Want to know one of the secrets of Hollywood magic? Making surprisingly short stars look super tall through a little camera trick known as perspective. Super short celebrities have nothing to fear when it’s time to make a movie. If a guy is shorter than his leading lady, directors will fix that right up! Bam! Audiences will never know he’s actually 5″ shorter than his costar! That is, until the press tour. Those images can’t be faked quite as easily. Some stars, especially those of the male persuasion with easily bruised egos, demand that co-stars and/or wives don’t wear heels on the red carpet. ( cough TomCruise cough !! ) Others, however, own their short stature and make it part of their shtick. For the ladies of Hollywood, it might mean never being a supermodel, but doesn’t typically affect their star power. It does, however, make for comically hilarious photos when they stand next to really tall celebrities like Joel McHale. Check out this list of 25 super short celebs to see! 25 Super Short Celebrities 1. Anna Kendrick Don’t underestimate Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick because she’s only 5′ tall!
In case you forgot why Lupita Nyong’o is The Most Beautiful Woman in the World … The Oscar-winning actress covers this month’s issue of Vogue, her first appearance on the front of a national fashion magazine. Shot by Mikael Jansson, Nyong’o is wearing a printed Prada dress in the picture, smiling brightly as a one of the “women to watch,” according to editors. Nyong’o made a number of fashionable impressions on the red carpet of various events this spring and also been named the first-ever black brand ambassador for Lancôme. In her interview with Vogue, Lupita agreed that she’s had a “surreal” 2014 so far, adding: “It just feels like the entertainment industry exploded into my life. People who seemed so distant all of a sudden were right in front of me and recognizing me – before I recognized them!” Nyong’o, of course, will soon be recognized a whole lot more: she’ll play a key, mysterious role in Star Wars Episode VII . We can’t wait!!! 14 Beautiful Photos of Lupita Nyong’o 1. Lupita Nyong’o People Cover She’s earned it! Lupita Nyong’o is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World for 2014.
When news first broke that Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman hooked up at Cannes , no one really believed it. After all, Tarantino had been pursuing Thurman for decades, describing her as his “muse,” stuffing his films with unsettling extended close-ups of her feet, and having John Travolta plunge a hypodermic into her chest in Pulp Fiction because he figured that was the closest he’d get to penetration. Well consider us fully shocked, because based on photos from last night, it seems that Q has finally scored his U: That’s Quentin and Uma leaving Mr. Chow in LA last night, and in addition to the fact that they’re sneaking out the backdoor, they seem awfully close for two folks that aren’t dating, wouldn’t you say? Uma is divorced from Ethan Hawke and the actor once blamed Tarantino for the dissolution of his marriage. Recently, Thurman broke up with Arpad Busson after a seven-year relationship. We’ll see if Busson also accuses Tarantino of sabotaging his relationship. If so, then Tarantino is like the friend-zoned nerd in an ’80s high school movie combined with a conniving Keyser Soze-type. Hey, that sounds like a great idea for a Quentin Tarantino movie! Check out some other couples we never saw coming in the gallery below: 13 Celebrity Couples You Didn’t Know Were Together 1. Megan Mulally and Nick Offerman Funny couple Megan Mulally and Nick Offerman are a shockingly married couple!
Even as retirement looms, Steven Soderbergh still has a feature in the pipeline destined for the big screen. But as his theatrical career apparently heads toward its sunset, the Oscar-winning filmmaker is taking a swing at the movie-making machine that has left him – at least now – not wanting to make more pictures. [ Related: Soderbergh’s Liberace Pic ‘Behind The Candelabra’: What’s ‘Too Gay’ for Hollywood? ] Soderbergh’s retirement has been discussed since he first announced it in 2011. In that time he has brought a number of films to theaters including Contagion , Haywire , Magic Mike and the soon-to-be released Side Effects next month. He also is finishing the Liberace feature Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon for HBO. “The worst development in filmmmaking – particularly in the last five years – is how badly directors are treated,” he said to Vulture. It’s become absolutely horrible the way the people with the money decide they can fart in the kitchen, to put it bluntly. It’s not just studios – it’s who is financing a film. I guess I don’t understand the assumption that the director is presumptively wrong about what the audience wants or needs when they are the first audience, in a way. And probably got into making movies because of being in that audience.” Soderbergh recalled when filmmakers were allowed more latitude and noted that seasoned audiences had spotted the trend and have turned to television instead. “It’s true that when I was growing up, there was a sort of division: respect was accorded to people who made great movies and to people who made movies that made a lot of money,” he said. “And that division just doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s just the people who make a lot of money.” Continuing he added that television, which has become an increasingly important outlet for auteurs, indie filmmaker and even veterans of Hollywood and the measure of success both creatively and in absolute numbers is more flexible. “I’ve said before, I think that the audience for the kinds of movies I grew up liking has migrated to television,” he said. “The format really allows for the narrow and deep approach that I like. Three and a half million people watching a show on cable is a success. That many people seeing a movie is not a success. I just don’t think movies matter as much any more, culturally.” Side Effects will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival next month. [ Sources: Vulture , The Guardian ]
Twenty years after John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson , as Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, became arguably the most iconic hitman duo in contemporary cinema, it’s hard to imagine any other actors tackling those roles — especially the Royale with Cheese conversation. But the new issue of Vanity Fair serves as a reminder that their Pulp Fiction parts almost went to other actors. The magazine’s annual Hollywood issue includes an oral history on the making of Quentin Tarantino’s violent 1994 masterpiece that recalls Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein was seriously opposed to Travolta being cast as the marvelously mooky Vega. “John Travolta was at that time as cold as they get,” Tarantino’s William Morris Endeavor agent Mike Simpson tells the magazine. “He was less than zero.” When Tarantino, who was dead-set on Travolta playing the role, submitted a term sheet that included his final choice of actors for the movie, Weinstein approved all of his choices except for the onetime Saturday Night Fever star. Two much more bankable actors, Daniel Day-Lewis and Bruce Willis , had read the script and expressed interest in playing Vega, and Sean Penn and William Hurt were also on Weinstein’s short list. But Tarantino and his agent proved to be even more stubborn. When negotiations over Travolta came down to the wire, and Weinstein attempted to put off casting the actor, Simpson told the movie mogul: “You’re going to agree to it right now, or there’s no deal.” Weinstein blinked, and former Miramax production head Richard Gladstein says that 20 minutes into a screening of the finished film, Harvey cracked, “I’m so glad I had the idea to cast John Travolta.” Jackson, on the other hand, almost lost the role to Paul Calderon ( Out of Sight , 21 Grams ) and had to fly in for an eleventh-hour audition. He wasn’t happy about it, especially after one of the producers confused him with actor Laurence Fishburne ( The Matrix ). That actually turned out to be a good thing based on this distillation of the audition: “I sort of was angry, pissed, tired,” Jackson recalls. He was also hungry, so he bought a takeout burger on his way to the studio, only to find nobody there to greet him. “When they came back, a line producer or somebody who was with them said, ‘I love your work, Mr. Fishburne,’” says Jackson. “It was like a slow burn. He doesn’t know who I am? I was kind of like, Fuck it. At that point I really didn’t care.” Gladstein remembers Jackson’s audition: “In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. Me and Quentin and Lawrence were sitting on the couch, and he walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was scared shitless. I thought that this guy was going to shoot a gun right through my head. His eyes were popping out of his head. And he just stole the part.” Lawrence Bender adds, “He was the guy you see in the movie. He said, ‘Do you think you’re going to give this part to somebody else? I’m going to blow you motherfuckers away.’” Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Quentin Tarantino probably had a vastly different idea of how the months leading up to the 85th Academy Awards would transpire for him. As he began to promote Django Unchained , he no doubt expected to spend the majority of Awards Season talking about America’s legacy of slavery, about his decision to portray it as unambiguously horrific, and how the peculiar institution has historically been treated in film. That’s how this awards season started, of course. At the beginning of December, Tarantino was explaining that his goal was to make audiences feel, viscerally, the brutality of slavery. Later in the month, he was making the very excellent point that the legacy of slavery continues to this day , in the form of America’s massive prison complex and the war on drugs. ‘Django Unchained’ & The Sandy Hook Shooting Unfortunately, just 10 days before Django Unchained premiered, the massacre in Newtown, CT happened. Making matters worse, in the weeks since Sandy Hook there have been a succession of other mass shootings. (In fact, there was another school shooting Thursday, near Bakersfield, CA). As a result, all anyone is talking about is the influence of violent media on actual, real world violence, and unluckily for Tarantino, the conversation about slavery has been terminated and replaced with nearly constant demands to address the dubious notion that his violent films may contribute to that problem. Perhaps that’s why he’s beginning to lose his shit about the issue. Now generally, Tarantino’s responses to these questions have been measured; he’s made the excellent case again and again that, no, his movies are not responsible for societal violence. That’s changed somewhat since the beginning of the new year. Speaking to NPR on January 3, Tarantino got rather testy with Terry Gross , but that was nothing, compared to his low-temperature freak-out aimed at the U.K.’s Channel 4 news host, Krishnan Guru-Murthy. The Question About Violence In Movies That Shut The Interview Down “Why are you so sure there is no link between people enjoying movie violence and people enjoying real violence?,” Guru-Murthy asked, during an interview that aired last night. Tarantino’s response revealed, like nothing else, that he’s getting goddamned tired of talking about this. “I’m going to tell you why I’m so sure? You’re not asking me a question like that. I’m not biting. I refuse your question. I refuse your question,” he said. “I’m not your slave and you are not my master,” he continued. “You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not a monkey. I am saying I refuse.” Tarantino then added, “The reason I don’t want to talk about is because I’ve said everything I have to say about it. If anyone cares what I have to say about it, they can Google me and see 20 years of what I have to say about it.” It’s hard to blame Tarantino for being extremely annoyed with the whole thing. Hell, I’m annoyed with the whole thing. Django Unchained has been unfairly singled out for scorn despite hardly being unique in how violent it is, and one can’t help but feel that the conversation about it has changed less because of a sudden rediscovered concern about how violent his films are, but because people would so much rather talk about something that feels nebulous, like societal violence, rather than talk about something that remains, almost 150 years after being abolished, a very taboo subject. So it’s absolutely appropriate that Tarantino rejects the premise. However, this conversation is happening whether he likes it or not, especially after Django Unchained’ s five Oscar nominations. And outbursts like this are going to make him an easy target for stupid people who think Americans are so impressionable that we can’t watch a fictional depiction of violence without immediately running out to kill our neighbors. (Not to mention rather dishonest people who enjoy stirring up tabloid-levels of moral outrage just for fun.) Falling back on the dodge that he’s already said everything that must be said on the issue is just going to make media-concern trolls even more determined to play gotcha with him — especially when his angry outbursts contain terminology that, considering what Django Unchained is actually about, are rather… unfortunate. So if nothing is going to make the question go away, maybe the time has come for him to figure out a way to change the subject back to what it should be. I keep waiting for someone to ask him what I think is a far more interesting question about violence in America. America has a long history of pretending half the country didn’t start a war that killed nearly a million people just to keep their slaves, The manufacturers of our popular culture also have a history of minimizing just how bad slavery actually was for the enslaved, and of course,there’s also the country’s unwillingness to discuss the continued disenfranchisement and oppression of the descendants of those slaves. Doesn’t that, more than any film ever could, contribute to a national culture that seems terrifyingly comfortable with acts of massive public violence? Maybe, maybe not, but since no one else is asking, maybe it’s time Tarantino said it for them. It might not make the idiotic conversation stop, but it makes for a better quote than the word ‘monkey.’ Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Even as he anticipated the sunset of his filmmaking career recently, Quentin Tarantino is looking ahead to who he’d like to work with, and Johnny Depp tops the list. The Django Unchained director said he’d like Depp to star in a future pic, but will only cement plans once he’s written the perfect part for the Pirates of the Caribbean actor. [ Related: Quentin Tarantino Hints At Retirement And Getting High On ‘Django Unchained’ and Quentin Tarantino Wants You To Feel The Inhumanity Of Slavery In ‘Django Unchained’ ] Tarantino told talk show host Charlie Rose that it would be “magical” to work with the 49 year-old actor, adding: “We would love to work together. We’ve talked about it for years. Not that we get together and talk about it for years, but from time to time.” The two appear to have mutually high esteem for the other, according to Tarantino. But the key is finding the right moment. “We’re obviously fans of each other,” he said according to Contactmusic.com. “I just need to write the right character that I think Johnny would be the right guy to do it with. And if he agrees, then we’ll do it, and then it’ll be magical.” Continuing, Tarantino shared that he hasn’t as of yet, “written the perfect character for Johnny Depp as of yet. Maybe someday I will, maybe someday I won’t. We’ll see.” Tarantino also said he’d like to work with Meryl Streep and Michael Caine. The filmmaker recently unveiled plans for a new movie, tentatively titled Killer Crow , which would again center on people rising up against their overlords, forming a trilogy with the current Django Unchained and 2009’s Inglorious Basterds . [ Sources: Contactmusic.com , Mid-Day.com ]
Ex-Slave Exacts Vengeance in Tarantino Variation on Spaghetti Western There’s a sensible reason why nobody ever wanted to be an Indian whenever we played Cowboys…
Director Quentin Tarantino explains his foray into original music with John Legend, Rick Ross. By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Leonardo DiCaprio in “Django Unchained” Photo: Weinstein Company
