The Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle I Don’t Know How She Does It, in which Ms. Jessica Parker plays a woman has both children and a career OMG HOW DOES SHE DO IT, is out this week on DVD, giving you another opportunity to not see it. But the most confusing aspect of IDKHSDI (besides the fact that it exists) is its supporting cast, which is just full of people we like: Christina Hendricks, Seth Meyers, Jane Curtin, Busy Phillips, Kelsey Grammer, Greg Kinnear… and Pierce Brosnan. Wait, what? What’s Pierce Brosnan doing filling a supporting role in a warmed-over Sex in the City retread? He was JAMES FRICKING BOND, for God’s sake.
Brosnan is but one of many actors who either used to be A-list or should be, yet have inexplicably fallen to B-list status. Sometimes it’s voluntary; some actors choose to concentrate on smaller, supporting roles, or to focus on stage work and the like. But more often than not, a couple of unfortunate moves can create a narrative as to what kind of an actor someone is — what they can do, both qualitatively and financially — and that becomes the common wisdom. It’s a crap shoot. After the jump, we’ll take a look at ten actors who aren’t getting the kind of work they deserve.
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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.
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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 their favorite looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!
This week, on Go Fug Yourself, we were worked into a little bit of a rage by one of the Kardashians (you know which one). We worried that George Clooney might be a wee bit tanorexic. We fell for Diane Kruger, and confused someone from So You Think You Can Dance with Ross Gellar. We were horrified by what Taylor Dayne decided to wear to tell it to our hearts, and worried that SJP might secretly be a vampire. And, of course, we covered the VMAs from stem to stern, especially Lady Gaga’s new man-self, Beyonce’s bump, and the Return of Britney. What a way to close out the summer.
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 ten to show you
— everything from new Soderbergh and Clooney movies to, yes, a film adaptation of a board game. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
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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 their favorite looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!
This week’s big discussion point on Go Fug Yourself was whether Emma Watson’s Harry Potter premiere dress was fabulous and visionary and beautifully fitting, or Scarlett O’Hara on an acid trip. (We came down on the “fug” side, to the surprise of no one.) Contrast that with the innately dramatic Tilda Swinton, whose W shoot was so overdone and crazy that it came off as effortless. In other magazine-related news, we lamented Sarah Jessica Parker’s recent Vogue cover, although it was nothing compared to the the melty-faced mess of Katie Holmes on InStyle. The ESPY Awards were the usual trove of fuggery, the alpha and omega of which was Brian Wilson. We fervently hope that he and Justin Theroux turn out to be the same person. Can you imagine? It would be Us Weekly’s happiest hour — although we’re not sure how Jennifer Aniston would feel. And finally, in honor of Harry Potter’s final installment, we did a fug-through-the-ages of Helena Bonham Carter. It was… there isn’t a word. So we invented one: fabtremendicent.
1. The trailer for Red Riding Hood, director Catherine Hardwicke’s follow-up to Twilight has dropped, and naturally, the wolf that is tormenting Amanda Seyfried is a really hot dude. [via Vulture]
2. MTV has broken down all two and a half minutes of the first Green Lantern trailer frame by frame.
3. Emmy award-winner Claire Danes may be returning to TV as a CIA case officer. She’s in talks for the female lead in Showtime’s new psychological thriller Homeland from former 24 executive producer/showrunner Howard Gordon. [via Deadline]
4. Warner Bros is in early talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct a live-action remake of the The Wizard of Oz that’s based on the original script. [via Deadline]
5. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s son James Wilkie gave Emma Watson a handwritten fan letter at the New York premiere of the new Harry Potter movie. [via Gatecrasher]
Bonus link: Watch Jimmy Fallon’s Neil Young and the Real Springsteen Sing “Whip My Hair”
1. Beating out both Jennifer Garner and Keri Russell, Gossip Girl Blake Lively has been cast as the female lead opposite Ryan Reynolds in The Green Lantern. [via THR]
2. Billy Name, resident photographer of Andy Warhol‘s Factory for seven years, is missing his archive of negatives. [via NYT]
3. How the Jay Leno disaster could ultimately cost NBC more than $200 million. (Also of note: As a result, they’ve just unveiled six new drama pilots.) [via LAT]
4. Sarah Jessica Parker‘s new Bravo reality show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist will feature New York gallery owner Bill Powers, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, and curator Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, as judges; China Chow and Simon de Pury will host. [via Variety]
5. Foster Kamer explores the short distance between the branding of mega pop stars and the branding of indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend. [via Gawker]
Bonus link: The New Age Cavemen and the City
1. Gap founder Don Fisher wanted to give San Francisco a $100 million museum in the Presidio, but the people said no. [via SF Chronicle]
2. “Radiohead manager Brian Message has launched a new digital label, Polyphonic, which will allow artists to keep their copyright. [via NME]
3. An anti-smoking protester crashed the opening of Antony Gormley’s Plinth living art project in London’s Trafalgar Square. (video) [via BBC]
4. Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company has optioned Amy Sohn’s upcoming novel Prospect Park West in conjunction with HBO for a half-hour series. [via NYP]
5. Chris Brown and Amber Rose (Kanye West’s on-again-off-again ex) hooked up at Diddy’s infamous White Party; Brown arrived with another date. [via NYDN]
It’s almost as easy to fawn over Sarah Jessica Parker’s Dior Couture confection as it is to eviscerate Miley Cyrus for the wacky pageant dress that she undoubtedly donned in spite of her stylist’s best intentions. Every February, the same celebrities wearing the same designers receive the same accolades from the same publications. We’ve read People gush about Nicole Kidman’s consistently blah beige dresses since we were old enough to follow the Oscars. The formula for wowing the tabloid fashion tribunal is simple: tulle, strapless, beige or red (actresses who make this color decision can expect to find themselves in identical two page spreads of “daring divas” or something equally inane in US Weekly, OK! and Life & Style).
We can’t be the only ones so bored that we wish Roberto Cavalli would finally go to prison for those tax fraud charges. But, every year, lost in a sea of Jennifers, Nicoles and Naomis, there are a handful dresses that make the mind-numbing parade of Harry Winston drop earrings and beaded bodices almost worth it. We’d like to pay tribute to those dresses here, even if said wearers do land on People‘s worst-dressed list.
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Books: Britain’s future Poet Laureate thinks the job should be abolished.
Dance/Opera: The New Yorker insinuates that some ballerinas are sluts.
Design: Christoph Niemann Legos all things N.Y. — even the Gowanus Canal.
Film: One extra large victory for Mo’Nique.
Music: What’s behind the commercial force that is Franz Ferdinand? No, really.
Television: Do we care about Sarah Jessica Parker’s ancestral history? How about Susan Sarandon’s? Well NBC certainly hopes so.
Theatre: Jude Law as Hamlet makes us giggle.
Visual Arts: In defense of Shepard Fairey’s use of “appropriated imagery.”
Web: Celebrate Black History Month with free indie movies from Hulu YouTube!
