Like many comedians, Mike Myers has had some career ups and downs. Sure Wayne’s World, So I Married an Ax Murderer and the first Austin Powers movies cannot be touched, but I wasn’t sold on the rest of the Powers franchise, and Shrek always kinda bugged the bejesus out of me. Until I see if for myself I will reserve judgment on his new feature film, The Love Guru (in theaters 6/20).

The plot follows Pitka (Myers), an American baby left at an Indian Ashram doorstep and raised by mystics, and his rise to fame and fortune as a self-help guru. His newest mission is to reunite a black hockey player (I know, HA-HA) with his estranged wife so that he can win the Stanley Cup…or something like that. I don’t know, I kinda spaced out half-way through the second Rehashed Austin Powers joke. Oh yeah, shoot, I’m supposed to be reserving my judgment…

In the plus side, there are a few Hindu Spiritual Leaders already up in arms about the film, namely Rajan Zed who read the first Hindu Prayer in the US Senate in 2007. But I actually take the upsetting of fundamentalists to be a good sign for the movie. Comedy should be swatting the bee hive a little bit. In comedic terms, “safe” is another way of saying “shite.”

Anyway, here’s the trailer:

I’m glad Cornershop is making some sync rights money from the movie. Their “When I Was Born For the Seventh Time” album was way fun back in the day.

(Photo from Bossip.)

Homeboy could slay a vampire, but not his taxes. Actor Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, having been found guilty on “three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file federal tax returns.”

From the Sacramento Bee:

Snipes made a $5 million payment to the treasury on Thursday, but prosecutors called it a grandstanding move.
“It”ll be a fraction of what he owes,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Scotland Morris, who made the argument for the government.
Morris said a rough estimate of Snipes’ outstanding tax liability, with penalties and interest, will exceed $20 million.
“Snipes’ long prison sentence should send a loud and crystal clear message to all tax defiers that if they engage in similar tax defier conduct, they face joining him and his co-defendants, Kahn and Rosile, as inmates in prison,” said Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, in a news release.

Isn’t that how Capone went down? Now the only thing up for debate is whether Snipes will be a top or a bottom. (I’m or course referring to bunk bed options…)

Biologist, professor and blogger PZ Myers was expelled from a Minnesota theater while trying to attend a screening of the forthcoming pro-intelligent design documentary titled Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed featuring Mr. Monotone himself Ben Stein. Myers described his experience as follows:

I went to attend a screening of the creationist propaganda movie, Expelled, a few minutes ago. Well, I tried … but I was Expelled! It was kind of weird — I was standing in line, hadn’t even gotten to the point where I had to sign in and show ID, and a policeman pulled me out of line and told me I could not go in. I asked why, of course, and he said that a producer of the film had specifically instructed him that I was not to be allowed to attend. The officer also told me that if I tried to go in, I would be arrested. I assured him that I wasn’t going to cause any trouble.

I went back to my family and talked with them for a while, and then the officer came back with a theater manager, and I was told that not only wasn’t I allowed in, but I had to leave the premises immediately. Like right that instant.” Scienceblogs.com

So what’s the big deal? Well for one Myers is in the film he was trying to attend. He and other dissenting scientists (including notorious evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins) were interviewed in the film to present the perspective of “Big Science.” Call me crazy but if I was interviewed for a film that promotes a doctrine I disagree with, I’d be curious to see just how piecemeal the footage they shot of me is, and Myers apparently is no different. Unfortunately for him, he appears to have been misled from the beginning out the films intentions.