WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman never much cared for what he once called the "rubbish" of Hollywood, choosing to live in a quiet community on the opposite corner of the U.S. map, staying with his wife of many years and — long after he became bored with acting — pursuing his dual passions of philanthropy and race cars.
And yet despite enormous success in both endeavors and a vile distaste for celebrity, the Oscar-winning actor never lost the aura of a towering Hollywood movie star, turning in roles later in life that carried all the blue-eyed, heartthrob cool of his anti-hero performances in "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
The 10-time Academy Award nominee died Friday at age 83, surrounded by family and close friends at his Westport farmhouse following a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said Saturday.
In May, Newman dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men" at Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse, citing unspecified health issues. The following month, a friend disclosed that he was being treated for cancer and Martha Stewart, also a friend, posted photos on her Web site of Newman looking gaunt at a charity luncheon.
But true to his fiercely private nature, Newman remained cagey about his condition, reacting to reports that he had lung cancer with a statement saying only that he was "doing nicely."
As an actor, Newman got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become a legend held in awe by his peers. He won one Oscar and took home two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."
Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."
"There is a point where feelings go beyond words," Redford said Saturday. "I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it."
Newman sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer." Newman also directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."
"Our father was a rare symbol of selfless humility, the last to acknowledge what he was doing was special," his daughters said in a written statement. "Intensely private, he quietly succeeded beyond measure in impacting the lives of so many with his generosity."
With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. New York Times critic Caryn James wrote after his turn as the town curmudgeon in 1995's "Nobody's Fool" that "you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."
But neither his heartthrob looks nor his talent could convince Newman to embrace the Hollywood lifestyle. He was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive.
"Sometimes God makes perfect people," fellow "Absence of Malice" star Sally Field said, "and Paul Newman was one of them."
Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.
A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."
In that film, Newman delivered a magnetic performance as the smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats — played by Jackie Gleason — and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel — directed by Scorsese — "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.
He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.
His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)
As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 Hudson Hornet in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."
But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."
Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics Circle.
In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1969 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.
"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.
Newman later became a car owner and formed a partnership with Carl Haas, starting Newman/Haas Racing in 1983 and joining the CART series. Hiring Mario Andretti as its first driver, the team was an instant success, and throughout the last 26 years, the team — now known as Newman/Haas/Lanigan and part of the IndyCar Series — has won 107 races and eight series championships.
"Paul and I have been partners for 26 years and I have come to know his passion, humor and, above all, his generosity," Haas said. "Not just economic generosity, but generosity of spirit. His support of the team's drivers, crew and the racing industry is legendary. His pure joy at winning a pole position or winning a race exemplified the spirit he brought to his life and to all those that knew him."
Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator.
Off the screen, Newman was beloved in Westport, the upscale community about an hour north of New York. One of his favorite haunts was Mario's Place, an eatery that Newman frequented with pals actor James Naughton or writer A.E. Hotchner. He preferred medium-rare hamburgers, with an occasional Heineken.
"He's such a great human being," owner Frank DeMace said. "I can't say enough about him."
Former patrolman John Anastasia says Newman regularly played the annual softball game between local celebrities and the town police department. Newman played on the police department's team.
"He was very much into it, very athletic," Anastasia said. "He didn't play the part of a celebrity, he played the part of a ballplayer. He was not just there for his good looks."
In 1982, Newman and Hotchner started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. The company had donated more than $250 million, according to its Web site.
"We will miss our friend Paul Newman, but are lucky ourselves to have known such a remarkable person," Robert Forrester, vice chairman of Newman's Own Foundation, said in a statement.
Hotchner said Newman should have "everybody's admiration."
"For me it's the loss of an adventurous friendship over the past 50 years and it's the loss of a great American citizen," Hotchner said.
In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.
He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.
Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte. Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.
Newman was born in Cleveland, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman. Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.
He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to work in theater and television in New York, where his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio included Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden.
Newman's breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.
Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."
In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.
"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.
Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.
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Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Josh L. Dickey, Greg Risling and Susan Katz in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
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On the Net:
http://www.newmansown.com/
2008/09/27
Paul Newman, Hollywood's anti-hero, dies
Dave Matthews helped produce new Palahniuk film
LOS ANGELES - Dave Matthews has acted in a few films, but the Grammy-winning musician has been playing a behind-the-scenes role in Hollywood of late — that of film producer.
The singer of his namesake band co-founded ATO Pictures and has served mostly as a silent partner. But in the company's latest film, "Choke," the musician was adamant that ATO do more than help finance the film.
"I felt very strongly about us being connected to the project. ... I loved the script," Matthews told The Associated Press during a phone interview Friday before performing with his band in the Brazilian city of Manaus.
"Choke," which was released Friday by Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an adaptation of a novel from "Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk.
The film, which stars Sam Rockwell, is about a sex addict named Victor Mancini who likes to pretend he's choking in restaurants to garner strangers' sympathy and then fleece them. When Mancini isn't doing that, hooking up with fellow sex addicts or working at a historical theme park, he's trying to cajole the truth of his paternity from his mentally ill mother.
Matthews doesn't appear in the film, but he championed it once he read the script and the book.
"What Chuck manages to do is make an unusual story not unusual, and I think the film makes that (as well)," Matthews said. "There's a very sweet story at the core of it: This young man's struggle to find out who he is."
Last year, ATO produced "Joshua," a film about a musical child whose family life dramatically alters once his baby sister is born.
Matthews wrote the song that the child character croons as the film draws to a close.
For "Choke," Matthews worked on planning and supporting the movie.
"My involvement was much more in discussing how to get the film done ... (being) really more of a cheerleader," he said.
The opening of "Choke" comes as Matthews and his bandmates work to wrap a tour only weeks after the untimely death of LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist and arranger, and one of its founding members.
Moore died Aug. 19 in Los Angeles of complications stemming from a June 30 accident near Charlottesville involving an all-terrain vehicle. He was 46.
"I think it will be a long time before we'll go through a night without him being very present on stage with us when we're performing, in both happy and sad ways, I suppose," Matthews said.
The band is scheduled to perform a few more dates in South America before returning home to continue work on a new album Matthews hopes will be ready for release early next year.
___
On the Net:
"Choke": http://www.foxsearchlight.com/choke/
2008/09/26
Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
OXFORD, Miss. - John McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" Friday night as the two rivals clashed over taxes, spending, the war in Iraq and more in an intense first debate of the White House campaign. "Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong-headed policies," shot back the Democrat.Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president, adding that the current economic crisis is "a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain."
The two men were polite but pointed as they debated at close quarters for 90 minutes on the University of Mississippi campus.
McCain accused his younger rival of an "incredible thing of voting to cut off funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," a reference to legislation that cleared the Senate more than a year ago.
Obama disputed that, saying he had opposed funding in a bill that presented a "blank check" to the Pentagon while McCain had opposed money in legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal.
Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002, before he was a member of Congress, while McCain voted in the Senate to authorize the war.
"You were wrong" on Iraq, Obama repeated three times in succession. "John, you like to pretend the war began in 2007."
McCain replied that Obama has refused to acknowledge the success of the troop buildup in Iraq that McCain recommended and Bush announced more than a year ago.
The two presidential candidates stood behind identical wooden lecterns on stage at the performing arts center at the University of Mississippi for the first of three scheduled debates with less than six weeks remaining until Election Day. The two vice presidential candidates will meet next week for their only debate, and Obama and McCain each put in a plug for his own running mate.
But there was a difference: Democrat Joe Biden made the round of post-debate television shows. NBC and CNN said they invited McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has granted only three interviews since joining the ticket a month ago, but she declined.
The 47-year-old Obama is seeking to become the nation's first black president. McCain, 72, is hoping to become the oldest first-term chief executive in history — and he made a few jokes at his own expense.
"I've been around a while," he said at one point. "Were you afraid I couldn't hear him?" he said at another after moderator Jim Lehrer repeated a phrase.
But he also sought to turn his age into an advantage. "There are some advantages to experience and knowledge and judgment," he said. "And I honestly don't believe that Sen. Obama has the knowledge or experience" to serve as commander in chief.
McCain also made a point of declaring his independence from Bush. "I have opposed the president on spending, on climate change, on torture of prisoners, on Guantanamo Bay, on a long — on the way that the Iraq War was conducted. I have a long record and the American people know me very well ... a maverick of the Senate."
It was a debate that almost didn't happen. McCain decided a few hours in advance to attend, two days after announcing he would try to have the event rescheduled if Congress had not reached an agreement on an economic bailout to deal with the crisis now gripping Wall Street.
The two men were pointed but polite, although at least once McCain sought to depict his rival as naive on foreign policy. That was in response to Obama's statement that it might become necessary to send U.S. troops across the Pakistani border to pursue terrorists.
"You don't say that out loud," retorted McCain. "If you have to do things, you do things."
He also criticized Obama for having said he would sit down without precondition with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"So let me get this right, we sit down with Ahmadinejad and he says 'we're going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth' and we say, 'no you're not.' Oh please," McCain said.
Obama said Henry Kissinger, the former Republican secretary of state and a McCain adviser, shared his view on talks with Iran.
The two men also differed on federal spending. McCain said a freeze on most government spending was worth considering, except for veterans, defense and "some other vital issues."
Obama said the problem with that was that some programs needed more money. He mentioned early childhood education as an example.
Moderator Jim Lehrer's opening question concerned the economic crisis. While neither man committed to supporting bailout legislation taking shape in Congress, they readily agreed lawmakers must take action to prevent millions of Americans from losing their jobs and their homes.
Both also said they were pleased that lawmakers in both parties were negotiating on a compromise.
McCain jabbed at Obama, who he said has requested millions of dollars in pork barrel spending, including some after he began running for president.
As he does frequently while campaigning, the Republican vowed to veto any lawmaker's pork barrel project that reaches his desk in the White House. "You will know their names and I will make them famous," he said.
The stakes were high as the two rivals walked on stage. The polls gave Obama a modest lead and indicated he was viewed more favorably than his rival when it came to dealing with the economy. But the same surveys show McCain favored by far on foreign policy.
Both candidates had rehearsed extensively, Obama prepping with advisers at a resort in Clearwater, Fla., and McCain putting in debate work at his home outside Washington.
The two presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate twice more, at Belmont University in Nashville on Oct. 7 and at Hofstra University in Hempsted, N.Y., on Oct. 15. Vice presidential contenders Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are to square off in a single debate Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writernews.yahoo.com
Erin Brockovich working for NYC law firm
NEW YORK - The legal crusader portrayed by Julia Roberts in the Oscar-winning film "Erin Brockovich" is now working for a Manhattan personal injury law firm that specializes in asbestos cases.
The real Erin Brockovich signed a consulting contract with Weitz & Luxenberg and will be involved in soliciting cases and investigating claims. Brockovich told the New York Post: "I'm hands-on and they're hands-on so it will be a team effort."
Already the 48-year-old Brockovich has filmed two TV commercials for the law firm seeking individuals who may have contracted lung cancer from exposure to asbestos, the Daily News reported. Brockovich also consults with a West Coast law firm, Girardi & Keese.
Roberts won an Oscar for her portrayal of the environmental activist in the 2000 movie.
The film focused on how Brockovich led a 1996 water pollution case that won residents of a small California desert town a $333 million settlement from a state utility company.
from news.yahoo.comDaniel Radcliffe wins raves for nude Broadway debut
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The actor who portrays the schoolboy wizard in the Harry Potter movies received as much attention for appearing naked as for his range and depth in the London production of playwright Peter Shaffer's "Equus."
Daniel Radcliffe is now reprising the role on Broadway, and this time reviewers are concentrating on his able performance in the play first performed at the National Theater in London in 1973.
Ben Brantley of The New York Times said Radcliffe, 19, wore his part of a suburban stableboy who commits grotesque crimes against horses "like a tailor's delight -- that is, a natural fit that allows room to stretch."
"Like many beloved film actors Mr. Radcliffe has an air of heightened ordinariness, of the everyday lad who snags your attention with an extra, possibly dangerous gleam of intensity," wrote Brantley, adding his "Alsatian-blue gaze" helped his convincing performance.
USA Today carried the headline "'Equus': Radcliffe revealed as a serious actor" as reviewer Elysa Gardner said "the Harry Potter star puts to rest any arguments that his appeal should be limited to moony adolescents and maudlin grown-ups."
Like other reviewers, Gardner said Radcliffe's performance outshone the production.
"In his impressive debut in a major stage role, as the disturbed adolescent in 'Equus,' Daniel Radcliffe significantly helps overcome the fact that Peter Shaffer's 1975 Tony winner doesn't entirely hold up," said Variety.
While most reviews centered on praising Radcliffe's performance, some made reference to the nakedness that caused such a stir in London.
"Radcliffe, despite the visceral physicality of the role, appears supremely comfortable in his own skin -- and yes, kids, thanks to the nude scene, we get to see all of it," said Newsday's reviewer Linda Winer, who also called the London-born Radcliffe "a smart, intense, wildly serious stage talent."
Variety noted Radcliffe had been criticized by some London critics for a lack of vocal control but said an extra year and a half of maturity may have helped.
"His delivery here is as confident and compelling as his febrile physicality -- whether fully clothed and wary or naked and defenseless," said David Rooney.
Brantley noted the similarity between Radcliffe's role in "Equus" and that of Harry Potter with both characters coming of age "in a menacing, magical world where the prospect of being devoured by darkness is always imminent."
Radcliffe will return to the boy wizard role soon when he begins filming the final Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Xavier Briand)
from news.yahoo.com
2008/09/25
Disney gala shows off upcoming movies
LOS ANGELES - In a gala adorned with Hollywood stars, The Walt Disney Co. wowed an industry crowd Wednesday in a showcase of its upcoming films that included a sequel to its 1982 sci-fi flick "Tron" and a "Lone Ranger" remake with Johnny Depp as Tonto.
The daylong presentation at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, delivered repeated surprises as actors emerged onstage to tout animated 3-D movies, live-action thrillers and comedies — with animal co-stars ranging from guinea pigs and chihuahuas to humpback whales.
Jim Carrey, starring in his first Disney film, a 3-D motion capture remake of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," summed up the chaos of his performance, in which he plays seven characters including Ebenezer Scrooge.
"It's pretty much just a party and everyone's invited," he said.
Commenting on Disney's lengthy rollout, which included a full screening of the animated dog-hero movie "Bolt," Carrey told out-of-town guests, "You can go back home and say these saddle sores came from Hollywood."
Disney made a similar presentation of its animated films to investors in April in New York, but held its last live-action movie showcase three years ago.
The 17 films presented then grossed over $5 billion at the box office, said Dick Cook, the chairman of Disney studios. He called the upcoming film slate the "most creative" in Disney history.
Among other casting announcements, Disney said Oprah Winfrey will be the voice of the character of Eudora in the hand-drawn animated movie set in New Orleans, "The Princess and the Frog."
The film features an African American heroine, Tiana, played by Anika Noni Rose. Winfrey plays Tiana's mother in the movie set for release on Christmas in 2009.
Depp, who received top billing for the role of Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, will also play the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton remake of "Alice in Wonderland."
"Believe me, any time this guy wears a funny hat, it's good news for Disney," Cook said.
A brief snippet from "Tron 2" featured a louder, crisper and more thrilling bike race and a cameo of an older Jeff Bridges, who starred in the original version.
Miley Cyrus, star of an eponymous movie and television show, performed a live song from "Hannah Montana: The Movie"; Robin Williams and John Travolta, stars of the upcoming "Old Dogs," yucked it up on stage; George Lopez appeared to promote "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"; and Dwayne Johnson was on hand to tout "Race to Witch Mountain."
The University of Southern California marching band even made an appearance.
The Pixar and Disney animation studios' chief creative officer, John Lasseter, also broke the news that "Cars 2," the sequel to the blockbuster he directed for Pixar Animation Studios, would be released in the summer of 2011, a year earlier than once planned.
Along with a wide-ranging slate of films starring Sandra Bullock ("The Proposal"), Tim Allen ("Wild Hogs 2"), and Zac Efron ("High School Musical 3: Senior Year"), Cook boasted Disney would release five 3-D movies next year, more than any other studio.
Cook fired a barb at former Disney studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, now chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., ribbing: "I read that even Jeffrey Katzenberg may release his first 3-D movie next year," in reference to "Monsters vs. Aliens."
The company also previewed films from its labels Touchstone and Miramax, the latter of which produced the 2007 Oscar winners "No Country for Old Men," and "There Will Be Blood."
The most promising Miramax release, set for release in December, was "Doubt," starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in a dark tale about a nun's fight against a priest who she suspects of sexually abusing a black student.
by news.yahoo.com
US-FILM Summary
Depp to play Tonto, Mad Hatter in upcoming films
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Johnny Depp is becoming the new face of Walt Disney Studios. The actor will preside over the manic tea party in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" as the Mad Hatter and will play Tonto in "The Lone Ranger," whose latest screen incarnation is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Disney formally announced the casting Wednesday at a studio presentation. It also said it is officially in development on a fourth installment of "Pirates of the Carribean," which would see Depp reprise his popular role of Captain Jack.
Oprah Winfrey hops aboard Disney's "Frog"
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Oprah Winfrey has joined the voice cast of the upcoming Disney animated film "The Princess and the Frog." At a Disney presentation in Hollywood on Wednesday, John Lasseter, the chief creative office at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, said that Winfrey will play the character of Eudora, the mother of the main character, Princess Tiana, voiced by Anika Noni Rose.
Spielberg eyes helm of DreamWorks' "Chocky"
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - DreamWorks has acquired the dramatic rights to the science fiction novel "Chocky" from Pollinger Ltd., the U.K. agency that handles the literary estate of the late author John Wyndham. Steven Spielberg is said to be keen to make the adaptation his next directing project.
"Harold & Kumar" writers line up next feature
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The creators of the "Harold & Kumar" franchise have smoked out a new project. Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" and wrote and directed "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," will write and direct the comedy "'Til Beth Do Us Part" for Warner Bros.
"Made of Honor" takes the cake on DVD chart
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Two films that grossed about the same at the box office battled it out for the top spot on the national video sales chart, and the one with the significantly lower production budget won. "Made of Honor," a Sony comedy that earned $46 million in theaters, bowed at No. 1 on the Nielsen VideoScan sales chart for the week ended September 21, while Warner's "Speed Racer," which made $43.9 million at the box office, landed at No. 2 on its debut. "Speed Racer" cost an estimated $120 million to make, three times as much as "Made of Honor."
"Nights In Rodanthe" tells of love's second chances
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When romantic thriller "Unfaithful" debuted in theaters in May 2002, odds were that it would be quickly forgotten because it opened in the summer season against action-filled competitors such as "Spider-Man" But the pairing of Richard Gere and Diane Lane won the hearts of audiences. "Unfaithful" pulled in a strong $119 million at global box offices, and the film about a mesmerizing married couple earned Lane an Oscar nomination.
Anne Hathaway compatible with "Opposite"
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Actress Anne Hathaway will star in "The Opposite of Love," portraying a commitment-phobic attorney who finds her well-constructed life coming apart when she rejects her ready-for-marriage boyfriend. The 20th Century Fox project is based on the best-seller by Julie Buxbaum, with writer (and actress) Kara Holden adapting the screenplay.
"Cars 2" racing to theaters in 2011
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Pixar is pushing the pedal to the metal on its sequel "Cars 2." The follow-up to John Lasseter's 2006 film "Cars" originally was scheduled for release in summer 2012. But at a Disney presentation Wednesday, Lasseter, Pixar's chief creative officer, said that the film has been moved up to a 2011 release.
Ambrose, Kaufman take "Unorthodox" roles
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Lauren Ambrose and Adam Kaufman lead the cast of "Unorthodox," a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for CBS. Susie Essman, Ricki Lake and Mercedes Ruehl co-star in the film, which is now in production.
Affleck eyeing good "Company" of real-life drama
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Ben Affleck is in talks to star in "The Company Men," and John Wells will direct the timely drama about a man whose life is up-ended by a financial downsizing. Producer Wells is writing the screenplay about a man who is laid off and must cope with the financial consequences and the fallout at home.
by news.yahoo.com
2008/09/24
Depp to play Tonto, Mad Hatter in upcoming films
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Johnny Depp is becoming the new face of Walt Disney Studios. The actor will preside over the manic tea party in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" as the Mad Hatter and will play Tonto in "The Lone Ranger," whose latest screen incarnation is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
Disney formally announced the casting Wednesday at a studio presentation. It also said it is officially in development on a fourth installment of "Pirates of the Carribean," which would see Depp reprise his popular role of Captain Jack.
On the "Alice" front, Depp and Burton -- who first worked together in 1990's "Edward Scissorhands" and most recently collaborated on "Sweeney Todd" -- have formed one of the longest-running director-actor partnerships in modern Hollywood. When Burton committed to filming a new live-action/CG-animated version of "Alice," Depp was touted as the most likely candidate to play the Mad Hatter -- after all, having worked with Burton on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," he's practiced in wearing a top hat.
Mia Wasikowska, the young Australian actress who appeared in HBO's "In Treatment," has the film's title role.
Matt Lucas, who stars in the sketch comedy series "Little Britain USA," which debuts on HBO Sunday, is set to play the dual roles of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
"Ranger," meanwhile, puts Depp back in business with Bruckheimer, who produced the "Pirates" movies. Tonto is the Native American colleague of cowboy hero the Lone Ranger. The casting could stir up controversy with Native American groups, who might accuse the studio of putting a white actor in the role. One factor that could counter such an argument is Depp's mixed ancestry, which includes German, Irish, and Cherokee.
"Ranger" is being written by "Pirates" scribes Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and has no director at this time.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Healthy James Levine opens Boston Symphony season
BOSTON - James Levine returned to podium for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's gala opening night performance, after taking several weeks off following surgery for kidney cancer.
"I'm even more thrilled to be back than usual. We had a wonderful set of rehearsals for this concert tonight and everything just looks even more wonderful to me than it did before. I'm feeling very well and I was a very lucky boy," Levine said at a news conference following the rehearsal.
Levine, who was forced to miss much of the BSO's Tanglewood season this summer after having a kidney removed in July, said he had "smart doctors" who caught the cancer early. The BSO has said he will need no further treatment for the early-stage tumor.
"In the end, I felt just very, very lucky," Levine said.
The 65-year-old Levine also is music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he has already conducted this season. He led a performance of Verdi's "Requiem Mass" at the Met to honor the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti last week, and a segment of the opera's opening gala Monday night.
Levine offered the Boston musicians his critiques during the rehearsal ending one piece by saying, "the blend, the shape, wonderful."
As the rehearsal drew to a close, several members of the orchestra stopped by the maestro's podium to chat with him before he exited through a stage door.
Levine led the BSO Wednesday night in an all-Russian performance, including the "Letter Scene" from the Tchaikovsky opera "Eugene Onegin," featuring Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska, "Pictures at an Exhibition," by Mussorgsky, and Glinka's "Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila."
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On the Net:
http://news.yahoo.com/
2008/09/23
Lindsay Lohan: Says she is dating Samantha Ronson
LOS ANGELES - Lindsay Lohan has confirmed what the world has guessed: She's been dating Samantha Ronson "a very long time."
The 22-year-old actress casually told the co-host of the syndicated radio program "Loveline" on Monday that she's been dating the 31-year-old DJ. The pair have appeared in public and been photographed together but have never publicly commented about the extent of their relationship.
"You guys, you and Samantha, have been going out for how long now?" DJ Ted Stryker asked. "Like two years, one year, five months, two months?"
"For a very long time," Lohan said after laughing.
Stryker interviewed Ronson while she took a break from DJing at TV Guide's Emmy afterparty Monday night in Los Angeles. Ronson had been discussing her friendship with DJ AM and Travis Barker, who are recovering from severe burns following a plane crash in South Carolina last weekend, before putting Lohan on the phone.
Lohan's publicist, Leslie Sloane-Zelnik, told The Associated Press on Monday that Lohan is not engaged to be married.
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Nicole Kidman credits fertile water with pregnancy
SYDNEY, Australia - Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman said swimming in Australian Outback "fertility waters" during production of her latest film may have contributed to her unexpected pregnancy over the past year.
The 41-year-old Aussie, who gave birth to daughter Sunday Rose in July, said she and six other women who swam in the waters of a small Outback town during production of the epic romance "Australia" fell pregnant.
"I never thought that I would get pregnant and give birth to a child, but it happened on this movie," Kidman told The Australian Women's Weekly in an exclusive interview for the magazine's 75th anniversary edition, released Wednesday.
"Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now."
"Australia," directed by Baz Luhrmann, was filmed in Kununurra, a small town in far northern Western Australia state. The film, which follows the story of a noblewoman on a cattle drive in Australia during World War II, is due for release in November.
"I'm so lucky I'm so tall, so I carried small and also, I have to say, I had a birth that I was blessed with, a labor that was very good and a baby that was very good to me in that regard," said Kidman, who is married to country music crooner Keith Urban and has two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise.
"To be given this again is a beautiful thing. To have raised Bella and Connor since I was 25 and now to be able to do it again at 41 ... wow!"
by news.yahoo.com
`Grey's Anatomy' goes post-`happily ever after'
LOS ANGELES - First came the achingly romantic hilltop reunion between Dr. McDreamy and Meredith that ended last season's "Grey's Anatomy." Is heartbreak next?
"We ended last season with the end of the fairy tale," said series creator Shonda Rhimes. "I always thought this season was about what happens after the `happily ever after,' for all our characters."
"For some, it's about jumping off into something new. It feels like a very fresh start for everybody," Rhimes said. The ABC show's two-hour season debut is 9 p.m. EDT Thursday.
An on-air promotion has provided a clue about one potential challenge facing Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). It includes a brief scene in which Derek is confronted by nurse Rose (Lauren Stamile).
"I wish there were a good way to say this: I'm carrying your child," Rose tells Derek, whose stunned look might match that worn by "Grey's" fans.
When last seen, McDreamy was embracing Meredith amid a sea of candles after therapy allowed her to see the light about their relationship. Rose's revelation — if it's to be taken at face value — strikes an ominous note for the couple known in shorthand as Mer-Der.
Adding to the mystery: In an ABC podcast in May, Rhimes said Rose isn't pregnant, and was later quoted as saying she wouldn't deceive "Grey's" loyalists. If that's the case, Rose — or the network's promotional department — is quite the manipulator.
Rhimes, who's highly protective of plot twists, won't tip her hand about how the story plays out. But she's openly upbeat about season five.
"We've settled in from all the attention paid and all the hoopla. We feel like we're back to where we were in seasons one and two, in the sense that the writers feel a little bit fearless," Rhimes said. "We know our characters so well at this point that now is the time to take chances."
The Hollywood writers strike that shut down most TV production for months had an unexpected benefit, Rhimes said.
"It was the first time in four-and-a-half years I wasn't working nonstop. It was a chance to sleep and clear my brain. ... I know what happens next for these characters in a way I hadn't known before."
For Drs. Grey and Shepherd, that means a bold step toward commitment. But as Rhimes signals, it's unlikely their path together will be smooth.
The new season brings guest stars Bernadette Peters and Kathy Baker and a new medical man at Seattle Grace: Kevin McKidd, playing a military doctor who Rhimes said "makes an impression" on Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh).
There's also a familiar face, Katherine Heigl, despite speculation that the series star might want to shrug off her scrubs.
The talk began this summer, after Heigl said she wasn't submitting her name for Emmy consideration year because the show didn't deliver the material to warrant a nod. She won a 2007 Emmy for the role of Dr. Izzie Stevens.
"Talk? Who?" Rhimes responds tartly when asked about the issue, adding, "We have every intention of seeing Katherine for the entire season."
Asked if the actress has expressed any desire to leave, Rhimes said, "No, she has not."
"Grey's Anatomy" has provided off-screen drama before, most notably stemming from an ugly clash between cast members Isaiah Washington and T.R. Knight. Washington, who used an anti-gay slur, was fired.
"I have to say we've been through a lot," Rhimes said. She attributes it to "the `Dawson's Creek' phenomenon," in which a "bunch of lovely and young actors" must learn to cope with the sudden fame a TV hit brings.
"These are people who went from living their lives to not being able to walk down the street without paparazzi being able to follow them wherever they go," she said.
Rhimes, a newcomer herself as a series TV producer (she now has a second show, the "Grey's" spinoff "Private Practice"), said she feels as if "everybody has grown up together."
"I drive my little golf cart over to the set and everybody is just really happy. ... So it's nice to see that we're growing into it," Rhimes said.
Does that mean no more surprises?
"I would be shocked if there were no more surprises," she said. "It's the nature of the beast. I don't necessarily feel the same about `Private Practice.' I just feel like this particular show is its own animal. ... If it's a calm day, we're suspicious."
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Angelina Jolie's Ex has Moved On
HOLLYWOOD - Eli Stone
star Jonny Lee Miller is to become a father for the first time, his representative has confirmed.
The actor is expecting his first child with wife Michele Hicks. The pair married in July 2008.
Lee Miller and Hicks, an actress and former model, held a baby shower on Saturday night, September 20, with friends and family in Los Angeles, according to
People.com.
Lee Miller married Angelina Jolie in 1996. The pair split a year later and divorced in 1999.
No Bond catchphrases in new 007 adventure
Posted in: Movie News
Author: Paul Heath
Marc Forster, the director of the new James Bond film has revealed that QUANTUM OF SOLACE will not see Daniel Craig utter those immortal 007 words, "Bond. James Bond." Or indeed any other catchphrases. Forster spoke with the Independent newspaper in the UK.
"There was a 'Bond, James Bond' in the script. There are several places where we shot it as well, but it never worked as we hoped." Forster sais.
"I just felt we should cut it out, and Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson (the film's producers) agreed, and Daniel [Craig], agreed too. It's nice to be open-minded about the Bond formula. You can always go back to them later on."
