So, *that* happened... A highlights package of some things you need to know about that happened in the world of entertainment today
Delta Goodrem joins Twitter Following hilarious pressure from fiancéBrian McFadden (CLICK ON ME!), the So Good milk ambassador and part-time popster (whom I heart) caved and set up: http://twitter.com/delta_goodrem The loved-up pair don't shy away from a bit of friendly competition so I can't wait to see the lengths they'll no doubt end up going to in order to get more "followers" than the other. Team Goodrem? Oh, I love them both. I can't decide!
Chris Brown is innocent? The R&B singer appears to be not guilty of something. He claims he did not leak to the internets the shocking (yawn) nude pics of Rihanna, who he "allegedly" beat up earlier in the year. A representative for the "allegedly" violent star tells Essence.com, "This is both a false and defamatory statement. Chris has not released or 'leaked' any photos of Rihanna (or anyone else for that matter)." In this particular case, I actually think it would be better not to have said anything. It's a bit "thou doth protest too much" given the recent on-again/off-again/we-have-matching-tattoos/punch-up/let's-get-married/what-about-the-court-case? relationship between the pair. Will Smith for 007 Will Smith is a lot of things and confident is one of them - and good on him for that! The action star has revealed the next thing on his to-do list is to try his martinis shaken and not stirred and be the next James Bond. He then confused things by nominating rapper P. Diddy and fellow actor Jamie Foxx for the role too, saying: "Puff probably lives the most like James Bond. Jamie Foxx got the swag for James Bond. He can sing too, so he can add a new element to Bond. Wooing the ladies...and I think I can guarantee the box office!" Gotta be honest, here. I don't even know what he's saying at this point...
Dakota joins Twilight Couldn't they find anyone else? Annoying-for-no-real-reason-so-I-hope-I-warm-to-her-eventually Dakota Fanningis officially in the Twilight sequel, New Moon... and there's nothing you can do about it. At all. Sure, she threatened this move for several months but now it's a done deal. The former The Cat In The Hat star has finally arrived in Canada, started filming and has quickly become friends with the hot ensemble cast. Sigh. She plays Jane the Volturi vampire. I guess on the plus side she does already have naturally funny little teeth and may not need to take advantage of the makeup department's astounding array of "teef" to get into character.
-- From the vault "Gotta Tell You", Samantha Mumba The year was 2000. The chick in the pink corset was Samatha Mumba (who, reader Amy Vagne, is exactly as you recalled: "Irish-African". A gold star to you and the removal of a gold star from her husband Pete who refuted this).
It still cracks me up when she sings, "Your love for maaaaee..." and also, "You're the one for maaaaeee..." Anyway, since then, Samantha got married to JC from *NSYNC's brother, worked in some films you never saw and looks set to have a new album out next year. She seems to have no plans this year. Man, I envy that. Go the Mumba!
Carolyn Stewart Dragging myself out of a Logies form slump o'clock, May 11, 2009.
The all-new less nerdy "Motion Picture" What is it?: The all-new reimagining of the original Star Trek series via super genius JJ Abrams!! Let’s face it, Star Trek had become a bloated mess with so many spin-offs that only the die-hards cared (cue angry e-mails), and studios much prefer their franchises to make them cash. Cue re-boot! Yes, they’re all younger, hotter and funnier than before! Just as nerdy, it must be said. But not in such a way that will scare away the masses, which is a nice change. Leonard Nimoy is in it?: Yes, the old Spock plays a future version of the new Spock (Zachary Quinto), accidentally sucked into a black hole. I found the whole premise a bit distracting, but I had almost forgiven them by the end. It handily washed away the previous series as an “alternate reality”, you know, where Kirk is fat and hammy, the aliens look like rubber and the technology sucks.
Who else?:Chris Pine, who was in Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan and McFly, plays the new Captain Kirk, and is pretty damn awesome. Even more awesome (almost) is that his dad George is played by “our” Chris Hemsworth. The former Home and Away star impresses with his minimal screen time. From me annoying him at the pub to this – don’t say I don’t make massive Hollywood careers! Rounding out the cast are John Cho from Harold and Kumar as Sulu, Anton Yelchin (Byrd from Huff) as Chekov, Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead) as Scotty, Karl Urban doing his best work since Shortland Street as Bones and Zoë Saldaña as Uhura – mercifully finding herself another franchise after mysteriously disappearing from The Pirates Of The Carribean. Tyler “Madea” Perry also has a surprise role as the head of Star Fleet and Eric Bana plays the baddie Nero (who, it should be noted, is no Poida).
The Space Wiggles? Anton, Chris, Simon, Karl, John and Zoë
WINONA RYDER!:Winny takes a break from getting hopped up on meds and stealing jackets from Saks to play Spock’s mother. It’s funny, they can beam people from place to place, but they still can’t do realistic old people make-up. Is it the new Star Wars?: Let’s see, we meet James T. Kirk, who lives in the shadow of his late father, a Star Fleet captain, in small town Iowa (or “Tatooine”). Then one day he meets no-nonsense Uhura (or “Leia”) at a bar (or “Mos Isley Cantina”) and is soon convinced by Captain Pike (or “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) to join Star Fleet (or “the Rebel Alliance”) himself. Later Kirk gets stuck on an ice planet (or “Hoth”) and is attacked by a snow beast (or “Wampa”). That aside, I wish JJ had done the Star Wars prequels.
Sadly I couldn't find a pic of Chris Hemsworth in character, so this one of him at the pub will have to do.
Has it saved the franchise?: Oh yes. Look, I watched Star Trek as a kid and was never a big fan. Even as a seven-year-old it seemed crappy. Remember the movie where they come back to Earth - in the '80s - to save the whales (or something)? WHAT?! Of course I have since come to appreciate things such as the first real multi-racial cast on TV (Is there even a cast that diverse on TV now? I mean, Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t have a Scot or a Russian), but it is still boring (sorry nerds). But not any more! I will quite happily sit through the sequels. Hell, I’ll even look forward to them. See it?: You probably need to.
Scott Keenan It's life Jim but not as we know it o'clock
Tomorrow night in the US Paula Abdul will perform her new single “Here For The Music” on American Idol.
But while it’s new to Paula, the song has been kicking around the net for years as “I’m Just Here For The Music”, a demo performed by Kylie Minogue.
Funnily enough Paula and Kylie have a long history of song swapping. Kylie’s “Spinning Around”, released in 2000, was co-written by Paula and fellow Idol judge Kara DioGuardi (about Paula’s split from ex hubby Emilio Estevez) for a comeback album that never eventuated.
Next up, just last year, Paula recorded Kylie’s song “Boombox”, another song that had been hanging around the internet. This time Kylie decided she quite liked it, had it remixed, and included it on her recent remix album, also called Boombox. Paula had gone as far as to put the song on her website and hint it would be her next single, before it disappeared only to never be mentioned again.
So, that leaves us with her electro-tastic version of “Hear For The Music”. In the olden days Paula would “allegedly” have backing vocalists sing along with her lead to beef up her reed-thin vocals. These days, thanks to technology, they get the robot from Lost In Space to process them.
Despite my scoffing headline, Paula actually picked up two pretty decent tracks that Kylie overlooked in favour of tosh like “Speakerphone” on her last album, so perhaps we should be glad that they are finally being heard by a wider audience.
Or not.
Hey, why don’t you be the judge with my handy side-by-side comparisons?!
As a bonus I have added CoCo Lee’s “爱不停 (Love Doesn't Stop)” which is her Mandarin version of “Boombox”.
Paula Abdul - Boombox
Kylie Minogue - Boombox
Coco Lee - 爱不停 (Love Doesn't Stop)
Paula Abdul – Here For The Music
Kylie Minogue – I’m Just Here For The Music
Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
Cox loves Pitts
After years of no-speakies, it seems Courteney Cox has buried the hatchet with her BFF Jennifer Aniston’s ex-hubby Brad Pitt.
B-rad bumped into Courteney and her hubby David Arquette backstage at a Chris Cornell concert at the Wiltern Theater in LA and they - shock! - all got talking.
“Instead of ignoring him, Courteney chatted away with Brad all night,” a “spy” told the New York Post’s Page Six. “The three were in great spirits and seemed really happy to see each other.”
Well it would have just been awkward not to talk to him, right?
In times past Courteney has seemingly been more willing to call Brad out for doing the dirty on Jen vis-à-vis that strumpet Angelina Jolie than eternal apologist Jen has been.
This is also great news for David, who admitted to radio host Howard Stern that he missed Brad. Maybe Courteney will let them hang out again now?
No, probably not.
The Adventures Of Jon Arbuckle
My life has been changed (virtually) since my mate Matt introduced me to website Garfield Minus Garfield. The site takes each days Garfield cartoon, and deletes the lovable obese tabby so that we can see what Jon’s life would be like if he were talking to thin air rather than his cat. Or something.
Anyway, check it out, it’s minutes of fun.
Shelley laughs off boob-boo
Good old Shelley Craft has had a giggle after finding out about her nipple exposure on the Logies red carpet.
“Perhaps I was subliminally auditioning for Underbelly III,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
That’s the spirit Shell!
Who knows what she’ll show on Domestic Blitz next season!
Rebecca wins! Viewers Lose. Logies night is my favourite night of the year, and I think I need to say that before I say anything else. I love the Logies and I have watched them my whole life. There is nothing cynical or ironic about my love; I really, really love them.
When people bitch about the Logies being a popularity contest and an ad for TV Week, I tell them to rack off. TV Week started the awards 51 years ago and nobody else has come up with anything better and nobody is likely to. Snobs who have a problem with viewer voted awards can get stuffed too. As if a panel of nameless freeloaders are more equipped to vote. Besides, the Logies has peer-voted categories so that the ABC and Foxtel can actually win things.
Okay, so that’s that cleared up. What did I think of last night’s show?
Well Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph has declared it the worst Logies ever, and as far as the show goes – as opposed to the recipients of the awards – it was certainly the most boring. The knives have been sharpened for Gretel Killeen – whose first trick was unveiling her Winona Ryder circa Alien³hairdo – and to some extent it’s valid.
I’m sure the idea was to beat critics to the punch with an Underbelly-inspired joke in which Gretel was shot and “died on stage” only to end up in heaven. In actual fact it just had viewers thinking, “Yes, yes you did.”
Going down the toilet: Gretel and Carson Kressley cross live from the dunnies
From the get-go Gretel – who has made a point of the fact that she wrote her own material – delivered plenty of joke-free and often down-right cringe-worthy dialogue. Her “casual” chats with male Best New Talent Male nominees (including 16-year-old Home and Away star Jordan Rodriguez) and a painful doubling with Bondi Vet Chris Brown that saw her descending from “heaven” on a swing were of particular note for their awkwardness, the cross to the women's bathroom is likely to go down in Logies fokelore. She is no Andrew Denton, who excels at such ad lib chats. She is also no Hughesy.
Dave Hughes, as usual, was a highlight. There have been calls before for him to host the show, but I believe he (perhaps wisely) thinks he is better off going in, doing an awesome spot, and getting out of there. But I still wish he would.
Shaun Micallef, who received a lukewarm response when he hosted the show a few years ago, was another breath of fresh air. The same cannot be said for the perpetually unfunny Umbilical Brothers whose act seems to belong on a 1992 Red Faces segment. Still they are dragged out time and time again on such shows so they can make stupid noises and lame pube jokes. Pubes jokes! At the Logies! Go away.
What people say about the Logies being a tough room is true – almost nobody is listening to the host or even the award announcements. They are busy catching up with friends and downing free booze (when asked their highlights of the awards on morning television this morning, almost without fail guests answered “Annie Lennox”, her performance seemingly the only thing they could recall happening on the night) . Surely the trick would be to play to the home audience. Another would be to tell some jokes.
The other presenters proved almost as awkward as the host. Jennifer Hawkins – who, yes is hot and everyone loves – presented despite not actually having a show. Her co-presenter Kristy Hinze, TV’s most wooden host, did delight me when she announced “It’s impossible to be objective about your own work.” That explains a lot. Sarah Murdoch was a very odd choice to induct Bill Collins into the Hall Of Fame, although she did an admirable job. Poor Peter Phelps, meanwhile, was lumbered with Humphrey B. Bear and a joke that may have seemed like a good idea but should have only gone for about 20 seconds. Poor Phelpsie was left trying to make funny with a giant mute bear and it was painful for everyone.
Rove's Hamish, Haydo and Andy love them some Logie
The always slightly dubious “international guests” this year were Days Of Our Lives stars Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell – that’s right, Bo and Hope! Now I love them, so I can’t be as sarcastic as perhaps I should be here. Oddly they didn’t present an award and were not seen again after walking down the red carpet. Why were they even there? (Mercifully we were spared one of those appalling on-stage interviews with the host, featuring questions like, “What do you think of Australia?!” Although I would have loved to see Peter yell “Australian TV rocks!”)
Rather than a tried-and-true crowd pleaser like Bert Newton or Dame Edna, the night’s big finale - the presentation of the Gold Logie - was performed by Logies perennials Lisa McCune and Georgie Parker. Which was fine, but dull. Bert coming out and doing a few minutes of shtick and presenting the gold has proven a highlight in previous years and would have been the saviour this time (still nobody has provided a good reason why he can’t host the whole thing again).
As for the awards themselves (you know, ostensibly the reason we're all here in the first place), things went pretty much to plan. Underbelly scored the peer voted awards and Packed To The Rafters the popular ones. I was thrilled Rebecca Gibney won the gold, but a little sorry Ian Smith missed out as it was basically his last chance to win. It was awesome to see him acknowledged, however, and he was hilarious in the skits he acted in. (Note to future Logies producers: skits are good, they took us out of the boring show, but do try and get more recognised comic talent to put them together as some – in particular the ones based around Ten and the ABC – fell flat)
Dannii Minogue tries to spoil Gretel's hairdo on the red carpet
Thankfully this year there was a highlight package of non-televised awards, which were for children’s shows and docos. Sadly the sporting and outstanding news coverage were still included in the main telecast. I’m sorry but Seven getting an award for the coverage of the Olympics is a joke – which ever network holds the Olympics or Commonwealth Games in any given year wins this award. The network itself has very little to do with the footage it gets, who wins medals, what the opening ceremony looks like; it’s just stupid. As for news coverage and the inevitable natural disaster or human tragedy that wins; there is something a bit wrong about people applauding such dire events at such a show.
Another downer was a court order which prevented footage of Underbelly from being shown in nomination packages. This resulted in presenters having to say things like, “Oh, and Kat Stewart, who was quite good in Underbelly, honestly.” As if the nomination were some sort of after-thought, only to then announce the winner was in fact Kat Stewart.
Speaking of singers (?) Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Tom Burlinson (who sang some olden days song as the “people we’ve lost” tape ran) both seemed to fight with the tune fairy. Perhaps there were bad acoustics, because Annie Lennox did too. But seriously, if Nat Bass were on Australian Idol, how far do you think she would go? Just asking.
In all honesty, the night's true highlight came before the show had even started, when red carpet host Shelley Craft's nipple was visable to viewers as she interviewed Rachel Griffiths.
Logies high(beam)light: Shelley hones her craft
Anyway, all in all it was a dull, dull night and the only way I can see the Logies improving is me getting the producer’s gig next year. No? How about an advisory role? I know it’s a thankless task, but seriously, we can’t go on like this. It’s my favourite night of the year.
Scott Keenan The Logies are like my child and I’m very disappointed o’clock
X-Men Origins: Wolverine REVIEW What is it?: The X-Men trilogy spin-off/prequel, which tells the back-story of Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman), the self-healing, metal-clawed mutant with no memory of his past.
The cast looks awesome!: Despite the fact that the movie poster makes full use of characters like Cyclops, Gambit and Emma Frost, none of them get much to do. It seemed like every time I thought I was really enjoying a character, they would leave. Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) started off really cool, and quickly descended into a two dimensional pawn. will.i.am (Kestrel), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Dominic Monaghan (Bolt) and Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) all impress but all get far too little screen time. It must be great to work a few days on a movie and get your head on the poster (I realise they were likely filming much longer than that, but please don’t ruin my story).
In fact, while the film does fill in Wolverine’s back-story, we don’t even get to know him all that well. After fighting through the Civil War, World Wars I and II and Vietnam, and then becoming some sort of mercenary/bounty hunter for the government, Wolverine suddenly decides he doesn’t want to kill people any more. You know, after 100 years of pretty solidly killing people. Why?
VIC-TOR!!!: Hugh spends most of the movie yelling this at his brother Victor, aka Sabretooth, as if he were in a mutant version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
What’s this business about the movie being leaked on the internet?: According to the studio the leaked version was a work in progress and didn’t have final special effects added. Now I haven’t seen the version on the internet, but the version I saw on the big screen had some very hokey SFX going on. One scene, where Wolverine is getting to know his metal claws in a bathroom, inspired giggles and whispers of “how fake!” on account of the claws looking like something out of Roger Rabbit … those things aren’t CGI – they’re cartoons! Sometimes you have to wonder why they don’t just strap plastic ones on in some shots, it would look better.
The green screen work – in the cars and especially out a barn window – are so bad that I have seen better work on The Bold And The Beautiful. Green screen is a tricky thing, and I happen to be of the old-fashioned opinion that if you can’t make it work, just actually film outside! Shocking, right?
I don’t want to spoil anything, but a cameo by one of the X-Men from the original trilogy looks so odd that I am still not convinced they didn’t use CGI instead of the actual actor. That or far too much plastic surgery has been had.
The other mutants couldn't bring themselves to look at Wolverine's cartoon claws.
Any other complaints?: Funny you should ask … the film doesn’t seem to know when it is set. According to the press notes it’s “10 to 15 years before X-Men”. Which would make it the mid-late '80s. And yet there are ‘50s buildings with brand new exit signs, ultra-modern bus stops, ’60s utes next to ’90s ones and rather modern looking keypad door locks.
Which Aussie actors are in it?: Aside from Hugh, there are tiny roles from the likes of Peter O’Brien, Max Cullen, Tahyna Tozzi and Aaron Jeffery.
So, err, did you actually like it?: While it sounds like I’m laying into this movie, I actually enjoyed it. Far more than I thought I would. I have pointed out bad CGI, but there is also quite a bit that is stylistically impressive, and Hugh delivers a solid performance and has surrounded himself in equally solid performers. While I enjoyed the ride, the ending was a little lacking – which is to be expected from a prequel, really.
Is it as good at the other X-Men movies?: It’s definitely better than The Last Stand.
See it?: Just go and have fun already.
His name is Ethan So, after the whole Ethan Suplee debacle, I went ahead and posted the link to my blog on Twitter. And guess what? Ethan read it! Hilarious.
He sent me the following tweet:
EthanSuplee@scottkeenanYOU BETTER WATCH TONIGHT! And you better get it! I've got my eye on you!
A very cool guy. I promise to watch, sir. But I’m in Australia, so not until Wednesday. And as for getting it … I’ll do my best!
PS: Ethan is totally using the pic I used of him as his Twitter page background now.
Oh Goode for YOU! The Goode Family is the latest animated series from the mind of Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead, Daria and King Of The Hill (all of which are some of my all-time faves). Centering around a well-meaning, but not especially bright, pollitically-correct environmentalist family, the show starts in the US soon, and a preview video has been released online.
I think it looks like a winner (of course I said the same thing about The Oblongs, which sadly lasted all of three seconds). Check it out and see what you think.
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