This week marked a dark time for America as senator Edward M. Kennedy, one of its most championed political leaders, passed away. With the loss of Ted Kennedy the political legacy of Camelot might very well be dead — an American myth surrounding the storied Kennedy clan.

Camelot was an ideal for all Americans to gaze upon. John F. Kennedy held the reign as King Arthur while Bobby acted the gallant sir Lancelot. Then there was Jackie Kennedy, the lovely Guinevere. And the youngest brother was none other than Teddy. He championed for real change in America long after assassins gunned down his two admired brothers.

Family and friends gathered at a private memorial Friday evening at the JFK Library and Museum in Boston in order to bid Ted farewell. Among the guests was Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell. The actor performed “The Impossible Dream” from Broadway’s Man of La Mancha — a musical based on Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The song was a fitting tribute to a man that spent much of his political career following his own impossible dream — health care for all.

It was as if the “lion” of the Senate was marching towards an unbeatable foe. He refused bowing to the Republican party’s notion that health care was a privilege and not a right. No, Ted was intent on righting the unrightable wrong.

In 1969 Ted found himself in the middle of a major controversy following a car crash in Chappaquiddick. Mary Jo Kopechne, an aide to Robert Kennedy and passenger in Ted’s car, died after they careened off a bridge. Many speculated that Ted would resign — his arms too weary to carry on. Instead, he picked himself up and set out to reach the unreachable star. Health care reform was now in his sights.

Ted could almost be heard singing:

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

Leading the charge to pass the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 proved Ted was serious about health care reform and equal rights. He promoted AIDS research and pushed the Kennedy-Kassebaum Bill through in 1996.

Ted was true to this glorious quest until the very end of his life. Roaring in support of President Obama’s latest push for health care reform, Ted refused to lie peaceful and calm until he was laid to rest. At the last Democratic convention in Denver Ted told everyone that universal health insurance was “the cause of my life.”

Diagnosed with brain cancer, the disease that would ultimately take his life at age 77, Ted was scorned and covered with scars. However, the senator still strove with his last ounce of courage to see that health care reform became a reality.

This impossible dream now falls to President Obama, a man that campaigned on hopes and dreams. Obama and all political leaders must never forget that America is a land for all people, not just those that can afford expensive medical plans. Should Ted’s dream be deemed impossible, this country runs the risk of suffering Don Quixote’s fate — dying a beaten and battered man.

Published by the Huffington Post on August 29, 2009.

If you ask Alexis Bledel whether college was a worthwhile experience, you’d discover that without her time at school she might not have become an actress. Now 27, she started out with a focus on writing and directing. “I figured out that I was interested in acting while at NYU,” she told me while discussing her new film, Post Grad.

Unlike many recent college graduates fighting unemployment Bledel has had a fairly easy go of things when it comes to work. She landed the lead role in Girlmore Girls opposite Lauren Graham in 2000. Since then she has gone on to star in the popular Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies.

In Post Grad Bledel plays Ryden, a young lady just entering the work force and hoping to make a career in book publishing. Ryden lands an interview at her dream company Happerman & Browning, a Los Angeles based publisher – think Random House. But she fails to land the job and is forced to move back in with her family, played by a star cast including Michael Keaton, Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch.

It would be easy to think of Post Grad’s screenwriter Kelly Fremon as a soothsayer seeing how her film is set for release right in the middle of an unemployment crisis. But neither Fremon nor Bledel could have seen the recent economic meltdown coming when first creating this sentimental teen comedy.

Fremon is no stranger to unemployment. She wrote Post Grad after graduating from college and spending nearly eight months without work. Her solution – write about it. Originally titled The Post-Grad Survival Guide, the plot unfolds like a self-help book.

Director Vicky Jenson, making her live-action debut following Shrek, says of the story: “In all of the funny and painful frustration we watch this character go through, we can recognize our own issues.”

While Bledel and Post Grad co-star Zach Gilford, star of NBC’s Friday Night Lights, won’t be interviewing for a corporate job anytime soon they are familiar with Ryden’s situation. “We both definitely relate to the stress of an interview,” Gilford said after I asked him about the comparison between auditioning and interviewing. He thinks both situations are “a bit of a guessing game” when it comes to feeling sure of yourself.

“I went to this one audition where the casting director was from my hometown,” Gilford said. “We had some of the same friends.” It seemed like the old adage, “it’s who you know” was playing in his favor. But, like Ryden, he didn’t land the job. “Sometimes you just never know,” he said.

With Post Grad sure to pull in a young female audience Bledel and Gilford have some advice for those in a less than comfortable post-grad situation. “Go with the flow,” said Bledel with Gilford agreeing. “You’re not going to be able to plan out the future.”

Published by the Huffington Post on August 21, 2009

“Family Guy” has taken Emmy campaigning to a brand new level thanks to a string of viral videos showcases extreme brutality. First it was a knock at “The Office” and now the animated show is attacking fellow nominees “Entourage” and “Flight of the Conchords.”

If you haven’t been keeping up on your YouTube chatter lately you might have missed the first “Family Guy” bathroom attack video. Stewie is seen asking Brian what he will vote for come Emmy time. Of course, Brian fails to mention his own show so Stewie horribly mutates his canine pal.

In a rant against “Entourage,” also nominated for best comedy, Stewie refers to it as “‘Sex and the City’” for men, asking if he is supposed to care about a guy that has everything.

Here are the two latest “Family Guy” videos:

Passing Strange has seen various incarnations since its initial development at the Sundance Institute in 2004. From an out-of-town run in Berkeley to its Off-Broadway then Broadway premiere, the rock and soul stage musical has now made its way to the silver screen.

For any New Yorker that caught Passing Strange on Broadway there should be no doubt that this unique production, with a book and lyrics by Stew, is more than deserving of a big screen presentation. While I still hold that Passing Strange deserved to win for best musical at last year’s Tony Awards ceremony — it lost to the by-the-book show In the Heights — it will now live on thanks to director Spike Lee.

Lee documented the final performances of Passing Strange on Broadway using his filmmaker’s eye to create a documentary that could easily be pegged as a concert film. Passing Strange the Movie can best be described as a modern day The Last Waltz, full of the same innovation that Martin Scorsese brought to The Band. Fans of film, music and Broadway will all find something to love about Lee’s Passing Strange the Movie. Prepare to be moved all over again.

Passing Strange tells the story of a teenage black musician preparing to take a wild ride, from his home in South Central Los Angeles to Amsterdam and Berlin. It’s a soul-finding mission. Along the way he comes across a wildly artistic bunch of fellow youths, all searching for the “real.” Stew appears as the narrator while his fellow cast members, including Daniel Breaker in the lead, spice up this all-singing tale.

A mix of rock, soul and experimental sounds, Passing Strange is the quintessential sound of Stew — from The Negro Problem and a respectable solo career — a staple of the downtown New York music scene. Heidi Rodewald, Stew’s creative partner, cowrote the music.

The film debuted back where it all started — at Sundance — in January and is now set to return to New York City in a limited release on Friday. Passing Strange the Movie will then go nationwide On Demand starting August 26. This is a can’t miss experience. Go see Passing Strange the Movie — especially if you failed to catch it live on stage.

Broadway’s latest revival of the classic musical West Side Story might be a clunker, but that isn’t stopping MTV from using it for inspiration. MTV has fallen off the pop culture relevance scale over the last decade or so, so it came as a shock to find video promos for the network’s upcoming Video Music Awards adapting the Broadway musical.

What exactly am I talking about? Well, in two short videos making the rounds on YouTube, country star Taylor Swift belts “Tonight” while riding in a taxi and Cobra Starship teams up with “Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester to further the West Side Story theme in a subway car.

The latter video is a complete disaster — Leighton Meester should stick to the Upper East Side and stay out of musicals and subways. Taylor Swift, however, can do no wrong — call it the adorable factor. While you won’t catch me at her concerts anytime soon, if you happen to be standing next to me on the subway you might just hear a song or two blaring out from my iPod.

And kuddos to MTV for bringing the VMAs back to New York City and for highlighting a Broadway musical.