Sunday, May 31, 2009
Blake Lively Takes Flight — Of The Conchords
Blake Lively celebrates the lighting of the Burberry sign across the Manhattan skyline with costar/boyfriend Penn Badgley at The New York Palace Hotel on Thursday. The event coincided with the day being declared Burberry Day by the NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg.
At the event, I asked the 21-year-old Gossip Girl actress what she thought of her date night out with Penn at Fuerza Bruta: Look Up.
“It was incredible,” Blake shared. “It was wonderful to see. It’s such an interesting art form you don’t generally see. [The indoor rain] was the highlight!”
I also asked her which TV show she would want to guest star on. “Flight of the Conchords!” Blake told JustJared.com with no hesitation. “I love it so much. It’s my favorite show. I’m obsessed with it.”
You hear that HBO? Get crackin’!
More pictures @ the SOURCE
Halle accepting her award from Jamie Foxx at “Guys Choice” Awards
Halle Berry is honored with the Decade of Hotness award at Spike TV’s 2009 “Guys Choice” Awards held at the Sony Studios on Saturday (May 30) in Los Angeles.
The 42-year-old actress had a very special moment with Jamie Foxx, who was on hand to present the award to Halle.
Jamie thanked Halle by kissing her on the lips and giving her a nice squeeze on her tush. Looks like they both really enjoyed it!
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Miranda Kerr is naked with koalas
IT'S a bold move but Miranda Kerr pulls it off with style.
The home-grown model has posed for her first nude photo shoot, appearing on the cover of the latest edition of Australian Rolling Stone.
She joins an exclusive club who have stripped off for the mag, including Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston and Lady GaGa.
Another famous face to have graced its cover while keeping his clothes on was former Prime Minister Paul Keating, pictured in cool Ray-Ban sunglasses.
In the US Kerr, 26, is best known as a Victoria's Secret lingerie model and Orlando Bloom's squeeze, but back home she is also the wholesome face of David Jones.
She says she decided to go "au naturel" to raise awareness of the environment, specifically koalas.
"I feel strongly about the need to protect our natural environment because it supports our life - it really is that simple,'' Kerr tells the magazine, in stores on Wednesday.
Kerr shot the cover for Rolling Stone's first "green issue'' in Sydney in January, with photographer Carlotta Moye behind the lens.
The day-long shoot also included a real koala named Koral, as Kerr is the face of the Australian Koala Foundation's No Tree, No Me campaign.
The campaign aims to protect koalas' natural habitat, hence Kerr's only prop for the shoot is a chain locking her to a tree.
"It's a sad thing - there are only about 100,000 koalas left in Australia,'' Kerr said.
"Something like 80 per cent of the koalas' habitat has been destroyed since Europeans arrived in Australia.''
Kerr is also set to appear in American designer Marc Jacob's new Protect The Skin You're In T-shirt campaign, joining the likes of Eva Mendes, Heidi Klum, Dita Von Teese, Naomi Campbell and Victoria Beckham to raise awareness of skin cancer.
"I'm fully covered - at least, they've covered my bits with the words,'' she laughed.
Other celebrities to have ditched their clothes for a cause include Nicollette Sheridan, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Donovan and Leona Lewis. Given Kerr's high profile, these latest striking images are likely to be picked up by America's Rolling Stone magazine.
"The great thing about having people recognise you is you can try to make a positive difference - that's what I'm trying to do, especially for young women,'' Kerr said.
Rolling Stone's inaugural green issue includes other well-known Australian faces - John Butler, Ruby Rose and Xavier Rudd - talking about environmental issues close to their hearts.
"I believe every effort we make now has a reaction - if we're making positive changes, if we're all doing the simple, small things we can do to help the environment, it makes a big difference,'' said Kerr, who tries to eat only organic food.
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Rumer Willis guest-starring on 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager'
Rumer Willis has landed a guest role playing a pregnant teenager on the ABC Family drama The Secret Life Of The American Teenager.
The oldest of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s three daughters has signed on to appear in an episode airing in mid-August, according to a report from Entertainment Weekly.
The budding 19-year-old actress has previously guest starred on Lifetime’s Army Wives and the CBS forensic crime drama CSI: NY.
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Paris Hilton recording new album
This year will be remembered as an important year in history: President Obama’s inauguration, the economic crisis and Paris Hilton’s comeback.
The Paris Hilton franchise is expanding with sophomore efforts from both her TV career and music career. Fresh off of her announcement of a second season of her MTV reality series, “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF,” the heiress discussed her forthcoming album and the inspiration behind the material: herself.
“I just talk about, you know … about things that have happened in my life — about friendship, it’s about love, you know, about certain instances in my life, and I think that people will get a really good insight on me and how I think.”
So if you can’t get enough about her life from the TV series, perhaps think of her album as the audio companion to it. So we know what it’s about — but what does it sound like?
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Jennifer's Body Tie-In Comic
Boom Studios, a comic book outfit, has gotten mighty cozy with 20th Century Fox. They're teaming for an upcoming 28 Days Later series and today they've announced not just a Die Hard comic book (entitled "Year One") but a graphic novel spun off from the upcoming September release Jennifer's Body which stars Megan Fox Boom has attracted some great talent here including ShockTillYouDrop.com friend Tim Seeley (congrats, bud).
The movie event of the Fall is the comic book event of this Summer! JUNO's award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody brings you JENNIFER'S BODY starring Megan Fox as a demonically-possessed cheerleader with a taste for killing teenage boys! In this original graphic novel that ties into the movie and expands on its universe, BLACK METAL's Rick Spears brings you even more hellish Jennifer stories with art by HACK/SLASH's Tim Seely, KICK DRUM COMIX' Jim Mahfood, DMZ's Nikki Cook, and POPGUN’s Ming Doyle.
Jennifer's Body hits theaters on September 18th; the graphic novel, published under the Fox Atomic label, will set you back about $24.99 and hit shelves later this summer
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Mary-Kate Olsen Doing New Movie
"With the plethora of cool projects in the works, Aliquot Films had much to celebrate at last night's investors party hosted by Founder Jay Kubassek at the IMI Club. The independent film fund and production company will begin shooting "Meskada" on June 8th - the film will be the second feature in production for the NYC-based Aliquot Films.
"Meskada" tells the story of small-town detective Noah Cordin, as he attempts to solve a junvenile homicde that occured during a home burglary in his affluent town of Hilliard. "Meskada" will star Penn Badgley, Kellan Lutz, Vincent D’Onofrio, Cynthia Nixon, and Mary-Kate Olsen."
- Olsen Files
Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana, Blur for 'Guitar Hero 5'
Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Blur all feature on the forthcoming new edition of the 'Guitar Hero' computer game, NME.COM can reveal.
'Guitar Hero 5' is expected to be released worldwide this autumn, and with the latest upgrade of the smash hit game comes a raft of new artists to play along with, including Gorillaz, Bob Dylan, The White Stripes and Coldplay.
Developers Activision are also working on a DJ Hero spin-off game to launch later this year.
In the meantime, NME.COM can exclusively reveal the list of bands set to feature in 'Guitar Hero 5':
Band Of Horses
Bush
Darkest Hour
Blur
Kiss
Blink-182
Iron Maiden
Wild Cherry
Muse
The White Stripes
Jimmy Eat World
Bob Dylan
Gorillaz
Beastie Boys
The Raconteurs
Coldplay
Duran Duran
Tom Petty
Nirvana
Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde
Queens Of The Stone Age
The Sword
AFI
Rush
Doors Down
Smashing Pumpkins
David Bowie
Mötley Crüe
Attack! Attack!
Dire Straits
Johnny Cash
The Derek Trucks Band
Sublime
Wolfmother
Rammstein
Beck
Garbage
Billy Squier
My Morning Jacket
Kaiser Chiefs
Brand New
Santana
Bon Jovi
Weezer
Billy Idol
Elliott Smith
A Perfect Circle
Sonic Youth
Kings Of Leon
The Bronx
Queen & David Bowie
Screaming Trees
The Killers
Vampire Weekend
TV On The Radio
John Mellencamp
Scars On Broadway
The Rolling Stones
Stevie Wonder
Face to Face
Peter Frampton
No Doubt
Iggy Pop
Spacehog
Thin Lizzy
The Police
Children of Bodom
Elton John
Arctic Monkeys
Thrice
Rose Hill Drive
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Deep Purple
Darker My Love
Jeff Beck
Love and Rockets
The Duke Spirit
Sunny Day Real Estate
King Crimson
T. Rex
Gov’t Mule
Eagles Of Death Metal
Grand Funk Railroad
Megadeth
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Candy Spelling Blames Tori for Aaron's Death
Everybody knows Candy and Tori Spelling had a beef, but now moms is taking the family feud to a whole new level of nasty.
Appearing on a Massachusetts radio station Thursday to pimp her new book, Stories from Candyland, Candy Spelling not just bad-mouthed her 90210-starring spawn, but went so far as to blame husband Aaron Spelling's demise on her estranged daughter.
"My daughter one day decided that she wasn't speaking to my husband, myself and my son and that's how it's continued for the last, oh gosh, four or five years," Candy said to 94.7 WMAS-FM's Kellogg Krew.
"And it was sad, that's what killed my husband actually. He just didn't want to live after that. He has just done everything he could possibly do for his daughter and she wanted no part of him once he couldn't do anything for her."
The über-producer died June 23, 2006, following a stroke; angst was not listed as the official cause of death.
Candy says that while both women have paid lip service in interviews about reconnecting, there has been no such luck thus far. "I've always been trying to work on the relationship. I don't know what the anger is."
Call it a hunch, but maybe it has something to do with the accusations of patricide.
We've been trying to get reps for Tori and Candy on the horn, but so far nada.
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Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer
"Entertainment Tonight has a preview of the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3. Someone video taped it (literally, with a video camera) and uploaded the 45-second clip onto YouTube. The quality isn’t great, and that Entertainment Tonight voiceover guy is annoying (sorry for stating the obvious) but those of you who are interested can watch it after the jump. I love how they managed to involve most of the main characters. I’ve heard that the teaser trailer is only playing on digital and digital 3D screenings of Up."
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Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski on Chuck's Renewal
"To sit back and observe the way in which Chuck was renewed was simply remarkable. I am so blessed to be a part of producing something that, when it appears to be at risk of disappearing, those loyal to it join in solidarity and literally speak, march, work, buy, share and will it back into existence. To know that such a huge part of our saving grace was comprised of the media and circle of critics, allows me to appreciate it even further. I'm proud of our crew, and I'm proud of what we're a part of bringing to all of you. But most importantly, I'm proud of you, those that fought. Because not only did you resist the apathy that befalls anyone faced by such adversity, you did so by believing your words and actions mean something. That you mean something. And I hope you know that, to us, you always do. Love & Blessings. -Zac (Viva la Nerdalution)"
"Yay, Chuck! I am absolutely amazed at how much support we have received from our fans and without it, we may not have been around for a third season. A big three cheers to all the people who saved Chuck! - Yvonne"
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Katie wants more sex
Katie Holmes wants to have more sex with husband Tom Cruise.
The actress – who has a three-year-old daughter, Suri, with the Hollywood
superstar – is reportedly growing increasingly frustrated with the couple’s
hectic schedule and is keen to spend more intimate time with Tom.
A source told Britain’s Closer magazine: “Katie has become noticeably more
miserable in the last few months. She finds it incredibly taxing to lead a
life that revolves around Tom but that doesn’t include enough intimate time
with him to be genuinely fulfilling.”
“She doesn’t just want to go to red-carpet events with him. She always feels
like she’s competing for Tom’s attention.”
Friends are reportedly worried about the former ‘Dawson’s Creek’ star, who
is said to be becoming isolated from her Los Angeles social circle.
The source added: “Everyone is worried that she’s close to breaking point.
Katie spends most days alone looking after Suri. She’s a devoted mother, but
it’s a lonely job. She and Tom have such separate lives.”
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
AmEx sues rocker Courtney Love for unpaid bill
American Express Co wants Courtney Love to leave home without it.
The financial services firm sued the musician in Los Angeles on Wednesday, alleging she owes more than $350,000 in unpaid charges and other fees on her AmEx Gold card.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks $352,059.67 for the unpaid balance, damages, attorney's fees and late charges, and says Love's charging privileges were suspended after she "failed and refused" to make payments.
Love's publicist said he had no immediate information on the suit, and had left a message with her attorney.
Love, the 44-year-old widow of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, is a litigation magnet. She was sued for libel in February by a fashion designer upset by comments Love had reportedly made about her on the micro-blogging Web site Twitter.
Last year, Love was sued for $1 million by an advisory firm seeking its share of proceeds from Love's partial sale of Nirvana's publishing catalog. The deal, covering such Nirvana tunes as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium," was reportedly worth $19.5 million. Cobain killed himself in 1994.
SourceDanica signs man boobs in Boost Mobile ad
Danica Patrick has joined 180LA's "Unwrong'd" campaign for Boost Mobile, following in the proud hoofsteps of those cannibalistic pigs from a few months ago. The setup is the same as the earlier spots: The viewer is subjected to some unpleasant visuals—in this case, Patrick signing man boobs and being tended to by a pit team in drag—and is then told that's not as "wrong" as getting screwed over by your mobile carrier. Go Daddy's Bob Parsons is going to be livid when he finds out that Danica signed any kind of boobs in someone else's ad. UPDATE: Also check out the third video below for a peek behind the scenes of the spots. It includes some choice quotes from 180LA's William Gelner, who says that channeling the insanity of his creative team into a Boost ad is like herding cats.
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Potbelly subs cannot contain their own girth
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Jon & Kate: $10 Million Divorce?
Scandal-plagued pair Jon and Kate Gosselin’s may be headed for a nasty $10 million divorce, reports National Enqurier.
“Jon said their goal is to be legally separated by July 15 because Kate wants to move on quickly,” an insider reveals. “Jon is going to push for half of their money, but Kate is determined to hang on to as much as she can — and they’re worth more than you think… Needless to say, there’s a small fortune at stake here — easily $10 million. And Jon and Kate will be fighting over it like cats and dogs!”
TLC says it has plans to renew Jon & Kate Plus 8, which kicked off its fifth season on Monday to a record 9.8 million viewers - more than double the show’s previous series high.
“The show’s ratings have grown consistently, as there has been interest in these real-life issues of this real-life family,” TLC said in a statement to E! News. “We will continue to air as the interest continues, and the family wants to do it.”
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Taylor Swift: I Don't Look for Boyfriends
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift doesn't follow a rulebook when it comes to dating.
"I don't look for boyfriends. I don't really scour the awards shows for who I'm going to date," the 19-year-old CMT Music Awards nominee tells the Associated Press. "But I think love happens when you're not looking for it, and when it happens, I'm not going to be the one to over think it."
Swift, who once dated Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, says it doesn't matter what her love interest does or how he affects her career.
"When you strategize a relationship too much, like, 'we're not gonna be public about it, and we're gonna say this in interviews,' when you think it all out, I think that complicates the relationship," she says, "I think that's unfair for the relationship."
The award-winning country artist is currently on her first headlining tour for her sophomore album, "Fearless," which already sold more than 3 million copies.
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Jennie Garth Opens Up About Health Problem
Jennie Garth has been hiding a health secret from her fans - she was diagnosed with a "leaky" heart valve seven years ago.
The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star has spoken out about her medical issues after mourning her father, who passed away last year after battling heart disease for years.
She tells news show Access Hollywood, "I have a leaky valve and it’s a common thing. A lot of people have it and they don’t know they have it… (It) leaks blood.
"It’s your connection to your heart... your artery, the main artery that goes to your heart. It sort of flutters open and shut... It’s weird because sometimes when I’m resting I can feel a little weird fluttering."
But she insists it's nothing to worry about for now: "Down the road it’s something that could get more complicated or it could not. People have had valve replacements and that kind of thing."
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Monday, May 25, 2009
Tori Amos Talks Sex, Jesus, and Swine Flu
Right then. Tori Amos has got a new album out. It's called 'Abnormally Attracted To Sin'. We went to have a talk with her about it but instead she told us about 80s sex, Jesus and marriage. Although some of that could have been an analogy. We're not sure. Anyway, she was lovely and pretended to like our topical joke. Here's the interview...
HM: Hello Tori, we heard you were ill recently and cancelled a show. We hope it wasn't swine flu.
Tori: No, it was just food poisoning.
HM: Because if you did have swine flu, everyone would know how you got it...
Tori: How is that?! How did I get it?
HM: Suckling pigs! (boom tish!)
Tori: Oh aren't you cute! It took a long time to gestate, didn't it? More than a baby elephant.
HM: Right, here's a proper question. The sticker on the back of your promo CD quotes you as saying you wanted to make a "treasure, something people will value." Do people not value their albums anymore?
Tori: I'm not just talking about the music. We all recognise that, sonically ether is like sex in the 80s.
HM: Er...
Tori: It just gets traded: 'Hi, nice to meet you. Let's just trade...' In LA in the 80s there was a lot of 'trading' going on. And the guys had long hair and they were cute and it was just a good time to be in your twenties.
But moving on... Trading ether is what happens these days. So you think, well just because you can doesn't mean that you don't want to support something that you value. So sometimes as the artist you have to get people to step up and say, 'God, I do wanna hold this. I do really wanna have this magical little treasure.' So I've always put a lot of effort into the packaging and the visual side.
HM: Is all this filthy trading of music the fault of the record companies?
Tori: Absolutely. It's because they didn't recognise what digital does. They didn't recognise what copying meant. And they could have, in the beginning, protected ether – in an appropriate way, but they didn't. And so because of that, it is where it is now. We can't rewrite that story. But what you can do is create something that people say, 'Wow, a lot of magical things come with this and I want to have it.'
HM: You're clearly proud of the packaging and accompanying videos but what about the music? Are you one of those artists who always thinks your new album is the best one you've ever made?
Tori: It's early yet. You can't ask me that. It's getting some good buzz in the States, and that's a good thing for all kinds of reasons. So that's nice. But I can't be objective about it yet.
HM: You must have some perception of whether it's a stinker or not?
Tori: There's no way. That's like trying to be objective about a marriage. Somebody says, 'Is this really gonna work?' And they're asking you right before we're getting married. And the wedding is May 18th, that's the release date. So how can they ask me if it's gonna work? You don't know that. You think you're in love. And you are in love. Are you gonna look back and think, I'm glad I had that relationship – even if you have other ones? 'Cause we have to assume I've had nine other husbands, if this analogy's gonna work. I can look at different relationships/records and say, 'These are the strengths of it. These are not the strengths.' But only with a little bit of time.
HM: Wait, are we married now? Let's say we are.
Changing the subject, do ghosts exist or is it just your pipes expanding?
Tori: Well... I think there's some disgruntled spirits that are trapped. I think the world is so complex that when I look out at night, especially when I'm out in the desert – hundreds of miles away from anything – and you look up and you see what's out there. And you think of all the exploding suns and stars and everything else and yet nobody knows where we go. There's not a little place, a destination. So I think, if the possibilities with galaxies are endless then I don't see why there would just be a destination: either/or for souls. I don't know where all the souls go.
HM: I think you'll find they go to Yates' Wine Lodge on a Friday.
Tori, imagine that you've angered a wizard and he intends to transform you into someone else as a punishment. He gives you a choice of Britney or Lindsay Lohan. Who do you choose?
Tori: You can't be serious! I'd be a mixture. I'd take Britney's heart and Lindsay's brain. And maybe through the two, you find healing.
HM: Or, at the very least, a great new sandwich filling.
What's your favourite smell?
Tori: My husband, right after he's gotten off his motorbike. He's a guy. My husband is a guy.
HM: That's reassuring. Now that capitalism is over, what will we do for fun?
Tori: This sounds terrible...oh god. Well, 'naked bankers nightly entertainment!'
HM: We'd pay good money to see a hedge fund.
Like you, one of our parents is a Methodist preacher. Is that why we weren't like the other children?
Tori: Yes. Yes. Yes. Had to be, right? You either buy into it completely or you have just the right information to start asking the right questions; seeing how it worked.
There were good people in the church, you know it and I know it, and sometimes I don't think people hear that enough from me. They all hear me blast it. But there are some ladies who really made that lemon poppy seed cake with the right intentions. But then there are so many people who would go to church and be so demeaning and mean and destroy others – so I just didn't see a lot of compassionate Christ-like people. Then I started to look into the gnostic gospels and other cultures and mythology and try and understand how Jesus' message got hijacked...absorbed is a better word. How did it get absorbed by the patriarchy out of Rome? And a couple of hundred years in, the church was split into the liberals and the conservatives and the conservatives won.
HM: It's our favourite of the Star Wars movies...
Tori: My parents run my publishing. And my father put my anthology together, and my song 'Crucify' wasn't in it. He'd edited out 'Father Lucifer,' 'Crucify,' 'God'...all these songs. And I've tried to tell people that the guys who put the gospels together are like my dad. They just edited out the books they didn't like. I've lived this in my tiny little Tori-world; I've seen this happen. So you've got to check out the gnostic gospels because they talk about a whole other kind of Jesus.
HM: We'll read them the minute we finish the latest Sophie Kinsella. Thank you for speaking to us, Tori.
Tori: I've loved our little chat. I know I've talked your ear off.
HM: We'd rather spend an hour with you than another five minutes with Flo Rida. That's our motto.
'Abnormally Attracted To Sin' is out now.
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Real Time: The Web's New Prime Time
The Internet was always fast. Google made a point during its rise to prominence to detail -- to the millisecond -- just how quickly it delivered a search result. And, as we all know, the Web has gotten even faster.
Real-time communications channels like Twitter are pushing the Internet into "real time," where communication and information flow nonstop. This presents advertisers with a dizzying array of opportunities -- and a daunting number of challenges.
Marketers "are built like battleships for long, sustained warfare, [but] this is guerrilla warfare," said Lisa Bradner, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.
One of the most intense challenges is the new speed with which messages need to be crafted. Think of display advertising, which is in the doldrums thanks to a nearly limitless supply of space outstripping ad demand. With a large chunk of the market transitioning to a marketplace-driven dynamic where advertisers, networks and agencies bid on ad placements based on people, not pages, a message -- and its permutations -- increasingly needs to be made on the fly. And this, in turn, means extra work up front.
HP, for instance, using tools from Yahoo and Tumri, recently ran a campaign with more than 20,000 ad permutations. To do this, said Catherine Paschkewitz, director of demand generation, HP Direct, "you need to take the time to think of your testing framework and the different things you want to test. It's having an up-front process as you're launching and refreshing campaigns."
Another way to make display ads more real time is to use live video. Visa, for instance, ran live video in banner ads earlier this year that showed scenes from cities worldwide. Last month, Intel embedded live chat in its banners. Earlier this month, GE CEO Jeff Immelt delivered a Webcast address on healthcare issues live in a banner ad on top sites. And Volvo and Intuit have piped Twitter into ad units.
Another challenge for brands is that consumers now expect instant gratification when it comes to customer service, which is why marketers like Apple, Bank of America and Overstock.com now provide live customer service on their sites. Kevin Kohn, evp of marketing at LivePerson, which worked with BoA and Overstock, said this is nearly a requirement in a real-time world.
To help rein in potential customers, Verizon uses data to inform it when a live chat is needed. For instance, it knows users typically drop off if they spend more than two minutes per step when signing up for DSL and can ping them an offer to chat live with a service rep after a minute expires. "If you can intercept them, not only can you save their problem in seconds, but you've kept them from disrupting how they're interacting with you," Kohn said.
Consumers also expect marketers to respond quickly no matter the issue. Take the now infamous Domino's saga. In April, Consumerist pointed to a video of two employees doing gross things to the food. Within a day, Twitter was alive with demands that Domino's address the matter.
This desire to have answers in real time, wherever consumers are, is unlikely to change, said Andy Jacobs, chief technology officer at MRM Worldwide. "Our clients find themselves in a very reactive world," he said. "They're forced to respond to things. They need methods by which they can confidently and quickly publish info through the right channels."
For corporations, this requires new strategies. It means, for instance, bypassing the normal layers of sign-off to get information out to quell customer revolts, Jacobs said.
As a result, several marketers have established presences on Twitter to stay on top of customer problems. This early-warning system can pay off. Back in December, buzz gathered on Twitter that Ford sent a legal notice demanding a Ford Ranger blogger surrender his URL. Scott Monty, a well-known Twitterer and Ford's social-media leader, quickly nipped it in the bud.
"There's the opportunity to enhance your brand relevance in real time and respond to problems before they're intractable," Bradner said.
-By Brian Morrissey
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'Weeds' promo looks at history of marijuana
Weeds returns to Showtime for its fifth season on June 8, and as usual, they've got an entertaining hodgepodge of advertising to promote it. After launching the spider-web-themed print campaign back on April 20 (which was, not coincidentally, National Weed Day), the network has now released a pair of new videos: an animated history lesson about marijuana (above) and a "Yes We Cannabis!" faux political spot below. We're still waiting for the more offbeat stuff like the marijuana-scented strips in magazines and the giant bags of pot stapled to billboards. Via @dabitch.
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Scaring Burglars Away One Pic of Chuck Norris
A POSH bakery in Split, Croatia, has been broken into almost every week. But not since the shop owners posted a life-sized photo of the toughest man in Hollywood Chuck Norris in the window. The sign says: “This shop is under the protection of Chuck Norris.” Now the bakery hasn't had a single burglary for more than a month.
Sales assistant Mirna Kovac said: "To be honest we just started it as a joke but it really has worked. Thieves haven't been anywhere near us for ages. People seem to respect him. "Everyone around here has seen his films and he's quite a popular character, perhaps even among criminals, so they've decided to leave us alone." She added though: "We have had a few customers come in and ask us whether they can get Chuck's autograph. “They really believe he is sitting in our storeroom out the back ready to pounce on any burglars."
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Ketel One targets manly men in first TV ads
Ketel One vodka, best known for its annoying, long-running "Dear Ketel One Drinker" print ads, has moved onto TV. Grey created these two spots, which are indicative of "a distinctive set of values in the vodka category," to hear Ketel One tell it. Really, what we're working with here is a dressier version of Coors' "Guys' Night Out" series. The ad above shows a bunch of guys in suits being all manly, with their vodka and no women, with a voiceover noting that there was a time when men didn't drink vodka from "delicately painted perfume bottles." Pretty sure they don't do that now, either. The ad below is better. The gentlemen in this rainy spot are actually chivalrous and let a couple of women take their cab home. If it's class they want, that's what will get them there, so they should can the "When men were men" shtick and double up on the social graces. Or dueling. Either way.
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Mandy Moore Continues To Grow On 'Amanda Leigh'
Mandy Moore is hoping her forthcoming sixth studio album, "Amanda Leigh," continues the gradual process of transitioning from teen hitmaker ("Candy") to greater acceptance as a bona fide musical artist.
"I find it silly that there would be any sort of apprehension, as if it's really hard to believe that people grow up and evolve and change," Moore, who married singer-songwriter Ryan Adams in March, tells Billboard.com. "I mean, it was 10 years ago; I don't think anyone wants what they did when they were 14 or 15 to follow them around.
"I was proud of the work I was doing back then, but I was really just a kid. I'm going to continue to grow, and my musical tastes will change and hopefully I'll only get better and better and work harder and harder and study more. I'm not desperately seeking out credibility as an artist. I just love music. This is what I'm most passionate about."
Unlike 2007's "Wild Hope," which Moore calls "a big kind of studio album," "Amanda Leigh" -- which comes out May 26 -- was recorded with producer and co-writer Mike Viola, mostly at engineer Ducky Carlisle's basement studio near Boston. "I enjoyed breaking it down even more from 'Wild Hope,' where we were in a beautiful, huge state-of-the-art studio and you had a bunch of people there for, like six weeks," says Moore, who also co-wrote songs for "Amanda Leigh" with Inara George and Lori McKenna.
"This was the more acoustic form of that, I guess. This was ideal and, like, the ultimate learning experience for me. I felt like I was the kid sister and the assistant in terms of learning about the production and engineering side of things, just being present for absolutely everything. That's a lot different from being 14 and 15 yeas old and just being brought into the studio song by song with a different songwriting team or production team."
Moore has "no solidified plans as of yet" to tour in support of "Amanda Leigh," but she predicts that "we'll be doing our fair share of little things here and there." And while her acting career has taken second-fiddle to music the past couple of years, Moore says that she plans to put some focus on that during the second half of 2009.
"I'm ready. I'm excited," she notes. "I want to be challenged in the way that I've been challenged with music. I felt like for awhile there so much of my energy was put on...the acting and film stuff that the music had to sort of match. Now the film stuff has to make sense, too, and match up to the music."
Source
11 People Killed in Stampede at Moroccan Music Festival featuring Kylie Minogue & Alicia Keys
A stampede at a world music festival featuring Kylie Minogue and Alicia Keys has left at least 11 people dead, most of them women and children, in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
Some 70,000 spectators were at the Hay Nahda stadium in Rabat last night to hear homegrown pop phenomenon Abdelaziz Stati when the accident occurred, shortly after midnight on the final night of the Mawazine (Rhythms) festival.
Police said that a wire fence had apparently collapsed as the crowd surged towards one of the exits as the concert ended, setting off the stampede.
Five women, four men and two children were later found dead, apparently having suffocated in the crush. A source close to the case said that all those who died were Moroccan. The interior ministry has announced an investigation.
Rescuers pulled out survivors and transported about 20 injured to Rabat’s main hospital, Ibn Sina, where a source said that all but seven had left by this morning.
"Most of the injured are young," said Abdelatif Benchekroun, the hospital’s head of emergency care.
The festival organisers could not be reached immediately for comment.
Hassan Amrani, the prefect of the Rabat region, travelled to the hospital to oversee the efforts of the emergency services.
A source close to the city council said that the concert venue, originally scheduled to be Moulay el Hassan Square in central Rabat, had been switched to accommodate the large number of fans.
The Mawazine festival, created in 2001 to boost tourism and promote Rabat as a city open to the world, is one of the most important cultural gatherings in Morocco, with street shows, an exhibition by Arab artists and children’s events in addition to the concerts.
Some 1,700 foreign and local performers had converged on Rabat for the eighth edition of the Mawazine festival, which was opened on May 15 by Kylie Minogue. Performers this year included Stevie Wonder, the Algerian rai singer Khaled, the South African singer Johnny Clegg, the Brazilian bossa nova artist Sergio Mendes and the Italian composer and conductor Ennio Moricone.
Last year's festival attracted 1.2 million people to nine venues across Rabat.
Source
Jay Bennett dead at 45
Jay Bennett, a rock musician with deep ties to Chicago best known as a former member of Wilco, died early Sunday morning in downstate Urbana, where he had been running a recording studio, according to a spokesman for his family.
The singer and multi-instrumentalist was 45 years old.
"Early this morning, Jay died in his sleep and an autopsy is being performed," said Edward Burch, a friend and musician who collaborated with Bennett on the 2005 album "The Palace at 4 a.m." "The family is in mourning and is unavailable for comment at this time."
Born in the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, Bennett began playing in bands as a teenager. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned multiple degrees in secondary education, math and political science. In between, he co-founded the Replacements-like power-pop band Titanic Love Affair, which released three albums during the alternative-rock heyday between 1991 and 1996, when it was dropped from its label.
Bennett was working at a VCR repair shop in Champaign when he was tapped to join Wilco as it toured in support of its first album, "A.M." A talented arranger and versatile musician who could play virtually any instrument he picked up, from mandolin to Mellotron, Bennett formed a fruitful partnership with Wilco bandleader Jeff Tweedy. His contributions over a seven-year period were key to the albums that resulted in the band's national breakthrough, including "Being There" (1996), "Summerteeth" (1999) and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (2002).
Relations between Bennett and Tweedy, both painstaking perfectionists, soured during the latter recording, as documented in the film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," and Bennett left the band. Earlier this month, Bennett filed a lawsuit against Tweedy for breach of contract and unpaid artist's royalties, stemming in part from his role in the film.
In late April, Bennett wrote on his MySpace blog about dealing with intense pain from a hip injury suffered during a dive from the stage while playing with Titanic Love Affair. He was preparing to have surgery, but was concerned about his lack of health insurance. However, he also was looking forward to finishing his fifth solo album, "Kicking at the Perfumed Air," at his studio, Pieholden Suites, named after the song on "Summerteeth" that best encapsulates his talents as an arranger.
"This whole experience [with the hip pain] has really taught me to look both inward and outward for support, and I've learned things about myself that I thought I had completely figured out years ago," Bennett wrote. "Family and friends have helped me to keep faith in a future that will actually be much more carefree than my constricted present state. I encourage you all to tell me stories of recovery, as they really do help... All in all, I'm 'in a really good place' right now; I'm just waiting until I can make it all happen."
Bennett's former bandmates in Wilco are touring in Spain and could not be reached for comment. But Burch said he had spoken to bassist John Stirratt, and the band was "broken up" about the news.
"He was an extremely talented musician and a great person, and I'll miss him terribly," Burch added.
source
Friday, May 22, 2009
Simon Cowell comments on his ex-boo's attack
He may have been all smiles and standing O's at last night's Kris Allen-crowning American Idol finale, but this morning, Simon Cowell was speaking out on this week's other big showdown: ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour versus a female attacker.
Cowell said on Ryan Seacrest's radio show today that his initial reaction to hearing about the incident, in which Idol fan Janice Thibodeaux allegedly approached and attempted to choke Seymour, was that it must be a joke.
Unfortunately, he soon learned it wasn't.
"She called me and, yeah, she was attacked outside," he said of Seymour.
"Literally, a frenzied attack. Nearly strangled."
While the 33-year-old, 200-pound Thibodeaux, who is currently being held on $52,703 bail after being booked for felony battery, claimed yesterday that her attack came in retaliation for Cowell's behavior toward fellow judge Paula Abdul, Cowell offered up a different theory on her motivation.
"Naturally I assumed it was somebody who was jealous," he said, adding that he himself had never met Thibodeaux.
"I don't know, it was just some crazy girl. She's locked up."
As for his ex, with whom he is still exceedingly friendly, Cowell said, "It was bad. I really, really felt sorry for her."
Still, for once, Cowell said he has been able to find a bright spot in the ordeal, albeit one that has to do with his own chivalry.
"You know what? I was there for her, Ryan. That's the important thing."
Source.
Two new Courtney Love demos leaked
Two tracks from what I assume are more recent Courtney Love studio sessions have leaked. An entire album worth of songs leaked in late 2007 from sessions done with Linda Perry but these latest leaks have a different sound are could be from her rumored sessions with Celebrity Skin producer Michael Bienhorn. The two trakcs are Samantha and Sunset Marquis. No release date has been set for Nobody's Daughter which Love has been working on since leaving rehab in late 2005.
source
Clay Aiken Hates American Idol. And Adam Lambert.
Last night millions of American Idol fans tuned in to watch the show's season finale. But you know who didn't?—-Clay Aiken, who basically trashed everything about Idol today on the subscription-only message board of his website, going so far as to say Adam Lambert made his ears bleed!
Aiken, America's favorite gay father who was also the runner-up to Ruben Studdard in Idol's second season, charges his fans $29.95 annually for the "Ultimate Membership" at ClayOnline.com, which is the only way to view his blog posts and cruise around in his chat room or on his message board, but a tipster with access to the site passed this along. Here's how Aiken responded today to a generic "what did you think about the show?" question posed by a fan on the site:
Now that it's all over, and for the record.... I couldn't be happier about the way AI ended this year. I only turn the show on once a season, and only to see what the set looks like each year. This year, I happened to turn it during the minute that Adam Lambert was singing "Ring of Fire" and, at that moment, thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening! I wasn't really a fan and found myself surprised whenever folks told me that they liked him. Granted, I never saw another performance (and many folks who I trust said that he was great) but I can't imagine I would have enjoyed it. Just not my cup of tea at all. To each his own. I never saw Kris sing on the show, but whether he was good or not is really relative. It's usually a matter of taste, right? But Idol is not always a matter of musical taste only. It's about the person you like. From what little I saw, Kris seemed likable. (That's not to say that Adam isn't just as likable as anyone.. maybe more so... I don't know) When Ruben and I were standing next to each other every night (many years ago) you had two equally talented, equally unlikely, equally unpolished contestants.... so it really was a matter of taste as to who was voted for. While some may argue that one of us was hyped more than the other, I don't feel that was the case. However, this year, there was an obvious bias. Not even having watched the show, I can tell you that I was WELL aware of the bias from the judges as to who should win. In my opinion, that is awfully unattractive. I don't think I am alone
In my opinion, it all often comes down to that last night of voting. Until the finale, folks are voting for the contestant that they want to see continue. But, I believe that on that last night, the dynamic changes. No longer forced to choose one person that they want to see win, the audience can effectively vote AGAINST the person that they don't want to see win. In the case of season two this might have happened. There may have been some folks who voted for myself or Ruben because they didn't like the other of us. I was the nerdy little girly boy who some didn't want to see win, so they may have voted for Ruben. I don't know. .. But again, I feel that Ruben and I were fairly matched. We both had our detractors and negatives, but I feel we were both very worthy of being on that stage in that moment, and either of us would have been worthy of winning. The show was different then, and folks made it in seasons 1-3 because they were "real" people who happened to sing/entertain well. But, somewhere along the way, AI stopped being about real people.
Aiken also elaborated on why he thought Kris Allen won this year's competition:
In a battle between David and Goliath, my money is on David!
I think many voters got sick of being "told who to vote for". I think many were turned off by the blatant favoritism shown towards one contestant. Therefore, on that last night, they used their votes against a contestant that they were tired of hearing about and for the contestant who had been written off. And, at the same time, I think they voted AGAINST an American Idol that has, for four years now, been more about the slick productions and polished contestants than it has been about finding the raw talent that it did in its first three seasons.
Those votes for Kris were also votes to return the show to its roots of finding "real" contestants with undiscovered talent and giving them the chance to grow and shine. They were votes that said "we're tired of seeing contestants who already seem to know it all".
Will American Idol choose to listen to the resounding and clarion call that those voters gave them?.... "Enough with the pretention. More Rubens, more Clays, more Fantasias and Tamyras and Kellys please." My faith has always been in the voters. I think they have gotten it right every year (mine included). It's now up to American Idol to decide if it will finally REALLY listen to the folks that keep it on the air.
Source
Zac Efron encourages Vanessa Hudgens to do on-screen nudity
Zac Efron has encouraged girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens to do nudity on camera, reports say.
Hudgens recently said that she would have no problem doing a nude film scene, if it was necessary for the role.
The 21-year-old actor believes that his High School Musical co-star should strip down for the big screen in an effort to shed her "goody-goody image," according to the The National Ledger.
"Zac believes it is a good way for her to get beyond the teeny-bopper stigma," a source said. "He is making the leap to A-list actor and he wants Vanessa to go along with him."
The insider added: "He told a pal if she has to bare more of her body, then she shouldn't be afraid of doing that."
Source
Sarah Jessica Parker Blasts Media Coverage Of Surrogate
Sarah Jessica Parker has taken aim at journalists and photographers working to unearth personal information about the woman carrying the actress’ surrogate twins.
“(It’s) an extraordinary and unprecedented invasion of her privacy,” the actress said in an exclusive TV interview with Access Hollywood on Tuesday. “The most unsavoury things have been done. She’s had her phone hacked, her personal computer information hacked, she’s had threats against her and true harassment… She’s had friends threatened and family threatened and she’s had family of friends threatened.”
Sarah feels torn that she is not able to be of more assistance to the woman helping her bring her daughters into the world.
“It’s really incredibly upsetting to think of her so far away and me not being able to do something, beyond what I’m legally allowed to do,” she says. “She’s had a friend, who was thought to be her, chased down a highway… This friend is nine months pregnant.”
“It’s crossed lines… Pretty much all the lines have been crossed… There’s simply no excuse for doing this to somebody. It’s not acceptable.”
Sarah insists that despite recent tabloid reports that her surrogate is a “bisexual rocker” she and husband Matthew Broderick have made the right choice: “I’m beyond comfortable with who she is. We haven’t been reckless, we haven’t been cavalier. She hasn’t been reckless.”
Source
Bear simply astounded by Coke Zero's taste
This Coke Zero spot from Wieden + Kennedy is described as an "epic rock opera ... featuring such memorable cast members as a singing bear, candy-pooping birds [and] an elk with sausage antlers." There are also sheep with honeycomb wool, which I don't understand, but if that bear likes his sheep full of angry bees, more power to him. This is America, after all. (Actually, the spot only aired in Brazil, and broke just recently, even though it was completed some 15 months ago.) Anyway, the gist of this ad is that the bear is taken aback by the robust flavor of Coke Zero. Was he expecting it to taste awful? If so, he might not be the brand's ideal spokesbear. He could open for Meat Loaf on his next tour, perhaps.
source
Got serious speech problems? Try Huggies
Over at Adweek.com, Eleftheria Parpis is less than enamored by this Huggies spot from JWT featuring an expecting couple who can only say "me" (the wife) and "you" (the husband). If this scenario were taking place in my life, I'd be sobbing "Why me?" and my wife would be screaming "Damn you!" But that's a story for couples' therapy. I've drifted from my point, and so does this 60-second ad. Still, it makes a potent statement with the birthing scene at the end, reminding me of one big reason I don't want kids. There's also not a diaper to be seen, either. Just like at my house. Oh, and those of you with little ones at home trying to make plans for this holiday weekend: Good luck getting a sitter, suckers!
source
Admen gussied up for AmEx fashion photos
The middle of a tough recession is an iffy time to model $1,500 Burberry trenchcoats. But ad guys don't get the call from from fashion photographers often, so they have to throw caution to the wind when it happens. Jeff Goodby, above, is one of nine ad guys featured in a fashion spread devoted to "Today's Real Mad Men" in the current issue of the American Express lux magazine Departures (published for Platinum Card and Centurion members only). He joins David Droga, Duncan Marshall, Andrew Essex and Ted Royer of Droga5; Gerry Graf of Saatchi & Saatchi; Brad Kay and Marty Cooke of SS+K; and Benson Hausman of Kraftworks NYC. They're all trying their best to look pensive, intelligent and/or stylish, except for Graf, who's just chuckling, maybe because the watch he's wearing is worth more than entry-level Saatchi staff probably make in a year.
source
Olivia Wilde says she'd make-out with Megan Fox
Olivia Wilde is not only one of television's hottest break-out stars, but she is also the woman Megan Fox has described as “so sexy, she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox.”
While it has to be quite an honor, Wilde, 25, says she is a little skeptical of the recent girl-crush fad, but is passionate about animal rights and willing to do what it takes to keep them safe.
In the June 2009 issue of GQ magazine, on newsstands May 26, she jokes, “of course, anything I can do to save the mountain ox, I’m happy to do,” in response to the suggestion she make out with Fox to save the poor little ox.
But being sexy and crusading for animal rights isn’t all this rising star can do – she has also worked on presidential campaigns, has been a public advocate for increasing international aid and gay rights and she has raised money for Doctors Without Borders.
To top all that off, she is also a real-life princess. Really, we’re serious. She tells GQ at the age of 18, she eloped with an Italian prince.
It wasn’t enough to be rich, beautiful and sexy. Had to go and be a princess too.
Source
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
FirstBank gives giant ads to tiny businesses
source
House That Nicholson Lived in Rents for $400k
Jack may not have built this house, but he rented it a few years back while filming scenes in the Hamptons for the movie “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Jack is Jack Nicholson and the house is a 5,800-square-foot, five bedroom, 7 ½ bath oceanfront contemporary in Southampton. The property is available for Memorial Day through Labor Day for $400,000, but listing agent Gary DePersia of the The Corcoran Group says that the owners would also rent the home for various periods throughout the summer, including weekly or monthly.
The 4.5-acre spread includes a heated pool with an outdoor fireplace and a private walkway to the beach. Amenities include a great room with a fireplace, a sitting room with views of Shinnecock Bay, and a master suite with two fireplaces and his-and-hers baths with ocean views.
source
TV Scoop Interview: Rachel Zoe, The Rachel Zoe Project
Rachel's life is a whirl of social events, glamour, expensive clothes and stress. Lots of stress. She's starring in a fly-on-the-wall documentary series. Equal parts annoying, intentionally and unintentionally hilarious and addictive viewing, The Rachel Zoe Project starts on recently rebranded UKTV channel Really tonight (Tuesday 19 May) at 11pm.
TV Scoop: When did you first realise you wanted to get into the fashion industry?
Rachel Zoe: I think I had I known what actually existed in the fashion world before I actually graduated from college, I probably would have done it very differently... and gone to fashion school, maybe gone to St Martins. So I didn't really map it out. But I think when I figured out what was out there I became obsessed by it. It was all I ever wanted to do and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. It has been like that ever since.
TVS: Now, you're well known for your vintage look, right? When did that first emerge as the style for you?
RZ: For as long as I can remember! As soon as I was old enough to shop I fell in love with vintage. When I was younger, as a teenager, I used to ask myself how I could get this glamour for, like, not thousands and thousands of dollars. Ultimately, that answer kept coming back up as vintage. How could I get those vintage fur coats, that peasant dress or kaftan or whatever... that's when I fell in love with vintage. I think, for me, it became the way that I could get that unique piece that no one else could have.
TVS: Who were your first style icons when you first started out?
RZ: I think it has always been the icons from the 60s and 70s. You know... Twiggy, Edie Sedgwick, Penelope Tree. And then you go into the Marianne Faithfuls, and Ali McGraws and Bianca Jaggers. They were all so glamorous in such an effortless way. With all the tassled hair and sequins and Yves Saint Laurent. I just became obsessed.
TVS: OK, so onto the show. With everything you experienced in the past - all the cameras, the showbiz events etc - was the idea of doing a fly-on-the-wall documentary series a daunting prospect?
RZ: It was something I said would never do in my whole life. And then you have your parents in your ear and saying never say never. I also said I'd never write a book and I've done that... so it was the last thing I thought I'd ever do but it turned out to be the best thing I ever did. Life lesson learned there. It's hard though, I'm not going to lie. It wasn't done as effort to become a celebrity, it was done in an effort to educate people about what we do in the fashion industry and how we go about it. What the designers do and what the process of styling is. We go into it. I was getting kind of tired about the misconceptions that stylists live this glamorous life, just go to shows and parties and put dresses on people. That's not what it is.
TVS: So what would you say to those people who say that your job - and the fashion industry as a whole - is money for old rope and a doss? It's not a real job, surely...
RZ: I think that was one of the biggest outcomes of the show - from across the board, from people I meet on the street who are construction workers to people who my dad does business with, tell me that they're obsessed with the show and that they had absolutely no idea what the process was and all of the management. They're surprised it's a proper business and run as one. I think it's one of those things... we work so hard. It's not just dressing people for the red carpet. I collaborate with various designers, contribute to magazines and websites, I'm very often pulling clothes for people in their real lives as well as for them in their public life. So it's a lot and it's a constant fight and a constant marathon.
TVS: Which is why you need a rock solid team around you. I was actually pretty impressed by the team you have assembled, especially Taylor, your assistant. I wouldn't like to muck about with her... she's hardcore!
RZ: She is so hardcore. That's why she has been with me for three years.
TVS: And that's why you need her, right? How does your team, including your husband and Taylor and all of your closest associates, react to having a camera pointed at them 24-7?
RZ: Well... I think that Taylor's bottom-of-the-list priority is to be famous She has zero interest in it. For her it's about getting the job done in the most efficient way possible. If you compare it to a proper company, one would say that she's the COO (Chief Operating Officer). She keeps things moving. I couldn't do it without her. I couldn't develop my brand if she wasn't on the inside making sure everything is running properly.
TVS: Sure, and that's another thing I noticed in the show... you want to build on your success as a stylist and branch out into a Rachel Zoe brand of accessories. We see you in the show very daunted... why? There were moments where you openly admitted that you were very afraid...
RZ: You mean in the sense of developing my own brand? I still am scared! It's hard. Every. Single. Day. I find it a constant struggle to balance building the brand to where I want it to be and maintaining my clients to keep styling. I still love styling. It's never ending. It just means a lack of sleep and lots of insecurity, and just trying to keep everything at the level it needs to be at. I'm shattered a lot of the time, an my husband... well, he's amazing.
TVS: How are Taylor and Brad (Rachel's new assistant) at the moment? They really do not like each other...
RZ: I can't tell you. I'd have to kill you.
TVS: Not kill me as in.. 'You totally killed it!' That's one of your catchphrases isn't it?
RZ: Oh my God!
TVS: There you go there's another one... so there's 'she totally killed it'... 'I die'...
RZ: Oh my God, when I listen to myself... it's really quite amazing when you have to watch yourself on TV. I'm like, do I really speak like that?! And then be haunted by these things forever. My clients very often laugh at me when they hear these things come out of my mouth in fits of excitement. And they'll just be like "did you really say that?" and then it's there forever.
TVS: That's another thing that comes across from the show. Whatever anybody thinks of you or thinks of the fashion industry, your passion for fashion is really intense.
RZ: Even the producers on the show are just so shocked... however big a meltdown I'm having or if I'm having the toughest day ever, as soon as we get some beautiful clothes in the studio or if I go into a vintage shop I completely transform into a seven-year-old girl in a candy store. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. I just get so excited. The minute I stop doing that (and I don't think I ever will) I'll know it's time to move on.
TVS: So, post-show, how's life for you?
RZ: Life is good! My only complaint is that I'm tired. So tired. Apart from that I'm very, very lucky and fortunate. Listen, nothing in life comes for free so I just want to keep working and getting better. Just to do more and hitting different areas of the business. Once I tackle one thing, I'm like, what's next?
TVS: I'd be a fool if I didn't ask you about British fashion while I had this time with you. So, erm, what do you think of British fashion?
RZ: Are you kidding me? The style in the UK is a huge, huge inspiration for me. I love... even walking along the streets of London, I'm like, aaaurgh [makes sighing noise]. You just get that great aristocratic style that I love so much. Like that classic English... Savile Row and all that. And... I love the whole Portobello/Notting Hill vibe too. I love it. I think London street style is one of the best in the world. And because I'm so influenced by the 60s and 70s, a huge part of that comes from the UK. My God, forget about it. My favourite English designers, there are quite a few... Stella McCartney, I love Jonathan Saunders, I love Temperley, Matthew Williamson of course... Christopher Kane. There are so many!
TVS: What's next for your fashion wise? What's the hot new Rachel Zoe look?
RZ: Fashion is moving into the 80s. Me? I'm staying in the 60s! I'll do a few splashes of 80s vintage Saint Laurent with the shoulder pads and things like that. But, yu know, Marc Jacobs is a huge influence. Luis Vuitton? I can't even breathe. Chanel, just makes me cry.
TVS: Me too. What about at home... after all the parties and designer clobber, what do you wear? Are you a jogging bottoms girl?
RZ: I'm not. When I'm, like, not in 'my look' I'm in a bathrobe if truth be told. My casual uniform is some sort of wide-leg jean and some great Chanel or Saint Laurent jacket.
Source
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Voice Lesson With Aretha Going for $5,000
Soul legend ARETHA FRANKLIN is giving fans the chance to win private singing lessons with the star in a new charity auction. Franklin's one-on-one vocal session is just one of a number of exclusive prizes available online at charitybuzz.com, with profits benefitting the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
Stevie Wonder has donated his harmonica for the sale, while bidders can also make offers on dinner with comedian Bill Cosby, a visit to the Desperate Housewives set, swimming lessons from Olympic champion Michael Phelps and a meet and greet with Oprah Winfrey and win VIP tickets to her daily talk show.
source and auction listing
Penélope Cruz Food Poisoning in Cannes
Even the biggest stars aren't immune to getting hit by stomach bugs it seems. Penelope Cruz had to miss out on promoting her upcoming musical Nine in Cannes Monday, sidelined by "some sort of food poisoning."
In France to premiere her movie Broken Embraces, which is directed by Pedro Almodóvar, she was slated to join movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in presenting a trailer and a teaser for Nine, but fell ill.
Weinstein passed on the bad news to a select group of journalists: "Tomorrow night is her premiere for her movie. She is getting better and is seeing a doctor right now."
He then introduced Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard, another star of the ensemble piece, which also sees appearances from Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Fergie, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sophia Loren.
"It was an amazing adventure, it was my dream to be in an American musical," Cotillard said. "I really hope you are going to love what you are going to see."
Weinstein added, "When you see [Cotillard] sing, when you see her dance, we bring back a tradition that we need to do more of."
The trailer is already out in the U.S., and the movie will be released in theaters in November.
Cruz recovered enough to attend the Hollywood Dominos event later Monday. She walked in without talking to the media and, after chatting with the hosts, spent about 45 minutes at the party before leaving.
Source
Zachary Levi blogs from USO tour in Djibouti
17 May 2009
Djibouti
From oppressive heat to malaria, BLACK HAWK DOWN to the Somali Pirates, the Horn of Africa is a dangerous place. Put another way, it is the perfect place for the United States Military. After a great time in the middle east, and an interminable layover in Ethiopia, our team landed in Djibouti to check in on the soldiers, sailors, pilots, and marines of AfriCom.
The first thing a person notices when they arrive, other than the fact that the soldiers at the gate are wearing 80lbs of armor and ammo and seem to be sweating less than you, is the level of security. A virtual maze of concrete walls and barriers, check-points and wire guard the entrance to this facility, and the sentries at the gate and in the towers overhead are all business. Once inside, though, the folks we met were nothing short of welcoming. We grabbed a quick meal at the sandwich bar and got settled into our CLUs (Containerized Living Units), literally large shipping containers partitioned off into two bedroom, air-conditioned apartments, and got some much needed rest before starting our tour of the base.
Morning comes and we realize we had only thought it was hot the night before. By 11AM, it is 115 degrees with something like 90 percent humidity. Since confessions seem to be the theme of these blogs, I will admit that Joel overslept. Fine, I did too, but I blame him! When we finally did wake up (it was only like ten minutes…), we jumped onto a bus packed with troops who were all being rewarded for various reasons and left the camp for a nearby Cheetah Reserve. The drive was heartbreaking. The sheer magnitude of the poverty around us… I honestly wasn’t prepared for it. The men and women of Camp Lemonier weren’t either, which is why they are doing so much about it, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
After an incredible morning at the reserve, where we actually got to pet a living cheetah and surprisingly weren’t eaten, it was back to camp to grab some lunch in what we had heard as far away as Bahrain was the best galley in the military. They weren’t kidding. Much of the day-to-day chores of running the base, like cooking, fall to a civilian firm called PAE, and they do great work. After lunch, we got to meet the CO and the Command Master Chief, who warmly welcomed us to their little oasis, and then were given a proper tour of the base. Amazing. Almost 2000 people call Camp Lemonier home, all living in CLUs. What do they do? Well, a lot of that is top-secret. In fact, there are parts of the base we weren’t even allowed to see, but given its proximity to so many important places, including the trade routes through the Red Sea, it seems clear that these troops are busily engaged in making the world a better place. They didn’t come to Djibouti for the weather…
But there are things we do know, because we saw them first hand. First, we made a trip off base, guarded by an Army Force Protection team, to meet a local Djiboutian chief and the villagers that live around him. Through an interpreter, he informed us that he has been a chief for over 30 years, and that the last seven (since the Americans landed at Lemonier) have been unsurpassed. He pointed to a gymnasium that the Marines had built for the children of his camp out of materials they found just laying around. He pointed to a school, which we later visited, built by Americans, where the Army shows movies for the kids once a week, play soccer with them, and spend time helping to teach. They even raised money to purchase hundreds of books for the students at the school, all of this voluntary, humanitarian effort by the most fierce fighting force the world has ever seen. But that’s not all. The following day, we took a trip to a Catholic Mission in Djibouti City where five nuns care for over 65 abandoned Djiboutian babies. Part of how they are able to succeed in feeding, clothing, and changing the diapers of so many kids is that the amazing troops also volunteer daily at the orphanage. And at the boys orphanage, and at the girls orphanage… In fact, according to one of the camp chaplains we spoke to, so many of America’s best volunteer to help daily that they can’t send them all, not because the camp can’t spare them, but because the orphanages simply can’t use them all.
The rest of our time in Djibouti was spent on the base, meeting and getting to know as many of the fantastic troops stationed there as we could. We did two autograph and photo sessions. We toured everything from a C130 to the Medical Center, the Chapel to the Fire station. Christian actually got to fire the water cannon on one of the fire trucks, which was a lot more fun for him than it was for the six guys in the CLU he bullseyed! They came running out like the place was actually on fire. Pretty funny. Joel tried on the 100lbs worth of fire equipment, and our buddy Dave even volunteered to be attacked by one of the K9s. Awesome. We drank a few beers at 11 Degrees North, played some basketball with guys who are actually used to working hard in the blazing African heat (note to self: never do that again…), and had great conversations over great food for two days. When the time came to leave, it was actually hard. One thing is for sure, none of us will ever forget our time, or the amazing men and women at Camp Lemonier.
We leave tomorrow to head back from this experience that all of us will never forget. It would not have been possible were it not for the wonderful USO. We thank them sincerely for the valuable work that they do. We also want to thank Subway for their support now and always. Additionally, we want to thank to the great people at Flip Video for making it possible for us to document our experiences and to Carson Daly for giving us an outlet to share them.
Zac, Joel, and crew
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21 yr old Rapper "Dolla" killed in LA
Dolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, was shot in the head about 3:10 p.m. at the Beverly Center, his publicist said.
Police later detained a person at the Los Angeles International Airport, said city police spokeswoman Karen Raynar.
Further details were not immediately available about the shooting.
Dolla, who was based in Atlanta, Georgia, was in Los Angeles recording his debut album.
He caught the attention of multiplatinium R&B singer Akon when the then-12-year-old Dolla was performing with friends at showcases around Atlanta.
The two collaborated on Dolla's first single, "Who the F--- Is That?" which also featured another high-profile singer, T-Pain.
Another Dolla song, "Feelin' Myself," appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie "Step Up."
According to his MySpace page, Dolla was born in Chicago, Illinois. His twin sister died at birth because of complications from an enlarged heart.
The family moved to Atlanta after Dolla's father committed suicide while he, then 5, and another sister watched from their parents' bed, the Web page said.
Dolla began composing rhymes in elementary school and decided to pursue a career in music.
Funeral services, which will be held in Atlanta, will be announced later, publicist Sue Vannasing said.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Ben Stiller doesn't find himself funny
The Tropic Thunder star says he doesn’t know any jokes.
“I don’t see myself as funny. I am definitely low-key, not the kind of person who is always ‘on’, especially with strangers,” the actor tells Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper in a new interview. “I think people approach me with certain expectations that I don’t always live up to. I have never been a stand-up comedian. I can’t tell a joke. Actually, I don’t know any jokes.”
Stiller also revealed what makes his two kids — daughter, Ella, seven, and son, Quinlin, three — laugh. “I try to make my wife and my kids laugh,” he said. “Anything you can do to get a laugh out of your kids is the best and it’s infectious.
“I make the kids laugh when I become ‘Nappy Head’. It started out by me putting a nappy on my head. Nappy Head talks a lot, and he always has a toothache and there’s a dentist who shoots fireballs at him.
“My kids are not in nappies any more, but the character has endured. Christine [wife] doesn’t actually love Nappy Head at all, she finds him annoying! I wish every audience was as easily impressed with my comedy as my kids are. All I have to do is chase them.”
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What's the best fake brand from film or TV?
If there's one thing I love about product placement, it's the lengths to which TV shows and movies go when they don't want to pay up for an actual brand. A new blog called Product Displacement is dedicated to tracking two kinds of Hollywood workarounds: fake brands (like Buy More, the Best Buy clone in NBC's Chuck) and unbranded products (like the logo-less Jeep from Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles). The blog isn't very well populated yet (and in fact, one of the supposedly bogus brands listed, the Slanket, is actually real), but there are plenty of places where it can get inspiration, like Mental Floss's list of 10 fake brands used by the entertainment industry. So, what's your favorite fake brand? Let us know in the comments, while I go crack open a frosty can of LöBrau. Via Murketing.
Geico cavemen feeling the catharsis of rock
In a sure sign that civilized man has begun to devolve back to the hirsute, rock 'n' roll party animals from whence we sprang (that's some lede!), Geico's cavemen rock out with the band 3 Doors Down in commercials and a video for the song "Let Me Be Myself." That caveman really does capture the Fender Strat-fueled angst of the tune, which, let's face it, is all the cro-magnon has ever asked of the world in Geico's iconic ads from The Martin Agency. Are we 100 percent sure that's not Charlie Daniels in that clip above? There is a resemblance. Or maybe a long-lost Allman Brother. Or Jim Morrison? That's how he'd look if he were still alive. In fact, that's pretty much how he looked in '69. Jim was the Lizard King, though. He'd jam with the gecko.
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James McAvoy and Elizabeth Banks join The Details
James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Anna Friel will star in “The Details.”
The movie is a black comedy written and directed by Jacob Estes. It is the first for Estes since his 2004 thriller “Mean Creek.”
Synopsis: A suburban husband finds his life spiraling out of control due to extramarital temptation, a crazy cat lady, a wannabe gangster, and a band of raccoons hellbent on destroying the only thing that matters in his life: the perfect backyard lawn.
“The Details” will shoot this summer in Seattle.
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Mars Volta call US swine flu treatment 'an act of terrorism'
The Mars Volta's Omar Rodríguez-López has hit out at the western media's coverage of swine flu, comparing it to "an act of terrorism" against the band's adopted home of Mexico.
Speaking to NME.COM from Guadalajara city in Mexico, the guitarist denied that the country is struggling to cope with the outbreak of swine flu.
"It's not the hysteria that the right-wing media are making you think it is. It's less dangerous than a common cold," he declared.
He added: "This has been a perfect moment for right-wing republican media to say "You see! You see these filthy people? You see what they're doing? This is very scary!" It's another act of terrorism, it's another terrorist tactic."
The guitarist went on to say that he believed that the biggest effect swine flu has had on Mexico is on the economy - again due to the negative fallout from foreign press coverage.
"When you get your facts straight, there's more infected people in the United States - in New York - than in all of Mexico City where there's a concentration of people," he said. "And New York has not issued an emergency. They have not shut down. They have not taken any kind of ruined economy, which is what's happened in Mexico.
"We had to shut down because of the way it was being shown in the media and the way that the world was paying attention. But the fact of the matter is that it's [swine flu] completely treatable and more people have died from the common flu."
Rodríguez-López went on to say that he's currently more concerned with preparing for the release of The Mars Volta's new album 'Octahedron'], which is out on June 22.
"I had the spirit of Syd Barret's solo records and people like Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake," he explained about the record, which is largely acoustic.
"It was an interesting exercise for me to make all the songs acoustic based," he added. "In fact, now I'm finding that it’s a limitation that I have - I don't know how to write in major keys! That's why a lot of my songs end up sounding dark, and sad, and melancholy.
"I tried various experiments to try and write something uplifting [on 'Octahedron'. It's difficult for me, but that's where I'm going now. My weaknesses are always what interest me."
The Mars Volta visit the UK twice this summer, playing London's ICA on June 18, and the capital's Somerset House on July 13. They also play T In The Park (July 10) and Oxygen (July 11).
Well, this is awkward. I agree completely with what he's saying about the ridiculous hype and instilled fear aspect though. Waiting on that album!
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Christopher Gorham talks up Henry's return to 'Ugly Betty'
Christopher Gorham, who currently stars in CBS' horror anthology "Harper's Island," spoke with us about why Henry was written off the show in the first place, why's he back and why -- heaven help us -- the actor thinks Henry might not be the guy Betty should end up with. Let's just agree to disagree:
Well I’m only coming back for one episode. One is all that I know about. I certainly could go back and do more, but for now it’s just that.
I'm still hopeful. How did Henry's return come together?
I got a call from creator Silvio Horta [who also worked with Gorham on "Jake 2.0"] When I left the show the first time, he made it clear to me that he was hoping that I would be able to come back at some point. So it wasn’t a totally unexpected phone call. He wanted me to come back and do an episode near the end of the season and, of course, I was happy to do it.
Whose decision was it to have Henry exit the show?
It was the writers. It was a story problem. I always felt that Henry was kind of accidentally written off the show.
How did it happen?
Everybody got so excited about America Ferrera and I together, so the writers immediately tried to save that relationship for the long term on the show, and their way of doing that was to start throwing obstacles in the way to keep us apart. I think what they underestimated was deciding to give him a baby. I don’t think that they realized what that really meant.
What did it mean?
At first, there was a lot of talk that they wouldn’t make the baby Henry’s. That they’d make it Dr. Farkas' or something. But they didn’t want to cop out and not make it his. So we had long conversations about how Henry could come back with the baby having left his girlfriend Charlie and be a very sympathetic single dad in New York and how that could be really interesting because Betty’s dad is a single dad, too. But as Season 2 was winding down and they started breaking stories for Season 3, I think they realized the show isn’t called "Ugly Betty and Henry." It’s "Ugly Betty" and there’s a lot of other characters and to really service that single dad storyline you’d really have to spend a lot of time on it. It just wasn’t going to work.
How did you take the news?
I had always had the same opinion, actually. I had said from the beginning, 'Listen guys, no one wants Betty to have somebody else’s baby.' You just don’t want that for her. You want her to have kids, you want her to have her own children. You don’t want Betty to be a mom to someone else’s kid, especially not this crazy bitch Charlie. As much as people love Henry, sorry, but it’s not his show.
Henry also got flakier toward the end of last season, as they tried to build up Gio.
Yeah, at the same time they’re giving me this baby to keep me and Betty apart they also brought in Gio, to do that as well. So they had to make me a little dumber and make him great. It was very much to make people like Gio, to make this triangle work and make it believable. It just was not good for my job security.
What did you think of her winding up with neither of you?
As a viewer, taking my life out of it, I was actually relieved. Because as an audience member and as a fan of the show I was bored of me. Me and Gio and all of her romantic stuff. Like seriously? I never dated that much. Who does that?
What do you think of the beaus Betty has had since?
Ha, that was interesting. I was in Vancouver working on 'Harper’s Island' and thinking back to the conversation with Silvio and how they really wanted to get away from Betty’s romantic life in Season 3 and just have her focus on work. Then I'd keep running across articles screaming, 'New boyfriend! New boyfriend!' and I’m thinking, 'What the hell?' What was wrong with her old boyfriend if you were going to keep doing that?' Really, it was fine.
What do you think of Matt so far?
Early on, he reminded me a lot of Henry. In that, he's a really nice guy. I don’t mind him. And Daniel Eric Gold, who plays him, is really talented and I think really charming on the show.
Yeah, but do you think he stands a chance?
It's funny. I think Henry comes back and is revealed at the end of a rainbow. For Daniel, it’s gotta be like, ‘Are you kidding me? I’ve been working so hard and now you bring this jackass and he’s at the end of a rainbow in front of the Brooklyn bridge?! Give me a break!’ At one point while we were shooting I had a conversation with him and I said, ‘Listen, you’re doing great. I’m going to be out of here in two days.’
Can you set up how Henry comes back?
Henry has a new girlfriend, who remarkably looks like his old girlfriend. She’s an aerobics instructor so he’s going with her to New York for an aerobics convention, but he really wants to run into Betty, so he’s updating his Facebook page every five minutes, saying where he is at all times.
Why doesn't he just call her?
He doesn’t want to intrude on her life, but at the same time he really really wants to see her and still has feelings for her. So of course they wind up bumping into each other and reconnecting a little bit and they end up going on a double date to a Mets game. That's all I should say.
What do you think -- Is there a possibility Henry will be back next season?
Honestly, I don’t know what they have planned story-wise. No one’s talked to me about coming back on any kind of regular basis. Silvio mentioned he’d like to have me. Ideally, he’d like to be able to use me occasionally.
Are you up for it?
Of course, it would just depend on a lot of things. But yeah, I love them. Everybody there is great and America is a very good friend and we have a blast working together.
What’s up with Charlie and the baby? You didn’t mention either.
We talk about the baby. Charlie we don’t talk about. They’ve broken up. In my head, they’re not together. They were never going to be together. The whole point of going to Tucson was not to be together with her, it was to be there with his kid. It’s very Dr. Laura. I think Dr. Laura would like Henry.
Do you think Henry’s good for Betty ultimately?
It’s a good question. I think they’re good for each other. Whether they’re good long term? I don’t know. It just depends. People change, and their lives change. It depends on what Betty wants. Again, even for me as an audience member, I don’t know that I want Betty to be the mom of Charlie’s kid for life. She’d be great at it, and her and Henry could be very happy together. That’s not really what I want for that character.
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Danger Mouse to release blank CD
Music producer Danger Mouse is to release a blank CD, after record label EMI reportedly cancelled his new album.
Dark Night Of The Soul, a collaboration with rock group Sparklehorse, also features Iggy Pop and The Flaming Lips, along with artwork by David Lynch.
It has already been streamed online, but Billboard magazine said a "legal dispute" with EMI derailed the project.
Danger Mouse, who is half of pop group Gnarls Barkley, said he hoped people would still get to hear the record.
A spokesperson for the producer said: "Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night of the Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is."
He added that the album, which comes with a limited edition, "100+ page book" of David Lynch photographs inspired by the music "will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R".
"All copies will be clearly labelled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'"
It is unclear at this stage whether the record has been postponed or scrapped altogether. EMI could not be reached for comment.
'Excited'
At the time of writing, the entire 13-track album can be heard on the website of US public radio station NPR.
The free, legal stream has been the site's most popular page for more than 24 hours - but it is unclear how long the audio will remain available.
"We don't have a definite take down date," NPR Music producer Robin Hilton told Billboard. "It's up in the air."
Other guest stars on the record include The Strokes' Julian Casablancas, The Pixies' Frank Black, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, and Nina Persson of The Cardigans.
Danger Mouse first came to attention with a bootleg CD that mixed a capella tracks from Jay-Z's Black Album with music from The Beatles' White Album.
He has since gone on to produce cartoon band Gorillaz and alt-rock icon Beck.
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Listen to the album legally over here.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Can anything make an AirTran flight better?
Cramer-Krasselt's latest campaign for AirTran focuses on phony brainstorming sessions at Mindflow Consulting, supposedly hired to figure out "what AirTran should put on every flight." The two actors work hard in the 15-second clips to elevate the stale-feeling material, and for the most part they do OK, with decent comic timing, delivery and chemistry. They'd be well cast as workmates in a sitcom—perhaps Trust Me would have been better with these two. Some of their discarded brainstormed suggestions—haircuts, Xboxes, Belgian waffles, history lectures—don't sound so implausible, and would go a long way toward reliving the tedium of circling O'Hare for three hours on a foggy night. And they shouldn't discard the notion of balloon animals so fast—a plush variation's been popular on Carnival Cruises for years.
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Star Trek sequel talk. Come soon plz
Director J.J. Abrams recently suggested that a follow-up would be likely if the current box office smash was a success.
Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman told MTV News that they have started discussing preliminary ideas for the next flick's storyline.
Orci said: "We wanted to see what fans think of the first one; let's see what works, and what people think is the best in what we've done. And then we can take that into account when we think about the next movie. I don't think we ever need to talk about time travel again."
Kurtzman added: "Now we're in this new world. And we're just gonna have to live through the unpredictable future."
Orci admitted that they would begin writing the sequel on the day it was announced that the first film was successful, and that he has started reading past Star Trek novels for inspiration.
He added: "I'm trying to read every Star Trek book I can get my hands on. We did that a lot for the first movie...I'm starting to re-immerse myself again in what's come before."
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Jessica Biel no longer orange
After a flawless performance at the Met gala, Jessica Biel was out to wow again last night at the Cinema Society screening of Easy Virtue. A natural eye and peach blush helped make her glossy pink lip the focal point of the evening’s look, which was framed by a loose, wavy updo that fell over her eye, just so. We’ve been a little slow to fully warm up to the new Revlon spokeswoman’s increased red-carpet presence, but are getting pretty cozy with the idea now. You?
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Actress JESSICA BIEL has been taking secret singing lessons so she can hit the high notes in a one-off stage production of beloved musical GUYS & DOLLS this summer (09).
The actress, who is dating pop superstar Justin Timberlake, will play Sister Sarah in the stage spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Biel tells WENN, "I've been taking voice lessons a couple of times a week and really getting to know the music and working that muscle again which has been quiet a very long time.
"I have to learn everything before we go into rehearsal because we only have 10 days to rehearse to put the whole thing together... It'll be interesting. I plan on seeing the Broadway show soon, which I'm hoping is good."
And Biel could join Mandy Moore if the production ever becomes a movie musical - because it's the Saved star's favourite show.
Moore tells WENN, "I really love Guys & Dolls. That could be fun. I think I'd have to be a little bit older - because I like the Adelaide part.
"But, me, Hugh Jackman... Let's put it out there."
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Biel on JT's Skit
Justin Timberlake has a surefire fan in girlfriend Jessica Biel! She tells "Extra" she was impressed by her boyfriend's "SNL" skit "Motherlover," an odd musical tribute to Mother's Day.
"I think he killed. I think he just killed it!" she said. "So good... also, I loved the short, the digital short. And I loved the immigrant sketch."
Timberlake and Biel are often spotted hand-in-hand, but they tend to keep details of their personal lives private. So, what does this couple like to do for fun when they're in New York City? "Extra" fan Stacey asked Biel, who responded, "We love to go to the theater. Love to go and enjoy Central Park especially when the weather is nice. And I love to go to dinner late because we don't do that in L.A. very much because kitchens close at 10."
The two were in New York City last week where Biel looked stunning at the Met Costume Institute Gala. She caused a stir when she showed up on the arm of Timberlake sporting a huge rock on her finger, but, sorry romance fans, no engagement news yet! "The jewelry was Fred Leighton," she revealed. "It was unbelievably beautiful. I wished I owned it. I want it. I don't own it."
Biel did own up to the fact that she's been a fair-weather fan of "American Idol" this season. "I don't watch it very much, but I did vote once this season and I've never voted before. I don't even remember who I voted for, but it was this amazing, brown-haired girl. She had this kind of sultry, cool, sexy rock and roll voice. I don't know if she's still there. I haven't watched it in a long time. I don't even know who's left."
Our A.J. Calloway sat down with Biel, starring in the upcoming period piece "Easy Virtue," but don't expect to see Biel on any reality show competitions like "Dancing with the Stars." She told us, "No way. Those people work so hard. That's crazy. I'll leave that to somebody else." She won't appear on "DWTS," but she will do a little song and dance on another stage! "I'm going to do "Guys and Dolls" at the Hollywood Bowl this summer... I'm terrified... I'm so scared, because it's live. No take two. No stop and let's go again. That's it."
"Extra's" interview with Jessica Biel airs Tuesday night.
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OK Go: new album, plus stream of Skyscrapers
They've been around for years -- holla back, "Get Over It" fans! -- but broke through big in 2006 thanks to the treadmill-riffic video for "Here It Goes Again." Now, after three straight years of touring, OK Go are back with a new album to be released in September, tentatively titled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky. (It's the title of a book from the 19th century, asserting that blue light was the answer to all of humanity's problems.) Frontman Damian Kulash tells the Music Mix that it's "a more contemplative record, but also much more anthemic, much dancier. And it's a way more emotional record than anything we've done. So it's both sadder and happier in its way." As for their influences this time out? "The little bits of Purple Rain that have been trying to make their way to the surface on our last records have no longer been impeded by any other influences. Now all it is is one big attempt to be the records I listened to when I was 12."
A new track, "Skyscrapers," will be available exclusively to Banana Republic customers starting May 13 as part of the clothing chain's City Sounds compilation -- but because we love you, Music Mixers, you can hear it right now, no khaki purchase required. Give it a listen, and follow after the jump for a Q&A with Kulash wherein he discusses the factors that led his band to be featured on ginormous billboards nationwide, as well as some behind-the-scenes video of the album's snowy recording sessions.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you decide to put the first song out via Banana Republic?
Damian Kulash: It's just the luck of timing, really. The record isn't coming out until September, but most of it is recorded, and Banana Republic, as part of their campaign where they put billboards up of us everywhere, decided that they would like to put out a song. And we like people to hear our songs, so we said yes. It wasn't any more calculated than that.
You're on billboards?
It's a new experience. It's shocking. And I guess there's an element of pride involved in seeing oneself that large, but also an element of embarrassment.
Did you get any free clothes out of it?
At the photo shoot, they led us into a trailer that had one of every item that Banana Republic makes, and they were just like, "Which ones do you want?" Probably shouldn't ask us that, because we're just going to say, "All." We don't get enough free stuff that we'll turn you down. And everyone's got girlfriends and wives, so it's like, "Wow, I bet she'd like those shoes. And if she doesn't, she'll like these. Or these. Or these..." Basically, we ordered their entire product line, and then surprise surprise, a couple weeks later we got a note saying, "Uh, it's gonna take a while to fulfill that order, but don't worry! Here's a gift card." So instead I have to go and do normal shopping like you're supposed to.
It seems that unconventional ways to get your music out to people -- like this Banana Republic promotion -- are becoming more and more essential. Would you agree?
Yes. I would say that's a very positive way of thinking about it, and as a fan of positivity, I'm right there with ya. However, Pessimistic Me says the ways that people used to get their music out have been so utterly decimated -- and the ways that people used to make a living from their music have been so utterly decimated -- that it's not so much that these are new and exciting ways, it's more like, Why bother with any of the old rules, because none of that works. From our perspective, we're all relatively rational people, and none of us would have gone into a rock 'n' roll band if we thought it was a way to make a s---load of money. It's just not. We would love to be able to pay our rents and so forth. How do we get to keep on doing what we want to do and have people listen to our music and be able to engage with it seriously? Is there a way to still make music where the hoops you have to jump through to get it heard are not hobbling the music itself? Or crushing the spirit of making the music? Which is funny, because the internet obviously makes it easy for us to get music quote-unquote out there, but it's also a giant quagmire of people throwing up mp3s. It makes for a very entropic world of sameness. There's a lot of MySpace pages out there.
Surely you must have the occasional nightmare about, "If I had a dollar for every time someone viewed the 'Here It Goes Again' video on YouTube, I'd never have to get out of a chair again."
Um, yeah. That is less nightmare than fantasy. We didn't make that thinking anyone would see it, really. I feel so lucky about that video that I got nothing to complain about. Sure, I'd love it if I suddenly had millions of dollars in the bank, but if you'd asked me two years ago, Would I rather show this video to the ten friends I assumed would see it, or to 45 million people? I would have said 45 million people. Luckily, there's enough music world left that when you've been downloaded 45 million times, people also then want to come to concerts, and license your songs for commercials or movies. It actually does the job that music videos once upon a time were meant to do, which is get people noticing and caring. So in that respect, it did way more than we ever thought it would. The real place where the injustice and the iniquity of the new music world comes into play is that people are willing to spend an extra thirty or forty bucks a month to have a fast enough connection to download whatever they want, or spend $300 on hardware to play their music, but none of that actually winds up in the hands of the artists.
You've been touring incessantly -- did the exhaustion of all that time on the road manifest itself on the new record?
Yes. It was very hard to get home and write anything, period. And anything that wasn't mopey. The last year or two of being on the road, it's hard to listen to anything but Elliott Smith and Disintegration. Not that life is necessarily miserable, but you don't get on your third airplane of the day going, "What I really wanna hear right now is speed metal." You need things to calm you the f--- down all the time. I had basically been listening exclusively to '60s and '70s soul ballads for two months when I sat down to start writing. A lot of Roberta Flack and Dionne Warwick. These incredibly perfectly written songs. Some music scratches the itch inside your brain -- this puts the warm compress on the pain inside your brain.
According to this video snippet we have, you recorded during quite the blizzard?
That was not a singular event. It was three months of that. The record was all done in two week sessions, basically between January and March of this year. And there was one session where it snowed for 13 of the days. It does get to you psychologically after a while, especially the early sunset, where it starts getting dark as soon as you wake up. But otherwise, we're inside in a room without a hell of a lot of windows anyway, so it kind of doesn't matter what's going on outside, and it helps cement the bubble feeling of being in this totally abstract place where the only concern is your music. We've made all of our records in some sort of extreme bubble like that, and I think it's the only way we can get ourselves concentrated enough to get it done.
Still -- they probably have recording studios in Hawaii.
Yeah, people go to these lovely places in the Bahamas and stuff like that... There's different roles within the band, and not everybody's involved in every take. And so I suppose if we decided all the drums were done, Dan would be much happier if we were someplace where he could go out and loll about on the beach all day instead of charging through the snow to get groceries for us.
Here's the making-of-album video. It won't let me embed, but here's the link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/play
Listen to 'Skyscrapers' at the source!
Lady GaGa vows to never Lip Sync
Lady GaGa has vowed never to lip synch at a concert, insisting singers who perform along to recorded tracks aren’t real artists.
The Just Dance hitmaker is adamant she would never mime the words to her songs, no matter how physically demanding her dance routines are.
And she believes fans deserve to hear her voice in live shows since they have already listened to her vocals on CD.
She says, “I would never even think about it (lip synching). The whole point to me is, if you’re gonna be number one, you better really be f***ing number one. If you’re gonna be on top, you better be able to do all those things, because it’s a real privilege to be able to make music everyday, and I get away with a lot..."
“Andy Warhol says art is what you can get away with, and I get away with a lot with my music and my clothes, and I work really hard so I could truly be a real artist for all my fans. That’s really f***ed up when you lip-synch.”
Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" and "Just Dance" are still burning up the charts and enjoying regular radio play, but she plans to keep it rolling and continue her pop-world domination with two new songs already on the horizon.
The New York native is excited about her new single, "LoveGame," and is eager for fans to check out the new video, directed by music-video vet Jonas Åkerlund, who has previously helmed clips for the Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Moby and U2. "LoveGame" is already on the radio, which is very exciting," she told MTV News at the KIIS-FM Wango Tango music festival at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, California. "And I just finished my video for 'Paparazzi,' which I really am very pleased with the way that turned out. It's like a short film."
But the singer isn't just releasing songs off The Fame album — she's already hard at work on some new music. However, don't expect the collection of tunes to make it onto a traditional album release — these songs are more like a thank-you letter to her devoted fans. "I also started writing more music and I'm planning to release approximately six new songs by the end of the year," she explained. "I'm just putting it out there…I don't function on the same industry timeline as everyone else."
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Christian Bale forces "Terminator" rewrite
British actor Christian Bale forced a rewrite of upcoming action movie "Terminator Salvation," because his star had grown too big for the small role of John Connor he chose, the filmmakers said on Friday.
Director McG, whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, said he had the disconcerting experience of going to England to convince Bale to play central character Marcus Wright in the man vs. machines film, only to have Bale tell the director he wanted to play Connor instead.
McG told reporters that the script was a "moving target" that became a filmmaking challenge, and that he worked day and night with Bale, who starred last year in box office smash "The Dark Knight," talking about how to work Connor into the movie.
Connor is an iconic character in the film franchise that began in 1984 with "The Terminator," but his role was originally small in the series' fourth movie, "Terminator Salvation," which debuts in theaters on May 21.
"A lot of the work was integrating (Connor) into scenes ... and having that feel integral and sensible, as opposed to grafted on just because there was a star in the part," John Brancato, a screenwriter on the film, told reporters.
He said originally the main character was Marcus Wright, an executed death row inmate who donates his body to science, and re-emerges alive after machines have taken over the world by unleashing a nuclear holocaust on mankind. In the movie, Connor and Wright become equally important characters.
Wright is played by Australian actor Sam Worthington.
Bale said that he asked to be consulted about who would play Worthington opposite him.
"There's a benefit of currently a lot of people in the States not being familiar with him, and so you can really enjoy that performance that much more," Bale said. "He's got so many movies that are going to be coming out, because many other people have realized that he's bloody good."
Source.
Tom Cruise steers clear from politics
Although there has been some speculation as to his future involvement in the political system, Tom Cruise has come out to say he’s going to stick with his current career.
The “Eyes Wide Shut” stud has set the record straight, saying he’ll never embark on a career in politics as he’s perfectly happy making movies.
Cruise stated, “I’m an actor, not a politician. Acting is what I’m good at, what I’ve been trained to do. I’d never do politics. I think I have the better job!”
And while it’s probably a smart career choice for Tom, it sure would be fun to see First Lady Katie Holmes and First Daughter Suri in the White House someday!
Source
Gwyneth Paltrow is considering a return to the London stage
Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow is considering a return to the London stage, according to The Daily Mail. The actress, who made her West End debut in David Auburn’s Proof at the Donmar Warehouse in 2002, is eyeing a run in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
Paltrow began her career on the stage, appearing in productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her stage credits include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Picnic, The Seagull and As You Like It. She made her feature film debut in Shout in 1991. Her other big screen credits include Hook, Flesh and Bone, Seven, Emma, Great Expectations, Sliding Doors, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Duets, Bounce, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sylvia, Shallow Hal, Proof (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award), Running with Scissors, Iron Man, Two Lovers and the forthcoming Iron Man 2. She won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.
Three Sisters focuses on the lives of Olga, Masha and Irina, three sisters of Russian gentry, who try to fill their days in order to construct a life that feels meaningful. The sisters are refined and cultured young women who grew up in urban Moscow; however, for the past 11 years they have been living in a small provincial town. Moscow is a major symbolic element: the sisters are always dreaming of it and constantly express their desire to return. They identify Moscow with their happiness, and thus to them it represents the perfect life.
The Daily Mail speculates that Paltrow would play Olga, the eldest sister, who is a spinster schoolteacher.
source
13 Things You Want To Know About Tilda Swinton
Last week in New York, actress Tilda Swinton headed to the Apple Store in SoHo to bring her unparalleled stage presence to indieWIRE and Apple’s Filmmaker Talks. In a lively conversation with director John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”), Swinton discussed her latest film, Erick Zonca’s “Julia,” in which she plays a strung out, manipulative alcoholic who decides to kidnap a young boy. And as truly entertaining as the “Julia”-specific parts of the conversation were, it would be unfair to deny you the many other Tilda tidbits that came out during the hour-long talk. So here, in no particular order, are the many facts that we learned about Ms. Swinton that night:
1. She doesn’t really drink.
“I do try,” she said. “It doesn’t really work. I either go to sleep or throw up. But when I came to do all the drunk stuff [in “Julia] I was a little hesitant, until I realized I’ve actually been pretending to be drunk for most of my adult life. I’m the one with all my drunk friends who’s not really drunk, but having just as good - or possibly better a time. And then driving them home. And letting the police in. And turning the music down.”
2. She and “Julia” director Erick Zonca met when they both tried to break into a Cannes dinner with a fire extinguisher.
“I met him years ago, five years ago, or maybe longer, in Cannes,” she recalled. “We were both involved in vaguely official ways in the closing night celebrations. He was on the short film jury, and I was giving a prize. And we both had, therefore, absolute reason to be at the closing night dinner. And we were both shut out for some reason. We weren’t ejected, we just never got in… So we became really quite involved in this whole drama of trying to get in. It involved a fire extinguisher at one point, trying to get through a window. It was ridiculous. I - of course - was not drunk. He definitely was. I remember hearing much later through a mutual friend, ‘Erick Zonca is developing a film for you.’ And I thought, ‘well that is insane, because the guy doesn’t know me, and was drunk.’”
3. John Cameron Mitchell’s aunt lives in Tilda’s hometown, Nairn, in the far north of Scotland
“I saw her last Friday,” she said to Mitchell after blowing him a kiss to give to his aunt the next time he saw her.
4. She has her own film festival in said town (alright, you probably knew this, but her explanations of it are endlessly amusing).
“There is no cinema other than a multiplex,” she explained. “It’s half an hour away and it shows ‘Harry Potter’ pretty endlessly. There is a high street with all sorts of little shops closing down all the time, or being turned into charity shops. I was walking down the street one day and I saw the old Bingo Hall was up for rent. And for some insane reason I decided what I had to do that afternoon was to rent it.”
Swinton rented it, and had her first festival - “The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams” - last August. “It was entirely intended as a family affair,” she said. “My friend Mark Cousins and I, and my children who are eleven and extremely cineastic, put together a list of our favorite DVDs. We were fortunate enough to have a friend in Berlin who lent us an amazing digital projector, and we put on this little ramshackle film festival. And it became a kind of international event… It was sold out. People came from all over Europe. People came from Australia. Somebody came from Papua New Guinea. And even more amazing - one evening, Kenneth Anger turned up! It was bizarre!”
5. The festival has since travelled to Beijing.
“As a result [of last year], the Scottish government asked us to make a Scottish version in Beijing,” Swinton said, laughing. “Which we did last month! We went to Beijing and we took over this perfectly regular cinema and dressed it up as a Highland Forest and we played our favorite Scottish films. Everybody sat on bean bags.”
6. And the next one in Scotland is going to be mobile.
“Unfortunately, our bingo hall is [no more],” she said. “Somebody bought a house behind it. And said they didn’t want us to do it again because our fire exits - in the event of a fire - would go out onto their drive. But we decided to make homelessness our friend, and we rented the screen machine, which is a mobile cinema.”
Swinton and company will start on a street in Nairn, then show a film on a moving ferry boat, and then patrons will camp outside (showing “Sullivan’s Travels”) with Swinton and the screen machine.
7. She has a foundation that gives movies to kids on their 8 1/2th birthday.
Called the 8 1/2 foundation, it was founded by Swinton and Mark Cousins.
“We have realized that children of 8 1/2 nowadays who are only prey to multiplexes and television,” she said. “And it’s very easy for them to know that cinema is wider that just Pixar or Disney. So we just decided to inaugurate a cinema birthday. Your 8 1/2th birthday is going to be your ‘cinema day.’ We want to inaugurate this global initative.”
Films Swinton thinks are perfect for you on your 8 1/2th birthday? Astrid Henning-Jensen’s “Palle Alone in the World,” Albert Lamorisse’s “The Red Balloon” and “White Man,” and Mohammad-Ali Talebi’s “The Boot.” (The film festival, just fyi, runs 8 1/2 days).
8. Derek Jarman is the reason she’s working today (you probably figured that too, but it’s always worth mentioning).
“I really don’t believe I would be performing in films if I hadn’t met [Derek],” Swinton said. “When I first met him… I was a writer, who should have gone to art school, who went to university, stopped writing, wanted to find film, couldn’t find film, worked in the theater, was alienated by the theater… I was completely what they would call ‘bleeped’ [she motions to the screen behind her, which had recently played a clip of ‘Julia’ that was essentially 50% bleeped ‘fuck’s]. When I met Derek Jarman, he gave me this place to go to, because I knew I didn’t want to be a proper actor. I knew I didn’t want to work in theater or on television or industrial cinema.”
9. She and Hollywood “are over.”
“Recently I’ve been working as a kind of industrial spy in Hollywood,” she said. “The truth is… It’s over.”
10. Her children did not want to see “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
“I was very proud at the time that [‘Narnia’] came out,” Swinton described. “Because I kept saying to the Disney executives that there were two tickets that were not sold because my children did not want to see it. Mainly because they saw a trailer and said that it was ‘too loud.’ Which it is. All those films are too loud. Especially if you’re eight. They eventually saw it on DVD, and were kind of amused because as far as they were considered the wrong side won… They’re pagans… They’re coming along nicely.”
11. According to her, she doesn’t know one thing about acting.
“There’s this endless disclaimer that I always feel I honestly have to give about not being an actor,” she said in all seriousness. “Because it really does feel most honest. I always feel that real actors are going to stand up and say ‘you’re a fraud! Confess it!’ And I want to be the first to say that I never pretended to be anything else. I always pretended to be a film fan first, and an artist’s model second. I’m in front of a camera, because I’m curious, and that’s about it. I don’t know one thing about acting.”
12. She admires Jim Jarmusch (yes, a given, but her quote here is just too good to leave out).
“I’m really privileged to work in cinema because I’m so, so in love with it,” Swinton said. “It’s got texture to it… It’s always about a conversation. Film is just a gesture. And there’s a film I’m privileged to be a part of that I do recommend you go see. Which is the Jim Jarmusch’s new film, and I just saw it last night for the first time. And that film is a perfect example. Jim Jarmusch has just gone, ‘you know what, I want to make a film and I want to go out of my way to not know what I’m doing.’ And Focus [Features, the distributor of ‘The Limits of Control’], bless them, have gone ‘okay, we’ll give you some money to do that. Just go and try and keep yourself keen.’ And he’s done that! And I personally think it’s a beautiful thing. To even see someone trying to be that inarticulate. It’s amazing.”
13. Her favorite movie performance of all time is the donkey in Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar”
“I’m trying all the time to be that donkey,” she said. “I’m getting there. ‘Julia’ is a step in the right direction.”
indiewire
Saturday, May 09, 2009
‘Star Trek’ Adds Another $26 Million… How High Will It Boldly Go?
Steve Mason at Big Hollywood brings us Friday estimates and the predictions for Star Trek continue to rise as Mason was at one point predicting the film to make approximately $65 million, but has now raised that total to $77 million following a stellar Friday at the box.
Star Trek opened early on Thursday to the tune of $7 million and on Friday, estimates show it pulled in an additional $26 million. Our very own Laremy Legel went out on a limb with a $92.4 million prediction for the sci-fi reboot that has earned amazing reviews from critics with a 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes holding strong. Should word-of-mouth continue to grow, so could the box-office take for the feature that must have Paramount execs jumping for joy.
In only 31 hours, Star Trek has already bested the previous best opening weekend for a Star Trek film by $20 million as Star Trek: First Contact in 1996 was the previous holder of the crown with $13 million. Perhaps its the right movie at the right time, critical reviews, trailers, marketing, J.J. Abrams or whatever, but this one is hitting on all cylinders.
Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, however, isn’t exactly enjoying a great weekend following up its $87 million from last week. Friday estimates give it a $9.1 million total and Mason is predicting the film will finish with $30 million for the weekend, and while that is a nice number and will send the feature over the $100 million mark after only 10 days it remains a sharp 65% drop — not a number you want to see associated with your blockbuster feature no matter how big the opening.
The week’s other wide release, Summit’s Next Day Air, isn’t exactly finding much of an audience at all with only $1.2 million on Friday and estimates expecting a $3.55 million weekend. I guess that’s what happens when you say “Critics agree” in your trailer and then begin quoting Source Magazine.
I have included all the early Friday estimates below and Laremy will be here on Sunday for the complete recap. It should be interesting to see just how high Star Trek can boldy go.
- Star Trek (Paramount) - $26 million
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) - $9.15 million
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) - $3.05 million
- Obsessed (Sony) - $2 million
- Next Day Air (Summit) - $1.25 million
- 17 Again (Warner Bros) - $1.15 million
- The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $1 million
- Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $847,000
- Earth (Disney) - $697,000
- Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) - $690,000
Tiny poor people don't get McDonald's fries
One last unusual TV spot for the week, and it's from McDonald's, which wants you to know that a large group of miniature, impoverished peasants are crawling around in the bowels of your car, tired and hungry, just waiting for you to drop a single golden-brown McDonald's french fry, which to them is basically a giant shed of potato that could feed the entire horde for a year. But don't worry about letting them go hungry. Why would you want to feed a large group of people with food you'd normally throw away? That's not what McDonald's is all about. Keep that fry for yourself—remember, no one wants it more than you! By DDB Chicago.
source
Iron Man 2: Sam Rockwell Not The Comics’ Justin Hammer
Actor Sam Rockwell was in town last week for the Tribeca Film Festival debut of his science-fiction thriller “Moon,” but given the chance to chat, we had to ask a few questions about another little film he’s working on these days — namely, “Iron Man 2.”
Originally announced way back in January, Rockwell will be playing the role of Justin Hammer, a rival industrialist attempting to bring down Robert Downey Jr.’s “Iron Man,” Tony Stark. While the actor hasn’t been able to share many details about the much-anticipated sequel thus far, we did get an answer to one of the questions on many comic book fans’ minds: Will his character in the film be made to look like the white-haired, geriatric Justin Hammer of the comics?
“They wanted to go with a rival for Tony Stark who is closer to his age, and make him American,” Rockwell told MTV News of the new look for the Marvel villain.
However, just to make sure we were on the same page, we picked up a copy of “Iron Man” #240 before the interview to offer Rockwell a comparative look at the Justin Hammer known to comics fans.
“That looks like Jeremy Irons,” joked Rockwell of the Hammer character in the comic. “I guess they couldn’t get Jeremy Irons for it.”
Although Rockwell said his character wouldn’t be fighting or flying in the sequel (”My character is the brains, not the brawn,” he said), he did reveal that production has featured no small amount of spontaneity among the cast members.
“There’s a lot of improv,” said Rockwell of the ongoing “Iron Man 2″ filming.
Keep it locked to Splash Page for more “Iron Man 2″ news as it develops.
What do you think of the decision to change Justin Hammer’s look for the film?
source
Lance Armstrong talks about his break-up with Sheryl Crow
Lance Armstrong is finally revealing why his engagement to musician Sheryl Crow ended three years ago.
In Lance, a book due out in July, Armstrong tells author John Wilcockson the decision to have children became an issue in their relationship.
"She wanted marriage, she wanted children; and not that I didn't want that, but I didn't want that at that time because I had just gotten out of a marriage, I'd just had kids," he says. "Yet, we're up against her biological clock – that pressure is what cracked it."
The Tour de France champ says he and Crow underwent counseling to address their problems but it didn't work. "We were at different points in our lives. We were not compatible on that issue."
Crow went on to adopt a son, Wyatt, in May 2007. And last December, Armstrong announced that he and his girlfriend Anna Hansen are expecting a baby in June.
Source
Hugh Jackman disapproves discrimination against mexicans
Jackman had planned to visit Mexico on April 29 to promote the film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine.'' His trip was canceled by the health risk imposed following the outbreak of the virus and said the actor could not yet know when to do so.
The swine flu pushed it to postpone his visit to Mexico, but Hugh Jackman is against the discrimination that some Mexicans have suffered as a result of the outbreak of swine flu.
"I do not like to discriminate against Mexicans'' said the Australian actor in a capital city newspaper in its Friday edition. "The discrimination is not the way, so, in part, I want to go as soon as possible to show that Mexico is well, the government has taken appropriate measures.''
In the interview, Jackman also noted that China's misinformation led to exaggerate to quarantine more than one hundred Mexicans fearing that they were infected with swine flu.
"When you do not have the information, then there is fear, but I think that people in China overreacted' 'said the actor of movies like "Snatch''and "Australia''. "We all need care, but beyond that we are not even sure that it started in Mexico.''
The premiere of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine'' in Mexico was scheduled to end of April. Since the cinema closed to prevent the spread of influenza, distributor 20th Century Fox decided to postpone it tentatively for May 14th
source: Milenio.com
20 Stars Who Weren't Even Born When Empire Started
As Empire celebrates our 20th birthday, we look back at the movie stars who have not only started their careers since our debut, but who weren't even born when our first issue hit the shelves. It's either depressing or inspring, we're not sure which...
20
Will Poulter
You know him from: Son Of Rambow.
Why's he good? He provided many of the laughs as tearaway Lee Carter in Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow. While he may not be quite as cute as Bill Milner, he has the range of facial expressions that give him the comedy edge.
Will he have an adult career? He is up next in The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader as Eustace, the dour cousin of Lucy and Edmund Pevensie, which is a good first step. It's early days to predict anything more, however.
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Emma Watson
You know her from: HP Alumnus, Ballet Shoes.
Why's she good? Having grown up on the big screen as struggling muggle-born Hermione Granger, Watson has shouldered immense pressure to come out smelling of roses. Now she has started to make a niche for herself outside of the franchise with a leaning towards costume dramas and a rumoured leading role in Napoleon and Betsey.
Will she have an adult career? Will she want one? Judging by her sickeningly good exam results and place at Cambridge, she may crave something a bit more challenging.
18
Kristen Stewart
You know her from: Panic Room, Into The Wild, Twilight.
Why's she good? She's a good indie actress, having made her name in a succession of incredibly hip films from Panic Room to Undertow to the upcoming Adventureland, via occasional bigger outings in Zathura, Jumper and of course Twilight.
Will she have an adult career? Twilight will keep her busy for a few years to come, and the fact that she's lined up a turn as Joan Jett next suggests that she's anxious to keep mixing it up. Assuming she doesn't get bored with the business and give up, we expect to see her around for years to come.
17
Rory Culkin
You know him from: Little brother of child megastar Macaulay, Igby Goes Down and Signs.
Why's he good? Specialising in off-kilter indie flicks such as Igby, The Chumscrubber and his next offering Lymelife, Culkin has nailed a succession of roles as wry, slightly reserved losers.
Will he have an adult career? Hard to say. At the moment he seems much more likely to stay in the limelight than once-massive older brother Macaulay, certainly, but whether he can transition to fully adult roles remains to be seen.
16
Josh Hutcherson
You know him from: Oddly named adventure films Zathura and Bridge To Terabithia.
Why's he good? Hutcherson has an impressive ability (for a child actor) to dial his tone up or down according to the material, underplaying in Terabithia but going much broader opposite Brendan Fraser in Journey To The Centre Of The Earth.
Will he have an adult career? He is set to make another Journey to the Centre of the Earth and has the rather starry Cirque du Freak out soon, so it's looking good so far. But it's his turn in Little Manhattan that really gives us hope: this guy has some serious comedy chops.
15
Annasophia Robb
You know her from: Because of Winn-Dixie, Bridge To Terabithia and Race To Witch Mountain.
Why's she good? She is the gorgeous all-American teen that studios are clambering to lay claim to - her detached performance as Sara in Witch Mountain showed us she can act and she's set to star alongside Abigail Breslin in '60s road trip rite of passage movie Dear Eleanor later this year.
Will she have an adult career? AnnaSophia runs the risk of becoming a generic pretty blonde actress who could fade into obscurity. That said, it only takes one good role to make a star: maybe she should follow Panettiere's example and try playing a cheerleader?
14
Freddie Highmore
You know him from: Finding Neverland, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Why's he good? In his slightly younger days he was utterly adorable (we're sure he's much tougher now) but was never precocious or annoying; just one of the most able and convincing child actors around.
Will he have an adult career? He is probably the highest profile of the new crop of child actors hailing from this side of the pond. It remains to be seen how he'll grow, but we suspect that ability like that doesn't just vanish.
13
Abigail Breslin
You know her from: Little Miss Sunshine, Definitely Maybe, Nim's Island.
Why's she good? Flying in the face of ubiquitous cutesy tweens in Hollywood's kiddie-casting ball-pool, Breslin's offbeat beauty pageant wannabe was a breath of fresh air amid her blonder rivals.
Will she have an adult career? It's looking good for Abigail, thanks to her large body of work in indie fare as well as mainstream blockbusters. If not, though, we hope she'll consider a career in dance - those Little Miss Sunshine moves should not be wasted.
12
Saoirse Ronan
You know her from: Dobbing in James McAvoy in Atonement, running from Bill Murray in City of Ember, Peter Jackson's upcoming Lovely Bones.
Why's she good? This blue eyed waif has a striking screen presence which earned her an Oscar nod at the tender age of thirteen. And she's only getting better from what we've seen of Lovely Bones.
Will she have an adult career? Almost certainly. Peter Jackson has compared her to a young Cate Blanchett (who her dad starred alongside in Veronica Guerin) and predicted big things for the future of the young actress. High praise indeed from the man who discovered Kate Winslet.
11
Bill Milner
You know him from: Son Of Rambow, Is Anybody There?
Why's he good? He is ultra cute and, like Freddie Highmore, can cash in on his youthful looks to play convincing child characters without seeming precocious.
Will he have an adult career? Hold fire on the predictions until his voice breaks and we see how he matures - hopefully he won't suffer the same fate as Jonathan Lipnicki. Luckily though he has just starred alongside the legend that is Sir Michael Caine and has no doubt picked up some tips.
10
Rupert Grint
You know him from: Driving Lessons. And there was that little role in Harry Potter.
Why's he good? He's supported Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter through thick and thin, and has a likeable everyman quality which should allow him to avoid typecasting.
Will he have an adult career? Well, so far out of the HP triumvirate Grint has the most solo-projects under his belt. That said, he is ginger, and anti-redhead sentiment remains the last socially acceptable prejudice, so he'll have to keep working at it.
9
Emma Roberts
You know her from: Wild Child, Nancy Drew, Hotel For Dogs.
Why's she good? Taking her acting credentials from Aunt Julia - rather than dad Eric - Emma is everything a young Hollywood starlet should be, pretty, witty and wise. Her ear to ear smile is pure Julia too.
Will she have an adult career? Hard to tell yet if she'll manage that difficult transition from starlet to star, but it helps that she's gorgeous. All she needs is a movie about a hooker with a heart of gold and she's set.
8
Hayden Panettiere
You know her from: Heroes, Racing Stripes, The Ice Princess.
Why's she good? Former child actress Hayden Panettiere came to the attention of a wider audience when she was the cheerleader everyone was trying to save in order to save the world in Heroes. The boys seem to like her too, just a bit. Maybe it's the cheerleader's uniform.
Will she have an adult career? Hard to tell at this stage if she'll break out post-Heroes, but if she doesn't her animal-rescue activities mean that she could become another Brigitte Bardot. Without the controversy though, ideally.
7
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
You know him from: As mono-monikered Hawaiian ID holder McLovin' in Superbad, Role Models.
Why's he good? His nerdy comic little-brother persona is an interesting break from the swathe of Michael Cera everyboys on the comedy scene right now.
Will he have an adult career? He is still playing on his youth, which is a worry, but he is guaranteed to never be average so should be able to continue in comedy indefinitely. With comic timing that good, and an upcoming part in Kick-Ass to cement his popularity, he should be around for some time yet.
6
Thomas Turgoose
You know him from: This Is England, Somers Town, Eden Lake.
Why's he good? He was picked from his salt-of-the-earth comprehensive over copious drama school drones for his turn as the disaffected child turned skinhead gang member Shaun for This Is England. He seems to have the swagger of a young Ray Winstone and is certainly a wake up call to casting agents looking for a Brit teen.
Will he have an adult career? As a Shane Meadows favourite, Turgoose could take careers cues from Paddy Considine and mix well respected Brit dramas and supporting parts in big budget blockbusters. We can see him being another Jackie Earle Haley in character roles.
5
Taylor Lautner
You know him from: Robert Rodriguez's The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl 3-D and more recently Twilight. Eeeeek!
Why's he good? His dedication to everything he put his mind to has allowed him to become a successful child actor and first choice for the swarthy shape-shifting other wolf-man in Bella Swan's life for the Twilight franchise.
Will he have an adult career? Well, he's sewn up with Twilight adaptations for the next three years, barring accidents, and even if it all goes south after that he's got a lifetime of conventions he could choose to attend. But we hope he has a wider career - he's a thoroughly nice guy.
4
Dev Patel
You know him from: Skins actor turned left-field name-on-everyone's-lips since Slumdog Millionaire.
Why's he good? He may be a lanky kid from the London 'burbs, but Dev Patel's eternal optimism and willingness to try new things catapulted him to leading-man status in Danny Boyle's Oscar-sweeping Slumdog Millionaire. Next up: working with Shyamalan on The Last Airbender.
Will he have an adult career? We very much hope so. He's young, British, has an Oscar winning film under his belt and can do kung-fu, what more could casting agents want? Plus there is a serious shortage of Asian talent in Hollywood, and Patel could change that.
3
Dakota Fanning
You know her from: Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Coraline, Push, her TV roles in Taken and Friends.
Why's she good? She may be so precocious it's scary, but Fanning is also a very talented actress, and one who's worked with everybody.
Will she have an adult career? We're thinking yes: she did a good disaffected teen turn in Push, she's growing up rather beautiful (which never hurt a career) and she looks set to pull a Jodie Foster and transform into an Oscar-winning butterfly rather than pulling a Donnie Smith and disappearing.
2
Miley Cyrus
You know her from: Her massively successful pop career and Hannah Montana movies.
Why's she good? Well, she's popular anyway, massively so with the tweenies who comprise her audience. And she's already caused a few tabloid storms - not bad for a 16 year-old.
Will she have an adult career? Again, it doesn't matter financially, but given her current levels of fame and popularity it would take a Lohan-style implosion to slow her momentum. And the last time a child star was this popular, she was Shirley Temple and grew up to be a UN Ambassador. So we can see Cyrus going into politics, much as we'd prefer not to.
1
Daniel Radcliffe
You know him from: A little series called Harry Potter; December Boys.
Why's he good? Because he brought one of the world's most popular characters to life over five movies (to date) and has largely been acclaimed for his efforts.
Will he have an adult career? Well, if he doesn't he'll still never have to worry about money, which is something, but the endlessly curious Radcliffe has barely gotten started on an adult career. His decisions outside of Potter - TV drama like My Boy Jack, his stage turn in Equus - suggest that he's not one to be typecast, and will be pushing boundaries for some time to come.
source. you can see the rest of the pics at the source if you want.
The Extra-Dark Terminator Ending You Won't See
Remember when McG warned that the end to Terminator Salvation might piss off a lot of people? Turns out the original ending was even more shocking, and it might not even be on the DVD.
At the roadshow, you said that fans would either love or hate the ending? Can you address that now that fans have seen the film?
That was at a time when there was a very dark ending. There was a great irony in the way this film shook down. There was this leak that Connor dies and they put Connor's face on top of the machine body of Marcus. Everybody went, "Booooooo, what's that?" That's half of it [the ending]. We had a jet-black ending. Connor dies, we're in a room with all the people we care about. You take Connor's likeness, you put it on the living machine of Marcus. He sits up, now looking like Christian Bale, takes a gun, kills Kate, kills Kyle, kills Star, kills everybody, eyes flare red, [snaps] the end.
More at the
SOURCE
SIMS 3: Latest relaunch of EA's popular life sim series is finally finished
Latest relaunch of EA's popular life sim series is finally finished; online and retail launch set for June 2.
It's been nearly five years since The Sims 2 first hit shelves, but the game continues to swarm the PC sales charts, placing itself and its numerous expansions in the top 10 week after week. That dominance is about to be put to the test by the game's own successor, given that publisher Electronic Arts announced today that The Sims 3 has gone gold in time to meet its June 2 release date.
The open-ended life simulator originally had a February 20 launch date. However, EA pushed the game back to its new release date so it could invest additional time and effort to make the marketing campaign for the game more innovative.
The Sims 3 offers players the ability to customize individual sims by allotting them five unique character traits, from a choice of brave, artistic, kleptomaniac, clumsy, paranoid, and romantic. Other new features packed into Sims 3 include a Create a Sim mode and short- and long-term goals.
The Sims 3 will be available for $49.99 in stores or through digital distribution. Diehard fans can also purchase the $69.99 collector's edition from retailers, which includes The Sims 3, a Sims Plumbob USB Drive, an exclusive in-game Italian-style sports car, a cheats guide, and The Sims 3 Plumbob stickers pack.
SOURCE
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Supernatural Interview: Misha Collins Talks Heavenly Torture and Summer Plans
Last September we talked with the then-new Supernatural star about developing the role of Castiel and what it was like to work with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Then in March
we talked with him again, this time about his future on Supernatural, the possibility of a sixth season for the series and his grandmother's reaction to his appearence on Nip/Tuck.
On the heels of last Thursday's Misha-centric episode "The Rapture", the Supernatural actor was great enough to check in with us again. In our latest conversation he tells us why he thinks Castiel is now taking Heaven's company line with Sam and Dean, shares his personal plans for the summer, and answers the questions you sent us on our Supernatural Twitter site.
I didn't bold what Misha said, or the Interviewer.
so I guess you'll have to try to pick it out you're self.
sorry!
Hi, this is John from BuddyTV and I'm talking to Misha Collins from Supernatural. How's it going?
Great!
You just had the big episode - the big Castiel episode - "The Rapture." What was it like getting to play a different character and explore Castiel's back story?
It was great! It was great to get out of the trench coat for a few hours. Yeah. It was fun to play someone who actually had some emotions and interacted on a more human level for a change.
Did it help to inform anything about how you had been playing the character?
No, I don't think so. I wish I could say "Yes! Yes, it's all very clear to me now and I'm completely satisfied." No. I feel like the Jimmy backstory actually - by some miracle - was something like I kind of had imagined the backstory to be - that Castiel had inhabited the vessel of a willing participant somehow, and he'd been pious and maybe a little bit of a zealot, which I think was true of Jimmy. Moving forward I think it makes it kind of complicated. Because moving forward, now I know that Jimmy is still somehow trapped inside of Castiel, and that there's another pair of eyes watching everything from inside. That's going to be really interesting.
We also saw Castiel take a few steps back when he came back, then. How do you feel about Castiel going back to that hard line?
I think that it gives him a lot of room to grow, which is good. I think that it ups the stakes for Castiel. It is really important for him to follow the orders of his heavenly commanders. He had been straying from the party line a bit. Now he's back in order and I think that if he's going to help Sam or Dean in the future it's going to make those decisions that much more difficult. So I think it ups the stakes for him and it probably puts some distance between him and the boys. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it plays out.
It seemed watching it that Castiel is [take the party line] but he still doesn't quite go along with that.
It's not like he went upstairs and was lobotomizes and now he's a totally different personality. I think he went up to heaven and he was tortured, and he was indoctrinated and now he's back on board. But he's still the same angel. So he's not inherently a totally different being at this point.
Is the idea that there's torture in Heaven something that you've discussed? Or is that something that you're trying to read into it?
That is something that I am reading into it.
So you're not really sure exactly how Heaven 'is' in this Supernatural world?
No, I mean, it hasn't been any more clearly defined for me than it has for anyone else. I just operate with my imagination. But it seems like the clues kind of line up there - the way Anna talked about it being a very, very bad thing to be dragged back upstairs. The intensity with which she said that made it sound like something bad was happening to Castiel. Earlier in the season disobedience was likened in the dialogue with murder one on Earth. So it's clear that it is hierarchical and that there are rules that are not to be broken, and there are consequences if they are. Now what those consequences are, what angelic torture looks like if it happens, I don't know. I imagine it's not all friendly up there on the clouds.
Yeah. We also asked some of the Supernatural fans following us on Twitter what they'd like to know. We saw the difference in the voice and the mannerisms between Castiel and Jimmy, and listening to you it sounds like Jimmy is more you. So Angie wants to know how you put on that gruff Castiel voice. Is that at all straining for you?
It's not terribly straining. So far I've been able to endure. I think that my real voice is probably somewhere between the two. I pushed it to a more boyish kind of sound with Jimmy to make the contrast stronger. I made the decision early on to go with a gruff, resonant voice because it says in the first script that Castiel's real voice was blowing out windows. And so I thought 'Oh, okay, so he should have a very deep, serious voice.' The character has lasted for much longer than I expected.
Do you have any plans for the summer hiatus off the show until next season starts?
Yes. I am going to go on a long bike touring trip. I am going to go to a convention in Birmingham. And I am going to go up to Vancouver and rent a house up there for next season.
SOURCE
THE TWILIGHT PORNO IS HERE :D
Top 10 "minxiest" songs
These are songs that brings out a woman’s inner "minx" on the dancefloor.
1. Christina Aguilera – ‘Dirrty’
2. The Pussycat Dolls – ‘Don’t Cha ‘
3. Destiny’s Child – ‘Bootylicious’
4. Nelly Furtado – ‘Maneater’
5. Beyonce Knowles – ‘Crazy in love’
6. Madonna ‘Like a Virgin’
7. Sugababes – ‘Freak like me’
8. Pink – ‘So what?’
9. Rhianna – ‘Please don’t stop the music’
10. Girls Aloud – ‘The Promise’
The poll also revealed that women feel their minxiest at 9pm on a Saturday night, when many are likely to be hitting the dancefloor.
source
Kate Gosselin opens up for the first time
One week after Us Weekly first broke the news that Jon & Kate Plus 8 dad Jon Gosselin was caught with another woman, his wife, Kate Gosselin, opens up for the first time.
"It's one of those things that we're just handling privately," Kate said on Wednesday's taping of The Rachael Ray Show. "We're just taking it one step at a time and I'm trying to walk through it."
She added: "The focus remains on our kids. It has always been there and will continue to be there. One day at a time, like we've always done. One hour at a time, one minute at a time, and my life's been like that."
Her interview with Rachael Ray -- which will air on Tuesday -- came the same day Us Weekly's current issue (on newsstands now) revealed that five people close to the situation confirmed that Jon, 32, has been having an affairwith third-grade school teacher Deanna Hummel.
"It's definitely another learning experience," Kate said about the recent media attention. "I look at life through the eyes of my kids in that I've always said life experiences... I feel like you can learn something from every situation and I am absolutely learning a lot from this."
After Jon and Deanna met in mid-January at Chill Lounge in Reading, Pennsylvania (they sent each other $3 shots), Deanna's brother Jason Hummel told Us that Jon -- who has twins, 8, and sextuplets, 5 -- began relentlessly pursuing his sister. By mid-February, he was coming over to their Reading house.
(At the Hummel house, Jason says Deanna and Jon would "pretty much stay locked away like two teenagers. It was weird. He's a grown man.")
Kate said that she didn't see it coming.
"Certainly none of this could have been predicted," she said. "Now going into our fifth season, we have stepped back and realized that it is part of this process, and I always say there's really never any going back. We just need to go forward. That is my new saying -- just keep on marching through this. Just doing what we need to."
Instead of focusing on the news -- which includes Jon and Deanna spending time together while Kate was traveling in late April -- of her husband's three-month long affair, she said she is putting her attention on her eight children.
"I know that I’m continuing on as I am the best mom I know how to be and that's really where my focus is," Kate said. "I really try not to let any of that stuff that comes with it get to me."
As for comments that Kate is combative (she once chastised her husband for breathing on their TLC reality show), she made no apologies.
"Just to put it out there, I am who I am," she said. "I do not care how you see me. Call me crazy, but it's out there because I am not perfect and I will never boast that I'm perfect. Everyone makes mistakes."
Source
Liev Schreiber is a Transvestite
On Tuesday’s Late Night With David Letterman, Liev Schreiber shared a funny/cute picture of himself dressed as a transvestite holding his son Sasha, 21 months.
Sasha was born Alexander Pete but Liev and his wife, Aussie actress Naomi Watts, call him Sasha, a Russian variation of the name Alexander.
Mr. Schreiber, 41, is in costume as a tranny for his upcoming role as Vilma in Taking Woodstock. Liev’s character is a drag queen who serves as a body guard during the Woodstock festival.
Liev plays supervillain Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in theaters NOW!
Source
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Coke's breakup ad is not everyone's fantasy
Coca-Cola is shocked—shocked—that a commercial in which a guy who's breaking up with his girlfriend is suddenly surrounded by pole dancers, prompting the girlfriend to lower herself to his adolescent fantasy standards, would be deemed sexist. Perish the thought! Really, all this Coke Zero ad from Australia needs is a bit of rephrasing. The line at the end, proposing that this is breaking up "as it should be," suggests a full endorsement of the proceedings, cartoonish though they may be, when all you need there is a quick acknowledgment that the guy's actually a delusional moron. Or they could make a companion ad from the women's point of view and apply some unfair, stereotypical expectations to men. An eye for an eye always leaves everyone happy.
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Swine floozy touts White Castle pulled pork
With the backlash against all things swine, it's not a great time for pigs in ads. And it's really not a great time for pigs in White Castle ads. The spot above, by new White Castle agency Zimmerman, advertising the chain's new pulled-pork sandwiches, shows a female pig dancing suggestively on a stage and then pulling a lever that douses her in an explosion of tangy barbecue sauce . The breathy female voiceover then describes the sandwiches as "sweet, saucy, oh so naughty." (In a similar vein, the Web site advises you to "Get your oink on" and "Rock out while you pig out.") Swine flu and stripper hogs aside, this gets back to the whole issue of suicide food—of ads that show animals celebrating the fact that they're about to be cooked and eaten by humans. For some reason, pigs are especially prone to this, whether you're talking Moo and Oink or the Smokin' Stokes pig, who rolls around on burning coals and "does not merely accept his own destruction. He revels in it." The White Castle pig joins this acclaimed crew, and even does that little dance for you first.
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Renee Zellweger Puts Acting On Hold
Renee Zellweger is taking a break from acting, so she can spend time doing nothing and "getting bored".
The actress has worked non-stop since she shot to fame in the 1990s and hasn't had time for any vacations.
But Zellweger admits she is in need of a break and has instructed her agent to turn down all movie offers until she's fully rested.
She tells America's Glamour magazine, "I'm working on getting bored, and it's really hard! I need to sit still long enough to see where my brain goes. I'm taking time to figure out where I want to go and what I want to do next. In this line of work, you become so (defined by your job)."
And Zellweger insists she's having fun rediscovering life's simple pleasures.
She adds, "I'm actually going into the bathroom to use my bathroom stuff - rather than to the suitcase where I usually keep it. I'm learning how to use a chest of drawers! I am determined to sit still long enough to get past the existential crap of the moment.
"I want to learn more. I want to know more. That's what taking this time is about. I'm curious about so many things, but haven't had occasion to be exposed to them enough to really appreciate them."
Source
Paris Hilton's plan to fool fans flopped
Socialite heiress Paris Hilton on her recent visit to London had bought a designer wig in a bid to fool her fans, but the plan failed miserably.
Paris with her boyfriend Doug Reinhardt splurged on an expensive wig to hide from the public eye.
"We shopped for a wig at a departmental store to disguise myself from the public glare but as usual it didn't work," Chinadaily.com.cn quoted Paris as saying.
The 28-year-old star loves travelling and says she enjoys visiting places with her boyfriend whom she is dating since February.
"It was so romantic to be in London with Doug. We both love to travel, so it's great that on business trips, we can go all over the world and spend quality time," Paris said.
Talking about her equation with Doug, Paris says that it takes "a lot to keep up with me and he is just about managing".
"We are going to get married one day so he will need to keep up with me. I am super happy right now. He is so amazing," she said.
Source
Miss California caught lying; may lose crown over topless photos
On Monday, photos of a topless Miss California posing provocatively in pink panties surfaced on TheDirty.com. The 21-year-old Miss USA runner-up sparked international debate when she stated that she believes marriage should be between “a man and a woman” at last month’s pageant. Early Tuesday, Carrie released a lengthy statement blasting the leak as the work of gay rights proponents and claiming she was only 17 years old when the pictures were taken.
Uh-huh. Well, The Miss California Pageant Organization isn’t buying Carrie’s explanation. According to Access Hollywood, pageant organizers believe the images were shot between the time of now-21-year-old Carrie’s breast augmentation and the Miss USA Pageant — meaning the flicks are nine weeks old at the oldest.
Victoria’s Secret tells Access that Carrie was wearing their line of lace lingerie in the photo and that particular line was not manufactured until 2006. Carrie turned 18 in 2005. Do the math, conservatives! She’s lying to you.
Now, the question seems to be whether the photos will cost Carrie her Miss California crown. A debate on the subject is under way over at USA Today, and we’d like to hear your thoughts on it as well.
Should Carrie Prejean be stripped of her Miss California title in the wake of the photo controversy?
Source
Monday, May 04, 2009
Radiohead's Managers Advised Band to Break Up Before In Rainbows
Imagine a world without Radiohead. Sad, isn't it? Well, if the band had followed its management's advice, we would be living in such a world right now--and we wouldn't even have In Rainbows to listen to. Or "the Radiohead model" to follow. (Though, surely, we would have come up with a different name for the latter.)
The Irish Times reports that Brian Message, of Radiohead's management company Courtyard Management, along with two of his partners, "actually advised the band to split up," during the making of In Rainbows. (Via the Daily Swarm.) Kind of weird that this guy is admitting something like this...
Take it away, Irish Times:
"Two years after leaving EMI Radiohead were still no closer to recording an album. The songs were written but the band couldn't achieve the sound they were looking for in the studio. Courtyard felt maybe it was time to call it a day. Surely professional managers shouldn’t encourage their most profitable act to split up?
'I've been lucky to work with some great artists and Radiohead are a once in a generation act,' says Message. 'But you have to be honest if it's not working. You have to have passion about what you do. I'm an accountant but I love music and I'm passionate about the artists I work with.'"
'I've been lucky to work with some great artists and Radiohead are a once in a generation act,' says Message. 'But you have to be honest if it's not working. You have to have passion about what you do. I'm an accountant but I love music and I'm passionate about the artists I work with.'"
Thanks for not listening to them, Radiohead. Now go make another album, OK?
Source
Pink denies being bisexual
Pop punk Pink has blasted claims she told a British newspaper she’s bisexual — insisting an interview, published in Britain’s News of The World newspaper, is pure fabrication.
The singer, real name Alecia Moore, was quoted as saying, “It seems as if bisexuality is a trend and I should whip up the masses. Well, I don’t believe in trends, I just believe in me.”
But the So What? hitmaker — who recently rekindled her romance with ex-husband Carey Hart after they split almost a year ago — has taken to her Twitter account to set the record straight.
“I just read that im [sic] bisexual. so 1991,” she wrote. “good thing people write articles about me so i can get my facts str8. i mean straight. read on people.
“100% FABRICATION.”
Source
Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy Join Christopher Nolan’s Inception
Just when you thought that all the major stars of Christopher Nolan’s Inception had been announced. Warner Bros adds two more names to the list. The Dark Knight director will reteam with Batman Begins star Ken Watanabe, who will play the film’s villain, a man who is blackmailing Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. Tom Hardy, who got raves playing the title role in Bronson at Sundance, will play a member of DiCaprio’s team.
Details about the project are being kept tightly under wraps. All we know so far is that the movie is a contemporary science fiction action movie “set within the architecture of the mind.”
Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead, a CEO-type, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Public Enemies) is his wife, Ellen Page (Juno) is a young college grad student and DiCaprio’s sidekick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an associate working for DiCaprio. Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Sunshine) and Michael Caine are also signed on, but no details are known about their characters.
Inception will begin production this summer, and is scheduled to hit theaters on July 16th 2010.
thr via /film
Christina Aguilera will hit the silver screen for the first time!
Christina Aguilera will make her screen debut for Screen Gems in "Burlesque," a contemporary musical that Steven Antin will direct. Antin wrote a script that was revised by "Erin Brockovich" scribe Susannah Grant.
Aguilera will play an ambitious smalltown girl with a big voice who finds love, family and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club that appears to be right out of Bob Fosse's "Cabaret."
Donald De Line will produce. Pic will shoot late this year.
While Aguilera has won four Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy and has sold more than 25 million albums, she has never starred in a film, though she lent her voice to the animated "Shark Tale."
"I couldn't be more excited, as this was a project written with her in mind," Screen Gems topper Clint Culpepper said.
source
Sunday, May 03, 2009
15 Legends That Passed Away Too Young
There’s quite a few actors and musicians that have died while in their youthful prime. Others, have passed before their ability and/or genius was fully realized. In any case, they are now immortalized for their accomplishments in their arts, perhaps more so because of their untimely passing. The following is a list of the most memorable examples of young legends away too early.
Jean Harlow 1911-1937
The original blond bombshell, Jean Harlow stared in 36 movies from the age of 18 until her death at 26. Her official cause of death was due to complications of uremic poisoning. In her short but tragic life she was married three times, and was working on a fourth when she died. Harlow was known to be the most beautiful actress when film was transitioning from silent to “talkies,” she is also credited as being the main inspiration for Marilyn Monroe.
James Dean 1931-1955
Though James Dean only starred in three movies, he became a Hollywood Icon following his death at the age of 24. His handsome face and debonair demeanor continue to be used as inspiration for young actors looking to break into the business. Though his career was short, his iconic image remains a mainstay in the immortal Hollywood landscape.
Buddy Holly 1936-1959
Buddy Holly died in a plane crash at the young age of 23. Unfortunately for Holly, Gary Busey stared as Buddy in a lack luster Hollywood biopic in 1978. Though the film was subpar, from Weezer to Rogue Wave, Buddy Holly’s musical influence can still be felt in today’s rock music scene.
Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962
Many believe Marilyn Monroe to be the most glamorous movie star ever; her iconic looks have inspired generations of dark haired girls to go platinum blond. Tragically she died at the age of 36, but from Madonna to Gwen Stefani, Marilyn Monroe will forever inspire the perception of beauty in the celebrity mainstream.
Jimi Hendrix 1942-1970
Jimi Hendrix created iconic guitar licks that are still inspire musicians from all genres of music. His most famous works continue to be used in television shows and hit movies. For as much as Hendrix loved music, his love for psychedelic drugs got the best of him in 1970, at the young age of 28. Many wonder what he kind of musician he could have grown into if he only had the chance.
Jim Morrison 1945-1971
Jim Morrison’s is one of the most well known vocalists of all time. And as a result, his grave is still visited and decorated by thousands of fans each year. To this day it is still unknown to what caused Morrison’s death at age 26; but regardless, his artistry has left an undeniable impact on the world of music and poetry for the past 40 years.
Bruce Lee 1940-1973
For all of Bruce Lee’s accomplishments in Hollywood and around the world, the only thing that is marked on his grave is, “Founder of Jeet Kune Do.” After staring in numerous martial arts films, tragically Bruce Lee died at the early age of 33 - an age younger than action stars of today. In any case, he is the most popular martial arts icon in the Western Hemisphere - and maybe the world - and, he continues to inspire the young and old through his unique artistic style.
John Belushi 1949-1982
The inscription reads on one of John Belushi’s headstones, “I may be gone, but Rock and Roll lives on.” In John’s short 33 years he left an unforgettable impression on the world of comedy. His legacy still remains on college campuses around the world, and he continues to remain a college poster mainstay through his infamous and iconic role in in Animal House.
Eazy-E 1963-1995
If James Brown is the “God Father of Soul” then Eazy-E would be considered the “God Father of Gangster Rap.” Eric “Eazy-E” Wright died at the early age of 31 due to complications with the AIDS virus. He was buried in an 18k gold casket at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Ca. Fans continue to visit his site and pour 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor in appreciation of his artistic legacy.
Kurt Cobain 1967-1994
Kurt Cobain single-handedly changed the face of rock music when Nirvana’s Nevermind was released in 1991. His quick rise to prominence proved difficult to handle, and as an escape Cobain found a fleeting serenity in heroin. Towards the end of his life, while his records were reaching # on the charts, we was consistently in and out of rehab. In early 1994 he tragically committed suicide. Though he died at the age of 27, his influence continues to be felt in the alternative music scene today.
Bradely Nowell 1968-1996
Known for his beautiful voice and reggae beats, Bradley Nowell died at age 28 from a heroin overdose before his band received the notoriety they deserved. Sublime’s popular brand of ska, punk, and hip hop were known for being ahead of its time. Since his untimely passing, Bradley’s post-mortem proceeds have gone on to support the wife and son he left behind.
Tupac Shakur 1971-1996
Arguably the greatest hip-hop star ever, Tupac Shakur was tragically gunned down on the Las Vegas strip in 1996 at the age of 25. Recently Tupac’s memorial statue was unveiled at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, 9 years after his death at Stone Mountain in Atlanta Georgia. Through his center for the arts, his legacy of activism and art will continue and remain an inspiration for many years to come.
Jeff Buckley 1966-1997
Jeff Buckley died at the age of 30 after a tragic drowning accident in Memphis, Tennessee . Buckley and Tupac Shakur have something in common, they both have released, as much, if not more music after their tragic and untimely deaths. Interesting enough Buckley’s grave resides at the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee. His memorial marker overlooks the Sumatran Tigers, and continues to be visited each year by adoring fans that leave flowers and gifts in his memory.
Chris Farley 1964-1997
Not only did Chris Farley use his quick wit to entertain the masses, but he used physical comedy - not to mention, his comedic physical apperaance - as well. Through entertaining, Fariley was able to make being overweight funny and even use it to generate huge laughs. After his stint on Saturday Night Live, Farley made an easy transition into film. After he gained huge success at the box office, Farley developed a cocaine problem that eventually got the best of him in 1997 at age 33.
Heath ledger 1979-2008
Heath Ledger is perhaps known as Generation Y’s greatest actors. Unfortunately he passed away at the young age 28, shortly before the merit of his performance in The Dark Knight was realized. Fortunately, he has left the world an impressive film reel that catalog this actor’s great talent. Recently his talent was realized by the academy and he was posthumously given an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor by his portrayal as the Joker.
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What X-Men Will Be Hitting Theaters Next?
If there's one thing that Wolverine's successful opening weekend means, it's that Fox will likely want more X-Men movies. But who's going to be in them? Apparently, not who you might be expecting...
Wolverine may be packed with fanservice introductions of many familiar faces, whether or not they make sense for the plot (Emma Frost? Really?), but you shouldn't expect them to show up in the already-announced X-Men: First Class, according to franchise producer Lauren Shuler Donner:
First Class is the original first class at Xavier's School for the Gifted, but... if it works, and there's a First Class number 2 or 3, yes, of course, we could weave [Gambit] in, sure, absolutely. He has a relationship with Storm.
But who is the movie version of Xavier's first class? In the comics, it's always been Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl, but the movie versions of both Angel and Iceman are too young to have been part of that class (despite Iceman actor Shawn Ashmore being contracted for another X-Film somewhere down the line). Judging from the first three X-Men movies, we can assume that Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm were probably three of the first students, and X-Men: The Last Stand put Beast in that mix, as well. For some reason - probably the presence on the project of Gossip Girl and The OC creator Josh Schwartz - I wouldn't be surprised if Wolverine's Emma Frost made an appearance, as well; out of the various Wolverine characters who would make sense in the movie, she's the most obvious, and not least because of her comic history with Cyclops.
(Personally, I'd like to see Juggernaut in there as well, just to amp up the soap operatics a little more. If we're going to have to sit through two hours of badly-CGI-youthened Patrick Stewart, after all, at least give him an evil step-brother to deal with so that he's got more to do than smile benignly and tell Scott that self-control will lead to a better life a lot.)
(I may just have proven why I would never be able to make a living planning big-budget blockbusters.)
Shuler's also dropped hints about potential other X-Men movies, spinning off from Wolverine:
There's internal discussions about all [what spin-offs may happen] . We're gonna resolve that soon... Nothing would please me more than to bring Bryan [Singer] on for another movie. And, if it's like the first Deadpool or the first Gambit, I think... I mean, I would hope he would be interested.
Whether or not Fox would be interested is the main question, of course; chairman Tom Rothman's comment earlier this week that "if [X-Men Origins:Wolverine] works out well, and we think it will, then we're going to be hard at work on [the rumored spin-offs]" was much more definite than his more guarded reply to the same question last October, although whether that's the difference between trying to appear positive on the red carpet compared with a more considered, honest response remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure, though; if X-Men: First Class can be made for a comparable budget to Wolverine and be as successful without the Hugh Jackman factor, Fox will definitely do their best to keep the franchise going. But, given their history with Daredevil and Fantastic Four, is their best really going to be good enough?
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Pink admits she is bisexual
And really, does this surprise anyone? While it does seem like it’s becoming the new trend in Hollywood to announce that you are gay, first with the not-so-surpring announcements made by the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Clay Aiken, this announcement by Pink is another that does not surprise me. And not that I think any less of her for it, it really bothers me the way she went about making her ‘announcement.’ Note that she does not specifically say that she is bisexual and does actually seem to be erring on the side of ‘I’m-still-straight-really’, if you’ve had relations of any kind with a woman, you’re bisexual. Once it’s done, it’s done and there’s no going back. Sort of like losing your virginity. This is what Celebitchy reported Pink as saying as she skirts around actually being honest with herself:
“The ‘So What’ singer - who split from her husband Carey Hart earlier this year - has had flings with women in the past, but would never completely give up men.
She said: “I’m not gay so I guess I would not try a relationship with a woman. I didn’t say I haven’t experimented but I love men too much to make it a permanent thing.”
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