Colin Firth won an Oscar playing Britain’s King George VI in the 2010 historical drama The King’s Speech . And Dame Helen Mirren won her Academy Award playing the current U.K. monarch Queen Elizabeth II back in 2006 for her role in The Queen . Now both are set to wear their crowns again in two separate projects. Firth played Elizabeth II’s father, George VI in the Tom Hooper-directed feature about the WWII-era king who ascended the throne after his more dashing older brother abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in a scandal that rocked the British Empire even as the clouds of war gathered in Europe. Also starring Helena Bonham Carter as his wife, Elizabeth, the film focused on the shy George VI, known to relatives and close friends as Bertie, who overcame a severe speech impediment to help lead his country to face the Nazi threat. The Press Association U.K. said that the new film is in the “very early stages,” but Bonham Carter and fellow King’s Speech co-star Geoffrey Rush are also likely to return. In this follow-up, Firth will return as George VI during the dark days of the Blitz, in which Buckingham Palace along with much of London during frequent night raids. Along with a Best Actor win for Firth, The King’s Speech won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Mirren, meanwhile, will take on the role of George VI’s heir, Queen Elizabeth II in a new stage play written by The Queen author Peter Morgan, according to The Guardian. Stephen Daldry will direct The Audience , which will explore her confidential meetings with her long line of British Prime Ministers from her first as a young Queen, Winston Churchill, to the current office holder, David Cameron. In The Queen , she meets with ’90s-era P.M. Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales capturing a period of great tumult for the British royal family. Appearing on Saturday Night Live shortly after her first stint playing Elizabeth II, Mirren famously said, “I’d like to say something for the record, although I played the Queen I am nothing like her. I may have been appointed Dame of the British Empire, but I am not all scones and teacups, I’m more biscuits and D-cups.” [ Sources: The Press Association , The Guardian ]
Why is this broad still bringing up this old isht??? Five years after divorcing Jason Kidd, his ex-wife Joumana continues to relate stories about their drama in the press. Via NYDailyNews Confidential : After a tumultuous 10-year marriage to NBA star Jason Kidd , a messy divorce and five years raising her three kids as a single mom, Joumana Kidd is ready to come clean. “People that I never would have thought abandoned me and the kids,” she tells Metropolis Nights Magazine in an interview out in full Oct. 1. “I kept thinking everyone was going to be in one room and jump out and say, ‘Surprise! We were just kidding.’” She’s gone on to appear in VH-1’s “Let’s Talk About Pep,” but the demanding marriage prevented her from advancing her career on “Extra.” “I don’t want to say I got blackballed, but it looks like you’re not driven when you turn down work because your husband has a home game,” she said. Jason Kidd filed for divorce from Joumana in 2007, claiming that she was emotionally unstable and installed tracking devices in his car. In her counterclaim, Joumana alleged that Jason had carried on affairs with strippers, drank excessively and beat her. (Jason was arrested in 2001 for punching Joumana in the mouth.) In the interview, she opens up about an incident at a New Jersey Nets game in December 2006 when she allegedly had her son steal Kidd’s phone from the locker room so she could go through his texts and yell at him from her courtside seats. “I will say that most women put in that position would have acted the same way, or at least wanted to,” says the advice columnist. “Plus, it was blown up into something way bigger than it was. It was just his lawyers trying to paint a picture of me crossing boundaries and they did a good job of it. But it was far from the truth. And, it wasn’t as dramatic and amazing as they made it sound, although I kind of wish it was.” Jason Kidd married model Porschla Coleman in 2011, but his vices from the first marriage may still be around: The Knicks star was arrested for a DWI in Southampton in July. She does have one positive thing to say about the father of her children: “He is really is a talented and skilled basketball player.” A spokesperson for Jason Kidd had no comment. We get it, Joumana isn’t getting enough attention right now, but isn’t she doing herself a disservice still talking about this stuff, especially when Jason and his new wife aren’t exactly living “Happily Ever After?” Getty Images
It’s hard to say who really won, or if nobody won, or if everyone won last night when filmmaker Joe Swanberg ( LOL , Hannah Takes The Stairs ) and Badass Digest critic Devin Faraci took their creative differences to the boxing ring at the Fantastic Debates, an annual Fantastic Fest highlight that combines traditional debate with actual fisticuffs. Technically, their topic of debate was “Mumblecore is catshit and is giving a bad name to independent films,” though given Swanberg’s position as the micro-indie movement’s poster child, the fight got personal as soon as it began. Faraci had the audience going early with opening remarks (full transcript below) laced with pointed barbs that had the capacity crowd cheering. “[Mumblecore] is a bunch of middle class white kids whining about their ennui, about their middle class white lives in front of a camera, without a script, without good actors,” he proclaimed. “Here’s what you need to make a mumblecore movie: A sense of entitlement, white skin, and Greta Gerwig.” It’s safe to say Faraci’s anti-mumblecore attack/not-so-friendly roast had the support of the audience, but to his credit, Swanberg (who had no films in the fest and flew in for the debate) deftly countered. “True to form I haven’t prepared notes like Devin,” he began, turning the focus back on Faraci. “Maybe us mumblecore filmmakers are making movies from the heart that are connecting with you in a way that makes you a little bit uncomfortable.” Faraci nailed exactly what so many film-watchers dislike about mumblecore films — the unscripted, self-obsessed feeling of privileged white hipsterism that dominates them — but while he had the audience’s minds, Swanberg captured their hearts with the best counter-argument he could have used. “When you use your voice to try and squash people who are young, who are just coming up, who are figuring out the kind of filmmaker they want to be and the kinds of films they want to make,” said Swanberg, “all you’re doing is discouraging creative people from becoming who they are.” It was a passionate, personal, highly entertaining exchange of ideas and philosophies about film and filmmaking filled with complexities of the critic-artist relationship as old as time. And then they entered the ring. Although Faraci and Swanberg were preceded by dueling twin sister filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska ( American Mary ) who kicked each other while dressed as Mortal Kombat characters, and were followed by the night’s title card between Fantastic Fest founder Tim League and actual Tae Kwan Do Grandmaster/motivational speaker/ Miami Connection star Y.K. Kim, the critic-filmmaker bout was the best, and most alarming, of the night. Punches landed hard. Contact lenses were lost. In an event traditionally more tongue-in-cheek sideshow than serious fight, Faraci hit the mat but kept going for two rounds with Swanberg, who had director Ti West as his cornerman and wore a shirt that read “The Silver Bullet,” a nod to one of his own films and a symbolic weapon for taking down certain hirsute mythological creatures. What started out as a wildly entertaining exchange of barbs turned harrowing as the physical match wore on. But neither contender pulled any punches, at the podium or in the ring, Fantastic Fest got its best Debate in memory, and this morning Faraci and Swanberg’s intellectual bout is as much the talk of the fest as their knock-down rumble. In any case, the two bruisers made up after hours, somewhat , in true Fantastic Fest fashion. I guess that’s a win-win for everyone? Read the full transcript below. Devin Faraci: Joe, I really want to thank you for coming down to Austin, Texas to talk. I understand that last night you and your wife wanted to have some Chinese food, and Magnolia is now releasing that into 100 theaters next weekend. I’m here not because I hate Joe Swanberg – that’s just a plus – but because I love independent cinema. I love indie movies! They’re the beating heart of film. This is the best, the brightest, our greatest directors from Oscar Micheaux to Roger Corman to Dennis Hopper to Katherine Bigelow, Richard Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson’s independent cinema. These are people without big means, these are people with big dreams, big visions – and usually, take note, a script. Even Cassavetes who didn’t have the scripts had these amazing actors, incredibly trained naturalistic actors whose qualifications were much more than just being willing to simulate sex onscreen with the director. You are the opposite of everything that’s great about indie film. It’s the laziest form of filmmaking. It’s a bunch of middle class white kids whining about their ennui, about their middle class white lives in front of a camera, without a script, without good actors. Here’s what you need to make a mumblecore movie: A sense of entitlement, white skin, and Greta Gerwig. To me, the word “core” at the end of mumblecore sounds like it should be something punk rock, something amazing, something edgy, instead of the blandest, most self-indulgent bullshit and only at the narcissists who make it. Your audience, pretty much, is you. Joe Swanberg: Well, true to form I haven’t prepared notes like Devin. I heard you use the word “lazy” just now yet also it seems to be the case that I’ve made more movies than almost any American filmmaker so that seems to be a contradiction. Additionally, if my audience is just me why do I make a living as a filmmaker and why do you seem to have seen so many of my films? Maybe you recognize yourself in those movies, Devin. Maybe us mumblecore filmmakers are making movies from the heart that are connecting with you in a way that makes you a little bit uncomfortable, possibly in your underpants area. Maybe they’re a little too familiar. Maybe the awkward fumblings of the sexual scenes hit a little too close to home, so rather than embrace these films you put up a wall of defense. I also heard you mention Roger Corman, another filmmaker who in his time was accused of being lazy, amateurish, sloppy, all these things – now he’s a hero of yours. Maybe you’ve got to give these mumblecore movies another 25 years before you see the true impact they make. Mostly, I’m out there doing it, Devin. I’m making movies. I’m getting my friends together with no money, we’re going out there and doing it, we’re putting ourselves on the line for shitheads like you to take cheap shots from behind your computer! There wouldn’t be a you without a me, Devin. Faraci: You’re right, you have made more films than most American filmmakers. Hitler killed more Jews than most other people. True, your early films were full of your heart, and your soul, and your dick, and then you moved past short subjects into longer movies. It is important that people keep making movies. I do agree that having no money should never be a roadblock for any filmmaker out there. Having no talent, that’s a whole other matter entirely. Swanberg: I’m going to ignore the cheap shots. You know, we both came of age in a really amazing time when the technology has allowed me to have a voice and the technology has allowed you to have a voice. And I think that, unfortunately, when you use your voice to try and squash people who are young, who are just coming up, who are figuring out the kind of filmmaker they want to be and the kinds of films they want to make, all you’re doing is discouraging creative people from becoming who they are. I think the next time you see a movie that you really hate, you might want to reflect on it for more than 25 minutes before you write a review. You write reviews faster than I make movies. Faraci: I do agree, I think that young filmmakers out there who are working hard should be supported, they should have places like Fantastic Fest to come and show the work they’re doing. It doesn’t mean that every single thought that they ever had has to become a 65-minute motion picture. At the end of the day I think making movies isn’t just about getting your friends together and turning a camera on. It’s about creating something that speaks to people, something that has a soul, something that has narrative. I think you need to have one of these things: amazing craft, amazing script, amazing actors. At this point, when Kevin Smith is beating you in all three of those, I don’t know what to say. But I do want to say, Joe, I do respect that you came down here. This is not easy, this is not your crowd. I think this was very big of you. And I look forward to punching you right in the face in a couple minutes. Swanberg: I don’t have much to say Devin, except that I’m going to be making a lot more films for the rest of my life, most of them you’ll be watching. I’ll never read another word you write. I think you’ve demonstrated an incredibly close-minded view of what cinema can be, by referencing just script, or just narrative, or just those things. I think you have a lot to learn. I’m excited for you to learn it. Mostly I’m excited to put the gloves on and beat the shit out of you. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Pause… Charles Barkley Wants Tiger Woods To Retaliate Against Greg Norman According to The Big Lead : Earlier this week, Greg Norman said that Tiger Woods was “intimidated” by the No. 1 golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy. Tiger’s response was to joke about it, but his old friend, Charles Barkley – remember, Tiger supposedly cut ties with Barkley after he got caught cheating on his wife with chicks in Vegas (and everywhere, really) – didn’t like Norman’s dig. Barkley went on Waddle and Silvy’s radio show in Chicago Thursday and had some advice for Tiger while hammering Norman: I would like for him to just blast Greg Norman … That situation gave everybody a chance to dump on you, and [Tiger] still tried to take the high road. I’m not a high road guy. I want him to come out and really blast Greg Norman. I wish he would go ballistic on Greg … I wish I could put some of my blackness in him … like toughness … [I’ve been] arrested eight times for fighting … just because I’m Charles Barkley, you can’t disrespect me … you just can’t say anything to me anytime you want to … Is Tiger Woods a hoe-a$$ ninja?? Our friend at BlackSportsOnline has an interesting commentary about what “blackness” means to Charles. Image via AP
Hayden Panettiere has survived a sex scandal that she’s totally neglected to address, that no one bothered reporting, because it was probably bullshit…even though it was the most interesting thing she’s pulled off to date….No, I am not talking about the fact that she is a circus freak who is barely 5 foot, who bangs 7 foot tall athletes who probably ravage her not so neat, compact vagina….I am talking about reports her mother and father made her into a child hooker for Hollywood to have their way with….a possiible lie…disgusting…but if true fucked up enough to make her a baggage carrying and experienced good time…. Here she is showing off her recent implants, at least that’s what I assume these are, probably to balance out her broad shoulders….that less obvious and exposed than I’d like….but she’s showing them off never the less….and looks lovely.
I posted the recent ALICIA SILVERSTONE LINGERIE PIN UP PHOTOSHOOT a few weeks ago….questionning my integrity as a blogger who usually likes to post pics of girls I could jerk off with great vengeance cuz they don’t give me the attention I deserve but tempt me with their awesome…..because Alicia Silverstone is disgusting to me…even before she was a mom who chewed her kids food for him…..like a bird…and back when she peaked in Clueless and everyone went nuts for her…I just couldn’t get into her stroked out face…half paralyzed….it made me feel bad for her….but not that bad…considering she’s a millionaire for it….and now she’s on some comeback tour flashing her bum that looks INCREDIBLE for Bullet Magazine….unexplicable, a mystery, how on earth did this happen….maybe….but I call photoshop….and photoshop or not…I’ll keep staring…
Known for A.I. – Artificial Intelligence….a movie I have never seen and if you have seen it and remember her in it…you may just be a pedophile…cuz she’s only 18 Years Old now, and that shit came out before Hayley Joel Osment…sorry…Oscar nominated Hayley Joel Osment….reminding us that the Oscars are bullshit… had his sex change….and starred on Hannah Montana …… Her name is Hayley King….she hasn’t done all that much…but still way more than any of us…is only 18 and could be the star of the Kanye Sex Tape….but probably isn’t….and based on these rockin’ bikini clad tits…and her recent casting in Young and the Restless…she’ll be the jerk off material to many men, like me and you, who can’t afford cable cuz they are unemployed masturbating to Soap Operas all day….instead of doing something with our fukcing lives… I may have a crush on this one….but I don’t know for sure…I’m kinda jaded and have no feeling…like my wife’s dibetic foot….here are the pics… TO SEE THE VIDEO FOLLOW THIS LINK
Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, released their 2011 tax returns today. Spoiler alerts: They’re still really rich, and Democrats will call for him to release more! They paid $1.94 million in federal income taxes on income of $13.7 million, most of it from investments, for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, his campaign said. That’s slightly above the 13.9 percent rate the couple paid for 2010. The Republican presidential candidate’s taxes have emerged as an ongoing issue in the 2012 election, as he has declined to release any returns filed before 2010. Romney’s fortune and association with Bain Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded, have been lightning rods in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama. Critics, including Obama, have urged Romney to release more than just the two years of returns; for whatever reason, he has indicated he does not plan to do so. It’s been kind of a tough week for Mitt, with his 47 percent comment going viral, and even a surprising story about his eldest son Tagg Romney emerging today. What do you think? Should he release more tax returns? Election 2012: Who deserves to win?
Clint Eastwood is not the type of movie star to disappear into a role, especially not at this point in his career. He’s more icon than actor, and a grumpy, bristly icon at that. Tonewise, there’s not actually that much separating the improvised shtick Eastwood offered to the Republican National Convention in August and the scripted routine (by writer Randy Brown) he goes through at the start of Trouble With The Curve . On the small screen he addressed an empty chair. On the big one he talks to his penis, which is not cooperating with him in his morning micturition. In both cases, he’s gruffly displeased. Eastwood’s screen persona may have calcified over the years, but it’s still enjoyably familiar to take in, and Trouble With The Curve , the directorial debut of Eastwood’s go-to producer Robert Lorenz, is constructed around his immovable, surly-with-a-soft-center performance like a house built around a tree that’s been growing in the same spot for years. Trouble With The Curve is an ode to the old ways of doing things, both in terms of acting and baseball. Clint Eastwood plays Gus, a scout for the Braves and one of the last holdouts against the stats-based system represented by his obnoxious, ambitious coworker Phillip (Matthew Lillard). In terms of perspective, Trouble With The Curve is exactly the opposite of Moneyball. It lauds the types of things that Bennett Miller’s film dismissed as out-of-date sentimentality: scrutinizing a player’s hands when he swings, listening to the crack of his bat, and looking into his face to know if he’s got heart. Where Moneyball ‘s hero was the bright kid with the computer, Trouble With The Curve ‘s is the old man with the ingrained instincts; the family with baseball in its blood. The film basks in the analog side of putting together a team, in traveling on the road to high school games and listening to a hit. Gus is getting on in years and is in denial about the fact that his eyesight is going, but by the film’s judgement he’s still the best there is — even if he has to depend on his ears. Here, character is destiny, and so we know that Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill), the North Carolina up-and-comer Gus and the other scouts are all eager to evaluate as a potential first draft pick, is lacking before we ever see him play, because he’s an arrogant ass. Trouble With The Curve ‘s old-fashioned qualities and romanticism veer into hokiness, but , but the film gets a major charge from Amy Adams, who plays Gus’ daughter Mickey. In a spirited, nuanced performance, Adams subtly undermines the film’s tacit approval of its protagonist’s ways. A dedicated lawyer on track for partnership at her Atlanta firm, Mickey’s learned to hide in her work and to keep people at an emotional distance from her dad, who shipped her away to live with family when she was six and her mother passed away. Adams doesn’t play Mickey as brittle or snippy, which has become lazy actor shorthand for the workaholic females in movies. She’s guarded but warm, and keeps reaching out to her father via calls and dinners, despite his apparent indifference and unintentionally harsh words. We know that Gus loves his daughter, he just has trouble expressing it. When Mickey isn’t around, he has no trouble praising her in the presence of others. But over the course of the film, Mickey’s refusal to give up on her relationship with her father, despite being repeatedly rebuffed by him, starts looking more like strength than her remaining parent’s growling dedication to doing things the right way. The same qualities show up in Mickey’s tentative romance with new scout Johnny (Justin Timberlake, always welcome), a former pitcher scouted by Gus years ago who blew out his arm and now aims for an announcer job. He charms his way past her defenses, and she in turn acknowledges her tendency to keep people at a distance. Mickey demonstrates that being able to bend, to acknowledge your faults and work on them requires more courage than always standing your ground. Adams quietly steals the movie out from under her co-star, and she does it while steering clear of the stereotypical ruts that could have mired her performance in mediocrity. Adams and her unexpected approach to her scenes with Eastwood bring Trouble With The Curve to life and give it more animation than its formula would suggest. Despite this, the film loses a lot of that energy in a final act that makes Lillard’s character needlessly and foolishly villainous, and then wraps every element up in an overly neat happy ending. Even baseball is entitled to a few fairytale moments, but it’s a wrap-up than oversimplifies the more complex portrait of a father and daughter and their lifelong struggle to connect. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Roman Polanski will go French in his next project based on a Tony Award-winning stage-play and he’s tapping his wife to play the star. Polanski is adapting Avid Ives’ stage play Venus in Fur , relocating the setting to Paris from New York, casting his spouse Emmanuelle Seigner who auditions a role in a sadomasochistic drama. It is not clear if Polanski’s on-going warrant from a statutory rape charge dating back to 1978 prompted him to change the setting to France where he has lived since the alleged incident. Last year, he directed Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly in another play adaptation, Carnage , which was also set in New York, though directed from the safety of France. This will be Seigner’s the third collaboration with her husband, following Frantic , Bitter Moon , and The Ninth Gate , according to BBC . In the latest collaboration, she will star opposite French heart-throb Louis Garrel. “I’ve been looking for a chance to make a film in French with Emmanuelle for a long time,” Polanski said in a statement. “Reading Venus in Fur , I realized the moment had arrived.” The Lionsgate production will begin shooting in November, so perhaps a Cannes premiere is in the works. Quick synopsis from Wikipedia: The writer-director of a new play, an adaptation of the novel which inspired the term Masochism, is on the telephone lamenting the inadequacies of all the actresses who showed up that day to audition for the lead character. Suddenly, at the last minute, a new actress bursts in, the exemplar of every fault he has decried: needy, crude, compliant, desperate. Yet over the next 90 minutes, the balance of power shifts as the actress establishes total dominance over the director, exactly as in the novel. [ Source: BBC , Wikipedia ]
