Random Thoughts

joey con carne wrote:Rage and Honor is on Pluto Flicks of Fury. After this, Rage and Honor 2 airs.

This post is made at 10:30am EDT.

Please tune in immediately. Right now. Go.

joey con carne wrote:Honor and Glory is currently airing on Pluto TV Flicks of Fury. This one stars John Miller as antagonist, Jason Slade. John Miller returns in his next movie, Undefeatable, as Rothrock's friend. Which brings us to this beautifully choreographed fight scene - the best fight scene of all time as the title suggests.

joey con carne wrote:Thank you! Will watch this ASAP. Google says this is from 2016. Cynthia Rothrock's IMDb says she is still working regularly. Pretty cool.

UltimateMarvel wrote:If I poured concrete mix to cover up this hole, do I need to do anything else? Will it crack or bond with the old concrete without any problems?

Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, after being convicted for rape earlier this year.

Masterson, best known for starring on the hit Fox sitcom “That 70’s Show” and in Netflix’s “The Ranch,” was facing a potential sentence of 30 years to life in prison.

The actor, who maintains his innocence, was convicted on two of three forcible rape charges this past May. Masterson was accused of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003, which was during the time he was on “That 70’s Show.” The jury convicted him of raping two women in 2003, but could not reach a verdict on an allegation from November 2001 involving a former girlfriend, though the jurors voted in favor of conviction.

At the sentencing, the three women in the case told the judge that Masterson’s crimes had ruined their lives, and asked the judge to give Masterson life behind bars. Jane Doe 1 called the actor “a true coward and heartless monster.” Jane Doe 2 said to Masterson across the courtroom, “I still have to contend with what you did to me that night… That takes a life’s worth of therapy to repair. Every time I think I’m okay, that rape comes back to me.” Jane Doe 3 told the judge that she has been diagnosed with PTSD.

Masterson, who was dressed in a suit and had slicked-back hair with a full-grown beard, did not speak at his sentencing.

Many of Masterson’s Hollywood family members were in court on Thursday morning to support him at his sentencing. His wife, the actor and model Bijou Phillips, was crying at the courthouse. His siblings, “The Walking Dead” actor Alanna Masterson, “Malcolm In the Middle” star Christopher Masterson and actor Jordan Masterson, were all seated in the courtroom together.

“Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice and choice. Your actions 20 years ago were criminal, and that is why you are here,” Judge Charlaine Olmedo said, as she sentenced Masterson on Thursday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. The judge sentenced Masterson for 15 years to life on each of the two charges, ordering Masterson to serve both terms consecutively.

The trial that ended with a conviction in May 2023 marked Masterson’s second trial for the same charges.

The first trial ended in November 2022 with a hung jury, but the judge opted to re-try the case in front of a new set of jurors. The major difference between the two trials related to the allegation of drugging. In the first trial, the women testified that they felt weak or woozy and had little memory after taking a drink prepared by Masterson, but the prosecution did not outright say that Masterson had drugged the women. In the retrial, prosecutors argued that Masterson had in fact drugged them.

Both trials shined a light on the Church of Scientology, and the verdict marked a stunning downfall for one of Scientology’s most prominent celebrity members. Masterson is a lifelong member and all three victims were Scientologists at the time of their assaults, but have since left the church.

At the sentencing, Leah Remini — a former Scientologist, who is Hollywood’s most prominent critic of the church — was seated in the front row of the gallery to support the women. After Masterson was sentenced, Remini released a statement on social media, largely about Scientology: “Sitting in court today with the women who survived Danny Masterson’s predation was a surreal experience,” she tweeted. “I am relieved that this dangerous rapist will be off the streets and unable to violently assault and rape women with the help of Scientology, a multi-billion-dollar criminal organization with tax-exempt status.”

The three Jane Does said — both at the sentencing and in testimony — that the church dissuaded them from reporting Masterson to the police. Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Masterson had taken advantage of his position in the church to rape women without fear of repercussion, and that the church forbid women from going to the police to report sexual assault.

Jane Doe 2 told the judge on Thursday that she had been a “brainwashed member” of Scientology at the time of her assault, and alleged that the church had made “concerted efforts” to cover up Masterson’s behavior. Since coming forward with her allegations, she claimed she has “had my privacy invaded almost daily by the cult of Scientology.”

Jane Doe 1, a second-generation Scientologist who was born into the church, said during her victim impact statement that she followed “policy” when she was a member not to report her alleged rape to outside authorities. “There are consequences,” she said. “It was the only community I knew my whole life until I was raped by Mr. Masterson… Danny was a celebrity and therefore, heavily protected by Scientology.” She said that after she went to the LAPD, she was “deemed an enemy of the group” and “lost the ability to be in contact with every person I’d known or loved,” and seriously considered suicide.

Masterson’s attorneys tried to downplay the role of Scientology throughout both trials. His attorneys stressed to the jury that they cannot be biased against any religion, telling jurors during trial, “Scientology is not a defendant” and that “Scientology is not an element of this case.”

Masterson’s defense, led by attorneys Phillip Cohen and Shawn Holley, asked the judge for a 15-year sentence. Holley told the judge she did not intend to “minimize the conduct” of her client, but asked the court to consider her client’s “exemplary life,” noting his community service, work ethic and being an “extraordinary father” to his 9-year-old daughter who “means the world to him.”

The prosecution was lead by Los Angeles deputy district attorneys Reinhold Mueller and Ariel Anson, who asked for 30 years to life. Mueller said that whether Masterson is good father “does not preclude one from becoming a violent, serial rapist” and called his crimes “targeted” and “heinous,” telling the judge that he conducted his actions while women were “incapacitated,” after “drugging” them.

“These are multiple victims over time on different occasions,” Mueller told the judge, in asking for the harshest sentence. “After [he] raped the first, he had time to think about what he had done to that human being…and despite that, he went ahead and committed again. And committed again.”

After the sentencing, Masterson’s attorney told reporters outside the courthouse that he plans to appeal his conviction.

“The errors which occurred in this case are substantial, and unfortunately led to verdicts which are not supported by evidence,” Holley said to the media.

Alison Anderson, the attorney representing Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3, praised her clients in a statement to Variety, identifying them by their first names: “Niesha and Chrissie have displayed tremendous strength and bravery, by coming forward to law enforcement and participating directly in two grueling criminal trials. Despite persistent harassment, obstruction and intimidation, these courageous women helped hold a ruthless sexual predator accountable today, and they are not stopping there. They are eager to soon tell the fuller story of how Scientology and its enablers tried desperately to keep them from coming forward.”

Shortly before Masterson was sentenced, one of the women said she forgives the actor, but believes he deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life.

“I don’t have to carry around your shame around with me. Now, you have to carry it. You have to sit in a cell and carry it,” Jane Doe 2 said in the courtroom. “Your emptiness and your cowardice will be your true legacy. You are pathetic, disturbed and extremely violent. The world is safer with you behind bars.”

Source: Variety

UltimateMarvel wrote:Thanks for the tips guys! The wood doesn't really matter, I'm taking it out anyway so I cut it to make my job easier. It's my first time so not very professional looking but once it dries, I'm going to grind it to smooth it out. If you guys think it looks bad, you have only yourselves to blame. I take no responsibility for my actions.

Masterson, 47, was convicted in May of raping Jane Doe #1 and another woman identified at trial as Jane Doe #2. But the jury could not reach a decision on the third accuser, who was identified as Jane Doe #3 and is a former girlfriend of Masterson’s.

Nevertheless, all three women were allowed to submit sentencing statements to the court Thursday, before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo sentenced Masterson.

This is some of what they said:

Jane Doe #1 told the court that her mother, who remains a Scientologist, has shunned her since she told police 20 years ago that Masterson raped her. She said she broke the church’s “code” by speaking out against an “untouchable” like Masterson.

Ever since, Jane Doe #1 said she acknowledges Mother’s Day by rereading an old letter she got from her mom. “She loved me then, I think. She seemed to care what happened to her daughter.”

The Masterson accuser described how she was not able to find her underwear after the rape and how she smelled of vomit. She said that after reporting the sexual assault she lost “pretty much everything,” including many of the people who were once her friends. She said at age 29 she had to start over.

“And the ugly truth is I didn’t want to live,” she said. “I remember crying myself to sleep and wishing I would not wake up.”


Now a married mother of three daughters, she told the court that Masterson arranged for the son of one of his friends to tell one of her girls that her mother was a “liar” and that Masterson never raped her.

“Mommy, what is rape?” the girl later asked her, she said.

Masterson “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused,” she said, and urged the judge to give him a lengthy sentence “for the safety of all women.” She concluded by telling the court there was more she could say about what Masterson did to her but didn’t want to “rip my soul completely open.”


Jane Doe #2 directed part of her statement directly at Masterson, telling him that the day he was convicted something inside her “shifted” for the better.

“But healing is not some linear, simple thing,” she said. “The lasting effects of rape are pernicious as they hack silently away at the daily efforts one tries to make toward a life with meaning. “

She called the Church of Scientology Masterson’s “enabler and protector” and said she had been “a brainwashed member for seven years at the time of the assault.”

At first, she said, she stayed quiet. But in the wake of the #MeToo movement, she said “I could not sit with this secret and tough it out knowing you’d strike again, knowing the danger women were in and that many others needed justice too.”

“In my heart, I had no choice but to come forward,” she said. “And because of already having been threatened with Scientology’s strict policies against reporting members to law enforcement, and deliberately being shown their extensive policies in exacting ruinous punishment on defectors who speak out against its prized members— I decided to report my rape to law enforcement anyway, with the full understanding that my life could be demolished again in a new way for doing so.”

Since then, she said, “I have been terrorized, harassed.”

“But I don’t regret it,” she said. “You disfigured my life. You stole some crucial pieces of my self-worth and lessened my capacity for joy. You made every part of me turn on myself.”

An actor, Jane Doe #2 said her career “nose-dived within a couple months after the rape.”

“Your heinous attack on me snuck its way through my body and my experiences so stealthily, hijacking the life I was building diligently for myself,” she said.

Still, she said, “It is worth noting, since I know you take pride in hurting women, that you never took my integrity.”

In closing, Jane Doe #2 said she forgave Masterson but added: “Your sickness is no longer my burden to bear.”

Jane Doe #3 told the court that she regularly wrestled with this question: “How can I tell anyone that I had gotten myself in a situation where I was regularly mentally and emotionally abused, and raped repeatedly?”

Masterson was both “charming” and controlling and when she began her relationship with the actor she was “an 18-year-old girl with very little life experience.”

“He’d hurt me. He’d ignore me. I’d grovel at his feet apologizing to him for what he did to hurt me. Then he’d show me kindness,” she said.

As a result, Jane Doe #3 said she’s spent most of her life “viewing my body as a crime scene.”

“When you’re raped, it’s not your surface that’s been most defiled,” she said. “It damages you on a cellular level.”

Jane Doe #3 said she has been married for 14 years but can’t bear to sleep beside her husband because of what happened.

“I regularly wake up with deep bruises and scratches on my hands and arms,” she said. “In 2017, I punched a hole in the wall behind my bed during my sleep. I’m always fighting monsters.”

One of Danny Masterson's accusers is taking Ashton Kutcher to the woodshed after his in-court support of his old pal -- and doing it by resurfacing old footage that hasn't aged well.

Chrissie Bixler -- who dated Danny back in the day, but who has since come forward as one of several women to claim he raped her -- took to IG this weekend to invoke DM's "That '70s Show" costar ... who wrote a letter on Masterson's behalf seeking leniency.

In a series of IG Stories, she threw up a ton of old clips that show Ashton and his wife, Mila Kunis, interacting together ... as well as one of Mila and Danny that certainly feels icky.

One clips shows Ashton on his old show, 'Punk'd,' and it's the Hilary Duff episode. At the time, she was underage -- and Ashton says she's one of the girls in Hollywood that "we're all waiting for to turn 18." Two other clips she posted show Ashton/Mila talking about the first time they met, and how they first kissed on set. This is well known, but Mila was 14 when she got hired on "That '70s Show" ... and Ashton was about 5 years older than her, at 19.

There's yet another clip that shows Mila and Danny promoting the show, in which Mila addresses her young age when she first started -- and Danny saying she was hotter then.

The point is ... Chrissie is strongly suggesting that Danny, Ashton and Mila were all cut from the same cloth -- which, of course, comes on the heels of the couple issuing a public mea culpa for their letters. Sounds like Chrissie is throwing that apology back in their face.

BTW, another huge star also appears to have weighed in on this saga ... Christina Ricci.

The actress took to Instagram herself with a lengthy message but doesn't name Danny, Ashton or Mila specifically. Still, it seems pretty evident who she's referring to here.

CR writes, "So sometimes people we have loved and admired do horrible things They might not do these things to us and we only who they were to us but that doesn’t mean they didn’t do the horrible things and to discredit the abused is a crime."

She adds, "People we know as ‘awesome guys’ can be predators and abusers. It’s tough to accept but we have to. If we say we support victims -- women, children, men, boys -- then we must be able to take this stance." Christina says she came to learn that some of these "awesome guys," who seemed great in public, were abusers in behind closed doors.

Christina finishes with this, "Believe victims. It’s not easy to come forward. It’s not easy to get a conviction."

UltimateMarvel wrote:I was just reading the statements of the victims and it's just horrible what he's put them through. I hope they get the justice they deserve.

I can't believe Mila was only 14 on the show. I thought they were all in the same age range.

Rusty wrote:I wonder how long it takes before people start petitioning to get the show removed from TV. Surprised it hasn't happened yet.

The only movies I've seen Kutchner is is Dude... , and some movie where he's training to be in the US Coast Guard. I think Costner was in it as well. I remember all the advertising around The Butterfly Effect, but I never saw it. Outside of that The Ranch is the most I've watched of him.

With the exception of Topher's small part in Traffic, I think Mila is the only one that has movies that I've re-watched: Book of Eli, and Ted.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I enjoyed a couple of movies featuring Ashton and Mila. Pretty much all the movies that Rust mentioned. Topher is not in a lot of good movies and I'm not a fan, he has no range and I don't think he's a good actor to be honest.

Rusty wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:I enjoyed a couple of movies featuring Ashton and Mila. Pretty much all the movies that Rust mentioned. Topher is not in a lot of good movies and I'm not a fan, he has no range and I don't think he's a good actor to be honest.

I feel the same way. Topher's best role was his first movie, Traffic, where he plays a pretentious private school kid that smokes crack.

That's about the extent of his range.

The cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is joining forces once again for a new story centered around James Marsters’ beloved villain-turned-sorta-Scooby, Spike, TVLine has learned.

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story will be set 20 years after the series finale with Marsters reprising his role alongside Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Anthony Head (Giles), Juliet Landau (Drusilla), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Amber Benson (Tara), James Charles Leary (Clem) and Danny Strong (Jonathan), as well as newcomer Laya DeLeon Hayes. The audio-only story releases Oct. 12 on Audible.

Though audiobooks and podcasts are not impacted by the writer and actor strikes, Slayers: A Buffyverse Story was written/produced before either work stoppage took effect.

Slayers follows Spike who has gone deep undercover in Los Angeles, “convincing the forces of darkness that he’s back to his evil ways,” reads the official description. “But when his cover is compromised by 16-year-old Indira Nunnally (Hayes), Spike finds himself on baby-slayer-sitting duty once more. While he attempts to track down a watcher for his eager new protégé, their paths collide with the veteran Slayer of a parallel reality where Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) never existed and Cordelia Chase is the one-and-only Slayer. And Cordelia needs Spike’s help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world… his old flame, Drusilla.”

“I’m ecstatic to be back with my dear friends for this next chapter in the Buffyverse, as we take listeners on a familiar but unexpected journey chock-full of horror, passion and mischief,” said Marsters in a statement. “I’m excited for old and new fans to experience this beloved world of vampire slaying like never before, brought to life through immersive audio storytelling.”

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story was written by Benson and Christopher Golden, and directed by Benson, Golden and Kc Wayland. (Benson and Golden have also written Buffyverse comics such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow & Tara — Wannablessedbe and Wilderness; Benson herself contributed the story “The Innocent” to the graphic novel Tales of the Slayers.)

John Carpenter, the mastermind behind classic horror films such as Halloween, The Fog and The Thing, is returning to the director’s chair for the first time in 13 years in John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams. Watch the trailer below.

The six-episode unscripted horror anthology series, which premieres Friday, October 13, on Peacock, is an exploration of true tales of terror that took place in seemingly perfect American hometowns. Carpenter will direct an episode of the series, which he also produces, and composed the theme music. The series is Carpenter’s first major project that he is directing since 2010’s The Ward.

Per the logline, the series explores the dark secrets and unspeakable evil that sometimes lurks beneath the surface of the sun-drenched streets, manicured lawns and friendly neighbors of suburbia.  

Each episode focuses on one true tale of terror, told by the real people who lived through it. In addition to firsthand accounts, the episodes will include cinematic reenactments, personal archives, and historic town press coverage.  

Carpenter produces alongside Sandy King, Tony DiSanto, showrunner Jordan Roberts, Patrick Smith, and Andy Portnoy. Jordan Roberts, Michelle Latimer, and Jan Pavlacky also direct.

John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams is produced by Storm King Productions and DIGA Studios.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I thought you were joking about the reality shows comment. I can't stress how much I HATE reality shows!

joey con carne wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:I thought you were joking about the reality shows comment. I can't stress how much I HATE reality shows!

My favorite reality show is the 90 Day Fiance series. Best trashy reality TV ever. Whenever I watch it I get a warm fuzzy feeling and I walk away from every episode thinking "Damn, my life sure doesn't suck as much as I thought."

That GIF of Delroy Lindo in a prior post makes me want to watch Romeo Must Die.