Can somebody remind me who this Brenda Song chick is? Because right now, I’m having a little trouble focusing on anything other than her booty in those leggings. I’m pretty sure she’s a former Disney star or something though, so I’m glad to see she’s following the career path of fellow hotties like Vanessa Hudgens , Selena Gomez and Victoria Justice and going from kids’ shows to sexy workout pictures. All Brenda needs now is a big scandal and the transition will officially be complete. I’m thinking getting caught sexting with a blogger ought to do the trick, but that’s just off the top of my head. I’m open to suggestions. Photos: Fameflynet
Page 31 sits down with reality TV Star/musician Po Johnson for a photo shoot interview as she promotes the release of her latest single Femme Fatale. Po speaks about the meaning behind the single, her definition of a Femme Fatale, her recent nose job, season 4 of LaLa’s Full Court Life, making the transition from reality TV to music and what it would be like to have her own reality show. youtube page31
Wilds tells ‘RapFix Live’ his transition from acting to music was influenced by veteran triple threat L-Boogie. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway
R. Kelly is taking his multi-chapter, possibly never-ending R&B hip-hopera, Trapped in the Closet , so super-seriously; the least we can do is return the deliciously campy favor. Watch R. Kelly transform – via prosthetics and a fat suit – into “Randolph,” a la Tyler Perry , in a new behind-the-scenes look at Trapped in the Closet , which hits the airwaves on November 23 on IFC. R.Kellys’ Midgets, Pimps, Cheating Lovers, etc. Are His Madeas It’s while watching R. Kelly talk seriously about modeling the character of Randolph on the men in his life, while getting fake old man cheeks applied over his stubble in this making-of video, that it hit me: Trapped In The Closet ‘s multitude of ex-cons, down-low lovers, pimps, midgets, and secret twins are his Madeas . “I felt like I wanted to do these characters, because I felt personal, I felt like I know these guys,” he says. “These guys were friends of mine, or uncles of mine, or my grandfather, and I wanted to steal the spirit of those people.” Where & When to Watch the Next Installment of Trapped in the Closet Trapped in the Closet returns to IFC with a Thanksgiving day marathon to catch you up on all 22 previous chapters before Chapter 23 hits on Friday, November 23 at 9pm PT/ET. Created, written by, and starring R. Kelly as multiple cast members, Trapped in the Closet continues its ongoing saga with the return of Sylvester, Rufus, Cathy, Tina, Roxanne, Randolph, Rosie the Nosy Neighbor, Reverend Moseley, Twan and Pimp Lucius. A cast of characters interconnected by sexual exploits, quarreling lovers and a mysterious package. Two new faces join this next installment, both played by R. Kelly: Dr. Perry, a therapist at Rufus and Cathy’s church guiding them through marriage counseling; and Beeno, a powerful underworld kingpin. The new chapters continue to take on a life of their own with more suspense, mystery, drama and unexpected twists. Watch the Trapped in the Closet Behind-the-Scenes Video: NEW Characters in the NEW Trapped in the Closet What’s that? NEW characters are joining the Trapped in the Closet saga? How many personalities are there living within the R&B master crooner? Click here or below on R. Kelly’s new character — a marriage therapist named Dr. Perry — for more new images from Trapped in the Closet . [ IFC ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Lincoln took the spotlight at a rainy premiere Thursday night, closing out AFI Fest 2012. But whispers of Star Wars made their way to the red carpet. Steve Spielberg , however, took the speculation head-on, saying he won’t direct any future Star Wars installments. The long-time colleague and friend of George Lucas gave an emphatic negative about possibly taking on directing the planned Episode 7 , set for 2015. “No, no!” he told Access Hollywood at the Lincoln event. “It’s not my genre. It’s my best friend George’s genre.” Furthermore, he said he’s no longer interested in action-pics (though he has signed on for Sci-Fi thriller Robopocalypse post- Lincoln ). “I knew I could do the action in my sleep at this point in my career,” he said. “In my life, the action doesn’t hold any … it doesn’t attract me any more,” he said recently on 60 Minutes . Star Wars will return courtesy of the sale of Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion, which promptly said it will launch a new installment in the huge franchise in 2015 and that a Star Wars 8 and 9 are also on tap. But just how much Lucas will oversee the next Star Wars movies is still a matter of speculation. He said in the official statement about Lucasfilms’ sale that it’s “…Now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.” He also said recently at a post-sale event that he’d like to do “little personal films” going forward and that he’s turning the ship over to another long-time collaborator. “I’ve turned it over to a wonderful producer, Kathy Kennedy, and I’ve known her for years,” he said. “She’s more than capable of taking it and making it better than I did.” He added, “It’s very sad. It’s 40 years of work and it’s been my life, but I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things.” [ Source: Access Hollywood ]
Emma Watson captured the situation succinctly. On Sunday, the actress, who stars opposite Russell Crowe in Darren Aronofsky’s post-apocalyptic adaptation of Noah , tweeted, “I take it that the irony of a massive storm holding up the production of Noah is not lost.” T he Los Angeles Times reported that shooting on the movie, which is currently taking place in the New York metropolitan area, was postponed on Monday due to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Even more ironic: one of the un-seaworthy replicas of the ark that the film’s production crew had built was in danger of getting smashed to hell by the storm. Two massive arks have been built for filming. Presumably the one constructed inside a Brooklyn soundstage is safe, but a second, that, the Times reported, is in Oyster Bay, NY was in the path of Sandy. (Aronofsky tweeted the picture of one of the arks above.) The Black Swan director’s spokeswoman had yet to get back to us on the fate of the Oyster Bay ark at post time — I’ll update if an answer is forthcoming — and the filmmaker’s Twitter feed gives no clue either. Aronofsky’s last tweet was on Oct. 30 when he sent a picture illustrating the survival tactics of New Yorkers who were left without power because of the storm. “at chase bank squatting electricity,” Aronofsky tweeted , along with a photo of a laptop, possibly his, charging in the lobby of a bank. On Oct. 29, when Sandy was ravaging New York, Aronofsky also tweeted: “just lost my chimney, really”. I don’t have a chimney, Darren, but now that I’m on my second day of living in NYC without any power, I feel your pain. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
” I consider myself the Bo Jackson of entertainment .” Martial arts cinema and actual mixed martial arts collide in the form of pro fighter/actor Cung Le, who continues his rising Hollywood action career with a furious turn as Bronze Lion in RZA ‘s The Man With The Iron Fists . But his wild-maned, lethal work as the Lion clan henchman (who finds his toughest opponent in Lucy Liu’s Madam Blossom) is just Le’s “part time” job, of course; on November 10, a week after Iron Fists debuts in theaters, Le will face off against UFC fighter Rich Franklin in one of the biggest fights of his career. The kickboxing and sanshou champion, now fighting in the UFC, built up his Hollywood resume in recent years with supporting appearances in Fighting , Pandorum , Bodyguards and Assassins , Tekken , and True Legend . He’s also increasingly in-demand as an actor who can ably, and believably, fight; while filming RZA’s Iron Fists on location in China, Le was simultaneously filming Wong Kar-Wai’s Yip Man biopic under the tutelage of legendary choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping and shooting Dragon Eyes with Jean-Claude Van Damme, which he also choreographed. Le stopped by the Movieline/ENTV studio for a new recurring Movieline video series to discuss RZA’s martial arts epic, his childhood Bruce Lee obsession (and the unfortunate homemade nunchucks mishap that set him on the course to non-weapons based fighting), and his burgeoning second career as a martial arts action star and fight choreographer. As for his Franklin fight, broadcast by Fuel TV 6 on Nov. 10 from Macau, Le hints that his Iron Fists persona may make it into the octagon, and vice versa: “You will see a Bronze Lion with a Cung Le flair in action. Watch the Movieline interview on YouTube! You had multiple choreographies in your head at the same time while shooting Iron Fists , Dragon Eyes , and Grandmasters pretty much at the same time – how hard was that to keep straight? And does your fight training help somehow? Because I’m a professional fighter and I train all year round, I was probably the most in-shape on set, endurance-wise. The only thing that was tough was the weather, it was so cold. But I was excited to come to set and I was ready to put in extra hours – I did whatever it took. But martial arts, fight-wise, going from one movie to another didn’t really bother me. I felt like the transition was so natural and it came so easy to me, so everything was smooth, from one character to another, from one style to another – no problem. I think it’s so easy because my real job is stepping inside the octagon, looking up at my opponent pacing back and forth, who’s looking to take me out. That’s probably more nerve-wracking and more dangerous than what I’m doing in the movies part time. When I’m on a movie set it’s like, let’s do this ! When I’m inside the octagon, oh, man – he’s got the look and he wants to kill me . Doing both actual fighting and movie fighting, does it ever get confusing? Do your fight instincts ever take over during a fake fight, or do blows accidentally land here and there as you’re performing rather than fighting? Of course my natural instinct is to connect with my punch or my kick or my knee, but I’ve been doing martial arts so long that it’s natural for me. I can pull the punch at the last minute, I can make it look big or small, I can shorten my punch – it’s just years of training. So that part, I don’t need to think about it. On The Man With The Iron Fists , when Corey Yuen broke down a fight scene I could almost see what was going to come next. With Dragon Eyes I choreographed all the fight scenes, and I knew working with Van Damme was going to be a bit limiting because he wants to do so many of his own kicks and punches. So I let him do all his stuff, but of course he didn’t want to take any punches or kicks – but in the movie we came real close, and sometimes we did connect, just to make it more realistic. We wrapped Jean-Claude and brought in my trainer and Jean-Claude’s stunt double and I unleashed on him, so it looks like a great fight inside the jail cell, but before then it was all him trying to throw hook kicks and he was really trying to knock me out. For some reason I see the whole fight scene, then I write it on paper. Most people will write it on paper then try to piece it together, but I see not just fight scenes but action, how it plays out, before I can write it. Bronze Lion, like all the characters in Iron Fists , has a distinct martial arts style – what sort of discussions did you and RZA have about his form and how much additional research did you have to do? Bronze Lion’s is not as popular as the Tiger Style, so we were open to using things like the claw from Tiger to Lion, but there were also the weapons. They didn’t just want Bronze Lion to use Lion technique because my specialties are my kicks and scissor kicks. Corey Yuen wanted to incorporate all my strengths into the movie so he let me do a lot of kicks – I did the jumping side kick back kick without landing, the spin-around wheel kick, the running up the wall and grabbing someone by the head, scissor kicking the other guy’s neck and flipping him… so I got to do not just the Lion technique, I also got to put the Cung Le flair in there. So Bronze Lion got a chance to use Cung Le’s technique! Working with Corey Yuen and acting as Bronze Lion, did you pick up anything you think will help you in your actual fighting career? Working with high level martial artists, you see how they work and put things together, how things are planned out and how things come naturally. It gives me my own flavor and variety and the more variety I have, the more I can pull from. When I’m in a fight and I need to use a different technique, the transition is much quicker. But I can’t say that it does or it doesn’t, I can just say that with the years of being a student and a teacher and a fan I feel I can adapt to any situation with the training that I’ve had. Who’s your favorite martial artist of all time, the one you grew up watching? I grew up watching Bruce Lee. Enter the Dragon , Game of Death , Chinese Connection . I think hands down now, since I got a chance to work with Donnie Yen he’s one of my favorites now because he’s so open to doing different things. Not just the same kung fu, but he’s open to doing MMA in his movies and a lot of other things. I kind of look at what he does to mold my own style. Were you one of those kids growing up doing Bruce Lee moves in the mirror? When I was growing up I was really into nun chucks, and since my mom didn’t buy me any, this old broom that broke, I cut it in half and cut that half piece in half and drilled a hole through it with one of those hand drills. I tied it with some rope and I was working and doing pretty good, but I must have not tied it good enough so when I flipped it, it came around and hit me in the head. I had this big knot – and after that I just figured I’d do things with my hands and legs. [Laughs] Continued on next page…
