SATURDAY Vanguard, JUNE 9, 2012—37
BY IYABO AINA
Spartacus to end after third season
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he upcoming third season of “Spartacus” will be the last for the series. On Monday, June 4, Starz announced the decision to cancel the Liam McIntyre starrer with a 10-episode season which is subtitled “War of the Damned”. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight admits they make a “bold move” by ending the show when it still delivers high ratings for the cable channel. Still, he argues that they want to conclude “the show when you’re on top and the audience still wants more instead of dragging it out until it starts to wane and you kind of limp to the finish line.” ”My original thought was that this show could go five to seven seasons, but we realized the actual history is very scattershot,” he goes on explaining. “The rebels went north, south, east, west, then back north, then broke apart, came back together. We thought, instead of repeating ourselves with one wave of Roman senators after another going after Spartacus, getting defeated, going after Spartacus, getting defeated, why not really condense the story, give the juiciest parts to Marcus Crassus (Simon Merrells).”
Reactions trail Miss Pennsylvania’s resignation
Sheena Monnin BY IYABO AINA
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iss Universe Or ganization, which runs Miss USA pageant, has responded to Sheena Monnin’s accusation that the top 5 contestants of the beauty contest were fixed before the finale show on June 3. The foundation denied the claim, insisting that the former Miss Pennsylvania spread false story. In a post on her Facebook, Monnin resigned her position as Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012, accusing the organizers of fraud. “In good conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy,” so she said. ”I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 before the show ever started,” Monnin began her story. “She saw a folder lying open to a page that said ‘final show Telecast, June 3, 2012’ and she saw the places for Top 5 already filled in.” On the final night, “after the Top 16 were called and we were standing backstage she hesitantly said to me and another contestant that she knew who the Top 5 were. I said ‘who do you think they will be?’ She said that she didn’t ‘think’ she ‘knew’ because she saw the list that morning,” she continued. ”She relayed whose names
were on the list. Then we agreed to wait and see if that was indeed the Top 5 called that night. After it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged; I decided at that moment to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own. That is all I know about this.” ”In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer. After 10 years of competing in a pageant system I once believed in, I now completely and irrevocably separate myself in every way and on every level from the Miss Universe Organization.” ”If this contestant would like to step forward as an eye witness and as being the one who saw the sheet with the Top 5 already selected before the judges ever saw the Top 16, then perhaps action can be taken. As for me, I believe her words and I will not encourage anyone to compete in a system that in my opinion and from what I witnessed is dishonest.” In response, the organization issued a statement that claimed Monnin’s original reason for the withdrawal was it’s policy which allowed transgender women to compete. “In an email to state pageant organizers, she cited the Miss Universe Organization’s policy regarding
transgendered contestants, implemented two months ago, as the reason for her resignation,” so it’s explained. ”Today she has changed her story by publicly making false accusations claiming that the pageant was fixed, however the contestant she privately sourced as her reference has vehemently refuted her most recent claim. We are disappointed that she would attempt to steal the spotlight from Olivia Culpo of Rhode Island on her well-deserved Miss USA win.” In the e-mail, Monnin reportedly said that she refused to be “part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it. This goes against ever moral fiber of my being. I believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of which are part of this system any longer.”
DeKnight additionally reveals that their decision to end the show next season “was one of the factors in the wholesale slaughter at the end of last season.” He elaborates, “Where the story was going, for instance Lucretia (Lucky Lawless) and Ilithyia (Viva Bianca) really didn’t fit in world of Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar (Todd Lasance) in any kind of natural, organic storytelling way. There was a bit of housecleaning at the end of that season to prep for this final season.” On how he pictures the final frame of “Spartacus”, DeKnight gushes that their goal is “to end with a defeat but with a ray of hope,” as he thinks, “It’d be a disservice to the audience to spend four years watching the struggle, murder everybody and say, ‘Well, they lost.’ You definitely need to end on some sense that the struggle was worth it, whether win, lose or draw; that it’s worth standing up to oppression.” Asked if he would do a Julius Caesar spin-off after bringing the historical figure into season 3 of “Spartacus”, DeKnight doesn’t rule out the possibility. “We are open to, down the road, revisiting this world, whether it’s Julius Caesar, whether it’s set in the same time period or whether it’s a little later in the time period. The look and the feel of the show would be a natural candidate for a spin-off down the road,” so he claims.
Spartacus
Nicki Minaj bows out of summer jam He was additionally said to
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Nicki Minaj
icki Minaj has scrapped her sched uled performance at Hot 97’s Summer Jam 2012. The Harajuku Barbie bowed out of the hip-hop summit at the last minutes after the radio’s DJ Peter Rosenberg dissed her song “Starships” at the concert that took place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, June 3. The radio personality reportedly told the crowd that Minaj “better not perform that wack ‘Starships’ track,” before introducing Oakland rapper Kendrick Lamar on the stage.
have called the “Stupid Hoe” songstress “no longer ‘ real h i p - h o p ’ . ” Her mentor Lil Wayne did not take the diss lightly and quickly wrote on Twitter, “Young Money ain’t doing summer jam.” Hinting that she would follow Weezy ’s decision, Minaj posted on her own Twitter, ”I go above and beyond for my fans. But won’t ever go against wayne’s word. While the 29-year-old femcee did not appear for her scheduled gig, another Young Money artist Tyga did his set at 7 P.M.. C M Y K