Friday 25 July 2014

'Shakespeare in Love' adapter revels in rave reviews in London

(Reuters) - The Disney-backed stage adaptation of the hit film "Shakespeare in Love" won nearly across-the-board rave reviews in London this week, to the relief of its creators who are pleased that their big gamble looks set to pay off.

The show, based on the 1998 Hollywood movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes, received a standing ovation from its opening night audience on Wednesday at the Noel Coward theatre in London's West End theatre district.

Tulisa Contostavlos has said that she will appeal after being found guilty of assault.

At Stratford Magistrates' Court today (July 25), the singer and former X Factor judge was convicted of hitting Vas J Morgan at last year's V Festival.

"This has been a rollercoaster week for me. I never wanted any of this," Contostavlos said.

"I did not assault Vas J Morgan and I am outraged at this decision. I will be appealing it."

Though Charlize Theron was spotted wearing a diamond ring on her ring finger, she isn’t planning to get married. At least not yet. Apparently, she bought the $4,900 ring for herself! Though the union would make sense, it appears that Charlize Theron and Sean Penn are not engaged, but are instead taking a less traditional route. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Penn and Theron choose to either skip the engagement stage, or not get married at all. The couple is already nontraditional with their age gap of over ten years. Plus, Penn has already had two high-profile marriages (to Madonna and Robin Wright), and Theron has had a few long-term relationships, though she’s never been married.

The two do seem pretty serious. Theron said of the relationship: “We were just really good friends and it’s been slow going because you are aware that you could screw that up and lose it. We had to think about it. But at the end of the day, it was somewhat effortless.”

Supermodel Andreja Pejic, formerly known as Andrej Pejic, came out as transgender in an interview after spending years as an androgynous model.

The Bosnian-born model has dressed in both men's and women's clothing, only calling herself androgynous. In an interview with Style.com, Pejic said she now identifies as a woman after receiving sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) earlier this year.

The three-time Oscar nominee would bring a lot of prestige to Marvel's slate

Well, maybe Benedict Cumberbatch really is just in Comic-Con for "The Penguins of Madagascar" and "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies." Though the "Star Trek Into Darkness" star had been strongly rumored for the role of Doctor Strange in Marvel's upcoming film (which will be directed by Scott Derrickson), The Wrap is reporting that Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to take the part.

Huge, giant spoilers for the “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1″ trailer here. If you want to be surprised, don’t go any further.

This girl is, and continues to be, on fire: We just got a sneak peek at the first full trailer for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” and you guys. It’s bananas.

We’ve already been inundated with all that cool Capitol propaganda (district pride posters, spinny Peeta portrait and spooky messages from President Snow included), but the one-minute trailer shown at San Diego Comic-Con is all grit and explosions.

Seems like we can't get through a day without a little Kardashian oversharing.

Khloé Kardashian, who's been dating rapper French Montana since April, spilled the beans on their current love life, while chatting with Power 105's Angie Martinez on Thursday.

When asked about critics of her and Montana's relationship, the ever-outspoken Kardashian, 30, said, "People are going to comment no matter what. If I, like, dated the most clean-cut, perfect guy, they are going to comment. It's the way it is. So if I am having fun and I like [Montana], no one else should care, they're not f–––ing him."

(CNN) -- To convincingly yell "I am Hercules!" in his new action movie, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had to do more than warm up his vocal chords.

As a former pro wrestler, The Rock was already approaching Greek demigod territory in terms of build, but even he had to change his diet and exercise to become mythologically ripped.

According to USA Today, the 42-year-old actor had to endure a "Hercules diet" that consisted of seven meals a day, extremely heavy on protein.

Set five minutes into the future, Lucy is about the birth of a new kind of superhero. With Scarlett Johansson playing our eponymous ninja with mental superpowers, there's a lot of fantastic action here. But sadly, the movie makes some major mistakes, too.

Let's start with the good stuff. Director Luc Besson is a genius when it comes to visual flair and action, so the action scenes (when we get them) are great. And the first act of the film is possibly one of my favorite superhero origin stories ever. Lucy is a college student in Taipei whose loser boyfriend tricks her into delivering a mysterious suitcase to an even more mysterious group of Taiwan mafia guys. Of course, they immediately kill her boyfriend and then drag her to a hotel room full of other dead people. This whole sequence is fantastic, with Lucy totally out of her depth and Besson interspersing the action with weird nature footage of animals eating each other. The tone is frenetic, ironic, and ultra-comic booky.

Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams also star in Anton Corbijn film

A Most Wanted Man

3 stars out of 5

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams

Directed by: Anton Corbijn

Running time: 122 minutes

He plays a man betrayed by his country and his colleagues, but in one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances, it’s the Judas kiss of time that proves most tragic.

Taking on the timely role of a German counter-terrorist operative in director Anton Corbijn’s adaptation of John le Carré’s novel, Hoffman shows us a man teetering on the brink.

The movie and the character are a guilty pleasure

Idiocy and excess is rarely this much fun - but Brett Ratner’s Hercules is just the kind of macho madness that this comic book version of the myth requires when Dwayne Johnson is the chosen one.

Bulked to the max, grinning sheepishly like he has been hit in the head with a battle axe and ready to toss off his dialogue like beads of sweat dripping from his mega-muscles, The Rock is a comic book hero. And definitely not the Greco-Roman demi-god of myth and legend, who was known as Hercules by the Romans and Heracles by the Greeks.

In fact, that is precisely the point here. The filmmakers and the cast members know that this is a big, bold and bloody romp.

Singer Justin Bieber has landed an endorsement deal with Calvin Klein (CK) and shot a campaign for the brand's underwear range.

The 20-year-old joins the ranks of supermodels Kate Moss and Lara Stone who modelled for CK.

Although it's not known how much Bieber got for the campaign, Moss' first CK contract was worth a reported $1.2 million - later rising to $4 million, dailymail.co.uk reports.

"Justin has shot for Calvin Klein, we hope the results will be released later this year," said a source from the brand.

Bieber announces on Instagram that Knudson is 'stunning,' and a date is in the works, while Selena Gomez frolics on the French Riviera

And they say romance is dead.

While Selena Gomez is cavorting around Saint-Tropez with her hunk of man meat, Justin Bieber, not to be outdone by his former gal pal, has posted an Instagram photo of a Guess jeans ad captioned, “Who is this Guess Model. She’s Stunning.”

And in a development worthy of a Jane Austen novel, Confidenti@l has learned that Bieber and the object of his affections, fellow Canadian Danielle Knudson, are on the road to romance.

NEW YORK — Actor Alec Baldwin is not apologizing over an incident that led to a disorderly conduct arrest in May.

Baldwin told a Manhattan judge Thursday he'd rather pay a fine than apologize over the encounter that started when police stopped him for riding a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street.

Judge John Delury asked the actor, "Can you stay out of trouble, Alexander?"

Baldwin said, "Sure, sure." The judge gave him an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.

Earlier the judge told Baldwin: "Looks like you have a short fuse."

Science fiction has been good to Zoe Saldana. In Guardians Of The Galaxy – out next Thursday – she stars as a martial arts assassin.

Then comes the job of reprising her role as Neytiri in the three Avatar sequels, which will be shot back to back and released in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Born in Passaic, New Jersey, 36-year-old former dancer Zoe made her film debut in Centre Stage in 2000.
What made Guardians of the Galaxy stand out for you?

It’s a very innovative and unique take on the sci-fi and superhero genres.

Warner Bros. Pictures released a new image of Ben Affleck in his Batman attire today, in anticipation of the film Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The film is due to be released in 2016 and stars Affleck as Batman alongside Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman.

THE past week for "Weird Al" Yankovic (pix) has been a little weird by the standards of the curly-haired, accordion-playing, oddball master of pop music parody.

The 54-year-old singer of such songs as "Eat It," a culinary spoof on Michael Jackson's 1983 hit "Beat It" and "Amish Paradise," the send-up of rapper Coolio's 1995 sensation "Gangsta's Paradise," scored his first No. 1 album on the U.S. Billboard chart with "Mandatory Fun", following a week-long rollout of music videos.

"It's still hard for me to wrap my head around that," Yankovic said in an interview.

"It means a lot to me."

The Earth is flat, the sun rotates around it and humans only use 10 percent of their brain’s capacity. Lovely theories — all of them wrong.

So when a film’s premise is based on the “10 percent brain myth,” well it feels like we’re getting off on the wrong foot here, but I’ll play along for the sake of the story, such as it is.

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), of the new movie of the same name, is duped into delivering a locked case to a mob boss in Taiwan. She has no idea what’s in the case, but she’s given the combination while the mobsters take cover on the odd chance it may not contain what they’re expecting.

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