While it is currently unclear if the film has been greenlit, the addition of a talent like Robbie makes it very likely.
The 26-year-old Australian beauty last appeared in Suicide Squad, which grossed over $325,000,000 worldwide last summer.
It seems Robbie is seeking an award after her blockbuster performance, as she"ll next appear in the drama Goodbye Christopher Robin, about the creator of Winnie the Pooh.
Heading up the effort:Director Josie Rourke has already signed on as well (pictured December 2016)
Blockbuster:The 26-year-old Australian beauty last appeared in Suicide Squad, which grossed over $325,000,000 worldwide last summer
That film recently received a November 10th release date, which would make it a definite award contender.
Meanwhile,Robbie has been featured in Time"s 100 Most Influential People Of 2017.
She was honoured by The Wolf Of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese, who said: "Margot is stunning in all she is and all she does, and she will astonish us forever."
Martin, 74, described Margot as having "the comedic genius of Carole Lombard" and the "grounded, hardscrabble toughness" of Joan Crawford.
Tear-jerker?It seems Robbie is seeking an award after her blockbuster performance, as she"ll next appear in the drama Goodbye Christopher Robin, about the creator of Winnie the Pooh
Sean Kuraly"s second goal of the game at 10:19 of the second overtime gave the Boston Bruins a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 on Friday night, avoiding elimination in the first-round series.
David Pastrnak also scored and Tuukka Rask finished with 41 saves to help the bruins rally from two goals down early in the second period and cut the Senators" lead to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Game 6 is Sunday in Boston.
Mark Stone and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Senators, and Craig Anderson stopped 36 shots.
The Bruins had the best chances to end the game in the first overtime.
Boston failed to capitalize on a power play when Clarke MacArthur was called for high sticking and then had Noel Acciari"s apparent goal waved off at 14:25 due to goalie interference. The Bruins challenged the call to no avail.
Capitals take 3-2 series lead
Justin Williams scored the overtime winner as the Washington Capitals beat the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in their first-round series.
The Capitals survived a scare when captain Alex Ovechkin left the game late in the first period with an apparent left leg injury, but he returned in the second. Thanks to Williams" goal 1:04 into overtime, the Presidents" Trophy winners go to Toronto for Game 6 on Sunday with a chance to advance to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.
Braden Holtby made 24 saves for the Capitals, who got a goal from T.J. Oshie on the power play that came from Nazem Kadri"s***t that injured Ovechkin.
Rookie of the year finalist Auston Matthews scored the only goal for the Maple Leafs, and Frederik Andersen made 26 saves before being beaten in overtime.
Before the anger, shock, frustration, sadness, and disappointment, let me make a plea for a sense of relief. It could have been worse. Buster Posey said as much after a team meeting, and Molly Knight, baseball writer and semi-professional Giants needler, messaged me to say that she found out through a text that read ...
Did you hear about Madison Bumgarners dirt bike accident?
And while that text would send shivers up my spine in any year, this is a particularly sensitive year for news about young pitchers and moving vehicles.
Righetti and b*m exchanged texts. "It sounded like it darn well could have been (worse)."
Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) April 21, 2017
Bumgarner was riding a dirt bike and something went wrong. Baseball games might be lost because of it, and thats fine. Ive seen the Giants lose baseball games before. There are a lot of ways where that something went wrong sentence would have been followed by choking sobs.
Its not like theres an easy way to turn the other emotions off, though. Now that hes (mostly) fine, there comes the anger. A dirt bike? Cmon, man. MXGP 2 for the PS4 is, like, $20 on Amazon. Stay indoors. Preferably in a house encased in bubble wrap. With armed guards outside. If thats not possible, fine, go outside, but dont screw around on dirt bikes.
The anger passes quickly, of course, because bumgarner has given more to the Giants in seven years than almost any player who has ever lived gave the teams they played for. There arent a lot of scenarios that end with me cursing out Bumgarner and yelling, This freakin guy again. He likes to ride dirt bikes, and Im assuming he was being at least a little responsible. I reserve the right to take that back, but Ill guess that he wasnt popping wheelies. Maybe he hit a pothole or a gopher hole or whatever the 1-in-a-thousand slightly common/still rare hazard there is when riding a dirt bike.
That brings us to disappointment, and, yeah, thats real and legitimate. The Giants were lucky enough to have co-aces, and the homegrown one was made out of vibranium and marble, mostly indestructible. A guy built like that cant get hurt by pitching, ha ha, hes too strong. Except physics will always win, and mostly indestructible is a synonym for still destructible. Even though the Giants hadnt won a game that Bumgarner had started this season, they were going to start winning them. Probably a lot of them. Now they wont win as many.
Realistically, a starting pitcher like Bumgarner might be worth two wins above replacement over two months, maybe three. So that means the Giants dont have to be as hosed as you think ... if they can get some better-than-replacement pitching out of Ty Blach. And while Id like to give that scenario the McCovey Chronicles Guarantee, it is absolutely possible that Blach will pitch like a AAAA pitcher who doesnt miss a lot of bats.
Its also possible that Matt Cain will struggle, and instead of the easy switch to Blach, the Giants will have to make a different, more drastic move because hes already in the rotation. And what if Blach and Cain struggle at the same time?
Basically what Im saying is that losing Bumgarner for two months hurts the Giants in a baseball sense. I know some of you arent into the newfangled analysis, but I feel okay letting those opinions fly. This probably isnt good for the Giants, imo.
The last emotion that keeps coming up, the one I cant shake, is fear. The shoulder is such a delicate component of a pitchers body, and its so enigmatic and terrifying. Elbows pop off, and most of the time you can pop them back on with a store-bought elbow off the rack. All it takes is a lot of hard work and time, usually, with some notable exceptions. Shoulders, though, are far more nebulous. While its great that Bumgarner might be out just six weeks, Im worried about what this means for 30-year-old Bumgarner, much less the 35-year-old version. When ligaments are torn, even in a mild case, they dont have to come back as strong as they were before.
This season started with Bumgarner hitting a pair of beefy-as-heck home runs and him pitching about as well as he could possibly pitch. Then he lost, and lost again, and lost again, and lost again, and then the Giants lost him in a dirt bike accident. This season isnt over yet, and there are still a lot of ways the team could rally. The easiest one, though, had to do with Bumgarner pitching well.
It could have been worse, though. I keep coming back to that, and if youre going to get splashed with ice water when you werent expecting it, theres some value in appreciating how it wasnt hydrochloric acid.
Before the fourth week of the 2017 baseball season started, the Giants put both Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner on the disabled list because of freak accidents. Both of them could have been worse. But if this isnt a reminder that continued success for your favorite baseball squadron is never guaranteed, Im not sure what would be. The season can change in seconds. You know that already, because the Giants season just did.
The Koch Brothers Celebrate Earth Day - @midnight with Chris Hardwick
The foods we choose to put on our plates or toss away could have more of an ecological impact than many of us realize.
On Earth Day, here are some ways to consider how our diet impacts the planet.
Waste not, want not
You"ve heard the numbers on food waste. More than 30 percent of available food is tossed each year in America. It"s enough to fill Chicago"s 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) 44 times over.
The U.S. has set an official goal to reduce food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. Universities have begun to chip away at the food waste issue by promoting ugly fruit and vegetables and shifting away from pre-cooked, buffet style food, instead serving more cook-to-order options that can cut down on waste. Food service companies are working with farmers and chefs to get more blemished but edible produce into cafeterias across the country. Even religious groups are getting into the act, raising attention to the problem of food waste among the faithful and connecting with restaurants, retailers and food banks to help redirect food to hungry mouths that might otherwise end up in landfills.
And there are a host of proposed solutions. Check out this report that highlights which solutions are likely to provide most bang for the buck. Among the most cost-effective strategies: educating consumers on food waste including changes you can make in your own kitchen. (Here are some tips to get you started like how to tell if eggs are still good past their expiration date.)
Rethink your beef and lamb habit
Everything we eat has an environmental footprint it takes land, water and energy to grow crops and raise livestock. The folks at the World Resources Institute have calculated the greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing a gram of edible protein of various foods.
Not surprisingly, they found that foods such as beans, fish, nuts and egg have the lowest impact. Poultry, pork, milk and cheese have medium-sized impacts. By far, the biggest impacts, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, were linked to beef, lamb and goat. (As we"ve reported, that"s partly because the need for pastureland drives deforestation in places like the Brazilian Amazon.)
Why? According to WRI, beef uses 28 times more land per calorie consumed and two to four times more freshwater than the average of other livestock categories. What"s more, cows are less efficient than other animals, like pigs and poultry, at converting feed into food.
Still, telling people to go cold turkey with their red meat isn"t likely to inspire real change. But this message might resonate: Even if you don"t give up on red meat consumption entirely, just cutting back can significantly impact your diet"s carbon footprint.
And these days, there are lots of vegan substitutes like plant burgers that sizzle, smell and even bleed like the real thing that can deliver the meaty taste you crave as you try to scale back.
Keep an eye out for more "plant-based" dishes on restaurant menus
As interest in plant-centric diets booms, new food businesses have taken root from the veggie-centric fast-casual chains Beefsteak (from celebrity chef Jose Andres) and Chloe (an all-vegan restaurant) to the vegan meal-kit company Purple Carrot.
Now, a new initiative from the World Resources Institute called the Better Buying Lab is bringing together big companies (including Panera Bread, Sodexo, Google, Unilever and Hilton) to develop and test strategies to nudge consumers towards choosing more sustainable foods. One initiative is to get more plant-based dishes onto menus.
"If you look at menus across the U.S., there tends to be [the same] 25 dishes that are on the majority of menus," says Daniel Vennard, director of the Better Buying Lab at WRI. Think burgers, chicken dishes, etc. "Not many [plant-based] dishes have scaled to become national favorites," Vennard says.
His group is working to change that. It"s teaming up with chefs from its member companies to create new recipes likely to have broad appeal. Promising ideas include the concept of "superfood salads" containing combinations of nuts, seeds, greens, veggies and avocado.
He points to ideas already out there as well, such as burgers that blend meat and mushrooms. As we reported several years ago, some taste-testing has found that diners warmed up to the idea of blended burgers, and in fact many tasters preferred them to all-beef patties. And an ongoing competition from the James Beard Foundation has encouraged chefs around the country to give blended burgers a try on their menus. (Not everyone is a fan, though.)
"What we"re trying to do is shift consumers towards eating more sustainable food, but we"re not advocating for a no-meat diet," explains Vennard. "We"re saying, "Let"s moderate." "
Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others -- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Death, especially when compounded by shock, is a thing that forces wild reactions. There is no predicting how it will affect us, especially when its complicated by fame and art. At that point, mourning suddenly becomes communal, and you might find yourself crying in public, as I did when Iheard about Princes death. Its been one year. Imiss him still.
Prince was, for me, one of the most exciting sights Id laid eyes on. Have you ever taken the time to look at his face? It was stunning: those big, fawn-like eyes, seemingly dancing with mischief; that nose button-like in his youth andmore hawkish with age; that mouth, almost always quirked in asardonic, knowing smile. prince always appeared aware of how unique he was; he knew he was special and he loved it. His songwriting and performances were imbued with that quality: each song was a gift, his lyrics equal parts sexy, witty, moving, sly and outrageous. Prince was a gateway into a more fluid, more adult world, where men (and women!) wore whatever the h**l they wanted, and didnt apologise.
He was funny (his 2014 guest appearance on New Girl, sending up his own eccentric image, made me laugh so hard), principled about artists rights and discreetly generous to arange of causes, too.
Above all, though, its his voice I miss. Its range was vast: a thrilling falsetto came as naturally as a deep baritone. His music lit up my life. My favourite today is IfIWas Your Girlfriend, but that could changeat any time. Prince wouldnt mind. He was changeable, too, sometimes bad-tempered with interviewers, other times as sweet as pie. Its what made him so d**n compelling.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Saturday is Earth Day, the day we set aside to take better care of our planet.
Kids used to be told to reduce, reuse and recycle. While those are still important, new technology is making it even easier to do our part to protect the planet.
Dr. John Abraham from University of St. Thomas School of Engineering has some ways everyone can help - without much work.
1. Choose wind power2. Go hybrid3. Start the conversation
Tiger Woods just had his fourth back surgery in three years and will once again miss the entire golf season. you can forget about tiger ever winning again. In fact, I dont think h**l ever play again. Prediction: By this time next year, Tiger Woods wont be competing in the majors; h**l be commentating on them. Sentinel colleague Scott Maxwell did an excellent column earlier this week on 10 people who make Orlando a better place to live. And now for the 10 people who make Orlando a worse place to live: The Magic scouting department. Speaking of the Magic, theyve given thought to reaching out to Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin to gauge his interest in heading their basketball operations, according to Yahoo Sports. This potential news is absolutely shocking to me not because the Magic are interested in Griffin but because I thought LeBron James was the GM of the Cavs. Speaking of LeBron, he is the only player in the league that if you put him on the Magic, they would instantly become a Finals team. This makes him the MVP this year and every year.
How massive is the Magics rebuild? Excluding the Brooklyn Nets, they have the least amount of talent on their roster in the league, ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst told me earlier this week. Its a major rebuilding situation. Happy times. Hope all of you got your taxes filed on time earlier this week and are getting a nice fat refund check. Sports fans, you earned a deduction if: (1) You dont blindly justify the transgressions of a player or coach just because hes on your team; (2) You resist the urge to walk out of church in the middle of the pastors sermon so you can make a last-minute fantasy-football transaction; (3) You dont litter your Facebook feed with political rants. Likewise, you get audited if: (1) Youve ever unsuccessfully tried to start the wave; (2) Youve ever been asked to leave a Little League game; (3) Youve ever used the term arm talent when discussing Mitch Trubiskys strengths heading into the NFL Draft. ...
When I was a guest earlier this week on the SEC Networks Paul Finebaum Show, I suggested that FSU might be the preseason No. 1 team in the country. Finebaum seemed legitimately offended that anyone might actually believe another team other than his beloved Alabama Crimson Tide should be preseason No. 1. Then again, Im not surprised. When it comes to Finebaum, SEC stands for (Saban-Exalting Commentator). New York Knicks president Phil Jackson says Carmelo Anthony would be better off somewhere else. Couldnt the same be said for Jackson, who is starting to look more and more like former Knicks president Isiah Thomas without the sexual-harassment charges. . Amazingly, Serena Williams was 10 weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open. Then, as Jimmy Fallon cracked, the baby said, So do I get a doubles trophy? ... Did you see where the Tampa Bay Bucs are going to be the featured team on the HBO TV series Hard Knocks? Question for the Bucs: Is it really a good idea to have a camera documenting Jameis Winstons every move? This is the football equivalent of that Greek dude who flew too close to the sun with wings made of wax.
Fox News covered up Bill OReillys transgressions for years and only removed him when they became public. Hey, that sounds like how most college football programs do business! And speaking of shady college football programs reacting to public outrage, Baylor just hired its first female president. What a coincidence! When the Simpsons turned 30 earlier this week, I came up with my Mount Rushmore of cartoon characters: (1) Bugs Bunny; (2) Foghorn Leghorn; (3) Penelope Pitstop; (4) Scooby-Doo. The New England Patriots were honored at the White House earlier this week, and I dont even want to know what Gronk was doing in the Lincoln bedroom. ... LAST WORD: And with the first pick in next weeks NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns take drum roll, please the wrong guy!
Open Mike
Don"t forget, you can click on OrlandoSentinel.com and read the wildly popular Open Mike blog and interactive extravaganza to get my freshest takes on what"s happening in the world of sports. Here"s excerpt about UCF football.
UCF football coach Scott Frost seems a bit perturbed with all of the attention being given to the new high-profile coaches in the state of Florida marquee names such as Charlie Strong at USF, Lane Kiffin at FAU and Butch Davis at FIU.
Frosts message is essentially this: Its not even close UCF has so much more to offer recruits than all of the other non-Power 5 schools in the talent-rich Sunshine State.
I took it as a little bit of a challenge when I would turn on ESPN and I would see segments on how tough recruiting was going to get in the state of Florida, and they would mention all of those other guys and not mention us, Frost said on our Open Mike radio show. Were proud of the recruiting class we got this past year. It was the No. 1 class outside of the Power 5 and we beat several Power 5 teams as well.
Frost is not exaggerating.
The Knights, by most national rankings, outrecruited every non-Power Five school in the state and the nation.
As they should.
Lets be honest here, shall we? UCF has better facilities, better fan support, a better college football environment and, pretty much, a better everything than does USF, FAU and FIU. UCF is in a huge metropolitan area that doesnt have an NFL team unlike the other state schools the Knights are competing against..
We have the best campus, the best town, the best stadium and the best facilities, Frost said. Inevitably, they [the national media] mention all of those other schools and dont mention UCF. When kids come to our campus and see what we have to offer, I think it sets us apart from those schools.
I cant disagree with Frost.
What about you?
Mail bonding
Most interesting reader responses on my column in the wake of Aaron Hernandezs suicide:
As a Nebraska Cornhusker, we have had our issues with seedy types such as Lawrence Phillips, but none compare to the monster Hernandez was.
Aaron Hernandez is responsible for his own actions, but it sure sounds like his friends and coaches at UF enabled his bad decisions.
Aaron Hernandez is not somebody who should be celebrated or mourned. He is simply a killer who deserved to die.
Notable quotables
In honor of the first week of the NBA playoffs, three of my favorite old quotes from the world of pro basketball:
What do you have when you have an agent buried up to his neck in sand? Not enough sand. Pat Williams when he was general manager of the Magic
We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors. Former NBA coach Hubie Brown
I told him, Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy? He said, Coach, I don"t know and I don"t care. Former Utah Jazz president Frank Layden on one of his players
E-mail me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Follow me on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to my radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.
