Friday Night Links

Emmys for Chandler and Britton, please 

Don't mind me. I'm just weeping over here in the corner that my beloved Friday Night Lights is no more. The end of that 'Texas Forever' era ended the same day as a certain record breaking pop culture phenomenon but if you ask me Tammy & Coach & Riggins & Dillon were where the true magic was at. While I dab at my leaky eyeballs, enjoy these articles...

i09 remembers the time (aka screen tests) when Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Gint were embryos
IndieWire new release dates for upcoming critical contenders: Weekend (9/23), The Skin I Live In (10/14) and Melancholia (11/11) and more...
MTV Movies Chris Evans on working with Joss Whedon on The Avengers
Film Flam Flummox honos Aishwarya Rai's superior Bollywood dance skills. Now that she's pregnant she won't be doing these moves for quite a while. 

Serious Film "Line Reading Hall of Fame" you betcha
The Awl 5 secondary characters who dominate Harry Potter fan fiction (and why).
My New Plaid Pants on the Spider-Bum and other photos from The Amazing Spider-Man.  

I find it so odd that I have to defend the hotness of Andrew Garfield so much to people. Are people just blind? Is that it? Is this that Julianne Moore movie? 

Change the Thought spotlights celebrity photographer Matt Hoyle and here's a talk he gave on portraiture, idealization and concepts of beauty. It's pretty interesting. 

Off Cinema
Art of the Title Sequence investigates the nominees for "Outstanding Main Title Design". I'm rooting for Game of Thrones but I'm perplexed as to how Boardwalk Empire is eligible. Doesn't this Emmy race cover its second season?
Critical Condition Mark & Joe discuss the Emmy nominees. They funny. 

The Wrap I'm finding all this news about Glee Season 3 departures to be very odd. High School series often have problems with people graduating so EASY FIX: Stagger your cast a little bit to include freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. It's not like a story about Glee clubs needs everyone to be in the same year. Why do TV shows keep making this mistake? The solution is so simple. In other words do it like Friday Night Lights. ;) 
Cinema Blend on the Friday Night Lights finale 

Finally, check out the Rufus Wainwright Timeline a really cool interactive feature created by fans that details his whole life and career. I had totally forgotten about that "Across the Universe" video he made with Dakota Fanning. Ha. This is way better than a Wikipedia entry. (hat tip to Arjan Writes)

Stage Door: "Company", "Measure for Measure", Tony Aftermath

The theater world gets a bit quiet during the summer, post Tony Awards, but there are still live performances to be seen and talked about. Like "Shakespeare in the Park" in, well, Central Park. If you've never been it's always worth going no matter what the show is because it's free and open air theater is truly a special everyone-should-try-it experience. But I wish they'd be more daring with their selections. Some years they stray from the bard, whilst retaining the title, like the year they relaunched HAIR -- god, that was a great production -- or when they mounted that Jonathan Groff / Anthony Mackie Euripides moment Everyone but me hated that one but I think I was just so glad to see something that wasn't performed as often and with two actors I quite like.

Danai Gurira rehearses for "Measure for Measure"

This year they're back to the bard. They're doing two of the "problem plays" Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure For Measure through June and July. Click here for dates.   I took in Measure for Measure which... well, I haven't much to say about it. The problem with the problem plays is that they're problematic -- PROFUNDITY! [Editor's note: I warned you!]  It was an absolutely decent production but it lacked a defining thrill, defining moment. As for definitive performances, I give my highest marks to Danai Gurira (The Visitor) who was in very strong form as the pious Isabella, who must choose between her brother's life or her chastity (long story!)  in the convoluted Jacobean plot. On the comic side, Carson Elrod as Pompei, "the tapster" (aka procurer of johns for the whores? That's how it read from my seat), who offers up a pretty great distillation of how to give a modern performance while still delivering Shakespearean language.

Neil Patrick Harris as eternal bachelor "Bobby" puts the moves on Christina Hendricks in "Company"Company
The recent very brief Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY played this past week in select movie theaters around the country. I wasn't paying close enough attention to times and missed my one best opportunity. Hopefully it'll come to DVD. Neil Patrick Harris led the all star cast as "Bobby". Company is only one of the greatest musicals ever written so if you ever have a chance to see it performed, do so. If any of you caught it, speak up in the comments.

I've always wanted someone to make this musical into a movie because the songs are just so spectacular. But I fear Hollywood wouldn't understand it. It's not "flashy" and that's the only kind of musical they make anymore.

Links!
Joe's Pub STREEP TEASE!!! That Meryl Streep Monologue show with an all male cast is coming to NYC next Monday night. One night only.
Broadway Blog wonders if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark can join the list of shows that triumphed after rough starts?
Broadway Blog also looks at the history of Broadway songs on the pop charts. Does the man upstairs hold sway? It seems like it.
Billboard answers a question I was asking on twitter (Thanks Mark!) about whether in-theater sales of Original Cast Recording count on Billboard charts as record sales. The answer is both closer to a "maybe so" than a yes or a no. 
BlogStage wonders if Shakespeare is being performed too often in the world? My answer: Duh! I've been saying this for years.

Finally... Mocking Acceptance Speeches as a special theater event?

Q: What's so great about acceptance speeches?
A: What we discovered doing this show is that they're actually really joyful to watch even if the person is a self regarding narcissist.

I didn't even know about this until it was over. The theater community has yet to discover and worship The Film Experience properly. Where are my press invites?  ANYWAY... there's nothing quite like an acceptance speech which is why its hateful when the same people win 10 things in a row. Variety is wonderful... and so is a good variety show.

Easter Egg Movie Madness

Happy Easter TFE readers. I ran out of time this year but I had totally planned to create Black Swan Easter Eggs to add to my previous collections of movie-themed easter eggs. The visual has to be iconic and easily reduced to oval form, see. Nina Sayers and her scary eyemakeup totally work. In order to be somewhat festive today, anyway, here's a reprint of a classic post. If you haven't read it before it's new to you!

Movie Themed Easter Eggs

Time for Arts & Crafts! All holidays lend themselves to movie obsessing and Easter is no exception.Plus, who doesn't love brightly colored edibles? Here are a few movie themed easter eggs you can make with your kids, godchildren, nephews, nieces or your adult friends who behave like children.

Materials needed: eggs, food dye, vinegar, water and the ability to measure and boil it, spoons, glasses, white crayons, black crayon or black marker, red candle, hand/eye coordination and some degree of artistic ability.

Get started! Boil water. Insert eggs (leave boiling for 10-12 minutes). Take water off stove without burning self. Rinse eggs in cold water. Put eggs on cooling rack. Leave for a few hours. Return. Mix different colors of dye into glasses (1/4 tsp food coloring / 1 tbsp white vinegar / 3/4th cup hot water) into which you can dip zee eggs. Ready... and GO.

Superheroes and Salmonella after the jump.

Click to read more ...

This & That: Win Wins, Pettyfer Double, Black Swan $100

I apologize for my absence today, I'm so far behind on awardage I know. Argh. While you wait for that, some articles of mine at my other two haunts.

In my weekly Oscar column at Tribeca Film, I'm considering the win-win of being a nominated actor. If you think you're going to win, you're probably racked with nerves. If you know you're not, you're free to enjoy the adulation without much stress. Either way, it's a win-win since you're Oscar nominated, you know?

Over at Towleroad, I'm blabbing about Alex Pettyfer aka I Am Number Four, the latest product Hollywood is trying to sell me.

It's like Hollywood is smiling under flourescent lighting at the grocery store. "Free sample? Free sample?"

Other things to check out:
Inside Movies great piece on Banksy and why the Academy doesn't understand entertainment on Oscar night.
Meryl Streep Forum has some on the set peaks at Meryl Streep in Thatcher.
Awards Daily Ballot Sasha is simulating the Oscar voting. I voted today. Wheeee
My New Plaid Pants Do Dump or Marry with the Lincoln Lawyer lads.
Gold Derby Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark getting rewrites from a different writer after three months in previews? My God. Please just put this thing down.
Alt Film Guide fun list of longest gap between acting Oscar nods.

Finally, congratulations to Darren Aronofsky. He has his first $100 million domestic grosser with Black Swan which just crossed the big mark. It feels great that the public is finally catching up with all of us, right? Aronofsky's been making awesome movies for a whole decade. In case you missed the big Aronofsky Favorite Actors post, check it out.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

With the official fully costumed first release from Sony we know that they're calling the Spider-Man reboot The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).

I love how Spider-Man is always so scrunched up or compressed in photos and drawings when he isn't all stretched out swinging on webs. He only has two physical modes and one of them is the one wherein he seems to be giving himself claustrophobia.

That's a neat photo but I've been totally giggling at the paparazzi shots of the filming. Fight scenes always look so ridiculous in still photos before special efffects and sound effects and score are added. Plus Spider-Man looks less amazing and more, uh, "Friendly" in these photos if you know what I mean.

[set photos from Socialite Life.]

Are you beginning to change your tune on this one with the neat texture and worn details of the costume and the terrific cast or do you think there's still no point?