Welcome to the 2nd annual Tournament of THG: Couples Edition! With Valentine’s Day looming, it’s time for you to decide the most popular celebrity couple! We’ve chosen 16 fan favorites for this tournament, but YOUR VOTES decide the winner! How to play: Pick your favorite of the two pairs in each poll. Done. Yesterday’s matchup: Barack & Michelle Obama vs. Ashton Kutcher-Mila Kunis . Today: J. Lo and Casper Smart vs. Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth! VOTE! And the Winner is? Miley & Liam Click Here To Vote for Miley & Liam J. Lo & Casper Click Here To Vote for J. Lo & Casper Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth vs. J. Lo & Casper Smart: Which couple do you love more? Cast your vote now in this Tournament of THG matchup! View Poll » One by one, we’ll post polls of these respective matchups, and after each round, update the bracket as some duos advance, while others are eliminated. It’s easy, fun and decided by YOU! Here’s the Tournament of THG field:
After her bout with the severe morning sickness known as hyperemesis gravidarum, Kate Middleton has taken to hypnotherapy to regain her appetite, a friend claims. Kate “still looks at food and feels nauseous,” Jessica Hay told Australia’s New Idea , adding that the Duchess of Cambridge hasn’t been the same since. She’s plagued by “ that feeling you have when you’ve had food poisoning and your stomach’s shrunk … she finds it very hard to eat a full meal and gets full quickly.” Hay said that this continuing issue led the 31-year-old wife of Prince William to seek the help of a hypnotherapist “in a bid to help with her appetite.” “The hypnotherapy is taking away any negative thoughts connected with food from morning sickness and replacing them with cravings for healthy, nutritious food.” So far, so good, according to Hay, who said that Kate Middleton has been filling up on wholesome goodies like berries, broccoli, oatmeal and smoothies. Maybe a nice roasted chicken recipe now and then too, for protein. “All in all, Catherine’s very happy,” Hay said. “With so much family around her and William, they’re starting to enjoy the pregnancy after a traumatic start.” Good to hear! What should Kate name her baby if it’s a boy? Albert Arthur Frederick George James Philip Something else! View Poll » … or if it’s a girl? Alice Caroline Charlotte Diana Eleanor Matilda Victoria Something else! View Poll »
Welcome to the 2nd annual Tournament of THG: Couples Edition! With Valentine’s Day looming, it’s time for you to decide the most popular celebrity couple! We’ve chosen 16 fan favorites for this tournament, but YOUR VOTES decide the winner! How to play: Pick your favorite of the two pairs in each poll. Done. Yesterday’s matchup: Will and Jada Smith vs. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert . Today: Barack and Michelle Obama vs. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis! Vote! And the Winner is? Barack & Michelle Click Here To Vote for Obamas Ashton & Mila Click Here To Vote for Ashtila Barack & Michelle Obama vs. Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis: Which couple do you love more? Vote now in the Tournament of THG: Couples Edition! View Poll » One by one, we’ll post polls of these respective matchups, and after each round, update the bracket as some duos advance, while others are eliminated. It’s easy, fun and decided by YOU! Here’s the Tournament of THG field:
Let’s start off this week in SKINstant gratification with a trip back through the years, to a time when sexploitation was king and movies were chock full of swinging ‘70s muff. Netflix is providing the gratuitous greatness with Pam Grier mud wrestling and full frontal from former Price Is Right model Anitra Ford in The Big Bird Cage (1972), then cult film favorite Mary Woronov leading a cast of babes who bare it all in Death Race 2000 (1975). Next it’s on to the early ‘80s for a peek of pelt from Jessica Lange as the doomed actress Frances (1982), then straight on to 2000 for a heart-on from Michelle William s in Blue Valentine (2010), and great jugs from Jennifer Jason Leigh in the nightmarish drama The Machinist (2004). See pics after the jump
Yeezy just got pulled into a dayum mess… SMH. According to TMZ … Kanye West has officially been dragged into the longest, most ridiculous divorce case ever — Kris Humphries made Kim’s rapper/bf sit for a deposition … TMZ has learned. Kim’s lawyer, disso-queen Laura Wasser, is in court right now, essentially asking the judge to make Kris either s**t or get off the pot. As Wasser put it, “She [Kim] is now handcuffed to Mr. Humphries.” Wasser mentioned Kris and his lawyers are now raising issues over the prenup he signed, which we know gives him squat. Wasser also expressed frustration that Kris is dragging his feet — he hasn’t even deposed Kim yet. Wasser calls the whole thing a “fishing expedition.” The judge said he’ll set a trial date February 15. Hey, it’s the day after Valentine’s Day. Sweet. Marriage is real folks! Images via WENN
It’s no secret that ladies love Ryan Gosling , but now guys have a reason to like the Blue Valentine (2010) star, too. Gosling is re-teaming with his Drive (2011) co-star Christina Hendricks for his directorial debut, the “modern fairy tale neo-noir” How to Catch a Monster . Gosling apparently charmed Hendricks into accepting a starring role in the film by sending her the script in a ” cool box with an interesting little key, and cool artwork in it ,” as she explained to Vulture at TIFF this weekend. But that’s not the SKINteresting part of the story– when pressed to explain more about the ” very surreal club ” where her character works in the film, Hendricks hesitated, then finally admitted that it was a ” fetish club .” She refused to reveal any further details, but we kind of prefer it that way. Will she be popping balloons? Dressed in latex? Getting her toes licked? Wielding a bull whip? No matter what, she’s going to make a select group of people very happy–just hope that it’s your paraphilia she’s referring to. Let your imagination go wild with pics and clips of Christina Hendricks right here at MrSkin.com!
As a movie title, The Place Beyond The Pines doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but that didn’t stop the latest project from Derek Cianfrance and his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling from being one of the most discussed films at the Toronto International Film Festival . The picture — which tells the tale of a bank-robbing motorcycle stunt driver (Gosling), a cop (Bradley Cooper) who fatefully crosses his path and their sons, did not have a distributor when it premiered at the festival on Friday night. That changed when Deadline reported on Sunday that Focus Features had acquired the film for release. On Saturday, Gosling and Cianfrance met with the press to discuss the making of the film, its thematic exploration of legacy, and Gosling’s fantasy about robbing banks on a motorcycle — an idea that figures into the plot of film. The Pines, Cianfrance explained, “is a place where you find your demons but also where you can find your destiny.” As for that title, it doesn’t sound so cumbersome when you consider that it could have been called Schenectady . Read on for the explanation. You said at the premiere on Friday that The Place Beyond The Pines is a movie about “Legacy.” Can you elaborate on that? Derek Cianfrance: It’s a movie about what we pass on. I started writing it in 2007 right before my second son was born. I was thinking about what kind of father I was going to become again, and I was thinking about this feeling I’ve had inside me my whole life. There’s this fire inside me that had helped me do many things in my life, but that also was very destructive. And I started thinking that my father — and my grandfather — had that fire and then wondering how far back it went and where it started. I was also thinking about this baby that was going to come into the world that was going to be clean and what I was going to give him. I was thinking how I didn’t want him to have the fire. I wanted him to be fresh and clean. Very quickly, that led to this idea about legacy. Ever since film school, I had wanted to make a triptych, like Abel Gance’s film Napoleon , but I didn’t know what story to tell. When I discovered this idea of legacy, I realized that that was how I would tell this story. That fire that you mention — it shapes who you become but you have to take control of it. DC: Yes, it’s the choices you make, but sometimes you’re born into a world with all of these repercussions that people have made before you. So you have to fight and claw to get out of that. You said at the premiere that you were reading a lot of Jack London at the time. I was reading pretty much everything I could find that Jack London had written. If you just take The Call of the Wild , for example, it’s about this domesticated wolf that hears the calling of his ancestors. When he howls at the moon, he feels the hunger — and how his ancestors were starving — and he can sing their song with them. That line continues, and I got kind of obsessed with this idea of evolution, of where that came from within me. And of my ancestors. And wanting them to be better than me. Wanting them to survive. If they’re worse than me, then they don’t survive. Then your bloodline doesn’t survive. And to survive is brutal. Ryan, what’s significant about the film for you? Ryan Gosling: I love Derek’s idea of passing the narrative. I saw this film called The Red and the White [Miklós Jancsó]. It’s this war picture and you’re following this one soldier, and, suddenly, he gets killed. Then you’re following the guy that killed him and he ends up attacking some woman. And the you follow the woman. It was completely different kind of experience, and when I saw it, I wondered why this type of picture wasn’t done more often. I thought it was very interesting that Derek wanted to do that. Initially, we talked about this film before Blue Valentine. I was saying to Derek that I always wanted to rob banks, but I’m scared of jail. But, if I was going to do it, I would do it on a motorcycle then drive up into a U-Haul [after the robbery to hide the bike] That’s how I would get away with it. And he said, “That’s crazy. I just wrote a script about that.” So, I said, ‘I’m in.” What appeals to you about robbing banks — the adrenaline rush? RG: There’s just all this money there, and some people are walking in with more than others. And what I learned from this movie is you just have to ask for it. [The tellers] have to give it to you. I’m not promoting this idea, but I would say don’t use a weapon if you’re going to do it. It’s just safer all around and less time in jail. And all of the people we interviewed said that the ones that did it nicely got less time. There’s a Hitchcockian element to this movie and your character. RG: I’m Janet Leigh. That’s how I’ve always thought of myself. Both Ryan’s character, Luke, and Bradley Cooper’s character, Avery are complex, morally flawed guys. But Avery, who comes from a so-called good family, isn’t punished for his shortcomings. Are you making a class statement there? DC: We shot this movie in Schenectady, New York. Schenectady, which is the Iroquois word for “the place beyond the pines,” is the place where my wife grew up and where one of my co-writers Ben Coccio grew up, and I feel like there are these tribes of people in these small cities and towns that keep themselves in certain strata, for lack of a better word. And this movie is about those different tribes that live in a contemporary American city. And I feel like the bloodline goes very far back. Avery is born into this small-town royalty. His father is a judge, but even though Avery went to law school, he wants to become his own man. His decision to become a police officer shows that he is trying to carve his own path and escape his father’s legacy, but it’s very difficult. Ryan, did you and Derek work together to develop your character? RG: We worked on it together. We talked a lot about the myth of Parsifal and the Red Knight. That was sort of what I used. A lot about this character was someone who ws posturing and posing and performing. We liked the idea of him maybe alluding to things that weren’t true, and him being a mystery even to himself — lost in his own mythology. All the tattoos I wear in the movie — I don’t know how necessary they are, but they were a part of trying to understand this character. What’s interesting about working with Derek is that you’re not allowed to take your decisions lightly. They’re permanent, and any step you take with your character, you have to embrace that. For instance, with the face tattoo [of a dagger] that I wear in the movie, it was the last one applied, and I felt like it was too much when it came down to it. I thought, I don’t want to have a tattoo on my face this whole movie. It’s just going to be distracting, and I think I’ve gone too far. And Derek said, “That’s what happens when you get a face tattoo. That’s how you feel. And now you’re stuck with it.” So then I had to go through the whole film having that tattoo on my face, and I regretted it the whole time. Only Derek would do that. Only Derek would do that. You really convey onscreen that you care for the baby you fathered with Eva Mendes’ character. RG: First of all that’s due to the fact that the kid that Derek cast, who plays my son as an infant — his name is Tony Pizza. It’s hard not to like a guy named Tony Pizza, Anthony Pizza Jr. So, I just liked that guy, and we really hit it off. DC: There’s a line in the film where Luke’s character says, “I never had my father and look at the way I turned out.” I think there’s this kind of shame in his character. He’s marked. And he sees this boy that’s clean, that has no marks, that hasn’t been tainted that thing happens that can happen, which is this overwhelming feeling of responsibility. This character takes responsibility because it’s something so pure in his life and he never had that. I know a lot of people who didn’t grow up with strong fathers or grew up with absent fathers and they turned out to be the most dedicated fathers. At the boy’s baptism, you cry onscreen. RG: I didn’t know that that was going to happen. Again, it’s a credit to Derek’s process because it’s never something that’s asked of you or in the script — those emotional benchmarks that you know you have to reach. I was just sitting in the church watching the baby be baptized, and I don’t know why I was emotional but I was. The motorcycle chase scenes are intense. How were they shot? DC: My reference points were Cops and America’s Wildest Police Chases . I wanted it to feel like a video that came from a camera mounted to the dash of a cop car. And so that raised the stakes for shooting. It raised the stakes for Ryan because there are some stunts in there where he really had to learn how to ride a motorcycle very well. There are certain takes where he had to park the bike, rob the bank, leave the bank, get back on the motorcycle, drive into traffic while being pursued by a cop car and go through an intersection avoiding 36 cars. And he had to do that 22 times. And every time I watched that scene, I think, he’s going to get hit — because every time he did it, he almost got hit. Ryan, did you do all of your stunts? RG: No, in scenes like that where Derek planned them as one shot, I had to do them. But there were a lot of things that the stunt driver Rick Miller did. When Batman gets on a motorcycle [in The Dark Knight films], that’s Rick Miller in the suit. He ‘s the best that there is. He and I rode motorcycles for a few months beforehand. And he showed me the best that he could. But these things take a lifetime to learn. I did my best, but my best wasn’t good enough. How scared were you? RG: I think you need it a little bit. Once you lose the fear, you got to get off it because then your mind starts to wonder and you get in trouble. But when I was a kid, I was walking to school and saw this guy on a motorcycle get hit by a car. He was laying on the ground, and I looked at him and he had blood coming out of his head. And my first thought was, I’ve got to get a motorcycle. Motorcycles put some kind of spell on you. It’s dangerous. Derek, in the the last third of the movie, you get remarkable performances from two young actors, Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen, who play the sons of, respectively, Luke and Avery. How long did you have to look to find these two actors? DC: I auditioned over 500 kids for those roles. I thought I was going to cast raw people, but in order to keep this baton pass going, I needed them to be at a certain level. I met them very late in the process. The first thing I heard them discussing what who was a better actor, James Dean or Marlon Brando. And they could not agree. Then, they were debating whether Al Pacino or Robert De Niro was better. Dane said “Pacino,” and Emory said “De Niro,” and I realized that these kids had ambition to be great and that I could unleash that conflict on the movie. But at the same time, they had so much in common. They were flip sides of a coin. This is the second time you’ve worked with Derek. Why the repeat the performance? RG: I was excited to work with Derek again because so much of making a first film with somebody is getting to know one another and how you work — and you really just get started by the time it’s over. I feel like Derek and I had a shorthand when we came into this film. We were able to do much more in a shorter period of time. We both evolved and the film evolved together. We have instant access to each other, which you need when you’re making a film because time is always coming to get you. Derek, what’s special about working with Ryan? RG: I look like Derek. DC: He’s just a magic person. He makes things better. We’ve all seen him save people by getting hit by a car, and we’ve all seen him break up fights in the city. And that’s what he does in a movie. He makes the world a better place. He makes me a better filmmaker and everyone around him better. That’s why I have no doubt that he’ll be a great filmmaker. Ryan, when do you start shooting How to Catch A Monster and what can you tell us about it? RG: Beginning of next year. Christina Hendricks is in the film. I’m not going to be in the film. That’s probably all I should say about it. Are you two planning to work together again? DC: I hope so. RG: Yeah. DC: The next thing I’m doing is this HBO series [on bodybuilding] called Muscle. [Turns to Gosling] I’d love it if you could do it, but you would have to gain about 80 pounds of muscle over the next five years. Read more from the Toronto Film Festival. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Call it the zen of Ryan. During a roundtable interview with Ryan Gosling and filmmaker Derek Cianfrance for their latest film, The Place Beyond The Pines , I asked the actor if he felt that the media focused too much on the more superficial aspects of his acting career — remember the hubub over Bradley Cooper being chosen over him as People magazine’s sexiest man of the year last fall? — when he keeps proving himself to be one of the finest actors working today. “I’m not really allowed to have an opinion so I just choose to not think about it,” Gosling said. “It is what it is.” After memorable performances last year in Drive , Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid Love , Gosling is riveting in The Place Beyond The Pines as a former stunt motorcyclist who turns to bank-robbing to support a son he fathered. Although the film has yet to secure a distributor, the buzz at the festival on Saturday night was that it was only a matter of time. During the roundtable interview — more of which we’ll post tomorrow — Gosling and Cianfrance, who previously worked together on the 2010 heartwrencher Blue Valentine , did not look like they were worried about their film reaching a wider audience. Asked what made the actor special, Cianfrance sounded mostly sincere when he called Gosling a “magic person who makes things better,” adding: “We’ve all seen him save people from getting hit by a car, and we’ve all seen him break up fights in the city. He makes the world a better place. And that’s what he does in a movie. He makes me a better filmmaker and everyone around him better.” In response to the same question, the deadpan Gosling replied: “I look like Derek.” Gosling declined to reveal the plot of his directorial debut, How to Catch A Monster , during the interview, but, elsewhere in Toronto, the star of his movie, Christina Hendricks was spilling the beans to Vulture . The actress said she portrays a single mother “supporting two children and trying to provide a home for them ” who finds herself working a “very surreal” fetish club “that gets me into a sort of predicament” while her two boys discover an underground city. Sounds like Fifty Shades of Grey meets City of Ember . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Harmony Korine ‘s Spring Breakers premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival is still days away, but festival-goers in Venice will catch the world debut Wednesday and already the film is making some initial waves with “raunchy” and “raucous” being just two operative words to describe the feature about a quartet of sexy college girls whose plan to rob a fast food joint to fund their spring break getaway goes awry. And that is just the beginning. The film stars Selena Gomez , James Franco , Vanessa Hudgens and Heather Morris. Franco plays their unexpected savior – so-to-speak. A local thug, he unexpectedly bails them out of jail and takes them under his wing and even manages to win them over, leading them into the wildest spring break ever and into a bit more crime. In Venice, Selena Gomez who once starred in the Emmy-winning Wizards of Waverly Place acknowledged that some of her fans may find her role a bit of a surprise. “Obviously I know that coming from Disney Channel gives you kind of a brand in a way,” the 20-year-old told reporters in Venice, according to Reuters . “People do put a label on you. I know that I have younger fans, and this is an opportunity for myself to kind of grow. It is a little shocking, I think, for the younger audiences … but I think it was right for me. I did things I didn’t even know I could do on the movie and I do think it was because I trusted Harmony.” Gomez had apparently been asked to play an even racier character in the film, but opted for the comparatively more staid Faith. The 20 year-old actress said that her character in the film was her speed at least for now. “I just didn’t think I was ready for it, and I do think that Faith is right for me at this time in my career and in my life,” she said in Venice. “Of course eventually I’m going to kind of work my way up to that I think.” Fluorescent bikinis, robberies and hard beach partying aside, The Telegraph said that Spring Breakers actually does not go “far enough,” saying it is just another “mainstream Hollywood teen comedy.” That is a surprise coming from the writer of 1995’s seminal Kids and his last Toronto offering Trash Humpers . Others will undoubtedly have their say. [ Sources: Reuters , The Telegraph ]
The Toronto International Film Festival annually boasts one of the deepest and glitziest line-ups of the year, and while there are many under-the-radar discoveries to be made, TIFF can be a very effective launching pad for upcoming studio releases and Oscar hopefuls alike. With Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck , Ryan Gosling , Paul Thomas Anderson , Kristen Stewart , Jake Gyllenhaal , Spike Lee , Keira Knightley , Bill Murray and more bringing films to Toronto, which films and A-listers are set to make the biggest splash at the fest starting tomorrow night? [ PHOTO GALLERY: The 15 Toronto Titles Most Likely To Succeed ] Argo , Ben Affleck Headed to theaters in October via Warner Bros., Ben Affleck ’s third directorial effort is also his most ambitious to date following his strong crime thrillers Gone Baby Gone and The Town . Based on the true story of a joint Hollywood-CIA plot to rescue six diplomats during the Iran Hostage Crisis, Argo boasts a stellar supporting cast – Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Philip Baker Hall, Alan Arkin, Clea Duvall, and Kyle Chandler among them – anchored by Affleck himself as real life CIA operative Tony Mendez. Oscar buzz began last weekend at Telluride , where Affleck earned kudos for his work in front of and behind the camera. The Master , Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson’s much-anticipated drama has navigated its own unorthodox course of promotion through secret screenings and teaser trailers ahead of its September 14 bow in limited release. ( Read Movieline’s sneak review here .) A highly successful official bow at the Venice Film Festival before a stop in Toronto only shored up more critical support for the period drama, about an ex-seaman (Joaquin Phoenix) drawn into the inner circle of an L. Ron Hubbard-esque figure (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Expect Anderson’s latest to keep riding the wave all the way through awards season and pique interest beyond the art house with its parallels to Scientology . The Place Beyond the Pines , Derek Cianfrance In The Place Beyond The Pines Ryan Gosling – tattooed, blond, and a biker – reunites with director Derek Cianfrance, who captured one of Gosling’s finest and most wrenching performances in Blue Valentine . Here Cianfrance pits Gosling’s vagabond-outlaw motorcyclist against an ambitious young cop (Bradley Cooper) in what Toronto Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey calls “a study of vengeance, memory and fate.” Rose Byrne and Eva Mendes (who’s been dating Gosling, ZOMG) also star. If you loved the Baby Goose in Drive , how can you resist? On the Road , Walter Salles Despite mixed reviews out of Cannes , Walter Salles’ adaptation of the Beat generation classic is primed to make a splash upon release this December – mostly thanks to the star power (and, let’s be real, the tabloid power) of Kristen Stewart , whose turn as the wild Marylou marks the beginning of a departure from her well-known Twilight alter ego. But On the Road could also boost the profile of Garrett Hedlund ( TRON ) – and the additional wattage of Kirsten Dunst , Viggo Mortensen , and Amy Adams doesn’t hurt, either. Looper , Rian Johnson Rian Johnson ( Brick , Brothers Bloom ) is back with a sci-fi tale with a twist: Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars underneath a prosthetic Bruce Willis nose as Joe, a “looper” – a hitman who offs targets sent back in time from the future. When he encounters his future self and fails to finish the job, Joe finds himself both hunter and hunted as time runs out. After premiering on opening night of the Toronto Film Festival, Looper will hit theaters on September 28 – a surprising must-see for sci-fi fans.
