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Art

The Most Uncomfortable Portrayals of Celebrities in Art [NSFW]

By Chloe Pantazi on

Celebrities are voracious connoisseurs of art (even Beyoncé loves art history), and are among the few people in this world who can actually afford to collect it, so it makes sense that celebrities often appear as the subjects of artworks. Of course, that’s not to say they always inspire flattering portraits. The recent $1.9 million sale of artist John Currin’s 1991 nude portrait of Golden Girl Bea Arthur has inspired Flavorwire to round up the most awkward portrayals of celebrities in art, from politicians in the buff and doused in urine to installation art, sculpture, and a certain former president’s wet and wild self-portrait. … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorwire’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we’ve got new stuff from Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Connery, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Richard Gere, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth Banks, Andy Garcia, Robin Williams, Woody Harrelson, and Val Kilmer, plus three terrific documentaries. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

80 Wonderful Michael Caine Quotes for His 80th Birthday

By Jason Bailey and Chloe Pantazi on

Break out the cake, light up the candles, and trot out your best Cockney-accented imitation: the great Michael Caine is 80 years old today. Sir Michael, who first came to international fame clear back in 1966’s Alfie, has always struck us as a particularly down-to-earth chap, blessed with fierce intelligence, a quick wit, and a rather astonishing work ethic — he’s appeared in well over 100 films since his first credited role in 1956’s Hell in Korea, and during his most productive period in the 1980s, he would frequently star in three or four pictures per year. That doesn’t just mean he’s done a lot of movies; it’s means he’s done a lot of interviews. So in celebration of his 80th year on Earth, we rounded up some of our favorite quotes from his many interviews (and from his own writing); enjoy the wit and wisdom of Sir Michael Caine after the jump. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we read an in-depth interview with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi about politics and… Planet of the Apes. We ranked Rolling Stones albums from worst to best. We wanted our own Star Trek communicator badge. We remembered actors who got scary skinny for their movie roles —… Read More

Film

10 Movie Franchises That Lost Their Lead — And What Happened

By Jason Bailey on

If you felt a slight gust from the west yesterday, it may have been the folks at Universal Pictures letting out a sigh of relief; The Bourne Legacy, the newest (and Bourne-less) entry in their venerable franchise put up respectable numbers over the weekend, selling $40 million of tickets to a picture that was, from the outset, a bit of dicey proposition. Its success got us thinking about other film series that lost their lead actors, and whether those franchises succeeded or failed in their absence; we collect and analyze the data for you after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 of the Most Unbelievable Movie Families

By Jason Bailey on

As we mentioned in our June Indie Preview, one of our favorite movies of the month is Your Sister’s Sister, Lynn Shelton’s smart and sophisticated indie rom-com featuring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass. But even great moves can have their little flaws, and one thing did nag at us a bit while watching the film: how is it that Blunt and DeWitt are sisters, but have completely different accents? Blunt speaks in her natural British (instead of adopting an American accent, as she did to match onscreen sister Amy Adams in Sunshine Cleaning), and DeWitt keeps her American accent (instead of adopting one to match Blunt’s, as Alison Brie did in The Five Year Engagement). It doesn’t ruin the movie or anything, but it did get us thinking about other movies where we didn’t completely buy the familial connection of the characters; after the jump, we’ve assembled ten of the most egregious examples. … Read More

Film

10 Retired Film Stars Who Deserve a Comeback

By Jason Bailey on

When perusing today’s celebrity birthdays, one name jumped out at us: the great Gene Wilder, who turns 79 years old today. Happy birthday, Gene Wilder, if you have a Google alert for your own name! A quick peek at his bio, however, made us realize that although his face seems to appear every day in our Facebook feed, he’s actually quite out of the public eye — he hasn’t made a theatrical film in over two decades. He may not be the spring chicken of Young Frankenstein (that’s Fronk-un-STEEN) anymore, but there’s still plenty of good years left in Mr. Wilder; after the jump, we plead with him and nine other beloved film stars to come out of their self-imposed exiles. … Read More

Architecture

10 Unlikely and Enchanting Guest Houses

By Claire Cottrell on

Scotland has produced some of the most enduring cultural wonders of the last century including Sir Sean Connery, Annie Lennox, David Byrne, the television and a fictional media darling of a monster that was supposedly seen fourteen years ago. To honor our favorite skirt-wearing nation, we thought we’d shed some light on another fabulous Scottish endowment: the quaint and exceedingly cozy guest house.

Not to be confused with it’s wealthier cousin, the country house, the guest house is to Scotland what the Bed & Breakfast is to New England. Much less awkwardly intimate, Scottish guest houses are often separate and self-sufficient. And, exceptionally charming. After spotting a restored 1956 fire truck turned guest house complete with wood-burning stove and fully equipped kitchen, we couldn’t help but wonder what other unlikely and enchanting guest houses sit nestled in the Scottish Highlands and beyond.

From a modern shipping container retreat to a spare room you can hang from a tree to a canvas yurt with a grand Victorian bed and your very own truck wheel barbecue, click through to check out our offbeat roundup of the most beguiling freestanding abodes perfectly suited to receiving nosy house guests and meddlesome in-laws. … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Works of Art We Can’t Believe They Got Away With

By Tom Hawking on

In the context of our post last week on French yé-yé pop, we touched on France Gall’s “Les Sucettes,” an ostensibly innocent ditty written for her by Serge Gainsbourg, which came stuffed full of allusions to oral sex. The song’s questionable enough, but the video is all kinds of wrong — giant dancing phalluses, nubile teens sucking on very suggestive lollipops, and poor little France Gall, oblivious to it all. We still can’t quite believe Gainsbourg got away with it, but then, he made a career out of getting away with it. Anyway, the whole thing got us thinking about similar works of art with hidden meanings that somehow managed to slip under the radar — history is full of them, and we’ve put together a rather eclectic selection after the jump. We’re sure there must be heaps more, so let us have your suggestions in the comments section. … Read More

Film

Actors Who Couldn’t Escape Their Biggest Role

By Alison Nastasi on

Although he won critical acclaim for several award-winning performances — including a role in Civil War movie Friendly Persuasion as a young man drawn to battle to protect his family and a part in May-December romantic drama Goodbye Again — multifaceted talent Anthony Perkins will forever and always be known as Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Immortalized on celluloid as the meek and deeply troubled murderer, Perkins’ — who would have been 80-years-old today — played Bates with a boyish vulnerability, quiet charm, and repressed anxiety that Hitchcock skillfully helped mold into one of the greatest screen villains of all time.

Many have said that Bates’ most unfortunate victim was Anthony Perkins, and that the character eventually consumed him — at least through three other sequels that spanned into the ’90s. “Without Pyscho, who’s to say if I would have endured?” Perkins once told the New York Times.

What other actors never escaped their biggest roles? We explored the careers of a few stars past the jump. Sometimes the deal of a lifetime can haunt you, making you wonder who is playing whom in the end. (And sometimes it’s not always a bad thing.) Check out our picks, and drop your faves in the comments section. … Read More