Real Life Heroes

Join Chewie and #RoarForChange to Help UNICEF

Lucasfilm will donate up to $1 Million to UNICEF as part of the #RoarForChange campaign.

To celebrate the upcoming release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lucasfilm and Star Wars: Force for Change are teaming up to launch the Roar for Change global challenge.

Fans are encouraged to post videos of themselves giving their best “Chewbacca roar,” and to challenge their friends to do the same.

For every public post, like or share on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram that includes #RoarForChange between May 3–25, 2018, Star Wars: Force for Change will donate $1 to UNICEF USA, up to $1 million.

Watch Gal Gadot’s Inspiring Speech from the Critics’ Choice Awards

The Wonder Woman star is the second-ever recipient of the #SeeHer Award.

After inexplicably failing to get a single nomination at the Golden Globes, it was beginning to feel like the industry was going to ignore the groundbreaking Wonder Woman, and the women who brought her to life.  All that changed last Thursday when Wonder Woman took home the Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Action Movie,” and star Gal Gadot was awarded the second ever #SeeHer Award.

From the Critics Choice Awards website:

The #SeeHer Award recognizes a woman who embodies the values set forth by the #SeeHer movement — to push boundaries on changing stereotypes and recognize the importance of accurately portraying women across the entertainment landscape. Gadot broke through this year as a powerful voice advocating for women, not only on screen as the iconic Wonder Woman, but in life as well, using her platform to encourage those in the entertainment industry and beyond to strive for fairness and parity across genders.

Gadot was presented the award by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, and talked about what the character of Wonder Woman meant to her. She ended by promising to stand up and never be silent on behalf of those who can’t stand or speak for themselves.

Sounds like a superhero to me.

Throughout my career, I was always asked to describe my dream role. And it was clear to me that I wanted to portray a strong and independent woman—a real one. The irony in this is that later, I was cast as Wonder Woman, and all of these qualities I looked for, I found in her. She’s full of heart, strength, compassion, and forgiveness. She sees wrong that must be made right; she takes action when everyone around her is idle. She commands the attention of the world. And in doing so, she sets a positive example for humanity.

Wonder Woman also struggles with her own love and hopes, she gets confused, insecure, and she’s not perfect. And that’s what makes her real. We wanted her to be universal, to be an inspiration to all people all around the world, and our plan was to make sure we didn’t give too much attention to the fact that she’s a woman.

The whole process of creating this film inspired me, and I hope we managed to inspire others. Now, when I started acting, there were very few female-led movies, and even fewer female directors. This year, three of the top-grossing films were female-led, and one of them was directed by my wonderful Patty Jenkins. There were eight other films in [the] top 100 which were directed by females. So although this is progress, there is still a long way to go.

Patty just shared an anecdote with me. And she said someone told her that his three-year-old saw the movie, and when the movie ended, the boy said, “When I grow up, I want to be a woman!” So as artists, and as filmmakers, I believe it’s not only our job to entertain, but our duty to inspire and educate for love and respect.

In the past weeks and months, we’ve been witnessing a movement in our industry and society, and I want to share this award with all the women and men who stand for what’s right: Standing for those who can’t stand or speak for themselves. My promise and commitment to all of you is that I will never be silenced, and we will continue: band together to make strides, uniting for equality.

Name Your Price for $375 Worth of Archie Comics and Give Money to Charity

Buy ‘Humble Comics Bundle: Riverdale & Archie’ and give money to CBLDF at the same time.

The gang’s all here in the Humble Comics Bundle: Riverdale & Archie from Humble Bundle and Archie Comics to benefit CBLDF! But this bundle won’t last forever — there’s just one more week to name your price on $375 worth of Archie Comics and support CBLDF in the process!

Get Road to Riverdale, the stories that inspired the CW show Riverdale; the awesome reboot of Archie by Mark Waid; The Art of Archie: The Covers, a collection of art from the classic series; volumes of Betty & Veronica; and more. You can even pick up Afterlife with Archie and face the “impending zombie Arch-pocalypse”! What’s not to like?

Pay what you want. All together, these comics would cost over $375. Here at Humble Bundle, you choose the price and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle! This bundle has a minimum $1 purchase.

The Humble Comics Bundle: Riverdale & Archie will run until December 13 at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

Customers can pay just $1 or more for:

  • Archie Vol. 1
  • Jughead Vol. 1
  • Josie & The Pussycats Vol. 1
  • Reggie & Me
  • Archie’s Pal Kevin Keller Vol. 1
  • Betty & Veronica Vol.1

Customers who pay $8 or more will also get:

  • Riverdale Vol. 1
  • The Archies #1
  • Road to Riverdale Vol. 1
  • Archie Vol. 2
  • Jughead Vol. 2
  • Road to Riverdale Vol. 2
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Vol. 1
  • Afterlife with Archie Vol. 1: Escape from Riverdale
  • The Black Hood Vol. 1

Those who pay $15 or more will receive all of that plus:

  • Archie Vol. 3
  • Archie Vol. 4
  • Jughead Vol. 3
  • Road to Riverdale Vol. 3
  • The Art of Archie: The Covers
  • The Death of Archie
  • Best of Archie Deluxe Vol. 1
  • Best of Archie Deluxe Vol. 2

To see the full bundle, head to https://www.humblebundle.com/books/riverdale-archie-comics

As with all Humble Bundles, customers choose how their purchase dollars are allocated, between the publisher and the charity. The Humble Comics Bundle: Riverdale & Archie supports the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

What is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund?

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. The CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals.

Gal Gadot Confirms Brett Ratner Is Out on ‘Wonder Woman 2’

The actress tells the Today Show that Ratner is no longer associated with the  planned sequel.

Gal Gadot appeared on the Today Show this morning and addressed rumors that she had refused to reprise the role of Wonder Woman if director/producer/sexual predator Brett Ratner was allowed to return as a financier. While she confirmed that Ratner was definitely gone, she downplayed her own personal involvement in the decision.

“The truth is, there’s so many people involved in making this movie—it’s not just me—and they all echoed the same sentiments,” Gadot told Savannah Guthrie. “You know what I mean? So everyone knew what was the right thing to do, but there was nothing for me to actually come and say because it was already done before this article came out.”

This caps an incredibly crappy week for serial molester Ratner, who had his Hugh Hefner biopic cancelled and lost his development deal with Warner Bros.We were unable to muster the slightest bit of sympathy for the serial sex offender/Hollywood mogul. We tried really hard.

Honest.

 

‘The Last Jedi’ Director Rian Johnson on the Importance of Carrie Fisher

Calls the actress/screenwriter “one of my heroes.”

Yahoo Movies recently sat down with Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson to talk about how the new trailer, why Porgs are so damn cute and how he decided what bits of plot and action to reveal and what to hide in the  marketing campaign leading up to the movie.

But Johnson took a more serious tone when discussing what it meant to him to work with industry icon Carrie Fisher, who played Leia in the original trilogy.

“She was so conscious of the place that Leia had, not just broadly in the culture, but very specifically in terms of girls who grew up watching Star Wars when Leia was the only female hero on the screen,” Johnson says. “She really wanted to do right by that, drawing the character forward. That was something that she would always be pulling us back to. And for me it was fantastic, because besides all the other benefits of having a fantastic writer like Carrie there by my side while we’re making this movie, just having a voice that was like a compass needle that would always pull it back in the right direction of, This is what this character means and this is what we always have to make sure that she’s serving, with her strength and also with her weaknesses — showing a fully realized character who is going to be inspiring to the folks who grew up with Leia.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in theaters on Dec. 15.

 

Two Female Entrepreneurs Invent Silent Partner “Keith Mann” to Be Taken Seriously

The sad thing is that it worked.

The next time someone tries to say that women and men have the same level of opportunity and are equally judged when it comes to business and entrepreneurship, tell them the story of Witchsy co-founders Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer.

The pair made headlines this week when it was revealed that the third founder of the quirky online art store, Keith Mann, was completely fictional.

“I think because we’re young women, a lot of people looked at what we were doing like, ‘What a cute hobby!’ or ‘That’s a cute idea.’” Dwyer told Fast Company.

“It was like night and day,” she said. “It would take me days to get a response, but Keith could not only get a response and a status update, but also be asked if he wanted anything else or if there was anything else that Keith needed help with.”

It’s clear that the two have much to be proud of–regardless of their fake male counterpart–just by looking at Witchsy’s numbers from last year alone. They grossed over $200,000 which largely goes back to the creators that contribute to the site, but Gazin and Dwyer still make a profit.

When giant online art megastore Etsy banned the selling of witch spells two years ago, Dwyer and Gazin took inspiration and opened Witchsy. It’s known for its dark, off-color humor, and has quickly become a haven for art consumers that need to stray off the beaten path.

None of this success is thanks to Keith Mann, despite what Witchsy’s investors may have been made to believe. But when all’s said and done, if there’s any lesson here, it’s that the battle for gender equality, particularly in the man’s world of American start-ups, is far from over.