1. After moving more than 5 million copies, Adele’s 21 is not only the top-selling album of the year — it’s the best-selling album since Usher’s Confessions, which was released back in 2004. Also worth noting: Music sales were up 3 percent overall this year. [via Reuters]
2. Thanks to some serious preparations for a “high-profile” client happening at New York’s St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, rumor is that Beyoncé will be having her baby girl any moment now… that is, if you believe that she’s really pregnant. [via Jezebel]
3. Can you picture Lady Gaga living in this $1.7M manor-style house in Amish Country? Admittedly, the move makes a lot more sense once you discover that the pop star’s current boyfriend’s parents live right next door.
4. Anne Hathaway serenaded Meryl Streep with “She’s Me Pal” at last night’s 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in a routine that also included a split. Watch her performance here.
5. Bambi, Silence of the Lambs, Faces, and Forrest Gump, are among the 25 movies that the Library of Congress selected from 2,228 nominees elected by the public for its 2011 additions to the National Film Registry for preservation. [via EW]
Editor’s note: Welcome to Dear Costume Department, a bi-weekly feature brought to you by our fashion-minded friends from Of a Kind, a curated shopping site of limited-edition goods by emerging designers. With each installment, they’ll bring you a head-to-toe look inspired by a buzzed-about pop culture personality — complete with info on where to grab the pieces for your own closet. Enjoy!
God knows the hair-and-makeup peeps have their work cut out for them in helping Meryl Streep achieve that coiffed Margaret Thatcher ‘do, but the clothes are equally key here. Though her directives might have been aggressively conservative, the prime minister, the daughter of a dressmaker, had a certain exuberant personal style that Hillary Clinton would kill for. There were the pearls, the colors, the prints — well, see below. Read More »
1. Last night HBO debuted yet another enigmatic teaser trailer for Season 2 of Game of Thrones. Watch the very dramatic, yet totally spoiler-free clip here.
2. The trailer for the third installment of the Men in Black franchise — which features Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprising their roles, as well as Josh Brolin as young Agent K — has also landed online. The movie hits theaters on May 25th. [via The Daily What]
3. Crime novelist John Sallis, whose book was the basis for Drive, is now working on a follow-up called Driven, which is expected to hit bookshelves in April 2012. Hopefully this means that we’ll be getting a film sequel as well. [via The Playlist]
4. Mike Myers — who recently signed a deal with New Line for a fourth Austin Powers movie — is planning to bring a musical version of the franchise to Broadway; while the actor would be “heavily involved in writing the show,” he does not plan to star in it. [via NYP]
5. The lovely Meryl Streep will appear on the cover of Vogue for the first time next month. At 62 years old, she’s the oldest cover model in the fashion magazine’s history. [via Jezebel]
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. We’ve got a whopping eleven trailers for you this week, offering everything from animation to big-budget studio comedy to Sundance hopefuls; check ‘em out after the jump.
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!
It’s the most ambivalent time of the year! No, not the holiday season — the awards season, which is now officially underway. The New York Film Critics Circle has just finished announcing this year’s winners via Twitter, and its picks have certainly raised our eyebrows. Of course, it’s a surprise to no one that critics loved Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, which took home two acting awards for its prolific principals, Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt, and an incredibly well-deserved cinematography prize. But it was French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius’ much-loved, just-released silent-era throwback The Artist that earned both their Best Picture and Best Director prizes. Also notable: Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, which we loved, didn’t win anything. Check out the rest of the critics’ favorites after the jump, and feel free to speculate wildly on what this means for the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Independent Spirits (which announced their nominees today) in the comments.
Last week we had one of our periodic Flavorwire editorial meetings, and the conversation turned to Zooey Deschanel. Contrary to whatever direction you might presume we’d lean on her, there were a wide variety of opinions in the room, from indifferent to stubbornly affectionate (yours truly) to exhausted (“I’m about up to here with her”). While everyone basically agrees that her new show New Girl is nothing to write home about, there is a divergence as to why — some say it’s ill-conceived and mediocre, while others place the blame squarely on Ms. Deschanel. When I heard the phrase “She always just plays herself,” my ears perked up. Here’s a favorite topic that I’d not had the chance to engage in for a while: the question of persona vs. versatility in acting.
Have we mentioned before how much we adore Meryl Streep? Even Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia. We’re helplessly drawn to her in every role; it’s like director Mike Nichols once famously explained, “She looks like she swallowed a lightbulb.” That’s why we were thrilled to hear that the 62-year-old icon — who has scored more Academy Award nominations than any other actress — is among the five performers who will receive this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, an annual award “given to individuals in the performing arts for their lifetime contributions to American culture.” Also being recognized: Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, and Sonny Rollins.
As you might expect from her past behavior, Streep’s reaction to the news was incredibly humble: “I am deeply honored by this news, and wish my mother and father were alive to hear it,” she said in a statement. “All that education, allowance, tuition, voice lessons, summer jobs, scholarship application deadlines and loving care and discipline – all that they gave me, bore fruit in a way they never dreamed. I am so grateful!”
This year’s ceremony, which will be hosted by Caroline Kennedy, airs on December 27 at 9pm on CBS.
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.
