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Want to Become a Makeup Artist? Here's One Way to Do It

BellaSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:00:16 -0700

When watching the Emmys and/or Oscars, do you perk right up when hearing the nominees for the best makeup artistry categories? Do you have such a passion for makeup and theatrical stylings that you daydream about what it might be like to be a part of this aspect of the business?

After talking to makeup artist Debbie Zoller about her behind-the-scenes work on Castle, along with her techniques for making the gory details of her job come to life, I wanted to know how she got to where she is today. With an impressive resume including work on Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Sweetest Thing, I Heart Huckabees, Mad Men, and Castle, you might be surprised to hear that Zoller dropped out of beauty school and hit a few road bumps along the way before finding her true passion. To find out more of her inspiring story, just keep reading.

Look Behind the Scenes With Castle's Makeup Artist

BellaSugar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:00:52 -0700

For more than 25 years, Debbie Zoller has been creating makeup looks from practically every vantage point, whether it's her initial work as Lancôme rep at Macy's in LA, her 1960s-style creations on Mad Men, or most recently, her role as lead makeup artist on Castle. "People on the show are so incredibly nice," she said during a recent interview, where we talked about the gory details of her current position, along with what it's like to be a part of the behind-the-scenes action on the crime dramedy, now in its second year of production.

View 5 Photos ›

Check out some of Zoller's work in the gallery above. Then, to find out what she had to say about working with the cast, along with some of her favorite beauty products, just keep reading.

Castle's Makeup Artist Debbie Zoller Gets Gory At Work

BellaSugar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:00:00 -0700

As the head makeup artist on ABC's crime dramedy Castle, Debbie Zoller creates everyday makeup looks for the show's main characters. But, seeing that the program is not without its fair share of murder mysteries, Zoller must also create blood spatters, prosthetic detached fingers, and mangled body parts, often working in the most unusual of situations. "Last season we had [to create] a frozen girl dumped out of a freezer," she said. Yikes.

Recently, I caught up with Zoller, who is up for an Emmy for her previous work on Mad Men (more here), to find out more about what a typical workday is like onset at Castle.

View 5 Photos ›

To find out more about Zoller's work, read more.

Buzz News Roundup, 7/1

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:30:45 -0700

ABC will publish a novel by Castle's main character, Richard Castle, this Summer. - The Hollywood Reporter
The contestants for this Summer's Big Brother have been revealed. - TV.com
Michael Jackson and Jackson Five recordings take up nine of the top 10 spots on this week's album sales charts. - Billboard
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore will play a couple whose children set out to find their sperm donor in The Kids Are All Right. - ComingSoon
Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker will also play a couple in the road-trip comedy Cloudburst. - Variety

The Rachel Zoe Project will be back Aug. 25, while Flipping Out is back Aug. 17. - The Futon Critic
Dimension Films has set its sights on remaking John Landis's 1981 cult classic horror An American Werewolf in London. - The Hollywood Reporter
ABC will air the internationally produced TV series Defying Gravity, described as "Grey's Anatomy in space." - ComingSoon
The Broadway musical version of The Little Mermaid will close Aug. 30, after a run of less than two years. - Variety

TV Tonight: The Castle Finale

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:30:10 -0700

Sometimes I don't understand the people who become mega-fans of something that has only barely begun. I've often wondered: How can you possibly be that attached to something already? Well, I'm eating those words now because I'm a little broken up about the fact that tonight's episode of Castle is the finale. I've grown absurdly attached to Castle's punny little witticisms (like "Look who's stalking"), the growing camaraderie between Beckett's fellow detectives and Castle, and the banter between Castle and Beckett that's always a mixture of annoyance and flirtation. I also think the cases they work on are really intriguing. I just love this show!

On tonight's finale (booooooo!), "Castle and Beckett investigate the murder of a missing plastic surgeon who is found dead in the front seat of his car after a week of being parked curbside. As they delve into the twisted world of surgery obsessed patients and secret operations, Castle experiences a fatherly rite of passage as Alexis attends her first prom. And while looking into Beckett's past, he unearths information that could end his relationship with her forever." To check out some preview clips (in one, Castle does a Christopher Walken impression!), read more.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"What is it with men and boobs?"

Caption It: Which Caption Should Win?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:30:28 -0700

Thanks for chipping in your caption ideas for last week's challenge:

They were all so clever but there can only be one winner. Here are the finalists:

Nathan: "Do you think I would still be handsome with only half fingers?"
Chick: "Go for it. . . ."
Nathan: "Hmm, maybe I should whip out my Captain Hammer persona and liven this place up a bit!"
Nathan: "For the last time, I will not sing 'Everyone's a Hero' again."
Girl: ". . . and then, that girl who's a junior falls in love with a vampire
called Edward, and he's, like, totally hot! Isn't it the GREATEST story
EVER?"
Nathan (thinking): "I know, Joss, I feel old too. . . ."

Time to vote!

Caption It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:30:40 -0700

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every Wednesday, I'll post a photo still from a TV show or movie here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption!

At the time I wrote this post halfbakedjake's funny caption was winning in yesterday's poll:

Cage: "God, that movie's awful. We're leaving."
Small Child: "But I wanna see your movie - "
Cage: "WE'RE LEAVING."

Congrats! Now on to the next challenge from Castle starring Nathan Fillion:

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, April 6, to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun!

Which New Spring Show Are You Looking Forward to Most?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:30:37 -0700

This Spring is filled with lots of good, new, intriguing TV! Castle already got underway this week, and tons of other premieres are in the lineup for the coming weeks. So, what show are you making room for on your schedule?

Castle, Cupid, The Unusuals, Better Off Ted, and In the Motherhood photos copyright 2009 ABC, Inc.; Parks and Recreation photo courtesy of Flynet; Kings photo courtesy of NBC; Harper's Island photo courtesy of CBS; and Sit Down, Shut Up photo courtesy of Fox

Nathan Fillion on Playing the Childlike Richard Castle

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:30:27 -0700

Castle, which premieres tonight on ABC, stars fan favorite Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, a crime novelist who finds himself sucked into assisting the New York Police Department when a murderer starts carrying out crimes based on scenes from his books. There, he finds himself working (and flirting) alongside Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) while also navigating the relationships with his Broadway diva mother (Susan Sullivan) and wise-beyond-her-years teenage daughter (Molly Quinn). A few days ago, Fillion hopped on the phone to chat with me about the appeal of Castle, what it's like to be a leading man again, and whether there will ever be another Dr. Horrible. Read on for highlights:

When you first heard about Castle and read the pilot script, what appealed to you about the character?
I heard that Castle was a crime drama. I'd been reading a lot of police procedurals that ABC had for pilots - I have a deal with ABC, so I'm gonna do something with ABC. And I was reading a lot of dramas, a lot of heavy stuff, a lot of heavy, emotional dramas that they were putting out there. And then Castle, for some reason, was at the bottom of the list of all the pilots I was going through.

I was 15 pages into reading Castle, and I stopped, and I turned to my girlfriend and said, "I'm going to start at the beginning of this pilot and I'm going to read it out loud to you, and you tell me if you don't think this wouldn't be an amazingly fun job to do." Because here's a guy who enjoys every day of his life like he's on a field trip - he is thrilled to be there. He's thrilled to be around crime and murder and he's having a blast. He doesn't get emotionally involved. He's not without heart, he's just simply very lighthearted. He doesn't see crime and say, "I've got to find this murderer before he gets the chance to do it again. He just simply says, "Whoa! Did you see the way that fella was hangin' there?" He's crazed by these phenomenal endings to what he believes would be an incredible story, and he wants to find the beginning and the middle to the ending that is the murder.

Watching the pilot, I thought of him as kind of a playboy - but not just with women, with everything in his life.
I kind of started [filming] thinking, 'Well, here's a wild partier, drinker, womanizer . . . " but actually he's far more childlike than I even knew when we were shooting the pilot. He has a joy - he's playing all the time. He's playing grown-up games.

To find out the secret to Castle's lightheartedness, just read more.

Is there something in his past that has made him be so lighthearted about everything? He's dealing with a lot of crime, both in his novels and, when he gets involved in the case, in his everyday life, and sometimes it's nasty. How does he stay so upbeat?
He's a writer of mystery novels, so the genre of what he's doing pleases him - he likes it, he writes it, he knows it, he's studied it. When he was a kid, his mother was an actress, and she did a lot of moving around and a lot of touring and just not a lot of parenting. He spent most of his days locked up in the New York Public Library reading. He taught himself to be a speed reader; he reads voraciously. But I think he almost missed out on his childhood, so when he began writing and began enjoying success and got a lot of money - I mean, he doesn't have a lot of responsibilities. He makes his own hours, he lives in a beautiful apartment, he can afford the nicest toys. It's kind of like my life.

One of the things I thought was interesting in the pilot was his relationship with his daughter. How would you describe Castle as a parent?
Castle is very much mothered by his 15-year-old daughter, and at the same time he turns around and mothers his own mother. So it's not a typical nuclear family. It's a very interesting relationship. His daughter does a great deal for him and makes him a better person.

Without giving too much away, how will Castle's relationship with Kate Beckett change over the course of the first few episodes we'll be seeing?
We're going to be able to solve a case every week - there's not going to be a murder that lasts three episodes. However, just like in real life, the more time you spend with a person, the more you learn about that person, the more you say, "Oh, well I did this when I was a kid, I know what this is about because I used to . . . " You learn more about people as you spend time with them, and he gleans more and more understanding of Kate Beckett as time goes on.

You said you were reading a lot of procedurals. What do you think makes Castle more than just a cop show?
I think Castle is a little bit more in tune with real life, in that we're not walking around heavy and brooding about murder. Life is simply life. We spoke to some homicide detectives when we were in New York City. These guys were not darkened souls, you know, meandering the earth looking for justice. They were very jovial, very funny guys who would tell you incredible stories . . . It's real life, and there's comedy in real life. So I would say that in the lighthearted part of Castle, the comedic part of Castle, is truer to real life.

Quickly changing subjects - do you think there could ever be another Dr. Horrible?
I'm crossing both my fingers.

Castle, Reaper, and Other Shows Coming to a TV Near You

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:30:09 -0800

CBS and ABC both released their midseason schedules this week, and the CW dribbled out a few little teases, giving us an almost complete picture of what we'll be watching on TV in 2009. It's good news for fans of Reaper and Nathan Fillion, and not such good news for those who love Pushing Daisies or Ashton Kutcher reality shows.

Some of the highlights:

Castle, Cupid, and The Unusuals all made ABC's midseason schedule. Castle will air Mondays at 10 p.m. starting March 9, Cupid will air at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays starting March 24, and The Unusuals will get the post-Lost time slot of 10 p.m. on Wednesdays starting April 8.
Harper's Island, which CBS is calling a "13-episode mystery event," will air on Thursdays at 10 p.m. after CSI from April 9 through July 2. It's actually one of the only changes to the CBS schedule; another is that Flashpoint, which aired last Summer, will start its second season Friday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m.

For a couple of others, including the premiere date for Reaper, just read more.

Poor Ashton Kutcher. Everyone wants him to make reality shows, but then they either get canceled (ABC's Opportunity Knocks this Fall) or dumped on Saturday night, which is what CBS is doing for his Game Show in My Head. Saturday night! And you thought Friday time slots were bad.
The CW's midseason plans are still coming together, but here's a definite bright spot: Reaper's second season is scheduled to premiere March 17 at 9 p.m. after 90210.

So, no Pushing Daisies or Dirty Sexy Money on the schedule - but hey, I suppose that if ABC's three new series tank, there's a chance those shows could get another look for next Fall. And hooray for the return of Reaper, which I hope will be just as delightful as it was toward the end of the first season.

What do you make of all this news? Are any of these shows on your radar?