Miley Cyrus has a living legend in her corner. The 20-year old – whose latest scandalous act involved drinking underage and making out with Benji Madden late last week – is simply growing up and learning some life lessons along the way, according to veteran country artist Dolly Parton. “I’ve loved her through the years and watched her grow up, and I’ve seen how smart she is and how talented she is,” Parton tells The Standard in a new interview. It’s worth noting that Parton is Miley’s godmother – and this isn’t the first time she’s told critics to leave Cyrus alone . Dolly Parton Stands Up for Miley Cyrus “I don’t think people really realize yet what a great singer and writer she really is,” Parton added. Haters, of course, may counter that this has gone unnoticed because herself isn’t relying on her singing and/or writing for attention. She’s dancing with stuffed animals and taking her clothes off in order to stay in the news. “She’s just trying to find her own place and wings and learn to fly,” Parton continued, adding of whether or not she advises the young superstar: “If she needs my opinion on something I will surely give it and there have been times we’ve talked. But I would never dream of calling her and saying, ‘Well why are you doing this?’ or, ‘You shouldn’t do this or that.'” Miley has hit number-one with “Bangerz” and even dominated the conversation around Halloween, dressing as Lil Kim and seeing many other celebrities dress as her. So, clearly, she’s doing something right. “I know that she has thought this all through,” Parton concluded of Cyrus. “I would love to do some duets with her. I would love to sing with her and write with her because I think she is so gifted. “It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do. You’ve almost got to sacrifice your damn soul just to get anything done.”
Miley Cyrus has a living legend in her corner. The 20-year old – whose latest scandalous act involved drinking underage and making out with Benji Madden late last week – is simply growing up and learning some life lessons along the way, according to veteran country artist Dolly Parton. “I’ve loved her through the years and watched her grow up, and I’ve seen how smart she is and how talented she is,” Parton tells The Standard in a new interview. It’s worth noting that Parton is Miley’s godmother – and this isn’t the first time she’s told critics to leave Cyrus alone . Dolly Parton Stands Up for Miley Cyrus “I don’t think people really realize yet what a great singer and writer she really is,” Parton added. Haters, of course, may counter that this has gone unnoticed because herself isn’t relying on her singing and/or writing for attention. She’s dancing with stuffed animals and taking her clothes off in order to stay in the news. “She’s just trying to find her own place and wings and learn to fly,” Parton continued, adding of whether or not she advises the young superstar: “If she needs my opinion on something I will surely give it and there have been times we’ve talked. But I would never dream of calling her and saying, ‘Well why are you doing this?’ or, ‘You shouldn’t do this or that.'” Miley has hit number-one with “Bangerz” and even dominated the conversation around Halloween, dressing as Lil Kim and seeing many other celebrities dress as her. So, clearly, she’s doing something right. “I know that she has thought this all through,” Parton concluded of Cyrus. “I would love to do some duets with her. I would love to sing with her and write with her because I think she is so gifted. “It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do. You’ve almost got to sacrifice your damn soul just to get anything done.”
The enduring saga of Margaret — three years in the making, six years in the editing, one week in the theatrical showing, and finally rescued from oblivion by a cabal of devotees best known by their #TeamMargaret brand — presses on this week with news that Kenneth Lonergan’s embattled epic is finally returning to theaters in Los Angeles. Great! But perhaps just as interesting as how this complements the film’s ongoing revival in New York City is how it shores up a better-late-than-never awards campaign by distributor Fox Searchlight. Karina Longworth, who chose Margaret as her favorite film of 2011 (a distinction not too far from critic Alison Willmore’s own here at Movieline ), reports via LA Weekly that Cinefamily will launch a new engagement of the film starting Friday. The run starts at one week but could be extended based on demand — an option exercised three times now by the proprietors of New York’s Cinema Village , where tomorrow Margaret enters its fourth week on the comeback trail. The grassroots effort to get Margaret not only seen but outwardly acclaimed represents one of the season’s more inspired awards crusades, and one with which Searchlight is now playing along. Well, sort of, anyway: Speaking with Longworth, a studio publicist confirmed previous reports that Margaret screeners have been distributed Academy-wide — for what that’s worth, particularly with Oscar nomination ballots due Friday by 5 p.m. and the publicist denying that Searchlight’s “strategy” for the film had changed. But really, does the awards noise even matter in light of fans willfully prying a troubled mainstream film out from under a stubborn distributor’s heavy haunches? This is something to celebrate! Do them and their efforts proud and go see this thing, already. [ LA Weekly ]
Let’s be honest: Nobody watches the People’s Choice Awards for the actual awards. As awards season proper kicks off it’s a populist popularity contest, a loose warm-up to this weekend’s Golden Globes, a pit stop on the tour of red carpet photo ops for celebrities and TV stars and actors with upcoming movies to pimp. But events like this give us lovely little gifts, random social snapshots that peek behind the curtain of celebrity. Last night they gave us Hunger Games tingles. Cute coupledom. And, perhaps best of all, Robert Pattinson having a ball with Betty White . Who was the genius People’s Choice Awards planner that seated Pattinson next to the erstwhile Golden Girl in the front row? What did the Twilight star and the bubbly octogenarian have to talk about during commercial breaks? (Perhaps this ?) Could the casualwear-clad Pattinson have looked any more like a kid tagging along with his grandma to a fancy dinner for grownups? WHAT DID BETTY THINK OF RPATTZ’S NEW HAIRCUT?? I kid, I kid. It’s the single most adorable photo to come from last night and I love thinking that the two became instant besties and exchanged cell numbers on the spot. This stuff doesn’t happen at the Oscars, folks. Help me celebrate this moment in time with your captioning skills in the comments below! Photo: Getty Images
The idea of seeing Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in a movie together, not to mention a movie about a gospel choir, is a particular kind of heaven. Latifah is a radiant performer capable of elevating even the most mundane material to a level of charm and grace unachievable by most mere mortals. And Parton, aside from having one of the sweetest and most haunting voices in all of country music, is a firecracker presence by herself — if you could bottle force of will in a perfume bottle, you couldn’t name it anything but Dolly. But whatever Latifah and Parton might have achieved together in that mythical heavenly ideal, it’s just not coming together in this lifetime – or at least not in Joyful Noise , a well-intentioned, pleasant-enough picture that shoots off in too many directions to ever ignite. Latifah plays Vi Rose Hill, a sturdy, no-nonsense family woman who inherits the leadership of her church choir after the death of its beloved director (played, in just a few tiny scenes, by Kris Kristofferson). But this is a very small town we’re talking about — Pacashau, Georgia, pop. 233, or something like that — and petty rivalries and resentments abound. It turns out that G.G. Sparrow (Parton), who has contributed heaps of money to the church and who’s also a leading (and undeniably shapely) figure in its Divinity Church Choir, thinks she should inherit the mantle. She has some new ideas for the group, which she wants to implement before the all-important National Joyful Noise Competition. Vi Rose, a traditionalist, likes to do things the old-fashioned way. The two women start trading insults and play-fighting even before it becomes apparent that G.G.’s rapscallion grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan), who has just drifted into town from New York City, is madly attracted to Vi Rose’s daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), the choir’s obvious rising young star. Actually, there’s a new conflict every five minutes in Joyful Noise : It’s pretty much all writer-director Todd Graff ( Bandslam ) can do to tamp each one down, Whac-a-Mole style, before another one pops up. Vi Rose doesn’t much approve of Randy, until he takes her pop-music-loving, Asperger’s-afflicted son, Walter (Dexter Darden), under his wing. (Walter’s favorite song is the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee , and if you’re going to have just one favorite, that’s not a bad one to have.) Randy, you see, is an ace pianist and arranger, and he also has some ideas for spiffing up the choir’s material and moves. Meanwhile, Olivia starts acting up, as young ‘uns will. And don’t look now, but a rival for her affections (Paul Woolfolk) is just about to show up at the local quarry, where Randy and Walter have gone to practice their vocals (it makes a handy echo chamber). That could be big trouble. And yet, somehow, it’s really not. There’s so much going on in Joyful Noise that there doesn’t seem to be much time for anyone to actually sing. Still, the gang manages to squeeze some in. Many of the numbers are pop songs reimagined as gospel material, some making the transition with ease (like Sly Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher”) and others (“Maybe I’m Amazed”) that, no matter how you slice them — or tweak the lyrics — still sound like secular love songs rather than hymns of praise. One of the loveliest numbers is Latifah’s spare rendition of “Fix Me, Jesus”: It’s plain and unvarnished, in a way that too much of Joyful Noise isn’t. Parton sings a duet with Kristofferson (he returns from the grave specifically for this purpose), called “From Here to the Moon and Back,” which is pretty enough in its serene, wistful way. But even though there’s so much going on in Joyful Noise , there still isn’t much for its two stars to do other than trade one-liners masquerading as small-town insults. (Observing G.G.’s superblond tousle of hair, Vi Rose snickers, “What, you’re worried you’re not gonna be seen from space?”) Parton and Latifah are both high-spirited all right, and their sparring is reasonably fun to watch. But Parton’s face, as those of us who have loved her for years, is not what it used to be, and looking at it is a bit disconcerting. Latifah, on the other hand, looks as luminous as ever. As performers, the two clearly have a great deal of respect and admiration for each other, and that’s the motor that drives Joyful Noise . But movies need more than just good mechanics, or even just good chemistry, to bloom. They always need at least a scrap of divine intervention. And on that count, Joyful Noise could still use a little fixing from Jesus. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Happy Skindependence Day, everybody! As Americans celebrate with beer, brats and big blockbuster movies this July 4, Skin Central’s got a different type of Triple-B bonanza that’ll make you swell with perv-triotic pride. So join us as we count down a diverse list of beautiful ladies that all have one thing in common-they were born on the 4th of July! The tits don’t lie- super-stacked skinema star Julia Parton really is the biological cousin of mammoth-mammed country singer Dolly Parton . But whether those huge hooters were a birthday gift from God or man, only the Parton family knows. Birthday girl Victoria Abril looks pretty content with a boob in one hand in the comedy French Twist (1996). That’s the kind of birthday present Mr. Skin can get behind! All-American beauty Eva Marie Saint might look like an angel, but this Skindependence Day baby was no saint- just check out her bare breast in Loving (1970). Another classic beauty born on the 4th of July is Gina Lollobrigida . Though she hails from skinful Italy, this 50’s flesh goddess only bared buns once, in Les belles de nuit (1952). But(t) when she does, she’ll have you singing “happy birthday to ME”! Rounding out our list of naked babes born on the 4th of July is boobtiful British Penthouse pet Hanna Harper. Hanna offered up her cunt-cake as a birthday gift to the world in Risque Resort (2007). When do we get to lick the frosting off of it? We’ve got more Skindependence Day babies for your pulling pleasure right here at Mr. Skin, like Natacha Amal, Emma Jacobs , Ute Lemper , and Jenny Seagrove , so check these foxy firecrackers out now!
