Better late than never, we guess… It’s been 16 years since Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola’s divorce!!! And now he’s sorry??? Via RadarOnline reports : Mariah Carey‘s ex husband Tommy Mottola, appearing on TODAY Tuesday to plug his new memoir Hitmaker: The Man and His Music, said that the book “will be the first time” he’s apologized to his ex-wife, whose career he helped launched. Mottola, in the book, wrote to Carey, “If it seemed like I was controlling, let me apologize…” Of his controlling behavior, the ex-Sony music mogul explained to Matt Lauer Tuesday, “I think that anyone that is successful becomes obsessive with what they are trying to succeed at.” Mottola, 63, married Carey June 5, 1993, when he was 42 and she was 22. He said, “It was absolutely wrong and inappropriate for me to become involved with Mariah, and I’m not saying this because there was a generation gap, I should [have] listened to the piercing voice of my shrink and maintained my distance.” Mottola said he feels the book will be well-received by his ex, who has gone on to be the elder in her relationship with Nick Cannon. “I have nothing but the greatest respect for her in the world, she is one of the greatest singers and songwriters that has ever come along,” he said. “So I feel great about all of the things that she has achieved as a result of all of the work that we did.” They divorced in 1997 and he’s just NOW saying something? SMH. This guy sure knows how to give an a$$ backwards apology. He just basically took credit for all of her success! WENN
We all need a little encouragement every now and then. Kid President, knowing this, has put together a video you can play each morning as you wake up or to share with your friend who needs a kick in the right direction. Take a moment and spread some encouragement. “It’s everybody’s duty to give the world a reason to dance.” .Subscribe to our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=SoulPancakeBuy our book! http://book.soulpancake.comFollow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/SoulPancakeTweet us at: http://twitter.com/SoulPancake
Sebastián Silva’s Crystal Fairy was the first film I caught at the Sundance Film Festival , and by the time I left Park City, I still hadn’t seen a performance that measured up to Gaby Hoffmann’s stunning, ego-free portrayal of that movie’s title character. Hoffmann first appears onscreen dancing with goofy abandon and spouting New Agey talk that leave little doubt she will be the butt of the movie’s jokes for the next hour and a half. But then she steals the show by literally and emotionally stripping herself naked over the course of the film, revealing her character to be much more complex, damaged and vulnerable than those first scenes suggest. At the film’s Sundance premiere, Silva said that his movie, which is based on a real-life encounter, is “about the birth of compassion in someone’s life.” Although it’s actor Michael Cera , in the lead male role, who undergoes that emotional transformation, Hoffmann plays the part of catalyst with such heartbreaking authenticity that I couldn’t help but take that roller-coaster ride, too. Hoffmann’s performance is all the more remarkable when you consider that Crystal Fairy was almost entirely improvised and shot in 12 days in Chile while Silva was waiting for production to start on another movie he brought to Sundance, Magic Magic . A New York native, Hoffmann, 31, has quite a bit of experience with iconoclastic personalities. She is the daughter of Warhol superstar Viva and grew up in Manhattan’s fabled Chelsea Hotel. In the interview below, she talks about the non-conformist surroundings of her childhood, filming Crystal Fairy while tripping on mescaline, and how her experience on the set reaffirmed her commitment to acting after 10 years of soul-searching, following performances in Field of Dreams , Sleepless in Seattle , You Can Count on Me and The Man Without A Face . Movieline: You told me earlier that you were overwhelmed by Sundance audiences’ response to Crystal Fairy and your performance. What kind of feedback have you been getting? Gaby Hoffmann: People really love the movie and the character — the [smiles] titular character I created which is kind of a first experience for me — at least as an adult. I mean, I made a lot of movies that people loved when I was a kid, but I didn’t have any real relationship to them. I had fun making them, I loved the people I worked with, but I wasn’t conscious of anything I was doing, you know? I didn’t even realize that I was interested in film until I was in college, and since then, I’ve had a very uncertain and sort of lost decade. And this is one of the first things I’ve worked on since I decided I really wanted to keep exploring acting as the person I am now. How did you come to be cast as Crystal Fairy? I had seen The Maid here at Sundance a few years ago. I was here for 24 hours. I wanted to get the fuck out of here the second I got here. My boyfriend at the time and I drove here from L.A. to support a friend’s film. We saw it and were about to drive back when I said, ‘This is really stupid. We’re both filmmakers. We should see a movie.’ So I flipped through the book, and I picked out The Maid. I knew nothing about Sebastián. I’d never heard of him, but we went to see the The Maid, and it was a really important moment for me. I’d been questioning my interest in acting, and I thought, God, if people are making movies like this, I want to keep making movies . I’ve also wanted to write and direct movies as well as act in them, so it was what needed at that moment. Maybe one out of every 50 films I see does that to me. The rest make me think, What the fuck are we all trying so hard to do this for? Anyway, when Sebastián took part in the Q&A, I just — he’s the most charming, lovable man in the world and I fell in love with him. But I didn’t meet him. Cut to a year later. I got a call from my agent. Once again, I was at the point of thinking, I don’t even know if I want to act. I had been exploring other things. I was getting into cooking and thought I wanted to be a chef. I spent my 20s doing what I think people do when they’re teens, feeling out what I really wanted out of life. Just wait until you hit middle age. Oh, good. I hope it happens over and over and over again. It’s difficult but wonderful. So I was having another moment of like, Oh, God, I don’t even really know if I want this, when I got a call from my agent saying: “You’re fluent in French, right?” I’m not, but I should be. I’d just been engaged to a Frenchman, so everyone thought I should have gotten that much out of it. But something clicked, and I said, “Why?” The trail led back to Sebastián. He was making a web series for HBO called The Boring Life of Jacqueline . And I’m like, “You don’t understand. This man made the best movie of the last decade. Get me in the room.” I really do think that The Maid is one of the best films of the last decade, by the way. So I got in the room, and somehow convinced Sebastian to hire me even though I’m not fluent in French. And we made the series together. Michael [Cera], who’s also a huge fan of The Maid, is in it, too. He has a cameo. So that’s where we all met. We shot in New York and Sebastian and I became good friends. And then? A year later Sebastián called and said, “You want to get on a plane to Chile and play this woman in Crystal Fairy where you take a road trip through the desert with Michael Cera and take mescaline and there’s no script and you have to leave in four days?” And I said, “Are you kidding? You know, I’ll parachute myself there. Whatever you want.” And that’s what we did, but even though I trust Seb as a filmmaker and as a person, we had little preparation time and none of us had done improv. I really had no idea if we’d pulled it off until I got here and saw the movie with a thousand people. And it has been really cool. You really did pull it off. I’ve never had this experience of communing with people in this way. To have woken up one morning in Chile and thought, I really want Crystal Fairy to have these elements. I want these things to come across to the audience about who she is. And then, all these months later, to have people come up to me on the street here, like 60-year-old men, and say, “She was all of those things” — I’ve never had this experience as an actress. Is Crystal Fairy entirely your creation, or did Sebastián give you some direction? There were biographical things about her that he told me. You know, he’d actually had this experience with this woman, so, I don’t want to reveal too much, but elements of the character, like the story she tells at the end, are factual. But, for me, it was more about taking those facts and making her dynamic instead of one-dimensional and cliché, which she could easily have been. You had never improvised a performance before, right? I did this weird James Toback movie [ Black and White ] that was improvised, but I barely participated because I wasn’t – because it was a James Toback movie and because the Wu-Tang Clan was getting us stoned without our knowledge. But, no, nothing to this extent, and certainly nothing that I wanted so much to make work. Crystal Fairy was one of the first movies I did after I recommitted to the idea of acting. Like two months before Sebastián called I had this moment with my then boyfriend on the edge of a mountain cliff where he said, “This is driving you crazy. You have to figure out if you want to do this or not.” I had spent 10 years painfully struggling with this ambivalence and really not doing anything about it. And I thought, “Okay, I’m gonna just spend a year committed to the idea of exploring it.” So, I wanted to succeed for Sebastián and for the film, but this was also one of my first opportunities to see how I felt about myself as an actor and if I enjoyed the work. How long did you have to figure out how you were going to portray Crystal Fairy? I think it was like a week before I got on the plane to Chile that Sebastián told me who she was. And that was like a four-minute conversation. He was in Chile. I was on another movie set. And all he did was say, “Go buy some books about 2012 [Ed.Note: more specifically, about the end of the Mayan calendar] and get on the plane.” So I did. We spent a week in Santiago in pre-production. And I say pre-production in quotes because we were all living at Sebastián’s parents’ house. Sebastián wasn’t living there, but the brothers and Michael Cera and I were. Tt was the house where The Maid was shot, and the boys would sit out back playing guitar and singing songs on this beautiful patio and the music would stream in through the open doors. And Sebastián and I would sit at a desk and I would draw Crystal Fairy’s weird drawings in her book. So, those are your drawings in the film? Yeah, I made that whole book. And read this book about 2012, and I talked to Seb about Crystal Fairy. I would tell him, “Never let me go too far. Don’t let me try to make her so funny that I lose sight of who this person really was. She was a huge influence in his life. He had a very emotional experience with her. Did you and Michael Cera discuss how you would interact in the film or were you both just reacting to each other? We didn’t really discuss much. I mean there was an outline and every scene had some moment that led us to the next place, that gave the movie its narrative arc. And I remember being very concerned and voicing again and again that, you know, let’s make sure the scene’s not just about that one thing. We have to also be having a moment together and a conversation and let’s let it go. So, we did discuss that to some extent, but we didn’t do any real improv crap. We didn’t do any rehearsals in character. The boys had been living together for months because Michael had been in Chile learning Spanish for Magic Magic, so they had a whole thing which worked perfectly because I was really the outsider. And I just had a real easy time with them. Those boys, the Silva boys, they’re magical. That whole family is, as is Michael Cera. So it was pretty easy to slip in and find the adventure on film. And we had the opportunity to shoot everything because we were doing digital. It was like we improv’d the improv, if you know what I mean. You grew up in the Chelsea Hotel, which, I imagine, was full of characters like Crystal Fairy. Did you use anything that you encountered during your childhood in your performance? I definitely grew up around a lot of characters. I’m trying to figure out how to say this articulately, but I also spent 10 years before making that movie going to college and really struggling with myself and experiencing a lot of depression and having a real breakdown of ego – which I never even thought about before then. My mother is the sort of a person who has no boundaries and no filter. She also has a big ego but it’s a very unique one. And I grew up with lots of artists in an environment where conformity and the norm were totally not what anybody was after. So, while the character of Crystal Fairy is not me at all, elements of who she is are very comfortable territory for me. I wasn’t exactly drawing on specific people but rather the world I grew up in, which was a world about individuality and expression and people being themselves at any cost. I don’t really see the point to living any other way. How would describe Crystal Fairy to someone who hasn’t seen the movie? I think she’s living with a lot of fear. You don’t really realize this until the end of the movie, but she’s having a post-traumatic stress moment, and I think she’s created an alter ego to escape a wound that she never processed. So she’s actually putting on a character. At the end, she sort of reveals who she really is and why she’s on this trip, which, I think, is one of escape. I found your performance remarkably ego-free. I never felt like, hey, that’s an actor up there playing Crystal Fairy. In all honesty, I don’t really know how to act in any other way. I’ve never studied acting. So, when I have a piece of material in front of me that is not well written, I don’t think I’m very good because I’m not a trained actor. I can’t really come around the back. I have to have an entry point that feels real. It doesn’t mean the character has to be like me, but I have to find something in the role that I can make feel natural. Otherwise, I don’t really know how to pull it off. It’s limiting. There’s a lot of work I don’t think I can do. If the writing is there and the intention is there, and the filmmakers are after something that is honest and real, I think I can go anywhere. I’m not afraid of revealing anything. But I don’t know if I’m good at acting. You said earlier in the conversation that doing Mescaline was part of the plan. What’s like to act while tripping? Yeah. I really wanted to do it. I’m not a method actor at all, but I like taking mushrooms and I’m comfortable with it. I knew that whatever happened it would work. But people were uncertain if it was too much. First, we thought well, let’s all do it one day off camera and see how it goes and how we feel about it. And then we’ll decide if we want to shoot like that. But we didn’t have that day. We lost that day actually because we broke our Epic camera and it was the only Epic in Chile. So I was the guinea pig. In the movie, the boys are all together when they trip, so it was like, “Okay, should we try it with four people at once or should we try it with one person?” And I said, “Let’s do my day first,” because I just knew it would be okay. My dose was weak, so I had to take a second one even though it was so revolting, but I really loved it. I was totally present in the experience of the making of the movie, and I felt like it was subtle enough that I could step in and out of it. So you are tripping on camera? Yes. Yes. Yes. And I felt like it was a tool that I could choose to pick up and use when I wanted. I never felt like, “Oh my God, I’m tripping and I have to make a movie.” I felt like I could totally step out of it and be like, “Okay, Sebastián, what’s going on? What do we need to do?” And then I could step back into it and just go with it. And, you know, there’s like hours and hours of footage that you don’t see because it was like a 10-hour trip and we were in that desert the whole time. It was great, but it was subtle. So, thanks to your experience with Crystal Fairy, you are rededicated to making a career of acting? This is one of many experiences I’ve had this whole year that, yeah, has led me to a place where I know that I want to keep going. A month ago I was like trying to get hired as a bartender. You also said you were thinking of becoming a chef. Did you study a particular cuisine? You know, I never really thought I was gonna be a chef. I just started really loving cooking, and I was spending a lot of time being very domestic and escaping from the world. I went to the American Academy in Rome to do this program that Alice Waters set up there called the Rome Sustainable Food Project. It was a three-month internship where you’re cooking traditional Roman cuisine. I love that food, but I love everything. And I definitely don’t want to be a chef. More on Crystal Fairy : SUNDANCE: Mother Pus Bucket! Michael Cera’s Not Sure He’d Take A ‘Ghostbusters 3’ Gig Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
There’s nothing like an old, insecure white man! According to Breitbart: Virginia Representative Jim Moran has taken PC, pop psychology to its logical extremes by claiming that “older white guys” are the “most insecure” part of American society. Moran, one of the nation’s most left-wing Congressmen, appeared on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show on January 16 and went into an aspect of the next election cycle that seemed to trouble him. It was during this discussion that he found what is wrong with our nation. Clearly, we had a very successful election in November. I worry a bit about 2014, when we don’t have the President at the top of the ticket. We have a disproportionately number of older white guys, and frankly, being one of those types, we’re the most insecure component of our society as far as I’m concerned; we’re much the problem with these kinds of things Helpfully, left-wing commentator and Salon editor and columnist Joan Walsh wanted to reassure Rep. Moran that there were a few old white guys that were OK in her book, at least. “I just want to say to Congressman Moran there are a lot of terrific older white guys out there,” Walsh gushed. “You’re one of them; the Vice-President is another one. You know, we’ll be there for you.” Do you agree with Jim??
Nine years after Napoleon Dynamite made Sundance darlings out of its makers, screenwriter Jerusha Hess is set to make her directorial debut with the femme-centric comedy Austenland , adapted from Shannon Hale’s best-seller about a Jane Austen obsessee on holiday at a resort where the Regency authoress is venerated like a goddess. Austenland stars Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Seymour, and Bret McKenzie, but there’s even more star power behind the scenes in the form of producer Stephenie Meyer ( The Twilight Saga ). Meyer, who served as producer on the final films in the Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2 , as well as the adaptation of her novel The Host , co-created her Fickle Fish Films shingle to create literary-themed projects, beginning with Austenland . Ahead of Austenland ‘s Sundance premiere this Friday, Hess released a director’s note emphasizing her focus on a female audience after scripting the goofy male comedies Napoleon Dynamite , Nacho Libre , and Gentlemen Broncos — “[our] most testicular film to date”: I remember thinking after my husband and I finished Gentlemen Broncos , our weirdest and most testicular film to date, that I really needed to start making movies for girls. Cut to a dinner meeting with author Shannon Hale. She was smart and funny and handed me a book she had recently published, Austenland . I read it in an evening and we started writing the screenplay within the month. The book was so fresh and read like a film; it was a joy to adapt it for the screen and write it with Shannon. Since the romantic element in the book was always strong, my goal was to make the film as quirky and light as possible. The result is a ridiculous romp in Regency culture – commenting not only on the historical time but also on the Jane Austen film genre itself. Although the film gently pokes at the Austen “afficianado” it never intends to alienate the fans, rather to celebrate the fun and funny of it all. Austenland was as girlishly indulgent to make as I hope it is for you to watch. Enjoy. Synopsis: Austenland is a romantic comedy about 30-something, single Jane Hayes (Keri Russell), a seemingly normal young woman with a secret: her obsession with all things Jane Austen. But when she decides to spend her life savings on a trip to an English resort catering to Austen – crazed women, Jane’s fantasties of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined. Based on the novel by Shannon Hale (who also co-wrote the script), the film was written and directed by Jerusha Hess (writer, Napoleon Dynamite ) and produced by Stephenie Meyer’s Fickle Fish Films. The film features an all-star cast including Bret McKenzie, Georgia King, Jane Seymour, JJ Field and Jennifer Coolidge. Follow Movieline’s Sundance 2013 coverage here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
MiMi’s ex-hubby is talkin’ that talk in his new book… Tommy Mottola Says His Controlling Ways Were The Reason For Mariah Carey’s Success Pop superstar Mariah Carey might have broken records across genres of music, inspired generations of performers and may even have arguably had one of the greatest voices in music at one point, but her former music mogul hubby Tommy Mottola says without him laying down the law during their roller coaster marriage, she wouldn’t be the superstar diva that he is today. via Huffington Post Mariah Carey’s ex-husband, record executive Tommy Mottola — who she says was a “controlling” man who “mentally and emotionally” abused her during their four-year-marriage — is speaking out. Mottola, who is 20 years Carey’s senior and married her when she was just 23, is clearing the air in his new memoir “Hitmaker,” saying he might have been demanding, but he’s the reason for her worldwide success. “If it seemed like I was controlling, I apologize,” he writes in his book, available on Jan. 15. “Was I obsessive? Yes. But that was also part of the reason for her success.” According to the New York Post, Mottola explains that because he didn’t let Carey take a break early on in her career, she became a superstar. “My feeling was that there’d be plenty of time for Mariah to celebrate just a little ways down the road,” the 63-year-old, now married to singer Thalia, writes. “I’m not talking 10 years, just a few.” But the music mogul is not taking full responsibility, adding that Carey’s talent is untouched. “An unbelievable energy was running though me, screaming, ‘Turn the car around! That may be the best voice you’ve ever heard in your life,’” he reportedly writes of when he first listened to Carey’s demo. Hmmmm. Pretty sure diva MiMi won’t like the sound of these claims. We wouldn’t even be surprised if she spoke out on this during her interview tonight..
Adam Lanza inspired an Alabama teen to plot out a hate crime against his black classmates and a faculty member. Fortunately he was caught in time. Via WTVM reports : Police say 17-year-old Derek Shrout is a self-proclaimed white su******ist who wanted to commit hate crimes at Russell County high school with homemade explosives. Had his book of plans not been carelessly left where a teacher could find it, the sheriff says no one may have discovered the plot until it was too late. “The journal contained several plans that looked like potential terrorist attacks, and attacks of violence and danger on the school. And in particular, there were six students specifically named, and one teacher,” said Russell County sheriff, Heath Taylor. After the teacher who found his journal notified authorities, police searched his home and found dozens of tobacco containers filled with shrapnel and holes drilled for fuses. Investigators say Shrout was a step away from turning them into live grenades. “These bombs are potential; they’re not complete. So we don’t want to indicate that he was ready to do something. It could have been a day later, potentially,” said Taylor. Police say they don’t believe his parents had any idea this was happening. Newsleader Nine contacted Shrout’s mother at his Fort Mitchell home but she did not want to make a statement. When Shrout was interrogated by authorities, his explanation to them was that he had written a work of fiction and he never meant to carry out the plans in real life. The sheriff disagrees. “It was obvious that he had put a lot of thought into this. It was obvious to us that there was more than just writing a story in a journal and it being fictitious,” said Taylor. Officials say the earliest entries in the journal were written three days after the massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. They believe Shrout learned to make the explosives through internet research. Shrout is currently in the Russell County Jail, charged as an adult. He will be in court Monday to face a felony charge of attempted assault.
In the latest sign that the Mayans have been correct all along, another member of The Real Housewives franchise will soon come out with her very own book. First, Taylor Armstrong used her estranged husband’s death to pen ” Hiding from Reality: My Story of Love, Loss, and Finding the Courage Within .” Next, Brandi Glanville will release some nonsense called ” Drinking & Tweeting and Other Brandi Blunders .” And now we can confirm that Melissa Gorga has signed a deal for “Love, Italian Style: The Secrets of My Hot and Happy Marriage.” “I can’t tell you how many times Joe and I are approached by fans asking how they can have a marriage like ours,” Gorga lies to tells Us Weekly . Melissa adds that the memoir will give readers “practical strategies on how to strengthen their marriage, amp up the passion, and the secrets that make my marriage as sexy and hot as it is warm and loving.” Well… okay then. Sounds like a must-not read! Will you purchase this book? Yes, can’t wait! Of course not! View Poll »
Christopher Nolan recently said it’s as tough for older actors to get roles as it is for older actresses. Not if you’re Alan Arkin . This has been a big week for the 78-year-old actor, who was nominated for a Golden Globe on Thursday for his performance as a crusty film producer in Argo. Earlier this week, Arkin ht the red carpet for his new flick Stand Up Guys in which he stars opposite Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. The film’s director Fisher Stevens was also on hand and told me he much prefers directing to acting. It’s better to paint the entire picture than just be a small part of it, he says. As for Julianna Margulies — another Golden Globe nominee for her work on The Good Wife — she said co-starring in the film was like taking a master class in acting. Hoo-ah! Check out my full interview below: Follow Movieline on Twitter . Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . WebRep currentVote noRating noWeight
An often overlooked 80s classic is getting a slick HD makeover on the occasion of its 25 th birthday: the George Lucas -produced and Ron Howard -directed fantasy film Willow comes to Blu-Ray on March 13. First released in 1988, Willow follows the adventures of a farmer ( Warwick Davis of Harry Potter and Leprechaun fame in the title role) from a humble village of little people who finds himself pursued by entire armies as he protects a magical baby from a tyrannical witch. There’s a roguish swordsman, a rebellious princess, even an evil knight who dresses in black armor. Basically, it’s Star Wars meets the book of Exodus meets (duh) Lord of the Rings . Which is fine, especially since it was at the time the closest we thought we might ever get to anything remotely Tolkien-esque on the big screen*. Of course, 13 years after Willow ‘s release we actually got that live-action LOTR , which is probably why the new trailer for the Willow Blu-ray really, really, no really, seriously wants you to think The Hobbit while you watch. In fact, the tagline ‘from smallest beginnings…’ shamelessly apes The Hobbit ‘s “from small beginnings” to the point that you wonder if the original title was ‘Age Of Hobbits’. Here’s a look: Despite a rather underwhelming ending and TV movie-level direction (sorry, Ron, but it’s true), Willow was a wonderful bit of cheesy 1980s fantasy at least worthy of a double feature with Krull . True, Willow lacks a “hey, wait, he’s in this??!” appearance by Liam Neeson , but it does have a pre-fat Elvis period Val Kilmer , Davis in one of his rare chances to act without first being covered under piles of latex and makeup, and plenty of magic and swordfighting in finest late-80s green screen style. If the trailer is anything to go on, the Blu-Ray version is going to look kind of great. So, OK LucasFilm, if blatantly trying to fool people into making a Peter Jackson -Lucas connection helps sell copies, I’m in. Just don’t release Howard the Duck as the spiritual predecessor to Meet the Feebles , okay? * Excalibur doesn’t count and you know it. 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 A. Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
