You know the story: Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story. Romeo Must Die. Yes, Drew Barrymore’s much-publicized, Chloë Moretz-starring video for Best Coast’s “Our Deal” is yet another of those star-crossed teenage love stories that happen to involve rival gangs, leather jackets, and sculptural hairdos. MTV has posted the first 30-second snippet, which reveals a cast including Donald Glover, Alia Shawkat, and Tyler Posey. It’s a fun, if familiar, clip that has us hoping Barrymore will throw in a wicked curve ball of an ending. Catch a glimpse of “Our Deal” after the jump and, if you like what you see, mark your calendar for its August 2nd premiere.
“Everybody needs his memories,” Saul Bellow once wrote. “They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” These days, the same can be true of fame. It’s no surprise then that celebrity memoirs and autobiographies continue to flood the market — much to our personal glee. As self-proclaimed aficionados, we’ve decided to help you navigate the waters; here are a few contemporary titles, paired with a soft focus homage to their vintage predecessors, never to be forgotten. If you’ve got a recommendation to add to our list, be sure to leave it in the comments.
Wedding films are largely like Hallmark cards transferred to celluloid – saccharine piffle based around an institution that’s been progressively losing its relevance for centuries. But still, despite the existence of innumerable dire films like The Wedding Planner and My Best Friend’s Wedding, not every film involving marriage should be consigned a priori to the celluoid scrapheap – occasionally one comes along that manages to be both non-sentimental and amusing. And so, in our sole concession to the ongoing media hypefest that is the Royal Wedding, here’s a selection of our favorite nuptial films – the ones that don’t suck like a brand new turbo-charged Dyson.
Joe Wright’s Hanna, hitting theaters tomorrow, is the tale of a tough, ruthless teenage girl (played by Wright’s Atonement star Saoirse Ronan), trained as an assassin by her ex-CIA agent father (Eric Bana) in the Finnish wilds and sent on a killer mission. (If you haven’t seen the certifiably bad-ass trailer, do yourself the favor of setting aside three minutes to watch it.) Though the cold-hearted young female killer is a fairly novel heroine, it’s not a completely new cinematic creation, either; join us after the jump for a look at some of our favorites from films past.
1. Nate Dogg, the California rapper known for his collaborations with Dr. Dre, Warren G, and Eminem, among others, died yesterday at the age of 41. He had previously survived a pair of strokes in 2007 and 2008. [via Billboard]
2. Exciting news of the day that makes us feel old: TV Land has announced that the cast of The Facts of Life will reunite next month for the first time in 20 years to accept the Pop Culture Award at the 2011 TV Land Awards. [via EW]
3. Playgirl has offered $10,000 to anyone who can get them a naked picture of CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “He’s got this charisma that a lot of our readers are attracted to, plus now he’s all muscled, [so] he’s not only smart but also hot,” explains the magazine’s editor in chief, Daniel Nardicio. “Both our male and female readers love Anderson.” [via PopEater]
4. “This memoir is her story, in her own words. Mary and Keith Hudson have been Christian Evangelists long before the world every heard of Katy Perry.” – the opening line of Katy Perry’s mother’s book proposal which the New York Postreports she is currently shopping around to New York’s literary agents hoping to land a publishing deal.
5. Drew Barrymore will direct the romantic comedy How To Be Single, a film adaptation of Liz Tuccillo’s bestselling novel which “explores the loves lives and break-ups of a group of New Yorkers over the course of ten years”; if Tuccillo’s name sounds familiar to you, it’s because she’s also the co-author of a little piece of self-help poison known as He’s Just Not That Into You. [via THR]
Today’s leading rom-com chick is almost always the same three things: neurotic, addicted to her career, and Katherine Heigl. But have you ever noticed that her so-called friends — yes, those girls who exist primarily to remind her how single (sad face!) she is — can be equally reductive and pathetic? After all, if that girl’s got one thing, it’s a gaggle of friends, rivals, and frenemies to guide her by example, pep talks, or the sheer power of bitchiness to her dream man. Check out eight of the most common species of single-function film females after the jump so that you, too, can start putting the women in your life in boxes and forgetting about that darned unique personality business.
It’s official: According to Entertainment Weekly, Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films and Sony Pictures TV are bringing a remake of Charlie’s Angels to ABC next fall. The series will be set in Miami, and an offer is currently out to Mark Piznarski (Gossip Girl) to direct the project. Based on the above, we’re assuming that the reboot will take its cues from two recent film versions of the franchise as opposed to the original TV show. As such, we’ve offered up casting suggestions for all three Angels after the jump.
Forbes has come out with a list of Hollywood’s most overpaid actors for 2010. To do this they looked at the 36 highest-earning actors in the movie business and compared the actor’s pay with what their last three films made earned (with a cutoff date of June 1, 2010). The resulting number comes in the form of amount the studio has made for every dollar they paid the star (for example, for every dollar Will Ferrell was paid, his last three films returned an average $3.35). Click through for the top 10 and our slightly over-the-top analysis.
On Sunday there were reports, first appearing in London’s Sunday Times, that the United Nation had appointed Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist, as head of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA… the sound an alien might make?). Unfortunately someone seems to have jumped the gun, as Othman has subsequently denied the appointment. To help cope with our disappointment, we thought we’d take a look at 10 Hollywood actors who’d also make fine ambassadors. You know, just in case.
Gone are the days when long-distance relationships conjured images of lonely individuals spending hours gazing through a rain-soaked window while yearning to be in the arms of their lover. There’s no more anxious waiting for the postman to deliver a letter. Now we have Facebook, text messages, and video chat rooms. Long-distance relationships in the digital era is the central theme of this new romantic comedy, co-starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. In real life, the duo are an on-and-off-again couple, but we think they look cute together on the big screen, too. The question is: Can the fictional couple withstand the strain of living on opposite coasts? They are crazy about each other, aren’t they? If their relationship works out, maybe it’s because technology really can bring us together, despite Obama’s doubts.
