For those who were disappointed in the Lifetime movie Liz & Dick starring Lindsay Lohan which is just about everyone, including Lindsay Lohan, there is hope.
Stream Watch: The magical place where random movies are discovered and revisited.
Today’s pick: Leap of Faith, a 1992 drama starring Steve Martin, Debra Winger and Liam Neeson. Martin plays Jonas Nightengale, a flimflam salesman, as the Amazing Randi would say, who tours the country with his traveling show of religious miracles. Things take a dramatic turn, however, when his bus breaks down in a small, rural Texas town (even 20 years ago this cliche was old) and the kindly townsfolk move him in unexpected ways. Read more…
Thanks to the band Punto Quatro and the album cover for their 1978 Spanish language version of the Grease soundtrack, we have the above striking visual, which looks like it could be from an alternate reality in which the late 70s Hollywood blockbuster was instead a cheap Mexican telenovela. If that had been the case, I may have been spared being forced to listen to “Summer Nights” at an ear splitting decibel level at every school dance from 6th to 9th grade. Just hearing the first few bars alone is enough to send me back to those hilariously awkward events. Read more…
If a celebrity does a good deed and no one photographs it, did the deed even exist? Miley Cyrus took a break from her current tour to visit Haiti and help distribute hearing aids to its citizens (you’d think Floridians would have more of a demand for those). Taking to her Twitter, she wrote:
That’s a little boy named Emanuel 🙂 we fit him w hearing aids… I’ve never seen a smile like his! I can’t wait to go back.
For her next photo op, that is! Seeing celebrities take time out of their busy schedules to further promote themselves always brings tears to my eyes.
Pop music is full of sound a like songs and in some cases the similarities have even led to legal disputes. In 1971, George Harrison was forced to give away most of the royalties for his song, “My Sweet Lord” when a U.S. Federal court ruled that it bore too much of a resemblance to The Chiffons‘ “He’s So Fine”. Now Lady Gaga‘s newest single, “Born This Way,” a club ready disco hit that is sure to top the charts before the successful pop star releases a new album in May, and which the singer performed at last night’s Grammy ceremonies, is being singled out for its similarities to Madonna‘s 1989 classic “Express Yourself”. Madonna has yet to respond to the release of the song, but her brother Christopher hasn’t wasted any time voicing his opinion to the press. Madonna’s sibling said that he noticed the similarities immediately:
I was like, Express Yourself, wow. It’s not like it’s a direct copy, but it is more that song than any other song I’ve ever heard. I think when you have one major inspiration like my sister, which I think Lady Gaga uses as her major inspiration, that this kind of thing is bound to happen. Read more…
Travis and Julie, an average Midwestern couple, recently moved into a seemingly peaceful new apartment. Unfortunately for them, a “beary” scary entity already resides there — and it’s growling for some action! The full movie is available at bearanormalactivity.com.
Except in rare examples like Meryl Streep, Hollywood doesn’t usually allow for actresses over 40 to enjoy a second act to their careers. In the case of Sean Young, whose reputation as an eccentric showbiz castaway is as entrenched in the Tinseltown firmament as the Hollywood sign, being over 40 is only the first in a long line of obstacles. Young, who was last heard from when she heckled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly director Julian Schnabel at the Director’s Guild Awards in 2008, told Entertainment Weekly in 2007:
I’m a come back waiting to happen.
It looks like the quirky actress will finally be making a comeback, albeit on reality television. She announced to the magazine that she will be appearing on the first season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars spin-off Skating with the Stars. Read more…
For most independent filmmakers, the light at the end of the tunnel during a difficult low budget production is a successful showing at the Sundance film festival that can lead to a theatrical release. These days, even that dream is becoming a long shot, since many of the major distributors of independent films have shut down their operations amidst financial setbacks. There have been plenty of nightmare scenarios recently (with David O. Russell‘s Nailed being the most prominent) that have illustrated the difficulty of financing and distributing smaller movies. Even though, the current outlook may be bleak, it has never been easy to produce and distribute a feature film; a fact filmmaker Robert Bella knows all too well. Read more…
Welsh Rugby player Gareth Thomas made headlines in December when he announced that he was gay. Now, Mickey Rourke is interested in portraying Thomas in an upcoming film that would depict his struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality. A spokesman for the athlete said:
Mickey contacted Gareth directly via a mutual friend in rugby league to express his interest and invited Gareth… to meet him for dinner. The fact that Mickey is so passionate about doing a moving picture has been really flattering and, although we haven’t come to an agreement yet, we’re really hoping it does happen.
Thomas bears the distinction of being the only openly gay professional athlete currently involved in a team sport. Read more…