Willi's Guide to Glitz and Glamour 1.3

It's time for the final edition of Glitz and Glamour in this inaugral month of publication so I'm going to put on the extra sparkle and take a look at America's favourite movie and TV stars. I'll also be taking a look at some of the films emerging from the Sundance Film Festival and there will be reaction to Apple's latest super-gadget, the iPad.

The annual polls conducted by Harris Interactive have revealed that Clint Eastwood is America's favourite film star replacing Denzel Washington at the top of the list. He falls down to third with Johnny Depp in second. The only deceased star to feature is John Wayne who retains a huge groundswell of popularity and he makes it into seventh. The rest of the top 10 has no real surprises. Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, the highest placed woman in fourth, are all featured.

Fox News' conservative commentator Glenn Beck has made it to second spot in the TV star poll, beaten to the top by Oprah Winfrey. No doubt his repeated criticism of President Barack Obama and the growing agitation with his administration across the country has cemented Beck's popularity. Other talk-show personalities Jay Leno and David Letterman make the top 10 as does British actor Hugh Laurie, who in the last decade has captured American hearts with his role in the popular drama, House. The poll was carried out between December 7-14 so obviously didn't have time to take into account several factors. Perhaps most notably, the furore surrounding Charlie Sheen and the incident with his wife just before Christmas. Sheen still makes it into the top 10, owing largely to his role in America's highest rating comedy sitcom, Two and a Half Men.

There is a feeling amongst some Hollywood reporters that this years crop of films, shown at the Sundance Film Festival, didn't quite live up to the rebellious ideals of its inception or produce any piece of work that broke free from convention. Stars and film buffs made the journey to a cold Park City, Utah for Sundance TwentyTen, a festival festooned with slogans espousing, amongst other tenets, 'The Rebirth of the Battle for New Ideas'.

Familiar themes have been explored including the well-worn coming-of-age movie, such as the Texan "Skateland" and the Kiwi "Boy" which at least featured a Maori cast of non-professional actors to afford it some indie kudos. One of the stand-out films from the festival is directed by world-renowned grafitti artist Bansky. "Exit from the Gift Shop" is the Spotlight Surprise selection for the 2010 festival and focuses on a French shopkeepers attempts at filming the guarded Banksy and how he fails when the artist turns the camera back onto the amateur filmaker. What results has been described by John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival as 'warped hybrid of reality and self -induced fiction while at the same time a totally entertaining experience.

Other films to earn praise have been "GasLand", directed by Josh Fox, a story centering on a journey across America to meet rural residents who have been made lucrative offers from energy companies to lease their land in an attempt at tapping into the gas supply. And Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" has also been lauded. Following the female comic over the course of a year, the ruthless world of showbusiness is laid bare and Rivers' thoughts and inspiration are unmasked.

Gadget lovers everywhere had labelled the newly launched iPad the 'Jesus Tablet' and Apple supremo Steve Jobs is hoping his latest creation can fill the gap between netbooks and smart phones. The device can let users browse the net, send e-mails, share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games and read e-books. It will also be compatible with the 'apps' already available to iPhone and iPod users. It also has a lightweight design and a 9.7 inch screen besides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. And it'll have a 10-hour battery life which extends to up to a month when left on standby.

Like many other reports on the launch, this is starting to sound like an iPad commericial. However, Jobs does seem to have the midas touch with his technological innovations and the iPad appears to be no gimmick. The iPod revolutionised the manner in which we listen to music and iPhones are stretching the boundaries of what a communications device should be. The iPad is a futher extenstion of these products. Not quite a smartphone, not quite a television, not quite a music player or computer, it seems to include all of these features. Viewing the screen outdoors could be a problem and there remain questions over its portability though so far it has received a good reception.

It is the product's e-reader that has attracted a lot of attention. Jobs himself demonstrated how a user can read a newspaper and told the audience that Apple will launch a new iBooks application, capable of downloading books from the major publishers such as Penguin and Harper Collins. The death knell for print media has been predicted for many years now so it will be interesting to note how far the iPad will go in hammering in the final nail in the coffin.

That's it for January. Join me in February for more Glitz and Glamour. In the meantime, watch out for the January podcast which will be available on this site and www.williwycombe.podbean.com. I'll be discussing the month's stories in more detail with special guests and more opinion.