Lindsay Lohan Laughs at Love

But mostly herself. Do you laugh with? at?

Lindsay Lohan's eHarmony Profile from Lindsay Lohan

A sense of humor about oneself is crucial to survival. So thumbs up, Linds. But, damnit, stop looking at the teleprompter! Memorize your lines. You know how to do that. Remember when you were 12 and you could do that plus juggle accents, act with yourself convincingly never flubbing a sight line and risk comparison to Hayley Mills? Hayley freaking Mills! And that was your feature debut. [sigh]


This post has been brought to you by Nathaniel's recent unplanned cable screening of Parent Trap (1998) in which this 'redhead with a little bit of sass' was completely awesome, Dennis Quaid leaned with ease on his familiar megawatt charms and Natasha Richardson was unexpectedly funny. [sniffle]
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Hounds of Link

"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God. And get him to link our places...."

This Woman's Link
fourfour has a thang for Kate Bush. So many memories are embedded in this post I felt like my heart was going to burst whilst my mind was blown. I l-o-v-e Kate Bush. That is all. Where's her biopic? And who on earth would be gorgeous enough but suitably bonkers to play her?

Wuthering Links
Blog Stage Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury: "non-divas"
Gawker is Warren Beatty holding up the rights to the Dick Tracy franchise. Did you even remember that this could have been one? Speaking of Dick Tracy...
Boy Culture Madonna as Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels. Sorta...
Screengrab inaugurates a new series "Not on DVD" with the bio Patty Hearst (1988) starring Natasha Richardson.
/Film the strange case of the distributorless Jim Carrey/Ewan Macgregor prison love story I Love You Phillip Morris
Victim of the Time the best review of Duplicity ever?
World of Wonder says goodbye to Oscar nominee Betsy Blair (Marty). In the photo with this post she's pictured with Nathaniel's two all time favorite classic male movie stars. How about that?!

The Ninth Link
Nick's Flick Picks on the Best Actresses of 1941

And finally, have to leave you with this pointed bit from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Portia De Rossi apologizing to everyone she hurt by marrying Ellen DeGeneres.



Heh.
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Natasha Richardson (1963-2009)

The family of actress Natasha Richardson (The White Countess) officially released the news earlier today. She was declared dead today at the age of 45. What seemed like a minor skiing accident on a practice trail in Quebec (she reportedly walked away from the fall, laughing) quickly morphed into a life ending tragedy. Head trauma and brain injuries are mysterious things and difficult to predict (here's an article with a neurologist theorizing on the matter).


This is a loss to everyone who enjoyed her work and of course especially tragic for her family, one of the most important film and stage families of the past century. Natasha's father, Oscar winning director Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) passed away in 1991 but her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave is still vital and working. Natasha performed with Vanessa just two months ago here in New York City as mother in daughter in Stephen Sondheim's classic A Little Night Music. That will be an even more cherished memory now to any fans who attended. They also shared acting duties in Natasha's last film to be released in the US, Evening (2007). And in The White Countess (2005) she shared the screen impressively with both mother and aunt, Lynn Redgrave, a great rental choice should you want to enjoy her gift soon in this sad time. Natasha only shared the screen with her sister Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) once. They were both little children when they appeared (uncredited) in their dad's film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968).

Natasha is survived by her two sons and her husband Liam Neeson. The couple met on the set of a TV miniseries in 1984 and began dating while sharing the stage in Broadway's Anna Christie in the early 90s. They were married in 1994 just months before their only feature film together, Nell (pictured left) was released.

6 of the best online tributes
Alan Cumming "Tasha"
Nicks Flick Picks "Wasn't She Lovely?"
Some Came Running "uncommon beauty, intelligence and grace"
Stephanie Zacharek @ Salon "too good, and too unusual, for Hollywood to reckon with"
EW her key roles
Jew Eat Yet on the Redgrave acting dynasty

Finally, here is a look at Natasha in her TONY winning Cabaret performance in the amazing Broadway revival. She's doing one of the all time great show tunes... "Maybe This Time"

With talent like that, we all won for a time.

I haven't written about the Richardson/Redgrave/Neeson family as much as I probably should have given their plentiful contributions to the screen but I hope to do more retrospectives in the future. A look back at Schindler's List was already in the works (soon) and Liam was featured in one of this site's most popular pieces, 40 Favorite Actors of the Aughts published in early 2006. Retrospectives of the entire decade's best work and films begin this fall.

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Say a Prayer for Natasha Richardson

Update March 18th Natasha Richardson has officially passed away.

Reports are coming fast and furious and not all of them agree on details but the lovely Natasha Richardson was in a skiing accident Monday. Liam Neeson, her husband, left the set of his latest film to be with her [LA Times]. Natasha hasn't been onscreen a lot lately but she triumphed on stage in the revival of Cabaret on Broadway in the 90s (and Sally Bowles isn't an easy part to play, despite the numerous women who took turns filling her shoes when she moved on). Just a few years ago she was radiant and center stage in the underappreciated Merchant/Ivory picture The White Countess (pictured left) opposite Ralph Fiennes. Here's a great fansite.

Let's hope that some of the more ominous reports, some mentioning traumatic brain injuries and death, are incorrect. Official details from her family are expected to emerge soon.

Natasha and her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave,
last March in London. [Photo source]

Update March 18th @ 2:56 Still no official word from her family according to the NY Times but many news sources are still proclaiming worst case scenarios such as "brain death" or "on life support". Here's an explanation of how these delayed brain injuries operate. Terrible terrible news.

What's Your Poison, Lindsay Lohan?

With Lindsay Lohan partying again and Georgia Rule surfacing (the movie on which she was famously reprimanded for her unprofessional behavior, i.e. too much partying / not enough acting) I thought it was time to look at the liquid evidence in Lindsay's movies. Does she drink? Does she drive others to drink? Let's take a brief illustrated journey through the filmic evidence...

The Parent Trap
Nine whole years ago in Lindsay's very first movie, director Nancy Meyers underscores one of Linds' first scenes with "Bad to the Bone" --I'm not making this up. In the scene Lindsay plays a sneaky game of cards at summer camp and the music is used for comic effect...though maybe Ms. Meyers was trying to tell us something. Turns out back home in California, miss thing's dad owns a winery.


Uh oh... I regret to inform that cute young Linds spends that entire movie surrounded by alcohol! This can't be good. In the still above she downs her morning mimosa. No, I kid ...it's orange juice. I realize it's a terrible thing to joke about... but the movie DOES joke about it. Check out this scene below. Her mom has given her a glass of wine. She comically passes out after one sip, staggering back up to her feet asking to be excused

It's actually but a sneaky ploy to leave the dinner table. And thats all the drinking that she does in The Parent Trap aside from one water bottle at camp, a sip of that orange juice. (For solids: one single bite of toast in the whole film) The bulk of the drinking is from the adults around her.

Here Lindsay reacts to screen mom Natasha Richardson who has definitely had one too many.


I'm not saying Lindsay rehearsed this scene with Dina Lohan ... but I'm not saying she didn't either.

Freaky Friday
La Lohan's second film was also a surprisingly good remake of an earlier hit. In this movie she switches bodies with an award-worthy Jamie Lee Curtis as her mom. Lindsay has even less of an appetite in this one. The only solid she consumes in the whole movie is a fortune cookie (the magical one that makes mom & daughter switch bodies --don't you hate when that happens?)


...oh and a few french fries, too. But it's really Jamie Lee Curtis eating the french fries since they've already switched places. Otherwise Lohan is not hungry for this whole movie. In detention troublemaker Linds gives up her sandwich and powerade to the supervising teacher. For liquids, she stays hydrated only with water at the House of Chiang (that's all they serve apparently --even to toast with!) and Lindsay never looks particularly happy about it.

'I really don't understand why this restaurant serves only water and fortune cookies.
They're ruining my life!'

Other Films
I'm skipping Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen because life is short. But know this: She spends the entire film trying to meet her idol, a rocker named Stu from her favorite band. He turns out to be a crushing disappointment: a big lush! Lindsay helps him sober up in time for the happily ever after finale. Clearly it's a fantasy film.

I love A Prairie Home Companion but there's not much to her role there aside from writing bad poetry and singing nervously. I haven't seen Bobby. I know you wanted a grand finale where I dissect her partying habits in Herbie Fully Loaded but I think the title covers it, don't you? In Just My Luck --couldn't sit through that again, not that much of a masochist -- she does in fact throw a wild party that gets her into mucho trouble. Art imitating life?

We'll conclude with Lindsay's best film, and the one most responsible for the goodwill that she hangs to now by a precarious thread...

Mean Girls
I thought about investigating all 97 minutes of Lindsay's best film for clues to her real/reel behavior but this one's easy...



A (moving) picture is worth a thousand words.
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tags: Lindsay Lohan
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We Can't Wait #4 Evening

In this new film from acclaimed cinematographer Lajos Koltai, Vanessa Redgrave plays a dying woman who spends a lot of time flashing back to her youth when she looked exactly like Claire Danes. Imagine that. Her daughters struggle to accept their mom's mortality whilst having their own dramas. Evening's cast also includes Meryl Streep and her daughter (!) as the younger version of her, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Glenn Close, Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson. I could say more but they had me at the cast. I don't even care if it's bad.

Lulu: Indeed. And that it comes complete with a Patrick Wilson/Hugh Dancy chaser? Well, this is just like crack for actressexuals. Not that I'm compulsive that way.

Gabriel: All about the cast. How can this possibly fail? The deck is stacked so high...

Joe: The cast, of course, is phenomenal, but I’ll be the first to take up the mantle of Michael Cunningham, who has adapted the screenplay from Susan Minot’s novel. Cunningham wrote The Hours (book, not screenplay) and A Home At the End of the World (book and screenplay). The Hours made the better movie, while A Home was an absolute mess as a movie, though the book was heartbreakingly wonderful. Hopefully we can chalk the latter up to first time screenwriting jitters, because the talent that’s been assembled here...it would be criminal to waste it.

Question for my fellow round-tablers: who’s got the prettier face, Claire Danes or Hugh Dancy?


JA: Oh come on, I like Claire Danes a lot, but Dancy's so much prettier then her. He's also probably the only one of the two who's made out with Cunningham. Allegedly.

Amazing cast + Cunningham = so there.

previously on "we can't wait"
#5 Lust, Caution, #6 I'm Not There, #7 Margot at the Wedding, #8 moved to 2008, #9 The Golden Compass,#10 Grindhouse, #11 Bug, #12, Sunshine, #13 Southland Tales, #14 300, #15 Hot Fuzz, #16 Stardust, #17 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, #18 Spider-Man 3, #19 Rendition, #20 The Bourne Ultimatum
Intro -films that didn't make the list

tags: Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Michael Cunningham, movies, evening, actress, Meryl Streep, Patrick Wilson,Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave

Awards Keep Coming

Six new categories now posted in the FB Awards...
Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited or Cameo Role
Lady-who-lunches. Reporter. Pissed off benefits worker. Two mothers who understand way more than they're letting on.
Best Costume Design (Period)
Country Superstars. Hong Kong Divas. Brides-to-Be. Native Princesses. Dance Hall Ladies
Best Film Editing
Peroni. Simpson. Hudecek. Mirrione. Sanders
Best Original Score
Andrews. Desplat. Hisaishi. Marianelli. Santaolalla.
Best Sound f/x Editing
Aliens, Apes, and Wizards.
Best Director
Cronenberg. Desplechin. Haneke. Lee. Wright.

TONY Nominations: The Movie

It's a very cinematic year for the Tony Awards with lots of plays and musicals with previous film incarnations in the running... If you've never seen a Broadway show but have seen the following movies Glengarry Glenn Ross, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Charity, The Birdcageor La Cage Aux Folles, Little Women, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than you've got half the categories covered. This is obviously not a good thing for the health of the theater BUT it will probably make the Awards show a lot more fun to play along at home with...


PLAY Doubt (7 noms) by John Patrick Shanley (known to filmgoers for his Oscarwinning screenplay for Moonstruck) and Glengarry Glen Ross (6 noms), the very well received revival of David Mamet's play, seem to be leading the play nominations. Rossbecame a 1992 film featuring Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon and is now, 13 years later, back on the Great White Way. The mixed-to-poorly received revivals of Tenessee Williams masterpieces A Streetcar Named Desire starring Natasha Richardson and the improbably cast John C Reilly and The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange were mostly ignored as was Denzel Washington's star turn in Julius Caesar--so the name recognition factor only went so far this year...


MUSICAL Spamalot!, the latest box office behemoth to hit Broadway seems to be sucking up a gargantuan portion of the nominations (14) in the musical category. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Light in the Piazza also did well. Not faring well at all was Little Women, one of the earliest entries which nabbed only a nod for cutesy Sutton Foster.

...now that the nominations are announced, watch for the closing notices to go up for the shows that didn't do well or were completely shut out. Goodbye Brooklyn the Musical and good riddance!