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Monday, June 15, 2009

Aniston jokes about her rocky love life

By ANI

She might have had a rocky love life, but Jennifer Aniston did not hesitate to poke fun at her rocky love life at the Accepting Women In Film ceremony, where she was honoured with the Crystal Award as an advocate of expanding the role of women in Hollywood.

"I'm trying to be more careful than I have been in the past about the titles of movies that I choose to be in,” the Sun quoted her as saying.

"It's funny - I kind of noticed something a couple years ago that there seemed to be this strange parallel to the movies I was doing and my life off screen.

"It started with, well, The Good Girl. Then that evolved into Rumour Has It, followed by Derailed, and then there was The Break-Up. And then on the lighter side was Friends with Money, which I felt was a bit on the nose," she added.

Poking fun at her recent split from John Mayer, Aniston said: "If anyone has a movie called Everlasting Love With an Adult Stable Man, that would be great! I'm at table six, and my agents are at table 12."

Source: Agencies.

‘Idol’ devotion brings hopefuls to Foxboro

By Lauren Beckham Falcone

Say what you will about “American Idol” - it’s unfair, it’s cruel, its ratings are dipping.

But say this, too: It brings out the devotion in people.

There’s no other way to explain the swath of sopping-wet moral support systems standing outside Gillette Stadium in Foxboro yesterday who held umbrellas and hands with the thousands of rain-soaked idealists vying for the most coveted prize in pop culture.

The Fox mega-hit show kicked off its ninth season at the home of the Patriots [team stats], and while host Ryan Seacrest braved the downpour to welcome the throngs, the real star of yesterday’s show was dedication - to family, friends and giving stardom a shot.

Who knew a talent competition could be a testament to the human spirit?

Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, boyfriends, girlfriends and best friends stood together for hours. And though the forecast was rain, the attitude was the complete opposite.

“It’s an opportunity,” said a smiling but soaked Katie Stevens, 16, of Middlebury, Conn. “You have to take it. No matter what happens, it was worth it.”

Her mother, Clara, skipped a Dunkin’ Donuts run to ensure a spot in line by 5 a.m.

“I could have used it,” she said. “But we’re here!”

Of course, you have to wonder about some people - the girl wearing a belt as a headband; the guy sashaying his way down the line asking people to marry him; the mother of four who thought it was perfectly OK to make her 6-year-old stand in line since 3 a.m. “She tired and bored,” the mother said. “But I brought snacks.”

Yet, for the most part, it was an optimistic event - the crowd sang and cheered. Friends went for coffee runs or held contestants’ places in line while they ran to their cars for a change of clothes.

“You have to support people,” said Sheena Seymour, 18, of Worcester, who cheered on pal Kaiti Figueroa, 20, of Somerville. “It’s her dream. I mean, I can’t feel my feet because they’re cold and wet, but I’m here.”

And so were the singers, who might not have the chops to make it past the first round. But what led them to that long line at One Patriot Place is as compelling as any good vocal performance.

“I had Hodgkin’s lymphoma when I was 13 to 15. Simon’s not as scary as cancer,” said Gina Naomi Baez, 21, of Long Island, N.Y.

“I was always afraid, but I was in a talent show this year and people said I was good,” said Alison Sullivan, 21, Tyngsboro.

“My friend Dave Wilkinson always encouraged me,” said Sarah Gay, 21, of Danvers. “He and I made a pact to do this together, but he shipped out to Iraq today. So I’m here and this is for him. And me.”

“I’m a junior in college and if I don’t do it now, I never will and I’ll always regret it,‘ said a waterlogged Megan Podsiedlik, 21, of Tully, N.Y. “That’s the great thing about ‘Idol.’ Everyone gets a shot. That’s why we’re all here.”

Source: Boston Herald.

Gowarikar's 'Jodhaa Akbar' sweeps IIFA awards

By Agencies

Bollywood director Ashutosh Gowarikar's historical love epic 'Jodhaa Akbar' swept the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards here, taking home trophies for best picture, best director and best actor.

The movie tracing the rise of the great Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century and his romance with Hindu princess Jodhaa took home 10 trophies in total including the gong for the 'Best Film'.

Hrithik Roshan's portrayal of the Muslim monarch won him the 'Best Actor' trophy while Gowarikar won the Best Director award for his epic drama which wove together romance and communal harmony.

The film which had nominations in all the categories faced stiff competition from other superhit contenders like 'Ghajini', 'A Wednesday', 'Dostana', 'Rock On' and 'Race'.

However, Aishwarya failed to bag the Best Actress trophy, which went to Priyanka Chopra for her power-packed performance as a small town girl who makes it big in the world of fashion in Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Fashion'.

Others contenders in this category were Asin, Katrina Kaif and Bipasha Basu.

Source: Screen India.

Ellen Gray: Pinkett Smith sees new show as entree to filmmaking

By Ellen Gray

ACTRESSES OF a certain age have been discovering TV - particularly cable TV - for the past few seasons.Each has her reasons.

As Jada Pinkett Smith, 37, returns to series television this week for the first regular gig since "A Different World," there's more on her mind than acting.

Yes, she's enthusiastic about TNT's "HawthoRNe," in which she stars as Christina Hawthorne, the chief nursing officer of a Richmond, Va., hospital.

But what the actress, singer and wife of Overbrook's Will Smith really wants to do is direct. And write. And produce.

"I really liked the material, I really loved the world" created by executive producer John Masius ("Providence"), Pinkett Smith said in a recent phone interview.

But there was "also the fact that television would give me a place where I could really learn the mechanics of story structure, scene structure, really sharpen my producerial skills. It just seemed like the perfect place that I needed to be right now," she said, to get ready for "the next phase of my career."

That phase would seem to be well under way.

"The Human Contract," a film she wrote, directed and co-starred in, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008 and is expected to be released soon, she said.

She's also working with Smith, she said, on producing the remake of "The Karate Kid" (which reportedly will star their son, Jaden).

Though she laughingly denies having anything resembling a five-year plan, she expects to be working primarily behind the camera "in the next 10 years."

In the meantime, however, there's "HawthoRNe," the second new medical drama this month to focus on nurses rather than doctors. Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" (10:30 tonight) did well enough in last week's premiere to rate a second-season order. A third nursing series, NBC's "Mercy," has been ordered for midseason next year.

Pinkett Smith, whose own mother is a nurse, can't explain television's sudden interest in the profession, but thinks "it's about time."

"We've seen everything we can see, basically, in the medical profession as far as doctors are concerned, I would say, and hospitals are always going to be of interest to us because the two extremes live there, life and death," she said. "It's a very rich area."

"HawthoRNe," like many a medical show since the breakout success of Fox's "House," casts its star as a rebel against a rules-obsessed medical bureaucracy. And though Pinkett Smith's Christina doesn't go quite as far as Edie Falco's "Nurse Jackie" - who flushed a man's ear down a toilet in the show's pilot - her support for both patients and her nurses has her coloring outside the lines in each of the three episodes I've seen.

Masius has also given Christina a complicated backstory. Widowed for a year - her husband died of cancer and was treated in the hospital in which she works - she's the mother of a teenage daughter (Hannah Hodson) and has an uneasy relationship with her former mother-in-law (Joanna Cassidy).

Though there's a sometimes too self-conscious effort to challenge viewers' assumptions about characters they've yet to meet, the one male nurse who's a regular (David Julian Hirsh) happens also to have failed to get into medical school, a plot point that may make some in the profession wince (though perhaps not as much as when Falco flushed that ear).

"People are people and it is important not to make assumptions," Pinkett Smith said.

The actress, who spent time with a chief nursing officer at a hospital in Los Angeles, said "a lot of nurses just felt like they haven't been represented properly [on television]. They're, you know, sexualized . . . not represented in an authentic way."

Source: Philadelphia Daily News.
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Thrillers keep director Anjan Dutt busy

Agencies

Making a ghost story has kept him preoccupied for long. And, after three attempts, filmmaker Anjan Dutt has finally zeroed in on a story for his upcoming thriller.

Dutt, is adapting the short story "Loving Doll," from Ipsita Roy Chakraverti's book "Sacred Evil."

"I am currently in the post-production stage of a very very dark Byomkesh Bakshi 1960's period thriller based on incest and riots. After this I'll start work on Ipsita's film," Dutt said.

The Kolkata-based director also an actor and singer and whose repertory include films like "Bong Connection," and "Chalo Let's Go" says he is excited about the new film which will be set in Kolkata and Darjeeling.

"Ipsita saw my film 'Madly Bangalee' and approached me with the story and I said yes, of course after reading the book," says Dutt who had been looking for a ghost story script for long.

Dutt says he wanted to film an adapted Rabindranath Tagore work but was unsure about getting the literary genius' story right and also because he says making a good thriller is always a challenge.

The Bengal-based director says, "You cannot fool around with a Tagore story. He is a genius. I began writing scripts for three stories but gave up. When Ipsita started talking to me I found the story interesting and thought I could take up the challenge."

"Loving Doll," explores the life of a middle-aged couple where the wife is obsessed about losing her beauty and is attached to a doll who she thinks will help her remain beautiful forever.

Funding of the film, says Dutt, is currently under negotiations with "various interested parties keen to fund the film."

"The story has a personal relation. I want to show the evil in a consumeristic society, a false world of ad and glamour where the cosmetic look is in vogue," says Dutt.

Bollywood actress Sarika, who had essayed character of Ipsita in the 2006 flick Sacred Evil is expected to play the lead in the film whose casting is likely to be done soon.