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Mischa Barton Is Walled In

BuzzSugar — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:33:38 -0700

Miss Mischa Barton, the waifish former Marissa Cooper from "The O.C.", is a busy lady these days. Currently working alongside Bruce Willis in Assassination of a High School President and having just wrapped up production on Finding t.A.T.u., Barton has landed another role. This time she'll be solving mysteries and getting goosebumps in the psychological thriller Walled In.

Based on the bestselling French novel Les Emmeures, the movie will follow Barton's character, "a demolition company rep who supervises the razing of a mysterious building and discovers horrifying secrets and past inhabitants entombed within its walls by a vicious murderer."

The movie will be French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner's first English-language project, so that should be interesting. I'm also curious to find out if Paquet-Brenner can get some good performances out of Barton, since I think she often comes across as wooden. But maybe the psychological thriller is her genre and she just hasn't had the chance to shine yet.

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90210 vs. Melrose Place: Which Was More Scandalous?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:30:22 -0800

This week's 90210 and Melrose Place combo don't have a ton of shocking moments, but it's obvious both shows are gearing up for major stuff to go down. (Like a drug bust, murder arrest, and Heather Locklear, for instance?!) We do, however, get some nice moments between the characters. Teddy, for one, is acting like an angel - although I can't tell if it's sincere, because I've made it a rule not to trust a guy who ties sweaters over his shoulders. And the gang from Melrose have a nice come-together moment around the pool, which I'd like to see more of.

Not that everything is warm and fuzzy. Hardly. There's still scandal to go around, so ready to decide which gave us more gossip-worthy material? Just read more.

90210 point: Navid discovers Jasper selling Adrianna drugs in her car in the school parking lot. Navid calls Adrianna to confront her, but she of course denies his accusations. Jasper also says the story isn't true and threatens Navid in a "hypothetical" way. Like, "hypothetically if I was a drug dealer, you wouldn't want to mess with me, because I know bad people." Real discreet stuff.
Melrose Place counterpoint: The blood tests from last week's discovery of Sydney's murder weapon come back - and Auggie is the guilty party. Auggie might as well be off the show already, because he is nowhere to be found, supposedly on a trip in Mexico. Ella's relieved, Riley has doubts, and Violet continues to defend him, seeing as how they slept together and she's crazy. When she told Riley that she and Auggie were "intimate" with each other, I nearly ralphed.

90210 point: Debbie is in the doghouse with Dixon. He tries to go comfort Sasha after her "miscarriage," and Debbie admits that Sasha faked the pregnancy - and that she hid the truth. Dixon's unreasonably angry with Debbie, telling her "you're not my real mom anyway." Come on, Dixon. Deb doesn't deserve that.
Melrose Place counterpoint: David sneaks over to Michael's house while he's at work and borrows Noah. He takes his little bro to a fair, but things go amiss when Noah climbs a wall and falls. David rushes him to Lauren at the hospital, and she administers treatment - but not before Michael gets wind of everything. He's understandably furious but later tells David that he's glad he cares about Noah. Could this be the start of an actual relationship between the father and son?!

90210 point: Liam is on the rampage after he tells Mr. Matthews that Jen is psycho and Ryan doesn't believe him. He takes his attitude out on Ivy, Teddy, and an entire group of surfers. Later, Liam explains his behavior, opening up to the guys (and Ivy) about his history with Jen, and the entire thing culminates in a cheesy friend speech to take Jen down, complete with a high-five. [eye roll]
Melrose Place counterpoint: Violet is back to blackmailing Michael. This time, we find out that she's wanted for a court trial for previously resisting arrest. She enlists Michael, suggesting that he find her a lawyer in return for her discretion about their one-night stand. He, in turn, threatens her back, telling her that he can make the sentencing go against her unless she erases the sex video. Which she does . . . or so it seems. I'm still not 100 percent sure that it won't pop up later, but the power play between the two of them was an episode highlight for me.

90210: With Silver's half birthday approaching, her mom decides to make up for years of missed celebrations and throw her multiple parties at once, dressing up their entire house in different themes. The whole thing seemed like a stretch - really, Teddy called his dad's set designer friend to rig up the ambiance? - but it was still nice to see her and her mom get their moment together. Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, Silver goes to wake her mom in the morning and realizes that her mom has passed away.
Melrose Place counterpoint: Whoa, whoa, whoa - Ella makes a move on Jonah that's bold even for her. It all starts when she needs him to pose as a publicist at a lunch with a hot new indie director. The director comes on to Ella, and Jonah swoops in to put off his advances by pretending to be her fiance. They share a steamy kiss to be extra-convincing, and sure enough, once the director is out of sight, Ella suggests that the two of them go to a nearby hotel, so Jonah can see what he's been missing. He angrily tosses Ella's advances by telling her he's in love with Riley. You could tell part of her feels hurt by his words - and that part of him doesn't actually mean them.

90210 point: Annie is falling hard for Jasper. Their back and forth "I love yous" were pretty sickening, and she even gets in a sting at Dixon, defending Jasper and telling Dixon he's a bad judge of character because of Sasha. But the most cringe-worthy part is Annie tells Jasper that she wants him to be her first - and they start tossing on the bed as the episode wraps. Oh, Annie - you're so gonna wish you had given it up to Ethan instead.

Melrose Place counterpoint: You saw it coming: Lauren and David finally kiss! David's actually a standup guy this episode by taking care of Noah, but his speech to Lauren about how he wants her to see the best in him was unexpected - and welcome, in my opinion. Lauren of course is hesitant due to her call girl lifestyle, which David still doesn't know about. I just hope they don't let that hold her back too long, so we can explore these two as a couple.

This is tough one to call, since neither show packed a ton of drama, relatively speaking. I'm going to go with Melrose Place though, since we find Auggie's blood on the murder weapon, Ella propositioning Jonah, and David and Lauren locking lips. But would you argue for 90210 instead? I'll agree that it did include some pretty nasty lines, and obviously Silver's storyline with her mom carries some weight.

Let me know your pick in the comments, then head over to the 90210 Superfans group in the Buzz Community to discuss the show in more detail.

Photos courtesy of The CW

Stars on the Set This Week!

PopSugar — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:30:46 -0700

The stars were busy on sets across the country and around the world this week. Jennifer Aniston went back to work on The Baster in LA while Michael Douglas joined Shia LaBeouf for Wall Street 2 in New York City. Across the globe The American continued filming in Italy and Ewan McGregor was on set in Scotland - check out all the stars on set this week!

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Stars on the Set This Week!

BuzzSugar — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:30:22 -0700

This week we saw cameos and comebacks along with continued filming on some of our favorite sets. Check out Heather Locklear popping up on Melrose Place, Hilary Duff hitting the Gossip Girl set, Shia LaBeouf back to work on Wall Street 2 and more on this week's roundup.

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A Serious Man: Seriously Hard To Wrap Your Head Around

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:00:10 -0700

I like the Coen brothers. I loved No Country For Old Men, I still enjoy quoting Frances McDormand lines from Fargo - I even appreciated their most recent project, Burn After Reading despite lukewarm reviews. So I went into A Serious Man with high expectations. Perhaps a bit too high.

The Coens go incredibly dark and thought-provoking this time around, and unfortunately without any big-named stars attached like Clooney a la Reading or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man probably won't live on as one of their more memorable films for viewers. In fact, many people will probably feel put off by it. To see what I mean, read more

A Serious Man opens like a horror movie, which isn't surprising given the Coen's propensity for heavy themes (and often a few stab wounds) in their stories. The music is a big player, creating tension that doesn't let up for the audience even when the screen goes to black. But the antagonizing score fits well within the nightmare existence of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor and devoted family man in '60s suburbia. First, his wife announces that she's leaving him for a touchy-feely close-talker; his unemployed brother spends entire 24-hour periods in his bathroom; and one of his foreign students is threatening to sue him. Really, the only thrill Gopnik ever gets in life is when his neighbor Mrs. Samsky sunbathes nude.

Poor Gopnik is a wound-up guy, and you feel for him and with him. (It's true; I had to decompress after this movie.) His world is spiraling out of control, so he seeks out three rabbis for a solution. Does Gopnik get the enlightenment he seeks? Not exactly, and neither do we as the audience.

There's not a single bad thing I can say about any of the actors. Each one was believable and charmingly offbeat in their role. The Coens are brilliant with character nuances - even some of the small two-minute parts managed to get laughs - but the larger picture just seemed murky from the get-go. The first five minutes of the film starts with a man in a village who accidentally invites a ghost home for dinner. It's all in Yiddish with subtitles, and it's almost like watching a stand-alone play, but I'm still not sure what it had to do with the rest of the plot, other than the Jewish religion and setting a dismal tone. So right away I felt semiconfused, but entertained nonetheless - which is pretty much how the duration of it went for me.

The film does have some great scenes - I loved the interaction between Gopnik and his foreign student, and his wife's new boyfriend Si is particularly funny - but trying to piece it together is a bit like banging your head against the wall (just like in the movie's trailer). I get that Gopnik's life sucks, but other than that, it's hard to tell exactly what we're supposed to glean from the story. I think that was sort of the point the Coens were trying to make - Gopnik doesn't get the answers he seeks, and neither do we.

Go see it if you're a hardcore Coenaholic, and enjoy the funny scenes without trying to analyze it too much. But if you prefer to dissect your movies, I'd say rent this one at home, because you may need to watch it twice.

What movies are you seeing this weekend? Review them in our Movie Review Group!

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Mad Men: This Week's 5 Maddest Moments

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:15:03 -0700

So how did this year's Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series follow up its win? With a shocking turn of events that made me stop and wonder if I was on the right channel.

Even the pun-y title, "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency," was sort of un-Mad Men-like. But with an episode loaded with the visit from Sterling Cooper's British owners, Joan's last day, and Sally's aversion to her baby brother, there was a lot going on.

To see what I thought of this week's episode (spoilers ahead!), just read more.

The bloody British invasion: Eeeeeeeeeew! In the grossest Mad Men scene ever, secretary Lois runs over visiting Guy's foot, splattering blood all over employees and the walls. (Did it really need to spray like that?! It was like an episode of Dexter.) I wanted to make like Peggy and pass out, though Sterling does get points for his "foot in the door" joke.
The Mad Men laugh factory: The second funniest joke of the episode is Joan's "One minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary's running you over with a lawn mower." Don laughed! A full-on chortle! And early on, John dryly punks Kinsey by telling him he should shave his beard. "That was a joke," he tells an irate Kinsey. I needed the assurance myself - and for the whole episode. I was thrown off; this is usually a giggle-free hour of TV.
More Joan, please: I was happy to see so much screen time for Joan. Even though I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop with her husband, I like that he's humanized when he doesn't receive his residency. Likewise, that prompts more of Joan without her standard her steely office manager facade as she offers sympathy and comfort to her devastated husband. It's an obvious contrast to Don and Betty's relationship, where communication is not a strong point. Later, she tears up when Sterling Cooper celebrates her contribution, and then once again shows how much the office needs her when the accident strikes.
Don and Roger's barbershop date: Sure, Don tells Roger he looks like a fool earlier in the season, but unlike Burt Cooper I didn't really sense that they need to patch things up. I still love that Burt sends Don and Roger on a date in an effort to get them to be buds again.
What's in a name? Sally's inability to gain closure over Grandpa Gene's death is all wrapped up in her new brother. I gotta say, I was a little weirded out myself that Betty chose to name the baby after her father. There's a clear winner in parenting this week - Betty tries to solve Sally's problem with a Barbie doll "from" baby Gene, while Don tenderly shows Sally that the baby's life is a new start. I couldn't help but swoon.

What moments stood out to you in this week's episode? Were you as beside yourself as I was over the foot/lawnmower scene? And what did you make of Conrad Hilton's summoning Don to a meeting?

Photo courtesy of AMC