BuzzSugar

Portishead's Third Hits the Internet, Makes Me Nostalgic

BuzzSugar — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:00:03 -0700

Is it possible to be nostalgic for music that hasn't even been released yet? That's how I feel about Portishead, whose first album in more than a decade, Third, finally hits stores on Tuesday. Even just saying the name "Portishead" takes me back to a happy time in 1996, zoning out to Beth Gibbons' trippy vocals while writing feverishly in my journal about the trials and tribulations of high school.

The band performed live at Coachella on Saturday night, and while I would love to see the band live someday, I've been checking out the next best thing: tracks from Third that are now streaming online. If you just want to dabble, there are 30-second samples of all the songs up at Last.fm. Want more? The band's MySpace page has the full version of one track, "Machine Gun."

Want to check out the whole thing? I've got the tracks here, plus a vintage Portishead song that I'll probably always associate with watching MTV in my best friend's basement for hours at a time. Anyone else have some sweet Portishead memories? You can tell me about them when you read more.

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Buzz-Worthy Video: Sneak Peek at Chuck Season 3!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:24 -0800

I was so excited yesterday to learn that Chuck's third season premiere has been scheduled - and it's less than two months away. Still, the big two-hour kickoff can't come soon enough for me, especially after last year's epic finale. If you feel my pain, then you need to check out this sneak peek at the upcoming season. Zach Levi (sporting a new, shorter 'do) presents a very sweet message thanking his fans for all their support before showing a brand-new clip.

Even though Chuck has been given an upgrade, he's just as goofy and lovable as ever. Casey and Sarah are back undercover as our hero tries to play debonair once again - only this time he's actually got a few skills. We also get a taste for that famous sexual tension between Chuck and Sarah. I'm already counting the days so to check it out just read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

What to TiVo: Friday

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:50:59 -0800

ABC has Shrek the Third, and is new with 20/20
CBS is new with Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and NUMB3RS
FOX has repeats of House and Bones
NBC is new with Law & Order and Dateline NBC
The CW is new with Smallville and has a repeat of America's Next Top Model
MTV has repeats of Southpark and Nitro Circus, and has Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof
TLC is new with Say Yes to the Dress and Happily Ever Faster
E! is new with The Soup
USA is new with Monk and White Collar
VH1 has repeats of For the Love of Ray Jay 2 and I Want to Work for Diddy 2
Late-night highlights include Kellan Lutz on The Jay Leno Show on NBC; Viggo Mortensen on The Late Show With David Letterman on CBS; Eva Mendes and Bon Jovi on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien on NBC; Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Death Cab for Cutie on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC; Neil Patrick Harris and David Gray on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on CBS; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on NBC

The Conchords May Not Fly Again - Are You Bummed?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

The Flight of the Conchords released a new album just a few weeks ago, but we may be seeing less of the goofy New Zealanders in the future. In a recent interview, Jemaine Clement hinted there might not be a third season of their HBO series. He said, "It very likely might not. . . We've got to write the series, but we've also got to write the songs, and just dividing your time into those two writing tasks is really tricky."

I still love watching (and listening to!) the Conchords first season, though I admittedly was less enthused about the second set of episodes. Still, I would be sad to see them go. What about you - are you bummed about this news?

Talking New Moon With Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:15:50 -0800

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner may be dominating the promotional circuit right now, but they're not the only cast members with something to say about New Moon. I had the opportunity to chat with costars Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene, aka Emmett and Alice Cullen, during their recent stopover in SF. They chatted about their characters, the vampire craze, and what it's like to be a "Twilight celebrity." Here are highlights:

On why so many people are crazy for the Twilight Saga:
Ashley: I think this film in particular is highly relatable. There are a lot of situations that people can relate to. The love story - everyone can relate to being in love or being in lust. You add the vampire, and it adds that next level fantasy. Vampires are mysterious and sensual and dangerous and unattainable. And everyone wants what they can't have. I think on another level that this came together at the perfect time. All the elements just fit, the casting was spot on, and we're in a difficult time right now with our economy. That's why you never have a drop in ticket sales because everyone wants an escape, and this movie is very much an escape from reality.
Kellan: It's a good escape but also it deals with so many situations, on so many positive notes. Just looking at it from the vampire coven to the wolf pack. It just deals with everyday issues just on bigger levels, in a way. And you have Bella as the keystone in many situations. You can just all relate from different countries to issues within the United States. It's easily relatable.

To read a lot more about working with three different directors and why they feel so lucky, just read more.

On how their portrayals of the Cullens are similar or different from the books:
Kellan: We got the jobs because we brought something new to it. You can interpret the characters each their own, but I think it's what we did alongside. Just like Kristen said - she's playing Bella but she's putting her Kristen spin on it, just like all of us are. And I think that's what's making it unique. We're still following the cheat sheets that Stephenie created by making the books, and there's Wikipedia. We have a lot of information to go off of. But I hope it's what I did in my audition that set it apart from the other guys trying out.

Ashley: I think it's mannerisms too. People do fall in love with this book, but I think part of it is that they always want more. You can't write out every human mannerism. You can imagine it, but seeing the emotion in someone's eyes and seeing them be affected it - it was kind of easy to give something to it, because we were just being people. We kinda just got lucky.
On how much more of the Cullens we can expect in the remaining movies:
Kellan: Realistically, we stick pretty close to the books. Obviously us Cullens would love to be in the books a lot more, which would mean we'd be in the movies a lot more. Talking New Moon, the scenes that the Cullens - except for Ashley, playing Alice who gets to go to Italy and be a main lead in the movie - us Cullens, we have to stick really close to the books, and the scenes that we're in are really crucial to the story, as you know - the birthday scene, the voting scene. I don't know, it was kind of a tease. Chris Weitz is such an amazing director, and for us, for myself - I only worked about a week on that movie. And it didn't even seem like I really got a taste for what it was.

Ashley: In the third film, you'll see a lot more of the Cullens because it's all of us collaborating and then getting ready to fight this war that's coming up. In the second one, my character got a much larger role because Alice is the Cullen, other than Edward, that really embraces Bella and they end up becoming best friends. In the beginning, you see her throw this huge party for Bella, and then Alice is the one who does, in fact, come back for Bella when everyone else decides to skip town. Alice is responsible for dragging Bella over to Italy, and she and I the whole time are fighting to save my brother's life. And then of course we get held up by the Volturi and stuff like that. My character got to grow a lot, which is really cool. You get to actually see the relationship develop between Bella and Alice, where in the first one you didn't. The first one was very much about the romance and showing the audience why these two people are willing to die for each other.
On working with a different director on each film:
Ashley: Each director is going to be very different. They're artists as well, and I don't think any of them are quite the same. The books, when you read them, all have very, very, different tones. So I think it's highly appropriate that we switch directors each go. The first one is very much a romance and is a very scenic, beautiful film. And Catherine's really, really great at capturing that. She's very high energy and works well in chaos and stuff like that. And it was fantastic because we didn't quite know what we were getting ourselves into, and so it was nice to have her to guide us when we were freaking out a little bit. She was just so high energy, and it was really contagious. We were sad to lose her and move on to the second film, but then we got Chris Weitz and he's the complete opposite! But great as well. He's so giving and caring and collaborative and created this atmosphere that was kind of a safe haven for us. And it was really nice because we didn't know, switching directors, if they were gonna embrace us or if they had a completely different vision than what we created in the first one. It was nice that he was right there on the same page with us. And the second one is a warmer film, even from the color scheme. The first one is very blue tones, and the second one is much richer and warmer and I think he did a great job at capturing that. And we just finished shooting with David Slade, and I think he's highly appropriate as well. He just finished shooting 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy, and they're both very dark, edgy films. And Eclipse is very much that. It's all centered around the anticipation and us getting ready to fight this huge war. We just finished filming, we haven't gotten to see much of it, but I think it's gonna be fantastic. He is, technically, the most advanced director. The angles that he shot and how he knows that tweaking something can affect a whole scene and the lenses. He was really nice to work with.
On coping with the fan effect and being a "Twilight celebrity"
Kellan: That's what blows my mind, 'cause I feel like it's really unearned in a way. The fans are making our careers. Without them, we wouldn't be working and doing the saga. There's so many times that trilogy books become a movie and the first one bombs, and then that's it. And you're always hopeful that you get to do them all. Especially since we're all in love with our characters. I love Emmett Cullen to death, he's my favorite character I've ever played. It's just so cool to have made it this far, and I think we all hope that we get to finish this series and do Breaking Dawn. This is such a blessing, it's every actor's dream to be part of something like this. It's not terribly hard either. We don't shoot halfway around the world; we don't shoot for a year of our lives. I know a lot of us have homes, we have pets, we have family. And it's really nice to shoot on the West Coast, either Portland or Vancouver, and have the chance to fly down if we need to. But it's definitely amazing to be part of something like this. And I don't think any of us knew how crazy it would be and how exhilarating it would turn out to be. Going to the premiere, really just, wow. I don't even remember it because I was really just starstruck by how many fans and signs and cameras. It felt like I was just walking through a strobe light room. It's amazing.

Ashley: I still think we can't really wrap our heads around what's going on and what's happening. We're still in the midst of filming and kept very busy from one film until the next. It's only these brief moments where you sit back and are actually able to take a breath where you go "Whoa. Wow. This is crazy." I mean, the amount of tickets they've already sold for New Moon - I'm pretty sure I can't even get a ticket if I tried to see my film in Jacksonville and it's mind boggling. We're just very lucky. I went into this film thinking "Oh my gosh, I got a job" and the it turned into the biggest break of my life. I think we all feel very blessed to be a part of this.
On how it feels to be part of Twilight fan fiction:
Kellan: It's an escape, in a way. We do live in a trivial time period right now. There's so much depression that it's kinda cool to be a part of something where people use it to be an escape. In a way that's kinda what Stephenie did -she had a dream and just elaborated on it. It became a huge success and it's really encouraging that people are doing the same and just making up this journey.

Ashley: That's why people love it so much I think. You can take it and make what you want of it. Before the demographic was teenage girls, but now it's women of every age and guys are starting to get into it, too. It's because there is that element of fantasy. If you're 8 years old you look at it one way; if you're 80 years old you look at it another. I think it's fantastic that we can draw such a huge crowd. The other thing is - it blows my mind but people are making connections over this film and over this book. there are mothers and daughters and grandmas who can all sit and talk about the same story and all fantasize about it and I think that's a really cool thing. I think it's rare.

To see all of our Twilight and New Moon coverage, check out TwilightSugar!

Rob, Kristen, and Taylor Are This Week's Entertainment

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:56:22 -0800

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner have been posing for photo ops all over town - check out Pop's favorite promo tour moments - and it wouldn't be complete without an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In the cute interview, the costars quip about everything from Rob's attachment to his signature hair to Kristen's confession that she'd like to quit smoking to Taylor's obsession with hitting the gym for New Moon. There're also tidbits about Rob and Kristen's off-screen relationship and how Robert handles fandom. They're clearly a tight-knight trio, so check out the highlights below. If you can't get enough Twilight, keep the convos going in the Twilight Saga community group, and be sure to check back next week for my own interview with Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz!

Robert Pattinson on his hair in Eclipse: I swear to you I’ve never experienced anything like this. It's every single day. In Twilight, they wanted me to have extensions down to my hips.
Kristen Stewart: He's a liar. He doesn't remember. He's remembering how they made him feel, but they were just, like, down to here [pointing to her shoulders].
Pattinson: So I told them, "Look, that's just not going to happen." I said, "It looks like this already – I'll come to set like this." I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance, so in the second one I said, "Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let's make it a little more real, a little bit more . . . Method.” [Laughs] And then in the third one, I'm doing fight scenes and there's a strand going down my forehead and they're like, "We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!" I'm like, really, is my face that generic?
Stewart: They want proof that you're doing your own stunts, man!
Pattinson: I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears.

For tons of more quotes, just read more.

EW: How are you all coping with living in a fishbowl?
Pattinson: It really depends on the mood. When I met you last year [before Twilight came out], I was doing interviews very sporadically and I never got recognized. Now it's like anywhere I go there's immediate recognition. So there's more of a responsibility . . .
Stewart: I don't mind working every day. It's just, suddenly, I have this other role. And that's really disappointing. All I'd like to do is go outside with a book and figure out what to do with the day. And if I can't do that, then I'm just going to sit in my hotel room on my balcony and chain smoke. [Pauses] I'm going to stop smoking. I'm not such a good smoker, anyway. It's not in my bones. I'm gonna drop it.
Pattinson: The three of us have been working for two years [straight]. It does feel like your day has a shape just as soon as you wake up. I just forget what it's like when you're free.
EW: Taylor, you're the only one who almost lost a shot at the sequels. Do you have a different relationship with fame because you had to fight for your job?
Lautner: No, I kept my eye on the prize 100 percent of the time. I was motivated. I wasn't even thinking about anything else.
Stewart: Thank God you got the job. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with you if you didn’t. After all those months of working out!
Lautner: I just wanted to focus on what I could control, and I worked really hard.
EW: You mean in the gym? Because I see your abs everywhere these days.
Lautner: Yeah, the gym was a major part, but I really studied the books and the character, too. And it all turned out good.
EW: Kristen, it must be nice to watch the guys' appearances get obsessed over for a change.
Stewart: Seriously, it's a trip to sit back and look at the sexual objectification of these dudes. I've never been asked to do any of this stuff.
EW: You guys are lucky. You clearly all dig each other.
Lautner: The amount of time we have to spend with each other – if I didn't like these two, it would be exhausting.
EW: Rob, you made Remember Me this summer, between sequels. Was that the set in New York, where you were knocked into a cab by hordes of fans?
Pattinson: That was completely made up. I was walking across the street, and there was one cab going about one mile an hour and it nudged my leg. The story ended up being how I got hit by a cab because of a mob of screaming fans, [but] it was 4 o'clock in the morning and there was one person there – a paparazzi. . . . And then there was another time – apparently they said on the news that I had a drug overdose. The security guy saw it on TV, and I wasn't in my room, and he was like, "Uh-oh!" It's just so weird. I wake up and my room is too messy to order room service, and so I end up eating a pack of M&M’s for breakfast – and it takes me about five hours to find it. That's my first five hours of the day. [Laughing] And then you see the news and think, "Who cares if he had a drug overdose? It would probably make him more interesting!"
EW: Kristen and Rob, why do you think people are so obsessed with the state of your off-screen relationship?
Pattinson: Good question. That's a little thing I have to think about every day.
Stewart: Maybe it's just my personality, but I'm never going to answer it. I probably would've answered it if people hadn't made such a big deal about it. But I'm not going to give the fiending an answer. I know that people are really funny about "Well, you chose to be an actor, why don’t you just f---ing give your whole life away? Can I have your firstborn child?"
EW: You don’t think just saying, for example, "Listen, we dated for a few months, it was weird, we're better off as friends" would end the speculation?
Pattinson: No way.
Stewart: People are deeply judgmental and I'm not strong enough. I would love to be like, "I don't care what anybody thinks." But I'm a very private person. And think about every hypothetical answer: "Okay, we are. We aren't. I’m a lesbian." I've thought about this a lot. There's no answer that's not going to tip you one way or the other. I'm just trying to keep something. If people started asking me if I was dating Taylor, I'd be like, "F--- off." I would answer the exact same way."

Box Office: Audiences Get in the Spirit With A Christmas Carol

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Disney received an early present this year: The revamped version of the classic tale A Christmas Carol took the top spot at the box office in its opening weekend with $31 million. While that figure is on the low end of studio estimates for the film, insiders hope that it will continue to gain more movie-goers as we near the holidays. Following behind at No. 2 was last weekend's box office champ, Michael Jackson's This Is It, with $14 million.

Rounding out the rest of the top five were two more new releases - The Men Who Stare at Goats came in third with $13.3 million, and Milla Jovovich's The Fourth Kind took fourth place with $12.5 million. Fan favorite Paranormal Activity slipped to No. 5 with $8.6 million.

The small success story of the weekend was Precious, which raked in $1.8 million despite only opening in 18 theaters. Expect to see it climb up the box office chart next week as it expands into more cities.

Mad Men, "Shut the Door. Have a Seat": This Week's 5 Maddest Moments

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:30:53 -0800

Wow. The biggest surprise of the third season finale of Mad Men isn't actually a plot point, but how light and almost exciting it manages to be. For a show that's normally so tense and tightly wound, this week's episode has a quick pace, and at times, a sense of humor. Of course, there is still disappointment and heartache; some of our predictions for the finale come true, but some go sadly unfulfilled.

Without further ado, let's talk about the door that closes and the one that opens this week, and as usual, the finale's five maddest moments, when you read more.

So long, Connie: It's eccentric hotelier Conrad Hilton that breaks the news to Don that rival agency McCann is buying PPL, and Sterling Cooper along with it. Don's plenty irate, as it's Hilton's fault that he was signed into a three-year contract and is thus, trapped. However, Don's bitterness quickly turns to ambition, when he rallies Burt, then Roger, to buy back Sterling Cooper from PPL. Pryce is unhelpful in even supplying the purchase price for the men, quashing the buyback plans, but then another scheme is launched: Pryce fires Don, Roger, and Burt so they can form a new agency.
Draper Dissolution: While an exciting change is happening for Don in his career, back at home a bleak change is coming. Betty informs Don that she's seen a divorce lawyer and advises him to do the same. It's painful watching these two spar, and I wanted so much for them to figure out how to fix it - but the ball is clearly in Don's court and he does nothing to sway Betty to call off the divorce. Sure, he tells her to, and even suggests that she might need psychiatric help. Oh, and he tells her that he gave her everything she wanted materially, insinuating that should be enough. Don may know what his clients want, but in his marriage, he has no idea what Betty wants.
Irreconcilable differences: Don sheepishly tolerates the divorce talk until he's having drinks with Roger, who spills the beans about Betty taking up with Henry Francis (I do have to say, it is rather nice to see these two getting along, acting like buds). This sends a drunken Don home to wake up Betty for a confrontation about her indiscretion, and things get nasty and uncomfortably physical. Again, Don manages to push Betty into even more resolve, and she tells him that she's going to Reno to initiate the divorce. Don and Betty devastate the kids with the news of their separation, and Betty makes good on her threat to go to Reno after Don softens a tiny bit - to tell her that he won't fight her.
Don, at your service: One of my favorite parts of this episode? Seeing Don put through the paces by Pete and Peggy. He's always treated them like underlings, and they finally have the opportunity to assert themselves. Don obliges them both and tells them how valuable they are, but not before Peggy pushes back. Her backbone straightens when she's first told of the new company and assures Don that she's had "other offers." Luckily, Don doesn't take no for an answer, and visits Peggy at home, telling her he'd spend the rest of his life trying to hire her if she turned him down now. It's so touching to see Don put aside his ego to acknowledge these others, and it makes me sad that he can't do something similar for Betty.
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce: The gang's back together! It's thrilling good fun watching the new company assemble - Roger and Don get the agency's most prized employees one by one, plus my favorite: Joan! She's a necessity to help find all the files and materials in the office, and, they realize, a force that had been holding the company together. Her role in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (can you say "Michael Scott Paper Company"? I told you these two shows have a lot in common!) is a given. With everything coming together so perfectly, though, I wondered why Sal isn't also called in. I suppose we have next season to look forward to for that. Speaking of, next Summer can't come fast enough.

It's interesting that the finale also weaves in flashbacks of Don's early childhood, as this season's premiere did. What Don is remembering now, though, is how his father died. The elder Whitman was faced with losing his home, and after breaking free of the cooperative, readies a trip to the city to sell his crop. His spooked horse kicks him in the head, killing him, with the young Don as witness. It's an obvious parallel to Don's circumstances, who's losing his home, as in his marriage; and, losing his home, as in his life's work. Of course, he only manages to take control of one of those.

So what did you think? Did this season wrap up the way you wanted it to? And even though we won't see the Draper family or the worker bees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce until the fourth season returns, you can still join the Mad Men group in the community to chat about the show year-round.

Photo courtesy of AMC

Buzz In: What Are Your Hopes For the Mad Men Season Finale?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:30:26 -0800

Tonight, the third season of Mad Men wraps up, and there couldn't be more characters and plotlines on a precipice. Last week, Betty told Don she doesn't love him anymore and got a marriage proposal from Henry, and Pete was looking close to leaving Sterling Cooper. The season has also been building up other situations that may come to a head tonight, such as Joan and Roger's relationship, Salvatore's unjustified firing, and the casting aside of Don's latest mistress, Suzanne, who seems to me to be a bit unstable.

There's rarely a happy ending on this show, but for some reason, I'd still really like to see Don fight for Betty; now that she knows he was Dick Whitman, they could have a chance to start over in a more honest place. In the meantime, I hope they resolve the Sal plot and bring him back - he has to come back! As does the show's resident bombshell, Joan Holloway, whom I predict must be returning to either the office - or to Roger's arms. These are my hopes for the season finale tonight; what are yours?

Photo courtesy of AMC

Buzz In: Are You Interested in Seeing Another Kill Bill?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:30:49 -0700

Last week, Quentin Tarantino stoked the fire of a Kill Bill sequel when he mentioned that he'd like to start working on the third installment in the next few years.

Now he's talking more details, specifically timeline: Tarantino wants to wait until ten years after the last film ended to pick up on the story of Uma Thurman's character Beatrix Kiddo (AKA The Bride) and her daughter B.B.

It's kind of a cool concept - B.B. will be a teenager, and the idea is that Beatrix and her child have had a decade of calm, until this third film, when, clearly swords, snakes, and Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Techniques will be pulled out. I'm not totally psyched that we'll have to wait until 2014 to see the film, but Tarantino's gonna do what Tarantino's gonna do. In the meantime, what do you think - are you still interested in the Kill Bill franchise and eager to revisit the bloody story? Do you have hopes for the film or would you rather Tarantino stick with new stuff?