Kristen Stewart sat down yesterday for what was scheduled to be a 30-minute interview to promote the new Balenciaga fragrance Florabotanica, for which she’s the spokesperson. But the awkward Q&A only lasted 16 minutes, as Stewart painfully answered a few fan questions about the gig and also one about whether or not she speaks French. No , Kristen replied, adding that she would like to learn but – as Robert Pattinson can likely attest – she’s been a bit “preoccupied.” Watch the full interview now: Kristen Stewart Live Chat
Kristen Stewart sat down yesterday for what was scheduled to be a 30-minute interview to promote the new Balenciaga fragrance Florabotanica, for which she’s the spokesperson. But the awkward Q&A only lasted 16 minutes, as Stewart painfully answered a few fan questions about the gig and also one about whether or not she speaks French. No , Kristen replied, adding that she would like to learn but – as Robert Pattinson can likely attest – she’s been a bit “preoccupied.” Watch the full interview now: Kristen Stewart Live Chat
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs: The New York Critics Circle sets its voting date for 2012’s best pics; Queen biopic moves forward after delay; And, John Leguizamo eyes Universal action comedy with Ice Cube . New York Film Critics Circle Set to Vote December 3rd The New York Film Critics will vote for their 2012 Film Critics Circle Awards on Monday, December 3rd. The awards will be handed out during their annual ceremony to be held on Monday, January 7, 2013 at Crimson. Additions to the group are new members Bilge Ebiri (New York Magazine), Nick Pinkerton (Village Voice) and Keith Uhlich (Time Out New York). Commented Chairman Rothkopf, “We’re always happy to see the group grow. Criticism is as vital as ever; our group celebrates the movies but also the art of response and interpretation. We’re looking forward to deliberating on the best of 2012 in the weeks to come.” Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is the oldest such group in the U.S. Around the ‘net… Robert Pattinson Joins Hold On To Me Pattinson will star with Carey Mulligan in the film to be directed by James Marsh. Marsh’s Man On Wire won Best Documentary in 2009. Based on a true story, the project centers on a couple who kidnap and ransom the town’s richest man. They bury him in a box and things go wrong. Pattinson will play the flashy supporting role of the woman’s life love who isn’t involved in the crime, Deadline reports . Beyoncé Set for Super Bowl Halftime The singer/actress will perform the Halftime show at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans on February 3rd. Last year’s choice, Madonna, actually had more viewers than the overall game average, Deadline reports . Sacha Baron Cohen Shooting Freddie Mercury Biopic This Spring Despite a couple year delay, the project appears to be heading to production. Queen guitarist Brian May said that “the pieces are falling into place,” and that production will begin in Spring. He added that the film will hopefully have an early 2014 release. Cohen will play Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, Cinema Blend reports . John Leguizamo Eyes Ride Along John Leguizamo is in negotiations to join Ride Along , Universal’s action comedy starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. The story centers on a risk-averse second grade teacher who plans to marry the woman he loves but first must go along with his over-protective future brother-in-law on a tough “ride from hell,” THR reports .
Full speed… behind? Following a statement from Summit Entertainment in which the studio said it was moving ” full speed ahead ” with its original outline for the upcoming Breaking Dawn press tour – despite a certain publicized breakup – plans appear to have changed. Ashley Greene may be stepping in for Kristen Stewart. “The studio’s holding out to see if [ Robert Pattinson and Stewart] get back together,” an insider tells The New York Post . “But I don’t think anyone is banking on that happening… At this point, the press strategy would have been mapped out. It’s usually very organized, but at this time it’s undecided.” With various premieres set to take place around the country and the world, executives could simply split Stewart and Pattinson up. Greene would then appear alongside the actor for interviews and junkets. She couldn’t be a bigger fan of Rob, telling The Daily Mail a couple years ago that the star “has been one of my biggest inspirations. As a person, he’s not like anyone I’ve ever met in Hollywood, and as an actor he’s a complete natural. He has no ego.” Sorry, Kristen, but that really does appear to be true. You’ve lost one of the very good eggs here. [Photo: WENN.com]
Chris Lighty, hip hop mogul and longtime manager of big names such as 50 Cent, Diddy, Ja Rule and Mariah Carey , was found dead in NYC this morning. Lighty apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot would to the head. According to law enforcement sources, the 44-year-old Lighty’s body was found by police around 11:30 a.m. in the back yard of his Bronx apartment. Chris Lighty was pronounced dead on the scene, where a semi-automatic firearm was recovered. The death is being investigated as a possible suicide. TMZ reports that he had been in an argument with his ex-wife and shot himself; the duo divorced last year and Lighty hadn’t been the same since. Our condolences to those who knew and loved Chris. [Photo: WENN.com]
As previously reported, Robert Pattinson wants to sell the home he shared with Kristen Stewart. Because it reminds him too much about his adulterous ex? Partly. But also because Robert is “thinking long and hard about returning to London ,” an insider tells Radar. Pattinson “never fell in love with Los Angeles,” the source adds, and was actually reminded of how much he loves England when he visited Stewart there during her filming of Snow White and the Huntsman . Ironic, we know. “Despite making friends in America, Robert longs just to have a pint with the mates he grew up with in a local west London pub. He’s just a regular guy,” reports Radar. “He misses [his family] very much and they’ve said they’d welcome him back with open arms.” Well… d’uh! Why wouldn’t they? While he determines where to go next, at least Pattinson might have another romantic option to consider. Sources say Rihanna has been texting the star!
‘Robert Pattinson conducted himself with a lot of grace under fire,’ one super-fan tells ‘Twilight’ Tuesday about ‘Cosmopolis’ appearances. By Kara Warner Robert Pattinson Photo: MTV / Michele Crowe
Whether or not Robert Pattinson carries Cosmopolis to box-office glory this coming weekend, I hope he’s around the movie business for a long time. Unlike Kristen Stewart, who, I’m convinced, is Oscar material, Pattinson has yet to blow me away as an actor, but I do think he should win an award for the cheeky way in which he keeps showing us that contemporary celebrity journalism is a joke. Pattinson’s hysterical media tour for Cosmopolis has been underway since Monday when Jon Stewart — Mr. I-Schooled-Jim-Cramer-and-President-Obama-on-national-TV — served the actor melted ice cream and a bunch of runnier questions on The Daily Show . And then on Wednesday, things got even sillier. Pattinson appeared on Good Morning America, where host George Stephanopoulos informed the actor that the show’s staff had done some research and come up with Pattinson’s favorite breakfast food: Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (Good to see the ABC News budget going to good use.) The interview that followed was a lot like that cereal: sickly sweet and full of empty calories, although the winning and witty Pattinson never went soggy in the milk bath of Stephanopoulos’ aimless questioning. I couldn’t help but admire the actor’s response when Stephanopoulos, attempting to get the “elephant in the room out of the way” asked Pattinson “How are you doing? And what do you want your fans to know about what’s going on in your personal life?” Behind the two men, a small horde of those fans stared hungrily at their Twilight idol through the glass walls of GMA ‘s Times Square studio. If Pattinson, who we keep being told has no publicist, was going to play the game, that was the moment where he was supposed to drop some morsel about his supposed relationship drama with Kristen Stewart. Instead, he used GMA’ s cereal shtick to his advantage. “I’d like my fans to know that Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 30 calories per bowl,” Pattinson said with a vampy grin, reducing the idiocy of contemporary celebrity journalism to a single line. Make that two: “Pretty much everything that comes out of my mouth is irrelevant,” he added. Nice. “I take it that you don’t want to talk too much about it,” replied Stephanopoulos, which made me spit my breakfast back into my bowl. Really? “Is that the way you handle all of this craziness?” the former Clinton Administration adviser continued. “You get into to it to do movies,” said Pattinson. “I’ve never been interested in trying to sell my personal life. And that’s really the only reason people try to bring it up. The reason why you go on TV is to promote movies.” The thing is, even though GMA showed a clip and Pattinson talked about the role, I don’t think the TV audience left with a better idea of whether they would want to see Cosmopolis , or why Pattinson wanted to appear in it. If director David Cronenberg — whose films provoke and inspire even when they don’t work as conventional entertainment — was discussed at all during the interview, I don’t recall a single significant thing that was said. Instead the interview became more about Pattinson’s celebrity. Fortunately, he is capable of being introspective. “If you start getting used to it, it means you’re going crazy,” the actor told Stephanopoulos, adding: “It’s like being on the craziest theme-park ride. It’s exciting, but, eventually, at some point, you’ve got to have a break.” Pattinson, who plays an increasingly unhinged billionaire in Cosmopolis , even suggested a way that henpecked celebrities like him could get a break from the paparazzi: “If you put the lives of people who control billions on the front page of every single paper, the world would be a better place,” he said. (Except Rob, that many of those billionaires also control much of the media.) To those same ends, the actor without a publicist had a few choice words to say about “spin culture” that, I suspect, raised some hackles at the high-powered publicity firms that represent celebrity’s finest. “If you took away publicists” and those who relied on them “spoke for themselves, then they’d have to be responsible for their words.” the actor said. I think that’s what I like best about Pattinson. He knows he’s part of the problem, but he sounds like he’d prefer to be part of the solution. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Whether or not Robert Pattinson carries Cosmopolis to box-office glory this coming weekend, I hope he’s around the movie business for a long time. Unlike Kristen Stewart, who, I’m convinced, is Oscar material, Pattinson has yet to blow me away as an actor, but I do think he should win an award for the cheeky way in which he keeps showing us that contemporary celebrity journalism is a joke. Pattinson’s hysterical media tour for Cosmopolis has been underway since Monday when Jon Stewart — Mr. I-Schooled-Jim-Cramer-and-President-Obama-on-national-TV — served the actor melted ice cream and a bunch of runnier questions on The Daily Show . And then on Wednesday, things got even sillier. Pattinson appeared on Good Morning America, where host George Stephanopoulos informed the actor that the show’s staff had done some research and come up with Pattinson’s favorite breakfast food: Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (Good to see the ABC News budget going to good use.) The interview that followed was a lot like that cereal: sickly sweet and full of empty calories, although the winning and witty Pattinson never went soggy in the milk bath of Stephanopoulos’ aimless questioning. I couldn’t help but admire the actor’s response when Stephanopoulos, attempting to get the “elephant in the room out of the way” asked Pattinson “How are you doing? And what do you want your fans to know about what’s going on in your personal life?” Behind the two men, a small horde of those fans stared hungrily at their Twilight idol through the glass walls of GMA ‘s Times Square studio. If Pattinson, who we keep being told has no publicist, was going to play the game, that was the moment where he was supposed to drop some morsel about his supposed relationship drama with Kristen Stewart. Instead, he used GMA’ s cereal shtick to his advantage. “I’d like my fans to know that Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 30 calories per bowl,” Pattinson said with a vampy grin, reducing the idiocy of contemporary celebrity journalism to a single line. Make that two: “Pretty much everything that comes out of my mouth is irrelevant,” he added. Nice. “I take it that you don’t want to talk too much about it,” replied Stephanopoulos, which made me spit my breakfast back into my bowl. Really? “Is that the way you handle all of this craziness?” the former Clinton Administration adviser continued. “You get into to it to do movies,” said Pattinson. “I’ve never been interested in trying to sell my personal life. And that’s really the only reason people try to bring it up. The reason why you go on TV is to promote movies.” The thing is, even though GMA showed a clip and Pattinson talked about the role, I don’t think the TV audience left with a better idea of whether they would want to see Cosmopolis , or why Pattinson wanted to appear in it. If director David Cronenberg — whose films provoke and inspire even when they don’t work as conventional entertainment — was discussed at all during the interview, I don’t recall a single significant thing that was said. Instead the interview became more about Pattinson’s celebrity. Fortunately, he is capable of being introspective. “If you start getting used to it, it means you’re going crazy,” the actor told Stephanopoulos, adding: “It’s like being on the craziest theme-park ride. It’s exciting, but, eventually, at some point, you’ve got to have a break.” Pattinson, who plays an increasingly unhinged billionaire in Cosmopolis , even suggested a way that henpecked celebrities like him could get a break from the paparazzi: “If you put the lives of people who control billions on the front page of every single paper, the world would be a better place,” he said. (Except Rob, that many of those billionaires also control much of the media.) To those same ends, the actor without a publicist had a few choice words to say about “spin culture” that, I suspect, raised some hackles at the high-powered publicity firms that represent celebrity’s finest. “If you took away publicists” and those who relied on them “spoke for themselves, then they’d have to be responsible for their words.” the actor said. I think that’s what I like best about Pattinson. He knows he’s part of the problem, but he sounds like he’d prefer to be part of the solution. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The starlet and the Black Eye Pea tease a possible musical collaboration at #willpower listening party. By Jocelyn Vena Lindsay Lohan Photo: JB Lacroix/WireImage
