In the wake of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis ‘ separation after 14 years together, his rumored new flame Amber Heard has split with her girlfriend too. The bisexual actress and artist/photographer, Tasya van Ree, are broken up . “They are no longer in a relationship,” an insider tells In Touch of the women, who were together since 2008 but quietly called it off several months back. The couple split right around when things between Amber Heard, who was recently cast in Machete Kills , and Johnny Depp (allegedly) started heating up. According to the celebrity gossip mag, the duo remain close friends and Tasya van Ree appears to be “enjoying single life again.” So that’s good at least. [Photo: WENN.com]
Fifty Shades of Grey is a must-read for women everywhere. Apparently, the EL James novel is also making S&M and bondage gear a must-buy for some. The buzzed-about book has left unassuming New York women so feverish, they’ve been snapping up the tools and toys that the hunky Christian Grey favors. They’re even slipping into stores and asking for bondage material – the type of natural filament rope used in the trilogy – the New York Post reports. “Oh, we’ve been selling rope to women,” says Clifton Kahn, owner of Lexington Hardware on the Upper East Side. “I’d say tenfold more rope than usual.” “The women are definitely buying, and it’s still continuing.” Apparently tying someone up isn’t expensive. The store’s most popular item is soft-cotton “clothes line” rope, which retails at a bargain $5 for 50 feet. Tarzian Hardware in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has also seen the trend. “It’s usually men buying rope, but women, they’ve been coming in the last few months,” the manager told the newspaper. “I’ve actually read the book. So when the women began buying rope, it was kind of like, ‘Hmmm, that does seem unusual.’” While New Yorkers act out their S&M fantasies, casting the movie roles of Christian and Anastasia has become an online fantasy game of sorts this spring. Some stars, such as Ian Somerhalder , have expressed interest in the film themselves. Who can you see as the two leads? Vote in our polls below! Who should play Christian? Who should play Ana?
Bad news, Charlie Kaufman fans: While some cast members had been hopeful in recent months that Frank or Francis would move ahead, Elizabeth Banks (doing the press rounds for People Like Us ) spilled news to the contrary. “I honestly don’t know where that film is at,” she told AICN. “We were supposed to make it sooner, but it’s been pushed. I think they’re waiting for everybody’s lives to come back together…I don’t really know anything about it.” Speaking with Moviefone, she elaborated that things “fell apart” before the Hollywood satire/musical could move forward into production: “We didn’t get to shoot that movie. It was ready to go, and, as many movies do, it fell apart at the last minute.” UPDATE: Over at The Playlist , the filmmaker’s reps say that the project’s not completely dead — it has just been “postponed.” [ AICN , Moviefone ]
While official confirmation has yet to be reported, columnist Liz Smith eulogizes friend and filmmaker Nora Ephron , writer and director of films including Sleepless in Seattle , You’ve Got Mail , and 2009’s Julie & Julia . “People who never dreamed she was ill, are crestfallen. Amazed. Stunned,” Smith writes. “I won’t say, “Rest in peace, Nora” – I will just ask “What the hell will we do without you?” UPDATE: Sources clarify that Ephron is alive, but “gravely ill.” Meanwhile, advice columnist Margo Howard, who also writes for the online publication The Women on the Web , where Smith’s remembrance appeared today, Tweeted the news citing Smith as her source: Well, to those of you who can't find the news of Nora Ephron's death, the funeral is Thursday – and maybe that's the way she wanted it.— Margo Howard (@Margoandhow) June 26, 2012 Contradicting the odd announcements, the New York Times contacted Ephron’s publisher, Knopf, who said she has not died : Nora Ephron's publisher, Knopf, tells the NYT that she is still alive.— Julie Bosman (@juliebosman) June 26, 2012 UPDATE: Newsweek/Daily Beast reporter MariaElena Fernandez chimed in through the confusion, adding that Ephron, who is battling cancer, is alive but near death. Nora Ephron news is not a hoax but she has not passed away. She is not expected to make it through tonight. This is the truth.— MariaElena Fernandez (@writerchica) June 26, 2012 UPDATE: TMZ cites family members who say Ephron is “gravely ill,” while Roger Friedman has been told that she’s in a New York hospital suffering from “a rare form of leukemia.” Developing… [ WOW ]
This mom is a monster ! A Kansas City woman was charged Saturday with abusing her 10-year-old daughter who weighed just 32 pounds when she was found locked in a closet that reeked of urine. The 29-year-old woman faces charges of assault and child abuse and endangerment in Jackson County Circuit Court. The Associated Press is not naming the mother to protect the child’s identity. Prosecutors are requesting that bond be set at $200,000. Officers freed the girl after responding Friday morning to a call to a child abuse hotline. Neighbors told police that they didn’t know the malnourished child taken from the public housing complex even lived there. When officers first arrived, two women told the officers that the mother had left about 20 minutes earlier with two girls, whom they described as “clean and well fed,” a Kansas City officer said in the probable cause statement. A social services worker said there should be three children at the home. But the women insisted, “No, we have lived here for several years, and she only has two daughters that stay here, and we have never seen the other girl, but we heard she stays with the father or an aunt,” the probable cause statement said. Officers ultimately made their way into the apartment, where they found a portable crib pushed up against a bedroom closet, which was tied closed. The officers asked if anyone was inside, and a child’s voice answered “yes,” the probable cause statement said. The girl told officers that her mother took her sisters out to breakfast, but she didn’t go because “she messes herself.” The girl was transported to a Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she was diagnosed with multiple skin injuries. Hospital staff said she had gained just 6 pounds since she last was at the hospital six years earlier. The girl told detectives who interviewed her at the hospital that her mother puts her in the closet “a lot,” that she doesn’t get to eat every day and that she “does not want to go back home anymore.” The girl also said she gets in trouble “because she keeps peeing on herself” and her mother will “punch her on her back real hard,” according to the probable cause statement. The mother was arrested later Friday and the two younger children were placed in protective custody. The mother told police she doesn’t let the 10-year-old leave the house because she knows the girl is malnourished and would “get in trouble if someone saw her.” The mother’s boyfriend, who is not the girl’s father and hasn’t been charged, said he hadn’t seen the girl in about a year. He said that when he asked about her, the mother told him she was with her aunt or in her room because she was in trouble. He said he never knew the mother put the girl in the closet or “he would have done something about it,” the probable cause statement said. Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, said the mother hasn’t said why she singled the girl out. This is just sick and sad! We hope this little girl gets placed in a home where can be properly loved and taken care of. Source
We know that not everyone in a relationship wants to get married so we don’t even have to tackle that subject. But many of the women – some famous in their own right – on this list have been with their men for quite some time and have gone through many ups and downs just to stick around as a girlfriend. Do you think any of them will get married? Click Here To Read The Rest At MadameNoire.com
It’s hard to know exactly how to review something like The Invisible War , how to step back and look at it as a movie through the steady barrage of emotional devastation it presents. The stranger sitting next to me at my screening spent the latter half of the runtime sobbing into a fistful of tissues, and I couldn’t blame her — the film, the latest documentary from the Oscar-nominated Kirby Dick ( Outrage, This Film Is Not Yet Rated ) presents a sickening chorus of accounts not just of rape but of institutional betrayal, of a system that’s utterly failed to protect or serve those who’ve joined it. The Invisible War is brutal in the cases of sexual assaults in the U.S. military it runs down, but it’s even harder to take when it then explores the lack of follow-up, the victim blaming and self-serving protection of those in charge and the status quo. Again and again, the interviewees in the film — who are mostly but not entirely women — tell stories of enlisting out of idealism, patriotism or family tradition, thinking they’ve found a place for themselves, only to realize that for some of their colleagues, they’ll only ever be a target, and for others, they’re going to be held responsible for their own safety and taken to task otherwise. The film offers a variety of stories from military rape victims from different branches of the armed forces, including the Coast Guard and the Marines. Disturbing patterns quickly emerge. A woman ends up on assignment somewhere where she’s usually outnumbered. She gets harassed; she gets raped. She reports what happened to her superior officer, who either warns her off, or is a friend of the attacker, or would just rather the problem go away. And usually, at least for the perpetrator, it does — an appallingly low number of cases actually get brought to any kind of justice. Dick skillfully weaves together interviews with presentations of some damning numbers — like the fact that 20% of active-duty female soldiers get sexually assaulted, and the military itself acknowledges that a lot of cases are underreported because accusations of rape are so discouraged and can also permanently damage careers. To listen to someone talk about how she ended up getting charged with adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer after being assaulted by a married colleague is to feel that these structures aren’t just fundamentally flawed, they actually encourage this kind of horrific behavior because there are no consequences. The Invisible War follows a few of its interviewees in their current, non-military lives. One, Kori Cioca, is a young mother trying to get the VA to help her with the surgery she needs for her facial injury — she had her jaw broken by someone with whom she was serving in the Coast Guard, a man who raped her. Struggling with PTSD and in constant pain, she’s able to eat only soft food and is told she hasn’t served long enough to be covered because she left after the assault. Navy Seaman Trina McDonald was drugged and raped repeatedly while on a remote assignment in Alaska — the men attacking her were the military police to whom she’d need to report an assault. Now married to a woman and living in Seattle, she still struggles with trauma that, for a while, left her addicted and homeless. There are others — Marine Ariana Klay was told she must have wanted the harassment she received because she wore her military-standard uniform skirt. Elle Helmer, another Marine, and Navy Seaman Hannah Sewell had their rape kits “lost.” The film delves into what’s been done to change the present military culture and comes up with some laughable in-house poster and video campaigns that feature a woman soldier being angrily quizzed about why she’s out by herself and another that urges guys to “ask her when she’s sober,” suggesting that the problem in the military’s eyes is drunk girls with morning-after regrets rather than the kinds of attacks described by the interviewees on screen. The Invisible War also suggests, though doesn’t pursue the way perhaps it should have, that the military has a higher percentage of sexual predators than the outside world — because they’re drawn to the macho imagery with which enlistment is sold. The film certainly offers a solid case for military service being a great environment for someone with those inclinations, because there’s little recourse for a victim to report what happened outside of going to his or her commanding officer (one spokesperson earnestly suggests one could also write to one’s congressperson as a secondary option), and that goes against military sentiment of solidarity and strength through suffering. But solidarity’s worth nothing if you’re not actually a part of the whole, and both the accounts on display here and the way so many of the interviewees conclude that, initial positive experiences aside, they couldn’t recommend that anyone serve, show just how warped the system is and how many scars it’s left. The Invisible War might be best judged as a piece of activism, in which case it’s already succeeding — after seeing the film in April, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta took the responsibility for sexual assault investigations away from commanding officers and put them in the hands of higher-ranking officials. It’s a step in the right direction, but this doc makes it clear there are many more serious changes to be made. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Thursday afternoon’s round up of film news, The Weinstein Company has scored a round of financing for a division. The Indian International Film Festival sets its lineup, while Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace pic picks up a new actor. And West Memphis Three also adds more cast. The Weinstein Company’s SIIB Division Closes $225M in New Financing TWC’s Strategic Initiatives, Investments and Banking (SIIB) division has closed $225 million in new financings between two revolving multi-bank facilities. A $150 million domestic-focused revolving facility was closed. An additional $75 million revolving new media facility was structured and agented by UBS Investment Bank. OneWest Bank will serve as Collateral Administrator for this UBS Facility. The two will play what TWC calls, “an instrumental role in continuing TWC’s transformation as a mini-major film studio now largely supported by institutional financing.” Indianapolis International Film Festival Sets 110 Films The 9th annual event includes titles ranging from selections featured at Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes film festivals to newly discovered regional filmmaking. Films will compete for Best Of in their respective categories, as well as Audience Awards and a Grand Jury Award for best film of the fest, which carries a $1,000 prize purse. The festival, taking place July 19 – 29 will close with Somebody Up There Likes Me by Robert Byington. For more information, visit their website . Around the ‘net… Barbra Streisand to Direct First Film in 16 Years She’s agreed to direct Skinny and Cat , a love story about writer Erskine Caldwell and photojournalist Margaret Bourke White, starring Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett. The film will be independently financed and set for January 2013, Showbiz 411 reports . Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Finds Director Vet commercial director Bryan Buckley will make his feature debut with Lionsgate/Summit on the project starring Reese Witherspoon. The film is based on the John Gray self-help best seller. The shoot is planned for January, Deadline reports . Tom Papa Joins Steven Soderbergh’s HBO Liberace Pic Papa will play the late performer’s long time friend, Ray Arnett. Michael Douglas will play Liberace, who died in 1987. Shooting will begin in L.A. next month, Deadline reports . West Memphis Three Movie Adds Bruce Greenwood and Michael Gladis They will join Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth in the film that will be directed by Atom Egoyan. The project spotlights the true story of three teens wrongly convicted of murdering three boys in 1993, THR reports .
Reporter Attacked For Trying To Ask Questions We can’t believe the balls of this white reporter. Either it was the big black cameraman that gave her courage… or she just knows how to scrap and wasn’t intimidated at all because her response to the women says “Bring It On, Sister!” Turn the page and see the violence and turmoil
Attention, warm-blooded men of the world: try to avert your eyes from the latest batch of Kate Upton bikini photos – courtesy of GQ – and focus below on another magazine feature below, this one starring A-list movie actress Anne Hathaway. The beauty covers the July issue of Allure and opens up to the publication about a number of topics, from her role in The Dark Knight Rises to baring it all on camera… On becoming Catwoman : “The Catwoman suit. It was a psychological terrorist… the suit, thoughts of my suit, changing my life so I would fit into that suit… it dominated my year. I went into the gym for ten months and didn’t come out.” On shedding pounds for her role as Fantine in Les Miserables : “I’m doing some crazy weight stuff right now. I’m on day six of detox… this diet makes me break out, so I love that. Nothing like living on hummus and radishes and then be all, ‘And I got a pimple. Yeah!’” On getting naked for movies : “I’m as vain as the next girl, but I think it’s my job to show people as they live, and nudity is part of life.” On being a vegan : “Cheese is amazing [but] once you’re over the cheese hump, there’s nothing really left.”
