By Amanda Whitaker
Lifestyle Editor
Because this week brought about so much absurdity, I have no choice but to offer you two stories, both warranting the utmost level of “What the what?” bewilderment:
There are many reasons to see “Contagion.” It boasts an all-star, Oscar-winning cast, including Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Matt Damon. It features an entirely possible plotline in which international and inescapable chaos ensues. Gwenyth Paltrow’s character dies at the beginning.
The new hit thriller has a lot going for itself.
So I was surprised, intrigued, and, well, pretty grossed out when Warner Bros. hired an ad agency to create billboards for the film made entirely of bacteria and fungi.
Scientists basically took two giant petri dishes, filled it with a bunch of bacteria and fungi, and then waited for that nasty to grow until it spelled out “Contagion.”
Giving a whole new meaning to the term “viral promotion,” I’m not sure what I think about this.
So disgusting, so clever, so–unnecessary. At this point, you either want to see Gwen die, or you don’t. Any more shameless advertisement is just overkill.
In other bizarre news, at the Toronto Film Festival this past Wednesday, actor Nicolas Cage, in a press conference regarding his new home-invasion thriller, “Trespass,” spoke of his own experience of home-invasion.
Cage, according to reuters.com, disclosed that he was awoken by a naked man with a Fudgesicle.
That’s right, Fudgesicle. As in the frozen chocolate confection.
“I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket, eating a Fudgesicle in front of my bed,” he told reporters.
“I know it sounds funny,” said Cage, “but it was horrifying.”
They say that some stories are best presented without comment, and, in this case, they’re right.