Celebrating 'Life' Magazine

'life' has hosted celebrities since it's inception. here's my tribute to a magazine that appreciates star power. l'chaim

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Jessica and Anthony

My New Guilty Pleasure

i can't believe i'm admitting this. or can i?
i've heard about this show a lot! it finally got to me. so i ordered 'gossip girls' season 1 from netflix. damn if it didn't get to me in the first 10 minutes. i wound up watching all of season 1 in a week. i am hooked and can't wait until season 2 is available in august.

upper east side new yorkers and their kids. rich and generally selfish teens but with the touch of vulnerability that keeps them from being totally despicable. class and position have more pitfalls than meets the eyes. the flash and cash may be their facade. true, some of these girls and guys are real bitches and jerks. some, most, of their parents are no better. maybe even worse. apples seldom fall far from the proverbial tree.

but there is a heartbeat within the seemingly emotionally rotten walking corpses.
the heartbeat is provided by the pairing of serena van der woodsen (blake lively) and dan humphrey (penn badgley). dan is not from the elite upper crust. he is from the wrong side of the tracks or in this case the wrong side of the williamsburg bridge that joins manhattan and brooklyn. they are romeo and juliet, maria and tony. i hope their fate is better. they are a charming, delightful and loving pair. good apples among rotting fruit. their character names alone set them miles apart. i'm totally rooting for them. as well as for a long career for the actors portraying them. in this they are casting perfection. it bodes well for their future.




there is also the wonderful kelly rutherford (melrose place) as serena's mom.


there is mathew steele(brothers and sisters) as dan's father.
there is a past shared between them. is there a future between them if serena doesn't stand in their way? serena is not selfish about this. she has a finely tuned point.

there is the ever wonderful margaret colin as eleanor waldorf mother of blair waldorf (leighton meester) the biggest bitch snob of all. or is she the most damaged child of the upper crust?


the rest of the cast, adults and teens alike, are cast well and give it all they've got. they've got a lot and deliver.
special credit is reserved for serena's brother eric portrayed by connor paolo. the kid's got the making of a star. hollywood please make him a star.
make blake and penn stars too. they have "it". they are both charming and delightful. both a welcome change from the usual teenagers tv generally offers.
keep giving kelley rutherford work. she's is one of television's marvelous delights.

smart crisp writing.
brilliant direction and editing.
great acting.
what else is there???
hell it's one of the best tv has to offer!!!

they sucked me in and i'm gladly going for the ride they offer. when the hell does season 3 start?









blake and penn on 'the view'



bloopers:




YES I AM OFFICIALLY OBSESSED WITH 'GOSSIP GIRLS' XOXO

and by the way: new york magazine obviously agrees with me!!!

'The Edge of Love'

I'm not really sure what happened to this Keira Knightley film. It never opened anywhere near me after I heard it was going to open in New York and LA the last week of March.
Today I find out the DVD will be released on July 14th.
Kind of odd for a box office star like Knightley.

A Last Look At Oscar 2009

(click volume on to hear josh grobin and lara fabian)

Happy Valentine's Day From My Friends At ABC Daytime

OSCARless

Some OSCAR Memories Past

'Brideshead Revisited'

Caught up with this 2008 film on DVD. It was released in July and got lost in the midst of the summer movies. I guess Miramax didn't have enough faith in it to hold to the fall blitz of more serious film. I t should have been held up. I t is not a great film but it isn't bad either. Having never seen the BBC adaptation it was new for me. Good story. Very British. Worth a look.

Emma Thompson is always a welcome presence in any film and plays the matriarch of Brideshead beautifully.

'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button'

Another brilliant film in what appears to be a great year for films.

This is so curiously different.

It's long but never boring or dull. I cannot think of a single frame that could have been cut and kept it's perfect flow.

Brad Pitt has never been better. Cate Blanchett delivers another amazing performance.
Tilda Swenton shines in a low key supporting role.
Julia Ormond is amazingly graceful as Caroline THE daughter.

But it is Taraji Penda Henson who really breaks out in a most deserved oscar nominated role. She just may be the one to beat in the end game.

David Fincher follows up 'Zodiac' and one of my favorites 'Seven' with award worthy direction. In another year when there was no 'Slumdog Millionaire' he could have won.

BEST WINNERS OF 1960'S

Best Picture Winners 1950's

Kate, Meryl, Sally, Angelina, Tina, Brad, Sean and The Gangs All Here

SAG AWARDS 2009

'Revolutionary Road'

And now there is brilliance. The desolution of a marriage right before our eyes as directed by Sam Mendes.
Two brilliant performances: Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio.
Leo has become a man. Leo is becoming one of our finest actors.
Kate? What more can I say? I still wonder how she does it. How does she go so deep inside herself to create such real and in this case tortured and believable characters.

Kate the Great is no longer named Hepburn but Winslet.
This film is a ready made classic.
Run. Just run to a theatre and see it.
This is no picnic though. This is a rough, tough, soul wrenching film.
This is not 'Titanic'. This is not Rose and Jack. This is April and Frank who bear no resemblance to Rose and Jack at all.

I must note an exceptional performance by Michael Shannon as the disturbed none to sane John Givings. But maybe he is the sanest of all. And just maybe there is no maybe about it.

*(kate deservedly won the golden globe this past sunday night as best actress for this film)

Judgement At Nuremberg is #13

Nominated for 11 Oscars it won two. Abby Mann for screenplay and the brilliant Maximilian Schell for Best Actor. It could have won more but this was the year of 'West Side Story". Enough said.

Sadly the Oscar winning screenwriter passed away this past week.

The story that needed to be told.












The Trailer



Why Maximilian Schell Won The Oscar!





The Brilliant Montgomery Clift



Marlene Dietrich's :"We Did Not Know"



Judy Garland's Finest Moment On Film



The Verdict



Maxamilian Schell on Oscar night

Kate and Leo 'Revolutionary Road' Premiere

The Film Stills: