Actors mark final show of Oprah with punch lines

NEW YORK - While many have responded to the final episode of "the oprah winfrey Show" with tears and emotion, of actors found punch lines.

On "Jimmy kimmel Live," Kimmel sings goodbye by performing the song "End of the road" with the Group R & B Boyz II Men. The melody has been renamed "it's So Hard To Say Goodbye (to Oprah Winfrey)."

David Letterman, whose tumultuous relationship with Winfrey as has long been the Chronicle, lamented previously not invited to the gala farewell to Chicago.

"" "Honest to God," said Letterman, "every day I get out of bed and think:"What can I do to aspire to Oprah?"".

Many have turned to social media to contemplate a world post-Oprah.

Among the notable observations on Twitter are the following:

? "Apparently Oprah is responsible for the life on our planet as we know it."-Kevin Nealon.

? "Miss Oprah and Osama." Is there a way to their couples for something? "- Michael Ian Black.

? "Oprah Winfrey is so powerful that it the Rapture postponed after its final show airs." - Joan Rivers.

? "It seems unfair!" "Without Oprah, how publishers will continue their business plan cross-fingers/hope-to-win-the-lottery?"-John Hodgman.

? "Jesus will probably surprise guest." "He began."-Paula Poundstone.

? "What can I say about Oprah she has not already says about itself?" - Justin Stangel, producer sitcom "Late Show CBS".

Michael j. Fox uses Parkinson's disease as a Punch line

Larry David pushes the limits of comedy more than usual in an episode of the new season of "curb" your enthusiasm With the help of Michael j. Fox, who will play himself, the show fun in Parkinson's disease.

Fox, who lived with Parkinson's disease since 1991, said TV Guide that the episode had Larry David believing "I am being symptomatic just to annoy him - something all passive-aggressive." He complains because I am beat, making noise on the upper floor. "It is very funny."

This is not the first time Fox has resumed a role off the coast of symptoms of his Parkinson's disease. In "the Good wife," he played a lawyer who used its neurological disorders (late dyskinia) to influence the judge and jury.

His new role, however, may not raise but question: when it is OK to use Parkinson's disease as a punch line?

Showing the struggles of a character who lived with Parkinson's disease can raise awareness of the disease and reduce some of the stigma surrounding it. But does not – or hurt – people living with Parkinson's disease, when these symptoms, uncontrollable jerking movements of dyskinesia, becomes the butt of a TV joke? Parkinson's disease experts probably say that Yes.

"Long ago that humor can help those who suffer from chronic diseases is important to better cope with their disease, and any opportunity to increase awareness of Parkinson's disease among the general public", explains Dr. Cheryl Waters at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University Medical Center.

"Who best represent Parkinson is a humorous angle than a real actor with the disease." "I really hope that this does violate of patients with Parkinson's disease," she said.

Even if it is portrayed in a light "irreverent" on the show, the Dr. Joseph Jankovic, Director of the center of the Baylor College of Medicine Parkinson's disease, said the "benefits outweigh the negative."

"If this series can increase awareness about the disease and help identify individuals more with some of the symptoms that Mr. Fox poster - great!", he said.

Sharon Kha, of Tucson, Arizona, said that in some respects one Fox - or someone else with Parkinson's disease - could penetrate productive fun. Kha is not a doctor, but she has much experience using humor to cope with and teach to Parkinson's disease: it is a PD itself patient and for the past three years, he used raps educational (and often humorous) to help others to cope.

"It is never pleasant to sneer at people sick, but when we can fun ourselves, there to lessen the disease to a more manageable size," she said.

Review: Although exaggerated, "hesher" packs a punch

The main character in "hesher" enters the life of a family in mourning about as rolling more daring that opens the film "Sexy beast."

Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has long black hair, an inclination for shirtlessness and a giant tattoo of the middle finger on his back. It led around in a beat-up black van blasting Metallica, smoking pot and do what he pleases. Its entries are announced comic with a loud guitar riff, metal.

When 13-year TJ (Devin Brochu) inadvertently that Hesher is a squatter in a condo built half, Hesher believes that just to move in a rundown suburban home where TJ lives with his father (Rainn Wilson) and grandmother (Piper Laurie).

The House is a malaise stupor, still mourns the death of the mother of the TJ two months earlier. The heavily medicated father is almost Catatonic. TJ is obsessed by keeping their red station wagon, wrecked the fatal accident which left him with a cast on his arm.

Protagonist of the film, TJ is a tough, fragmentary boy who is left in the vacuum of parental supervision fend by himself, including against a school bully (Brandon Hill). He is saved from a beating by a woman who interferes (Natalie Portman, who also co-produced). Awkwardly inserted into the film, it is a solitary cashier who, as everyone in "Hesher", could use a little fun.

Hesher is a kind of dementia wake-up call: catharsis by heavy metals. It is similar to the character of Brad Pitt in "fight Club": a grungy, Saracen force, violent life which is revels in shattering convention/h smoke to talk-it-out therapy. Hesher, too, seems almost a notional projection (what the film alludes to).

But undeniably turned on asphalt backstreets of Los Angeles, the film is intentionally not place anywhere specific. And its dull and grainy texture interiors seem more 70 than contemporary.

It is the first feature for Spencer Susser, the only American film in the Australian loose collective of filmmakers called Blue-language Films. Susser wrote the script with David Michod (the Director of last year's critical hit "animal kingdom"), from the story by Brian Charles Frank.

More coming through Susser is a talent to work with actors. The young Brochu is a honest 13 years, cycling around the world and wary to all adults. Laurie is touching sincere, even though it grows senile.

Gordon-Levitt, however, clearly is to have the most fun. He stomps around, almost never noticed those around him, except for a casual look sideways, sly coup or an average stare. By just his physical presence, Gordon-Levitt is almost unrecognizable - even when half naked.

The only exception is overexcited Wilson, one note performance as the father of mourning. The talented Wilson is not given enough range. It is also simply pathetic and nothing else.

As a few other blue-language films, "hesher" may be free in its violence. As a film, it is generally mangy and there are obvious missteps (as scene flashback snapshot to the car accident). But "hesher" nonetheless manages to be more emotionally true that the majority of the films coming out of Hollywood.

Warts and all, "hesher" is still a good shot in the arm.

"Hesher", a Newmarket Films release, is rated r for disturbing violent behaviour, sexual content including graphic dialogue, pervasive language and the content of the drug - some in the presence of a child. Duration: 105 minutes. Two years and a half stars out of four.

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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G - general public. All ages admitted.

PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some elements may not be suitable for children.

PG - 13 - special Parental Guidance strongly suggested for children under 13 years old. Certain types of material may be inappropriate for young children.

R - restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC - 17 - person admitted less than 17 years.