Sno-way

Yes...one of the dwarves actually says "Sno-way" when first meeting Snow White.

It seems that Mirror Mirror (the other Snow White movie) is gonna be the "wacky" version of Snow White and honestly, as much as I enjoy Julia Roberts, this looks awful.

I get that they are going for light-hearted family fare, more like a Princess Diaries than Snow White and the Huntsman. However, the sets, acting, and special effects all look so wooden and cheap. You'd never know that it was directed by the same guy who just directed the visually stunning, Immortals.

Even the series Once Upon a Time looks like it has a higher budget (and it's actually a pretty good show, by the way).



I do enjoy me some Julia Roberts, but I'll definitely be skipping this version in March (they are very lucky they come out first!) and only paying to see the other Snow White movie with Charlize Theron playing a truly evil queen.

The only evil queen in Julia's movie is Nathan Lane.

Fu#@k your juice, Shelby

Jimmy Kimmel challenged Steel Magnolias co-stars, Julia Roberts and Sally Field, to his first "Celebrity Curse-Off" and, as you would expect…the result is very entertaining.



Me thinks Julia Roberts is much more comfortable with swearing than she pretended to be.

Props to Sally Field, the clear winner.

via: Towleroad

The Normal Heart

HBO released a teaser trailer for their upcoming movie, The Normal Heart. It's got a great cast (Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer) and looks like it's gonna be a tear-jerker.



I may just have to keep HBO after all.

The Normal Heart premieres May 25th.

James Gandolfini and Slim Whitman

Some very surprising and sad news yesterday...

James Gandolfini, best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO's "The Sopranos," died Wednesday while on vacation in Italy. He was 51.

Gandolfini's acting credits included roles in "The Last Castle" with Robert Redford, "The Mexican" with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, and "Surviving Christmas" with Ben Affleck. In recent years, he had starred in several movies, including the Oscar-nominated "Zero Dark Thirty," "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" and "Killing Them Softly."

He will certainly be remembered for his iconic role on The Sopranos. You definitely did not want to mess with that character.

Also, another passing yesterday...



Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeling county music singer whose productive career spanned decades, died Wednesday, his son-in-law told CNN. He was 90. 

Whitman gained fame in Europe as well as the United States. "Love Song of the Waterfall," which a Country Music Television biography calls his "breakthrough" hit, was released in the early '50s. His next single "Indian Love Call" brought him stardom, according to the bio. 

His music was featured in the 1996 film "Mars Attacks!" In the film, the sound of Whitman's "Indian Love Call" made the heads of invading Martians explode.

I will always remember his song "Una Paloma Blanca" because it was featured prominently on his endlessly running late-night commercial for one of his albums in the 80's. You know the ones...they seem to run every commercial break after midnight.

Una Paloma blanca...ahh...Ahhhhhhhh!

That yodel is always in my mind somewhere...and always makes me laugh.

They will both be missed.

Holla

James Corden released a new episode of Carpool Karaoke last night and, this time, it features Gwen Stefanie and a couple of "random" passengers who join them along the way....



Like the others, it's very entertaining and fun. Especially all of them singing "Hollar Back Girl" and "We are the Champions".

Just a side note: George Clooney and Julia Roberts never got in the car with me so that I could ride in the HOV lane when I lived in LA.

Bastards.

Mirror, Mirror

That's what usually happens when I look in the mirror in the morning.

The latest trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman was released last week and, like the trailer for Prometheus, it's looking really good.



Cool visuals!

So much better than the Julia Roberts Snow White movie.

That will be an OnDemand viewing experience for sure.

Friends and Family plan

Jennifer Aniston joined Instagram yesterday with her first photo with a few of her "friends"...

Jennifer Aniston, once one of the few A-list actress holdouts to social media, opened her Instagram account yesterday and as of this morning she’s counting an enormous 8.6M followers, all from one Friends 25th anniversary reunion selfie with her fellow cast members Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer. 

Already off of that one photo, Aniston has more followers on Instagram than fellow actresses Jennifer Garner (7.4M), Julia Roberts (6.8M), Nicole Kidman (5.5M), Charlize Theron (4.5M) and Shailene Woodley (4.4M). The photo itself logged a mind-boggling 10.2M likes. Aniston also smashed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s record of the fastest Instagram account to reach 1M followers. According to the Guinness World Records, the royal couple have held the title since April, when they signed up to the app and amassed that number within 5 hours and 45 minutes. Aniston’s Instagram amassed so many followers, it reportedly crashed her account for a bit yesterday, but was quickly fixed.

I think she's gonna do just fine.

Who's the fairest?

This is one of the competing Snow White movies coming out next year.

This is the one without Julia Roberts.

This is the one with Kristen Twilight Stewart, Charlize Monster Theron, and Chris Thor Hemsworth.



That looks like it just might kick some ass.

Garry Marshall

Some very sad news last night...

Garry Marshall, a giant of TV comedy whose long list of credits include such landmark series as Happy Days, The Odd Couple and The Dick Van Dyke Show, has died. He was 81. 

He also helmed 18 feature films including Pretty Woman, and had acting credits dating to the 1960s. 

Marshall also co-created and wrote such classic 1970s comedies as Happy Days spinoffs Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. The former co-starring his sister Penny Marshall was the No. 1 primetime series in back-to-back seasons, and the latter made a star of Robin Williams. With those and Happy Days, the Bronx native had a hand in creating, writing and producing three of the four top-rated TV series of 1978-79. 



During the 1970s and ’80s, Marshall also co-created and/or wrote for and directed sitcoms Blansky’s Beauties, Angie, Makin’ It, The Brian Keith Show, The New Odd Couple, Me and the Chimp and yet another Happy Days spinoff in Joanie Loves Chachi. Marshall already was a veteran of the TV comedy game by the 1970s, having written multiple episodes of such series as Make Room for Daddy, The Joey Bishop Show, The Lucy Show and Love, American Style. He also penned 18 episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show‘s final season. 



Marshall directed the 1990 smash comedy Pretty Woman, which made a star of Julia Roberts. He would direct her again in Runaway Bride (1999) and his recent holiday-themed films Mother’s Day — which opened in April — and Valentine’s Day. His other film directing credits include the Michelle Pfeiffer-Al Pacino drama Frankie & Johnny (see photo below), Beaches, Overboard, The Princess Diaries, The Flamingo Kid and Young Doctors in Love.

I think I've watched just about every series and movie that he ever worked on over the years. His projects always seemed to have an element of fun and usually left you smiling at the end.

That is a pretty amazing legacy to leave behind.

He will be missed.

Take a whack at Weezie!

Looks like Steel Magnolias is getting a Lifetime makeover...

Queen Latifah is joining the star-studded cast for Lifetime’s all-African-American Steel Magnolias reboot as M’Lynn, the character played by Sally Field in the 1989 feature film of the same name.

Condola Rashad will play her diabetes-stricken daughter, Shelby (played by Julia Roberts), and Rashad’s mother Phylicia will reinterpret the role of Clairee (portrayed by Olympia Dukakis). Alfre Woodard will tackle the irascible Ouiser, who was unforgettably played by Shirley MacLaine, Jill Scott looks to fill Dolly Parton’s shoes as understanding hairdresser Truvy, and Pariah breakout Adepero Oduye will play insecure newcomer Annelle, made famous by Daryl Hannah.

Remakes like this always make me nervous and I usually expect the worst (Nora Ephron's Bewitched "update" was unforgivable).

However, the 21 Jumpstreet movie seems to be pulling in the kids and decent reviews, so anything is possible.

I just wish they had chosen Marla Gibbs to play Ouiser.

She would have been great!

Mike Nichols

Very sad news today…

Legendary film and theater director, writer and producer Mike Nichols has passed away. He was 83.

An Oscar winner for 1967′s seminal The Graduate, he also was nominated for such films as Working Girl, Silkwood and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? For his stage work, he amassed 10 Tony Awards including as director for such plays as Barefoot In The Park, The Odd Couple, The Prisoner Of Second Avenue and Death Of A Salesman; and as producer of Annie and The Real Thing. 

His TV credits include exec producing classic 1970s drama series Family and directing and exec producing HBO drama Angels In America. 

Nichols was married to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. 

The list of actors with whom Nichols worked on stage and screen is a who’s who of Hollywood, past and present. They include (in no particular order) Julie Christie, Lillian Gish, George C Scott, Richard Dreyfuss, Morgan Freeman, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Emma Thompson, John Travolta, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman, Christopher Walken, John Goodman, Kevin Kline, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ron Silver, Anne Bancroft, Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. 

He was a great director and I loved his HBO production of Angels in America.

He will be missed.