Morning Meme: Madonna Malawi Updates, Brad Pitt Is a Superhero, and James Franco Isn't Quite a Dirty Ape

Plus stand inside an imploding building, Wile E. Coyote is back on the big screen, and why are the Backstreet Boys playing San Francisco Pride?

James Franco has announced yet another role, beyond yesterday’s R-rated comedy and the summer story on General Hospital. He’s going to star as the scientist that raises the apes up to overthrow humanity in the Planet of the Apes sequel. What, Keanu Reeves was busy?

The thought of shooting a documentary about the attendees of San Diego Comic-Con is somewhat intimidating for me, but if I could assemble a dream team of Morgan Spurlock, Thomas Tull, Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Harry Knowles, I might be willing to try it.

Madonna, who has extensive charitable operations in Malawi, has released a statement calling on the people of Malawi to challenge their government over the 14-year hard labor sentences for Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. The White House issued a similar statement, and neither is likely to cause change on their own.

As much as I’ve whined about the end of manned space exploration, I admit to excitement about Project M, an advanced project to send an Asimov-like humanoid robot to the moon within three years. It doesn’t have direct funding, yet, but it sounds like the research and development is largely done.

The Pee-wee Herman stage show completed a successful run in Los Angeles and is heading to Broadway in the fall. All your favorites from the Playhouse are back, and I need to move to New York. 

Bret Michaels is back in the hospital after suffering a stroke. Per NBC, he suffered the cardiac event while flipping back and forth between SportsCenter and the Skin-e-Max movie Busty Cops 3. I’m trying so hard to behave on this item, but feel free in the comments.

The folks at BiNetUSA are soliciting people to march with them in Los Angeles Pride, Sunday, June 13. More information is on their Facebook page.

The cast for a reading of Stan Richardson’s Veritas May 25^th to benefit Lambda Legal reads like a who’s who for recent Broadway coverage on this site. Chase Peacock, , Matt Doyle, Tate Ellington, Eric Nelson, Mitch Dean, Blake Daniel, Matt Steiner, Wayne Wilcox, and Christian Coulson are all signed up to do good.

The Senate vote on a bill extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees could happen in a matter of weeks, according to Senator Lieberman. At least until he decides to switch parties again.

Google unveiled Google TV today (because it would have been weird if Yahoo! did it), integrating web content plus your standard cable system through a Logitech box of unknown cost. Now I can watch videos of cats trying to kill humans on the main screen in my house!

HP is set to release a study suggesting that companies locate their data centers in dairy country now instead of major cities. With the advent of cheap, fast data pipes, you can put these things anywhere, and in dairy country you can use cow manure to generate electricity, which helps the farmers and the power bill.

I had no real plans to watch the new comedy $#*! My Dad Says, despite it following my beloved Sheldon on Thursday nights. But now that the right wing Parents Television Council has released a statement condemning the show’s title and saying CBS did it on purpose (they didn’t, they adapted a Twitter account), I’m going to have to watch just so I can support raising their blood pressure.

The Backstreet Boys are headlining San Francisco Pride. This brings up interesting questions like “Why?” and “Why not back in 1991?” In addition, I wonder if the Backstreet Boys have any idea of the things they might see at San Francisco Pride?

Back when my parents were children, you got a Looney Tune cartoon before your movie. Warner Bros is bringing back that tradition with three-minute 3D Roadrunner cartoons before three releases this year. The films getting the treatment are Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, and the awful sounding Yogi Bear.

This picture of Madonna has been making the rounds. It's the same image, before and after Photoshop. She doesn't look bad for her age even on the before side - she actually looks darn good, just not Hollywood good. The change to the eyes is a bit spooky though. No wonder people have body image issues.

You can't trust anything in Hollywood.

There's a blog to tell you the sugar equivalent to the beverages you're consuming, and frankly it's pretty depressing. For example, this venti Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream is the sugar equivalent to 8-1/2 scoops of Edy's Slow Churned Rich and Creamy Coffee Ice Cream. Even innocent looking drinks turn out to be evil, like Sunkist Orange Soda - I could have six ice cream sandwiches for that!

Excuse me while I throw away everything in the fridge.

It's been a while since I mocked a cat. Ha!

As you all know, I love to see things blow up. I had previously run the footage of the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium implosion, but it had nothing on this - you can see it from the inside as it collapses, and by dragging the picture around, you can change the angle.

Seeing a Will Ferrell movie is normally right up there with a root canal for me. But seeing him as an evil villain battling Brad Pitt's perfect hero looks like fun. Tina Fey as the been there, done that girlfriend is just icing on the Megamind 3D cake.

I don't know why MTV is spending so much effort to make people watch the MTV Movie Awards - they're the kind of thing you either watch or you don't. I probably watch because something of note might happen. The promos of host Aziz Ansari doing lame sketches isn't really giving street cred to the funny factor though. But I never could resist a video of a squirrel water skiing.