It was a time for major news on Good Morning America today. First, Taylor Swift debuted the music video for “22.” Then, “Love and War” singer Tamar Braxton announced that she and husband Vince Herbert are expecting their first child! “I have a love on top! I am pregnant!” Braxton said, referencing a track by Beyonce and telling ABC’s Lara Spencer: “I feel great and greedy at the same time. This is the most I’ve eaten ever.” When is she due? Braxton would not reveal, but did say she’s “almost there” and there are not “many months to go” until she’s a mother. Look for more from Tamar and Vince when Braxton Family Values premieres its second season on March 14 at 9 p.m. on WE tv.
Last month, Selena Gomez promised new music for fans in 2013 – and she’s already delivered on that vow. The singer dropped a brand new track today, releasing “Rule the World” for all to hear.. and once again dissing Justin Bieber in the process? “Our love was made to rule the world,” Gomez croons below. “You came and broke the perfect girl. Forget you ever knew my name.” OUCH! Listen now and decide: Is this single aimed at Bieber? Selena Gomez – “Rule the World”
This just in : Keeping Up with the Kardashians is actually a scripted series that films multiple takes and even concocts scenes to fit preconceived storylines. We’ll wait for your shock to die down before we continue… Such news isn’t exactly breaking for most viewers, but actual proof now exists – in the form of leaked court documents – and it may spell trouble for Kim Kardashian’s divorce case against Kris Humphries. On February 4, Keeping Up With the Kardashians producer Russell Jay was deposed as part of the never-ending battle between Kim and Kris, admitting under oath that the series reshot/edited at least two scenes which painted Humphries in a negative light. Here is what Jay said: Kardashian was aware of Humphries’ proposal before it happened. She even asked for a second take because she wasn’t satisfied with her initial reaction. In a memorable scene, Kardashian admits to Kris Jenner that she is having problems in her marriage – but this scene was filmed AFTER she already filed for divorce in October 2011. In another scene, Humphries is made to look like a fool when he earns Kim’s ire after throwing a party with her out of town. But Kim was present in the hotel the entire time this went down and was well aware of everything. “ Kris feels vindicated ,” a friend tells Life & Style of these revelations. “It’s obvious they were trying to tarnish his reputation. This will prove how fake Kim and the show are.” Humphries’ family recently came out and showed support for the basketball player, reiterating the belief that the marriage was a sham and Kris was a victim of a fame-obsessed Kris Jenner. Will this argument get him anywhere in court? Will these documents result in a major payday? How does any of this “vindicate” Kris in any way, considering he had to be complicit in the reshooting of his proposal and aware right off the bat that everything about the relationship was made-for-television? We’ll find out on May 6 when Kris and Kim meet before a judge. Finally.
The best type of superhero is one that swears. If we could get some more F-bombs from Batman or Iron Man, maybe those movies could actually make some money. Enter Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, two of the most foul-mouthed teenaged superheroes around. Check out the first red band trailer for Kick-Ass 2 , which also features a nearly-unrecognizable Jim Carrey: Kick-Ass 2 Red Band Trailer Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Moretz return as Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, two “real life” superheroes (in the world of the film…it’s confusing, I know) bent on protecting the city from a-holes. The film is adapted from the comic book of the same name. Christopher Mintz-Plasse (who had some hilarious Superbad quotes as McLovin), Clark Duke, John Leguizamo, Morris Chestnut, and Donald Faison also star. You can see Kick-Ass 2 in theaters beginning August 16.
If, like me, you’ve been spending way too much time puzzling over the international villain of mystery known as The Mandarin , I have some clues and an out-there theory. I’ll give you the information first. In an interview with Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and Iron Man 3 d irector Shane Black that was posted Monday on Marvel.com , the two men shed a little bit more light on the character, played by Ben Kingsley . In the Marvel Comics universe, the Mandarin is Chinese, but in the Marvel movie universe he’s more of an multicultural mutt, in part, because Asian audiences are so hugely important to tentpole movies today that no studio wants to risk offending a nation of 1.4 billion. (That’s almost 20 percent of the world’s population in pie-chart terms.) According to Feige, the Mandarin “is recognizable and frightening and fearful in a very sort of ripped-from-the-headlines, Osama Bin Laden sort of way.” At the same time, he explained, Black, who directed Iron Man 3 and co-wrote the script with Drew Pearce saw him as analogous “to Marlon Brando’s character in Apocalypse Now , Colonel Kurtz. He was a guy who’s gone off the reservation, who’s incorporating all these different symbols and iconography into his worldview.” And here’s Black’s take from that same interview: “He represents every terrorist in a way, but he specifically has crafted himself in the manner of the Mandarin, of the warlord, and I think that’s great because you get to do the comic book [version of the villain], but yet you don’t have to deal with the specifics of the Fu Man Chu stereotyping. We aren’t saying he’s Chinese, we’re saying he, in fact, draws a cloak around himself of Chinese symbols and dragons because it represents his obsession with Sun Tzu and ancient arts of warfare that he has studied.” Which brings me to my theory. Black’s reference to Sun Tzu reminds me of another long-deposed warlord who cloaked himself in the words of that famous Chinese military strategist and The Art of War author: Creative Artists Agency co-founder Michael Ovitz, who once had much of Hollywood by the short hairs and did business out of an I.M. Pei-designed shrine to his success. Black was a CAA client during the agency’s 1980s heyday, and some of the lines that the Mandarin utters in the last trailer, which I’ve posted below, could pass for agent speak. How do I know. Imagine Entourage ‘s Ari Gold saying: “Mr. Stark, today is the first day of what’s left of your life” or “Do you want an empty life or a meaningful death?” See what I mean? More on Iron Man 3: WATCH: There’s My Boys! Final ‘Iron Man 3’ Trailer Offers Sneak Look At Tony Stark’s Metal Army Say Hello To My Metal Friends: New ‘Iron Man 3’ Poster Reveals Alloyed Forces [ Marvel.com ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines remains among my favorite unreleased movies since I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it’s testament to the movie’s satisfying complexity that these three video clips don’t really convey the emotional wallop that the film packs. Here’s the other thing: I can’t really set these videos up properly without some major spoilers, so I would urge you not to write off the movie if these three excerpts don’t exactly move you. Suffice it to say, the first two clips feature appear, in chronological order in the first third of the movie, where motorcycle stunt driver Luke ( Ryan Gosling ) learns that he fathered a child by Romina (Eva Mendes) and decides that he doesn’t want to be the deadbeat dad that he had as a kid. Alas, his decision to be a responsible parent involves robbing banks to support his kid, which is not exactly Brady Bunch territory, but Cianfrance uses Luke’s storyline to set up a movie that has some very smart things to say about morality and legacy. Luke and Romina’s story is intertwined with the narrative arc of police officer Avery Cross, played by Bradley Cooper. In the third and final clip, he attempts to inform his superior of corruption in the department and doesn’t exactly meet with a willing audience. The movie only gets more interesting and gripping from there. The Place Beyond The Pines opens on March 29. More on The Place Beyond The Pines: The Principals Behind The Pines : Gosling and Cianfrance On Robbing Banks, Fatherhood, Face Tattoos, And More Ryan Gosling: ‘I’m Not Allowed to Have An Opinion’ About The Media’s Coverage Of My Life Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The marketing people at Lionsgate are no dummies. They clearly recognize that celebrity culture has been reduced to “What are you wearing” questions on the red carpet, and are ramping up their marketing efforts for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with the movie poster equivalent: seven character portrait images that depict Katniss & Compay in fancy freaky fashions before the next round of adolescent-on-adolescent bloodshed begins. Based on the images below, the film’s costume designer Trish Summerville should consider establishing a men’s line (as long as she doesn’t stray too far into Stanley Tucci /Caesar territory), but whoa, she’d get ripped a new one by Joan Rivers for her women’s wear. I’m guessing that Jennifer Lawrence /Katniss’ winged outfit is Mockingjay -inspired, and it certainly will be mocked. Thank God JLaw didn’t wear that number to the Oscars. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
This latest and last trailer for Iron Man 3 before the Marvel movie’s May 3 release takes a while to work up a head of steam, but stick with it. Do your best to ignore the cringe-inducing dialect that Ben Kingsley has adopted to play the Mandarin — “you’lllll neverrrr see me coming” — try not to be distracted by Gwyneth Paltrow in a black bra and wait for the final shots of this Yahoo! exclusive. The rumors were true: Tony Stark’s alloyed forces do appear at the very end of the trailer, and they look like a lot of fun. [ Yahoo! ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
When The Onion ‘s CEO Steve Hannah publicly apologized last week for the satirical newspaper’s controversial Oscar-night tweet about Quvenzhané Wallis , two thoughts crossed my mind: 1) It’s not a good day for comedy when a satirical publication says it’s sorry for a joke that was not actually about the Beasts of the Southern Wild actress. And 2) what would Paul Provenza make of this? In addition to being a veteran stand-up comic and actor, Provenza directed The Aristocrats , one of the finest dissections of comedy in any media (and not because I’m in it). The 2005 documentary deconstructs one of the oldest and dirtiest jokes in stand-up — the film’s title is its punchline — and when I shot my segment with Provenza, I quickly learned that, in addition to being a very funny guy, he’s a scholar of humor, who’s really good at explaining why something is funny — or not. ‘The Onion’: The Quvenzhané Wallis Controversy So, in the aftermath of the Wallis controversy, I emailed Provenza to get his analysis of the situation. Excerpts of his assessment appear below, but, first, an unexpurgated recap of what happened last week for anyone who was focusing on the sequestration crisis instead. If you’re offended by the word “cunt,” then stop reading now, because the term appears quite a bit in the following passages, and, in the context of this discussion, I think it’s justified. Also, as Provenza noted, censoring the word, “just adds to the irony” of the controversy. Here’s what The Onion initially tweeted during the Academy Awards on Feb. 24. After initially obscuring the offending word, the tweet was eventually disappeared as the backlash grew: “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right?” The Onion’s Apology Here is the apology that Hannah posted on The Onion ‘s Facebook page on Monday, Feb. 25: Dear Readers, On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry. Sincerely, Steve Hannah CEO The Onion Why The Onion’s Apology Is Problematic Take it away, Professor Provenza: I think the crux of it is that the whole issue has more to do with Twitter than it has to do with comedy. Not completely, but largely. Twitter is a big, broad audience, and it’s a tough room to ‘read’, particularly with a joke this harsh. But the joke is absolutely misunderstood in most of the chatter. It is NOT a joke calling that sweet little girl a cunt. It’s not maligning her in any way whatsoever — it is saying exactly the opposite. The joke rests squarely on the fact that Quvenzhané Wallis is the very last person you’d ever want to call a cunt. Not even the most steadfast cynic can find her anything but innocent, beautiful and adorable, and that’s the whole point of the joke: The Hollywood schadenfreude and the palpable desperation that runs through much of the movie biz inspires the idea that someone, somewhere in Oscartown is already spreading vicious rumors about her. The fact that it is so inappropriate to say anything like that about her is precisely the basis — and I believe the point — of the Tweet. It was meant as a satirical comment about Hollywood and the pretense that everybody at the Oscars loves each other so much. It’s all golden statues and lavish praise — and is, The Onion suggests, about as phony as it gets. SO The Onion ‘s apology is problematic. It suggests they did insult her, and they’re sorry about it. Which is not the case. They offended, yes — not by insulting Quvenzhané Wallis, but by using the word “cunt” in the first place. And what could they expect, putting a most innocent, beloved 9 year old in the same sentence with perhaps the second most reviled word in the English language? That’s not the norm for The Onion , which usually does a much more deft job of communicating harsh comic ideas, but, comedically speaking, the joke is meant to be a bludgeon. So, I really can’t fault it on that score. It’s not meant to be a cleverly disguised notion. It’s meant to be as harsh as the ugly truth of envy, back-biting and negativity that Hollywood embodies. No one is spared, no matter how sweet and pure and innocent. Provenza goes on to point out that launching the Wallis joke into the Twitterverse put The Onion in “a difficult place.” Their work rarely has reached the audience this has reached — it has gone beyond their normal audience of comedy fans, fans of biting satire, whatever — to the broadest based audience imaginable: Oscar viewers, news & opinion blog/TV watchers. That audience includes far more people who would be offended in great numbers. And that’s where it becomes about Twitter. It’s now a story debated by people who have never had, nor do they now have, any interest in The Onion or what they’re all about. And now we’re into the business of damage control. But man, it feels wrong to apologize for a joke you didn’t even make. When I asked Provenza if The Onion should have apologized at all, he replied: Not this apology. They could have apologized for upsetting people in their audience. That would have been honest — they didn’t want to offend anyone. But this apology is dishonest: They apologize for offending the little girl and saying she deserves better when they did NOT say anything offensive about her. Thus, the apology is obsequious, reeks of insincerity and is compromising of The Onion’s integrity and its actual point of view in the first place. The Onion’s Tweet & Seth MacFarlane’s Jokes Stir The Pretentious Pot Provenza also drew a provocative connection between The Onion ‘s tweet and Seth MacFarlane’s much-maligned emceeing of the Academy Awards that night: If you look at The Onion thing (the actual substance of the joke, not the misinterpretation of it) and Seth’s entire night of hosting, some very loud voices were digging into the whole pretension of the Oscars. And what’s really interesting to me is that Seth was essentially a fox in the Academy Awards henhouse. The producers of the telecast knew what he was going to do: Nothing was off the cuff, songs were rehearsed for weeks, scripts were signed off on by legal departments and Standards & Practices. In other words, the producers of the Oscars themselves chose to let Seth call bullshit on false propriety, to dredge up unsavory things about the celebs in attendance and onstage, to take very little of it as seriously as the Oscars seem to want to be taken. They essentially allowed him to repeatedly remind the audience what a load of crap it all is. We all know that Oscar itself is a massive industry. The politics behind the nominees and winners is predominated by studios/distributors’ financial interests and all kinds of deal-making and horse trading. The fact that awards shows and celebrities are being called out ever more loudly, even from within, seems to suggest something. It’s almost as if even the people involved in the enterprise can’t ignore how pretentious it all is and are really tired of the machine. I can’t wait to read the comments on this. Leave them below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
