On Mickey Rourke, PETA and Veggie Love

This post has little to do with television, but I found a great vid on YouTube and I think it's relevant to The Flaming Nose, at least. We're all animal lovers here, and this is a charming interview with actor Mickey Rourke talking about his dogs, specifically, but his sentiments would apply to all pet owners. Of course I'm rooting for Mr. Rourke to take home the Oscar for his stunning work in director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler -- he already won the Golden Globe -- and I was especially taken with his GG acceptance speech where he did a sweet shout-out to all the dogs he's loved over the years. This is a man with his heart in the right place.



The Rourke interview was done under the auspices of PETA, the animal rights organization which is especially controversial these days because of their "Veggie Love" ad that was rejected by NBC for inclusion in this afternoon's Super Bowl, as seen below. I guess you could say it's "naughty" so if that kind of thing gets your panties in a wad, better not watch:



Other than it's got ladies in lingerie, rock music, and a bunch of vegetables, this hardly seems out-of-bounds with the Super Bowl sensibility. PETA's gotten more publicity from NBC's rejection of the ad than they would have if it would be airing, so I'd say it's a win for them. I'm not pro-PETA, necessarily (or even at all, really), but I do like that Rourke interview! (And I do hate when women wear fur. I've heard lots of rationalizations, especially in the cold climate where I live now, but they all sound pretty hollow to me.)

Super Bowl Coming Up Tomorrow

You won't find anybody less interested in sports -- any sports -- than I am, but of course it's Super Bowl weekend. The Super Bowl -- on NBC this year -- is inextricably tied with television, with the elaborate half-time show, this year starring Bruce Springsteen (who was just robbed of an Oscar nomination for his song for the movie The Wrestler, after winning a Golden Globe for the same) as the big draw. Of course we've also got the cadre of people who claim they watch just for the commercials.

Actually, you might want to skip this year if that's the only reason you watch. The best/worst thing I've heard so far about tomorrow's event is that NBC has sold a spot to the direct response advertiser Cash4Gold. Yikes! How desperate can you get? Nothing like selling grandma's gold fillings for a few bucks...well, I guess you're supposed to sell jewelry, that's bad enough. (The New Yorker had an interesting article on the jewelry sell-off resulting from the Madoff scandal, as a matter of fact, the other week. It's available online here.)

Even more depressing is that the spot stars Ed McMahon and M.C. Hammer. Geez, the economy really is in the toilet, isn't it? And pop culture, too, by the looks of it.

A little more heartening is a nice photo feature in today's L.A. Times online detailing the programs that have aired in the valuable post-Super Bowl timeslot on the various networks. It's an amusing mixed-bag of hits and misses, and it'll bring back some memories.

I'm posting the Cash4Gold commercial -- not the one in the Super Bowl, thank goodness! -- just because it's pretty bad.