2011's Best Episodes: Modern Family's Sexy Time, Good Wife's Heartbreaking Split

Archie Panjabi From Oprah's remarkably low-key farewell for the year's most soul-crushing break-around the Great Wife (Kalicia, no!), the season was filled with fantastic several hours of television - virtually which we seen. There has been teary goodbyes (Friday Evening Lights' Texas forever! Smallville's tights and travel arrangements!), tense face-offs (why can't all CIA interrogations occur round the front porch from the cabin, like on Homeland?) as well as we made room for just about any little Glee (because certain underdogs deserved it). Which made this list. Stay updated all week for that top 25. Here's the second batch inside our extended countdown of 2011's best episodes (Get swept up first with Episodes 25-21): 20. "Caught along the way,Inch Modern FamilyStraight in the Three Company's guide, the Emmy-winning episode built around the misunderstanding that is not exactly novel: Gloria accidentally e-mailed naked pictures of herself, intended for Jay, to Claire and Phil, who've also just broken their unique kids when you're caught along the way. ("Whatever it absolutely was, it made an appearance as though father was winning," Luke states of his parents' love-making.) 19. "Being, Act 1," Sons of AnarchySeason 4's penultimate episode can be a fascinating fight of wills involving the show's female energy players. Gemma (Katey Sagal) makes her large move, showing Jax the easiest method to his chair since the mind in the SAMCRO motorcycle club, while Jax's girlfriend Tara (Maggie Siff) out-Gemmas Gemma by considering planning for she and Jax to go away Charming - and Gemma - forever. "What is happening?In . a stunned Gemma asks. "Whatever you trained me," Tara replies. SAMCRO may well be a boys' club, but it's the old women that keep surprising us. 18. "Permit the Sun Shine In," Males from the Certain AgeThree 50-something males get colonoscopies, play golf and gripe about existence - a perfect recipe with an hour of compelling TV, no? Well, no, however, if Joe, Terry and Owen possess a journey to Palm Springs to obtain their colons checked, the discomfort of enlightenment isn't just, you understand, physical. It'll be a really very long time before we, ahem, satisfy the growing demand playing this touching series, nevertheless it was episodes similar to this which will make us realize we're just grateful this awesome little show ever handled to obtain round the air. 17. "Leaving,Inch The Truly Amazing WifeThis might be the episode where Kalinda cries, a meeting that alone qualifies as earth-breaking within the presence of the stoic character. The tears come after Alicia (Julianna Margulies) notifies Kalinda they sees that she rested along with her husband. The facial skin-off between Emmy individuals who win Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi is chilling, particularly since it may be their last scene together for just about any extended while. Bonus: Sarah Silverman, in the rare dramatic turn, guest-stars as who is the owner of a domain that facilitates adulterous matters. 16. "The Spoil," JustifiedIt's difficult to highlight only one episode of Margo Martindale's Emmy-winning season as Magazines Bennett, but her rousing speech in "The Spoil." Martindale's easy, smooth-as-Mags' homemade moonshine delivery reminds us how smart a villain she's, and the way a battle she's prepared to setup to guard her people "approach to livin' and dyin.'" Despite the fact that Mags' icy mean streak didn't fully emerge prior to the following episode, her actions in this particular hour put us on serious red-colored-colored alert.

Adam Lambert Says He's "Embarrassed By Drunkenness"

Adam Lambert Adam Lambert says he's "embarrassed" by the actions that led to his arrest in Finland Thursday. "Violence is not to be taken lightly. Embarrassed by drunkenness," the American Idol runner-up tweeted late that day. "No punches thrown, no injuries and no charges. Media always exaggerates." American Idol's Adam Lambert arrested and jailed in Finland Lambert, 29, and his boyfriend, Finnish reality TV star Sauli Koskinen, reportedly got into a brawl on Thursday inside a Helsinki gay bar called DTM (Don't Tell Mama), and continued the fight outside after being removed from the club. They were arrested at approximately 4 a.m. and spent several hours behind bars. A few hours after he was released, Lambert tweeted that was he "laughing" about the incident.

'The Hobbit' Trailer: Bilbo Baggins and also the Many Dwarves Mind On an Unpredicted Journey

Awesome trailer week comes on! Only one next day of the very first trailer for 'The Dark Dark night Rises' launched on the internet and 2 days before 'Prometheus' arrives, Warner Bros. has revealed the very first teaser for 'The Hobbit: An Unpredicted Journey.' So, so how exactly does it look? Like 'Lord from the Rings,' however with Tim from 'The Office' (United kingdom version, natch), Youthful Gandalf and Cate Blanchett. Also, dwarves singing! You crazy in love with that one, Healing For Peter Jackson. Mind to Apple to look at in HD or take a look below. Starring Martin Freeman (that's Tim), Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and precious Andy Serkis, 'The Hobbit: An Unpredicted Journey' comes to theaters on 12 ,. 14 2012. Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

Bartkowiak dives into 'Deep'

BartkowiakAndrzej Bartkowiak is going "Beneath the Deep," signing on to direct Hannibal Prods.' action-adventure set in the Carribean."Deep" will launch production in March in Puerto Rico on a $16 million project.Hannibal CEO Richard Rionda Del Castro is producing with Armand Speca, who penned the screenplay. Exec producers are Patricia Eberle, Douglas W. Miller, Jeff Andrick and Anthony Gudas.Hannibal Pictures is the worldwide sales agent for the independent film. Casting is currently under way. As helmer, Bartkowiak's credits on actioners include Jet Li's "Romeo Must Die," "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," "Cradle to the Grave"; "Doom"; and "Exit Wounds." His credits as d.p. include "The Verdict," "Lethal Weapon 4," "Dante's Peak," "Prizzi's Honor" and "Terms of Endearment.""Beneath the Deep" follows a group of tourists in search of an underwater adventure in the Caribbean. When natural forces strand them in a vacation spot from hell, they must contend with unexpected visitors that view them as intruders and a threat to their own survival. "I am always fascinated by what I learn about myself, when I'm thrown into an unknown and uncontrolled situation," Bartkowiak said. "?'Beneath the Deep,' set in the idyllic islands of the Caribbean, is a story of resilience and ingenuity when people are faced with unexpected forces, who have no other choice but to fight for survival." Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

John Logan on Skyfall, Rango, and the Secret of Successful Screenwriting

comments: 0 || add yours Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain have each had a well-documented great year, each no fewer than three well-received films — and all their corresponding buzz — arriving in theaters in 2011. Investigate slightly below the radar, however, and you’ll find screenwriter John Logan faring just as well — if not better. The busy scribe has his name on a trifecta of acclaimed work this year, once again positioning the two-time Oscar nominee (for Gladiator and The Aviator) in the awards race for both original (Rango) and adapted (Hugo, Coriolanus) screenplay prizes. The fall whirlwind complements his work on Skyfall, the new James Bond film on which Logan has been working for the last year. Heady times! Logan recently talked them over with Movieline. Congrats on the success this year! Considering how busy you are and how much ground we have to cover, let’s get right to the movie everyone wants to talk about. Can you enlighten us on the creative experience of writing Bats? [Laughs] You know, let me tell you something, my friend: Every Halloween I get a nice residual check from Bats! So, not to scoff at our winged friends! Who’s scoffing? You wrote dialogue for Lou Diamond Phillips! Hello! You know? The thing is that you were a very successful playwright before you ever ventured into screenwriting. How much of those early scripts still amounted to ‘paying dues,’ if at all? Not a lot, if only because I spent 10 years as a starving playwright in Chicago. That’s where I learned how to do my job, and that’s how I learned what a dramatist does as opposed to a poet or a prose writer or a journalist. So it was the 10 years in Chicago — shelving books, eating tuna fish — that I considered paying my dues, because that was the education that figured into what it meant to be a dramatist. Movies were a different form, obviously — a different internal engine, a different political landscape. But by the time I wrote Any Given Sunday or Bats, I sort of knew what my job was in terms of what a writer of dialogue does. So obviously it was a long haul to get where you are, and it’s very different. But is that still a route you’d encourage young writers today to explore as well? Oh my God, absolutely. Young screenwriters are always very frustrated when they talk to me. They say, “How do we get to be a screenwriter?” I say, “You know what you do? I’ll tell you the secret, it’s easy: Read Hamlet. You know? Then read it again, and read it again, and read it until you understand it. Read King Lear, and then read Othello. Then go back and read Aristotle and Sophocles and Euripedes and Chekhov and Kushner. Know where you stand in the continuum of your art form.” The history of screenwriting — of what we do — is more than 100 years old. It’s thousands of years old, going back to Sophocles and Euripedes. I believe the only — the only — separation for being a dramatist is reading drama. Which gets us to Coriolanus. I spoke with Ralph Fiennes about this a while back, and he told me about his long-standing relationship with the play. Did you have one as well? I did. I mean, the reason that I’m a writer today is because of Shakespeare and falling in love with Shakespeare when I was 8. That was through the movies, actually — through Olivier’s Hamlet. That was the first thing that got me to fall in love with Shakespeare and movies and everything in one big preadolescent rush. So when I started doing movies, I always wanted to do a Shakespeare adaptation. And to me, the play I always wanted to do was Coriolanus. To me, there was always something very modern and very cinematic about that particular play. So when I heard that Ralph Fiennes shared the same mad vision, I was very happy, because I couldn’t imagine there was someone other than me who wanted to do that play. So how did you two connect to make this happen? It was through the good grace of Brian Siberell, my agent at CAA — my one and only agent for 15 years, since the beginning of my career. He knew that I was besotted with Shakespeare and Coriolanus, and Ralph went in to have a general meeting there, and he was talking about wanting to do it. So Brian said, “Before you go any further, you need to sit down with John Logan.” So we met, and Ralph started talking about his vision for the movie — pitching very enthusiastically his modern take on it. And I said, “That’s exactly right.” So we just resolved to do it. There was no deal — obviously no money, no studio. We said, “Let’s do this thing!” Clearly it’s been condensed and adapted from Shakespeare’s original, yet it still hews very closely to the spirit of the language — how language shapes character. How far did you think you could go while writing? Did you ever find a line you couldn’t cross? And if so, how? That’s a very good question. Yes. The response is sort of complicated in that Coriolanus is Shakespeare’s second longest play — second only to Hamlet. So we knew just looking at it that we would need to be muscular in the adaptation. But I knew just looking at it that this play’s been around for 400 years, and it’ll be around for another 400 years. I can’t fuck it up. Nothing I can do is going to put an arrow through the heart of Coriolanus. It’s a great Shakespeare play. It will always be done. The thing that made me think it could be a movie was that character. Beyond the superficial similarities to our world — a superpower in crisis, urban strife — this guy makes it modern for me. It has nothing to do with all that. It has to do with Coriolanus’s character because he’s so opaque. He’s so complex. And I think that one thing movies do really well is close-ups of interesting, complex people. And they hold! That’s Peter O’Toole from Lawrence of Arabia, or Jack Nicholson from Chinatown. Or Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus. Think there is something very cinematic about that kind of very troubled, hard to reach central character. You’re trying to reach past his eyes and get into his soul. So it seemed very natural when we were adapting the play that we would try to focus on that particular story. And I tried tons of stuff that didn’t work, but finally came to a story that seemed to have the right grit to it. What didn’t work? Well, my God: We had like 12 different endings, for one. It took a long time to settle on the ending we had. Originally the film began and ended with the image of a white horse — sort of man as beast, nature teaches beasts to know their own… There’s a lot of animal imagery in the play. And you see this white horse riding around a paddock, and we ended with that same image. But it seemed very removed for the drama — it seemed like a very attenuated thematic idea as opposed to something organic. And at one point, there’s this great speech in the play where they talk about Coriolanus’s son chasing a butterfly and ripping it to pieces. I started with that image for a while, and that wasn’t appropriate either. And so the beginning and the ending had to boil down to what now exists. So I think everyone knew Rango was a good film, but it’s become this phenomenon that just carries on to this day. Were even you, as someone who was so intimately involved with it, surprised it made the splash it did? Yes. Very much so. Jim Byrkit and Gore Verbinski, who did the story with me, and all the story artists and everyone involved, we knew we were doing something very idiosyncratic. We reveled in the fact that it wasn’t like every other animated movie in the world; we thought it was fantastic. The Western tropes, the iconography, the literary references, the theatricality, the central character… They were all fascinating and very entertaining. It was deeply gratifying to know other people felt the same way. What about Hugo, which initially hit the zeitgeist as this kind of 3-D family film but has been received as this kind of magic-realist/film-preservation message? What do you make of its reception to date? I never looked at it as a 3-D family film. I never consider an audience that way when I’m working. To me, it was a compelling story about an orphan making a home for himself. It’s also vital to remember that Hugo is based on a brilliant book by Brian Selznick — a very, very popular and successful book called The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He created it, and we were all very, very fortunate to get a chance to explore it in our own form. But personally speaking I’m uniquely gratified by Hugo, because at the time it was a very hard job, and I personally find it the most moving of any move I’ve written. It touches me the most deeply. There’s a majesty of The Aviator that is unmatchable in my work. There’s moments of Gladiator or Rango or Coriolanus or any of my movies that are inspiring or exciting. But to me, there’s something very moving and touching about Hugo, and I’m glad other people feel the same way. What is it specifically that touches you? I love the fact that it finally shows that it can be a just world — with a little grit and determination, we can make a future for ourselves. The really significant point to Hugo, to me, is not that he falls into a happy ending. He starts out from a place of desolation and real damage. I mean, here’s a boy: he’s 12 years old, he’s lost his parents, and he’s living this rat like existence behind the walls of a train station. He has no friends or any idea what his purpose is in life. But by the end of the movie, he’s found home. He’s found happiness — because he’s worked for it. He was brave, he was bold, he was inquisitive, he was daring. I find that a really worthwhile story to tell. And so next I guess you’re on Skyfall. Is there anything you can elaborate on about that screenplay and your role with it? I’ve been writing it for a year! That’s my role in it. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade wrote a fantastic script. They worked very closely with Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson and wrote a really brilliant script. And Sam, who I’ve known forever, invited me to come on and work on it. And so I’ve even working on it since then. I was on the set four days ago. It’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a movie; it’s a thrilling collection of artists working on it, and I think the movie is going to be fantastic. Why? What’s thrilling about this story and this episode in the James Bond canon? Well, I can’t tell you anything about the story, obviously. As much as I would love to! We can talk about that this time next year. But to me, it’s really about a number of things: Sam is a great director and a great colleague from the theater. He knows how to work with writers and with actors. It’s an unbelievable cast that’s doing it. To sit around a table with Judi Dench and Albert Finney and Ralph Fiennes and Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear… For a theater guy like me, it’s a little head-spinning. To sit with Judi Dench? And rehearse scenes? For me, that’s as good as it gets. You know, I was watching a James Bond marathon on Thanksgiving, which mixed films like Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger with the likes of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. And while the latter are good, they’re not especially fun the way the older movies were. Is Skyfall any different, at least the way you approached it? What I find really exciting about Skyfall is that we’re going to come out on the 50th anniversary of Dr. No. So for 50 years and for 23 movies, this franchise has been going strong, and it’s been reinterpreted by various artists over the years, and yet it has a very specific spirit to it. Once again, it’s a little like Coriolanus: It has an inner muscularity that can take a lot. So I would like to think that I’m bringing a little of myself to it — my personal vision as a writer — in collaboration with Sam and the designers and producers. So far I couldn’t be more delighted with the process and what it looks like. What’s your favorite James Bond movie? I think Goldfinger, although I have a very sentimental attachment to Diamonds Are Forever because it was the first one I saw in a theater as a kid. But Octopussy is very underrated. From Russia With Love is top-notch espionage. I think both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace are thrilling and modern and exciting movies. So I’m just a fan of the franchise. [Top photo: Getty Images] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. Tagged: coriolanus, gore verbinski, hugo, james bond, john logan, martin scorsese, rango, screenwriting, shakespeare, skyfall, william shakespeare

SAG/AFTRA Merger Committee Shifts Into High(er) Gear; Sets Unprecedented Marathon Meeting to Work on Plan

Getty Images Universal has picked up North American rights to the untitled Angelina Jolie-Luc Besson drama. Jolie will star in the project, which is described as a "dramatic thriller with action."and is said to be a cross between Besson's own much-admired movies The Professional and The Fifth Element. Besson wrote the screenplay for the new project and will produce and direct. The studio is touting this as Besson's return to the genre in which he made his name. Universal picked up 80 percent of worldwide distribution rights to the project, which answers the question of what movie Jolie will do next. PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie and Hollywood's 10 Highest-Paid Actresses The actress, who has her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey opening Dec. 23, has several projects vying for her attention. The high-profile ones include a biopic of Gertrude Bell and Scarpetta, the latter which is set up at Fox. Universal has been tracking the development of the Bell biopic, which has Ridley Scott attached to direct, and is hoping to land it. The new movie will begin shooting April 2012 in Paris. Email: Boyrs.Kit@thr.com Twitter: @Borys_Kit Angelina Jolie Luc Besson

An Actor Pens An Open Letter To IMDB; Says He's 4 1/2 Years Younger Than They Claim

CBS CBS beat Fox among adults 18-49 on Thursday night, buoyed by the Pittsburgh affiliate airing the Steelers/Browns match-up and initial numbers giving a season high for The Mentalist and Person of Interest's strongest showing since its premiere in September. Averaging a 3.3 rating in the key demo, with an audience of 12.3 million, CBS kicked off the night with a 4.7 among adults 18-49 with a new episode of The Big Bang Theory. Rules of Engagement followed with a 3.2, with the 9:00 p.m. broadcast of Person of Interest pulling a 3.0. That's only down a tenth of a point from its series debut and marks its second highest showing of the season. The Mentalist enjoyed a season high with a 3.0 rating in the demo. PHOTOS: Fall TV Death Pool: Which New Show Will Be Axed? Fox's dramatic X-Factor elimination and a new episode of Bones were both down a tenth of a point in their 18-49 rating from last week, pulling in a respective 3.0 and 2.7 in the demo. The network averaged a 2.8, with the second strongest audience of the night, 9.5 million. NBC finally saw some traction at 10:00 p.m. A new episode of Grimm, sitting in the old Prime Suspect slot, gave the network an 11-week high among adults 18-49. It scored a 1.6 rating. As for its comedic lead-ins, The Office (2.9) and Whitney (1.9) were both steady with their last two performances. At 8:00 p.m., however, the last episode of Community before its hiatus was down two tenths of a point for a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49. Parks and Recreation was down one tenth of a point for a 1.7 in 18-49-ers, giving the network a nightly average of a 1.9 and a viewership of 4.2 million. ABC placed fourth with a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49 and a slightly skewed line-up of Wipeout (1.9), a holiday-themed America's Funniest Home Videos (1.9) and The Great Big American Auction (1.4). The net averaged 5.96 million viewers for the night. The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle continued their stretch of late fall repeats on The CW, averaging a 0.4 adults 18-49 rating for the night and 1 million viewers. Thursday, Dec. 8, Overnight Ratings: 8 p.m. CBS: The Big Bang Theory (14.4 million viewers, 4.7 rating in adults 18-49) Fox: The X Factor (9.9 million, 3.0) ABC: Wipeout (6.6 million, 1.9) NBC: Community (3.6 million, 1.5) The CW: The Vampire Diaries (R) (1.2 million, 0.4) 8:30 p.m. CBS: Rules of Engagement (10.9 million, 3.2) NBC: Parks and Recreation (3.7 million, 1.7) 9 p.m. CBS: Person of Interest (13.4 million, 3.0) NBC: The Office (5.8 million, 2.9) Fox: Bones (9.0 million, 2.7) ABC: America's Funniest Home Videos (6.5 million, 1.9) The CW: The Secret Circle (R) (873,000, 0.3) 9:30 p.m. NBC: Whitney (4.1 million, 1.9) 10 p.m. CBS: The Mentalist (13.8 million, 3.0) NBC: Grimm (4.0 million, 1.6) ABC: The Great Big American Auction (4.8 million, 1.4) TV Ratings

How Questionable Antipiracy Laws and regulations Might Be Passed Even Without Congress

On December 15, home of Reps is scheduled to consider debate from the questionable "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA). The antipiracy legislation has trigger a firestorm in recent several weeks thanks mainly to provisions that will permit the government to chop use of rogue foreign piracy websites and open legal avenues through which organizations could be blocked from using the services of the problem sites. Experts fear the finish from the Internet as you may know it, as well as in a reaction to cries of "censorship," the film industry states it'll a minimum of tone lower a few of the language within the legislation.But even when the balance does not pass, courts may ultimately place the results of the balance into pressure anyway with p facto blacklisting of web sites considered to become assisting violation. A few recent judicial choices illustrate this potential.Can search engines like google like Google be purchased to wash an internet site considered to become enabling copyright and trademark violation? Can payment services like Visa or PayPal or ad-support companies be enjoined from using the services of an internet site hosting illicit activities? Could domain registrars like GoDaddy find out to undercut these web sites by altering access info?In 2007, the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made an appearance to foreclose these options in denying an effort by porn writer Perfect 10 to keep Visa responsible for infringing photographs available on websites using Visa's charge card services. The justices determined that Perfect 10 had not proven that Visa had caused or materially led towards the infringements.However, some courts are entertaining motions to grant remarkable injunctive relief against organizations in ex parte proceedings.For instance, in November, one judge inside a situation including Chanel luxury items required action against 100s of web sites getting used to market knock-off handbags, purses, footwear, along with other products. Of particular note, the judge's order not just hit those sites themselves, but based on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog, also hit a number of tech firms that were not parties towards the action. GoDaddy was purchased to alter registration info. And services like Google, Facebook, Bing, and Twitter were advised to "p-index and/or remove [the domains] from the search engine results page."Quite simply, those sites were eradicated from ever getting been around.Exactly the same blog inside a separate publish noted another situation including an internet site, pharmatext.org, which in fact had pointed customers to allegedly infringing copies of books released by Elsevier.In The month of january, a judge purchased two advertising systems to prevent helping these web sites generate ad revenue. The ad systems needed to stop serving up ads and freeze money. A week ago, after among the ad systems, Chitika, complained, the judge corrected course because Chitikahadn't been proven to possess requisite understanding from the violation. The judge, however, left open the chance that Chitika might have liability upon a takedown/cut-off notice from Elsevier.Had Elsevier sent a legitimate warning and Chikita ongoing to conduct business with pharmatext.org, tech legal expert Eric Goldman thinks the judge might have knocked lower Chikita's objections towards the ex parte injunction. Meaning, pharmatext.orgwould basically happen to be blacklisted in much of the identical manner as SOPA expects. "Rightsowners like Elsevier most likely could possibly get 90%+ of the advantage of SOPA Section 103 by simply delivering cutoff notices to ad systems," creates Goldman in summing in the implications from the decision.Even when Hollywood does not bring congress aboard to pass through the most recent anti-piracy measures, it's likely we'll see alternative attempts by copyright holders to achieve injunctive relief against search engines like google, social networking sites, advertising systems, and domain registrars. When the MPAA is effective in the suit against Hotfile, for example, the next phase may be wiping off the organization in the face of digital Earth. The MPAA has already been collecting data on its many affiliate marketers.The way forward for copyright cases looks to become a dragnet. The Hollywood Reporter

Hot Trailer: Iran Oscar Entry A Separation

Iran’s official admittance to the Oscars for Foreign-Language Film now needed honors in addition to foreign independent film within the Moet British Independent Film Honours. Occur contemporary Iran, A Separation handles the dissolution from the marriage. Simin desires to leave Iran along with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh, but Nader won't leave his father, which has Alzheimer’s. In line with the NY Occasions, it starts just like a family drama, becomes another factor altogether and somewhat strangely has emerged just like a real contender inside the category. Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and distributed inside the U.S. through the new the new sony Pictures Classics, it opens December 30 in limited release.

Hollywood's Biggest Real Estate Deals of the Week: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Hudson, Robert De Niro

The weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the slowest of the year, and 2011 is no different.our editor recommendsBox Office Preview: 'Shame,' Oscar Contenders Jockey for Position as Awards Season Heats Up 'Shame': What the Critics Are Saying'Shame' Director Steve McQueen on Making His NC-17 Sex Addiction Drama (Video)New Movie Reviews: 'Shame,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' 'Coriolanus' Hitting Theaters With no new wide releases, Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 continued to top the domestic box office, grossing $5.5 million on Friday for a cume of $235.9 million. The pic is on track for a $16.8 million weekend. Disney's kids pic The Muppets held at No. 2, grossing $2.8 million on its second Friday for a winning domestic cume of $48 million and projected $12 million weekend. PHOTOS: Films that Narrowly Avoided an NC-17 As expected, movies saw steep drops from the previous Friday, a holiday. Breaking Dawn was down 67 percent from the previous Friday, while Muppets fell 77 percent. But overall, box office revenues for the weekend aren't expected to fall behind 2010 levels. The real action is among award contenders. Martin Scorsese's Hugo upped its theater count by more than 500 on Friday after being named best film of the year by the National Board of Review (Scorsese also won best director). Hugo, distributed by Paramount, grossed $2 million on Friday, putting it at No. 3. VIDEOS: THR's Awards Season Roundtable Series 2011: The Directors Hugo, now playing in 1,840 locations, will be in a close race Saturday and Sunday with Sony and Aardman's 3D family film Arthur Christmas. Arthur Christmas, playing in far more theaters, grossed $1.7 million on Friday from 3,376 locations for a domestic cume of $19.6 million. Both Arthur Christmas and Hugo are projecting a $7 million weekend. In addition to Hugo, award contenders Shame, The Artist, The Descendants and My Week with Marilyn all did good business on Friday. COVER STORY: Martin Scorsese Talks 'Hugo,' How His 12-Year-Old Rules the Roost Shame's performance is particularly impressive since it's rated NC-17. From Fox Searchlight, the film grossed $110,476 from 10 theaters in five cities. Directed by Steve McQueen, Shame stars Michael Fassbender as a sex addict. Carey Mulligan also stars. Searchlight's The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne and headlining George Clooney, did well enough on Friday to come in No. 6, grossing $1.4 million from only 574 locations for a cume of $14.3 million. Silent film The Artist grossed an impressive $55,574 on Friday as it expanded its reach into the San Francisco area. From the Weinstein Co., the awards darling is now playing in six theaters in Los Angeles, NY and the Bay Area. The Weinsteins' awards hopeful My Week with Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams as the iconic Marilyn Monroe, came in No. 12 on Friday, grossing $345,000 from 244 locations in top markets for a cume of $1.4 million. PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery The Dirty Dozen: Films that Narrowly Avoided an NC-17 Related Topics Box Office The Muppets Shame Hugo

I am Singh

A Reliance Large Pictures presentation. Produced by Sardar Peshaura Singh Thind, Sardar Dalbir Singh Thind. Directed, put together by Puneet Issar.With: Gulzar Chahal, Amy Rasimas, Brooke Johnston, Rizwan Haider, Puneet Issar, Albert Stroth. (Hindi dialogue)Somewhat late and many somewhat crazy, "I am Singh" splices a very serious subject -- publish-9/11 hate crimes against turban-wearing Sikhs -- onto a Bollywood format, watering lower a sobering message with hysterical dance amounts, engorged dialogue, bimbo-esque blondes well as over-the-top performances. Helmer Puneet Issar's righteous indignation is obviously ready, but his cartoonish portrayals of police, racists and white-colored Us citizens generally will prove off-putting, as will the generally inept construction from the products might have been (say, eight or nine in the past) a very potent political story. A sense of camping triumphs over anything else in this particular Hindi production, with begins with footage around the world Trade Center attacks and follows getting a flashback for the subcontinent, where Ranveer (charming newcomer Gulzar Chahal) finds out the fate of his brothers and sisters and father in La: People with the 9/11 "revenge" attack by white-colored supremacists, one brother is dead, another jailed, in addition to their father make the hospital. (In re-enacting several real-existence prejudice crimes against Sikhs and Muslims, Issar places the reason on organized hate groups rather than ignorant, drunk otherwise impaired people, making the crimes appear more premeditated.) First, however, "I am Singh" -- the title mentioning with a previously significant and oft-shared title among Sikhs -- needs to visit a bachelor party, occasioning a musical number through which new meaning is provided for the term "spicy peas.Inch ("He asked for more," sings a statuesque blonde. "I beat him with my spatula.") It's tough for your viewer to consider the plight of harmed L.A. Sikhs when being assaulted with a lot hilarity. Ranveer travels to L.A. to comfort his troubled family, and becomes allied with radicalized Pakistani Rizwan (Rizwan Haider) together with a mountainous Sikh named Fateh Singh (helmer Issar), that's been overlooked within the "U.S. police department" for wearing a turban. A couple of from the film's better moments will be the musical amounts featuring Sikh gamers, which stimulate the martial spirit of Sikhism, as Fateh, Rizwan and Ranveer all make apparent that they are not really tread on by "racist goons." The implication that mistaken identity was mixed up in anti-Sikh violence indicates it may be OK against Muslims, but that's a finer distinction than this film ever can get close to making. Inside their mission for justice, our heroes need to handle a sheriff's department based at Pasadena police headquarters and recognized since the LAPD, introduced with the heinous but comically named Ivan Nick Ernest (Albert Stroth), a officer so racist he wouldn't survive a few minutes in any real-world law-enforcement situation north of Alabama. The Three may also be assisted with the very attractive Amy Washington (Amy Rasimas) and Amelia White-colored (Brooke Johnston), lawyers who dress like cocktail waitresses. "I am Singh" should really generate righteous indignation, plus it could do this for auds who'll not question the film's consistent errors of law and geography, or the way rails against "Us citizensInch while fighting that it's trapped figures are simply that. Production values are subpar, specially the erratic editing, dubious usage of slo-mo and pork-handed music cues.Camera (color), W. B. Rao, Raja Ratnam editor, Sanjay Verma music, Surender Sodhi music managers, Daler Mehndi, Sukhwinder Singh, Monty Sharma, Sudhakar Dutt Sharma, Arvinder Singh, Sumitra Iyer art director, Narendra Rahurikar appear (Dolby Digital), Pradeep Suri re-recording mixer, B.K. Chaturvedi choreographers, Chinni Prakash, Rekha Chinni Prakash, Rajiv Surti, Raju Khan. Examined in particular Cinemas Manhattan, NY, 12 ,. 1, 2011. Running time: 127 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Report: Bee Gees' Robin Gibb Has Liver Cancer

Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb is reportedly battling liver cancer, according to multiple British outlets.Gibb, 61, has been undergoing treatment for several months and was rushed to the hospital last week after an emergency call was placed from his home, The Daily Mail reports. He returned home five hours later and was joined by his mother, Barbara, 91, and brother Barry, 65, who flew in from the U.S.Watch Bee Gees videosGibb posted a picture of him and his brother on his website on Nov. 15 under the title "Barry good times," in which he looks frail and gaunt. He makes no mention of his health."It was great to see Barry and Linda on their surprise visit!" Gibb wrote. "We got a lot of talking done and made good plans between us for the future. ... We all had a great time but most of all it was the best tonic ever to be with Barry again and making plans!"Get the rest of today's newsLast month, Gibb announced on his site that he was undergoing tests for abdominal pain and was being treated for inflammation of the colon. His twin brother, Maurice, died in 2003 of intestine complications, after which the Bee Gees, who have sold more than 200 million records, broke up.

'The Iceman' Cast: Chris Evans Replaces James Franco

Are James Franco and Chris Evans the same person? One studio thinks so! According to Deadline, Evans has been cast in 'The Iceman,' a role that Franco had originally accepted, only to drop out (probably because of his 5,241 other projects in development). The movie, based on the Anthony Bruno book, follows a contract killer for the mob (Michael Shannon is attached to play the killer); the Franco/Evans role was for the killer's mentor. Evans is best known for his role as Captain America, in this past summer's 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and next year's 'The Avengers.' So, if he and Franco have anything in common, it's that they've both appeared in blockbuster superhero movies. [via Deadline] [Photo: Getty Images] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

The Ricki Lake Show to Premiere in 2012

Ricki Lake Ricki Lake is back! The Dancing with the Stars contestant's upcoming daytime talk show, The Ricki Lake Show, will launch in September 2012."I want to spark ideas and conversations and inspire people to take active roles in their communities, relationships and their well-being," Lake said in a statement Thursday. Her original talk show, Rick Lake , ran from 1993 to 2004.Dancing's Derek Hough: I don't feel pressure to win"I have definitely grown as a person since I put down the mic, and I couldn't be happier to share and continue the journey with both my existing fans and an entirely new generation of women," she said.The Ricki Lake Show will be syndicated in NY, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and other major markets across the country.

'Breaking Dawn' tracks a shade off 'New Moon'

Summit's 'Breaking Beginning -- Part 1' is on the right track to gross $135 million to $145 million.At estimations of $135 million to $145 million for that weekend, Summit's "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 1" may potentially eclipse the "Twilight" franchise's previous top three-day opening, "New Moon," which bowed to $142.8 million.Box office viewers expect the pic's Friday gross, including $30.3 million from night time tests, to achieve the $70 million range.By midday Friday, "Breaking Beginning" was monitoring slightly below "New Moon," which totalled $26.3 in night time grosses in November 2009. However the penultimate "Twilight" pic may gain some steam, with respect to the film's repeat viewings by teen and tween auds opening weekend, bizzers say.Warner Bros.' "Happy Ft Two," meanwhile, may earn more modest grosses than monitoring had indicated. B.O. experts the pic will probably cume around $six million-$7 million on Friday or more to $22 million for that weekend.Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants," meanwhile, is growing to 29 locations locally and can likely earn near to $a million throughout the 3-day frame.Relativity's "Immortals" does not appear to possess a strong hold. Experts the swords-and-sandals film looks to become lower 60% to 65% by Friday mid-day, putting it at $13 million this frame.Other holdovers include Componen/DreamWorks' "Puss in Boots" and Sony's "Jack and Jill." Box office estimations have both photos generating $13 million to $14 million and around $11 million for that weekend, correspondingly. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

Michael Fassbender: Best Quotes within the Breakout Star

Meet Michael Fassbender. Or even you realize him? The GQ-anointed Breakout (Star) of year carried out Magneto in 'X-Males: Top Quality,A had supporting roles in '300' and 'Inglourious Basterds,' shows Dr. Carl Jung in David Cronenberg's 'A Dangrous Method,' and you'll be starring inside the approaching drama 'Shame,' a movie that's made mind lines due to Fassbender's performance. additionally to the NC-17 rating. Using the buzz all over the actor, he's be considered a press favorite lately -- interviews are actually showing up on tv, magazines, newspapers and websites. To help limit all of the Fassbender coverage, Moviefone has develop an amount of his best quotes. On not recognized all the time [via GQ] "[I] observe, merge, and disappear among everybody elseInch Round the debate surrounding his nude moments inside the movie 'Shame' [via HuffPost] "half people have a very penis as well as the partner have probably seen one, and therefore why if it's more normal to, like, chop people heads off and shoot people? Does meaning that that's more acceptable or closer to us as people? ... Many of us have intercourse, therefore i don't realize what we should are trying to brush beneath the carpet or repress or else take a look advertising online.In . On maturing in Ireland and achieving an altar boy [via TIME] "From the hearing the spirit was always alongside you, therefore i would always make room throughout my bed mattress for your spirit ... I'd make room for your bears, Jesus and me. After which it I'd awaken every morning, and I'd squashed All of them.Inch On telling Quentin Tarantino he carried out Mr. Pink in the theater version of 'Reservoir Dogs' (and doing an "uncanny impression" in the director) [via TIME] "I mentioned, 'Look, guy, it absolutely was for charitable organization,A which he mentioned 'Hey, that's awesome, guy, that's awesome, as extended as people aren't generating money off my shit.'" On getting the opportunity to execute a comedy [via TIME] "I have to execute a comedy ... Plenty of company company directors those on the market probably think I'm this intense type of dude, who's like, 'Don't consult with me at this time around,A and hearing goth inside the corner naked getting a blueberry planning." On possibly playing Robocop inside the remake [via Collider] "It might be kind of fun. It might be kind of good to experience a helmet that we could hide behind, for almost all the film, too. That sounds kind of appealing." On playing Rochester in 'Jane Eyre,' an account that occurs in Victorian England [utilizing a./. Club] "In my opinion Victorian England am restricted and repressed that whenever you will discover moments, it's as being a volcano. When you will discover weak locations that it really type of arrives, it's pretty primal, as it is being repressed 24-7. People aren't allowed to share themselves very freely with each other, certainly not physically. Then when they get it, it explodes. On who audition for Quentin Tarantino [via AskMen] "The initial factor is it's type of surreal. I used to be nervous, really. However when you begin reading through through with him, he just can get so inside it, which he type of includes the various figures that he's reading through through. So that it type of frees you up, after which it it's almost " [Photo: Getty] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

Growing Audio book Industry Offers Rewards and Challenges for Stars

Richard Ferrone has seen the area of audio books come full circle. When he started narrating in 1990, they were mostly accessible in libraries or through subscription and were difficult to get in primary bookstoresperhaps 10 game game titles in stock. With the finish in the decade, "you didn't only have one shelf," he appreciated recently, "you'd a whole wall." Now, in age digital downloads, the shelves are sparse again.But that doesn't mean customers are slow. Really, it's thriving, for well-established veterans for instance Ferrone too for beginners like Shannon McManus. The La resident started narrating audio books in mid-April by late October had already recorded seven game game titles.With different 2009 survey with the Audio Entrepreneurs Association, 30 member companies totaled $331 million in revenue in 2008, as well as the industry generally might gross close to $1 billion yearly. An unbiased producer that has labored inside the area since the the 19 nineties mentioned, "The quantity of production being launched of trade audio book posting is staggeringmany occasions exactly what it involved 10 years ago.InchHistorical evidence from stars may also be encouraging. In the 10 who've been asked with this particular article, all were making their living exclusively as stars, and earnings from audio book entrepreneurs taken care of for approximately 33 percent to 85 percent from the annual earnings.Obviously, you will discover disadvantages to rapid growth. Huge production has meant sporadic quality, and hourly wages have, normally, dropped substantially. "I'd pals of mine at the begining of 1990's getting outlandish sums of cashDollar10,000 to $12,000 for 3 occasions of labor,Inch mentioned Scott Brick, a respected voice on the market, exceeding 600 game game titles to his credit. "Nowadays, you'll probably be lucky to acquire $3,000" for the time period.This small square in the entertainment marketplace is, as with other, inside an intense amount of adaptation, and stars works harder than in the past. The independent producer, who asked for to remain anonymous so he could speak candidly of a business where he's a free of charge agent, wondered via email whether audio books have downshifted within the golden ages of the the 19 nineties for the bronze ages of the 2010s.Tavia Gilbert, an actress in Tigard, Maine, was more neutral. "In my opinion the audio book marketplace is inside a interesting transitional point," she mentioned. "It'll be interesting to look for the way it shakes out."'Quite, A substantial Task' Audio book narration is similar to every other kind of acting, only a lot more: Anybody getting a mouth thinks they could take action. Sean Pratt, which has read 600 books since the mid-1990's which is in the heart of recording David Promote Wallace's "Infinite Jest," constantly receives queries from stars who would like to go into the area. This is just what he notifies them:"Return home, call at your bookcase, shut how well you see, achieve out, and grab the sunday paper. You aren't getting to choose. Take that book and sit somewhere quiet and small, as being a closet, and study aloud for 3 several hours every day. For individuals who've any stumbles, support and start the sentence again. In the event you hit a factor you don't know the best way to pronounce, go lookup. Do that for 3 several hours every day, for just two days, after which it, if you're still interested, call me.InchIn 16 years," he mentioned, "I've had five people call me."Kyle McCarley, who lives in La, can be a relative newcomer for the business. He built their very own studio for approximately $1,000 and contains established a voice-over career throughout yesteryear couple of years. When asked for how hard it will likely be a narrator, he jeered. "Oh, it's very, a substantial task," he mentioned. "Quite an undertaking."When McCarley will receive a magazine, he reads it entirely to acquaint themselves while using story, to get the voice in the author, also to write a personality guide. Some books have 100 or maybe more figures, which he offers a unique voice for each. "After I finish reading through through, Personally i think the guide and record a short sample," he mentioned. "I'll have [the producers] take part in it and discover when they have feedback. Once they need a change, I'll record a completely new sample."Only then does he enter into his recording booth, where he works eight several hours every day for three or four days straight. He stays another handful of days cutting the audio together. Because of the conventional of his work, McCarley makes $150 per finished hour from the audio book, that's $25 to $50 on the typical nonunion rate. But his actual hourly rates are about $37. "You almost certainly log four several hours at work for every finished hour," he mentioned.Books Undercovered The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has received jurisdiction over audio books since the 19 thirties, after they were first recorded on 78s for your blind. Rates were covered inside the Appear Tracks Code, which mandated purchase every hour the actor make the studio. Inside the the 19 nineties, companies for instance Books on Tape and Recorded Books discovered an enormous consumer market, particularly among people. However enterprize model didn't always lend itself to needing to pay stars by studio hour, mentioned Pratt, who's part of AFTRA's steering committee on audio books.When he started out, Pratt wasn't an AFTRA member. The union "didn't determine what went into making an unabridged audio book,Inch he mentioned, "how pricey it absolutely was, how extended [it needed] to understand.In . The audio book companies balked at needing to purchase studio several hours, and "AFTRA really missed the boat for just about any very very long time about searching to obtain these items under union contract," he added.Inside the mid-2000s, AFTRA government bodies enlisted Pratt (who had registered like a member when he done a show on HGTV) together with other audio book narrators with the expectation they might assist the union bring really the job under contract."I introduced in three or four [entrepreneurs]combined together sign a union contract," he mentioned. "If you have been individuals who narrate audio books that are AFTRA individuals who wanted medical health insurance and retirement, which we labored overtime to produce growing amounts of individuals on. It doesn't cost a lot more making it a union gig, which we obtain medical health insurance and retirement, so everybody wins."The deals may also be inside the publisher's interest, as well as the union's finest concession, sometimes, remains changing the amount of salary from studio several hours to finished several hours."AFTRA contracts have minimum rates for narrators, plus medical health insurance and retirement contributions," mentioned Steve Sidawi, an AFTRA organizer. "The rates will change somewhat" but generally change from $200 to $350 per finished hour. Holter Graham, a longtime narrator and leader of AFTRA's NY local, mentioned getting Audible.com to sign a union deal was one of the key moves. It's possessed by Amazon . com . com.com and contains a substantial facility in Jersey City, N.J. David Zema, a longtime narrator and radio producer, mentioned Audible is running "a couple of changes every day,In . such might be the eye in audio books.Since the Audible signing, Graham mentioned, "we're signing deals left and right."Breathe Gilbert's first response within the audio book world was fast and certain. "We're not interested, thank you, don't apply again," she mentioned she was told through a company that received her demo. "They mentioned I'd some enunciation issues, some breathing issues."She associated with it met Grover Gardner, a longtime narrator which has labored just like a casting director for Blackstone Audio and contains since recorded greater than 100 books for a lot of entrepreneurs. Gilbert values how a work has enhanced her acting in other mediamostly through her enhanced breathing."This is the essence of existence, and therefore this is actually the essence of every single acting job," she mentioned. "You're going internally, within the breath using the musculature in the body, so the character radiates next.InchShe also relishes the talent needed to produce a quality audio book and hopes that elevated production doesn't dilute the task. "Somebody's not reading through via a magazine to suit your needs they're undertaking the sunday paper to suit your needs,In . Gilbert mentioned. "Yet you will discover progressively more stars entering industry as it is accessible. If you've got the technological tools to become seem book narrator, that can be done ittechnically. However can hear the primary distinction between someone who's acting utilizing their voice and someone who's reading through via a magazine.InchAssets This is a narrow your research of audio book industry websites.ACX.com: The Audiobook Creation Exchange, possessed by Audible.com, allows authors, agents, entrepreneurs, together with other rights holders to change information and narrators and producers to discover work. AudioPub.org: The web site in the Audio Entrepreneurs Association, the trade association for your industry. Voices.com: A jobs site for producers and stars. Voice123.com: A jobs site for producers and stars.

Writer-Director Drake Doremus on His Career Breakthrough 'Like Crazy' (Audio)

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Each awards season, moviegoers and the media devote their attention to some new breakthrough star (i.e. Amy Adams, Carey Mulligan, Jennifer Lawrence, etc.), but the people who make the industry go 'round -- studio chiefs, agents, managers, publicists, etc. -- focus even more on a breakthrough filmmaker (i.e. Jason Reitman, Oren Moverman, Tom Hooper, etc.). After all, a good filmmaker influences whether or not a film turns out well every bit as much as a big star (usually more so) and will probably have a much longer career in the business.our editor recommends'Like Crazy' Director Drake Doremus Reacts to Next Gen 2011 List (Video)'Like Crazy': Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Trailer PremieresFelicity Jones on her Breakthrough Performance in 'Like Crazy' (Video)Anton Yelchin on the Long Journey to His Star-Making Role in 'Like Crazy' (Video) PHOTOS: THR's Next Gen Class of 2011 This year, a young up-and-coming filmmaker who has caught everyone's notice, arguably more than any other, is Drake Doremus, the 28-year-old co-writer (along with his best friend Ben York Jones) and director of the micro-budget indie Like Crazy. The film is a semi-autobiographical love story that stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, won the Grand Jury Prize at January's Sundance Film Festival (and a special prize for Jones), was the subject of a bidding war that was ultimately won by Paramount for $4 million, and is now being rolled out in art house theaters around the country. PHOTOS: Inside The Hollywood Reporter's Next Gen Class of 2011 Party Aside from the deeply engaging story that unfolds on-screen, what makes the film and its filmmaker so interesting to me is the way that it came together. Doremus, who previously co-wrote and directed the borderline-mumblecore indies Spooner (2009) and Douchebag (2010), doesn't exactly furnish his actors with a "script," but rather with various scenarios, each of which includes all sorts of useful details but still leaves plenty of room for spontaneity and improvisation. Moreover, like Derek Cianfrance on Blue Valentine (2010) -- another heartrending story about the ups and downs of modern love -- Doremus essentially had his lead actors inhabit their parts for the entirety of the month-long production; they always assumed that they were being filmed, and consequently "became" their characters as much as actors can. (The most remarkable part: Yelchin and Jones, on whose chemistry the movie depends, met for the first time only a week before shooting commenced!) VIDEO: Anton Yelchin on the Long Journey to His Star-Making Role in 'Like Crazy' Doremus is an eccentric, exuberant, lovely guy with whom I have crossed paths numerous times since we first met a month ago -- in fact, we sat across from each other at the Governors Awards on Saturday night. He is definitely someone to watch -- his next film, which just wrapped this month and will probably be released next year, also stars Jones -- and I have truly enjoyed getting to know him. Following is audio of a conversation that we had several weeks ago about his life, work, and aspirations. Drake Doremus Like Crazy

Why 'Million Dollar Decorators' Art Now Sits in the Lawyer's Office

BravoBravo's "Million Dolalr Designers" Within This summer time, digital digital photographer Michael Eastman introduced an crazy suit against Warner Bros., NBC Universal together with a high profile interior decorator alleging thatBravo's reality seriesMillion Dollar Designers infringed a copyright around the photograph by approaching really large and hanging itthe living room of model/actressDaisy Fuentes. The man was unable to get yourself a preliminary injunction which will have prevented Bravo from airing the episode in mind, but he's now received one small victory: The enlarged photograph, referred to asInchprivate detectiveèce p résistance" of episode 5 in the show, remains removed Fuentes' home.our editor recommendsBravo Renews 'Million Dollar Decorators' for Season 2 (Exclusive)Judge: Bravo's 'Million Dollar Decorators' Won't Cause Permanent Injuries to Digital digital photographer VIDEO: Bravo's 'Million Dollar Designers': 5 Items You Don't Be Aware Of dispute happened after Eastman was contacted byco-defendantMartyn Lawrence Bullard, an internal decorator whose celebrity clients includeElton John, Cher, Aaron Sorkin andKid Rock, who preferred to make use of Eastman's work, "Isabella Two Chairs, 1999" for your show. STORY: Judge States Bravo's 'Million Dollar Designers' Won't Cause Permanent Injuries to Digital digital photographer The Two agreed it could happen, but instead of taking an approved version, Bullard allegedlyfound one photograph on the internet, and needed it to Warner Bros. in Burbank, where reps within the studio happily proven their "special image-enlargement machine." Warners' equipment was utilized to alter the small downloaded image right into a massive 15 foot tall and 8 foot wide reproduction of Eastman's work. It absolutely was placed with great reality TV fanfare in Fuentes' living room. The"pièce p résistance" was proven onMillion Dollar Designers, beginning off Eastman's suit for copyright breach, breach of contract, and aviolation in the Visual Artists Act of 1990. EXCLUSIVE: Bravo Renews 'Million Dollar Designers' for Season 2 Eastman wanted an injunction, but U.S. District Judge Henry Edward Autrey declined the request, finding the parties clearly stood a written agreement also to the extent there's a debate, it absolutely was inside the scope in the license. "That alone does not equal to enough evidence to convince legal court that Litigants will most likely succeed round the merits," written the judge. But Eastman enhanced news recently when he was informed with the accused the massively enlarged reproduction of his work was from Fuentes' wall and using a lawyer's office as potential evidence inside the situation. A notice was published for the court on Tuesday through which Eastman states he's partially happy with this interim outcome. The accused maintain no wrongdoing. E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner Bravo Big Designers

First Look At Great Expectations' Pip

War Horse's Jeremy Irvine goes DickensNever say that Empire doens't bring you culture of a Friday. Following this morning's touch of Shakespeare with the Coriolanus poster, here's your first look at JeremyIrvine as Pip in Mike Newell's adaptation of Charles Dickens' GreatExpectations. Why is he holding a bunch of flowers?We can only assuming he's off a-wooing.Irvine isn't exactly a household name just yet, but as the lead in WarHorse you can expect to become a little bit more familiar with him in the near future. He joins a star-heavy cast, including Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham (who we saw unveiled - or rather veiled - last week), Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch and Robbie Coltrane as Jaggers. The observant among you will remember that Newell previously worked with all those three on HarryPotter AndTheGoblet Of Fire, but it seems like solid casting in its own right here rather than some attempt to randomly get the gang all back together.{Great Expectations First Look At Pip}The story sees the orphaned Pip given a fortune by a mysterious benefactor, who he suspects is the eccentric Miss Havisham. But he's less concerned with who's behind the gift, administered by lawyer Jaggers (Coltrane) and more concerned with wooing Miss Havisham's man-eating ward Estella (HollidayGrainger).Great Expectations is due to hit screens next autumn, which just about gives you time to read the book in preparation.

'Ground' breaking for Norris

Dean Norris has boarded the thriller "Frozen Ground" starring Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. Emmett Furla Films is financing and creating with Amber Entertainment. Pic concentrates on the analysis of serial killer Robert Hansen. Norris plays one of the condition military considering the killings. Scott Master will helm in the script he written. Randall Emmett and George Furla are coming up with with Amber's Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming. Picture and Curtis Jackson will professional produce. Pic is at production in Alaska. Norris is much better recognized for his role as DEA agent Hank Schrader round the AMC skein "Breaking Bad." He's repped by Bauman, Redanty & Shaul and Industry Entertainment. Contact Justin Kroll at justin.kroll@variety.com

Focus launches 'Mars' at AFM

LONDON -- Irish helmer Ruairi Robinson is placed to direct his first feature film "The Final Days on Mars," with different script by Clive Dawson, which Focus Features Intl. is going to be pre-supplying purchasers in the American Film Market now. The thriller, that is in pre-production, is going to be created by Texting Films' Michael Kuhn ("The Duchess," "Being John Malkovich") and Andrea Cornwall ("The Scouting Book for Boys"). Pic, that was formerly entitled "The Artists," follows the storyline of the astronaut crew on Mars near a significant breakthrough getting collected rock individuals that reveal microscopic proof of existence. Within their last hrs in the world, two astronauts return to a cavernous valley at first glance of Mars to gather further evidence for his or her discovery, but a routine excavation turns deadly when one of these falls to his dying and the is taken like a host and re-animated through the very existence form they searched for to uncover. Pic is skedded to lense at the begining of 2012 on location in Jordan and Shepperton Galleries within the U.K. Robinson can also be skedded to direct another high-concept sci-fi pic, "The Fallen," that they is developing with Lionsgate U.K. and producer Kris Thykier. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com

Ruth Madoff Notifies an hour or so She and Bernie Attempted Suicide

Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff, the wife of billed Ponzi plan mastermind Bernie Madoff, told 60 Minutes' Morley Shafer the 2 attempted to commit suicide on Christmas Eve 2008. "I am unsure whose idea it absolutely was,In . Madoff states, "but we made a decision to kill ourselves, because it am terrible the thing that was happening. ... I mentioned, 'I cannot continue any more.AInchThey not successful after taking Ambien. The amount of? She can't recall. But she was glad they awoke the very next day.Look at the comfort of current day newsThe episode, which will air Sunday at 7/6c on CBS, might be the only real interview Madoff has given in regards to the crime that that defrauded traders of billions.Mrs. Madoff told The NY Occasions that she's finally tallying to talk because her boy Andrew asked for her to help promote a completely new approved biography, Truth and Effects: Existence Inside the Madoff Family, being launched Monday. [Another boy, Mark, committed suicide round the second anniversary of his father's arrest.]Go to a clip in the interview below. Are you currently tuning in?

Cast can get in a few 'Gametime'

BrolinRomeoAraki James Brolin, Romeo and Jen Araki will star inside the indie "Gametime." Ray August is helming in the script by Bobby Kortsen.The story follows the organization of major college basketball, as revealed using the innocent eyes in the top recruits within the u . s . states.Rob Spillman is aboard to produce, with lensing to begin in November in Detroit.Brolin is repped by ICM. Romeo is repped by Buchwald/Fortitude and Adam Robinson, and Araki may also be repped by Buchwald/Fortitude and Ted Brunson. Contact Justin Kroll at justin.kroll@variety.com

'Jersey Shore' Closes Italy Season With 6.6 Million Viewers

"Jersey Shore" No records were set for the season finale of Jersey Shore, but it still performed well on Thursday night. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and company said goodbye to Italy and roughly 6.6 million total viewers tuned in to watch their shenanigans on MTV. That's down more than 2 million from the record-setting season opener which lured in 8.8 million viewers. PHOTOS: The Jersey Shore Hits Italy The "Ciao Italia" hour averaged a 7.0 rating in the persons 12-34 demographic, translating to 5.4 million viewers. For the season, Jersey Shore has averaged roughly 7.3 million viewers per week and MTV touts that when DVR numbers are considered, the show averaged a 9.0 rating for the first nine episodes. The episode saw Sorrentino toying with the idea of opting out of season five, but the finale ended with him announcing that he would stay, which received mixed reactions from his housemates. "Jersey, here I come," he said. "I've always got something up my sleeve, and it's going to be a Situation." PHOTOS: The Best and Worst Moments of 'Jersey Shore' At 11 p.m., Jersey Shore: The Reunion drew more than 5 million viewers and posted a 4.8 rating in the cable network's core 12-34 demo. The fifth season of Jersey Shore, with the cast back on U.S. soil, is slated for a January 2012 premiere. TV Ratings International MTV Jersey Shore

Stan Lee To Obtain VES Lifetime Jerk

The Visual Effects Society has attracted on comic icon Stan Lee to find the 2012 VES Lifetime Achievement Award, that is presented February 7 through the audience’s VES Honours within the Beverly Hilton. Lee — whose works of art with Marvel Comics include Spider-Guy, The Incredible Hulk, X-Males and Iron Guy before founding their very own company Bang! Entertainment in 2001 — joins previous individuals who win including George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and a year ago’s recipient Ray Harryhausen. Stan Lees imagination has created an entirely original and lucrative niche inside the entertainment world and contains allowed visual effects to flex its muscle operating in it, VES chairman Jeffrey Okun mentioned in announcing very good today.

Happy 86th Birthday, Angela Lansbury! What's Her Greatest Screen Moment?

I hope Zachary Quinto pegged his coming out to Angela Lansbury’s 86th birthday, because, indeed, it’s a day of thunderous celebration. The brilliant actress was first nominated for an Oscar 67 years ago, and she remains just as vibrant today. (You may have seen her in the recent Mr. Popper’s Penguins). What’s your pick for Jessica Fletcher’s greatest screen moment? This is a matter of obligation, but she’s most unforgettable in The Manchurian Candidate. We all know it. Here’s the mind-blowing proof: Chilling! But I’m going to add a sweeter clip of Lansbury in the ‘58 sensation The Long, Hot Summer. She comes in at the 2:45 mark with some Southern pertness and pride as Minnie Littlejohn, but if you can’t stop yourself from watching a near-naked Paul Newman glisten in the moonlight before then, I understand. Now: Your choice?

Actors Share Insight Over the Years

Actors Share Insight Over the Years October 12, 2011 Julia Stiles "I mean, it's easy to say this now, but things happen for a reason. I look back on the movies I didn't get, and it never would've made sense for me to be in them. 'Hot cheerleader' probably wouldn't have been a good fit. I was quite angsty."Julia Stiles, Nov. 10, 2010"There were moments when I questioned [acting], when I was thinking, 'What is the purpose of this in our world? Is it as meaningful as being a doctor, being a teacher, or things that I think of as such noble professions?' But I think I've really reconciled myself with that, and I think art is not only important but critical to the soul of a human and the soul of a community. Not to be self-important about what I do, but I've found a lot of meaning in it." Natalie Portman, Feb. 2, 2011"I know people who say, 'Well, I'm going to try acting. I'll give it five years, or something like that.' Okay. Bye. You might as well go and get another job, because, generally, five years isn't going to cut it, and if you do make it in five years, you're going to have 15 minutes; then you're going to have to start all over again."Morgan Freeman, Oct. 12, 2000"I can't stress enough how important either doing a play or a showcase or working in an acting classis. It is the foundationyou learn all the things you need. The truth is, actors today get famous quicker and younger, and you have no concept of the idea that it will go away, which it always does. And you hope for that second wave. And I've had five or six of those waves. And the only way you can get to those waves is to have something to fall back on, which is some training."George Clooney, Dec. 1, 2005"I think my first job was as a crank addict in a film, and then my second job was like a cyborg. So it was clear that my career was going to be full of very bizarre, strange womenwhich ended up being the ones I liked, anyway."Angelina Jolie, Nov. 22, 2007"I can remember from back in the '60swhen you had serious legit drama on Broadway at real prices. You could see 'The Wild Duck' for $6. You could see Helen Hayes in 'The School for Scandal,' Eva Le Gallienne in 'The Cherry Orchard.' You could see Ellis Rabb in 'Pantagleize.' Those were fabulous productions. I still hold on, in a way, to that kind of ideal. In London, they take that for granted, and always have, and we've kind of given up on that. I think that's too bad."Christopher Reeve, actor, in Back Stage's 25th anniversary issue, Dec. 20, 1985"There's a big difference between auditioning today and in the old days. In the old days a lot of actors invested in the theater. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, that great acting couple, invested in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' Today it's businessmen and corporations like Coca-Cola who are not knowledgeable about the theater, so it's harder to sell yourself to them."Carol Channing, actor, in Back Stage's 35th anniversary issue, Dec. 22, 1995"Carol Channing's 'Hello, Dolly!' is a dilly of a show; best thing she's done since 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' At a preview we caught, the audience was with it all the way, and the ensemble performances were perfectly and evenly matched. 'Dolly' Channing has a Tony Award in her future."Michael Sean O'Shea, The Sardi Set column, Jan. 17, 1964"After my first year at the Neighborhood Playhouse, I went back and did 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' in Arkansas, and the local critic there clobbered me. Rightfully so. I wasn't good, and I know exactly why: because I was so busy acting a method that I really wasn't telling the truth and I wasn't serving the play."Mary Steenburgen, actor, Oct. 13, 1994"My birth name is Krishna Bhanji. It's quite a beautiful name, but it doesn't get you very far in show business. I auditioned for [the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] as Krishna Bhanji. I sat in the antechamber with other aspiring thespians, waiting for my name to be called. This guy came with a clipboard and said, 'Kristina Blange.' Nobody moved. He said, 'Kristina Blange.' And that voice in me said, God, he means me. I said, 'Actually it's my terrible handwriting. I am in fact Krishna Bhanji.' It was a very bad start to the audition. I didn't succeed in getting into RADA."Ben Kingsley, actor, Dec. 4, 2003"Every free moment I had, I could sit in the theater and watch the professional actors workrehearse, etc. That was one of the important parts of my training."Max von Sydow, actor, Dec. 6, 2007"My voice teacher had a constant struggle. And likewise people working with diction. Huge problems. My voice teacher at the timesaid, 'You sound as if your voice is coming out of the back end of a drainpipe.' So, clearly I had work to do."Alan Rickman, actor-director, Aug. 14, 2008"I wrote a lettera sort of begging letterto the RSC, saying, 'Please see me.' And they did, on this Sunday night in November. Cold and miserable and wet. And in the darkened, empty theater. And I did some 'Henry V,' which I had just played. And John Barton and Peter Hall got up on the stage, and they directed me for half an hour. And I quite quickly realized, 'They're not trying to find out if I can act. They want to know am I flexible. Can I take direction? Can I change my ideas and thoughts about the thing?' And luckily I stumbled to that and so did the best I could. And they took me into the company to play small roles and understudy. And the following year, a young actor called Ben Kingsley joined the company, not even to understudy but to walk on. Ben was a spear carrier. And another young actor called Roger Rees joined at the same time, both of them as background actors. And often, when I talk to people leaving drama school or young actors, they say, 'But I want to play Hamlet. I want to play Hal. I want to play Romeo.' I say, 'You know, there was a time when Ben Kingsley and Roger Rees accepted walk-on contracts. And then one of them ended up playing Hamlet for the RSC and the other playing Nicholas Nicklebybecause they worked their way through the process.' " Patrick Stewart, actor, April 22, 2010"I think my face is pretty recognizable as that character, and that name is a pretty recognizable one, so it sort of sticks with you. But I suspect that Barney in 'How I Met Your Mother' will sort of update that, because I'll be in people's living rooms weekly for hopefully a little while."Neil Patrick Harris, actor, on leaving "Doogie Howser, M.D.," behind, Oct. 27, 2005"It's a time-honored job to be a good supporting player. You are necessary. You make the central person be able to stand on his podium in the right way."Holland Taylor, actor, Dec. 8, 2005"Every script is different, so your character encounters new situations and new people every time. You put yourself in his place and react as he would. It's like real life in that sense. In some ways that makes it easier than in the theater, where you're not only doing the same character every night, but the same script."Jerry Orbach, actor, on keeping his role of Det. Lennie Briscoe fresh, in Back Stage's salute to "Law & Order," Dec. 19, 1997 "I played a Nazi killer in 'Dead Bang,' and right before we were to roll camera, the director came over and whispered in my ear, 'Ronnie, if you move your eyebrows, you are on the cutting room floor.' And that became my character. I was so concentrated on my eyebrows not moving that I was like this psycho zombie who was very aware that my eyebrows should not move."Ron Campbell, actor, June 9, 1994"A basic pleasure of doing voiceovers is that you can honor words in a way that the words, as little individuals, are treated with great respect."Barbara Feldon, Agent 99 on the 1960s TV series "Get Smart" and voice actor, "Spotlight on Speech and Diction," July 19, 1991 "I've always been good at analyzing scripts, but I tended to take a cynical view of my characters. I was especially cynical about Henry V. I saw him as manipulative, and I was just not feeling this guy. A part of me wanted to admire him, and I didn't know where to go. [Director] Doug [Hughes] and I talked for 40 minutes about the character's spiritual evolution, which made it more fun and more interesting to play. I began to see the evolution of a man.This made me realize that every character is on a journey and evolving in some way. Most characters are in the grip of a lesser or better angel, and I think about that. If it's not apparent in the piece, I try to make it apparent to me."Andre Braugher, actor, Jan. 27, 2011"I've found that the best way is to treat the reading [for a role] just like a performance of a TV show. Nothing half-baked, casual, or tentative. Work on the scene just as if you had the role sewed up and were opening at audition time."Jay Barney, actor and columnist, Notes for Actors, Nov. 27, 1964"I believe in going to classesall the first jobs I got, I got through people I met in class. I also found it gave me a companionship."Colleen Dewhurst, actor, "Spotlight on Acting Schools," Oct. 19, 1990"Studying is important in forming some kind of technique; read and do some classroom work. Then, eventually, you've just got to get up and do it anywhere. Life experiencelivingis also important. Experiencing things helps you grow as an actor."Nathan Lane, actor, in "The Learning Experience," Oct. 18, 1991"All of us angst-ridden teenagers were trying like crazy and knitting our brows to figure out how to be better artists and be responsible to the community, and trying to manage the wild beast of the terrible business of acting. She reminded us, 'The reason you wanted to do this is because it looks like fun. And it is fun. Even if you're playing Medea.' "Michael McKean, actor, on his acting teacher Olympia Dukakis, Sept. 5, 2002"I teach acting, and I teach how to tell a story with a song. I tell my students that all human beings are natural singers, kind of like birds. I think that when people really want to sing, they should sing, whatever the circumstances."Betty Buckley, actor, "Spotlight on Singing and Music," Jan. 26, 1996"[A]ctors just don't seem to make the rounds [visiting casting directors' offices] anymore. It seems to have gone out of fashion. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I'm still interested in seeing actors. Two hours, one day a week may not seem like much time, but it does give me a chance to see many, many new faces, and those that make an impression are called back for further interviews and auditions. I don't like to get flooded with pictures and profiles because they require replies and it takes a great deal of time. I am interested in seeing people in the flesh."Judy Abbott, casting director and daughter of the legendary director George Abbott, Jan. 12, 1962"[Jamie Foxx] was very compelling, a very intelligent person. He shared a lot in common with Ray Charles. They were both African-Americans from the South; they had kind of come out of the racist context. They were very driven, had burning ambitions to have their voices heard in the world. And I encouraged [Foxx] to plumb those depths that he shared in common with Ray. But I don't think I really had any sense that he was going to be my choice until I started talking about the music in the film and the fact that I would have to find somebody to play the piano and use some cinematic sleight of hand to come up to the face of the person playing the role. He said, 'I play the piano,' and I said, 'Yeah, so do I, but I'm no Ray Charles, and neither are you.' And he said, 'Well, wait a minute, I started playing when I was 3, I led the band in my gospel church in Texas, and I went to university on a piano scholarship.' "Taylor Hackford, director, Nov. 11, 2004"Most actors normally have a lot of skills and crafts, but the spectacular ones have that interior life that you can see in their eyes. You can see that there's a lot of complexity and that there's a powerful interior person living inside, and I have a good detector for that."Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, filmmaker, Nov. 20, 2003"I would rather be a director than an actress. As an actor, you have only one role to create. Creating a role means to fully understand the character's goals. However, in order to direct actors in a play, you have to be able to identify with all characters onstage."Geraldine Fitzgerald, actor-director, in "Hyphenates: Performers Who Wear Several Hats," Oct. 23, 1987"You have to be just as honest as you would for any other form of acting, but in commercials you have to condense it. You have to get your message across quicker."Danny Goldman, (now retired) casting director, Oct. 27, 1994 "Everything you do you can learn something if it's only to be more comfortable in a situation. No one's going to stop and teach you how to do television. They haven't got the time. So you just better learn. That's part of your task: to find a way to exist in what they always call in the theater 'imaginary circumstances.' It's the same in a commercial. You're in a situation you have to make real for yourself."Marian Seldes, Tony-winning actor, on what she learned when doing commercials, Nov. 13, 2008 "The owners of the theaters on 42nd Street are crying the blues. Why? Because business is bad at the houses which show exploitation movies. Why? Because Hollywood and Europe have stepped in and are doing a lot of sexploitation on their own. It's rare these days to see a new, big-budget film without at least one nude scene."Charlotte Harmon, Back Stage legit editor, in "Sexploit Biz Sags," June 6, 1969"Whatever personal fears an actor might have about taking on a gay role are his own business, but I resent the implication that it will hurt his career. A good performance in a good role in a good play never hurt anyone's career. May we hear no more of this?"Robert Patrick, playwright, letter to the editor, May 19, 1989"Afriendcalled me and said, 'I ran into a kid in West Hollywood recently who said that ["Southern Baptist Sissies"] saved his life.' The kid had been a preacher in the South. He was only about 26, 27, and he had an affair with a guy, and he was exposed and then was excommunicated from the church. His wife left him, and his family abandoned him. He had intended to kill himself, but he came out here to visit some friends. He went to see 'Sissies,' and then he decided to move out here. He said he didn't feel alone after viewing the play. I didn't do 'Sissies' to save the world; I kind of wrote it for me, but, for some reason, the universe allowed it to be other people's journey, as well."Del Shores, actor-playwright-director, Jan. 5, 2006"You know, we have an awful lot of moderate Republicans, and some not so moderate, who support the endowment. And those aren't taken into account very often. It began as a bipartisan agency, and I would like to see it continue as that. The partisanship only came in about six years ago. It's not healthy, because the arts belong to everybody; and most of the large arts organizations in the country, their boards are composed of mainly Republicans."Jane Alexander, on her position as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, June 7, 1996"Last night, I attended a candlelit vigil in Union Square to mourn the unspeakable loss we have all endured this week. At last, I felt a glimmer inside that an ounce of healing had begun. Let's not ever forget the strength of the human spirit in this city, in this country, in this world."Michael C. Brown, one of many Back Stage readers who responded to requests for thoughts and impressions on the events of 9/11, Sept. 21, 2001 "I can't thank Back Stage enough for the many doors it has opened for me since the commencement of my career as an actor in the spring of 1964. I certainly recommend it highly to all show business people."Lynn Perry, actor, May 13, 1966 Actors Share Insight Over the Years October 12, 2011 Julia Stiles "I mean, it's easy to say this now, but things happen for a reason. I look back on the movies I didn't get, and it never would've made sense for me to be in them. 'Hot cheerleader' probably wouldn't have been a good fit. I was quite angsty."Julia Stiles, Nov. 10, 2010"There were moments when I questioned [acting], when I was thinking, 'What is the purpose of this in our world? Is it as meaningful as being a doctor, being a teacher, or things that I think of as such noble professions?' But I think I've really reconciled myself with that, and I think art is not only important but critical to the soul of a human and the soul of a community. Not to be self-important about what I do, but I've found a lot of meaning in it." Natalie Portman, Feb. 2, 2011"I know people who say, 'Well, I'm going to try acting. I'll give it five years, or something like that.' Okay. Bye. You might as well go and get another job, because, generally, five years isn't going to cut it, and if you do make it in five years, you're going to have 15 minutes; then you're going to have to start all over again."Morgan Freeman, Oct. 12, 2000"I can't stress enough how important either doing a play or a showcase or working in an acting classis. It is the foundationyou learn all the things you need. The truth is, actors today get famous quicker and younger, and you have no concept of the idea that it will go away, which it always does. And you hope for that second wave. And I've had five or six of those waves. And the only way you can get to those waves is to have something to fall back on, which is some training."George Clooney, Dec. 1, 2005"I think my first job was as a crank addict in a film, and then my second job was like a cyborg. So it was clear that my career was going to be full of very bizarre, strange womenwhich ended up being the ones I liked, anyway."Angelina Jolie, Nov. 22, 2007"I can remember from back in the '60swhen you had serious legit drama on Broadway at real prices. You could see 'The Wild Duck' for $6. You could see Helen Hayes in 'The School for Scandal,' Eva Le Gallienne in 'The Cherry Orchard.' You could see Ellis Rabb in 'Pantagleize.' Those were fabulous productions. I still hold on, in a way, to that kind of ideal. In London, they take that for granted, and always have, and we've kind of given up on that. I think that's too bad."Christopher Reeve, actor, in Back Stage's 25th anniversary issue, Dec. 20, 1985"There's a big difference between auditioning today and in the old days. In the old days a lot of actors invested in the theater. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, that great acting couple, invested in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' Today it's businessmen and corporations like Coca-Cola who are not knowledgeable about the theater, so it's harder to sell yourself to them."Carol Channing, actor, in Back Stage's 35th anniversary issue, Dec. 22, 1995"Carol Channing's 'Hello, Dolly!' is a dilly of a show; best thing she's done since 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' At a preview we caught, the audience was with it all the way, and the ensemble performances were perfectly and evenly matched. 'Dolly' Channing has a Tony Award in her future."Michael Sean O'Shea, The Sardi Set column, Jan. 17, 1964"After my first year at the Neighborhood Playhouse, I went back and did 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' in Arkansas, and the local critic there clobbered me. Rightfully so. I wasn't good, and I know exactly why: because I was so busy acting a method that I really wasn't telling the truth and I wasn't serving the play."Mary Steenburgen, actor, Oct. 13, 1994"My birth name is Krishna Bhanji. It's quite a beautiful name, but it doesn't get you very far in show business. I auditioned for [the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] as Krishna Bhanji. I sat in the antechamber with other aspiring thespians, waiting for my name to be called. This guy came with a clipboard and said, 'Kristina Blange.' Nobody moved. He said, 'Kristina Blange.' And that voice in me said, God, he means me. I said, 'Actually it's my terrible handwriting. I am in fact Krishna Bhanji.' It was a very bad start to the audition. I didn't succeed in getting into RADA."Ben Kingsley, actor, Dec. 4, 2003"Every free moment I had, I could sit in the theater and watch the professional actors workrehearse, etc. That was one of the important parts of my training."Max von Sydow, actor, Dec. 6, 2007"My voice teacher had a constant struggle. And likewise people working with diction. Huge problems. My voice teacher at the timesaid, 'You sound as if your voice is coming out of the back end of a drainpipe.' So, clearly I had work to do."Alan Rickman, actor-director, Aug. 14, 2008"I wrote a lettera sort of begging letterto the RSC, saying, 'Please see me.' And they did, on this Sunday night in November. Cold and miserable and wet. And in the darkened, empty theater. And I did some 'Henry V,' which I had just played. And John Barton and Peter Hall got up on the stage, and they directed me for half an hour. And I quite quickly realized, 'They're not trying to find out if I can act. They want to know am I flexible. Can I take direction? Can I change my ideas and thoughts about the thing?' And luckily I stumbled to that and so did the best I could. And they took me into the company to play small roles and understudy. And the following year, a young actor called Ben Kingsley joined the company, not even to understudy but to walk on. Ben was a spear carrier. And another young actor called Roger Rees joined at the same time, both of them as background actors. And often, when I talk to people leaving drama school or young actors, they say, 'But I want to play Hamlet. I want to play Hal. I want to play Romeo.' I say, 'You know, there was a time when Ben Kingsley and Roger Rees accepted walk-on contracts. And then one of them ended up playing Hamlet for the RSC and the other playing Nicholas Nicklebybecause they worked their way through the process.' " Patrick Stewart, actor, April 22, 2010"I think my face is pretty recognizable as that character, and that name is a pretty recognizable one, so it sort of sticks with you. But I suspect that Barney in 'How I Met Your Mother' will sort of update that, because I'll be in people's living rooms weekly for hopefully a little while."Neil Patrick Harris, actor, on leaving "Doogie Howser, M.D.," behind, Oct. 27, 2005"It's a time-honored job to be a good supporting player. You are necessary. You make the central person be able to stand on his podium in the right way."Holland Taylor, actor, Dec. 8, 2005"Every script is different, so your character encounters new situations and new people every time. You put yourself in his place and react as he would. It's like real life in that sense. In some ways that makes it easier than in the theater, where you're not only doing the same character every night, but the same script."Jerry Orbach, actor, on keeping his role of Det. Lennie Briscoe fresh, in Back Stage's salute to "Law & Order," Dec. 19, 1997 "I played a Nazi killer in 'Dead Bang,' and right before we were to roll camera, the director came over and whispered in my ear, 'Ronnie, if you move your eyebrows, you are on the cutting room floor.' And that became my character. I was so concentrated on my eyebrows not moving that I was like this psycho zombie who was very aware that my eyebrows should not move."Ron Campbell, actor, June 9, 1994"A basic pleasure of doing voiceovers is that you can honor words in a way that the words, as little individuals, are treated with great respect."Barbara Feldon, Agent 99 on the 1960s TV series "Get Smart" and voice actor, "Spotlight on Speech and Diction," July 19, 1991 "I've always been good at analyzing scripts, but I tended to take a cynical view of my characters. I was especially cynical about Henry V. I saw him as manipulative, and I was just not feeling this guy. A part of me wanted to admire him, and I didn't know where to go. [Director] Doug [Hughes] and I talked for 40 minutes about the character's spiritual evolution, which made it more fun and more interesting to play. I began to see the evolution of a man.This made me realize that every character is on a journey and evolving in some way. Most characters are in the grip of a lesser or better angel, and I think about that. If it's not apparent in the piece, I try to make it apparent to me."Andre Braugher, actor, Jan. 27, 2011"I've found that the best way is to treat the reading [for a role] just like a performance of a TV show. Nothing half-baked, casual, or tentative. Work on the scene just as if you had the role sewed up and were opening at audition time."Jay Barney, actor and columnist, Notes for Actors, Nov. 27, 1964"I believe in going to classesall the first jobs I got, I got through people I met in class. I also found it gave me a companionship."Colleen Dewhurst, actor, "Spotlight on Acting Schools," Oct. 19, 1990"Studying is important in forming some kind of technique; read and do some classroom work. Then, eventually, you've just got to get up and do it anywhere. Life experiencelivingis also important. Experiencing things helps you grow as an actor."Nathan Lane, actor, in "The Learning Experience," Oct. 18, 1991"All of us angst-ridden teenagers were trying like crazy and knitting our brows to figure out how to be better artists and be responsible to the community, and trying to manage the wild beast of the terrible business of acting. She reminded us, 'The reason you wanted to do this is because it looks like fun. And it is fun. Even if you're playing Medea.' "Michael McKean, actor, on his acting teacher Olympia Dukakis, Sept. 5, 2002"I teach acting, and I teach how to tell a story with a song. I tell my students that all human beings are natural singers, kind of like birds. I think that when people really want to sing, they should sing, whatever the circumstances."Betty Buckley, actor, "Spotlight on Singing and Music," Jan. 26, 1996"[A]ctors just don't seem to make the rounds [visiting casting directors' offices] anymore. It seems to have gone out of fashion. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I'm still interested in seeing actors. Two hours, one day a week may not seem like much time, but it does give me a chance to see many, many new faces, and those that make an impression are called back for further interviews and auditions. I don't like to get flooded with pictures and profiles because they require replies and it takes a great deal of time. I am interested in seeing people in the flesh."Judy Abbott, casting director and daughter of the legendary director George Abbott, Jan. 12, 1962"[Jamie Foxx] was very compelling, a very intelligent person. He shared a lot in common with Ray Charles. They were both African-Americans from the South; they had kind of come out of the racist context. They were very driven, had burning ambitions to have their voices heard in the world. And I encouraged [Foxx] to plumb those depths that he shared in common with Ray. But I don't think I really had any sense that he was going to be my choice until I started talking about the music in the film and the fact that I would have to find somebody to play the piano and use some cinematic sleight of hand to come up to the face of the person playing the role. He said, 'I play the piano,' and I said, 'Yeah, so do I, but I'm no Ray Charles, and neither are you.' And he said, 'Well, wait a minute, I started playing when I was 3, I led the band in my gospel church in Texas, and I went to university on a piano scholarship.' "Taylor Hackford, director, Nov. 11, 2004"Most actors normally have a lot of skills and crafts, but the spectacular ones have that interior life that you can see in their eyes. You can see that there's a lot of complexity and that there's a powerful interior person living inside, and I have a good detector for that."Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, filmmaker, Nov. 20, 2003"I would rather be a director than an actress. As an actor, you have only one role to create. Creating a role means to fully understand the character's goals. However, in order to direct actors in a play, you have to be able to identify with all characters onstage."Geraldine Fitzgerald, actor-director, in "Hyphenates: Performers Who Wear Several Hats," Oct. 23, 1987"You have to be just as honest as you would for any other form of acting, but in commercials you have to condense it. You have to get your message across quicker."Danny Goldman, (now retired) casting director, Oct. 27, 1994 "Everything you do you can learn something if it's only to be more comfortable in a situation. No one's going to stop and teach you how to do television. They haven't got the time. So you just better learn. That's part of your task: to find a way to exist in what they always call in the theater 'imaginary circumstances.' It's the same in a commercial. You're in a situation you have to make real for yourself."Marian Seldes, Tony-winning actor, on what she learned when doing commercials, Nov. 13, 2008 "The owners of the theaters on 42nd Street are crying the blues. Why? Because business is bad at the houses which show exploitation movies. Why? Because Hollywood and Europe have stepped in and are doing a lot of sexploitation on their own. It's rare these days to see a new, big-budget film without at least one nude scene."Charlotte Harmon, Back Stage legit editor, in "Sexploit Biz Sags," June 6, 1969"Whatever personal fears an actor might have about taking on a gay role are his own business, but I resent the implication that it will hurt his career. A good performance in a good role in a good play never hurt anyone's career. May we hear no more of this?"Robert Patrick, playwright, letter to the editor, May 19, 1989"Afriendcalled me and said, 'I ran into a kid in West Hollywood recently who said that ["Southern Baptist Sissies"] saved his life.' The kid had been a preacher in the South. He was only about 26, 27, and he had an affair with a guy, and he was exposed and then was excommunicated from the church. His wife left him, and his family abandoned him. He had intended to kill himself, but he came out here to visit some friends. He went to see 'Sissies,' and then he decided to move out here. He said he didn't feel alone after viewing the play. I didn't do 'Sissies' to save the world; I kind of wrote it for me, but, for some reason, the universe allowed it to be other people's journey, as well."Del Shores, actor-playwright-director, Jan. 5, 2006"You know, we have an awful lot of moderate Republicans, and some not so moderate, who support the endowment. And those aren't taken into account very often. It began as a bipartisan agency, and I would like to see it continue as that. The partisanship only came in about six years ago. It's not healthy, because the arts belong to everybody; and most of the large arts organizations in the country, their boards are composed of mainly Republicans."Jane Alexander, on her position as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, June 7, 1996"Last night, I attended a candlelit vigil in Union Square to mourn the unspeakable loss we have all endured this week. At last, I felt a glimmer inside that an ounce of healing had begun. Let's not ever forget the strength of the human spirit in this city, in this country, in this world."Michael C. Brown, one of many Back Stage readers who responded to requests for thoughts and impressions on the events of 9/11, Sept. 21, 2001 "I can't thank Back Stage enough for the many doors it has opened for me since the commencement of my career as an actor in the spring of 1964. I certainly recommend it highly to all show business people."Lynn Perry, actor, May 13, 1966