Link Narcissustic

Box Office Mojo The Tourist with Depp & Jolie will be opening in 2010. Time to adjust those Oscar charts? Yeah, yeah. I'll try to start this weekend.
Rope of Silicon mixes Inception music over Black Narcissus images for a 2010 trailer for the 1947 classic. Neato (if a bit spoilery)
Mighty God King P.S.A: Fozzy vs. Pac-Man (?!)
I Need My Fix pics from the premiere of The Switch. In a just world Juliette Lewis would be 1,000 times more famous than Jennifer Aniston. You know it's true.
Dennis Cozzalio just turned 50 and celebrates with a funny post. (Mmmm, brains.) Go wish him a happy 1/2 century year! I mean it.


Camp Blood True Blood "Rolling Stone" cover now made extra gay!
DListed Speaking of... Alexander Skarsgard cracks me up. So casual about his scorchingness. What would Daddy Stellan think of all of this?
popbytes has my favorite reaction to this whole sockless news. How do you really feel about this "news" Jeremy? Quit hedging!
Ginger Williams made nesting dolls of Golden Girls and Steel Magnolias. Wha...?
The Entertainment Junkie remembers Lost in Translation and thinks Sofia Coppola's Oscar is a bit of a cheat (in a complimentary way!)
BlogStage Jenelle meets Dennis Quaid. I love it when writers meeting their acting idols. Sweet.

Off Screen
Tom Scott I love these warning labels to place on bad journalism. My favorite is the press release one. So many blogs are like that. Sigh. Though you can't really stick stickers on a blog. Can you? You wouldn't be able to see your screen when you click away!
Just Jared Ricky Martin's memoir is called Me. That's all they could come up with?

And finally, for no reasons other than it made me laugh, excuse me, lol -- and I am the type that reads scifi/fantasy novels -- and I'm in a juvenile mood (sorry!) try this hilarious raunchy ode to sci-fi novelist. NSFW unless you're on headphones.

Dennis Quaid and the "Tim Riggins" Type

Remember when Dennis Quaid played f***up former high school football star "Mike" in Best Picture nominee Breaking Away (1979)? [What a vintage crop, eh? Breaking Away, Kramer Vs. Kramer (write-up), Apocalypse Now (write-up), All That Jazz (write-up) and Norma Rae? Love that Oscar year.] Or, depending on when you were born, do you remember when you first saw him doing so? Erik Lundegaard does and wrote up a sweet tribute to the film yesterday.

Dennis Quaid in Breaking Away. He turned 25 shortly before the movie opened.

Erik describes Mike aptly as "a Springsteen character without the guts" and uses Mike's own words to further the point

You know what really gets me, though? I mean here I am, I gotta live in this stinkin’ town, and I gotta read in the newspapers about some hot-shot kid, new star of the college team. Every year it’s gonna be a new one. And every year it’s never gonna be me. I’m just gonna be Mike. Twenty-year-old Mike. Thirty-year-old Mike. Ol’ mean ol’ man Mike! These college kids out here are never gonna get old, or out of shape, cause new ones come along every year.

Mike is too gutless to stop the downward slide and knows it. He's tragically aware that his glory days are behind him and he's only 19. Dennis's best days, on the other hand, had just begun. This was only his sixth feature and first memorable breakthrough.


People often uncharitably view older stars as "has beens" -- I'm not saying people say this about DQ mind you. What do they say about him? -- but if you were working when you were in your early twenties and you're still working consistently in your mid fifties, this is a resounding success story for any actor, whether they're above the title or way down on the call sheet. It's a tough life and the odds are against success.

But back to Breaking Away... and Friday Night Lights (?)

Wasn't Quaid's Mike essentially Tim Riggins before there was a Tim Riggins? Or at least from the same character gene pool. Mike has more of a chipped shoulder and less of a golden heart.


Character intros: "Mike", former football star, is introduced singing, leisurely leading his friends to an afternoon swim in Breaking Away. He's all about killing time, responsibility is not a priority. "Tim Riggins", current football star, is introduced in the Friday Night Lights pilot, drunk and sleepy-eyed. Getting to football practice on time is not a priority.

Yes, this post has also been brought to you by last night's season finale of Friday Night Lights which was just marvelous. Speaking of FNL and Tim Riggins, can Taylor Kitsch, who came to fame playing him (coincidentally, like Quaid, just as he was turning 25), manage a movie career after Friday Night Lights? That's the plan. Dennis Quaid wouldn't be a bad role model at all in building an enduring big screen resume. And that's true not just for Kitsch, who is 29 now, but true for any other young actor who excels at aimless bad boys, charming devils and/or All American types approaching personal crises.

Kitsch has made six movies already but he'll get his first real shot at big screen stardom when John Carter of Mars, his seventh, opens in 2012. He's already done filming but the post-production will be long on that one.

<-- Dennis seen prepping for his role in Soul Surfer earlier this year

Dennis will next be seen (presumably) at the Emmy Awards on August 21st. He's nominated for playing Bill Clinton in the TV film That Special Relationship. Next year we'll see him as the dad of a shark attack survivor in Soul Surfer and (possibly?) in the bible-thumping John Lithgow role in the remake of Footloose (2011).
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He Loves Rock N Roll

Dennis Quaid is still rocking at 55. And 56! (It's his birthday tomorrow)


Have you ever paid to see a movie star play with their band? So many of them seem to do that.

Halfway House: Oh Suzanne-ah

Halfway through the day we freeze a movie halfway through. What do we see?

Doris Mann: Have you known Suzanne long?
Jack Faulkner: Ah, lets see. we've known each other about a month. It seems like longer, though.
Doris: Oh, I know what you mean. I'm her mother and it seems like longer.

Fifty minutes into Postcards From the Edge (1990), Jack (Dennis Quaid) has dropped by to pick up Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) for a date. Her mother (Shirley Maclaine) intercepts the man with the bedroom eyes ('and the living room nose and the kitchen forehead'). The performers are deliciously insynch with Carrie Fisher's rapid fire witticisms.

One of the reasons people get so invested in the Oscars is the joy that comes from arguing about whether or not the octogenarian institution got it right in any given year / category. When it comes to Postcards From the Edge, they got it very very wrong. It's one of the best movies about movies ever and it only received two nominations. Even Fisher's adapted screenplay, superior to some of the actual nominees, was snubbed. Dennis Quaid and Gene Hackman were both doing sly work here as Suzanne's player boyfriend and sympathetic director, respectively. But both actors didn't break a sweat in roles that wouldn't really be Oscar's thing even in the best of circumstances.

But then there's Shirley "It twirled up!" Maclaine. Hollywood usually loves it when Hollywood celebrates or satirizes itself as you can see in acting nominations like Dustin Hoffman's in Wag the Dog, Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain or Michael Lerner's for Barton Fink (among many others). But Shirley, who is a complete knockout as Debbie Reynolds substitute Doris Mann whether she's singing, cracking jokes, or winking for our sympathy, was bizarrely snubbed.

I'll never figure that one out.

I notice something new in the performances each time I see Postcards but the last time I popped it in the player I was totally amazed that I'd never caught this non-acting related detail (pictured below)


When Gene Hackman yells "Cut. Print." at the end of Meryl Streep's Oscar nominated "I'm Checking Out" musical number, the clapboard is not for the fictional film they're shooting but for the actual film we're watching (Postcards from the Edge) with its actual director Mike Nichols and cinematographer (the great, still unOscared Michael Ballhaus). How fun.

If you don't love Postcards don't tell me cuz I don't want to know. But if you do, tell us your favorite bit in the comments.
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Before There Were Websites... (Pt 2)

...there were scrapbooks (prev. pt 1)

Let's continue that silly reveal of my "Movies of the Eighties" scrapbook. I'm still hoping to locate the "Movie Stars of the Eighties" companion volume in which I ranked all the actors and actresses of the decade. Wouldn't that be a ROTFL experience? If I can find it I will share, despite the loss of dignity it will surely occasion.

Behold! To your left is the tv guide cover that started it all. I guess it wasn't an actual TV Guide as my personal mythology has always relayed but whatever television magazine thingie was inserted into the Detroit Free Press back in the day. That cover right there started my whole Oscar obsession -- look how worn, damaged and fingered it is. I thumbed through it so many times. What is this naked gold man they call Oscar??? This cover unlocked my latent awards mania. I had seen Tootsie and E.T. (massive family friendly hits both) but it was the center statue that seized my imagination. Soooo shiny.

Shiny shiny sha-na-na-na.
Shiny shiny bad times behind me

From there I became more and more movie obsessed. Based on the "everything I've seen" scribblings it looks like I was seeing about 25-40 films a year. Not all of the clipping collages matched the screening lists. I can't recall exactly what dragged me to theaters back then, but Dennis Quaid was a factor.


Do you know the 14 films displayed there? Some of them I barely remember...

The 1988 and 1989 pages are heavily Burtonesque with a late blooming burst of Pfandom by way of The Fabulous Baker Boys. I thought this clipping below was an interesting time capsule: a note about who might play The Joker before Batman (1989) was even filming. It was superhero casting speculation before steroids the internet.



It's smudgy but it reads

Although an unknown will be considered for Batman, Jack Nicholson (far right) has been mentioned in connection with the Joker. _____'s personal picks for the role are Ray Liotta (Something Wild, left) or Willem Dafoe (Platoon, center).

For the Record: Heath Ledger was 10 years old when Tim Burton's Batman arrived in theaters. Who imagined that Nicholson's Joker would eventually have to stand down?

If you want to see more of this scrapbook, say so in the comments.

But I wanted to wrap up this part 2 peak with this: Lists! Apparently I thought the best "losing sanity" performances of the 80s were:

Jack Nicholson Batman
Meg Tilly Agnes of God
Glenn Close Fatal Attraction
Meryl Streep Plenty

With the distance of time, I'd only feel comfortable standing by the bunny boiler. Not that there isn't much to admire in Streep's 1985 performance. But why only four performances? The magic number is five, Nathaniel, hello. Everyone knows that.

Stranger still is the "best sequels of the decade" ranking

5. Superman II 4. Star Trek IV 3. Aliens 2. The Empire Strikes Back 1. Return of the Jedi

That order is ALL wrong: Jedi is a sorry sibling to Empire, The Wrath of Khan crushes other Trek adventures and sentient humans and drooling monsters alike recognize that Aliens is the sequel of the 80s as well as one of the best action flicks ever. I like to think that somewhere inside I knew this and thus felt compelled to scribble A-L-I-E-N-S in large capital expanding letters.

Finally, there's the list of the movies I saw most often, "Again and Again and Again" This one honestly surprised me. I don't remember seeing some of these movies multiple times. I never see things more than twice in the theaters now. Unless the movies are called Moulin Rouge!

(4 times) A Chorus Line, The Empire Strikes Back, Dreamscape, Fire and Ice, The Lost Boys, The Princess Bride, The Secret of My Succe$s, Romancing the Stone, The Karate Kid, The Little Mermaid, Beetle Juice and Ladyhawke
(5 times) A Room With a View, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Clue, St. Elmo's Fire
(6 times) Batman
(9 times) Return of the Jedi
(10 times) The Breakfast Club

You know what question I am forced to ask now: What movie did you see the most in grade school, junior high and high school?
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Lindsay Lohan Laughs at Love

But mostly herself. Do you laugh with? at?

Lindsay Lohan's eHarmony Profile from Lindsay Lohan

A sense of humor about oneself is crucial to survival. So thumbs up, Linds. But, damnit, stop looking at the teleprompter! Memorize your lines. You know how to do that. Remember when you were 12 and you could do that plus juggle accents, act with yourself convincingly never flubbing a sight line and risk comparison to Hayley Mills? Hayley freaking Mills! And that was your feature debut. [sigh]


This post has been brought to you by Nathaniel's recent unplanned cable screening of Parent Trap (1998) in which this 'redhead with a little bit of sass' was completely awesome, Dennis Quaid leaned with ease on his familiar megawatt charms and Natasha Richardson was unexpectedly funny. [sniffle]
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Them's Some Sexy Clintons

.

Via:

"Dennis Quaid is set to star as President Clinton, with Julianne Moore taking on Hillary in an upcoming HBO film called The Special Relationship. While, at first glance, this might seem like a tale that will discuss certain forays in the Oval Office and risque behavior with cigars, the piece will look at an entirely different relationship -- the "sometimes turbulent political relationship" between Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who will be played by Michael Sheen.

You might remember that Sheen already played Blair in both The Deal and The Queen, so this will be old hat. (Helen McCrory, who played Cherie Blair in The Queen, is also set to reprise her role.) He was also the Frost to Langella's Nixon, and Frost/Nixon playwright Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay to this project and is hoping to make his directorial debut with the feature, should it get greenlit."

Well? What do we think? Is it giving the project too much of a "he's a closet-case and she's sleeping with the help" vibe?

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Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~ Episode 9 (2003)

Missed previous episodes? See: 1995 , 1996, 1997, 1998 , 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

In April 2003 Vanity Fair brought us only the second all male lineup in their nine years of this special issue. The idea here was the "Alpha List" and here they were...


Obviously, when VF isn't speculating about who might be hugely famous someday there's less to discuss in terms of what happened to their careers. But it can be thrilling to see so many megawatt stars in the same room together when VF goes "classic". Unlike many group photoshoots these "Hollywood" events rarely seemed to be the product of Adobe Photoshop. In other words, the oxygen is believably shared.

Tom Hanks, about to hit 47, was fresh off another hit (Catch Me If You Can) but his career was slowing down. His two Oscars and the occasional blockbuster (DaVinci Code) can warm him if he isn't feeling the warmth of mass adoration quite as much anymore. Here's my quibble: for someone who enjoyed favorable comparisons to the great Jimmy Stewart for so long, where are Hanks' late career stretches? Stewart was doing his best work ever in his late 40s and 50s. Has Hanks challenged himself at all since Cast Away which he made when was 44?

Tom Cruise, turning 41, was still Hollywood's Top Gun/Dog. His ex-wife had just barely won the Oscar that had always eluded him despite three nominations. He was readying The Last Samurai (note the longer locks) and dating Penélope Cruz. He was approximately one year away from firing his longtime publicist, setting off a series of bizarre media events which would damage his reputation and possibly his legacy.

Harrison Ford, turning 61, a longtime powerhouse draw, was slowing down and had famously turned down a role in the Oscar hit Traffic (2000) indicating to some that he wasn't really eager to stretch as he entered his golden years. He had moved to a one film every two years schedule. Michelle Pfeiffer had rightfully gotten much of the credit for his last big hit What Lies Beneath (2000) and when this cover debuted his only recent film K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) had been an uncharacteristic flop. Like Cruise -- only to a much smaller degree -- he was starting to have publicity problems. In 1998 he had added that solitary earring that people like to joke about, his second marriage began to dissolve in 2000 and his engagement to Calista Flockhart, who was just entering her difficult post-Ally McBeal period, was fresh at the time of this shoot. They haven't yet married.

Jack Nicholson, 66, who has been in pictures since '58 had just lost the Oscar Best Actor race for About Schmidt (his 12th and last Oscar nom to date) to upstart Adrien Brody for The Pianist. But with three Oscars already, what more could he want? How about two more huge hits this very year (Anger Management and Something's Gotta Give). '03 was the last the screen would see of Jack until The Departed (2006). That's an uncharacteristically long break for this prolific actor but he's now in his 70s so we'll let it slide.

Brad Pitt, 39, was still married to Jennifer Aniston and had just put a brief period of media swiping about his bankability behind him. The Oceans franchise and his resultant enormous payday ($30 million -- just for the first one) settled that one. More hits would soon follow and then... Angelina Jolie.

Edward Norton's career was going up up up at the age of 33. The previous year had brought ubiquity (four movies and Salma Hayek as girlfriend) and he was about to help deliver The Italian Job. Things got strangely quiet thereafter and he continues to have problems with a "difficult" reputation. Recent highlights include the underappreciated The Painted Veil and another hit, The Incredible Hulk.

Jude Law, 30, had officially and unarguably arrived in his late 20s with his portrayal of a callow golden boy in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999). Ever afterwards he was expected to become a major lead star even though he'd continued with the riveting supporting parts rather than going straight for the franchises or headlining work. Unfortunately the box office didn't cooperate so much on the intermittent lead gigs that he did take. Cold Mountain, hyped to be an Oscar frontrunner long before its debut (it failed to get a Best Picture nom), was on the way. Unfortunately the latter remains his last true hit, grossing nearly $100 million.

Samuel L Jackson, 54, often in enormous hits even if he's not exactly responsible for their success, had just added another billion dollar franchise to his resume with his turn as Mace Windu in the Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. Is he a household name more for his ubiquity than for his performances? His career is rather like that of Michael Caine and Gene Hackman before him: a sprinkling of blazingly good work here and there keeps the reputation intact despite the filmography also containing huge swaths of disposable filler. He can't say no! Jackson began to find steady employment as an actor in 1987. He's amassed a frankly astounding number of credits since then in everything from features, tv, to DVD fare, 108 of them in fact. Seven more films coming our way in the next two years. He's not going to be ignored. He's stalking us.

Don Cheadle, 38, was at this point a highly valued supporting actor, beloved by other thesps. He hadn't yet been rubber stamped with an Oscar nod or a lot of fame but he'd turned in vivid work in many good films: Oceans 11, Boogie Nights, and The Devil in a Blue Dress among them. He was soon to graduate to lead roles. Hotel Rwanda and his first Oscar nom would soon follow.

Hugh Grant on his way to 43, had recently delivered another semi-hit (Two Weeks Notice) and a critical success featuring his best work (About a Boy). The king of romantic comedy was beginning to threaten retirement in interviews but he didn't quit. Instead he made the Bridget Jones sequel for 2004. Oops! He doesn't work too often now but his next film is, you guessed it, another romantic comedy with a much younger woman.

Dennis Quaid, 49, was suddenly experiencing a real comeback -- not just the hyped kind. The late 90s had been bumpy for his star status and the breakup with Meg Ryan at the turn of the decade had been messy for both, public relations-wise. But in 2002 he had carried the crowd pleaser The Rookie with a winning star turn and almost won an Oscar nomination for his performance stretch in Far From Heaven. By the time of this cover, he was suddenly in demand again though it would take a couple of years before new movies started hitting theaters.

Ewan McGregor, 32, was soaring. The success of Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the Star Wars prequels had lifted him from well regarded daring British thespian to star. He had two movies coming out: Down with Love was a welcome change of pace as far as romantic comedies go but not something the public was interested in, Big Fish another serio-comic fantasy for Tim Burton performed reasonably well but seemed to fade quickly from public consciousness. It's been semi-rough since, with flops for which he was unjustly blamed (The Island) and strange choices (second fiddle to Renee Zellweger for Miss Potter?) piling up and a distinct lack of the edgier roles that made him a rising star in the first place. It's easy to imagine a resurgence, though: Eight new films coming your way in the next two years.

Matt Damon, 32, had just struck gold with The Bourne Identity (2002) and that franchise, together with smart choices for follow-ups (goofy cameos for friends, stretching for auteurs, working on smarter-than-usual mainstream projects) has served him exceedingly well. Until the Bourne franchise he was always connected to his best friend Ben Affleck, a bigger star (at the time). Nobody would argue that he's not a movie star on his own now. Five movies are on their way including a fourth trip into Bourne territory.

PLEASE NOTE: If you'd like to read more about any of these stars, click the names on the labels below.


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median age: 43. Jude was the baby boy @ 30 and Jack the papa @ 66.
noticeably absent: Since VF tagged this the "alpha list" it's hard not to notice missing heavy hitters like Denzel, Johnny, Clint, Russell or Leo (see, you didn't even need their last names) ... though obviously you can't fit all A listers on one cover.
collective Oscar noms before this cover: 26 nominations and 5 wins for acting (Hanks & Nicholson share that trophy count. Damon has an Oscar but it's for screenwriting Good Will Hunting)
collective Oscar noms after this cover: Only two nominations followed: Jude Law for Cold Mountain (2003) and Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda (2004). Both of them lost. Grant, Quaid and McGregor have all been snubbed by Oscar voters on more than one occasion. What a shame.
fame levels in 2008, according to famousr, from most to least: Cruise, Pitt, Hanks, Nicholson, Ford, Damon, Grant, Law, Quaid, Norton and Cheadle. Neither Samuel L Jackson nor Ewan McGregor are listed on the famousr site.
previous episodes of 'VFH': 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
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Meg x 4

The new version of The Women is about to open and "update" that classic 30s catfight. I'm holding my breath and potentially my nose. We'll see. But while we're here I thought we should travel back in time to a moment when few people inexplicably hated on Meg Ryan. She was once as loved as Julia or Sandra ... neither of whom were ever so roundly despised once they were past their prime. Pundits often cite Meg's affair with Russell Crowe as her public/media/career downfall and though we agree that sleeping with Crowe is disgusting when you could be snuggled up to Dennis Quaid, how is that a valid explanation for the 180º public/media response. What is this, the 1950s?


These are my four favorite performances of her career...1. Sally in When Harry Met Sally (1989) and 2. Alice Green in When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) ...her two arguably most acclaimed performances happened within weak years for Oscar's Best Actress race so the Academy was way ahead of the public in giving Meg the cold shoulder. Is that something to be proud of in these two particular cases? 3. I barely remember Joe vs. The Volcano (1990) having only seen it once in 92 or 93 but I still remember that I loved Meg's teensy monologue about everybody being asleep and that I dug her hat trick (3 performances in 1 movie) 4. Addicted to Love (1997) came a couple of years past her last hurrah as romantic comedy gold but I personally loved her kohl rimmed eyes and slightly harder edged version of MEG. I could just as easily have chosen her spirited supporting wife role in Top Gun for this fourspot but another trip back to 1986 is too much movie nostalgia for even me.

Meg demonstrating her inescapable favorite pose from the 1980s and 1990s. Examples are infinite [photo source]

Meg Nostalgia. Will that be necessary for The [new] Women to play at all?
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June Weddings

___Catherine Haynes and Frank Whitaker were married June 13th, 1944 at the Indian Hill Country Club. Justice of the Peace Jim Lyons officiated.
___The Bride is the daughter of Adam and Tina Haynes of Middlesex County. The bridgeroom is the son of Steve and Mary Whitaker of New Haven.
___The bride was escorted by her parents. She wore a candlelight satin wedding gown. She carried a bouquet of lavender roses. Following a reception at the Club, the couple left for Niagara Falls.
___The bride is currently employed as a stenographer. The groom is a recent graduate of Boston University and employed as a junior sales rep at Magnatech Corp. The couple will be living in Hartford, CT where they plan to raise a family.

Excerpted from the June 14th, 1944 edition of the Hartford Courant, "America's oldest continuously published newspaper"

pssst. thirteen or so years later

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Scrabble People

I'm heading out to see Smart People. If you're talking "wide" releases I'm a totally star-driven ticket buyer and I love SJP and Dennis Quaid. Thomas Hayden Church and Ellen Page are fine. I'm not super hopeful but whatevs. Defamer said it best about the advertisements for Smart People

...which, judging from the preview, looks too dumb for smart people and too boring for dumb people

Exactly. But I'll go. In fact the poster reminded me that I was late making my moves on my latest games of Scrabulous on Facebook. I can't stop.

I love Scrabble, l-o-v-e. I don't care if you think that makes me nerdy. I'm actually better @ Boggle but Scrabble is more social as word-freak board games go. So here is a board I whipped up for Smart People's release. I tried to use every letter and only words that you could actually use in Scrabble and that reminded me of the movie or the stars involved...

I did end up cheating a bit. You can't really use "Meathead" in Scrabble but it described Thomas Hayden Church too well to pass up. Any sexual words that look out of place you can attribute to my impure thoughts regarding Dennis Quaid. What? Like you wouldn't.

Okay okay, nitpickers. I didn't use all the letters.


You try making words out of that.
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Hump Day Hottie, Dennis Quaid

Another Vanity Fair magazine retro coming your way a little later today but while I prepare, I'm sipping coffee and imagining a chit-chat with birthday boy Dennis Quaid, happy 54th!, whilst doing so. Sometimes in weaker (read: deranged) moments I imagine myself having my own talk show, like one Rupert Pupkin. But I promise I'm not that crazy. I don't rehearse in a basement with cardboard cut-outs. I don't even have one... oh, wait. OK, only one.

<--- Dennis apparently drinks Starbucks. Ewww. Home brew is the way to go. But I still love him. I'm still pissed he wasn't Oscar nominated for his wound tight angry closet case in Far From Heaven. What a rich treasure chest full of performances that film was.

Dennis is looking for love again in Smart People (with Ellen Page, SJP, and Thomas Hayden Church) which opens this Friday. I skipped Vantage Point but I usually try to be there for Mr. Quaid (Dennis, not Randy please). He's aging really well, don't you think? Crow's feet go real well with that huge ever familiar grin. That grin! [sigh]


He coulda played the Joker in the 1989's Batman... if they wanted the Joker to exude sex appeal rather than insanity. Which... well, it would have been a different direction to take it, yes.

Every once in a while I get angry that the internet has such a gap when it comes to 80s & early 90s stars. You can find tributes to classic movie stars everywhere and its impossible to avoid modern celebrities...even D-Listers. But people whose heyday came before the days of flickr but aren't old enough for the nostalgia market? Forget it. So many great photoshoots lost in the chasm between fan clippings and flickr.

Dennis doesn't even have an official site unless you count DQ & the Sharks... (celebrities and their bands. Does everyone have one?). He doesn't even have a decent fansite. There's one but it's got no photos. And when you look like Dennis Quaid still does (pictured, right), photos you deserve!

My favorite Quaid performances are probably Breaking Away (for nostalgia --the first time you know), The Big Easy and Far From Heaven and maybe The Rookie. He's so easy to enjoy. Your favorite?

previously on "hump day hotties"
Drew Barrymore, Matthew Barney, Natalie Wood, Carice van Houten, 2007 Best Actor nominees and many more...
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Ubiquity: The 2008 Edition (Pt 2)

Last year about this time we investigated a group of actors who might dominate 2007, hard working SAG card holders with 3 or more movies arriving. Doing it again for 2008... (if you missed Part One ---which has been updated, click here)

Ubiquitous Actors
Part 2 ~ L-Z

This is part 2... Part 1 was lorded over by Cate Blanchett and the ruling spirit for Part 2 is sneaky Channing Tatum (a TFE favorite) who goes mosty AWOL this year after this month's Iraq drama Stop-Loss. So why is he mentioned? Well, he should have about 7...12...21 movies ready for release next year at the rate he's signing contracts. So, get used to that mug. 2009 belongs to him.

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Frank Langella, will be in three films. The most attention will be paid to his star turn in Frost/Nixon, a role for which he won a TONY already. Langella never quite became a movie star, preferring the stage, but the closest he got was in his Dracula stint in 1978 (a role he also incidentally did first on stage). He got a little bit of Oscar buzz last year for the indie Starting Out in the Evening, but this year he'll have more success with the Academy. What's baitier than playing a famous person? Nothing. Watch for abundant "OMG... FrankLangella IS RichardNixon" style reviews and an Oscar run for the Ron Howard film. Oh, there's more? Yes. He's in the next oddball Richard Kelly effort The Box which is a horror thriller of sorts (pssst. Never trust easy genre categories for Kelly who previously made Donnie Darko and Southland Tales). He's in a corporate corruption drama The Caller, too.

Sienna Miller, Jude Law's on & off girl and inexplicably very famous actress (quick: what's she famous for?) has five films due. There's the title role in the completed Camille where she takes a honeymoon with James Franco but there's no release date in sight yet. She has the principle female role in the bowdlerized adaptation of the great novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (I haven't seen it but I'm free to judge since I love the book and the reported changes are... ghastly. I may join the boycott). Sienna is also getting mixed up with Cillian Murphy in not one but two biopic period pieces. The first is The Edge of Love (Keira Knightley co-stars) which takes place in the 30s and 40s and the second is the British 60s counterculture story Hippie Hippie Shake. Finally, if they're quick about the adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, she could end the year with that.

Viggo Mortensen fans are thrilled that he finally got an Oscar nomination last season (for his second Cronenberg film, Eastern Promises). More meaty roles and challenges are coming his way. You may remember that celebrated Ed Harris directed himself and Marcia Gay Harden into the Oscar race for Pollock in 2000. He's finally made a follow up feature, a western named Appaloosa which stars Viggo, Harris himself, Jeremy Irons and Renée Zellweger. He'll play a novelist named "Halder" in Good who gets swept up in the rise of socialism in Germany. It's based on a stage play. Further away but possibly ready in 2008 will be his darkest role yet as "Father" in The Road. I've read the genius novel by Cormac McCarthy and its so bleak that No Country For Old Men's die hard fans will whimper. I have no idea how they'll make it work as a movie but the director of The Proposition (John Hillcoat) is the one who attempts it.


Cillian Murphy was everywhere a few years back but it's been quiet. Why? He was working. He has six films in the pipeline (though I'd be surprised if they all opened in the next 9 months). We've already discussed the two with Sienna Miller (The Edge of Love and Hippie Hippie Shake) but Murphy nuts will be happy to know that they're both biopics so he could end up with his first Oscar nomination. Edge... is about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (played by Matthew Rhys) and his rival William Killik (Murphy) for the women in his life. Counterculture figure Richard Neville is the focal point of Hippie. The biopic Oscar tactic seems to work best if the Academy is very familiar with who you're pretending to be. So maybe not... Murphy will be reprising his Scarecrow role (in cameo form?) for the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight and you'll have to catch Watching the Detectives on DVD shortly. There are two more films (Telepathy and Dali & I: The Surreal Story) that are looking more like 2009 prospects. Remember, nothing is ever definitive with release dates.

Guy Pearce might have six (!) releases this year. He was originally reported to have replaced Viggo Mortensen in The Road but they're both still listed as cast members at IMDB and the movie is filming. Perhaps those rumors were erroneous. Even if we don't think he's quite the actor Viggo is, they can both certainly do the emaciated thing that will be crucial to this movie's post-apocalypse believability. (Where's Christian Bale?) Further along in production, i.e. already wrapped, are five films. They go by the names of Traitor (a CIA drama with an outstanding cast that includes Don Cheadle, Saïd Taghmaoui, Jeff Daniels and A Mighty Heart's Archie Panjabi), The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq thriller), How to Change in 9 Weeks (an Australian crime drama with Sam Neill and Miranda Otto), Winged Creatures (a post traumatic stress group therapy drama with an all star cast), and Death Defying Acts (as famous magician Harry Houdini. It played at Toronto last fall).

Dennis Quaid had a bit of a rocky patch in his career but two films in 2002, Far From Heaven and The Rookie, reminded people of his talent and charisma. He's in demand again, or thereabouts. His first 2008 film (in theaters now) is the action thriller Vantage Point. He'll follow that up next month opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the comedy Smart People. He's got a big role in The Express due in October, the latest entry in the very crowded true life inspirational sports drama genre and he plays a bitter detective in the serial killer thriller The Horsemen which is due in May.

Eddie Redmayne was last seen flopping in his attempt to murder Cate Blanchett. The glow off of her Oscar winning costumes in Elizabeth the Golden Age temporarily blinded him. Seriously. She was bathed in white. The sunlight really reflects! He can currently be seen in the ensemble of The Other Boleyn Girl. He's paired up with Julianne Moore in the shocking true life 1972 murder of Savage Grace. And still two more movies await. Yellow Handkerchief finds him on a road trip through Louisiana with William Hurt and in Powder Blue he's got one of the four central roles in a Los Angeles set 'strangers colliding' drama -- we expect that we'll be seeing a lot of that subgenre in the coming years. Ahem.

Mark Ruffalo has four films ready for you. Nah, let's make that three. I mean, does anyone believe that Kenneth Lonergan's (You Can Count on Me) Margaret is ever going to open? It's two years late. But we'll still get a triple fix of this almost big star (seriously, when will he "break"?). In no particular order we'll get the con-artist film from the director of Brick (Rian Johnson) which is called The Brothers Bloom. There's also Real Men Cry about Boston boys turning to crime (another subgenre that's hot in Hollywood). Finally, he'll play the Doctor in Fernando Meirelles adaptation of the classic novel Blindness which I've discussed a bunch already.

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Amy Ryan was all smiles on Oscar night. It wasn't just because she was a nominee. She's been working a lot, too. And that's even before the after-effects of the Gone Baby Gone breakthrough have hit. The only way is up. She's got one unreleased film from last year's festival circuit called Neal Cassady (which is about the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"). We'll also see her in The Missing Person (her third film with Bug's Michael Shannon) and the comedy Bob Funk. The big dog in her 2008 roster is undoubtedly the Angelina Jolie drama Changeling. No word on who she is playing but she's in it. And since it's a Clint Eastwood picture, that alone is a big deal.

Terence Stamp, now in his 5th decade of screen stardom, is busier than ever. He's playing Siegfried in the Farrel/Hathaway adaptation of TV's Get Smart. His inimitable silver haired presence will assist Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise in Wanted and Valkyrie, respectively. At Christmas time he'll be part of the Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man. If I had to guess I would say that 2009 will be full of him, too.

Mark Strong was the most evil of the plentiful evil princes in Stardust and he's working the dangerous man angle in the period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day too. It opens tomorrow. You'll also see him in five other films this year. Busy, busy, busy. The films: Good (that German nationalist drama with Viggo Mortensen), Babylon A.D. (Vin Diesel's summer action pic) RocknRolla (another Guy Ritchie crime film), Flashbacks of a Fool (a Hollywood memoir piece with Daniel Craig), and The Young Victoria (he plays "Conroy" to Emily Blunt's queen). If you've read all this and you're still scratching you're head saying "who the hell is Mark Strong?", here's an earlier post that explains.

Olivia Thirlby was the least famous of Juno's celebrated ensemble (she played Juno's BFF Leah) but she's aiming to correct that fame disparity this year. The beautiful New Yorker has a couple leftover films from last year that haven't opened in the States yet called Si j'étais toi and Love Comes Lately. First to find release this year will be Snow Angels, the David Gordon Green film. It opens tomorrow. You'll also see her in Margaret (if it ever gets released) as well as the comedy The Wackness. Finally there's two dramas coming from exciting directors. The first Uncertainty comes from the pair behind the Tilda Swinton film The Deep End, remember that? Her co-star is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And last but probably not least she'll be Jonathan Glatzer's (Birth, Sexy Beast) Safety Glass which is set in the 80s and centers around a group of students and the Challenger Space Shuttle launch.

Tilda Swinton follows her Oscar win for Michael Clayton by logging more time in Hollywoodland. She's reprising her White Witch role for summer's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. She's costarring with fellow 2007 Oscar nominees George Clooney (again) in the Coen Bros Burn After Reading which is opening wide in September and Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which opens in November.

For die hard Swintonians who may soon start to resent the post-Oscar silliness of "discovery" when she's already been famous for culturally savvy types for close to 20 years, there's arthouse fare too. The festival circuit has already seen her in Bela Tarr's The Man From London. She's the title character Julia who is extorting a bunch of money with a young boy as bait. Bad Tilda! The chief non-Tilda reason to be excited about that one is that Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels) is the director. She's got three other more art films lined up, too but don't expect these until 2009: a Lady Macbeth (!) turn in Come Like Shadows , teamed up with Marilyn Manson in the Alice in Wonderland derived Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll and a supporting turn in the new Jim Jarmusch picture The Limits of Control (with Bill Murray). The 47 year old (but ageless) icon is not going away anytime soon.

Charlize Theron is a smart woman. Once known mostly for her astonishing beauty she worked ferocious deglam magic in Monster to win very own Oscar @ 28. So here she is in her early 30s, already firmly established as a seriously talented actress --perfect timing. I expect she'll be in demand until at least until 2020. The first of her three '08 pictures is Sleepwalking in which a young girl most cope with her mother's abandonment. She'll co-star in the Will Smith superpowered vehicle Hancock... And if they're quick about it, she'll play "wife" in the apocalyptic drama The Road. It's not a big role but it's bound to be a devastating one. 2009 looks even better but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

South African supertstar Theron and Dutch sensation van Houten

Carice Van Houten found her international breakthrough last year with Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and offers apparently starting pouring in. I have no idea if her Dutch romantic comedy Love is All will find release but why not? People are curious about her. Strike while the iron is hot, distributors. But even if that's just something to track down on DVD eventually, Carice speaks four languages so she's totally mobile for the good roles. She's playing a German in the Bryan Singer WW II picture Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise. She's got the lead role of the psychiatrist dealing with a troubled girl in the English language thriller Dorothy Mills and in October she'll be supporting two mega stars (Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe) in Ridley Scott's CIA drama Body of Lies.

Sigourney Weaver. Sigweavy for short... only she's very tall. Will this post ever end? I miss her and hopefully her gut busting turn in The TV Set reminded Hollywood was a unique and valuable assett she is too films. Films already in theaters include Be Kind Rewind and Vantage Point. Still to come: the drama The Girl in the Park (delayed from last year) and the Tina Fey surrogate mom comedy Baby Mama.

Rachel Weisz has been flirting with the supporting actress Oscar curse since winning for The Constant Gardener doing films like Fred Claus and as the voice of the dragon in the silly Eragon. But 2008 looks pretty good, 2009 even better. But why am I always jumping ahead? This year we'll see in the promising sounding The Brothers Bloom, the long delayed Wong Kar Wai road trip movie My Blueberry Nights and she's already in theaters as one of the women opposite Ryan Reynolds in Definitely, Maybe

David Wenham. If you're saying "who" just think "Faramir" in Lord of the Rings or one of those oiled and ab'ed warriors in 300. The talented and handsome Australian will be seen in the Baz Luhrman Nicole Kidman epic Australia... (see previous posts). He's part of the strong cast of the the China set orphanage / war drama called The Children of Huang Shi (which co-stars Jonathan Rhys Meyes and both Michelle Yeoh & Chow Yun Fat of Crouching Tiger fame). Last but not least, he's delicious in a relatively small role in Married Life (opposite Patty Clarkson) which is about to open.

Michelle Williams was last seen as a socialite having a complicated affair with Cate Blanchett's Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. The former Brokeback Mountain Oscar nominee's face will adorn screens throughout the year. She's one of a bevy of beautiful women involved with Hugh Jackman and Ewan MacGregor in the sex club thriller The List. And proving once again that she's got a taste for dark and serious filmmaking, she'll be seen in Incendiary (about a suicide bombing), Lukas Moodyson's new film Mammoth with Gael Garcia Bernal and something a little lighter but still intelligent: Charlie Kauffman's ensemble film Synecdoche, New York (previously discussed here... my god what a cast)

Patrick Wilson, Kate Winslet seducer par excellence (Little Children), is still working for A list leading man status. Why is it so elusive? Neither Brothers Three: An American Gothic or the Ed Burns romantic drama Purple Violets found suitable release last year but you can maybe pick them up on DVD soon. Violets is on iTunes. Later this year, this looker will be part of the ensemble of the grief counselling drama Passengers (with Dianne Wiest and Anne Hathaway), he's a troubled architect in Life in Flight and he's the husband in the potentially buzzy Neil LaBute picture Lakeview Terrace which is about an interracial couple (Wilson & the ever-wondrous and gobsmackingly gorgeous Kerry Washington, a TFE favorite) who are being harassed by a cop (Samuel L Jackson). But what I want to know is why on earth isn't Mr. Wilson being cast in any of these new movie musicals? They're making them again and that's how he got famous in the first place. It's a head scratcher. The voice is as beautiful as the face.

and we're done. WHEW.
[Back to Part 1 if you missed it]

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