I’m not sure, exactly, how our culture has devolved to the point where the unplanned pregnancy of a 16-year-old starlet sibling is cover story material. Or how the mother of said sibling could allow her maternal instincts to be so crippled to think that her teenage daughter’s impending maternity is anything but private. Or how, in some twisted way, this all seems like a family crisis turned into a publicity stunt. Or how, in this day and age, teenagers still don’t realize that if you’re going to have sex, use a fucking condom. But what I do know is that this isn’t a “story.” And for God’s sake, has no one in the Spears family every watched and after-school special?
p.s. Fitting that this “news” should be in “OK” magazine when it is in fact nothing of the sort. Irony never gets old.
Life is filled with missed moments. Things we should have said. Things we shouldn’t have said. Things we should have done. Things we shouldn’t have done. Things we should have kept. Things we shouldn’t have kept. So when a perfect one comes along you want to savor it, even if it’s just in the movies. The ending of “Lost in Translation” is such a moment. Pristine in its simplicity and divine in its mystery, that indecipherable whisper is filled with the infinite complexities of hope. It works because we have no idea what he said to her, but in our minds ear what we hear will always be perfect. Which, now, I will totally ruin for you. ‘Cause I’m evil like that.
If you don’t want to know what Bill Murray whispered to Scarlett Johansson , for heavens sake do not click play. If you’re like me and just can’t help yourself, by all means click away.
If this audio enhancement is to be believed, another great mystery bites the dust. Still while the mystery will never be the same -- at least for me -- the moment remains picture perfect.
Thud. Oh, sorry, I must have fallen down. I’m not really sure what happened. I saw Lena Headey was in some magazine and went to look and then… Thud. Damn, it happened again. I was just looking at Lena in the new “Best Life” magazine, some men’s rag I’ve never heard of before, when I suddenly felt faint and… Thud. Right, this is getting ridiculous. Plus, I think I’ve bruised my forehead. I’m going to have to shield my eyes to finish this post. Must. Not. Look. Must… Thud. Seriously, Snarker, pull it together. You’re working; be professional… Thud. OK, just do this quickly: So Lena talks about her new role in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles;” getting in fights when she was younger to defend her younger brother (who “played the violin and painted his nails” and is now an air steward…read into that what you will); and drops the F-bomb liberally, which of course I fucking love. She even gives “Imagine Me & You” fans everywhere hope by saying she could “quite happily run a florist or a bake shop.” Good God, you mean she could be the hottest florist in the world, for real? Thud.
[Click ’em to enlarge ’em, but beware the thud. Scans via the “Imagine Me & You” Fansite. Hat tip, jetgirl!]
You may not recognize Frances O’Connor at first. While the Australian actress has been in dozens of films, American audiences are more likely to look at her with heads cocked and muse, “Hmmm, where have I seen her before?” The answer depends. Perhaps you’re a fan of costumed dramas and caught her in the slyly subversive (not to mention a tad lesbian-ish) “Mansfield Park,” my favorite Jane Austen adaptation to date. Or perhaps you’re a sci-fic fan and caught her as the mother in “A.I.” Or perhaps you’re a feminist enthusiast and caught her in the HBO suffrage drama “Iron Jawed Angels.” Or perhaps you’re a comedy buff and caught her in the Elizabeth Hurley-as-devil laughter “Dedazzled,” where she played the girl Brendan Fraser kept selling his soul for. Those are a lot of perhapses.
But what I can tell you for certain is that I first caught her a dozen or so years ago in a little Aussie charmer called “Love and Other Catastrophes” where Frances played the commitment-phobic girlfriend of Radha Mitchell. From the moment they kissed on the stairs, I was smitten. Frances has that undeniably delicious combination of sweetness and spunk. Plus she has a sly grin that curls up the edges of her mouth, which totally works for me. I couldn’t be more pleased that she has found a starring role in the high-profile new series “Cashmere Mafia.” Sure, I wish she was the one with the lesbian storyline. But just knowing that she is close to a lesbian storyline is good enough for me. The series just got its premiere date, so you can look forward to catching, and for some of you being introduced to, Frances starting 10 p.m. Thursday Jan. 3 on ABC. The following week it will slide into its permanent timeslot, 10 p.m. Wednesdays. A weekly dose of Frances? Now I’m the one with the Cheshire Cat grin. Happy weekend, all.
You read the reports, now see it for yourself. Jodie Foster’s thanking of “my beautiful Cydney” heard around the world now have video. And from CNN, no less. It’s been quite interesting to see how Jodie’s pseudo self-outing has played out in the mainstream press these past 10 days. While it’s impossible to say for sure whether Jodie’s thanking of her heretofore unpublicly acknowledged longtime partner Cydney Bernard was a deliberate coming out, but I tend toward yes since she is too smart and too savvy to not realize the reverberations it would have. And now that CNN has a hold of the story, I think we can safely say that closet door is off its hinges.
Of course, it was the gay press that first picked up on her simple thanking of “my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss.” From the first reports in the LA Daily News, to the gay sites, to the gossip sites, to the tabloids and now CNN. And, for the most part, reaction has been positive and a bit like, “Duh.” Which is a good thing. Call it progress. Call it acceptance. Call it the world not ending if the public finds out that a respected, acclaimed and influential superstar is gay. I think one of the best things we can take away from all of this is how extraordinary the mundane act of thanking the person you love can still be. The love that dare not speak it’s name is no more. Which, after all, is how it should be.
In my book, Amy Winehouse’s “Love is a Losing Game” belongs among the pantheon of great, tragic torch songs. It’s simple slow-burn speaks in the universal language of a broken heart. When she sang it at the Mercury Prize show earlier this year, I got goosebumps. I still do. Which is why the single’s new video is so heartbreaking. Ostensibly there is nothing truly terrible about the clip, except that Winehouse herself clearly wasn’t involved in its making. In fact, for a while I wasn’t sure if it was a tribute video or the official release. But the Universal Records tag at the end (as well as othermediareports) confirms that this is indeed the real thing. Take a look.
Seems Amy didn’t make it to the scheduled shoot, so instead the label improvised using old concert footage, still photos and extreme close-ups. Throw in some behind-the-scenes shots and even a couple glimpses of her husband Blake, and you’ve got a fanvid any amateur YouTuber could be proud of. Amy’s inability to make it to a video shoot, inability to make it through a concert and inability to keep from wandering the streets of London in the middle of the night shirtless, shoeless and senseless breaks my heart, again. As do all the shots of her looking dazed, drugged and bedraggled. This is not the transcendent artist we know she can be.This woman is blazing talent capable of transporting us through the power of her voice alone. With each listen, her staggering album “Back to Black” reveals untold truths. I’ll freely admit that I’ve fallen hard. But with love comes the need for tough love. Not to oversimplify the problem and get all Mr. Mackey on you here, but drugs are bad, m’kay. At this rate, I half expect to wake up one morning and read that she has become another sad rock and roll statistic. Don’t break my heart, Amy Winehouse.
Look, I can write about TV shows with lesbians that don’t have a single “L” in them. Who’d a thunk it? A new trailer for the upcoming (yet still unscheduled…end writers strike, end!) “Cashmere Mafia” has hit the interwebs. Nothing too new, except of course for Lucy Liu’s new love interest. They swapped out the unknown guy from the pilot to put in a slightly less unknown guy (Tom Everett Scott, who was in that terrible “An American Werewolf in Paris” movie with Julie Delpy, which I only watched for Julie Delpy and even so regretted more than a little.) Despite the Darrin-ing (you know, from “Bewitched”… hello?…crickets) of the boy toy, he still seems like a dud. And the show seems a little dud-like, too. It’s not the cast, which is to a woman fantastic (well, I don’t know if Bonnie Somerville is fantastic yet, since I don’t remember her from anything, but she is playing gay and that is fantastic so ipso facto she is fantastic….Man, what’s the deal with my out of control parentheticals today?).Really, by big beef with what I’ve seen so far is the writing, which (to put it charitably) isn’t all that wow. OK, the “kosher” line was sorta funny. But then it was totally negated by the “it’s not winning without you” pap. We need only turn our gaze to the mess that was “Bionic Woman” to know that writing matters. Writing makes a show. So seeing a scene where the friends tell the other friend’s new fiancé that “if you break her heart, we’ll break every last bone in your body” is not encouraging. Raise you hand if you’ve heard some variation on that theme once, twice or maybe 3,867 times before (I’m putting two hands up and making that “Ooh, ooh, teacher!”-call on me noise).Oh course, none of my whining really matters since the show features a prominent lesbian storyline so, duh, I am totally going to watch. I don’t know why TV producers haven’t caught on, but lesbian audiences are unfailingly faithful. We’ll watch almost anything as long as there is a lesbian in it. We’ll even keep watching when you inevitably turn her storyline into that old chestnut, the pregnant lesbian cliché. I mean, the show has “Mafia” in the title and a lesbian. That’s an offer no gay gal can refuse.
I know, I know. Two L Word posts in a row. Right now you’re probably feeling anger, confusion, anxiety, possibly a little nausea. Just do like Tasha and Alice and hold each other tight until the queasiness goes away. I promise not to turn this into an Lwordpalooza. I mean, I realize there are other things us gay gals like to talk about. I think. I just thought you might like to see the second set of official season 5 stills. No, fine, I’ll just keep them between Jodi and myself.Nah, just kidding. Of course I’ll share. [You know the drill, click any to enlarge.] All of these snaps are from episode 4, titled “Let’s Get This Party Started.” The synopsis of the first four episodes was unearthed over at the TLW forum at TWoP. In Ep. 504:
“Bette’s jealousy over Tina’s new girlfriend is the probable cause of a surprising moment; Jenny is courted for the lead in her movie by the latest It Girl; the gang attends the opening of a new lesbian club competing with The Planet”
Hmm, well, that’s not exactly what I see from these pictures. What I see from these pictures is a lot of girls in sports bras and tank tops. Not that I mind the Brandi Chastaining. At all. Who else has the strange urge to sign up for a self defense class right about now? p.s. Still no Bette or Helena yet. But chin up. I bet they’re just waiting to make a grand entrance. Divas.
Well, as you’ve probably already heard, “The L Word” will premiere a week early online at OurChart.com. That’s right, you can stream the first episode for free starting Dec. 30, a week before it airs on Showtime Jan. 6. Which is a cool idea and a great way to drive traffic to OurChart and all that jazz. But, of course, there are a few catches. First, if you are an international viewer you’re S.O.L., since the stream won’t be available to those outside the U.S. And the second and biggest catch is that the episode will be a TV-14 version of the real thing. Which means naughty words will be bleeped, naughty bits will be blurred and naughty naughtiness will be abridged. To which I say, “Come on, Ilene. Don’t you know that’s why we watch in the first place?”
TLW master Svengali Ilene Chaiken has written a post over at the O.C. about the online premiere and calls the new season the best and the “sexiest, funniest, cleverest, most romantic and most consummate” one yet. The first episode is apparently titled “LGB Tease” and picks up just a few weeks after season 4 left off. Which means Jenny should already be off that dingy. Bummer. A new promo has also hit the web telling us what to expect next year. [Hat tip, Tonya!] Yes, yes, it mentions the lesbian oil wrestling. But it also mentions pot brownies, group dynamics and sex, lots of sex. Which, if Ilene and Co. are true to their word, means the online episode premiere should go something like this:
SHANE: Hey. RANDOM WOMAN Hey, back. Wanna get naked? (Blur. Blur. Blur.) BETTE Hey Tina, how do you feel about getting back together? (Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.) KIT Look I have a line in this episode! (Abridge. Abridge. Abridge.) Oh damn, they cut it.
p.s. Also, based on the last minute and change of that promo, think you can guess which season 5 storyline Ilene is “most excited about?” I hereby dub season 5 “The Tibette Tease.”
There is something at once ordinary and extraordinary about Laura Linney. She is the girl next door who grew up smarter than all the boys in the neighborhood. She comes across so solid, sensible and salt-of-the-earth, you’d almost mistake her for a Midwesterner. I think it’s those disarming dimples. But, the open-faced blonde is a born and bred New Yorker with Juilliard training and a theater pedigree. She is unquestionably excellent and brings a grounded realism to each role. And she is proof positive that actresses don’t have to trade on their sex appeal alone to carve out a career. They can also use their smarts. And, like Laura, just be damn good at their job. Happy weekend, all.
Sure, your father is/was the leader of the free world. That doesn’t mean you can’t act like a regular human being now and then. This week both Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush made a splash acting like, well, normal folks.
Chelsea was spotted on the floor of a Manhattan Starbucks searching for wi-fi. Oh girl, I have so been there. During The Great Telecom Depression of ’07 (as it will heretofore be named), I would have totally cut a bitch for a decent wireless connection. Or, you know, sat on the dirty floor while unfazed coffee drinkers ignored me at their spacious, empty tables. p.s. How hot are Chelsea’s knee-high boots?As for Jenna, well, W’s spawn pulled an E.T. on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and phoned home live on air. You gotta love Ellen for goading her into it as Jenna worried she would get in trouble, “I’m not going to get anything I asked for for Christmas.” Don’t Shrub and Laura sound like the befuddled parents you thought they would be? The weirdness of having W exchange pleasantries with Ellen is beyond words. I wonder how much Ellen wanted to scream, “Hey, Mr. President, yeah nice to talk with you, too. How about some fucking equal rights?!”
Well, here is the thing. Despite all of your insistence, I gave up on “Life.” Actually, it would be more accurate to say I just never got restarted again. I caught the first couple episodes and then my TV time to sleep time to actual real life time ratio got way out of whack and I just never picked back up the show. Also, after foolishly sitting through all those terrible episodes of “Bionic Woman,” I kind of lost my taste for more TV on Wednesday nights. But now I feel like I’ve made a terrible mistake. Which, of course, I will try to make amends for with peace offerings and hot pictures. So, in Monday night’s episode, Sarah’s character gets a little surprise lip action from a woman at a party. Sniff. It made me all sentimental for her “the L Word” days. The scene was great, kind of priceless even. Her reaction was both stunned and unfazed, which is difficult to do. But, then, I guess she has had plenty of practice. I thought this sequence was hilarious; pay close attention to Sarah’s eyes. [Click each to enlarge.]Check out Sarah talking about her new role with the NY Daily New here. The final new episode of “Life” completed by the Writer’s Strike aired last night. It’s my secret -- I guess not-so secret now -- hope that NBC will replay the show’s season from the beginning now that we’re in repeat hell. It would give sheepish Janey-Come-Latelys like myself a chance to atone. And what marvelous atoning it is.
Someone please check the skies. Are pigs flying? Jodie Foster is striding ever further out of the closet. And by ever further, I mean getting thisclose to kicking to damn door off its hinges. On Tuesday, Jodie received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the 16th annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast. During her emotional acceptance speech she thanked “my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss.”OK, I’m to give you a minute to let that information sink in. Because, yes, you read that right. One of the most private stars in Hollywood just publicly thanked her longtime partner Cydney Bernard in front of a room full of industry heavyweights and assembled media. That, my friends, is MAJOR.It has been a year of quiet and not-so-quiet revelations for Jodie. In March her whole family -- Cydney and their sons Charles and Kit -- attended the “Meet the Robinsons” premiere, though they did not pose together. In April, “Out” magazine put models wearing Jodie and Anderson Cooper masks on its controversial “Glass Closet” cover. In June, she made an undisclosed, but “extraordinarily generous” donation to The Trevor Project, the nation’s only 24-hour suicide prevention hotline for gay and questioning youth.In July, at the opening of the new Saban Center for Health and Wellness, she unveiled a plaque with her son’s hand prints which read “Kit Bernard Foster and Charles Bernard Foster.” Then in August, she discussed the eternity ring she wears on her ring finger and told “More” magazine that “My life is my life. I’m not going to change my life for anybody. I don’t have any problems with it…I don’t have any problems with anybody reporting on my life. It’s just that I’m not going to bring my family into that.” And in September, she used the term “partner” for the first time in an interview when talking to the Denver Post about acting: “I need to have something that doesn't belong to my mom, doesn’t belong to my kids, doesn’t belong to my partner.”And now, this. Wow. I am stunned and ecstatic and stunned some more. I’m not sure if you could tell (since I never post about her or anything), but Jodie Foster is one of my favorite -- if not my very favorite -- stars. The reasons are endless, but most of all I admire her for being such a smart, strong and sophisticated woman. And while I wish she had been out all along, I give her credit for doing it on her own terms. While at times I wasn’t sure it would ever happen, I think it’s safe to say there’s no stopping the forward progress now. Consider those hinges blown. The woman is coming out. Does anyone else feel like having champagne?p.s. Here is Jodie with her mom Evelyn at the Women in Entertainment fete. I see where she got her beautiful blue eyes.p.p.s Jodie also apparently referred to herself as a “professional” and a “gentleman” in her speech. Come on, can we officially call Jodie out now and then call it a day? Bring on the bubbly!
[Enormous, demonstrative and heartfelt hat tip to cappuccino girl, you rock lady!]
I’m not sure, exactly, how our culture has devolved to the point where the unplanned pregnancy of a 16-year-old starlet sibling is cover story material. Or how the mother of said sibling could allow her maternal instincts to be so crippled to think that her teenage daughter’s impending maternity is anything but private. Or how, in some twisted way, this all seems like a family crisis turned into a publicity stunt. Or how, in this day and age, teenagers still don’t realize that if you’re going to have sex, use a fucking condom. But what I do know is that this isn’t a “story.” And for God’s sake, has no one in the Spears family every watched and after-school special?
