Delicious Fan Moment w/ Sarah Paulson. Plus: Lupita Update!

Thanks to faithful reader Murtada for pointing this out. The tumblr Heavenly Rush recently shared a personal experience of a trip from Chicago to Sag Harbor where the author met one of TFE's favorite current actresses Sarah Paulson. The American Horror Story star has already wrapped her scenes for Todd Haynes's lesbian drama Carol (headlined by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as new lovers  - Paulson's the ex-girlfriend) and she's currently on stage in the play "Conviction" with Garrett Dillahunt at the Bay Street Theater.

Paulson on the set of "Carol"... and on stage in "Conviction"

I'm sharing a part of it that post here that I know you Oscar obsessives will love. It touches on last year's Oscar race and the next one as well as upcoming Oscar Category Fraud woes. ("M" is the author and "S" is Sarah Paulson though the conversation is obviously paraphrased from super excited fan memory.)  

M: You are gonna win the Oscar for Carol.

S: That’s sweet, but I don’t think so. 

M: I just finished the book, and if you got to do all those scenes, you are totally winning a fucking Oscar … did you get to do all of Abbys scenes from the book?

S: No, they changed the one at the bar to Cate’s house in her kitchen, and moved another one to a dinner and they created a whole new one for the movie. 

M: But did you get to do all the stuff on the phone?

S: Yes, I did do that. 

M: If you got to say “you win”, you are totally getting a nom!

S: Well, if Harvey has it his way they will put up 2. Cate and Rooney and they will forget about me 

M: but you know how when a supporting actress is in a movie for  mins., and it’s incredible and they win? I think that’s going to be you!

S: I don’t know … maybe. 

M: like how you should have won for 12 years

S: yeah, but no one is gonna give an Oscar to a white bitch that hurts Lupita. 

Ha! Love Paulson so much. So admirable that she doesn't self-censor in public or in interviews (as we discovered here at TFE when we talked to her). You can read more about this fan's adventure and meeting with the actress at Heavenly Rush.

As for Lupita Nyong'o. Word came this morning that the Star Wars Episode VII casting happened after all... just as that film starts shooting. Her role is still under wraps. I'm thrilled that someone finally cast her in *something*.  I personally think she's way better than a presumably small part in a very old franchise, but it's a start!  Still and all, Hollywood ought to be ridiculously ashamed of how long it's taken anyone to sign this beautiful talented instant celebrity on to anything that would make use of that beauty and talent. 

To put it frankly: we have a surpluss of celebrities in this workd that are good for little more than being attractive and showing up at glamorous events.  Lupita obviously has a lot more to offer than that, so it's nice that she'll be doing something in front of the camera again besides posing on a red carpet.  

Mm Mm Oh Oh... I'm All Linked Up

Towleroad Harvey Milk stamp unveiling live at 3PM today!
John August's screenwriting podcast talks to the professionals about writing superheroes, masculinity and rebooting past franchises. Featuring: Conan the Barbarian, Captain America and Batman among others
The AV Club suggests that the only appropriate director for the Elvis biopic is... David Lynch?

It’s an almost biblical rags-to-riches tale infused with elements of horror, farce, and even science fiction, and while many have tried to bring it to the screen, there’s yet to be a definitive biopic.

Verité looks back at naughty precode gem Jewel Robbery (1932) with William Powell and Kay Francis
Gawker more 'celebrities reading mean tweets about themselves' feat. Julia, McConaughey, and Emma Stone 
Madonnarama V magazine features Katy Perry and Madonna in conversation for their summer spectacular
In Contention I forgot to mention The Search in my Cannes collection last night, so here's Guy Lodge on that reported misfire from the team behind The Artist
Extra Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt promise that their reunion will be "experimental and raw"... though that means so many different things to different people. I think she basically means low-budget and human-oriented
Empire for a limited time you can listen to the original score of the original Godzilla (1954) by Akira Ifukube

Two Essentials
Are you a struggling actor? Bitter Gertrude's "Why You Didn't Get Cast" is a must read about the casting and the audition process and building a career in a competitive field. I used to work in Human Resources and I would tell my friends these same things many times about non-showbiz job hunts.

Remember that absurd moment when Tom Cruise jumped up and down on that couch on Oprah? Amy Nicholson in a great long read over at LA Weekly  called "How YouTube and Internet Journalism Destroyed Tom Cruise, Our Last Real Movie Star," posits that it didn't happen. Not in the way we remember it at all. A provocative read even if you don't believe that Cruise was our 'last real movie star' (which I do not, while conceding that movie stars that large are rare beasts.)

Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Linkdown

Art of the Title has an amazing 3-part retrospective / interview with title designer Pablo Ferro. His work includes: Bullitt, Married to the Mob, Dr Strangelove, Beetlejuice, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and so many other greats
The New Yorker "why Mean Girls is a classic" even esteemed publications got into the 10th anniversary frenzy. Good piece from Richard Brody
The Dissolve Joaquin Phoenix will headline the next Woody Allen film, the one after Magic in the Moonlight. The prolific auteur isn't slowing down his one-a-year pac. Phoenix isn't slowing down either; remember how just a few short years ago, people thought Phoenix's career was over? The joke was on us.) 

 

Vulture Bilge Ebiri sticks his neck out for "Why Adam Sandler Matters"
Paper Mag 5 Most Swintessential Moments from Tilda Swinton's career. Love this though none are her actual acting & filmography which is tops. 
Playbill Idina Menzel & Julie Andrews talk Frozen, Wicked and The Sound of Music Live! on "Watch What Happens Live". Julie is very magnanimous about Carrie Underwood but I love the hint of 'i'm aware you all think i'm just being diplomatic' utter vagueness of "acting is acting is acting". Ha!

I thought she was great. Listen, she made it her own. But listen: acting is acting is acting."

The Wire pontificates on Emma Stone's career now that redundant superhero movie is in theaters. Shouldn't her career be so much more by now?
Cosmopolitan interviews Amy Schumer on 'sneaky feminism,' Parker Posey, plastic surgery and Judd Apatow's Trainwreck
Pajiba this is how you assemble a damn cast. On Joe Swanberg's wonderful ensembles 
AV Club is fear of TV cancellations a thing of the past? Shows with low ratings are no longer automatically doomed and fan passion counts for far more than it once did.
Gothamist wonders if James Franco is doing okay. Get out of bed! 

Today's Must Read
Cléo wonderfully provocative piece on "Samantha" in Her (now on DVD) from Angelo Muredda:

Early on, Samantha is eager to establish herself as, if not a human, then at least something more ambitious than a machine. She proudly proclaims that what makes her her is the ability to grow through her experiences. “So basically,” she says, “in every moment I’m evolving, just like you.” The latter part of that statement reads as a veiled threat to Theodore, who seems rather stalled in his moody present state as a sad man who writes other people’s love letters for a living despite being unable to sign his own divorce papers. It is a succinct expression of the film’s male smugness: that a girlfriend who begins excited about the world and her boyfriend’s witty emails is still a girlfriend who will one day leave.

Oscar Bait 2015 Alert: "Genius" With Kidman, Firth, and Law

Yes, dear concerned reader, I know I know. I'm supposed to be thinking about 2014 and who might be Oscar nominated 9 months from now. I'll get there. I will. But I can't let this latest dazzling dangling carrot of 2015 cinematic possibility pass without mention. Because a curious trend continues...

Thomas Wolfe, Aline Bernstein, and Max Perkins to be played by Law, Kidman, and Firth

We've already noted, with raised eyebrow, the shocking rapidity of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth veritable obsession with working together. As previously mentioned they have THREE films together coming out this year. Add a fourth to the pipeline. They will co-star again in Genius which is based on the super acclaimed biography "Max Perkins: Editor Of Genius," by A Scott Berg.

The screenplay is by three time Oscar nominee John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, Hugo) and the cast is similarly Oscar-favored. Two time nominee Jude Law, Kidman's Cold Mountain "husband" (I will marry yoooo) has taken over the incredibly juicy role of the novelist Thomas Wolfe (which means a viable shot at a Supporting Actor trophy for Jude Law even though the best guess is that he's actually co-lead) which was once to be played by Michael Fassbender. Oscar winner Colin Firth headlines playing the influential book editor Max Perkins and Oscar winning Kidman plays Wolfe's lover, the multihyphenate writer/costume/set designer Aline Bernstein. The film takes place in the 1920s/1930s literary scene so stay tuned. Who will they cast as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway? Both of those legends also have major roles in the book.

The big obvious question mark here is budget (can it get the lush period treatment it deserves?) and Michael Grandage in the director's chair. This is the 52 year old stage director's first feature gig behind the camera though he's acted in front of it before. 

Wanna read the book?

Lost River, I Anxiously Await Thee

Oooh, it's another new image from Ryan Gosling's Lost River (formerly titled: How To Catch a Monster) and I love this macabre club entrance that Christina Hendricks is standing in front of.

Does this image remind anyone else of the abandoned amusement park in Joe Wright's Hanna ? 

Maybe all images of redheads with bobs and big animalistic mouthdoors would naturally be in dialogue with one another. Never mind.

If you haven't read the official synopsis it goes like so:

....weaves elements of fantasy noir, and suspense into a modern day fairytale. Set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city, Billy, a single mother of two, is swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery, if their family is to survive. 

None of us have any idea if Gosling will be a good director or not but it'll be exciting to find out. The film will premiere at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. One thing that's hugely puzzling, though, is that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Iain de Caesteker plays a character named "Bones" who I've been led to believe is Billy's teenage son, though the synopsis is a bit confusingly written in this regard. Caesteker is 26 and Hendricks is only 38... so he's too old to play a teenager and she's definitely too young to play his mother so I hope people are confused about who the son is.