It's drag queen vs. schoolgirl at Tony Awards

4 hours ago

Matthew Murphy / AP

"Kinky Boots."

A precocious moppet with an edge will face off against a proud drag queen when the annual Tony Awards, Broadway's highest honors, are bestowed on Sunday night.

"Kinky Boots," an adaptation of a British film about a struggling shoe factory reinventing itself by making boots for drag queens, topped the Tony nominations with 13.

But many Broadway experts see the British import "Matilda," which boasts ecstatic reviews and 12 nods, prevailing as best new musical.

"This is a two-way race," said Entertainment Weekly's Thom Geier about the awards.

The "Boots" team includes Broadway veterans Harvey Fierstein, director Jerry Mitchell and music by pop star Cyndi Lauper. Its story bears the hallmarks of acceptance and triumph, which would likely play well on tours of the heartland.

"Matilda," based on a story by Roald Dahl about a freakishly intelligent little girl's persecution by her crass family and a fearsome school headmistress, has collected the lion's share of early prizes including the Drama Desk.

But following the Tony nominations its box office receipts dropped slightly, while the take for "Kinky Boots" edged up.

Joan Marcus / AP

"Matilda The Musical."

Goldderby.com, a website that tracks show business awards, polled 14 Broadway experts and found a near split for the top prize, with a slight edge going to "Matilda."

"The production made history at the Olivier Awards, winning a record seven of ten bids," the website said, adding "Kinky Boots" nabbed some early best musical honors "and could pull off an upset."

Patrick Healy of the New York Times predicted "the warmth of 'Kinky Boots' will be enough to score an upset."

Clear Favorites

On the drama side most experts predict the best actor award will go to Hollywood star Tom Hanks for his Broadway debut in the late Nora Ephron's journalism drama, "Lucky Guy."

They also see veteran playwright Christopher Durang winning his first best play Tony for his crowd-pleasing comic riff on Chekhov, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," which stars Sigourney Weaver and Tony nominee David Hyde Pierce.

"The clear front-runner is 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,' goldderby.com said, noting "reviews were stellar across-the-board."

Cicily Tyson, marking her return to Broadway after a 30-year absence, is expected to take home the prize for best actress for her moving turn in a revival of "The Trip to Bountiful," while an acclaimed, though shuttered production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" is the likely winner for best revival of a play.

A much-praised reworking of the seminal 1970s musical "Pippin" is the clear favorite to win for best musical revival, while the best actor prize is expected to come down to two men wearing dresses.

Billy Porter holds the center of "Kinky Boots" as the noble drag queen, but Bertie Carvel steals the show as the dementedly outrageous school headmistress in "Matilda." All bets are on Patina Miller to win best actress as the host in "Pippin," a part that won Ben Vereen a Tony in the original production.

Whatever the outcome on Sunday, Broadway will emerge victorious. Box office receipts typically spike in the weeks after the awards.

"Year after year we find that shows that win a Tony award do better at the box office," said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of industry group The Broadway League.

"Once," a small Irish love story with no big name stars, is still going strong a year after sweeping last year's awards, including best musical.

On the flip side, the awards can be irrelevant to a show's fortunes. This season's biggest hit, Berry Gordy's "Motown: The Musical" was snubbed in the best musical category in favor of two limited run musicals, garnering only one major nomination.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/its-drag-queen-vs-schoolgirl-broadways-tony-awards-6C10258243

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J-Lo Wants A Bambino With Toy Boy Casper Smart

J-Lo Wants A Bambino With Toy Boy Casper Smart

Jennifer Lopez wants to have a child with her 25-year-old boyfriend and former backup dancer Casper Smart. The 43-year-old singer, who has five-year-old twins Max and Emme from her marriage to Marc Anthony, has sought fertility treatment in hopes of getting pregnant. J-Lo has reportedly turned to IVF after failing to get pregnant naturally. Of ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/j-lo-wants-a-bambino-with-toy-boy-casper-smart/

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Curiosity rover to head toward Mars mountain soon

This image provided by NASA shows a rock outcrop in Gale Crater on Mars. The NASA rover Curiosity plans to study the outcrop before heading off to its ultimate science destination, a mountain rising from the middle of the crater, in the next several weeks.(AP Photo/NASA)

This image provided by NASA shows a rock outcrop in Gale Crater on Mars. The NASA rover Curiosity plans to study the outcrop before heading off to its ultimate science destination, a mountain rising from the middle of the crater, in the next several weeks.(AP Photo/NASA)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Ten months after Curiosity's daring Mars landing, the NASA rover is finally about to pack up and head toward the base of a mountain.

Discoveries and longer-than-expected scientific studies delayed the much-hyped drive to Mount Sharp, where scientists are eager to examine the tantalizing rock layers for signs of the chemical building blocks of life.

"Most people are getting a little antsy," deputy project scientist Joy Crisp said Wednesday.

Before Curiosity begins the 5-mile trek, scientists plan to have it linger a few weeks longer to observe some rocks at its current location, where it has worked for the past six months.

Since touching down in Gale Crater near the Martian equator last year, Curiosity set its sights on Mount Sharp, where images from space reveal intriguing geology.

Mission planners decided to make a pit stop so Curiosity could test its kit of high-tech instruments on Martian rocks and dirt.

The detour paid off. While driving from its landing site, the six-wheel, car-size rover discovered an ancient streambed and found evidence from a drilled rock of a habitable environment long ago. It has yet to turn up signs of complex organic molecules that are fundamental to all living things.

So far, Curiosity has logged about half a mile on its odometer, and scientists are anxious to add to that.

"The beacon of Mount Sharp being so enticing is something that's drawing the team to want to start making good progress," Crisp said at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission.

The road trip is expected to take nine months to a year, with stops along the way to fire a laser at boulders, scoop up soil and use the rover's drill.

In the coming days, the team plans to chart a path to Mount Sharp that will include traversing sand dunes.

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-06-05-Mars%20Curiosity/id-c94c242b0cee412689316c85110eb682

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Alt-week 6.8.13: the Tetris printer, micro-vacuums and naked Antarctica

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

Printing can take many forms these days, it seems. It's a term we see pulled in another direction this week, but one we think you'll enjoy. Want something a little more tangible? How about advanced Antarctic topology, or gas-detecting microscale vacuum pumps? Yep, this is alt-week.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ctO6G_v98lI/

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The Final Man of Steel Trailer Is Pretty Epic

Warner Bros. latest attempt at resurrecting the Superman franchise, Man of Steel, will be released on June 14th and today the last official trailer has made its way to the Internet. You should watch it.

It's sponsored by Nokia and has more new footage of Zach Snyder's hopefully-not-an-abomination-like-the-last-one, including what looks like Krypton and a giant Nokia phone that probably doesn't even exist in real life. That aside, it's a pretty epic trailer. [BI]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-final-man-of-steel-trailer-is-pretty-epic-511697003

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Kentucky Moves to Adopt Common Science Standards - Curriculum ...

The state board of education in Kentucky voted unanimously yesterday to provisionally adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. The action comes several weeks after Rhode Island became the first state to adopt.

Both Kentucky and Rhode Island are part of the coalition of 26 "lead state partners" that teamed up with several national organizations to craft the science standards.

A press release from the state department of education touted the standards as being "rigorous, research-based, and aligned with expectations for colleges and careers. They provide for deeper understanding of content and application."

The K-12 standards, more than three years in the making, went through two rounds of public comment before they were issued in final form in April. Two of the central tenets are providing a greater emphasis on depth over breadth in science education and asking students to apply their learning through the practices of scientific inquiry and engineering design.

The standards were approved by a vote of 10 to 0, with one board member absent.

David Karem, the chairman of the state board of education, acknowledged that the new standards may not please everyone, but he suggested they are worthy of support.

"You are going to always have some areas where there is pushback," he said, according to a story in the Courier-Journal newspaper. "These are not something that just came out of thin air. Real professionals, real scientists, real educators developed these standards, and I think they are legitimate."

That "pushback" may have been a reference to an opinion piece Republican Sen. Mike Wilson wrote recently for the Courier-Journal. In it, Wilson, the chairman of the Senate education committee, questioned the science behind evolution, which is featured in the new standards as a critical concept for understanding the life sciences. He also criticized the treatment of climate change, including a statement in the standards document that describes human activities as "major factors."

I want to emphasize here the word "provisionally" that I used at the start of this blog post. The vote yesterday by the state board was not the final word on the science standards. The standards, as the state education agency's press release explains, "now move through the regulatory process."

So, what does that mean? In an email, Nancy Rodriguez, a department spokeswoman told me that will involve a public hearing followed by a review by legislative committees. "Depending on the feedback from the hearing and the action of the legislative committees, the standards could be enacted or they could come back to the Kentucky Board of Education for changes," she said.

If Sen. Wilson's views are any indicator, the forthcoming process could pose some challenges for the standards as crafted.

Meanwhile, Florida's education agency last week invited public comments on the science standards to help the state make a decision on adoption. Florida was not among the lead states in crafting the standards, though Florida officials watched their development closely.

Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/06/kentucky_moves_to_adopt_common.html

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Keyshawn Johnson Goes OFF on Justin Bieber, Labels Singer a "Coward"

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