Gallery up

By Meya, posted on september 24. 2010, News Archives
 

Reese arrives at the benefit for The LiveStrong Foundation held at Smashbox West Hollywood on September 23, 2010 in West Hollywood, California.

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Thinly-veiled

By Meya, posted on september 24. 2010, News
 

Have Hollywood’s powerful Scientologists killed Paul Thomas Anderson’s thinly veiled movie about the controversial Church’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard? Conspiracy theories are swirling in Los Angeles following the revelation that Anderson’s 1950s-based film The Master, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, has been postponed indefinitely.
Anderson’s film is not officially about Hubbard and the Church of Scientology. But the similarities could hardly be more striking and the Hollywood trade papers and websites describe it variously as a satire and a parable.
Written by Anderson, who made the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood, the script follows the rise of a religion called The Cause through the story of its charismatic leader and his apprentice.
Hoffman was due to play the Church’s founder while Jeremy Renner, who made his name in The Hurt Locker, was to play the apprentice. Most important to this story, Reese Witherspoon was reported to have been offered the role of the Master’s wife, Mary Sue.
The lead actors had already begun rehearsals and filming was due to start in August – but nothing happened.
Now Renner has told Total Film that the movie has been “postponed indefinitely at this point”. He went on: “It really kind of stalled because when we were rehearsing – Phil, Paul and myself – we kept coming up against a wall that we couldn’t overcome. Or at least Paul couldn’t overcome.”
According to the Playlist website, Hoffman, currently promoting Jack Goes Boating, has told journalists asking about The Master: “I don’t have any new information. I really mean that, I’m not being obtuse.”
The film’s backers, River Road, have confirmed they are no longer financing the project.
So why has everything gone quiet? It is very possible that Anderson, who is known for his exacting standards, simply couldn’t make the film gel and that in rehearsal, it fell apart. It can happen.
But the conspiracy theorists have other ideas – mainly revolving around the leading talent agency CAA (Creative Artists Agency) which was packaging The Master and which represents Reese Witherspoon.
CAA also represents Hollywood’s best known Scientologist, Tom Cruise – who, despite a string of so-so films, still has clout in Hollywood – and Will Smith who, while not a Scientologist, has given charitable donations in the past to groups associated with the Church, and has been known to attend Scientology events.
By coincidence, Reese Witherspoon is currently due to star opposite Tom Cruise in Paper Wings, and in a new Will Smith-produced film, This Means War.
Compared to the weight Cruise and Smith carry in Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s rather awkward project stood little chance – so the theory goes.

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Brave

By Meya, posted on september 15. 2010, News
 

Disney’s Hollywood Studios cast member Paul Chadkin spotted and photographed the first known title artwork for Disney/Pixar’s Brave today in poster form at the park’s Animation Building. Note that the logo for the film (originally titled The Bear and the Bow) has been modified from the original photo for its presentation here and may or may not properly represent the true artwork.

Pixar animator Chris Chua noted that Princess Merida (Reese Witherspoon) and her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) are prominently represented in the logo here as well (pay special attention to the detail in the lettering).

The Pixar original fairytale, set in a rugged and mythic Scotland, features the impetuous, tangle-haired Merida who would prefer to make her mark as a great archer despite being a daughter of royalty. A clash of wills with her mother compels Merida to make a reckless choice, which unleashes unintended peril on her father’s kingdom and her mother’s life. Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right.

Brave is slated to be released in North America on June 15, 2012.

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Reese at the Stand Up To Cancer

By Meya, posted on september 11. 2010, News
 

Reese at the Stand Up To Cancer event last night.

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Oscar Death Match

By Meya, posted on september 2. 2010, News
 

Typically in these newsless final weeks of August, bloggers look ahead to Oscar season and bemoan the shortage of plausible Best Actress candidates. Not this year, though! Might 2010 be the greatest-ever year for the category? In the past week, Oscarologists Scott Feinberg and Peter Knegt both surveyed the field and found a glut of strong contenders. Already we’ve seen Oscar-quality performances from Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), Tilda Swinton (I Am Love), and Julianne Moore and Annette Bening (in The Kids Are All Right) — and there are plenty more where those came from.

Other likely candidates include: Lesley Manville (Another Year), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), and Naomi Watts (Fair Game) — all performances that have been seen and raved about at festivals.

But they’ll presumably have heavy competition from Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs), Hilary Swank (Conviction), Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Robin Wright (The Conspirator), Reese Witherspoon (How Do You Know), and Helen Mirren (The Tempest).

And, hey, if any of the above should disappoint, there’s maybe Diane Lane (Secretariat), Jennifer Connelly (What’s Wrong With Virginia), Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter), and Diane Keaton (Morning Glory).

(Compare this to last year, when these were our most likely Best Actress contenders heading into September.)

On the other hand, neither Knegt nor Feinberg were able to identify many surefire candidates for Best Supporting Actress, so if things get too competitive in the lead race, an actress can increase her odds by committing category fraud and slumming it in Supporting (which wasn’t really an option in 2010, since Mo’Nique’s victory was a foregone conclusion). Either way, though, we officially have a death match! This year’s Oscars pretty much have to be more exciting than last year’s, right?

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