American actress Meg Ryan has sparked specuation she’s dating Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon after photos of them emerged in Woman’s Day.

Ryan, 48, and McMahon, 41, have been linked following a series of “cosy” dinner dates in LA, with one date said to have gone on for four hours with them doing some hand holding, reports News.com.au.

While Ryan is single, two-time divorcee McMahon has a steady girlfriend, the gorgeous Kelly Paniagua, who often travels Down Under with him, most recently in August.

A rep for McMahon’s could not say if they were still together.

The other day I was googling stuff, when I came across an interesting fact: Natalie Portman’s given name is actually Natalie Hershlag. I had no idea she changed her name, and especially that she changed it to something more American-sounding. This kind of fascinates me: what’s the motivation behind a celebrity changing their name? Sometimes it’s to sound less ethnic, sometimes it’s just to sound more interesting. But it turns out that more celebs have changed their names then you’d think (and it’s not just the obvious ones, like Pink).

Let’s start with Natalie Portman

Portman, as you now know, is actually named Natalie Hershlag. Apparently Portman is her grandmother’s maiden name, and she took it in order to maintain privacy. I’m…skeptical. Natalie Portman sounds more “American” – whatever that means. Either way, Natalie has a pretty interesting heritage: she was born in Jerusalem, her great grandparents died in Auschwitz, and one of her great grandmothers was a spy for the British in WWII. And at least her new name is still in the family. Unlike…

Meg Ryan…

whose real name is actually Margaret Mary Emily Ann Hyra. Which is quite a mouthful. I don’t blame her for this change, but why pick Ryan over Hyra? Ryan is a stupid boy name, but Hyra sounds all greek goddess-y.

Now Demi Moore

is actually Demetria Gene Guynes. But her name change is actually pretty legit. Demi is a nickname, and Moore is her first husband’s name (Fred Moore). Technically, she uses Demi Moore professionally, and actually goes by Demi Guynes Kutcher. So she took her 16 year old husband’s name (but honestly, who can blame the girl?).

The lovely Helen Mirren?

Born Ilynea Lydia Mironoff. Or Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov. There’s some Internet confusion about her actual name. But it’s definitely not Helen Mirren. At first I thought, she is totally getting rid of her ethnicity! But further research (umm…Wikipedia) shows that it was her father’s decision to change their family name to Mirren after settling in England. Still, “Helen” is a bit more British than “Ilyena.”

Speaking of ethnic name changes…meet Jennifer Tilly.

Real name? Jennifer E. Chan. I had no idea she was Chinese American! But Tilly is her mom’s maiden name, so she’s still keeping it in the family.

Alright, duh. LL Cool J is not his real name. It’s actually…

James Todd Smith!! I’m so charmed by this, just because of how boring and normal it is.

Now let’s meet some musicians. First up? Eric Clapton.

His real name is Eric Patrick Clapp. I don’t blame him for that change. No one wants the Clapp.

Ok, John Denver kind of shocked me.

He just seems like such a genuine guy. But his real name is Henry John Deutschendort Jr. Not exactly all-American. I guess he needed a super country, farm-boy name. And John Denver almost sounds like a tractor company. Which is probably what his handlers were going for.

These last two just kind of blow my mind. Take Sigourney Weaver.

If your name is Susan Alexandra Weaver, why would you willing take the name Sigourney? Ridic. I guess she picked it when she was 14, after a character in The Great Gatsby. Ok, fine. At least it’s literary. But should any 14 year old girl be allowed to name themselves? My name would probably have been Ivy Lovelorn from 12-17 if  my mom had been less strict.

And the winner: Skeet Ulrich.

Seriously? Why? His actual name is Bryan Ray Trout. I mean look, it’s not like having a last name like “Trout” is really winning the name lottery, but still. Skeet? I guess it’s a nickname given to him by his little league coach (“Skeeter”), based on his small size. Which is kind of cute, but also totally ridiculous. That name is never going to land you Hamlet on Broadway.

Maybe I’ll start a new game where I try and come up with my own celebrity name. How about Hope Wildheart? Or Daisy Button. Or Fai Swanton. Or Bella Lacramore! Umm, this is actually super fun.

Pet peeves are dangerous, letting the tiniest faux pas completely tarnish your impression of a person, restaurant or even a movie. It’s clear from the start that Serious Moonlight is likely to be a serious drag, but the utterance of the phrase ‘I could care less’ seals the deal. It’s ‘I couldn’t care less;’ and do you know what I couldn’t care less about? This movie.

Click here to read more.

Natalie Portman oder Kate Moss?

Oder gar Meg Ryan?

The Women è un film del 2008 commedia scritta e diretta da Diane English. La sceneggiatura è una versione aggiornata di George Cukor del 1939 film con lo stesso nome, che era basato su un gioco del 1936 di Clare Boothe Luce.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Meg Ryan | Annette Bening | Eva Mendes | Debra Messing

Louise (Meg Ryan), a high-powered Manhattan lawyer, is touched when she arrives for the weekend to her family’s upstate getaway to find it strewn with rose petals by her husband of 13 years, Ian… Louise (Meg Ryan), a high-powered Manhattan lawyer, is touched when she arrives for the weekend to her family’s upstate getaway to find it strewn with rose petals by her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy Hutton). Unfortunately . . . Ian is not expecting Louise, rather his much younger girlfriend (Kristen Bell). In fact, he’s actually in the process of writing Louise a letter explaining his intention to leave her for good. An oddly cool Louise has other plans. She takes Ian captive, refusing to release him until he commits to working on their marriage together. When Ian’s impatient mistress shows up, not to mention an opportunistic gardener (Justin Long), things start to get seriously complicated. Not merely a war of the sexes, SERIOUS MOONLIGHT is a story of a war of the wills as Ian tries to talk his way out of the situation.

Directed by Cheryl Hines (Waitress, Curb Your Enthusiasm) from a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly (Waitress), the film stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long. Screenplay by Adrienne Shelly. Produced by Andy Ostroy and Michael Roiff. A Night & Day Pictures and All for A Films production

Starring: Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, Justin Long, Andy Ostrow
Director: Cheryl Hines
Screenwriter: Adrienne Shelly
Producer: Andy Ostrow, Michael Roiff
Composer: Andrew Hollander
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

MOVIE TRAILER :

Some might say.

Update: I share a birthday with Ann Curry, Jodie Foster, Ryan Howard, Kerri Strug, Jason Scott Lee, Meg Ryan, Ahmad Rashad, and Larry King–so happy birthday to them, too!

Owen made the following comment on a recent post:

There is a certain type of young man who generally pursues the priesthood. We dance around it, but in my mind it is unequivocally true. In Orthodoxy there are certain forms and postures that are, aesthetically speaking, humble, but which are easily practiced and replicated, and do not necessarily reveal the inner heart – soft, slightly effete voice, a way of walking in the cassock, a way of mentioning the contrary opinions of others and pleading one’s ignorance on matters even as it is quite clear you’ve got a strong opinion and you want it to be deemed the right one, a slightly affected, sentimentalish manner of being around icons, prayer ropes, the altar &nave, and so forth, a slightly affected manner of quoting sayings or hagiographic tidbits of the saints, etc. But beyond all that, you spend some time with the fellow and you realize that he loves and is naturally given to didacticism – here is a man who likes to be in a position of teaching others. It is also clear that he has a hunger to be in a position of spiritual authority over others. In my opinion, keeping in mind that opinions in Orthodoxy are worth as much as wax stains on nave carpets, a desire to teach in the Church and have spiritual authority over others is usually, but not always, instigated by demons.

Okay. We’re adults here; let’s not be coy and play dumb. We all know what he’s talking about, and we all know people who are more or less like this — assuming we ourselves don’t fit this description! I’m going to let Owen’s words speak for themselves, and I assume that he is savvy enough to know that he has just profiled a chunk of his readership (although I would be hard-pressed to say whether or not he would particularly care if he offended any of them).

So, neither adding nor subtracting nor commenting directly on the particulars Owen discusses, my question is, why are young men who tend to have these characteristics the ones who seem to be drawn to the priesthood like moths to flame? (Perhaps people can weigh in on whether or not the ordination-bound in other confessions/communions also behave this way.)

In the interest of full disclosure, the priesthood is something I feel reasonably certain to not be in God’s plan for me. This is not a conclusion I have reached lightly; in one form or another, the question of pastoral ministry was one that really troubled me, at least off and on, from my teenage years up to late twenties. During my time in Anglican circles, there were a couple of people who were really pushing me to consider seminary, and I think it was only the fact that I did not yet have an undergraduate degree that kept these individuals from forcibly sending me off to someplace like Trinity or Seabury (Nashotah House is not a place one hears about in the Pacific Northwest). Being an excitable young man, of course the question resurfaced for me as an Orthodox Christian, and immediately following my chrismation in February 2005 it seemed (as it does for so many of us) that surely seminary would be the logical next step for Somebody Like Me (particularly since that would make the matter of grad school much simpler). In the fall of 2005, I visited the St. Vladimir’s campus, fell in love… and then the whole issue just seemed to dissipate as a compelling force. It hasn’t resurfaced since. I sometimes wonder if the point was simply to bring me to a place where I would finally be willing to go that route, and then to redirect me elsewhere. At this stage of the game, I am no longer afraid of the priesthood (and haven’t been for awhile), but it seems more likely that, if I were to wind up at a place like St. Vlad’s, it would be as a member of the faculty (or potentially as a visiting student while I’m writing my dissertation) rather than as a candidate for priestly formation. As it is, I have a desire to teach, but not in the Church — at least not as a catechist. No, thank you. That’s not responsibility I care to have. Maybe I could help illuminate a couple of things here and there within my own area of expertise, maybe I could teach a chant lesson or two, but I’m not the person to entrust with forming the holiness of others.

Extending maximum charity to the type of gentleman Owen describes (particularly given that, for all I know, there could be people who read those words and think, “Yep, that’s Richard Barrett!”), what pushes this person onto the path of the priesthood and gives them such a desire for spiritual authority? I am not totally unwilling to discount the explanation of demons, but let us say I feel more at ease discussing what might be the concrete instruments of said demons than the demons themselves.

My favorite ’80s teenage rom-com is Say Anything… In a lot of ways, it’s really more properly considered a ’90s movie than an ’80s movie (it was released in 1989) — rather than somewhere in California, it takes place in a rather idealized and curiously rearranged Seattle four years before Meg Ryan would get from the 520 floating bridge to Sand Point in a matter of seconds (it takes twenty minutes to half an hour assuming no traffic, folks), it’s got Soundgarden and Joe Satriani on the soundtrack, it’s got John Mahoney as the problematic Seattleite father (prefiguring Frasier by about half a decade), and it’s got John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, in what amounts to his first adult role. Young adult (the script goes out of its way to explain that Lloyd is graduating high school a year older than his classmates because of various familial matters), but he’s not fantasizing about dancing hamburgers at his fast food job anymore. One perhaps could argue that he starts the movie as a kid and finishes as an adult (cf. Lili Taylor telling him, “Don’t be a guy. The world is full of guys. Be a man“). More to the point, you can see Lloyd as potentially growing up to become Martin Blank (and I have occasionally wondered if Say Anything… wasn’t discussed, even if only in jest, as sort of a murky back story for Grosse Point Blank).

Anyway, Lloyd is a nice, if slightly off-center, guy. He wears a Fishbone t-shirt and a trenchoat. He’s a bit disconnected from his family, since his parents are in the military and stationed elsewhere, and he lives with his single-mom sister and her kid while he figures some things out. He’s not intelligent or obviously talented in conventional ways, he’s graduating high school a year late, he has no college plans, but what he does have are some very definite principles (“I don’t want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything as a career”), and when he’s dedicated to something — like kickboxing, for example — he gives it his all. His guidance counselor buttonholes him at a party to try to persuade him to make some conventional decisions about his future, and he dismisses her advice, saying, “I’m looking for something bigger, you know? I’m looking for a dare-to-be-great situation.”

Let’s just imagine for a moment that Lloyd one day wandered into St. Nicholas Cathedral (ROCOR) in Seattle and found his dare-to-be-great situation there, giving it his all just like he did with kickboxing. I think he’d wind up a lot like the kind of young man Owen describes.

My point is this. I think there are a lot of smart guys with a genuine faith in and love for God, who want to give something the whole of their effort, who maybe just haven’t had the right — or at least the obvious — opportunity come their way and who at least know that there are some specific things they don’t want to do. Maybe they’ve had an interest in various aspects of the humanities and social sciences, enough to be broadly informed about a wide range of topics, but they’ve never had the discipline or the right setting to rise above being a dilettante, or at least an undergrad who shows some promise. Maybe they’ve had something of a taste of church service in another setting, enough so that they put on a cassock or some other kind of vestment and realize that they’re visibly part of something bigger when they do that. Maybe there are other circumstances in their life that make them determined to never do anything halfway, so that they never have to apologize for their own presence or participation.

And when these guys discover Orthodox Christianity, with all of history and all of its richness of faith and practice and all of its demands, with all of the ways it can order one’s life in the service of Christ, the various facets of their person which otherwise make it hard for them to fit in suddenly have a place, a context. They’ve discovered their dare-to-be-great situation. This is their life’s work, they just didn’t know it before. How can the priesthood, if not monasticism, not become a draw, the call that surely was always there if it could only have been perceived?

(By the way, unlike what I suppose about Owen, I care very much about offending people, so I really hope nobody thinks I’m saying this to mock or be critical. I have observed much of the above, yes, but much of it I have observed in myself. I cannot mock without mocking my own person first of all.)

I think what it often (perhaps not always) boils down to is that, for the young, male, zealous convert, it is not difficult to develop the desire to spend as much time in church as possible. Eventually, and naturally, this turns into the question — perhaps unconsciously — “If what I want to do is be in church all day, then wouldn’t a vocation just make sense?” Since there’s really only one way somebody can work for Orthodox Christianity in this country as one’s day-job, the direction becomes pretty clear from there.

Does it have to be this way? Maybe not, and I would hope that a seeming one-to-one ratio of zealot to cassock could be a reasonably short-lived phenomenon. (I say that as a cantor who wears a cassock.) The truth is, there is something that drives young men who behave as Owen outlines. If it might be healthier that not all of them get tonsured as readers the day after their chrismation and start teaching catechism after their second Divine Liturgy as a communicant, then there needs to be some active spiritual guidance about what to do with whatever it is that drives them. I have no doubt that for priests and bishops who have long lists of things to get done, young men with a lot of energy and desire to serve are hard to tell, “You need to sit back and chill for a while.” Still, it raises the question of whether or not the desire specifically to be the one serving in a visible, set-apart fashion can’t itself turn into a passion.

Ultimately, I think Owen is absolutely right from a descriptive standpoint. I’ve remarked before that there’s a certain self-consciousness of the American convert that we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with, and what Owen talks about is part and parcel of this self-consciousness. If there is a sort of contrived and constructed manner of holiness that has been assumed, then the answer is that we need more models of holiness that haven’t been contrived or constructed. Still, I think there are deeper reasons for why this occurs that we’re also going to have to figure out how to understand and deal with, and we will need to do so compassionately and productively.

On November 19:

1600  King Charles I of England was born.

1805  Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and Suez Canal engineer, was born.

1816  Warsaw University was established.

1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the military cemetery ceremony at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1905  Tommy Dorsey, American bandleader, was born.

1916  Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Pictures.

1917  Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India was born.

1933  Larry King, American TV personality, was born.

1942  Calvin Klein, American clothing designer, was born.

1942  Battle of Stalingrad – Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launched the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR’s favor.

1961  Meg Ryan, American actress, was born.

1962  Jodie Foster, American actress, was born.

1969  Football player Pelé scored his 1,000th goal.

1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat

became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel.

1984 A series of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Você já quis ter um retrato daquela cena específica do seu filme preferido?

O Ewan doidão em Trainspotting ou

o desespero do Harry por causa de você-sabe-o-quê em Harry Potter e A Ordem de Fênix…

… ou a Meg ameaçando o Tom em Mensagem para Você…

…ou uma delicada recordação de Notting Hill…

…ou o treinamento da Little Miss Sunshine…

…ou…ah, acho que você entendeu.

Mais de 100 filmes foram catalogados pelo Screencaps, segundo o blog Favoritos. Fica a dica!

Wow, Jim Morrison was kind of an ass now that I think about it.

This drama is as much about 1960s music culture as it is about legendary outlaw Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer), one of the most influential figures in the history of rock and roll. This electrifying drama chronicles Morrison’s rise from obscurity to the pinnacle of the rock and roll music world as lead singer for The Doors, and, finally, to his tragically early death in a Paris bathtub.

Personally, I love The Doors. I like a lot of their music and thinks its so strange and out there that it really is some of the best. I think Jim Morrison was a great artist when he was alive, he wrote some strange but really beautiful poetry and music. And, I also love Oliver Stone, as much of you already know. Why didn’t this whole film work out like I wanted it to??

To start it off let me look at the positives. The concert scenes are filmed in large screen, cause that’s how Stone wants you to see them as and really there was no other way they could have been shown other than in wide screen presentation. It is amazing how the concert scenes are re-created, as they look like outtakes taken from a documentary at the time. The crowd scenes have a real distinct powerful effect, and this is one of the most realistic looking rock movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Val Kilmer looks so much like Morrison it’s actually scary. But not only does he look like him, Kilmer captures the total essence that Morrison had. He was a strange man, who’s erratic behavior got worse as he started to deal more into drugs, as this film shows very well. Meg Ryan also has a good performance as his long-time girlfriend who goes through some changes herself, and through Ryan’s performance we see this very well.

However, there were many problems I had with this film that did bother me a lot. The historical innacuracies really do start to get out of hand very early in this film. The film shows Morrison holding his crotch and mocking the TV as he says “higher” on live television. Now in real life, Morrison just sayed “higher” by accident and didn’t really know what he was doing when he did it. Also, the film does a great job at showing us the drug addicted, sex making, drunken Jim Morrison, and never really shows us anything good about him. The film dives into his personal life of booze, sex, and drugs, and totally forgets about his work at hand and how his songs came to be.

I did like Stone’s direction as I felt it was very inspired but I felt he could have really changed the last hour or so. The typical rise-and-fall story of Morrison is falling right at about when the first hour is up. The after that the whole film basically becomes a total downer for anyone who loved the band The Doors, such as myself.

Though we get little tidbits of what the other band members have to say, we never fully meet them. We always are able to see their reactions, but there’s never a chance to see where Morrison and all the others met, and we never get to see how close they really were to Morrison.

Consensus: Though it’s not one of Oliver Stone’s finest films, The Doors is exciting and well-acted, but never shows anything good from Morrison and its innacuracies start to get a little out-of-hand by the end of the first act.

5/10=Rentall!!!!

From CNN.com

 

CNN’s Anderson Cooper will be host of “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.”

CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” returns to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Thanksgiving night, as the network celebrates its third year of honoring everyday people making a difference.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosts the star-studded gala, which will be seen around the world on November 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the global networks of CNN.

 

The telecast shines a spotlight on the extraordinary accomplishments of the Top 10 CNN Heroes, who were selected by a distinguished Blue Ribbon Panel. Each of this year’s honorees will receive $25,000 in recognition of their work.

The show culminates with the announcement of the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, who will receive an additional $100,000. Voting to select the Hero of the Year is being conducted through an online poll at CNN.com/Heroes, ending November 19 (6 a.m. ET)

Performers and presenters scheduled to appear at this year’s tribute show will be announced in the coming weeks.

Last year’s show included appearances by Hugh Jackman, Salma Hayek, Cameron Diaz, Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, Terrence Howard, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Lucy Liu, with performances by Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and John Legend.

Since February, profiles of 2009 CNN Heroes have been airing weekly on air and online, each chosen from nominations submitted through the CNN Heroes Web site. This year, more than 9,000 nominations were received, more than twice the number of nominations submitted in 2008.

This record number of nominations is further evidence of the momentum CNN Heroes has built in just a few short years,” said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.

“Viewers have been engaged by these stories of inspiration and accomplishment beyond our expectations. It is truly an honor to be able to introduce the CNN Heroes to our global audience every year.”

Again this year, producer/director Joel Gallen will serve as executive producer of “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.” Among his credits, Gallen produced telethon events supporting victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for “America: A Tribute to Heroes.”

The Kodak Theatre is best known as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards.

Over the past couple years, I’ve made it out to this smaller film festival, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where I live). My first year, I saw the amazing performance of the Boston Alloy Orchestra, perform their original score to the 1927 silent era movie, UNDERWORLD – a gangster movie/love triangle thriller – and the “what is reality” movie, THE NINES, with Ryan Reynolds and written/directed by John August (BIG FISH, along with numerous other Tim Burton movies). Both of these movies I saw in the suburban theater in Regent Square. It’s small, and the sound system is made up of two medium sized speakers in the front of the auditorium. It seats about 300 people, and usually these showings are pretty packed.

The festival itself, tends to mix a portion of more mainstream fare – if only in the sense of “festival-movies” being mainstream. THE NINES, was not a mainstream movie, but it’s also bigger than something locally produced by unknown talents – a good assortment of foreign-language movies, and the locally produced stuff that probably doesn’t stand too much of a chance of being seen outside of it’s region of production. The festival presents it’s movies distributed throughout the city in three different neighborhoods, and theaters. But, for what seems like a pretty small-scale event, it seems to do pretty well.

I didn’t get out to see anything last year – that I can remember – even though there was a screening of the apparently brilliant silent movie, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, with the Boston Alloy Orchestra, again. And this year, I’m going to try and remedy that by making it to their performance of THE BLACK PIRATE, written and starring Douglas Fairbanks. The movie that initially gave us the spectacular stunt of a buccaneer, sliding down a sail using a little knife. I imagine it’s going to be amazing!

So, this weekend, I managed to get out and see two movies (luckily it was a double-feature type format, which made it easier). After forgetting that the festival was going on, I missed the opening night showing of both PRECIOUS and THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS. Then I had planned on seeing one of the two showings of BRONSON (missed them) and then it was only on my way out the door that I saw that after one showing of BRONSON was a screening of Chan Wook Park’s latest movie, THIRST. Something about a priest turning into a vampire, or something totally and completely screwed up.

Anyway, determined not to miss the last movie that I really wanted to see, THE MESSENGER, I headed out. The movie playing afterwards, I hadn’t heard of before, but my roommate knew of it and wanted to see SERIOUS MOONLIGHT. So, that’s my double feature.

THE MESSENGER is the new movie starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson, who are soldiers in the Army, who are assigned the duty to notify the next of kin, when a soldier is killed. It’s a procedural on how to present yourself, the language to use and most of all how to try and distance yourself from the atrociousness of the job. The movie is co-written and directed by Oren Moverman, who has written the screenplays for JESUS’ SON and I’M NOT THERE, the Bob Dylan bio-pic/fantasy. The other screenwriter is Alessandro Camon, who has mostly been a producer, associated with movies like AMERICAN PSYCHO, the new BAD LIEUTENANT movie with Nicolas Cage and Warner Herzog.

The story follows Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Foster), who after being injured in combat is sent home to serve his last few months in the motor pool, and is also given the task of handing out condolences. He’s introduced by an extreme close-up on his eye, which has a large scar underneath it, as he’s putting eye drops in. Then we meet what seems like his girlfriend, who they quickly jump straight into having sex and then go have dinner. The girlfriend, Kelly (played by Jena Malone – all grown up, when did that happen?!), is actually engaged to someone else, and we see that this is sort of meant as a goodbye present.

His introduction and orientation by Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson), leaves Montgomery cold, and not too fond of his superior officer, who is a little too fond of the term “head case” and might actually be one. Their first notification is to a family, who when they get there, they’re forced to deal with one of their rules – “We don’t wait. If the person isn’t there, we come back later.” – because the soldier’s mother isn’t home, but his pregnant girlfriend (but technically not family) is, and she wants to know whether the guy is in trouble or not. Once the mother shows up, the screaming and denial of the women is primal and ridiculous in how devastated they are; but it’s absolutely heart-rending and believable. (I can’t imagine worrying about sounding silly when told your son has just died.)

Stone and Montgomery spend their nights drinking, screwing (girls, not each other) and talking, either over the phone or at the bar. Stone asks if Will “IM’s”, but Will doesn’t have a computer. We get a couple more trips out to deliver bad news to family members, and then we meet Olivia Pitterson, who is hanging laundry when the guys come to tell her, her husband was killed. As opposed to everyone else we’ve seen react to this news, she thanks them, shakes their hands and says how hard it must be for them to tell her this. Shocked, Stone mentions that he’s never seen anything like that before. For whatever reason, Will becomes entangled with Olivia (played wonderfully by Samantha Morton – SYNECDOCHE, NY and MINORITY REPORT). He gives her and her son a ride home from a mall, checks out her car, and attends her husband’s funeral – from a distance.

This is where the movie gets a little side-tracked. Stone disappears for a while. While this strange domestic-like situation develops, to a sad moment where they both realize that they’re not really ready for the road they’re going down. This then leads us back to Stone, who advocates some time off and a trip to the country. There’s girls, booze, fights and party crashing.

The performances are all fantastic. Foster, who has been pretty amazing in everything I’ve seen him in; from the psycho cowboy, Charlie Prince, in 3:10 TO YUMA. The deranged, vampire-scout in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, and even his tiny role in X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, where he played the character, Angel and only appeared in a strange sub chapter in the movie. And despite the praise that Foster is getting for this movie, I have to say the screen belongs to Harrelson here.

Looking him up, Woody Harrelson, after taking a break from acting between 1999 to about 2005, has had around 3 projects a year since then. And 2009 has seemed to be his major breakout year. He’s irascible in ZOMBIELAND, completely off his rocker in 2012 – and possibly in his headlining role in the yet unreleased superhero movie DEFENDOR; but here he’s funny, but subdued. He gets to show that he’s portraying a fully-fledged character and not just a caricature, as he pretends to be in certain parts of the movie.  We see him talk about women, he gives a great homage to APOCALYPSE NOW, and at the end is completely shattered. It’s a great, great performance.

SERIOUS MOONLIGHT is a little lighter in it’s subject matter, even if it’s heritage is not. The movie was meant as the follow-up to writer/director Adrienne Shelly, who had made a splash with the movie WAITRESS. Tragically, she was killed by someone who was robbing her apartment. I haven’t seen WAITRESS, nor any of the other smaller movies that she’s written, or even acted in (that I can tell by her IMDB page). But, after seeing this movie, I see that it was a great loss and am sad that there won’t be any more stories from this person’s perspective.

Which, actually, makes the subject matter in this movie a little more prescient and sad in that it’s about a married couple (portrayed by Timothy Hutton and Meg Ryan), who run into each other at their country home, the day before either of them was supposed to be there. Ian (Hutton) has come to the cabin in preparation for a night of bliss with his mistress before leaving a note telling his wife that he’s leaving her, and taking off to Paris. His wife, Louise (Ryan), arrives and sees the flowers and romantic setting and thinks that it’s meant for her. So, when she finds out that her husband is planning on ditching her – with part of his note dictating to feed the fish – she does what any normal person would (wish) to do. She knocks him out, and ties him to a chair. In an effort to win back his love.

The movie is the directorial debut of actress/comedienne Cheryl Hines (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and in a bit of synchronicity with the previous movie I talked about, THE GRAND, with Woody Harrelson – among many others). She does a fine job in handling the humor and drama of the story. I think that there are some missteps in wedging in some weird flashback sequences, but the best part is the ambiguity of the ending/certain events that happen.

What happens is, Louise ties Ian up to a chair. He wakes up, screams that he hates Louise, then says he loves her so she’ll cut him free. When he gets free he tries to escape and leads Louise to knock him out again, and this time tying him to the toilet in the bathroom, since that was also part of his ploy to get loose before. Louise, then says she’s going out to buy stuff for a romantic dinner and while she’s gone a guy shows up (played by Justin Long, AKA the Mac guy), who at first is mowing the lawn. Then sees Ian banging his head off the window in the bathroom. He goes inside, see Ian tied up and decides to rob the place. Louise gets home, and she winds up getting knocked out and tied up in the bathroom along with Ian. To then add insult to injury, the mistress shows up (played by Kristen Bell), and also winds up tied up in the bathroom.

There’s discussions, there’s escape attempts and ultimately there’s the choice that Ian has to make when faced with both women in his life. The movie in total is pretty cute, very funny and has some fairly tense moments. The tension works, because the movie flies by the seat of it’s pants and you’re not really sure if the movie will go “there”, in regards to violence or other areas.

The performances are a little over the top, probably with Bell’s young, “other woman” character being the most grounded and realistic. Meg Ryan, probably turns in one of my favorite roles of hers here. It’s sort of like the movie ADDICTED TO LOVE, where she’s obsessed with an ex, only this is a much more mature (strange to say) role. But, she does a great job, at being believable as the woman that just won’t accept that her marriage is over. Timothy Hutton (from the tv series LEVERAGE) does great, with the little he’s allowed to do – literally, as he’s tied up for nearly the entire movie.

I guess this movie is scheduled for release in December, so I’d say check it out; or see if it’s playing at some kind of film festival by you.

And the website for the Three Rivers Film Festival, can be found here: www.3rff.com

I’ve got a yummy, super easy, (and pretty healthy) pizza concoction for you today… I had something else planned (a  whole wheat version of Spätzles to go along with tonight’s movie)….but it didn’t happen so I’m going with a most delicious plan B.  The pizza is actually just an organic cheese pizza from Trader Joe’s.  I lightly sauteed red and yellow peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and red onion in a few tablespoons of soy sauce and olive oil.  Top pizza with cooked veggies and parmesan cheese and bake as directed.  De-lish & you get a good dose of veggies.

Ok… I’m going to preface this by saying every Friday won’t be a sappy chickflick circa 1990 something…  not that there’s anything wrong with that… and, actually, not that this is one.  I just thought I’d make that clear… Sappy chickflicks from the 90’s just happen to have fitting, thoughtful lessons that happen to fit the first two week’s themes.  But I digress…

Both Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan are total hotties in this movie… but more importantly it’s a story about the mind’s curiosity, fear, and longing for the past and the future.

Have a fun fall weekend!!  See ya Monday.

O QUANTO É ACEITÁVEL gritar no sexo? Nestes dias, o assunto foi debatido, com a maior seriedade, numa cidadezinha inglesa.  Uma senhora meio gorducha, de franja e cabelo curto, tez rosada, uma espécie de Susan Boyle depois de uma plástica generalizada e uma sessão de beleza completa, entre os 40 e tantos e 50 e poucos, estava diante de um juiz. A acusação: gritar de forma “desumana” e continuada, segundo uma vizinha, no sexo noturno com o marido que parece caixa de banco. Essa vizinha alegou que perdeu a hora de levar o filhinho à escola por não ter conseguido dormir com o barulho da mulher do lado.  Os berros amorosos da gorducha apaixonada chegaram a 47 decibéis. Não sei se torcedor de arquibancada alcança essa marca ao se dirigir ao juiz, e nem se Cauby resvala nela nos seus instantes de arroubo.

Mas a senhora da pacata cidadezinha, sob a ação de seu marido, pode passar o que seria talvez uma marca digna do Guiness, os 50 decibéis do orgasmo. Isso se não passar uma pequena temporada no silêncio trancafiado de uma cadeia. Algumas pessoas se excitam ao ouvir gemidos sexuais alheios, os voyeurs auditivos. Outras se aborrecem, em parte porque o sossego se vai, em parte por inveja. E algumas, como a vizinha inglesa, simplesmente não dormem e vão à justiça na tentativa de calar a gritaria multidecibéis do êxtase da gorducha madura e altamente sensível ao apelo dos instintos básicos.

Há uma etiqueta do som do amor?

Desconfio que muita gente exagera deliberadamente nos gemidos. Uma das melhores cenas do cinema é uma em que Meg Ryan,  no filme Harry & Sally, simula, sentada comportadamente numa mesa de lanchonete, um orgasmo, sob olhares admirados e constrangidos das pessoas ao redor. Meg Ryan estava no seu apogeu de mulher inocente, olhos claros  e arregalados de Natasha, uma aura que depois lhe seria roubada quando ela foi — por que certas expressões que a gente abomina em seres repulsivos como o Cafa Homem nos aparecem com tanta frequência? — finalizada por Russel Crowe.  Vale a pena ver ou rever: watch?v=F-bsf2x-aeE

De volta. Há um código? Qual seria, se existe, pelo lado feminino: o que elas querem ouvir e o que não querem e em que tom? E pelo lado dos homens, que têm ficado estranhamente calados nos debates, como se nada tivessem a dizer ou como se, preguiçosamente, entendessem que cabe a mim representá-los.  O homem mais presente nos debates, paradoxalmente, é o mais cafajeste de nós, O Cafa Homem, e isso pode distorcer nossa imagem.

Antes que eu dê ponto final neste texto para que vocês falem, uma última pergunta: o que vocês, se estivessem na cadeira do juiz, diriam para a mulher dos quase 50 decibéis de prazer?

Ever seen Sleepless in Seattle? Meg Ryan falls for Tom Hanks despite the two never having even spoken to each other, and it’s supposed to be a beautiful romantic destiny…

But watch it again and what actually happens is this. A newspaper journalist starts fantasising about a man she’s heard once on the radio. She becomes obsessed to the point where she breaks off her engagement. She uses all her contacts (and a private detective) to track him down. Then she flies across the country to trail him around his hometown. But because it’s a romcom, no one admits that Meg Ryan’s a Creepy Stalker. They call her a Hopeless Romantic.

This is clearly dangerous and irresponsible filmmaking. It seems to be saying that if you really, truly fancy a guy, even if he’s happily getting along with his own life without you on the other side of the country, he can still be yours – if you just wish it hard enough, and are prepared to break various professional and ethical codes of conduct.

So, I blame Sky for what happened next. You don’t preach the virtues of stalking to a dangerously suggestible female with a Celebrity Crush, but they just went ahead and aired it anyway, at a time I was feeling particularly emotionally vulnerable, and without any sort of warning. The next thing you know, I’m sending an email to Celebrity Crush (and a mutual friend of ours) inviting them both on a corporate event. Wildly daring act, or dangerously unhinged? I’ll let you decide.

What you should be more worried about is this: they’ve both accepted. There is the very real possibility that TheGirlGlory will soon be spending several hours in the company of her favourite celebrity, and he will have nothing more than a sausage on a stick to defend himself.

Come on now.  Really?  I mean really?  Haven’t you been forced to watch enough humorless romantic comedies with Katherine Heigl or vapid t.v. sitcoms to know what you’re suppose to say in this situation?  Couldn’t you pull out that second Twix Bar and stuff it into your mouth to stall until you came up with a better answer?  Have Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore, and Renée Zellweger taught you anything?  Apparently not, because you just told your wife that yes, those jeans do make her butt look fat.

How to answer a question like that is the first thing you are ingrained with when you enter into a relationship or get married.  When you are handed your man card, you also get a complimentary copy of the “Man-ual”.  If you took the time to glance through the table of contents, you would have known you could have skipped straight to Chapter Seven which is titled “How to Answer Questions you are bound to be asked.”  In addition to informing you that you should never say the first answer that pops into your head, you are also given pointers and stock answers for other common questions such as “What are you thinking?”, “Am I as attractive as the day we met?”, “Don’t you want to help out more around the house?”, “Am I prettier than her?”, “Did you just check her out?”, “Did you just say something?”, and “Do you think I should get a boob job?”  All you had to do was memorize a few simple fill-in-the-bank stock responses and you would have been money.  But no, of course you didn’t want to take the time to memorize a few key cya phrases.  Are you crazy – you look great in anything.  If anything, those jeans are slimming.  Where’d you go {insert her name here} – a super model just walked in.  If you can memorize all the lines to Caddyshack or the lyrics to White Snake’s “Here I Go Again”, then you can certainly remember a few key lines to help avoid a sex embargo that will last longer than it takes for Hugh Grant to bulk up, undandify himself, and take over Christian Bale’s role in the Batman franchise.

Yes, it’s the return of the big money trivia quiz that makes all other big money trivia quizzes look like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Nation’s Biggest Ever Great Big Michael Parkinson Quiz. Will you attain the giddy heights of ‘journalist’, or languish in the lowly doldrums of ‘moaning about the cricket in rolled-up sleeves’? Just answer the ten questions below and you too can discover your very own Parky Rating(TM)…!

- Which of the following was not one of the ‘Famous Five’ that helped Parky launch TV-am – Anna Ford, Roland Rat, David Frost?

- What is the only known record ever to sample Michael Parkinson?

- What film was Meg Ryan ostensibly promoting when she famously blanked Parky?

- Which of the following was not a real Woofit: John Willie Woofit, Gaylord Woofit, Elton Woofit, Sendhil Woofit?

- Which of his notorious obsessions did Parky mention less than ten words into his supposed tribute to Bob Monkhouse: Billy Connolly, Jamie Cullum, Rod Stewart or ‘The Great American Songbook’?

- Who did Parky charmingly describe as “barely educated, ignorant, puerile… a woman who came to represent all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today” within days of her death?

- After promising to appear on Parkinson in exchange for the moaning sod appearing on the cover of Band On The Run, how many years did ‘Dinners’ McCartney purposefully avoid having to fulfil his obligation for?

- Which chat-show hosting rivals did Parky generously describe as a) “over-contrived… tries to make himself the star of the show”, b) “cheap and silly”, c) “a pair of plastic boobs”?

- And which rival chat show host did Parky ban from his chain of pubs after they made a light-hearted joke about him on air?

- “you’ve been fantastic, enthusiastic”… who had, exactly?

BONUS QUESTION: What’s on after Parkinson?

I couldn't afford to follow you to Paris this time...

R

Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Justin Long, Kristen Bell

Ian: Louise, I hate you and think you’re a psycho and I’m gonna have you jailed or institutionalized!
Louise: That’ll be pretty hard to do when you can’t even move an arm.
Ian: I mean EVENTUALLY!

When Louise (Ryan) returns home earlier than expected and finds that her husband Ian (Hutton) is in the processing of leaving her for another woman, she decides to hold him hostage until he realizes he’s still in love with her.

This movie felt like it should have been better than it was.  To begin with, it starts like a more recent version of the movie French Kiss.  That movie opened with Meg Ryan’s boyfriend, played by Timothy Hutton, revealing to her that he was going to Paris with his new girlfriend.  This movie starts with Meg Ryan’s husband, played by Timothy Hutton, revealing to her that he’s going to Paris with his new girlfriend.  The difference in this one is that she never lets him make it out of the house.

I never really believed the whole set up, though.  Why?  Maybe because I didn’t feel like I knew anything about Louise.  I wanted to know some background on her that would make me realize that she’s the kind of person who is capable of snapping like this.  Perhaps something that would make her a little more sympathetic rather than just plain nuts.  In French Kiss, she was likable and, even though you didn’t really understand why she wanted her boyfriend back, you still rooted for her.  And it’s not just because she was cuter back then!  Though, it’s true, I’m not a fan of whatever she’s had done to her face, especially in the lip area.

But I digress!

The movie was written by the late Adrienne Shelly who wrote a movie that I liked a lot, Waitress.  It’s also directed by first time director Cheryl Hines, one of the co-stars of Waitress.  Serious Moonlight is not nearly as charming or funny as Waitress, but it’s still watchable and amusing at times.  Unfortunately it’s also very very predictable.  That ruined it a bit for me.

While it’s nice to see some of Adrienne Shelly’s last writing make it to the big screen, I wish it could have been made with more skill and energy.  It’s not a bad set-up, but it’s carried out without much charm or heart – two things that Shelly brought to Waitress through, not only her writing, but her directing as well.

Always keep a roll of duct tape handy.  It could save your marriage.

10 – 1.2 for being so predictable – 2 for not enough charm, heart, and wit – .5 for characters I didn’t care much about = 6.3

Aprovechando el motivo del 20 aniversario de la caída del muro de Berlin, la noche del 4 de noviembre la cadena  MTV organizó un concierto gratuito en la puerta de Brandenburgo con la participación del grupo irlandés U2. Este acto sirvió como precedente para la entrega de los premios MTV que se han entregado esta noche. U2, Beyoncé y Eminem han sido los triunfadores de la gala.  Aquí tenéis diferentes momentos de la actuación que duró alrededor de 30 minutos.

Desde aquí también queremos celebrar la efemérides del fin del telón de acero y para ello os hemos preparado una serie de videos relacionados con la ciudad germana. Pero antes vamos a recordar lo que sucedió aquella noche del 9 de noviembre de 1989 con este breve introducción:

Nos metemos ya de lleno con nuestra colección de canciones. 8 meses después de la caída del “muro de la vergüenza”, el 21 de julio de 1990 Roger Waters organizó una grandiosa actuación conmemorando el suceso que terminaba con la división de las dos Alemanias. Como ya contamos en nuestro post sobre la música de aquel año, el ex- Pink Floyd contó con invitados de lujo para la ocasión. Con Cindy Lauper interpretó el clásico Another Brick In The Wall, que le iba como anillo al dedo a tal evento.

Para hacer su aclamado disco Achtung Baby! los irlandeses U2 se trasladaron a Berlin para grabarlo en los estudios Hansa. Brian Eno volvía a la misma ciudad con la que plasmó en los 70 la etapa berlinesa de Bowie, esta vez como productor. En el álbum había diferentes guiños a la ciudad, como la canción Zoo Station que  hacía referencia a la línea de metro del Zoo que casualmente se llama U2. La continuación fue Zooropa que incluía una canción que aparecería en la película Tan Lejos, Tan Cerca del cineasta alemán Wim Wenders. El video, que lo dirigió el mismo Wenders, está ambientado en Berlin y  junto a Londres y Belfast, también se menciona en la letra.

Se conoce como la “trilogía berlinesa” a los tres discos que David Bowie inmortalizó en Berlin a finales de los 70: Low (1977), Heroes (1978) y Lodger (1979). Producidos todos por Tony Visconti y con la participación estelar de Brian Eno, el “duque blanco” se empapó de diversas influencias germanas tanto artísticas (Kraftwerk, el grupo precursor del tecno) como socio-políticas (división este-oeste del país, etc). Una de sus mejores canciones contaba una historia de unos amantes con el muro de telón de fondo.  En este mismo blog la comparamos con unas versiones que seleccionamos de las muchas que se han hecho. Se titula Heroes y el video es de la época de su Glass Spider Tour.

En 1986 un grupo de nombre Berlin consiguió que uno de sus singles fuera mundialmente conocido gracias a la banda sonora de la película Top Gun. Protagonizada entre otros por Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer y Meg Ryan, el film siempre será recordado con los acordes de fondo de  Take My Breath Away.

Y para terminar qué mejor que hacerlo con una de igual título que la misma ciudad. En 1973 Lou Reed se pegó un enorme batacazo comercial con su disco conceptual Berlin. Durante 33 años no lo tocó nunca en directo. Hoy en día es considerado como una obra maestra a pesar de la desesperanza que respira. La relación entre dos jonkis sirve al neoyorkino para presentarnos un panorama desolador.

Começo esse post com um protesto. Wicked Sis, evil as only she can be, vetou vários dos meus filmes, todos com plentttty comédia e romance. Só porque eu vetei vários dos filmes dela, que nem chegavam perto de serem elegíveis. Humpf! Mas revoltas a parte, esse é um post fofo. Hora de tirar as fitas de VHS do armário, colocar Mariah e Celine do aparelho de som e se permitir ser brega e torcer pelo casal. Who cares se você sabe que eles vão ficar juntos no final? De algum jeito o mundo tem que fazer sentido. Recomendo os filmes seguintes acompanhados de muito Milka e Hersheys Cookies’n'Cream.

5- O Diário de Bridget Jones (Bridget Jone’s Diary, 2001)

Confesso que tava uma briga por essa posição. Tinha Sandra Bullock pegando cara em coma , Marilyn Monroe pegando homem vestido de mulher, Barbra emagrecendo pra pegar o James Bond. Mas cheguei em casa bêbado, a Lua tava zombeteira, passei o dia esperando uma ligação que não veio, me empanturrei de chocolate e cerveja, e com isso não teve pra ninguém. Alias, qualquer erro de português é culpa da Skol. Bridget significa uma parte muito importante de mim, quando eu ainda era inseguro, tinha baixa auto-estima, me sentia carente, um pouco grudento, viciado em relacionamentos inexistentes, infeliz com o trabalho… Back in the good old days (aka 2h atrás), Bridget Jones era parte de mim. E quem disse que It takes 2 to tango? Eu tenho romance all by myself, ok? Mas voltando ao filme, o que é Mark Darcy dizendo “I like you just the way you are”? O que é, minha gente? Até me arrepio. O rivotril de qualquer depressão. Algo me diz que vou ler isso amanhã e perceber que não faz sentido.

4- Sintonia de Amor (Sleepless in Seatle, 1993)

A década de 90 foi o auge das comédias românticas. Antes de alguém dizer que “Ele não está tão afim de você”, milhares de filme repetiram incessantemente “Viu? Existem amores perfeitos. Ele te ama, e é só uma questão de tempo e sorte”. Meg Ryan foi líder nesse marcado, teve Harry e Sally, Mensagem para você, A Lente do amor, até que as pessoas se tocaram, ela fez umas plásticas erradas e foi pro ostracismo. Mas poucos chegaram perto de Sintonia de Amor. Pra começar (e aqui vai um major spoiler), é uma comédia romântica onde os protagonistas tem UMA cena juntos, a última, e ainda assim é de partir o coração, engordar 3 kg na expectativa, e chorar baldes que davam pra inundar Seattle. Mais um spoiler? ELES NEM SE BEIJAM! Já viu isso? Um grande romance sem interação física?  Não é pra qualquer um. Pra melhorar, tem cenas antológicas, como o menino no telefone, no programa de rádio, dizendo que o pai se sente sozinho, as conversas do Tom Hanks, e o diálogo zuando a Rita Wilson sobre como mulheres reagem a romances. Beyond imperdível.

3- Bonequinha de Luxo (Breakfast at Tiffany`s, 1961)

Essa é mais uma das Ultimate Comédias Românticas, e quem não viu é bobo (yes, in your face, Wicked Sis). Audrey Hepburn em sua melhor forma, interpretando com genuína verdade uma pessoa de carisma irresistível. Quando li o livro, escrito por Truman Capote (lembra do filme Capote? Estrelado pelo Philip Seymor Hoffman?) descobri que aquela biba é o alter-ego do protagonista. Ele era apaixonado por ela assim como eu sou apaixonado pela Wicked Rafa. Do tipo “Que mulher incrível! Se um dia eu me apaixonar por alguém 1/3 do que eu amo essa menina, eu vou ser uma pessoa muito feliz”. E fizeram disso uma das melhores comédias românticas que já vi. Crédito pro elenco também, pra direção do Blake Edwards, pra trilha “Moooooon Riiiiiver, larararara”, bem, pra tudo. Filme virou ícone até hoje não é a toa. E de vez em quando, me pego pensando que eu deveria fazer todo dia algo que nunca tenha feito, just for the fun of it. E mesmo não fazendo, isso me deixa feliz.

2- Uma Linda Mulher (Pretty Woman, 1990)

Méritos a parte, Julia Roberts sempre marcou minha vida cinematográfica. Por exemplo, Uma Linda Mulher, eu assisti numa sessão da tarde. É o primeiro filme “adulto” que eu lembro de assistir. Sempre assisti Branca de Neve e Dumbo em loop, até por isso talvez ninguém tenha pensado que um dia eu seria cinéfilo. Até que um dia, numa mesa de jantar, eu falei “Assisti Uma Linda Mulher hoje. Muito bom”, e isso foi um icebreaker, e todos começaram a falar do filme. Pela primeira vez eu falei de um filme e não foi seguido de “Shhh, shhh, come seus legumes”. Tendo dito isso, e devido a minha eterna necessidade de aprovação familiar pra “compensar” minha homossexualidade, em pouco tempo eu sabia as falas de cor (dubladas). Believe it or not, Uma Linda Mulher era um sinal de amadurecimento pra mim. Como um menininho que joga as bermudas fora e usa calça pra ir na missa aos domingos. No meu caso, um jeans transadíssimo da Abercrombie. Mas voltando ao filme… que lindo. A puta e o capitalista com father issues. Ainda temos George Constanza de Seinfield como um quase vilão e a Maya de Just Shoot me como a puta amiga da puta. Digo quase vilão porque o filme não tem isso. Tudo que os protagonistas tem que superar pra ficarem juntos são seus próprios problemas. E a Julia Roberts fez muita coisa depois disso (e até algumas coisas antes… Flores de Aço é ótimo…), mas ela nunca mais foi tão linda, sexy, doce, carismática, Hepburn-wanna-be, quanto nesse filme. E o Richard Gere, que eu não gosto muito, carrega muito bem o papel. Adoro também o Hector Helizondo, fofo e protetor. Ele é quase a fada madrinha da Cinderela. E Vivianne (ou whatever you want her to be) e Edward são definitivamente um dos casais mais lindos do cinema moderno. Ai, ai.

1- O Casamento do meu melhor amigo (My best friend`s Wedding, 1997)

Ok, então já aprendemos nesse post que eu preciso de terapia e que adoro a Julia Roberts. Se eu fosse justo, Notting Hill também tava nessa lista, só não está porque ele é apenas meu 3o filme favorito com a JR. Quem consegue não se apaixonar com o “Im just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her”. Meu Deus, é de partir o coração. Mas, meu número 1, vai pro Casamento. Assisti esse filme trocentas vezes no cinema, e em todas saí extremamente tocado. Não sei nem explicar porque ou como, mas depois desse filme eu cheguei a uma conclusão importantíssima, que de certa forma guiou minha vida depois disso: “O cinema pode tocar você, pode te provocar reações, te pegar pela mão e falar Agora fique feliz”. Uma aula de manipulação que absorvi com todo o prazer que o cinema pode proporcionar. E não, ele não tem final feliz, mas tem o final que precisa ter. É lindo, triste, engraçado, emocionante, envolvente, torço contra e a favor ao mesmo tempo. Começo a rir zombando de Cameron Diaz cantando “I Just Dont Know what to do with myself” e termino chorando pensando “That bitch merece o homem que tem”. E em todas as vezes que assisti, quando Julianne e Michael estão no barco dançando pela última vez a música deles “The way you look tonight” e ela tem uma última chance de dizer pra ele que o ama, e o momento passa, eu fico maluco pensando “se ao menos ela tivesse dito…”. E é tudo tão relatable. Quantas vezes não nos apaixonamos pela pessoa errada, ou no momento errado, ou deixamos o momento passar, ou nos tornamos pessoas que não gostaríamos tentando conquistar alguma coisa ou alguém, sem perceber que se fôssemos apenas nós mesmos isso bastaria, ou que se não basta, tem que deixar passar, que só podemos ser reféns de sentimentos até certo ponto, and then it`s time to call. 00:48, fim do post.

(a previous post from the former NuPoppa blog)

INT: Portland International Airport. It’s the Continental overnight flight from Portland to Newark. People are milling about, attempting to wipe the sleep from their eyes as they prepare to board. DOUG had just come from California earlier in the day, where he was working for three days. He had about a couple of hours to drive out to his in-laws to have a quick dinner with his wife, in-laws and son. He is on his way back to Philadelphia to go to the funeral of his 101-year old grandfather. He is tired, bags under his eyes, but seems to be rallying. The elite passengers are called to board and DOUG ambles to the gate and meekly hands his boarding pass to the agent. A wan smile is all that can be mustered as he lopes to his seat on the plane. As is his habit, DOUG leans his head down on the window and tries to get shut-eye. He has always seemed to have had bad luck with seatmates and this is his way to show that he’s really not interested in conversation.

(Music up: “A Wink and a Smile” by Harry Connick, Jr.)

A mop-headed boy walks towards the seat next to DOUG. He looks to be around 8 or 9 years old. He is carrying a green backpack. His MOM and SISTER settle in the seats across from the boy named TOBY.

TOBY
Hello.

DOUG
Hi. How are you?

TOBY
I’m good.

(Music up: “Make Someone Happy” by Jimmy Durante)

TOBY pulls a handheld video game out of his bag. He fires up a basketball game. He is also a big Celtics fan, being from New England. DOUG leans over to see what’s going on. TOBY notices that DOUG is watching the screen and politely tilts it towards DOUG so that he can get a better look.

TOBY
It’s an NBA game. But there are WNBA players and you can’t really pick the players that you want. See? Ray Allen is playing for the Warriors and some WNBA player is on the team.

DOUG
Yeah, that’s kind of weird.

TOBY
Yeah, but it’s still a fun game. What team do you like?

DOUG
Portland Trail Blazers.

TOBY
Yeah, they’re good.

(Music up: “Dreams” by The Cranberries)

DOUG turns his attention to his iPhone, where he begins playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour. TOBY leans over to get a better look. DOUG tilts it towards TOBY and shows him how to play the game. DOUG, who usually ends up with 400-pound, sweaty people next to him on flights, smiles because he’s enjoying sharing video games with his seat-neighbor. DOUG starts thinking about his little son.

(Music up: “Over the Rainbow” by Harry Nilsson)

TOBY’S MOM leans in from the other row to make sure that he’s not bothering DOUG. DOUG gives her a little wave that implies, “nah, everything is cool.” By this point, DOUG is showing TOBY pictures of his son on his iPhone. DOUG tells TOBY why he’s headed back to New Jersey. MOM leans over again to say something to TOBY but he beats her to the punch.

TOBY (loudly)
HE’S GOING BACK TO NEW JERSEY BECAUSE HIS GRANDFATHER DIED!

MOM winces at that comment but DOUG laughs it off thinking, “ah, kids.” DOUG finds out that TOBY is almost 9 and he begins to think about his own son and what he might be at 9 years old. He also thinks about the things he would say to his son at 9 years old.

(Music up: “Over the Rainbow” by Harry Nilsson again)

Before the flight takes off, DOUG teaches TOBY how to keep electronic devices on and hidden from flight attendants. If here were older, he would teach him the “briefcase trick” where you can get more legroom in coach. In gratitude, TOBY pulls up his green backpack and opens it.

TOBY
You want some candy? I’ve got Nerds, Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids. Oh, and a juicebox.

DOUG
No thank you, I’m cool.

TOBY
Really?

DOUG
Yep.

TOBY
How did your grandfather die?

DOUG is taken aback a little, but pauses. Now that DOUG is a father himself, he sees this as what all of the fu**ing books like to call a “learning opportunity.”

DOUG
Well. He was just old.

TOBY
How old was he?

DOUG
101.

(Music up: “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” by Carly Simon)

It takes TOBY a second to absorb that large number. He leans over to his MOM.

TOBY
HE WAS 101!

TOBY’S MOM gives a quasi-approving nod with that move where the eyes get wide open out of fear that someone (DOUG) was offended. She mouths “I’m sorry” to DOUG. DOUG, now realizing that TOBY is very nice and looks like the kid from “Sleepless in Seattle,” his favorite movie, just lets it slide and mouths “no problem” to MOM.

(Music up: ah hell, let’s go with “Bye, Bye, Blackbird” by Joe Cocker)

The plane’s door is about to close and the flight attendants ask that all electronic devices be shut off. DOUG and TOBY look at each other, smile and bury their games under their arms.

(Music up: “Gotcha”, The Theme From Starsky and Hutch by Tom Scott. What? I ran out of relevant songs on the “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” soundtracks — cut me a break.)

(END OF SCENE)

—————

Script Notes

The part of DOUG is played by John Cusack. Or Tom Hanks — whoever is available. Or, if neither of them are around, maybe David Spade.

TOBY is played by Ross Malinger, the actual Jonah Baldwin in “Sleepless in Seattle,” but he is somehow magically transported back to what he looked like back then.

MOM is played by the ever cool Kathy Najimy.

We couldn’t find a role for Meg Ryan. Sorry.

However, we gave five roles, in later scenes, to the world’s coolest person, Zooey Deschanel. All of those roles were Zooey just acting like Zooey but she’s so cool, it doesn’t really matter now, does it?

This script was not done using Final Draft, but I do know how to use the program.

I do like Nora Ephron and I wish her, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams the best of luck with “Julie and Julia.” Please note, the chances of Nora Ephron reading this are highly remote. But, in case you are, let’s have a lunch at The California Canteen on Cahuengua, I’d like to pitch you this story. It was really cute.