BuzzSugar

The Results Are In: Recast While You Were Sleeping

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:45:53 PST

Every other 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!

For this week's recast challenge, I turned to a Christmastime-y romantic comedy, While You Were Sleeping, and the suggested cast lists were really excellent. I had a tough time deciding on just one cast because they each had at least a few perfect actors for these roles. I particularly enjoyed all the smart, lovely ladies suggested for the main role of Lucy, like Nitachequita's idea of Joanna Garcia, sorano916's suggestion of Evangeline Lilly, and amanda44ni's idea of Elizabeth Reaser.

It also seems like the character of Peter Callaghan was a fun one to recast and I loved thinking about Brandon Routh (as suggested by niniwiskapoo24) or James Marsden (alethe16's idea) in the role.

My favorite overall cast this week, however, comes from mommapoppins! To see who mommapoppins thought up, along with a new cast photo,

read more. mommapoppins's cast: Lucy Ellenore Moderatz - Emily Blunt Peter Callaghan - Gerard Butler Jack Callaghan - Luke Wilson Saul - Dick Van Dyke Ox Callaghan - Brian Dennehy Midge Callaghan - Kirstie Alley Joe "Joey" Fusco - Justin Long Background image source

Recast While You Were Sleeping and Win a Prize!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:30:53 PST

Every other 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!

I was thinking today that one of my favorite rom-coms set around Christmastime, While You Were Sleeping, would make for a fun recast challenge. Sandra Bullock is super adorable in this movie and it's hard to think of replacing her, but let's give it a whirl anyway.

So which headstrong and endearing actress would you cast as Lucy (Bullock), the a lonely fare collector on the Chicago "L"? What dreamy actor could you imagine in the role of Peter Callaghan (played by Peter Gallagher), the commuter whom Lucy admires from afar (well, and eventually up close)? And what about Peter's more rugged brother, Jack (Bill Pullman), with whom Lucy ends up falling in love?

Then there's the quirky Callaghan family, including Peter and Jack's godfather Saul (Jack Warden), the boys' father Ox (Peter Boyle), and their mother Midge (Micole Mercurio). Oh, and I think we ought to recast Lucy's caring (if not a little slimy) neighbor Joe (Michael Rispoli).

Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I'll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, Dec. 23, complete with a "new" cast photo. To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt,

read more. Characters to recast: Lucy Ellenore Moderatz (Sandra Bullock) Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher) Jack Callaghan (Bill Pullman) Saul (Jack Warden) Ox Callaghan (Peter Boyle) Midge Callaghan (Micole Mercurio) Joe "Joey" Fusco, Jr. (Michael Rispoli) The BuzzSugar t-shirt Source

Buzz Brainteaser

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:30:10 PST

Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I'll test your knowledge about TV shows, music, and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points! In While You Were Sleeping, what is the one city Lucy (Sandra Bullock) most wants to visit?
Note: Just enter the name of the city itself - do not include a state or country.

Movie Night: Holiday-ish Films

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:58:22 PST

So many movies, so little time. Thankfully, BuzzSugar is here to help you sort through them all! Each week, we'll choose a theme for a Movie Night and feature three must-see movies in keeping with that theme. This week's theme: holiday-ish films.

There are two types of holiday films. The ones, like Deck the Halls, that are entirely driven by holiday-based plots, and movies like The Holiday, where the action just happens to unfold over a holiday backdrop. Here are three of my favorite holiday-ish films that are fun to watch this time of year.

Love Actually

Nothing puts the warmth and cheer of the season into your heart quite like a film all about love in its various forms. Love Actually brings us many love-centric storylines at once: There are the coworkers awkwardly courting, the little boy whose world revolves around his beautiful classmate, the new marriage threatening to become a love triangle, and the old marriage starting to show cracks in its foundation. The wonderful cast (Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightly, and Laura Linney, to name just a few) is stellar enough to make the movie truly enjoyable, and it's even more fun to see how the stories intersect. And if you're anything like me, the real footage of people greeting loved ones at the airport in itself will be enough to get you all misty-eyed.

To see the rest,

read more Beautiful Girls In Beautiful Girls, the holidays are the perfect time for Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) to go back to his hometown, introduce his soon-to-be-fiancee, Tracy (Annabeth Gish), to his father and brother, reconnect with old buddies, and reevaluate his life. The movie explores the idea of growing up, making sacrifices to live the life you want to live, and learning to be content with what you have. Willie's in a very mature relationship with a nice woman and lives in New York City, while his old buddies stuck around their old hometown. He befriends precocious 13-year-old Marty (Natalie Portman) next door, a fast-talking, dry-witted mini-adult who develops a crush on Willie. It's a highly realistic and funny film about the old problem of wanting what we can't have, and coming to terms with adulthood. Added bonus: Rosie O'Donnell goes on an absolutely classic tirade about women's magazines, men and relationships. Priceless. While You Were Sleeping Yes, the idea of someone fooling an entire family into thinking that she is their comatose son's fiancee is far-fetched. Yes, it requires some serious suspension of disbelief, and yes, the characters in said family are caricatures. Still, it's all worth it for this sweet, familiar comedy of mistaken identity. Basically, Lucy (Sandra Bullock) saves the life of a man named Peter (played by Peter Gallagher), though he is knocked into a coma in the process. When she goes to see him in the hospital, his family assumes she is his fiancee and she chooses not to correct them. She ends up spending holiday time with the quirky clan, quickly falling under their warm, charming spell. Before long, she realizes she is in love with her "fiance's" cute brother, Jack (Bill Pullman), which of course sets up an awkward situation, especially when Peter wakes up. Source, Source, and Source

Weight Loss Rules You're Allowed to Break

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:58:49 PST

If you love to eat, losing weight can seem so structured, you immediately get frustrated and grab the first decadent food you can find. Even though there are some very specific guidelines that can help you reach your goal faster, there's no one-size-fits-all weight-loss plan for everyone. Here are five rules you can bend and still drop pounds from the scale.

No Cheesecake, Wine, or French Fries
While dessert, alcohol, and fried foods tend to be high in calories, just because you want to lose weight doesn't mean you have to live without the foods you adore. Actually, denying yourself the bites you crave can backfire, causing you to feel deprived, resulting in bingeing. You can't eat these foods all the time, but it's perfectly healthy to enjoy a few spoonfuls of ice cream or a small glass of chardonnay every once in a while. Just limit your portion sizes and only indulge about once a week.

Salad, Every Day
Salads aren't for everyone, and the dissatisfied feeling you get afterward could cause you to head to the nearest pizza joint. Plus salad toppings can really add up. When a bowl of greens is covered in candied walnuts, cheese, dried cranberries, avocado, and creamy dressing, a seemingly healthy salad can run higher in calories than a burger. If you're not into a bowl of raw veggies, choose other low-calorie meals that incorporate veggies such as sandwiches, broth-based soups, grilled veggies, and whole-grain salads. You have to enjoy the foods you're eating in order to stick with a healthy meal plan.

Keep reading to find out three more diet rules you can break and still lose weight.

In Defense of the Chronically Late Mom

BabyCenter — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:01:11 PST

T for tardy. T for turd ball. T for totally inept mother.

We are late for school with such alarming regularity it’s embarrassing. The last time we were on time, after a mini snowstorm that excited my children enough to urge them into their snowsuits and outside at 6:30 a.m., we got to school five minutes early to find it dark and empty. Delayed opening. I was apparently the only mother who didn’t get the memo.

Calling Charlie Brown…

Being late for school brings up a vicious brew of conflicting emotion in me. On the one hand I just don’t care. Life is short. Far too short to risk traumatizing your children with a bullwhip and terrorizing morning walkers and squirrels, not to mention my own white-knuckled children, speeding our way to school like Toad on a motorcar bender each weekday morning.

On the other hand I am ashamed, deeply embarrassed, to be “that mom.” All the other moms can do it, even the single ones. Why. Can’t. I? What’s wrong with me?

I complained about this once to a woman from South Carolina who I met on my Guatemala trip and she told me her school started at 7:30. She also made it clear her kids were never late.

Never late.

Keep reading for more of Betsy's reasoning for being late.

4 Lazy Moves That Boost Your Health

Prevention — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:16 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

You don’t have to go on a deprivation diet or spend hours exercising to ward off disease and be your healthiest self! Instead, try these supersimple tips
By the editors of Prevention

Staying healthy can feel like so much, well, work (think: logging hours at the gym and whipping up nutritious meals from scratch). However, there are plenty of small moves that you can make in your everyday life that will have big health benefits. We’ve rounded up 15 practically zero-effort ways to fight disease, whittle your waist, lower stress, and more. Bonus: many of these good-for-you moves feel good, too. So say sayonara to the old adage “no pain, no gain” and try these tips today.

Lazy Move No. 1: Protect Your Ticker by Snoozing
Need a good excuse to grab your comfiest set of pajamas and hit the sack? Skimping on shut-eye may do more than make you cranky or unproductive - it also boosts your risk of a heart attack. According to one Norwegian study, people who reported that they did not wake up feeling refreshed in the morning had a 27 percent higher risk of a heart attack, those who had trouble staying asleep almost every night in the last month had a 30 percent higher risk, and those who had trouble falling asleep almost every night in the last month had odds that jumped to 45 percent.

Twenty Ways to Sleep Better Every Night

Some researchers speculate that insomnia might trigger your body to release more of the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol have been linked with high blood pressure and diabetes, which are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Plus when you’re exhausted, you may be more likely to make unhealthy choices that up your heart disease risk, such as skipping your workout or reaching for fatty or sugary snacks for a quick energy fix.

Keep reading for three more lazy ways to improve your health.

James Van Der Beek Talks About Making Fun of Dawson's Creek on Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

Shannon Vestal — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:19:21 PST

ABC's new series Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is an irreverent series, from the title to the inclusion of a supporting character James Van Der Beek . . . played by James Van Der Beek. The former teen heartthrob hit the Winter TCA stage with fellow stars Krysten Ritter, who plays the titular "B----" Chloe, and Dreama Walker, who plays her innocent roommate June, to talk about the show. They joined showrunners to chat about Van Der Beek's Dawson's Creek past and just how terrible Ritter's character Chloe is going to be.

Van Der Beek plays himself on the show, but the character is only a version of himself, and he mentioned that "by episode three, it resembled me less and less." He joked that he had to audition against "six other James Van Der Beeks, and four of them were not actors, and two of them didn't speak English." Van Der Beek described the James of the show as "just kind of crazy," and "really sweet but completely narcissistic."
As for the amount of Dawson's Creek references on the show, Van Der Beek was asked when it became OK to make fun of the teen soap for him. "I think once the residual money ran out," he joked. His character on the show exploits the Dawson's Creek mythology to sleep with fans, often with the famous flannel shirts Dawson used to wear. Naturally, reporters wondered whether Van Der Beek had actually held onto any flannels from the show, and he said he didn't, unfortunately.
Ritter's character Chloe is the "b*tch" in Apartment 23, and she calls the role "absolute candy." Though Chloe can be mean, Ritter says she simply "gets to say things that everybody wishes they could say," and is someone who is bold, badass, and unapologetic. In the pilot, we do get to see a bit of Chloe's nice side, but show creator Nahnatchka Khan said that "hopefully you'll always be surprised and a little bit shocked" by Chloe.
Walker plays June, a young woman from the Midwest who comes to New York and moves in with Chloe. Though June seems a bit naive, Walker says she's "a smart girl," who "sometimes tries to be a little bit of a badass and that doesn't fare so well." During the panel, Van Der Beek had a lot of fun teasing Walker for not being old enough to have been a fan of Dawson's Creek, while Walker protested that she was "not too young!" (Walker is 25). Walker insisted that she did remember seeing a calendar with Van Der Beek's face on it when she was in sixth grade, and thinking it was "very upsetting" that no boys she knew looked like him.

Do Solid Foods Help Babies Sleep Through the Night?

BabyCenter — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:37:30 PST

We're excited to share this post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we will be bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Andrea Updyke about that old wives tale that says babies sleep better after eating solid foods.

Feeding a baby can be a non-stop barrage of questions. Is he getting enough? Is he getting too much? How many wet diapers did I change? What color is the poop? I mean seriously, the amount of poop I have inspected just inches from my face is terrifying. And I will tell you this about the first few months of life; things change so fast it can be nearly impossible to keep up.

My babies are big. At birth, my boys were 11lbs and 10lbs. The first was a week early, the second a week late. I just make big babies, what can I say. Couple that with my choice to breastfeed and I was basically a non-stop all you can eat buffet. I don’t think my babies' bellies were ever the size of a marble or a ping pong ball or really anything smaller than a tennis ball ever. I mean, they ate all the time. And though all the experts said it wouldn't make a difference, both babies did immensely better when they started solids.

You can safely start solids between 4-6 months of age. While I had hoped to breastfeed exclusively until 6 months, we opted for solids at 5 months for both boys. Why am I telling you this? Well, because I think sometimes we get so caught up in what we think is right and normal that we forget to have conversations about what actually worked for us. No judgement, just dialogue.

My youngest is now just over 5 months old and until the past couple of weeks has been nursing or sometimes drinking a bottle every 3 hours around the clock. I discussed when to start solids with our pediatrician and he gave the same warning I have read all over the internet, solids won't really help the sleep thing. It's more about learning how to eat.

So I thought, why rush it? He is a happy baby. He eats well and sleeps well (when he sleeps). Maybe he just isn't there yet. But then 2 or 3 wakings became 4 or 5 and he was no longer content with a pacifier and eating more frequently during the day all the while watching my every move when I ate my meals. Over Christmas we decided to start feeding him oatmeal. Let me just tell you, there was no learning how to eat. This boy knew exactly what to do. He ate and he ate.

In the past two weeks he has increased to two meals a day, each with oatmeal and banana and he seems so content! His naps are better. He goes right to sleep when it's time for bed and last night he only woke up once in a 10 hour period.

Can it be the solids or is it really convenient timing? Maybe it's because my boys were so big to begin with? All I know is the more sleep mama gets, the happier we all are.

Someone pass me the sweet potatoes.

More great stories from BabyCenter.com:
How did I miss pneumonia?
20 cures for cabin fever
Warning: New acetaminophen dosage change
You know you're at grandma's when . . .
4 cool ways to store Legos

Source: Flickr User dacia mitchell

Doctors Say We Should Bribe Our Kids to Eat Well

BabyCenter — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:33:21 PST

We're excited to share this post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we will be bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Dr. Lisa Dana about convincing kids to eat healthy foods.

A study out of the University College London in the United Kingdom says yes. Reuters reported on the study.

Children rewarded with a small sticker after eating 3 to 4 bites of a previously disliked vegetable would ultimately change their attitude toward the vegetable. After the 12 day experiment, kids who were rewarded with stickers, would change their opinion from “yucky” to “okay” or “yummy.”

Related: Teaching Bad Sleep Habits

The experiment compared three different groups of children. One group was rewarded with a small sticker after eating vegetables, one group received verbal praise, while the control group was simply offered the vegetable without praise or rewards for eating. The vegetables in the study included carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper, cabbage and sugar snap peas.

The children in the reward group gave higher ratings to the previously disliked vegetable, and they were more likely to eat it 3 months later.

Jane Wardle, a researcher on the project emailed Amy Norton of Reuters, “We would recommend that parents consider using small non-food rewards, given daily for tasting tiny pieces of the food - smaller than half a little finger nail.”

I have never been an advocate for the reward system. Why do we need to bribe kids to do something that is ultimately good for them. Also, when do the rewards stop? I believe that if we start healthy eating habits early, then babies and toddlers will love these healthy foods from the beginning.

When parents tell me that their toddlers and children are picky with vegetables, I suggest they keep trying. At meals, offer vegetables first, and if you are out and about, bring it along as the snack option. You should also expect to offer it at least 15 different times before giving up on a particular food.

As the kids get older, I speak directly to the kids about healthy eating options. I remind them how important vegetables are for their growing bodies. I also tell them that no one, including their parents wants to argue about food at meal time. Meal time should be more relaxing. For these older picky eaters, I ask that when they return for their annual check up in a year, that they try to expand their repertoire by at least 3 -4 new foods.

*Note: The advice provided in this blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical diagnosis, advice or treatment for specific medical conditions

More great stories from BabyCenter.com:
7 guilt trips moms can do without
7 gifts you pray your kids don't get this year
Do you spoil your kids? Should I?
Do the kids sit at a different table?
You know you're a mother when . . .