Year: 2010

Random Acts

Random Acts of Ali Larter: working hard on her birthday

4 March 2010 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Ali Larter and Jimmy Jean-Louis

How did you spend your last birthday? Resting? Relaxing? Special birthday meal with your loved ones or trip to the pub with your friends?

Well, our Ali spent her birthday helping to raise money to help increase awareness of the hunger crisis in the US. That’s not at all humbling, is it?

She was attending the FEED Foundation/Hungry In America project benefit hosted by Vanity Fair at Craft Los Angeles in Century City, California. You may remember that documentary she did last year on it, The Cause with Ali Larter.

Notice who else was there, too? Yes, it’s Heroes’ Haitian Jimmy Jean-Louis, who’s got his own charity going on for Haiti.

Ali Larter and Jimmy Jean-Louis

I feel like a serving of humble pie is being given out by everyone involved, here.

PS Yes, those are House of Lavende jewels Ali’s wearing. How did you know?

PPS if you are in Los Angeles tonight, Ali, together with her hubby and her best gal pal Amy Smart, are going to be helping out another of her favourite charities, The Art of Elysium, with their third annual auction. Still humbled.

Have you seen Ali Larter acting randomly? If so, let us know and we’ll tell everyone about it in “Random Acts of Ali Larter“

Love Spaced? Hate Spaced!

4 March 2010 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

If you cast your mind back a long way, you’ll recall that film director and TV producer McG (in the negative column: Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels 2, Fast Lane et al; in the plus column: Supernatural, erm) wanted to remake Channel 4’s Spaced for Fox TV in the US. He didn’t ask any of the original cast – Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, Mark Heap – or director Edgar Wright; in fact, the first they heard about it was on the Internet. Needless to say, they weren’t best pleased.

The US remake of Spaced didn’t get anywhere. Now a four-minute chunk of the pilot has emerged and you can see why.

[via]

Thursday’s “how I met your smurfs” news

4 March 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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A Saturday Night Live Presidential Reunion: Jim Carrey, Dan Ackroyd, Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase and Dana Cavey together at last

3 March 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Blimey, how many generations of Saturday Night Live stars can you get into one, not-especially funny political video? At least three – or is it four? – since here we have Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, Jim Carrey, Dana Carvey and Will Ferrell recreating their famous SNL impressions of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr respectively (what no Bill Clinton?).

It’s all to raise awareness of Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and is directed by Ron Howard, so don’t expect big yucks. But Jim Carrey certainly still has what it takes, as does Chevy Chase. After the jump, you can watch a “making of” video and an extended scene with Dana Carvey.

Continue reading “A Saturday Night Live Presidential Reunion: Jim Carrey, Dan Ackroyd, Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase and Dana Cavey together at last”

What Spartacus reminds me of: Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata

3 March 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

So, I’ve been catching up with Spartacus: Blood and Sand again after temporarily abandoning it after episode three. It’s not changed a huge amount, although surprisingly, not only have they finally introduced a couple of gay characters who get up to things in as much explicit detail as the m-f and f-f pairings, they’ve actually started moving away from female nudity in favour of mostly male nudity. Would you Adam and Eve it? It’s also got a little bit more interesting, and a little bit more intelligent, even if the swearing is still as pervasive as ever.

But while watching it, I finally realised what the shooting style reminded me of: Peter Brook’s adaptation of ‘The Mahabharata’. Shown on Channel 4 in 1989, this was a six-hour mini-series version of his nine-hour stage play and focused on the epic battle between the Pandavas (representing the good side) and the Kauravas (representing the bad side) depicted in the Hindu epic poem.

See if you agree: here’s a trailer for Spartacus: Blood and Sand – ignore the fight scenes, since they belong to a completely different aesthetic

…and here’s a few clips from The Mahabharata. You can get it on DVD from Amazon, by the way.