RCL: Demi Gods, Bag Ladies, Gutsy Smurfs and Action Heroes

Red Carpet Lineup: Once weekly we check in with random celebrities. Who is Where and Why? And What (are they wearing)?


From left to right: Jonathan Groff was at the Paley Center to promote GLEE (He's joined the cast drizzling yet more awesomeness on a show that's already fully marinated in the stuff). Groff wowed New York on stage (Spring Awakening + Hair) and now he's after the rest of the world. He's pulling off a mere mortal look here surprisingly well but do not be fooled. He's actually a demi-god (see: that 'I'll Possess Your Soul And You'll Ask If I Can Take Your Body, Too' stare in Taking Woodstock and the actual demi-god thing in The Baccae last summer where he hypnotized Anthony Mackie into doing all sorts of, uh, naughty things). Helena Bonham-Carter attended the premiere of Alice in Wonderland in Paris. If HBC ever feels the public has lost interest in her, I have a surefire solution for a comeback: stop dressing like a billionaire bag-lady. Think of the uproar if she showed up somewhere all sleek, minimalist and goddessy ... like a Cate Blanchett look or something. People would be talking about it for a month!

poll by twiigs.com

Tilda Swinton premiered I Am Love in Italy in navy tiles. We love I Am Love but worry that it's going to be one of those movies that has premieres all over the world for the next 17 months without ever once feeling like it's playing in theaters. Marion Cotillard received the Officer of the Order of the Arts and Letters in Paris. That sounds prestigious and we love that Marion shows up all demur/pastel to receive it "What? No! What did I do to deserve this? You're too kind. You mean little Oscar-winning me?"


from left to right: Meryl Streep is wearing a beige drapey sweater look that would be right at home in a Nancy Meyers movie. She was bestowing honors at Diane von Furstenberg's DVF awards. The awards are for women who struggle to improve their communities which sounds like such a worthy selfless thing... until you remember that the woman who created the honor named it after herself. Adrien Brody hit SXSW to premiere footage from Predator. Honestly, I don't understand his career at all post-Pianist. Nor do I understand why people are surprised that he has muscles to play an action hero. King Kong five years ago, 'member? Jennifer Tilly is still alive and proved it by taking in a gallery show in LA. This Official Declaration of Life I direct towards Hollywood's casting directors who have misfiled her headshot into their posthumous file 13. That's the only explanation for her screen absence. She's one of a kind. "Charmed. Charmed. Charmed."

We end with Alan Cumming who hosted the first leg of GLAAD's media awards this past weekend in NYC (there's two more events coming up in California). Funky suits are sometimes really fun to look at but immediately after smiling at them you think "You can only wear that once. Hope it was worth the money". Not that the fab Tony winner should worry about money. There's the cologne, the album, the abundant voicework and the television, film, stage and Spider-Man villain gigs. He's also one of the voices for the upcoming The Smurfs movie. Full disclosure: I loved The Smurfs as a kid (why pretend otherwise?) but I do not remember any character named "Gutsy Smurf".

Dancing at the Film Experience

Glenn from Stale Popcorn here to throw in two cents worth of discussion about the year 2001 per Nathaniel's request.


Last week for the year 2000 I discussed a favourite from that year that I felt had been criminally underrated. At least a lot of people have seen that movie for it to be underrated. The 2001 film that I want to shine a light on has been seen by about three people (and a goat).

If you had to ask me what profession has gotten the worst representation in the history of cinema I would probably point to stripping. Oh sure, we all love Showgirls but when paired up with Demi Moore's Striptease, the profession has never quite been the same. Throw in the absurd I Know Who Killed Me starring the ghost of Lindsay Lohan's career, the "all star" Spun and even the dead-boring (if you can believe it) Zombie Strippers and you've got a really bad sub-genre.

One of my favourite movies of 2001, however, is Dancing at the Blue Iguana. It's not great cinema by any means, but it's a fascinating film nonetheless. Principally made as an improvisational drama about the lives of five strippers in Los Angeles its main reason for existing seems to be to give three criminally underused actresses enough space to strut their stuff (in a manner of speaking). Daryl Hannah, Sandra Oh (before Grey's Anatomy stole her) and Jennifer Tilly are the three names you will know and each plays off of their perceived real-life personas. They play the ditzy blonde, smart girl and the loud vixen respectively and I can't tell you just how enjoyable it is to watch them on screen. Just thinking about this movie again makes me wonder what happened to Daryl Hannah's "comeback", Oh's non-TV career (seemingly restricted to cameos) and Jennifer Tilly period.

Sandra Oh gives a performance I rank amongst my five supporting actress finalists for 2001. Just watch as she performs a dance (to Moby's "Porcerlain", so yes it definitely was 2001, wasn't it?) in front of the boyfriend who was unaware of her career and you'll see why. The way her face becomes a literally blank wall with no feeling and expression.


The other reason why I like this movie is its representation of the city of LA. Director Michael Radford (who is currently prepping King Lear with Al Pacino) does a really great job of merging the dingy, grimey and concrete image of the city with the sunny side with its palm-tree lined streets and Melrose Place-esque apartment complexes. If anyone else has seen Dancing at the Blue Iguana then do speak up. I would be incredibly interested in hearing what you think.
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I Cayyyyn't Stand It

... that Jean Hagen didn't win the Oscar for Singin' in the Rain.

Lina Lamont: Gee, this wig weighs a ton! What dope'd wear a thing like this?
Rosco: Everybody used to wear them, Lina.

Lina Lamont: Well, then everybody was a dope

Hagen would've been 86 today. She never got the big film career she deserved after her Lina Lamont triumph and soon transferred over to television. Ironically, the actress who gifted us one of the cinema's all time funniest vocal characterizations died of throat cancer when she was only 54.

I'd love to watch Singin' in the Rain back-to-back with Bullets Over Broadway to see Lina's closest modern equivalent, Jennifer Tilly as "Olive Neal", in direct succession. What is it about fine actresses playing bad actresses that thrills so?

Lina Lamont: 'People'? I ain't 'people.' I am a - 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament.' It says so right here.

More Lina? Try this Film Experience Classic: JA watches Singin' In the Rain for the first time while guest blogging in March 2008

May Flowers