The Link Experience
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 1:00PM Towleroad Revisiting Drive on DVD. Ryan Gosling's scorpion jacket is at auction. One more day to bid! (I suspect this is a good investment as movie memorabilia goes.)
Carpetbagger Author Jeffrey Eugenides on his Oscar ballot. He loves The Tree of Life and all things Woody Allen. Has issues with Bridesmaids.
In Contention breaking Oscar's biopic addiction. Halleloo.
Movie|Line today is The Artist day in LA. Officially! Harvey Weinstein continues to be a god amongst mortals when it comes to Oscar campaigns.
My New Plaid Pants JA has gone totes l'amour fou for Jean Dujardin. Pervy animated gifsm, dancing in boxer shorts, gratuitous photo spreads. But can you blame him?
Empire another new role for Jennifer Lawrence in the adaptation of the novel Serena about an ruthless ambitious married couple running a timber empire in 1929. This role was once earmarked for Angelina Jolie so clearly Hollywood has faith in Jennifer Lawrence.
IndieWire for your consideration at next year's Oscars. The Sundance crop.
Towleroad Director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) is out of the closet. I didn't realize he was in.
The TV Experience?
Brief somewhat random thoughts on Glee vs. Smash and more small screen after the jump...
If Harry Shum Jr. is going to be saddled with the Janet Jackson role for Glee, why couldn't there have been a nipple slip?
Despite my rabid love of Harry Shum Jr. -- Seriously Hollywood. Give him a romcom the second he's off Glee (soon). Stop stop stop refusing to realize it when Asian male actors are super sexy! -- showcasing him more fully doesn't really help when you're just recreating music videos. Maybe my hatred of Glee recreating exact videos (I also despised the Britney Spears episode) is linked to my annoyance with Biopic Mimicry? Maybe I just hate replicas? Give me the real thing or do your own thing but stop copying.
Will Smash cure me of the Glee addiction? Glee is often objectively terrible but I need musicals in my life. Always have. One episode doesn't convince me that Smash will be great but I'm cautiously hopeful. I'll write it up for its Superbowl debut since it combines two things we love, one of which is even totally appropriate to this site: Broadway musicals and Marilyn Monroe.
Megan Hilty, one of the would be Marilyn's on that show is playing another Marilyn musical role on stage soon: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
I had a ton of fun writing up True Blood last summer and I had every intention of repeating that this year. But the Season 5 teaser seems to imply that King Russell will be the Big Bad and I hate it when TV shows go into loops. What a way to kill any potential for fresh, uh, blood for this show. They finally worked their way out of some terribly tired storylines and then they're just going to return to an old storyline? Nooooooooo. This is why I love movies so much more than television. Television's greatest advantage as a medium is its longform serialization but when longform just means "repeat" than it's totally not worth the time.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are the best things about television. So pleased that 30 Rock is back (Jane Krakowski is comic bliss as always) and Parks and Recreation is the single funniest show on television. So why was their movie Baby Mama so mediocre?
Season 5 of Mad Men is on the way and Sew Weekly has fashion predictions -what year are we up to now? The show often jumps ahead.
Drive, Glee, Harry Shum Jr, Jean Dujardin, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscars (11), Oscars (12), Serena, Smash, biopics, musicals
Reader Comments (14)
I stopped watching Glee halfway through the Britney episode and never looked back. Like you, I also need musicals in my life and despite it's flaws, the pilot for Smash left me with a big fat grin on my face. But then again, so did the pilot for Glee...
Return of Russell is actually some of the best TB news in a long time. (Well, it's not really news...) Generally, I agree with you about TV loops, but TB , like Glee, suffers from too many ideas and too much questionable execution. If you've created a character as memorable as Russell with a performance as showstopping as O'Hare's, you'd be crazy not to bring him back. There's a lot of unexplored possibility. And after all, vampires do live forever, unless destroyed. which he wasn't. Sure, it could go wrong (so much does on TB), but I'm looking forward to seeing him in Bon Temps again.
O'Hare's most recent tweet: @McMillzz dude...I am soooo on your show. Watch out....just as soon as I dispatch the Trojans and the Greeks, I'm a-heading' for Bon Temps
I'm hoping the Serena casting news is misguided and Lawrence is not actually playing the title role, but instead the one of the young mother Serena goes apeshit on.Serena should be a played by an older actress (at least mid-30s) and she has very specific look and demeanor that seems to far beyond Jennifer at this stage in her life.
I loooooooooooooooved the Smash pilot, so I am desperately hoping the rest of the episodes follow through on that potential.
Glee and I continue to be in an abusive relationship. I KNOW it's going to hurt me, but I keep coming back. I really wish Ryan Murphy would go back and watch the first 13 episodes of season one, and see what his show has now become. Cause they are 2 different shows.
I love Tina and Amy, but the best thing about Baby Mama was Sigourney Weaver. Can we please get more Sigourney in a good comic role again please?
People love to hate Glee and I understand why, but I don't care. It's mediocre, but I still love it.
I keep thinking I'm going to dump Glee. I'm always trying to pare down my tv viewing, and it's dependably the last thing languishing on my DVR. But then once in awhile, they'll pull out on an episode like Asian F that is really Season 1-level good, and I'll get sucked right back in. Smash looks fantastic, however.
Though I'm a big fan of Jenny Lawrence, her being cast as Serena makes my soul weep. I loved the book and am so confused as to how they think she would be good in a role Angelina Jolie was previously circling? Seriously? Is Vera Farmiga too busy? Or Scarlett Johansen, if you have to go younger? And that's not even addressing the Bradley Cooper rumors....
*pulls it together*
I think smash is going to be a really good show, or at least a fun one, just due to the creative team running the show. And plus I love Megan Hilty
//But while people frequently talk admiringly of actors "losing themselves" in roles -- the stock response to expert biopic work -- it's nice to see some appropriate respect this year for actors finding themselves in roles instead.//
I loved Guy Lodge's article, thanks for the link, Nat. (I know it squares with your feelings, and I quite concur.) The last time none of the 4 awarded actors at the Oscars didn't play a real person/biopic was 1997? I still can't believe that. I wonder what the hell happened culturally (and amongst AMPAS voters, particulary) to bring this about?
//Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are the best things about television. So pleased that 30 Rock is back (Jane Krakowski is comic bliss as always) and Parks and Recreation is the single funniest show on television. So why was their movie Baby Mama so mediocre? //
I have no idea - and that looked so good on paper, didn't it? I mean "Fey and Poehler" - should have been magic.
BTW - was I the only person not in love with the "Vogue" video recreation they did for Glee? I loved that video in college, and basically they just completely recreated it with only a couple of deviations. What was the point? I wanted to see a reinterpretation or parody, otherwise I'll just watch the original.
Janice -- you weren't the only one not in love with it. As stated, i HATE recreations that that do not reinterpret. I don't understand their point, their very existence.
Baby Mama was mediocre because Fey and Poehler had no participation in the writing of it. They're talented actors, but they're better when they write their own dialogue.
And if you're into television taking advantage of the longform storytelling, you should check out Spartacus on Starz. It's totally more than porn (both soft-core and violence), I promise! The first season ended with the deaths of more than half the main cast, the second season was actually a prequel (because the lead actor was battling cancer, and has now unfortunately passed away). Yeah, the story's kinda familiar, but it's far better than it has any right to be. Plus: Lucy Lawless! I look forward to Smash, but they better bring it. Glee has gotten depressingly bad, even though it has occasional moments of brilliance.
SERENA is one of my favourite novels and this Jennifer Lawrence casting news is disappointing. I love the girl, but she's far too young to play Serena. Jolie was much more age appropriate. I hope this isn't final. I've been keeping my eye on this project for a while because it could definitely make a great film.