This Friday is a day that Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and Allison Janney probably thought would never come: the release date of Margaret, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s long, long, long awaited follow-up to his 2000 debut film, the Oscar-nominated You Can Count on Me. Shot clear back in 2005 (and capturing Paquin pre-True Blood and Damon at around the time he shot The Departed), the picture has spent the last six years in a perpetual state of post-production, with most parties involved blaming the perfectionist writer/director, who has seemed unable or unwilling to settle on his contractually-guaranteed final cut.

Meanwhile, Fireflies in the Garden, the familial drama starring Ryan Reynolds and Julia Roberts, is finally getting a release as well this fall — three years after its debut at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. (Its extended delay appears to be the collateral damage of its original production company’s shutdown.) With both of those dawdling dates finally coming into view, we thought we’d take a look at a few other movies that took (or are taking) a bit longer than the standard one-to-two-year gestation period to make it to the big screen (or to your television).

Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we had a healthy debate over what is the most beautiful word in the English language. We learned the frightening story behind one of the most dramatic photos to come out of the rioting in London. We decided that we’d like to see “horsemaning” (which takes its name from the Headless Horseman) overtake planking as the photo trend of the moment. We were kind of freaked out by the pained look on Gwyneth Paltrow’s face on the Contagion poster. We met the newest American Girls dolls, who hail from Nawlins and may or may not have yellow fever. We found Christoph Niemann’s cover image for this week’s New Yorker equal parts beautiful and depressing. We watched two girls dressed up as the Super Mario Bros. perform a fantastic swing dance routine. We learned a few important things about the NYC pizza scene. And finally, we appreciated GOOD’s illustrated guide to flaking out. Sound like anyone you know?

Today at Flavorpill, we wished Marilyn Monroe a happy birthday — she’d be 85 if she was still alive today. We felt conflicted by the news that Gwyneth Paltrow has joined Twitter, but the same part of us that subscribes to GOOP decided that we must follow her anyway. We longed for the day when everyone gets to wear a jetpack just like the Rocketeer. We discovered that Ke$ha wears a necklace that’s made of her mom’s placenta to help improve her psychic abilities. We listened to Kid Cudi’s first rock song, “Perfect Is the Word.” We tried to imagine how exactly Lionsgate plans to divide The Hunger Games trilogy up into four films. We briefly entertained some unpleasant thoughts about Roald Dahl. We weren’t surprised by VIDA’s findings on the gender imbalance of the Best American anthologies in poetry, fiction, and essays — but hopefully seeing it presented in a handy pie chart will help encourage change. We found out why Courtney Love hates Jezebel. And finally, after coming across this photo of the world’s first amphibious ice cream van sailing along the Thames, we were insanely jealous of all Londoners.

Oh boy, how to begin? We will say this for Gwyneth Paltrow: A few years ago, we just found her irritating. But recently, she’s taken to periodically redeeming herself for atrocities like GOOP (which, admittedly, is also kind of fun to read, if only for the “WTF” factor) with funny, self-aware stunts including a guest spot on Glee and her wonderful “Fuck You” duet with Cee Lo. Plus, we’re pleased to learn that she’s not actually launching a food magazine.

With that in mind, we’re sure she realizes how ridiculous it is to see her — exclusive-private-school-educated, Manhattan-reared, Blythe Danner offspring that she is — rapping “Gangsta Gangsta” from NWA’s Straight Outta Compton on The Graham Norton Show. Although she wisely refrains from repeating the “N” word, she does indeed utter the words “I smoked weed out.” (Please, someone, cleverly incorporate this into a remix.) Witness this odd moment for yourself below, and tell us whether you find this latest bit of cultural tourism charming or terrible. The rapping starts around 6:20, and Vulture has an entire rundown of Paltrow on Norton, including the appearance of Lady Gaga, as well as a clip of the second half of the interview.

Read More »

1. According to the terms of a real estate agreement that’s currently in the works, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will take over the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Marcel Breuer-designed building in 2015, when the Whitney opens its new museum downtown, for a minimum of eight years. [via NYT]

2. In case you missed South Park’s hilarious spoof on the Royal Wedding last night, here it is: “Royal Pudding.”

3. Gwyneth Paltrow announced yesterday on GOOP that she’s growing salvia in her herb garden, and everyone is freaking out, even though she probably means salvia officinalis, a common sage used for cooking, and not salvia divinorum, Miley Cyrus’ hallucinogenic of choice. [via NYDN]

4. Some more updates from the network upfronts: NBC has renewed Chuck for another season; CBS is rumored to be holding on to most of its shows, as Two and a Half Men faces an uncertain future; The CW is likely to be bringing back both One Tree Hill and Nikita; and ABC is almost sure to renew Body of Proof, the network’s highest-rated new drama of the season. [via Deadline]

5. According to the Daily Mirror, so take this with a grain of salt, Quentin Tarantino is hoping to cast Lady Gaga in his next film, which made perfect sense to us until we remembered that it’s meant to be a Western… [via NME]

Bonus link: Meet the Woman Behind Bettie Page

1. There’s a rumor circulating (confirmed, and then deleted by the show’s official Twitter feed) that Justin Timberlake will host Saturday Night Live’s season finale on May 21, with Lady Gaga as the musical guest. We’d watch that. [via HuffPo]

2. Superhero confidence: While neither film has hit theaters yet, Marvel has already confirmed that there will be sequels for both the Thor and Captain America movies. [via Movieline]

3. Kanye West has decided to shut down the Kanye West Foundation, a charity that he founded four years ago to battle high-school dropout rates. Here’s where it gets interesting: There are some questions about where hundreds of thousands of dollars has been going for the past few years. [via Vulture]

4. When the Jersey Shore cast films in Italy later this year, there will be some strict rules in effect courtesy of the mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi. Among them: “The cast will not be filmed in bars and clubs that serve alcohol” and “the cast will not be filmed drinking in public.” So that should make for some interesting TV. [via PopEater]

5. “I get it. We live in a culture of insults. I mean, we’re constantly bombarded with these images of people who are richer than us, and happier than us, and are having more interesting sex than us, and it makes us feel terrible. You know, we tear them down to feel better about ourselves, but we don’t just stop with the people who are on TV and magazines, we do it to everyone, and we think because it’s done anonymously there are no ramifications. But there are ramifications, guys, because it makes you comfortable with insensitivity.” – A meta speech delivered by Holly Holiday (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) on last night’s Glee

Bonus link: James Franco’s Top 10 Criterion Films

1. The nominees for The 15th Annual Webby Awards were announced this morning, and the list includes Justin Bieber, Angry Birds, Groupon, the Old Spice Guy, Arcade Fire, The Bed Intruder Song, SoundCloud, and Flipboard .

2. “I’m around great women, starting with my mom. Women keep men cool. The hotter the chick the cooler the guy … that sounds like a really bad rap line!” – Jay-Z talks about his new lifestyle website and explains how he became the coolest man on Earth to Gwyneth Paltrow in GOOP

3. With ticket sales estimated to top $700 million, U2’s 360 Degrees tour has surpassed The Rolling Stones’s Bigger Bang tour as the highest grossing tour of all time. Says their manager: “That dollar figure for the gross looks enormous! Of course I can’t tell you what the net is, but I can tell you that the band spend enormous sums on production for their audience.” Point taken, but how much could a giant claw (or three) cost? [via Vulture]

4. Look at a photo of a decidedly pregnant Tina Fey that was snapped while she was leaving The Late Show With David Letterman last night.

5. Ikea’s first US-based factory in Danville, Virginia, has become “a target of racial discrimination complaints, a heated union-organizing battle, and turnover from disgruntled employees.” Of note: workers at similar factories in Sweden make a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and five weeks of paid vacation. That’s compared to $8 an hour in Danville and 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company. [via LAT]

Bonus link: It’s free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s!

Today at Flavorpill, we laughed out loud over the nutritional info for The Big Lebowski. We couldn’t believe the news that Jonathan Groff (aka Jesse St. James) will be returning to Glee later this season. We were surprised by how complicated a Bloody Mary is when broken down into its component flavors and ingredients. We looked at the first photograph ever taken of Mars from orbit. We wondered what the wardrobe person was thinking when he or she came up with the latest Wonder Woman getup — it looks like Adrianne Palicki is wearing bedazzled pajama jeans. We were mildly grossed out by the things that these celebrities craved while pregnant — including dirt. We learned how underwater sculptures can actually help corals and other marine creatures thrive. And finally, we heard an interesting rumor that Gwyneth Paltrow could be getting her own food magazine. Would you read it?

1. Some good news to help get you through this icy morning: Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow which means we should have an early spring. And the same goes for the poor man’s version of Phil, Staten Island Chuck.

2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in talks to join the cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, but with more obvious choices like the Joker and the Riddler supposedly thrown out, no one is quite sure which villain he’ll play. [via Deadline]

3. Gwyneth Paltrow and Cee Lo Green are planning to do a duet at the Grammy Awards on February 13th, and while we’re not certain of the song yet, we do know that there will be some Muppets involved. [via People]

4. Ringo Starr wants to trademark his name for future use in “computer game software” and “games via the Internet and wireless devices.” We’re curious: what do you imagine a Ringo-themed iPhone app would do exactly? [via Billboard]

5. “Anderson [Cooper] said he was punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounded him and his crew trying to cover demonstration” – Steve Brusk, a CNN Political Coverage Manager, just tweeted this disturbing bit of news from the Egyptian protests

Bonus link: How a Statistician Beat Scratch Lottery Tickets

1. Salma Hayek is teaming with ABC to develop an eight-hour miniseries adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which already inspired an incredibly successful Broadway musical. Any casting suggestions? [via TVLine]

2. Last night Julian Casablancas inexplicably tweeted fake cover art for The Strokes’ upcoming album, which is due out in March. At least we think it’s fake… [via Vulture]

3. Baz Luhrmann is thinking about shooting his upcoming film adaptation of The Great Gatsby in 3D, which leads us to believe it’s going to be more of an Australia for the director than a Moulin Rouge. [via Forbes]

4. Ryan Murphy has confirmed that Gwyneth Paltrow will reprise her role as Holly Holliday for two episodes of Glee in the spring; the plotline will involve her subbing for the sex ed teacher and (briefly?) dating Mr. Schuester. [via EW]

5. A Weekly World News story claiming that Facebook is shutting down on March 15th — because “managing the site has become too stressful” for Mark Zuckerberg — sent the Internet into a tailspin. Obviously it’s about as true their latest Bat Boy sighting. [via Gawker]

Bonus link: First Peek At 2011 No Pants Subway Ride