Thursday, September 13, 2007

Links

<--- Look it's Sherie Rene Scott as "Ursula" in the Broadway bound version of The Little Mermaid. I'm bitching about it over at Zoom-In but I wanted to mention it here because y'all know about my thing for this sea witch.

Apple The Iron Man Trailer
It's Chris Crocker "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!"
IFC has fun tidbits from Cronenberg & Mortenson discussing Eastern Promises, opening tomorrow
oh and yes, Toronto...
Anne Thompson considers how the the big buzz fest titles are going to play in the real world
Torontoist has a whole slew of yummy star photos: Brangelina, Eric Bana, Reese, Kelly MacDonald, Jim Broadbent, Helen Hunt (and they seem excited to see her. Canadians sure are nice), The Clooney, Gael Garcia Bernal and more

13 comments:

Glenn Dunks said...

I must say that I'm glad Jennifer Hudson is still acting. I'd rather the naysayers not have the satisfaction of her winning the Oscar and then ditching acting altogether. It's like some people want her to quit acting so that they can be all high and mighty about the Academy Awards.

It's like all those people who prattle on endlessly about Paris Hilton doing nothing to deserve her fame and then when she releases an album or makes a tv show the same people prattle on about her using her money to do something with her life.

(needless to say, Jennifer and Paris are on such opposite ends of the talent spectrum it ain't funny, but hopefully people catch my drift)

Anonymous said...

I agree Kamikaze it's not that serious. Sure she can use a couple of acting classes, but I'm glad she is trying and getting non-singing roles.


Britney is a disaster , but she is by NO means out of shape...she just had two kids.

Boyd said...

What was all the fuss about Britney's tummy? People who think that's way out of shape are obsessed!! As anon above says: she's just had two kids!!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Camel on this. Imagine if everyone who won an Academy Award then quit acting (although in some instances that seems to be the effect anyway, whether it's Susan Sarandon or Marisa Tomei. Then there are those I wish would quit, like Mira Sorvino.)

And we can certainly use more diversity on our movie screens, more women of size and women of color.

RedSatinDoll

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed that Anne Thompson article - thanks Nath for bringing it to my attention.

Re: Jennifer Hudson - not her biggest fan, but I'm glad she's been cast as Carrie's assistant in the Sex and the City movie. Sounds like a fun role. I feel like that movie is going to have Oscar attention for the actors (I mean Emmy and Globes went wild for them).

Re: Britney - the more I think about it, the less terrible her 'comeback' seems to be. It was just average really, wasn't it, nothing more nothing less. It's just everyone expected a LOT more - which is fair enough given the event and the star. That youtube video grosses me out though - why is it all over the net today?!?!

PS. Her body looked hot - how on earth can that be seen as out of shape??

NATHANIEL R said...

the larger point about JHud was that i just don't understand why the music isn't coming FIRST. that's all

Anonymous said...

I guess it has a lot to do with Clive Davis. It was supposed to come out in November, but now they've pushed it to 08. Plus she said it wasn't hip hop so maybe they are trying to find the right sound.

NATHANIEL R said...

also agreed that Britney still has (or fought to retrieve) a great body. If that's fat and out of shape, well, American dysmorphia is even worse than i thought.

But the performance was totally boring it's like she wasn't even trying. so sad.

Anonymous said...

The Britney discussion pulled me out of lurkdom! Britney's figure is more than fine for an average mother of two, but she made her living on having hot dance moves and an even hotter body. It's not what it used to be, which wouldn't matter if she had anything else to fall back on professionally, like the ability to sing, play an instrument, write music or dance. But all she could offer the public on stage Sunday was her graceless, dead-eyed, lumbering body, and there are better ones walking around any beach/club/university campus, so the knives came out. The real lesson aspiring superstars should take from Brit's VMA debacle is to evolve beyond being pretty faces, because the time will come when they are no longer the trendiest or sexiest. They have a chance for longevity in music/acting/etc. (if not necessarily a continued spot in limelight or status as a legend) if they have the skills to adapt and make a place for themselves in the industry as they age.

Britney gets more breaks than any other star in recent memory. It's always poor little Britney, everyone is just so mean to her, we all make mistakes, who hasn't driven with a baby on their laps/gone commando in miniskirts/spilled food on themselves/smoked in front of their children/married on a drunken whim in Vegas/etc., so who are you to judge? She will never get her act together because too many defenders always make her out to be the victim with nothing she does really being her fault, so she blithely goes on thinking that she doesn't have to mature or change, because "they" are so mean and are the ones making her life so hard, and everything would be fine if they just stopped criticizing her. Of course, that's not her real problem, so she just carries on until she screws up again, but worse than before, and it's an endless cycle of trainwreck behavior and excuses.

No, Britney is not "fat" (though she looked to be in better shape even earlier this year, well after giving birth again), but she could take better care of herself (less junk food, drinking, partying and more rehearsal), if she really wants to prance around on stage in sequined underwear. If she'd worn something else, gotten someone to do her hair, and shown any semblance of talent or creativity up there, the talk about her body would be practically nonexistent. But it was just an assault of bad hair, bad outfit, questionable sobriety and subpar dancing/lip syncing, so when it got down to addressing her weight, people weren't going to reign themselves in to say that she didn't look like she did at 19, but instead she has to be "OMG so fat!" on top of everything else. Thank the internet age, where everything is either the best or worst ever (unless, of course, it's "meh"). There are more factors involved in this specific case to keep me from saying the criticism is all because of America's collective issues with food and body image. Somewhat, but not totally.

I don't understand how people can say her performance wasn't that bad or much different than years past. She could never sing, but she could work a stage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGZbR_83H8Q In comparison, that "Gimme More" performance is like a Saturday Night Live parody of her glory days.

NATHANIEL R said...

arabella --welcome to the wonderful world of nonlurking. i appreciate your comments and yes... the defense is part of the problem. But so is the kneejerk negativity that's so rampant these days.

no wonder stars get so freaking weird. Who wouldn't mentally crumble under the type of constant derision they face whenever they make the teensiest misstep.

pretty cutthroat out there.

but yes Britney as a star / "talent" / public conversation piece / whatever has several issues all tangled up together making it one big mess of an issue

Glenn Dunks said...

As Arabella said, nobody's telling her what to do and she doesn't have the skills to make decisions for herself (it would seem). Nobody's telling her she needs more rehearsal, nobody's telling her to look after her kids, etc. It's just like Lindsay Lohan. To many people telling her she's hot and that she can do anything because she's famous and not enough people saying she's using too many drugs and acting like an insane person.

WickedScorp said...

On Ursula : it looks like a rejected costume from THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT.

Arabella said...

It's the same Arabella, just signed in this time.

no wonder stars get so freaking weird. Who wouldn't mentally crumble under the type of constant derision they face whenever they make the teensiest misstep.

I sometimes wonder how Jodie Foster or Brooke Shields would have coped if they'd have grown up in the internet age. Their careers probably wouldn't have been the same anyway, with the onslaught of media criticism probably shaming producers into scrapping their most controversial roles. But as it is, I think they both experienced the pitfalls of young fame and being made into a sex object at an early age, and they both realized that they'd have to step away from the Hollywood scene in order to stay sane. I just don't see that level of awareness with Britney or Lindsay; they just seem addicted to the limelight (Lindsay even had sanctioned photos of herself taken in rehab) and don't seem to realize that there's a way to make a living in acting/music that doesn't involve flashing your stuff every other week or shopping at Kitson. You can't control everything people are going to say, but you can try to be a professional and have some sense of restraint, so people aren't relishing the chance to tear you down the minute you stumble.