The hills will soon be alive with the sound of … Carrie Underwood! The most successful American Idol winner of all-time has signed on to star in next year’s NBC remake of The Sound of Music . “Speaking for everyone at NBC, we couldn’t be happier to have the gifted Carrie Underwood take up the mantle of the great Maria von Trapp,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, which will air the three-hour movie in late 2013. Julie Andrews made this role famous in the 1965 film that won the Oscar for Best Picture. Underwood has appeared on How I Met Your Mother and the flick Soul Surfer . No word yet regarding who will play the musical’s male lead, Captain Von Trapp.
Gotta say, I’m a little surprised to see Amy Childs when she’s not promoting anything, I guess she’s run out of perfumes and jewelry lines for the week. But I’m glad she decided to bust out the cleavage anyway when she went to see Shrek the Musical . For a few lucky dads in the balcony, their night out with the kids went from boring to the best ever. Related Articles: Amy Childs Is My Kind Of Lady Amy Childs Hides Her Only Talents Amy Childs’ Big Breasts In A Little Top Amy Childs Works Her Impressive Figure Photos: WENN.com
Hollywood.TV is your source for all the latest celebrity news, gossip and videos of your favorite stars! bit.ly – Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein have joined forces to create a news musical, Kinky Boots. Hollywood.TV got a chance to talk to Cyndi about the musical and her music. Hollywood.TV is the global leader in capturing celebrity breaking news as it happens. Launched in 2008, we capture all the latest news, exclusive celebrity interviews, star videos and hot celebrity gossip from around the world every minute of everyday. HTV is on the streets 24/7, at all the industry events and invited by the stars to cover their every move in Hollywood, New York and Miami. Hollywood.TV is currently the third most viewed reporter channel on www.youtube.com YouTube with almost 400 million views, and our footage is seen worldwide! Tune in daily for all the latest Hollywood news on www.hollywood.tv and http like us on Facebook!
If you can appreciate a musical that unabashedly uses a 1996 Blackstreet jam as a communal rallying cry, then Pitch Perfect will be the most fun you have at the movies this year. (Also, we can totally be friends.) Producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman, joined at an LA screening by cast members Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Anna Camp, and Ester Dean, revealed how they first saw the potential in a nonfiction book about real life college a capella competitions – or, in the parlance of Pitch Perfect : The a-ca- drama . In a post-screening Q&A with Just Jared founder Jared Eng, Banks and co-producer/husband Handelman explained that they were inspired by GQ editor Mickey Rapkin’s nonfiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Capella Glory . Based on the ups and downs of real a cappella college teams they developed the feature about Beca ( Anna Kendrick ), a loner college freshman and wannabe mash-up DJ who reluctantly joins the Bellas, a floundering all-girls singing group struggling to sing their way to the top. (Jason Moore, nominated for a Tony for the raunchy Broadway comedy-musical Avenue Q , directs; the script is by 30 Rock scribe Kay Cannon.) Musical numbers abound as the Bellas and their all-male rivals, the Treble Makers, compete through the a capella season and face off on campus. In addition to producing, Banks also provides comic relief in the film as a seasoned a capella competition commentator alongside John Michael Higgins. “The part was meant for Kristen Wiig,” Banks admitted. The film brings Kendrick full circle back to her musical roots; years before making her film debut in the 2003 musical Camp – after which she earned fans from Rocket Science and the Twilight movies and earned an Oscar nomination for Up in the Air — she got her start on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony at the age of 12. Skylar Astin, another Broadway-born talent best known for starring alongside Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff in the original cast of Spring Awakening , makes a big screen splash as Jesse, the classmate/rival who sings his way into Beca’s heart. Being on set was “like an all-star theater camp,” he said, before granting an audience member’s request for a song by belting the theme to The Gummi Bears . As the plus-sized foreign student who introduces herself as “Fat Amy,” Rebel Wilson ( Bridesmaids ) steals scenes left and right (“I’m the best singer in Tasmania… with teeth”). Casting the character presented a unique challenge. “In the script the character is called ‘Fat Amy,’ so it’s really hard to send it to actresses,” Banks said. “Rebel recognized what an iconic character Fat Amy would be.” Chart-topping songwriter/singer Ester Dean, who’s written for Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Britney Spears, shared her own unusual Pitch Perfect casting story: After lobbying for a voice part in Universal’s The Lorax , Dean was sent to audition for the role of Cynthia Rose, the tomboyish maybe-lesbian member of the Bellas with a booming voice. She got the part and wrote Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been” during the three-month shoot in Baton Rouge. (In a funny twist of fate she “covers” “S&M” in Pitch Perfect — a song she wrote herself. ) Meanwhile, co-star Brittany Snow, who tapped into her musical talents in Hairspray , plays one of two senior Bellas leaders who take a capella very seriously . Her favorite number? Singing Blackstreet in an empty pool during Pitch Perfect ‘s riff-off, though she was envious that it’s Kendrick who gets to perform the rap intro. No diggity, no doubt. Pitch Perfect opens on September 28. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Fifty Shades of Grey was spawned by Edward-Bella Twilight fan fiction, so it’s little surprise that the EL James novel has spawned … a viral online musical! Okay, this still comes out of nowhere. The parody below is an amalgam of 50 Shades reactions: a housewife who adores the S&M “mommy porn” series, a feminist who hates it, a the guy who hates it … or the fact that he really loves it deep down. He seems a little conflicted. It’s pretty spot-on … except that no one would ever call it “well-written”:
Universal has yet to release an official trailer for Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables , but USA Today has a first look at images of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Co. in character. Visually, the musical film looks beautiful, but the jury’s out on how it sounds until we get more of an official listen. Take a peek at the Les Mis cast in the muted hues of 19th century France and chime in after the jump. Below, take a gander at Samantha Barks as Eponine, the role that the rumor mill had us thinking would go to Taylor Swift. Everyone else looks period-handsome, but Hathaway is striking, rocking Fantine’s shorn look while seemingly channeling Maria Falconetti’s Joan of Arc. Find more pics over at USA Today .
Universal has yet to release an official trailer for Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables , but USA Today has a first look at images of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Co. in character. Visually, the musical film looks beautiful, but the jury’s out on how it sounds until we get more of an official listen. Take a peek at the Les Mis cast in the muted hues of 19th century France and chime in after the jump. Below, take a gander at Samantha Barks as Eponine, the role that the rumor mill had us thinking would go to Taylor Swift. Everyone else looks period-handsome, but Hathaway is striking, rocking Fantine’s shorn look while seemingly channeling Maria Falconetti’s Joan of Arc. Find more pics over at USA Today .
A trailer for Tom Hooper’s upcoming Les Miserables film leaked onto the interwebs today, revealing looks at Hugh Jackman in action in the musical adaptation. But nevermind the handsome, jaunty period stylings of 19th century France in turmoil as envisioned by Hooper; get an earful of Anne Hathaway’s warbly voice singing a tearful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream”… and sound off on her Fantine. Are you excited or worried, theater nerds? To be completely fair, this is the worst-quality video you could imagine for a trailer, which appears to have been filmed off of a computer. Even so, the footage looks great to me — sweeping shots, dynamic camera moves, Jackman’s Jean Valjean disappearing into the shadows. What’s most concerning is also the most important element of the film: The singing. According to reports from CinemaCon (where similar footage from the film was screened, including portions of Hathaway’s “I Dreamed a Dream” number), Hooper’s plan was to film most of the musical numbers with his cast singing live, which might explain why Hathaway’s voice sounds a bit unpolished. Or maybe that was intentional. Or maybe it’s just me. [Video removed at studio’s request.] Perez Hilton first posted the video today, along with fawning words for Hathaway’s performance: “If we had any doubts about this, they are GONE now!!!” Over at The Atlantic Wire , Richard Lawson called it “unsettling,” a reaction more in line with my own. My theater nerd pal (and Popular Mechanics editor) Erin McCarthy immediately sent over this video of stage goddess Lea Salonga singing the same number with a much stronger, yet still deeply emotional voice, but perhaps the comparison — or any comparisons, as the entire film’s cast is bound to suffer scrutiny — is unfair. Hathaway is a strong singer in her own right (see: The Oscars) but she’s probably deep in character as the desperate Fantine and her vocal interpretation may reflect that. Was it wise to film the largely sung-through story with live singing? That’s the biggest question so far as we await better looks at Hooper’s Les Mis , due in theaters December 14. [ Perez Hilton , Atlantic Wire ]
Follow along, THG readers: Patrice Wilson is the man who wrote ” Friday ,” the infamous single that put Rebecca Black on the musical map. And, as you might imagine, he took a lot of flak for penning such a ridiculous anthem. Now, in response to the feedback, Wilson has come out with his very own music video for some single titled “H.A.P.P.Y.” “I figured I might as well kind of tell the story of what happened,” says Wilson. “When people see that it’s not getting to you, then maybe they can start liking you. With all the hate, I just wanted to make something that would make people smile.” That’s what Wilson attempts to do here, kicking off the video by crying in front of a fake news report. Watch, react now and then listen to Black’s new track . Patrice Wilson – H.A.P.P.Y.
Adam Lambert covers the latest issue of Instinct , a magazine that focuses on the LGBT community – and opens up to the publication on a topic that may cause some controversy for the former American Idol star. “As a community, we’re a little bit resistant to a gay male pop star ourselves,” Lambert says. “It’s very easy for people to look at my origin, which is American Idol , and automatically assume that I’m a commercial sellout or a puppet or a flash in the pan. “I don’t think I’m any of those things. There’s something weird there. We’re very eager to celebrate a strong female. But to celebrate a fellow gay man – it gets catty sometimes.” The artist will soon be coming out with a new album, one he has described as especially personal , and he elaborated here regarding what fans can expect: “This is the kind of music I listen to. I know the style of vocal I have is kind of big. It has a certain edge to it. I’ve always loved rock, but I also love stuff that is more groove-based, more funky, more soulful, more dance music.” For more from Adam Lambert, pick up the latest issue of Instinct.
