Linkbringer
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 6:45PM 
GWB finds Raúl Esparza all villainous
big screen
Broadway.com Raul Esparza, one of our favorite song & dance men, channels his inner gangster for the new film GWB
Pajiba the fifth annual "most bangable celebrities" list. Fun writeups on everyone from Tom Hardy to Emma Stone to Fassy, who tops the list.
In Contention fans can finally choose between Magneto & Professor X for the X-Men First Class Blu-Ray. Nice covers but obviously I'd have to go with Michael Fassbender.
Scene Stealers chooses a top ten of movie super soldiers to celebrate Captain America's arrival. Hey, that's probably what I'm watching right as you're reading this. Wheeeee.
Little White Lies interviews director Mike Mills on his personal and beguiling film Beginners. I love this bit on whether he's nostalgic for old time Hollywood...
Well, I’m obsessed with history. We are the latest chapter in a long story and if we want to figure ourselves out of get out lf the prisons that we’re in then you need to figure out the past. So I’m always looking back. And I do love Louise Brooks and I do love old Hollywood through the teens, ’20s and ’30s, because it was being invented then, it was like this whole new entrepreneurial world that was just being discovered. ...I like these cultures that were born from punk, too. I was around and I watched these things make themselves a little bit and I related a lot to that. Actually Louise Brooks was a fucking punk, man. She was a really interesting, subversive person.
That she was.
Have you seen this new poster for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?
It's nifty, yes?
I like that it feels secret messagey and that it isn't loud. But perhaps mileage will vary. I still don't know what to make of it in the Oscar predictions but it's an interesting wild card sight unseen.
small screen
My New Plaid Pants Black Book's wondrous Carice van Houten will play the sorceress Melisandre in Game of Thrones. I wish I loved Game of Thrones because between them giving Sibel Kekilli a plum role and now this (Melisandre is a totally sick character) it's like they're trying to fill their cast with my foreign film harem. Who's next: Franka and Ludivine?
Vulture Lisa Kudrow talks about Web Therapy which she's bringing to regular TV now. My greatest related dream is that she convinces Meryl Streep to reprise her sex-crazed reparative therapist Camilla Bowner because it's so topical now what with those crazy anti-gay Bachmanns flitting about on the news.
Towleroad Where in the world is Anderson Cooper?
Reader Comments (13)
It's incredibly disappointing how Hollywood has failed to capitalize on Carice van Houten's awesomeness. If she had decided to stay in Europe to be awesome there, I would have been sad but satisfied, even though I think she has the potential to be huge in America too. But seeing her cast in crap like "Valkyrie" and "Repo Men" just makes me shake my head.
I like "Game of Thrones," but I haven't read the books, so I don't know her character. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is a step in the right direction.
Lisa Kudrow. <33
Nathan, does the politics of an actor effect their standing in Hollywood? I know they're open Republicans but they're usually the acceptable type, unmoveable icons like Eastwood and Duvall, and the big action guys like Kurt Russell etc -- I bring this up because everyone assumes Gary Oldman, never nominated, doesn't seem likely to win if he does recieve his first nomination.
I can't imagine that it would matter if Gary Oldman is conservative. Honestly, this is the first I've heard of it, although a cursory Google search does seem to confirm it. You pointed out Eastwood and Duvall, so there's two right there. Kevin Costner has won. So has Denzel Washington (extremely conservative Democrat, from what I understand). And Julian Fellowes, who won for writing "Gosford Park," actually sits in Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party.
As long as he's not super-vocal about it like Stephen Baldwin (just for example; not that he would be nominated for talent-related reasons), I don't think anyone would care, especially considering that he's not going to be voting for American politicians anytime soon.
hollywood is never as conservative as the media makes them out to be. They're very often trumpeting conservative values in their product (see 80s cinema) despite how they may feel in the voting booth and they have no problem handing conservatives awards (see Mel Gibson's reign)
never as liberal, I suspect you mean.
It depends on the kind of conservative, I think.
They didn't know he had a problem with the Hebrew brotherhood. He's public issues with women, gays, and minorities meant nothing to Hollywood until he hit too close to home.
*His public issues
I did not know that Sibel Kekilli is in "Game of Thrones"! I was never interessted in the series, but with her and now Carice van Houten, I might watch it.
Ah, Louise Brooks. I actually thought of her just yesterday. There's an annual silent film festival in my city, this year's edition is coming up and for some reason I thought about one of the films I saw there a couple of years ago: "Beggars of Life". I LOVED it and I also loved Louise Brooks in it, though I have to admit I spent most of my time ogling Richard Arlen. Isn't it understandable though? I mean, look at him! :)
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/12000000/Beggars-of-Life-louise-brooks-12042536-1650-1050.jpg
and by not as conservative. i meant "not as liberal" d'oh
1) I agree on the "not as liberal" part, Nat. I don't know why that's believed to be the case. (I just saw "This Film is Not Rated", btw. Not a perfect documentary, but it does lay out the case for the Motion Picture Ratings Board's close ties to the upper levels of government.)
2) There's already a blu-ray of X-Men? Isn't that still in the theaters? (I'd vote for Fassy here except for the fact that his face is covered by that helmet, so it's team McAvoy for me, if I were buying it. Which I'm not.)
3) Louise Brooks WAS indeed a punk, and a rebel. Mike Mills must have read her collection of essays/autobiography "Lulu in Hollywood", one of my favorite reads. (I think I love Mike Mills now.)
4) It's a bit late for Rabbit Hole discussion (alas) but have you read this interview with JCM on Movieline, Nat? Interesting read. Apparently Nicole and her partner were very much "in control" (or trying to exercise control) and he had to cede some power as a "hired gun" whilst fighting for his vision for the film. He's both surprisingly candid (for this sort of interview and someone in his position) and skillfully diplomatic (not telling too much. I think I love him, too. I am turning hetero or just a lesbian fag-hag?)
Sorry, forgot link:
<url>http://www.movieline.com/2010/09/john-cameron-mitchell-on-rabbit-hole-nicole-kidmans-face-and-how-to-share-power-on-the-set.php?page=all</url>