Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!
Everybody loves a good holiday movie. When we wrote last week about the beginning of the season, and our favorite annual Christmas movies (Die Hard and It’s A Wonderful Life), our readers threw in their favorites: A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Bad Santa, Muppets Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, etc. But, lest we forget, every film of the season ain’t White Christmas; there are plenty of rotten holiday movies. (And, in fact, one of them is coming out tomorrow: steer clear of New Year’s Eve as though your life depends on it.) As many great Christmas movies as there are, it’s also a very tricky style to get right, requiring the proper mix of holiday cheer, sentiment, laughs, and warmth. It is pretty easy to screw that elixir up, and end up with something sickly sweet and utterly unwatchable. After the jump, we’ll gather up a few lumps of coal from our previous Christmas stockings. Read More »
Ah, fall. The fall movie season is when we film lovers do our very best to shake off a summer’s supply of Transformers, ‘80s remakes, and wilted comic book heroes, and open our arms to the “prestige pictures”: the smart movies for grown-ups that studios trot out as close to Oscar time as possible, so that they can pretend like these are the kind of movies they make all year long.
Of course, those studios still have bills to pay, so it would be a mistake to presume that quality and intellect will be the sole flavor of the season. Too often, your fall movie previews tend to focus on the most promising releases, as though Oscar bait is all we’re going to see this autumn. Make no mistake: there will still be plenty of dumb comedies, mindless action, and copious amounts of 3-D. So in order to present the most complete picture of fall 2011 at the cinemas, we’ve assembled a comprehensive list of the major fall releases, good and bad alike. Of course, that’s quite a big list of movies, so we’ve boiled our comments down to the basics: who’s in it, what it is, who it’s for, and if we’re in or out. Break out your calendars and join us after the jump.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got new films from Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, and Guy Ritchie — but don’t get too excited, there’s a new Adam Sandler movie too. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
1. David O. Russell is in talks to direct a film about Russ Meyer‘s life. The writer for the project is Merritt Johnson, who scripted porn-star biopic Lovelace. Looks like someone found her niche. [via Deadline]
2. A hacker ring has attacked the computers, emails, and mobile phones of 50 female celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Busy Phillips. [via Daily Mail]
3. Last night, Jimmy Fallon sang the Charles in Chargetheme song as Bob Dylan. See the video at Vulture.
4. Dave Grohl has some harsh words for Gleeshow runner Ryan Murphy. The take home? Don’t expect to hear the New Directions kids doing “Everlong” in this lifetime. [via NME]
5. Rumor has it Jude Law is being considered to star opposite Keira Knightley in an upcoming film adaptation of Anna Karenina. Yeah, we can imagine him as Vronsky. [via Digital Spy]
Phonak’s Hear the World initiative is on a mission to educate people about the dangers of hearing loss and how to handle it — and it has some high-profile friends on board.
Musicians and other celebrities, including Amy Winehouse, Peter Gabriel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jude Law, Moby, Common, and Lindsay Lohan, have lent their faces (and voices) to the campaign as Hear the World “ambassadors.” Through their endorsement, the program’s numerous offerings are being noticed on a wide scale, giving the public access to vital information, and those in need invaluable support.
Widely known for his black-and-white portraits of celebrities, which have graced the pages of Interview, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, Greg Gorman has worked on both sides of the camera for more than 40 years. He was the photographer for Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video, directed by Martin Scorsese; an actor in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie; and a cameo player in John Waters’ film about an amateur photographer-turned-art-world-sensation, Pecker.
Now Gorman is being touted for his new photography book, In Their Youth, which captures male actors and models in their early days. Featuring intimate images of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, and Mark Wahlberg, amongst others, Gorman’s stylish selection spans an era — from the late ‘70s to the late-‘00s — and flaunts some of Hollywood’s leading men, long before they acquired a single wrinkle or ounce of fat.
1. Top Chef judge and New York restaurateur Tom Colicchio has been named America’s best chef of 2010 by the James Beard Foundation. [via AP]
2. Say it ain’t so, Angel! David Boreanaz comes clean to People magazine about his infidelity. Why did he choose this moment to confess? Apparently, he was being blackmailed by a former mistress.
3. Trent Reznor releases his first post-Nine Inch Nails single, How to Destroy Angels’ “A Drowning.” The new band is a collaboration between Reznor and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig. Listen to it at Pitchfork.
4. White Castle has released a burger-scented candle in honor of National Cheeseburger Month — a holiday we didn’t know existed but are happy to celebrate… but probably not by shelling out $10 for a candle that will either make us hungry or (more likely) nauseous. [via Entertainment Weekly]
5. Jude Law and Sienna Miller are back together. Let the drama begin! [via Popeater]
Bonus link: Japanese nerds design a strange and impressive crop of imaginary 8-bit games, including one based on Macchiavelli and a revisionist, conservationist take on the Book of Genesis.
1. Thanks to a push from Kiefer Sutherland, FOX’s film and TV studios have finally agreed on a big-screen adaption of 24 which will take Jack Bauer to Europe. [via Variety]
2. Tonight will be the final installment of The Jay Leno Show with guests Ashton Kutcher and Gabourey Sidibe; Leno will return with The Tonight Show on March 1st. [via Deadline]
3. Speaking of the late night wars, did you see Stephen Colbert wrestle Jimmy Fallon in an elevator last night? [via Inside TV]
4. Contagion, Steven Soderbergh‘s new movie about a deadly disease could be adding Marion Cotillard and Kate Winslet to a cast that already includes Matt Damon and Jude Law. [via Variety]
5. A review of the new Dante’s Inferno-inspired game from Electronic Arts says it looks a lot like Sony‘s God of War. [via NYT]
While English supermodel Lily Cole could have already retired on modeling designs by the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Chanel, the 21-year-old redhead recently kicked off her acting career, playing the youthful, reluctantly bohemian Valentina in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. (Note: The film is currently in limited release and opens nationwide beginning January 8.) To flesh out her character, Cole drew on experiences she shares with her fictional counterpart; her own lavish, jet-set lifestyle is offset by yet another, much more tame, pursuit: school.
Flavorpill tracked down the model/actress/academic at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills and asked her about working with Terry Gilliam, losing Heath Ledger, and her everyday role as a Cambridge scholar.
