Sunday, June 3, 2018

Pheaturing Sam Huntington


Hey there, kids, good morning, and welcome to the Phile. How are you? President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, formerly known for being the mayor of New York City on 9/11 (and after), got booed at Yankee Stadium last Monday when the announcer announced that it was his birthday. The boos were as loud and rapturous as any rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," and is already being called the song of the summer. It turns out that people don't respect you if you get motorboated by Trump, both literally and figuratively. It's almost as embarrassing as the time that he married his cousin.
Speaking of once-respected Trump supporters whose names start with R, I regret to inform you that Roseanne Barr is spreading hate and conspiracy theories on Twitter again. The star of "Roseanne," which is a show I was really liking, called longtime Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett "Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a baby." Jarrett is African-American and was born in Iran.  On a roll last Monday, Roseanne also spread a debunked claim about Hungarian philanthropist George Soros, insisting that he was a Nazi during World War II, even though he was 9-years-old when the war started. An executive at ABC must have finally had it with this shit, because now, Roseanne apologized and announced that she is taking a break from Twitter. Then the network announced the show's cancellation.
On Wednesday night's "Full Frontal," Samantha Bee did a segment on the New York Times report that the government has lost track of approximately 1,500 migrant children who were torn away from their parents at the border and handed off the Department of Health and Human Services. Bee called out Ivanka Trump (who works at the White House when she's not trying to promote her brand in China) for tweeting a tone-deaf picture snuggling with her child as people were worrying about the missing children. "You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another: Do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless cunt! He listens to you! Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fuckin’ stop it." Rather than be angry about the fact that over a thousand children (CHILDREN!) are missing, the Outrage of the Day was over Bee's use of the C-word. Both of the women's names were trending all day. Pro-Trump people were so outraged that Bee ultimately apologized.
The past three weeks the world has been asunder with the question: where is Melania Trump and what is she doing?! Melania's last public appearance was on May 10th, when three Americans were released by North Korea. Just four days later, Melania was hospitalized for "an embolisation procedure to treat a benign kidney condition" at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre. After 20 days out of the public eye and an unloading of (fairly viable) conspiracy theories by people online, Melania broke her silence on Wednesday with a tweet.


Still, the tweet itself left a lot of people unconvinced. Some noted the similarity to Trump's voice, while others noted the fact that anyone could easily tweet from her account. The tweet also doesn't count as a public appearance, it's now been 24 days since she was verifiably spotted. To add to people's suspicion, on Friday it was announced that Melania would be skipping the presidential retreat at Camp David, an event a First Lady would normally attend. While there are plenty of theories about Melania's public disappearance, it is most plausible that she is in fact inside the White House right now taking it easy. All politics, absurd theories and jokes aside, I genuinely hope she's physically okay, because this whole ordeal is fishy.
Bobby Brown is the latest person to condemn Kanye West for using a picture of Whitney Houston’s drug-strewn bathroom as the cover for Pusha-T's latest album, "Daytona." West licensed the photograph, originally featured on an April 2006 cover of the National Enquirer, for $85,000. Brown’s sister, Tina, is the person who secretly snapped the picture. When West announced on his Twitter last week that this would be the album artwork, people were understandably pissed. But no one was angrier than Houston's ex-husband, Bobby Brown. On Wednesday, the former New Edition singer said this to Rolling Stone, "Why would he post that on his album cover? That’s really disgusting that he would do that. That’s in really bad taste. Something should happen to Kanye. He’s already crazy. I knew that when I first met him. Now he’s pushing the bar a little bit. He needs somebody to slap him up or something. And I’m just the person to do it." Brown and Houston's famously rocky marriage lasted from 1992 to 2007. Houston died in 2012 at the age of 48 after drowning in her bathtub as a result of "the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use". The former couple’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died at age 22 in July 2015.
If I had a TARDIS I would go to San Francisco, but knowing my luck I'll get that during the earthquake in 1906.


Do you get embarrassed easily? I bet this person did...


That's so lame. Do you remember the actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster? Well, this is him now...


Do you feel old yet? Hahaha. You know, some people are just assholes...


Do you have bad luck? I hope you don't have as much bad luck as this girl...


Shit. You know about the Avengers, right? Well, do you know the Revengers? Here's one of their action figures. Hahaha.


I was told at Walmart some people wear the rudest clothes. I didn't believe that until I saw this...


How rude. Must be a Seminoles fan. I told you about the website where you can rate your professor, right? I still can't get over how some of those students are so blunt and to the point.


There's still a lot of Royal Wedding souvenirs out there in case you want one. Like these saintly prayer candles...


Well, his grandmother is the Defender of the Faith. Some kids are just killing it this year with their year book quotes. Like Betshina's quote for example...


Ha! Hey, they figured out what to do with the "Roseanne" show...


Yes! Hahaha. If you go to the beach this summer you might see signs like this posted...


And now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...


Top Phive Conspiracy Theories Why Melania Trump Is Missing
5. She is working with Mueller because she discovered she can get a divorce without violating her prenup if Donald is convicted of felonies and assorted high crimes.
4. She just cut her bangs real weird and is waiting for them to grow out.
3. She had been smuggled out of the White House in Kim Jong Un’s large envelope.
2. She was struck several weeks ago by a "symbiote" and has been avoiding public appearances because she is currently "a venom."
And the number one conspiracy theory why Melania Trump is missing is...
1. What if there never WAS a Melania?




If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. And now for a pheature with a title that makes no sense...


Barbara Walters was born in the same year as Anne Frank.




I get it. Hahahaha. So, with this whole Roseanne Barr deal a friend of the Phile has something to say about it. He's a singer, patriot and renaissance man. You know what time it is...


Good morning, humans. Before everyone gets into defending free speech issues regarding the tweets of Rosanne Barr... consider this. What she wrote was absolutely racist and completely reprehensible... this was not (and cannot be defended as) simply a political statement. This was a disgusting display of racism and ignorance. It should in no way be excused or tolerated. I’m disappointed that people could defend her actions simply because they lean to the right. This is vastly different than the case of Tim Allen’s show being cancelled because of it’s conservative plot line. I have seen many of you posting memes saying things like “We Stand With Roseanne," “Boycott ABC,”... people claiming that she didn’t deserve to have her show taken off the air... I strongly disagree... she got exactly what she deserved.



The 81st book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...


The author, Martin Grams Jr. will be the guest on the Phile next Monday. Now for some...


Phact 1. The World Record for the fastest growing plant belongs to a certain species of bamboo. They have been found to grow up to 35 inches per day at a rate of 0.00002 mph. That’s nearly 1.5 inches an hour. You could literally watch bamboo grow before your eyes.

Phact 2. Prince William and Prince Harry pulled a prank on their grandmother the Queen, by changing her voicemail answering message to say, “Hey wassup! This is Liz. Sorry, I’m away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip, press one. For Charles, press two. And for the corgis, press three.”

Phact 3. Joy Milne is the woman who can smell Parkinson’s. In one test, she was given 12 t-shirts, 6 from those who have Parkinson’s and 6 from those without. She identified 11 of them but was adamant that one control subject had Parkinson’s. Eight months later that subject was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Phact 4. When Crystal Pepsi was released, Coca-Cola released a competitor called Tab Clear, however, Tab Clear was intentionally marketed poorly in order to hurt Crystal Pepsi’s image by-product association. The “born to die” strategy was successful and both campaigns were dead 6 months later.

Phact 5. The “friendliness” gene mutation that distinguishes dogs from wolves causes Williams syndrome in humans, which causes hypersociality and reduced intelligence.



Today's pheatured guest is an actor who is best known for his starring role as Josh Levison, a werewolf in the Syfy series "Being Human," and for his role as Jimmy Olsen in the superhero film Superman Returns. His latest movie Second Nature is available on iTunes and Amazon. Please welcome to the Phile... Sam Huntington.


Me: Sam, welcome to the Phile. How are you?

Sam: Thank you for having me. I like your blog, it's clever.

Me: Thanks, so, no one ever called it clever before, but I appreciate it. Where are you from, Sam? 

Sam: In Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Me: Nice. So, your new movie Second Nature is out now on Amazon Prime and DVD. It's a very unique and original film. Tell the readers what it's about.

Sam: Well, it's a laugh out loud comedy where a woman and a man in a small town compete in a rather unusual race for mayor. During an argument a magic mirror causes or gender roles to completely reverse putting us into an alternate timeline with an interesting decision to make. It's up to us to choose which reality we prefer before we are stuck in the flipped world forever.

Me: That's such an original idea. What drew you to this movie, Sam?

Sam: Well, I think a lot of it was the opportunity to work with Collette Wolfe, I'm a big fan of hers, she's a tremendous actress. it was a role that I'm not normally cast in. I'm normally cast in the sympathetic sweet guy roles, and not normally the chauvinistic misogynist type. It was an opportunity for me to step outta my wheelhouse and try something new.

Me: Yeah, I would want to work with Collette as well. She's hot. Here's a picture of you two from the movie with what looks like my juke box in the background. Haha.


Me: The movie could've been an episode of "The Twilight Zone," am I right?

Sam: Yeah, that's huge compliment because I too think that's very accurate with the whole world flipped on its ear.

Me: Good point. Was it a fun set to be on?

Sam: Yeah, it was a love fest. Everyone that was involved with this picture was somehow related to the production or our director, Michael Cross personally, so everyone who was there wanted to be there, wanted to make the best possible product, and so it was just a lovely, friendly, happy experience.

Me: The film was shot in the small town where Michael Cross grew up in, am I right? Where is that? 

Sam: Yeah, in Ellensburgh, Washington.

Me: What was it like working in that town opposed to a studio lot?

Sam: Anytime you make a small film like this, especially one that took awhile to get of the ground, because the financing was hard to get and it was Michael's passion project. There was an aura on set of really coming together and community, and that's a lovely thing. That's just something that's magical to be a part of so I felt lucky the whole time.

Me: So, looking at your resume I didn't realize you were in the American version of "Being Human," you were Josh the werewolf. Was that a had character to play?

Sam: Well, there were a million challenges. I was faced with physical and mentally challengers every single day on that show. It was really a labor of love. I loved the people I was working with so much and we were like family, and I didn't want to let anyone down. When it came to the tougher material, and again every episode had many things that were really challenging, but I wanted to do my best work. That to me was so tremendous. No reason to phone it in, no reason to give less than 100% at any point. What was great about that was everyone felt that way, top to bottom, everyone wanted to do their absolute best work, and I think that's what made that show. People loved that show so much. 

Me: I didn't realize the show had ended, Sam. When the show was coming to an end did it affect you guys?

Sam: No. The reason it affected us so much was primarily with our schedule. We were working on the set in a seven day shooting schedule and we were constantly under the gun, constantly fighting light and fighting the clock, and reducing coverage, trying to be creative and trying to problem solve. That's how we were affected. But that was from day one. Our budget was always skint, but going into season four we lost a lot of our financing because one of the financiers fell out. We kinda knew we were on the bubble going into season four. We kinda knew it was going to be our last season. It was a blessing and a curse, we were bummed out it was our last season, but at the same time all the writers we behind the scenes were able to conclude the show well, bring it home so to speak and that was really lovely knowing going into it that we were wrapping this thing up.

Me: You do a lot of conventions I am sure. Do you have a favorite fan experience?

Sam: Let's see here. A couple of years ago I was at a comic book convention, I think it was in Virginia, and a guy came up and talked to me, I think I was signing my pictures at my booth and he had hid whole family, his wife and kids with him, and we talked for a long time. At the end of the chat he said, "Hey, I have something for you." He took off his backpack and took out his army uniform. He'd been in the service for a really long time. His name was Jason Huntington. He said, "I just got a new one so I don't need this one anymore, it's been to Afghanistan, it's been all over the world, I really want you to have this. It's triple cleaned, it's exactly your size so you can wear it wherever you want." Since that day, which was about five years ago, I've been Jason Huntington in my army get up for Halloween.

Me: Wow. Okay, so I first knew of you was from Superman Returns where you played Jimmy Olsen. I have to show a pic of you from that movie...


Me: Did you have a lot of pressure on you taking on that iconic character?

Sam: Yeah, but not as much as Brandon Roth did playing Superman, but I felt the weight of it because it was important to me. No one put it on me, I was putting it on myself as I cared about that world and that canon so much. It was dream come true. It was the most spectacular thing to be a part of ever. If you asked me when I was a little kid what kind of movie I wanted to make I would say I want to make a Superman movie. It was literally like a dream come true and didn't disappoint in any way, I loved every second of shooting that movie and made some friends that will be friends for life and I think we made a really fun film.

Me: What was it like seeing Brandon in that outfit for the very first time?

Sam: I remember doing my first fitting in L.A. and it was at this warehouse deep in the Valley and I walked in and they had a couple of shots in various stages of production, and they had all these materials everywhere. They had the felts, the crests, the boots, but it wasn't dyed so it was just all bleached out materials. There were racks if hanging cape material and blue suit material that was especially made. It was just the most spectacular feeling, I think I felt professional. It was I did it, I could die happy.

Me: I love the movie Fanboys. I saw a panel for it years before it came out, with you on the panel. Star Wars was the core of that movie and in 9 years since you shot that film Star Wars has evolved tremendously. Are you a big Star Wars fan, Sam?

Sam: Oh, absolutely, a 100%.

Me: Did you like the recent movies?

Sam: I loved The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens and Rogue One as well.

Me: Cool. I know you have to go. Thanks so much for being here on the Phile, I hope it was fun, and you'd come back again soon.

Sam: Thanks so much, it has really been a pleasure.





That about does it for this entry. Thanks to my guests Laird Jim and of course Sam Huntington. The Phile will be back tomorrow with musician Danielle Dax. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.


































Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker


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