The blog for all the best contemporary movies, avant-garde, risque cinema, without censoriship.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
HOT CELEBRITIES: Imogen Thomas, Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis, Clémence Poésy, Tamara Ecclestone, Felicity Jones
I don't believe in marriage or soul mates, says Vanessa Paradis as rumours her relationship with Johnny Depp is floundering
22nd January 2012
Long romance: The couple, pictured here in 2005, have two children together
French actress Vanessa Paradis has spoken about feeling ‘in the depths of myself’ as her 14-year relationship with Hollywood star Johnny Depp is said to be on the brink of collapse. Miss Paradis hinted at the strains on her in real life in interviews to promote her latest film. The star, 39, who has two children with the Pirates Of The Caribbean star, was in Paris promoting Cafe De Flore, in which she plays a single mother. The actress, who did not refer to Depp by name, claimed she didn’t believe in marriage or soulmates because ‘if you lose your soulmate everything is done for’. She went on: ‘Cafe De Flore speaks of love, its joys, its pains and its dramas – to love and to lose. This story upset me, I was upside-down, in the depths of myself.’ She added: ‘The idea of a soulmate is beautiful and very romantic to talk about it in a movie or a song, but in reality, I find it scary.’ On Thursday the star cut a despondent figure as she shopped for DVDs including The Seven Year Itch on the Champs Elysees.
She is staying with her family in Paris while Depp, 48, who made an appearance at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles last week, is believed to have moved into a 29-room castle in Hollywood. According to a new report by the highly respected publication People magazine, their relationship has been rocky for quite some time.
It follows several reports that the pair's relationship is on the rocks.
Stand for one: Depp attended the Golden Globes all alone - fuelling rumours that there are problems in his relationship
Still going strong in 2010: The couple was spotted looking happy at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in France
A source told Radar Online: 'Johnny isn't handling anything well right now. 'People around him are worried about how Johnny is doing because he and Vanessa seem so fractured right now. Their relationship is heading toward the end.' The source claimed: 'Johnny has started reaching out to lawyers, probably to quietly discuss how to get out of the relationship. 'They're not married but they've been together for years and have kids together so it isn't as easy as just breaking up. Johhny is so talented at acting, but he doesn’t seem able to hide how badly things are going right now.'
Imogen Thomas is back to her best after moaning about wearing no make-up
22nd January 2012 At the start of this month she moaned about how much weight she had put on over the Christmas period.
Then earlier this week she complained that she was snapped without any make-up on and said wrote: 'Where did that pap come from? Tired no make up #palemess x.'
Things were back to normal for Imogen Thomas last night as she stepped out in London looking back to her best.
Party hard: Imogen Thomas went out in London last night dressed up for the first time this week
The 29-year-old was celebrating a friends birthday at 55 Club in Holborn, London, and was looking glamorous once more in a short tight blue dress.
Showing off her legs and her enviable figure, the glamour model was tanned up and wearing a full face of make-up as she left the club holding a orange clutch bag.
The former Big Brother star had excitedly posted messages on Twitter earlier in the day about her big night out.
Made up: Imogen complained about not wearing make-up earlier this week
She said: 'I'm havin a nap before partying tonight whooooop...who's out? #dancing,' and followed it with 'Whooooop...happy bday benjy! Mayfair then 55...yeap we gonna #partyhard (sic).'
The former Miss Wales has had a difficult week after having a public row with Natasha Giggs via the social network.
Twitter fight: The glamour model argued online with Natasha Giggs this week
However, after the virtual argument Natasha appeared on This Morning and said: 'I have absolutely no problem with her.'
She insisted the only reason she hit back at Imogen on Twitter was because the model had started writing things about her first: 'I've never mentioned her, I've never tweeted on her and I felt there was no reason for her to say anything about me.'
Pale day: The former Miss Wales was spotted looking out of sorts this week
Tamara Ecclestone wows in revealing sparkling dress as she throws a surprise party for boyfriend Omar
21st January 2012 She may have thrown a glitzy surprise birthday party for her boyfriend last night. But Tamara's best present for Omar Khyami was probably the heiress herself. The stockbroker would have been proud to have the stunning brunette on his arm at C London in Mayfair.
Shining star: Tamara Ecclestone hosted a birthday dinner for her lucky boyfriend, Omar Khyami
She showed off her amazing figure in a skintight gold dress, which had a sheer panel at the front, showing off her cleavage.
The 27-year-old flaunted her toned legs in the number, which she paired with an array of jewellery, including hoop earrings, bangles and rings.
Me and my man: The heiress looked chuffed after surprising the stockbroker last night
Do you like my dress? Tamara looked gorgeous in this gold number at C restaurant
She added a pair of strappy gold heels and held a small white clutch to complete the ensemble.
Her brunette locks were curled and fell loosely around her face. Omar, who turned 38, looked casual in a pair of blue jeans and a black leather jacket as he placed a loving arm around his girlfriend's waist.
Birthday boy: Tamara tweeted that Omar 'didn't suspect anything' about his surprise party
Don't float away! Tamara holds a massive bunch of helium balloons as she leaves the restaurant
And things obviously went smoothly, as she tweeted today: 'Morning! Such a great night worth feeling very hungover this morning. Omar didn't suspect anything and loved his surprise party.' Tamara, daughter of Formula One boss Bernie, made sure she had a star-studded guest list for the bash, inviting Holly Valance and her fiancé Nick Candy. Holly looked gorgeous in a massive fur coat and black leather trousers while billionaire Nick opted for a silk green blazer and black trousers.
Celebrities on the guest list: Holly Valance and her fiancé Nick Candy were among the guests
Risqué leading lady: BBC's Birdsong star Clémence Poésy once appeared naked in X-rated comedy drama
22nd January 2012 The star of a brand new BBC drama previously acted in an X-rated comedy drama. French actress Clémence Poésy is the lead female in BBC drama Birdsong but she once appeared naked on screen in a film called Olgas Sommer. The 29-year-old, who also played Eva Coupeau in Gossip Girl, starred in the 2002 film in which she played a 16-year-old girl who had fallen head over heels in love with a middle-aged man.
Chemistry: Clémence Poésy and Eddie Redmayne star in BBC drama Birdsong
A movie insider told the Daily Star how much the blonde beauty impressed everybody on set and left a 'big impression' on the cast and crew.
They said: 'Her sex appeal hasn’t waned since her gorgeous curves made Olgas Summer a cult hit with her fans. It’s obvious why. 'Clémence might have only been 19 at the time but she made a big impression with this film – and not just with her acting.'
The talent: Clémence Poésy appeared in naked in Olgas Summer in 2002
The French actress, who is most popular for her role in the Harry Potter movies where she played Fleur Delacour, will tease viewers with more bedroom antics in BBC's Birdsong. The wartime set drama will see Clémence play the love interest alongside leading man Eddie Redmayne, 30. She praised her gorgeous co-star and told Digital Spy: 'He's the loveliest, most generous, gentle... he's so genuinely interested in everyone, making everyone feel really special.
Magical: The french beauty pictured in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
'Everyone just wants to talk to Eddie - when he shows up on set you kind of feel a general movement [towards him]! He's great, he's got everything, that guy.' On her sex scenes with Eddie she said: 'Well, it's easier because it's Eddie Redmayne but it doesn't make it easy. 'What was great is that it was - this is going to sound stupid - it was a team effort. We were trying to get them right.'
A big impression: The actress says working with Eddie Redmayne was easy
Felicity Jones: Meet the actress who's about to take the world by storm
22nd January 2012
She may have auditioned in the shower, but Felicity Jones’s performance in improvised indie film Like Crazy has won her major acclaim at international festivals. Here she talks to Stuart Husband about bracing herself for her next big role – as the hottest British actress on the block
'Actors are lucky in being able to retain that playfulness, though we do seem to find it hard to grow up,' says Felicity
As part of the research for her new movie, Felicity Jones interned at a Los Angeles style magazine called Flaunt. ‘It was a slightly bizarre experience,’ she laughs. ‘They seemed to be obsessed with coolness, trying to work out who was the coolest person on the planet at any given moment.’ The answer may well have been right under their noses. Over the past few years, Felicity has become one of the hottest, and therefore coolest, actresses around, proving equally adept at costume drama and contemporary romantic comedy. She’s matey with Carey Mulligan and recently experienced the modern rite of passage for every Bright Young British Thing by appearing in a Burberry ad. Official validation came when she won the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for her role as Anna, an English girl experiencing the joys and ravages of first love in Los Angeles, in the low-budget movie Like Crazy. ‘That was a truly surreal experience,’ she says, curled into a chair in a London publicist’s office and eyeing a tray of cakes that have been shipped in from a nearby patisserie. ‘I’m still trying to make sense of it all.’ Despite the rigours of a full-on press junket, Felicity is displaying all the winningly gauche charm of an ingénue, albeit one with a penchant for fashion-forward polka-dot blouses and precipitously heeled ankle boots. She giggles a lot, fiddles with her choppily bobbed hair, only notices that she’s spilled tea on her skirt when proffered a paper towel, makes liberal, wide-eyed use of the words ‘bizarre’ and ‘unusual’, and altogether seems a lot younger than her 28 years. But that was surely one of the reasons that Like Crazy’s young director Drake Doremus seized on her to play Anna, who ages from 19 to 27 during the movie’s span. The other clinching factor was Felicity’s unorthodox audition tape: she climbed into her bathroom shower to shoot an approximation of the movie’s final, emotionally climactic scene. ‘You just have to take these opportunities when they come along,’ she shrugs, while tucking into a slice of apple tart. ‘They’re not that frequent; you’ll get a really good script, oh, maybe once a year if you’re lucky. So I tried to think outside the box a bit, and I set up a camera in my flat. Drake said he couldn’t see my face most of the time because the lighting was so bad,’ she says. ‘He took a big chance, casting me from this grainy tape. But then, this whole film was about going out on a limb.’
From left: Felicity with Anton Yelchin in Like Crazy; with her artist boyfriend Ed Fornieles - they met while studying at Oxford University
Felicity is referring to Doremus’s modus operandi: he gets his actors to improvise their dialogue around a bare outline. Thus, all Felicity knew about Like Crazy was that Anna, a media-studies student at college in California, falls head over heels in love with a furniture designer named Jacob (Anton Yelchin), only to see the relationship challenged when she overstays her visa and is unable to return to the US. The film is searingly intimate – most of its 90-minute running time consists of close-ups of Anton’s and Felicity’s faces – and Anton says that, while he and Felicity indeed felt that they were going crazy sometimes, ‘it was an extraordinary feeling to create a character from the inside out’. Felicity concurs: ‘I love the fact that Drake puts the characters first, but I also loved the way the story was told. It looks at this relationship in a very honest, unsentimental way, and it really understands the intricacies and complications of love, where things aren’t easy or tidy. I felt I could really get my teeth into it.’ And despite the shoestring exigencies (she did her own hair and make-up for Like Crazy and wore her own clothes), Felicity is obviously keen for more, having already completed Doremus’s as yet untitled follow-up. So how does she choose her roles? ‘I’m a masochist in some ways,’ she grins. ‘I look for things that I think I can’t do, then, for some bizarre reason, I really want to do them. Maybe one day I’ll take the easy route.’ With every script, she says, she looks for a way into the character – ‘Is there something weird about them? What’s the hook?’ For Anna, it was ‘her obsessive quality; she makes all the running in the relationship, which is quite unusual. I think she feels freer because she’s displaced in LA, and as an actor, you’re always being plonked down in new environments and situations, so I understood her psychologically.’ Felicity also knows a thing or two about first love (‘I’ve felt it, of course – that pulling out of
the rug from under your feet’) and long-distance relationships: she once got on a plane without telling her then boyfriend that she was on her way, and travelled 16 hours before knocking
on his door. ‘Luckily, he was at home – and he was alone,’ she grins. ‘But being an actor, relationships are permanently long distance.’ ‘I love the way the story in Like Crazy looks at the intricacies and complications of love, where things aren’t easy or tidy’ As she discusses her profession, it becomes apparent that behind the guileless façade lurks the methodical, academic sensibility that gained her a 2:1 in English from Wadham College, Oxford. She stayed with a Catholic family before taking on the role of the devout-but-doomed heroine in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Luise Miller, and she did two months of snowboard training, followed by an undercover stint scrubbing toilets and partying at après-ski bars before playing Kim, the tomboy from the wrong side of the tracks who falls for her boss’s son, Ed Westwick, in last year’s romantic comedy Chalet Girl. ‘It does sound a bit methody, doesn’t it?’ she laughs. ‘But for me, acting’s about losing myself in a role. The last thing I want is to draw attention to myself. I want the person I’m playing to be as real as possible.’ She smooths her skirt. ‘As a child, I always liked dressing up and getting into character, and actors are lucky in being able to retain that playfulness, though we do seem to find it hard to grow up,’ she says. For Felicity, that childlike quality seems to have cohabited with a wilful, independent streak. She was born and brought up in Bournville, the model village just south of Birmingham planned and built by the Cadbury family for factory workers. ‘There were a lot of perfectly manicured privet hedges,’ she laughs. Her parents met while working at the Wolverhampton Express & Star; her father was a journalist and her mother was in the advertising department. They divorced when Felicity was three; she and her younger brother were raised by her mother. And, while Felicity stresses that they all remained close and that her childhood was a happy one, it’s clear that the episode provided an early close-up into the schisms of the adult world. ‘I think it kind of showed that things don’t always pan out, that they’re not always as comfortable as they seem.’ Perhaps this is when Felicity got the taste for inventing her own parallel worlds. Pretty soon she was acting in school plays, encouraged by her parents and by her uncle, the actor Michael Hadley. ‘We were always encouraged to go off and try things out,’ she shrugs. ‘My brother went to France when he was 16 and worked in a guest house, learning French.’ (He now works as a film editor.) Felicity got her first screen role at 11, in an adaptation of E Nesbit’s The Story of the Treasure Seekers, alongside a young Keira Knightley (‘We all felt, even then, that she’d go on to big things,’ she has said of her co-star. ‘She just had a presence’).
A year later, she was playing the bullying harridan Ethel Hallow in the ITV children’s show The Worst Witch; at 15 she embarked on a decade of playing the teen tearaway Emma Grundy in The Archers on Radio 4, and at 17 she was back playing Ethel Hallow in Weirdsister College, and availing herself of a private tutor to get her through her A-levels. ‘Up to that point it had all been a bit of a lark,’ she says. ‘It was only after university that I said to myself that I had to take the risk and have a serious go at acting. It’s such a bizarre profession, because you have to be totally tough to deal with all those times when you’re being turned down, and then really soft in order to access your character’s emotions. You need to be either terribly sane or terribly insane. I’m not quite sure which of those I am.’ While her sanity may be in question, her ability is not. She has played everything from Miranda in the movie version of The Tempest, alongside Helen Mirren as Prospera, to the fresh-faced Julie in Ricky Gervais’s comedy Cemetery Junction. In 2007 she starred alongside Carey Mulligan in an ITV adaptation of Northanger Abbey, where they became friends. ‘It was one of our first jobs, and we both had this excitement of being at the beginning of things,’ says Felicity. It is Carey Mulligan who has forged a stellar Hollywood career, despite being just a year and a bit older than Felicity, but she says that she doesn’t measure herself against her, or Keira Knightley, or anyone else. ‘I maybe did that a bit when I was first starting out,’ she concedes, with a grin, ‘but the more work you do, the more confident you become. Comparisons are a product of insecurity, because you really can’t control things that much in this job. As long as you go after a part you really want when one comes along, that’s all you can really do.’ She pauses. ‘Doing Like Crazy felt like a shift to me; I suddenly realised that I didn’t need to worry so much, and became more relaxed. It was definitely a bit of a turning point.’ There’s certainly a Hollywood buzz building around Felicity; both Up in the Air director Jason Reitman and mogul Harvey Weinstein are believed to be courting her for their next projects, and she’s already completed a Victorian comedy called Hysteria (with Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal). But she continues to be based in London rather than LA, and namechecks edgy British director Andrea Arnold (Red Road, the new version of Wuthering Heights) as someone she’d love to work with. ‘I like directors who care about performance, because, in the end, you’re only as good as they allow you to be,’ Felicity says breezily. Meanwhile, she’s currently living out of a suitcase, and trying to make time for her boyfriend, artist Ed Fornieles. The pair met at Oxford, when he was at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, and they live in the artistic mecca of East London, though any further enquiries are met with a polite but firm rebuttal. Felicity’s father, who obviously knew about such things, once advised her never to trust a journalist, and while she’s unfailingly civil and forthcoming about her craft, there are certain areas she prefers not to discuss. ‘I think he meant I should maintain a sense of privacy,’ she says. ‘Not to be guarded exactly, but not to tell everybody everything.’ The trouble is, the more prominent she gets, the more intrusive the interest will be. Is she ready for that? She frowns. ‘I’ll just keep doing what I do, and hopefully the rest will take care of itself,’ says Felicity Jones, in her ineffably cool kind of way.
Like Crazy will be in cinemas on Friday
Felicity’s faves
Record Roxy Music’s first album [above left]. Art-rock at its finest.
Fashion icon I love Patti Smith [above right], and I adore Brigitte Bardot in Le Mépris.
BookWar And Peace by Tolstoy and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. They’re just excellent.
Make-up essential I love wearing black kohl eyeliner, and Mac’s is the best.
Shoes I’m a little too fond of footwear. I do love a good black, heeled boot.
Saving up for… It would be nice to buy a house at some point, though it seems like a distant dream at the moment.
Whitney Houston shines as Jordin Sparks' mother in remake of musical movie Sparkle
22nd January 2012 The original 1976 movie starred Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara and Lonette McKee but Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks are bringing a modern hint of glamour to Sparkle. The pair can be seen all glammed up in the first shot released from the film, a remake of the blockbuster about how a girl group experiences turmoil after one of their members turns to drugs and another achieves their desired fame alone. Houston, 48, – who has struggled with addiction herself in the past - plays the role of parent Emma.
Like mother and daughter: Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston star in the 2012 remake of Sparkle
She’s pictured looking healthy and happy in front of the camera wearing large curls and a red pout with a low V-neck frock.
It’s been over 15 years since she starred in a Hollywood picture, the last silver screen appearance being in 1996 for The Preacher’s Wife. Houston said: ‘Part of the fun of making this movie is definitely the costumes and the hairstyles. The movie is set in 1963, and we had a great wardrobe, hair and makeup person and I loved wearing the outfits.’
Making a comeback: Houston pictured last year at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party
Who's that girl? The American Idol season six winner (pictured at her 22nd birthday party earlier this month) has slimmed down considerably since her days on the TV talent show
Co-star Jordin spoke highly of the diva to People magazine. ‘She was so cool and very motherly toward me. If I ever looked like I needed something, here she came saying 'Are you okay?' ‘I sang her songs into a hairbrush when I was little. Now she's acting as my mum and scolding me. It was a dream come true.’
Sparkle: The original cast in the 1976 film
Meanwhile season six American Idol winner, Sparks, aptly plays portrays Sparkle – Cara’s character from decades ago. The 22-year-old fresh face shows off her slimmed down figure in a cleavage-bearing red dress. The singer revealed her brand new bikini body in last year after dropping a considerable about of weight since she first found fame. She told the publication in July: ‘My diet has pretty much remained the same, like if I want a piece of bread, I’m gonna have a piece of bread, but I’m making healthier decisions like instead of a bag of chips for a snack, I’ll see if I can find an apple. ‘I’ve also upped my intake of vegetables and I’m drinking a lot more water.’ Other famous faces in the flick due out August 10, include Cee Lo Green who is the girls’ opening act and Derek Luke playing Thomas’ character, Stix.
On the silver screen: Singer Cee Lo Green is another famous face to grace the flick due out in August
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