Monday, April 30, 2007

Spidey's three bad guys dish on art of villainy


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is so good at his job that his Hollywood handlers put him up against THREE enemies this time.
"Spider-Man 3" continues Peter Parker and alter-ego Spider-Man's battle against old pal Harry Osborn (James Franco), who's out to avenge his father's death, which he blames on Spidey.
Meantime, petty crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) escapes from prison to try to help his sickly daughter and blunders into a scientific experiment that transforms him into the Sandman, who can shift into sand formations and uses the ability to steal and beat up on Spider-Man.
Spider-Man himself is tempted by his dark side as he learns the truth about his beloved Uncle Ben's death, and he's infected by an alien entity that brings out his inner villain. Spidey's struggle eventually encompasses Peter's news photography rival, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who becomes the black-hearted Venom, a creature with powers similar to Spider-Man's.
With director Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" hitting theaters May 4, bad boys Franco, Church and Grace sat down with The Associated Press to discuss the art of evil-doing, why it's more fun playing bad and who the best movie villains are.
___
AP: "Spider-Man" villains are never wholly evil. How did you go about balancing the good and bad?
Church: Flint Marko, he's probably a pretty decent guy who if anything is corrupted by his own good intentions. He has such a singular focus on trying to save his daughter and at various points in the movie doesn't give a---- who he steps on in that pursuit. He's an empathetic character, and the fact is he's addressing perhaps the greatest fear of any parent. That he might lose his child.
Grace: Understanding why a bad guy does what they do, whether or not you agree with them, is scarier to me than just some guy falling into a vat of acid, then saying, "I want to take over the world." If you understand it, that connects you to the villain and their evil acts. But in a bigger sense, what I really love about this movie is even Spider-Man's bad during it. ... It's great, because we all know no one's pure good and pure evil. Everyone has good and bad intentions.
Franco: Some people come up to me and say, "Oh, you're so bad in 'Spider-Man 1 and 2,' but I don't see Harry as a villain at all. Although he's misinformed about what happened to his father, he really thinks he's doing the right thing. He's avenging his father's death. And in part three, Peter Parker, the hero, does pretty much the same thing, avenging his uncle's death. The father figure in his life. In a different story, Harry could be the protagonist.
AP: Is it more fun playing bad guys?
Church: I don't really think I play a villain in this movie.
AP: OK, you'll have to leave the room.
Church: Yeah. He's a pretty simple guy who breaks out of prison to save his daughter, and while he is responsible for criminal acts, I don't think he's a true criminal in as much as he makes the good and evil choice. I think verisimilitude plays heavily into how the villains are portrayed in these movies. It's all about perspective. One guy's evil act is another guy's good intentions gone awry.
AP: James, Topher? More fun being bad?
Grace: Oh, yeah. In my opinion. It was a big lesson I learned on this, because I'd never done that. When you're a protagonist, it's kind of your job, like you hear a little bell go off when you're getting too far away from center. Would I really do that? That comes from your job to be kind of a conduit for the audience to experience the movie through that character. Whereas playing a bad guy, playing a psycho alien murderer from outer space, I never felt that bell going off. I just never heard the bell.
Franco: Whenever anyone says it's more fun to play bad guys, it's because you get to do things that in normal life, there would be ...
Grace: Consequences.
Franco: A lot of consequences. And you get to have fun doing it. You get to relish being bad.
AP: And you don't get arrested at the end. If given superpowers, would most people use them for evil or at least face that temptation?
Church: Are you asking like in real life? If somebody annoys me, would I form a large sand fist?
Grace: Remember when you hit me a couple times on the set because you thought I wasn't doing the scene right? You kept saying, "Do it right" and hit me.
Church (letting out a big laugh): And I happened to have my sand fist on. So you're right. So maybe you're right.
Grace: I felt like I was kind of playing the evil doppelganger version of Peter. ... The point of my character is to show someone very similar to Peter but who didn't have a great mentor like Uncle Ben to say, take responsibility for this power. It wasn't just that Uncle Ben said that. It's that it was shown to Peter by a really awful experience that he had to take responsibility for his power. If a character didn't have that mentor and got the same power, yeah, he probably would use it for evil.
AP: Who's the best movie villain?
Grace: Probably Darth Vader. What I love about trilogies is that there's new information with each film. So you're in the same world with the same actors, but it opens up and opens up. I love how it got deeper.
AP: James? Favorite villain?
Franco: I like Francis in ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure"). I like Jack Nicholson as the Joker. I really like the guy in "Pan's Labyrinth." He was pretty great. The Terminator in the first "Terminator." Pretty amazing.
Grace: You know who they said was one of the biggest ones in the (American Film Institute) villains list? "Man," in "Bambi." Which you never see. That's a great villain. I remember feeling that villain so intensely and not even getting who it was.
AP: Yup, "Man was in the forest." Thomas? Best villain?
Church: I've got to go back to a movie that came out when I was a kid, and it remains one of the most riveting experiences I've ever had in a theater. It was "Alien," and Ian Holm's character. He was just so mechanically efficient in ensuring that the alien was protected and killed everybody on board. There was a purity to his -- it's not even evil. It's just this, like I said, mechanical efficiency at eliminating life to protect an animal. I still think it's a touchstone performance.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Review: 'Next'? Go to the back of the line


(CNN) -- Even when we haven't seen an action movie before, we've seen it before.
Case in point: "Next."
A Vegas showman blessed with the power of precognition, enlisted to foil a terrorist bomb plot? It's "Deja Vu" all over again. Unfortunately, without Denzel Washington.
Nicolas Cage is Frank Cadillac -- but only for five minutes. Tragically, he jettisons this fine and fitting stage name in favor of the eminently forgettable Cris Johnson, thereby signaling that this will be a relatively subdued Cage performance.
Frank/Cris is a magician hiding his very real but frustratingly circumscribed extra-sensory powers in plain sight. If he imagines he's escaped detection, that's probably because his gift only stretches two minutes into the future (except, of course, when it's convenient for the screenwriters to allow otherwise). Plus, he doesn't get much: a sneak peek at his next big scene, maybe some permutations, but no bigger picture.
Still, a little foreknowledge can go a long way in Las Vegas -- at least until tough FBI agent Callie (Julianne Moore) starts chasing his shadow. Someone (suspiciously French-speaking!) has smuggled a nuclear weapon into L.A. and she wants Cris to save southern California.
In what must constitute something of a new low even for cynical action-movie types, he decides to forego that chore and chat up Jessica Biel instead. (It doesn't make his decision easier to stomach that the scene with Biel -- easily the wittiest in the movie -- is ripped straight from "Groundhog Day.")
Precious little of this has anything to do with Philip K. Dick's short story "The Golden Man," the film's alleged source material, and if the marketing men want to claim that connection then they had best be prepared for unfavorable "Paycheck" comparisons. (Could this be the worst Dick adaptation yet? Unconvincing CGI effects, crummy story, lousy performances ... it's got to be a contender.)
In fairness, "Next" attempts to put a spin on such hoary melodramatic cliches as the blonde in peril (strapped to a chair and wired to explosives) and the car chase (with an oncoming train cutting off the pursuers). In one scene, Cage makes like Buster Keaton, escaping from a motel by flinging himself down the Grand Canyon in front of a rockslide.
But wait, there's more!
Cris is also like a human TiVo. One of his party pieces is zapping the cable stations, repeating the next line before it's spoken. And that's not the half of it. At times, he stops, fast-forwards and rewinds the "Next" plot itself in his mind, even opting for alternate scenes while he's at it. (Buster Keaton did all this, too, in "Sherlock Jr.", but that's another story.)
Unfortunately, these twists in "Next" don't do much for the film. All this time-shifting would be a lot more fun if we had the remote. It might even make a good videogame. But as a movie, "Next" soon becomes an exercise in futility. It keeps stumbling down blind alleys and doubling back on itself to start over. That may or may not be a legitimate expression of the postmodern condition, but it would help if there was something or someone here we could believe in.
As it is, director Lee Tamahori's film comes within a whimper of blowing up Hollywood. Given the quality of "Next," that result may have been welcome.
"Next" is rated PG-13 and runs 96 minutes.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Gere apologizes in kissing controversy in India


NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Richard Gere tried to quell the storm over a public kiss he gave a Bollywood star at an AIDS awareness event, apologizing Friday for any offense.
Gere's embrace and kiss of actress Shilpa Shetty sparked several noisy demonstrations by hard-line Hindu groups and a flurry of legal complaints, which ended with a judge in the northwestern city of Jaipur issuing an arrest warrant for the two stars for violating obscenity laws.
"What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you," Gere said in statement issued by the Heroes Project, an organization the 57-year-old actor co-founded to combat AIDS in India. (Watch the kiss that caused all the fuss )
"If that has happened, of course it is easy for me to offer a sincere apology," he said.
The embrace, in front of about 4,000 truckers, was a failed parody of a move from Gere's film "Shall We Dance," and "a naive misread of Indian customs," he said.
Gere had earlier taken a harder tone, hitting back at a small group who had complained.
"There is a very small, right-wing, very conservative political party in India, and they are the moral police in India and they do this kind of thing quite often," he told Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" on Thursday.
Gere said he was confident the issue would be sorted out.
"I don't know that anyone has actually gone to jail, it has to go through a process. It goes to a reputable court, and they throw it out," he said on the TV show.
Under Indian law, a person convicted of public obscenity faces up to three months in prison, a fine, or both.
Gere, who left shortly after the kissing incident, is a frequent visitor to India, promoting health issues and the cause of Tibetan exiles. The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has his headquarters in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala.
On Friday, Gere won support from lawyers and legal experts in India, who slammed the Jaipur court ruling.
"The order is ridiculous. Even if this hugging and kissing was a bit vulgar, it does not amount to obscenity," India's former attorney general Soli Sorabjee told The Associated Press.
Sorabjee said the judge should not have issued an arrest warrant without hearing from Gere and Shetty.
"They are just seeking publicity," he said.
Another senior lawyer called the order "an act of judicial indecency."
"This is only for cheap publicity and the magistrate and lawyer should be restrained," Dushyant Dave told the Times of India newspaper.
The kiss had made headlines, and photographs were splashed across front pages in India, where public displays of affection are largely taboo.
In his statement, Gere appealed to the media to let the controversy die.
"I would hope that the media could now end the circus around this episode and dedicate its positive resources and expertise to the eradication of HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases," Gere said. "That's what's really important here."
Gere said Shetty was not to blame for the incident.
"I've felt terrible that she should carry a burden that is no fault of hers," he said.
The judge ordered her to appear in his court May 5, saying she did nothing to resist the kiss, which he called "highly sexually erotic."
Shetty, already well known in India, became an international star after her appearance on the British reality show "Celebrity Big Brother."
A fellow contestant, Jade Goody, sparked international headlines by allegedly making racist comments to Shetty. Mobs took to the streets of India to denounce Goody, and Shetty went on to win the competition.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Joss Stone: 'I'm allowed to be me now'


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Joss Stone called her new album "Introducing Joss Stone" for a reason -- even though it's her third release.
Four years ago, Stone was a 16-year-old R&B wunderkind. But now she's embarked on a new direction, one she says is truer to herself. She's even managing herself now -- having gone through "four managers in the last five years," she says.
Stone talked with CNN about her career, her concerns and even Britney Spears. This is an edited version of the interview.
Q: I was surprised to find out that, before you made this record, you were wondering whether you wanted to continue in the music business.
JOSS STONE: I don't know. It really didn't rub me the right way. It kind of irritated me. So I was like, OK guys, either you let me do what I need to do by myself or I need to get find another job because it wasn't making me happy.
Q: What was it you wanted?
STONE: I wanted people not to look at me as a little girl, but I was a little girl so how could I ask the world not to? ...
So I have to prove myself, I guess. I guess this year I'm going to find out if I'm good enough or not. If I'm not, I don't care. I'll do something else, it's not a biggie.
Q: But you've taken a totally different direction this time.
STONE: Yeah man, this is my direction.
Q: And you've gone toward a more urban sound.
STONE: If you want to call it that. ... It's a growing thing. ... I'm allowed to be me now, which is a first, and I think it's really cool.
Q: Some fans are really intrigued by the change and what is she going to do next, and then there are other fans who are appalled.
STONE: So really you can't please everyone can you? ...
I'm 19, I'm a girl, I'm very young, I like all sorts of different things, I like all sorts of different styles of music, I like all sorts of different styles of clothes, I like all sorts of different colors of hair. I like many different things you know so I'm probably going to experiment, and if I didn't I'd be a little bit strange and boring and stiff and kind of dead, and I'm very not that.
Q: You're a lot younger than other girls in the business who have been successful, but you look at Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and how they all had growing pains. Britney still can't figure out who she is and she's doing things to draw attention to herself in perhaps the wrong ways.
STONE: Well, maybe she's not. Maybe she's just living her life but people just won't stop looking at her. Maybe people should leave her alone. ... You took a picture of me on a bad day and it would be the same thing.
Q: Yeah, but you'd be wearing underwear.
STONE: Yeah, right. [But] some people don't like to wear underwear. Each to their own. ...
We shouldn't be mad at Britney Spears because she didn't wear underwear. That's her choice. She wasn't hurting anybody. That was her. She decided not to wear underwear. Maybe she wanted a little breeze. That's her decision. But we should be mad at the guy who posted it on the Internet. What an [expletive], what a [expletive] [expletive]. That's a really mean, nasty, malicious, terrible thing to do to somebody.
Q: Do people try to do that to you?
STONE: If anybody shoved a camera up my skirt I'd knock them on their ass in about five seconds.
Q: You['ve] said that you're an insecure person. Where do your insecurities come from?
STONE: I think everybody's insecure. I think people that claim not to be are lying. ... Especially young women.
Q: What do you get insecure about?
STONE: I get insecure because the people I listen to vocally I think they're stunning and amazing and I personally don't think that I am that. There's always insecurities about my job and whether I'm doing it right. And there's also the average everyday girl thing.
You know if I wasn't insecure I wouldn't wear makeup and I wouldn't do my hair, and I wouldn't wear clothes. If the human race was not insecure we'd be walking around buck naked because we wouldn't give a [expletive]. ... We are all insecure and it's silly to say that we're not.
Q: Do you think it takes hardships and ups and downs to make a career and get respect?
STONE: Well, some people find it really difficult to believe that a young person can be as emotional as I am because they want to know the ins and outs of your life in order to believe you. And I'm like, well, that's my business. I don't think that I need to be smacked in the face 50 times in order to sing about an [expletive]. But I think you need to have emotions. ...
There's no age limit on emotions, there's no age limit on being soulful, or feeling something or expressing how you feel. ... A lot of people find it difficult to believe you but that's really not my problem. If you don't believe me, don't believe me. All I can do is tell you.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

O'Donnell leaving 'The View'


NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie O'Donnell's stormy tenure on "The View" will be a short one. The opinionated host was unable to agree on a contract with ABC, and she'll leave the show in June.
O'Donnell said on the show Wednesday that she wanted to stay for one more year, and ABC wanted three. So she decided to leave, although she said she will appear occasionally next season for things like a planned one-hour special on autism.
"It just didn't work," she said, "and that's show biz. But it's not sad because I loved it here and I love you guys and I'm not going away." (Watch the impact of O'Donnell's departure )
O'Donnell has helped raise the ratings for the daytime chat show invented by Barbara Walters. But her outspokenness has caused almost constant controversy, including a nasty name-calling feud with Donald Trump that placed Walters squarely in the middle.
"I induced Rosie to come back to television on 'The View' even for just one year," Walters said before "The View" aired. "She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television. I can only be grateful to her for this year."
"We have had, to say the least, an interesting year," Walters added on the program.
Walters said she had nothing to do with the decision, reached after talks between representatives for ABC Daytime and O'Donnell.
"This is not my doing or my choice," she said.
Walters was frequently left to clean up the damage after O'Donnell. She did it most recently Monday, when O'Donnell was criticized for using bad language and attacking Rupert Murdoch from the dais of the annual New York Women in Communication awards luncheon.
"I would like to point out that Rosie's view is not always mine," Walters said. "I would like to say for the record that I am very fond of Rupert Murdoch."
In the Trump imbroglio, O'Donnell was reportedly mad that Walters did not come more swiftly to her defense, while Trump said Walters told him she didn't want O'Donnell on the show -- a claim Walters denied.
Trump quickly went on Fox News Channel Wednesday to claim that O'Donnell was fired by ABC because of remarks made at the Women in Communications luncheon. (He'll be on CNN Headline News' "Showbiz Tonight" Wednesday night.)
"Barbara's the happiest person in the world that Rosie's been fired," Trump said.
Cindi Berger, spokeswoman for both O'Donnell and Walters, denied Trump's claim, wondering how he would know what had happened in contract talks between O'Donnell and ABC.
"She wasn't going to commit to anything for three years and they would not commit to her for one more," Berger said. Locking in O'Donnell to a three-year deal could protect ABC from year-to-year increases if the ratings continue to be good for the show.
Despite controversy -- or maybe because of it -- O'Donnell was good business for ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co. Ratings for "The View" during February sweeps were up 15 percent in key women demographics over the same time in 2006.
Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Television, said he'd be surprised if ABC didn't try hard to keep O'Donnell, given the attention she brought to the long-running show.
The timing of the announcement doesn't particularly suit O'Donnell if she wants to remain in daytime television. She wouldn't be able to introduce a new program to the syndication market until September 2008, he said. But the company that produced O'Donnell's long-running daytime show has expressed interest in having her back, he said.
O'Donnell has discussed acting on the FX show, "Nip/Tuck." But she has not decided what she wants to do in TV in the future, Berger said.
O'Donnell made headlines repeatedly for comments on "The View," and for testy exchanges with her more conservative partner, Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
She criticized "American Idol" in January for airing humiliating auditions. "Isn't that what America thinks of entertainment? To make fun of someone's physical appearance. And when they leave the room, laugh hysterically at them. Three millionaires, one probably intoxicated."
She accused fellow ABC daytime host Kelly Ripa of making a homophobic remark, said "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America" and has been critical of President Bush.
Statements by public figures are being watched more closely in the post-Don Imus era. The lobbying group Focus on the Family said it was preparing to contact advertisers on "The View" as part of a campaign against O'Donnell. The group is angry at O'Donnell for comments they feel were insulting to Catholics.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

New Avril Lavigne: Married, glamorous, 'wiser'


NEW YORK (AP) -- Avril Lavigne has gone through a few changes since she released her last CD three years ago.
The 21-year-old Lavigne is now married (to fellow Canadian rocker Deryck Whibley of Sum 41). She's also a certified actress, having made her film debut in last year's flicks "Fast Food Nation" and the animated "Over the Hedge." And she's gone glam, ditching her tomboy duds for gowns and heels in high-profile modeling gigs.
But anyone concerned that the pop-punk princess had lost her edge will find reassurance in the title of her latest album: "The Best Damn Thing." And there's more attitude throughout the CD -- the first single, "Girlfriend," is about taking someone else's guy.
It was Lavigne's edgy, tough-girl persona (along with the rock ditties she co-wrote) that helped to set her apart from the rest of pop's divas when she made her debut at 16 with her first album, 2002's "Let Go." It sold millions, as did her follow-up, 2004's "Under My Skin."
Now, with her third disc, Lavigne is picking up where she left off.
Q: It's been awhile since your last album. Why the break?
AVRIL LAVIGNE: ... I just wanted to kind of take a break and live my life. I worked on a couple of movies, got married, and then I went into the studio and because I write my songs it takes much longer for me to work on my album. I took my time with the album. I didn't want to rush it, I wanted to make sure it was really good ... I want to make sure I have time for myself to enjoy myself to enjoy life, because I've worked so much in my life.
Q: How has getting married changed you?
LAVIGNE: I don't feel like marriage has really changed me that much; just personally, in my personal life, I'm really happy.
Q: You're new album is very upbeat -- does that reflect your mood?
LAVIGNE: Well, a lot of my inspiration for this record came from tour(ing), and me realizing what songs I like to play live the most ... I had this vision for this record, my vision was to make a fun record all the way tough, energetic, poppy and catchy but still a rock record, so that's what I did. So I went in the studio and had a really good time, and the songs are so me, and it's fun, it's like a party CD ... it's like a summer CD, that's what it's like to me.
Q: Your husband worked with you on two songs -- had you two always planned to work together?
LAVIGNE: No, I didn't plan on working with Deryck. I had written two songs with my friend Evan and they are kind of in the pop-rock vein and I thought he'd be perfect for it. He was producing his record, so he was already in the studio. I'm glad he got to be a part of it. We have very similar styles and we like a lot of the same music, and he's really good.
Q: You've started acting -- is that something you'd always wanted to do?
LAVIGNE: (I) basically started acting when I was younger. I was in the school plays, singing and stuff and then I got a record deal. The singing thing worked out. I just wanted to try it again and be creative in any way I can. I am looking forward to getting a great movie and working on a good project. I believe in myself and I know that I can, so I want to. It is a matter of me finding the right project, something that really speaks to me instead of just jumping into something. I make sure I am selective and careful with what I do. I have to be extra careful because I'm going to be really judged.
Q: You've actually done high-fashion modeling spreads -- a big change from your tomboy image. How are you evolving fashion-wise?
LAVIGNE: As I've gotten older, I appreciate fashion a bit more and experiment a bit more. Now I am at the age where I will wear a dress. Before I didn't want to. I'm a casual dresser but I love clothes, shoes, everything. I have done a few fashion spreads in Harper's Bazaar, W, and all that stuff just to try it out, but I don't actually dress like that. Once in a while I'll put on a dress maybe if I am going to a premiere or something.
Q: People kind of have an image of you as a very spunky, in-your-face kind of girl. Have you mellowed at all?
LAVIGNE: I've changed a ton, I've grown up, I'm wiser. I'm still the same girl. I'm just an older version. I've always been honest and I've always totally been me. Been outspoken. I'm not a butt kisser. I'm true to myself and I think that is what a lot of the fans liked about me.
Q: You say you plan to start a clothing line -- so many stars have one. Why did you decide to do one now?
LAVIGNE: Now I love clothes and I feel like I have all these really cool ideas. It's something creative to do. It would totally be one of those things where I'm coming up with all the ideas. It would be how I dress. ... My whole thing is I love black, I love Dickies, I like Converse, I will wear heels once in a while, anything with a skull ... anything with kind of a rock 'n' roll vibe is what I wear.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Monday, April 23, 2007

What does 'The Bachelor' say about women?


NEW YORK (AP) -- "The Bachelor" reality franchise hit the jackpot this season with Andy Baldwin -- a real-life Dr. McDreamy.
Baldwin -- a 30-year-old doctor, Navy lieutenant, humanitarian and triathlete -- is the perfect guy with perfect teeth, and a houseful of wide-eyed, marriage-minded women competing to be his one and only.
But it's not Baldwin or his predecessors who capture the show's overwhelmingly female audience. Rather, it's the catfights, blatant scheming, tears and rejection. Those irresistible dramatic elements have managed to keep the series afloat, observers say, despite declining ratings, an embarrassing track record of failed romances and the indisputably sexist premise.
"This is voyeuristic viewing," said TV historian Tim Brooks. "You can just sort of sit and watch, 'Oh, I don't like her' and 'Boy, I hope she gets hers' and that kind of thing. And root for your favorites, too."
The bachelor, Brooks said, is "just there to give them something to root about."
This season's batch of "ladies" are displaying not-so-subtle signs of cattiness and ambition as they strut their stuff, size each other up and eyeball Baldwin like a piece of all-American man-meat. They say things like, "I'm here to play the game. I plan on playing the game hard," and "I plan on getting rose after rose, until I get a ring on the finger."
The best line: "Andy is amazing. I can't get over his teeth."
One desperado serenaded Baldwin with the national anthem. Another had a stress-induced breakdown, telling the cameras "it would be relieving not to get a rose."
True to form, a villainess has emerged: Stephanie T., an organ donor coordinator from South Carolina, who was got the first one-on-one date with Baldwin. Of course, she rubbed that victory in her competitors' faces.
All that drama makes Sarah Bunting, co-founder of the Web site Television Without Pity, say "ugh."
Viewers aren't "altruistically interested in seeing whether a good match is made," Bunting argued. "They just want to watch these women embarrass themselves because, evidently, your only self-worth in the culture according to this show is if you're on television and you have a man."
But that's its twisted appeal.
"Girls crying is still the backbone of the show," said Mike Fleiss, who produces the franchise. "You know, because I think women like to see how other girls handle the heartbreak of being rejected, because most women have been rejected, most men have been rejected."
"This season," he teased, "we've got some girls who just totally flip out. We've never had so many tears."
'They're just having fun'
"The Bachelor" was the first of the "rose ceremony shows," spinning off "The Bachelorette" and inspiring copycats including "Average Joe" and "Flavor of Love." Despite a slip in ratings over the years -- it drew 9 million viewers last week to rank No. 30 -- the franchise has survived the explosion of dating shows and proves an inexpensive, reliable moneymaker for ABC, Brooks said.
To get those ratings, the show milks an unrealistic, retrograde version of romance, often at the expense of some strong personalities who signed on for sincere reasons and are instead served up as water cooler fodder. Then again, the 25 potential paramours must know what they're getting into when they step out of that stretch limo to greet the (supposed) man of their dreams.
"This show has been on so many times," said Jen Schefft, who was chosen by her ex-fiance, millionaire Andrew Firestone. "Do you not know what's going to happen if you act like this? I would hope that people get a little smarter. So I guess if they don't ... they probably know exactly what they're doing and they're just having fun."
They must be aware, too, that reality relationships are far from guaranteed. Only two of the previous nine contestants on "The Bachelor" -- Byron Velvick and Charlie O'Connell -- ended up with the women they chose on the series, which debuted in 2002.
(Fleiss says that on the current show, which was pre-taped, Baldwin has found The One and "really loves her.")
Schefft, a public relations exec in Chicago and author of the self-help book "Better Single Than Sorry," said viewers see the show as "comfort food" and no longer get "invested in the sense that if the couples break up, they're so disappointed."
She was the target of outrage after turning down two marriage proposals on the third season of "The Bachelorette." After her non-decision, Elisabeth Hasselbeck of "The View" went so far as to predict she'd be doomed to remain -- horrors! -- alone forever.
"If one of the guys didn't pick a girl, you'd say he was a jerk," Schefft said. Women, on the other hand, face more scrutiny because they're "seen as these people who want to get married and will get married -- and will find a guy and make it work."
Though liberating and mature, Schefft's refusal to provide a storybook ending made for unsatisfying TV. After all, it might be tough to identify with a woman rejecting two handsome suitors. "The Bachelor," though, captivates its audience by letting loose a camera-friendly bunch of beauties and bad eggs. They (mis)behave like surreal sorority sisters, swooning over the president of the best frat on campus.
In turn, they represent anxieties women have about themselves: Am I pretty or engaging enough? What does she have that I don't? Will I ever settle down?
Those questions are amplified by the message -- among unattached and partnered friends, around the family dinner table, in pop culture -- that a girl can't be happy unless she's on the arm of a special someone. Hurry up, that clock is ticking.
In the warped world of "The Bachelor," that pressure is real.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Dueling murder films top box office


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The face of Hannibal Lecter was no match for Shia LaBeouf in a box-office battle of murder thrillers.
DreamWorks and Paramount's "Disturbia," starring LaBeouf as a teen who suspects a neighbor of murder, took in $13.5 million to hold the top weekend movie spot for a second straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
New Line Cinema's "Fracture" starring Anthony Hopkins -- who played serial killer Lecter in three films -- debuted at No. 2 with $11.2 million. Hopkins plays a sly defendant accused of killing his unfaithful wife, with Ryan Gosling co-starring as the prosecutor. (Review)
DreamWorks and Paramount's figure-skating comedy "Blades of Glory," starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, was No. 3 with $7.8 million in its fourth weekend to cross the $100 million mark.
Sony Screen Gems' horror flick "Vacancy," starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple marked for grisly death at a sleazy motel, led a rush of other new wide releases, opening at No. 4 with $7.6 million. (No-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul)
The buddy-cop comedy "Hot Fuzz," released by Focus Features' Rogue Pictures unit, had a strong start in narrower release, premiering at No. 6 with $5.8 million in 825 theaters, about a third the number of cinemas where "Fracture" and "Vacancy" played.
"Hot Fuzz" comes from the "Shaun of the Dead" team of director Edgar Wright and his co-writer and star Simon Pegg, who plays a London super-cop exiled to a sleepy British town, where he encounters a series of grisly deaths.
The Warner Bros. drama "In the Land of Women" opened at a weak No. 8 with $4.9 million. The movie stars Adam Brody as a heartbroken writer who moves in with his grandmother and forges a relationship with a neighbor (Meg Ryan) and her teenage daughter.
After a solid start this year, Hollywood's overall revenues were down for a second straight weekend. The top 12 movies took in $74 million, off 26 percent compared to the same weekend last year, when "Silent Hill" opened at No. 1 with $20.2 million.
"This is like an onslaught of films trying to get into the marketplace before the big summer rush," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "People are just holding their breath waiting for summer to start, and while they're holding their breath, they didn't go to the movies in big numbers."
However, attendance is up 2.4 percent from last year, and studio executives predict this could be a record summer for modern Hollywood with major sequels including "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
"Disturbia" raised its 10-day total to $40.7 million, already taking in roughly double what it cost to make the movie.
The film has established the 20-year-old LaBeouf, whose big break came as the star of the Disney Channel series "Even Stevens," as a bankable leading man.
"He has this appeal which I think works for the girls obviously, who are big suspense fans, and guys like him, too, so that's a double plus," said DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Victoria's Secret picks sexiest entertainers


NEW YORK (AP) -- Another day, another list. But what the heck, this one is a "What is Sexy?" rundown from Victoria's Secret.
"SexyBack" singer Justin Timberlake is sexiest male musician; Jessica Alba, who starred in "Sin City," is sexiest actress; and David Beckham, who has three sons with his wife, Victoria, is sexiest dad.
The list of sexy entertainers and athletes was announced Thursday. It was compiled by a team of Victoria's Secret executives, designers and supermodel spokeswomen, including Heidi Klum and Karolina Kurkova. Klum and Kurkova were to host a party in Las Vegas on Thursday to celebrate the list-makers.
"I still think my husband (Seal) is the sexiest dad for our children, but (that's) beside the point," Klum, 33, told The Associated Press.
Matthew McConaughey was honored for his "beach body."
"You know, he has his shirt off a lot lately," said Klum, host of Bravo's "Project Runway."
Other sexy celebs: Eric Dane (actor), Carrie Underwood (female musician), speed racer Danica Patrick (female athlete), Yankee Derek Jeter (male athlete), Kate Hudson (mom), and Jay-Z and Beyonce (couple).
Sienna Miller won props for her trendsetting style, Josh Duhamel for his smile and Adrian Grenier for his eyes. Cameron Diaz has the sexiest legs, while Jennifer Hudson was singled out in the lips category.
The ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" -- surprise, surprise -- has the sexiest cast.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Review: 'Fracture' smoothly entertaining


(CNN) -- "Does it bother you that I call you 'Willy'?" Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) inquires of prosecuting attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling). "Very well then: Willy ..." Hopkins teases out every ounce of absurdity he can find in the name. A boy's name, surely, not a name for a high-powered attorney?
The two men don't actually pull down their trousers and compare sizes, but the subtext is there. Crawford is a brilliant engineer, wealthy, drives a sports car -- fast. But he's also a cuckold who would rather shoot his wife in the head than let her walk out on him. He disposes of the evidence, then casually hands the gun over to the cops and confesses to the crime. Opting to defend himself in court, he enters a plea of "not guilty."
Talk about mixed messages.
Beachum suspects the defendant must be crazy. Then again, he's so fixated on an imminent move into the corporate sector he fails to notice his last, apparently open-and-shut case is booby-trapped.
The prosecution has the confession, and a gun ... but it's not the gun. Before he knows it, Beachum's airtight prosecution is unraveling right there in open court. It's embarrassing, and worse, it could cost him that job. Crawford has set the scene, and he's evidently sized our Willy as the patsy.
"Fracture" -- scripted by Glenn Gers and Daniel Pyne with a good deal more polish than spit -- is one of those courtroom dramas where twists multiply like worms. Cut one up, you have two more on your hands.
"Look close enough, you'll find everyone has a weak spot," Crawford is solicitous enough to inform his adversary.
Actually, you don't have to look all that close to find the flaws in Crawford's elaborate but ludicrously risky "perfect murder." And anyone who has had any dealings with the judicial system (or watched TV) may also find it hard to swallow a homicide trial scheduled within a day or two of the crime (thus allowing Beachum to take the case just a week before he jumps ship for the big bucks).
And then it seems to take an age for Gosling's supposedly hotshot lawyer to wise up to one transparent but critical plant -- though it does score bonus points for Freudian symbolism.
Normally these defects might weigh heavily against this kind of movie. But in "Fracture's" case, it's not a big deal. Director Gregory Hoblit ("Primal Fear") allows that the engineering may be rigged, but it's only a game, after all -- and quite an entertaining one.
He fashions what is essentially a male ego contest: the killer is practically purring, he's so sure he's the smartest guy in the room, and the lawyer, Willy, is desperately trying to prove he's as good as he thinks he is -- despite all evidence to the contrary.
Cast Hopkins as a criminal mastermind, there's bound to be a whiff of Hannibal Lecter about. But instead of Lecter's aloof, cerebral stillness, Hopkins affects a jocular, blokey demeanor for Crawford.
Hopkins is all smirks and winks and outrageous provocations. "I've got a good dick," he murmurs to the Judge (Fiona Shaw), in reference to the private eye who has been assigned to him.
Perhaps it was acting against the live wire Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson") that put him in such a playful mood. Their scenes together ricochet back and forth like verbal ping-pong. Beachum is an overachiever from the wrong side of the tracks (shades of Clarice Starling), constantly on the make: "I didn't work this hard to stay where I belong," he informs his boss, the D.A. (David Strathairn).
Popping on jellybeans and coffee, equipped with a lucky horseshoe ring, he's hungry and confident, but watch how his cocksure arrogance collapses along with his career prospects. What's interesting about the picture is how Beachum reacts to this predicament. His pride may be his Achilles' heel, or might still prove his saving grace.
A smart and snappy thriller that makes light work of its ethical dilemmas, "Fracture" is a little too neat and tidy to stick in the mind for long, but the Hopkins-Gosling pairing is choice, and neither comes up short.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Review: 'New' Tolkien splendidly rewarding


(AP) -- Six thousand years before the Fellowship of the Ring, long before anyone had even seen a Hobbit, the elves and men of Middle-earth quaked at the power of the dark lord Morgoth.
Hunted by easterlings and orcs, they fled to the fastness of Nargothrond and to the deep forests of Brethil and Doriath. Among them, a hero emerged. Strong and courageous he was, but foolhardy and impetuous. His name was Turin, son of Hurin.
His story, released today by Houghton Mifflin, is a publishing event: It is the first new book by the creator of "The Lord of the Rings" in 30 years. The publisher calls it the culmination of an effort to bring to the public the vast body of work J.R.R. Tolkien had left unpublished, and largely unfinished, when he died in 1973.
Tolkien began writing "The Children of Hurin" 99 years ago, abandoning it and taking it up again repeatedly throughout his life. Versions of the tale already have appeared in "The Silmarillion," "Unfinished Tales" and as narrative poems or prose sections of the "History of Middle-earth" series.
But they were truncated and contradictory. Outside of Tolkien scholars and Middle-earth fanatics, few read them.
These works were, after all, largely unreadable -- dense, hard to follow histories and legends of Tolkien's vast, imaginary world, crammed with complicated genealogies, unfamiliar geography and hard-to-pronounce names. Readers who took up such books hoping for another Rings saga or charming yarn such as "The Hobbit" abandoned them after a few pages.
"The Children of Hurin" is the book for which these readers have been longing.
It is the fruit of 30 years labor by Christopher Tolkien, the author's son, who has devoted much of his life to editing and publishing the work his father left behind. By meticulously combining and editing the many published and unpublished versions of the tale, he has produced at last a coherent, vivid and readable narrative.
Houghton-Mifflin has treated the work well, hiring Alan Lee, who won an Academy Award for art direction for "The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King," to create stunning color illustrations.
The story unfolds in a region far to the west of where Frodo and Samwise would later roam, in a land destined to be swallowed by the sea in the cataclysm that would end the first age of Middle-earth. But even then, it was an ancient land, filled with legends and half-remembered histories.
As the tale begins, Morgoth has destroyed a vast army of elves and men and taken one of its leaders, Hurin, prisoner. The dark lord tries to bend Hurin to his will, but the great man defies him. So Morgoth pronounces a curse on Hurin's children, Turin and his sister Nienor.
The first chapter resembles "The Silmarillion," dense and confusing enough to discourage casual readers. But stick with it and the story soon becomes readable and engaging.
Don't expect an uplifting ending like the one to "The Lord of the Rings," however. This is a gloomy tale -- Hurin's children doomed to failure by Turin's hubris and, of course, the curse.
The story is told in the archaic style to which Tolkien fans are accustomed, from a man who admired old Anglo-Saxon and Norse sagas. A sample:
"In this way, before the summer had passed, the following of Turin had swelled to a great force, and the power of Angband was thrown back. Word of this came even to Nargothrond, and many there grew restless."
The story is short by the standards of "The Lord of the Ring," covering just 259 pages, the rest of the book consisting of an introduction and appendix in which Christopher Tolkien explains how he went about his work. The details are unlikely to be of interest to the casual reader, but the bottom line is this:
Christopher Tolkien says that in reconciling the various versions of his father's story, he added no new material, save for an occasional transition. The words, he says, are virtually all his father's.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Monday, April 16, 2007

McCarthy's 'Road' wins Pulitzer


NEW YORK (AP) -- Cormac McCarthy, whose novel "The Road" was recently chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club, has added another honor: "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Monday.
The Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction was awarded Monday to Lawrence Wright for his book, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," a penetrating analysis of how Islamic fundamentalism has reshaped the modern world.
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff won the Pulitzer Prize for history for "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation." The book traces how the civil rights struggle was covered by the press, breaking down prejudices within journalism and as well as in American society.
Debby Applegate won for biography for "The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher," the 19th-century abolitionist and preacher.
"It took me about 20 years to write this book from the time I stumbled upon Beecher's work and thought I'd write a college seminar paper on him," said Applegate, 39, who studied at Amherst College as an undergraduate.
David Lindsay-Abaire won the drama prize for "Rabbit Hole," about a wealthy, suburban couple trying to come to terms with the death of their young son, Danny, accidentally killed when he runs into the street and is struck by a car.
Jazz artist Ornette Coleman won for music for "Sound Grammar." It's only the second Pulitzer won by a jazz composer. Wynton Marsalis won the music prize in 1997 for "Blood on the Fields."
Coleman said his cousin notified him that he had won the honor. "I didn't believe him," Coleman told The Associated Press. "I'm grateful to know that America is really a fantastic country."
Natasha Trethewey won for poetry for "Native Guard."
Special citations were given to science fiction icon Ray Bradbury and famed jazz saxaphonist John Coltrane.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Review: 'Stranger' far from 'Perfect'


(CNN) -- Back when Kirk Douglas and Spencer Tracy were on the job you could spot a newshound by his rolled-up sleeves, the way he wore his fedora and his two-fingered typing style (with a smoke and a flask nearby).
Fashions change. As tough investigative reporter Rowena Price in "Perfect Stranger," Halle Berry sports lip gloss and a "newsboy" flat cap. She looks like a million dollars, but doesn't exactly scream Seymour Hersh.
Even when she's working undercover as a temp, her wardrobe remains firmly in the upper tax bracket. In fact the only detail that truly says "journalist" here is Ro's pathetic dependence on tech support, in the fidgety form of devoted computer geek Miles (Giovanni Ribisi).
Ribisi seizes on this rather rote sidekick role and basically jumps up and down screaming "Look at me!" (metaphorically, obviously). Well, if you were a scrawny supporting actor playing all his scenes off Halle Berry, you might do the same.
Still, looks can be deceiving -- that's one less-than-original observation director James Foley plants early on as Rowena exposes a hypocritical "family values" senator with a handsome young skeleton in his closet.
The publisher kills that story, but our ace reporter has a more personal motive when it comes to incriminating Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis, exuding his customary wry detachment), the most powerful advertising man in New York. He's used and abused Ro's childhood friend Grace (Nicky Aycox), who is pulled out of the East River only days after threatening to blackmail her ex-lover.
The cause of death points right to Hill. But before she goes to the cops, Ro needs to get up close with the adman, online and in person, with a view to catching Harrison's constantly roving eye. And while she's taking care of business, the rest of us might ponder why we're treated to traumatic flashbacks to Rowena's childhood ... and what Miles is up to ... and, oh, what about Mrs. Hill?
There's no such thing as safe sex in an erotic thriller. You'll recall this genre climaxed in the early '90s with "Basic Instinct" and AIDS at the back of everyone's mind, but became more or less redundant as the connection between illicit affairs and sudden death came to seem more than a little hysterical.
"Perfect Stranger" resurrects most of the cynical old tropes -- adulterous yuppies, slippery plotting and kinky accessories -- then rewires them with the addition of chat rooms, text messages and spyware. See, the trouble with virtual blind dates is that you can't be sure who's getting off on you -- or why.
But for all its perfunctory stabs at the cutting edge, the movie's cyber-angst seems a decade out of date. And filmmakers still haven't figured out how to make instant messaging visually interesting. The best Foley can come up with is have Rowena's "chat-room virgin" (in 2007?) dutifully recount her semi-pornographic e-mails aloud in case anyone in the audience forgot their reading glasses.
When she's not stooping to aural sex Berry has one or two good moments staring down angry men who may mean her harm. You can just about understand why the Academy Award winner would sign up for such a hackneyed, lackluster scenario: sexy, smart, independent female leads don't exactly grow on trees (just ask Hilary Swank, currently slumming it in "The Reaping").
The truth is, though, this story might have worked better told from a different perspective.
As it stands, the film's a cheat. Word has it they shot three different endings with three different denouements. Such preparation was unnecessary. We all know what happens to cheaters.
This one's DOA.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A sneak peek at the new 'Shrek'


REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- Time to catch up with your ogre friend Shrek, his greenish bride, Fiona, and their two men Friday, the yammering Donkey and the overreaching Puss in Boots.
The filmmakers behind "Shrek the Third" offered a sneak peek at their PDI-DreamWorks animation complex near San Francisco. From the 20 minutes of footage they showed, the film looks likely to meet expectations as one of summer's hottest tickets.
Key voice stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas return, with Justin Timberlake headlining the newcomers as geeky teenager Artie.
"You feel you've got a lot to live up to, man," Timberlake said about being the new kid on the block in the Shrek world. "Every character is so good. When you come into 'Shrek,' you definitely feel you have a lot to prove."
The gang is joined by a gargantuan cast as the filmmakers take advantage of advances in computer animation to load up on supporting players, among them magician Merlin, Captain Hook, wicked witches, ugly stepsisters and four of the fairy-tale world's fairest princesses.
Here's a rundown of the players and their exploits for the film that hits theaters May 18.
What's happening
Just when newlyweds Shrek and Fiona thought they could head home to peace and quiet in the swamp, Fiona's dad, the frog King Harold, croaks.
On his deathbed, he asks son-in-law Shrek to take over the throne of Far Far Away, a job the ogre dreads. Shrek's only option: track down Fiona's distant cousin Artie and groom him to become king.
So Shrek and sidekicks Donkey and Puss sail away to find Artie, the future King Arthur. Just as they leave, Fiona drops another bomb on her anti-social, kid-hating husband: There's a little ogre on the way.
Fiona stays behind at the palace, where Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Rapunzel throw her a baby shower. The gifts include one of the seven dwarfs as a live-in baby sitter ("Don't worry," Snow White tells Fiona. "I have six more at home.").
Palace life is interrupted by an invasion of fairy-tale villains, led by Prince Charming, whose happy-ever-after was dashed by Shrek in the first two films. The prince takes over the realm, forcing Fiona to teach her posse of pampered princesses to stand up for themselves rather than wait for a man to rescue them.
"A big part of this film is just the theme of taking responsibility, be it fatherhood or kingship or whatever," said Nick Walker, head of layout on the animation team for "Shrek the Third."
Who's back
The whole gang returns, led by the key foursome of Shrek (Myers), Donkey (Murphy), Fiona (Diaz) and Puss in Boots (Banderas).
Shrek's still barking at everyone in his Scottish brogue, though married life brings out his softer side more and more.
"What I love about the Scottish people, which is part of my heritage, is they go from, 'I love you, come here,' to 'You get out of my house!' " Myers said. "Scottish people are hilarious when they're angry. They shift gears so fast."
Also back: Fiona's mom, Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews, who in a dizzy moment hums "My Favorite Things," a tune she sang in "The Sound of Music"); King Harold (John Cleese); villainous Prince Charming (Rupert Everett); and ugly stepsister Doris (Larry King).
It wouldn't be a "Shrek" movie without all those goofy bit players, including the three little pigs, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. The minor characters were so much fun, the filmmakers said they had to reign them in or they might have taken over.
"Gingey tries to steal the show," said "Shrek the Third" co-director Raman Hui.
What's new
The main new face is Arthur Pendragon, or Artie (Timberlake), a bumbling teen who's first seen getting his butt kicked by jock Lancelot in a jousting match at his high school.
When Shrek, Donkey and Puss arrive with the news that Artie's in line to become a king, it swells his head after a lifetime spent a rung lower on the social scale than the school dorks who play a medieval variation of Dungeons and Dragons.
"He doesn't know anything but kind of being a loser," Timberlake said. "When he finds out through his blood line that he's heir to the throne, he thinks, I can do this. But when he realizes what type of responsibility it is, his natural instinct is to run away."
Timberlake, whose poster appears as a gag on Fiona's bedroom wall in "Shrek 2," recently split in real life from Diaz, but it was not their personal relationship that led to the "Shrek the Third" gig. The filmmakers rang him up after catching Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live."
"We had seen him on 'SNL' and were blown away by how funny he was," said "Shrek the Third" producer Aron Warner. "He's got a great presence and a great voice and is clearly funny, so he's going to help us make this character what he needed to be."
Shrek, Donkey and Puss also run across magician Merlin (Eric Idle), who used to be a teacher at Artie's school until he had a nervous breakdown.
Other newcomers include the quartet of princesses, haughty Snow White (Amy Poehler); long-haired Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph); obsessive clean freak Cinderella (Amy Sedaris); and narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty (Cheri Oteri).
Regis Philbin joins the voice cast as Mabel, another ugly stepsister, while Captain Hook, seen briefly singing a Tom Waits song in "Shrek 2," advances to a speaking role, with vocals by Ian McShane.
There are hordes of others, from palace flunkies to medieval Valley Girls to a Wicked Witch singing Charlene's sappy 1980s hit "I've Never Been to Me" as a torch song.
It was a juggling act for the filmmakers, with so many new and returning characters competing for screen time. They stuck to one principle to balance it all.
"Shrek is going to drive the story. That is our goal from day one," said Chris Miller, who moves up from head of story on the last movie to make his directing debut on "Shrek the Third."
"When you have all these characters, a lot of them you want to spend a lot of time with. They're interesting. They all have a place in this film. But at the end of the day, it's supporting Shrek's story."
What works
With three more years of refinements to computer animation, what isn't better about "Shrek the Third"?
The 350 people who worked on the film created more realistic fire and water images, developed ways to mimic how light behaves in the real world and even simulated the slightly seasick oscillations of live-action shipboard scenes, where the camera lags just a tick behind the rocking of the waves.
They scrapped the basic computer models of Shrek and other lead characters they had worked with since the first movie and rebuilt them from inside out to take advantage of the subtler anatomy now possible. The filmmakers had to resist the urge to make external improvements so they could remain true to the look of the original film.
"We had a lot of work to try to make the characters look the same. Be better, but look the same," said Lucia Modesto, one of the film's character technical-direction supervisors. "The motor inside Shrek is all brand-new. The outside is almost the same."
Greater variation in hair styles, body types, facial features and clothing allowed the team to bring in far more characters and present huge crowd scenes.
"In the past, we had issues where our hero characters looked great because we spent so much time on them, but the generic characters, the secondaries, didn't look quite so good, to the point where on 'Shrek 1' we tried to stay away from them," said visual-effects supervisor Philippe Gluckman. "Now they all look great."
The advances are a bit daunting to the actors, who jokingly wonder if they could be replaced in live-action films by computer simulations.
"It makes me shake in my pants," Banderas said. "Someday, they may not need actors anymore. That's why I'm going to Broadway, man."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Birkhead named baby's dad; Stern won't fight for custody


NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) -- Former boyfriend Larry Birkhead was declared the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby Tuesday, and Howard K. Stern, listed as Dannielynn's father on the birth certificate, said he would not fight for custody.
"My feelings for Dannielynn have not changed," said Stern, who was Smith's lawyer and live-in companion.
"I am not going to fight Larry Birkhead on custody. We're going to do what we can to make sure that the best interests of Dannielynn are carried out. And I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure he gets sole custody," Stern said outside the Bahamian courthouse where the DNA test results were disclosed. (Watch Stern express his disappointment )
When asked when Birkhead would get custody of the 7-month-old girl, who has been living with Stern in Nassau, Stern said he wanted there to be a "gradual transition."
Stern said Birkhead could come to the house any time and spend as much time as he wants with his daughter.
Another hearing is set for Friday to further discuss the custody issue, which involves Stern, Birkhead and Virgie Arthur, Smith's estranged mother who lives in Texas.
Arthur's attorney, John O'Quinn, told "Larry King Live" on Tuesday that Arthur would not seek any sort of guardianship for Dannielynn. Arthur and Birkhead will meet on Thursday, he said, in an attempt to reach an agreement regarding access to Dannielynn.
"Virgie is the grandmother, and we're going to respect that," he said.
Birkhead sits in a good position to take Dannielynn home soon, according to B. J. Bernstein, a defense attorney and CNN legal analyst.
"It's very difficult for grandparents ... to trump the natural, biological parent," Bernstein said.
Arthur said she was happy with the outcome of the results. "All I care about is the safety and well-being of my little granddaughter," she said. (Watch Smith's mom explain what she plans to do next )
Birkhead: I told you so
Birkhead was the first to share the paternity results with the public.
"Everybody, I hate to be the one to tell you this -- but I told you so," he said outside the court as he smiled and threw his hands into the air.
When asked what's next, he said, "I'm going to the toy store."
Crowds applauded in front of the courthouse as Birkhead made the announcement, and Birkhead teared up as he thanked his supporters. (Watch Birkhead be the one to say 'I told you so' )
A DNA test confirmed him as the father with 99.99 percent certainty, said Dr. Michael Baird, who performed the test and revealed the results to a closed session of a Bahamian court.
Baird told CNN's "Larry King Live" that a cheek sample was taken from Dannielynn on March 21 and tested on March 22. The DNA testing was finished March 26, he said, and the results were known to him and some members of his staff but were not made public until he opened the results in the courtroom Tuesday.
The court had ordered DNA testing to determine the father of the child, who has been at the center of a paternity dispute since she was born in a Bahamian hospital in September.
Birkhead, an entertainment reporter and photographer, said shortly after the baby's birth that he accompanied Smith to doctors' appointments until a "minor disagreement" took place while she was pregnant.
In September, Stern said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he and Smith were confident he was the father, and "based on the timing of when the baby was born, there really is no doubt in either of our minds."
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Frederic von Anhalt, also said he could be the father.
Dannielynn stands to inherit millions of dollars from the estate of Smith's late husband, oil tycoon Howard Marshall II. Until her death, Smith was involved in a legal battle over the inheritance.
The former Playboy Playmate died of an accidental drug overdose February 8.
After a protracted dispute over the burial of Smith's body, Stern and Birkhead began battling in Bahamian courts over the child, and a judge ordered that a swab be taken from the girl for DNA testing.
Stern then asked the Bahamas' Court of Appeal to block release of those test results, arguing that the judge had misinterpreted the law and his order invaded the girl's privacy.
Earlier this month, appellate judges questioned why Stern was raising legal claims after giving consent to the DNA swabbing.
Stern was ordered to pay $10,000 in court costs for the abandoned appeal.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Imus suspended from radio, TV


NEW YORK -- MSNBC and CBS have decided to suspend Don Imus for two weeks following his reference last week to members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
MSNBC first announced it would suspend telecasting Imus' radio program for two weeks, beginning April 16.
A short time later, CBS announced it will suspend its broadcast of Imus' radio program for the same two weeks.
Despite apologies from Imus on Friday and Monday, the suspension will start next Monday, MSNBC said in a written statement.
"Don Imus has expressed profound regret and embarrassment and has made a commitment to listen to all of those who have raised legitimate expressions of outrage," it said.
"In addition, his dedication -- in his words -- to change the discourse on his program moving forward, has confirmed for us that this action is appropriate. Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word."
After a career of cranky insults, Imus was fighting for his job after one joke that by his own admission went "way too far."
Imus apologized Monday, both on his show and on a syndicated radio program hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is among several black leaders demanding his ouster.
Imus could be in real danger if the outcry causes advertisers to shy away from him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.
"Everyone is on tenterhooks waiting to see whether it grows and whether the protest gets picked up more broadly," Taylor said.
Imus isn't the most popular radio talk show host -- the trade publication Talkers ranks him the 14th most influential -- but his audience is heavy on the political and media elite that advertisers pay a premium to reach. Authors, journalists and politicians are frequent guests -- and targets for insults.
He has urged critics to recognize that his show is a comedy that spreads insults broadly. Imus or his cast have called Colin Powell a "sniffling weasel," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a "fat sissy" and referred to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, an American Indian, as "the guy from 'F Troop."' He and his colleagues also called the New York Knicks a group of "chest-thumping pimps."
Imus: We went way too far
On Sharpton's program Monday, Imus said that "our agenda is to be funny and sometimes we go too far. And this time we went way too far."
The Rutgers comment has struck a chord, in part, because it was aimed at a group of young women at the pinnacle of athletic success. It also came in a different public atmosphere following the Michael Richards and Mel Gibson incidents, said Eric Deggans, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times and chairman of the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists, which also wants Imus canned.
"This may be the first time where he's done something like this in the YouTube era," Deggans said. Viewers can quickly see clips of Imus' remarks, not allowing him to redefine their context, he said.
On his show Monday, Imus called himself "a good person" who made a bad mistake.
"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that."
Imus' radio show originates from WFAN in New York City and is syndicated nationally by Westwood One, both of which are managed by CBS. CBS Radio just replaced chief executive Joel Hollander with Dan Mason. With Imus' radio show reaching an estimated 2.5 million people a week, his future could conceivably be decided by CBS chief Leslie Moonves.
CBS has denounced Imus' remarks and said it will monitor his show for content.
The show is simulcast daily on MSNBC, where it reached an estimated 361,000 viewers in the first three months of the year, up 39 percent from last year.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and about 50 people marched Monday outside Chicago's NBC tower to protest Imus' comments. He said MSNBC should abandon Imus and MSNBC should hire more black pundits.
Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors, said it is "past time his employers took him off the air."
"As long as an audience is attracted to his bigotry and politicians and pundits tolerate his racism and chauvinism to promote themselves, Don Imus will continue to be a serial apologist for prejudice," Bond said.
Imus was mostly contrite in his appearance with Sharpton, although the activist did not change his opinion that Imus should lose his job. At one point Imus seemed incredulous at Sharpton's suggestion that he might walk away from the incident unscathed.
"Unscathed?" Imus said. "How do you think I'm unscathed by this? Don't you think I'm humiliated?"
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Comedy beats gore on Easter weekend


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Movie audiences were more interested in light comedy over Easter weekend than in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse," a double-feature ode to bloody exploitation flicks.
Paramount and DreamWorks' figure-skating romp "Blades of Glory" remained the No. 1 movie with $23 million, followed for the second weekend by Disney's animated comedy "Meet the Robinsons" with $17 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Grindhouse," a three-hour reinvention of the down-and-dirty B-movie double features Tarantino and Rodriguez grew up watching, debuted at No. 4 with $11.6 million. (Review: Exciting 'Grindhouse' a wild ride)
It finished behind Sony's family comedy "Are We Done Yet?", starring Ice Cube in a sequel to "Are We There Yet?", which opened at No. 3 with $15 million.
Released by the Weinstein Co., "Grindhouse" fell well short of expectations. Box-office forecasters had figured the movie would premiere in the ballpark of Tarantino's two "Kill Bill" movies and Rodriguez's "Sin City," whose opening weekends ranged from $22 million to $29 million. (Watch Mr. Moviephone review this week's top movies )
The weak debut for "Grindhouse" was a blow to the Weinstein Co., formed two years ago by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein after they departed their old outfit, Disney-owned Miramax.
The "Grindhouse" directors were steady providers for the Weinsteins at Miramax, which released Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" films and Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" movies.
"Grindhouse" presents two full films. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" features Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer who becomes a zombie fighter with a machine gun for a leg. Tarantino's "Death Proof" stars Kurt Russell as a serial killer who stalks women with his beefed-up car.
"With these two filmmakers' pedigree and the overall cool factor that this film had going for it, you would have figured it would have done a lot more business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
The movie's running time was an impediment, limiting the number of screenings theaters could fit in.
Harvey Weinstein said disappointing returns for "Grindhouse" resulted from the "novelty in America of releasing a double bill and asking an audience to make a three-hour commitment."
"Grindhouse" played to big crowds on the East and West coasts but failed to click with audiences in the Midwest and South, Weinstein said.
With theatrical receipts, overseas sales, television and home-video revenues, "Grindhouse" will turn a profit on its $53 million budget, Weinstein said. The company hoped that word of mouth from those who did see it would sustain it at theaters in coming weeks, he said.
"If you go see it with any audience, walk into any theater, you'll see people screaming and applauding like a rock concert," Weinstein said. "Maybe we didn't educate the audience that it's such an experience."
Movie-goers clearly were in the mood for something lighter. "Blades of Glory," starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as skating rivals who team up as the sport's first men's pair, raised its 10-day total to $68.4 million, its receipts dropping a slim 30 percent from opening weekend.
"There's a real hunger out there for something that you can go to and say, 'Hey, let me get away from the terrible things we have to watch and read every day,"' said Marvin Levy, spokesman for DreamWorks, one of the studios behind "Blades of Glory."
"Meet the Robinsons," the animated adventure of a time-traveling orphan boy, also held strongly in its second weekend, raising its 10-day total to $52.2 million.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Review: Exciting 'Grindhouse' a wild ride


(CNN) -- When filmmakers talk about how great the movies were back in the 1970s, they're usually thinking about "The Godfather," "Chinatown," or "Dog Day Afternoon."
But when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez wax lyrical about that period, they have something else in mind: Filipino shoot-'em-ups, Italian slasher films, Mexican vigilante movies and Roger Corman girls-behind-bars flicks. This kind of exploitation cheapie would play on the drive-in circuit or in seedy inner-city theaters, promising sleazy thrills and no refunds.
Those days are gone, and "Grindhouse" -- the directors' supercharged attempt to resurrect the illicit B-movie double feature -- will have to play sterile, sanitary multiplexes alongside such respectable mainstream fare as "Wild Hogs," "TMNT" and "300," all of which wear the imprint of exploitation cinema with pride (the biker movie, kung fu picture and gorefest, respectively).
The truth is, the trash movies Tarantino champions have long since gone mainstream, albeit with bigger budgets and watered down for MPAA approval. That goes for "Grindhouse" too, which cost a reported $50 million to produce, and which anyone under the age of 17 can enjoy with an enabling adult in tow.
Still, the dynamic duo do their utmost to transport us back to the good old bad old days: the package includes irresistible faux trailers for Rob Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the SS" and Eli Roth's seasonal slasher movie "Thanksgiving," among others.
In the first feature, Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" -- a campy contribution to the zombie genre -- the director (who shot on digital) has gone to the trouble of defacing his print, adding the scratches, warp and weave you would expect from beaten-up second-run celluloid. (Tarantino very pointedly shot on film, but has a harder time replicating the effect.) At one key point he even cuts to a "Reel Missing" slide, making for one of the best jokes of the film.
Adolescents of all ages will get a kick out of Rose McGowan's voluptuous one-legged go-go dancer, Cherry, stomping around with a submachine gun stuck into her stump. Apparently she can fire at will, without the bother of manually pulling the trigger. (It's that kind of picture.) She's the linchpin in an unlikely band of survivors battling it out with rampaging flesh-eating mutants in a Tex-Mex border town.
"Planet Terror" certainly gives the audience its money's worth. Unlike most genuine exploitation films, which couldn't afford to muster more than a couple of set-pieces amid wooden acting and long, dull expository stretches, "Planet Terror" is so jam-packed with lurid mayhem it scarcely leaves any breathing room. When the cast does get a chance to sit down and talk, the patter is always parody.
It's fun, for sure. But after 80-some minutes of nonstop carnage, cleavage and cool, the riff begins to ring a little hollow.
To say Tarantino's "Death Proof" represents a change of pace is like saying summer is hotter than winter. For 40 minutes four girls sit and gab: in a car, in a bar, and in another bar. Then something really terrible happens and the movie starts over again: four girls in a car.
If Tarantino wanted to concoct one of the more audacious false starts in the movies -- and we can be sure that he did -- he has succeeded in spades. Whether it had to be quite such an arid dry run is another question entirely -- and coming on the bottom half of the bill probably hasn't done "Death Proof" any favors in this regard.
But Tarantino is playing the long game. Yes, the director's distinctive pop talk frequently veers into self-parody, and a couple of wobbly performances (including the second egregious cameo of the night from the man himself) only make things worse.
But all this downtime finally pays off in an old-school car chase that will have you clinging on to whoever's sitting next to you for dear life -- not just because the stunt work is breathtaking (which it is) but because after hanging out with the protagonist, stuntwoman Zoe Bell, we actually care whether or not she breaks her neck. (And kudos to Kurt Russell for his reprisal of a classic B-movie wacko ... with a deliberate nod to "Escape from New York's" Snake Plissken.)
Caring about consequences make all the difference between empty pastiche and what we might call, for old time's sake, "a real movie." Rodriguez never stops with the action, but Tarantino delivers the goods. And so, finally, does "Grindhouse."
"Grindhouse" runs 192 minutes and is rated R. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.

Friday, April 6, 2007

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(CNN) -- They're all gone now.
Big Pussy: Gone. Richie Aprile: Gone. Ralph Cifaretto: Gone.
Gloria, Adriana, Vito, Tony Blundetto: Gone, gone, brutally gone.
But not, in the mixed-up mob-family world of "The Sopranos," forgotten. Like Shakespearean ghosts, the departed haunt the living, a reminder of the thin line between their desperate, shifty lives and a place six feet under -- or 60 feet under water, or buried in the woods, or decapitated and inserted in a bowling bag.
So the survivors smile over the anger and violence that lurks just beneath the surface, and cover it up with pretty suburban estates and snappy clothes and money -- always wads of money -- and try to stay one step ahead of the ghosts.
But death awaits us all, and for "The Sopranos," the moment of reckoning has arrived. The HBO series about a mob boss, his family, his crew and his therapist -- widely hailed as one of the finest shows in television history -- begins its final season of nine episodes Sunday. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.) (Gallery: A guide to "The Sopranos")
The stars have mixed feelings about the series' end.
"This is really hard. I've never had a job for 10 years before," Edie Falco, who plays Carmela Soprano -- wife of mob boss Tony (James Gandolfini) -- told CNN at the show's New York premiere last week. "It is really not easy." (Watch the stars at the premiere )
'It could have never happened on network'
"The Sopranos" made lots of reputations during its seven-season, nine-year run.
Creator David Chase, a TV veteran who had written for "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "The Rockford Files" and produced "Northern Exposure," can now write his own ticket in Hollywood.
Gandolfini, a beefy character actor, became a star -- as have many of his co-stars, some with such unorthodox backgrounds as guitarist (Steve Van Zandt, the longtime Bruce Springsteen sideman who plays Tony's pal Silvio Dante) and ex-con (Tony Sirico, who served time for some stick-ups before turning to acting, and now plays mobster Paulie Walnuts).
And HBO, which had had only mild success with original programming before "The Sopranos," became the go-to place for water-cooler TV series, including "Big Love," "Six Feet Under" and "Sex and the City" (which, although it predated "The Sopranos," caught fire after the mob drama began). (CNNMoney: The buzz on "The Sopranos")
The series was an unusual smash: as intricate as a novel, with flashes of fierce violence and equally uncomfortable humor. The four major broadcast networks all had their shots before Chase took the show to HBO, but all turned it down.
With the scope, the pacing, the language and the darkness of the show, the rejections were for the best, said Sirico.
"It could have never happened on network," he told CNN.
Producer Brad Grey, who shopped "The Sopranos" around, agrees.
"I believed that the net[work]s would be open to taking some risks at that time," he told Vanity Fair. "I was foolish. ... It was basically a waste of time, really bad judgment on my part, because even if they had taken it, it wouldn't have been 'The Sopranos.' "
'It really pushed the envelope'
The show pushed the limits of television -- and HBO's patience. It was expensive from the outset, it was full of unknown performers (probably the best known at its debut was Lorraine Bracco, who plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony's therapist) and HBO didn't like the name, believing people would think it was about opera.
And nobody was safe in Chase's underworld. Characters died -- and they died suddenly, with the risk of alienating viewers. The actors who played them also walked a tightrope of emotion, knowing they could be whacked at any time.
"I was really, really sad," said Steve Buscemi (Tony Blundetto) at a gathering of performers who played killed-off characters. "That's really just about missing the greatest job I've ever had."
But the show also had many moments of humor -- often directly contrasted with the violence -- and was willing to be as brutally honest in dissecting family relationships as it was in showing a mobster's corrupt world. Some of the show's most dramatic moments have come between Tony and Carmela, arguing in their kitchen.
"It really pushed the envelope. I think people were expecting it to be just a mob show, but it's really not," Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays Soprano daughter Meadow, told CNN. "David uses it as a vehicle to express a lot of his opinions on social issues and family issues and political issues. ... I think people were afraid to do that for awhile. 'Sopranos' sort of broke the mold with that."
Naturally, the show's performers -- adhering to the mob code of omerta -- have been tight-lipped as to what's in store for the final run.
"Everything you were waiting for, you're gonna see. Everything you've been waiting to feel, you're gonna feel. Trust me. Trust me," was all Sirico would tell CNN.
The series may have peaked a few years ago; ratings, which began strongly and have stayed high for HBO, topped out at 11 million viewers per episode in the fourth season; last season the numbers were closer to 8.5 million. With Chase sometimes unsure of whether to continue, there were huge gaps between some seasons.
And in recent years, "The Sopranos" has been attacked for not always measuring up to its own high standards.
But, even with the show available on DVD and in (expurgated) reruns on A&E, it will haunt -- like a ghost.
"It's been such a big part of my life -- it's been almost 10 years. I was 16 when we started and I've been through so much through this whole ride," said Sigler. "I only hope to do something half as good."

Thursday, April 5, 2007

EW review: 'Reaping' a bad movie


Entertainment Weekly) -- Katherine Winter, played by Hilary Swank in her dutiful-yuppie-good-listener mode, is a former minister, and now a professor, who travels the world defusing the lustrous credibility of miracles. Swank must know the feeling: She has won two Academy Awards, and she's still doing movies like "The Reaping."
Katherine is summoned to the sleepy Bible Belt backwater of Haven, Louisiana, and the first thing she confronts is a river of blood -- a pretty cool image, to be sure, though Katherine is certain there's a rational explanation for it.
To her, science can explain everything, and she hews to that belief (which is really a lack of Belief, you see), at one point delineating how the 10 biblical plagues were all natural phenomena. This woman could witness the parting of the Red Sea and think, without hesitation, that it should be reported to the Weather Channel.
In "The Reaping," every one of those biblical plagues appears, but they can't be accounted for by science, only by studio executives who theorize that an apocalyptic "religious" horror movie is the perfect way to tap into the evangelical market. (It sure beats the PG-rated piffle released by FoxFaith films.)
Having seen the error of her ways (science = bad!), our heroine finds the reverence to battle frogs, dead cows, locusts, and -- just to hedge the movie's bets -- a spooky blond girl who could be Satan's messenger. But no belief on earth can rescue Swank from a film that's a chain of disaster chintz masquerading as a sermon