Here's the trailer for Albert Nobbs, a period drama from director Rodrigo Garcia. Set in 19th century Ireland, the movie stars Glenn Close as the title character, a woman who poses as a man so she can work as a butler in Dublin's fanciest hotel. But when someone finds out her secret, and she falls in love with a woman who happens to be involved with another man, well, things get complicated.
The most beautiful woman of the 1990s (in our humble opinion) is heading back into the acting game after a period of relative obscurity. Also today: Casting news from your favorite office, the return of Steve Sanders, and Glenn Close's Oscar chances.
Since Damages started airing on the FX Network, it's always had a fun—and creative—time playing with viewer expectations. Now, the series is taking the bold step of having an in-show character recreate the first season as a film.
Tonight, The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special graced us with its presence. We knew that it would be full of CELEBRITIEEEEEEES, and we knew that they would interview each other. But we learned some new things, too! Inside, some standout moments.
David Duchovny getting into a Town Car on the Upper East Side ... James Gandolfini walking into Barneys on Madison Avenue with his son ... Catherine Zeta-Jones leaving her apartment building ... Glenn Close walking her dogs ... Ashlee Simpson showing up at a hair salon in the meatpacking district ... Sharon Osbourne leaving the Peninsula Hotel with her dog in her arms ... Hugh Jackman jogging in the Village ... Leighton Meester filming scenes for Gossip Girl in Brooklyn ... Tori Spelling and Dean Mcdermott leaving an office building in Midtown ... Vanessa Williams on the set of Ugly Betty ... Pete Wentz walking near Union Square ... Stephanie March filming scenes for Law & Order: SVU ... and Beyoncé hanging out with her sister Solange at The Eldridge.
• Glenn Close has put her two-bedroom co-op at the Beresford up for sale. The 2,000-square-foot apartment on the building's 19th floor, which comes with two terraces, private elevator landing, and neighbors like Jerry Seinfeld and John McEnroe, is listed with Corcoran's Robby Browne and can be yours for $11.8 million. [NYP, Corcoran]
• Blackstone Group co-founder Steve Schwarzman and his wife Christine have unloaded their old East Hampton home. The 2.1-acre property, which the billionaire financier bought for $2.3 million in 1996 and put on the market for $7.2 million in August 2009, has been sold to "power couple" Thomas Gallagher and Alice Jarcho-Gallagher for $6.25 million. [NYP]
• John Cleese's two-bedroom apartment at 196 East 75th Street is now in the possession of his ex-wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger. Cleese sold the apartment, which the couple purchased together in 2007 for $1.7 million, back to her for $1.492 million. [NYO]
• 30 Rock and Mad Men took home Emmys last night for outstanding comedy series and outstanding drama series, respectively. (Surprise, surprise.) Alec Baldwin won for outstanding actor in a comedy series; Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston won for outstanding actor in a drama series; Glenn Close won for best actress in a drama series for Damages; and The United States of Tara's Toni Collette took home the award for best actress in a comedy series. Other winners included Lost's Michael Emerson, 24's Cherry Jones, Grey Gardens' Jessica Lange, Pushing Daisies' Kristin Chenoweth, and Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer. The catchphrase of the night was "pulling a Kanye," naturally. [People, Us]
• Mischa Barton just isn't a morning person... or perhaps she's having dental issues again. A source from her CW show, The Beautiful Life, says she's often so out of it in the mornings that she holds up filming, and she'll stare into her coffee for minutes on end, mumbling, "Who will fix my coffee? I need someone to fix my coffee." [P6]
• Courtney Love lost it when a bathroom intruder caught her with her pants down at the T magazine party at the Standard the other night. Love supposedly screamed that the man had attacked her and tried to have him ejected. "I never wanted to see Courtney Love on the toilet," says the unlucky guy. "It wasn't a pretty sight. I just wanted to get out of there." [P6]
The world's absolutely abuzz over news about the Emmy Awards, which are kind of like television's Oscars and very important. In case you missed them, here are some things you should know about the winners, the losers and the critics.
Tom Hanks was honored with the Chaplin Award at the at the 36th annual Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute last night, where he was joined by an A-list crowd including Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Charlize Theron, Sally Field, Glenn Close, Adrien Brody, Mike Nichols, Graydon Carter, Sam Mendes, Christopher Walken, Christy Turlington and Ed Burns, Christie Brinkley, Lorne Michaels, Jeff Zucker, Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi, David Gregory, Joy and Regis Philbin, John Patrick Shanley, Bruce Springsteen, Ninah and Michael Lynne, Leslie and Robert Zemeckis, Roger Waters, Jonathan Demme, Jeremy Irons, Abby McGrew and Eli Manning, Ken Burns, Nigel Barker, Rob Wiesenthal, and Gillian and Sylvester Miniter, along with Tom's wife Rita Wilson and son Colin Hanks. [PMc, Wireimage, FWD, USA Today, People]
Harvey Weinstein turns 57 today. Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff is turning 55. Glenn Close is 62. Bruce Willis is 54. Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder is turning 76. Times managing editor Jill Abramson is 55. Author Philip Roth turns 76. Financier Stephen Friedman is 71. Former Bond girl Ursula Andress is 73. SNL writer Jorma Taccone is 32. And the Pointer Sisters' Ruth Pointer turns 63 today.
Depending on your perspective, it's either a reassuring indication that the global recession can't be as bad as all that, or the kind of tasteless display of decadence that no longer has any place in the new economy: Couture fashion week in Paris is currently underway with shows as lavish as ever, even though you'd think that dresses costing a quarter of a million dollars might have a slightly shrinking client base. Dior designer John Galliano, who put on a show yesterday that cost around $3 million, points out that his job "is to make women dream. Of course I'm aware of the credit crunch, but it is not a creative crunch—not at the house of Dior, anyway."
How excited was Glenn Close yesterday to earn immortality on the Walk of Fame? Excited enough to carnally plunge onto Hollywood Blvd., which we take to mean "pretty excited." Get a room, you two.
• Andrew Saffir's Cinema Society hosted a screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Tribeca Grand last night. Attendees at the Pamella Roland and Svedka-sponsored screening and after-party at the Soho Grand included Kanye West, Spike Jonze, Olivia Palermo, Richard Meier, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Lauren Bush and David Lauren, Moby, Amy Sacco, Sandy Brant and Ingrid Sischy, Stefano Tonchi, Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo, Bettina Zilkha, Charlotte Ronson, Cynthia Rowley and Bill Powers, Chace Crawford, Debbie Harry, Heather Matarazzo and Caroline Murphy, Judith Light, Kelly Bensimon, Karen Duffy, Liya Kebede, Rachel Roy, Liam McMullan, Ciara, and Danny Masterson. [PMc, Wireimage, The Daily]
Glenn Close walking her dogs in Central Park ... James Gandolfini making faces at photographers outside the Milk after-party at the Bowery Hotel ... Madonna walking on the sidewalk last night ... Natalie Portman carrying her dog and a cup of coffee ... Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, and Lindsay Price filming scenes for Lipstick Jungle on the Upper East Side ... Twilight star Robert Pattinson arriving at JFK ... Katie Holmes leaving her apartment on East 13th and later shopping at Dean & DeLuca with Suri ... and Beyonce unveiling her Seventeen cover at the Hearst building.
We've already run through our predictions for Emmy's comedy categories, but now it's time to sit down for forty-four minutes (excepting commercials) and soberly judge this year's crop of dramas. Again, we'll be blogging the Emmys live from the East Coast starting at 7pm EDT/4pm PDT, so if Mariska Hargitay lets loose with an expletive-laden diatribe or Jeremy Piven has a nip slip on the red carpet, you can be sure we've got it covered. Now, onto the predictions:Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Boston Legal - James Spader Breaking Bad - Bryan Cranston Dexter - Michael C. Hall House - Hugh Laurie In Treatment - Gabriel Byrne Mad Men - Jon Hamm Don't even bother, House fans. Though Hugh Laurie turned in the compelling, two-hour season finale as his submission, Emmy voters love three-time winner James Spader, and his submission (which finds him passionately arguing a case before the Supreme Court) provides Spader with his biggest tour-de-force yet. If he's ever to lose, it won't be this year. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Brothers & Sisters - Sally Field The Closer - Kyra Sedgwick Damages - Glenn Close Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Mariska Hargitay Saving Grace - Holly Hunter A toss-up! In a category filled with film refugees deigning to do TV (which Emmy loves), Sally Field won last year and notoriously gave a bleeped speech that will only solidify her as the incumbent in voters' memories. Her biggest threat is the cool, nefarious Close, but we'll side with inertia and predict Field as the winner once more. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Boston Legal - William Shatner Damages - Ted Danson Damages - Zeljko Ivanek Lost - Michael Emerson Mad Men - John Slattery All but two of the nominees are newcomers to this category, and last year's winner Terry O'Quinn is nowhere to be found. We think voters will reward his co-star, Lost MVP Michael Emerson, whose blockbuster episode submission included horse-riding, piano playing, action scenes, foreign languages, and a juicy scene grieving the death of his daughter. Plus, Emerson is no Emmy novice: he won the award in 2001 for guest-starring on The Practice. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Boston Legal - Candice Bergen Brothers & Sisters - Rachel Griffiths Grey's Anatomy - Sandra Oh Grey's Anatomy - Chandra Wilson In Treatment - Dianne Wiest If the category seems oddly mild this year, it's because of 2007 winner Katherine Heigl's infamous decision to pull her name out of consideration. As a reward to the co-stars who bit their lips and suffered in silence, we expect either Oh or Wilson to pull through as the winner, with a slight edge to Oh (after all, she once had to deal with Isaiah Washington, too). Outstanding Drama Series Boston Legal Damages Dexter House Lost Mad Men For party crashers Damages and Dexter, it's an honor just to be nominated. Like them, Mad Men is little-seen, but the difference is that it's watched by all the right people (and heavily appeals to older Emmy voters), so we expect a first-season surge to victory. What Would Don Draper Do if he had to go home empty-handed?
The world awoke this morning to the chirping of little birds resembling Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris, perched at a podium in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, announcing nominations for the 60th Emmy Awards. While most rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, we sat bolt upright as usual and sprinted to the window, our furious note-taking chronicling a few snubs, surprises and plenty of the conventional wisdom we've come to expect from the annual ritual.
· You just never know what you're going to get on The Martha Stewart Show. Today: We make our own herb garden kits. And later, Glenn Close recalls the time she was buried alive with her husband! Wait—what? [Martha]
· Good news, everyone! Star Jones is dating again. (Or has a snappy-dressing driver/assistant/bodyguard.) And! Is looking sassy. [Bossip]
· Tina Fey is the most adorable anti-film-piracy figurehead since Lucky and Flo. (And we're not comparing her to a labrador retriever. We just think she's cute.) [ONTD]
· Talk Sex with Sue Johanson is ending its six-year run on Oxygen? But where else are we going to get straight-up advice from someone who resembles our sixth-grade English teacher on the proper use of a double-headed dildo? [AP]
· Photobombing is our new favorite pranktivity. And of all the photobombs collected here, this one of a guy shoving a fat finger up his nose while Wilmer Valderrama tries to look like the man with three hot chicks on his arm is our very favorite. [listoftheday]
Six-time Academy Award Nominee Glenn Close has been a steadfast presence in Hollywood since the early 1980s, but she will always be best known for her role as a vengeful jilted lover in Fatal Attraction.
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]
