Patrick Demarchelier & Peter Lindbergh shot the 2014 Pirelli Calendar, which in the past has been pretty fucking hot, naked, slutty…but this year seems boring, tame, and a total misuse of a ton of fucking models who I’m sure have all been totally naked so many times before and who should be totally naked this time together…because that would be new, that would be exciting enough to try to masturbate to, but instead it’s just set up like a shoot your mom got at Sear in the 90s for your dad before he left her for the secretary, wearing her Calvin Klein jeans and a white button down shirt half open, because your mom was a cheesy bitch who always dreamt of being a model… Worst preview ever…I mean seriously people, step your fucking game up.
Maggie Gyllenhaal costars in White House Down, but will get you up in Secretary . Sci-fi skin classic Lifeforce is out on Blu-ray, and Mia Wasikowska debuts nude in Stoker .
Four days after James Gandolfini died of a heart attack, the actor’s body is on its way back to New York City from Rome. A funeral has been scheduled Thursday for The Sopranos star in The Big Apple, as the entertainment industry continues to wrestle with the unexpected passing of this legend. Said family spokesman Michael Kobold in a statement today: “On behalf of the Gandolfini family, I would like to thank the Italian authorities for all the assistance they have rendered in expediting the formalities necessary to repatriate James Gandolfini‘s remains to the United States.” Added Kobold: “We are fully aware that this process usually takes 7 days and we are extremely grateful for their efficiency in dealing with this matter. It has been our privilege to be guests in your beautiful country, despite the difficult circumstances. We sincerely thank you. We would like to thank the United States government, especially Secretary Kerry and our friends at the State Department for helping us in this time of need. Our expressed thanks to the people at the Italy desk at the State Department for working day and night on our behalf. “We thank President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for their kind support. And we would like to applaud Vice Consul Patricia Hill and her colleagues at the consular section at the U.S. Embassy here in Rome for being so courteous and helpful throughout this difficult process.” Gandolfini passed away of natural causes while on vacation with his teenage son this week. The 13-year old tragically discovered his father’s body inside a hotel room and called the authorities, who were unable to revive him with life-saving measures. Our thoughts continue to go out to the actor’s family and loved ones.
She sure looks like a nice lady and not one to be voting six times under other people’s names and such… Via Fox News: The Obama/Biden lawn sign remains proudly planted in front of Melowese Richardson’s Cincinnati home, three months after the presidential election. It seems that President Obama has an especially ardent supporter in the veteran Ohio poll worker. Richardson told a local television station this month that she voted twice for Obama last November. She cast an absentee ballot and then voted at the polls as well. “Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.” Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” Richardson vowed when asked about the voter fraud investigation that is now under way. Richardson is one of 19 people suspected of illegal voting by the Hamilton County Board of Elections in the last election. Richardson’s granddaughter, India Richardson, confirmed to Fox News that her grandmother voted for her, by submitting an absentee ballot in her name. India told Fox News that she is not angry, and gave her permission to cast her absentee ballot. “It wasn’t a big deal,” she said. But election authorities say voting more than once, or in someone else’s name, is a big deal because it is illegal and threatens the credibility of the nation’s election system. As part of a new effort to root out any voter fraud, Secretary of State Husted has ordered all 88 of the state’s county Board of Elections to hold public hearings on any credible voter fraud allegations or claims of voter disenfranchisement during the 2012 election. He said any substantiated allegations should be turned over to prosecutors. “Once the election is over, and once the winner is declared, everybody forgets about it. I want to make sure that we don’t forget about it, that we make sure we do, essentially, an audit of that process to ensure that we know what happened, and then use that evidence to guide us going forward. … We need to learn from that last election so that we can be better before the next one gets here.” “Fraud does happen,” noted Husted. “Most attempts are caught by the system. But there are cases that do slip through, as this one does, and we need to make sure that we really send a strong message, that if you do this, you are going to be held accountable. It might mean fines, it might mean jail time.” Voter fraud, said Husted, “undermines public confidence in democracy, and that’s why we need, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, to root out all cases of voter fraud.” SMH. Thoughts???
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) says he has reimbursed a prominent Florida political donor $58,500 for two controversial trips he took back in 2010. Menendez traveled on the donor’s plane to the Dominican Republic in 2010, and was accused of engaging in sex with prostitutes while in that country. He denied those claims, and there had been no public disclosure of the two trips until now, when he reimbursed Salomon Melgen for the travel costs. “The senator paid for the two trips out of his personal account and no reporting requirements apply,” Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright said Wednesday. The FBI searched the West Palm Beach, Fla., office Melgen, an eye doctor, this week; it was unclear if the raid was at all related to Robert Menendez. A third trip by Menendez aboard Melgen’s plane, a campaign fundraising journey to the donor’s residence in the Dominican Republic, took place in May 2010. That trip was reported to the Federal Election Commission. The trip, for fundraising from the community of Americans in the region, took Menendez to Puerto Rico as well as the Dominican Republic, said his office. Menendez categorized the other two trips as personal. The first was August 6-9, 2010, a round trip from South Florida to the Dominican Republic. The second was September 3-6, 2010, from New Jersey to the D.R. and back. Menendez could’ve invoked a “friendship exemption” regarding the personal trips, which would’ve required him to report the travel to the Senate Ethics Committee as a gift. Instead, Menendez chose to reimburse the full cost of the two trips. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) turned aside questions about Menendez Thursday, saying they should be directed to the New Jersey Democrat instead. On Tuesday, before the disclosures about the FBI raid and the trips, he had expressed skepticism about the allegations, telling reporters to consider the source. White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to answer when asked whether President Barack Obama still has full faith and confidence in Menendez. “I don’t have anything for you on that,” Carney told reporters Thursday. The Daily Caller, a conservative website, reported shortly before the November election that Menendez traveled on Melgen’s plane to have sex with prostitutes. Some New Jersey Republicans filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee last fall in the wake of the shocking allegations by The Daily Caller. In response, Menendez’s staff members searched records for trips by the senator and found the two additional trips that hadn’t been reimbursed. On Tuesday, Menendez became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, succeeding Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who is now Secretary of State.
This week in NO-Bama news…. Paul Ryan Says Hillary Clinton Would Be A Better President Than Barack Obama Failed 2012 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has been running around and running his mouth ever since he and his former side kick Mitt Romney were defeated by newly re-elected President Barack Obama. Ryan has been publicly speaking out against President Obama’s handling of many issues since his campaign days ended, and now he’s even claiming that Obama’s former opponet and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been the better person for the job. via THG Former Republican V.P. candidate Paul Ryan said Sunday on Meet the Press that the nation’s fiscal crisis would be different right now under Hillary Clinton. “Look, if we had a [Hillary] Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles as chief of staff … I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now,” Ryan said. “[But] that’s not the kind of presidency we’re dealing with right now.” These fools will ride for anybody that isn’t Barry O, they might as well just keep it real and admit that much. And then after that’s out of the way….have several seats…..immediately.
While the rest of the world dissects the coming-out portion of Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes speech , I’d like to focus on another potential bombshell the 50-year-old filmmaker appeared to have dropped while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement: The suggestion that she was somehow retiring from the business. “This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting, and now what?” Foster told the Globes audience. “I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage, for that matter.” WATCH: Jodie Foster Wins The Golden Globes With Her ‘Coming Out’ Speech After the awards Foster clarified that remark , saying: “I could never stop acting. You’d have to drag me behind a team of horses. I’d like to be directing tomorrow. I’m more into it than I have ever been.” So which of those statements is closest to the truth? I’m going with the clarification. Her I-may-never-be-up-on-this-stage-or-any-stage line felt like an emotional and momentarily insecure remark made by a 50-year-old person who works in a mercilessly fickle business, particularly when it comes to middle-aged women. Yes, by turning to directing and producing and making some extremely smart acting choices, Foster has avoided the forced exile that so many actresses suffer once they hit their 40s, but that doesn’t mean she’s immune to an occasional crisis of confidence, especially when pouring her heart out before the world. Also, lifetime achievement awards come with a built-in punchline: the implication that the best of one’s career is in the rearview mirror. Foster’s back-stage clarification seems like a more level-headed parsing of her on-stage remark, and it’s also in line with a comment she made to The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, when she was promoting The Beaver: “I’ve reached that point where I don’t want to act very much anymore,” Foster told the publication. “I am much more interested in holding off on acting, after 45 years as an actor. It’s a long period of time to do the same thing.” That sounds to me like the early blueprint for Jodie Foster’s next act. When an acting role that inspires her comes along, she’ll take it, but, at the moment, directing moves the needle for her. According to IMDb , Foster’s future work commitments are sketchy, but after her role as Secretary Rhodes opposite Matt Damon in Elysium next summer, and her work behind the camera as the director of The Money Monster , which is in pre-production, she appears to be gravitating toward work behind the camera. I do think we’ll see Foster up on the stage at the Golden Globes, or the Oscars again, but the odds are it will be for her work as a director not as an actor. MORE MOVIELINE COVERAGE OF THE GOLDEN GLOBES: ‘Argo’ & ‘Les Misérables’ Take Top Movie Prizes At Golden Globes Movieline Live Blogs The Golden Globe Awards [ The Hollywood Reporter , Huffington Post , IMDb ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The tumultuous America of Steven Spielberg ‘s Lincoln was undoubtedly a man’s world, but behind the legendary 16th President of the United States — one of the greatest figures in American history — stood a fascinatingly complex, shrewd, and passionate woman: Mary Todd Lincoln. “Without a Mary Todd,” asserts Oscar-winner Sally Field , who portrays the paradoxical First Lady opposite Daniel Day-Lewis , “there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln.” Spielberg’s Lincoln , adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner from Doris Kearns’ biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln , brings the iconic Lincoln to life at the close of the Civil War, just prior to his 1865 assassination. Reenacting Lincoln’s precarious inter-party political dealings and dogged commitment to passing the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln depicts a pivotal, history-making period in the President’s career, taking care to highlight the impact made by his most under-acknowledged political partner — wife Mary Todd. And what indelible contributions did the emotionally volatile, smart, and savvy Mary Todd make to her husband’s legacy? Field sat down with Movieline to discuss the fantastically complicated First Lady of Lincoln — wife, mother, society figure, and trusted advisor — and why, as an actress “of age,” roles like these come along far too rarely. They say behind every great man is a great woman, perhaps especially so in Lincoln’s case, but the world in their time wasn’t quite up to speed with that thinking. Did you feel a certain responsibility to represent strong womanhood knowing that you were one of very few female characters in this cast? No. It wasn’t my task to do that. I could not feel that. That would have been absolutely in my way. I was given this great opportunity to portray the amazingly complicated, misjudged, misunderstood, maligned, and underexamined by history and certainly on the screen, Mary Todd Lincoln. Without a Mary Todd, there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln. Not what we saw. She was instrumental in his life, in helping him become who he ultimately became. From your perspective, knowing her this well, where do you feel her sense of moral justness came from and how did that affect Lincoln and his legacy? What she gave him was not in contributing to his moral justness; he got that on his own. That’s what she recognized in him, and he got that probably from his own upbringing and his survival, which was amazing. She saw his genius early on, when he was a bumpkin – he was gawky and everyone thought she was crazy because she was very popular. She was a society girl! She was pretty and popular and in her early 20s, and had her choice of suitors. Many of them later ran for President and lost, against him! The story about Mary Todd being courted by Douglas prior to marrying Lincoln, for example. Yes! She picked him, and she recognized his genius, his qualities. Some of them were what we later see in his great humanity, he’s able to connect with humanity. His speaking ability. She elevated him; she groomed him. She criticized his posture and what he wore and that he told too many jokes. He needed to elevate his language and speak out. She understood politics; she came from a powerful political family in Lexington, Kentucky; at that time Lexington was a very cutting-edge city. Her family, the Todds, really founded the city — she sat at the table with Henry Clay as a child and listened. Henry Clay was called The Great Compromiser; she was the one who brought young Lincoln to meet with Clay, and Clay became one of Mr. Lincoln’s heroes. He learned this world of politicking, and she got it — she got it more than he did, as you see in the film. She always was his coach, his confidante, and it was very difficult for her when he got to the White House, because she was pushed out of the center where she had been before. She was essentially his secretary of state — she ran his campaigns, she was his advisor. And when the cabinet was put into place she was kicked out. They didn’t want her there. They didn’t even want her to come downstairs at the White House! Well, by damned, she wasn’t going to stand for that — so she took it as her task to fix up the White House. It was a pig sty — literally, there were pigs and chickens in it, on the floor of the White House. It was treated with great disrespect and she felt it needed to be elevated because people needed to think of it as this place of power and great importance. She went about to do it and they tried to arrest her and cart her away. Thaddeus Stevens [played by Tommy Lee Jones in the film] tried to indict her several times — so she doesn’t like Thaddeus Stevens, needless to say. No, and that leads to one of the great scenes of Lincoln , in which you take Tommy Lee Jones’s Thaddeus Stevens to task. And that seems like a rare feat, generally speaking, because Tommy Lee Jones is so… Imposing? [Laughs] Yes! Take us into that scene, and what’s at stake for Mary Todd as we see her very publicly dressing down on behalf of her husband? Well, it was an absolutely eloquent and exquisitely-written monologue, and extremely hard to say and wrap your mouth around. We never rehearsed the scene; I think we kind of ran through it once, but Steven [Spielberg] would say, “Let’s just shoot it and see what happens.” That’s basically how Mary and Mr. Lincoln worked together — let’s just shoot it! So Tommy [Lee Jones] and I didn’t work on anything. He’s a wonderful actor as you know and see in the film, he knew his character, he knew their relationship and history, and so we just did it. Tell me more about this no-rehearsal process. Why opt for that, and is that a preference of yours? It was sort of decided, I think by both Steven and Daniel — it just was what it was, and we didn’t have weeks of rehearsal time prior. It just was what it was, and it brought about a different kind of energy. It was very interesting. Am I the only one talking about it? Certainly Daniel won’t, because he doesn’t talk about that kind of stuff. I’m the only blabbermouth!
