Last weekend, we (and many of you, it seems) plunked down our hard-earned cash to see Bridesmaids — partially out of sheer mad love for Kristen Wiig, partially to do our bit to, as Salon put it, “send a bracing message to a business that has become increasingly oppressive for the women who work within it as well as for those who consume its product.” (In other words: if you’re tired of the sum total of female-driven comedies being soppy Katherine Hiegl vehicles, cast your vote for Bridesmaids in the form of a contribution to its opening weekend box office.)
Point is, we saw it. And it’s funny! It’s not a perfect movie — the pace is a little draggy in spots, and this viewer frankly wouldn’t have minded a little more of the collective bridesmaids (the film’s best comic set pieces are those big group scenes, and a couple more of those wouldn’t have hurt — as it is, we don’t get near enough of Ellie Kemper or Wendi McLendon-Covey). But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to talk about the ending, and if it disappointed you the way it did me. And just to be safe and spoiler-free, we’re not going to talk about it until after the jump.
Regardless of what we might think about his ancillary projects, we all know James Franco is a good actor. But sometimes, too much method acting can be a bad thing. The LA Times reports that, at a Paley Fest panel on Saturday, the cast of Freaks and Geeks reunited without Franco (who sent in a video in lieu of appearing) — and told a few stories that suggested they might kind of hate him.
First, Judd Apatow called him a drama queen. Then, Busy Phillips came in with the big guns. In one scene, where Phillips’s Kim Kelly and Franco’s Daniel Desario were arguing, the script called for Phillips to tap Franco on the arm. When she did, he cursed at her and threw her to the ground. “I had the wind knocked out of me,” she recalled, and once she got up, she went back to her trailer and cried. According to Phillips, Franco had decided Daniel had “maybe been abused by his father, and so he didn’t want any physicality between him and his girlfriend.” But, she added, “This was unbeknownst to me.”
Last night Judd Apatow tweeted a photo of the cast of Sick In The Head, a late ’90s sitcom about “an inexperienced therapist” starring Amy Poehler, David Krumholtz, and Kevin Corrigan, that never made it off the ground. Considering that Poehler went on to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2001, and Apatow the Frat Pack filmmaker is much more successful than Apatow the failed TV show creator, maybe this is pop culture’s way of showing us that everything happens for a reason. Or maybe it’s just fun to see how young they look. [via Splitsider]
When we first heard about Bridesmaids, a female ensemble comedy directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow, we had high hopes in spite of the rather unoriginal sounding premise; Kristen Wiig (who co-wrote the film) plays a single woman whose best friend (Maya Rudolph) asks her to be the Maid of Honor in her upcoming wedding. Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper fill out the remaining female half of the wedding party. Judging from the trailer, this isn’t going to be anything groundbreaking, but it will elicit a few laughs (although enough with the single lady jokes!), and beats the hell out of other recent attempts to appeal to the 30-something female market — like Bride Wars or either of the Sex and the City movies. Plus, there’s a brief cameo by Jon Hamm and a glimpse of puppies in bow ties! Take a look and let us know what you think.
1. Last night, Kanye tweeted what could be the cover art for Watch The Throne, his joint project with Jay-Z, which is set to drop on January 11th. In the middle are the letters H*A*M. Any ideas what that might mean? [via HitFix]
2. MTV and Foursquare have teamed up to launch a new Jersey Shore-themed badge; in order to score the “GTL” badge, all you have to do is check in to a gym, tanning salon, and laundry mat during a 7-day period. [via Mashable]
3. Lady Gaga has finally unveiled her new line for Polaroid. Among the offerings are a pair of sunglasses that doubles as a camera and displays images on its lenses; a portable, wireless printer; and an updated version of the classic Polaroid instant camera. [via THR]
4. Judd Apatow’s next project will feature Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd reprising their roles from Knocked Up. Hopefully Apatow and Mann’s two daughters — who played the precocious kids in Knocked Up — will be involved, too. [via Variety]
5. Some happy news: Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has been told he’s cancer-free, 18 months after he was diagnosed with the disease. [via Toronto Sun]
1. George W. Bush’s political memoir Decision Points sold 220,000 copies in its first day. Just for comparison’s sake, Bill Clinton’s My Life sold 400,000. It can’t be because Dubya’s not doing enough promotional interviews… [via Vulture]
2. Do you think that Lady Gaga, Jonathan Franzen, or Mark Zuckerberg have any shot of winning Time’s Person of the Year award when they’re going up against The Unemployed American and The Chilean Miners?
3. “We thought we’d do a lot of things that we’d never done: a full tour of Canada, a documentary, coffee-table book, live album, a boxed set. It was one long project that took almost three years. Now that we’ve gotten a lot of that out of our system, Meg and I can get back in the studio and start fresh.” – Jack White on a White Stripes reunion
4. Read a brief history of Soft Skull — “the quintessential New York City indie press” — as it closes its NYC office and moves to Berkeley. [via Bookslut]
5. Judd Apatow defends his record on female characters and talks about his new female-centric pilot for HBO about a group of women in New York in their mid-twenties. [via Jezebel]
1. This year’s 2010 Mercury Prize, the annual award for the UK and Ireland’s “most excellent” LP, went to the xx for their self-titled album. [via Stereogum]
2. Billy Ray Cyrus and his son Trace are working on a paranormal investigation show for SyFy. Says Billy Ray: “I hope this series can shine a light on some of the activities we have questioned, and the mysteries that have long inspired us.” [via THR]
3. HBO has green lighted the pilot for a half-hour comedy about “the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20s” from Judd Apatow and indie filmmaker Lena Dunham. [via Deadline]
4. Word is that Jean-Luc Godard may be accepting his honorary Oscar after all. [via Deadline]
5. What is Google’s logo trying to tell us about today’s big announcement? [via TechCrunch]
Between his art projects, his stint on General Hospital, and his newfound literary career (oh yeah, and his highly successful film work…), James Franco is constantly all over the news. Just today, we read about him starring in a book trailer and bringing Jeffrey Deitch along for the second round of his magical GH adventure. Considering that he’s got hands in cinema, literature, TV, and visual arts, we’re going to go ahead and crown Franco the new King of All Media. So, how did he come to dominate the news cycle? Perhaps it has something to do with folks he’s chosen to collaborate with, befriend, or simply name check. After the jump, we look back at the 10 people we think have been most influential in boosting Franco-mania to unprecedented levels.
1. Judd Apatow is momentarily turning his back on the Frat Pack and developing a new Pee-wee Herman movie because he says, “Let’s face it, the world needs more Pee-wee Herman.” Agreed. [via Variety]
2. Meryl Streep is in talks to play Margaret Thatcher in Thatcher, a film directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who she previously worked with on Mamma Mia!. We hope this one’s a musical too. [via THR]
3. Yesterday Amazon acquired one-deal-a-day website Woot. Today they’re hawking the Kindle for $150 a pop. [via GalleyCat]
4. Why the internet couldn’t save Party Down: “Nobody wants 75,000 viewers.” [via Capital New York]
5. Charles Saatchi is giving his Chelsea gallery and more than 200 works – including Tracey Emin‘s My Bed — to the UK government. The new publicly-owned space will be known as the Museum of Contemporary Art, London. [via Guardian]
Russell Brand is your new favorite fake rock star. Although based on his performance at LA’s Roxy nightclub last week promoting his new Judd Apatow film, Get Him to the Greek, it’s not all that much of an act. More like a dream come true, one he’s finally letting himself believe. Watching the 35-year-old comic make the transition from self-deprecating admiration for “the real rock stars who made it easy for me to act like one,” to possibly pretending not to recall the words to his own songs, to finally casting aside his lyric sheets and embracing the persona with gusto — in the space of just a few songs — was like watching a butterfly hatch from a cocoon right on the Roxy stage. Granted, a wild-haired, potty-mouthed, scalawag of a gorgeous-looking indie shock comic butterfly, but still.
