Robin Hood news coming later today. In the meantime, here are some great new stills and a featurette.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters names Meryl Streep as honorary member to “an elite club that includes Toni Morrison, Stephen Sondheim and Jasper Johns.” As reader Sertan points out, Streep is the first person asked to join the Academy solely for achievement in acting.
Not even two Oscars, seven Golden Globes and a lifetime achievement prize from the American Film Institute prepared Streep for this.
“I have to say that I was stunned, and when they sent me the roster of people in the academy I just burst into tears,” Streep said in a recent telephone interview. “I couldn’t believe that I’d be even allowed in the kitchen.”
The 112-year-old academy announced Monday that Streep and conductor James Levine had been elected to a special category, established in 1983, for “Americans of great distinction in the arts whose work falls outside the traditional departments” of music (composition), literature and art.
Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about what it means to be the “it” girl, and then not in the upcoming issue of Harper’s Bazaare, “You never know if you’re going to be in or out of favor. You never know if you’re going to get a good part. I’ve been through everything from being at the top of the A-list and then, ‘No, they really don’t see you for this part.’”
Hollywood, he is an ugly beast. ¬†The public, an even uglier one. ¬†Meanwhile, Gwyneth talks about her work on the upcoming film, Love Don’t Let Me Down, which sounds like it could land Ms. Paltrow back into the Oscar discussion:
“I was so bad with the food and alcohol in Nashville.”
“If you saw me naked compared to what I looked like when I did¬†Iron Man 2, where I was eating so well and exercising everyday‚Ķ I’ll get it back together, but I just have never eaten so much fried food and white flour in my life, ever.”
“Iron Man was heaven. The kids could come every day. They had their mini Jeep they drove around the parking lot in front of my trailer. I wasn’t naked or crying like on the Nashville movie, where it was like, ‘No, you can’t visit Mommy today.’ This was a much different thing. But professionally, I did feel so ‘Oh, my God, yes, this is what I do. You know, this is me.’”
So, the one-two career boost of Iron Man 2 and the Oscar movie could put her back in contention. ¬†Funny thing about Hollywood – you really can’t ever take much of a break without having to fight pretty hard to get your A-list cred back. ¬†Love Don’t Let Me Down is described on IMDb as “A drama centered on a rising country-music songwriter (Garrett Hedlund) who sparks with a fallen star (Paltrow). Together, they mount his ascent and her comeback, which leads to romantic complications involving her husband/manager (Tim McGraw) and a beauty queen-turned-singer (Leighton Meester).”
The only potential snag here is that the film is written and directed by the relatively untested Shana Feste (The Greatest).  Original script and directed by?  We have another female auteur who might kick down a few doors.
More details about the film: Paltrow will be providing her own vocals.
Trivia: Name the films Paltrow appeared naked, or semi-naked in?
Updating this post — apparently Treme is a SERIES not a mini-series. So now, Treme, which I thought would go up against The Pacific, will now go up against Mad Men. So, yeah, it maybe has a shot – but given the Emmys’ proclivity towards repeat voting, it seems unlikely for Treme.¬† Big Love is also kind of due for award recognition — and then there is Damages, which has just been canceled by FX.
So it looks like The Pacific has no real competition at all. Ho hum.
David Simon in New Orleans on the set of his show ‚ÄúTreme.‚Äô‚Äô (Cheryl Gerber/Associated Press). From this interview with the creators.The LA Times’ Mary McNamara believes many viewers will have unrealistic expectations for HBO’s Treme, but the series more than lives up to it:
The welter of expectations and “highly anticipateds” surrounding the premiere of David Simon’s “Treme” all but demands a measure of critical blowback. Certainly there will be obligatory mewling about the new 10-episode HBO series being good but not as good as “The Wire,” which launched Simon into the elite cadre of television artistes. There may be some random chest-beating over white folks’ unfortunate tendency to get mushy in the head about black musicians and the South in general, and probably more than a few blog-ready over-analyses of the politics/wisdom/hubris/sentimentality of taking on post-Katrina New Orleans.
This Sunday, the BBC will air the story of Anne Frank told with more realism than has been attempted in the past. The Washington Post says the “absorbing and smartly simple British adaption” does what all other failed to do:
In both its edgier screenplay and grittier characters, it offers a much more realistic interpretation of Anne Frank’s days in the attic with her mother, father, sister, the three members of the “van Daan” family and the dentist “Albert Dussel.” (This version retains the pseudonyms Otto Frank gave the attic’s other residents when Anne’s diary was first published posthumously in 1947.)
At last, these small series of rooms above Otto’s spice business feel as confining and yet as broad as the diary that describes them. Obsessed with details and accuracy, this version shows us a real girl, in a note-perfect performance from 20-year-old Ellie Kendrick (who had a supporting part in “An Education”), instead of some slightly oppressed version of Nancy Drew.
The LA Times’ Mary McNamara loves Kendrick as Anne:
The Playlist tips us off to this confirmation in the LA Times by a spokeswoman for the film. It was slated for release March 26, then pushed to April 30. Now, there is no planned date.
Neither story, however, touches on the elephant in the room, Jim Carrey’s recent and unexpected break-up with Jenny McCarthy, announced via Twitter earlier this week. The two incidences are probably related, only no one is going there. A Jim Carrey movie needs a big Jim Carrey push – and since the press would only want to ask him continually about Jenny McCarthy, it is not that surprising that he would want to avoid it. This is pure speculation, nothing whatsoever to do with fact. So take it for what it’s worth.
Some sick fox on the Criterion marketing staff.
Don’t have to read the entrails to guess what they’re talking about Just hope it’s on blu-ray too, for fox sake.
