BuzzSugar

Link Time! Janet Jackson to Open Up on TV About Michael

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:30:09 -0800

Janet Jackson will be talking about her brother in a new primetime special - TV Squad
The Real Housewives of New Jersey are invading NBC's Mercy. Seriously. - The Ausiello Files
Ryan Seacrest is letting regular people grab money from celebs for his new show Bank of Hollywood - Vulture
Here's a guide to all of the guest stars during November sweeps - TV.com
George Clooney's top 10 movies - Rotten Tomatoes
CBS picks up five more episodes of Accidentally on Purpose - HitFix
Michael Jackson's This Is It takes No. 1 on Billboard - Rolling Stone
Listen to a preview of Adam Lambert's new album - Best Week Ever
Colin Hanks to play "Jack" to Bradley Whitford's "Dan" - Collider
Twilight's Rob and Kristen finally talk about each other. Check out snippets from the interview - PopSugar
Sigourney Weaver and Alia Shawkat sign on for Cedar Rapids - Zap2it
Prepare for the onslaught of skinny jeans: Kings of Leon are creating their own limited-edition clothing line - Spinner

Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat Score HBO TV Show

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:30:13 -0700

Don't say you don't make friends on the derby rink. Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat, recent costars in Whip It, have scored a deal to write and produce a TV show for HBO. Another costar from the movie, Sean Tillman (AKA Har Mar Superstar, pictured here), is also collaborating.

The show, called Stitch 'N Bitch, will be about "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of becoming artists." It sounds obvious who these characters will be based on - both women fit that 'painfully hip' description, but there isn't a confirmation yet that they'll be starring. I'd love to see them in the roles, but also hoping this isn't one of those projects that will cause scheduling conflicts for the Arrested Development movie!

Movie Preview: Bart Got a Room

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:30:37 -0800

I saw Bart Got a Room at last year's Tribeca Film Festival and totally enjoyed it - if you'd like, you can read my review (without getting spoiled). Now there's a trailer for it and it's apparently "coming soon." I highly recommend putting this one on the to-see list for some time when you need a pretty light, easy movie that isn't too taxing, isn't too substantial and leaves you feeling good in the end.

Set in Florida, the movie follows Danny (Steven Kaplan), a teen who wants nothing more than to get some action on prom night. Over the course of the film, we watch the excruciating three weeks leading up to the big night as Danny secures everything (tux, limo, hotel room) - except for the girl. William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines play Danny's divorced parents while Alia Shawkat plays Danny's good friend.

It's a sweet little movie with some great Big Band music throughout. To check out the trailer, read more.

Source

Man, I Can't Wait to Whip It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:00:04 -0700

Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm talking about Whip It!, the film adaptation of Shauna Cross's novel Derby Girl, which just added Alia Shawkat (a.k.a. Maeby Fünke) to the cast. I knew that Drew Barrymore had signed on as the director of the film (and she'll be playing a role), and that the main character will be played by Ellen Page, but with every new addition to the cast I am even more intrigued to see this movie.

In addition to Page, Barrymore, and Shawkat, we've got Marcia Gay Harden (who I love), Juliette Lewis, Eve, former Xena stuntwoman Zoe Bell, and funny lady Kristen Wiig. The cast used to include Justin Long, but he quit after his relationship with Drew Barrymore ended.

The IMDB page for Whip It has this plot description:

In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.

Have you read Shauna Cross's novel? Do you, too, think this might end up being totally adorable? Are there any additional fun actresses you'd add to this cast?

Source and source

Alicia Silverstone to Play a Mother - to Maeby! - for ABC

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:30:57 -0700

Alicia Silverstone raised some suspicion that she was the mother after being courted by How I Met Your Mother earlier this year - but then there was that whole Britney Spears dustup, and Sarah Chalke stepped in instead. Now, it turns out Silverstone will be playing a mom - just not, you know, that one - in a new ABC comedy pilot.

Silverstone has been cast in the lead in Bad Mother's Handbook. But that's not all: Alia Shawkat, best known to me as Maeby from Arrested Development, will be playing her daughter. Silverstone's character is Karen, a 32-year-old woman overwhelmed by the demands of caring for her 16-year-old daughter and her 48-year-old mother. (Um, here's hoping Shawkat's character doesn't get pregnant at 16, too?)

Could you see Silverstone and Shawkat as mother and daughter? I'm a little worried that nothing will ever match the dysfunction of the Maeby/Lindsay Bluth dynamic, but I'm just so happy to see Shawkat back on TV that I'd be happy to watch them try! Silverstone hasn't had a great run in the sitcom world lately (her last project, The Singles Table, never aired - and remember Miss Match?), but maybe this one will be better. Your thoughts?

Source and Source

The Results Are In: Recast Reality Bites

BuzzSugar — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:28:43 -0800

Every Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

There are tons of young actors to choose from for this week's recast challenge of Reality Bites, and it was interesting to see the combinations you all came up with. I love the idea of Thora Birch for Lelaina, as bart simpson suggested, and many of you put down America Ferrera as Vickie - another great choice.

alynn's idea of Devon Gummersall playing Michael made me nostalgic for Brian Krakow - and I also think he'd make a great Michael. Deidre's idea of Joseph Cross (Running with Scissors) as Sammy Gray is totally perfect, and finally, klugea's suggestion of Justin Bobby from The Hills playing Troy made me laugh out loud.

Overall, however, my favorite recast list this week comes from anniemation! To see who anniemation picked, along with a new cast photo, read more

anniemation's cast:
Lelaina Pierce - Ellen Page
Troy Dyer - Emile Hirsch
Vickie Miner - Alia Shawkat
Michael Grates - Zachary Levi
Sammy Gray - Paul Dano

Whip It: A Rollicking Good Time

BuzzSugar — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:30:56 -0700

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, roller derby comedy Whip It, is not unlike the actress's persona: cute, fun, and with a whole lot going on.

Ellen Page stars as quiet 17-year-old Bliss Cavendar, whose mother (Marcia Gay Harden) wants to make her the queen of small-town Texas beauty pageants. Bliss meekly goes along with the idea, her voice too small to tell her mom she hates the contests. But one chance visit to nearby big city Austin and everything changes. Bliss admires some intimidating derby girls, and after sneaking off to a match, decides to try out. What follows is a fast-paced, highly entertaining girl-power anthem.

To read more about what I did and didn't like about the movie, just read more.

The movie is perfectly cast; Page plays a shy teen easily, never giving up her sweetness even after she adopts the moniker "Babe Ruthless" and gets repeatedly knocked into the rink sidelines. The team who welcomes her, the Hurl Scouts, is a motley crew: Eve and Zoe Bell don't become much more than background players, Barrymore is an ebullient if minor supporter ("Smashley Simpson"), but team captain Kristen Wiig is one of the hearts of the movie. With a part bigger than the trailer implies, Wiig (I never get tired of the derby names: "Maggie Mayhem") emerges as a mother figure when Bliss's relationship with her own mom is strained. It's nice to see her playing straight for once, and besides Page, Wiig is really the only multi-faceted derby girl.

That's not to say that the derby girls aren't anything special. Beautiful, tough, and impossibly cool, maybe you wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley, but you'd definitely want to be invited to their party. Juliette Lewis looks every part the queen bee - aggressive and sexy, she'll push you in a locker before you know what hit you. And naturally, there's a love interest, musician Landon Pigg - but he's kind of an afterthought, which I liked. By not giving in to the cliche that a girl gets everything she wants when she finds her passion, it strengthens the movie's pervasive girl power idea.

The movie isn't just about derby; it's a coming-of-age tale too, and Bliss didn't come from a shaky foundation. Alia Shawkat (yay, Maeby!) plays the hilarious and supportive BFF who doesn't exist just to cheer Bliss on from the sidelines. She's got her own thing, and is too confident to be left behind when Bliss gets wrapped up in her new life - a refreshing departure from the typical best friend character. And Harden isn't merely a strict parent caricature; she may want something completely different for her daughter, but her caring nature shines through.

It's not all success on skates, though. Sometimes the portrayal of the derby world gets to be an overzealous glorification. Sure, it's an amazing outlet for a lot of people and one of the few contact sports that really belongs to women, but the movie pushes the sexualization of the players a little too far. It's already sexy that the women play such a powerful sport, so it's not really necessary to do close-ups of the actresses' bare flesh to show the bruises.

There are a few things you could criticize about Barrymore's direction; for instance, Shauna Cross's screenplay is really quite funny, but some of the actors' lines fall flat. Also, the roller derby scenes have such potential to be exciting, and they could have been even more epic. Then again, this is Barrymore's first outing as a director, and it's still what you would expect from her: a fun-loving, freewheeling confection of a movie with a killer soundtrack.

Photos courtesy of Fox Searchlight