Is it hot in here or is it just us?? Alicia Keys Featuring Nicki Minaj “Girl On Fire” (Inferno Version) Alicia Keys has been a pretty busy lady lately. Between shutting it down at the iTunes Festival in London, handling motherly duties, becoming one of the newest members of Reebok, and preparing for a new album, you would think that the multi-talented superstar wouldn’t have time to release another video. See the video and read more at Hip Hop Wired
Someone involved in the making of Cloud Atlas is a fan of Elvis Costello. In the story thread where publisher Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent) and a group of like-minded seniors plot their escape from the old-folks home where they’ve been imprisoned, the woman of the group, actress Amanda Walker, introduces herself in one scene as “Veronica Costello.” That alone might not be enough to make a case for Elvis worship, but soon after the introduction the group of conspirators make a toast to “Trust.” If you’re a Costello fan (like me), you know that “Veronica,” from the 1989 album Spike is a song that Elvis wrote — with a little help from his friend Paul McCartney — about his grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimers Disease. (It also happens to be his highest charting single in the U.S.) Although Veronica Costello in Cloud Atlas seems pretty lucid, but the music video for “Veronica,” which I’ve posted below, was also set in a nursing home, where the white-haired woman of the title is reminiscing about her life. I can’t find any evidence of who portrayed the elder Veronica in the Costello video, but I spoke to a representative from the London-based talent agency that represents Walker, Michelle Braidman Associates, and she assured me that the actress does not appear in “Veronica.” (Although Walker does bear a slight resemblance to the other Veronica, she’s clearly younger.) As for Trust , it’s the name of Costello’s fifth album, which he released in 1981. It’s also one of his best, although it’s several shades more cynical than the righteous heart of Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas . Then again, aren’t cynics simply frustrated romantics? Everything is connected. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Them thangs look like they could feed Octomom’s whole family. Nicki Minaj was spotted flaunting her bust outside of her London hotel this afternoon. Did them thangs grow or does that bra just come with launch pads? WENN
Daniel Craig shared a laugh with royal guest Prince Charles today at the Royal World Premiere of Skyfall in London, where the Prince of Wales and his +1, Camilla, greeted the Blond Bond and his co-stars Naomie Harris , Dame Judi Dench , Javier Bardem , and sultry new Bond girl Berenice Marlohe ahead of Skyfall ‘s debut. (Charles seemed particularly taken with Marlohe — join the club, buddy.) The 23rd official Bond outing sees Craig’s 007 battling his own blond nemesis, Silva (a wonderfully flamboyant Bardem), whose quest to take down MI6 and Bond’s boss M (Dench) is both catastrophic and deeply personal. Click here or on the photos below to peruse Movieline’s red carpet gallery of Skyfall ‘s stars and royal guests , including Rachel Weisz , who greeted the royals by husband Craig’s side, and one-time Bond villain ladyfriend Minnie Driver. (Recall her pre-fame turn as the country-singing mistress of a Russian gangster in GoldenEye ? No?! Here, refresh your memory . You’re welcome!) My first question: “What did Charles say to Craig?” (My second: Where was Bond’s old skydiving pal The Queen ?) Caption away, Movieliners! [Photos: Getty Images] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
That cufflink-speeding train move ? Just the tip of the bespoke iceberg when it comes to deconstructing Daniel Craig’s Bond through his fashionista sensibilities. But what do Skyfall ‘s style choices tell us about 007’s frame of mind? From the sharp-eyed folks at Clothes on Film , dapper deconstruction of Skyfall : “For the man himself a modern cut of single breasted, two and three button Britishness. In context these costumes feel real. Silva’s (Javier Bardem) long leather coat might be a villain’s indulgence, but Bond looks immaculate and attainable; far from Savile Row though instilled with the swagger of 1960s cool. Even if Craig – here at his broadest – is in danger of bursting from the fabric on occasions, the vents always hang straight and providing he remembers to breathe in, the top button closes comfortably.” And: The stubble (and island casual outfit) say it all… “Costume tells Bond’s tale just as much as the stubble that appears then disappears from his chin. Pre-credits he wears a grey sharkskin suit (actually ill-advised for Craig’s pale complexion), then hits the bottle in baggy leather flight jacket and untucked island shirt. For Bond this is as bad as Superman losing his cape – he is almost unrecognisable. Back in London, an unseen trip to Selfridges then stop off at Crockett & Jones and everything is okay again.” Read the full review here . [ Clothes on Film via Movie City News ]
Director Sam Mendes and screenwriters, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have done a very wily thing for James Bond’s 50th anniversary: They’ve given 007 a midlife crisis. The trauma takes root during the white-knuckle opening of Skyfall , the best film so far of Daniel Craig ‘s run as Ian Fleming’s suave super spy and one of the best of the Bond franchise. After chasing his quarry by motorcycle over the rooftops of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and piloting an earth mover over a speeding train to keep his target from escaping, a wounded Bond loses the battle, and, it appears, his life. But since the movie has only just started, there’s not much doubt that he will back after the eerie-but-dreamy titles sequence set to Adele’s lush theme song . ‘ When he appears on screen again, Bond’s in paradise and presumed dead in the U.K. His wounds have healed, except for the big psychic gash that has him drinking shots while balancing a riled scorpion on his wrist for sport. Alas, even paradise has CNN and, soon, Bond is learning from Wolf Blitzer that MI6’s headquarters have been bombed and it’s time for him to return to the service of his country. Except it’s not as easy as that. After Mike Myers strip-mined the Bond franchise for his Austin Powers parodies, the Bond writers take a cue from The Spy Who Shagged Me and explore the idea: what would happen if James Bond lost his mojo? Although Craig’s chiseled body does not exactly cooperate with the plotline, he does the best acting of his career playing a supremely confident man grappling with the onset of doubt: doubt in himself, doubt in his work and doubt in his superiors, who with the exception of M (played once again with stately grit by Judi Dench), seem to be of the mind that 007 has passed his sell by date. But, shaky as his trigger hand may be, 007 is not going down without a fight. There’s a wonderful scene in the National Gallery in London where Bond meets the new Q, who turns out to be an insouciant young whippersnapper played by the excellent Ben Whishaw. As man and boy genius stare at J.M.W. Turner’s painting The Fighting Téméraire’ tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, Q sets the tone by describing the image as a “grand old warship being ignominiously hauled away to scrap.” He then boasts that he can accomplish more while working his laptop at home “in my pajamas.” Guys like Bond, he implies, are only still around because “Every now and then a trigger has to be pulled.” “Or not pulled,” 007 replies before going in for the kill. “It’s hard to know when you’re in your pajamas.” Craig’s searing, stoic performance is beautifully complemented by Javier Bardem’s flamboyant turn as Silva, a former MI6 operative and computer genius who has stolen the list of every NATO agent embedded in enemy camps across the globe and is slowly blowing their covers. Bardem vaults into the pantheon of Bond villains by playing Silva as a bleach-blonde, computer savvy Anton Chigurh, who appears to have a thing for Bond. Even more remarkable, when Silva reveals this attraction to his bound former colleague by caressing his chest, 007 coolly alludes that it wouldn’t be the first time he’s gotten it on with a guy. Silva has a different kind of hard-on for M, who turns out to be the reason he has hatched his evil plan, which, like the rest of the movie, is more plausible and human-scale than a lot of the world-domination hoo-ha that has taken place in previous Bond films. “Think on your sins,” is the warning message that Silva repeatedly sends M, and when he eventually recounts the blood-curdling turn of events that led him to turn his back on his country, it’s difficult not to have some empathy for him. Skyfall has most of the familiar ingredients of Bond film — beautiful women, sleek cars — the Aston Martin DB5 makes a cameo appearance that will be talked about for a long time — memorable villains and intense action scenes. And yet, the movie is also full of surprises, small and pivotal. You won’t find me spilling any of them though. Not unless martinis are involved. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
My name’s Jessica and I’ve been a Belieber for 3 years. I live in California and when the Believe Tour tickets went on sale a few months ago, my friend and I tried really hard to get tickets. We couldn’t get any for the LA shows, but we got some for October 5th in Fresno. It was a 5 hour drive, but I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to see my idol live. We were on the 18th row on the floor, I was extremely happy. The concert was on Friday, and the Monday before the concert the friend that I was going with decided to enter a meet and greet contest on Bieberfever.com. All she had to do was gather up our Bieber merchandise and send it in, and they choose a handful of winners to meet Justin at the concert you’re going to. The day before the concert, my friend, Kristen, got an email about the contest saying we’ve won. She told me after I was done with school and I was SO shocked. I screamed and cried and couldn’t believe I was going to meet the person who makes me smile every single day. I was already happy enough with the tickets we had, and now we’re actually going to meet Justin? Wow. The day of the concert, when we got to the Save Mart Center (where the concert was going to be), we went to the box office to pick up our meet and greet wristbands. When we got in line to meet Justin, it took a really long time. But it was worth it. In line, we saw Kenny, Scooter, Allison and Alfredo. Scooter took a long time to go through most of the line and talk with people and take pictures. A few people in front of us, there was a little boy who was going to the concert with his sister and wanted his parents to go too. He came up to Scooter when he was talking to someone else and the mom tried to pull the little boy back, but Scooter picked him up. It was the cutest thing ever. The boy told him about wanting his parents to go to the concert and Scooter took the tickets and left. He gave those tickets to 2 girls outside and came back with 4 new tickets, in the 4th row. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen anybody do. After that, my friend and I got a picture with Scooter, and a little while after, a picture with Allison. It was already the best day ever and the concert didn’t even start. Later on, we were finally about to meet Justin. They put us in groups of 6 however, and I was the last person in line in our group, so I wasn’t able to stand next to Justin. But it was ok because all that mattered was meeting him. When we got in the room, everyone else got their hugs and my friend and I didn’t. Justin leaned over, looked me in the eyes, smiled, and said “Hi” before we took the picture. After the picture, Kristen and I got to hug him. I regret not being able to say anything to him, but being able to actually meet him in person was the most perfect thing ever. The concert was amazing and I had the greatest time of my life. I still can’t believe I finally met my inspiration and saw him live in concert. See the rest here: My name’s Jessica and I’ve been a Belieber for 3…
Heya, I’m Lindi and when it comes to Justin, I like to just go for it and try my hardest. Once news came out that Justin was returning to the UK to do some more promotion, I told myself I wouldn’t let anything stop me from meeting him. When Justin was set to come to London (Wed 11th Sept) we headed straight to his hotel before he had even arrived. After hours of waiting and his flight being delayed, he finally arrived at the hotel. However since he had just came from a flight he didn’t come out to see us yet addressed us with a wave from the lobby. This was enough to start my week off as one extremely happy girl. The following day (Wed 12th Sept) was his book signing and I was extremely lucky to be able to get a wristband, after serious stress, and confusion. The atmosphere was amazing and it was so exciting knowing Justin was just around the curtain. Once behind it, we greeted Kenny was a handshake before moving over to Justin, the whole thing went by so fast, I can hardly remember it. I Just remember him saying “Hello”, and seeing his beautiful face before I squeaked out a “Thank you” when he gave me my book. I was very grateful for that moment cause i knew if all else failed I still had that memory. However the next day (Thurs 13th Sept) we spent the whole day outside his hotel, with a detour to The Jonathan Ross Show, where we was able to see him run past the gate to greet everyone. Once we knew he was in filming we decided to return to his hotel and await his return. More hours of waiting went by and still now show. Come around 10pm Justin arrived back, and met some fans/my friends at the back door, however I was round the front and missed him. We carried on waiting and waiting hoping he would pop out to come see us all. Come some time around 12am we heard commotion at the front, and Justin had in fact come out for photos. Lots of people were trying to get close and get their photos not wanting to miss the opportunity. But even after Justin asked for everyone to get in line multiple times, people didn’t cooperate and so he went in. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. We were all positive after that he wouldn’t come back out and we’d all blown our chance. We decided to stick it out in hope and after even more hours, and a few chants up to his hotel window to say how sorry we were, Justin re-appeared around 2am (Fri 14th Sept) coming out of his hotel on Alfredo’s shoulders shouting “I AM LORD BIEBER.” We all headed over to him, the time making sure to stay behind the barriers. I handed my camera over to Alfredo and it was finally my time for my photo. My face in my photo pretty much explains my emotions at that moment in time. I was over the moon! Justin then moved to my friend Jess next to me, however her camera was not ready, so I offered to take the photo, but Justin told me not to worry, and that he would take it himself. Somehow he managed to hit the view button on my camera, and as I was trying to sort it out for him, he noticed a photo I had taken of him. He instantly laughed and told me to delete the photo. It was a cute adorable photo of him with his tongue sticking out. So cute I even asked him if I could keep it just for myself (only now I realize how creepy that sounded), but he insisted I deleted it cause he didn’t like it. Justin and Jess then took their photo and I jumped in. Once Justin was making his way back down the line I stopped him again and asked if I could have 1 more photo and he was like “Of course.” He then took the photo of me and him, before looking at it and apologizing that his eyes were closed. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually spoken to Justin. It was the best feeling in the world. I then moved round to Alfredo to have a chat while everyone else was with Justin. He was cute saying how tired he was and couldn’t wait to sleep. We got a photo together and then I decided to just go for it and asked him to follow me on Twitter and he told me to tweet him and he would, so then I asked what should I tweet? He then said “Give me your phone, I’ll do it.” Alfredo then processed to tweet off my phone to himself saying, “Omg I love @AlfredoFlores so much. He is my everything in life. #Rockstarshit” He was laughing like crazy and all I could think was that Alfredo just tweeted ON MY ACCOUNT! We were all so grateful Justin had taken the extra time to come out and taken photos with every single ones of us, it was so sweet, especially after his long day. It was incredible. Shortly after while we were all still on our Justin high, I got a twitter notification telling me Alfredo had just followed me . I just couldn’t believe that he’d actually followed me, so quickly as well. My happiness at that point was through the roof. Everything that happened in those early hour of Friday morning is something i will never forget. Everything was perfect. I couldn’t of asked for a better ending to Justin’s visit to the UK. Even after the knock backs, you have to remember everything happens for a reason, and NEVER give up! -@LindiCraddock Go here to see the original: Heya, I’m Lindi and when it comes to Justin, I like to…
Heya, I’m Lindi and when it comes to Justin, I like to just go for it and try my hardest. Once news came out that Justin was returning to the UK to do some more promotion, I told myself I wouldn’t let anything stop me from meeting him. When Justin was set to come to London (Wed 11th Sept) we headed straight to his hotel before he had even arrived. After hours of waiting and his flight being delayed, he finally arrived at the hotel. However since he had just came from a flight he didn’t come out to see us yet addressed us with a wave from the lobby. This was enough to start my week off as one extremely happy girl. The following day (Wed 12th Sept) was his book signing and I was extremely lucky to be able to get a wristband, after serious stress, and confusion. The atmosphere was amazing and it was so exciting knowing Justin was just around the curtain. Once behind it, we greeted Kenny was a handshake before moving over to Justin, the whole thing went by so fast, I can hardly remember it. I Just remember him saying “Hello”, and seeing his beautiful face before I squeaked out a “Thank you” when he gave me my book. I was very grateful for that moment cause i knew if all else failed I still had that memory. However the next day (Thurs 13th Sept) we spent the whole day outside his hotel, with a detour to The Jonathan Ross Show, where we was able to see him run past the gate to greet everyone. Once we knew he was in filming we decided to return to his hotel and await his return. More hours of waiting went by and still now show. Come around 10pm Justin arrived back, and met some fans/my friends at the back door, however I was round the front and missed him. We carried on waiting and waiting hoping he would pop out to come see us all. Come some time around 12am we heard commotion at the front, and Justin had in fact come out for photos. Lots of people were trying to get close and get their photos not wanting to miss the opportunity. But even after Justin asked for everyone to get in line multiple times, people didn’t cooperate and so he went in. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. We were all positive after that he wouldn’t come back out and we’d all blown our chance. We decided to stick it out in hope and after even more hours, and a few chants up to his hotel window to say how sorry we were, Justin re-appeared around 2am (Fri 14th Sept) coming out of his hotel on Alfredo’s shoulders shouting “I AM LORD BIEBER.” We all headed over to him, the time making sure to stay behind the barriers. I handed my camera over to Alfredo and it was finally my time for my photo. My face in my photo pretty much explains my emotions at that moment in time. I was over the moon! Justin then moved to my friend Jess next to me, however her camera was not ready, so I offered to take the photo, but Justin told me not to worry, and that he would take it himself. Somehow he managed to hit the view button on my camera, and as I was trying to sort it out for him, he noticed a photo I had taken of him. He instantly laughed and told me to delete the photo. It was a cute adorable photo of him with his tongue sticking out. So cute I even asked him if I could keep it just for myself (only now I realize how creepy that sounded), but he insisted I deleted it cause he didn’t like it. Justin and Jess then took their photo and I jumped in. Once Justin was making his way back down the line I stopped him again and asked if I could have 1 more photo and he was like “Of course.” He then took the photo of me and him, before looking at it and apologizing that his eyes were closed. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually spoken to Justin. It was the best feeling in the world. I then moved round to Alfredo to have a chat while everyone else was with Justin. He was cute saying how tired he was and couldn’t wait to sleep. We got a photo together and then I decided to just go for it and asked him to follow me on Twitter and he told me to tweet him and he would, so then I asked what should I tweet? He then said “Give me your phone, I’ll do it.” Alfredo then processed to tweet off my phone to himself saying, “Omg I love @AlfredoFlores so much. He is my everything in life. #Rockstarshit” He was laughing like crazy and all I could think was that Alfredo just tweeted ON MY ACCOUNT! We were all so grateful Justin had taken the extra time to come out and taken photos with every single ones of us, it was so sweet, especially after his long day. It was incredible. Shortly after while we were all still on our Justin high, I got a twitter notification telling me Alfredo had just followed me . I just couldn’t believe that he’d actually followed me, so quickly as well. My happiness at that point was through the roof. Everything that happened in those early hour of Friday morning is something i will never forget. Everything was perfect. I couldn’t of asked for a better ending to Justin’s visit to the UK. Even after the knock backs, you have to remember everything happens for a reason, and NEVER give up! -@LindiCraddock Go here to see the original: Heya, I’m Lindi and when it comes to Justin, I like to…
