The rise and rise of Bradley Cooper

B-Coop joins A-List; A-Team

Finally some respect!

Well, sure, he's looked better...

A couple of number one movies and Bradley Cooper is hot. Like, "Which movie would you like to do next, Mr Cooper?" Hollywood hot.
You know, the nerdy guy from Alias that they got rid of because he was nerdy (sorry, “the producers felt they had taken the character as far as they could”). And then starred in a string of TV shows that got axed before they even finished a series.
That guy is hot property now!
All it took was that weird role in that odd movie He's Just Not That Into You and then playing "the cool one" against type in awesome surprise hit The Hangover.
We at The 'Brain have been fans of Bradley's work for yeeears, so we could not be more pleased.

As well as having just completed All About Steve opposite Sandra Bullock, B-Coop is set to sign on to play Faceman in the big screen adaptation of The A-Team.

B-Rad in Alias days with Jennifer Garner.
Whatever happened to her?

The A-Team is one of my all-time favourite shows, so I am pretty excited. Well, aside from the news that Liam Neeson is in talks to play Hannibal. Liam is a scene-chewing, wrong-faced caricature of his former self and should stay well away.
I was quite delighted back when George Clooney was eyeing the role. George Peppard would no doubt have been delighted too. Back then Ice Cube was linked to the role of BA Baracus, but really, who can play that role but Mr. T? And who will be Murdock?
I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Well done B-Coop!

Scott Keenan
I sure miss Alias o'clock

Celebrity ads, pondering Paul Rudd and more...

When Stars Hock Stuff

I love celebrities. I love ads. When they come together, it's like hot coals in a fire. Ooh, baby. (OMG, speaking of which: how good was Stacey Q's "Two Of Hearts"??? I LOVED that song). Here's my top five celeb ads from recent times...

1. Alec Baldwin for Hulu
Let's put it in the handbook so there's no confusion in the future: if you are a celebrity, *this* is how you do an ad.



2. Kylie Minogue for TOUS
As if I'm going to have a list of things I like without Kylie on it. Don't you know me at all? This ad for the luxury Spanish brand is sooo fun and cute that it makes me want to rush out and buy the things they sell... whatever the hell they might be.



3. Brad Pitt for Edwin
For sheer "this part is too fast, now this part is too slow... umm, what the hell is going on?" value, check out this ad for a Japanese jeans brand. I mainly like how Brad is all serious "act-or" these days but still finds the time to hock Rolex, coffee and jeans as long as it's in a country that's not his own. I'm sure he donates all the money to starving orphans and stuff but still...



4. Britney Spears for GG Tea
I am so sorry but Brad Pitt has forced me to navigate away from current ads and into the challenging and distracting world of Japanese commercials. It's an absolute goldmine out there and this is my new favourite. Remember back when Britney could be bought? Oh, right, that's *still*.



5. Bruce Willis for Seagrams
OK, fine, I've been tricked into looking at really, really old commercials now that I forgot about. This one is a doozy. It's so bad that it's actually awesome and I have to admit that I wish all ads were this fun. Since Bruno isn't doing much of anything right now, perhaps he should dedicate himself to ads like these full-time? Who wouldn't want to once again see him literally skip down a road in a white suit with a babe or two on each arm? Someone who is dead inside, I tell you.




--
Ponderland*
* not by Russell Brand (who, incidentally, is about as funny as a hearty dose of swine flu)

In the five minutes I wasn't working today and was on the bus listening to an extended remix of Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days", this is what I pondered:

# Paul Rudd's family's real last name is "Rudnitzky". From there, if I were to be honest, I made the mental leap to question if Australian PM Kevin Rudd could have a secret Rudnitzky past. Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston's family's name is Anastassakis but her dad changed his name. Anyway, Paul and Jennifer not only starred in Friends but also the woeful The Object Of My Affection together. Do they still hang out? Did they ever secretly date? Either way, I think my point is why don't they go back to their family name? These days, the peeps cool with weird-sounding names, y'all.
# Since I'd thought of Jennifer, I remembered that when she was married to Brad Pitt she changed her name legally to Jennifer Pitt. Now that's love.
# From there it was a natural progression to let my mind drift to thoughts of George Clooney (as you do). If Georgie Boy is either of the rumours about him - gay or has 11 different secret children to different mothers holed up at his ranch in Spain - why wouldn't he just say so?

Then the bus came to my stop. I got off and I got rained on. The end.

--
From the vault

From today: it's The Killers and the video for the new single "The World We Live In"...



From yesteryear: I have to take you back to Stacey Q's 1986 *AWESOME* ditty "Two Of Hearts"... squeeeeee! So good. AND, believe it or not (I don't), wikipedia tells me that she has a new album called "Color Me Cinnamon" coming out this year. Ahahahahaha!



Brilliant. I totes owned that on cassette, dude.

--
Carolyn Stewart
The best thing that happened to me today (until I remembered Stacey Q existed) was that I had a glass of apple & mango juice o'clock, May 19, 2009.

George Clooney returns to ER

Famous Folk? Y'all Could Learn Something From George Clooney.

Short of getting Johnny Depp to do a 21 Jump St remake, scoring all-six stars for a Friends reunion or global pop princess Kylie Minogue returning to humble Ramsay Street for a guest-spot on Neighbours, ER getting George Clooney back on ER as his original character Dr Doug Ross is possibly the biggest "get" of recent times. He hadn't been seen in his scrubs since 2000 and in the interim has an Oceans trilogy plus responsibilities as every other year's World's Most Sexy Man. My point is, he didn't need to come back to the show. On top of that, I have to agree with most of the unofficial reviews I've read that have involved the person/blogger stating that they didn't even realise they were still even *making* ER until they heard about George's return. So, you know, it's not like it's the best or most-watched show on television anymore.

Although I need no such proof of what I'm about to say, but his lack of airs and graces once again reminds me that George is one of the world's best people. Sometimes when a star returns to a show - eg. Nathan Fillion returning to One Life To Live or House's Jesse Spencer popping into Neighbours for their 20th birthday - it's only their obsessive followers who realise what a big thing that is and just how much it means to fans. For George, he's one of the biggest stars in the world... and yet still he can return to the series that made him a star? What a tops guy!

You Don't Really Need Proof But Here's Top 5 Reasons Why George Clooney Is The World's Best Person (reasons other than his looks, intellect and do-gooderness that have been widely noted elsewhere):

1. From all reports, George's decision to return to ER was based on a brief conversation with former co-star Julianna Margulies. It was a conversation that seemingly went a little like this. GC: "Hi, it's me, George. Are you going back?" JM: ‘If you do it, I’ll do it." GC: "Well, if you do it, I’ll do it!"

2. As soon as the rumours began swirling about George returning to ER, I just knew he would. He's just that kind of guy. However, the first hint I had that George may well remain gracious while others enjoying life at the top would not was a comment he made some time ago while doing promo for Solaris. While plenty of stars get antsy and refuse to talk about their early projects, George welcomes - and thankfully is in on the joke about - talk of his early roles on The Facts of Life or Return of The Killer Tomatoes. After one such discussion, George recounted a story that every actor (of any level of success) would do well to take damn close note of: "When I did One Fine Day and Michelle Pfeiffer and I were doing press, somebody brought up Grease 2 and she said, 'Oh, please don’t, don’t, don’t.' And I said, 'Oh, come on. 1982, you come home, turn your answering machine on and your agent says, ‘You got Grease 2.’ You jumped up and down and screamed and danced, going, ‘I got Grease 2!’' Things just change. It doesn’t matter. It’s all part of the process. I’m sure Isabelle Adjani screamed when she got Ishtar. 'I’m working with those guys!' It’s one of those things where you just go, 'Look, it was at a period of time in your life when you needed a job.' I’m so not ashamed of those. I’m embarrassed at times because I had this horrible Facts of Life thing where you get the worst case of overconfidence and bad acting you’ve ever seen in your life. So, it’s not just bad, it’s big. You go, 'Oh, my God, it’s horrible.' But it’s all part of the building blocks of this business and probably the best lessons are that you can look back at those and go, 'Okay, I don’t want to do that anymore.'" And that, friends, is when I went from being in love with George Clooney to being *IN LOVE* with George Clooney.

3. His friends are not just hot, they're Brad-Pitt-hot or Matt-Damon-smart-and-hot. More guys could stand to run in packs like that, I say.

4. CloFu. George is literally good enough to, erm, eat. [learn about the full horror @: CloFu]

5. Remember when he had that little-that-turned-freaking-giant-but-still-cute pig called Max?? Well, that pig was loved. Awww. Poor Max.

So, not that it means much of anything but I had to put out into the ether/internets that I am just so proud of George for returning to ER. He didn't have to. But he did. And that, friends, is the difference.

I now hand over to my interweb colleague, SK, to be contrary (as is regularly his whim) re: George or to discuss at length exactly how Alyssa Milano went from a 300 year run on the rather-excellent Charmed to be making unneccsarily bizarre makeup infommercials. His call.

--
Carolyn Stewart
Too-late-o'clock, Monday, March 16, 2009