from left to right:Tim Burton (Jury President and Johnny Depp's #1 Fan), Alberto Barbera (Italian film festival biggie), Victor Erice (Spanish Director of the acclaimed Frankenstein picture The Spirit of the Beehive), Giovanna Mezzorgiorno (Award-winning Italian actress, Vincere recently boosted her international profile), Emmanuel Carrere (French writer), Alexandre Desplat (composer and last minute juror... this man must never sleep or have several clones of himself given his workload), Benicio del Toro (Oscar winning Puerto Rican actor and werewolf), Shekhar Kapur (Indian director of Elizabeth fame), and Kate Beckinsale (British hottie, vampire who hates werewolves).
Danger! Benicio's getting way too close to Beckinsale.
You know Tim Burton wants to direct this battle. Or at least art-direct the buildings and landscapes surrounding the battle. And though Desplat sorta already scored it (The Twilight Saga:New Moon) he'd have to toss that out like a temp track and find Danny Elfman for the real thing.
This jury is positively supernatural... frankenstein, werewolves, vampires.
<--- But monster mash aside, Kate Beckinsale knows how to make an entrance, doesn't she? It looks like she's stepping out of a technolor musical and floating seamlessly onto the most prestigious of film festival red carpets. Or like she's a model in one of those color fashion interludes in a black and white comedy like The Women (1939), maybe.
Kenneth in the (212) "about face" is a new photography book restricting itself to just men's faces, unretouched. Lots of actors because they're handsome. I threw Jim Caviezel up to the left there. His career sure turned out odd, right? THRLet the Right One In's director Tomas Alfredson lines up his next project, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy based on the John Le Carre's 1974 espionage novel /Film Kate Beckinsale sues a newspaper for libel damages, claiming that they gave the impression her career was in decline. This is the type of thing that could so easily backfire. Suddenly we're thinking: Why is she so touchy about her career? Declining? The Notorious Nikki Finke hates on Nicole Kidman. But then who doesn't she hate on?
All Things Fangirl has a detailed review of Tom Lenk's (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) stand up show last night at Don't Tell Mama's. I was also there and it was indeed hilarious. Big Screen Little Screen who is the real James Franco? Just Jared Jude Law's tattoos Movies Kick Ass clicks its heels together for Meryl Streep Scanners another fine piece about the strangely heated Transformers divide, fans hating on critics for not agreeing with them. This happened last year with Dark Knight but it wasn't quite so widespread since most critics loved the hell out of The Dark Knight. a) why do movie fans need validation in the first place? and b) how boring would life be if we all shared the same opinions? Erik Lundegaard wants all 14 year old's responsible for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen punished. His plan is so diabolical! Has he no mercy?
Did y'all here about this DVD box set of American classics Barack Obama gave Britain's Prime Minister?
Bright Lights takes issue with the Daily Mail for calling this a lame thoughtless gift (because it wasn't personalized). I sure as hell would be happy to receive it, wouldn't you? So many goodies.
Were you to see receive a box set which movies would you want replaced? And with what? *
A brief glimpse at this week's movie star fashions on the carpet for those cinephiles among you who don't troll gossip blogs or who might if they weren't littered with so many worthless celebrities who aren't famous for anything cinematic or encumbered by talent --there's so many these days. Why do people care about the talentless? It remains a mystery to me. But not the type of mystery you can't put down for hoping to solve, the kind that makes your eyelids very heavy.
Kate Beckinsale is a midget! No offense to midgets: she pretty [imagesources mostly]
from left to right:Brad Pitt, Brad's lucky left hand & Angelina Jolie at NYFF's Changeling premiere. For Oscar-Watchers: I wouldn't worry so much about the sudden influx of mixed/negative reviews from NYFF for this Eastwood pic. Once the mainstream critics get to it, it'll be raves. That's how it goes. Some of them even called Flags of Our Fathers a 'masterpiece'... and this movie is better than that. Expect its RT percentile to move up when it opens proper. Jennifer Lopez and Kate Beckinsale pretty in white at Elle's "Women in Hollywood" event. FYI: JLo is ending her strange and rather sudden 3 year break from acting. (Oh right, infants) She has two movies in pre-production.
Tangent Gripe: Jane Fonda and Kerry Washington were also there and if I could've found a photo of them full length (at the time I prepared this photo - I've seen one now), I would've included them in this red carpet mashup in order to declare my love for the 188th and 41st time respectively. But, as it turns out, photo services and gossip blogs have 3,000,000 photos of a certain heiress and various reality TV stars to every 1 photo of Kerry f'ing Washington and sometimes this just makes me want to die. What a world if Kerry be not prioritized?!
Maggie G favors black for the "Fashionably Natural" Gen Art and SoyJoy show. Kristin Scott Thomas, having quite a year, at the Seagull opening on Broadway. My BFF who saw Dianne Wiest onstage in the same role earlier this year gives the thumbs down in comparison. Actually he does the cat poo scratch but that seems awfully harsh --I've seen neither performance so I can't say. But it is what it is. Kristin is on Broadway run and Dianne wasn't. This Broadway gig will raise her acclaim and profile for that Oscar run for the upcomingI've Loved You So Long. TONY run to follow for The Seagull? Campaign synergy!
And finally we get to Saoirse Ronan and Nicole Kidman since we needed a little color with everyone leaning heavily on black & white. Saoirse was promoting City of Ember (now open) and Nicole was also at that starry Elle event. Isn't her increasingly strawberry hair begging to darken? Take back that head o' hair: Come Back to the Red or Ginger Nicki Kidman Nicki Kidman. *
As we get closer and closer to the present day, the Vanity Fair cover girls (and sometimes boys) are starting to look more and more plausible as current cover subjects. It does take several years for an entire group of careers to change dramatically. Though, who would have guessed in April 2002 when this was published that Rachel Weisz would be the only Oscar winner within the next six years. (Connelly had already won hers).
Kirsten Dunst, newly 20, had been well known since she was 12 but her fame was exploding: that record breaking Spider-Man franchise was launching a month after this cover. She was the Next Big Thing coming off of a comic hit she carried (Bring It On, 2000) and lots of critical praise for three performance stretches: The Virgin Suicides (2000), crazy/beautiful (2001) and the just-opened period piece The Cat's Meow (2002). In other words her future was very very bright...
<-- One might say blinding: she hadn't even slept with Jake Gyllenhaal yet (!) who, and people forget this, was considerably less famous than she when that began in Sept 2002. One can never know what's coming, can one? Especially if you've just entered your twenties. Wildly hateful internet backlash and rehab for depression were still far ahead in Kiki's unforeseeable future.
Kate Beckinsale, almost 29, was very high profile at this exact moment though not so much before, having just starred in Michael Bay's blockbuster Pearl Harbor. Prior to that dumb epic she was known mostly for period pieces. Afterwards she seemed to mostly swear off indie fare (Laurel Canyon a notable exception) in favor of headlining big budget vampire flicks in skimpy costumes (Underworld, Van Helsing). Next up: Supposedly she's an Oscar hopeful for the true story political drama Nothing but the Truth. Jennifer Connelly, 31, had just cemented her typecasting as The Depressive Crying One with her Oscar win in A Beautiful Mind (2001) which was hot on the heels of a critical hit with Requiem for a Dream (2000). She hasn't equalled the success of the former or the performance skill of the latter since. Though it almost feels like she stopped trying at her peak, doesn't it? A year after this cover she was a newlywed with a child on the way (Her A Beautiful Mind co-star Paul Bettany was the lucky man). She's never exactly gone away but films like Reservation Road, Little Children, Dark Water, Blood Diamond, House of Sand and Fog and Hulk have done little for her reputation. The 30something years are generally the plum years for actresses of a certain fame level and, strangely, she seemed to sit hers out. Who could've predicted it? Is a comeback in store? [Pictured right at the 2002 BFCA Awards -photo src]
Rachel Weisz, turning 31, had driven up her fame co-starring in The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001) but a date with Oscar seemed a little far fetched at this juncture. At the time she was something like a B version of Kate Winslet: a Sam Mendes dating, talented, pretty British actress. It wasn't until she married director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) and delivered that grand performance in The Constant Gardener that she started to seem like a potential A lister. Her career has since settled back into the mid level range but who knows. Next up: The Brothers Bloom from the director of Brick and a high profile gig as the grieving mother in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.
Brittany Murphy, 24, had been dancing animatedly around the edges of big fame for some time. A feisty offscreen personality and memorable screen stints in Don't Say a Word (2001), Cherry Falls (2000), Girl Interrupted (1999) and Clueless (1995), kept her in the Hollywood running until the lead roles started hitting 'round about the time of this cover. Movie Star status didn't really take. Maybe it was the films she delivered in her brief headliner phase from 2002 to 2004... 8 Mile, Just Married, Little Black Book, Uptown Girls? She returned to firecracker supporting parts in Sin City (2005) and The Dead Girl (2006) which seem to fit more comfortably. Still, there was real screen presence and potential that one senses wasn't quite explored for a variety of reasons -- emotional instability, party girl madness and bad career moves chief among them.
Brittany on David Letterman in 2002 (when the future looked bright) and in the music video Faster Kill Pussycat in 2006
Selma Blair about to turn 30 was enjoying her second Hollywood cover (see Episode 6 for more on her). Conde Nast must have owned as much stock in her career as they did in Gretchen Mol's. Blair is now returning to TV comedy full time with the US adaptation of Australia's irreverent Kath & Kim.
Rosario Dawson was about to turn 23 and enlisted by Vanity Fair's strange Affirmative Action policy with these covers [unwritten but obvious rule: one non-white actor must be placed in the last third of the foldout]. She first hit Hollywood in the controversial Kids (1995, which also introduced Chlöe Sevigny -see episode 7) and she has been a hardworking game actress since --she's nearing 40 quite diverse feature credits after only 13 years in the biz). 2002 was bringing her three major opportunities to score with the public: Co-starring in two summer star vehicles for huge stars (Will Smith in Men in Black II and Eddie Murphy in The Adventures of Pluto Nash) and The Girlfriend part in Spike Lee's joint 25th Hour which turned out to be his best since Do the Right Thing! [pictured left at a party for the film -photo src] Her work ethic hasn't let up since (either that or she can't say "no" to any offer) and fame has continued rising at a steady if non A list clip. She's currently the star of the groundbreaking web series Gemini Division and in theaters with Eagle Eye.
Christina Applegate, 30, was something of an oddity for these covers which usually focus on film stars. Her fame had come from TV (Married With Children) but perhaps the Vanity Fair staff assumed she'd really cross over? She didn't. She made ooccasional forays into the big screen: The Sweetest Thing (2002) and Anchorman (2004) to name two high profile examples. She also had a minor success on stage with a revival of Sweet Charity (2005) but through it all she never strayed far from the small screen. She recently returned there to carry the hit sitcom Samantha Who? Though not a movie star, she's a success story not to mention a Hollywood survivor --consider that storied broken foot on Sweet Charity and her recent battle with breast cancer --and a likable celebrity, too.
Naomi Watts, 33, was then more commonly known as "Nicole Kidman's Best Friend" or even "Heath Ledger's Girlfriend" rather than for her own gifts (the Aussie friends are all pictured, right, at the premiere of The Ring). She was still a relatively untested screen presence when this issue debuted despite years in the biz. Sure she had just aced her role in David Lynch's Mulholland Dr [prev posts] ensuring her a place in cinephile hearts forever but it wasn't a mainstream success and didn't bring her Oscar attention. Luckily for Watts, filmmakers went crazy for her and after The Ring (2002), 21 Grams (2003), King Kong (2005), and The Painted Veil (2006 - previous post) among others she's now the most important Actress (capital intended) of the nine featured on this "Hollywood" cover. At the time, who knew? * * median age: 28, Kiki played the baby sister (20) and Naomi the mom (33) collective Oscar noms before this cover: 1 nomination and win for Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind [see prev post] who inexplicably won everything that year despite strong competition. collective Oscar noms after this cover: Only 2 (Naomi Watts in 21 Grams & Rachel Weisz) with one win (Weisz in The Constant Gardener) fame levels in 2008, according to famousr, from most to least: Kirsten Dunst (this is why actors make superhero movies, you know ;), Naomi Watts, Kate Beckinsale, Brittany Murphy, Christina Applegate, Jennifer Connelly, Rachel Weisz, Rosario Dawson and Selma Blair other episodes of 'VFH':1995 ,1996, 1997,1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. bonus jpeg: The ladies now!
JA from MNPP here. While doing research for my post at MNPP this morning in honor of Josh Hartnett's 30th birthday today (research = looking at pretty pictures of a pretty man), I stumbled upon an entire series of promo shots of Mr. Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale for Michael Bay's homage-to-shiny-people-and-the-shiny-bombs-that-blow-them-up Pearl Harbor, and couldn't resist taking my opportunity while at the helm of TFE to dedicate a post to it. I mean... if there's one thing The Film Experience lacks, it's attention paid to Pearl Harbor, otherwise known as "The Thinking-Person's Titanic."
Wow, typing out that sentence made me throw up in my mouth a little.
In all honesty, there have been a few times that I've stumbled across PH on television and found myself drawn into its swirl of pretty commercial surfaces. I find it's more entertaining if you pretend it's really a love story between Hartnett and Ben Affleck. Also, you should be very, very drunk.
Time capsule: I would choose 2001 as the one of these to do, wouldn't I? Well, that happened. In entertainment, at the tail-end of the year Peter Jackson would introduce us to Middle Earth and Chris Columbus would take us inside Hogwarts for the first time. In music, Beyonce & Co. introduced the word "bootylicious" into the vernacular, while Christina Aguilera & Co. dressed like crazed Muppets who'd devoured a cosmetics counter in the "Lady Marmalade" video. .
I'm already embarrassed and I've just started typing...
I have this thing for vampires. I always have. Well, not always. As a wee toddler they scared me sleepless. But somewhere in early adolescence the fear turned into some sort of turn-on, more fuel for the theory that the hold vampiric mythology has on culture is all about sex rather than death.
Anyway...I don't even like Kate Beckinsale. Not much of an actress as far as I've seen. And I don't even like these movies. (To clarify: I like them in concept just not in execution as you can see from my review of the first film)
In the first film the only remotely sexy thing for me was Scott Speedman as Michael's transformation into this hybrid thing, part werewolf/part vampire, pictured here to your right. (The blue skin --gotta be the blue skin? I also swoon for Nightcrawler and, when a child, dug the Smurfs) To part 2's credit, it gets him shirtless and blue quickly and often.
But this time out I was all about Selene. As is the film's director, Len Wiseman, who ceaselessly objectifies his young wife. There's this moment when Michael (Speedoman) unzips Selene (Mrs. Wiseman) from her derivative but über tight costume and her breasts are tantalizingly almost out. It's really quite hot in a PG-13 Zalman King kind of way (this post: from simple embarassment to abject humiliation in no time flat). Plus she has fangs, she has Dune eyes, she has superhero powers, and she gets wet. A lot. I had no choice but to select her.
I'm already embarrassed and I've just started typing...
I have this thing for vampires. I always have. Well, not always. As a wee toddler they scared me sleepless. But somewhere in early adolescence the fear turned into some sort of turn-on, more fuel for the theory that the hold vampiric mythology has on culture is all about sex rather than death.
Anyway...I don't even like Kate Beckinsale. Not much of an actress as far as I've seen. And I don't even like these movies. (To clarify: I like them in concept just not in execution as you can see from my review of the first film)
In the first film the only remotely sexy thing for me was Scott Speedman as Michael's transformation into this hybrid thing, part werewolf/part vampire, pictured here to your right. (The blue skin --gotta be the blue skin? I also swoon for Nightcrawler and, when a child, dug the Smurfs) To part 2's credit, it gets him shirtless and blue quickly and often.
But this time out I was all about Selene. As is the film's director, Len Wiseman, who ceaselessly objectifies his young wife. There's this moment when Michael (Speedoman) unzips Selene (Mrs. Wiseman) from her derivative but über tight costume and her breasts are tantalizingly almost out. It's really quite hot in a PG-13 Zalman King kind of way (this post: from simple embarassment to abject humiliation in no time flat). Plus she has fangs, she has Dune eyes, she has superhero powers, and she gets wet. A lot. I had no choice but to select her.
from left to right: Tim Burton (Jury President and Johnny Depp's #1 Fan), Alberto Barbera (Italian film festival biggie), Victor Erice (Spanish Director of the acclaimed Frankenstein picture The Spirit of the Beehive), Giovanna Mezzorgiorno (Award-winning Italian actress, Vincere recently boosted her international profile), Emmanuel Carrere (French writer), Alexandre Desplat (composer and last minute juror... this man must never sleep or have several clones of himself given his workload), Benicio del Toro (Oscar winning Puerto Rican actor and werewolf), Shekhar Kapur (Indian director of Elizabeth fame), and Kate Beckinsale (British hottie, vampire who hates werewolves).
This jury is positively supernatural... frankenstein, werewolves, vampires.
