19 posts tagged “celebrities”

Every Sunday for the past three and a half months, I've kept the Sabbath holy. "Holy" meaning reserved for Bret Michaels and his congregation of skanks.

I've watched "Rock of Love with Bret Michaels" from the beginning in the summer of 2007 and since then have been captivated by the show. I'm not sure what the draw is (romantic trials of an aged rock star? what strippers do during the daytime?), but I realized during this season (The Tour Bus) that I'm more invested in these characters and their stories than I am in the current season of ABC's "Lost."

For example, I felt that Marcia the Brazilian drunk was just misunderstood. Beneath a cloud of tequila, there was truly a heart of gold (after all, she did give away a gift from Bret to those Poison fans because she wanted to share the wealth!). I also felt that Jamie (the later addition to the show) actually would have been able to handle life on the road better than Taya and Mindy. She was a groupie, after all; plus, she didn't get into "funks" like Taya and Mindy. 

Also, I think that Bret Michaels is one of the best characters on television (yes, I said "characters"). He's got some of the best one-liners ("Whatsa goin' on?") and is someone you can't help but root for. After all, he just wants to find a nice former stripper to settle down with. I think the draw with "Rock of Love" might be that Bret doesn't take himself too seriously and neither does the show. It's pure fun. You shouldn't invest too much thought into it because that's not what's intended. It's all about escape. The skanks get to act out many people's biggest fantasy: dating a rock star. They also get to do it while looking hot in scantily clad clothing. Whether you're a man or woman, doesn't this fulfill an inner secret desire? 

So what am I going to do with my Sundays now? Take time to self-reflect? Meditate? Watch VH1's new "Daisy of Love"? How will my heart go on? I suppose I could now spend my Sundays actually attending church -- praying that "Rock of Love 4: Back in the Habit" (Bret takes it to a nunnery) comes into fruition.   

After months of movie-going and shop talk speculation with my Oscar nerd friends, the Academy Awards finally took place last night and there were no surprises (unless you've been living under a rock and have never heard of Slumdog Millionaire before).

All of the expected winners won (including a touching posthumous statuette presentation for Heath Ledger); however, what went wrong with the awards was the ceremony itself. Other than Roger Ebert's endorsement, some entertainment commentators (including self-proclaimed ones like myself) are saying that this was one of the worst ceremony's ever. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: " [. . .] if you like big, gaudy production numbers, you had a good time. But if your favorite musical moment was hearing the Hives over the action-movie montage--and that's the camp I'm in--the telecast was even a bit more tedious than it usually is."

Here are 10 things I hated about the 2009 Oscars:

1. No acting clips. When five former Best Supporting Actress winners came out to present the first statuette, I groaned a little. "Are they going to do this for EVERY acting winner?" I said. The presentation took forever and felt like either a bad wedding toast or cliched yearbook messages. "Congratulations! U R 2 Good 2 B 4-Gotten!"

2. Brangelina Drama. It was almost like the Academy Awards' ceremony director wanted to stir the pot when the cameras panned to Angelina Jolie after Jennifer Aniston presented Best Animated Feature alongside Jack Black. Necessary? No. Awkward? Indeed.

3. Stiller's impression of Phoenix. To me, the whole bit between Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix (ZZ Top beard and all) and Natalie Portman fell flat. I know some credit Portman as being funny after a visit on Saturday Night Live years ago, but for me Anne Hathaway was the real surprise comedienne of the night. She's hilarious AND she can sing!

4. THAT DAMN MUSICAL NUMBER. Here's a clip here. And may God help us all. Upon watching this last night, a friend of mine said, "And now 'The Musical' is dead again."

5. Specifically, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgeons in THAT DAMN MUSICAL NUMBER. Why producers didn't throw in Miley Cyrus to close the coffin on class, I'll never know.  

6. They even screwed up the "In Memoriam." While I surprisingly didn't mind Queen Latifah singing over the tribute (her voice is just lovely), the camera work was strange. Usually, home viewers see close-ups of clips, as if there weren't a stage at all. With this presentation, the camera work looked like a bootleg copy of a movie.

7. Pineapple Express's take on Comedies in 2008. Other presentations by genre (including Romance and Action) displayed clips from other films, some not nominated for awards but still popular with audiences. I have no idea why the "Comedies 2008" clip show (directed by Judd Apatow) had Seth Rogen and James Franco (reprising their PE roles) making comments on comedies like Doubt (read: NOT a comedy). This is where we cut Apatow off.

8. No clips from the Best Picture nominees. I can't remember, did we have five former winners give praise to each movie?

9. The "Best Song" Three-way. First off, no one can blame Peter Gabriel for declining his Oscar invite. The way they combined all three nominees at the end of the medley was painful. There's no way "Down to Earth" was ever meant to be thrown together with "Jai Ho." Plus, I thought that the new voting system would allow a little more variety in the song categories (ala Dreamgirls from two years ago); instead, we have a Slumdog monopoly. I missed the Boss. But I'm not still bitter.

10. Rouke loses. Even though I totally loved Sean Penn's performance, Mickey Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson made me cry like a baby. Plus, this category made me lose both Oscar pools I was in.
 

Yesterday, AMC Theatres around the country showed the five Academy Award Best Picture nominees for an all-day Oscar Showcase for $30 a person. The Showcase consisted of:

Milk 10:30 a.m.
The Reader 1:05 p.m.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3:45 p.m.
Slumdog Millionaire 7:15 p.m.
Frost/Nixon 9:45 p.m.

Like any other Oscar nerd, I attended the Showcase, even though I had already seen all five films. With the Showcase, each movie-goer gets a quasi "Press Pass" that allows them free popcorn and the ability to mill around and feel V.I.P.,  if only for one day. In addition to this false sense of Hollywood importance, you also get to win prizes with Oscar trivia games!

Oscar Madness 2009 005

I rather looked forward to viewing all five Best Picture nominees again because sometimes a movie resonates better the second time around. While I still feel Milk is the best of the five films, I definitely appreciated frontrunner Slumdog Millionaire more after seeing it again. It has that feel-good quality that audiences need right now, especially with the economy in turmoil.

I also appreciated Kate Winslet's performance in The Reader better. I was a Revolutionary Road fan, so when Ms. Winslet wasn't nominated for her role as April Wheeler, I was pretty disappointed. However, The Reader is a very emotional, well-done film that actually hinges on Winslet's performance. As I was watching it, I questioned whether it would have been nominated for all these awards with Nicole Kidman cast as Hanna Schmitz (Kidman was originally supposed to play the Nazi war criminal who has an affair with a teenage boy).

Watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I realized that upon second viewing this movie does not stand up next to the other films. In a film where nothing really happens other than the story of a man aging backwards, the characters aren't very memorable when they should be. Plus, I realized I never truly understood their connections (Taraji P. Henson's "Queenie" is the exception). For example, why does Daisy love Benjamin? It never made any sense to me, even after watching it again. I felt like she was only jealous of his gift and wanted him in her life as a treasure to collect.

And while Frost/Nixon is compelling, I just don't see how it broke any new ground in filmmaking or storytelling (instead, see The Wrestler). I wonder if the topic of "Watergate" is the new "Holocaust" -- where any film that tackles the subject will automatically get an Oscar nomination.   

I highly recommend the Oscar Showcase to anyone who loves movies and gets excited about the Oscars. It seems to be getting more and more popular every year (this year, Entertainment Weekly even featured it on their "Must List").  

Atom.com has an Oscar Speech Generator -- sort of like a Mad Libs for Academy Award Speeches.

Here was mine:

Thank you so much. But really, it's just an honor to be nominated alongside so many other harry actors. I want to thank my agent, who stuck with me after I was found bulging that kazoo. I'd like to also thank my bleeding family, and chunky nipple. I better stop now before I say something dungy. Thank you, and yowza!

Now, I know my language is kinda crude and "dungy" doesn't even exist as a word (plus "bulging" isn't even used correctly), but wouldn't it be great if Frank Langella used this exact speech on Sunday? Ha! Unlikely. Langella has no chance against Rourke and Penn.

When I first read about the film (500) Days of Summer, I immediately knew I would want to see it based on the two leads (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel). Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are two of the most likeable young Indie stars of today (although the latter has crossed over into more mainstream "cinema" recently with The Happening and Yes Man --which I forgive).

With midwinter and early-Spring being the "romantic comedy" time of year (see trailers for: The Proposal, All About Steve, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and He's Just Not That Into You), I'm happy to see that this movie won't be giving in to Valentine's temptation with a February release date (it hits theatres in July). Although judging from the trailer, it probably won't be anything like a Sandra Bullock fish-out-of-water comedy.

I remember when Joseph Gordon-Levitt was just that kid on 3rd Rock From the Sun outshined by Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You. Now he's become a leading man.

I'm officially counting down the days until Summer.   

Kate Winslet graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine over the weekend with this gorgeous image taken by Paolo Pellegrin.

LOVE her

Kate led the pack of highlighted "Great Performers," which included Mickey Rourke and Penelope Cruz (basically the other two living individuals I expect to win the Oscar this year). Each write-up on the "Great Performers" is by other celebrities related to the actors (Catherine Keener wrote about The 40-Year-Old Virgin co-star Kat Dennings, Diner director Barry Levinson offered accolades for directee Mickey Rourke) . Tom Perotta (author of Little Children) wrote praise for Winslet, saying: "According to my own highly unscientific survey, just about everyone loves Kate Winslet."

I second that. I only hope all this attention doesn't hurt her chances come Oscar time. 

The Oscar race is heating up with only a few weeks to go before the ceremony on February 22. "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart is no stranger to voicing his opinion on politics and the like, but now apparently he's tossing his hat in the ring as a Movie Critic.

On a recent episode of the Comedy Central show, Jon Stewart said of Slumdog Millionaire, "Now, THAT's a movie." He went on to call The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Zzzzzzz."

While I think Slumdog Millionaire is one of the most overrated movies of the year, I give Stewart mad props for speaking out against what I believe to be the OTHER most overrated movie of the year: The Curious Case of a Forrest Gump Ripoff. I never realized that the real trick of that movie is that Brad Pitt gets to get younger and younger while the audience is forced to age THREE AND A HALF HOURS -- time we can't get back.

I suppose Stewart won't be getting asked back as an Oscar host any time soon.

Here's the clip from "The Daily Show":

While listening to my XM E Street Radio Station today (all Bruce Springsteen -- all the time!), I was floored by one of the guest DJs, spinning Boss hits: one Sir* Andrew McCarthy, star of such films as Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, and Mannequin.

Dreamy McCarthy

I know a lot of McCain supporters are afraid of what an Obama presidency might consist of (terrorist attacks, lies, more Joe Biden gaffes), but the following movie trailer is what EVERYONE in America and the world should put at the top of their list of "Fears."

Bride Wars is the story of two childhood friends who decide to have their respective weddings a day apart. When that doesn't work out, they throw twenty years of friendship down the tubes, all in the hopes of outdoing one another on a day that will probably become known as "my first wedding."

Based on this trailer, I am convinced that Kate Hudson is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (who knew there would be a chick in one of the four!). Her track record hasn't been so good lately (Fool's Gold, My Best Friend's Girl) and this doesn't look any better.  Once Hollywood's "It" girl, she's now Hollywood's. . .well,. . . You know your career has gone downhill when you've dated Dax Shepard and starred in a movie with Dane Cook. Can we revoke her Academy Award nomination?

Speaking of Academy Awards, Kate's co-star Anne Hathaway should be ashamed of herself. She's earned the best reviews of her career this year with Rachel Getting Married (along with rumors of an Oscar nomination) and what does she follow up with? A Kate Hudson wedding movie???

Perhaps Hudson's real talent in Hollywood is her ability to bring gifted thespians down to levels of unknown mediocrity. Let's put her in a movie with Meryl Streep and see where this goes! 

As I was dancing amidst a group of gay men at a bar the other night, a Britney Spears' remix of all her classic songs came over the booming sound system. Although I was never a fan, I couldn't help but suddenly appreciate her repertoire. "Oops, I did it Again." "Baby (One More Time)." "Stronger." They were all there.

Soon, I had images of the young starlet from tiny teen to bloaty blob. Then, back to tiny. Then, blob again. Then,. . .I don't know what she looks like this week. I haven't read US Magazine yet.

Anyway, "Toxic" came on and I realized that this was pretty much when she peaked. Those crazy, screaming violins (or whatever synthetic equivalent) are just as provocative and catchy as the music video which featured Ms. Spears' finest moment: the "ubiquitous boob gesture."

Yes, you remember the "ubiquitous boob gesture."  It takes place at 0:52 of the music video. (I believe it was VH1 who coined the phrase).