"you may link, there's nothing to it. But I simply cannot do it alone!"

Tribeca Film I have a new weekly column there "Best in Show" where I'm extolling the virtues of MVPs in new movies. First up: Tom Hardy in Inception.
Mr Dan Zak wants Angelina Jolie to adopt him, loves her in Salt.
The Observer top 10 movie cameos. Wide range of years here, so, yay.
Totally Looks Like Whoa. Keanu Reeves & Tchaikovsky.


In Contention Wait. What's this? Fresh rumor hell that Margaret (2005) starring Anna Paquin might finally see release. I'd rather not hope again given that they're saying 2011.
i09 okay I kind of think this Green Lantern movie is going to be terrible. BUT. This is so sweet/adorable: Ryan Reynolds reciting the oath for a kid at Comic Con.
Playbill the musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is getting a starry cast for Broadway: Patti Lupone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott. Yay and also yikes. How can it live up to the film? A lot will depend on how strong the musical score is. And unfortunately film-to-stage transfers haven't seem to view the song score as that important, trusting on name brands to sell the show (see also: Addams Family, Legally Blonde, etcetera)

Finally, let's wrap up with Caroline O'Connor ("Nini" from Moulin Rouge!, don'cha know) performing Chicago's Velma Kelly intro "All That Jazz"



Yes! Caroline is bringing her all singing all dancing one-woman'ish show (there are back up dancers) "The Showgirl Within" to London this fall. Wish I could see it. (I expect a full report from at least one of you Brits reading The Film Experience in the dark out there.) I once had hoped to interview all 'Four Whores of the Apocalypse' from Moulin Rouge! (2001) though I never got very far. My favorite film of the Aughts celebrates its 10th anniversary next year, so I'll have to return to it in a big way. It's been a few years since I last watched it now.

RCL: Icy Linney, Hottie Mirren, Canadian Ryan

I couldn't sense excitement out there for my weekly random celeb lineup posts but, all the same, I have to commemorate the Tonys one last time since they were practically Golden Globe-esque last night with the TV & Film stars.

<-- Exclusive Unretouched Photo!
Tonyless veteran Laura Linney congratulates newbie ScarJo on her Tony win. [Apparently Scarlett has never seen Mystic River or The House of Mirth. Ice cold blood puts the rose in those dimpled cheeks. Beware.]

I do want to say though, just as a corrective for what I'm seeing on the web, that The Lovely Laura Linney and Viola Davis don't fit the 'screen stars slumming it inbetween jobs' group situation that Tony voters love but stage aficionados rage against. Viola and Laura are both bonafide stage troupers. They've been doing it for years and if the movie roles ever dried up, it's likely that they'd be perfectly content to hit the boards full time. Linney, by her own admission, prefers it to screens big or small. It's just lucky for us that she can adjust her scale to fit any medium. That's not something just any actor can do. Many have tried but few are as adept at all three as she.

So let's get to dresses...

Best Dressed!

I'm not trying to be cheeky putting the original Wicked stars Kristin Chenoweth & Idina Menzel together in best dressed, I just think they deserve it. Cheno looks great in white and can work a micro dress with the best, even somehow managing non obscene pratfalls in them. Speaking of obscenity: Imagine how much Wicked could charge for tickets if Cheno & Idina were to return however briefly after their post-Wicked fame? Idina, of the less flashy personality, makes up for it with this intricate dress. I hope they took a photo together last night, but I haven't seen it if they did.

Update: They did and here it is (Thanks Emma!)

♪ ♫ It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend... ♪

And let's hear it for two women who have decaying portraits hidden in attics on their estates: Bernadette Peters, 62, who stepped out of some greco-roman sculpture garden complete with curls, and Dame Hotness, 64, in a super flattering dark blue scooped neck gown.

One of the best moments last night was when Mirren shouted out to the people "in the gods". I had somehow never heard this expression before but it's apparently a reference to the balcony (i.e. the cheap seats).

Not So Much

I understand that Jada Pinkett Smith is a relatively fierce woman... but divatude aside, do you really wanna risk comparison to that icy hotness of one Vera Farmiga on Oscar night of all things. It's the same dress in the same color family but chopped in half for a woman who's 7 inches shorter and needs to show leg for the illusion of length. I think Blanchett is auditioning in character as DAZZLER for the next X-Men film. (Yes I made that up. Marvel still has some B list characters left before they get to Alison Blaire.) Sherie Rene Scott seemed to forget that when movie stars are invading your domain you have to pick it up a notch. I mean this is pretty but it's awfully casual when you're celebrating a personal success like Everyday Rapture at an awards show. And finally whenever I look at ScarJo's gown -- which I want desperately to like -- I hear Heidi Klum saying "It looks cheap, no?" Maybe it's the color that's making me think of a glittery dress that some young Vice President of Marketing might wear to her corporate Christmas partay.

You know Cate was all like...

'I have lots of gold but not this kind. Gimme.'

I should note that men were also walking the red carpet last night including 'Canadian Who Lives With Me' and 'That Man That's a Movie Star That I Get To Sleep With Every Night.' It's been nearly 24 hours since the Tonys and I'm still reeling at all the new ways the actresses have found to say "my husband" at awards shows. I only wish we could have heard Helen Mirren's new way of describing Taylor Hackford.

Ricky Martin, who no longer needs any euphemisms, was also present.

Ricky & The Canadian That Lives With Scarlett Johansson

Last night was ... odd.
Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, RYAN REYNOLDS