Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Crushable

Crushable

Can We Talk About The Ridiculousness Of Brandy Playing A Politician On 90210?

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:50 AM PDT

It wasn’t until Brandy Norwood‘s second episode on The CW’s 90210 that I even recognized her. Can you blame me? She’s playing a political candidate named Marissa Hill-Young, for whom Silver (Jessica Stroup) starts making campaign videos. That’s not the first place my mind would’ve gone considering this is the R&B star who basically played herself on Moesha and starred in Cinderella.

There also wasn’t a lot of promotion; one day she popped up, and she’s been in each episode’s C-plot since. Michael Ausiello did break the story back in August, but it came and went. Interestingly, back then her character was named Marissa Jackson-Lewis. I wonder what was the reason behind the change.

A source described Brandy’s character as “a cross between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama“—you might guess that ostensibly it’s because she’s black and female, but the tipster probably meant that Marissa can relate to the youth vote. After all, she and Silver develop a pretty amicable working relationship.

Except that all we see Marissa giving Silver unsolicited love advice. So, a woman can only be a leader if she’s spouting wisdom about trusting your man? And for some reason, Brandy’s signature husky voice doesn’t fit my mental image of a politician.

Last night’s episode did hint at an interesting development: Silver feels her trust in Marissa is abused when she discovers that Marissa hired an actress for a campaign video. But Marissa explains that the words belonged to a single mother she actually met who simply didn’t feel comfortable appearing on camera. This is obviously a woman who understands the importance of getting a message out; I wonder what lengths she’ll go to for that goal.

Regardless, it’s difficult to take Brandy at face value playing a straight-up politician. Now, if 90210 – which does plenty of commentary on fame — wanted to cast her as a former pop star fighting for the political issues she cares about, then that would fly.

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Amanda Seyfried In Talks To Star In Linda Lovelace Biopic

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:26 AM PDT

What is it about the Hollywood collective unconscious that causes multiples of the same movie to get made at the same time? Just in the last little while, we’ve had news of multiple Snow Whites and multiple Jeff Buckley movies, as well as multiple Linda Lovelace biopics.

There’s been news of a few different Lovelace scripts floating around for a while now, but it seems one is head (heh) and shoulders above the rest, both in terms of the talent attached, and how close it is to actually getting made. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lovelace, a film based on the biography The Complete Linda Lovelace (published in 2001, a year before she died), is set to be directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Seyfried is currently in talks to star in it, and Peter Sarsgaard (not to be confused with A-Skars) is in talks to play her abusive pornographer husband, Chuck Traynor. Legions of the fresh-faced young actress’ creepy fans just got really, really excited.

Seyfried might seem like an odd choice to play a downward-spiraling porn star, as she’s still primarily known for playing sweet and innocent characters like Sarah on Big Love, but she’s a good enough actress that I’m sure she’ll convince us. Furthermore, she has already played a crazy hooker in Chloe (opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore) and she was great.

It would seem this is shaping up to be the slightly more highbrow of the two competing Linda Lovelace projects; Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story is reportedly going to star Malin Akerman (who is more of a model than an actress, at this point) and Matt Dillon. This is also the project that hired and fired Lindsay Lohan a bunch of times, so yes, points off for that.

May the most depressing Linda Lovelace biopic win!

(Via Variety)

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Video: Charlie Day’s SNL Promo Is Fairly Amusing

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:22 AM PDT

Everyone’s favorite spastic and childlike It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia actor is hosting SNL this week, and from the looks of the promo, dude is PUMPED.

In a series of short takes with Horrible Bosses co-star Jason Sudekis, Day reprises that one character he always plays as he babbles, hyperventilates, and snipes back and forth with Sudekis in a manner that suggests they are truly in love. Related: is it bad that I find Sudekis sort of annoying each time he opens his mouth? He just reads as a total frat boy to me when he plays “himself,” and not in a funny, self-aware way.

Anyway, I expect Day’s frantic delivery will be well-suited to this particular sketch comedy show, which is not known for its subtlety. How much you like his performance will probably be directly related to how much you like his schtick in general.

(Via Buzzfeed)

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Video: MTV Has The Cutest Glee Recaps

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:12 AM PDT

Have you see these super cute Glee video recaps that MTV’s Jim Cantiello does? This latest one featuring The Glee Project winner Damian McGinty (who plays the new Irish character Rory) is pretty wonderful. Jim tries out his Irish accent and it’s terrible! That Damian does not let him get away with it, though.

Side note: Can anyone actually do a good Irish accent? I pride myself on being able to do my share of funny voices (oh, shut up), and the Irish one is pretty darn impossible to nail. What’s the deal? Any Irish readers out there? If so, please explain your accent to me and also mail me a package of your delicious yellow butter.

(via MTV)

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Questionable Choices: Sarah Jessica Parker Wears The Most Extreme Fascinator

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 09:46 AM PDT

Holy shit, you guys! Sarah Jessica Parker is being sucked up into a black hole! She’s being vacuumed right up into it and all her molecules are going to explode or compress or whatever the hell happens inside a black hole. I’m not a scientist, you guys.

Sarah wore this insane fascinator hat thing to a luncheon in Australia. Is she trying to out-royal the royals? Wait, or is she actually a royal now? I’m pretty sure a hat is all it takes.

From another angle the hat kind of looks like a Pac-Man tribute! Which makes SJP a piece of fruit? My, oh my, what a bold sartorial choice.

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Do We Need To Stop Keeping Up With The Kardashians?

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 09:18 AM PDT

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Neil Patrick Harris Wins Halloween With Adorable Family Costume

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 08:57 AM PDT

Last night, Neil Patrick Harris sent out a twitpic of his family in costume for Halloween, and I damn near died of cuteness. This is like, puppies vs. kittens vs. babies levels of cute. It would appear NPH is portraying the venerable Captain Hook, while his dreamy twink of  a husband is Peter Pan. Their kids are their respective sidekicks, Smee and Tinkerbell, because why would you have children and deal with their poop, etc. if you couldn’t dress them up in ridiculous costumes?

In other NPH-related news, I am going to see A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas in 3D tonight(!), and I have every confidence that NPH will slay it even if the rest of the movie sucks. Between Harold and Kumar and Captain Hook, I’d say he plays villains surprisingly well.

(Via Neil Patrick Harris)

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Check Out The Hunger Games Cast In The December Vanity Fair

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 08:48 AM PDT

I’m going to say that this cast photo of The Hunger Games‘ tributes (from Vanity Fair) is even more exciting than the character posters that came out last week—because as cool as it was to see everyone in costume, here you get a real sense of how the cast interacts with one another. There are 24 tributes total; only nine are shown here. (Liam Hemsworth‘s character Gale doesn’t end up in the Games.)

If you go to VF’s official site, you’ll find that it’s an interactive poster; hover over each actor and you’ll find out tidbits about his/her background and how s/he got the part. (But be careful if you haven’t read the book; the article drops spoilers nilly-willy.) Check out the highlights, and meet each actor (from left to right), below.

Isabelle Fuhrman (Clove): You might remember Isabelle from her breakout role as the evil orphan Esther just a few years ago. It’s hard to believe that she’s only 14, but that’s actually why she didn’t get her original choice of role: Katniss. Producers told her she was too young, but then they asked her back to play the twisted District 2 tribute Clove. And considering her work in Orphan, it’s a much better fit.

Jack Quaid (Marvel): Dennis Quaid‘s son had quite the interesting audition process. “It was the first time I've ever been asked to choose a weapon at an audition,” he says. “I was given a choice between a Nerf crossbow, a plastic butcher knife, and a stick. I chose the knife.”

Jackie Emerson (Foxface): What’s so cool about Jackie’s story is that, in her words, “I was a fan asked to play a part in a movie I had only dreamed about, and the novelty of that has still not worn off.” Now she’s a fan with fans—there’s a Twitter campaign to get the aspiring singer a guest spot on Glee.

Dayo Okeniyi (Thresh): Dayo and Jackie seem to have become friends; they did a livechat over Twitter together and tweet back and forth. Though born in Nigeria, he moved with his family to the United States in 2003 but had only a handful of small movie roles before he got the chance to play the hulking tribute from the same district as Rue.

Leven Rambin (Glimmer): Probably the most fitting casting choice has the All My Children star playing Glimmer, the District 1 tribute who’s obsessed with the honor of winning and uses her sex appeal to get the audience rooting for her before the Games even start. Since Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is someone who doesn’t have the time or means to even consider being feminine — doesn’t do you much good if you starve — it’ll be interesting to see the two of them go up against each other.

Alexander Ludwig (Cato): Playing Clove’s equally insane counterpart forced Alexander to beef up before his audition. The timing was all very lovely: He graduated high school, went traveling all summer, worked out, then did his audition for director Gary Ross.

Amandla Stenberg (Rue): Although a lot of people wanted to see the more well-known Willow Smith in this fan-favorite role, we think that Amandla has what it takes. After all, she says that she showed up to her audition “wearing a muddy T-shirt and khakis. In my hair were twigs and leaves, as if I had been living in the woods for weeks.” Smart kid!

And then the three you know…

Josh Hutcherson (Peeta): The most important thing for the Kids Are All Right Star to nail was the chemistry with Jen, since Peeta and Katniss pretend to be in love to get the audience’s support during the Games. (Well, one of them is pretending…)

Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss): Despite wowing audiences in Winter’s Bone and being nominated for an Academy Award, Jennifer was so scared of the books’ importance that she almost turned down the script. But so far reaction to her as Katniss has been positive, since we already know she can carry a dramatic role.

Liam Hemsworth (Gale): Liam has the deepest quote of the bunch: “Could something like this actually happen to us one day? When you think about the fast-growing popularity of reality TV today, and the crazy premise of many of the reality-TV shows that are currently on the air, is it really that far off for us to consider something like this being possible?” He sure has thought about this a lot. Probably all that time he spends out of the Arena.

The Hunger Games comes to theaters on March 23, 2012. And yes, you can pick up the latest issue of Vanity Fair (out today) to forever treasure this photo.

Thanks to Down with the Capitol for the tip!

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