Behold: The Poster for Burlesque. I think the marketing department deserves kudos for managing to pay homage to both of their leading ladies simultaneously in a way that's flattering to both. Although the hot pink "they airbrushed my face" quality won't be a sale for everyone.
Linques MTV Whoa! Darren Aronofsky originally conceived of Black Swan and The Wrestler as a single film. Now I'm even more intrigued. Hollywood Crush Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds as action co-stars? Media to swoon. In Contention Isabella Rossellini to head Berlinale jury Stale PopcornGypsy 83. I never hear anyone talking about this movie so I had to link up. Way too underseen for something so heartfelt. MNPP Good morning. Hey, I love bookshelves, too. They scream "I am what I am." Serious Film "Pulled from the Wreckage" Fine acting in terrible films Cinematical freaks out over the amount of stunts in Mad Max: Fury Road Awards Daily on the current cynicism and the Oscar race. Movies Kick Ass picks his favorite Emmy dresses. Christina Hendricks was probably mine. But I'm a sucker for attention grabbing cleavage ... and lavender come to think of it... and redheads (come to keep thinking of it). Triple success.
Go Fug Yourself on Diana Agron's (Glee) Little Women look on the red carpet. PopWrap first official image of Kristen Bell in Burlesque. They think she'll be the most quoted character. Geekscape asks "What if The Expendables had an all female cast?" Answer: Nathaniel would've seen it twice already. (P.S. A female version is so not a bad idea.)
And finally The Awl asks a question that's really been haunting me lately "Why is American selfishness so widespread now?" It's been a disheartening summer -- lack of empathy everywhere. I think you can even see this in reviews of movie dramas. People just have no time or patience for other people's heartache.
OK that's too depressing to end with.
How about By Ken Levine's (who knows from television) Emmy recap:
You realize of course that you watch a lot more television than the people who made these decisions? If it weren't for screener DVD's, many Academy members would still be voting for HILL STREET BLUES.
Ha. Good one.The only reason they're lazier than Oscar voters is they can be. Movies tend to be, like, ineligible after their debut year.
6:30 So Kevin McHale of Glee was very nearly the first person "E!" has talked to that I remotely cared about. He's wearing a yellow bowtie -- I almost typed yellow boytoy -- Weird. I blame Madonna.
Glee Boys.
Kevin named Sally Field as his celebrity crush (!) and Brothers & Sisters as his favorite show. I hope he was conveniently forgetting this past season because it blew.
Moments before Ryan Seacrest was actually wishing Emmys on the Jersey Shore cast. I am so embarrassed for everyone. E! should have rechristened themselves S! for Shameless or Stoopid long long ago. But at least they changed their red carpet people and got rid of the silver haired pancaked makeup person.
6:40 Claire Danes looking gorgeous with relaxed hair and shimmery gown. A Truth: I sometimes wonder what Angela Chase would think of Claire Danes. It's not that I get fantasy and reality confused so much as I just tend to prefer fantasy. Danes claims the only critic she worried about for this movie was Temple Grandin herself. Danes always strikes me as so fragile with all the tics and flinching that I imagine that bad reviews ACTUALLY hurt her, like cause blistering or some such.
6:45 Eva Longoria. That rumor she was going to play the Wasp in The Avengers was one of the darkest moments of my summer.
6:50 Jon Hamm (Mad Men) named Tatum O'Neal as his first celebrity crush because of Bad News Bears. That's so cute. She was one of mine, too. Only it was because of Little Darlingswhich scandalized me as a kid. Scandalized! But there's definitely a connection between being scandalized by someone and crushing on them, don't you think?
7:00 Ryan Murphy is wearing a blue tux and blue sunglasses. And he actually seems a little blue (mood not porny). Maybe he's less excitable in real life than he as a TV god. Because Nip/Tuck and Glee are nothing if not excitable.
7:01 January Jones is going to play Emma Frost "The White Queen" in X-Men: First Class which I think is kind of a brilliant casting decision. I understand the internet thinks otherwise but the internet is craycray
7:03 I'm not kidding you that this is what the E! cameramen did intermittently throughout Christina Hendrick's interview. Again: S!
or maybe E! is correct: E! for Exploitative. P.S. I love those Mad Men barbie dolls. I don't have Joan though. Just the Drapers.
7:12 Bill & Sookie (Anna Paquin) are now married. It's true. And yet they still have to answer constants nudity and sex questions on the red carpet. They're talking about their Rolling Stone photoshoot and how they covered each other's bit. One of the weird annual joys of awards season is watching Bill (I forgot his name. Deal) get embarrassed while talking about the sex scenes and use hand motions to describe body parts. Last year he used his hands, cupped, to demonstrate his butt pumping technique on the show. I kid you not.
Classy! But True Blood is A grade B trash and that's why we love it.
7:34 I'm so bored right now. I was all excited for about 41 minutes. But there are too many TV stars I don't care about. Like Juliana Marguiles. I have this fear that The Middlebrow Wife is going to win lots of awards tonight. It seems so Emmys.
7:52 Julie Bowen just said that her favorite shows on television are 30 Rock which she deemed an "old school" choice (... um, it's only been on for like four years. It's not like Law & F'in Order) and Project Runway her guilty pleasure. Meanwhile the reporter appeared to be headed to Las Vegas right after the show. A cut-out at your waist?
7:59 Billy Bush is TERRIBLE at his job. He really is. He's like "The Emmys" like that's as interesting as a message from their sponsors.
8:03 Opening skit. Glee themed. Gee, I wonder who will win tonight. Was that really Jon Hamm's voice just now? It's fun to see Dr Drew reunited with Liz Lemon but otherwise that number was atrocious. There were lots of pauses for laughter with no laugh track and (presumably) no one laughing.NEXT DAY NOTE: I'm reading around that net that people mostly loved this opening. Hmmm. The dangers of live blogging and divided attention?
So the straight man playing the gay man in the gayest category ever won. But he is truly hilarious on that show. "I ate the sun!"
8:20 txtcritic explaining The Bing Bang Theory to my clueless BFF "it's about three nerds that live together." That sounds unmissable! Modern Family takes another award for Best Writing in Comedy. Well deserved.
Thanks the cast, her agent, "my lord and creator Ryan Murphy" (ha!) her wife. and then a "God Bless"
She's so talented but I feel a bit bad for Krakowski who had her best season ever I think. Is she having a "rage stroke" right now?
8:35 Ryan Murphy wins Best Comedy Director Glee. He says the show is about the value of arts education. My friend (who watches Glee every week) "That sounds so interesting. I'd love to watch that show. What show is he talking about?" Ha! Something tells me that Glee has peaked. Even fans are mocking it tonight.
I should note that somewhere in there was a skit with the Modern Family cast that actually had a good 3D joke featuring Sofia Vergara's boobs. I feel certain that the entire camera crew of E! television guffawed.
In her acceptance speech she says "I'm not funny." Ha. Well, that's true. But your supporting cast sure is. And Edie is marvelous on that show, don't you think? And even better: very little like her Sopranos self. That's range.
8:51 Top Chef wins Best Reality Series. I had no idea that Padme was this divisive but my friends all started arguing about her. There was only pure hate and big love. Nothing inbetween. Weird.
8:55 They keep showing Oprah commercials. We're laughing because we've decided that "Steadman" is the best fake boyfriend name since "George Glass."
9:00 Chris Meloni. I just had to turn the air conditioner back on.
9:02 Best Writing Drama for Mad Men. This is the lamest live blog ever. I apologize. The Emmys are somehow sucking the life out of me. Maybe it's because the awards have not been embarrassing. And the acceptance speeches have been very standard so far. And the hosting not inspired. So... uh... APOLOGIES.
9:04 Supporting Actor NomineesAaron Paul, Breaking Bad | Martin Short, Damages | Terry O'Quinn, Lost | Michael Emerson, Lost | John Slattery, Mad Men | Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain AgeAnd the winner is...Aaron Paul. I guess I need to watch this show. Aaron Paul looks like the tiniest person alive. A pocket Emmy winner.
9:10 Supporting Actress Nominees Sharon Gless, Burn Notice | Rose Byrne, Damages | Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife | Christine Baranski, The Good Wife | Christina Hendricks, Mad Men | Elisabeth Moss, Mad MenAnd the winner is...Archie Panjabi. I like her but it's not OK that Christina Hendricks lost when she doesn't even get nominated for each season. But Mad Men doesn't have much luck winning acting prizes, does it.
9:15 Lead ActorBryan Cranston, Breaking Bad | Michael C Hall, Dexter | Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights | Hugh Laurie, House | Matthew Fox, Lost | Jon Hamm, Mad Men And the winner is Bryan Cranston for the third time. Poor everyone else. This is actually why I've never been into the Emmys. It's like making your bed in the morning. There's always deja vu.
Beautiful gracious speech from Cranston, though. If there's a takeaway from the evening it's that we're all supposed to be watching Breaking Bad. I feel left out.
9:24 Jimmy Fallon just isn't funny. I think that's the problem. He's doing a musical In Memoriam to shows that went off the air. The lyrics were mildly amusing for the 24 spot. But otherwise I'm lost. And he's doing Lost "I didn't understand it, but I tried."
9:25 My best friend on Glee"If Glee loses, it will follow the storyline of the show. And thus, will only serve the show." Hee.
9:30 I forgot to mention that Dexter won Direction of a Drama. I feel like I am seran wrapped to a table right now and the Academy of Television is a serial killer ready to do me in. I'm so over this.
This will not help to free me up from the seran wrap.
I'll say come on, come on, come on, come on, yeah take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby. (break a..)
9:36 I swear Jimmy Fallon is hosting this show from his basement. It's so 12 year old boy "funny" rather than funny.
9:40 The Tonys just won something. My friend thinks that awards shows should be ineligible to win prizes at other awards shows. Listen, I love Broadway but seeing a Broadway show will not change your life. And as my friend Ed says "It'll change your bank account."
9:53 Ricky Gervais is SO funny. "Bucky Gunts" for the win.
9:55 I may actually expire before this show is over.
10:08 Julia Ormond just won Supporting Actress for a TV Movie Temple Grandin. They spelled her name wrong "Julia Ormand" and then she couldn't remember Catherine O'Hara's last name? A joke? I'm very confused right now. Earlier today I forgot the word to "balcony" I am terrified that I have Aphasia. Or at least I am terrified that awards shows have it.
10:16 Temple Grandin won another. Is that about a disease? I shouldn't joke about Aphasia. But I really did forget the word for balcony earlier. WTF?
10:17 Jewel is doing In Memoriam? But without an intro. I remember HER but I can't remember "balcony"
10:20 These In Memoriams are always so sad. Sniffle.
10:23 We're now eating Iceland skyr... it's a little mealy or chalky or something. Do not like. Sorry Iceland.
10:24 I have lost the thread.
10:26 Some time ago George Clooney won a humanitarian prize. He really is a great person. But my apartment -- I have a couple friends over -- we're now experimenting with cuisine and discussing the Scissor Sisters. I tried!
Look how A-MAZ-ING this photo is that my BFF took? The light is emanating from Jake Shears chest. It's not the first time. Light is also absorbed there. The light in my eyeballs.
10:30 Oh all right. If I must. Back to the Emmys.
Lead Actress NomineesJoan Allen, Georgia O'Keefe | Judi Dench, Return to Cranford | Maggie Smith, Capturing Mary | Claire Danes, Temple Grandin | Hope Davis, That Special RelationshipAnd the winner is... Claire Danes.
Her acceptance speech was fun. I would quote it for you now but I lost the thread. I'll have to backtrack. But she was cute and, it's like, something Angela Chase would've said if she'd become, like, a tv star. For reals.
10:38 Lead Actor NomineesJeff Bridges, A Dog Year | Ian McKellen, The Prisoner | Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack | Dennis Quaid, That Special Relationship | Michael Sheen, That Special RelationshipAnd the winner is...Al Pacino. I hate his hair so much.
BTW Latisse is probably loving how many opportunities Claire Danes has had to blink and coo at the camera tonight. Those lashes sure are lovely!
10:40 Yes, please wrap it up Pacino.
10:41 OMG. He is STILL talking? They would drown anyone else out with orchestra music.
Except maybe Betty White.
10:42 I am beyond TIME. I am now going to share a screencap that happened before Al Pacino won. Because I cannot be contained by time or by my own time stamping. F*** you 10:42 I am 10:36 or something. Take it. You'll take it and you'll like it.
MmmmmSkarsgård.
10:46 I feel like if you add up all the times Tom Hanks has been on awards stages accepting prizes -- best miniseries -- you would equal my life. Or at least up until say high school graduation. He's logged years up there is what I'm saying.
10:50 So Claire Danes was just called "bottomlessly talented" does this mean her bottom is without talent? She'll always have her eyelashes.
LAST TWO AWARDS. YEEHAW.
Defending New York City champs 30Rock and Mad Men, both of which have won for every season aired (thus far), defend their titles. Will they repeat for their 4th and 3rd respective seasons? We'll find out in seconds.
DramaBreaking Bad | Dexter | The Good Wife | Lost | Mad Men | True BloodAnd the winner is...MAD MEN. Yes! Best show on TV. You know my feelings about it. January Jones is wearing a dress made of a blue chinese new year dragon. Shell breasts. How cute was that little exchanged look between the Drapers on stage?
ComedyCurbYour Enthusiasm | Glee | Modern Family | Nurse Jackie | The Office | 30 Rock And the winner is...[nailbiter] Modern Family! Great great show. Yay. Deserved. So consistent and so beautifully executed and just, well, funny. And the award is called "Best Comedy"
10:59 Okay wow. So the awards went to fairly deserving things but Jimmy Fallon was terrible. I'm out.
The clear winner of the night is... (I think we all know).... Claire Danes. How soon does HBO offer her her own series?
11:54 OK. I really must sleep now but I just wanted to remind Sofía Vergara of her commitments.
Have you seen that Christina Hendricks is the new face of London Fog? Such a delectable woman.
I caught the commercial to the new Katharine Heigl movie Life as We Know It (2010) recently in which Hendricks dies and Heigl, her best friend, turns out to be the "raise my child" choice in the will. The whole time I was watching the short film (I'd say "trailer" but it contains the whole movie. No need to buy a ticket) I kept thinking 'Wait. You're going to tease me with Christina and then make me watch Katharine instead for 2 hours?' And bear in mind, I like the oft-hated Katharine Heigl. Honestly, sometimes Hollywood is really slow on the draw with what the public responds to. People are nuts for Christina Hendricks. Look around the web. Where's her big movie role? It's not like Mad Men doesn't have long hiatuses.
Film Brain Jean Luc Godard's no show letter for a career honor in 1995. Think he'll show up for the Governor's Ball in LA? I don't. Film Business AsiaMonga will represent Taiwan for this year's foreign film Oscar race. Yeah yeah, I know I need to update the pages. Village Voice fun interview with Edward Albee who has a new play Off Broadway. You have to admire his self regard...
The world would be a better place if theaters were filled with my plays all the time.
because, you know, he's right about that! Washington Post Bernadette Peters in Sondheim's Follies. Holy ____ Consider my ticket bought. Guardian Gerard Depardieu doesn't get the fuss over Juliette Binoche Movie Dearest reviews the first season of Cougar Town Gawker "Anne Rice Quivers with Delight" at...
Drive in Double marquees for the win!
MNPP who wore it best? confident men in pink bathrobes. Hmmm, I wanted more options. Didn't Grant or Hudson don one, too? The Wrap Anthony Mackie for MI:4? We keep rooting for him. A big budget action flick probably couldn't hurt. /FilmAll Good Things starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling will get a tiny limited December release. All the better to compete directly with Ryan Gosling's other tiny limited December release Blue Valentine. I seriously don't understand movie distributors. MCI Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix Boing Boing not cinema but this "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon about evil fetuses is hilarious especially if, like me, you need to laugh to stop from crying about what's happening in America right now.
<---- A photo from the premiere of Going the Distance that I saw at I Need My Fix. Is this pose, caught foregrounded against a rainbow subtle "Box Office" halo, some sort of sign from god that this Justin Long / Drew Barrymore romcom is going to be huge? Hmmmm. Drew is so impossible not to love but I'm hoping that one day she gets and nails a movie role as good as her Grey Gardens outing. Her movie roles are always so samey-samey and GG sure let her stretch her wings beautifully. Won't one of our A list directors give her a real big screen opportunity? The Barrymore dynasty hasn't been in the Oscar mix since, what, 1944?
Slant Magazine sizes up the Emmy rosters with should and could wins. Great read, dependably bitchy. But I must say that I think Christina Hendricks deserves the Supporting Actress win over Elisabeth Moss for Mad Men. Moss has such rich material constantly and does a tremendous job. But Hendricks is just constantly elevating the shit out of what, in lesser hands, could be one of the show's most surface characters. P.S. I don't get the hate for 30 Rock... Sure it's increasingly uneven. But it's still goddamn funny in its best moments. The Wrap Christina Hendrick still models for friends? So cool. TowleroadThe Switch, Fela, celebrity forgiveness chart and more. MNPPThe Fog or The Mist? It's a question of the utmost importance. Condensation forever! Dark Eye Socket a follow up to that "what do you look for in a movie?" question we were just chatting about.
And reader Patrick sent me this image of Catherine Deneuve from François Ozon's new film Potiche which will play at Venice (god, I wish I was going to the Venice Festival. This AND Black Swan?) with this amusing note "trying to to be the new Sue Sylvester..." ha.
I'd don a track suit to hang with Catherine Deneuve any day any time any where. But especially in Venice. Wouldn't you?
Mad Men 4.2 "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" In this episode SCDP scrambles to make their low budget Christmas party festive for their biggest client Lee Garner Jr.. Don Draper gets drunks and beds his secretary. Awkward! Meanwhile, Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray) returns with a valuable client in hand. He and his former protege Peggy argue about the Ponds soap campaign. Freddy wants to enlist a celebrity as the spokesperson.
Freddy: Tallulah Bankhead? She's glamorous. She seems more uncompromising than a movie star. She's on Broadway. Peggy: She never got off Broadway because she's not beautiful enough. Freddy: Shame on you. C'mon.
[imagining commercial] A little backstage at the makeup mirror with Ponds. Opening night 'The choice of professionals.' It's good, right? Peggy: All of their research says they're trying to get young women. Freddy: Young women look up to older women. Peggy:For beauty tips. Are you joking?
Joking indeed. Here's Tallulah Bankhead in 1930 and again in the 1960s (she died in 1968). She was one of the hardest living, wittiest and most quotable of stars. Glamorous? Yes. A good spokeswoman for clean beauty regimens? Um... No
Later in the episode...
Freddy: On the short list I got Tallulah, Jessica Tandy, Barbara Stanwyck, and Doris Day -- different types. Peggy: I don't even understand your list. What's wrong with Elizabeth Taylor? Freddy: Isn't about making old ladies look good? Peggy: Nothing makes old ladies look good. Freddy: The Ponds does.
Freddy's wish-list suggests that he goes to the theater a lot (Tandy & Tallulah both being stage rather than movie stars). An argument erupts between them about what young girls want and whether they'll get married or not and such. Peggy, who has just been called "old fashioned" by her boyfriend in a previous scene, deflects the insult Freddy's way.
Peggy: You know, Freddy, I've brought up your name a hundred times to come in and freelance for me. But everyone is right about you. You and your grand dames and your poor old typewriter and your desperate spinsters. You're so old fashioned, you know that?
Hey, if loving grande dames makes you old fashioned, I've been old fashioned since I was five years old! I've always loved theatrical women of a certain age.
In 1964 when this episode takes place, Liz Taylor was a mammoth star and at 32 still the screen's preeminent beauty (Peggy's suggestion makes sense) but it was actually Doris Day, ten years Liz's senior, who was the box office queen. Day was the top earner, male or female, from 1962 through 1964 according to the Motion Picture Almanac, so it's interesting that Day would be grouped in with Freddy's "old fashioned" taste. But I guess the romantic comedy queens, who always seem to be the top earning females no matter the decade, do appeal to the most conventional and traditional of moviegoers... and therefore all age ranges. (It's interesting that Mad Men is suddenly using Peggy and Freddy, two allies, to dramatize the widening generational gap of the tumultous 1960s.)
Liz and Doris are the constants but the sweetheart crown shifts from Debbie Reynolds to Sandra Dee and then, in the mid to late 60s, a real shakeup begins with the musical stars exerting their power be it Ann-Margret, Shirley Maclaine or the tsunami sized arrivals of both Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand (just a few short years away). Natalie Wood is a constant during the early 60s (the peak of her popularity) but one assumes she just missed these lists since the bulk of each top ten is made up of male stars.
Since we're now writing about the episodes shortly after they air, I thought I'd add three new elements to each write up.
Best Line Peggy to her horny boyfriend: "You're never going to get me to do anything Swedish people do."
Best Intangible Something I absolutely love that everyone is going to have to blow Lee Garner Jr. (metaphorically speaking) to keep his business. Consider it Sal's phantom revenge. (For those just joining the series, Sal --who used to be the defacto star of "Mad Men at the Movies" -- lost his job basically because he refused Lee Garner's sexual advances behind the scenes.)
Best Single Moment Joanie leads a conga line.
This moment was a major hit with fans everywhere if Twitter is any indication. It prompted several amusing online responses including a conga from GIF PARTY and a campaign for an entire episode composed solely of Joanie leading a conga line. Hell, I'd watch!
Other references:(Music) The Beatles | (Myths/Characters) Potemkinville, Rasputin, Santa, Three Wise Men, Hitler, The Tin Man | (Literature) Article "The Swedish Way of Love"... this episode takes place in December 1964 so we're still a couple of years away from the famous I Am Curious (Yellow)film but the "Sexual Revolution" is approaching in America and Sweden was an early influential leader in this regard.
Ask David Lynch I asked him a few questions today. He was sympathetic about my cat's health problems but he sure was mean / incoherent once I asked any question about myself. What will Lynch tell you? CHUD "What if Jaws (1975) was made today?" I love this article and I absolutely believe that it would be as described. So...much...backstory nowadayzzzz IMDb Q'Orianka Kilcher (The New World) arrested in oil related protest. We all know that oil companies (and our dumb societal resistance to developing alternate forms of energy) are going to be the death of us all so it's good to see young activists out there. fourfour turns five. Happy birthday to an amazing blog. Rich shares his 20 favorite posts
Observations on Film Art Why are today's movies so unimaginatively shot with back and forth closeups? I'm always bitching about this so it's nice to see other people begging for variety, too. More blocking for your actors, please, directors. Try "The Cross" The Scott Brothers on The Discreet Charm of Catherine Deneuve:
It’s that filmic resolve that sometimes gets labeled as “emotionally distant”, which is wholly unfair and misses the point of her amazing abilities as an actress.
Movie|Line Christina Hendricks removes her body parts in sci-fi music video. Honestly I think I just read a book like this. Was it Saturn's something? Los Angeles Times the great cinematographer William A Fraker (Rosemary's Baby, Bullitt, Looking For Mr Goodbar) passes on. RIP
Behold: The Poster for Burlesque. I think the marketing department deserves kudos for managing to pay homage to both of their leading ladies simultaneously in a way that's flattering to both. Although the hot pink "they airbrushed my face" quality won't be a sale for everyone.
How about By Ken Levine's (who knows from television) Emmy recap: 
