The highs and lows of the Summer Olympics were on full display during preliminary competition in women’s gymnastics last night. Reigning world champion Jordyn Wieber was reduced to tears after failing to qualify for the finals, while Aly Reisman was among two Americans who did move on to the medal round. But not without a lot of anxiety on the part of her parents, Lynn and Ricky, who were mic’d up and videotaped by NBC as their daughter attempted to move on. The results were both humorous and adorable, as you can witness mother and father living and dying with every move Aly makes:
My name is Katie and even though I didn’t meet Justin, I had a Bieber Experience in Stratford. I live 8 hours away from Stratford and my parents were planning a trip to Canada so I asked if we could go to Stratford and surprisingly my mom said we could. On Saturday Morning my best friend Harleigh (@crazed4cody) and I started the drive to Stratford. We went to Pizza Pizza and talked to the women who was working about when Justin came in with his friends. We went to the YMCA were Justin played basketball and talked to the lady there, We went to the park were Justin met up with Ryan in NSN. We went to Scoopers; Justin’s favorite ice cream place in Stratford and so many more places. We went to almost every place that was seen in Never Say Never and we even drove by his grandparent’s house. While we were at the Avon Theatre I turned around and all of a sudden I saw Bruce (Justin’s grandfather) at the stoplight with his window down, I waved and he smiled back. Stratford is BIG even though Justin says it is small and it is so beautiful. I wish I could have met some of Justins friends or even Justin but just seeing where Justin lived was the best experience of my life. – Katie @Iyiyiforsimpson Read the original here: My name is Katie and even though I didn’t meet Justin, I…
In light of his, ahem , embarrassing arrest, Fred Willard finds himself without a steady job. The 78-year old actor, who was booked last night on charges of lewd conduct when police caught him with his pants down in a movie theater, has been let go as the voice of PBS’s Antique Rainbows spinoff, Market Warriors .
Katie Holmes has lined up her first acting gig PTC. Post Tom Cruise . According to The New York Times , the actress will take on a role in a Broadway production of Dead Accounts , coming on board the play as a woman residing with her parents in Cincinnati and trying to get her life together. The comedy is penned by Smash creator Theresa Rebeck and stars a total of five characters. No word on the other actors yet. Holmes, who also appeared on Broadway in 2008, is expected to make her Great White Way return some time this fall. While she’s advancing her professional life, new reports claim Katie’s ex is working on his personal life; i.e. finding a new soulmate. You may be up, Yolanda Pecoraro !
Rebooting the Spider-Man franchise just five years after Sam Raimi completed his own $2.4 billion trilogy was a controversial move in itself, let alone the idea of revisiting Spidey’s origin story , one of the most familiar and popular beginnings in comic book lore, yet again. But whatever qualms you might have about The Amazing Spider-Man treading familiar ground — this time with Andrew Garfield as a skate-boarding high-schooler/vigilante nursing abandonment issues — director Marc Webb himself wrestled with the very same issues from the start. Webb rang Movieline to answer a barrage of questions about this week’s Spider-Man re-do, which re-frames the Marvel superhero’s journey as a teenage Peter Parker’s struggle with responsibility — not necessarily springing from great power so much as from choosing between doing good, and doing otherwise. Relationships are key here, not only between Peter and his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), but between the orphaned hero and Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), a newfound mentor and scientist with murky ties to the parents who left young Peter behind years ago. But the heart of The Amazing Spider-Man , and that of Peter Parker himself, belongs to Gwen Stacy, Spidey’s first love, brought to life with crackling energy by Emma Stone . Fans of the comics know where Peter and Gwen’s story eventually leads — and while Webb remains amusedly mum on the future of his would-be Spider-Man trilogy, he acknowledges that some parts of Marvel canon cannot be tinkered with. “It’s a very controversial part of the comics,” he teased of Gwen’s fate, “but let me tell you, I’m a fan of the comics.” Read on as Webb addresses criticisms of his reboot, discusses the importance of the Gwen Stacy-Peter Parker relationship, explains why some questions raised in The Amazing Spider-Man were left deliberately unanswered, and talks about that eyebrow-raising post-credits scene. [ Beware: Some spoilers follow. ] The marketing campaign for The Amazing Spider-Man has been attempting to court female audiences, and the romantic element is a significant part of the film. How important did you feel it was to explore and emphasize that side of the Spider-Man story? Spider-Man is of course this huge action film — there’s a boy behind the suit. But one thing that’s different in Spider-Man comics from many other comics is how important the relationships are, in particular female relationships. You can talk a lot about villains, but Spider-Man’s relationships with women are as iconic, if not more iconic, than the villains. You have Mary Jane, and you have Gwen Stacy, and Gwen is very different than what we’ve seen before. One of the reasons why I wanted to use Gwen — first and foremost, she’s his first love in the comics. Let’s just set the record straight, it’s not Mary Jane. But I like the idea of following somebody who is as smart, if not smarter, than Peter Parker. And Emma Stone is the perfect woman to play somebody who is much more proactive, much more intelligent and feisty. I just like that dynamic in relationships in movies where they’re kind of lovers as rivals, you know? There’s this back and forth that I love, in the laboratory, and there’s just this great bond that you feel between them. She’s not just a prize, she’s not just a damsel in distress. She’s a confidante, and that was a really important thing. And their relationship is so different because of this — it’s like they’re the only two people in the world. I thought that, you’re 17 years old and falling in love for the first time, some part of the thrill of that is openness, and you get to express a part of yourself and confide in somebody the things about you that no one else knows. It’s such a thrilling part about being in a relationship at a young age, and all your feelings are apocalyptic, all your emotions are so huge, that I felt that was an interesting and new foundation to lay for the character. It also raises the stakes of that relationship. So it becomes more meaningful when he has to let it go. For those people who are familiar with Gwen’s fate in the comics, the depth and pull of their emotions makes it even more bittersweet. You even include a shot in the film in which Peter throws her out of a window that seems like foreshadowing of a sort… [Laughs] Well, we’ll have to see. It’s a very controversial part of the comics, but let me tell you, I’m a fan of the comics. But Gwen’s story is kind of one of those things, among other developments and plot specifics, that you kind of have to stay faithful to canon on. Right? Honor, yes. I mean, Marvel has certain hard and fast rules, like about the spider bite — you have to have Peter get bitten by a radioactive spider, and Uncle Ben’s death has to transform Peter Parker into Spider-Man, you know what I mean? He has to learn a lesson by that. But I’m trying to find new inflections and new context so that the story feels new. Because I do think the character is different; you want to honor the iconic elements of Spider-Man but you also want to reinvent the world around him so that it feels interesting and new, and that’s a tricky line to walk. It seems even trickier for you in this instance more than other folks rebooting a familiar franchise, just because it hasn’t been very long since the last Spider-Man movies and you’re also starting with an origin story. It’s tricky. We have seen the origin of Spider-Man, but we haven’t seen the origin of Peter Parker and that was my entrée into it. It does feel like more of a Peter Parker story than a Spider-Man story, which a lot of fans of the comics might get hung up on. How do you respond to those criticisms? For me, I thought about it a lot when I was building this up and I really felt like the Peter Parker that I was creating was a different reflection of the character. And in order for the audience to understand that, I thought I needed to build that from the ground up. To me, the most definitive moment in his life — way more important than the spider bite — is the moment he was left behind by his parents. It had a huge emotional impact on his character. That’s where the narrative begins, but it’s also where the character is defined in a very significant way. I mean, anybody who’s left behind by their parents at that age is going to be distrustful of authority because authority has let him down before – so that’s part of the dramatic texture of his relationship with Captain Stacey, and the conflict he has with Uncle Ben and Aunt May. It’s also that he has this attitude, this sort of trickster, sarcastic quality, which is in some ways a defense mechanism that comes from that moment in his life. He’s an outside, but he’s an outsider by choice; he’s a smart kid but he just wants to keep everybody at a distance. That’s why I think the relationship with Gwen works so well; he can trust her. We look at this as a reboot, so can we assume the story here will continue into at least a trilogy, but there are a number of plot points and questions raised in the film that don’t necessarily get answered within the span of this film. How intentional was it to plant those seeds here? I wanted a universe that could sustain a larger story, and the broader arcs I worked out with Jamie Vanderbilt early on. Obviously you want the movie to work on its own, but because so many of these movies typically have sequels, I wanted us to do a little bit of groundwork that could pay off in later movies. The mystery that surrounds Peter Parker’s parents is the long shadow that’s cast over all of the story, and there’s a relationship between Peter’s parents and Norman Osborne, and Oscorp, all that stuff… so much of the story is in and around Oscorp; Oscorp is the place from which all crazy shit emerges in this universe, and I like that idea, that simple notion that this obelisk, this Tower of Babel, is like a splinter in the side of the universe. All of the stories come out of there. NEXT: Webb on Gwen’s future, his stars’ chemistry, Curt Connors and that post-credits scene
Karen Klein, the school bus monitor who was verbally abused by a group of Upstate New York middle school students, has received an apology from two of them. The statements of apology were written to Karen, but have also been released by police, likely in hopes of quieting threats of retribution against the teenagers. One letter, by Josh (last name withheld), says: “I am so sorry for the way I treated you.” Making the School Bus Monitor Cry “When I saw the video I was disgusted and could not believe I did that. I am so sorry for being so mean and I will never treat anyone this way again.” Fellow bully Wesley (last name also withheld), meanwhile, said, “I feel really bad about what I did. I wish I had never done those things.” “If that had happened to someone in my family, like my mother or my grandmother, I would be really mad at the people who did that.” Karen Klein , 68, was driven to tears by their 10-minute torrent of words (above), but said she feels bad for the kids who bullied her as well as their parents. She does not intend to pursue further action. Sympathetic viewers of the viral video set out to raise $5,000 for Klein to go on a dream vacation … and ended up receiving $140,000 in donations .
Pixar is at its best when it’s making movies about rats working in restaurants and families of superheroes with not-so-super powers; not so much when it’s spinning cautionary environmental tales with robots-in-love subplots and sentimental weepers about grumpy codgers “learning to love again.” Somewhere at the more golden end of that yardstick is Brave , in which a peppery redheaded Scottish princess from days of yore named Merida – her voice is provided by the wonderful Glasgow-born actress Kelly Macdonald – decides she doesn’t want to marry from the selection of gents her parents have chosen for her and would much prefer traipsing through the forest with her trusty bow-and-arrow. Note: This review includes spoilers. Except Brave doesn’t go where you’re probably expecting it to. (And if you’re sensitive to spoilers, you may not wish to read further.) There isn’t an ultimate prince, a swain of Merida’s choice who steps in to offer her everlasting happiness, while letting her be herself, of course. This is a story about mothers and daughters and the ways they clash over basic, seemingly simple things, only to find their ultimate connection in the very things they can’t change about each other. Even that oversimplifies Brave a little too much, but you get the idea. Brave has a marvelous secret weapon in Emma Thompson, who provides the voice for Merida’s mother, Elinor, a queen with a sense of propriety and a desire to keep her daughter from making bad decisions. But this is a queen who turns into a bear, a big growly girl with a pear-shaped body and a most unladylike manner when it comes to eating fish. The quivering, multi-hued strands of Merida’s curly mane notwithstanding — and they are a sight to behold – the character design of Bear Elinor, coupled with the personality Thompson gives her, steals the show. You might be wondering how a queen turns into a bear. Why, via a witch’s spell, of course. Merida is at the age where she hates her parents, Thompson’s Elinor and the scruffy, burly, affectionate Fergus (Billy Connolly), chiefly because they’re intent on marrying her off, and she wants none of it. She hurls hurtful words at her mother — if you’ve ever been either a teenage girl or the mother of one, the sting will be familiar — and stalks off into the forest on her trusty horse, only to stumble upon the cottage of a witch (Julie Walters), who sells Black Forest-style carved-wood gewgaws as a front for her real trade. Merida, frustrated by her mother’s directives to always behave like a proper lady, and by her insistence that she knows what’s best for her daughter, gives the witch vague, exasperated instructions to “change” her mother. The witch gives her a little magic cake to bring back to the kingdom, and Merida is off and gone before she receives instructions for its proper use. Merida gives the cake to her mother as a wily peace offering, only to watch in dismay as Elinor first falls ill and then awakens as a half-clumsy, half-dainty she bear: Elinor Bear, horrified when she discovers her changed form, reaches instinctively for the delicate crown she wore as a human — it perches on her enlarged, furry head like a lady’s cocktail hat, giving her an aura of ridiculous elegance. But aside from the fact that Elinor simply does not like her new shape, bears are simply not welcome in her kingdom: Years earlier, when Merida was just a sprout, Fergus lost his leg to a great warrior bear and has always hoped to avenge this wrong. What would he do if he found a girl-bear in his own castle, not realizing it was his own wife? Both Elinor and Merida know the scene wouldn’t be pretty. The best part of Brave is the section in which Merida and Bear Elinor head out into the wilderness, hoping to find the witch and learn how to break the spell. The grudging camaraderie that forms between them is more like what might happen on your stereotypical father-son camping trip: Elinor Bear scavenges for berries that she believes are edible, only to be told by her more knowledgeable daughter that they’re poisonous. Unable to speak, she points to Merida’s bow, suggesting her daughter will have to be the one to feed them. Later, Bear Elinor learns to catch her own fish in her paws, gulping the shiny wriggling things with unbridled glee. But Bear Elinor will also do anything to protect her child, and she has the physical strength to do so. The newfound symbiosis between Elinor and her daughter could be a metaphor for lots of things, among them the way we switch from child to caretaker when our parents get older. But Brave doesn’t get too hung up on deep meanings. The story is a simple one, told with agility and grace — a little surprising, considering the movie is credited to three directors (Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman and, as co-director, Steve Purcell) and four writers (Andrews, Purcell, Chapman and Irene Mecchi, from a story by Chapman). Perhaps it’s a wonder that Brave hangs together at all, but the picture’s charms just keep mounting in its favor: Merida has three mischievous redheaded triplet brothers, who of course love cake, especially magic cake – their transformation into miniature Three Stooge-style cubs is one of the movie’s silliest delights. And Macdonald makes Merida a likable but not overbearing heroine: At one point she utters the line “It’s just my bow,” and it comes out “It’s just m’ boe,” an adorable and hilarious niblet of Scotspeak. But my heart belongs to Bear Elinor, whose movements and mannerisms are a tender echo of Human Elinor’s – her character is designed and drawn just that carefully. Bear Elinor becomes more and more bearlike as the spell wears on, and if she and Merida can’t reverse the witch’s handiwork, she will be a bear forever. You can see why she doesn’t want that fate: Bear Elinor is embarrassed by her furry clumsiness, by the way she devours whole fish – live ones, no less! – instead of nibbling away at them with a knife and fork, as her human self would do. Yet she’s a marvel of bearlike grace, almost ballerina-like even in her rotund ursine form. It’s inevitable that Elinor will have to return to human form at some point, but her bear form is so much more memorable. It’s the beast in her that’s really the beauty. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Can you think of the last embarrassing text you got from your Mom? Our friends at Virgin Mobile Live put together 11 of the most outrageous and bizarre texts from Mom and we thought we’d share some of them with you and see if you had any you’d like to share with us. Check ‘em out below: SMH… Don’t you hate when your parents try to be cool? Ewwwwww! Pure comedy! SMH. You can see more over at VirginMobileLive Can you think of any your parents have sent you? Please share in the comments, Tweet us or Facebook us!
Move over, Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez. Ace Young just stole your spotlight. About a half hour prior to American Idol announcing its season 11 champion tonight, Young and Diana DeGarmo – who met during a production of Hair – were called on to the stage by Ryan Seacrest. Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo Get Engaged on American Idol Finale Young then got down on one knee, and in a proposal/product placement for Dave Webb Jewelry, said to his live-in girlfriend: “I want to make this last forever, and I will do anything in my power to have the most amazing life together, if you will have me.” Through tears, DeGarmo accepted! “I’m so speechless right now,” she said after Young put the engagement ring on her finger. “My makeup’s running!” Diane finished second on the third season of Idol in 2004, while Young placed seventh on season five. Congrats to the happy couple!
Following a record 132 million votes, performances from Neil Diamond, Rihanna and Aerosmith and a proposal , American Idol crowned a season 11 champion tonight. Was it ballad singer extraordinaire Jessica Sanchez? Or Dave Matthews prototype Phillip Phillips? Unlike Ryan Seacrest, we won’t keep you in suspense for very long. The winner is… American Idol Winner: Announced! PHILLIP PHILLIPS! Not exactly a shocker, huh? The guitar-playing crooner was considered a favorite from his very first audition, considering his similar qualities to every other American Idol champion of the past five seasons. Jessica appeared genuinely happy for Phillip upon hearing the announcement, as Ryan handed Phillip his guitar, Phillips took the crowd ” Home ” and eventually dissolved into tears, heading into the crowd to hug his parents. Did Phillip Phillips deserve to win?
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