Watching New Celebs

If you probably have not heard of it, Tim Burton is doing the film adaptation of Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Shooting has already started in Cornwall, England and Johnny Depp is expected to be in the movie playing the role of the Mad Hatter. Photos from the set were leaked on to the internet, but it had none of Depp yet.

It had a lot of photos with Mia Wasikowska though.

She is Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

Mia Wasikowska is virtually an unknown in Hollywood. But the young lady is an actress from the land down under, Australia.

Born in the capital city of Canberra in 1990, Mia is quite an accomplished actress even if she just began acting two years ago. She was nominated for her role in the Australian film entry to the Cannes Festival, Suburban Mayhem. She is also part of the cast of HBO’s In Treatment.

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This one’s making the rounds on the internet. The Vice-Presidential hopeful was a beauty pageant queen back when she was still younger and single. This is from circa 1984… (which would have her belong in the same batch as Vanessa Williams?)

She shows a lot of poise and grace, I give you that.

The last time I’ve seen actress Olivia Thirlby on film was in Juno. Do you remember her playing Juno’s wacky best friend? She was great in it, wasn’t she?

Since then Olivia kept herself busy doing films left and right. Some of her movies even open weeks apart on the silver screen. Not pretty bad for someone who is just starting in the business, huh?

Olivia Thirlby is the only child of her Greenwhich Village parents. Being the one and only has made Olivia much more mature than people her age. By 18 years old, Olivia’s decision to move out of her parents house to focus on her career was met with full support and encouragement. She had to forego college then, but her parents had backed her decision all the way.

In an recent interview while promoting two of her films, The Wackness and Love Comes Lately Olivia credits her acting teacher with much this career decision and her understanding of it shows a lot about her maturity: “I got that advice from an acting teacher. The advice that he gave me was, ‘If you really want to make this your job, you should try to do it as soon as possible and not take yourself out of the game by going to college.’ “I think a lot of it is about decision-making, and continuing to do projects that are creatively fulfilling and not just financially fulfilling. But there’s a way to do both. It’s a lot of mind-set, too.”

When the time is right, this 21-year old up and comer would also like to work behind the scenes and write or direct her own movie.

After The Wackness and Love Comes Lately (both indie films) Olivia may be seen next in these productions:

• Breaking Upwards (2009)
• The Dream of the Romans (2009)
• Margaret (2009)
• Uncertainty (2008)
• New York, I Love You (2008)
• Safety Glass (2008)
• Eve (2008)

With plans of releasing a musical that isn’t at all like Disney’s High School musical, producer Judd Apatow has tapped the talents of an unknown who will eventually write the music and star in this film.

Who is this unknown? His name is Bo Burnham. Apatow saw what Burnham can do while he was performing at the Just for Laughs Festival held in Montreal a couple of months back. Virtually, though, the guy is not quite unknown in the web world. He has a solid online following on his Youtube Channel, where views have reached to about millions. He is one of Youtube’s stars, in fact.

Over at iTunes, Bo Burnham’s comedy album is also doing really well. It’s usually in the Top 10 list.

Burnham is only 18 years old and is currently as student at NYU’s Arts department. He has also been doing stand-ups in the New York comedy ciruit.

Watch and listen to one of Bo Burnham’s most popular videos on Youtube:

Yeah, yeah…she’s been in the entertainment business for so long, how can she be called a new celebrity? Because this week, it appeared to me that she is probably the most formidable star of Heroes, where she plays one of the original  people with superpowers, Mama Petrelli.

If you have been watching the season premiere, then you must be aware of how much important her character has developed. From a supporting cast member who only appears as guest once in a while (and I thought was gonna stay that way), Mama Petrelli now sits at the head of the table and is probably stirring everything that’s going to happen in the show;s third season.

I’m sure you’ve seen Cristine in almost every TV show running in the last two decades. She was on Gilmore Girls, on Friends, on King and Queens, on How I Met Your Mother. She usually played somebody else’s mom and was very good at it. It’s the very same role that got her into Heroes in the first place.

I’m not yet sure what her character will be like. Angela Petrelli seems driven and could thus become a really effective villain…someone like how Ben is on Lost.

At 57 years old and with a wealth of experience career wise,  Cristine Rose is the oldest breakout TV star we’ve seen.

Is the new role going to put big pressure on Cristine Rose, who has never been a big TV star before all this? How will she be able to handle the shift from supporting cast to very important cast?

I don’t know why someone as striking as Michelle Monaghan isn’t having her career lift-off just yet. To a certain degree, she’s everything a movie needs in a leading lady — beautiful, confident, sexy, bright and oozing with charm. But since doing her first few films in 2001, celebrity stardom seems elusive for her. With her looks and her confident demeanor and intelligent aura, she should’ve been top-billing in box office movies already. I see her Ashley Judd in her.

Is she doing the wrong kinds of projects? That I’m not quite sure…I thought Made of Honor (with Patrick Dempsey) was just so wrong for her.

Michelle Monaghan began as a model in the late 90’s and was doing a lot of commercials. She dabbled on TV and movies in 2001 and worked in films like Unfaithful with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. That movie was a big hit, but Michelle’s career took flight when she joined TV’s Boston Public a year later. Over the next few years, she would also be in the cast of some of the most popular movies — Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Bourne Supremacy and Mission Impossible 3. But it was in Kiss, Kiss Bang, Bang with Robert Downey Jr. where I really began to take notice of her.

To say that she is underrated…is putting it lightly. She had scenes in the movie Constantine and Syriana but these were removed when the film came out.

Why isn’t she the next Hollywood IT Girl? It’s long overdue.

Could her upcoming film with Shia LaBeouf finally bring her to that level?

Can you imagine Miley Cyrus playing a teenage Carrie Bradshaw?

She is apparently who Candace Bushnell wants. Candace Bushnell is, of course, the author of the best-selling book, Sex and the City, which also went to become an iconic television series in the early millennium.

The writer is currently working on her newest novels, a pair of stories depicting the Sex and the City icon’s life as a high school student. Tentatively titled as The Carrie Bradshaw Teen Diaries, there is expectedly a TV or movie spin-off in the works for this.

Sarah Jessica Parker played the adult Carrie in the TV and movie version and when asked by the press, Bushnell offered the name Miley Cyrus, the Disney Princess, for the teen version.

Asked to comment about this, Cyrus said, “I’d love to do a younger, cleaner version of Sex & The City.”

Bushnell’s books won’t be released until next year.

Source: Starpulse

He isn’t a “new celebrity” technically… because Stephen Chow is such a big name in Asia. And although some of his movies have unexpectedly made a bigger impact in the Western market, the actor has yet to try doing Hollywood movies and become a household name like his other Asian counterparts (Jet Lee and Jacky Chan) who are doing very well in Hollywood.

Reports say, Columbia Pictures has chosen Stephen Chow to join the remake of The Green Hornet. This would have to be his American debut, should negotiations do well. The Asian superstar is said to reprising the role of Kato, one that made the legendary Bruce Lee famous.

He is also said to be directing the film.

The Green Hornet will star Seth Rogen as the newspaper publisher slash crime-fighter.

Of this Hollywood role, Chow has this to say “The idea of stepping into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato is both humbling and thrilling, and to get the chance to direct the project as my American movie debut is simply a dream come true.”

Source: Starpulse

Below are the list of winners for Emmy 2008:

Singer and member of the Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, tops this year’s People Magazine’s list of Best Dressed Women. She joins these actresses all made it to Top 10 — Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Eva Mendes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna and Heidi Klum. She is also joined the possible future First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama.

The issue will be available on Friday, Sept. 19th.

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Spike TV’s third annual Scream Awards, which celebrates the greatest in science fiction, horror and suspense in Movies and Television, has released the list of nominees. The winners will be announced October 18th, while the telecast will be on October 21st.

We’re listing down the nominees for the actor category below, but you can vote for your favorites on this site.

Disney Teen Star, Selena Gomez, has a film about to be released direct to video on Tuesday, September 16th. It’s called Another Cinderella Story and it is labeled as a musical dance comedy adapted from the well-loved fairy tale. I know, I know… we’ve had tons of films based on this before. But what can I say? Cinderalla is such a well-loved children’s literature. It’s my favorite too. Although, I don’t particularly enjoy all of its adaptations.

As expected, this latest film has its own twist. Selena’s Cinderella story is set in the present day, the modern period with all the cellphones and gadgets and the pop references that basically screams this is a teenager’s movie.

Adults will probably not find much to enjoy in this one, since this movie isn’t made for them. This is clearly a very important launching vehicle for Selena.

In the story, instead of losing a glass slipper, the “Cinderella” here loses her Zune music player (I don’t know what that is, I’m old! You don’t know too? Then go and check this out). Playing the part of the prince is young actor Andrew Seeley, who takes possesion of the Zune and is bent on finding who owns it.

Last Saturday, Another Cinderella Story had its own little premiere in Los Angeles. But the film won’t be running in theaters. Instead, you can already buy videos at your preferred stores.

Another Cinderella Story has produced a hit song by Selena Gomez, in Tell Me Something I Don’t Know it is currently doing very well at iTunes and at the Billboard 200.

Selena Gomez currently stars in the TV series Wizards of Waverly Place and has appeared in Hannah Montana.

Eventually, that’s what many stars dream of doing — to get into directing. We’ve seen a lot of actors turned directors in recent years. Some have had quite a success at their new career, while others are better off seen and heard in front of the camera.

The latest among actors who have desires of going into directing is the young and lovely Natalie Portman, who first tried her hand at working behind the scenes vi the short film Eve starring Lauren Becall. It was shown to lukewarm reviews at the Venice International Film Festival. She also served as writer to the short film and from the experience Natalie says —- “The film was definitely inspired by personal experience and also all my friends, female friends, starting to define themselves in relation, and in reaction to, their mothers and their grandmothers. When you are an actor, of course you are creating something, but you are serving someone else’s vision and ultimately it’s someone else’s creation.To have authorship… feels like a more adult job.”

Next up is New York, I Love You, the adaptation of the French movie, Paris, Je T’aime. While there are a dozen of directors at the helm for this film, Natalie also gets extra credit as writer and is also starring in it. She is also is slated to make her first big full-length directorial debut via A Tale of Love And Darkness. The movie is based on the book by Amos Oz, the famous Israeli author, and it is about his life growing up in turbulent Jerusalem.

From these choices of projects, one can say that Natalie is picking work that will eventually have the world looking at her as a serious director. A grown-up job it truly is. Of her recent dabbling into directing, Natalie says in an interview that she now has a “whole new respect” for every director out there.

It’s not a world I am familiar with. I hardly know any poker superstars but they are apparently living like “rock stars” in the world they are in, thus becoming celebrity fodders for the tabloid media.

I’ve always suspected some professional poker players lead reckless lives. After all, they play dirty for money, they must be reckless in other aspects. Some of them even have sleazy backgrounds, I suppose.

These high rollers are millionaires and they can afford to give in to their whims. So it’s no surprise if we end up reading about their personal lives in the tabloids. That kind of journalism takes no exceptions anyway. With all the stories they can get out of these gambling superstars, tabloid magazines should have enough materials to fill out their juiciest issues.

The Globe, a tabloid magazine, has been following the story of Mike Matusow, said to be very big and popular in the Poker Community, in full detail. Arrested in 2003 for a drug related offence, he was in jail for six months and was released in 2005. The Globe recently did a follow up on him as an ex-con.

Another poker celebrity making headlines at the tabloids is Shahram Sheikhan who  has been dubbed the Poker Pervert. And there are even stories of poker players involved in sexual scandals, arrests and other unlawful activities.

These are all printed in the tabloids now. It’s the kind of reading material you have while waiting in line at the supermarket with your little kids peeking at you from behind.

American Idol two years back, Carrie Underwood, is among the top nominees of the 2008 Country Music Awards.

But Kenny Chesney, who won as Entertainer of the Year last year and the previous one, is dominating the nominations. Aside from being chosen as Entertainment of the Year once again, he has seven other nominations including the prestigious Album of the Year trophy.

New celebrity Taylor Swift has also earned a nomination - Female Vocalist of the Year. She was last year’s recipient of the Horizon Award which honors upcoming artists. She and Rascal Flatts announced this year’s nominees in Good Morning America earlier.

The CMA Awards will culminate on November 12.

Here’s the list of nominees: