Lance Armstrong and his team ran a sophisticated and professional doping scheme for years, according to 11 of the cycling legend’s former teammates. A report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency details the complete case against Armstrong, 41, who was stripped of his Tour de France titles this summer. It contains testimony from 11 of his former U.S. Postal Service teammates. Lance has always denied doping but has not contested these charges. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said there was “conclusive and undeniable proof” of a team-run doping conspiracy headed by the all-time great. The group will send a “reasoned decision” in the case to the International Cycling Union (UCI), the World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Triathlon Corporation. The UCI now has 21 days to appeal or they must comply with the decision to strip Armstrong of all his cycling titles and hand him a lifetime ban. Armstrong overcame cancer to return to cycling and won the Tour from 1999-2005. He retired in 2005 but returned in 2009 before retiring for good in 2011. In his statement, Tygart said the evidence against Armstrong and his team – which is in excess of 1,000 pages – was nothing short of “overwhelming.” It “includes sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team and its participants’ doping activities.” [Photo: WENN.com]
Adele is stoked to be a mom soon. The 24-year-old singer, who recently released the James Bond “Skyfall” theme song , is “just thrilled” and busy prepping for the birth of her first child. Boyfriend Simon Konecki, 38, got Adele pregnant earlier this year. This came as a surprise, and yet not, as she is happily remaining out of the spotlight. Especially nowadays. “She is totally laying low and nesting,” says the source. Insiders also reveal the secrets of how her chart-topping single came about – and what a joy it was to work with Adele – People’s new cover story on her. “She spent a lot of time working on it and getting it right,” Skyfall producer Barbara Broccoli says, adding that Adele even read the movie’s script. “But she was worth the wait.” Chances are, she’ll say the same about her little one. [Photo: WENN.com]
Over the weekend, I heard Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me cite a study by Japanese scientists that determined that workers who watch kittens and other cute baby animals on the Internet are “more focused and productive the rest of the day.” So, in the interest of strengthening the coffers of corporations everywhere, I think you should take the next half hour off and watch these very funny — I mean, cute — Seven Psychopaths parody trailers, PsychoCats , that feature cats instead of the cast, which includes Christopher Walken , Sam Rockwell , Colin Farrell , Woody Harrelson and Tom Waits . The deservedly anticipated film by Martin McDonagh opens on Friday. Click Here to Check out Movieline’s Seven Psychopaths photo gallery featuring Sam Rockwell. The PsychoCats trailers were directed by Adult Swim alumnus Jim Tozzi, who co-created and produced the cartoon network’s late, lamented Xavier: Renegade Angel. Tozzi studied film and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design (which sounds impressive until you remember that this guy is making parody videos starring cats.) He’s directed music videos for Mercury Rev and Moby and created the award winning retro “Twip” campaign for TV Land. As part of the art collective PFFR, Tozzi has also esigned animation characters and puppets for the underground hit MTV show, Wondershowzen . Embedding for the Red Band trailer has been disabled for some reason, perhaps because little kids shouldn’t be watching cats drop the f-bomb, but here’s a link to the clip . As Tom Waits says in movie, “Dandy!” Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Perhaps all of the hoopla surrounding the upcoming James Bond installment Skyfall has created a bubble for all things 007 or this little piece of pop culture is really worth the thousands it recently fetched from its lucky buyer. The swimming trunks Daniel Craig wore as Bond in his first stint as the sexy agent in Casino Royale sold at auction for almost $72,000 at a charity auction in London. Judi Dench ‘s comments on the cleanliness of the shorts may have also triggered a jump in the price. Dench, who has played Bond’s boss M in the series and continues in the role in the upcoming latest installment Skyfall introduced the suit at the auction. She noted – apparently jokingly, “All I’m going to tell you is they’re unwashed.” Also sold was an Aston Martin DBS that Craig drove in Quantum of Solace , which the gavel his for $390,000. And a copy of the orchestral score to singer Adele’s theme song for Skyfall , which she signed along with co-writer Paul Epworth sold for $22,000. Altogether, 50 pieces of James Bond memorabilia sold at Christie’s on Friday in London, marking the 50th anniversary of the first Bond movie, Dr. No . The money raised went to several charities. Meanwhile, the anticipated song is set to a new trailer of the film that was recently released (below). Skyfall which also stars Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem opens in the U.S. November 9th. [ Source: ABC News Radio Online ]
Hollywood veteran Martin Landau earned an Oscar in his first collaboration with Tim Burton , 1994’s Ed Wood , and for Burton’s latest and most personal picture, Frankenweenie , the filmmaker cast his erstwhile Bela Lugosi as the eccentric but inspirational Mr. Rzykruski — the science teacher who nurtures young Victor Frankenstein’s budding talents and encourages him to forge his own path. It’s a fitting role for the 84-year-old Landau, who lit up as he discussed Frankenweenie and his longtime parallel career as an acting coach to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, and many more Hollywood greats under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Tim Burton cast you as Mr. Rzykruski, Victor’s teacher and he’s quite the character: At first imposing and foreboding, he’s revealed to be one of Victor’s only kindred spirits. What did you make of him at first and how did you find his quirks? It’s a fun character, and the thing that amazed me is that I saw an arc and if I could play it on camera I’d play it exactly the same. I did [the voice recording] first and the animators animated after. It was just my voice, but Tim sent me pictures of the character and it looked like me years ago, or Vincent Price and me mixed up, a caricature of me with dark hair and such. I saw him as a loving man, but eccentric as hell and passionate! And also, European – but not specifically from a country. It said that; it said it’s a generic accent. It’s not German, it’s not Russian, it’s not Hungarian, but it’s European. [In Mr. Rzykruski’s voice] So I lowered the voice . The relationship between Victor and Mr. Rzykruski is the best child-adult relationship in the film, and probably the most important one. He’s the one who inspires the kid, with science and the frog! He’s somewhat outlandish and certainly not a diplomat. If you’re a teacher you don’t call your students’ parents stupid. It’s a great line, though. It’s a funny line, and I knew it. But again, the movie is funny, moving, and scary in equal parts and I love that. This is a movie Tim wanted to make three decades ago and couldn’t. He made a short live-action version of it, but the one blessing is that if he had done it then it wouldn’t be in 3-D. But it’s not stuck on 3-D, things coming at you to shock you. You also happen to be a teacher off-screen, having spent many years with the Actors Studio where so many talents passed through over the decades. It was a different time. A lot of my contemporaries have passed away, which is sad, but I still run the Actors Studio on the West Coast with Mark Rydell – [Al] Pacino, [Harvey] Keitel and Ellen Burstyn run the New York Actors Studio so we’re in touch with each other all the time. And I work with a lot of young actors and help them. Why did you first begin teaching? I started teaching when I was in my 20s because Lee Strasberg asked me to, and he didn’t do that with a lot of people. Why do you think he did? At the Actors Studio when I got in, he’d ask for comments and I’d raise my hand and critique the actors succinctly and helpfully, and I think he noticed that. One day he said “I want you to teach – I’ve got a waiting list and I’m going to send some of my people to you.” He sent me off, teaching. Jack Nicholson was my student for three years, and Harry Dean Stanton, Anjelica Huston; a lot of people have studied with me. It’s paying my dues, because as a young actor I benefited from getting in. The year I got into The Actors Studio, Steve McQueen and I were the only two accepted that whole year. Two people, Steve and me. It’s still tough to get in. Lifetime membership. Who was your favorite student? That’s hard – they’re all my kids. I’ve got two daughters and it’s impossible for me to say one of them is a favorite. Fair enough! Was there one actor who surprised you the most over the years? Nicholson did, but he had some problems. He would kind of surround a moment that he didn’t want to embrace. I found that those things were probably the richest part of his talent, which he was avoiding because it was very hurtful. But I wanted him to know that it wasn’t going to hurt him. You can’t perish because of your own feelings, you have to embrace those things as an actor because it’s part of your palette. How did you help him? I had him do a bunch of exercises that would connect his voice, his body, and emotions. A lot of actors lead with their voices and their bodies follow; they’re split, they’re not together. The instrument is not working as a unit. To get them to become good actors… all an audience wants to believe is that what’s going on up there is happening for the first time ever. You don’t want to see the rehearsals, you don’t want to see the work. You want to see two people in conflict or people connecting, but I don’t see a lot of that. There are some movie stars who are considered good actors who put me to sleep. I’m not going to mention their names! You could be talented but if you don’t use that talent well you’re depriving yourself. Craft is about talented people who shut down easily because they’re vulnerable, they’re hypersensitive, where your talent actually short-circuits you. People who are less vulnerable are usually not that interesting. [Laughs] So when your own talent acts as a deterrent, you’ve got to pay attention to that. How do you open that up? How do you create relaxation when you start getting tense because you’re sensitive to a situation? Tension will shut you down. Your sphincters will all close up. Talented actors have problems; it’s like a violin playing a violinist, where the instrument itself shuts the talent down. It’s a matter of managing that, then. Getting the actor to trust his talent and trust his instrument. No one tries to cry. Bad actors try to cry. Good actors try not to cry. How a character hides his feelings tells us who he is. No one shows their feelings except bad actors! No one tries to laugh! If I tell you a racial joke and you laugh, you’re telling me something about yourself – you’re revealing something. A drunk doesn’t try to be drunk; he wants another drink! One of the most studied things is a drunk picking up a full glass of booze [affects drunken mannerism, grabbing an invisible glass]… and bringing it to his mouth. It’s not sloppy. [Slurring] It’s ve-rrry … concentra-aated . Anyway, I never met two people who were alike so I’ve never approach a character as the same character. They’re physiologically different, environmentally different, emotionally different – they’re all different, and that’s what makes it exciting, still, for me. What’s your relationship with Tim like, after years of working together? Well, we kind of understand each other. He doesn’t have to say a whole lot to me. But I’m rarely directed by anybody. I really haven’t been directed by anybody in 30 years. A good director hires good actors and creates a playground, and you play. You come up with stuff that no one could quite envision. I saw this character not only vocally but physically, behaviorally, and to my pleasure what they came up with was exactly as I would have done it if I’d been acting and it wasn’t animation. That thrilled me, because it was like, wow – they caught it from the voice and it’s exactly as I saw it! Because I saw the arc. There was an arc; he gets fired and gives the kid advice, but it’s sad in a certain sense. He doesn’t restrain himself, this guy. Rzykruski seems to understand why his progressive thinking doesn’t fly in the suburbs. He is who he is, and I love that about him. He’s a zealot. He loves science, and the fact that people don’t understand it in the way that they need to upsets him. He sees this kid and he immediately thinks, “This kid’s okay.” He doesn’t know what the kid’s doing, because from the frog’s reaction the kid channels lightning… but Tim loved Frankenstein. He loved Dracula as a kid. This has been festering in him all these years. He never lost this movie, and you think about that – it’s three decades later and this is probably the most Tim Burton film. Edward Scissorhands was as well but he wanted to do that as an animated film and couldn’t, but that was fortuitous in that it introduced him to Johnny Depp, and that became very important to him and to Johnny – and to me too, in a way, because I loved working with Johnny and Tim in Ed Wood . Ed Wood is fantastic. The relationship between you three on that project really jumps off the screen. It’s a fun movie. We had a good time. A great time, actually. Johnny and I hit it off, Tim and I hit it off. You also started out as a cartoonist early in your career. Do you think that had something to do with you and Tim getting on so well? You kind of see things visually, and maybe that’s a little bit of it. Tim and I draw differently; I have a bit of an Art Deco style. Do you still draw? Oh, all the time! I’ve got thousands of what I call doodles, although they’re not doodles. Tim’s seen them. But yes – the visualization is there for me too, in a way. I see the character, and then I work on all of those things into a subjective form. They’re objective, and I make them part of me. We’re all capable of it. Where do you go from here? The next thing I know I’m doing is I’m going to London to do more work for Frankenweenie . I’d like this picture to do well. And the BFI is giving me a lifetime achievement award. How does that feel, to receive an honor like that? Well I’ve got a lot of those now. I keep saying, “I’m not done!” Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
So maybe Daniel Craig lost last night’s SNL spotlight to Big Bird . He still held his own and promoted Skyfall with fun little riffs on his James Bond persona, starting with his opening monologue — an Oscars-style In Memoriam tribute to all the poor guys he’s killed over the years while dutifully serving as Hollywood’s iciest action hero. Watch above to see Craig uncharacteristically (but nevertheless quite charmingly, I must say) go a bit goofy on the SNL stage (unfortunately NBC hasn’t released the monologue excerpt on its own, but here’s the full episode). For another dose of 007’s big SNL promo push, hit the Bond-themed digital short below detailing 50 years of lesser-known Bond Girls… [via NBC ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
“This is the end/hold your breath and count to ten…” Adele ‘s moody retro James Bond theme song has hit the web in full! How does it measure up to its predecessors? (Best theme in many Bonds, no?) Listen to the U.K. crooner sing “Skyfall” and chime in with your thoughts after the jump. I can’t quite tell how the lyrics have anything to do with the plot of Skyfall , but it’s a nice return to form. Adele’s certainly one of the strongest Bond theme singers in 007 history. Where does “Skyfall” rank among the best and worst Bond songs of all time ? [via the official 007 Twitter ]
The act of directing suggests, well, direction — that whether it comes together as planned or not, a filmmaker is pursuing a particular vision he or she wants to put on screen. But this is not the sense you get from The Paperboy , the new film from Precious’ Lee Daniels , a feature that feels like it’s been assembled scene by scene on whatever whims were guiding the director that day. No return to an opening framing sequence with narrator Macy Gray? Zac Efron ‘s face superimposed over the bright Florida sky? The already infamous jellyfish-enabled watersports scene? Another in which Nicole Kidman and John Cusack have mind sex in a prison visiting room in front of an audience? Check, check, check and check. The Paperboy is a nutty movie in terms of content, but it’s also assembled in a demented fashion — there’s a sense that literally anything could happen, and that its raunchy, heat-dazed story could wander down any path without regard to sense or an overall narrative. It resembles the relatively straightforward Precious far less than it does Daniels’ wild-eyed directorial debut Shadowboxer , which offered up Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren as stepson and stepmother turned assassin lovers. Like that film, The Paperboy doesn’t seem intended to be taken entirely seriously but also offers few signals as to how it then is meant to be taken — it’s an exploitation pastiche that never seems to be actually referencing anything, a campfest that approaches its most over-the-top scenes with a deadly straightforwardness. For better or worse — mostly worse — Daniels has made one of the most unpredictable movies of the year. Set in 1969, The Paperboy is narrated by Anita (Macy Gray), who works as a housekeeper for the Jansen family, owners of a local newspaper. Anita is being interviewed about a book about the events on screen that was written by Jack (Efron), the younger of the two Jansen sons, but that’s an element that, like the mystery around which the story theoretically revolves, fades away in the face of more fleshly distractions. Jack is definitely one of those, a college drop-out delivering papers for his dad W.W. (Scott Glenn) and spending a lot of time in the pool or lounging around in his tighty-whities. Efron gets ogled by the camera even more than Nicole Kidman, who makes a big entrance in a little dress as Charlotte Bless, a woman with a taste for dangerous men who’s fallen in love via letters with convict Hillary Van Wetter (a laudably greasy John Cusack). Charlotte’s convinced Hillary has been falsely imprisoned for the murder of the town’s sheriff, and has lured Jack’s brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey), a reporter working in Miami, back to town to investigate his story with his partner Yardley (David Oyelowo). But this is just a loose structure to allow Jack to spend time with his object of lust, Charlotte, who as Anita helpfully puts it in voiceover serves as “his mama, his high school sweetheart and an oversexed Barbie doll all in one.” If Jack’s love of Charlotte is pure pop psychology, so is Charlotte’s affection for the beast-like Hillary, sex and death in one white trash package — in a scene that makes the beach urination sequence look tame, the pair bring each other to mutual orgasm without touching in their first in-person meeting at the prison while Jack, Ward and Yardley look on, bemused, horrified and aroused. The Paperboy ‘s approach to sexuality is bold, unabashed and discomforting. The movie has a stupefying physicality to it, particularly when it comes to bodily fluids — the gloss of sweat everyone wears, the semen dampening Hillary’s pant leg, the piss Charlotte lets loose on Jack’s body when he’s stung by jellyfish, the blood that pools around a character’s face onto the plastic tarp he’s spread out to accommodate his particular desires. Everyone is shown to harbor dark animal impulses, and the movie coyly ducks away from its only affection-driven hookup, with Anita scolding in voiceover that we’re seen enough — rich, given what does make it onto the screen. The Paperboy provides a lurid spectacle, but it’s one that leaves you wanting to scrub yourself clean in the shower afterward. While Efron plays a primarily decorative role, Kidman gives it her all as the sultry, crazy Charlotte. It’s a certainly a brave and dedicated performance, if one that comes to no notable end other than to serve as a reminder that she capable of playing more than glacial or regal. It’s Gray’s grounded, rounded-out take on the mammy archetype who stands out as the only relatable, human character amidst all the outsized sleaze, a woman who’s cared for the motherless Jack and has become a friend to him. Like so many of the other elements in the film, racial tensions are raised and then allowed to drift away, but the scenes between Efron and Gray are poignant and funny, and provide a slight counterbalance to all the grotesquery in this otherwise offputting jumble. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Look, I’m sure this Jai Courtney dude from Spartacus playing John McClane’s beefy son/action heir is great and all, but there’s just one reason to watch any Die Hard movie, and his name is Bruce MF’ing Willis . So check out the first trailer for A Good Day To Die Hard even though it takes a full 30 seconds of overly edited shots of warehouses and ambiguously visible bad men with guns to get to Bruno’s familiar smirk and the explosion-y goodness that follows. A Good Day To Die Hard catches up with Willis’s McClane as he and his estranged son (Courtney) fight terrorists in Russia, or something. John Moore of Behind Enemy Lines and Max Payne fame directs from a script by Skip Woods, of Swordfish and Hitman fame, so we’ll see how this one goes. The film hits theaters February 4, 2013. [via Yahoo ]
Onetime Bond girl Carey Lowell and Bond villain Robert Davi — respectively, Pam Bouvier and Franz Sanchez from Licence to Kill — were among the celebrities who came out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of James Bond at the EPIX and Vanity Fair -hosted premiere of Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 on Wednesday night in New York. Mr. Big was also there — not Yaphet Kotto from Live and Let Die , but rather Chris Noth from another die-hard franchise, Sex and the City . “In the history of cinema, there is no experience like a Bond film,” Davi declared at the Museum of Modern Art, where the documentary screened. The film’s director Stevan Riley explained that his motivation for making Everything or Nothing was his interest in answering the question: “How did Bond last these 50 years? No other film series has managed to do that. Not continuously, for sure.” (TV viewers can learn the answers Riley uncovered when the documentary premieres on EPIX on Friday, which has been dubbed Global James Bond Day in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the theatrical premiere of the first Bond film, Dr. No , in 1962.) Movieline had its own secret agenda for being there of course, and through the evening, which continued at the very Upper East Side Metropolitan Club, I asked guests a series of Bond-related questions. Here are their answers. What wisdom or life lessons have you picked up from the James Bond movies? Chris Noth , actor (pictured left): ” Always be careful when you go to sleep that there’s not a tarantula under your pillow.” Carey Lowell , actress, former Bond girl: “Always put your shoulders back and carry a gun on your thigh.” Chace Crawford , actor: “I learned how to carry the Walther PPK with a silencer on it. You always have to have a silencer, apparently. [Laughs] No, I learned how to make a martini. I can make a Vesper Martini and a dirty martini very well.” Robert Buckley , actor: “You always look infinitely better in a suit. People will think you’re much more interesting and charming when you have an accent. And, if you’re going to walk out of the ocean in slow motion, do it in short shorts.” Fern Mallis, fashion and design consultant: “Absolutely everyone is replaceable. Even James Bond.” Kate Upton , model and actress: [Laughs] “What life lessons?” Gloria Reuben , actress and singer: “How to ski down a hill while looking fantastic.” Theophilus London , rapper: “Just be super smooth, be quiet and you’ll get all the babes.” Cameron Winklevoss , entrepreneur: “If you have an accent, a fast car and a great suit, you can do just about anything.” Carlos Campos , fashion designer: “Never give up!” Nary Manivong , fashion designer: “There’s always a mission.” Chace Crawford Who’s your favorite Bond girl? Chris Noth: “Ursula Andress, because she’s gorgeous ! She came out of the water like a mermaid.” Chace Crawford: “There are so many good ones! Octopussy . It was the first one I saw. And [the girl in] Goldfinger . Damn . I did like Eva Green, too.” Robert Buckley: “Halle Berry. I suddenly stopped caring about the nuclear weapon and just cared about what she was doing in that movie. I lost focus. I was like, James who ? That is a Bond girl.” Jeffrey Wright , actor: “Ursula Andress is tough to beat. Grace Jones is sort of an unorthodox Bond girl. She wasn’t exactly a Bond girl, more of a villainess. Eva Green I thought was stunning and breathed a new type of life into it and a new type of intelligence into it. But, I’m not going to restrict myself in that regard. I’ll enjoy them all.” Carey Lowell Who’s your favorite Bond villain? Robert Davi , actor and former Bond villain: “I’m considered one of the top five Bond villains. I think there are 22 films. That’s pretty damn good.” Stevan Riley , director of Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 : “Everyone loves Goldfinger and [Ernst Stavro] Blofeld’s character Donald Pleasance. You know, I really like Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of Le Chiffre in Casino Royale .” Carey Lowell: ” The villains kind of come and go. I just remember James Bond. And Daniel Craig is a very good Bond. Sexy and skilled, shall we say.” Shaken, Stirred… or Heineken? Robert Davi: “Jack Daniels. Two fingers of Jack, ice cubes, the rest water.” Jeffrey Wright: “Preferably not a shaken or stirred Heineken . You can’t beat a nice Bond Vesper Martini. Hilary Saltzman , daughter of Bond film producer Harry Saltzman: “Shaken, stirred.” Nell Alk is an arts and entertainment writer and reporter based in New York City. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Manhattan Magazine, Z!NK Magazine and on InterviewMagazine.com, PaperMag.com and RollingStone.com, among others. Learn more about her here. Follow Nell Alk on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
