BuzzSugar

Sugar Bits - ET Stands by False Angelina Birth Story

PopSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:28:20 PDT

Entertainment Tonight has not retracted its false story that the Jolie-Pitt twins were born, although Angelina's attorneys say someone posing as her personal assistant, Holly Goline, sent out the incorrect story. - AP
In other Jolie-Pitt news, the bidding over Brad and Angelina's baby photos is allegedly up to $15 million, with People and OK! Magazine as the final two in the game. - TMZ
Made of Honor star Michelle Monaghan is expecting her first baby, due in late Fall. - lilsugar
There are rumors that Hillary Clinton is conceding the race for President tonight; do you think she will end her run? - CitizenSugar
Legendary rock and roll singer Bo Diddley died of heart failure yesterday at age 79, after months of illness. - AP
Tatum O'Neal is blaming the death of her Scottish terrier for causing her to fall back on drugs and says she is happy she was arrested before she could use again. - NY Post
Sarah Larson is devastated over her breakup with George Clooney, which was apparently sudden and unexpected since the two had discussed the possibility of marriage, according to her friends. - Fox News
The fire at Universal Studios this weekend was ruled accidental, as it started from workers using a blowtorch to repair a set. - E! Online

Fire at Universal Studios: Like Backdraft, But Real

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:27:58 PDT

A fire broke out at Hollywood's Universal Studios around 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Nobody was seriously hurt, though the fire destroyed some set pieces and soundstages, including the courthouse square used for Back to the Future. According the AP, "Two mock New York and New England streets used both for movies such as Bruce Almighty, Spider-Man 2 and Transformers and as tourist displays were a total loss," and in addition to the courthouse square, "the famous clock tower that enabled Michael J. Fox's character in Back to the Future to travel through time was damaged." Thousands of videos were also destroyed, though Universal has duplicates of all the lost footage.

Today officials are saying the fire took over 12 hours to extinguish due to low water pressure and because "the sprinkler system on the outdoor sets was nearly useless." The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Many of the people quoted about the fire can't help but quip that the incident was just like what filmmakers crave when making a disaster film, except, you know, real.

Source

Sugar Bits - Tatum O'Neal Arrested For Cocaine and Crack

PopSugar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:27:47 PDT

Tatum O'Neal was arrested in NYC at 7:30 p.m. last night for buying cocaine and crack. Tatum said she was doing research for a movie role, but police found a pipe on her.- NY Post
Yves Saint Laurent died of a brain tumor Sunday night at his home in Paris. The fashion icon was 71 years old. - FabSugar
Sex and the City broke every R-rated comedy record, earning $55.7 million over the weekend and taking the number one spot at the box office. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull went down to second place with The Strangers coming in third. - BuzzSugar
Ted Kennedy underwent surgery at Duke University Medical Center this morning for his malignant brain tumor. Following the surgery the senator will be treated with chemotherapy and radiation. - CitizenSugar
Jack Black's second son was born about a week ago, the actor revealed at his Kung Fu Panda LA premiere, and the baby is named after his father. - lilsugar
A fire at Universal Studios broke out on a backlot stage early Sunday, destroying a Back to the Future set, the King Kong exhibit, and a video vault. - AP
As expected, Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller were wed Friday night in a small ceremony in Los Angeles. - People

Source

Harry Potter Theme Park: It Was Only a Matter of Time

BuzzSugar — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:36:30 PDT

Well, Harry Potter fans, it's official: Universal Studios in Florida is opening a Harry Potter theme park called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" in 2009. The park will include the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade village. The Variety article continues:

"The plans I've seen look incredibly exciting, and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," said author J.K. Rowling, who has been working with a creative team to make sure the park resembles the books and films.

The Potter park will allow visitors to view the iconic locations in Rowling's magical world, like Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts and the shops in Hogsmeade. Some locations may be in upcoming books.

Actually, I think this has the potential to be fun, and hopefully not too cheesy. The sketches for the theme park look pretty cool, so to view them,

Universal Studios Bans Trans Fats

FitSugar — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:37:21 PST

If you're planning on visiting Universal Studios anytime in the future, you'll still get a taste of the thrilling rides that attracts so many people each year. What you won't get a taste of? Trans Fats.

Like so many others, Universal Studios has jumped on the healthy band wagon and stopped serving trans fats in 90% of the food served at its parks in efforts to combat heart disease in America. Walt Disney Co., announced in October that it will serve more nutritious kids' meals and phase out the artificial fats at its resorts as well.

Universal Studios has even gone a step further and added healthy side options too, including salads and fruit bowls. If you still can't fathom going to a theme park and not having fries, then you still can, they just won't be nearly as bad for your heart. NYC has already made the decision to ban trans fats and Massachusetts is on its way to banning them as well.

Fit's Tip: For now, skip the churro, a Spanish fried-dough pastry, because they will not be trans fat-free until the end of 2007.

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

read more! 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

Brad Pitt Breaks From Press to Exercise His Artful Eye

Lauren Turner — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:23:00 PST

Brad Pitt stopped by the Lehmann Maupin Gallery to check out their Sandro Kopp exhibit in NYC last night. Sandro is a German artist and the boyfriend of Tilda Swinton, who worked with Brad on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Burn After Reading. Brad's been making the rounds chatting up Moneyball in the Big Apple all week including a stop by the Today show and The Daily Show. He also visited Pace University to tape an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, which will air on Feb. 10.

Brad opened up about his family life in the interview by sharing a glimpse into their morning routine with the kids saying, "Listen, I admit there’s times like 'We gotta get up. Get up! Here’s your shoes. Here’s your shoes. Drink this Coke. Drink this Coca-Cola. Drink it all. Right now! Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!' Just so we could get ‘em up and going." He'll continue to be in the spotlight since he and Moneyball are up for Oscars, though we'll have to wait until the big show on Feb. 26 to see more of Brad and Angelina Jolie's hot red-carpet moments.

Brad Pitt Brings Jonah Hill For a Taping of Inside the Actors Studio

Lauren Turner — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:29:56 PST

A Dolce & Gabbana-clad Brad Pitt arrived at Pace University for a taping of Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton tonight. He was joined by Moneyball costar Jonah Hill for the NYC outing, which comes after a big weekend in LA. Brad and Jonah attended the SAG Awards, where both actors were up for honors. Neither took home a win, but it was still an exciting night that saw plenty of PDA between Brad and Angelina Jolie. Brad's pal George Clooney also hit the red carpet since he was nominated for best actor in The Descendants. The movie was a topic of conversation when George's own episode of Inside the Actors Studio aired this evening. In the interview, George touched on pranking Brad, which Brad himself should be able to comment on now that he's taking the stage to answer questions from James.

At the Box Office: The Biggest Blockbusters of 2011

Becky Kirsch — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:30:00 PST

We've already talked about how 2011 was the year of the superhero and the sequel, so it's no surprise that both genres dominate the list of the top-grossing films of the year. But what else made the top 10 biggest blockbusters in the US? Count down with us to the biggest movie of the year.

Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment, Universal Studios, and Walt Disney Studios

Prince William Rescues Ship-Wrecked Russian Sailors

Molly Goodson — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:09:20 PST