Cele|bitchy

Nicole Richie’s new bangsy, busty look: flattering, pretty or overdone?
Bethenny Frankel on if she made $120 mill: ‘The number is irrelevant’
Kelly Osbourne criticizes Christina Aguilera again: “I was never that fat”
George Clooney & Stacy Keibler do their first red carpet side-by-side
Why does Gerard Butler’s bulge look so… unimpressive?
Enquirer: Elizabeth Olsen is living in squalor, refuses help from her sisters
Linnocent knows she’s violated probation, she’ll bring her bail bondsman to court
Giuliana Rancic reveals breast cancer diagnosis at 37
Zachary Quinto came out as gay in honor of gay, bullied teen
Rooney Mara covers Vogue, in character as Lisbeth Salander: interesting or rough?

Nicole Richie’s new bangsy, busty look: flattering, pretty or overdone?

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 09:33 AM PDT

These are newish photos of Nicole Richie at the 2011 Environmental Media Awards (in mustard Keepsake) and a QVC FFANY Shoes event (in black Helmet Lang), all over the past few days. A few things, right off the top. First, BANGS. I actually don't think Nicole looks bad with bangs, but she's wearing them much too heavy. When they go that far below your brows, and they're THAT thick, it's time to grow at least some of it out. Looking at the bangs between the two sets of photos, they work better when her hair is down - it's more of a style than a trauma, like they are in the black photos.

Next: her new boobs. I kind of forgot that Nicole had gotten implants until I spied her rack in this mustard dress. What's going on there? Is it a padded bra, or some kind of strapless contraption that's pushing her boobs up? Because they look pretty big there. So big, I thought she was pregnant. She's not (as far as I know) - she's just got new boobs and some fancy new bras to make her new boobs look great.

As for the fashion - I'm rather blah on both of these outfits. Neither of them are bad or wonderful. But I do appreciate that Nicole takes the time and effort to put together whole "looks" - she really does care about red carpet appearances. One last minor thing: she has beautiful eyes, and there's absolutely no need for her to go all Duchess Waity with her eye-makeup. Too much, Nicole!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Bethenny Frankel on if she made $120 mill: ‘The number is irrelevant’

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:58 AM PDT

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Last Thursday, Rob Shuter at the Huffington Post called out Bethenny Frankel for maybe-lying to Fobes about the amount of money she made from selling her SkinnyGirl beverage business. Forbes declared in a June cover story that Frankel had made over $100 million from the sale. Shuter went through the quarterly financial statement from the company that purchased SkinnyGirl, and misread the amount of “good will” afforded the company, $8.1 million, as the total sales price. A later segment of the report suggested that Skinny Girl was purchased for around $32 million. Accountants and financial lawyers among you commented that the financial details were being misread, that it was impossible to tell from the report what the purchasing price was, and that celebrities and millionaires regularly misrepresent their wealth in order to sound richer. Shuter and Huffpo later issued a correction stating that the numbers had been misread. In response, Frankel tweeted that Shuter was a “freelance writer with false info to get attention” and claimed she paid more than $8 million in taxes. She never gave a precise number as to what she sold SkinnyGirl for, and the company that bought it, Beam Global, said that we should “not expect that a black and white lump sum ‘purchase price’ figure will be made available. Suffice to say, this was not an $8.1 million acquisition.” No exact numbers, then, but I suspect it wasn’t quite as high as Bethenny would have us believe and that she knows it.

In an appearance on the Today Show this morning, Bethenny never gave a direct answer when Matt Lauer asked her if she made $100 million or not. She just hedged, called the publications that reported the $100 plus million figure “credible,” (as opposed to anyone who called her out on it) and said an exact number was “irrelevant.” She also defended her supposedly harrowing lost at sea experience that just happened to be captured on cameras for her reality show, but she talked around the accusations of the towboat operator who said it was a stunt.

On TODAY Monday, reality TV star and Skinnygirl entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel blamed jealousy and irresponsible journalism for recent reports about the sale of Skinnygirl cocktails.

"I think my recent success has polarized people," she told Matt Lauer. "All I ever wanted to do was be able to pay my rent. They say mo' money, mo' problems; I never had problems like this."

Forbes magazine and others estimated the price of acquisition of Skinnygirl cocktails by Bean Global at upwards of $100 million, but a Huffington Post blogger said that number was inflated – the deal was only worth $8.1 million. After a follow-up article in Forbes pointing out errors in the HuffPo story, the site ran a correction admitting that its number was wrong.

Though given a chance to set the record straight, Frankel stayed mum on the exact figure. She was, however, emphatic about the success of her brand.

"The number is irrelevant to me … when fans are wondering whether I said it was 10 times more than it was, I'm left to defend myself," she said. "The bottom line is the public believes irresponsible bloggers who write anything they want … Skinnygirl Cocktails is about to sell a million cases in nine months. It's remarkable. The money is irrelevant, but it's a success."

The star also discussed the controversy around her claims that she was lost at sea.

[From Bites.TodayShow.com]

Either she made over $100 million or she didn’t. Don’t go claiming one thing all over the press for months and then act like it doesn’t matter and that people are stupid for calling you out on it. She concluded by referencing Giuliana Rancic’s breast cancer and saying that “this is garbage. You worry about your health, your family and this is garbage.” Again, she’s fine with putting out numbers about her supposed wealth when it’s to her liking, but when people ask her a direct question about it none of it matters and it’s all “garbage.”

Kelly Osbourne criticizes Christina Aguilera again: “I was never that fat”

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:34 AM PDT

A few months ago, Kelly Osbourne rather gleefully declared that Christina Aguilera's weight gain meant that "Christina is becoming the fat bitch she was born to be." This came after years of alleged and not-so-alleged back-and-forth between Christina and Kelly, and I should point out - it does seem like Christina started it when she really started criticizing Kelly's weight years ago. Back in August, when Kelly first called Christina a fat bitch, Christina was only slightly larger, mind you, because as we've seen over the last week and a half, Christina has really been boozing it up hard, and it's written all over her face and body. When Kelly and the rest of the Fashion Police crew were discussing Christina's weight gain and general disastrous appearance during the Michael Jackson tribute, Kelly once again took some shots at Christina.

Kelly Osbourne sure holds a grudge. On E!’s Fashion Police Friday, the 26-year-old slammed Christina Aguilera for her weight. “She called me fat for years,” Osbourne said. “I was never that fat.”

Osbourne was criticizing Aguilera’s performance look at last weekend’s Michael Jackson Tribute Concert. The 30-year-old paired a pantsless ensemble with fishnet tights, heavy makeup and supersized hair.

But Ozzy’s daughter wasn’t the only cohost to attack Aguilera’s figure. “Lady Marmalade got into the peanut butter again,” Joan Rivers sniped.

“I’m looking at this and thinking, ‘Well, she’s put on weight. This just isn’t flattering,’” George Kotsiopoulos said. “But this is just a crappy outfit, regardless. No matter what shape your body is in, it’s just bad.”

Kotsiopoulos pointed out Aguilera was “still probably a size 2/4,” but Osbourne was quick to disagree.

“Trust me,” she said. “I’m a 2/4. That is not a 2/4.”

This isn’t the first time Osbourne has criticized The Voice coach. Last month on E!’s Fashion Police she called Aguilera a “fat bitch.”

“She called me fat for so many f***ing years,” Osbourne vented, “so you know what? F**k you! You’re fat too.”

Ironically, Osbourne battled with her weight in the past, but after her 2009 stint on Dancing with the Stars she shed 48 pounds and kept it off. “I took more hell for being fat than I did for being an absolute raging drug addict. I will never understand that,” she told Us in 2010. Osbourne checked into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction three times.

[From Us Weekly]

CB thinks Kelly is full of it for declaring “I was never that fat.” Because Kelly was as heavy as Christina at one point, although to give Kelly some credit, she wore her extra weight a lot better (I’ve included older photos of Kelly at the end of the post). I think Christina's frame is more petite, so her weight gain is more noticeable. Also: Kelly is a size 2/4 currently? Just like Kim Kardashian and Kirstie Alley, I suppose.

Here are some photos of Kelly when she was as heavy as Christina - the ones where Kelly has black hair are from 2007, and the blonde spiky one is from 2009. Kelly's body then looks pretty similar to Christina's body now.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

George Clooney & Stacy Keibler do their first red carpet side-by-side

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:33 AM PDT

Well, this should appease all of those critics who claim that George Clooney and Stacy Keibler's relationship is some massive conspiracy involving an overzealous publicist, a massive amount of Photoshop and every media/gossip outlet in existence, all working in concert to make Stacy “happen.” Yes, George Clooney and his lover Stacy Keibler walked the red carpet together, at last. Stacy has been invited to his premieres twice before - in Toronto and LA - but she wasn't allowed to walk WITH Clooney. At last night's New York Film Festival premiere of The Descendents, Stacy finally got her moment with Clooney, in front of God and twenty million cameras.

For the occasion, I have to say, Stacy looked pretty good. One of the things I enjoy about Clooney is that he generally chooses ladies who are not "fashionable" in the Vogue sense. When he makes some lady his "girlfriend," usually they're pretty busted in the sense that they don't have anyone doing their hair and makeup, they don't really know how to dress for a red carpet, and they tend to dress like Vegas cocktail waitresses (which they sometimes are). Stacy was like that too - her first red carpet appearance as a "girlfriend of" was pretty bad - remember that Frederick's of Hollywood-style dress? And her hair and makeup have been bad for a while. But last night was definitely a step in the right direction - Stacy wore a very sexy, flattering, black Versace gown that looks great on her figure. The makeup is much better, and the hair… is still kind of busted, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was.

So… they're together. Stop claiming that it's some massive conspiracy. He's hitting that. The only conspiracy is about how long Stacy can keep her cray-cray tamped down. Will she make it past the awards season?

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

Why does Gerard Butler’s bulge look so… unimpressive?

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:33 AM PDT

Last week, no one seemed to care about Skinny Gerard Butler and his Pecks of Tautness. (sidenote: "Taut" is one of the words that I need to use more, right?) Why didn't you care? Why didn't you love him enough to comment about his pecs and his thunder-concealing wetsuit?

Anyway, as we've been chronicling over the past year, Gerard Butler has slowly and steadily lost the chunk. Specifically over the past few months, he's been training for this surf movie, Of Mavericks and Men. Gerard plays the surfing elder in this one, and yet it seems like he's the lead, considering he's getting endlessly pap'd in various stages of dong-y undress. These are newish photos from the weekend, and Gerry looks… well…

From the waist up, I love him, even with the uneven scruff. I like his naturally curly hair, I like how good his arms look, I like his taut pecs and just how healthy and great he looks. And then I get to what's below the waist…

…Now, I don't want to be one of those "OMG, it looks so small in a wetsuit!" people, but really, his bulge is unimpressive. If Jon Hamm was in this wetsuit, his bulge would be assaulting and then seducing our eyes. The Hamm Dong would be slithering half-way down his leg. Gerry just looks… like the dong doesn't match his big frame. I'm just saying… if you're going to make a movie in which the male characters are in wetsuits all the time, maybe you should do something to ensure that we're not taken out of the film because we're staring at the unimpressive bulge.

That being said, I would (as always) still hit it. After all, it is the motion of the ocean, not the size of the boat.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Enquirer: Elizabeth Olsen is living in squalor, refuses help from her sisters

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:28 AM PDT

Elizabeth Olsen is now on the tabloids’ radar whether she likes it or not, and I’m guessing that she’s not thrilled about it at all. Lizzie, who was blurbed in the October issue of GQ, admitted that she chose her low-key approach to acting (i.e., becoming an indie actress) after watching sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley get chased by the paparazzi on a daily basis. Smart move, right?

In addition, the Enquirer has also heard from a source that has confirmed what I already suspected; that is, Lizzie very much wants to succeed without any help from her already famous twin sisters. However, the Enquirer also sounds an alarm that Lizzie is living in relative squalor compared to the twins, who have recently sold out of their $39,000 fug backback and have been touted by Newsweek as “America’s Next Billionaires.” In sharp contrast, Lizzie lives on the Lower East Side of NYC in a “seedy” neighborhood close to the Samuel Gompers houses that comprise hi-rise public housing towers. The Enquirer seems a bit reactionary here at best:

Her twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley are worth a cool $100 million, but up-and-coming actress Elizabeth Olsen is determined to make it on her own!

The ENQUIRER has learned the famous twins’ 22-year-old sis lives in a rough New York City neighborhood that’s rife with drugs, robberies and murders!

“Mary-Kate and Ashley would do anything for Elizabeth — even put her up in a $1 million apartment,” the source divulged. “But she turned down their offer recently and decided to live in a 500-square foot apartment next to a laundromat in a seedy Lower East Side neighborhood instead.”

A local resident told The ENQUIRER: “A ton of drug dealers work around here, and it’s violent. You have to watch your back. People have guns and they don’t mess around. They don’t care who they kill!”

In June, a 23-year-old man was gunned down outside a pizzeria near Elizabeth’s apartment. And in October 2010, a shooting on her street left three men injured. Four blocks away, at the New York Police Department’s busy 7th Precinct, cops have dealt with five murders, eight rapes, 85 robberies, 59 burglaries, and 215 grand larcenies so far this year.

But amid the squalor and chaos, Elizabeth is becoming recognized for her talents. In fact, her upcoming role in the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene is generating Oscar buzz before its Oct. 21 release.

The pretty younger sister also stars with Robert DeNiro and Signourney Weaver in the upcoming 2012 mystery Red Lights. And she was tipped to play the character of young Carrie Bradshaw in the upcoming “Sex and the City” prequel, but turned down the role.

Elizabeth attended a private school in Beverly Hills for 13 years, graduated from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and honed her skills at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York.

And while her big sisters run three billion-dollar fashion companies, Elizabeth claims she’s led a normal life.

“I consider myself lucky to have such a normal family,” she said in a recent interview. “I have to attribute the way that I have always looked a work to my father because he was a really good influence on us. It was always very important to him that his daughters be financially independent … witnessing how my sisters can take care of themselves financially is a great model to have.”

The source added: “Having turned down Mary-Kate and Ashley’s generous offer to live in a decent place shows that Elizabeth wants to do things her way. She looks like a star in the making, and the fact that she’s lived a ‘real life’ s bound to help her make it to the top!”

[From Enquirer, print edition, October 24, 2011]

Well, okay. The thing about New York, however, is that everything is so compact that (in some cases) really high-end neighborhoods are literally around the corner from the ghetto. And no matter what, living in NYC is an expensive endeavor. So even though Mary-Kate and Ashley have allegedly offered to purchase a $1 million apartment for Elizabeth, the truth of the matter is that it wouldn’t be much of an upgrade, space-wise. Yes, she’d probably be in a much better neighborhood and might even have a nice view, but we’re still probably talking about a one-bedroom apartment. So I’m inclined to believe that Lizzie doesn’t mind doing the “starving artist” bit for awhile until she can afford a better place on her own. And if she continues to draw the buzz like she has with her Martha Marcy May Marlene performance, it won’t be much longer until that happens.

In addition, this story has made me reconsider the question of whether Elizabeth has been the victim of too much Photoshop and/or some overzealous cosmetic tweaking. At this point, I think she might have had an early nose job but hasn’t tweaked further. If she can’t afford to live in a better neighborhood, then how on earth could she manage regular visits to a surgeon? After all, Lizzie’s not making huge money at this point doing these indie movies, and she’s refused to join the commercial blockbuster route with the “Sex and the City” prequel. By the way, that last bit is seriously awesome.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame

Linnocent knows she’s violated probation, she’ll bring her bail bondsman to court

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 07:54 AM PDT

Linnocent's cracked-out court extravaganza is still scheduled for Wednesday, and until then, I'm guessing Radar and TMZ will continue to have endless reports about The State of the Cracken. Hint: it involves bruises, hustling and the smell of sulfur. Go here and here for recaps of what's gone down over the past few days - including Linnocent's completely idiotic tweet-justification/whine about how everyone is being mean to her. Anyway, Radar has a new report about how "hard" Linnocent is working right now to get a chunk of her community service done before the court date, and Radar's legal source says something that I suspected - that even if LL is found in violation of her probation and "sent to jail," she's still going to have bail set. In fact, Linnocent is including HER bail bondsman in her crackie court entourage:

Lindsay Lohan will attempt to prove that she is fulfilling all her probation requirements when she goes before Los Angeles Judge Stephanie Sautner on Wednesday, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting. Lohan,25, was booted from the Downtown Women’s Center last week after she repeatedly failed to show up to perform community service in connection with her no contest plea in her theft case.

“Lindsay performed community service every single day this past week at the Red Cross, and has been spending the bulk of the weekend fulfilling her therapy and shoplifter’s course requirements. She is extremely focused on her court-ordered obligations,” Lohan’s rep Steve Honig tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.

With her court date looming, “Lindsay is really starting to rack up the hours now and is extremely serious about getting this done,” an insider tells us.

Lindsay was sentenced to 360 hours of community service at the Downtown Women’s Center, 100 hours at the Los Angeles County Morgue, weekly therapy sessions, and a shoplifting class. Judge Sautner specifically wanted LiLo to experience being around women that had fallen on very rough times, and that is why the Downtown Women’s Center was selected.

Sautner could order Lindsay to stop performing that part of the sentence at the Red Cross, and order her to another organization that deals with homelessness.

While Lindsay was overseas, she did weekly therapy sessions with her shrink on the telephone. “Lindsay was ordered to undergo weekly therapy sessions by Judge Sautner. Technically, Lindsay isn’t in violation of that order, because Judge Sautner didn’t specify that these appointments be done in person. It’s assumed that Lindsay would go see her therapist every week, but there isn’t a specific order stating how that session is to be conducted. Lindsay always pushes the envelope, no doubt. Judge Sautner will most certainly modify terms of her probation at her progress report hearing,” a source close to Lohan says.

Lindsay was given until May, 2012 to complete all terms ordered by Judge Sautner, and she has stated that she wouldn’t accept any excuses for it not being done on time. “Even if Judge Sautner revokes Lindsay’s probation on Wednesday, and remands her into custody, she will post bail immediately. Lindsay must be given bail because it’s a misdemeanor, and there would be a probation violation hearing, and that is when it would be determined by the judge if she should go to jail. Again, this is only if Sautner determines there appears to be a probation violation,” the source states.

Lindsay’s attorney Shawn Holley and her bail bondsman will be with her on Wednesday, ready for whatever the decision is.

Will Judge Sautner believe that Lohan is taking her requirements seriously, or will she violate her probation? It’s clear that Lohan’s immediate future rests with the judge’s ruling on Wednesday.

RadarOnline.com will be at the LAX Airport Courthouse on Wednesday for the proceedings.

[From Radar]

So, if Judge Sautner does find Linnocent in contempt of her probation (I have no idea what the technical term is, but I think "in contempt" works really well in this situation), what kind of sentence could be handed down? TMZ says that the possible sentence could be for more than 120 days - likely more than a year and a half. But how would that work with a bail situation? She would be sentenced to a year, let's say, and bail would be set. So she would "check in" and then be immediately released on bail, and then what? Would she ever have to go to jail? I don't really understand this part of it, but you can read more at TMZ here.

The whole crackie court extravaganza begins at 10 a.m. PST, which is 1 pm EST, where CB and I are. I think we'll probably do an open post, and we'll update with any relevant information.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

Giuliana Rancic reveals breast cancer diagnosis at 37

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 07:32 AM PDT

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I was just considering whether I should get my first mammogram. We’re hearing so much about this very prevalent cancer during this month of breast cancer awareness, and it makes me wonder if it’s something I should look into. Now that I’ve heard that E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer at 37 (she’s a year younger than me), I’m definitely considering it. Rancic revealed her diagnosis, which was made in August, this morning on The Today Show. She explained that she had a mammogram prior to her third round of IVF treatment after her doctor insisted on it. Luckily her cancer was caught it very early, but it sounds like she’s gone through so much in the past few months. She’s set to have surgery and radiation over the next few weeks.

Giuliana Rancic had an announcement to make during a Monday morning appearance on The Today Show — but it wasn’t the one she or anyone wanted or expected.

Instead of a happy pregnancy announcement, Rancic, 37, told Ann Curry: “I have early stage breast cancer.” The E! News host and Giuliana and Bill star made the frightening discovery back in August, as she was preparing for her third attempt to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization.

Rancic explained that her doctor sternly insisted that she get a mammogram before going through with the third IVF treatment. (The pregnancy hormones could “accelerate the cancer,” Rancic recalled her doctor as saying.)

The star, who said she has no family history of breast cancer, “wasn’t prepared to get a mammogram until i was 40 years old,” she admitted. “I never in my wildest dreams expected anything to be wrong.”

When the hospital called a few days later to tell her the shocking news, Rancic admits she was immediately “sobbing…It was like the world just crashed around me.”

But a visibly emotional Rancic assured fans, “I will be okay, because I found it early. I’m doing surgery this coming week, and then I go to radiation for six and a half weeks.”

At her side throughout the ordeal is husband Bill Rancic, 40. “Bill is unbelievable,” Rancic gushed. “He lets me cry when I want to cry. He just lets me feel what I want to feel.”

And the spouses of four years are determined to continue in their attempts to conceive once Giuliana’s medical isseus are resolved. “I’m not gonna give up,” she said. When she does get pregnant, “That baby will have saved my life,” she mused. “There’s some master plan. Now I know that [God] was looking out for me.”

She urged all women to get tested for breast cancer. “I think a lot of us think we’re invincible,” she said. “We have to start putting ourselves on the to do list.”

[From US Weekly]

That’s pretty shocking. Giuliana explained on The Today Show she was initially against getting a mammogram and tried to argue against it to her doctor. She does have an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, but explained that she went through prior testing for the breast cancer gene and she’s not a carrier. For as much as I don’t like Giuliana, she’s doing a incredibly good thing here by reminding us to get checked. All the pink ribbons and very helpful reminders I’ve been seeing these past month were not as convincing to me as hearing Giuliana tell her story.

Giuliana and her husband Bill are shown on 10/14/11. Credit: Fame

Zachary Quinto came out as gay in honor of gay, bullied teen

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 07:19 AM PDT

In an interview with New York Magazine over the weekend, Zachary Quinto came out of the closet - or the glass closet, considering most people thought/knew he was gay, and the interview was just the first time he had confirmed it. Many of us praised Quinto for confirming/announcing his homosexuality in such a low-key way - this wasn't some People Magazine cover, or some tabloid report that Quinto wanted to get ahead of. As it turns out, Quinto did come out publicly for a very specific reason - to do his part for hope and acceptance for gay youth in the wake of a gay teenager's suicide last month. Jamey Rodemeyer was 14 years old and he was the victim of gay bullying, and he committed suicide just a few months after filming an "It Gets Better" video. Quinto wrote a blog post about his rationale:

when i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself - i felt deeply troubled. but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life - i felt indescribable despair.

i also made an it gets better video last year - in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time. but in light of jamey’s death - it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it - is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.

our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country. gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying. parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance.

we are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world. we are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government. i believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society - and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.

jamey rodemeyer’s life changed mine. and while his death only makes me wish that i had done this sooner - i am eternally grateful to him for being the catalyst for change within me. now i can only hope to serve as the same catalyst for even one other person in this world. that - i believe - is all that we can ask of ourselves and of each other.

zq.

[Quinto's Blog post (with minor edits)]

I buy that Quinto came out for the reason he's giving now - because he didn't want to live in the glass closet when there are young gay kids out there really struggling and looking for positive (gay) role models. I hope Quinto continues to speak about bullying, and I hope he will turn out to be a positive force in his community.

Here’s Quinto’s It Gets Better video:

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN.

Rooney Mara covers Vogue, in character as Lisbeth Salander: interesting or rough?

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 06:54 AM PDT

Rooney Mara covers the new issue of Vogue (on stands on Oct. 25), and much of the photo shoot does seem Girl With a Dragon Tattoo-themed. As I was reading the Vogue interview with Mara, however, I started to get mad. I couldn't put my finger on why I was getting so upset, though - I think it's a combination of things. First, I really liked the Swedish films, and fans of the books should definitely try them, because the adaptations are very faithful to the books. I also think Noomi Rapace did an amazing job as Lisbeth Salander, and I think she should get more credit for her work, her take on this now iconic character. It feels like Rooney Mara is getting so much credit for "getting the part" - when the part was already OWNED by a wonderful actress, Noomi. With this Vogue cover story - which isn't just a profile of Rooney, it also features a lot of David Fincher - it feels like people are already over-hyping Rooney and the project before anyone knows if it's any good. And I'm seriously worried about the film, as I've said before. You can read the full Vogue piece here, and here are some highlights:

Mara on the poster with her exposed breast: "There's a certain way people are used to seeing nude women, and that's in a submissive, coy pose, not looking at the camera," Mara says. "And in this poster, I'm looking dead into the camera with no expression on my face." She smiles and flicks a cigarette into the street. "I think it freaks a lot of people out."

Fincher on adapting the books: "Look, there are parts of the book that I don't love, and parts of it that make it a maddeningly difficult story to turn into a movie. We are walking in other people's footsteps, and we have to be careful." He is referring to the fact that a lot of people already love the Swedish film versions. "I am a contrarian by nature, so all it does is make me want to take real risks. I am like, 'If we are not out on the ledge juggling chain saws, then we are doing ourselves a huge disservice.' "

Daniel Craig on Fincher and Mara's mentor-protégée working relationship: "It's f-cking weird!"

Fincher gives Mara permission to eat: When a waiter appears to take our order, we are all looking at our menus, but I see out of the corner of my eye Fincher nudging Mara. He says with quiet seriousness, "You can eat." I look up to see her reaction. Mara rolls her eyes, and Fincher laughs. "You can have lettuce and a grape. A raisin if you must." She orders a piece of fish and barely touches it. "One of the things that make our version that much more heartbreaking," says Mara, "is that even though I am playing a 24-year-old, I look much younger. I look like a child." I ask if she had to get unhealthily skinny for the role. She says, "Umm . . . not really." "It hasn't been too hard for her," Fincher quickly adds.

Fincher on casting Rooney, and auditioning Scarlett Johansson: "I had seen a lot of actresses," he says. "I was beginning to get to the point where I was thinking, Maybe conceptually you are talking about a person who doesn't exist." One day his casting director said, "What about Rooney?" He resisted at first. "I believe in casting people whose core—that essential personality you can't beat out of them with a tire iron—has to work for the character." He needed someone who was dissociated, antisocial—the exact opposite of Erica Albright. But when he saw Mara's audition, he was "struck by how different it was from what I felt I already knew about her." Meanwhile, Fincher was also screen-testing every conceivable Salander on the planet. "We flew in people from New Zealand and Swaziland and all over the place," he says. "Look, we saw some amazing people. Scarlett Johansson was great. It was a great audition, I'm telling you. But the thing with Scarlett is, you can't wait for her to take her clothes off." He stops for a moment. "I keep trying to explain this. Salander should be like E.T. If you put E.T. dolls out before anyone had seen the movie, they would say, 'What is this little squishy thing?' Well, you know what? When he hides under the table and he grabs the Reese's Pieces, you love him! It has to be like that."

Mara on her personal transformation: "Before, I dressed much girlier," she says. "A lot of blush-colored things. Now I literally roll out of bed and put on whatever is there. I have really enjoyed being a boy this last year." If it took a lot of work to make Mara look the part, in some ways she already possessed the right stuff. "I am very slow to warm," Mara says. "I've always been sort of a loner. I didn't play team sports. I am better one-on-one than in big groups." This, she says, is one reason she gets the character. "I can understand wanting to be invisible and mistrusting people and wanting to understand everything before you engage with the world."

Daniel Craig on Rooney: "I wish I'd had someone like David at Rooney's age just to guide me and say what's good and what's bad. You don't know at that age. You are full of confidence, but you are also full of huge insecurities."

Mara on anticipation: Mara knows all too well she is breaking out at the very top. "Where do I go from here?" she says. "I've been trying to really live in the moment because I will never get this part of it back. As soon as the movie comes out, everyone will turn it into what they believe it is, so I've really been trying to appreciate every minute of now. Because I know what's coming." She is perhaps rightfully wary about the media circus that is sure to accompany the film's release. "That kind of fame is not something I ever wanted for myself," she says. "It just so happens that this huge, gigantic monster of a film came around that also happens to have the most incredible character that I ever could have dreamed up. But my fear with a movie like this is the kind of exposure you get from it. I think that can be death to an actor. The more people know about you, the less they can project who you are supposed to be. It's unfortunate that you really only get one shot at that. After this, I won't be able to be that girl again."

[From Vogue]

I have to say, I want to think Mara is capable of playing this part, but I think if she falls flat, it's not going to be her fault. It's going to be David Fincher's fault. Throughout the interview, there's a lot of discussion of the violence and Fincher's take on rape scene and who Lisbeth is as a woman, as a victim, as a moralist, and none of what he says inspires confidence in me. The genius of the Lisbeth character is that her physical and emotional strength is revealed in layers throughout the trilogy, and it's those strengths that propel the story forward. It just seems like Fincher is more concerned with making a violent, sexy, stylized film than telling Lisbeth's story, or doing justice to this amazing character.

See, I went through all of that and I didn't even mention Rooney Mara's bangs trauma.