The United States of Tara

• Is there gender inequality in Pixar films? — Cinematical
• The story behind United States of Tara's cool opening credits. — Pop Candy
• Stevie Wonder is the secret to the Obamas' marriage. — CitizenSugar
• I could just kiss this post about a kissing reality show. — Popwatch
• Whoa, that wrestling video game from The Wrestler is real! — Vulture
• Can't wait till Tuesday? Go download one of the new Neko Case tracks. — Stereogum
• Dear Life on Mars: You're getting boring. — Clique Clack TV
• Could One Tree Hill go on without Lucas and Peyton? — Korbi TV

Source

• The upcoming movie The Soloist is inspiring at least 174 orchestras in 46 states to participate in food drives. — AP
• Showtime has renewed United States of Tara for a second season. — Variety
• In other renewal news, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters are rumored to be getting early pickups from ABC. — TV.com
• Mark Valley will star in a Fox pilot called Human Target, while Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Johnston are officially cast in the Absolutely Fabulous remake. — TV Guide
• Woody Allen has set Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins to star in the film he wrote and will shoot in London this Summer. — ComingSoon
• Tom Cruise is in talks to star with Denzel Washington in the David Cronenberg-directed thriller The Matarese Circle. — Variety
• Brad Paisley leads the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations with six nods. — AP
• Sam Rockwell has joined Hilary Swank in the legal drama Betty Anne Waters. — The Hollywood Reporter

Photo courtesy of Paramount

Depending on your attitude, Rosemarie DeWitt either has great luck or terrible luck with on-screen sisters. She recently starred as Rachel opposite Anne Hathaway's Kym in Rachel Getting Married, and now she's the foil to Toni Collette's Tara in United States of Tara, which just premiered to strong ratings. At TCA, I chatted with DeWitt about her film families, how she got the Tara gig, and how much Rachel was like a real wedding. Here are highlights:

How did you get the role of Charmaine?
It was just like a straightforward, old-school audition that I had. I read the script, I thought it was fantastic, and when I auditioned for it I think the part of the sister was a guest star. So it wasn't a super high-pressure situation . . . I auditioned where Spielberg and Dreamworks is all set up, and I remember thinking, "I just want to work here."

When did you find out that you were getting the upgrade to a regular character? Did that give you a chance to get more into playing Charmaine?
It was over the Summer where they invited me back, and we spoke and they said, "We're going to change Charmaine a little bit." TV I feel like you have to play — in most ways I'm nothing like Charmaine, but you have to play it a little closer to yourself, because they do change things at the 11th hour, and if you were doing some crazy character with a hunchback and now you're running a marathon — I don't know, you just have to be able to do it, basically. So they made her a little bit more quote-unquote normal. I was happy that there was a lot more love between Tara and Charmaine. She's an outsider but it would have really been hard to be like Anne Hathaway and I are in Rachel.

It was interesting to hear Diablo Cody say that Charmaine is looking for attention.
She's got a lot of issues. It's funny, because she's really awesome, and she just, I think, doesn't like herself that much. The vitamin sales, I think, are a little bit of a self-help program in and of themselves, and she's got some body issues, and issues with men, so there's just so many places to go with her and so many women in my own life to observe and draw from.

To hear more about Charmaine and Tara's relationship and how it differs from Rachel and Kym's, read more

United States of Tara is one of the most unusual shows to hit TV in a while — even for Showtime, home of drug-dealing moms and sympathetic serial killers. First imagined by Steven Spielberg, created by Diablo Cody, and brought to life by a cast led by Toni Collette and John Corbett, the show centers on a suburban housewife named Tara who is living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which causes alternate personalities to emerge when she's under stress. The show premieres on Sunday, and today, the cast and producers stopped by TCA. Here are some of the essential things to know — and be sure to check out some great pics of the stars over on Pop:

1. It was important for Tara to be open about her condition. Cody said she's seen mental illness be destigmatized over the years, so it made sense for Tara's family not to keep her illness locked away. "Obviously there are some people who are frightened or curious," she said. "There are some people who are intrigued" — and that seemed like an appropriate, modern reaction.
2. Deep down, the show's about acceptance. Nobody ever says outright that Collette's character is mentally ill, or that Tara's son is gay, or that her daughter is a jerk, said Brie Larson, who plays teenage daughter Kate. "There's no labels on this show, and I think that's the most interesting part."
3. But not everyone's OK with Tara's personalities. One of the most tense relationships on the show is between Tara and her younger sister, Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt). "Charmaine always thought that Tara got more attention," Cody said. "She's always been resentful of that." Charmaine has an occasional flirtation with Max (Corbett), Tara's husband, but Cody said it's nothing with an actual romantic spark at this point — it's just a way for her to get someone to pay attention to her for once.

To see the final two essentials, just read more

One of my dozen reasons to watch TV this month, Showtime's The United States of Tara sounds like a fascinating series. From Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starring Toni Collette, the show is a half-hour comedy about a subject that's not often fodder for yuks: multiple personalities.

Collette stars as a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which causes her to experience life as a number of different people: Tara, the suburban housewife and mother; T, a flirtatious teenager; Buck, a gun-toting man; and Alice, a perfect '50s-style homemaker. This wreaks havoc — but, apparently, hilarious havoc — on Tara's husband (John Corbett) and their teenage children.

The series premieres Sunday, Jan. 18, at 10 p.m. — but there's no need to wait. Showtime's slipped me a copy of the first episode, and you can check it out right here on Buzz if you read more

Showtime's got several intriguing new shows on its roster, and recently, the network released first glimpses of two of them: The United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie, both of which have intriguing actresses in the lead roles.

The United States of Tara, which premieres in January, stars Toni Collette as a woman with multiple-personality disorder. The clip has some scenes from the show, and in between those, the stars (and writer Diablo Cody) talk about how the project came together out of an idea from Steven Spielberg.

Nurse Jackie, which stars Edie Falco as a nurse walking the line between saint and sinner, doesn't have a premiere date yet, but I've been curious about it ever since I saw a haunting trailer for it back at TCA. Unfortunately, this clip doesn't have quite the drama of that trailer, but it's still nice just to get an idea of what the show will look like.

Do you have your eye on either show? You can watch the trailers if you read more

• Showtime has set January premiere dates for the final season of The L Word and the Diablo Cody series The United States of Tara. — Zap2it
• Michael Sheen is the latest to join Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. — Variety
• Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green is writing an animated comedy pilot for Fox. — TV Week
• Hilary Swank is set to star in the dramatic film Betty Anne Waters. — ComingSoon
• After four years apart, Phish has reunited. — AP
• TV legend Norman Lear is working on a pro-wrestling drama for HBO. — TV Guide
• Red Tails, the WWII action adventure about the Tuskegee Airmen which George Lucas will produce, has found a director in Anthony Hemingway. — Variety
• The CW is developing a series based on Batman's sidekick Robin titled The Graysons. — ComingSoon
• Oh yeah, actors could still go on strike. — Hollywood Reporter