Links in the Shell
Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 11:00PM Apartment Therapy Nancy Meyers movie kitchens ranked (somehow The Intern only makes it to 5th. I just saw that and it was surprisingly warm and adorable... and yes still filled with real estate porn)
The New Yorker looks back at the Cassavates classic Faces (1968)
/Film Ghost in the Shell producers are finally responding to whitewashing casting controversies. They promise they've been 'very very careful' with the beloved material even though they cast a white actress (Scarlett Johansson) in the iconic Japanese role. We love Scarlett so so much but this type of thing continues to be a huge problem.
/Film There's going to be an actual Captain America statue in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
Cinematic Corner celebrates Margot Robbie (there will be a lot of that going around soon)
Variety Animation Awards for Europe soon -- their version of the Annies
Screen Crush Thor: Ragnarok officially began production in Australia yesterday
Awards Daily Why not give Roger Deakins the Oscar he has long deserved this year for Hail Caesar!
Off Cinema
Theater Mania Lin-Manuel Miranda and JLo are collaborating on a song to benefit the victims of the recent Orlando shooting
EW American Horror Story Season 6 has a new logo (which looks like a devilish 6) a premiere date (9/14) and most of the cast from Hotel will be back though Lady Gaga is rumored to have a supporting role this time around which begs the question of who the lead will be? Let's hope it's Sarah Paulson. Why keep searching for new leads when your MVP is right there all the time.
AV Club CW seasons will now be available just 8 days after their season finale on Netflix
Towleroad new behind the scenes photos from season 2 of Sense8
MNPP on the broken promise of Rick Yune's nude scene in Marco Polo Season 2
Comics Alliance the Harvey Award nominees for comics in 2016. Valiant Entertainment thoroughly dominated the nominations. Here's one category you can investigate if you're interested
- BEST ONLINE COMICS
- Albert the Alien Trevor Mueller & Gabriel Bautista
- Battlepug Mike Norton
- Bloom County 2015 Berkeley Breathed
- Oh Joy Sex Toy *NSFW* Erika Moen & Matthew Nolan
- Zombie Boy Mark Stokes
Two Controversial Pieces on Actresses
Variety's Owen Gleiberman is looking forward to Bridget Jones's baby, sort of, in the piece "Renée Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?." It's prompted lots of calls of sexism but it's an interesting article that wonders what we're supposed to do when actors who play characters we love who no longer look like the characters they created (not from aging... though people who are offended by the article keep saying that. Sorry people but Colin Firth still totally looks like D'Arcy. Just an older D'Arcy). I myself always wish actresses wouldn't mess with their faces (if they must, temporary measures are best since the effects wear off if they don't look right!). Their faces are their brand and actors are famous partially because they're so beautiful just as they are. Why mess with perfection? I don't think it's true -- and I keep reading it -- that if actresses don't mess with their faces they don't get work. From what I've seen actresses who mess with their faces in any noticeable permanent way actually STOP getting much work. It distracts audiences too much. Note how Kate Winslet, Annette Bening, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, and so on keep aging and keep working.
Wesley Morris' piece for the New York Times "How I Learned to Tolerate Blake Lively" is ostensibly about her performance in The Shallows and Hollywood's ever rotating it girls. People are offended by this one too - partially due to the interchangeability notion of blonde actresses. But it's also interesting because it gets at something that I think anyone can relate to: the experience of loving an actor that Hollywood has moved on from. 'Wait, I wasn't done with _____! " that Wesley says this about Kate Hudson is bizarre but to each their own.
Reader Comments (20)
thanks for flagging the gleiberman article. the best piece he's written in YEARS. quite thought-provoking. i think Z's performance in the original BRIDGET JONES is sheer perfection, and i'm excited to see her come back. i was surprised in the trailer how much she does look like old Z, actually!
I think Owen G is getting a bit unfairly dumped on, but I also understand what fuels the outrage. And I agree that la Ze looks a lot more like her old self again...a bit older of course, but naturally so. Yes, NATURALLY!
Caroline Framke did a really interesting piece for Vox on Blake Lively and how she's been able to stay an "it" girl in Hollywood and have a pretty stable career for a while now despite not really having any kind of public persona or definitive stamp beyond "Hey, that's Blake Lively.", even if Wesley Morris is telling us she doesn't. Those two seemed like they'd go really well together, but I'm not sure how to link the URL. It's called "Blake Lively's Blameless Blankness, Explained" and if anyone wants to link it here and knows how to that would be really cool of you.
It seems harsh to dump on Renee specifically but she does look different to many people. It seems relevant to discuss WHAT is driving women to alter their looks. I can't believe they are reviving that ancient franchise. Colin Firth suddenly seems elderly and adrift.
The problem is is that you need a THICK skin to be in Hollywood and getting a little work done is such a constant and easy temptation. Ladies have it SO MUCH harder than the men because if you look your age, get on-screen or shot with an HD camera exposing wrinkles and lines, people are like "omg, so-so looks horrible because she's not like I remember her in my mind, ageless" and if you do get work and it isn't flawless or totally noticeable, it's "omg, so-so ruined her face, what did she do?". That's hard. Especially when so much of your "value" in Hollywood is based in your looks. How do you become secure enough in yourself and your talent to not succumb to that kind of pressure?
Meryl? Let's not pretend that her career isn't some kind of wonderful anomaly. Helen? Gets by BECAUSE of her age, not in spite of it. She's the alluring grandma who is aging *so well*. Annette? You don't really see much of her these days. Kate? Well she looks pretty damn good and is anti-plastic so good for her and i'll give you that.
I don't like when people write articles like that (that Lisa person formerly of EW is totally dead to me from that "The Return of Nicole Kidman's Face" article) because who needs to have one of their greatest insecurities discussed and dissected like that? Especially about something completely shallow and also unwarranted because I can totally see Renee looking like Renee in the Bridget trailer.
Society to women: wow u look old and ugly, hag
Women: *get plastic surgery*
Society to women: wow u look like a frozen freak, how about aging gracefully
Derreck -- i disagree that we're not seeing much of Annette Bening. She's managed to get large roles in pictures in whatever years she deigns too work (she's always been spotty about working). In this decade alone she has had 3 leads and 5 supporting roles with another promising lead (20th century women) and supporting role (seagull) coming up very soon. Not all of the films worked out well of course but I think she's doing great in the single hardest decade for actresses (their 50something years when people don't think they're "hot" anymore but they're not old enough to play grandmothers or maggie/judi or Grace & Frankie style roles)
Philip H -- i realize that's the extent of it but it's up to actresses to ignore reaction #1 because a) haters gonna hate and b) sexism is never going fully away and people will always be rude about other people's looks -- they are when people are young, too and c) eventually the more naturally they age people will get less ugly about their level of attractiveness and be super into them as the grande dames of cinema' when they get there (dench/smith/mirren/streep/etcetera who are beloved by audiences)
my favorite example of someone who does a good job ignoring the haters is Sarah Jessica Parker. She's had a pretty great career and people have been dissing her for being "ugly" for roughly half her career. She's still working and she can laugh all the way to the bank.
Back in my youngin' days, I actually worked at a hotel long enough to hear these two exchanges in the employee breakroom, from two different waitresses:
Mid-1980s, waitress looking at a tabloid cover of a pre-Betty Ford Elizabeth Taylor: "God, if I had all her money, I'd sure as hell look better than that!"
Early 1990s, waitress looks at a tabloid cover of White Diamonds-era Elizabeth Taylor: "She looks great, doesn't she?" A co-worker looks over and says, "Yeah, if I had all her money, I could look like that, too!"
True story.
I think Philip H. about sums it up!
Nathaniel - I completely agree that actresses who don't have obvious cosmetic work done tend to work more regularly and for longer. I've always said that Judi, Maggie, Helen and Meryl take all of the 60-something and 70-something roles because they can 'pass' as characters from all sorts of backgrounds, not just characters with access to expensive cosmetic procedures.
HOWEVER, I also think that it's naive to assume that actresses have work done for their 'job or to try and sustain their golden patch, career-wise' - how many people do you know that had multiple procedures done for work? Everyone I know did so because of something in their personal life - maybe they separated, maybe a loved one told them they looked old, maybe their partner was ageing 'slower' than they were, maybe they have always had low self-esteem and wanted to attract a partner... to assume that, say, Nicole Kidman (who has impeccable taste in her choice of movies and collaborators and, it seems, a very clear understanding of what her legacy should be) decided to have work done so that she could be cast in Julia Roberts circa 1990-98 roles into her 50s? I'm not convinced.
Personally, I think Renee looks pretty like-herself--if thinner than Bridget has been--in that trailer.. (Also, how great is Emma Thompson going to be in that??)
Come to think about it... It sounds eldery male actors get better work than eldery female actresses, but I don't think that's true at all. Stragely their chances to win a Lead Oscar are higher for actors in their 40's... But an Oscar does not guarantee a solid career at all.
People speak of DiCaprio as the DeNiro/Pachino of his generation, but if we look in what movies these actors are in the last years... I do hope he's not.
I did like Renée's "old" face esp. her eyes, so yeah, I was a bit shocked by her "new" face. Of course it's her decision, but it felt to me like if Meryl corrected her nose. (thank god she never did)
It's sad she and/or the industry still think women have to do this.
And what ever happened to the former natural beauty of Meg Ryan???
I think what Nicole did stopped her getting the bigger gigs and Meg RYan looks drastically different but it's hard for Actresses even Sally Field gave in before making Lincoln.
I still recognise Renee but there is something different about her not career killing though.
I agree with Derreck and Phillip, the reason this essay by OG was so insulting was the way he is so critical of Zellweger but makes no mention of MALES Who Have Done the SAME Thing.
No mention of Mickey Rourke, Stallone, Douglas, etc.
That's what makes this type of "think piece" so un-thoughtful, unfair, and sexist.
Frances McDormand (great face) won all of her Triple Crowns after turning 40, two of them after turning 50. Jessica Lange (who may have had work done but not necessarily to make herself look younger) won her Best Actress Oscar in her mid-40s and the rest of her Triple Crowns after turning *60*.
Frances McDormand (great face)
Really Paul? She walks with resting bitch face.
Great HUMAN face.
I think it's a tragedy. Sorry, but I can't see it no other way. I just don't understand it. It's not they don't have great role models to follow in that matter (Hepburn, Davis, Bacall, Moreau,Rowlands, Smith, Dench... they all kept their glorious faces)
Everyone in Hollywood has had cosmetic work done. EVERYONE. Including all of the so-called natural beauties that people say are "aging gracefully." I believe Helen Mirren has been quite honest about having a nip and a tuck here and there.
The Wesley Morris article on his obsession with Kate Hudson if funny and true
Thanks for the link!
"From what I've seen actresses who mess with their faces in any noticeable permanent way actually STOP getting much work. It distracts audiences too much. Note how Kate Winslet, Annette Bening, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, and so on keep aging and keep working. "
- I think those 4 actresses + Jessica Lange are exceptions to the rule. That older actresses have trouble getting parts is kinda a well known fact. Just look how long it took Pfeiffer to come back (which is hopefully happening atm). The issue is not 'messing with their faces' - that is just a result of them getting OLDER which is an issue in Hollywood