2012年11月8日星期四

Same-sex marriage backers hail wins

Thirty-two times.

That's how often voters across the country had rejected measures to legalize same-sex marriage when the issue was put before them. Losing had become so routine that many gay activists couldn't believe polls predicting success Tuesday in Maryland, Maine and Washington state.

But voters approved ballot measures in all three states, and rejected a proposed amendment to Minnesota's Constitution that would have forbidden same-sex marriage.

Combined with the victory in Wisconsin of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator-elect in the nation, and voters sending a record six lesbian and gay members to the House, Tuesday was one of the most important political days ever for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

"Not only did we turn a corner, but we headed down the highway at breakneck speed," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. "We didn't just pick off one or two races. We ran the table, and showed people that America is changing its attitude."

Among those elected Tuesday was Mark Takano, an Asian American Democrat who will represent California's 41st Congressional District in Riverside. Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who would be the first openly bisexual member of Congress, could join them, depending on a late vote count.

Tuesday's election may have an additional impact - in the courts and on future ballot measures. Supporters of same-sex marriage hope the results will inspire the U.S. Supreme Court to decide favorably on gay rights issues that could come before it - including enabling gay couples to marry in California.

New energy

The wins this week are expected to energize legislative attempts to legalize same-sex marriage by early next year in Rhode Island, Delaware and possibly Illinois. Backers of same-sex marriage in Oregon, who considered a measure for this fall's ballot before backing out, may reconsider their plan next year.

Kendell and others said they believe that Tuesday's ballot box outcomes will have a ripple effect on the nation's high court.

Sometime in the next month, the court is scheduled to decide whether to hear the case involving California's voter-approved Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in 2008, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that barred federal marital benefits such as joint tax filing, Social Security survivors' payments and immigration sponsorship to same-sex spouses.

Federal appeals courts have found both laws to be unconstitutional acts of discrimination.

"The court doesn't like to get too far in front of the public on issues like this," said Marc Solomon, the national campaign director for Freedom to Marry, an organization that contributed $4.6 million to marriage campaigns on Tuesday's ballots.

Support grows

At the same time, public polling shows support for same-sex marriage increasing - particularly among Americans younger than 30, Solomon said, adding, "This is where the country is headed."

If the court hears the case and rules against same-sex marriage, its decision will come by June, providing supporters of such unions ample time to get a measure on the ballot in California next fall. Such a plan would involve raising at least $50 million for a campaign.

Frank Schubert, a Sacramento political consultant and architect of the Prop. 8 campaign, and on the losing side of the four measures on Tuesday's ballots, said public opinion about same-sex marriage has not shifted significantly.

Schubert said his forces were outspent in the campaigns leading to Tuesday's election. In Washington, backers of same-sex marriage received millions in donations from luminaries including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

"I'm disappointed," Schubert said. He said opponents of the ballot measures did not have the resources to compete because the measures were in liberal states and in the middle of a presidential election.

"I learned that we have to do a much better job at raising money," said Schubert, who is the national political director for the National Organization for Marriage, which poured $5.5 million into Tuesday's ballot battles.

The sting of Tuesday's losses may not linger long. Schubert said he "would be shocked if the court doesn't look at the Prop. 8 case."

Kendell and others said President Obama's decision in May to publicly support same-sex marriage was "the accelerant" that helped ignite Tuesday's victories.

Voters responded enthusiastically, said Amy Simon, an Oakland pollster who worked on the victorious campaigns in Washington and Maine.

"We were up in every category - men, women, Catholics, African Americans," she added. "This is a huge moment of change, because people are realizing that there is a shared humanity here with this issue."

2012年11月4日星期日

Taylor Lautner on 'Twilight' regrets and memories (VIDEO)

With the debut of Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 coming close, Taylor Lautner is having a hard time moving on from the history he shares with the saga. Lautner shared what he considers to be his biggest regret, as well as he favorite parts of working on the Twilight set.

While the styling of Lautner’s character, Jacob, has changed over the course of the saga, Jacob’s long black wig he wore in the first film has become one of the actor’s biggest regrets. While Lautner’s short cut hair has made him easy on the eyes, he doesn’t seem to regret having long hair. Instead, he wishes that he had kept a hold of the wig.

“It’s my one regret. They offered me the wig and I did turn it down,” Lautner toldAccess Hollywood. “But I am definitely wishing now I would’ve taken it.”

While Lautner will now not be able to get a hold of the long haired Jacob wig he sported in the first film, the actor told the entertainment show that the saga has given him memories and friendships that he will not regret.

Lautner said that the relationships that he formed while filming the saga are one of the most important things that he will take from his Twilight experience.

“My relationships with the entire cast and crew…that’s the biggest thing I’ll take from this, the relationships I’ve made. I worked with some amazing people,” Lautner said.

Working on the set of Twilight has given Lautner memories he will never forget including fan moments and friendships.

The second part of Twilight: Breaking Dawn is set to hit theaters on November 16.

2012年10月30日星期二

Star Wars 7 Plot Will Be "an Original Story," Says Lucasfilm Source

Well, we know that, whatever the plot of Episode 7, George Lucas won't have a heavy hand in the day-to-day creation of it. He's apparently written the treatments for the films, but he won't produce or direct—an excellent opportunity for another visionary to jettison Jar Jar Binks out of an airlock permanently.

As for the plot, Star Wars superfans have a theory on what they'll be seeing next. But I have a surprise for them: They're wrong. If you're a fan, you're definitely gonna want to read on.

First of all, you should know that there is an official canon concerning the Star Wars universe. Those stories cover the years after rebel victory (i.e., after Return of the Jedi). It's written in a series of books called the Thrawn Trilogy, by author Timothy Zahn. Die-hard Star Wars fans know the trilogy well, and they say that a big-screen adaptation of the first book, Heir to the Empire, would make the most logical Episode 7.

"Of all the speculation out there about the content of this new trilogy, that's the single most concrete idea," says Eric Geller of the fan site TheForce.net. "It's almost inevitable that the story will take place in the same time frame as those books."

So what happens in "those books?"

Well, Luke Skywalker meets a real would-be assassin lady named Mara Jade, who was trained to avenge the Emperor by crushing Luke's pretty blond head. Instead, Jade falls for Luke and, a subsequent graphic novel, the two marry. Skywalker also has to deal with the fact that he's the only Jedi left, at least, for now, and he goes about trying to fix that.

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Princess Leia and Han Solo also play heavily into the Thrawn Trilogy, popping out a pair of twins (of course) among other things. As for the name Thrawn, well, that refers to a grand admiral with imperial sympathies who takes over as the leader of the vanquished enemy faction.

So is that the basis for Episode 7 or not? I've heard directly from LucasFilm and other sources close to the picture, and they say: Definitely not.

"It's an original story," a LucasFilm source tells me.

In other words, forget the Star Wars novels. Forget the graphic novels. Forget everything you think you know about what happens to Luke Skywalker. According to my sources, Episode 7will literally be nothing you've ever seen or read before from the Star Wars universe.

I also hear from several sources that, no matter what you may hear to the contrary, no director has been officially attached to the project.

Meanwhile, there isn't much news regarding the other big Star Wars projects currently in development.

A spoofy cartoon TV series, Detours, was announced in August, spearheaded by Seth Green and the other creators of Robot Chicken. No release dates or networks were revealed, but Disney has said that it envisions some sort of Star Wars presence on its Disney XD channel. I wouldn't be surprised if Detours landed there.

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Lastly, there's the live action series, which has been bubbling around since 2008 and which is supposed to take place between Episodes 3 and 4, when Luke Skywalker is growing up.

As I reported earlier, Lucasfilm was still talking in enthusiastic terms about Star Wars: Underworld less than a year ago. At that time, the show had a lot of scripts in the can but no financing. But if there's one thing that Disney has, it's money. Still, insiders tell me it's too soon to expect any announcements on either series.

Guess we'll just have to pray that Jar Jar has nothing to do with any of 'em.

2012年10月29日星期一

Jets in tank after a crushing defeat

last week describing the Jets’ charge for yesterday’s home game against the Dolphins.

Little did Ryan know how empty the tank would be for his team, which slinked out of MetLife Stadium and into its bye week with a humiliating 30-9 loss to the Dolphins to think about for two weeks before they tee it up again.

Ryan’s “empty the tank’’ words led you to believe his team was bracing to race out of the stadium tunnel, assault the Dolphins before they could take a clean breath and never look back.

Instead, here’s how the Jets emptied their tank: Before the first quarter was over, they were duped on an onsides kick, they had a punt blocked for a touchdown, committed two penalties and got Mark Sanchez sacked twice, on one of which he fumbled the ball away.

The Jets looked ill-prepared from the start and outclassed to the end by a mediocre team playing with its backup quarterback on the road.

The loss represented a crushing blow to the Jets not only in the AFC East standings, where they are now in last place at 3-5, but because they had actually played some pretty good football in recent weeks and seemed to have found their footing.

Now, no one knows what this team is. Even in the mediocrity-laced AFC, nothing short of 9-7 will get you a sniff of a playoff berth and that means the Jets must go 6-2 in the second half of the season just to get there.

Even the most optimistic Jets fan would be hard-pressed to look at the spotty body of work from this first half of the season and believe these Jets have 6-2 in them.

This is why yesterday represented such a crucial swing moment in their season.

“To say I never saw this coming, that’s an understatement,’’ Ryan said in hushed tones after the game, his usual swagger a million miles away. “I’m blown away by it. I’m just shocked at some things that happened.’’

Here’s what happened en route to the Jets emptying of the tank:

* On the fourth play from scrimmage, cornerback Antonio Cromartie lost his composure and head-butted Dolphins running back Reggie Bush, adding a free 15 yards to the 19-yard run Bush had just gashed the defense with.

“I didn’t lose my composure,’’ Cromartie argued afterward. “I just called him a punk, and that’s exactly what he is. I didn’t head-butt him. I pushed him before I head-butted him.’’

Oh, OK then.

Five plays later the Dolphins took a 3-0 lead.

* On the ensuing kickoff, the Dolphins recovered the onsides kick.

* The Jets second offensive possession ended with Robert Malone’s punt being blocked by Jimmy Wilson and recovered by Olivier Vernon in the end zone for a 10-0 Miami lead.

* The Jets next offensive possession ended when Sanchez was sacked and losing the ball. That led to a second Miami touchdown for a 17-0 lead just 52 seconds into the second quarter.

“We knew we wanted to jump on them early,’’ Bush said. “Once we got on them early, they kind of laid down a little bit.’’

Words don’t come more insulting or damning than those.

Want to blame the quarterback? Go ahead. Sure, Sanchez was awful. He had happy feet in the pocket. He overthrew receivers, threw passes behind them and he never threw the ball to Tim Tebow, who was wide open every time he was on the field as an H-back or in the slot.

But this thing is bigger than Sanchez. It’s widespread.

Someone named Clyde Gates, who has been a Jet for less than two months, was best player on the field for them yesterday, catching seven passes for 82 yards after entering the game with four catches for 56 yards _ in his career.

The Jets knocked Dolphins rookie starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill out of the game five minutes into the first quarter. No matter. Earl Morrall could have come out retirement at age 78 and quarterbacked the Dolphins yesterday and it would not have mattered.

“We have to figure out who we want to be as a team and how do we want to finish this?’’ Jets safety LaRon Landry said.

They can start by truly emptying the tank next time they’re on the field, Nov. 11 in Seattle.

2012年10月23日星期二

Brooklyn Nets need to get tougher defensively, says head coach Avery Johnson

The nice-guy Nets need an attitude adjustment.

After consecutive preseason performances defined by a lost and lackadaisical defense, Avery Johnson expressed disappointment in the “personality” of the team, indicating it needs more punch.

“This team does not have the personality that I thought it would have at this point,” Johnson said. “That has been somewhat of a disappointment. Are they trying? Yes. Is anybody panicking? No. But we should have a little bit more physicality.”

The Nets, riding high off three wins to start the preseason and hype generated from their move to Brooklyn, were smacked back to reality in Thursday’s 115-85 preseason loss to the Celtics. Their response in Friday’s 106-96 loss to the 76ers was disappointing, especially on defense, where they allowed Philadelphia to connect on 22 of 32 field goal attempts at the rim.

For a coach who spent the majority of training camp focusing on defense, the efforts were eye-opening.

“We don’t have a hit-first mentality, and if you don’t have a hit-first mentality, you’re going to get hit,” said Johnson, who was encouraged by Sunday’s practice. “So it’s not about a turnover or a guy forgetting a play. No, I’m talking about defensively. We haven’t done a good job — I don’t care if we’re fatigued, I don’t care if we didn’t practice. We haven’t done a good job protecting the paint. For us to go where we want to go, we have to be able to protect the paint a lot better than what we have.”

Noting that responsibility falls on the entire team, Johnson wouldn’t single out players, although gentle giant Brook Lopez is always a person of interest when aggression is called into question. The 7-footer’s lack of it has frustrated Johnson since he took over two years ago, and attempts to motivate Lopez into being an assertive defender have largely been unsuccessful.

Lopez’s rebounding numbers have improved this preseason, but he has just two blocks over the last three games — when the opposition scored a combined 100 points in the paint. Lopez, who has just one flagrant foul in his career, prefers to play it safe on defense, and the results are often uncontested lay ups.

“A lot of it is that attitude,” Lopez said. “Avery has said repeatedly he wants a blocked shot, a hard foul or a charge when it comes to people attacking the paint. So that has to become a mentality for myself and the team.”

Added Deron Williams, “(Lopez) is not going to be an enforcer or anything like that, but it’s just more about just not allowing easy baskets. If you see guys coming to the basket, you get a good foul on him. Nothing dirty. You just want to make sure he doesn’t get an easy basket.”

But Lopez isn’t the only culprit. Johnson made that clear after Sunday’s “physical practice,” calling it “the hardest we’ve had so far.”

“It has to be a little bit more in our DNA as a team,” said Johnson, who praised guard Joe Johnson’s hard foul against Boston’s Paul Pierce last week that resulted in a flagrant. “If it’s not we’re fooling ourselves. I think it’s there. I think the bodies are there. I just think we have to play defense with a little bit more of a purpose and physicality. And that’s what I need to say.”

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2012年10月22日星期一

Dwight Howard and the road ahead

LOS ANGELES -- Even when it doesn't work out, you can see how it will work. Dwight Howard changes the Los Angeles Lakers in more ways than you could have imagined.

Howard's Lakers debut started with him victimized by a prank usually played on rookies, and ended with the Lakers' sixth loss in as many preseason games. In between were all the ingredients for a team that Howard predicted, in the one bit of understatement around the Lakers, is "going to be good."

Sure there were lob passes slammed home and shots knocked away and even free throws clanking off the rim -- everything you would have expected from Howard. What really surprised me was the impact he had on their biggest weakness: transition defense.

Opponents have been pushing the tempo against the Lakers throughout the preseason and the Lakers starters' aging legs have not been able to get back in time. Since the Lakers didn't acquire Howard for his speed, it seemed those problems would continue even after he took the floor. Not so, for two key reasons.

First, if he's going to help the Lakers' offense be this effective then opponents won't get many fast-break chances. Tough to run off of alley-oop dunks and swished 3-pointers. The Lakers shot 60 percent in the first half.

The other, more surprising benefit for the Lakers: Howard's poor free throw shooting. Because teams are so quick to foul him around the basket it stops the game and allows the Lakers to get set on defense. So while the Lakers will lose points with the numerous missed free throws from Howard, they also won't be giving up as many easy buckets at the other end when he's in.

The Kings had only four fast-break points in the first half and 11 for the game. That's after Sacramento had 28 of them in a 103-98 victory over the Lakers in Las Vegas on Friday night. Utah scored 53 fast-break points in two games against the Lakers last week. You see where this was headed.

You could also see from the Lakers' first half-court defensive set how Kobe Bryant feels free to cheat on the high side or gamble for steals knowing that Howard is protecting the paint. Or the reluctance dribblers will feel in attacking the basket.

As for the lanes created by the defense's reluctance to leave Howard alone near the basket? The only way to describe it is in terms of local traffic: it's like the difference between the 405 freeway at 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Are you going to leave Howard on the block? AbandonPau Gasol at the free throw line? There are some daunting dilemmas for opponents.

"They're like The Avengers out there," Sacramento's Chuck Hayes said.

And if Howard's man does stray to help out? Get ready for lots of lob passes like the one Bryant threw over his head to Howard.

"With the offense that we have, on top of the talent we have, it opens up the floor a lot," Bryant said. "For me, I'll get two backdoors a game, for layups at the rim. There's more spacing in the middle. There's quick post-ups. You won't see me holding the ball too often unless I'm in the post."

One thing noticeable about this lineup was it induced Kobe to pass more than we're accustomed to seeing. There was an equality to the shot distribution. Howard equaled Bryant's 12 field goal attempts, and Metta World Peace was right behind him with 11. (World Peace made five, including three of six 3-pointers).

Howard made eight of his 12 shots, but he also bobbled away a couple of easy scoring opportunities and had five turnovers. It was his first game of any kind since his last in anOrlando Magic uniform on April 7, when his back injury became too insufferable and forced him to the sidelines and then the operating table. (The Lakers gave him the "honor" of running out of the tunnel first, then left him hanging by staying back and laughing at his expense while he took the court alone). Howard had to laugh too; they got him.

Even though he had 19 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, his timing was off, and he was late on some defensive rotations.

"I think I was very active on both ends of the floor," Howard said. "Other than that, I was a little rusty."

He said his back felt fine, even after he crashed to the floor (with the help of a shove fromDeMarcus Cousins) after a putback.

Even with Howard providing a glimpse of how good these Lakers can be, there's no need for them to rearrange the stars they added to the court to commemorate their 16 championships and find a spot for 2013 just yet.

The second unit couldn't be trusted to walk a dog, let alone hold a lead in an NBA game. Lakers coach Mike Brown will have to leave in at least two starters on the court at all times, and even that might not be enough. The Lakers' bench was outscored by their Kings' counterparts 57-18 Sunday night.

There's a long way for the starters to go before they're comfortable in the Princeton offense, or simply accustomed to playing with the new guys. There were an abundance of three-second violations as the Lakers were so convinced they could get a better shot they sometimes held the ball while their teammates congregated in the lane.

Their advancing years make them susceptible to injuries; in this game it was a dislocated finger for World Peace and a sore foot for Nash. The Oklahoma City Thunder are younger and have been through three playoff journeys together.

For all the star power that's accumulating in the L.A. area lately -- from the Lakers to the Clippers, to baseball's Dodgers and Angels -- the local team that actually delivered a championship this year was the overachieving hockey Kings. Their prize was on display outside the Lakers' locker room Sunday night, and Howard stopped to pose with it.

There they were, Dwight Howard and the Stanley Cup, the two biggest things to hit the Los Angeles sports scene this year, together for the first and possibly last time. The locked-out Los Angeles Kings are running out of places to take the trophy they won in June. They brought it to the Coliseum for the USC football game Saturday, then perched on its case outside the Lakers' locker room Sunday night.

Howard made a series of goofy poses next to the Cup for photographers. The concept of Howard helping the Lakers get some championship hardware of their own? It doesn't seem so laughable.

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2012年10月18日星期四

Where the New CW Series Goes Wrong

You’d be forgiven if, having watched the first episode of the CW’s Beauty and the Beast, you assumed that the show’s producers were trying their hardest to convince you that it’s worth paying attention to. Ostensibly a remake and updating of the 1987 show of the same name — which was itself a reinterpretation of the famous fairy tale — the new series not only adds a procedural element to the proceedings by making the Beauty of the title a cop, but also introduces two different strains of conspiratorial back story with (1.) the mystery of who killed Beauty’s mother ten years ago, and (2.) the second mystery of who is behind the genetic tampering that made the Beast an uncontrollable monster when he gets mad. (After all, it’s not as if the two could be connected in some way… Oh, wait.) But in the rush to make the show palatable to modern audiences, the makers of the new Beauty and the Beast seem to have forgotten what the original story was actually about.

Although Angela Lansbury would tell you that it’s a “tale as old as time,” the story of Beauty and the Beast is actually around three centuries old. It was first published in 1740 in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins as La Belle et la Bete, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, a minor French author granted immortality for her connection to this particular story. It didn’t really become popular for another 16 years, when Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont published an abridged version that removed much of the backstory for both leads, and also changed Belle from a lowly merchant’s daughter into a princess, much to her own surprise. (Belle being entirely unaware of the identity of her true parents; take that, people who think that the princess fixation started with Disney.) In both incarnations, however, the story was about Belle’s transformation from a woman who judged based on surface appearances to one who recognized inner beauty, and found happiness because of it.

Even as the story was retold throughout the years, the transformation element remained a constant, though the type of transformation — and who underwent the changes in question, for that matter — underwent its own transmogrification from version to version. Take the two most famous “faithful” adaptations of the original story, for example: Jean Cocteau’s 1946 live action La Belle et la Bete, and the 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast from the Walt Disney Company. While both of these stick relatively closely to the central story that de Villeneuve published in the 18th century, with some minor alterations — Cocteau adds an attempt by Belle’s human suitor Avenant to steal the Beast’s treasure, and Disney removes the threat the Beast makes on Belle’s father’s life — the way in which each film approaches the transformation of the relationship between Belle and the Beast is significantly different, in part because the identity of the transformee changes from movie to movie.

In Cocteau’s version, as in the original telling, Belle is the one who changes — as if to emphasize the change, she even tells the Beast at the end of the film that she once loved the handsome-yet-greedy Avenant. But in the Disney version, it’s the Beast who has to change in order to win Belle’s heart; she has already realized that beauty isn’t skin deep, and requires wooing in order for the curse to be unbroken. (“There’s something sweet/and almost kind,” Belle sings at one point, “but he was mean/and he was coarse/and unrefined,” listing all his faults.)

(MORE: Upfronts Watch: The CW: More Beauties, More Beasts)

The Disney film breaks from the original intent of the story, yes, but in doing so updates the story for the modern era. We have a more independent — and more intelligent, let’s be honest — Belle, who finally allowed Disney to step outside of the Princesses Just Wanna Have Fun, Preferably With Princes romantic mold when it came to their animated heroes. We also have a Beast who is forced to get past his gruff exterior (literally) and get in touch with his sensitive side, à la the popular trend of the 1990s. It’s a smart inversion of the story: Instead of the moral essentially being a patriarchal “women should learn to love whoever chooses them,” the Disney version is “a man has to be worthy of the woman he wants to love him.” The film also fulfills the story’s title for the first time in its history; instead of the kind soul who looks like a monster of previous versions, finally, we get a beast who has to learn to be cultured.

This transformative element, however, is strangely absent from CW’s Beauty and the Beast — or, rather, it’s absent from the show in its current time frame, as the important character arcs for the two leads have already happened prior to the first episode. Take Catherine Chandler, the Beauty of this particular series: After the flashback that opens the first episode — Catherine seeing her mother murdered, and then being saved by the Beast, although she doesn’t realize who/what he is at the time — you might expect her to be a damaged character, unable to form relationships or open up to anybody for fear of losing them, right…? But, no; she’s a smart, sexy detective whose instincts are usually right and wants to love, but just can’t find the right man, as we discover from watching her get dumped by the wrong man early in the episode. If Catherine has a character arc for the series outside of the external “Will she find who killed her mother?” it might have to be “Can she learn to be less perfect?” But, you know, that’s okay. Maybe this, like the Disney movie, is all about the Beast’s transformation.

Sure enough, Vincent Keller, this series’ Beast, does have more of an obvious character arc than Catherine. After all, he’s the subject of some kind of experiments that have transformed him into a beast when he is enraged, and so there’s a clear “Can he become a calmer man who doesn’t lose control” question. But by the time we meet him in the pilot, he’s been like this for ten years, and he’s already got that whole “control” thing down pretty well, only losing control once in the entire episode — even then managing to calm down after seconds. The Beast here is just a loner superhero who saves people and lives in an abandoned warehouse while pouting about how terrible his life is. It’s not even as if he looks like a monster; he looks like this.

(MORE: Beauty and the Beast in 3-D: Still an Enchantment)

What makes the lack of clear transformation narrative more frustrating is that the 1987 series that the disappointing 2012 version is based on didn’t have the same problem at all. The 1987 Beauty and the Beast, which starred a post-Terminator Linda Hamilton and a pre-Hellboy Ron Perlman, opened with a pilot that showed Catherine Chandler to have the same weakness for surface glamour as the original Belle, only her eyes were opened not only by Vincent’s kindness and good heart, but also by something far more dramatic: a knife attack that left her disfigured for weeks. The network series translated Belle’s lesson about not judging books by their covers into something more, in which the attractive “world above” that we live in often hid monsters, while the abandoned and disfigured denizens of the “world below” where Vincent lived offered kindness, beauty and safety unlike any Catherine had really known before. It wasn’t subtle, but it was there.

(There are numerous other ways in which the new remake differs from the 1987 original: Catherine is an assistant in the DA’s office in the original and cop in the new version; Vincent was “naturally” a beast, resembling Cocteau’s cat-like take on the character, in the original compared with the handsome man with one scar of today’s series. Furthermore, the original Vincent’s underground community of mutants — something perhaps inspired by the Morlocks of Chris Claremont’s early ’80s Uncanny X-Men comic books — doesn’t seem to exist in the CW incarnation at all, robbing the reboot of one of the main settings of the original. When you factor in the differing tones, mythologies and aesthetics of the two series, it really seems as if all they actually share are character names and a series title.)

Outside of the obvious mythology-heavy story arcs and the inevitable relationship that will develop between Catherine and Vincent (As Chekhov once wrote of dramas on the CW, you don’t introduce an adorable woman with bad taste in men and a brooding loner with no interest in woman in the first season if you don’t plan on pairing them off in the third), it’s unclear where Beauty and the Beast is going to go. It may end up a Smallville-esque mix of “monster of the week” procedural and epic season-long story arcs, or something entirely more ambitious. Until we see proof that either Beauty or the Beast are actually going to have to deal with some genuine growth and character transformation, however, I think everyone might be better served by pretending that it has an entirely different title altogether. Sexy Cop and the Non-Intellectual Property Infringing Cross Between the Hulk and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer might not sound particularly catchy, but at least it has a ring of truth to it.

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