Savannah Gurthie: Anne Curry's "Today" Show Replacement









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 4:33 PM GMT





There's been much speculation over her possible new title, and today (June 29), confirmation came as the network announced Savannah Guthrie as Ann Curry's "Today Show" replacement.


Previously a staple of NBC's 9 a.m. hour, Guthrie will now join the anchor seat alongside long-time co-host Matt Lauer.



"In just a few short years Savannah has become a standout member of the news division as well as the ultimate team player," network president Steve Capus told in a press release.


While Savannah took over Curry's spot on Friday's show, her official first day on the job is Monday. Savannah will also continue her role as chief legal correspondent for NBC.







Photo Credit: Getty Images



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Matthew McConaughey Takes His Shirt Off: The Supercut







 Magic Mike is now in theaters, which means Gratuitous Male Objectification Week at The Cut must draw to a close. Let's end it with this supercut of scenes from every movie in which perpetually shirtless Magic Mike actor Matthew McConaughey takes his shirt off.


In other news, a woman who saw Magic Mike on opening night just told me, "You almost see up Matthew McConaughey's butt hole." I asked if anyone in the audience screamed. "A hush fell over the crowd," she replied.


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Carla Bruni: Expecting Baby #3!









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 4:36 PM GMT





Former French First Lady Carla Bruni is reportedly expecting her third child with her husband and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, according to reports.


The baby will be the 44-year-old's second child with Sarkozy, but third in total, as she has an 11-year-old son, Aurelian, with her ex Raphael Enthoven.



Earlier this week rumors surfaced that Bruni had 'fallen into depression' after giving birth last September and then facing her husband's presidential defeat during last month's presidential election.


France's Closer magazine let tells that the former supermodel was urged to practice 'total rest' throughout the pregnancy, noting that, "For several weeks people have been asking why she had not been able to shift the extra weight for her last baby. But we can now reveal Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is pregnant again. And with her stomach looking ever more round, she can no longer hide it."


The glossy continued its claim, telling, "She clearly wants to nurture this pregnancy with the utmost care, because, like the last one, it is later in life so all the riskier, and she has therefore been advised to take as much rest as possible. We wondered what the Sarkozy couple would do with themselves after leaving office, and now we know - play happy families!'







Photo Credit: Getty Images



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Rose Byrne to Boss Around Owen Wilson in Internship







Rose Byrne is returning to comedy. EW reports that the Bridesmaids star is in talks to play Owen Wilson's love interest in The Internship, which will reunite Wilson with his Wedding Crashers costar Vince Vaughn. Complicating their potential relationship: Byrne is the boss at a Silicon Valley tech firm, while Wilson is her lowly intern. Well, if Byrne had to have an inter-office fling, safer to do it with Wilson instead of Patty Hewes, we suppose.


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Jennifer Lawrence's Pre-Weekend Luggage Loadup









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 5:28 PM GMT





Looking to be ready for a weekend getaway, Jennifer Lawrence joined her mom in loading luggage into one of the family's cars in Santa Monica, CA on Friday afternoon (June 29).


The "Hunger Games" hottie showed off her curves in a tight grey top with bright red trousers as she showed off her sweet side by opening the gate for her mom - causing her to lose her balance a bit before finishing up the packing job.



Miss Lawrence's summertime travels come after a report from Us magazine tells that she recently enjoyed a night on the town with "Queen of California" crooner John Mayer.


With her boyfriend Nicholas Hoult nowhere to be found, Jen and John hit up Medieval Times restaurant, with an Us insider dishing of the scene, "They were playful and nudging shoulders."


The source added that Mayer was "implying that he wanted to get [Jennifer] drunk," but another person in the know tells that he was unsuccessful in doing so.




Enjoy the pictures of Jennifer Lawrence getting ready to leave town with her mom (June 29).





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Matthew McConaughey, 175 Others Granted Oscar-Voting Privileges







Matthew McConaughey's been picking up awards buzz for his supporting role in Magic Mike, and today, AMPAS invited the never-nominated actor to become an official Oscar voter. 175 other industry figures were on the invitation list, including recent winners like Octavia Spencer and Jean Dujardin, character actors better known for their TV work like Simon Baker and S. Epatha Merkerson), and directors like Terrence Malick and Wong Kar Wai. (It took them this long to get to Malick and Wong Kar-Wai? Yikes!)


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'The Sessions' Trailer Warms Our Hearts In Dailies


Sessions


If one movie came out of this year's Sundance Film Festival with serious Oscar potential, it was "The Sessions," starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt. You can watch the first trailer after the jump.


Also, Batman is kind of lame in real life, and how butts saved "Magic Mike" in Dailies!



» You know what? Batman isn't actually as cool when you see him in real life. [Reddit]



» Here's the first trailer for "The Sessions." It will be a movie you should know come Oscar season. [ComingSoon.net]



» Vulture reveals how a bunch of butts may have been what saved "Magic Mike"'s box office hopes. Shocking. [Vulture]


» Rebecca Hall and Dominic West star in this creepy, old school British horror flick, "The Awakening." [The Playlist]



» It's the trailer you've been waiting for since yesterday: "The Man With Iron Fists." [IGN]



Welcome to the Dailies, where the MTV Movies team runs down all the film and television news, odds and ends that are fit to print! From awesome fan art to obscure casting news, this is your place to feast on all the movie leftovers you didn't know you were hungry for.


Tags Dailies, the awakening, The Man With Iron Fists, the sessions


Five Career Moves Katie Holmes Should Make Next (But Will She?)







In 2003, when Dawson's Creek went off the air, Katie Holmes was widely regarded as the cast member with the most promising future. That year, she starred in an acclaimed indie, Pieces of April, and the next year, she was cast as the female lead in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.


And then, in 2005, Holmes met Tom Cruise.


Since then, her career has never been the same. As Holmes experienced media scrutiny and tabloid infamy in her new role as Cruise's wife, she took three years off from the big screen, practically an eternity for a twentysomething ingenue. And when she did return to movies, the roles and projects were notably lesser: Her 2008 comeback vehicle Mad Money tanked, and her supportive wife roles in Jack and Jill and Son of No One were negligible. Today brought the news that Holmes would be divorcing Cruise, but is it too late to recover her career? Not if she follows Vulture's suggestions! Here are five things Holmes ought to do next ... and our odds on whether she actually will.



Take Part in a Dawson's Creek Reunion on Fallon
What better way to remind audiences of Old Katie than to reunite with her former Dawson's cast members on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon? Sure, it might be hard for Holmes to share the stage with the twice Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams, whose career has reached the sort of high gear many had predicted for Holmes, but it'd be a self-effacing move for Holmes to simply own it and throw an arm around the erstwhile Jen Lindley.
Likelihood of Happening: Good. Williams has lately seemed game for a Dawson's get-together, and James van Der Beek is all too willing to tap the deep well of Dawson's humor on Don't Trust the B- in Apartment 23. If Holmes could convince Joshua Jackson to take part, she'd have a viral video hit on her hands.



Do a Tell-All
Holmes may want to get out from the shadow of her husband, but that will be hard to do if she continues to be dogged by speculation about the divorce. Should she just get it over with, then, and do some sort of tell-all interview with Oprah?
Likelihood of Happening: Not good. Holmes and Cruise almost surely had some sort of confidentiality agreement in their prenup, and if she's filing for sole custody of Suri, Holmes isn't likely to put that in jeopardy by spilling secrets now. (Still, expect her camp to leak small bits of Katie's side of the story to TMZ and People.)



Play Wildly Against Type in an Indie
Did you know that Jack and Jill represented the first time Holmes had appeared in a major studio movie since 2005? Yikes! Her agents may try to make up for lost time by booking her some supporting roles in big films (much like Winona Ryder, who recently signaled that she was ready to work again by accepting small roles in Star Trek and The Dilemma), but Holmes needs grit right now, not gloss. If we worked for Holmes, we'd set up a meeting with auteur-friendly producer Megan Ellison (who bankrolled the latest films from Paul Thomas Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, and Steven Soderbergh) in the hopes of landing her the lead in a daring indie.
Likelihood of Happening: Good. Holmes has done her best work in smaller films like Wonder Boys, Go, and Pieces of April, so she's hopefully on the lookout for a Sundance-ready screenplay that could benefit from her big name.



Undergo a Personality Adjustment
Back in the day, Holmes used to be polite, bright, and candid: Just take a look at this 2002 interview where she openly admits to career mistakes and botched auditions. Since marrying Cruise, though, her PR has been tightly controlled and her manner has often seemed glazed. With few movie projects to promote, magazines usually asked her about Cruise, a subject for which she had only generically upbeat things to say. It's crucial for Holmes come out of that shell now and evince a real personality. Failing that, she should just study Jennifer Lawrence on Letterman and hope for the best.
Likelihood of Happening: Hard to say. Who knows what to expect from Holmes after her surprise divorce ruling this week? At least that showed some initiative.



Seek Out a Cable TV Show
Holmes has done plenty of TV during her marriage — she made highly promoted guest spots on How I Met Your Mother and Eli Stone, and played Jackie in the misbegotten miniseries The Kennedys — but a full-time return to the medium may be exactly what she needs right now. Movies can only do so much to reestablish a career, since they come out sporadically and so few are successful. A TV show, on the other hand, would let Holmes make the case every week that she's still got acting chops.
Likelihood of Happening: Not good ... at least not yet. Holmes's reps will probably kick the tires on her big-screen career now that she's got more time to devote to it, but in a few years, it wouldn't be a surprise to see her toplining a series for Showtime.


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Miranda Kerr Brightens Up the Big Apple









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 6:14 PM GMT





Showing off her colorful summertime duds, a beautifully bright Miranda Kerr made her way to her latest gig in New York City earlier today (June 29).


Clad in a multi-hued print shirt, denim shorts and right blue wedges, the Victoria's Secret stunner quickly made the busy streets of the Big Apple her catwalk as she headed towards the West Village for her Vogue Italia shoot.



In other magazine news, Miranda, who covers Harper's Bazaar UK's August issue, opened up about getting her body back after having little Flynn.


"I didn't feel pressure to snap back into shape. My priority was just having my son and breastfeeding, which was something I really wanted to do, and it came easily," the mom of one explained.


Kerr continued, "I do these exercises in the morning, they're called chakra exercises. They're a series of twists … It only takes about 10 minutes. It's a great way to get your waistline back after having a baby!"




Enjoy the pictures of Miranda Kerr arriving at her photo shoot in NYC (June 29).





Photo Credit: PacificCoastNewsOnline.com



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Kristen Stewart's Debut Balenciaga's Florabotanica Ad: First Look!







It was recently revealed that she's joining the many stars to foray into the fragrance world, and now Kristen Stewart can be seen in her first ad while also having opened up about the beauty product endeavor.


As for the particulars, the "Twilight" actress was tapped to front Balenciaga Paris' new women's scent named Florabotanica - with the perfume slated to be released this September.



Also talking about her fashion sense, new movie role and acting, in general, highlights from Miss Stewart's Florabotanica-based interview with WWD are as follows:


On her fragrance gig being an unlikely one:
"On a base level, the reason you want to wear a fragrance is because you want to smell attractive. That in itself is a pretty mature idea, especially considering the teenager I was. I was never the one wearing my mom's perfume and trying to be sexy. I was like hanging out with my brothers and doing the opposite of that."


On her relief in being pleased with the scent:
"I'm very lucky that I like the fragrance, because I would have done anything with [Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière]. And I'm a terrible liar.. There is something natural about it. It's very alive. I think that as a young person wearing it — considering that I've never worn a scent — it kind of puts you on this level of, like, 'Whoa, check me out.'"


On feeling "lucky" and "really excited" about the fragrance effort:
"Even though, yes, it's an ad and we're selling a fragrance — I don't want to sound pretentious — but I want to be part of this art project. I want to be around Nicolas when he gets excited about fabric. I want to see the look on his face when he sees me put on a dress."


On the print campaign, which was photographed by Steven Meisel:
"I think that's kind of perfect for this particular ad. When I first stood there, I was like, 'OK, do you want me to show the curves of the dress? Do you want me to stand like this? Like that (striking statuesque poses)?' And they were like, 'Just be comfortable.' I find when you do a really good photo shoot, you've unlocked something that you didn't necessarily know you had in you. There are qualities that certain clothes, or certain environments and certain people, bring to the surface that can be surprising. But that doesn't mean that they're not authentic."


On her style icon and not being influenced by others when it comes to fashion:
"I think the hottest chick that's ever walked the earth is Brigitte Bardot, and I couldn't be more different from her. So my style icons and stuff, even if I look up to them and think they're really cool, I don't think [they find their] way into my own sense of fashion."


On her transformation for her upcoming role in 'Cali':
"I'm going to get into the best shape of my life. I'm going to look like a stripper. I'm going to look like a porn star."


On acting being all about self-discovery, for her:
"A lot of times, you'll read a script and you can identify with things that are very surprising, things that kind of shock you about yourself. And the process of making the movie is finding out why those feelings occurred. Sometimes they're not always easy to define."




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How Magic Mike’s Butt-Filled Trailer Made All the Difference







As we've known for the better part of this year, Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike follows Channing Tatum as a male stripper who takes a young dancer called the Kid (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing and tutors him in the ways of making easy cash. It sounded like The Color of Money, but instead of pool cues, it's … uh … Well, you get the idea. It presented a particular challenge: how to market a Steven Soderbergh–directed film about male strippers.



When we got a glimpse of the first Magic Mike trailer back in April, it focused on a totally different story: A young male exotic dancer (Tatum) tries to get serious with a girl (Cody Horn) and pursue his true passion (furniture design) despite his hopelessly hedonistic profession. Much of the promo involved Horn knocking on Tatum's job. It was received tepidly. What little Internet commentary there was at that early date amounted to, "Come on, lady, just let Channing Tatum be a stripper!"



Then, two weeks ago, the Magic Mike international trailer surfaced, as did a cheeky red band trailer that was, quite literally, a hindquarters headquarters. Why the change in strategy?



A Warner Bros. spokeswoman declined to comment on the sudden marketing changeup, but as one Mike production insider explains, "It's a film about male strippers, and people were literally asking, 'Where's the beef?'"



Indeed, the problem with the first approach was that it seemed to attract neither women nor men: Three weeks ago, when the studio first began getting audience research data on Magic Mike tracking, only about a third of men were aware of the movie, and about a fifth of them were interested in seeing it. That's about what you would expect with a movie about male strippers, but the female numbers were equally lackluster: Only half of women of any age were aware of the movie, and barely a third of them expressed "definite interest." Obviously not good.



After the red band trailer surfaced two weeks ago, however, things quickly changed for the better with women, even as they got a bit worse with men. New audience research conducted the day after the butt-filled Magic Mike clip debuted on June 13 showed that while only 12 percent of men over 25 and 15 percent of men under 25 expressed definite interest, women's awareness and interest had exploded: Practically two thirds of women had now heard of the movie; 41 percent of women over 25 and 36 percent of women under 25 expressed definite interest.



But Magic Mike writer-producer Reid Carolin, however, says the studio's shift toward a more prurient presentation was always part of the plan.



"They wanted to sell the story of this movie, but that meant first connecting with Channing's audience," Carolin tells Vulture. "So, how do you activate Channing's fan base? You show them something [like a romantic-comedy-type trailer that] they're familiar with. That way, later on, they might say, 'Hey, it's a stripper movie, but I am going to get something I know I've liked and gone through before.' [The studio] always knew that they'd broaden the scope to be about the guys and the romp and the fun."


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'Ted' Compares Himself To Other Famous Bears




Despite his foul mouth, anger management issues and promiscuous behavior, Ted the teddy bear, star of the movie "Ted", still has a cute and cuddly factor. He's a stuffed bear, you can't escape a bit of the 'Aww' factor, and he comes from a long line of famous fuzzy celebrities.


When MTV News caught up with Ted's director, Seth MacFarlane, recently, we asked him to compare Ted to other famous celebrity bears, like Snuggles from the Snuggles laundry detergent commercials, '80s toy Teddy Ruxpin, "The Muppets" funnyman Fozzie Bear and the colorful Care Bears.



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As was to be expected, Ted and MacFarlane aren't exactly super fans of their famous brethren, but they did have some high praise for one lucky bear.


"Snuggles, what the hell? He's a recluse," he said. "Who the f--- hides out in the goddamn laundry? Sitting in the goddamn laundry all day, who does that? It's f------ creepy."



He makes a good point there. What the heck is Snuggles always doing in the laundry? Moving on to Teddy Ruxpin, the "classic" talking bear from the 1980s, the existence of which is mentioned in the movie.


"Ruxpin is a machine. More machine than man," he said, adding that there's a dangerous subtext lurking beneath the fur. "Terminator 5"-style.


Ted and MacFarlane had nothing but high praise for Fozzie Bear and his endless supply of chicken jokes and all that fun with "Waka waka waka."


"Fozzie Bear, all good things, all good things. He's the greatest comedian of our generation."


And finally the Care Bears, who had the power, via the object branded on their tummies, to turn any frown upside down with their fearsome "Care Bear Stare."


"The Care Bears, who the f--- wears their emotions on their stomach like that?" he said. "Oh are you happy? Oh I couldn't tell, oh that's right you've got a big goddamn rainbow right on your gut."


Who is your favorite pop culture teddy bear? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!


Tags seth macfarlane, Ted


Irina Shayk's White Hot Morellato Jewelry Photo Call









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 3:20 PM GMT





Showing off her flawless figure, Irina Shayk attended a photo call for Morellato jewelry collection at the Miguel Angel Hotel in Madrid, Spain earlier this week (June 27).


The gorgeous supermodel looked breathtaking in a white mini dress that she paired with silver strappy heels as she struck a range of posed for the clamoring cameramen.



While Irina was hard at work in Madrid, her beau and international soccer stud, Cristiano Ronaldo, was having a little less of a picture perfect day at the Euro 2012 soccer championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.


The Portugal squad's captain helplessly stood by as he watched Spain take the victory from his team during a shootout. Ronaldo, who was set to kick fifth for his team, never even got the chance to score as Spain clinched the win by going up 4-2.




Enjoy the pictures of Irina Shayk attending a photo call for Morellato jewellery collection at the Miguel Angel Hotel in Madrid, Spain (June 27).





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Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management Gets Record Ratings







Charlie Sheen's new FX series attracted plenty of viewers (and likely more than a few rubberneckers) Thursday night: The debut of Anger Management bowed to 5.5 million viewers at 9 p.m., while a second episode notched 5.7 million, making it the most-watched series premiere of any show in FX history. Most of the audience was either over 50 or younger than 18; however, about 2.7 million of the 5.5 million who watched the debut were in the key demo target of adults 18 to 49. That's a bit older-skewing than a typical FX first-run series, but even so, Anger still ended up the top-rated scripted, prime-time comedy premiere in cable history in the demo (not counting kids' programming).



Anger also gave a bit of a boost to FX's returning comedies Wilfred and Louie. The former averaged 2.5 million canine lovers, about 1.6 million of whom were adults under 50. That's about the same as last summer's series debut for Wilfred, but up a healthy 71 percent from the show's full-season average. Louie earned 1.4 million viewers and 911,ooo under fifties, which is actually a bit less than the show's 2011 season premiere. However, FX says Louie was still up over 50 percent from its prior season. The network is also forecasting that, once seven days of DVR data is included, both returning comedies will end up with their most-watched episodes ever (welcome to the era of time-shifting!). Whatever the final numbers end up being, it's far too soon to say just how much Anger will boost FX's 10 p.m. comedies, since it's very likely viewership for Anger will come back down to earth in the weeks ahead, onc e those curious about Sheen's comeback drift away. Two and a Half Men experienced massive tune-in for its first few post-Sheen episodes last fall, but within a few months, it had lost almost all of those extra eyeballs. Finally, one last FX note: Russell Brand scored solid sampling for his new late-night talk show. Brand X was seen by 1.1 million viewers, boosting FX by 32 percent over previous fare in the time slot and averaging around the same viewership as a typical episode of Conan on TBS.


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Channing Tatum Didn't Want Typical Stripper Outfits For 'Magic Mike'




Male strippers have a bad rap when it comes to their outfits. Everyone just assumes they'll see a cowboy or some dude wearing just a pair of cufflinks. For "Magic Mike," Channing Tatum wanted to buck the stereotypes when to came to stripping regalia.


Tatum told MTV News that the choices in "Magic Mike" reflected what he preferred when he was actually dancing for movie.



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"That was sort of my whole thing when I actually did it," Tatum said. "When I danced, I did Boy Scout outfit, and I thought it was the lamest thing ever. Then I did a clown thing."



What Tatum preferred was more representative of the music he was dancing to. "My favorite thing ever was Usher," he said. "I was just like 'No, I'm just going to pick the song I like and dress like the song should be dressed for. That was it. I wanted to be normal. I didn't want to do the iconic stripper things."


Matthew McConaughey, on the other hand, was much more enthusiastic about his next-to-nothing outfits. "It's great wardrobe, isn't it? I loved getting in the wardrobe," he said. "A lot of talk, a lot of work, a lot of hours went into the tassels on Dallas' thong, the length of the tassel, the thickness of the tassel. The thong only weighs half an ounce. I kept all of my stuff."


Tatum agreed, adding "We've got wives now."


Are you seeing "Magic Mike" this weekend? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!


Tags channing tatum, Magic Mike, matthew mcconaughey


Katherine Heigl Jets Off With Baby Adalaide









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 3:39 PM GMT





Jet-setting with her adopted newborn, Katherine Heigl was spotted loading up her truck with her husband, Josh Kelly, before making her way to the LAX airport with Adalaide in Burbank, California on Friday (June 29).


The "One For The Money" actress held her daughter in her arms the entire time while dragging her luggage behind and looked relaxed for the flight wearing a long black scarf over a loose white tee-shirt and a pair of flats with her leggings.



Marking her second adoption, Katherine opened up about how different it is this time around with her second daughter, "I had never had a newborn before. I didn't really have that experience." admitting to PEOPLE during the 40th AFI Life Achievement Awards on Thursday, "So it's all been new. I was prepared for the nights and having to get up and all of that. But the beauty of it is it's really only a few months of your life that you're walking around like a zombie because you haven't slept."


As for what, exactly is different the 33-year-old explained, "I think it's far more chaotic than I anticipated, and I think every parent probably says that and every parent tries to warn new parents about it. And we all go, 'Pish posh, it's going to be fine. What's one more?' "


Katherine also dished about how her 3 1/2 year old adjusted to the new family member saying, "Naleigh was super excited about having a new baby sister — until she arrived. Then she was a little hesitant about whether or not she wanted her to stay, and then she became her little protector and is taking on the role of big sister very seriously."




Enjoy the photos of Katherine Heigl catching a flight with her daughter, Adalaide, in Burbank, California (June 29).





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Sarah Polley on Take This Waltz, Canadian Pride, and Always Keeping the Bathroom Door Closed







Sarah Polley.




Actors rarely make the transition to hyphenate gracefully, but actor-writer-director Sarah Polley's doing just fine so far. After a long simmering acting career — you may remember her as the kid star of the Ramona and Avonlea series, or maybe more recently from Go, Dawn of the Dead, or the beloved Canadian series Slings & Arrows — Polley was Oscar-nominated for her first feature, Away From Her, which she both wrote and directed. Her follow-up, which again finds her both writing and directing, is Take This Waltz, a sad, sensual exploration of what happens when the excitement leaves a relationship, with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen playing dissatisfied young marrieds and Luke Kirby the neighbor who threatens to break them up for good. Polley, who will next adapt Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, sat down with Vulture to discuss her long fascination with fragile romances, her allegiance to Canada, and why it's never a good idea to leave the bathroom door open.




I recommended this movie the other day to a friend who's engaged, and then I thought, Um, actually, maybe you should wait a while
Yeah, wait till you're really bored!




You seem to be fascinated by the various ways a marriage can fracture after some time. Where did that come from?
I can think of all kinds of superficial reasons why, but I feel like if you return to something over and over again there's probably some kind of ancient childhood reason for it that usurps any kind of adult life experience you've had. But I don't know — I think it's really interesting the way we negotiate being with another human being for a certain period of time, how we deal with or don't deal with their flaws. Also this general feeling we have of there being some kind of emptiness or lack in our lives, and how much we look to romantic relationships or blame our lack of romantic relationships on that feeling. I wanted to make a film about that gap in life, and what you do to fill it.




This film deals with characters who are your contemporaries. Did you see this kind of relationship ennui happening with your friends?
I think I've probably been every character in this film at some point in my life. I feel like while the story itself isn't autobiographical, we've all been versions of these characters at various points. I've definitely seen a lot of people trading in one situation for another, whether it's a job, or a relationship, or where they live, in the hopes that that was going to resolve some kind of basic existential melancholy. Over time, it almost never works. We live in this really aspirational culture where we think the right move will resolve something really big and deep that we're destined to live with forever.




The movie takes place in Canada, and Canada is such a present part of your movies, from the actors you use to the music and the setting. Do you consider yourself a Canadian filmmaker, first and foremost?
I'd be excited to make a film anywhere, but I definitely consider myself a Canadian filmmaker; I definitely come out of that lineage. All of my mentors were Toronto filmmakers, and when I look at my films I do feel they come out of a Canadian tradition of indie films. I'll probably always feel quite rooted in Canada, and I think my films will generally have a sense of place there.




Vancouver has become such a go-to anonymous, could-be-anywhere film spot, but the Canadian locales you use are quite the opposite — very individualistic. In this movie you use Toronto, Cape Breton in Nova Scotia …
I haven't made a conscious effort to make my films feel overly Canadian, but they feel that way because I haven't disguised what they are. We're so used to seeing where we live disguised and meant to look like the States, that the second you don't do that it seems like you're being overly nationalistic and really laying on the Canadianness [laughs]. I had one agent in L.A. say to me, when he read the script, "This story could just be so much bigger if you based it in New York." And I thought it was so funny; like, you can't have a film set anywhere else and have it be universal? The more a film is specific about where it is, the more the universality of the story resonates, I think. I really wanted to capture Tor onto as I see it, which is a slightly utopian version of Toronto.




Lou, Seth Rogen's character, writes cookbooks only about chicken. How did you come up with that?
I guess the general idea [was to reflect] there being something comforting and constant and slightly bland to the relationship. What was really weird was that the food stylist who worked with us revealed, like, a few weeks in, that he actually was writing a book that was just chicken recipes. It turns out it wasn't zany enough to not be true!




Margot, Michelle Williams's character, can be quite off-putting at times — she's not a particularly strong female character.
I don't relate to characters who aren't flawed in some way, and I wanted this film to be based around someone who was fundamentally flawed, who didn't have it all worked out and was kind of muddling through. It's fascinating to me how people see all three characters. I know people who are wildly defensive of Margot, and people who think she's the most selfish character in the world; there are people who think Lou is the greatest guy and people who feel like she should have left him two years ago. I tried to write it from each of their points of view yet remain slightly critical of all of them.




She has trouble with boundaries, for one thing, which we see when she happily uses the toilet in front of Lou …
Oh man, not a good idea. I read this thing from a sex therapist once that her best advice for a relationship was, "Always keep the bathroom door closed." I was like, I'm putting that in a movie, it's so true. And then you have kids and there's no way to close the bathroom door anymore. But I actually kind of subscribe to that a little bit.




I'm surprised there's been such buzz about Sarah Silverman's full-frontal moment. In the context of the scene — she's showering at the gym with a bunch of other women — it's not all that shocking …
I really wanted to show women's bodies, old and young and different shapes and sizes without judgment or objectification. Whenever I go to the gym, I have these long conversations in the shower and nobody cares that everyone's naked. I've thought for years, I'd never see this in a movie — it's just too ordinary. I felt it was a good metaphor for certain themes of the film — novelty wearing off, aging being a part of life.




We must discuss "Video Killed the Radio Star," which is somehow used super poetically in a pivotal scene, when Margot and Daniel ride the Scrambler at an amusement park.  How did you ever think to use it?
It's awesome! I've always loved it — it's my brother's favorite song. My best memories are driving with him in his little secondhand hatchback Honda Accord blaring it. That's actually the song they play on that ride, all the time, and I always thought the lyrics were so beautiful, and people don't think of it that way. Not only are they beautiful, but they really capture what the film's about: something new taking place of the old. There's also something quite dark in the lyrics; there's a weird line, "I met your children / what did you tell them?" What the hell is that?




Where is the Scrambler?
It's on Center Island, like a fifteen-minute ferry ride from Toronto. It's pretty sweet. The guy who runs it is like my favorite person; he's given me more hours of joy than any man in the world!  




Was there a moment you realized you wanted to switch direction, from acting to directing?
I think just by doing it; I made a short film once because I had an idea for one when I was 20. I'd never thought of directing before, and I was like, Oh my God, I can't believe I've never done this, this is the best thing ever. The intensity of the collaboration, working with so many different departments, and trying to create a whole world — there's nothing more thrilling.




I feel like so much of what's written about you is like, "Sarah Polley was supposed to play this big role, which she turned down because of X … " It's like you're the one that got away.
That's really funny. It's good, because it means I never played those parts and failed at them! So you can imagine: I might have been fantastic! Or I might have been terrible.



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'Godzilla' Stomping Towards Comic-Con?


Godzilla


Japan's favorite giant green monster could be heading to San Diego very, very soon.


Latino Review has heard from their sources that Legendary Pictures is bringing their upcoming "Godzilla" movie to Comic-Con this year. The production company has already said their panel will include Guillermo del Toro's upcoming "Pacific Rim," so Godzilla should feel right at home there.



It's been a while since we've heard anything about Gareth Edwards' take on the classic kaiju. Max Bornstein is currently re-writing David Goyer's script, but it doesn't seem like the movie has gone into production yet. It's unclear what—if anything—Edwards will be able to bring to Hall H, but hopefully he's got some concept art or something to tease what his vision of the project will be.


In an interview back in February 2011, Edwards said he was very aware of the franchise weight he was taking onto his shoulders with "Godzilla."


"I guess I will say I'm highly aware—and everyone involved is incredibly aware—of everyone's opinions on what this film has to do and what it has to be," he said. "And no one will do anything but the right thing. Without addressing anything specific, everyone knows how important is to get it right."


Edwards' only feature film credit to date is 2010's "Monsters," and that's largely what made him an easy pick to direct this movie. He proved he could make a big monster movie on a (relatively) tiny budget, and that might be exactly what the "Godzilla" franchise needs.


Do you hope "Godzilla" is brought to Comic-Con? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!


Tags Comic-Con, Gareth Edwards, Godzilla


Kim Kardashian & Kanye West: Los Angeles Lovers









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 2:21 PM GMT





Gearing up for the day ahead, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were spotted leaving Kim's house in Los Angeles this morning (June 29).


The "Disaster Movie" dame and her "Love Lockdown" rapper boyfriend looked a bit weary of the paparazzi that were waiting for them as they made their exit.



And though she's widely considered quite the buxom babe, Kim told press she's always dealing with little annoyances with her body.


"I'm such a perfectionist that I'm not really completely happy with my body. I don't like my thighs, I wear spanx a lot, they're like the greatest invention."


"I like to do a little QuickTrim cleanse before bikini time and photo shoots and if I've got something coming up I don't eat as bad and I work out all the time," she added.




Enjoy the pictures of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West leaving Kim's house in LA (June 29).





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Adele Is Pregnant!







Adele is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Simon Konecki, she announced on her blog today. "I wanted you to hear the news direct from me, obviously we're over the moon and very excited but please respect our privacy at this precious time," she writes. Whatever the Adele equivalent of "Glory" is, count us in.


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'Looper' Trailer Brings Two Bruce Willis' Face-To-Face


Looper


If you thought the international "Looper" trailer was good, just wait until you see the domestic one released today.


Rian Johnson's mind-bending sci-film isn't due in theaters until September 28, but this latest tease gives us a much better idea of what the movie is about than the first trailer did.


"Looper" follows an assassin living in the present day (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is hired to kill select targets by gangs living in the future. All is going well for him until one of the targets the criminals send back in time is actually an older version of himself (Bruce Willis). In addition to the added exposition in this trailer, we're a bit in love with all the technical effects it uses that emphasize the time travelling elements of this movie.



Arguably the coolest part of this whole video comes at the beginning when we see Gordon-Levitt and Willis chatting at a diner for an extended period of time. We haven't seen much of these two interacting with one another in the previous trailers, and we love how tense these scenes are. Gordon-Levitt has also proven that he can do an impressive Willis impression.



This trailer makes the movie's premise seem simple, but we have a feeling that that's actually very deceptive. Johnson's two previous movies, "Brick" and "The Brother's Bloom," may seem like up-front premises on the surface, but actually were a lot more complex.


If you aren't sold on the basis for "Looper" just yet, we would say give the movie a shot anyways because the simplification of the flick's plot is likely just it's marketing team trying to make the story appeal to a wider audience.


What did you think of this new trailer for "Looper"? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!


Tags bruce willis, joseph gordon-levitt, looper, rian johnson, Trailers


Nicole Scherzinger: Heathrow Birthday Hottie









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 1:12 PM GMT





Tending to more celebrations across the pond, birthday girl Nicole Scherzinger was spotted upon arrival into London's Heathrow Airport earlier today (June 29).


Showing off her boho chic fashion sense, the former Pussycat Doll dressed in a pink-hued floppy hat, cream-colored off-the-shoulder shirt, flare jeans and neutral-toned platform shoes.



The always-gorgeous Miss Scherzinger turns 34 years young today, and we think the "X Factor" dame looks better than ever!


Over the weekend (June 23), Nicole and her pals hit up Tao Nightclub at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas where she let loose just a few days early in honor of the special occasion.




Enjoy the pictures of Nicole Scherzinger arriving at Heathrow Airport (June 29).





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The Amazing Spider-Man: An Unnecessary Reboot Makes a Convincing Case for Itself







Coming barely a decade after Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man, the "reboot" called The Amazing Spider-Man is clearly unnecessary and ought to be shunned for all kinds of reasons — chiefly to deliver a shock to the system of Hollywood execs whose primary job is finding merchandisable "franchises" and studio "tentpoles." But for all its under­lying cynicism, the new Spidey picture is pretty damn good. The lesson should not be that lazy multiplex viewers and Comic-Con fanatics will pay to see anything with ­Marvel's name on it, but that first chapters — a.k.a. "origin stories" — are easier to make and more reliably fun. By the time part three of a blockbuster superhero saga rolls around, the lead actors have aged out of their roles and are impatient to prove they can carry "serious" (i.e., Oscar-bait) movies, while the filmmakers, their edges blunted by too much money and unable to think about complex, long-term story arcs the way TV creators can, flop about in misery, their brains grinding emptiness. Why not start the whole thing over with a younger, hungrier, less expensive crew?



I'm not making the case for a movie like The Amazing Spider-Man — only saying it's fresher than Raimi & Co.'s shambolic Spider-Man 3. (No, it can't touch Spider-Man 2, the best of all the Marvel pictures.) The new Peter Parker is Andrew Garfield, the glowering dweeb from The Social Network, and where Tobey Maguire was soft-faced and mild, examining his sudden, sticky excretions with an adolescent's wonderment, Garfield is high-strung and angry — and those excretions don't come naturally. (This Peter has to build his web-jets.) Because a primal trauma must kick-start every superhero career, we've seen little Peter lose his parents (Campbell Scott as his scientist dad, Embeth Davidtz as his mom) in the prologue, and high-school Peter beaten up by bullies. His powers emerge spasmodically, twisting him in knots, his body with a mind of its own. The problem with the first Spider-Man was that whenever Maguire got into his s uit, he transformed into a little video-game fellow swinging around an artificial cityscape, fluidity trumping realism. Director Marc Webb makes the flights more jagged, mixing up his angles and adding Spidey-eye views for the wheeee factor. At one point, Peter channels Ratso Rizzo: "I'm swingin' here!" You don't get that weightless, inhuman CGI vibe as powerfully.



Like many superhero pictures, The Amazing Spider-Man has more self-­empowering messages than there are placards at a Maoist convention. A poster of Albert Einstein carries the banner, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Peter's uncle (Martin Sheen, ever the voice of the liberal conscience) preaches moral responsibility — the social good taking precedence over freedom of choice. Politics-shmolitics: Americans now get most of their civic lessons from masked men in Spandex. A strikingly handsome Rhys Ifans plays the ­Jekyll/­Hyde figure, Dr. Curt Connors, once Peter's father's best friend. Having only one arm, he sits in his lab and stares longingly at lizards flitting around their aquaria, losing their tails and growing them back with aplomb. Reptiles are the master race, he concludes. Everyone should be turned into reptiles. His scheme doesn't make much sense, but give it points for weirdness. The lizard metamorphoses mean there's so much CGI that the artists' and programmers' names are scrolling long after you've exited the restroom and headed for home.



I've saved the best for last: The love interest played by that throaty redheaded (here blonde) darling Emma Stone, whose blue eyes radiate so much intelligence that any actor on whom she trains them in adoration becomes an instant movie star. Lucky Garfield, getting to play scenes like the one in which Peter tries to tell Stone's Gwen Stacy what happened after a chemically mutated spider dropped down his shirt. "I've been bitten … " he stammers. "So have I," Stone says, sighing, and melting him with her gaze. CGI is superfluous.


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'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' Director On Festival Response And Making People Cry


Beasts of the Southern Wild


"Beasts of the Southern Wild" is unusual for a number of reasons. First, it stars 8-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis as a girl named Hush Puppy, who lives with her father in a part of Lousianna called The Bathtub.


Second, it has dominated almost every film festival since it screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and that winning streak is expected to carry it to some Oscar attention.


We spoke with the director, Benh Zeitlin, about his experiences making the film on a shoe-string budget with non-professional actors and the more-than-warm response it has received from critics.



What has the overwhelming festival response been like for you?
It's surreal. You never really think about it when you're making the film. We imagined ourselves right now doing screenings at community centers and trying to organize groups ourselves on jerry-rigged screens and show the film in the spirit in which it was made. To have it broadcasting across the world is such a privilege. It feels like when you're looking at the globe as a little kid and spinning it around and imagining all these vast places. It's a moment like that where you get to imagine that your film's going to be seen by people on the other side of the planet. It's pretty special.


What are you most excited about when it comes to a wide audience finally seeing the film.
We always had this idea that—we may have not necessarily believed this when we were making this—the film was a populist movie. It's kind of hard to convince anyone of that because it's non-professional actors; it's a low-budget film; it's not particularly like anything anyone's seen before. We always believed that the film trades in very basic emotions. It has a core that can be understood by anyone. It's exciting and uplifting. It's been great to see how well that works, that that happened on the festival circuit. It was made to be appreciated by people who don't watch independent film as a hobby. I really think it will.


Was there ever any concern that the world of The Bathtub would translate to a general audience?
Definitely. The movie is very much about a regional thing and very specific group in culture. You're making the film with that group, and you feel like you're in this little bubble. You're at the same time believing that you're doing something that anyone can understand, but you have to wait for the world to tell you whether you're right about that or not. Part of the reason we told the film as a folk tale and not as a social issue film or a polemical or a political film. It wasn't a call to action in anyway. We wanted to take the themes that were inspired by south Louisiana and figure out a way to talk about them in a way that anyone could understand them anywhere. We had this film that was about a community that's trying to hold onto their land and hold on to their place, but trying to tell it through the story of a child losing her father, which is someth ing that, as the film says, everybody goes through that. We wanted to find a way to talk about the emotion in a way that had running legs.


Was the emotion that's such an important part of the film apparent on set?
It's hard to say, in the bubble. When you're making a film, you're living an experience of non-stop panic and terror that the whole things not going to work. There's never a moment when you're sitting there on set going, "Yeah, I got this. I nailed it." There are certain moments in the film, the actor and I went through some emotional experiences, getting those performances that were so real. It was after certain scenes that I would feel that we had gone through it. You feel the emotion that the scene is about on set. There's a scene where both of the characters cry in the film, where literally every single person on set was weeping. I was crying, six inches away from Quvenzhané. The boom operator, the camera operator, the producer is at the monitor sopping wet.


What was your experience like working with Quvenzhané?
I had absolute faith in her the whole time. She's a totally otherworldly type of person. From the first moment I met her, she has this wisdom and this poise and strength that is way beyond her years, much like the character. It was never like a series of tricks. We didn't have to treat her like a baby or trick her into giving performances. She was really able to internalize emotions and understand motivation and really get what the character is feeling at any given moment. It was, of course, always scary, and you're subject to the moods of six year-old and when a six year-old gets sleepy. You have to tailor the entire shoot around taking care of her and making sure that the set feels like a place where a kid can be. The reward for that was she always came out and was able to take us to places where we never even believed that character could go.


"Beasts of the Southern Wild" opens in select cities today.


Tags beasts of the southern wild


Gisele Bundchen's Colorful Vogue Brazil July 2012 Cover









Posted Friday June 29, 2012 12:28 PM GMT





She's one of the most in-demand ladies on the planet, and Gisele Bundchen was selected to cover the July 2012 issue of Vogue Brazil magazine.


The 31-year-old supermodel looks picture perfect for the Patrick Demarchelier shot front page while wearing a red scarf as a top with a yellow scarf around her waist and polka dot pants from the special Louis Vuitton collection signed by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.



Also donning a necklace and bracelets from Virzi + De Luca, the colorful spread was put together during a shoot held earlier this month on June 6th in New York City.


Set to hit newsstands today (June 29), the Vogue Brazil cover issue comes as it's widely believed that Gisele is expecting her second child with NFL star husband Tom Brady - though the good looking couple have opted against addressing the baby chatter thus far.







Photo Credit: Patrick Demarchelier for Vogue Brazil



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Movie Review: Madea’s Witness Protection; or, Tyler Perry’s Diminishing Returns







Aside from that episode of The Simpsons where the family has to go into hiding with assumed identities after Sideshow Bob threatens to kill Bart, comedy still hasn't quite cracked the code on witness protection, despite many tries. (My Blue Heaven, written by the late Nora Ephron, came close, while the Larry the Cable Guy opus Witless Protection and the Hugh Grant travesty Did You Hear about the Morgans?, uh, didn't.)



It would be a fool's errand to think Tyler Perry might have been the one to finally pull it off. But still, Madea's Witness Protection holds some initial promise, what with Eugene Levy playing a disingenuous Wall Street type who becomes the fall guy for his company's just-exposed Ponzi scheme and has to go South with his beautifully dysfunctional family. Of course, Levy & Co. have to live with the grotesque Madea (Perry, cross-dressing as usual in the role that's made him a gazillionaire), and one hopes, for a brief instant, that in imagining this culture clash Perry might be trying to break out of his comfort zone, maybe even taking on some of the assumptions made about his comedy — that it appeals mainly to African-American audiences, that its vulgar theatricality is an acquired taste, etc.



Alas, there may be some ambition to the concept, but there's none to the execution. Instead what we get are typical fish-out-of-water clichés and blandly packaged life lessons, with Levy and the rest of the cast phoning it all in. But Witness Protection is so wan and dispiriting that it might make you yearn for the uncomfortable tonal hodgepodge of earlier Tyler Perry movies. Unlike other Madea films, Witness Protection wasn't a play before it became a movie, but it still feels strangely stagebound: The story unfolds as a series of exchanges in a series of rooms, often between two people. For all the communal boisterousness one might expect from this sort of thing (and there is one pretty funny scene involving Levy starting to speak in tongues at church), it feels internalized, claustrophobic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Perry as a director not only has no visual style, he seems uninterested in one. His governing aesthetic is point-and- shoot functionality, which might have worked if there were any energy to the proceedings.



When I first saw Madea in Diary of a Mad Black Woman, she had such a crazy, unreal vitality that, for all the broad, unpleasant comedy on display, I couldn't take my eyes off her. The movie was bad, but you weren't about to forget this creation. This time around, Madea just seems spent. Perry's delivery barely registers above a mutter, and the jokes, which have always been obvious, lack conviction. He's still a young guy, but all throughout Witness Protection I imagined Perry sitting glumly at a dressing-room mirror, like the aging Chaplin in Limelight, forlornly rubbing makeup in his face — a tired, old clown stuck in a tired, old routine. I've never cared for the man's shtick, but I kind of hope he regains his mojo someday.


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