You will probably recognize former United States Marine turned actor/comedian Rob Riggle from his time as a correspondent on The Daily Show, and as a cast member of Saturday Night Live but he is quickly gaining attention for a string of roles in some of the most popular films in recent years. Riggle is best known from his role as Officer Franklin in one of the most successful comedies of all-time, The Hangover, but he’s also been featured in such high profile films as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, Going the Distance, The Other Guys, Larry Crowne, and most recently Big Miracle. In fact, the busy actor has not one, but two films opening this month including the big screen adaptation of the classic ‘80s TV series 21 Jump Street, and The Lorax, which opens on March 2^nd and is based on the popular children’s book by the legendary author Dr. Seuss.

In the film, Zac Efron plays Ted, an idealistic twelve year-old boy that lives in “Thneed-Ville,” a city that is completely artificial. He eventually embarks on a journey to find the one thing that will win him the heart of the girl of his dreams, Audrey (Taylor Swift), who only wants to see a real tree. While searching for a tree, he discovers that their city has been closed off from the outside world, and meets the reclusive Once-ler (Ed Helms), who recounts the story of how he met the Lorax (Danny DeVito), a grumpy yet charming creature who serves as guardian of the land. But when a young businessman introduces a revolutionary invention from the native Truffula Tree’s tufts, it tragically spirals into a mass overproduction leading to the depletion of the forest, and the creation and isolation of Ted’s town. With the Once-ler’s blessing, and the last Truffula Seed, Ted sets out to remind his town of the importance of nature. Riggle plays O’Hare, the evil mayor of Thneed-Ville and the head of the O’Hare Air Company, which supplies fresh air to Thneed-Ville residents and has no intention of leaving any traces of the Lorax’s world behind.

I recently had a chance to sit down with the absolutely hilarious Rob Riggle to discuss his voiceover work in The Lorax. The comedic actor talked about the new film, his evil character, creating the right voice, working with the directors, Dr. Seuss, the film’s environmental themes, comparisons between his character’s appearance and a certain fellow cast member, singing and “not telling jokes when the whales are dying.”

As the nation recovered from last weekend's Super Bowl festivities, it sought entertainment through the movies, resulting in a very busy weekend, resulting in a few minor records being broken.  So far in this young year, the box office has been surprisingly robust, particularly considering the often feeble showings throughout 2011.  This particular weekend, no less than four major movies opened to well over $20 million, quite an accomplishment on a seemingly unremarkable February frame.  Strong showings all around meant that, overall, there was a 30% increase from the comparable weekend last year.

The weekend of the Super Bowl is generally a pretty quiet one at multiplexes across this great and strange nation of ours, as the annual NFL championship game completely hijacks national attention.  Nobody's really thinking about movies, since there's too much anticipation for commercials interrupted by spurts of football.  Accordingly, with the New England Patriots and the New York Giants squaring off in Indianapolis, nobody expected much from this weekend's new releases, but lo and behold, two of the three newbies surprised.  Both Chronicle and The Woman in Black debuted to over $20 million, with the former edging out the latter for first place.

In 1988, the news cycle didn't work with the same rapidity that it does today, when a story can go from the center of global attention to virtually nonexistent in a matter of days or even hours.  Almost 25 years ago, big stories became big stories without so many competing 24-hour news networks, all manner of social media, immediate meme-dom, and the eventual backlash. 

It was a year that included an American presidential election and the release of Die Hard, but one particular story that captured the imagination and attention not just of America but of the world at large was that of three California gray whales surrounded by encroaching ice in the Arctic Circle.  Multiple nations and even conflicting interests united to find a way to get the whales, known affectionately as Fred, Wilma, and Bam Bam, through miles of ice to the safety of the open ocean.

Operation Breakthrough, as it was known, was chronicled by Tom Rose in the 1989 book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event.  That book inspired the new film Big Miracle, which dramatizes the events and stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, who respectively play a Greenpeace activist and the journalist who first discovered the whale family.  With the new family-friendly drama arriving this Friday, both stars were recently on hand for a Los Angeles press conference, along with fellow actors Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Vinessa Shaw, and director Ken Kwapis.  IAR's own Jami Philbrick was present to get these creative figures' thoughts on telling the story of Fred, Wilma, Bam Bam, and all those who aided in their journey.