Morgan Spurlock on His New Movie ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’

By Steven Priggé

April 22, 2011

In Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, he exposes the wonderful world of product placement by financing the movie solely through product placement. After endless rejections from suspicious companies, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker ultimately scored loot from major brands like JetBlue, Ban, and POM Wonderful, who've made this film their own. “When I was twelve years old, I remember going to see E.T.,” Spurlock says. “E.T. was eating Reese’s Pieces that were thrown on the ground. I remember coming out of the theater and getting my mom to buy me Reese’s Pieces because I had never eaten them. So it obviously works!”

Why the subject of product placement for a documentary?
The film was actually inspired by seeing so much terrible in-your-face product placement in TV shows and movies.  My producing partner and co-writer Jeremy Chilnick, started talking about all of the movies that do this.  The more we talked about it, we said it would be interesting to make a movie that rips open product placement, to show what goes on behind the scenes and actually get companies to pay for it. We didn’t know if we would actually get people to pay for it, or if anybody would even want to come onboard, but that was kind of a jumping off point. 

Have you ever used product placement in your previous documentaries?
Well, some people would argue that Super Size Me was a movie filled with product placement. Maybe not paid placement. No, I had never done anything where anybody had paid to have their product in a movie. People don’t really view documentary films as being the most lucrative or visible place where you want to pay to put a product anyway.

You’re an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, so you can get a company’s attention.  On the flipside, you exposed McDonalds, one of the biggest brands in the world.  Were companies hesitant about getting involved with your latest doc because they didn’t how they would be portrayed?
We had companies that said that they want to do this, but they wanted to have final cut of the movie.  We said, Absolutely not. You get zero control over the content. We can talk to you and we will tell you how we are thinking of integrating you into the film and how it’s going to work out, but you’re not going to tell us how to make the movie.  A lot of people were very very scared of that.  A lot of companies balked and said they want nothing to do with this film because they had no control over what we were going to say about them. All of the contracts that we made had non disparagement clauses in them. We weren’t going to disparage them because they were ultimately our co-promotional partners with the movie. At the same time, we wanted to maintain artistic integrity and tell the story we wanted to tell. 

Tell me about the pitch process with companies.
First off, we started calling ad agencies. Every ad agency, no matter who they were, wanted absolutely nothing to do with this movie. They were scared what this would do to their cash cow business. Then we started going to product placement companies and they didn’t want anything to do with the film. We actually had two product placement guys do an interview in the film, but nobody to help us find product.  My friend Richard Kirshenbaum literally had the only agency that would come onboard and think about helping us. I went to see Richard and Jon Bond, and they were the guys who got us in the room with our very first company, which was Ban. At that point, we had already started contacting companies on our own – literally cold calling CMO’s. We probably cold called between 500 and 600 companies to try to get them onboard for the movie. With the exception of Ban, every other brand that came onboard was because we called them directly. We didn’t deal with their agencies and that was literally the only reason that it happened.

Until you got Ban onboard, it sounds like you were sweating it out.
Who knew Ban deodorant was going to be the lynchpin for this movie?

In an interview, director David Lynch said that product placement in movies is “bullshit.” Do you think that many film directors are opposed to it, or is it a necessary evil if you want to survive in the movie business in 2011?
If you are making huge $200 million films, to get your action figures in a Happy Meal is important. To get that co-promotional cup in a 7-Eleven matters. You want to help create that zeitgeist moment. So I think that with big movies, it becomes more important because you have to do things that are not going to eat into what’s already become an incredibly expensive movie, and now is going to be an incredibly expensive marketing campaign. 

These days, do you think movie studios consider product placement before they green-light a movie? 
Absolutely.  There is a great interview with Norm Marshall, where he says that before scripts ever get made, his company is breaking down scripts going after clients trying to get products in movies, letting studios know where they can kind of make up the budget. It’s fascinating! Is that helping movies get green-lit? You ultimately hope that it’s not why they are green-lighting movies. You hope they are green-lighting movies because it’s a great movie and not because some shoe company is going to give $5 million to have the characters where them in the film. I ultimately think that it does help influence decisions in some way, but I hope it’s not the end-all.

Product placement has always been a hush-hush subject.  Do you think you broke one of the taboos with this documentary?
I think we broke a lot of taboos. We’ll see what happens. 

Was it harder for you to get product placement than you thought? 
We thought it was going to be easy, anticipating that by four or five months we would have all of the sponsors onboard. It took us nine months to get Ban onboard. It took us almost a full year to probably get six or eight sponsors in. It was a much longer and arduous process than I anticipated. But for me, that’s what made the film that much more rewarding, because we ultimately really had to work for it. 

You probably have one of the coolest jobs on the planet. If you weren’t doing this for a living what else would you like to do? 
I’m such a terrible painter, but I love art so much that I would love to paint. I’d just sit around and be a bad painter. Or, sit around and be a bad banjo player. I have a banjo that I’m also really terrible on. I think one of those two things would be great to do. 

At this point are you going to do a Super Size Me-type of documentary about POM Wonderful? You could try to live on POM Wonderful for 30 days?
Well, they have done studies that have shown that it’s 40% as effective as Viagra. So I don’t know if you could, but I might be really happy while I’m trying. 

What do you hope will happen as a result of this film being made?
When the movie comes out, what’s incredible is that there are about twenty promotional partners that we now have. We had about five more come on post-Sundance that won’t be in the film, but will be helping with co-promotion and marketing. I applaud the companies for coming onboard and giving up control. By giving up control, they put themselves in a position that was very risky and could’ve been problematic. But by letting someone else have some influence over their brand, I think they benefited. Hopefully, what will happen after this is that more companies will say that if we give up control and if we work directly with artists, great things can happen.

via blackbookmag.com

http://jantervonen.com/morgan-spurlock-on-his-new-movie-the-greatest

Lady Gaga Interview – Quotes from Lady Gaga - Harper's BAZAAR

via harpersbazaar.com

Anticipation isn't the right word. I'm sitting in a small recording studio's lounge in New York, waiting for Lady Gaga to arrive and play her about-to-be-released album, Born This Way, for an hour. We're on Gaga time here.

Then, in an instant, she appears. The 25-year-old former Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is petite in stature but gargantuan in charisma. She is scantily dressed in tights, black underwear, and a black bra under a studded, slashed, and shredded military jacket. Her accessories include fingerless gloves, winged boots, and a spike-covered Hermès Birkin. And, yes, the horns that she debuted Grammy week--and the ones you see in this story--are on full display, protruding from her cheekbones and forehead.

"Gaga!" she announces, extending her black-clawed hand in a ladylike manner. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you." She points toward a studio, spins around, and marches off.

When we are ensconced in this dungeon of sound, the first topic of conversation is the single "Born This Way," which, when it was released in February, set a new iTunes speed record for going to number one (less than three hours) and was Billboard's 1,000th number-one hit. "It broke all the records!" Gaga cheers, bopping up and down, adding that what she found most remarkable was that the song attracted new fans. "I was happy with the fans I've already got. But it opened this new fan base of people who love the simplicity and joyfulness of it."

As the millions of people who have seen the video for "Born This Way" can attest, Gaga devotes as much artistic energy to her visuals as she does her audio. But today she's still editing the Nick Knight--directed opening sequence, where we meet her newest creation, Mother Monster. She offers a sneak peek but warns, "You're not ready!" presumably referring to its awesomeness. "Nick Knight? He's such an asshole," she proclaims, which means he's a genius. And her inspiration for the video's out-of-this-world surrealism? "A lot of weed."

Gaga is happiest, as she says, "living every day somewhere between reality and fantasy at all times." The only tense part of our conversation occurs when I try to transition her fantasy into reality, asking about the new look--a series of sharp bones that protrude from Gaga's shoulders, cheekbones, and temples. How long does it take to apply the makeup and prosthetics to her face and arms?

"Well, first of all," she says, "they're not prosthetics. They're my bones."

Okay, so when did the bones appear?

"They've always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am."

Did she will them to come out for this album?

"They come out when I'm inspired."

Is she worried that this new look will inspire other people to "grow" similar bones?

"We all have these bones!" she says tersely. "They're the light from inside of us. Do you mean body modification?"

Yes.

"No, I'm not concerned about that."

The reason I'm pushing this is that in the past, Gaga has spoken openly about her drug use while at the same time being quick to clarify that she doesn't endorse it. So one can't help but wonder if she has considered that some of her Little Monsters, as she calls her fans, may actually hurt themselves trying to emulate her transformation.

"I haven't hurt myself," she says. Then, with her darkened eyes narrowed, she continues, "I want you to be careful how you view this."

Help me view it then.

It's artistic expression," Gaga says. "It's a performance-art piece. I have never, ever encouraged my fans or anyone to harm themselves, nor do I romanticize masochism. Body modification is part of the overarching analysis of 'Born This Way.' In the video, we use Rico, who is tattooed head to toe [including a skull on his face]. He was born that way. Although he wasn't born with tattoos, it was his ultimate destiny to become the man he is today."

And this was Gaga's destiny?

"I have never had plastic surgery, and there are many pop singers who have. I think that promoting insecurity in the form of plastic surgery is infinitely more harmful than an artistic expression related to body modification."

"And how many models and actresses do you see on magazine covers who have brand-new faces and have had plastic surgery, while I myself have never had any plastic surgery? I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me."

But can she acknowledge that some people will misinterpret a woman putting horns on her face?

"Trust me, I know that. I think a lot of people love to convolute what everyone else does in order to disempower women. But my fans know me. They would never hurt themselves. And if they have hurt themselves, they come to me and say, 'Gaga, I want to stop, and your music helps me want to stop. Your music makes me want to love myself.' I am in no way promoting sadomasochism or masochism."

That settled, conversation reverts to safer territory: avant-garde fashion. In her early music videos, before she became the darling of the fashion industry and could show up on morning TV dressed in a condom-inspired latex ensemble (to raise awareness for safe sex, of course), Gaga pushed boundaries. Three years ago, before she was a pop icon, she was known as the singer who refused to wear pants. Her relationship with the stylist Nicola Formichetti is one of fashion's great love affairs; she even closed his first womenswear outing as the creative director of the house of Mugler in March dressed as a club-kid bride. She also greatly admires Hussein Chalayan, who designed her "vessel" for the Grammys and who she describes as "an incredible mind and a genius human being. He truly leads the way in the avant-garde world."

Her other fashion hero is the late, great Alexander McQueen. When McQueen comes up, Gaga leans back and a sense of wonder glows from her face. She thinks that after his suicide, McQueen began working through her. "I think he planned the whole thing: Right after he died, I wrote 'Born This Way.' I think he's up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing." Supporting Gaga's claim was the decision by the label--not Gaga herself--to move up the release date for "Born This Way," ultimately to the exact day of the one-year anniversary of McQueen's death. "When I heard that, I knew he planned the whole damn thing. I didn't even write the fucking song. He did!"

If McQueen, from beyond the grave, did help Gaga with this record, he had his work cut out for him. After she unlocks her iPod (with some difficulty, given those claw fingernails), she blasts the entire album. It is epic. Gaga wants the listener to be intoxicated by every song, but in different ways. "'Born This Way' is the marijuana to the heroin of the album. The [album's] experience gets massively more intense as you explore it. All the different songs are different kinds of highs."

The song "Marry the Night," which Gaga wrote once she was this superstar she had always dreamed of being, is particularly memorable. She says that once she had become a household name--after winning Grammys, after wrestling with Madonna on Saturday Night Live, after countless magazine covers--she felt pressured to move to the pop-culture mecca that is Los Angeles. "I had all these number-one records, and I had sold all these albums, and it was sort of this turning point: Am I going to try and embrace Hollywood and assimilate to that culture?" Suffice to say, it didn't work out. "I put my toe in that water, and it was a Kegel-exercise vaginal reaction where I clenched and had to retract immediately," she says in a very vivid metaphor. "I ran furiously back to New York, to my old apartment, and I hung out with my friends, and I went to the same bars."

On a list of Gaga's passions, there's music, then fame and, somewhere lower, material comfort and cash. When she came back to New York, she returned to her studio apartment, which she says is the size of the recording studio we're sitting in, and it's where she still lives. Asked what she spends her money on (upwards of $62 million a year, according to Forbes), she says it goes to her live shows and her friends. She flew about 20 people to L.A. for the Grammys, and if anyone on tour needs equipment, it comes out of her piggy bank. "I spend my money on my props and my creations. I'm an inventor."

Financial freedom has been a tonic for any emotional fatigue. "The true luxury of my success is that I can do it all on my own terms now, even though the roller-coaster ride is still going." But now she owns the roller coaster. "I own the whole theme park, actually."

What Gaga has realized, and what she is extolling in Born This Way, is that there is more to life than the paparazzi (even though she wrote an entire song devoted to the glamour of being stalked by photographers) and fortune. Is it hard to give up the glamorous life? "It's not if it doesn't mean anything to you," she says. "What means something to me is my music. I don't want to make money; I want to make a difference."

She says she doesn't read tabloids but is amused that they have such a vested interest in her personal life. (She's happy to respond to recent claims: "I'm not engaged, and I'm not a drug addict, but thank you for asking.")

But in getting people's attention, Gaga has been universally sensational. In an early video interview, she looks into the camera and uses the word gaga as an adjective. "I've always wanted to be an adjective," she says with a smile. But she adds, "Back then, I was just delusional. I'm going to make a T-shirt that says, I'M NOT A PROPHET, I'M DELUSIONAL."

And what if it hadn't worked out? What if she was still struggling Stefani? Gaga says she'd be just as happy as she is now. "I would still be living next door to my friend Jennifer, playing at the clubs I've always played at. It was never not going to work out for me because I was already living my dream when I was playing music."

Born This Way will have a tour, and after that tour will come another album "and another Grammy performance, and the cycle continues," Gaga says. Is she worried about reaching a saturation point with the media? Nope. "You can quote me on this: People love you when they think you won't be around for very long, and people hate you when they can't get rid of you. But I'm not going anywhere."

via harpersbazaar.com

http://jantervonen.com/lady-gaga-interview-quotes-from-lady-gaga-har

Infographic of the Day: Silicon Valley's Nebulous Money Network

via fastcodesign.com

http://jantervonen.com/infographic-of-the-day-silicon-valleys-nebulo

San Francisco to Paris in Two Minutes

via youtube.com

http://jantervonen.com/san-francisco-to-paris-in-two-minutes

Simple life Manhattan: a 90-square-foot microstudio

via youtube.com

http://jantervonen.com/simple-life-manhattan-a-90-square-foot-micros

Robo Cloud to Intercept Sun Over World Cup Qatar | Fast Company

Qatari scientists claim to have cracked the problem of shade for crowded stadiums during the 2022 World Cup: Artificial clouds.

Local temperatures can poke upward of 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius), and relentless summer sun would be a big barrier to enjoyment for the hundreds of thousands of football fans expected to attend in person. The games were originally going to be moved to winter months, but FIFA has since reconsidered (no doubt pondering the disruption this could cause in competing nations' own football leagues). Air conditioning spaces for crowds, and practice arenas for the hundreds of players themselves, is a possibility of course, and will happen--but the environmental burden could be enormous, even with plans to use solar power to generate some of the energy needed by air conditioning units.

Hence, the idea by Qatari science teams to create huge artificial clouds and float them over venues to block direct sunlight. Essentially, the devices are massive dirigibles filled with helium, built of carbon fiber and super-light fabrics, and equipped with four solar-powered engines to move them into place and keep them stable even in changing winds. Each "cloud" would cost around $500,000, and unlike the Zeppelin-like blimps you're thinking of, the clouds would be large, flat, inflated platforms designed to produce maximum shade.

Naturally, we speculate that the underside of these huge structures will find a secondary use in the extraordinarily ad-centric affair that is the World Cup. After all, Goodyear does a good job of advertising itself with its conventional blimp, and the flat-ish underside of the artificial cloud would be absolutely ideal for giant, projected adverts.

It all sounds incredible, though we can't help but note we'd prefer it if Qatar used a happier sort of artificial cloud tech to perform the same trick:

To read more news like this, follow Fast Company on Twitter: Click here.

via fastcompany.com

http://jantervonen.com/robo-cloud-to-intercept-sun-over-world-cup-qa

Middle-East Activists Get James Bond-like Data Eraser Technology | Fast Company

via fastcompany.com

http://jantervonen.com/middle-east-activists-get-james-bond-like-dat

Wanted: A Cycling Shirt You Can Wear to the Office | Co.Design

An ingenious design by British industrial designer Sam Hecht grafts the storage of a cycling jersey onto the crisp good looks of a classic dress shirt.

It's always hilarious to see the makeshift ways businessmen who bike to work stash their stuff. Take my dad. He hooks a shopping bag around his handle bars, which looks only slightly less ridiculous than what he used to do: carry a mini backpack. To give you a proper visual: My father is 6-foot-5 and could easily be mistaken for a grizzly bear.

The conundrum is not lost on U.K. designer Sam Hecht, who -- himself no stranger to life on two wheels -- has collaborated with the British fashion label Margaret Howell to graft storage space onto something working stiffs (biking types included) never go without: their shirt.

The resulting design combines the conveniences of a cycling jersey with the styling of a tailored shirt. Two big back pockets inspired by the turned-up tail of a classic dress shirt fit maps, newspapers, wallets, keys, and whatever other small items you cart to work, and a cleverly concealed pocket above the left cuff affords easy access to your subway card. The rest of the shirt is crisp, clean, and minimally detailed.

The shirt isn't cheap -- 225 pounds, or about $360. But not looking like a geek in a mini backpack has gotta' be worth a lot more. Buy it here.

http://jantervonen.com/wanted-a-cycling-shirt-you-can-wear-to-the-of-0

U.S. Develops Cellphone 'Panic Button' For Pro-Democracy Activists

via huffingtonpost.com

By Andrew Quinn

(Reuters) - Some day soon, when pro-democracy campaigners have their cellphones confiscated by police, they'll be able to hit the "panic button" -- a special app that will both wipe out the phone's address book and emit emergency alerts to other activists.

The panic button is one of the new technologies the U.S. State Department is promoting to equip pro-democracy activists in countries ranging from the Middle East to China with the tools to fight back against repressive governments.

"We've been trying to keep below the radar on this, because a lot of the people we are working with are operating in very sensitive environments," said Michael Posner, assistant U.S. secretary of state for human rights and labor.

The U.S. technology initiative is part of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's push to expand Internet freedoms, pointing out the crucial role that on-line resources such as Twitter and Facebook have had in fueling pro-democracy movements in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

The United States had budgeted some $50 million since 2008 to promote new technologies for social activists, focusing both on "circumvention" technology to help them work around government-imposed firewalls and on new strategies to protect their own communications and data from government intrusion.

"We're working with a group of technology providers, giving small grants," Posner told reporters.

"We're operating like venture capitalists. We are looking for the most innovative people who are going to tailor their technology and their expertise to the particular community of people we're trying to protect."

The United States first began to publicly leverage new Internet technologies in 2009, when it asked Twitter to delay a planned upgrade that would have cut service to Iranians who were organizing mass protests over disputed elections.

Since then it has viewed new media technologies as a key part of its global strategy, facing off with China over censorship of Google results and launching its own Twitter feeds in Arabic, Farsi and Hindi.

Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the department for not doing enough to promote the new technology, but Posner said it was building momentum as new initiatives are rolled out.

"We're now going full speed ahead to get the money out the door," he said.

CAT-AND-MOUSE

Posner said the United States has helped fund development of about a dozen new circumvention technologies now being rolled out, and that more would follow as activists play an increasingly complex game of cat-and-mouse with censors.

He said that the experience of pro-democracy protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in February underscored the centrality of cellphones to modern grassroots political movements. The United States, he said, was working on new devices like the "panic button" and secure text message services to protect both data and databases.

"The world is full of ... governments and other authorities who are capable of breaking into that system," Posner said. "A lot of activists don't know what their options are. They don't have access to technology."

The United States has funded training for some 5,000 activists around the world on the new technologies -- and some sessions have turned up unnerving surprises.

At a recent training session in Beirut, experts examined the computer of a Tunisian activist and discovered it was infected with "key-logging" software that could communicate what he was typing -- presumably to security agents.

"They started to go around and look at what was on the other peoples' computers. A guy from Syria had 100 viruses in his machine ... this is the tip of the iceberg," he said.

Posner conceded that the U.S. move to develop these new technologies carried some risks.

Secure on-line tools useful for underground pro-democracy activists might also be useful for drug cartels or terrorist cells, raising new law enforcement and national security issues that need to be resolved, he said.

"The fact is al Qaeda probably has their own way of gathering some of these technologies," Posner said. "The goal here is to protect people who are, in a peaceful manner, working for human rights and working to have a more open debate."

http://jantervonen.com/us-develops-cellphone-panic-button-for-pro-de

Pittsburgh Zoo's favourite lion Juma dies at 21 leaving behind lioness Shiba

After 21 years together Shiba the lioness spends hours grooming her dying mate before he was euthanised at Pittsburgh Zoo

They spent their whole lives together and their love was plain for all to see.

But now Juma, the lion king, is dead and his queen Shiba is having to get used to life on her own after 21 years of 'married bliss.'

Juma, the pride of Pittsburgh Zoo, passed away after battling age-related ailments including feline dementia.

Putting their heads together: When Juma arrived at Pittsburgh Zoo, Shiba had already been there a year. After initially being indifferent towards each other they soon became pals

His death followed weeks of barely eating anything. In his final days and he ate nothing and Shiba barely left his side, constantly grooming him as he grew too weak to move.

Kathy Suthard, the zoo's lead carnivore keeper, said: 'As you watched Juma and Shiba, they reminded you of an old married couple.

'They were always together. They would curl up together at night on one of the sleeping platforms.

My space: Juma and Shiba's fondness for staying outdoors made them a favourite with zoo's visitors, along with Juma's impressive roaring

'When Juma’s arthritis prevented him from jumping up to the platform, Shiba would join him on the straw bed we made for him.'

Fortunately Shiba, who at 22 was a year older than Juma, seems to be coping with life alone.

Miss Suthard said: 'I think that she sensed that Juma wasn’t feeling well.

'Days before he died, she spent hours grooming him and would stay very close. A couple days after his passing, she seemed distracted.

'Shiba stayed inside for a couple of days but is now back to her routine.'

Mr and Mrs: The duo used to remind keepers of 'an old married couple' in their later years

Before his sad decline Juma was one of the visitors' favourites at the zoo because of his love of roaring.

While so many animals are content to shy away, he wanted to be seen.

When he wasn't sitting upright baring his muscular chest or pacing up and down he could be seen lounging with Shiba on their rock.

Grand old man: Proud Zuma strikes a pose for a visitor

Miss Suthard said: 'Juma would sit very still and watch the visitors stop and take photos.

'He would roar to let everyone know that this was his territory.'

The African lion arrived at the zoo in 1990 when he was just a year old.

He had been confiscated from a private breeder in Ohio after local farmers complained to the sheriff's office about him escaping from his enclosure and eating poultry.

Snuggy time: Shiba lets Juma rest his head against her to take his mind off his troubles

'Juma was a nuisance to the neighbourhood,' says Miss Suthard. 'He was constantly escaping from his enclosure.'

The sheriff wanted to make sure that Juma was sent to a good home rather than being euthanised.

Miss Suthard said: 'The Ohio zoos weren’t interested in a male lion from the pet trade, so he called us and this has been Juma’s home ever since.'

The year before, the Zoo had welcomed Shiba.

'Since both were young, we wanted to put them together. At first they were wary of each other, but they grew together,' said Miss Suthard.

Alone with his thoughts: The African lion, who spent his first year with a private breeder in Ohio, ponders a life behind bars

In the wild, the male lions are the leaders of the pride, but Shiba was the stronger personality.

At first she would push Juma around, but eventually she became submissive and let Juma be the leader.

One of his quirks, keepers discovered, was a love of scents. Spiec and peppermint were his favourites.

Keepers would sprinkle the scents on his straw. He would roll around and lay on it for hours.

But the passage of time stands still for no one, including monster beasts like Juma, and eventually he started losing his faculties.

Breathless: In his final year, Zuma was plagued by age-related ailments such as arthritis and dementia. Occasionally he would act like he didn't know where he was

In its blog, Pittsburgh Zoo wrote: 'It is with great sadness that the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium announces that Juma has passed away. He had been suffering from age-related ailments in the past year including feline dementia. "He would sometimes forget where he was and look around like he was lost," says Dr. Stephanie James, Director of Animal Health.

'"As his senior moments increased, his appetite decreased. His keepers tried to encourage him to eat by giving him his favourite food, ground turkey. We knew that despite everything we were doing, his quality of life continued to deteriorate."'

After careful thought, veterinary staff and lion keepers made the difficult decision to euthanise Juma, the blog added.

http://jantervonen.com/pittsburgh-zoos-favourite-lion-juma-dies-at-2