Susan Sarandon, who was married in college to actor Chris Sarandon, has been rumored to be involved with her business partner in the New York city ping pong bar SPiN, Jonathan Bricklin, who is more than 30 years her junior. He has denied a romantic relationship, and says the two are simply friends. Susan Sarandon, who famously lived and raised a family with her longtime former partner, actor Tim Robbins, says marriage just isn#39;t her thing. “I believe in it for other people. I think if it wo
Also in Wednesday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Jon Favreau adds a Martin Scorsese-project to his schedule. European festivals in San Sebastian and Deauville release details about their upcoming events and Leonard DiCaprio is set to back a car-maker. Christian Bale Visits Colorado Shooting Victims Bale visited victims of last week’s shooting in an Aurora, CO movie theater, a hospital spokesperson said. Bales spent about 2.5 hours at the facility where he met with five people still being treated for their injuries, Reuters reports . Is The Hobbit Set for a Trilogy? At Comic-Con two weeks ago, Peter Jackson speculated about what he’d do with all the extra footage he has shot for the film adaptation of The Hobbit . And now speculation is rising that he’ll turn his two film saga into a trilogy, Deadline reports . Jon Favreau Takes on The Wolf of Wall Street He will play a securities lawyer in the Martin-Scorsese-directed feature starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He’ll do the part before he directs the movie-version of the Broadway hit musical, Jersey Boys , Deadline reports . Arbitrage to Bow San Sebastian Film Festival The feature starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon will open the 60th San Sebastian Film Festival, taking place September 21 – 29 in Spain’s Basque region. Wall Street thriller Arbitrage is the fictional feature debut of filmmaker Nicholas Jarecki, Variety reports . Stars Set for France’s Deauville American Film Festival The festival showcases American films and Hollywood talent including Paula Wagner, Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz are headed to the 38th annual event which takes place August 31 – September 9. Jeff Nichols’ Mud will open the festival, THR reports . Leonardo DiCaprio Buys into Car-maker Fisker The actor has become an equity investor in the Anaheim, CA-based car-maker start-up that produces environmentally sustainable autos. He will also be a “brand ambassador,” Forbes reports .
Like the world of male stripping it inhabits, Steven Soderbergh ‘s Magic Mike is naughty in gaudy but sanctioned and unthreatening ways. It teases with the promise of outrageousness, but underneath the G-string it’s a practically minded coming-of-age story about a young man reaching the end of a years-long spiritual spring break. Choreographed stripteases and celebrity cast aside, the film has a lot in common with the director’s 2009 The Girlfriend Experience — both are set in corners of the sex industry, share an undercurrent of economic instability and deal with how their protagonists’ professions, the perception and the performative aspect of them, clank up against their personal lives. And both keep to a low-key, realistic tone that’s deliberately at odds with their subject matter, one that in Magic Mike makes the film feel curiously rudderless, its off-stage journey pale and enervated in contrast with the cheesy, ebullient dance numbers it makes room for. Like the call girl Christine/Chelsea, the main character in the earlier film played by Sasha Grey, Mike ( Channing Tatum ) is aware of himself as a commodity and is constantly hustling, struggling for more control over the business in which he’s being offered — “I want to own something,” he says, and there seems to be more passion in those words than in his long, flirty pursuit of his tough-minded love interest Brooke (Cody Horn). Mike doesn’t make nearly as much money as Chelsea does, but he has side benefits that wouldn’t interest her: Occasional clients who stick around to sleep with him after the show, camaraderie with his fellow dancers and the swagger that comes with publicly embracing his place as, in the words of manager/MC Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), one of the “cock-rocking Kings of Tampa.” Mike’s a great stripper, but it’s not what he wants to do with his life. He also runs small roofing, event and car-detailing businesses that amount to a series of odd jobs. He’s saving up to pursue his dream of starting his own custom furniture business, with dedication if no particular urgency — he speaks of waiting for the market to reach its sweet spot and being able to get a good bank loan rate in ways that sound abstract, though we later see he’s actually put work into his ideas and is deeply frustrated by the obstacles he’s encountered. He is, in short, looking for the next step that will likely provide a way out, though when we see him grinding on stage at Club Xquisite we can see why he’s not in a hurry: He sparks to life in front of a crowd — he belongs there, and his audience adores him, showering him with bills (alas, mostly ones). Magic Mike is set over a summer in which Mike meets aimless, muscly 19-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer), whom he nicknames “The Kid,” and Horn’s Brooke, the sister on whose couch Adam is crashing. The two push Mike to reconsider his life — in Adam he sees enough promise (and reminders of his younger himself) to recruit him as Xquisite’s newest performer, and in Brooke there’s the potential for something serious, though she pushes him away whenever he saunters too close. As critical as these two relationships are for the film, they’re unfortunately lackluster — Adam is a slack-jawed, half-formed stand-in for the unthinking pleasure-seeker Mike used to be, and beefcakeyness-aside, Pettyfer can’t bring out anything in the character that could show us what Mike glimpses in him. Horn, with her strong jawline and tomboyish air, is an enjoyably off-beat pick for a romantic lead, but Brooke’s forceful pragmatism gets expressed primarily through glowering. Rather than reflect a sense of mutual attraction, her interactions with Mike projects only genuine distrust of him as her kid brother’s sleazy pal, to the point where it’s a struggle to believe that her opinion could possibly be important to him. Speaking as someone who’s slowly come around to Tatum’s meatlike leading-man qualities, I’d say this represents a step forward for the actor. He may not have the most expressive of faces, but his bro-ish friendships with the other dancers (who include Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez, all magnificently ripply) have a comfort and ease to them. His relationship with Dallas, his former mentor, is more compellingly complicated still. McConaughey plays the character like he’s Dazed and Confused ‘s David Wooderson all grown up and wearing a leather harness (complete with drawled “all right, all right”s), but he’s calculating underneath the preening, outsized showman persona. Dallas is setting himself up to be the business owner, and while he appreciates Mike’s ambition, he’d still rather have him as an employee than a partner — their maneuverings over a planned expansion and move to Miami grow steadily edgier under the familiar banter. And when Tatum’s on stage, he seems like a different performer entirely — one who’s startlingly physical. Magic Mike slyly offers up a look at the actor nude from behind in an early scene, as he gets out of bed with his ongoing casual hookup Joanna (Olivia Munn). But its not actually (just) the chance to gawp at his impeccable musculature that makes Tatum such an impressive spectacle in the film — it’s his dancing, the way he goes from hulking screen presence to a fluidly athletic being, aware in his movements. Before he launched his acting career, Tatum did work as a stripper for a few months, an experience that informed the film (Reid Carolin wrote the screenplay), and he has danced in a non-exotic fashion on-screen in music videos and in the 2006 Step Up . The divide between Tatum as performer and Tatum as actor gives the film an interesting unsteadiness. Set in a strip mall-filled Tampa that Soderbergh, who also served as cinematographer, tints a smoggy yellow, the movie carries the underlying message that it’s time for Mike to grow up and figure out what’s next. But that doesn’t quite line up with the grinding normalcy with which the film depicts “responsible” living. How’s that really suppose to compare with being up there in the spotlight, rolling around in money, adored? Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Richard Gere gets the golden line in this trailer for Sundance 2012’s drama-thriller Arbitrage , the feature directorial debut from Nicholas Jarecki ( The Outsider ). “World events all revolve around five things, M-O-N-E-Y,” he says, perhaps taking a cue from Wall Street ‘s own philosophy courtesy of Gordon Gekko (though he preferred the more direct g-r-e-e-d). Of course Susan Sarandon, who plays his wife has a zinger herself with, “How much money do we need? Do you want to be the richest person in the cemetery?” In the film, New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Gere) is the epitome of success, but behind the facade he’s in way over his head. He’s desperate to sell his trading empire to a big bank before the truth comes out, not only to colleagues but also his admiring wife and his daughter and heir-apparent Brooke (Brit Marling). And to complicate things further, he’s carrying on an affair with a French art-dealer, Julie (Laetetia Casta). But on the eve before he’s about to sell his plague-ridden holdings, he gets into further trouble (as tipped off in the trailer below) and he must now juggle family, business and crime with the help of someone from his past, Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker). The trailer seems to be pretty thorough in telling the story, so take a look. The only thing left is the final question: will he make it out from under the brink? [ The feature will begin its roll out September 14 courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. ]
by Kent Nostrand Mike McPadden is the author of If You Like Metallica… ( Backbeat Books ), a reference guide to hundreds of bands, films, books, and other ephemera connected to the most popular hard rock act of all time. Mr. McPadden has also served, since 2003, as Head Writer at Mr. Skin, overseeing the editorial content of your favorite website and editing Mr. Skin’s Skintastic Video Guide and two volumes of Mr. Skin’s Skincyclopedia . At present, he is working on Heavy Metal Movies: The 666 Most Headbanging Films of All Time From Anvil to Zardoz ( Bazillion Points ), which will be released in Spring 2013. In honor of Metallica’s Orion Festival being mounted this weekend in Mr. McPadden’s beloved summertime home state of New Jersey, the 43-year-old, married Wordsmith to the Naked Stars took no time away from his job at Mr. Skin to answer some questions for Mr. Skin. More after the jump!
Also in Monday afternoon’s round up of news, AFI appoints a new head of communications, Susan Sarandon will receive honors at the upcoming Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Tribeca Film eyes Glee star’s feature film for U.S. release and Ed Helms readies for two film roles ahead of The Office . AFI Names Jennifer Hoelzer as Its VP Communications The American Film Institute appointed capital hill veteran as its new Vice President, Communications effective July 16th. At AFI, Hoelzer will manage the Institute’s press and public relations activities while crafting messaging that underscores AFI’s mission “to preserve the history of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.” Around the ‘net… Lindsay Lohan Blames Exhaustion for Hotel Room Collapse The actress took to Twitter to say she had been working too hard while filming a new made for TV movie in Los Angeles. She also denied having been taken to hospital, BBC reports . Disney Pays Seven Figures for Scott Rosenberg Pitch The entertainment giant closed the seven-figure pitch deal for an untitled action comedy by Scott Rosenberg. Several studios were bidding, Deadline reports . Karlovy Vary Film Festival to Fete Susan Sarandon Sarandon will receive the Czech festival’s Lifetime Achievement honor, called the Crystal Globe, at the 47th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival next month. She will attend the festival which launches with the Duplass Brothers’ Jeff, Who Lives at Home in which she stars along with Jason Segel and Ed Helms, THR reports . Tribeca Vying for Lightning Tribeca Film, the distribution label of Tribeca Enterprises, is in final negotiations to take U.S. rights to Brian Dannelly’s Struck by Lightning starring Chris Colfer who wrote the script. Told in a flashback, Colfer’s character blackmails fellow high schoolers into contributing to his literary magazine, Variety reports . Ed Helms Sets 2 Film Roles Ahead of Return to The Office Helms will star opposite Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in They Came Together and will do a cameo in We’re The Millers , a New Line comedy directed by Rawson Thurber, Deadline reports .
We’re a dollar late and a day short- or is it a day late and a dollar short? Anyway, there’s not much to see in mainstream releases this week on DVD and Blu-ray, but we do have some interesting SKINtage titles to tell you about: First, feast on Euro-eyefuls Laura Gemser and more in the giallo thriller Murder Obsession (1980) nude on Blu-ray. And stay in that wayback machine for the sex comedy Naughty Teen (1977), nudely re-released on DVD, and the beautiful Blu-ray Blaxploitation rack of Marlene Clark in Ganja & Hess (1973). Then, modern-day purveyors of cinematic cheese The Asylum keep the skinematic tradition alive with 2-Headed Shark Attack (2012), already nude on Blu-ray but now also on DVD. Plus, take in over 3 1/2 hours of blood, boobs and brawlin’ babes as the exploitation compilation 42nd Street Forever hits Blu-ray with trailers for skinema classics like The Pom Pom Girls , Maid in Sweden , Chained Heat and more. More after the jump!
We don’t know what it’s about, and we don’t really care. Do you guys think Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri Martino go on mother/daughter spa dates? First they go to the sauna and strip naked to get a good schvitz going, then they soak in the jacuzzi, those famous Sarandon suck sacks bobbing gently on the surface of the water… Ok, fine . Deadline is reporting that Mother’s Day is not the newest in the holiday-themed series of romantic comedies, thank goodness, but is an indie drama featuring 12 interlocking stories about mothers and daughters that takes place on a single Mother’s Day. So like New Year’s Eve , but serious. Anyway, then it’s time for the Ayurvedic breast massage… See more from this MAM-tastic mother/daughter duo with our Mother/Daughter Nudity: Susan Sarandon & Eva Amurri Playlist right here at MrSkin.com!
The Japanese may have adopted it as their national pastime, too (and it’s perfectly understandable when you’ve got babes like Aki Hoshino throwing out the first pitch at a Yokohama Baystars game), but there’s no doubting that baseball is America’s game. So in honor of all those Opening Day pitches being thrown at baseball stadiums across the USA today, Mr. Skin has put together a brand-spanking nude Baseball Babes Playlist featuring the hottest baseball groupies ever to expose catcher’s mitts and astroturf, including Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham (1988), Jessica Biel in Summer Catch (2001), and the many marvelous mammaries of Eastbound & Down . This is one time thinking about baseball won’t make you soft. And while you’re at it, check out our Top 5 Hottest Babes in Baseball Movies right here at MrSkin.com!
Batter up! It’s the greatest time of the year, so I’m taking you out to the ballgame with Jessica Biel , Susan Sarandon , and the rest of my top 5 babes of baseball flicks. You’ll pop a fly!
