Friday, August 13, 2021 at 10:30AM by Nathaniel R
With Respect, the Aretha Franklin biopic, hitting theaters today let's talk Jennifer Hudson's movie career. Well, her TV and Broadway career, too, since she's primarily a singer even when moonlighting as an actress. She's made more movies than you probably think.
How many of her performances have you seen? The posters are after the jump...
Friday, March 30, 2018 at 4:04PM Before we begin a shout out to Katya who is back with us after taking care of her mental health first. As one should. Blessed be.
Pro-tip: put down your cell phone and gyrate in front of the mirror for a minimum of 25 mins each day
— Katya (@katya_zamo) March 28, 2018
After the jump tweets on Rent the musical (just because), Love Simon, Roseanne, political confusions, and more...
Isle of Dogs, Love Simon, Rent, Roseanne, Sigourney Weaver, Smash, Twitter Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 12:42PM TV
Vulture provides an A-Z glossary of all of Stranger Things mad sci-fi referencing from Alien (1979) toVideodrome (1983)
Comics Alliance American Gods, Bryan Fuller's adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, gets its first logo and a promotional image
EW Impromptu Smash reunion. Katharine McPhee invited Megan Hilty on stage with her Sunday night at a LA jazz club - and yes they sang Smash songs.
Movies
Playbill Fences sets its release date for December 16th
Antagony & Ecstasy looks back at His Girl Friday - the Rosalind Russell role was a male role in the source material.
The Root Leslie Jones of SNL & Ghostbusters fame was hounded by racists on twitter - they're feeling so bold these days thanks to the GOP -- fans rallied behind her
Salon "Free Jillian Holtzmann" on why Sony isn't saying that the most popular new Ghostbuster character is a lesbian
AV Club talks to John Cho about Star Trek, gay sulu, and Asian representation in cinema
The Guardian Antonio Banderas to play Gianni Versace in a biopic. The Versace estate is not pleased calling it "fiction"
Coming Soon Fifty Shades Darker set photos
The Guardian on film franchises with the most episodes: Jungle Jim, Godzilla, and a few more
Awards Daily wonders if the political turmoil will turn the Oscars nostalgic rather than brave (see also 1968 Best Picture winner Oliver!)
Towleroad Twenty year-old actor Ross Lynch is going from Disney Channel fame to serial killing? He'll play Jeffrey Dahmer, pre-murders, as a troubled teen in a new film.
Variety Sigourney Weaver will be honored for her career as this September's San Sebastian film festival
...and Anton Yelchin's parents sent a beautiful message to friends and fans and the industry...
Beautiful. Anton Yelchin's parents thank Hollywood in ad @THR: 'Grateful for your unconditional love of our son' pic.twitter.com/01yn7owcL5
— Janice Min (@janicemin) July 18, 2016
Theater
Playbill Jake Gyllenhaal to headline the revival of Burn This. The original hit production in 87/88, which went from Off-Broadway to Broadway for a year-plus long run, won praise for Eric Roberts (Theater World award), John Malkovich (Drama Desk Nomination) and Joan Allen (Tony win)
NYT Estelle Parsons health scare prompts closing of her new play. Send healing vibes her way. She's a national treasure. If you haven't yet seen Season 2 of Grace & Frankie it closes beautifully with an arc about her guest starring role as "Babe," a larger than life friend of the pair who's throwing herself a big going away party. Parsons has done a lot of work on TV but weirdly despite being a highly esteemed actor with an Oscar win and 5 Tony nominations, she's never received an Emmy nomination.
Miscellania
Huffington Post Jennifer Aniston tears into the media for their obsession with women's bodies and whether or not she's pregnant
Wicked Gay Blog Dolly Parton working on a dance album with a track called "I'm a Wee Bit Gay"
The New Yorker "Donald Trump's Ghostwriter Tells All" a harrowing profile
Logo My Way hosted a contest to redesign the embarassing Trump Pence logo - Love some of these entries
Pajiba on the shitshow that was the RNC's first night with its plagiarized First Lady speech
Monday, November 23, 2015 at 8:54PM 
Ten years ago today the quickly forgotten film version of Rent (2005) premiered in movie theaters. At the time Rent had been a visceral sensation on stage for nearly a decade and was just a few years short of closing its nearly $300 million grossing Broadway run. Let's just say the movie didn't have a prayer of measuring up, even financially, grossing only $31 million worldwide in theaters. Rent (the movie!) was a dubiously near-perfect example of all the things that can go wrong with movie musicals and despite many other films teaching Hollywood the same exact not-all-that-complicated lessons, Hollywood is still having trouble learning.
You nearly always need these three things: visually stylish directors who also understand storytelling within the musical idiom (it's not an easy thing to move from the abstract friendly medium of the stage to the usually literal medium of the cinema); sly confident casting and gifted performers (transferring entire Broadway casts absolutely won't do. And neither will its opposite, replacing them all with "names" whether or not they can sing and dance. Why? Both strategies just reek of insecurity); and, finally, the right blend of zealous passion and merciless intelligence from the filmmaker since musicals are complicated and needy and fragile and they tend to come with a tricky but essential mix of artifice and sincerity.
Of course Rent had it's own problems apart from failing to meet those three essentials. It is also a story wherein New York City is as much a leading character as Roger, Mark or Mimi. In the abstract friendly environments of the theater, a simple flourish like a fire escape can represent and entire teeming city with millions of stories in it with ease. If you try to fake New York City in the movies without a stylized visual approach, it just going to look cheap and weak.
But for all of its problems Rent (2005) did give us Jesse L Martin singing onscreen and for that we'll always be grateful. I mean, just listen to his superbly emotive instrument.
A couple of years ago Martin was supposed to headline a biopic about Marvin Gaye and though his casting was inspired financing fell through somewhere along the production phase so the movie seems like one of those phantom features now, caught somewhere between development hell and actual existence. Other roles for Martin just haven't satisfied his musical fans. The much missed Smash (RIP) did a lot of things wrong in its two seasons as a network musical but one of its true unforgiveable sins was actually giving Jesse L Martin a job IN A MUSICAL and then denying the audience that voice. (We keep waiting for The Flash to have a meta-human musical episode since a hefty percentage of its principle cast comes with gorgeous pipes and real musical theater cred.)
Did you ever see Rent on stage? If not do you have any strong memories of the movie?
Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 1:40PM 
FAKE AD FROM THE TV SHOW. BUT THERE WILL BE A REAL ONE IN 2015.
That's right show queens, "Bombshell" is finally getting a stage production. [src] It's a one night only benefit event in NYC so who knows if it will be way above our pay grade but you have to start somewhere.
The Film Experience's troubled marriage to "Smash" the ill fated NBC series about the making of a Marilyn Monroe musical named "Bombshell" lives on! It's impossible to get a full divorce actually from that show and especially the show within the show because social media has guaranteed that all TV series with a devout following remain somehow in the pop culture conversation like they're still on the air. I can't tell you how many times someone mentions Smash in my twitterfeed (#notcomplaining) and my eyes always flash a bit, like an ocular exclamation point.
There's no word yet on casting but if Megan Hilty isn't playing Marilyn at this one night only event there's really no point in that day in the world's timeline even existing. This is our only mandatory requirement*. Otherwise proceed, producers. Our hearty gratitude and possible our dollars, depending on ticket prices, await you.
*Requirements are different than wants but we got a string of those too if you need 'em.
Broadway and Stage, Marilyn Monroe, Megan Hilty, NYC, Smash, TV, musicals 