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TV Tonight: The Real World Turns 20

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:30:06 PDT

Think fast: Which Real World was your first? Mine was the San Francisco season, the show's third, with the consciousness-raising storylines of HIV-positive Pedro and the attention-grabbing antics of troublemaker Puck. That season got me hooked on the show, which I followed regularly for the next decade or so, watching as group after group of attractive 20-somethings moved into an immaculately decorated house together to "stop being polite and start getting real."

Tonight, the 20th edition of The Real World premieres on MTV. It's strange to think how different television has become since the series first took the air in 1992. I'm sure there were reality series before The Real World, but the show's influence is unmistakable in so many of today's shows - notably anything that puts strangers in a house together just to watch what happens.

For the longest time, there seemed to be something pure in The Real World - like the people had chosen to do the show more for the experience and less for the exposure. But recent seasons have seemed less honest and more like all the other reality shows the series spawned, with cast members seeming to have great aspirations of Hollywood fame. So it's oddly appropriate that for its 20th season, The Real World is blatantly going Hollywood. Every member of the cast aspires to work in entertainment, whether as an actor, a model, a reporter, or a singer. On the one hand, that could make the made-up drama even more annoying, since it's clear everyone wants to get noticed; on the other hand, at least they're being honest about it.

Will you be checking out this milestone season of The Real World? To watch a preview, just

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Robert Pattinson Talks Racy Cosmopolis Scenes

Lauren Turner — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:39:53 PDT

Robert Pattinson on refusing to do certain scenes in Cosmopolis - People
Bethenny Frankel responds to divorce rumors - Us Weekly
Listen to AI winner Phillip Phillips's first single - HuffPost Entertainment
So many reasons to love Tom Hardy - Lainey Gossip
Oops! There's a serious typo in the Great Gatsby trailer - Zap2It
See Kim Zolciak's topless wedding gift for her fiancé - TooFab
Michael Fassbender is "happy to fly the flag for gingers" - Celebitchy
MTV's The Real World celebrates 20th anniversary - The Daily Beast
See what critics think about Robert Pattinson's Cosmopolis - Hollywood Reporter
You won't believe what the Blink-182 girl looks like today - BuzzFeed
Why did Britney Spears leave X Factor auditions early? - The Insider
Are you excited for Katy Perry's new movie? - Rotten Tomatoes
Michelle Obama wants to trade places with Beyoncé - Wonderwall
Find out which pop stars will host the Miss USA pageant - Lifeline Live

Marion Cotillard Talks Rust and Bone and Loving Her Baby Son Marcel

Allie Merriam — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:08:36 PDT

Marion Cotillard is at Cannes this week chatting up her latest movie Rust and Bone. She wore Dior last night for the red carpet premiere of the film, and posed alongside costars Matthias Schoenaerts, young actor Armand Verdure, and director Jacques Audiard. The picture is ready for audiences after Marion and Matthias worked on it together last Fall in the South of France. Marion plays Stéphanie in the film, a killer-whale trainer whose life is changed after a tragic accident. So far, the Rust and Bone reviews are positive.

We caught up with the actress today at a press event this morning. Marion chatted about getting into the mindset to play Stéphanie, as well as about her career. She also touched on how life is different now that she's a mom to 1-year-old Marcel, and whether or not she consults with her husband, director and actor Guillaume Canet, before making a big career decision. Marion also gushed about her Inception and Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. She said:

On motherhood changing her approach to work: "When I am in the character, it's completely the character. But usually when I work, I create this environment - especially that most of the time I am out of Paris and France - so I can create a new apartment in a new house or a hotel room. I can create a special environment that I need. I will entirely go back to myself when the movie is finished . . . [but during production] someone is sharing my body and is there most of the time. With my son it's impossible to take someone else home . . . There is this human being that I love more than anything, and who needs me."
On consulting with Guillaume before accepting a role: "It's usually all for myself. If I need advice, I will obviously ask the people I love and the people I trust. Usually, I create my own little world and deal with it."
On it being easier to act in French: "To play in French is definitely less demanding than playing in English with Polish accent or Italian or even French accent. Simply because I don't have to think about how I say the words. I don't have to think about, 'Does it sound French?' Because it will obviously sound French! But I love working in English. It's very, very interesting."
On being tough like her character, Stéphanie: "I definitely have strength . . . it would be a long conversation on how strength is manifested in yourself, but there's very few things that - actually I don't think there's one thing I could think about that could put me down."
On working with Christopher Nolan: "I really love this guy. He's so, so smart. He is such an amazing director and author. It's very rare to work with a director in Hollywood, especially on big, big movies like Batman, who not only directs the movie but writes the script. It's very, very unusual . . . It's massive, but it's also very, very intimate. I love this about him. He loves real things, real connections, real feelings."
On using her celebrity to spread awareness about the environment: "If you manage to spread what you think - because you think what you think is right - it's a beautiful thing to meet people who are not aware. Because there are still people who are not aware of what we are going through and what the world is going through. It's a good thing to share, and to change, step by step."

What to TiVo: Sunday

Maggie Pehanick — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:59:00 PDT

8:00 Once Upon a Time (new, season finale)
9:00 Desperate Housewives (new, series finale)

8:00 Survivor: One World (new, season finale)
10:00 Survivor: One World Reunion (new)

8:00 The Simpsons (new)
8:30 Bob's Burgers (new)
9:00 Family Guy (new)
9:30 American Dad (new, season finale)

8:00 Harry's Law (new)
9:00 Celebrity Apprentice (new, season finale)

Meeting My Sperm Donor

The Good Men Project — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:50 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Ben Sommer, conceived through alternative insemination, is a young man now and tells the story of deciding to meet his donor.

I grew up in a middle-class home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with two loving parents, both of whom are women. My conception was perhaps the most organized and scientific miracle of the modern American family - my architecture, the dream of dozens of individuals conducting their work across thousands of miles.

Objectifying Ryan Gosling

I was conceived through alternative insemination. A donor submitted his sperm to the Sperm Bank of California in Oakland (TSBC). Later, it was sent to the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston. Since opening its doors in 1982, TSBC has helped families without the ability to conceive on their own to birth over 2,000 children. Two thirds of those have ended up, like me, being raised in a lesbian household. TSBC is also the first sperm bank to offer a donor-identity-release program, which allows children of alternative insemination access to their donors' information when they turn 18.

I am not as much an oddity as you might think. As of 2005, some 270,000 children in the United States had same sex-parents. We are a generation that is just now beginning to come of age and able to share our stories. This is mine.

Growing up in a lesbian household was much like growing up in any other family unit, I imagine: vacations to Cape Cod, parents working late and sometimes not, play dates with a diverse group of friends.

I never gave much thought to that mysterious figure across the country. I never questioned the fact that I didn't have a father. As far as I was concerned I didn't need one. Is having two moms really all that different than having a mom and a dad? Parents are parents, right? I didn't see a difference at the time. My parents didn't either - at least at first.

They decided to conceive through a donor, in part, to avoid the complications that a third parent would bring. Asking a close male friend to donate, like some couples have done, can create unforeseen consequences. In the past, there have been custody battles between the donor and the parents raising the child. This was the case with a friend of mine, whose parents arranged donation from a male family friend. With a semi-anonymous donor like the man my parents chose, it would be clear who my parents were. And it was.

That's not to say that it was smooth sailing. "When we first learned you were going to be a boy, we really panicked," my mother told me recently. "Who's going to teach him to throw a ball? We didn't have many male friends. There was even basic stuff, like who's going to teach him to pee standing up. That doesn't come naturally."

Read the rest of the story below.

The Jonas Brothers May Return to TV

Becky Kirsch — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:30:08 PDT

The Jonas Brothers may be getting their own reality show - Zap2it
Watch three more clips from The Hunger Games - NextMovie
The best moments from The Walking Dead season 2 - BuddyTV
See what made the list of Liam Hemsworth's five favorite films - Rotten Tomatoes
See which musical Glee is tackling next - HuffPost TV
See how many shows of The Hunger Games are already sold out - The Hollywood Reporter
Check out the trailer for Madagascar 3 - Moviefone
Inside the world of real-life Quidditch - The Daily Beast
Check out these Mad Men-inspired office accents - CasaSugar

Octavia Spencer Calls Her Oscar Win "Fan-Effing-Tastic"

Becky Kirsch — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:11:07 PST

Octavia Spencer completed her award season sweep with the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in The Help. After giving a very teary speech on stage, Spencer dried her eyes and cracked jokes back in the press room. She talked about how humbled she is by her win, her deep love and respect for her cast mates, and why you can't take yourself too seriously in showbiz.

On the tone of the film: We wanted to make the movie that Kathryn Stockett had envisioned when she wrote the book. I don't think there's anything lighthearted abut the civil rights movement, but if you can have a laugh every other 10 minutes while you watch the struggle, then I have no problem with it.

On her upcoming plans: Tonight I am going to find my cast mates and I'm actually going to have a quarter of a glass of champagne and hang out. I think we all start projects within the next couple of days, but I'm just gonna live in this moment because lord knows it's never gonna happen again.

On what the cast meant to her: It's very rare that you have the type of ensemble that we had. You don't get all the Academy Award nominees and winners coming together to do a project. And then you have the collaboration of Academy Award nominees behind the scenes. We just left our egos at the door and worked together as one beautiful unit. It was an award-winning cast. So to be a part of that, and to just sort of dissolve into the world that we were representing is something that we're supposed to do as actors, but it was rare that we did it without judgment of each other.

On her love affair with The Help: The word I want to use, I can't. I want to say fan-effing-tastic. But we'll leave the "effing" out. Fantastic. It is humbling, the love affair I have with The Help. I'm a benefactor of all of the riches that the real life Minnys, Aibileens, Cosntantines, Skeeters, that they basically reaped. And so I am very humbled because I get to stand here and accept this award and I haven't really done anything.

On what she was feeling at the moment she won and advice: Really and truly I was just trying not to fall down. This is one of those evenings in my life that I'll never forget. I hope it's the hallmark for more aspiring actresses of color, and by color I don't just mean African American. I hope that in some way I can be some sort of beacon of hope. Especially because I am not the typical Hollywood beauty.

On her advice for aspiring actresses: Get a great designer because you don't know if you're gonna be on TV or not. I think that you have to believe in yourself, and you have to work very hard. You can't think that you're the best thing that sliced bread, because there are going to be Viola Davises, Jessica Chastains, Emma Stones, who are the best things since sliced bread. Take it seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously.

On her dream role: I don't have one role that I want to play. I guess I want to be a producer. I want be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, that are good at what they do and deserve a shot at it. I want to have a presence behind the scenes and in front of the camera. I want to be a jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.

Angelina Jolie on Not Living a "Shallow, Horrible Life"

Lauren Turner — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:58:59 PST

Angelina Jolie talks about living in the "real world" - UsWeekly
See Lourdes Leon's new shaved-head hairstyle - People
Did you know Matthew Perry is dating Lizzy Caplan? - Lainey Gossip
Oprah's got big Oscars plans - HuffPost Entertainment
LeAnn Rimes admits to calling the paparazzi - D-Listed
Ha! Hot celebrities who resemble modern-day cavemen - BuzzFeed
All the details on Katy Perry and Russell Brand's divorce settlement - YourTango
Lindsay Lohan and more of Wilmer Valderrama's many loves - Insider
Which Oscar nominee got mistaken for Kate Walsh? - JustJared
Vanessa Hudgens gets edgy in a see-through leather dress - Hollywood Tuna
Selena Gomez lands a big new role with Adam Sandler - Pink Is the New Blog
Madonna throws M.I.A. under the bus for her Super Bowl slipup - The Superficial
Not everyone loved Oscar nominee Midnight in Paris - The Daily Beast
Channing Tatum's hottest shirtless moments - TooFab
Khloe Kardashian is having fun with the different dad rumors - popbytes

The Muppets' Music Man Bret McKenzie on His Oscar Nod and Taking a Silly Job Seriously

Lindsay Miller — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:50:41 PST

Bret McKenzie is up for an exceedingly rare honor this year, with his ballad "Man or Muppet" earning one of just two nominations in the Oscars' best song category. I caught up with The Muppets' musical supervisor today at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to chat about the awards attention and the unique experience of penning music for Kermit and company. The New Zealand native talked about fighting the temptation to use the word "motherfrogger" in his songwriting and the roundabout way he came on board The Muppets project in the first place. Bret - who previously was best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords - also shared his hopes of bringing FOC to the big screen. Check out our conversation below:

PopSugar: It's got to be an honor to be nominated for an Oscar, but also in a year when the Academy only bothered to nominate two songs.
Bret McKenzie: They barely nominated anyone! When I found out, it sounded like there'd been a mistake, and yeah, it's a huge honor. It's great and it's really exciting, and I'm not complaining that there's only two nominees the year I'm nominated. I mean, this is the best chance I'll have of winning an Oscar, ever. It couldn't have been better, unless there was just one nomination, and then it would be a very dull ceremony . . . There's a lot of legendary musicians - tunesmiths - in that list of possible nominations. So it's all very surreal to think that I got in ahead of Elton John.

PS: And Madonna. Those two had a little rivalry going on.
BM: I know. I got nervous about what Elton John's husband was going to say about me. It's crazy, and it's great for The Muppets film, because we're all really proud of the film and it wasn't ever really going to get a best actor. Hey, Jason's good, that's not what I mean, but Kermit, Miss Piggy - they can't win these awards - and comedies don't generally get recognized at these awards ceremonies, so it's kind of cool. It's almost like the film as a whole is being recognized with this category.

For more from our chat with Bret, including what he says about his plans for a Flight of the Conchords film, coaching Jason Segel, and the pressure he felt on the project, just

PS: What was the biggest unexpected challenge for you writing music for the film? I know you talked about one draft of a song where you referred to a Muppet as a piece of felt and were told you couldn't do that.
BM: Yeah. Little piece of felt, and you couldn't say things like motherfrogger, even though it's very tempting. There were lots of hard parts to it. The Muppets can't sing certain notes. They can't sing too high or the voice changes and doesn't sound like the right character. There were so many weird things. I spent hours recording penguins and rats, and what's weird is that it's such a silly job, but you have to take it very seriously. So I would be in the studio for days, maybe a whole day recording penguins, and then I'm like, "I'm not happy with how the penguins are sounding! Where's penguin four?" You know, getting demanding. "We lost penguin track four! I can't hear the penguin!"

PS: I was watching the movie again last night and watching Jason Segel's performance of "Man or Muppet." Did you coach him on any of his rockstar moves? Because he pretty much nailed it.
BM: He nailed it. That's my favorite moment in the film. When he buckles down in the rain, that was one of my favorite shots. I was so proud of what James [Bobin, the director] and those guys achieved, because I wasn't there on set, I just saw them syncing the video, and I was like, "Wow, guys. You nailed it." What we did do in the studio, as Jason and I had a technique where I would sing a line, and he'd watch me through the window, and then he'd sing it back. So we did this thing where, I was really into the drama of it. So, I was like, "Am I a Muppppettt?" [balling his hands into fists] And he'd be like, OK, record. "Am I a Muppppettt!" So we kind of worked together to get that style.

PS: Did it shatter some of your childhood illusions to have the guy that does Miss Piggy's voice come work with you [in the recording studio]?
BM: Yeah. Well, it wasn't Frank Oz. The guy Eric, who does it now, yeah. That was strange. And the day that we recorded Kermit the Frog doing "Rainbow Connection" - I was sort of pinching myself, because that was probably one of the real moments for me where I realized that my world had really changed. That I'd come from New Zealand, I'd grown up with Kermit the Frog, and now I was in Hollywood in a studio recording Kermit the Frog. It felt like worlds had collided.

PS: Was there pressure knowing there was already this great catalog of Muppet songs? To try to add to that or top it in some way?
BM: I knew I wouldn't top "Rainbow Connection," but I was very intimidated, but the way I worked on the job was it actually started with me just writing one song, so I didn't feel the pressure of writing the whole movie. I think it would have been different if I'd been hired from the outset to do all the music. So I wrote one, then another, and gradually wrote more and more, so that helped.

PS: What song did you write first?
BM: The opening song. That's the one they needed, that's the one James asked me to write first. The script was probably on a second draft, and they were in preproduction, so I came in quite late. And the way they were doing it was, they got 100s of demos submitted from all sorts of songwriters, and surprisingly - even though they got some really great people to do demos - people weren't quite hitting the right tone. The Muppet tone. I'd just come off the Conchords tour and I had some time, and James asked if I was interested in doing that opening song, because he had a kind of specific thing he needed from that song. He needed it to be really Muppet-y, that song, and he had a great idea for the whole town joining in, it starting off small and becoming a big musical number, and that came together really well.

PS: Is this experience maybe something you want to bring to a Flight of the Conchords movie?
BM: Yeah, exactly. Having done this movie now, we're in a much better place to do a Conchords film, because James is more experienced - well, we're all more experienced. Not specifically, but James Bobin - well, we're all very keen to do another studio musical, because I really enjoyed being able to do comedy musical numbers on such a grand scale, and I think next time, I really think it will just get better and better. Because it's such a fun genre, and we've done like 50 songs for TV now, and now The Muppets movie, and I feel like we've accidentally sort of become musical comedy experts.

PS: What do you imagine Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords are up to these days, in their universe?
BM: In the Lower East Side? That's a good question. I reckon they probably got a regular gig now. Like, at a Chinese restaurant.

Photo courtesy Disney

Go Inside William and Kate's Marriage in New Documentary

Allie Merriam — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:20:55 PST

A royally sanctioned doc will air tonight about Will and Kate's first six months of marriage - Lifeline Live
Katie Couric and her boyfriend of five years split - People
Get ready for a lot more Will Smith, everywhere! - Lainey Gossip
Kate Winslet takes being a role model very seriously - Huffington Post
Elizabeth Taylor's gems are truly out of this world - The Daily Beast
Lamar's new coach is a big Khloe Kardashian fan - Us Weekly
How Real Housewife Kim debuted her baby - TooFab
Angelina has a new DVD out this week! - Rotten Tomatoes
Will the team behind Book of Mormon bring us an Austin Powers musical? - Hollywood Reporter
Chord Overstreet is happy to talk about girlfriend Emma Roberts - Wonderwall
Find out which soap is getting back a big star - Zap2It
What do you think of Cameron and Diddy's PDA-fest? - Celebitchy