Kent Nishimura/Getty Images; Twitter

The National Football League’s policy bans players from using Twitter 90 minutes before a game and until postgame interviews are completed. But during Sunday’s Pro Bowl in Hawaii, the NFL is not only encouraging it ? they announced that they’ll be setting up a computer on each sideline for the players to use.

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American Superstar Magazine

Alicia Keys Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes Amanda Detmer Amanda Marcum

“Gossip Girl” (8 p.m. EST, The CW) “Clueless” writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair’s bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B’s back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair’s car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair’s secret.
Celebrity HuffingtonPost.com

Cindy Taylor Cinthia Moura Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen

There is no doubt free-spirited actress Drew Barrymore is a convert to love with her recent engagement, but will the union result in her conversion to Judaism?

The ?Big Miracle? star is so head-over-heels with her fiance, art consultant Will Kopelman, that she?s considering converting to his Jewish faith, a source told In Touch.

The bubbly star, 36, would have some great moral support ? good friend Adam Sandler has been helping her with the process of coverting, the source told the magazine.

?Those two absolutely adore each other, so it only made sense to Drew that he will be right by her side playing an important role at her wedding,? the source said of the two funny pals.

According to the insider, Barrymore told Kopelman?s family that she plans on raising their future children in the Jewish faith.

The actress? rep has denied talk about her potential conversion.

What is certain, however, is that Barrymore, who starred in ?Going the Distance,? is still reeling from her holiday engagement.

?I?m like, ?Oh goodness, it just happened a month ago! Do I not have it together or is it okay to keep daydreaming??? she told Robin Roberts Wednesday on ?Good Morning America.?

?We?re trying to figure it out. I think everyone expects you to kind of know right away what the plans are,? Barrymore said.

When reassured by Roberts that it was okay to still be in a floating, elated state, the actress beamed.

?For his happiness and people?s happiness, this is a really positive story and this is a positive time, and I like positivity,? she said. ?I?m just drawn to it.?

jchen@nydailynews.com

Daily News – Gossip

Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger

PROPHETS OF FUNK
David Dorfman Dance, The Joyce, 175 Eighth Ave.; 212-242-0800. Through Sunday.

Downtown choreographer David Dorfman gets his groove on ? with a lot of help from Sly and the Family Stone. ?Prophets of Funk? is a trip back to Dorfman?s funk and disco roots, but it?s not all polyester and nostalgia.

Clocking in at less than an hour, the piece is made to 14 recorded songs by the funk-rock band. Dorfman?s group started up in the mid-?60s and was one of the first to be integrated in both race and gender. Those themes percolate through ?Prophets.?

The biggest hits, though, ?Dance to the Music? and ?Everyday People,? don?t come till the end.

Afro wigs help David Dorfman?s dancers conjure the days when Sly and the Family Stone ruled.

Christopher Duggan

Afro wigs help David Dorfman?s dancers conjure the days when Sly and the Family Stone ruled.

Just as Sly and the Family Stone spanned eras, so do Dorfman?s kitschy costumes, from psychedelia and ?fros to petroleum-based plaids. There?s a mix of dancing styles, as well: loose modern dance, courageous jumps and plenty of funky disco.

Dorfman and his eight dancers occasionally speak and sing, but they don?t act out the songs. Dorfman, 56, is set off from the others as an older character who still loves to jive. There?s also a Sly Stone figure in dark glasses and an enormous ?fro.

At first, watching ?Prophets of Funk? is like being a fly on the wall at a nightclub. Then, slowly, bits of story emerge. A couple lies on the floor, but each gets pushed away and replaced by someone else, and the partners keep changing. Another woman removes her huge blond Afro wig as if she were shedding a persona and shakes her way through an impressive solo.

The cast cuts loose in high-energy performances, but ?Prophets? doesn?t always have the same power. Dorfman is more interested in themes than pure dance, but he?s not one to sink his teeth into an idea. He puts it out there and leaves you to draw your own conclusions.

For an encore, the cast goes into the house to bring people onstage to dance. Tuesday?s opening-night crowd ? filled with dancers and friends ? was only too happy to oblige.

NY Post: Entertainment

Chyler Leigh Ciara Cindy Crawford Cindy Taylor Cinthia Moura

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:25 PM on 27th January 2012

Most celebrities who opt for low-cut gowns at charity events are hoping to show off their figures to the best advantage.

But Vanessa Paradis should have perhaps rethought her outfit option as she attended the Sidaction Gala Dinner 2012 wearing a plunging gown which only served to highlight her lack of cleavage.

The Art Deco style sequinned dress and pearl drop necklace instead drew attention to the 39-year-old actress’ protruding ribcage, leading to more speculation that she had lost weight amid rumours of a split from long-term partner Johnny Depp.

Not the best option: Vanessa Paradis wore a plunging gown for the Sidaction Gala Dinner last night, but didn't quite have enough cleavage to fill it out

Not the best option: Vanessa Paradis wore a plunging gown for the Sidaction Gala Dinner last night, but didn’t quite have enough cleavage to fill it out

Art Deco style: The 39-year-old actress teamed the sequinned gown with a red clutch bag and black heels

Mother-of-two Vanessa came forward to deny the break-up rumours earlier this week as she promoted her new movie Cafe De Flore.

Asked about the reports on French TV show Le Grand Journal earlier this week, the actress said: ‘People say we are buying houses in the middle of nowhere, or that we have fifty two houses in France.

‘And that is along with saying we split up every winter and get married every summer, and that I’m on my twelfth pregnancy.

Happy and relaxed: Vanessa looked in good spirits at the event, after denying rumours she has split from long-term partner Johnny Depp

‘All that is not too serious, but this latest one is a rumour which could cause a lot of harm to my family and my children.’

It had been alleged that Vanessa and Depp, who have two children together, Lily-Rose, 12, and Jack, nine, had been ‘living separate lives’ and their relationship has been rocky for quite some time.

But after Vanessa’s rambled response to the questions about the split, presenter Marc Denisot then asked her, ‘Why don’t you respond to the rumour and put an end to it? Is the rumour false?’

Lovely in lace: Actress Diane Kruger and Dita Von Teese both opted for lace detail dresses for the occasion

To which Vanessa responded: ‘Yes it’s false – of course it’s false.’

And now she has finally put the rumours behind her, Vanessa looked happy and relaxed at last night’s charity event, smiling widely for the camera as she posed for photographs at her table.

Vanessa was joined by famous faces including burlesque star Dita Von Teese and actress Diane Kruger at last night’s event.

Red carpet staple: The Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto cinched in her black dress with a wide bow belt

Sticking to black: Juliette Binoche, Clemence Poesy and Anja Rubik all wore black dresses for the gala

Stunning German actress Kruger certainly stood out from the crowd in her grey lace dress, which featured a sheer panel on the bottom, and teamed the outfit with a matching silver clutch bag and long earrings.

Meanwhile, The Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto led the way for the ladies opting for the usual red carpet staple in little black dresses.

Ditto herself wore a long fitted black dress with a bow belt cinching in the waist, while Juliette Binoche, Clemence Poesy and Polish model Anja Rubik also all opted for black as they posed up before heading inside to the Pavillon d’Armenonville in the French capital.

Designers and their muses: Jean Paul Gaultier with Serbian fashion model Georgina Stojiljkovic and Christian Louboutin with Farida Khelfa

TV&Showbiz | Mail Online

Charlize Theron Chelsea Handler Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloe Sevigny

Greater Orlando Actors Theatre, or G.O.A.T., will present the Orlando premiere of the Broadway musical “Next to Normal,” beginning Thursday, Feb. 2, at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center.

“Next to Normal,” which won three Tony awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for drama, tells the story of a family trying their best not to fall apart through a crisis. The mother struggles with bipolar disorder, a condition that is worsening. The musical examines the effects that her illness has on her family.

Tom Kitt wrote the music, Brian Yorkey the book and lyrics.

The show is directed and musically directed by Michael Horn and produced by Paul Castaneda.

The cast includes Leesa Halstead, Michael Gunn, Wyatt Glover, Jaz Zepatos, Dan Middleditch and Brett Dault. Michael Horn is directing, Paul Castaneda is producing.

Horn will also music direct the show, which features a live band.

Featuring a live band

Performances are at 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Monday, Feb 2-6, and the following Thursday-Saturday, Feb 9.-11.

The Lowndes Shakespeare Center is at 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando.

Tickets are $ 20, $ 15 students and seniors. Call 407-872-8451 or go to goatgroup.org

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

Carol Grow Carrie Underwood Cat Power Catherine Bell Chandra West



Octomom Nadya Suleman’s octuplets turn three today.

Pray for them. Even if you’re not religious … just pray.

We’re legitimately shocked they all survived this long, looking relatively healthy to boot, her as the mom, but hey, it’s a very pleasant surprise. Eight times over.

Octomom Birthday Party

Nadya Suleman took her octuplets out for some fun to celebrate, hitting up the Seascape Kids Fun venue in Los Angeles. Looks like a good time was had, except perhaps by the random paparazzi guy creeping in the background.

Suleman’s octuplets are Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah.

Her other children are Elijah Makai, Amerah Yasmeen, Joshua Jacob, Aiden, Calyssa Airelle and Caleb Kai. Yes, that makes 14 kids and no jobs in all.

Again, pray for them.

[Photo: Pacific Coast News]

The Hollywood Gossip

Ananda Lewis Angela Marcello Angelina Jolie Anna Faris Anna Friel

Academy Awards

2012 Oscar Ballot: Cast your votes, create your own Oscars pool and challenge your friends.

The Oscar attention that Glenn Close received on Tuesday for her passion project, ?Albert Nobbs,? was really a triple win. Yes, she was nominated for best actress ? her first recognition by the Academy in 23 years. (Although she?s been nominated five times before, she?s never won.) But her co-star Janet McTeer also got a nod, as best supporting actress. They sent congratulatory text messages to each other on Tuesday morning.

Equally important for Ms. Close was the acknowledgment that her hair and makeup team received. Matthew W. Mungle, who created the makeup and prosthetics that turned Ms. Close into a 19th-century Irishman; Lynn Johnston, who applied it in a daily two-and-a-half-hour ritual; and Martial Corneville, the hairstylist and wig maker, were nominated as a team for best makeup.

?The three of them were integral to the characters that we were able to create,? Ms. Close said. ?The zen experience ? it was almost like a meditation every morning, as both Lynn and Martial would do their work. By the time you come out of it, it?s not you anymore.?

She was particularly thrilled that Mr. Corneville, who has been her wig maker for 20 years, was nominated. ?He did my wig in ?The House of the Spirits? and he designed and dressed all my Cruella wigs? ? in ?101 Dalmatians? ? ?which were unbelievable works of art,? she said. ?And Albert is the absolute opposite of Cruella! You can make a beautiful wig but then to be able to dress it is everything. Martial is incredibly innovative and solves certain technical problems with applying a wig. He?s a master of the hairline in the front.?

Ms. Close did not want Albert to have ?the slicked back kind of cliché look ? the Julie Andrews look that was great for ?Victor/Victoria.? ? Instead she showed Mr. Corneville an old photo of an aristocrat she?d found. ?He had the hair that couldn?t be totally tamed by pomade, and I thought that was really important for Albert,? she said.

To have Mr. Corneville nominated for an Oscar ? his first ? alongside her, ?it?s been my dream, really has been my dream,? Ms. Close said, ?because he has been one of my intimate collaborators.?

?Martial,? she added, ?mixes hair color the way an artist mixes paint.?

Correction: Jan. 25, 2012
An earlier version misstated the number of years since Ms. Close was last recognized by the Academy. It has been 23 years, not 13.

NYT > Movies

Brittany Murphy Brittany Snow Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle Brooke Burke



Jairon Jackson is a lover, not a fighter.

Jennifer Lopez made this seemingly random assessment last night on American Idol, after the 19-year old Colorado native sang an original track for the judges. He titled the single “So Hard,” but Jackson’s soulful crooning made the panel’s decision ever so easy.

Watch for yourself:

Jairon Jackson American Idol Auditionplay

Jairon Jackson American Idol Audition

Jairon was one of a number of Aspen contestants to celebrate this week with a Golden Ticket. Other standouts included Angie Zeiderman and Shelby Tweten.

The Hollywood Gossip

Angela Marcello Angelina Jolie Anna Faris Anna Friel Anna Kournikova

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 17: Actress Demi Moore attends the "Margin Call" premiere at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema on October 17, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Demi Moore was rushed to a hospital Monday night after paramedics spent a half hour at her home.

Demi Moore?s descent from red carpet to rehab followed a scary seizure-like crisis reportedly brought on by a decidedly downmarket party drug.

She was ?shaking? and otherwise ?acting like she was suffering from a seizure,? a source told E! News.

The raven-haired beauty, who handlers revealed is now seeking help for stress and ?exhaustion,? was doing ?whip-its,? TMZ.com reported online.

PHOTOS: CELEBS WHO’VE GONE TO REHAB

The gaseous canisters of nitrous oxide, inhaled from whipped cream dispensers, send users into a state of other-worldliness.

Friends have watched with increasing worry the 49-year-old ?Ghost? star?s downward spiral ? and stunning weight loss that has left her looking frail and gaunt.

People.com reports that a battle with prescription drug use was among the reasons her marriage to 33-year-old actor Ashton Kutcher collapsed.

?It was a sticking point for Ashton,? a source told the mag. ?He wanted her to take care of herself and get a hold of things, and she wouldn?t.?

?Her family and friends have been really worried,? the source said of Moore, whose first marriage to Bruce Willis, the father of her three daughters, also ended in divorce.

?Demi is a mess,? a friend told People.com.

?Really, it was over the last year her friends saw a change? another source said. ?She wasn?t sleeping as well, didn?t seem to be eating and looked really gaunt.?

It all came crashing down for the child of two alcoholics Monday night, when paramedics rushed to Moore?s Beverly Hills mansion at 10:49 p.m. and whisked her to a nearby hospital.

Eldest daughter Rumer Willis, 23, rushed to Moore?s side and was photographed looking visibly distraught as she smoked and spoke on a cell phone outside the hospital.

Moore?s publicist declined to comment on the reports of substance abuse.

This is Moore?s second-known stint in rehab. She sought help during her Brat Pack heyday after director Joel Schumacher threatened to cut her from the seminal coming-of-age flick ?St. Elmo?s Fire,? People reported.

?I remember she had a substance abuse problem. That was in the ?80s. But she was beautiful and charming and ragingly ambitious,? Michael Levine, Moore?s publicist at the time, told The News Wednesday.

?I think the issues of addiction are very complicated matters. You never ever recover fully.

You?re always recovering,? Levine said. ?Stress also exacerbates issues in people?s lives.?

With her old demons apparently resurfacing, Moore has dropped out of her most recent film project, the Linda Lovelace biopic ?Lovelace.?

She was set to play feminist icon Gloria Steinem in a small-but-critical role filming next week, sources said.

?We can advise she is no longer doing the movie,? publicist Carrie Gordon told The News.

?We?re sad. Surprised isn?t the word. We?re sad and feel for her at this time. She?s got our utmost love and support,? Heidi Jo Markel, a ?Lovelace? producer, told The News.

ndillon@nydailynews.com

Daily News – Gossip

Beyonce Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively Blu Cantrell



There have been so many shocking celebrity divorces lately, even by Hollywood standards. Not just breakups, but actual marriages crumbling before our eyes.

Some did surprise us more than others, but we can honestly say we didn’t see any of these divorce filings – all from the last 12 months alone! – coming at all.

Which of these splits shocked you the most? Vote in our poll below …

Kris, Kim PhotoLeah and Corey Split!Michaele and Tareq Salahi Picture

10. Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard. The New Girl star and the Death Cab For Cutie member certainly seemed like a perfect match. Apparently not.

9. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries. Okay, not all that surprising for myriad reasons we have been over ad nauseam on THG. But 72 days?! Idiots.

8. Tareq and Michaele Salahi. Like Kim and Kris, nothing about these two truly shocks us. Except her running off with Journey guitarist Neal Schon.

7. Leah Messer and Corey Simms. The stars of Teen Mom 2 seem so happy … on the episodes that are still airing now! Well, not last night’s. Still!

6. Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. Seemed an odd fit at the start, but their split came totally out of left field. Now she’s taking nitrous hits. Nitrous.

Seal and Heidi Klum PhotoAshton and Demi PictureMaria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger

5. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Apparently not the marrying type.

4. Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz. Remember them? We forgot too.

3. Katy Perry and Russell Brand. They’re polar opposites, but were so crazy about each other and we thought it was just crazy enough to last forever.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. The heiress to the Kennedy political dynasty and the Governator seemed as rock solid as they come.

1. Heidi Klum and Seal. Still fresh, but as stunning as any other celeb divorce we can remember based on the couple’s perpetual displays of love.

Which celebrity divorce filing shocked you most?

The Hollywood Gossip

AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright April Scott Arielle Kebbel Ashanti

ArtsFest may be celebrating its 10th year, but the party of free cultural events will last 29 days.

A decade after ArtsFest began as a two-day celebration of Central Florida’s artistic and cultural vibrancy, it has grown to 302 events in 87 venues.

The annual event, which runs Feb. 1-29, is presented by United Arts of Central Florida as it kicks off its annual fundraising campaign. It’s the first time ArtsFest will encompass a month of performances, exhibits and experiences across Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties. For a complete schedule of events, go to ArtsFestFL.com.

“In the beginning, it was just the United Arts-funded groups in ArtsFest,” said Emma Kruch, communications manager for United Arts. “But then more and more groups got involved.”

The idea is simple: Cultural organizations open their doors and show the public what they do ? exhibit art, perform ballet, play concertos, stage a play and on and on. And it’s all free.

Events with limited seating require tickets, which have already been distributed ? but if you didn’t get tickets, don’t worry: There are still more than 260 other events to try.

Before there was an ArtsFest, Central Florida arts groups ? mainly those in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park ? would let the public sample their offerings in an April event.

But arts leaders weren’t pleased with the timing.

“It was hard,” recalled Margot Knight, former CEO of United Arts. “It was the busiest time of these groups’ season.”

Knight, who left United Arts in October for a position in California, knew of a similar free-sampler program in Cincinnati. She also was interested in involving arts patrons in the kickoff of the annual fundraising campaign in February.

In a stroke of fortuitous timing, Bank of America was interested in moving its support of local arts into an experience-based program. Kathleen Waltz, then publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, was head of the United Arts board ? and she pledged the newspaper’s support.

In 2003, it all gelled into the first ArtsFest, which still has Bank of America as the presenting sponsor and the Sentinel as the media sponsor.

“For once, the campaign wasn’t just about the business community or raising money,” Knight said. “There was a public component.”

And the public responded.

The following year, the festival expanded to three days. And by 2006, it had grown to 10 days, encompassing two weekends.

“There was so much great stuff ? but it was all happening in two days,” said Autumn Ames, who headed ArtsFest between 2004 and 2008. “If you were out of town, you were stuck. This way patrons could have more experiences.”

In 2011, 40,145 free experiences were logged by United Arts. The group counts “experiences,” not attendance, because many patrons attend more than one ArtsFest event.

And that’s the point: To let the public see how many different opportunities for arts and cultural activities are around.

“The whole goal of ArtsFest is to get people to get out and try something new,” Ames said. “ArtsFest proves our points: There’s something for everybody, and there’s always something going on.”

ArtsFest 2012

?What: United Arts’ annual festival of free arts and cultural events

?When: Feb. 1-29

?Where: Venues across Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties

?Schedule and other information: ArtsFestFl.com

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison

  So yong kim
Have breakfast with writer-director So Yong Kim, tell her how remarkable her new film is, and you’ll see her put her menu in front of her face in embarrassment. But hearing compliments on the quietly exquisite ?For Ellen? is something the filmmaker is going to have to get used to. It’s that good.

The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, stars an excellent Paul Dano as the hard-edged and distraught Joby, a twenty-something hipster rock performer who’s lived only for his music and, on the verge of an unavoidable divorce, has to decide if he can live for something else as well, his young daughter, Ellen.

The role is a change of pace from Dano, and with its brooding central male character, ?For Ellen? is something of a departure as well for Kim, whose previous films, ?Treeless Mountain? and ?In Between Days,? dealt with girls. ?I didn’t really want to, I felt really terrified of starting,? she said of the new direction. ?But it felt like the right thing to do at that point.?

What unites ?For Ellen? with Kim’s earlier films is its focus on family, which stems from her own background.

?I grew up in a really weird situation in Korea,? the director, 42, said. ?My parents divorced when I was 4 or 5, my father disappeared, and my mother went to America. For five years I lived with my grandparents or aunts; it was kind of a nomadic lifestyle.

?So I’m very interested in stories about individuals within a family, how that person is shaped by family or lack of family. They’re always like a search for me, I’m trying to find out if other people felt the same way I did. It’s a learning thing.?

One of the starting points of ?For Ellen’s? script, Kim said, was ?a memory of my father visiting, such a little blip, but when you are in a vulnerable phase, you tend to remember things.?

So the Joby character started ?as my father now, then he turned white, became younger, and when I finished he was in his late 30s, an Adrien Brody  type.?

That is far from Dano’s age (he’s 27), but Kim gave him the script because she was thinking he might be good for the role of Joby’s divorce attorney.

?He called back and said in his soft-spoken way that he didn’t want to step on my toes but the [character Joby] could be younger, that would be really interesting.?

The filmmaker considered carefully, gave Dano the part and never looked back.

?Working with Paul was an incredible experience; he takes the character to another level, explores all the dimensions I could not express,? Kim said. ?He totally spoiled me.?

Playing Joby’s super-serious daughter Ellen is Shaylena Mandigo, discovered in a first-grade physical education class in Massena, N.Y., where the film was shot.

?She was one of the most serious little girls I’d ever seen, even doing skipping and jumping jacks in P.E.,? the director remembered. ?She was meticulous, she would not stop until she finished,? a trait that pays off in a wonderful scene in the film where Ellen carefully picks out a doll with her dad.

Given what a gifted filmmaker the New York-based Kim has turned out to be, it is a bit surprising to discover that she went to the Art Institute of Chicago determined to be an artist.

?But a professor told me I was a horrible painter, I didn’t have the touch,? she remembers. ?I had to do something else with my life, and I started doing multimedia and experimental videos.?

It was at the Art Institute that she met her future husband and fellow director Bradley Rust Gray (?The Exploding Girl?).

?Brad had been to USC, a proper production school, and when I saw him shooting it seemed so natural in a way, I thought ?This is how you do it.’?

Despite her experimental background, Kim makes films she considers to be ?not cutting edge, not pushing the boundaries of cinema. I really want to do traditional filmmaking very well, that’s my focus at the moment. I want to get really good at telling stories in a way that conveys emotional journeys.?

In this she is helped by Gray, who co-produced and co-edited ?For Ellen? with Kim. (When he makes a movie, she returns the favor.) ?It’s up and down, interesting and challenging, but it makes our work better,? said Kim, who’s hoping to find a distributor at Sundance.

?I do the first cut on my films, I include all the precious pieces I love and don’t want to let go. We battle over every cut, even four frames. ?If you cut that, he’s not going to blink. What’s what going to mean?’

?When you’re writing, you put as much as you can into the script, you don’t know what might be important. When you’re editing you take a lot out, you take out everything that distracts from the focus. A little extra fat is not necessary. It’s not perfect until everything is out that doesn’t need to be there.?

RELATED:

Sundance 2012: Bingham Ray remembered by Kenneth Turan

Sundance 2012: Bawdy chicks with flicks (but don’t say “Bridesmaids”)

Sundance 2012: Spike Lee says studios “know nothing about black people”

– Kenneth Turan in Park City, Utah

?Photo: Director So Yong Kim poses for a portrait at the Sundance Film Festival. Her latest film is “For Ellen.” Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times

Entertainment news – latimes.com

Anna Friel Anna Kournikova Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright

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Celebrity HuffingtonPost.com

Amanda Peet Amanda Righetti Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci Amber Brkich

ArtsFest may be celebrating its 10th year, but the party of free cultural events will last 29 days.

A decade after ArtsFest began as a two-day celebration of Central Florida’s artistic and cultural vibrancy, it has grown to 302 events in 87 venues.

The annual event, which runs Feb. 1-29, is presented by United Arts of Central Florida as it kicks off its annual fundraising campaign. It’s the first time ArtsFest will encompass a month of performances, exhibits and experiences across Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties. For a complete schedule of events, go to ArtsFestFL.com.

“In the beginning, it was just the United Arts-funded groups in ArtsFest,” said Emma Kruch, communications manager for United Arts. “But then more and more groups got involved.”

The idea is simple: Cultural organizations open their doors and show the public what they do ? exhibit art, perform ballet, play concertos, stage a play and on and on. And it’s all free.

Events with limited seating require tickets, which have already been distributed ? but if you didn’t get tickets, don’t worry: There are still more than 260 other events to try.

Before there was an ArtsFest, Central Florida arts groups ? mainly those in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park ? would let the public sample their offerings in an April event.

But arts leaders weren’t pleased with the timing.

“It was hard,” recalled Margot Knight, former CEO of United Arts. “It was the busiest time of these groups’ season.”

Knight, who left United Arts in October for a position in California, knew of a similar free-sampler program in Cincinnati. She also was interested in involving arts patrons in the kickoff of the annual fundraising campaign in February.

In a stroke of fortuitous timing, Bank of America was interested in moving its support of local arts into an experience-based program. Kathleen Waltz, then publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, was head of the United Arts board ? and she pledged the newspaper’s support.

In 2003, it all gelled into the first ArtsFest, which still has Bank of America as the presenting sponsor and the Sentinel as the media sponsor.

“For once, the campaign wasn’t just about the business community or raising money,” Knight said. “There was a public component.”

And the public responded.

The following year, the festival expanded to three days. And by 2006, it had grown to 10 days, encompassing two weekends.

“There was so much great stuff ? but it was all happening in two days,” said Autumn Ames, who headed ArtsFest between 2004 and 2008. “If you were out of town, you were stuck. This way patrons could have more experiences.”

In 2011, 40,145 free experiences were logged by United Arts. The group counts “experiences,” not attendance, because many patrons attend more than one ArtsFest event.

And that’s the point: To let the public see how many different opportunities for arts and cultural activities are around.

“The whole goal of ArtsFest is to get people to get out and try something new,” Ames said. “ArtsFest proves our points: There’s something for everybody, and there’s always something going on.”

ArtsFest 2012

?What: United Arts’ annual festival of free arts and cultural events

?When: Feb. 1-29

?Where: Venues across Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties

?Schedule and other information: ArtsFestFl.com

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

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Celebrity HuffingtonPost.com

Danneel Harris Deanna Russo Denise Richards Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger

  So yong kim
Have breakfast with writer-director So Yong Kim, tell her how remarkable her new film is, and you’ll see her put her menu in front of her face in embarrassment. But hearing compliments on the quietly exquisite ?For Ellen? is something the filmmaker is going to have to get used to. It’s that good.

The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, stars an excellent Paul Dano as the hard-edged and distraught Joby, a twenty-something hipster rock performer who’s lived only for his music and, on the verge of an unavoidable divorce, has to decide if he can live for something else as well, his young daughter, Ellen.

The role is a change of pace from Dano, and with its brooding central male character, ?For Ellen? is something of a departure as well for Kim, whose previous films, ?Treeless Mountain? and ?In Between Days,? dealt with girls. ?I didn’t really want to, I felt really terrified of starting,? she said of the new direction. ?But it felt like the right thing to do at that point.?

What unites ?For Ellen? with Kim’s earlier films is its focus on family, which stems from her own background.

?I grew up in a really weird situation in Korea,? the director, 42, said. ?My parents divorced when I was 4 or 5, my father disappeared, and my mother went to America. For five years I lived with my grandparents or aunts; it was kind of a nomadic lifestyle.

?So I’m very interested in stories about individuals within a family, how that person is shaped by family or lack of family. They’re always like a search for me, I’m trying to find out if other people felt the same way I did. It’s a learning thing.?

One of the starting points of ?For Ellen’s? script, Kim said, was ?a memory of my father visiting, such a little blip, but when you are in a vulnerable phase, you tend to remember things.?

So the Joby character started ?as my father now, then he turned white, became younger, and when I finished he was in his late 30s, an Adrien Brody  type.?

That is far from Dano’s age (he’s 27), but Kim gave him the script because she was thinking he might be good for the role of Joby’s divorce attorney.

?He called back and said in his soft-spoken way that he didn’t want to step on my toes but the [character Joby] could be younger, that would be really interesting.?

The filmmaker considered carefully, gave Dano the part and never looked back.

?Working with Paul was an incredible experience; he takes the character to another level, explores all the dimensions I could not express,? Kim said. ?He totally spoiled me.?

Playing Joby’s super-serious daughter Ellen is Shaylena Mandigo, discovered in a first-grade physical education class in Massena, N.Y., where the film was shot.

?She was one of the most serious little girls I’d ever seen, even doing skipping and jumping jacks in P.E.,? the director remembered. ?She was meticulous, she would not stop until she finished,? a trait that pays off in a wonderful scene in the film where Ellen carefully picks out a doll with her dad.

Given what a gifted filmmaker the New York-based Kim has turned out to be, it is a bit surprising to discover that she went to the Art Institute of Chicago determined to be an artist.

?But a professor told me I was a horrible painter, I didn’t have the touch,? she remembers. ?I had to do something else with my life, and I started doing multimedia and experimental videos.?

It was at the Art Institute that she met her future husband and fellow director Bradley Rust Gray (?The Exploding Girl?).

?Brad had been to USC, a proper production school, and when I saw him shooting it seemed so natural in a way, I thought ?This is how you do it.’?

Despite her experimental background, Kim makes films she considers to be ?not cutting edge, not pushing the boundaries of cinema. I really want to do traditional filmmaking very well, that’s my focus at the moment. I want to get really good at telling stories in a way that conveys emotional journeys.?

In this she is helped by Gray, who co-produced and co-edited ?For Ellen? with Kim. (When he makes a movie, she returns the favor.) ?It’s up and down, interesting and challenging, but it makes our work better,? said Kim, who’s hoping to find a distributor at Sundance.

?I do the first cut on my films, I include all the precious pieces I love and don’t want to let go. We battle over every cut, even four frames. ?If you cut that, he’s not going to blink. What’s what going to mean?’

?When you’re writing, you put as much as you can into the script, you don’t know what might be important. When you’re editing you take a lot out, you take out everything that distracts from the focus. A little extra fat is not necessary. It’s not perfect until everything is out that doesn’t need to be there.?

RELATED:

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Sundance 2012: Bawdy chicks with flicks (but don’t say “Bridesmaids”)

Sundance 2012: Spike Lee says studios “know nothing about black people”

– Kenneth Turan in Park City, Utah

?Photo: Director So Yong Kim poses for a portrait at the Sundance Film Festival. Her latest film is “For Ellen.” Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times

Entertainment news – latimes.com

Carrie Underwood Cat Power Catherine Bell Chandra West Charisma Carpenter

Cynthia Nixon’s comments about her being gay as a “choice” made me yearn for the clarity of Anne Heche. Laugh all you want, but a decade ago, when Anne and Ellen broke up, and Anne began a relationship with a man, she was quite skilled at articulating the complexity of sexual orientation and refusing to label herself. But I am not about to jump onto the “bash Cynthia Nixon” bandwagon. To the contrary, I believe Cynthia was likewise trying to speak to the same complexities. She just didn’t realize the backlash that would result and is now suddenly responsible for the end of gay civilization as we know it. Give me a break. If anything, this controversy is primarily a reflection of the amount of influence and power celebrities have in our culture.

I do not know Cynthia Nixon, but from what I have seen, she appears to be a smart, passionate, articulate woman who is in a relationship that is based on love and respect. As a parent, she has been an advocate for children and education and is making a difference. But at the end of the day, this is not about her. How about we pull off the target from her back, take a deep breath, and look at the issues behind the firestorm rather than focus on the person who struck the match?

Personally, I believe Cynthia spoke her truth without parsing her words and now finds herself the object of hostility and anger from the absolutists in our community, for a variety of reasons. This is what happens in a world where identity politics rule and the willingness to live “in the grey” gets in the way of our progress as a community and culture. So let’s talk about it.

First, we should be thanking her for giving us an opportunity to talk about the lavender elephant in the room that plagues our community and organizations: talking about sexual orientation for what is really is, a complex human trait that is not fully understood, and not a simple gay/straight binary but a spectrum of behavior and identities that includes bisexuality.

And it also includes choices, especially for women, which has been borne out of research on the fluidity of sexual orientation. My mantra is, “The only choice we make is to be honest about who we are,” and that is exactly what she did. My own experience is that I have always been attracted emotionally and physically to women only. And I identify as lesbian. But I know plenty of women (including my wife) who may best be described as “lesbian-identified bisexuals,” having the capacity to be attracted to men and women but choosing an identity that they feel comfortable with and which reflects how they want to be publicly known. How many? Who knows? And who cares? That’s their choice, and I respect it. It is interesting how it seems more common in women than men, but that’s a whole other post.

When we get caught up in the argument that says we are “born this way,” and that is the argument for equality, we’d best look at the ways that those whom we would call anti-gay and who would prefer that we not exist might find some way to determine the sexual orientation of a fetus and play the biological determinism game, just like people do with sex-selection of fetuses and the infanticide of infant girls (yet sexism still is an insidious problem, right?).

“Why are people gay?” is still a common question for a lot of people. (Of course, the L, B, and T in LGBT are rarely part of the question, but you know what I mean.) When asked, I often respond with another question: “Why are people straight?” The answer is that human sexuality — and sexual orientation — is a complex, fluid, messy, and individualized human trait, and one that most likely has some genetic components. How people express that trait — how they behave, what they think and feel — is what makes this so challenging. Human nature and reality make the answers more difficult, but they are also what make us beautifully diverse. And that’s a good thing, not something we should be afraid to talk about. Maybe it is because it would involve talking about sexual behavior? Can’t do that, can we? Or can we?

In my experience, most people are neither stupid nor naïve, and when presented with real people and compelling arguments that are not abstract or simplistic, they get it. Or at least they begin to think about things differently, which is the best we can hope for with some.

Anyone who knows me or my work as an activist is well aware that you would be hard-pressed to find a bigger ally to the bisexual community. (Google “Cathy Renna bi ally.” Really.) I constantly push back when speaking with journalists, activists, and anyone who will listen about the problems that arise from the lack of visibility of the bi community and the lack of willingness to talk about sexual orientation in a complex, nuanced way. It has not been easy, but maybe this fire that Cynthia has sparked will finally light a fire under the bottoms of those in a position to do more and do better.

Follow Cathy Renna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cathyrenna

Celebrity HuffingtonPost.com

Chyler Leigh Ciara Cindy Crawford Cindy Taylor Cinthia Moura

Hollywood Bowl
It will require a lot of people to put together this year’s Hollywood Bowl season, including a number of FOGs, FOHs and FOJs. Namely, friends of Gustavo Dudamel, friends of Herbie Hancock and friends of John Williams.

Among the highlights of this year’s Bowl lineup, to be announced Tuesday, will be performances of Mel Brooks’ record-setting hit musical “The Producers,” a tribute to Pixar’s animation wizards, a Fourth of July program headlined by Barry Manilow, and a production of Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto” starring baritone Zeljko Lucic and conducted by Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director. 

Several of the Bowl’s other attractions this season can be credited, in part, to the extensive network of personal and professional relationships maintained by Dudamel, Hancock, who is the Phil’s creative chair for jazz, and Williams, the prolific Hollywood composer who makes frequent appearances at the Bowl and the Phil’s other home, the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

PHOTOS: 2012 Hollywood Bowl highlights

“We find a lot of artists do things for us at the Bowl with their friends in a special-event category, because it?s the Bowl,” said Arvind Manocha, the Phil’s chief operating officer. “One of the things we feel very proud of is, 90% of our season are concerts that don?t tour, that are not going anywhere else, that are created for us, that will be done here, and they won?t be part of a 20-city engagement.”

A central point of this season’s tailor-made, site-specific programming will be the “Americas and Americans” festival (Aug. 14-19), an exploration of music from across the hemisphere, spearheaded by Dudamel. The Venezuela-born conductor has enlisted several Latin American colleagues, including Colombian rocker Juanes, Panamanian salsa singer-songwriter Rubén Blades and Dominican pop-merengue artist Juan Luis Guerra, to take part in various concerts.

“Juan Luis Guerra was somebody that actually we were trying to book to be a jazz headliner at the Bowl,” said Deborah Borda, the Phil’s president. “But Gustavo wrote to him or called him — he knows everybody.”

Also participating for one concert of the festival will be one of Dudamel’s hometown acquaintances, Plácido Domingo, the superstar Spanish tenor and general director of L.A. Opera.

Hancock also has many artist pals in high places. He’ll be joined by longtime friend and collaborator Wayne Shorter, along with guests Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman, for an Aug. 29 concert themed “Celebrating Peace.” Other jazz concerts will feature appearances by Diana Krall, Anita Baker and Grammy Award-winning bassist Esperanza Spalding, as well as the Neville Brothers, on what’s being billed as their farewell tour.

On the classical side of the Bowl’s season, violin virtuoso Gil Shaham will be the featured soloist Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 for the program “John Williams: Maestro of the Movies.” Not coincidentally, Shaham and Williams are longtime associates.

“We work at it,” Borda said, referring to the Phil’s artistic interconnections. “You know, what’s fascinating is Wayne and Herbie, Gil and John, Gustavo and Plácido. And then Gustavo and Juanes and Guerra.”

The annual fully staged musical at the Bowl will be Mel Brooks’ Tony-winning “The Producers” (July 27-29). The cast will be announced at a later date.

One-night concerts will include Norah Jones (Aug. 10) and Liza Minnelli (Aug. 11).

On other classical nights when the Phil musicians don their summer whites, soloists will include pianist Yuja Wang, whose eye-catching attire last season at the Bowl provoked nearly as much commentary as her playing; violinist Joshua Bell, performing with bassist, collaborator (and friend) Edgar Meyer; and Yefim Bronfman, joining Phil resident conductor Lionel Bringuier on a program of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto and Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.”

Performers at KCRW’s World Festival Sunday evening concerts will include London electronic groovemeisters Hot Chip teaming with Passion Pit (Sept. 9); Black Eyed Peas rapper-DJ Aple.de.ap celebrating his Filipino musical heritage (July 22) and the foursome of Animal Collective joined by Tuvan throat singing group Huun Huur Tu (Sept. 23).

Manocha said that one other “very unusual soloist” will be making his Bowl debut: L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who’ll read the narrative sections of Aaron Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” in a Sept. 11 program with the L.A. Phil.

“Zev has been a great supporter of the Bowl, in all sorts of ways,” Borda said. “So we have engaged him to do this, and he doesn’t have to wear a costume, I told him.”

The Phil will release the full Bowl schedule on its website on Tuesday.

RELATED:

Ninety Miles celebrates Cuba’s jazz link

Live review: A Beatles influence at ‘Big in Japan’

Music review: Gustavo Dudamel conducts Mahler’s First and Tenth

– Reed Johnson

Photo: The Hollywood Bowl. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Entertainment news – latimes.com

Amanda Marcum Amanda Peet Amanda Righetti Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci

untouchable-kaley-cuoco-rob-lowe_240.jpg

Image Credit: Michael Yarish/Lifetime

Rob Lowe?s Midwestern accent seemed hit-or-miss, but the affable actor proved last night that he can well handle the role of grinning scum bucket. I watched his Lifetime original movie Drew Peterson: Untouchable. Why? There?s no good answer to this, really, other than the fact that never before has there been such a perfect storm of Lifetime main ingredients. Rob Lowe had a salt-and-pepper brush hair cut and a choppy mustache and in the first few minutes he sneered ?Big Daddy?s got it going on? while en flagrante. To embody the Illinois policeman accused of murdering his third wife, and who many still believe killed his fourth, Lowe turned on ooze Parks and Recreation fans might not have thought he had in him. In The Descendants, George Clooney made a paunchy Hawaiian shirt look tender and vulnerable. Here Lowe wielded it as a weapon. Can he star in every Lifetime man-wrongs-woman movie from here on out?

But perhaps even better than the movie itself were the previews for upcoming Lifetime ?events? that appeared in between diet-food commercials. I?m not sure which one intrigued and perplexed me more?Jennifer Love Hewitt?s new series The Client List or the new season of Army Wives. Somehow I?d never heard of The Client List, though apparently it?s based on Hewitt?s 2010 movie, and even after watching a tease I can?t really tell you what Lifetime has in store for us. All I really gathered is that her character most likely isn?t wearing anything beneath her trench coat, she?s holding a coiled-up towel like a whip, and she prefers to be lit only by candlelight. (I Googled the show and, duh, it turns out she?s playing a single mother down on her luck who runs a prostitution ring out of a day spa. Lifetime jackpot!)

And there?s the Army Wives promo, which seemed like a hammy rip of Desperate Housewives. At first I wasn?t sure if I was watching a Venus razor commercial. Barefoot women in shimmery sheaths assemble on Main Street. In the background a lady croons ?Riders on the Storm? while storm clouds swirl ominously overhead. ?This March,? a voice warns, ?one wife won?t weather the storm.? I know I should use my spare time to see what all the fuss over Downton Abbey is about but I fear the draw of Lifetime melodrama will be too strong to resist.

PopWatchers, did anybody else enjoy a similarly sad/awesome Saturday night? Was Rob Lowe engineered in a lab to anchor a Lifetime Saturday night movie? Are there experiments that prove your serotonin levels droop about 35 minutes into any Lifetime movie? Do your prefer your Lowe affable or arrogant and murderous? One has to admire the niche Jennifer Love Hewitt has doggedly carved out for herself in Hollywood, no?

PopWatch

Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons

January 23, 2012, 2:30 pm

First there was the producer Thomas Langmann?s appealing speech when ?The Artist? won the Golden Globe. Then the film took the Producers Guild?s top prize. But long before Oscar nominations are announced (tomorrow) and even before awards season began, it had an advantage: as the Bagger?s colleague Michael Cieply explained, ?The Artist? had a whopping 68 names on its cast list, and that may interest the actors who make up the Academy?s huge voting bloc.

Academy Awards

News, features and multimedia about the Oscars race.

The film?s casting director, Heidi Levitt, developer of the Actor Genie app, said she sought less well-known actors from Los Angeles and New York whom she had used in other pictures and television shows. As the actors tried out with Ms. Levitt, her casting associate Michael Sanford, a reader and a camera operator in the room, their auditions were filmed in black and white, to see how the performances would look in the finished version. Links to the footage were then sent to the director, Michel Hazanavicius. (If you want to hear more from Mr. Hazanavicius or one of the stars of the film, Berenice Bejo, they are participating in a live chat at 4:30 Eastern time here.)

?When we watched the videos? later, Ms. Levitt reports, ?we usually turned off the sound.?

Hit mute and take a look at the audition footage she and the Weinstein Company shared with us.

NYT > Movies

Brody Dalle Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps Cameron Diaz

Credit: Splash News

While we don’t often promote infidelity here at Buzzworthy, we’re totally loving Selena Gomez cheating on her recent musical retirement AND even sneaking an adulterous cuddle with a puppy other than her own, Bailer. We just have a really hard time feeling bad for a dog that also has Justin Bieber for a dad.

Selena recently joined the stage with Big Time Rush at the House Of Blues in Hollywood for an acoustic concert that raised over $ 200,000 for UNICEF, a foundation that focuses on ending world hunger. Selena took on saving the world by performing “Who Says,” “Love You Like A Love Song” and even covered Jason Mraz’s “I Won’t Give Up” while snuggling with a puppy that belongs to one of the dudes in BTR — everyone all together now: “Awwwww.”

We’re not exactly sure how the internet didn’t implode from cuteness overload when this picture was first uploaded, but we can definitely promise that the puppy Selena held on stage has already lived a more exciting life than most of us. Pray to come back as a celebrity pet for your next round on earth, guys.

MTV Buzzworthy Blog

Jaime King Jaime Pressly Jamie Chung Jamie Gunns Jamie Lynn Sigler

Dr. Drew Takes A Sip of Honey Boo Boo Child’s Go-Go-Juice on “Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers” airing February 2nd at 3:00pm on The CW


Celebrity Mound

Dita Von Teese Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo Drew Barrymore

She’s been on a long holiday to Hawaii, and it seems beautiful Barbadian-born singer Rihanna was still in holiday mode when she jetted back into Los Angeles this week.

Having spent much of her break being snapped in itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis,  the 23-year-old had to cover up for the first time in a while and looked as though she’d come right fron the beach or poolside, sporting just an almost sheer black bandeau maxi dress as she touched down at LAX airport.

The casual look was completed with loose curls. no make up and nderstated gold hoop earrings, neck chains and bracelets. But we reckon Rihanna au naturel still looks pretty good!

Image credit: Splash News

Robot Celeb

Gina Carano Gina Gershon Gina Philips Gisele Bundchen Giuliana DePandi

When you reflect back on the biggest movies of 2011, taking into consideration box office success, buzz and residual impact, "Bridesmaids" is an obvious choice for the top of the list.

The film, written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo and directed by Paul Feig, not only established a box office record – it's the top-grossing R-rated female comedy ever with $ 169 million earned domestically – but it was also loved by both critics and audiences alike.

Add to that its lingering cultural impact of reinforcing the (captain obvious) concept that women can be just as raunchily comedic as men, along with the public clamoring for a sequel, and it would make sense if you expect to see it among the best picture Oscar nominees announced tomorrow.

The debate over whether this comedy could find a spot on the Oscar nods list has been going on since its release last May. (In a review, The Wrap, wary of over-praising the film, toned down expectations by saying that "Bridesmaids" "won't change your life or win a fistful of Oscar nominations…But it will make you laugh…)

Let's say you weren't betting on a "fistful" of Oscar nods, but rather just one or two. Most acknowledge that "Bridesmaids" could find itself among the best picture nominees, or snagging a best supporting actress nod for Melissa McCarthy.

The best picture possibilities, it seems, really boil down to whether the Academy will go with five nominees, or 10 – because it could be anywhere in between.

"It will fluctuate between five and 10, depending on the strength of support behind the films," Gold Derby explained in December. In a poll of Oscars watchers, most came to the conclusion that if the category were to allow 10 nods, "Bridesmaids" would slide right in.

With just days to go before the nominations, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and E! all had "Bridesmaids" sneaking onto their lists of possible best picture Oscar nominees, although THR notes that it sees "Bridesmaids" as more of a "potential surprise" than an actual contender.

The Los Angeles Times, with the aid of its "heat meter," is also less confident."Though the perception is that the movie has some traction in the run-up to the Oscars, the numbers paint a somewhat different picture," the paper notes, going on to illustrate with its data that the film itself is "a long-shot in pretty much all of the categories in which it might hope to compete."

McCarthy, considered a front-runner for the best supporting actress category, is more like a maybe, the Times said. Expectations would be better placed on the movie picking up a best original screenplay nod. While it's true that the Academy will recognize successful films that have resonated with moviegoers – such as "Avatar," or "The Blind Side" – "it's just increasingly clear they're not hungry for this big commercial hit."

New York Magazine's Vulture breaks it down this way: "The Globes has separate categories for comedy, and still 'Bridesmaids' didn't break through. Can it really make the best picture cut with the much tougher Oscar membership?"

That's the question on the table, Oscars watchers. The industry observers are leaning toward a big, fat "maybe," but what do you think? Is a best picture nod in the cards for "Bridesmaids," and do you think McCarthy's chances of a best supporting actress nod are as strong as everyone has been saying? Sound off below!


The Marquee Blog

Fergie Foxy Brown Freida Pinto FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union

I like how almost everybody wears black to the ?lesser? awards shows. Not that the Producers Guild Awards aren?t important – I think all of the guild awards are probably better harbingers for the Oscars than the critics? awards and the Golden Globes. But no one is racing to televise the Producers Guild Awards or the Writers Guild Awards, and there isn?t some huge red carpet walk, so when stars show up for the guild awards, they?re usually low-key in some simple black ensemble. But! Some ladies did sex it up. Like Sofia Vergara, who could honestly make a burlap sack look obscene. Sofia?s black (and burgundy?) sequined dress is by Monique Lhuillier. It?s pretty, and it?s a great design for Sofia?s curves, but I would have liked it more if it was all burgundy or all black.

Here?s Evan Rachel Wood in a fantastic black double-breasted suit. I can?t find the designer ID – I?ll guess Ralph Lauren? I like that Evan is confident enough to cover up in a black suit!

Jessica Chastain?s style surprised me – her look over the past year has been inconsistent, and she?s given me the impression that she really doesn?t care too much about fashion and styling. But I think someone might have gotten a hold of her this week, after her disaster of a look at the Golden Globes. Jessica looks great (and sexy) in this Balenciaga gown, and I love the pop of the green earrings and red nails. Her hair is improving too.

And here?s Viola Davis, one of the few ladies in color, in a lovely green Hervé L. Leroux dress. It?s a nice dress for a less-prominent awards ceremony. And her hair has improved a lot.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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Cele|bitchy

Janet Jackson January Jones Jennie Finch Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis

Steven Tyler Gets Low Marks for Pitchy National Anthem | Steven Tyler

Steven Tyler sings before the AFC Championship NFL football game, Jan, 22, 2012

Elise Amendola/AP

It wasn’t a performance that would get him to Hollywood.

Steven Tyler took some heat Sunday after singing an off-kilter, screechy version of The Star-Spangled Banner before an NFL playoff game between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens in Foxborough, Mass.

The crowd at the game began heckling the American Idol judge, 63, as he worked his way through the national anthem, missing notes and flubbing lyrics.

He sang “as bomb bursting in air” instead of “the bombs bursting in air” and “oh the land of the free” instead of “o’er the land of the free.”

ESPN analyst Skip Bayless spoke for many when he Tweeted: “How could Patriots be inspired by that awful Anthem sung by Steven Tyler? At least give him some screaming guitars to camouflage voice.”

Greg Gutfeld, host of FOX News Channel?s Red Eye and co-host of The Five, added: “i went outside to put a raccoon out of its misery ? then i realized my neighbor was watching Steven Tyler sing the Star-Spangled Banner.”

Others felt that the frontman of Boston-based Aerosmith was just being himself. “I’m not understanding the people who say Steven Tyler ‘butchered’ the national anthem,” wrote one of his fans on Twitter. “He sang as he always does ? what were you expecting?”

People.com Latest News

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Just back: Portugal

January 26, 2012

Last Updated: 3:35 PM, January 23, 2012

Posted: 3:04 PM, January 23, 2012

What we learned a week ago in Portugal?s Algarve region:

1) Adrian Grenier has good taste in music. The ?Entourage? star, in town with business partner Peter Glatzer to promote their new SHFT House Wine at the Vila Joya resort?s International Gourmet Festival in Albufeira, hit an afterparty at local hot spot Le Club. It was around 1:30 a.m., before the house-music crowd really rolled in, so Grenier plugged in his iPhone playlist and took over the front lounge?s DJ booth. As befitting a man who lives in Brooklyn, he spun an eclectic mix that skewed indie with Passion Pit and Sleigh Bells. By 4 a.m., both the front lounge and back dance floor (where DJ Tom Novy proved that there?s no bigger club banger than Calvin Harris? ?Feel So Close?) were mobbed. Grenier stayed until past 5 a.m., DJing for and dancing with an appreciative crowd that included chef Todd English, who spent the day filming at the fish market for his PBS show, and Tamar Poyser, winner of the Rachael Ray?s ?Hey, Can You Cook?! All-Stars? competition. (English would later tweet that he loved Grenier?s wine ? produced by sustainable vineyards in Paso Robles, Calif. ? and wants it in his restaurants.)

NY Post: Entertainment

Charlize Theron Chelsea Handler Cheryl Burke China Chow Chloe Sevigny

Jim-Carrey-Daughter-American-IdolShow biz must run in the family! Jim Carrey seems to have passed down his good genes to his 24-year-old daughter Jane Carrey. The funnyman?s daughter auditioned for American Idol on Sunday?s episode and her voice earned her one golden ticket to Hollywood! The Hollywood heir chose to sing Bonnie Raitt?s ?Something to Talk About,?…Read more»
American Superstar Magazine

Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento

untouchable-kaley-cuoco-rob-lowe_240.jpg

Image Credit: Michael Yarish/Lifetime

Rob Lowe?s Midwestern accent seemed hit-or-miss, but the affable actor proved last night that he can well handle the role of grinning scum bucket. I watched his Lifetime original movie Drew Peterson: Untouchable. Why? There?s no good answer to this, really, other than the fact that never before has there been such a perfect storm of Lifetime main ingredients. Rob Lowe had a salt-and-pepper brush hair cut and a choppy mustache and in the first few minutes he sneered ?Big Daddy?s got it going on? while en flagrante. To embody the Illinois policeman accused of murdering his third wife, and who many still believe killed his fourth, Lowe turned on ooze Parks and Recreation fans might not have thought he had in him. In The Descendants, George Clooney made a paunchy Hawaiian shirt look tender and vulnerable. Here Lowe wielded it as a weapon. Can he star in every Lifetime man-wrongs-woman movie from here on out?

But perhaps even better than the movie itself were the previews for upcoming Lifetime ?events? that appeared in between diet-food commercials. I?m not sure which one intrigued and perplexed me more?Jennifer Love Hewitt?s new series The Client List or the new season of Army Wives. Somehow I?d never heard of The Client List, though apparently it?s based on Hewitt?s 2010 movie, and even after watching a tease I can?t really tell you what Lifetime has in store for us. All I really gathered is that her character most likely isn?t wearing anything beneath her trench coat, she?s holding a coiled-up towel like a whip, and she prefers to be lit only by candlelight. (I Googled the show and, duh, it turns out she?s playing a single mother down on her luck who runs a prostitution ring out of a day spa. Lifetime jackpot!)

And there?s the Army Wives promo, which seemed like a hammy rip of Desperate Housewives. At first I wasn?t sure if I was watching a Venus razor commercial. Barefoot women in shimmery sheaths assemble on Main Street. In the background a lady croons ?Riders on the Storm? while storm clouds swirl ominously overhead. ?This March,? a voice warns, ?one wife won?t weather the storm.? I know I should use my spare time to see what all the fuss over Downton Abbey is about but I fear the draw of Lifetime melodrama will be too strong to resist.

PopWatchers, did anybody else enjoy a similarly sad/awesome Saturday night? Was Rob Lowe engineered in a lab to anchor a Lifetime Saturday night movie? Are there experiments that prove your serotonin levels droop about 35 minutes into any Lifetime movie? Do your prefer your Lowe affable or arrogant and murderous? One has to admire the niche Jennifer Love Hewitt has doggedly carved out for herself in Hollywood, no?

PopWatch

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Genghis Khan and etiquette.

OK, that’s an unlikely pair.

But Rob Gee has a way of drawing connections in highly humorous fashion ? whether he’s talking about working in a mental hospital or teaching children.

Those who have seen his Orlando Fringe Festival shows “Fruitcake” and “Smartarse” know what I’m talking about.

Now the rest of you get a chance to hear Gee spin his yarns ? and brush up on your manners, as well, one presumes ? in Gee’s new show, “Genghis Khan’s Guide to Etiquette.”

Produced by Beth Marshall Presents, the show opens Thursday for four performances only.

Gee describes the show as “a highly inappropriate celebration of social skills ? and sometimes their absence.”

Based in the United Kingdom, Gee has won “Best of Fest” awards on the global Fringe circuit in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Victoria and Minnesota.

As a slam poet, he has won the Orlando Fringe Poetry Smackdown in both 2010 and 2011. (You can find out more about Gee at robgee.co.uk)

Performances take place at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando. Showtimes are 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 26-28, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29.

Tickets are $ 20; $ 5 discount for Fringe Festival button-holders. Make reservations or get more information at http://www.BethMarshallPresents.com. Note that payment will be by cash only on the day of the show.

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

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?I dress my kid like me!?

January 25, 2012

On a recent Saturday afternoon at the Carlyle Hotel, Cherie Corso and her pint-size companion, Julia, were enjoying an elegant lunch.

They both ate a plate of beet salad ? ?We always wind up ordering the same dish,? says Corso, 43, with a laugh ? and their mannerisms mirrored each other?s exactly.

And just in case anyone was in doubt as to whether the pair were mother and daughter, their identical outfits helped spell it out loud and clear.

SEE ALL THE PHOTOS!

?We like to wear our Burberry for a ?mommy and me? day with lunch and shopping along Madison Avenue,? says Corso, creator of the G2 Organics skin- and nail-care products sold at Bergdorf Goodman.

Jonathan Baskin

Cherie Corso and daughter Julia enjoy donning matching mother-daughter outfits.

Photos: ‘I dress my kid like me!’

?I bought a vintage Burberry skirt and had it shortened to look like Julia?s. I?ll wear my black mink, which I?ve kept since the ?80s because I?m an environmentalist, and she?ll have her faux black-fur jacket.

?We coordinate all the time and buy the same items in different sizes. My father says it?s like dress-up for us. I used to play dress-up with my dolls, but now I?ve changed up to a little girl.

?It?s fun and it shows that we?re very proud to be together.?

Corso and 8-year-old Julia, of Pelham, NY, subscribe to the celebrity fashion trend led by Victoria Beckham and Gwen Stefani.

The stars routinely dress their kids as mini-mes, kitting them out in clothes and accessories that copy their own.

Gwen Stefani?s sons, Kingston, 5, and Zuma, 3, frequently appear alongside the singer in plaid pants which match flamboyant jackets from her edgy L.A.M.B label.

Baby Harper Seven Beckham, impeccably turned out at just 6 months old, never clashes with her mom?s style or color scheme. In November, the baby?s $ 94 chocolate-toned Terre de Sienna onesie, nice and cozy for a flight from JFK, perfectly accented Beckham?s brown fur jacket. In an interview with Google+ last week, LA Galaxy soccer star David Beckham joked about his daughter: ?Her wardrobe is ridiculous already. I?m glad I got a two-year contract!?

Meanwhile, Suri Cruise, 5, was photographed in 2010 holding a small, custom-made version of mom Katie Holmes? $ 1,000 Salvatore Ferragamo handbag. Last October, the duo wore different colors of the same fluffy cape ? Katie in black and Suri in cream ? while visiting Dad, Tom Cruise, on the Pittsburgh set of his new movie ?One Shot.?

Upper West Sider Jené Luciani, fashion expert and author of ?The Bra Book,? might not be an established target of the paparazzi. But she and daughter, Gigi, 2, are always camera-ready ? in coordinated clothes. ?Gigi is a fashionista, and it?s all my fault,? confesses Luciani, who favors Missoni (she bought much of the Missoni for Target line for Gigi), Gucci and Fendi.

NY Post: Entertainment

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By Blaine Zuckerman, PEOPLE.com

updated 4:59 PM EST, Mon January 23, 2012

Liv Tyler and her father Steven Tyler, shown here attending a premiere in March 2011.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Liv Tyler says she’s a supporter of her father Steven Tyler’s engagement
  • “I like her very much,” she said about Erin Brady
  • Tyler is promoting her new movie “Robot and Frank” at the Sundance Film Festival

(PEOPLE.com) — Liv Tyler highly approves of her rock-star father Steven’s choices — both in love and career.

Asked about the “American Idol” judge’s recent engagement to Clear Channel executive Erin Brady, Liv tells PEOPLE that she’s an enthusiastic supporter of it, explaining that the two have been together “for a long, long time” and adding, “I like her very much.”

Speaking to PEOPLE at the Sundance Film Festival, where she’s promoting her new movie “Robot and Frank,” the actress, 34, also revealed that she’s finally following in her father’s footsteps — into the music business.

“I got to record a cover of INXS’s ‘I Need You Tonight’ for a Givenchy commercial,” says the model, who has a longstanding beauty contract with the European cosmetics company. “It was fun and terrifying and wonderful,” she says of recording the song, which is due out soon.

It’s a logical step for a woman whose roots are in music.

“I always thought when I was a little girl that I’d be a singer,” she says. “My mom [Bebe Buell] was always in bands. My dad. And my stepfather, Todd Rundgren, is an incredible musician.”

As for her dad’s dicey performance of The Star-Spangled Banner on Sunday? Liv hadn’t seen it yet. “Somebody told me my dad just sang the national anthem,” she said. “I’ve got to go Google it.”

Or, you know, maybe not.

See the full article at PEOPLE.com.

© 2011 People and Time Inc. All rights reserved.

CNN.com – Entertainment

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Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian looked radiant as she left ABC studios in New York City. The reality TV star co-hosted Live! with Kelly today and afterwards posed for photographers and fans in a sexy red lace dress and nude pumps outside the studio. 

Rain or shine, Kim K always looks great. 

Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian




Splash

Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin

LOS ANGELES — A little more than a week after handing out Golden Globes to show business elite, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and their longtime collaborators will begin a trial to determine which group controls broadcast rights to the popular awards ceremony.

The decision will alter the future of the glitzy gala and whether it will remain on NBC or, for the first time in 17 years, appear on another network.

If the association prevails, it may mean an end to its relationship with dick clark productions, the company that brought the Globes back to network television after a scandal threatened its future. The partnership also helped transform the show into one of the biggest events in Hollywood’s crowded awards season.

It would also give the association of roughly 85 foreign journalists a chance to reposition the show on its own terms for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The trial’s scheduled opening on Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court comes just nine days after nearly 17 million viewers tuned in to the show, which featured barbs from host Ricky Gervais and a potential bump in Oscar momentum for films such as “The Artist” and actor George Clooney.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz has already been presented thousands of pages of documents and evidence to decide the case, and he will hear live testimony from a number of current HFPA members, executives and possibly from Dick Clark himself. The extensive documents filed in the case include minutes of board meetings dating back to the early 1980s.

CBS CEO Les Moonves, who has said he wanted to bid on the Globes, is also expected to testify next week. Matz ruled Monday that he must testify in person and not by videoconference as he had hoped. An attorney for Moonves said the executive had wanted to testify electronically because he is in the midst of meetings and preparing decisions on shows and a board of directors meeting. Matz said he didn’t want to give Moonves special treatment.

Matz urged attorneys to streamline their questioning during a hearing Monday, saying they had framed the issues well in their filings.

Audiences of the past two Globes awards shows didn’t notice it, but the HFPA and its producers, also known as dcp, have waged a bitter legal war since November 2010 over who has the right to negotiate broadcast deals for the Globes. The association contends dcp improperly negotiated a deal keeping the Globes on NBC until 2018, a move that also guarantees the company the right to work on the show until then.

The association claims it was blindsided by the deal and had received assurances throughout 2010 from dcp that it wasn’t negotiating a new broadcast deal. However, the company claims it had the right to pursue the NBC extension.

The disputed NBC deal is worth more than $ 150 million, court records show. The deal reflects what big business the Globes have become, not only for Hollywood studios hoping to get boosts for their films, TV shows and stars, but also for fourth-place NBC and the show’s organizers.

The network will pay $ 17 million for this year’s show, a figure that will gradually increase to $ 26 million if the disputed broadcast contract is upheld. By comparison, NBC paid $ 3.7 million to the HFPA to air the Globes from 1996-1998, the first years after dcp secured a network broadcast deal.

The association began working with dcp in 1983, a year after it lost a broadcast deal with CBS when its members were accused of receiving favors in exchange for giving actress Pia Zadora a newcomer award. The show aired on late-night syndication for several years before shifting to cable and eventually landing on NBC.

Matz’s decision will also alter the fortunes of dcp, which is no longer owned by entertainment legend Dick Clark, but produces other shows such as the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and “So You Think You Can Dance.” The company splits revenues for the Globes with the HFPA.

The central issue of the case is an amended agreement between dcp and HFPA that brought the show to NBC. The production company contends the agreement plainly states that it has the rights to produce the Globes as long as the show airs on NBC, although the HFPA disputes that interpretation.

The association points to discussions about the initial NBC broadcast deal in 1993, in which dcp executives asked for an extension to work on the show for up to 10 years, as evidence that a perpetual deal with the production company was never contemplated. Allowing dcp to negotiate rights to the show and work on it indefinitely as long as it aired on NBC would give producers an incentive to only deal with that network as opposed to seeking the best deal, and result in a loss of the association’s control over the Globes, HFPA lawyers have argued.

The production company claims the HFPA has known for years about the arrangement and cites instances in which the association’s leaders have called it a “major irritant” but acknowledged that a “perpetuity clause” was in place. The clause was also put in place because of the association’s credibility problems, dcp attorneys argue.

“The quid pro quo is that HFPA is contractually bound not to pull the rug out from under dcp in the middle of the most successful television run in the Golden Globes’ history,” the production company’s attorneys wrote in a brief in advance of the trial.

Matz said it was clear that a trial is necessary to sort out the parties’ rights, but he urged them to focus on events in 1993 and later years. “There is an ambiguity and that’s why we’re going to trial,” Matz said Monday.

Regardless of the winner, the overall feel of the Globes is unlikely to change. Transcripts of minutes from membership meetings throughout the year show HFPA members are committed to the Globes’ banquet-style format, which features open-consumption of alcohol and a more-relaxed setting than most other awards shows.

While the Globes aren’t necessarily a reliable predictor of who will win weeks later on Oscar night, the show has a knack for creating buzz.

What’s worn on the red carpet and said on the winner’s stage often dominates the next day’s headlines, and each summer the group doles out grants to non-profit and educational institutions. Last year they donated $ 1.5 million in a star-studded luncheon and have doled out $ 13 million in grants in the past 17 years.

Macon Telegraph: TV – Wire

Jamie Lynn Sigler Janet Jackson January Jones Jennie Finch Jennifer Aniston

Actor Ernest Borgnine is 95. Singer Aaron Neville is 71. Singer Neil Diamond is 71. Actor Michael Ontkean (?Twin Peaks?) is 66. Country singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs is 62. Comedian Yakov Smirnoff is 61. Actress Nastassja Kinski is 53. Actress Matthew Lillard (?Scooby Doo?) is 42. Actor Ed Helms (?The Office?) is 37. Actress Tatyana Ali (?The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?) is 33. Actress Mischa Barton (?The O.C.?) is 26.

MiamiHerald.com: People

Ashlee Simpson Ashley Greene Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin

Now that there’s a baby in the mix, Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari are taking their first steps as responsible parents ? by clarifying some irksome “he said, she said” rumors about their relationship.

“Thanks for all the tweets. We couldn’t be more excited,” Cutler, 28, wrote on Twitter Monday. “We don’t usually comment on our relationship, but for the record I never broke up with Kristin.

“It’s unfortunate some people are saying hurtful things during such a joyous moment in our life.”

The couple made their happy announcement earlier Monday, saying in a joint statement that “it’s an amazing time in our life and we can’t wait to meet the new addition to our growing family.”

Cavallari, 25, and her Chicago Bears beau initially met in August 2010 through mutual friend, E! News host Giuliana Rancic, and began dating shortly afterward.

Cutler popped the question just a short eight months into their relationship in April 2011, but the two called off their engagement three months later.

Rumors that the pair were reunited resurfaced later in the year when Cutler appeared at tapings of “Dancing With the Stars,” where Cavallari was competing, and the reality star similarly showed up on the sidelines of Cutler’s games.

The two announced that they were reengaged in November.

jchen@nydailynews.com

Daily News – Gossip

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Lara-Logan_240.jpg

Image Credit: Kris Connor/Getty Images

It?s been almost a year since CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was horrifically beaten and sexually assaulted by a group of men in Egypt. The tragic attack took place while Logan and her CBS crew were in Cairo?s Tahrir Square to cover the fall of Hosni Mubarek?s dictatorship. But the unimaginable horrors that happened to Logan (she recalled to 60 Minutes the hell she endured on that February night) haven?t stopped her. Not from being a journalist or a Mom or a survivor.

The New York Daily News spoke with Logan, who will return to 60 Minutes and CBS News and will co-host Person to Person with Charlie Rose, about what her life has been like in the past year. Logan, who struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder since her vicious attack, said of her condition, ?It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I?m not. It doesn?t go away. It?s not something I keep track of. It?s not predictable like that. But it happens more than I?d like.?

While Logan fights through her PTSD, the wife and mother of two (Joseph, 3, and Lola, almost 2) told the Daily News that her family has been her biggest support system. ?Your family is critical,? said Logan, ?You can?t do it alone. My husband is a great support. He understands, he doesn?t hide from it, from what happened. He knows everything, more than anyone, what they did to me.? (Logan called her young children ?spectacular.?)

Logan, a woman who is the very example of strength, hope, and courage concluded, ?When I?m lying there, waiting for my daughter to go to sleep, I have time to think about things. Those can be dark moments. You ranger through, you have to. You?re aware of how much you have and it?s so much more than what you?ve lost. You have a responsibility. Life is not about dwelling on the bad.?

Read more:
Lara Logan?s ?60 Minutes? interview on her attack and rape: ?I thought I was going to die?
Lara Logan?s horrifically prescient interview with Charlie Rose: ?It?s in my blood to be there.?
Anderson Cooper rips journalist who scoffed at Lara Logan?s assault

PopWatch

Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy

Eighty four days after ending her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries, Kim Kardashian broke her silence on her painful divorce – again.

The 31-year-old reality TV star spent the beginning of her co-hosting stint Monday on “Live with Kelly” answering host Kelly Rippa’s questions about the backlash to her failed attempt at married life. Particularly gauling to Kardashian is inuendo that the televised wedding was all a hoax to drive up ratings for her show.

“If you really think about it, I would hope this is fake, that somene going through this wouldn’t really have to go through this,” Kardashian, in a form-fitting red dress, told Rippa. “Me being such a hopeless romantic, I wanted to believe in something so badly but if you really think about it, if this is a business decision and I really made all that money that everyone claimed we were making off this wedding…I’m a smart business person, I would’ve stayed married longer.”

Kardashian said she moved in with her mother – bringing only two pairs of sweatpants and a pair of pajamas — and “did some soul searching” after her marriage to Humphries imploded.

“I needed that,” she added.

She said that she’s a hopeless romantic who fell in love with Humphries, but it quickly became apparent that they rushed in to their nuptials without really knowing each other.

“I want babies and I want that forever love, but I felt if I know in my heart that this isn’t right, then why wait years for this same result,” she asked. “I think I learned I really need to rewrite my fairy tale.”

Daily News – Gossip

Amber Arbucci Amber Brkich Amber Heard Amber Valletta America Ferrera

The first of Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s two Shakespearean works of the season opens Friday, Jan. 27., and it’s one of Will’s best-known works: “Romeo and Juliet.”

The famed story of doomed teen love has been set in all sorts of times and places ? remember Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the modernized movie version? The Shakespeare Theater will present a traditional staging.

The story, as if you didn’t know: As tensions build in the streets of Verona, two teenagers from the warring Capulet and Montague factions fall in love at first sight. Married in secret, they hope for reconciliation between their families. However, when short tempers lead to deadly consequences, the young lovers find themselves alone and on the run.

“With pop music such as Dire Straits’ song ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and film adaptations by Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli, modern audiences immediately recognize Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as the ultimate love story,” says Thomas Ouellette, the show’s director at the Shakes. “There is a headlong, impetuous quality about the show, spurring a chain of events that becomes an anthem for doomed youth.”

The cast includes Michael Raver and Stella Heath as the young lovers.

By the way, if you’re wondering what the second Shakespeare production of the season will be, it’s another love story ? “Cymbeline” ? which opens Feb. 10.

WHERE: Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando FL

WHEN: Preview performances are 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 25-26; the show opens Jan. 27 with a regular schedule of 7 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; senior matinees at 2 p.m. on two Wednesdays, Feb. 15 and 29; in repertory with “Cymbeline”; through March 18

TICKETS: $ 15-$ 38; $ 10 discounts for military personnel or students with ID

CALL: 407-447-1700

ONLINE: orlandoshakes.org

SPONSORS: The Classic Repertory Series is made possible by A. Brian Phillips, Akerman Senterfitt, BB&T, Florida Hospital, Geller Ragans, OUC, Wells Fargo, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Orange County Arts and Cultural Affairs. Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF is supported by United Arts of Central Florida with funds from the United Arts campaign and by State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council.

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

Anna Friel Anna Kournikova Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright

On Saturday night at the Producers Guild of America award ceremony, “The Artist” took another step toward what is increasingly seeming like its inevitable Best Picture win at the Academy Awards next month. The Michel Hazanavicius silent film took home top feature honors, defeating “Hugo,” “The Help,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Moneyball,” “The Ides of March,” “Bridesmaids,” “War Horse,” and its biggest competitor, “The Descendants,” for the award.

The PGA win for “The Artist” comes on the heels of its Golden Globes win for Best Feature – Musical or Comedy last weekend.

“We knew we were making a love letter to American cinema,” producer Thomas Langmann said during his acceptance speech.

“I could do nothing without the producer, Thomas Langmann, who really did a great job and who really allowed me — permitted me — to make the movie,” Hazanavicius told Moviefone late last year. “He’s been very supportive — he gave me this confidence and also put some of his own money in the project. In a way in it was crazy, but it was good craziness.”

In more surprising PGA news, “The Adventures of Tintin” took home the Best Animated Feature award, besting presumed favorite “Rango.” Will the combined power of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg be enough to push “Tintin” to an Oscar win in the category? Judging from the recent past: perhaps. Since instituting a Best Animated Feature category in 2005, the PGA has tapped the eventual Oscar winner in five out of six years.

Odds are a little lower for “The Artist,” but still great: 15 of the 22 PGA winners have gone on to win an Oscar. The last time that wasn’t the case was in 2006 when “Little Miss Sunshine” won the PGA award, but “The Departed” won Best Picture.

Last year, “The King’s Speech” won the PGA award, cementing itself as the Best Picture frontrunner.

[via Variety]



Moviefone News

Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle Brooke Burke Brooke Burns Busy Philipps

Digital effects in the movies have become so pervasive and so sophisticated that audiences can easily accept an actor who ages decades before their eyes or even morphs into a different species.

But digital effects also have made it tougher for Motion Picture Academy members to decide which movies get nominated for the Oscar for best makeup ? meaning the old-fashioned kind applied with a brush or attached to a wig or false nose.

“As computer images are getting better and better, it’s very difficult for us to tell” what is makeup and what is a computer effect, says special makeup effects designer Matthew W. Mungle, who used makeup and prosthetics to help make Glenn Close look like a woman who could pass for a man in this year’s “Albert Nobbs.”

Members of the academy’s makeup and hairstyling branch spent part of Saturday at a meeting narrowing the list from seven finalists to the three nominees, who will be announced with the rest of the Oscar nominations Tuesday morning. Part of the work is making sure the makeup and prosthetics were applied by hand and not via computer.

“We ask for photographs of them doing the work ? more so than years before ? in order to prove that it was hand-done. There’s more discussion about it now. It’s made the meetings at least an hour longer,” says Mungle, an Oscar winner for his work on 1992′s “Dracula” and an active member of the makeup branch.

Even submission packages from Oscar hopefuls are more nuanced now. “I never thought about it in 2000, but now I have to,” says Lea Yardum, an awards campaign consultant for more than a decade. “You have to be more thoughtful in how you prepare the [submission] materials. You just want to be sure if you’re working on a movie that’s CGI that you’re differentiating what’s [computer-generated imagery] and what’s hand-applied. You can’t just leave it up to the committee.”

Leonard Engelman, governor of the makeup branch, denied that the meetings are taking longer and downplayed any complications because of digital evolution, but he doesn’t dispute that it’s increasingly hard to discern what is traditional makeup artistry and what’s been digitally rendered.

“A lot of times it’s difficult, very difficult,” Engelman says. “When I saw ‘The Iron Lady,’ I emailed [prosthetic makeup designer] Mark Coulier and asked ‘Was there CGI work done on it?’ because it’s so flawless. And he emailed back saying there wasn’t.”



This sort of honor system ? contacting makeup artists and hairstylists to ask what if any digital work was done on their films ? is the main way the nominating committee clarifies questions. Sometimes, however, makeup artists don’t know what was done to their work in postproduction; in which case, Engelman must call visual effects supervisors and others on the film directly to “detective work it a little more,” he says.

Digital cleanup on makeup work is a particular concern, he says, because filmmakers sometimes ask visual effects companies to keep it secret. “We want to be recognizing outstanding makeup,” Engelman says, “not makeup that maybe had bad edges and they went in and got rid of the edges through CGI.”

Engelman says 2011 was a “particularly strong year” for makeup in movies. Among the seven finalists that were voted on Saturday: two re-creations of historical characters (“The Iron Lady” and “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”), three period pictures (“Anonymous,” “Hugo” and “The Artist”), one film involving gender transformations (“Albert Nobbs”), as well as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” Makeup artist contenders gave detailed presentations, showed 10-minute film clips and answered questions at the Saturday session.

“There’s a responsibility to go and present the work and show what we did,” says Coulier, who helped transform Meryl Streep into former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at various ages in “The Iron Lady.” “It’s very difficult these days to know if the makeup has been reworked ? and it raises some interesting questions about what can be considered for an award.”

Coulier says none of the makeup in “Iron Lady” was digitally enhanced. “It’s very irritating to me when you’ve done really nice makeup and you take a photograph of it and people think you touched it up in Photoshop. Hopefully people will see it up there on-screen and know.”

Films often mix digital cosmetics with actors in makeup. Michael Owens, visual effects supervisor to “J. Edgar,” Clint Eastwood and Dustin Lance Black’s dramatization of the life of J. Edgar Hoover, says Armie Hammer’s and Naomi Watts’ characters in the film were significantly digitally aged in postproduction. Wrinkles, bags under the eyes and jowls were added. But no such effects were used on Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Hoover.

Aging the actor over decades was hand-done by makeup designer Sian Grigg. When Hoover’s receding hairline, vastly different than DiCaprio’s, presented unique challenges, producer Robert Lorenz suggested aging the actor digitally, Grigg says, but she convinced him otherwise. She felt a handcrafted bald cap, which took nine days to create, would look more natural. “J. Edgar looked a bit of a bulldog, really. He had a really big face,” Grigg says. “I was trying to get the essence of Hoover onto Leo’s face in any way I could.”

Controversy over the makeup Oscar is hardly new. Debate over what is award-worthy dates to the award’s inception in 1982, according to Rick Baker, a seven-time winner in the category. Baker has a particularly broad perspective ? not only did he nab last year’s Academy Award in makeup for “The Wolfman,” he also won that first makeup Oscar for “An American Werewolf in London.” .

“Even at that time, before CGI was even used, there was some debate about what really is makeup and what isn’t,” he says. “The stuff I did [then] crossed the line between traditional makeup and practical special effects, like mechanical effects. It was a gray area. When I won for ‘American Werewolf’ ? people said, ‘That’s not makeup, that’s on a robotic head. That was a special effect.’”

Most movies today use elements, he says, of both digital and special makeup effects ? to varying degrees. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in 2008 completely blended the line, aging the characters with a combination of sculpted prosthetics, makeup, motion capture and CGI.

“Digital is in every film now; it’s hard to draw the line,” says Baker, who calls himself a makeup artist but also creates his designs digitally. “I embrace the technology ? any trick in our bag of tricks is a great thing.”

Adds Coulier: “In the future, who knows ? we may end up with a separate award for best CGI/makeup.”

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Entertainment news – latimes.com

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Post by Lindsay Mannering

oscar nominations 2012If you’re George Clooney, you’ve had one hell of a morning. The Oscar nominations 2012 were announced this a.m. and everyone’s favorite bachelor is all over that list. From The Descendants to Ides of March, from Best Picture to Lead Actor to Best Screenplay, Clooney’s work has been recognized across the board. The only thing missing from the list of Academy Award nominations is a golden statue championing his dating prowess — not just any man can pin a lady wrestler.

Clooney’s nods don’t come as a surprise, but there was one thing I found a little surprising when reviewing the page of nominees. Is that Bridesmaids I see on the list? Twice?

I don’t think I would’ve been more surprised, nor ecstatic, if I’d seen Glee: The 3-D Movie Concert nominated for Best Picture, Best Soundtrack, Best Everything Ever. The fact that Bridesmaids got some love makes me want to stand up and do some air punches. I’m so thrilled, in fact, that I’m about to say something to that all-star, all-female cast that I’ve never said before for so many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m white and from the suburbs … you go girls. You go.

Bridesmaids is on the nominations list in two spots: Melissa McCarthy for Supporting Actress and Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig for Original Screenplay. I couldn’t agree more with the categories mentioned — Melissa was so subtly funny and yet so over the top in the movie that her comedic range alone deserves its own trophy. And the screenplay, my god, the screenplay. We all know by now that it put female comedies on the map, proved that funny women can carry a movie and sell tickets, and that Wilson Phillips is gone, but not forgotten. Of course it deserves an Oscar nod.

The Academy Awards airs February 26, so we’ll have to wait ’til then to see if any of our Bridesmaids takes home the win. But before now and then, the only thing we have to do is see The Artist. It got 10 nominations overall. I mean, I suppose after that poop scene in Bridesmaids, we could use a little culture, huh?

What surprised you about the Oscar nominations?

 

Photo via Dave B/Flickr


The Stir By CafeMom: Entertainment

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Is this the Lionel Richie “Hello” meme you’ve been looking for? Not only did Richie give us his heartfelt ’80s pop ballad and its cheesily romantic video, his timeless classic inspired this genius “Missing” poster.

But you haven’t really heard the song until you’ve heard every word spoken by famous movie characters in this epic movie mashup with George McFly, “Toy Story 3″s Ken doll, Alvy Singer and even Elvis. Our favorite: Morpheus, “I can see it in your eyes.” Which kind of puts a new spin on his pursuit of Neo.

[via Movieline]


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I try to like Mark Wahlberg, but it?s sometimes difficult. Like, I think he?s a much better actor than he?s often given credit for. He?s one of the rare ?butch? male action stars capable of showing real emotion, depth and vulnerability on screen. I think of him like Bruce Willis – they get stuck in the ?action? genre, but both are underrated dramatic actors. However, there?s an issue with Mark?s personality. He?s a successful producer, and his production company has a stable of successful television shows, which means that he?s always at awards shows, representing his shows. And Awards Show Mark is kind of douche. He makes it all about himself, and his attitude borders on disrespectful.

So, I already had mixed feelings? and now this. Mark covers the new issue of Men?s Journal, and this is a humdinger of douchebaggery, in convenient interview form. Brace yourself.

What he would have done if he had been on one of the airplanes that was hijacked on 9/11: “If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did,” Wahlberg says. “There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

He lets his wife pick date night movies: “As long as it isn?t a Sarah Jessica Parker movie? The last time I really cried a lot? During ‘The Help.’ I cried about six or seven times. It was the wife?s choice, but it was a great movie.”

On jerking off: ?I don?t get down with jerking off, dude. Look. I don?t believe in everything that the church says. I try to do the right thing. I lead a clean and pure life. I?m a married guy. I have a beautiful wife. Sex is not the most important thing to me, being horny all the time, spanking the ? I mean, it?s not against the law. You can do whatever you want. And it?s not like, ?I shouldn?t do it because of my faith.? I?m just not really that into it that much anyway.?

[Via MSNBC and HuffPo]

Obviously, it?s the 9/11 quote that bugs. That?s what I?m talking about with his disrespectful attitude, like he?s a big action star and he obviously knows best. We don?t know what it was like for those poor people on the airplanes on 9/11, but to publicly play a game of ?If I was there?? is crass and tasteless.

As for the jerking off stuff – do you even believe him about that? I don?t. But then again, I think he?s screwing around on his wife. A lot.

UPDATE: CB just reminded me that Mark was originally scheduled to be on one of the hijacked flights on 9/11, but he changed his tickets last minute. That really doesn’t change my opinion that his statement in this interview is douchey, though. He’s basically saying that all of the people on those flights (even the ones on the United flight that went down in Pennsylvania) were pussies, and that he’s the only badass left in the world.

Photos courtesy of Men?s Journal, WENN.

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Cele|bitchy

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Credit: Splash News

There aren’t a lot of people out there who can pull off a fur vest, leather sleeves and red lipstick at the same time. But Ciara is definitely someone who can. The “Gimme Dat” singer showed off some of her famous swag on her way to a Knicks game in New York recently, and girlfriend was (as usual) on point. Hair? Bangin’. Nais? Did. Clothes commoners can’t afford? You know it.

Maybe CiCi and Rihanna can hit up the next basketball game together? Ri’s been sitting courtside recently with some pals, so maybe they can move over and make some room for Ciara? They can all talk about traveling the world, being major recording artists, and commanding the attention of everyone in attendance at the basketball game. Yo, can you guys make room for one more next to you? I can’t really speak on those subjects, but I’ll buy us all some nachos, ‘K?

MTV Buzzworthy Blog

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The annual Zora! Festival kicks off Saturday with an event that celebrates Eatonville, the historic black community that has hosted the festival since its inception in 1990. Just three days then, the festival honoring Eatonville’s most famous resident, writer Zora Neale Hurston, now spans two weekends.

“We talk of Eatonville as a ‘historic community,’” said N.Y. Nathiri, the director of multidisciplinary programs for festival presenter Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community. “This year, we’re going to help people understand what that is.”

Hurston, a noted author of the Harlem Renaissance movement during the 1920s, grew up in Eatonville and incorporated her life experiences into such novels as “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The shrewd cultural observations in her writing made her a “literary anthropologist” of her time; she died in 1960.

Founded after the Civil War, when African-Americans began establishing separate towns for blacks to avoid segregated white communities, Eatonville is marking 125 years as an incorporated African-American municipality this year. The festival’s theme, “Rise of Community,” honors that milestone.

The top fine-arts events during the festival include a free theatrical presentation of “Zora in Eatonville,” which looks at the town through the author’s eyes. Staged by the J.D. Thomas Cultural Center, it will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 412 E. Kennedy Blvd.

“I Am Going to Eatonville,” the first in a series of four visual-art exhibitions by Deborah Willis, Lonnie Graham, Terry Boddie and Melvina Lathan, opens with a gallery talk at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Art, 227 E. Kennedy Blvd. (Tickets: $ 15, $ 25 VIP.)

Headline pop music acts this year will be Mario ($ 20, $ 45 VIP), performing next Friday, Jan. 27, and Keith Sweat ($ 25, $ 45 VIP) on Saturday, Jan. 28. Sweat’s biggest hits came during the 1980s and ’90s, while Mario still reaches the Billboard charts. The acts are a departure for the festival.

“Old-school music is what we’ve always featured, but we didn’t want to leave the younger generation behind,” Nathiri said. Earlier that Friday, a free open-air forum called “Keeping It Real: Hip-Hop Culture and Community” will take place from 1-4 p.m. Friday to encourage dialogue between the old and young.

The concerts are in conjunction with the large Outdoor Festival of the Arts weekend, Jan. 27-29, which features a host of food, arts, crafts and other merchandise vendors. A children’s play area is available. Other music at the festival includes a day of gospel performances on Sunday, Jan. 29.

Before the big weekend are several educational events.

Things kick off Saturday, Jan. 21, with a free program called “Eatonville Story: The Town That Freedom Built.” It’s a tour that begins at St. Lawrence African Methodist Church, 549 E. Kennedy Blvd. Patrons will stop at the oldest home in Eatonville and the Moseley House Museum before ending up at Rollins College. There, scholars will lead a discussion about the town’s founding. The event runs from 4-7:30 p.m.

Another educational component of the festival will be a look at the art of landscaping. Attendees can take a guided tour of the University of Central Florida Arboretum, as well as touring various private gardens in Eatonville with interpretive talks tying the landscapes to history. The free UCF tour is 1-3 p.m. Wednesday. Daylong tours, which include lunch, are Thursday and Friday ($ 120), a 3-hour tour is Saturday ($ 90).

“It’s a chance to really interact and engage with the people and civic pride of Eatonville,” Nathiri said.

On the fashion front, the popular “HATitude” brunch will return, using audience participation to celebrate Hurston’s love of stylish headgear. It takes place from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 304 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando. (Tickets: $ 50, $ 15 for those under 12, $ 35 for ages 12-21, $ 45 for seniors.)

For more information on events during the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of Arts and Humanities, call 407-647-3307 or go to zorafestival.com.

Entertainment and Going Out Guide – OrlandoSentinel.com

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Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom's PDA MomentsRadar Online reported that Khloe Kardashian is interviewing fertility doctors in Dallas, where she is currently living with husband Lamar Odom.  ?Khloe has been meeting with fertility doctors in Dallas, and Lamar has been going with her to several appointments,? a source told the website. ?It makes sense for her to have a fertility doctor…Read more»
American Superstar Magazine

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Celebs with Crayon-Colored Hair!Dakota Fanning is pretty in pink! The Twilight star was spotted with some new pink highlights in her hair while out and about in Beverly Hills, CA. The Celebuzz staff has to wonder if this slightly out of character look for Dakota (who is usually more conservative) is due to her role in Effie (for which she has…Read more»
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Credit: Splash News

There aren’t a lot of people out there who can pull off a fur vest, leather sleeves and red lipstick at the same time. But Ciara is definitely someone who can. The “Gimme Dat” singer showed off some of her famous swag on her way to a Knicks game in New York recently, and girlfriend was (as usual) on point. Hair? Bangin’. Nais? Did. Clothes commoners can’t afford? You know it.

Maybe CiCi and Rihanna can hit up the next basketball game together? Ri’s been sitting courtside recently with some pals, so maybe they can move over and make some room for Ciara? They can all talk about traveling the world, being major recording artists, and commanding the attention of everyone in attendance at the basketball game. Yo, can you guys make room for one more next to you? I can’t really speak on those subjects, but I’ll buy us all some nachos, ‘K?

MTV Buzzworthy Blog

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