Matthew Broderick’s Broadway career has been less than stellar following the massive success of The Producers. His reteaming with Nathan Lane in The Odd Couple failed to find the same spark, and his performance in The Philanthropist earlier this year suffered harsh criticism (and not just for those sideburns). Following a distastrous preview last Monday, his new play The Starry Messenger might be dead on arrival. Attendees report that Broderick frequently forgot his lines—asking for assistance ten times in the first act alone.
“He kept apologizing under his breath after he forgot a line,” said NY Daily News source, “and everyone in the audience started to feel awkward.” In an apparent response, the play’s producers have set its official premiere for Nov. 23rd, a week later than original planned. Even if he gets his act together, will Broderick’s bad buzz prove impossible to overcome?
Ever since Nicole Kidmanbared all on the West End stage in The Blue Room, getting your kit off in a thespy-type situation has been the fast-ticket to success for ambitious actresses. And now Anna Friel, whose show Pushing Daises was recently canceled (and is best known in the UK for being the first actress to do a lesbian snog on-screen back in 1993 for now-defunct soap Brookside - watch it here) has followed in her skin-baring footsteps.
Anna’s currently wowing the crowds with her acting skills - and gym-honed butt - in a production of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, that’s garnering positive reviews. But theatre bosses have attempted to ban folk from taking sneaky mobile snaps of Anna in the buff (although you can see them here) because it’s a “serious production” hazard. Yep, we know. But doesn’t her bum look amazing, too? [Photo: WENN]
We always thought there was a tragic comedy to the Amy Winehouse saga of the past couple of years, and even her family agrees. Amy’s brother Alex is now speaking of the possibility of her drug, drink, divorce and sometimes singing-filled career being turned into a stage musical.
“Amy is much better. I think one day there could be a musical of Amy’s life. You just don’t ever know how far things can go these days,” he said.
We can’t see it quite packing in the family crowds like Billy Elliott but we actually reckon this could be quite brilliant. It’s got all the elements - the talented but flawed heroine who can’t give up her love for the evil villain Blake Incarcerated! To the despair of her salt of the earth dad Mitch, she’s sucked into the grimy underworld of Camden boozers and crack dens - only to be saved by the wisdom of concerned bloggers and perhaps a cute island kid in St Lucia! Er, or something like that. We’d totally see it. [Photo: Getty Images]
In Scandalist’s post about the mercury poisoning that kept Jeremy Piven from finishing Speed-The-Plow’s Broadway run, we suggested that people give him the benefit of the doubt “unless he shows up on a red carpet next week.” It wound up being more like three weeks, but Piven was alive and seemingly well at the Golden Globes last night. You are now free to doubt.
“It was a completely humbling experience. It was like being taken out of a game,” said Piven, hoping for another Best Supporting TV actor award for Entourage. “I could have gone against doctor’s orders, but I didn’t. I’m just grateful to be here.” Yeah, no one wants “killed by sushi” in their obituary.
Show producer Mark Wahlberg couldn’t help but say he hoped it wasn’t contagious, inspiring Piven to ask NBC’s Tiki Barber if he’d ever been pulled out of a football game. ”If they did, I would have jumped back in there,” said the pro-turned-commentator. ”Tiki, you’re an iron man!” said Piven. Good thing he lost the trophy to Tom Wilkinson, or he might have dropped a fake cough or two in his acceptance speech.
Really, if you’re too sick to go back to Broadway (the play runs until February 22nd), it’s poor form to hit an award ceremony. Bro even hit an afterparty! Katie Holmes made it to the last performance of All My Sons, and she really looks like death.
Sam Shepard was arrested for driving while intoxicated early Saturday morning in Normal, Illinois. The actor, whose blood alcohol level was double the legal limit, was driving from Minnesota to his Kentucky home. While the long-time paramour of Jessica Lange most recognizable for playing Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (he’s also the guy who yelled “You take my breath away!” to Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief right before his car blew up), Shepard has been a successful playwright since the 1960’s, winning a Pulitizer Prize for 1979’s The Buried Child.
There’s no reason to take this arrest as a hint of a meltdown. Dude got out of the draft by claiming to be a heroin addict, drummed for the Holy Modal Rounders, and performed a two-person play with Patti Smith about their affair while still married to his first wife. This is in no way a low.
Jeremy Piven has left the hit Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-The-Plough due to severe mercury poisoning. The show’s producers told TMZ that Piven was complaining of illness since the beginning of the run, self-diagnosing everything from mono to the Epstein-Barr virus before doctors discovered his addiction to sushi was the culprit. “He’s a voracious sushi eater. I tested him, and he’s got a shocking level of almost six times the upper limit of what’s allowable,” said a member of Piven’s elite medical team, which demanded he leave the play.
While we have no problem believing that Piven is a high-maintenance kind of guy in the best of situations, we think bloggers are being a little unfair with the jokes about hypochondria, suggesting he’d do anything to get out of the play. Dude is sick! If you had a team of doctors saying you had potentially lethal amounts of mercury in your system, you’d freak too. So what if he threw around some different possibilities beforehand while screaming for his latte backstage? Would you immediate realize if you had mercury poisoning?
People that actually have to deal with Piven (in sickness and in health) can be forgiven for ribbing the guy, but there’s really nothing for us to call “bullshit” on here unless he shows up on a red carpet next week. That or if he intentionally OD’d on sushi to get out of the gig, which would be so awesome.
Inside The Actors Studio is an easy source of awkwardness, with preeminent douchenozzle James Lipton kissing the feet of everyone from Jane Fonda and Morgan Freeman to Cameron Diaz and Tim Allen in front of a room of thespian wanna-bes. But we’re pretty sure this is the first time Lipton has asked a teenager about his penis on the program. God, we hope.
Lipton queries the Equus star about the “Michaelangelo’s David effect,” which turns out to be that the public display of one’s wang inspires the “opposite of an erection.” Radcliffe handles the situation nicely, coming off more Michael Caine than Harry Potter in his humor. Then Lipton notes the exposure is “like when you get out of a very cold lake or something.” Yes, exactly, James. Thank you for the metaphor. Maybe we should just be grateful Lipton isn’t visibly rubbing his nipples while the Radman speaks.
Fox News recently reported that Leonardo DiCaprio has “total respect for how young stars like Zac [Efron] handle it all”—”all” being the kind of teenybopper bullshit DiCappy has gone to great goatee-styling lengths to escape. “I look at young Zac Efron and think ‘Go get it pal, leave me in peace.’” Compare the grosses of Body Of Lies and High School Musical 3, and you’ll see that everyone has left Leo in peace.
Problem is, Leo never said any of that. Fox has pulled the story after DiCaprio’s handlers called the interview “100 percent made up.” Say it ain’t so! Next they’ll tell us that Efron isn’t impressed by Daniel Radcliffe’s balls.
“Daniel was very ballsy,” Efron reportedly responded to the rumors he’d replace Radcliffe’s sac on the Equus stage. “Oh wow, that is the wrong choice of word for that! He is very smart. But I don’t know if I would do something edgy for the sake of doing something edgy. I think as I mature, so will my roles. I think it will come with time. I’m not going to do anything drastic.” Coward. This is why Leo doesn’t respect you.
The big surprise on Thursday’s SNL Weekend Update special was the return of Will Ferrell as George Bush, who gave an unwelcome public endorsement to an anxious John McCain (Darrell Hammond) and chipper Sarah Palin (Tina Fey). Jason Sudeikis, who plays Bush on the show when comedy megastars aren’t around to do it, made an appearance as Palin’s husband Todd.
One reason Ferrell might have made the appearance was to get buzz going on his upcoming one-man Broadway show. The Talladega Nights star will perform as George Bush in You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush starting February 1st, with previews beginning January 20th. Ferrell will also bring out such loved SNL characters as Robert Goulet and James Lipton, and sharing anecdotes from his days with the long-running sketch show. Fans might need to hustle for tickets, though—it’s only schedule to run for a month and a half.
Check out some more clips of Ferrell playing Bush after the jump.
The reviews are in, and while Katie Holmes may have kinda sucked it in the opening performance of her show All My Sons, she sure as hell looked fierce when she left the theater! Let’s take a look at what the critics had to say about Mrs. Cruise’s work:
Entertainment Weekly:“After a painfully awkward first scene, she relaxes a bit; she’s at her best opposite Wilson, who’s terrifically cast as Sons‘ moral compass.”
The New York Times: “Ms. Holmes delivers most of her lines with meaningful asperity, italicizing every word.”
USA Today: At best, she exhibits a girlish exuberance that could serve her well in certain stage roles, provided she finds a director who can ease her obvious self-consciousness and get her to focus on the often-intricate process of character development…Her initial poise begins to seem strained and her relentlessly energetic line readings strangely flat — even when she screams them out, as she does quite jarringly at one point.”
So basically, she’s bringin’ a Dawson’s Creek caliber performance to Broadway. That pretty much sums up the state of art in America today - but let’s look at some sexy pics and forget all about that serious stuff instead. After the performance, Katie sizzled in a white pants suit Aladdin-esque jumper-thing. If your play sucks, distract ‘em with fashion!
