Mary Elizabeth Winstead gets Smashed at TIFF
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was at at the premiere of her movie SMASHED, which is getting a lot of buzz, particularly about Mary's performance as the alcoholic wife who makes the choice to get sober. I've been hoping Mary would find the right part to give her a bigger name in the business. Apart from being one of my favorite young beauties, she's also quite an actress. She hasn't had a lot of really good opportunities to demonstrate those acting skills, but hopefully that will change now. If anything, it might make her a more common face on your movie screens from now on, which would be just fine by me. This movie also has my man Aaron Paul in it, who you might know as Jesse from Breaking Bad. Another fine actor that's got a huge career in front of him thanks to stand out performances. And did I mention Ron Swanson, aka Nick Offerman, is in it. Damn, there's no way I'm gonna miss this one. Check it out when it hits theaters next month.
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Kate 'saddened' by release of erotic thriller
THE Duchess of Cambridge has expressed dismay at the DVD release of Deadly Desires II: The Temptress, an ‘erotic murder mystery’ in which she stars.
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| In a scene from the film, Burgundy meets an alluring woman at a drug dealer's house |
Burgundy soon loses her inhibitions, becoming a dancer herself and beginning a torrid affair with alcoholic ex-cop detective Nico Hawke, played by Billy Zane, who may himself be untrustworthy.
Deadly Desires II: The Temptress has an Imdb rating of 2.3, and a user review describes it as “Gay on a quantum level.”
After failing to get a distribution deal, the film screened once on Channel 5 in 2007 before being dumped onto Netflix, where it has been watched solely by users flicking through to find breasts.
Royal pundit Nikki Hollis said: “Kate is as worried about the poor quality of the film as she is about the subject matter.
“There’s a scene in the detective’s office where a boom mike is clearly visible as the Duchess of Cambridge delivers the line, ‘I dreamed of Mandy last night, she was calling to me but I couldn’t help her, then a knife went into her head.’
“It is very poor.”
The film will be released on DVD next week with commentary by Prince Phillip. The last time a member of the royal family starred in an erotic thriller was 1998, when Princess Anne played Betty McCain in LA Nights 3: City Steam.
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Cameron Diaz's sex scenes were guarded
Cameron Diaz made sure her love scenes for a new movie were well-concealed from the eyes of the public as it was taking place.
The actress shot a sex scene with actor Javier Bardem for 'The Counselor' on the bonnet of a yellow Ferrari at Stoke Park golf course, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.
And an ex-SAS squad and dog unit were apparently carefully positioned around the course and in the trees to ensure passers-by or fans could see what was going on.
Modesty screens were also put up around the set for the midnight shoot on Tuesday (11.09.12).
A source told The Sun newspaper: 'It was like a military operation. Producers had thought of everything to stop any intruders possibly getting a glimpse.'
Cameron also beds a cheetah in her new film.
She plays a character who keeps one of the big cats as a pet and had to tame the beast she was to act alongside.
An insider said: 'When Cameron first started working with the cheetah it was strutting about like it owned the place. But now she's wearing the trousers.
'It has taken a shine to her, which is good because they've had to shoot a number of scenes together, including a set-up where they shared a bed.'
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Olga Kurylenko: Flexible Fly Girl
By Matt Barone
It’s an exceptionally hot early August morning in Los Angeles, and Olga Kurylenko is running late for ballet class after breakfasting on a seasonal veggie omelette at BLD. Luckily she’s pushing a rented Fiat two-seater, a vehicle that’s perfect for whipping in and out of Beverly Boulevard traffic without signaling. Olga is all about switching lanes, whether those around her are ready or not.
“Sorry, that’s what I call ‘French driving,’” says Kurylenko, referring to the vehicular tactics she learned during her years living in Paris, where the narrow roads and laissez-faire approach to traffic stops inspire aggressive maneuvers. From ages 16 through 29, the Ukrainian-born stunner worked in the City of Light as a successful model. Signed to the world-renowned Next agency, she walked runways, graced the covers of magazines like Marie Claire, Vogue, and Elle, and heated up photo shoots for Chanel cosmetics and the lingerie company Lejaby.
Though she danced as a teenager, the 32-year-old’s skills have gotten rusty. Now she’s on the verge of dancing full-time again in the upcoming second season of the Starz original series Magic City, so her moves need to be on point.
Magic City depicts the shady, often criminal ways by which Ike Evans (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) oversees the Miramar Playa hotel circa 1959. Kurylenko plays Ike’s trophy wife Vera, a former showgirl who hops back on stage in the next batch of 10 episodes. With only a few weeks left before she starts five months of shooting in Miami, time is of the essence.
Training for the former Bond Girl (see: 2008’s $586 million worldwide grosser Quantum of Solace) is about to intensify, as will her work schedule. Days before she leaves for the M-I-A, Kurylenko will head to the Venice Film Festival to attend the worldwide premiere of To the Wonder, Terrence Malick’s new enigmatic drama. Then, in October, shortly after Magic City’s shooting schedule gets underway, Seven Psychopaths opens. This darkly comedic, ultra-violent crime flick features Kurylenko as a mobster’s main squeeze. Next April, the gorgeous actress will get even more exposure when she stars opposite Tom Cruise in the IMAX-ready science fiction epic Oblivion.
The pint-size Fiat bobs and weaves through the congestion easily. At a stop light, while idling in the middle lane, Olga realizes that Dance Arts Academy, an inconspicuous studio on La Brea, is off to the right. As the light turns green, she zips across the right-turn-only lane, cutting off an unhappy driver in the process.
During the 10-minute drive from BLD to Dance Arts, she playfully exclaims “French driving” five times. “If someone stops us, I’ll just start speaking in French,” she says, her eyes hidden beneath a pair of dark sunglasses. “That probably won’t work, but it’s OK.”
If anything, she could try manipulating the fuzz in Russian. Olga was born and raised in Berdyansk, a port city in the Ukraine that was financially strapped when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, was an art teacher. She divorced Olga’s father shortly after Olga was born, opting instead to share child-raising duties with Olga’s grandma, Raisa. Resources were scarce in their household—a small, four-room flat often crowded with extended family looking for a place to sleep. While other kids were enjoying sweets and treats, Kurylenko was living on potatoes and cabbage.
Olga still remembers making her first $30 as a 15-year-old model in Moscow. “That was the first time I ever held dollars in my hand,” she recalls. “I’d never seen dollars before in my life. And then I got $100, and it kept increasing. I would send my mom cash. What made me happy was that, suddenly, I could help my family.”
No wonder Olga isn’t afraid to admit that money is a driving force behind her career. “When you grow up without it, you want to have it,” she says. “It’s funny, in America some people say, ‘Why do you want to make money so much?’ And I say, ‘Well, I guess you didn’t starve as a kid.’”
In the late ’90s, a new passion entered Olga’s life. With modeling money in her pocket, she began frequenting a local Parisian cinema, seeing up to three movies a day. She fell in love with the work of her favorite director, David Lynch, citing his nightmarish 1997 flick Lost Highway as a formative viewing experience. But it was Breaking the Waves, the devastating 1996 drama from controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier (her “second favorite director”), that changed her life. “After I saw that, I wanted to do what Emily Watson did in the movie,” says Kurylenko of the Academy Award–nominated actress’ performance. “I thought, if acting can lead you into playing a part like that, then I want to be an actress.”
For several years, Kurylenko balanced modeling gigs with acting classes, yet her runway hustle led casting directors and producers to view her as an object rather than an actress. “I got parts offered to me, but I didn’t want to play them because they were too trashy,” she says. “Being a model, of course, people try to get you into these overly sexual parts.”
All it took was one person (a woman) to see beyond Olga’s beauty. Independent French filmmaker Diane Bertrand cast her in the lead role for her 2005 art-house psychodrama The Ring Finger, an ambiguously disturbing, erotically charged, David Lynch–esque affair. In a brave performance that earned her Best Actress honors at the Brooklyn Film Festival, Olga played a young woman who works for a scientist specializing in preserving people’s keepsakes. “It’s still the movie that I’m the most proud of,” she says.
Feeling good about her prospects, Kurylenko moved to New York for a year to give American movie acting a shot. But in one of her first meetings, she had a rude awakening. “To go for auditions, you need to be represented by an agent, so, first, I had to get one,” Olga says. “I went to see someone, and I said, ‘Look, I played the lead role in this French movie,’ and he said, ‘We don’t watch French movies. It doesn’t matter. French movies are not important here.’”
As if that wasn’t brutal enough, he stuck the dagger in a little deeper, adding: “You’re never going to work in America if you don’t work on your accent.”
Heading back to Paris to continue working there, Kurylenko set out to prove that agent wrong. By 2007, she scored a big Hollywood role, playing the pierced, tatted-up sexpot Nika Boronina in the gory, action-packed video-game adaptation Hitman. Olga made a lasting impression in one memorable sequence where she walks across a hotel room in a thong.
Somewhere around that time Kurylenko sensed that her career was going in a problematic direction. “What’s interesting is to be sexy but not know it,” she says. “You’ll be in a restaurant, and some girls will walk in and you can tell that they really want to be sexy. It’s written on their faces because that’s all they want to show. There’s a fear that one might not look further. People don’t think that you’re interested in showing something else. I understood that there could be a danger in that.”
One year after Hitman’s release, Kurylenko landed the role that instantly immortalized her name alongside the likes of Halle Berry and Ursula Andress: the part of Camille Montes in the James Bond flick Quantum of Solace. Her scenes with Daniel “007” Craig—whether defying death in a high-speed boat chase or pistol-whipping a Bolivian military general—proved that she possesses a rare combination of stunning beauty and ass-kicking physicality. The label “action actress” was added to her “sexy actress” reputation.
She had to make a choice. “Everybody was telling me, ‘Now you’re going to get stuck in this Bond Girl image,’” says Olga. “Suddenly my goal was to not stay a Bond Girl my whole life. So I was very careful, and I rejected a couple offers where I didn’t want to play another sort of Bond Girl character. I don’t know what was a better choice: to take those roles after Bond where I’d just be the sexy, pretty girl, or to not take the jobs and not appear in the public eye at all? I chose the second option. I think I did the right thing. I could have been more visible right after that movie, and maybe I’d even be a bigger star at this point, but I didn’t want that.”
When the producers of Magic City approached Kurylenko last year about joining the cast, they initially wanted her to audition for the character of Lily Diamond (played by Jessica Marais), a promiscuous, often bare-breasted girl. But Kurylenko was much more interested in Vera, who was originally written as an older, American, more buxom blonde—but still, a less sexual part. “It would have been so easy for me to fall into that and go the Lily route,” she says. “I really have to protect myself. At this point, I shouldn’t be doing those kinds of overly sexy, frequently naked roles.”
Save for her brief yet memorable appearance in Seven Psychopaths, which finds Kurylenko rocking a bikini while trading lines with a hilariously unhinged Sam Rockwell, her roles will emphasize acting over eye candy. To the Wonder affords her the chance to show off her dramatic chops next to Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Javier Bardem. As for Oblivion, the actress isn’t spilling any beans just yet, but the Cruise billing, prime April release date, and presence of TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski promise a sci-fi blockbuster without any T-and-A.
The variety of Olga’s upcoming projects is satisfying to a girl who loves to switch lanes. It’s also gratifying to know that one of her earliest haters has been eating crow for half a decade now. “People were telling me that every actress in town was trying to get the Hitman part,” says Olga. “That’s when that agent said to me, ‘OK, now I want to represent you.’” She promptly refused his offer. “It was the principle,” she says. “And I still have an accent, of course. So he was wrong.”
When Olga Kurylenko asks you to dance with her, you’d better be limber enough to keep up.
At Dance Arts, Olga offers words of encouragement to her passenger, who’s more Borat than Baryshnikov. She scopes the baggy T-shirt and Jordan basketball shorts and laughs before throwing out a last-chance lifeline. “You really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she says. “I’ll understand. Ballet isn’t as easy as you may think.”
Guessing that her dance partner has all the grace of Frankenstein’s monster on a Quaalude binge, she offers a final word of advice: “Try to follow what I do.”
Rushing down the hallway of the ballet studio, Olga points out a large group of grade-school-age girls in black leotards practicing in an adjacent room. “If they can do it, you can do it, too,” she adds before stepping into the beginner-level class. “Just try to keep up.”
For her part, Olga won’t have to worry about keeping up with preconceptions anymore. With her multilayered Magic City character, she’s found the perfect balance between sexiness and drama. The show’s benefits have spilled over into Olga’s off-screen life too. She’s currently dating co-star Danny Huston, whom she met during Magic City’s first season. Their relationship was able to withstand a flurry of gossip items in early July, when photos from the Oblivion set showed Olga and newly divorced Tom Cruise kissing—in character, of course. “Those shots were clearly from the set,” she says. “There was a spaceship next to us!”
Inside Dance Arts, there’s no flying saucer alongside Olga and her sweaty dance companion—only a ballerina’s practice barre. Clad in tight red Abercrombie sweatpants and a black tank top, she's in the zone, cracking a couple smiles but mostly staring into the wall-size mirror and nailing every move with piercing intensity. Impressively limber, she lifts her legs above her waist with ease while her cohort can barely raise his ankles halfway to his knees.
The humiliation is short-lived. After a grueling 45 minutes, Olga looks every bit the professional dancer, casually chatting with the instructor. Her “friend,” on the other hand—gasping, his T-shirt soaked with sweat, and a damp towel draped around his neck—looks like Rick Ross after a decathlon.
Back in the Fiat, Olga keeps a straight face. “You did great,” she says with a radiant smile. “That was brave of you.” It’s enough to make any guy think he’s ready to sign up for the next Swan Lake audition—but not everybody switches lanes so easily.
* now that she is a movie star and a cunning operator of squirming her way out of sex/nude scenes, it's unlikely we'll see any real nudity from Olga in coming Magic City new season. With Ike in jail and possibly killed off at end of the season, Olga only possible topless scene will be if she takes off her top during a dancing routine. I don't think Jessica Marais will be too happy about going nude most of the time again and I don't see that happening frequently know that her husband discovered her sexual shenanigans. Elena Satine could be left with doing most of the nude scenes but her character seems redundant now. Unless she is helping the Feds to nail the main baddie by going undercover......we see what Mitch comes up with. It all comes back to Dominik Garcia-Lorido. Body double all the way or she is brave enough to go topless herself. I'll be praying for the latter.
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Icky Blossoms : “Cycle” (NSFW)
There’s something majestic about what people did with their asses back in the 70s, and that charm isn’t lost on Icky Blossoms, who put them front and centre in their “Cycle” video, as well as other implied naughty bits. It’s not very explicit, but it’s pretty clear what all these Super 8 superstars are getting up to, and that’s sex having. I’m almost 100% sure. The song’s nighttime electro cruise is well suited for a workout, and as it turns out, the vibrating retro synths and rich bass lines vibe best with the sexiest of workouts. The sex ones.
Icky Blossoms is out right now on Saddle Creek. Also, if you happen to be a grandchild of one of these sexers, our apologizes. But don’t begrudge your pee-paw his talents.
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Hunted starring Melissa George PREVIEW
Rating: ★★★★
BBC1: Part 1/8 starts week of 29 Sept, day and time to be confirmed
Story: Sam Hunter, an operative for the elite private intelligence and security firm Byzantium, is finishing a mission in Tangier when an attempt on her life leaves her critically injured. Not knowing who tried to kill her, she disappears to a remote location to recover, regroup and retrain.
Hunted is filling the spy slot left on BBC1 by Spooks. And the Beeb has chucked a lot at this to make it work, including writer Frank The X Files Spotnitz, lavish production and a pulsating narrative. Up against the wheezing Spooks, Hunted gets off to a slick and pretty gripping start.
The action kicks off in Tangier with Sam Hunter sleeping with the enemy. This prologue is hectic and has more twists than a whole season of Spooks, with an intricate operation unfolding that involves double-crosses, springing a tortured doctor from captivity, a staged assassination, gun fights and punch-ups.
Happily, the action settles after Sam, played by Melissa George, is shot when she is set up at a remote cafe. Was it her lover, fellow operative Aidan Marsh, who betrayed her, or another colleague?
She goes into hiding for a year to recover at her family's former home in remote Scotland, and we learn about a violent moment in her past, which offers an insight into her odd habit of sleeping curled up in the corner of a room (that's how she cowered during her terrifying night in childhood).
The intrigue gathers pace when Sam stuns her boss and colleagues at private spy firm Byzantium by turning up for work, intending to uncover the person who betrayed her. Her first assignment is working undercover as a nanny at the home of a nasty piece of work, vicious corporate honcho Jack Turner, played by professional sneerer Patrick Malahide.
It's a thriller with plenty of layers and heart-stopping moments, as Sam creeps around Turner's fortress home trying to plant video bugs while Scott Handy plays a scary assassin – the Blank-faced Man – who is targeting Sam, or Turner, or both. Given The X Files' record in generating spin around characters such as the Cigarette Smoking Man, this killer could be the show's first cult figure.
How does the permanently pouting Melissa George fare (Gillian Anderson had apparently been first option for the part)? The former Home and Away actress can never have appeared in anything as physically taxing at this. She's not completely convincing when beating up three armed heavies, though she cleverly sets light to one of them, but she is a presence that will quickly win over many viewers – haunted, sympathetic but tough.
Where Hunted does succeed in this opener, called Mort, is in adding a bit of emotional heart to all the smash-bang-wallop. It is photographed superbly, and the action – which flits from North Africa to Scotland to London to Istanbul and Amsterdam – won't let anyone doze off.
Cast: Melissa George Sam Hunter; Adam Rayner Aidan Marsh, Sam's colleague and love interest; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Deacon Crane; Morven Christie Zoe Morgan; Lex Shrapnel Ian Fowkes; Stephen Campbell Moore Stephen Turner; Oscar Kennedy Edward Turner; Tom Beard Bingham; Patrick Malahide Jack Turner; Stephen Dillane Rupert Keel; Scott Handy Black-faced Man; Uriel Emil Hasan Moussa; Dhafer L’Abidine Bernard Faroux; Indira Varma Natalie Thorpe
BBC1: Part 1/8 starts week of 29 Sept, day and time to be confirmed
Story: Sam Hunter, an operative for the elite private intelligence and security firm Byzantium, is finishing a mission in Tangier when an attempt on her life leaves her critically injured. Not knowing who tried to kill her, she disappears to a remote location to recover, regroup and retrain.
Hunted is filling the spy slot left on BBC1 by Spooks. And the Beeb has chucked a lot at this to make it work, including writer Frank The X Files Spotnitz, lavish production and a pulsating narrative. Up against the wheezing Spooks, Hunted gets off to a slick and pretty gripping start.
The action kicks off in Tangier with Sam Hunter sleeping with the enemy. This prologue is hectic and has more twists than a whole season of Spooks, with an intricate operation unfolding that involves double-crosses, springing a tortured doctor from captivity, a staged assassination, gun fights and punch-ups.
Happily, the action settles after Sam, played by Melissa George, is shot when she is set up at a remote cafe. Was it her lover, fellow operative Aidan Marsh, who betrayed her, or another colleague?
She goes into hiding for a year to recover at her family's former home in remote Scotland, and we learn about a violent moment in her past, which offers an insight into her odd habit of sleeping curled up in the corner of a room (that's how she cowered during her terrifying night in childhood).
The intrigue gathers pace when Sam stuns her boss and colleagues at private spy firm Byzantium by turning up for work, intending to uncover the person who betrayed her. Her first assignment is working undercover as a nanny at the home of a nasty piece of work, vicious corporate honcho Jack Turner, played by professional sneerer Patrick Malahide.
It's a thriller with plenty of layers and heart-stopping moments, as Sam creeps around Turner's fortress home trying to plant video bugs while Scott Handy plays a scary assassin – the Blank-faced Man – who is targeting Sam, or Turner, or both. Given The X Files' record in generating spin around characters such as the Cigarette Smoking Man, this killer could be the show's first cult figure.
How does the permanently pouting Melissa George fare (Gillian Anderson had apparently been first option for the part)? The former Home and Away actress can never have appeared in anything as physically taxing at this. She's not completely convincing when beating up three armed heavies, though she cleverly sets light to one of them, but she is a presence that will quickly win over many viewers – haunted, sympathetic but tough.
Where Hunted does succeed in this opener, called Mort, is in adding a bit of emotional heart to all the smash-bang-wallop. It is photographed superbly, and the action – which flits from North Africa to Scotland to London to Istanbul and Amsterdam – won't let anyone doze off.
Cast: Melissa George Sam Hunter; Adam Rayner Aidan Marsh, Sam's colleague and love interest; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Deacon Crane; Morven Christie Zoe Morgan; Lex Shrapnel Ian Fowkes; Stephen Campbell Moore Stephen Turner; Oscar Kennedy Edward Turner; Tom Beard Bingham; Patrick Malahide Jack Turner; Stephen Dillane Rupert Keel; Scott Handy Black-faced Man; Uriel Emil Hasan Moussa; Dhafer L’Abidine Bernard Faroux; Indira Varma Natalie Thorpe
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Shailene Woodley: Working non-stop since 'Descendants'
by Iain Blair
The 20-year-old's star-making turn opposite George Clooney in Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" not only won her rave reviews and a raft of awards (including an Independent Spirit Award for supporting actress and a Golden Globe nom) but also turbo-charged an already hot career.Woodley, who stars in the hit ABC Family series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (which recently completed 100 episodes), has also been working on back-to-back features: "This past year's been a total whirlwind, and I haven't really had time to stop and analyze it," she says.
But the L.A. native does know that "it's no overnight success. I started off doing commercials and TV when I was just 5." Her first TV role was in the 1999 telepic "Replacing Dad," "and it took me 15 years to get to 'The Descendants,' " she says.
Already a veteran in the business, Woodley has absorbed some "key lessons" from the likes of Payne and Clooney. "They're so passionate and compassionate in how they approach work and life, and they stressed the importance of being choosey. You can get a ton of offers, but the script has to be there, and I really respond to movies that make me feel. If I'm not passionate about a project, I'm not going to do it, regardless of who's involved."
Woodley, who just signed on to Gregg Araki's "White Bird," says she has "no real career plan" beyond focusing on movies in the future. "They're my real passion," she says.
Impact: " 'The Descendants' opened up so many doors and opportunities," says the actress.
Next: Shooting "Spectacular Now," directed by James Ponsoldt -- "a truthful coming-of-age story that accurately depicts the trials and tribulations of being an adolescent."
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| Shailene Woodley |
Already a veteran in the business, Woodley has absorbed some "key lessons" from the likes of Payne and Clooney. "They're so passionate and compassionate in how they approach work and life, and they stressed the importance of being choosey. You can get a ton of offers, but the script has to be there, and I really respond to movies that make me feel. If I'm not passionate about a project, I'm not going to do it, regardless of who's involved."
Woodley, who just signed on to Gregg Araki's "White Bird," says she has "no real career plan" beyond focusing on movies in the future. "They're my real passion," she says.
Impact: " 'The Descendants' opened up so many doors and opportunities," says the actress.
Next: Shooting "Spectacular Now," directed by James Ponsoldt -- "a truthful coming-of-age story that accurately depicts the trials and tribulations of being an adolescent."
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Kieran O’Brien in 9 Songs
Actor Kieran O’Brien isn’t that well known (his claim to fame was a part in HBO’s “Band of Brothers”). But he was also in a movie called “9 Songs,” which I watched a couple of weeks ago. The movie is a love story that has two surprising elements:
And for the record, I know a lot of people would disagree with me about whether this movie is pornographic. It’s not. It has a story and the sex scenes serve a purpose (and that purpose isn’t to make the viewer horny). Just because Americans are sexually repressed doesn’t make something dirty. I’m glad the British get it, and I’m glad they made this film.
If you want to see even more, I loaded the video of the oral sex scene on my tumblr blog.
- A great underground soundtrack
- Very explicit sex scenes for a mainstream film.
And for the record, I know a lot of people would disagree with me about whether this movie is pornographic. It’s not. It has a story and the sex scenes serve a purpose (and that purpose isn’t to make the viewer horny). Just because Americans are sexually repressed doesn’t make something dirty. I’m glad the British get it, and I’m glad they made this film.
If you want to see even more, I loaded the video of the oral sex scene on my tumblr blog.
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by Buzzin' Lee Hartgrave.
On the stage -- appears a couple named Boy and Girl. They are young, good looking and run around on the stage naked and half-naked, and what clothes they do wear are very scanty. Now that should enthrall you.
They are in love. Think about Adam and Eve without the apple. They love to talk about each other’s rather curvy bodies. They want a baby. They have a baby (maybe) – its birth is offstage, so how do we know if that’s a baby in that blanket? We never see it.
Then approaches an older Man and Woman. They kinda take over the stage. Well, not kinda - they literally take over the stage. They both are funny, engaging and a little bit scary. The Boy and Girl, at first are bemused -- by the older couple. The older woman even tries to seduce the young man. But, then there is the baby thing. The older couple -- have come to get the baby. Is there really a baby? Why does the older couple want the Baby? Who knows? But in the Theatre of the Absurd (Albee) – the audience is enthralled, but very puzzled. Who wouldn’t be? Lots of questions need to be answered here.
Comparisons are frowned upon but one can’t help noticing recycled elements from other Albee plays. A Mature couple show up and disrupt a household as in “A Delicate Balance.” A young couple interacts, with an older couple. A Baby may be imaginary, As in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Yes, it’s a puzzle, but the sparkling language (very witty) keeps the light in the darkness. You will just have to listen intently to Albee’s blackly comic text.
The set design is dazzling. There is even a Tiny little Chair for the Baby to sit on, that we never really see. We do see the chair, but not the Baby. However, the atmosphere gives us a distinct passionate chill. As always – it’s Albee creepy.
Everything depends on the Actors, the lighting design, plus dramatic entrances and exits. You may blush about the nudity – but be brave, you will get used to flesh…it’s Pinkish.
HERE’S WHAT I THINK: The Actors are “Awesome!” They are Anya Kazmierski (Girl), Shane Rhoades (Boy), Richard Aiello (Man) and Linda Ayres-Frederick*. Especially good are Aiello and Ayres-Frederick. What a team. They deserve a couple of Oscars - if I had them. But then, I could just be caught up in Albee’s vision. Yes, I am a little on the crazy side.
ALSO SUPERB IS – Director, Brian Katz, Stage Manager, Colin Johnson, Scenic Design, Sarah Phykitt, Lighting Design, Dena Burd, Costumes/Props – Maxx Kurzunski, Original Composition – Liz Ryder and Fight Choreography – Jon Bailey. “What a show! – “Wonderful and imaginative!”
Girl: Anya Kazimierski
[Her first nude performance : full frontal]
Anya Kazimierski (Girl) is a performer, painter, and scenic designer new to the Bay Area. With roots in New York and a degree in studio art and French literature from Oberlin College, she came out west to work as the Scenic Art Fellow at Berkeley Rep, 2011-12 season. While at Oberlin, Anya was an actor and designer in the collaborative Petits-Fours Theatre Company, a theater collective that produced popular, if eccentric, gems such as JOHN (an original piece) and a new translation of Ionesco’s The Chairs. Since arriving in the Bay, Anya has built a cardboard set for Stagebridge’s City Green, and been an understudy role in Berkeley Rep’s Ghost Light.
Boy: Shane Rhoades.
More Pics here
NOW PLAYING AT THE GOUGH STREET PLAYHOUSE (Custom Made Theatre)
RATING: FOUR GLASSES OF CHAMPAGNE!!!! (highest rating) –trademarked-
(((LEE HARTGRAVE HAS CONTRIBUTED MANY ARTICLES TO THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE SUNDAY DATEBOOK AND HE PRODUCED AND HOSTED A LONG-RUNNING ARTS SEGMENT ON PBS KQED)))
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Stockholm Psychology by Ola Rindal for Purple Fashion Fall/Winter 2012
Publication: Purple Fashion
Issue: #18 Fall/Winter 2012
Title: Stockholm Psychology
Models: Frida Gustavsson (topless), Lula Osterdahl, Ellinore Erichsen, Tora Essley, and Kim Jansson (see-thru)
Photography: Ola Rindal
Styling: Naomi Itkes
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COMING SOON : (3D) My 3D Sex Journey Due West
My 3D Sex Journey: Due West describes the internal struggle of a young person seeking “love” and “lust” in contemporary society of Hong Kong. The film reflects the reason why men head North to Mainland to seek pleasure and the general problems exist among Hong Kong girls. It also focuses on the intricate conflict of the two-sided coin of love – affection and lust.
Cantonese with English and Chinese subtitles
Director : Mark Woo
Genre : Softcore/Comedy
Release Date : 20 September 2012
Main cast :
Jeana Ho Pui Yu - topless (with nips covered?)
Angelina Zhang (Cheung Woon Nga) - nude (with nips covered?)
Celia Kwok Wing Yi - nude
Taiwanese model/actress Eva Lee Mu-Ching
(I'm not too sure about her country of origin. Don't want to come across as a racist but this Eva chick looks a lot like someone from a beauty pageant I was at couple of years ago. Extensive lips and bosom enhancement but pretty sure she was known as Eva Li - former Miss Chinese Western Australia 2010. Compare the pics guys....tell me I'm wrong please. If she appears naked in the movie..........)
Just confirmed. It's her. Man....her family going to be super pissed if she goes full-frontal.
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Li Mu Qing |
Mongolian model Danielle Wang (Wang Li Dan) - nude in her film debut
Mongolian model Mo Qiwen - another nude debutant on-screen
with guest star :
Wylie Chiu Shek Chi
The DUE WEST OUR SEX JOURNEY (YUT LO HEUNG SAI) actors Jeana Ho Pui Yu, Angelina Zhang (Cheung Woon Nga), Celia Kwok Wing Yi, Eva Lee Mu-Ching, Danielle Wang, Justin Cheung Kin Sing, Gregory Wong Chung Hiu and director Mark Wu Yiu Fai two nights ago attended the film premiere on 12 September 2012. Aside from Cheung Woon Nga, most actors gave away postcards, milk and condoms on the streets of Mongkok. The event arranged for ten security guards and 20 women in costumes to chant promotional slogans. Kwok Wing Yi often held onto her rumored boyfriend Cheung Kin Sing, Wong Chung Hiu held Lee Mu-Ching tight. Seemingly they were worried about the crowd and accidents.
The cast were dressed conservatively for the Mongkok promotion but liberated themselves at the premiere. The always sexy Jeana competed with her rumored rival Cheung Woon Nga. However, neither could compare to the "Mongol Cow" Danielle Wang, whose ample busts became the focus of the entire event.
Jeana joked that she raised an army for thousand days for use at any moment. Speaking of Danielle Wang's amazing figure, Jeana joked that people would get tired of too much milk. Smaller was better. Whose figure was better between her and Cheung Woon Ga? Jeana said that figures could not be compared, but she did not forget to mock her. "Because one is a real woman. If she wants to enlarge her breast I can introduce a consultant to her. The golden ratio would be very accurate.
They won't be different sizes or transforming balls." Cheung Woon Nga did not attend the Mongkok promote. She did not feel that she was deliberately dodging her and said that she rather enjoyed the street promotion.
Cheung Woon Nga was accused of having transforming busts. She graciously complimented Jeana for dressing very pretty two nights ago. She was the prettiest artist that she knew. She was very envious of her and hoped to have more chance to perform in movies like Jeana.
Cheung Woon Nga also said that the premiere was the most important moment of her life. Thus the night before she was so nervous she could not sleep. The dress she wore was flown in from Shanghai and was worth six figures. She said, "I am very happy that my figure can hold up this dress." The super buxom Danielle Wangli was Mongolian and also from Henan. She humbly said that Cheung Woon Nga and Jeana were both very sexy. She felt that their figures should probably be real; she also said that because of LAN KWAI FONG (HEI OI YEH PO) she knew Jeana, she thought she was decent.
Kwok Wing Yi said that she held onto Cheung Kin Sing in Mongkok because he said that he would protect her. Speaking of their rumor, Kwok Wing Yi admitted that Cheung Kin Sing was pursuing her. Currently they were getting to know each other since they have only known each other for three months. Also, Stephen Shiu Jr. and Stephen Shiu, Benny Chan Ho Man and his wife, Sukie Shek Wing Lee attended in support.
Jeana boasted that the film would be able to reach 67 million at the box office and surpass the current Hong Kong film box office champion VULGARIA (DAI JOOK HEI KET). "This year isn't over yet, and the kids now have to go to school. Parents can do their own thing." Jeana and the cast even stated that if the film reached 67 million they would skinny dip to celebrate.
Jeana earlier worked on the new film DUE WEST OUR SEX JOURNEY (YUT LO HEUNG SAI) and gave a wild performance. She not only generously disrobed in front of the camera but also had many intimate scenes with film new comer Cheung Kin Sing, even when Cheung Kin Sing grabbed her breasts she did not act up. She was very professional.
In the story when Cheung Kin Sing grabbed Jeana, something did not feel right. Jeana boldly said, "Right, I just had an enlargement." Cheung Kin Sing was stunned. Due to the nature of the scene Jeana's boyfriend Parkman Cheung took time to visit the set. After the scene Jeana quickly left the set with her boyfriend.
Jeana revealed that her co-star Cheung Kin Sing was more nervous than she was. "The crew all said that he has gotten very familiar with the shoot, but for some reason with me that day he was very nervous. His hands were sweaty and got my chest all wet." With her breast enlargement, Jeana said that she struggled with playing a "fake ball person". "I don't like the title of fake ball person, but I thought the story was pretty interesting. So I decided to give it a shot."
Celia Kwok Wing Yi this year will release a photo book and admitted that in the film she performed in the nude and had no bottom line. Angelina Zhang said that in the film she had to pleasure herself, thus she rented some adult videos to study and practice at home.
* A word of caution : The movie is made by the same guys who produced one of the worst sex flick ever to come out of Hong Kong in recent times : Lan Kwai Fong (2011). Hopefully this release will erase the memories of that godawful crapfest.
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Study Reveals Teens' Warped Perceptions of Sex
englishnews@chosun.com / Sep. 14, 2012
A study on adolescents' attitudes toward sex has revealed some alarming misperceptions.
The Korean Women's Development Institute surveyed 4,810 middle and high school students last year and found that 7.4 percent of male students or 197 believed women are aroused when they are treated roughly. Only 3 percent of female students (70) concurred.
Some 5 percent of boys surveyed (139) and 4 percent of girls (88) said violence is one way in which a man can arouse a woman.
Some 29 percent of boys said men should have the right to pay for sex, but only 8.8 percent of girls agreed.
Some 19 percent of boys (528) felt men are unable to control their sexual desires as they are instinctive, and 15 percent of girls (311) took the same deterministic view.
"More boys than girls tend to feel that sexual violence or paying for sex is acceptable," the KWDI said. "There is a strong chance that youngsters with such attitudes may become more aggressive and violent in their sex lives."
Experts said such warped sexual beliefs were largely the result of being exposed to pornographic material featuring the abusive treatment of women. They say that teens who rape girls or film their acts and spread them online could be copying behavior they saw in pornographic movies.
"Like current moves to put graphic and gruesome pictures on cigarette packages [to deter smokers], we should think about posting educational video clips on websites that a lot of kids frequent to give them more sensible ideas about sex," said Chang Mi-hae at the KWDI.
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The Korean Women's Development Institute surveyed 4,810 middle and high school students last year and found that 7.4 percent of male students or 197 believed women are aroused when they are treated roughly. Only 3 percent of female students (70) concurred.
Some 5 percent of boys surveyed (139) and 4 percent of girls (88) said violence is one way in which a man can arouse a woman.
Some 29 percent of boys said men should have the right to pay for sex, but only 8.8 percent of girls agreed.
Some 19 percent of boys (528) felt men are unable to control their sexual desires as they are instinctive, and 15 percent of girls (311) took the same deterministic view.
"More boys than girls tend to feel that sexual violence or paying for sex is acceptable," the KWDI said. "There is a strong chance that youngsters with such attitudes may become more aggressive and violent in their sex lives."
Experts said such warped sexual beliefs were largely the result of being exposed to pornographic material featuring the abusive treatment of women. They say that teens who rape girls or film their acts and spread them online could be copying behavior they saw in pornographic movies.
"Like current moves to put graphic and gruesome pictures on cigarette packages [to deter smokers], we should think about posting educational video clips on websites that a lot of kids frequent to give them more sensible ideas about sex," said Chang Mi-hae at the KWDI.
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