23-year-old actor opens up to The Village Voice about his sexuality and his new show, ‘Kenzie’s Scale.’ By Jocelyn Vena Paul Iacono Photo: Getty Images “The Hard Times of RJ Berger” star Paul Iacono took to Twitter on Wednesday to open up about his personal life, announcing to the Internet that he is gay. “Yes I’m gay,” he tweeted . “And yes, it does get better. #YOLO.” (#YOLO is short for “You Only Live Once.”) Iacono opened up about his decision to come out in an interview with The Village Voice, noting that while he does identify himself as gay, he believes that sexuality isn’t all that black and white. Yes I’m gay. And yes, it does get better. #YOLO — Paul Iacono (@paul_icon) April 11, 2012 “I didn’t think I’d be coming out. But why not now? I think it’s the right time to say something. It’s not about me, it’s about change and the work,” he explained in the interview, adding that his sexuality wasn’t always something he was comfortable talking about. “I grew up in a really old-school Italian traditional family in New Jersey. I tried coming out a couple of times as a kid, from 13-14 on, and was always squashed on,” he recalled, before noting that it then took years for him to open up to his family about it. “I was just coming to terms with the fact that I was bisexual, which culturally I do identify with as a gay man — I am attracted to girls, I’m just attracted to guys much more. I had to feign heterosexuality for a couple of years,” the 23-year-old explained. “It messed with my head. It took me a longer time to be OK with it. It was not until I was 18 that I came out with my mom and 20 with my dad. I was older and able to address it from a different perspective.” He now wants to explore those themes on his new show, “Kenzie’s Scale,” which is not only the name of a character on the show, but also a reference to the famed Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale designed by Dr. Alfred Kinsey that places a person’s sexuality on a scale of one to six. “The whole reason we came up with ‘Kenzie’s Scale’ is to give young gays characters to look up to. … I didn’t have much to look up to as a kid,” he explained to The Village Voice. “I had to search to find like-minded images. I’m happy to be that person so kids won’t have to grow up and be afraid of their sexuality and this won’t be an issue.” The show follows a young couple, Cole (Iacono) and Kenzie, who continue to live together as roommates in New York City after Cole realizes he’s gay. Iacono described the show as a “radical young ‘Will & Grace.’ ” Related Videos It Gets Better
Get ready to double-exhale, folks: It looks like both the Arrested Development movie and Sin City 2 are finally happening at long last — and both are reportedly set to film this summer. Hurrah! That said, Deadline admits that none of the Arrested Development cast have been inked just yet even as Will Arnett let slip on The Today Show that the long-awaited big screen adaptation was on track for a summer shoot. Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is set to film in Austin, with casting to begin next week. [ Today Show , Playlist ]
‘Call Me Maybe’ singer covers everything from her first impression of Justin Bieber to whether she believes in love at first sight. By Christina Garibaldi Carly Rae Jepsen Photo: MTV News Carly Rae Jepsen ‘s life has certainly changed over the past few months. The onetime “Canadian Idol” contestant is riding high off the success of hit single “Call Me Maybe,” and she just beat out her boss, Justin Bieber , on the U.K. charts, taking the #1 spot . Of course, Jepsen credits Bieber with much of her success , and she also knows she wouldn’t be where she is without her fans. Jepsen recently took some time out of her busy schedule to stop by MTV News and answer some of your Twitter questions. She covered everything from her first impressions of Bieber to whether she believes in love at first sight. Read below to find out what Jepsen had to say! @AmericanBiebz: We all know what Justin thought of Carly at first, so we wanna know: What was Carly’s first impression of Justin? Carly Rae Jepsen : I thought he was charming. He’s extremely talented — and, I mean, obviously that’s pretty well-known — but in ways that I didn’t realize. I knew that he sang, I knew that he was sort of infectious in his personality, I knew that he danced, but I didn’t know how strong of a songwriter he was, and my first introduction to him was actually in his studio and he played me a couple songs he had written, and I was really impressed and I was so glad, because I really, really liked him. @majojimenz: Is Justin planning on taking Carly with him on tour? Jepsen : I don’t know! We’ll have to ask Justin, but at this point we have no real idea of when we are going to be touring. @EmmaJaneGander: Would you ever do a duet with Selena Gomez? Jepsen : Yeah, I think I’m open to collaborating with anybody. I have, like, a dream list of people that I want to collaborate with. John Mayer is on that list and Taylor Swift, actually. I think she’s an amazing songwriter. I would imagine that would be a cool combination. @JustinsEyebrow: Do you think you have a certain style of music, or are you up for anything? Jepsen : I definitely have a bit of boundaries of what I like and what would be suitable to who I am as an artist, but I don’t want to put too many limits on it at the same time. Right now, I’m really attracted to pop music, I love dance songs and artists like Robyn and La Roux. And then I come from a folky background, so I would say my music is kind of a combination of all those things, but that doesn’t mean I can’t experiment more, fall in love with something else down the line. @lovedbybieber: If Carly could change one thing in the world, what would it be? Jepsen : World hunger. @shortstufff21: If you could change anything about you what would it be and why? Jepsen : I would be taller than 5’2, have some legs on me. @carlyraeheart: Do you believe in love at first sight? Jepsen : I believe in a very strong feeling about somebody, very strong lust at first sight. I wouldn’t go as far as love, because I feel like love takes time. What would you ask Carly Rae Jepsen? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Carly Rae Jepsen
You may have heard the news that Sony plans a big-screen adaptation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch , the animated series that yielded the Melissa Joan Hart cult TV favorite from the ’90s. This time, though? She’s a superhero . “The live action film will be an origin story in the vein of Spider-Man , about a young girl coming to terms with her remarkable powers,” writes Mike Fleming at Deadline. Of course. I guess it’ll work, but I can think of at least 20 TV characters off the top of my head whom I’d sooner see grappling with hero issues: 20 . Omar Little 19 . Erica Kane 18 . Special Agent Dale Cooper 17 . The Fonz 16 . George Costanza 15 . Diane Chambers 14 . Brandon Walsh 13 . Columbo 12 . J.R. Ewing 11 . Kenny Powers ( obviously ) 10 . Butters 9 . Laura Ingalls Wilder 8 . Rudy Huxtable 7 . George Jefferson 6 . Sam the Butcher 5 . Lou Grant 4 . & 3 . Sanford & Son 2 . Carmela Soprano 1 . Squiggy Who else? [ Deadline ]
When I was in college, I once went on a weekend trip with my two roommates to Cape Cod, where someone had scrounged up a summer home belonging to a family friend who was willing to let us stay for a few days. The owners were in the middle of renovating the place, so instead of windows there were just sheets of plastic that bulged in and out with the wind. Half the rooms didn’t have electricity, and we had to go to the tap outside to get water — but hey, someone was letting us stay in their house in a scenic location far from our shabby apartment near campus, and for free. No one was complaining. Except that it got dark, and the fact that we were out in the woods down a narrow driveway removed from the road with nothing sheltering us from the outside but transparent tarps (just the thing for wrapping up dead bodies) started to seem a little spooky. We were three young women huddling around one of the few working lamps in a house in the middle of nowhere, and I started to reflect on the fact that if we were in a movie, we’d for sure get murdered in a few minutes by someone with chainsaws for hands or something. And then the friend who’d set this up, a sporty, outgoing environmentalist who’d definitely outlive me in any theoretical slasher flick, mentioned offhand (she wasn’t joking ) that the owners of the house had mentioned that if we saw a guy in the woods outside in the middle of the night, it was probably their friend Bill, who was helping with the remodeling and sometimes stayed in their shed. What’s my point? My point is that you don’t want me telling you about the premise for The Cabin in the Woods , so instead I’m inflicting on you this personal story of a cabin in some woods (spoilers: we then drove into town and ate seafood). It’s true that the film, which was written by geek demigod Joss Whedon with Drew Goddard (the latter of whom served as director) is much more fun to watch if you don’t know anything about the plot going in. But I’m concerned that all this trumpeting about how sensitive the movie is to being disrupted by oversharing will set up expectations for something filled with reversals and silly twists, when in fact your enjoyment will be derived from an appreciation for how clever its concept is. Goddard and Whedon have devised a meta-movie about horror tropes that comments on its genre without foregoing a plot or characters of its own — it’s funny and scary enough to please the deeply fannish, while being sufficiently quick and smart to entertain those less inclined to dork out on the many horror in-jokes in store. Suffice it to say, the film introduces two groups of characters. The first, made up of Bradley Whitford, Richard Jenkins, Amy Acker, Brian White and others, work in a compound somewhere seemingly official, though not so official that they don’t sexually harass each other for fun, bitch about their spouses and run office pools. The point of the film is how they fit together with the second group, which consists of five college students headed out for a weekend away at, yes, a cabin in the woods. There’s good girl Dana (Kristen Connolly), her friend Jules (Anna Hutchison) and Jules’s football-player boyfriend Kurt (Chris Hemsworth), Kurt’s studious teammate Holden (Jesse Williams) and their stoner friend Marty (Fran Kranz, who steal the show). The five fit these types from afar, but don’t up close. Kurt and Jules aren’t just a jock and his blonde bimbo girlfriend — when he teases her about bringing textbooks along, they fall into a pitch-perfect reenactment of the old “I learned it by watching you!” anti-drug PSA. Dana’s getting over a complicated break-up, Holden’s kind and perceptive, and Marty sees a lot more than you’d expect through his haze of pot smoke. The relationship of our expectations of characters and plot developments to the genre and why we keep coming back for more even when we think we know what’s going to happen is examined throughout the movie, which plays off all the old slasher standards while being about something very different. Making a film that depends on an audience’s recognition of other films is a tricky thing — not just because it presumes existing knowledge, but also because meta-humor often just stops at making a reference instead of actually going on to do something with it. When you look at Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer’s _____ Movie series of (for the most part) awful spoofs, most don’t get further than a “Remember this? How about this? You saw this one, right?” Cabin in the Woods touches on everything from characters who have sex being doomed to J-horror to classic monsters, but it is also questions, for the most part not in a scolding way (the slight but discernible touch of that is the film’s only real downside), the reasons why we like watching these scenarios unfold so much that we’ve worn the ideas out like an overused record. Cabin in the Woods does what Scream only halfway managed, which was to find something new by looking back at the familiar — and at least in Whedon’s world, the geeky ones are never first on the chopping block. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
While no one is in any rush to revisit the most recent Oscar season, I’d be remiss not to point you back to our virtual roundtable of nominees for Best Foreign Language Feature — specifically, Canadian filmmaker Philippe Falardeau, whose classroom drama Monsieur Lazhar makes its way into limited release this weekend. He’s pretty awesome, having brought a lot of the most poignant and intriguing points of view of any of the generous nominees who spent their Oscar week with Movieline. To wit, when asked about his thoughts leading up to the big day: You grow up watching the Oscars like anybody else. It is something fascinating, intriguing, but you feel it doesn’t concern you personally. You watch it as a form of entertainment. As a teenager, I remember being angry at the Oscars for always choosing dramas for best films, Chariots of Fire winning instead of Raiders of the Lost Ark , for example (lol). That was many years before I knew I would be making films. But even two years ago when I started Monsieur Lazhar , the Oscar remained something very distant. I saw little connection between what I did and the Academy Awards. So how do I feel about the big day? It’s still surreal for me to be California-bound, but I find myself enjoying every moment, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. I met Norman Jewison recently, and he told me: “No matter what happens, you have an Oscar nomination, and you will have it for the rest of your life. Nobody can take that away.” There’s more where that came from . Meanwhile, Monsieur Lazhar opens Friday in limited release , with more locations to come in the weeks ahead. Enjoy! Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Photos: Music Box Films]
Dueling rumors today hint that Ne-Yo’s baby mama, Monyetta Shaw, could be joining The Real Housewives of Atlanta, while Sheree Whitfield may be leaving. MediaTakeOut (yeah, yeah) reported yesterday that Bravo is looking to oust Whitfield and “jumped at” the chance to get the “fun” and “outgoing” Shaw. Ne-Yo told TooFab otherwise , however. Outside of Boa in West Hollywood, he denied that Monyetta is joining the show. “It’s not true,” he said, though he would likely play it coy even if she were. Ne-Yo and Monyetta have two children together, 17-month-old daughter Madilyn and 6-month-old son Mason. Think they’d be a good fit on the show? Monyetta and Ne-Yo live in Atlanta, so that would certainly make some sense, though it remains to be seen if they’d subject their family to that rigamarole. [Photo: WENN.com]
Courtney Love fired off a Twitter missive in which she accuses former Nirvana member Dave Grohl of hitting on her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Grohl angrily denied the allegation. “Unfortunately Courtney is on another hateful Twitter rant,” he said via his publicist. “These new accusations are upsetting, offensive and absolutely untrue.” What the Foo Fighters frontman is referring to is a series of tweets the 47-year-old Love, the late Kurt Cobain’s widow, lobbed last night online. SIDE NOTE: Hilariously, her allegations against @davegrohl actually went to a German IT student by that name … it’s not the rocker’s account. Anyway, Love Tweeted the following: “I hear from frannies roommate that @davegrohl hit on frances, and that she was curious, I’m not mad at her, him I am about to shoot, dead.” Courtney admitted the whole thing may have been gossip she heard from a driver, but still laid into the musician because she totally believes it: “The driver from the cm who drove @davegrohl my daughter was telling me what st. on laurel canyon and that he had his hands all over her.” “it could be a riumnour [sic] the actual sex, and it’s not beans fault she’s not slutty in any way, at all, HES OBSESSED.” she added. Courtney went on to suggest that Grohl was “sexually obsessed with” Kurt as well and that he “had that Romney rape thing about him.” Don’t ask us what the hell that even means. For what it’s worth, Love is a certified crazy person. Frances Bean Cobain herself believes as much, as evidenced by their volatile history. [Photos: WENN.com]
Our columnist comes out in support of the last remaining rock star after Axl’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame kiss-off. By James Montgomery Axl Rose Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic To: W. Axl Rose, Guns N’ Roses Fans and Whom It May Concern, Greetings from New York City, which is approximately 490 miles from Cleveland, site of this weekend’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and roughly 50 bazillion miles from whatever Bedouin caravan Mr. Rose is currently encamped with — though, to be honest, it feels much farther removed from both. Especially given the reaction most GN’R fans have had to Rose’s open letter to the Hall of Fame , which he published Wednesday and which has subsequently turned him into the most hated man on the Internet. Here’s the thing (and, really, the reason I’m writing this letter): Despite the thousands of comments his letter has generated — which largely run the gamut from “YOU SUCK” to “Axl Rose is a freaking whiny-ass bitch” — I’m happy to be in the minority of people who seemingly have no problem with it whatsoever. In fact, I think it’s pretty awesome. Another boy-band explosion? James Montgomery takes a closer look at One Direction and the Wanted and what their popularity means for music. Because I support Axl Rose. And yes, I am aware that, in the past , I have called him “the creepy old guy with the Raiders jersey who lives on top of the hill” and compared him to Lil Wayne . And sure, I realize his recent, uh, output might not be on par with Guns’ previous efforts (anyone can have a bad 20 years). But after reading his letter, none of those things matter. Or, if anything, they actually made it better for me. Because Axl Rose is a rock star. Maybe the last one standing. He is an anachronism and an enigma. There will never be another like him, and really, his missive to the Rock Hall is just further proof of all those points. To wit: There are a lot of words in Rose’s letter (more than 1,000 of them), none of which are “apology.” This is because Axl never apologizes. Because he doesn’t have to, and he doesn’t care if that offends you. He also never allows himself to be backed into a corner — and everything from his unrelenting blood feud with Slash to the 15-year wait for Chinese Democracy is basically proof of this — and he intimates at several points in his letter that everyone from the HOF committee to his former bandmates was basically attempting to do just that. So rather than be intimidated, Rose just decided to walk away from the whole thing. As he writes, “No one’s taking the ball and going home. … From my perspective … the ball’s never been in our court.” It’s easy to call Rose a jerk for doing this, but, really, he is a jerk. It’s what makes him who he is and why he’s still able to sell out arenas around the world. We’ve come to expect nothing less, and yet we’re willing to vilify him for acting the way he always has. Katy Perry, beneath the crown: James Montgomery takes us inside his interview with the pop princess to see what she’s really like off-camera. In some bizarre way, by skipping the induction (and asking his name not be mentioned in absentia), Rose displays a supreme level of actual integrity. Unlike, say, Ozzy Osbourne, who previously asked that his band Black Sabbath no longer be considered for the Hall only to show up at the 2006 induction and call it an “achievement,” Axl won’t come crawling back. And unlike fellow 2006 inductees Blondie, he spared anyone the ugly onstage feud that surely would’ve erupted by simply saying, “No thanks.” He does what he wants and only what he wants. And the same goes for that much-discussed GN’R reunion, which he shuts down in the letter because, really, it’s “time to move on.” And that last quote should be taken to heart by all the Guns fans out there raging against Rose today. Because, really, it is time to move on. Move on from your misguided beliefs that Rose is ever going to change or suddenly have a moment of clarity. It’s been, like, 20 years now, and he’s never wavered from his original point: No reunion, not ever. Guns N’ Roses are still a band and they still tour, and if you don’t like it, then don’t come out to the shows. Even though you probably still will. So, sure, be angry with Axl today. Make claims of never listening to his music again (which would suppose he’s ever going to make music again) and accuse him of putting himself before his fans. But don’t take him to task for being the same person he’s been for 25 years now, because, really, you wouldn’t want him to change. Not for a reunion tour, not for an induction ceremony, not for anything. He will continue to blaze his own path whether you follow him or not. And I applaud him for doing so. He is Axl Rose, after all. He is rock and roll in an era where that phrase has increasingly less clout. We want him on that wall. We need him on that wall. It’s about the only way we can sleep at night, knowing somewhere, Axl is watching over us all. And writing open letters to let us know he still cares. Sincerely, James Montgomery Is Axl a jerk, the last real rock star or all of the above? Let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @positivnegativ! Related Artists Guns N’ Roses
Gil Kaufman and James Montgomery face off on what ‘Songs From This Decade’ the top seven should tackle. By Gil Kaufman and James Montgomery Jessica Sanchez Photo: FOX For weeks, it’s felt like we’ve been screaming into the void. We keep begging “American Idol” to get with the program and borrow a page from rivals like “The Voice” and “X Factor” by having the finalists sing songs that were released in the decades since Randy Jackson played bass for Carlos Santana. It’s a novel concept, we know. Seriously, enough with the Billy Joel and Michael Jackson theme nights! Not another collection of Elton John, disco or Frank Sinatra songs, please! Give us something contemporary, dudes — or at least something that may give our aunt in Virginia pause. Finally, “Idol” producers seem to have heard our pleas and given the top seven a shot at sounding halfway relevant this week with “Songs From This Decade” night. Now, the reality singing gods giveth and they taketh away, so while we’re in mortal fear of hearing Jason Mraz and Train songs, we’re also a bit torn about what is likely to turn into an Adele-valanche. Be careful what you wish for. But we’ll take it. So here’s what songs MTV News’ resident “Idol” experts think the remaining contestants should tackle. They failed to take our advice on last week’s ’80-themed show , and look how that one turned out … DeAndre . Read on for our picks! Joshua Ledet Josh smashed it last week and is once again at the top of his game. But here’s the thing: The guy remains an R&B tabula rasa, personality-wise. It’s hard to see him headlining an arena tour or filming an iconic video. Since we hear he’s way more confident off-camera than on, L-Deezy needs to get a little grimy, and what better way to do that than with Usher’s “OMG”? Or, if he must, I offer a one-time-only Adele dispensation for “Someone Like You.” — Kaufman I see him going one of two ways tonight: Either he embraces his brassy, sassy side and does Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” — which he’d kill,
