Celeste & Jesse Forever Includes Olympic Laughs

"Space Olympics" remains one of my all-time favorite Saturday Night Live spoofs. Andy Samburg nailed it as an otherworldly IOC member (that's intergalactic Olympic committee) welcoming Michael Phelps and others to the Games of the future.

Back on earth this weekend, I enjoyed screening the new romantic comedy "Celeste & Jesse Forever" which features Samburg opposite Rashida Jones (of "The Social Network" and "Parks & Recreation" fame), who wrote this clever little picture.

What drew me to view this film: An Atlanta Journal-Constitution-published reprint of a San Francisco Chronicle review, which gave "Celeste & Jesse Forever" an "A" grade. More importantly, the review briefly mentioned that Samburg's slacker character takes a few hits from overachiever Celeste since he spends a lot of his free time watching reruns of the Beijing Olympics -- specifically an emotional weightlifting competition -- in lieu of gainful employment.

Five-ringed connections aside, this film is quirky, fun, funny and touching ... one of the best-written films I've seen of late (though I did enjoy "Frenzy" on the big screen at an Alfred Hitchcock feature screening as part of the Cultural Olympiad in London last week).

Check out the trailer and more details here.

Photo via Sony Picture Classics

Weightlifting Icon Vasily Alekseyev

Sad to recently read that Olympic weightlifting champion Vasily Alekseyev died in Germany on Nov. 25.

I recall viewing Alekseyev's super heavyweight feats as a kid, and his gold medal lifts in Munich and Montreal are burned in the brains of many who viewed highlight reels of Olympics from the 1970s.

Through The New York Times obituary for Alekseyev, I learned he was undefeated from 1970 to 1978. Also found that his wife's name is near match for my Yahoo! email address: Olimpiada.

An online video of an archived sports TV report also shared some insight into the life of the man who set the record for breaking sports world records.

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