Tuesday, January 04, 2011

The Linky City

Two bits from Chicago
Roger Ebert the eclectic international and intergenerational cast list of the new Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies. Congratulations to all! This can only be a gazillion times smarter than the previous short run with the Bens.
Wall Street Journal saddest movie news of the day: a classic cinema shut down in Chicago.

General Linkage
Cinematical Matt Damon's "abs double." A funny quirk of crediting.
Show Tracker What are Mad Men cast members up to between seasons?
The Social Network's official site overfloweth.
Ferdy on Films announces her favorites of the year. It's almost exclusively a festival list but she considers going by theatrical release like we do a hegemonic. Ouch!

Confession/Question
Weird reader question coming, so bear with me. Before you interview a star, the publicists almost always say "no personal questions!" and I'm always like "uh, why would I ask one of those?". I am so tied up in the celluloid that it honestly never occurs to me to say something like "so tell me who you're screwing." The only time this interests me is when it has curio above/below the line value -- for instance, I love knowing which costume designer or art director is married to which actor or actress -- or when its part of the overarching Hollywood Mythology (superstar couples like Brad & Angie, Newman & Woodward, Matt & Ben, Liz & Dick, Warren & Annette, etcetera). But sometimes my lack of interest in offscreen celebrity dating shocks even myself. I was reading on PopBytes that Macauley Culkin and Mila Kunis just broke up and I didn't even know they were a couple. Or if I knew it, I never committed it to memory. And they've been together for 8 years! I blame this ignorance on having next-to-no Mila familiarity until she started working on the big screen regularly a couple of years ago. (I have only seen, like, 2 episodes of That 70s Show.) Whenever a TV star is suddenly in demand in the movies, I have that damn info-lag.

So my question is this: Which specific aspect of celebrity life or the movie industry or whatnot do you have almost zero interest in, despite your interest in everything else???

18 comments:

Kevin said...

Celebrity children. I mean, if they come to notoriety, they'll make an impression on me (Jaden & Willow "Whip My Hair" Smith) but otherwise I have absolutely no interest. I just found out Brad and Angelina have natural-born twins named Knox and Vivienne that are a couple years old now. I was stunned.

Glenn said...

The only real sad bit about the Mila/Macauley breakup (which I did know about) for me is that it would've been a hoot to see them arrive on the red carpet together and have people be all "wha...?"

Agreed with Kevin about the kids.

Andreas said...

I'm pretty much totally apathetic about anything stars are doing off the screen, whether in bed or in public, unless it's something especially interesting - like cool political activism, or James Franco being a polymath who appears in videos advertising Gary Shteyngart novels.

But if it involves dating, divorce, kids, whatever, I don't care. It tends to get kind of stalkerish/boring. I also had no idea about Culkin/Kunis.

Seeking Amy said...

Mila and Macaulay were cute. It's a shame they split right in the middle of all these good things happening for Mila. I think she's really underrated as an actress and loved her in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Such natural charisma. Happy for the recognition she's been getting.

Jonathon said...

I rarely care about someone's personal life, celebrity or otherwise. I do love hearing a funny story from them on talk show's but that's pretty much the limit. I'm more interested in their technique and other acting related subjects. Btw, Mila's too hot for him anyway. He always seems sweaty.

Anonymous said...

celebrity's kids

Lara said...

Sexual orientation. I don't care if someone is gay, lesbian, bisexual or into flowers.

pomme said...

i'm a gossip woman but i dislike to see the kids of famous people and i don't care sexual orientation & politic ideas

Glenn Dunks said...

Maybe Macauley just got sick of being left home alone while she went and picked up awards.

(i hate myself for that joke)

NATHANIEL R said...

Lara... there's an orientation involving florals?! The things you learn ;)

Anonymous said...

who they are wearing.

poor designers. keep on turning themselves into clothes.

adam k. said...

I didn't even realize Macauley Culkin was still alive. Much less sleeping with a soon to be oscar-nominated (maybe) hottie. I somehow had it in my head that he was one of those child stars who'd ended up ODing or going to prison... maybe just since his brother seems to have supplanted him cinema land...

Volvagia said...

I don't really care about any of it. Perform/Direct Well and I don't care about anything else. Sorry, but actors work with anybody who's not in prison. Why should we care about any of what they did?

Janice said...

//Before you interview a star, the publicists almost always say "no personal questions!" and I'm always like "uh, why would I ask one of those?". I am so tied up in the celluloid that it honestly never occurs to me to say something like "so tell me who you're screwing." //

And that's just one reason why I get my daily dose here, Nat. So when is La Kidman going to let you interview her? that would be awesome, and no stupid marriage/family questions. I just saw the video interview that Tom O'Neill did with her on The Gold Derby and his first question was "So do you let your little girl play with your Oscar?" *GAG*

Deus Ex Machina said...

How much money they make, who's the highest paid, who's the most profitable. I mean, some of them get 20 Mill a pop and still suck! how is that possible?!

Deus Ex Machina said...

Also, who’s the sexiest or prettiest or who’s the one people jerk off to. Most of my favorite actress rarely make those lists, and that’s why I love them, I mean, I prefer non-sexy ScarJo way more than Sexy Scarjo!

Anonymous said...

I'd have to actually say Christian Bale. He's had basically nothing to say about his personal life and is so vested in the whole Method thing to his acting that his talents and films speak for themselves. And I don't really care to know anything about the guy's life. I mean, I was blown away watching some of the featurettes on Batman Begins to even hear his Welsh accent. It really threw me for a loop because his American accent is so convincing.

Anonymous said...

Oh, whoops, I read the question wrong. I thought you were asking who in Hollywood I'd never want to know anything personal about.

Eh... I've never cared for when Hollywood mixes with politics in any way. Like, which celebrity is supporting Barack Obama or is giving money to the GOP or whatever. Your job is to entertain us, not give us who you're rooting for in a horse race from 3,000 miles away.