"Apparently not content with recording only one talented, substance-abuse-problem-having musician, Mark Ronson has announced he's going into the studio with D'Angelo to help the erstwhile neo-soul star finish his comeback album. And when might the world hear the fruits of this collaboration? 'I know he's been working nonstop,' says Ronson. 'It's not like they've been sitting on their asses.' Dope. [Billboard]
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"In Sweden, 'a robot swan is literally moving people to tears with a four-minute, professionally choreographed routine, dramatically executed to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.'"
"Natalie Portman will not rest until she has made an edgy version of every classic story you grew up reading! Riding high off her Black Swan buzz, Portman is reportedly eyeing the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film Brothers Grimm: Snow White, and that's in addition to David O. Russell's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which she'll produce and star in. Meanwhile, the Playlist claims that another revamped classic has fallen apart: the Emile Hirsch–starring Hamlet, which was supposed to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Instead, Hardwicke will continue work on the Amanda Seyfried–toplined The Girl With the Red Riding Hood, proving that edgy fairy tales are in, while edgy Shakespeare, not so much. [Pajiba, Playlist]
"A remarkable front-page editorial in a Mexican newspaper pleads of the drug cartels, “What is it you want from us?” The note of desperation is understandable, but it should be obvious what they want."
"The family of Meredith Kercher have attacked plans to make a film of her death starring the Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere as her killer, Amanda Knox."
"In two days, he was to marry his love and set sail on a honeymoon cruise. But a hero bus driver who tried to save a woman fatally crushed by a toppled tree in last week's tornado has died from an aneurysm brought on by the rescue attempt --..."
"He had an affair with a 24-year-old. She allegedly had a dalliance with a pool boy. He forced her to sleep in the maid's quarters. She smashed his car window with a baseball bat. He removed art from her bedroom walls. She broke into their mansion to steal it back. He called her a drug addict and an unfit mother. She said he was 'playing dirty.' He literally burned money so that he would not have to give it to her. She posed nude in a national magazine to make him jealous. And in the end? What this told them was that they truly loved each other.
Obviously.
Seymour and her billionaire, paper-magnate husband Peter Brant walked into Middletown Superior Court hand-in-hand, much to the amazement of reporters, before facing a judge.
Instead of the start of a bitter divorce battle, the couple said they had called off the divorce and planned to stay together.
Asked by a reporter what Seymour planned to get out of the hearing, the Victoria's Secret model said, 'Peace.'
Also, there was no prenup.
"White Teeth author Zadie Smith has been tapped to replace Benjamin Moser as the writer of the Harper's 'New Books' column, the magazine announced this afternoon. Moser will continue on as a contributing editor. Smith, meanwhile, also recently started teaching writing classes at NYU."
"This morning, St. Paul's Cathedral in London hosted a memorial service for Alexander McQueen, who took his own life on the first day of New York Fashion Week in February. Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss were among the luminaries to turn out. Anna Wintour also attended, and gave an address, recalling McQueen's Dante collection of the late nineties, which included the famous 'bumster' pants:'One (model) turned to give me an extremely prominent close-up of her mostly naked back view,' Wintour told a congregation of more than a thousand people. 'Well, after that collection it was a done deal. Everybody lowered their trousers everywhere.'Björk performed, wearing angel wings and a silver helmet, and the service closed with a performance by a chorus of bagpipe players dressed in tartan kilts. See the celebrity attendees, dressed in their finest somber McQueen, in the slideshow.
"A Guyanese visiting family in Brooklyn was fatally struck by a drunk driver in Brooklyn last night, just hours after he arrived in New York. Enrico Graves had been out at a karaoke bar with his wife and family when the driver came up Linden Boulevard near Church Avenue. Graves pushed his sister out of the way, but was too late to save himself. One witness told the Daily News, 'The car just smashed into him. He [flew] up to the stoplight.' The driver, Kelvin Hall, was arrested and failed a Breathalyzer test. He was charged with DWI."
"It pays to (allegedly) give the performance of your career! Owing to strong buzz out of Venice and Telluride (here's A.O. Scott with more) for her work in Darren Aronofsky's winged-ballerina thriller Black Swan, Natalie Portman has been offered the much-coveted lead role in Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, in which a first-time astronaut is stranded alone aboard a space station during a deadly debris storm. Angelina Jolie passed on the part twice, and Cuarón has flirted with casting Blake Lively or Scarlett Johansson, but based on glowing reviews for Swan, Warner Bros. has given the director the green light to hire Portman without a screen test (bonus: She works way cheaper than Jolie). She'll read the most recent draft of the screenplay this week, says The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog, and make her decision shortly.
Natalie Portman offered lead in Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ (exclusive) [Risky Business/HR]
"Three never officially released Liz Phair demo tapes known as Girlysound — the ones that helped land Phair a deal at Matador records to put out 1993's Exile in Guyville — will finally get a proper rollout on October 19. Unfortunately, Girlysound will come packaged with Phair's Funstyle, the not-much-liked album from this summer in which she raps/talks over music. Yet again, Phair is really hammering home the wisdom of a particular TV theme song: You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have, the facts oflifePhair. [Pitchfork]
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Earlier today, Tyra Banks and Vogue’s André Leon Talley held a breakfast to celebrate the 15th cycle of America’s Next Top Model, which kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. on the CW. Banks says the competition's prize this year is 'beyond exciting': The winner will get a contract with IMG Models and CoverGirl Cosmetics, a fashion spread in Italian Vogue, and a spread and cover of Beauty In Vogue.
Pretty sweet deal, but contrary to popular belief, not one ANTM judge and Tastemaker Talley can take all of the credit for. “He is the beginning of high fashion for Top Model,” says Banks. "I had this vision to take it to the next level and I wanted André there from the beginning, from day one, but he turned me down... [then] he finally said yes." Banks also pointed out that she already had a relationship with Italian Vogue editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani 'because I did the black issue.' At the breakfast, Banks also revealed that not only will there be a cycle sixteen, but another girl is likely to see her face in the pages of Italian Vogue: “The big shock and surprise for me was how dedicated [Sozzani] is to [the show]. I called her after we announced the winner and I was like 'Want to do this again?' and she was like 'Yes, darling, I will do this again for you. I have a good time.' So she's on for cycle sixteen.”
One person who won’t be returning to his regular seat behind the judges’ table is Miss J. Explains Banks: “Miss J said he's all about his legs, and because he’s stuck behind a desk, he wants to get out...When the girls are walking down the runway and his name is plastered on their forehead and if they’re not walking right, then he feels like it’s a bad reflection on him. So he’s actually within the episodes, working with the girls as opposed to being stuck behind the desk.'
And of course, no Banks encounter would be complete without receiving some of that requisite model-meets-mom advice she doles out to her girls on the show: 'Sometimes the prettiest girl goes home on Top Model, first or second or third, but it’s the one who has that fierceness, that uhh, that I feel any woman could have. Tips, tricks, and then that uhh.”
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Songstress Stevie Nicks is collaborating with the Eurythmics's Dave Stewart, whose very name puts 'Sweet Dreams' firmly inside our heads for the day, on a new album. 'I haven't been this excited about anything I've done since [1981's] Bella Donna,' she told Rolling Stone, in an interview not yet online inside this week's issue. Nicks hopes to have the record ready by March or sooner, and it'll include "rock & roll reminiscent of her best solo work," according to Rolling Stone. Nicks explained: 'At a certain point, I'm going to get too old for this, but making this album really shows that I'm not done yet.' [Stevie Nicks News, RS]
OF COURSE she isn't. I'll have to keep an eye out for this one--especially with Dave Stewart in play.
Elizabeth Olsen, Mary-Kate's and Ashley Olsen's 21 year-old sister, has been cast in the indie film Martha Marcy May Marlene, alongside John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, and Brady Corbet. Olsen will play a young woman who escapes a cult and goes to live with, incidentally, her big sister. The latest Olsen will also be in the upcoming film Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Catherine Keener. With her older sisters largely out of the acting spotlight, the new girl will probably be greeted with intense interest by fans. [PopWatch/EW]
"It appears that frustratingly under-the-radar pop star Robyn may soon be getting some wider exposure. The singer tweeted a picture of herself on the Gossip Girl set Tuesday evening, indicating Robyn may be appearing or performing on the show. The image of Blair on a screen in the background of the picture suggests she'll be showing up at something awesome like Blair’s birthday party rather than, say, a Vanessa-organized potluck. In any event, here’s hoping she gets more airtime than she did on the VMAs. [Twitpic/@RobynKonichiwa]"
Have you seen Gossip Girl? I don't mean to be flippant but in terms of culture there's this dominant, sexcapade-y, exclusivity thing now pinned to private school life. It's the usual garbage. And people describing, inaccurately, things they don't know anything about. Unfortunately, garbage creates more garbage. People imitate it because that's the way they feel like they should act. I think Metropolitan is the antithesis to Gossip Girl.
"Mary-Louise Parker gave a wonderfully raw interview to Vanity Fair, where she admitted she's basically too hip to smoke weed and prefers 'punitive' sex. Despite starring on a show that (sort of) revolves around the plant, Parker explainedI don’t do drugs, but I’m really suggestible. So I imagine if I did, I’d be smoking all day long. I’ve never smoked it. It was never an effective or interesting form of rebellion for me, because everybody did it. If I’d been popular in high school, I’m sure I would have wanted to do it. But I wasn’t ... I’m not saying pot is a bad thing. I know plenty of people who should be smoking pot. I’m just not one of those people.After talking about drugs, she moved on to sex. Have you noticed that Parker's sex scenes in Weeds have become increasingly dark? Well, the actress likes it that way:I think for [Nancy Botwin], sexuality is something that she wields. And she needs sex to be somewhat punitive. You know what I mean? I think a lot of people have so much guilt wrapped up in sex, they almost can’t tell the difference. There’s a scene we did for this season that gets pretty explicit. It was just supposed to be sex in a bar, but I really wanted it to be almost abusive. Because I think she needs it that way. And that’s really informative.Mary-Louise Parker, without even doing drugs — still incredibly cool.
"In May of 1939, Ralph Ellison, who was twenty-six at the time, asked an old man hanging out in Eddie’s Bar, on St. Nicholas Avenue near 147th Street, “Do you like living in New York City?” The man said: Ahm in New York, but New . . ."
"What do Mark Zuckerberg, Sylvester Stallone, Condoleezza Rice, Erin Brockovich, Tim Allen, Suzanne Somers, Ann Coulter, and Richard Branson have in common? None of them wanted to appear on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars! All were reportedly asked to appear on the show and turned down an offer to go head-to-head with Bristol Palin, Audrina Patridge, the Situation and the Hoff. Not above Dancing, however, is Melanie Griffith, who apparently “tries to get on every season,” to no avail, which makes us feel sad. [HR]"
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