Quote of the Day- Martina Navratilova

Today, we quote tennis legend Martina Navratilova, 55, as we continue to quote famous people from each of the 16 countries in the Euro 2012 Cup which are taking place in Poland and Ukraine.

Though, Navratilova has been an American citizen since 1991 and she sought political asylum from then-Czechoslvakia in 1975 at age of 19, she is undoubtedly one of the most famous people from the Czech Republic, along with the recently deceased playwright/prime minister Vaclav Havel.

Navratilova was in the news in 2010 when she announced that she had been treated for breast cancer. She is also an avid gay rights supporter.

Here is her quote:

"I've been in the twilight of my career longer than most people had their career."

http://www.martinanavratilova.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Matt Damon

Yes, we had quite a hard time finding a useable image of Matt Damon, hence we had to find one of him in a still photograph from "The Talented Mister Ripley" (1999). Just last year, Damon rejoined 'Ripley' cast-mates Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law for the provocative science thriller "Contagion."

Other films that Damon is known for include "Good Will Hunting" (1997) for which he and pal Ben Affleck won Best Original Screenplay Oscars (neither has won an Oscar for acting or directing_ which Affleck has also done), "Syriana" (2005) and "The Departed" (2006).

Damon turns 42 on October 8th; this month we are quoting famous people born in 1970, the year I was born.

Here is his quote:

"I'd heard people say: 'You'll enjoy being famous for a week and you'll never enjoy it again.' But, I don't think I had that week. I may have been working and missed that moment."

SIDEBAR: We want to wish our fellow Turkish-American progressive Cenk Uygur a happy 42nd birthday. I am a mere 17 days older than Uygur who hosts an excellent political talk show on Current-TV at 7:00 p.m. (eastern and Pacific times); I was surprised that Uygur did not mention the milestone on this show tonight.

And, on the other side of the spectrum, Kirk Cameron, who was born on Oct. 12, 1970, making him just four days younger of the politically liberal Matt Damon, has recently been trying to defuse controversial comments he made regarding gays and lesbians. Cameron said that a homosexual lifestyle was detrimental and destructive, but he said that he never meant to hurt anyone's feelings. Cameron, who came to fame from the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains," is an out-spoken evangelical who has turned his attention to religious-themed films in recent years.

Quote of the Day/Week- Werner Herzog

Today, we quip one of our favorite German film directors Werner Herzog as we conclude a month-long series-within-a-series dedicated to quotes from famous Germans.

While researching this, we found out that Herzog is the first film director to make a film on every continent, including Antartica!

The 69-year-old director has just completed work on a documentary called "Death Row" about death row inmates in America. The subject should be a unique one from Herzog's vantage point as many Europeans find the fact that America executes inmates extremely unsettling, while more than 50 percent of Americans seem to support capital punishment in spite of conclusive proof of wrongful executions.

(Full disclosure: I am highly opposed to capital punishment, and I am a long-time supporter of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty).

We get today's quote from the Les Blank documentary "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe," which was made in 1980 and originated from a bet that Herzog made with a then-unknown documentary filmmaker named Errol Morris, who has since become an Academy-Award winner. Morris's latest documentary "Tabloid" was an art-house hit earlier this year:

"If you want to do a film, then steal a camera, steal raw stock, sneak into a lab and just do it."


SIDEBAR ONE: We found out yesterday that actress Anne Hathaway, whom I have admired since she made the 2005 independent film "Havoc" and has since made box office successes, such as "The Devil Wears Prada," is getting engaged. We should wish the actress, who turned 29 earlier in the month well, but frankly we are as jealous as Daffy Duck! Assuredly, anyone wanting more info on Hathaway's personal life can watch "TMZ" as we are moving on to other things.

SIDEBAR TWO: This might seem like a headline from the fake news publication "The Onion," but it is in fact an actual headline from the current issue of "Seattle Weekly:" "The gay softball team that wasn't gay enough has reached a settlement."

Indeed, in 2008, the San Francisco-based gay softball team D2, which finished second at the Gay Softball World Series in Seattle, was disqualified because they allegedly had two or three bisexual or heterosexual players. We first heard about this from the same publication, and blogged about it last year (search our 'gay politics' tag to learn more).

Apparently, the matter went to court, and it has reached a binding resolution. We can imagine that this story may actually be a topic of discussion for both gay rights activist/sex advice columnist Dan Savage and a right-wing talking head,like Rush Limbaugh, who may use this as an example of extreme political correctness (but, I guess rebel-flag waving Confederate apologists in 2011 is ok?!),.......only in America!