He stood up for Trayvon Martin's killer at trial and on all the talk shows. He fine-tuned the narrative of Martin as a thug. He concealed his own criminal history and conducted white supremacist podcasts. But Frank Taaffe has had a change of heart, and now says Zimmerman is a racist murderer.
Though she may not be among the top five searches on Mr. Skin, Keira Knightley just adores getting naked on screen. Discussing her upcoming Sienna Miller lovefest Edge Of Love, she tells People: "I always bare my breasts...It's not like it's only in this film!" Whoopee! Well, not so much. We took Keira up on her implied offer to review just how many times she's stripped down for the sake of The Craft, and have one primary question post-study: having exposed 26 (no, not a typo) cinematic naughty bits so far, are we so sure they really belong to her? NSFW evidence lies after the jump.
What appears to be a very highbrow and British tale about the split between Atonement director Joe Wright and his (now ex) fiancée, the strawberry blonde stunner Rosamund Pike, instead sounds like a neuroses-filled, laugh track-accompanied episode of classic Seinfeld material. Wright and Pike got engaged this past September, having met on the set of Pride & Prejudice, but due to calamitous series of unfortunate events involving wedding invitations, photos of the pair in a hot tub, and late night lap dances, the previously boring but gorgeous couple are making headlines for an engagement gone suddenly and horribly wrong. Details on the sordid, beyond comical story after the jump.
The heartiest of Defamer congratulations go out today to the marketers behind The Dark Knight and Iron Man, whose savvy trailers have now captivated legions of inhaler-clutching fanboys and the highly discriminating eyes of those judging the Golden Trailer Awards. The films claimed the top prizes in the Action and Summer Blockbuster categories respectively at last night's ceremony at the Orpheum; other notable winners included Tropic Thunder (Comedy), No Country For Old Men (Drama), Atonement (Romance) and, in a miracle of better-late-than-never recognition, The Assassination of Jesse James took home the evening's Best Voice-Over hardware. Even the Weinsteins didn't go home empty-handed, as their teaser for Awake won the Golden Fleece prize for best false advertsing. Way to go, Harvey; we hope you can remember where you put the key to the trophy case. [Golden Trailers via Spout Blog]
Most stars have their own trademark pose on the red carpet. Think Renee Zellweger with her pursed lips looking like she just took a shot of lemon juice, or Lindsay Lohan's classic blowing kiss move. As for Keira Knightley, with her wildly perfect facial features and oddly appealing underbite, she's patented "The Pout." As she puts it:
While No Country For Old Men has been collecting most of this award season's Best Picture statuettes, the stuffy limeys at BAFTA instead decided to award their prize to one of their homegrown jewels, the weepy Anglophiliac wet dream Atonement. However, the most intriguing award of the night had ostensibly nothing to do with a great performance and everything to do with ensuring that the British Academy of Film And Television's bottom line was sufficiently padded. The award in question, the Orange Rising Star Award, was handed to Shia LaBeouf and presented by the mobile phone company Orange. Now that the normally reserved BAFTAs have cashed in their principles for a taste of the almighty dollar pound note, can The Oscars be far behind?
Award season is, as Sean Penn says, truly a season in hell — if, that is, one attempts to follow every twist and turn and nomination. Avoid the stress with this handy scorecard, which we'll adjust, periodically. For Golden Globe wins and Oscar nominations, we're only counting the big nine categories. No points for best soundtrack. Sorry.
After a disorienting Golden Access Globes Press Hollywood Conference Awards that left nominees and audiences alike utterly befuddled (we understand Sally Field was fished out of The Grove's dancing waters fountain at 3 a.m. delivering an impassioned speech about bringing the troops home to two security guards on a golf cart), our traditional Globes parties post-mortem promised to be a similar mess. Still, if there were awards, and there were winners, by God there's going to be a reactions round-up, even if it comes off sounding a lot like the ones you read after the nominations are announced:
· The Atonement crew toasted their win at a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont, where the ghost of O.D.'d John Belushi smiled over their WWII romance's win. [Variety]
· Marion Cotillard enjoyed her win for La Vie en Rose from the Four Seasons. "I'm enjoying so much what's going on here, I can't be disappointed in any way," she said, convincingly masking her extreme disappointment. [Variety]
· Unknown actress Gemma Arterton has been anointed as the newest Bond girl, with her agent confirming her "nice-sized role" in Bond 22, though it's still unclear whether her part will fall into the "superspy sexual conquest" or "extremely attractive, but sexually unavailable, Mi6 functionary" categories of 007-supporting females [THR]
· Members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are (preliminarily, at least) head-over-heels in blighty* love for Atonement, listing the Joe Wright adaptation 17 times in their awards longlist (a mere 15 options per category!) for the BAFTAS, an announcement that mostly serves to let the public know which movies have been pre-snubbed for their eventual nominations. [*We only put that in for the benefit of our readers who are driven insane by Varspeak.] [Variety]
Kudos to Focus Features' marketing department for injecting some sex into Atonement's For Your Consideration ad campaign by choosing this signature image of Keira Knightley, in which the actress emerges sopping wet from her family estate's fountain in a clingy, see-through slip, as the one that best represents the candidacy of both their critically beloved literary adaptation and director Joe Wright. Sure, the awe-inspiring tracking shot of a war-torn Dunkirk might have been an option that more vividly illustrated Wright's technical skills, but sometimes voters just want to break up the monotony of flipping though the trades by gawking at half-naked ladies.
Ian McEwan, the serious literary yet still sort of airport-y author of Atonement, whose books all hinge on one dramatic moment when something terrible happens tells the Wall Street Journal today that his books don't all hinge on one dramatic moment when something terrible happens. "All it really says is that in my novels something happens. It got said, and then it got into the loop. It's a truism, really. It's true of any novel." Well, any novels that are made into big weepy holiday blockbusters.
