TV announcers Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery on the sideline.

Villanova won all six games by double digits over this tournament run, joining Michigan State (2000), Duke (2001) and North Carolina (2009) in that rare air. 

One key question: Could this be one of the best teams of all-time? 

Maybe so, considering the way Jay Wright’s team dismantled everyone in front of it in a tournament that was dripping with upsets, underdogs and parity.

Maybe so, considering the Wildcats won in seemingly every way imaginable. This victory came two nights after they set a Final Four record with 18 3-pointers, and one week after they relied more on defense in a win over Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. 

That debate’s for later. 

DiVincenzo squashed any questions about this game with a 10-for-15 shooting night that was better than that. 

He opened his game-sealing run with an around-the-back dribble to get to the hoop and get fouled. On the other end, he delivered a two-handed rejection of Michigan’s Charles Matthews, when Matthews tried to bring it into the paint. 

The 3 that sealed it came from a big step behind the arc; yes, the man was feeling it. 

About the only drama as the night closed was whether DiVincenzo could unwrap himself from his teammates’ mob hug to toss the ball underhanded toward the scoreboard. He succeeded there, too. 
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Tiger Woods is back in Green Jacket contention and from country club bars to boardrooms, the former world No. 1 is once again the tide lifting all boats in the golfing world.

Golf television ratings are trending upward, so are equipment and ball sales while Masters tickets and even tips are experiencing a “Tiger Bump” as a rejuvenated Woods returns to the U.S. Masters for the first time in three years.

Much of the buzz being generated around golf’s first major is emanating from a 42-year-old golfer who is closer to qualifying for the Seniors Tour (open to players 50 and over) than his last victory at Augusta in 2005.

But nothing gets the sporting public revved up more than a compelling comeback story and Woods is writing one for the ages.

“This is a little bit like a Lazarus resurrection here with respect to where he was,” Steve Mona, World Golf Foundation CEO, told Reuters. “Only last September he was talking about whether he would be able to come back at all. Now that he is the favorite at the Masters, it is just astonishing. He is certainly in form. I don’t think anyone would be terribly surprised if he were in the hunt.”

The greatest player of his generation, Woods dominated golf like few athletes in any sport ever have.

A prodigious talent who first appeared on television swinging a golf club at two years old, Woods grew into a champion by winning 14 majors in swashbuckling style. He became a crossover celebrity and very wealthy with career earnings totaling $1.7 billion, according to a 2017 report by Forbes.

Having climbed to such great heights, Woods’ fall from grace that started in 2009 has been all the more shocking.

A tawdry divorce, a DUI and years and years of injuries, surgeries and failed treatments sent sponsors scurrying.

The back that had caused Woods so much pain was getting no better and the golfer who had held the No. 1 world ranking for a collective 683 weeks slumped out of the top 1,000.

Even the ever-positive Woods suddenly seemed resigned to a dour fate.

Yet after undergoing spinal fusion surgery last April, the dark clouds hanging over Woods slowly began to lift.

Shaking off years of competitive rust, Woods returned with an encouraging tie for ninth at the Hero World Challenge, followed by a tie for 23rd at the Farmers Insurance Open and a missed cut at the Genesis Open.

Highest ratings

Then suddenly Woods grabbed the spotlight as only he can, announcing his return to form with three impressive results — 12th at the Honda Classic, a tie for second at the Valspar Championship and a tie for fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods’ back now appears to be strong enough to carry the hopes of an entire industry that is experiencing a “Tiger Bump.”

With Woods back in contention, NBC/Golf Channel said the final rounds of both the Arnold Palmer and Valspar championships registered the highest ratings for a PGA Tour telecast, outside of the majors, since the 2015 Wyndham Championship.

The golf industry has also seen a spike. Bridgestone said that when Woods (who uses its ball) has been in the field in 2018, the average basket value with Bridgestone products increased by over 120 percent compared with the same period in 2017.

“His endorsement [that we make the best ball] is more valuable than all of the science and data that we throw out to the consumers,” Angel Ilgan, President & CEO of Bridgestone, told Reuters. “It is just ridiculous that we can show them hundreds and thousands of testings with robots and projectile guns that we’re the best ball, the most accurate ball. And the consumer doesn’t believe us until Tiger says, ‘Yeah that’s true.’

“During Tiger’s absence the entire industry, the PGA Tour, we were all kind of looking who is the next player,” he continued. “Then when Tiger came back, the entire industry is jumping on the Tiger bandwagon.”

Far-reaching effects

The trickle-down economics of Woods’ comeback are far-reaching.

During the final round of the Valspar, a bartender at a golf club raved on social media that tips were up 300 percent with Woods in contention.

“I was slammed packed with people watching Tiger play, it was insane,” said Alcaonline in a post on Reddit picked up by several news outlets. “I know it seems minimal but the economic trickle down effect this has when it comes to the golf world is hard to explain. I made at least 3X the amount of money I usually make on Sundays just because Tiger was in contention.”

With Woods at the start of a comeback but on the downslope of a turbulent but spectacular career, it is uncertain how long this Tiger bubble will last.

But with Woods’ stock soaring, everyone is buying in and Mona believes that it could be a good long-term investment.

“That [bartender] obviously takes it down to the grass-roots level and it is felt on many different levels and the most obvious ones are from TV ratings standpoint,” he said. “It’s astronomical how much they have increased and there is one common denominator and that is Tiger in contention.

“You look at attendance at those events and it is much the same story. What Tiger does is he increases interest in the game … they get interested and think maybe this is a game for me,” he added.
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Anyone who has seen Kristen Bell break down in (happy) hysterics over a sloth knows the actress’s affinity for animals, especially those of the cute and cuddly variety. So when the people behind the new IMAX original film “Pandas” asked “The Good Place” star if she would consider narrating the documentary, it was a no-brainer.

“I’m not un-secretive about the fact that I’m an animal lover, or an IMAX lover to be totally honest with you,” Bell said. “I think they produce some of the best content out there and I take my kids to the science center every time there’s a new IMAX movie. I just think the patience with which they produce particularly their animal documentaries is kind of astounding.”

“Pandas,” from David Douglas and Drew Fellman (“Born to be Wild” and “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar”), takes audiences to the Chengdu Research Base For Giant Panda Breeding in China where scientists are working toward a goal of releasing captive-born pandas into the wild, where only about 2000 remaining pandas live.

The film, out Friday, focuses in on one, Qian Qian (pronounced Chen Chen), from cub stage to her supervised release in the wild and the humans trying to make that happen. Hou Rong, the Director of Research at Panda Base since 1994, has raised over 200 baby pandas during her tenure and hopes that one day their work will help pandas thrive outside of captivity.

In an inspiring display of cross cultural solidarity, she travels to New Hampshire to observe how a man named Ben Kilham has for 20 years been successfully raising orphaned black bear cubs for eventual release in the wild. At Kilham’s suggestion, Panda Base hires American conservation biologist Jake Owens, who Douglas calls “the Indiana Jones of biologists” to help supervise Qian Qian’s transition from city panda to country panda.

Bell, who got involved later in the process, didn’t get to meet the pandas but hopes that one day she will. But that didn’t stop her from peppering the scientists like Owens with questions, like how much do their weigh (“150 pounds”), how much for they feel like they weigh (“about 300 pounds”) and what do they smell like (“sweet grass and milk”).

An avid watcher of nature documentaries, Bell said that she and her young daughters Lincoln and Delta particularly love David Attenborough and the “Planet Earth” series. The girls saw an early cut of “Pandas” and “loved it” which makes Bell all the more excited for additional kids and families to experience “Pandas” too.

“It’s inspiring the next crop of biologists and conservationists,” she said.

She thinks the film will connect beyond animal die-hards too.

“It makes you feel good,” Bell said. “It’s inspiring, it’s beautiful, it’s
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Jeremy McLellan has been labeled an extremist and accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

But the white Catholic comedian from South Carolina says he’s only an extremist when it comes to Biryani, his favorite dish.

In his stand-up act, McLellan uses sarcasm and comedy to explore the commonalities between Christians and Muslims.

“I think that there is so much that we have in common…Christians and Muslims,” said McLellan. “And there are so many practices that we both have that we aren’t necessarily aware of, like Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days, you know, Ramadan is a month. And it’s a period of fasting and alms-giving and all these things that are the same in both traditions. But the rules are different.”

McLellan finds it interesting to compare the religious rituals.

“Are we as strict as you? Like, who’s fasting more?” he said. “Sort of like a healthy competition.” 

Besides a talent for making people laugh, McLellan likes to foster an environment of mutual respect and understanding between the two religions. He says misunderstanding is generally to blame for much of the religious intolerance today. 

“You know right now, there seems to be a lot of tension between Christians and Muslims…” he said, “but I think now is the time when we can actually start to bridge those gaps and create dialogue and talk about our differences….talk about what we have in common and hopefully coexist.” 

The use of comedy to bridge the religious divide isn’t a new phenomenon. Imam Talal Eid, a Muslim scholar, says interfaith humor goes back centuries — to the Prophet Muhammad. 

“Humor is important in our life,” said Eid. “And he himself used his sense of humor when communicating with his companions…He used his sense of humor to cement his relationship with non-Muslims. So American-Muslims today and Muslims in general when they have interfaith relations, they have to do it with fun, not with too much seriousness. ”

McLellan is part of a new generation of young comedians who use humor to serve as ambassadors of faith.

And by combining those ancient methods of diplomacy with the well-timed joke, McLellan accomplishes what professional diplomats aspire to — resolving misunderstandings and creating friendly dialogue while making people laugh. 
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