Linkables and NINE

In Contention no Kidman in Woody Allen's 2010 picture. Sorry folks. I don't wanna say I told ya so. But...
Low Resolution on the Whatever Works trailer. Woody may be back in NYC but he's never really approached southerners and gay characters before, has he?
Boy Culture a very gay 'blind item'
Cinema de Merde on X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Should you watch it? No, you should probably clean your room instead

And Your Little Blog, Too sees Debbie Reynolds in concert. Molly Brown, still Unsinkable
Hollywood Elsewhere on the talk about Sherlock Holmes "bromance" between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr
The Quiet Earth Sweden has another vampire movie.
Art of the Title Sequence looks at the Hulk movies
The Post Game Show American Idol's God vs. Devil showdown. It's no secret that I don't care a whit about AI. I think it's rotting people's brains ever faster than the Hulu aliens could have dreamed. But despite that, I made it all the way through this article and enjoyed it which means ~ must read (if you're into AI).
Thompson on Hollywood keeps us up to date on Sony Pictures Classics. They're buying what's selling at Cannes. In addition to new films from Almodovar, Allen and Michael Haneke, they've actually bought both Coco Chanel pictures: Coco Avant Chanel and Coco Chanel and Igory Stravinsky. I know the spin is that they want them both but I'm guessing it's so that someone else doesn't release one of them at the same time as the one they really wanted. Or am I too cynical?

And finally, ET's Nine preview (via). It's hard to pull anything really fron this preview really... all quick cuts and circling ladies... bad sound. But the marketing team is leaning heavily towards Dame Judi Dench, don't you think?



This just in 05/14: THE REAL TRAILER HAS ARRIVED

Jane Fonda vs. Geoffrey Rush for the Triple Crown

You know about the Triple Crown of Acting, right? It's when an actor manages to stretch across three mediums and snag all three of the top competitive prizes: Tony (theater), Emmy (television) and Oscar (film).


To date only 15 actors* have accomplished this but the number could jump to 17 soon. Currently the rarified list reads like so...

• Jack Albertson (Tony: 65, Oscar: 69, Emmy: 75)
  
• Anne Bancroft (Tony: 58, Oscar: 63, Emmy: 99)
  
• Ingrid Bergman (Oscar: 45, Tony: 47, Emmy: 60)
  
• Shirley Booth (Tony: 49, Oscar: 53, Emmy: 62)
  
• Melvyn Douglas (Tony: 60, Oscar: 64, Emmy: 68) Did you know that this Hud star was Illeanna Douglas's grandfather? I certainly didn't.
  
• Jeremy Irons (Tony: 84, Oscar: 91, Emmy: 97)
  
• Thomas Mitchell (Oscar: 40, Tony: 53, Emmy: 53)
  
• Rita Moreno (Oscar: 62, Tony: 75, Emmy: 77)
  
• Al Pacino (Tony: 69, Oscar: 93, Emmy: 04)
  
• Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar: 78, Emmy: 81, Tony: 03)
  
• Jason Robards (Tony: 59, Oscar: 77, Emmy: 88)
  
• Paul Scofield (Tony: 62, Oscar: 67, Emmy: 69)
  
• Maggie Smith (Oscar: 70, Tony: 90, Emmy: 03)
  
• Maureen Stapleton (Tony: 51, Emmy: 68, Oscar: 82)
  
• Jessica Tandy (Tony: 78, Emmy: 88, Oscar: 90)
  

<--- Dianne Wiest on Broadway with John Lithgow (four EMMYs, two TONYs... only Oscar eludes him) and Patrick Wilson in All My Sons.

This year I expected to see one of my all time favorite actresses Dianne Wiest fighting for a place on this list. She already has two Oscars (Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway) and two Emmys (Road to Avonlea and In Treatment) but she did not receive a TONY nomination for All My Sons. I shall console myself with the happy knowledge that she's left boring-ass TV procedurals behind and is returning to fine roles elsewhere. Next up for Wiest: more In Treatment on TV and Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman onscreen... for which she could conceivably snag her fourth supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2010.

So, no Dianne. Jane Fonda and Geoffrey Rush did get nominated though and could become Triple Crowners in one month's time. Fonda has two Oscars (Klute and Coming Home) and one Emmy (The Dollmaker) and she's up for the TONY this year for 33 Variations. Geoffrey Rush has one Oscar (Shine) and one Emmy (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) and Exit the King could bring him the TONY.

The Tony Lead Acting Races

Lead Actress Play

• Hope Davis, God of Carnage
• Jane Fonda, 33 Variations
• Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage
• Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart
• Harriet Walter, Mary Stuart

This category is brutal with two squabbling pairs of leading ladies. Although as far as I know neither Hope nor Marcia lose their head in God of Carnage so the battle in Mary Stuart is deadlier. It comes with a body count. Could all this infighting / vote splitting clear the way for Jane Fonda? [p.s. Harden already has the Oscar and if she snags this TONY all she's waiting for is the EMMY. Will she get a nomination for Damages in July?]

Lead Actor Play

• Jeff Daniels, God of Carnage
• Raúl Esparza, Speed-The-Plow
• James Gandolfini, God of Carnage
• Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King
• Thomas Sadoski, reasons to be pretty

It's cause for some despair that Esparza seems like he's never going to win the TONY. And with Pushing Daisies cancelled we'll never know if they planned to bring him back as "Alfredo Aldarisio" and maybe give him a duet with Kristin Chenoweth. He's so clearly one of Broadway's best and versatile too given that he hops between plays and musicals with ease. But TONY voters L-O-V-E movie stars and vote for them when they get a chance. Geoffrey Rush should be able to snag this one and join the triple crowners.

Lead Actress Musical

• Stockard Channing, Pal Joey
• Sutton Foster, Shrek
• Allison Janney, 9 to 5: The Musical
• Alice Ripley, Next to Normal
• Josefina Scaglione, West Side Story

It's a West Wing reunion... the EMMYS on Broadway! But I don't understand the Janney nomination. At all. I find her as endearing as a celebrity as most people but let me put it this way: she makes Renée Zellweger in Chicago look like a born hoofer. I could practically hear Janney counting whenever she had to do the simplest moves onstage. Both of her co-stars sang multiple circles around her and if you ask me, Megan Hilty in the Dolly role would have a right to be pissed that she was passed over so that TONY could get its celebrity fix. But thems the breaks. All awards bodies prefer celebrities to lesser knowns, if they're in direct competition.

Lead Actor Musical

• David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish (combined) as Billy Elliot
• Gavin Creel, Hair
• Brian d'Arcy James, Shrek
• Constantine Maroulis, Rock of Ages
• J Robert Spencer, Next to Normal

I'm not exactly sure why Gavin Creel (I'm not a fan) is considered lead in Hair while Will Swenson is nominated in "featured" (the story is about Creel but Swenson controls the show and gets more stage time -my review) but I'm not part of the nominating committee. Trivia: We have our first TONY nominated American Idol alum in Constantine Maroulis. Many of the Idol players have been on the boards (an odd twist given that American Idol regularly uses "Broadway" as an insult -- never mind that most Broadway performers can sing circles around Idol contestants) but this is the reality show's first nominee.

The SNUBBED

A lot of film stars were ignored this year including: Kristin Scott Thomas for The Seagull (my interview), Susan Sarandon for Exit the King, Rupert Everett for Blithe Spirit, Daniel Radcliffe's naked identity crisis in Equus (my review), smoking Carla Gugino for Desire Under the Elms and the romantic pairing of Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Impressionism.

For a complete list of TONY nominees, click here.

Don't be quiet. What do you think of these nominations and which movie star would you most love to see on stage?

* Notable superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg have all three prizes too but they didn't win them all in competitive categories or for performances.
*

Stone Cold Linker

Silver Screen
The Big Picture still waiting on the (nonexistent) trailer for Avatar.
Do You Have a Flag? remembers The Virgin Suicides. Mmm, pretty pictures.
Big Screen Little Screen Melissa Leo going back to series television.
MNPP James Franco (I nearly spit out my coffee. LOL)
Getty Should Julia Roberts get a restraining order?


Film Addict remembers Ruth Chatterton in Dodsworth. Dodsworth is one of my all time favorites. For some reason I have yet to surmount my block about writing it up.
/Film is Skarsgård picking up Thor's hammer? And do we need a Thor movie? Remember how that little girl in Adventures in Babysitting was obsessed with the Norse god and how totally random and weird that was?
Oscar and the City reveals his "most anticipated performances" list.
The Inciting Incident How cool must it be to be a Pixar intern? I imagine very.
Disney Blog Seems The Princess and the Frog is doing a limited Thanksgiving wide mid- December release so favored by live action prestige pictures. Curious.

Precious Box
Towleroad Apparently Taylor Kitsch is sick of providing beefcake for Friday Night Lights (Not to worry. Riggins is about to graduate and become "Gambit")
EW Friday Night Lights might get a 4th and 5th season. If it comes to pass I will explode with happines. Quick show of hands in the comments please. How many of you watch it? And if you do, how much do you love Connie Britton? So EMMY worthy! Between ignoring both her and the women of Galactica for years it's quite possible that EMMY voters officially have the worst taste in actresses of any organization that's ever existed. They'll have another chance to fix this in July, but they love to repeat their mistakes.
LA Times I never thought I'd be linking to an American Idol piece again (I've been over that show since as long as I can remember) but this is a fairly interesting piece about the show's deep homophobia and racial comformity issues. They'll never have to correct any of their sins against society (i.e. their devoted audience) with the ratings they get, though. Sad but true.

8 Links

Flaunt Emile Hirsch by David LaChapelle. I guess Hirsch is really going to work this Into the Wild nature-boy thing for awhile.
Hell on Frisco Bay worries about San Francisco's famed single screen theater The Castro due to the opening of Indiana Jones 4 there
The Bad & The Ugly has shots of Christian Bale in character from the set of Public Enemies
AfterElton Pushing Daisies gets a gay character --as if the show needed to be any more adorable
Defamer all is not well with the relaunch of the Incredible Hulk
Bauer- Griffin not all paparazzi are evil. This one loves kitties. Awwww
Big Screen Little Screen Chloe & Zooey (the actresses not some children's book) to star in Love Ranch
In the Company of Glenn thinks "chick flicks" need to skew younger to stay alive. Paging Anne Hathaway... (and others)

and a random curmudgeonly thought of the afternoon: "8 things I am always reading about on other blogs but I don't understand why anyone cares about them"...at all. Like, it's seriously a mystery to me. I'm not even trying to be thickheaded about it: Talentless heirs and heiresses, The Hills, Mischa Barton, Ashlee Simpson, Perez Hilton, Dancing With the Stars, Hayden Christensen and American Idol . Regarding the latter: I once cared --a little bit-- but come on now. Watching the same exact thing multiple times in one week with the same phraseology, same filler episodes, same corporate handjobs, same hosts, same "types", same drama, same everything for 7 years. 7 years!. Will the fascination ever end? I've never seen such endurance from the American public. Me no understand.

American Idol: The Movie

I know this makes me uncool with tweeners & seniors but I don't get American Idol --or rather, I get it but I don't understand how it stays got. More popular every year even though it's 70% filler and there have been virtually no changes to keep it fresh. Its overwhelming success is bizarre.

So... in my valiant effort to understand the rest of the world's obsession, I'm viewing it through the only prism that ever makes any sense to me: The Movies!

The Film Experience casts..."AMERICAN IDOL: The Movie"

Taylor. My first thought was silver fox Richard Gere: Age appropriate and all. But, no, definitely too pretty. Another good lookieloo option? Joe Mantegna. But then I thought: This Taylor role is not only challenging acting & singing wise but you also gotta be able to do physical comedy. All that jerking around like you're Joe Cocker reborn or like Lily Tomlin's spirit has possessed one half of your bod--hey, wait a minute: Steve Martin! Sign him up. Pay him anything. Done.

Paris? Tough one. The actress has to be among the living (that rules out the Gilded Moose choice) and the right age range. We don't have that many African American pre-teen movie stars. [No means no, Dakota --please stop calling!]. I almost skipped this one but then a horrific memory came retching up.

Did you ever see Are We There Yet?. I saw it accidentally ("accidentally!" I repeat) and there's this scene where the little girl in the movie (Alecia Allen) does a hideous karaoke number at a birthday party. Ice Cube is her babysitter and he has to perform an excruciating reaction shot. His character must look really impressed with her character's performance. To add abject humiliation to this already embarrassing task, he even has to verify this delight audibly to himself --"wow, she's really good" or some such shit. There went that last tiny scrap of dignity he was holding on to since the heady days of Three Kings and Boyz n the Hood. Maybe a name change is in order: (Ice) Cube Gooding Jr.

Katharine. In the Idol vernacular I guess I have the "McPheever". She is hands down my favorite contestant this year, which means she'll be booted soon. One of the reasons I rarely watch is that America has horrid taste and they let the good ones go.

Hmmm. Let's see. We need an actress who can be nervous/vacant and always very very pretty while simultaneously projecting a complete lack of eroticism (perfect for that tweener/senior crowd). So, it's gotta be Katie Holmes. Very pretty but it's almost impossible to picture her actually having sex --even when she's simulating it onscreen. If problems crop up with Tom's approval Katie's availability, I'm all for casting Ginnifer Goodwin. She's a better actress. Although it is really easy to picture her having sex since she comes across as, well, a real person.

The real reason people probably watch this show though is the judges. Or more specifically the human train wreck that is Paula Abdul. You need a really top notch celebrity actress in this part. Someone who understands the precarious mental balance achieved by the perfect mix of pharmaceutical prescriptions + horny loneliness ÷ fading stardom. It has to be the Sharon Stone. Give her a tan, a dye job, and lots of screen time and maybe we got another Oscar nomination.

OK. I'm spent. I can't go on. The rest you'll have to cast yourself.


Randy, Simon, Ryan, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, and Kellie Pickler await your votes. Who should play them in this imaginary film? I await your genius comments...

tags: Paula Abdul, American Idol, Katie Holmes, movies, celebrities, reality TV, gossip, Steve Martin, Sharon Stone,Ice Cube

American Idol: The Movie

I know this makes me uncool with tweeners & seniors but I don't get American Idol --or rather, I get it but I don't understand how it stays got. More popular every year even though it's 70% filler and there have been virtually no changes to keep it fresh. Its overwhelming success is bizarre.

So... in my valiant effort to understand the rest of the world's obsession, I'm viewing it through the only prism that ever makes any sense to me: The Movies!

The Film Experience casts..."AMERICAN IDOL: The Movie"

Taylor. My first thought was silver fox Richard Gere: Age appropriate and all. But, no, definitely too pretty. Another good lookieloo option? Joe Mantegna. But then I thought: This Taylor role is not only challenging acting & singing wise but you also gotta be able to do physical comedy. All that jerking around like you're Joe Cocker reborn or like Lily Tomlin's spirit has possessed one half of your bod--hey, wait a minute: Steve Martin! Sign him up. Pay him anything. Done.

Paris? Tough one. The actress has to be among the living (that rules out the Gilded Moose choice) and the right age range. We don't have that many African American pre-teen movie stars. [No means no, Dakota --please stop calling!]. I almost skipped this one but then a horrific memory came retching up.

Did you ever see Are We There Yet?. I saw it accidentally ("accidentally!" I repeat) and there's this scene where the little girl in the movie (Alecia Allen) does a hideous karaoke number at a birthday party. Ice Cube is her babysitter and he has to perform an excruciating reaction shot. His character must look really impressed with her character's performance. To add abject humiliation to this already embarrassing task, he even has to verify this delight audibly to himself --"wow, she's really good" or some such shit. There went that last tiny scrap of dignity he was holding on to since the heady days of Three Kings and Boyz n the Hood. Maybe a name change is in order: (Ice) Cube Gooding Jr.

Katharine. In the Idol vernacular I guess I have the "McPheever". She is hands down my favorite contestant this year, which means she'll be booted soon. One of the reasons I rarely watch is that America has horrid taste and they let the good ones go.

Hmmm. Let's see. We need an actress who can be nervous/vacant and always very very pretty while simultaneously projecting a complete lack of eroticism (perfect for that tweener/senior crowd). So, it's gotta be Katie Holmes. Very pretty but it's almost impossible to picture her actually having sex --even when she's simulating it onscreen. If problems crop up with Tom's approval Katie's availability, I'm all for casting Ginnifer Goodwin. She's a better actress. Although it is really easy to picture her having sex since she comes across as, well, a real person.

The real reason people probably watch this show though is the judges. Or more specifically the human train wreck that is Paula Abdul. You need a really top notch celebrity actress in this part. Someone who understands the precarious mental balance achieved by the perfect mix of pharmaceutical prescriptions + horny loneliness ÷ fading stardom. It has to be the Sharon Stone. Give her a tan, a dye job, and lots of screen time and maybe we got another Oscar nomination.

OK. I'm spent. I can't go on. The rest you'll have to cast yourself.


Randy, Simon, Ryan, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, and Kellie Pickler await your votes. Who should play them in this imaginary film? I await your genius comments...

tags: Paula Abdul, American Idol, Katie Holmes, movies, celebrities, reality TV, gossip, Steve Martin, Sharon Stone,Ice Cube

Idolatry

I try not to watch American Idol but it seems like each year someone ropes me in. At least for awhile. This year it's a combo of me pal Joe, doing those recaps (they're funny even if you don't watch the show. If you do watch, they're hilarious) and a certain Katharine McPhee (pictured here to your left).

I just love her. Also I hate her because I fear she will convince me to watch this time-sucking show. If it were like any other show it'd be fine but it basically wants to devour your soul. Hours and hours and hours a week. And within those hours: Long stretches of tedium and repetition. But as long as people watch they'll keep filling the time.

Idolatry

I try not to watch American Idol but it seems like each year someone ropes me in. At least for awhile. This year it's a combo of me pal Joe, doing those recaps (they're funny even if you don't watch the show. If you do watch, they're hilarious) and a certain Katharine McPhee (pictured here to your left).

I just love her. Also I hate her because I fear she will convince me to watch this time-sucking show. If it were like any other show it'd be fine but it basically wants to devour your soul. Hours and hours and hours a week. And within those hours: Long stretches of tedium and repetition. But as long as people watch they'll keep filling the time.