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James McAvoy May Star in Redford's Lincoln Movie

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:30:58 -0700

Can there ever be too much James McAvoy news in one day? I think not. Especially when one news item pairs the adorable actor up with Seth Rogen and another item has him possibly acting in a movie directed by Robert Redford. Titled The Conspirator, Redford's film is described as an indie historical drama about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Interestingly, though, the project will be focused on a woman: Mary Surratt, the alleged conspirator of assassin John Wilkes Booth. Here's more on the woman's story:

Surratt's is a compelling story. A Washington D.C. boardinghouse owner who sympathized with the Confederates, she was allegedly part of the plot to kill Lincoln, supplying Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold weapons at her tavern after the assassin had shot the president at Ford's Theater.

Surratt's son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy. Mary Surratt was eventually convicted and hanged for conspiring to kill the president; her son went on the lam and eventually was put on trial but was never convicted, living until 1916.

The pic will also center on a young Union hero named Frederick Aiken who was appointed to defend Mary Surratt, and who comes to believe that the widow is innocent.

McAvoy is reportedly at the top of a list of potential actors for one of the lead roles, though no news yet on who will play the conspiratorial leading lady. I have loved seeing McAvoy in period pieces (Atonement and Becoming Jane, particularly) so this should be good. Now we just need to know who will take the main female role - any suggestions on who should play Mary Surratt?

Sugar Bits - This Morning Prepares For New Presenter Holly

PopSugarUK — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:24:53 -0700

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Morning Links - Robert Redford Weds Longtime Girlfriend

PopSugar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:30:00 -0700

Robert Redford got married to longtime love Sibylle Szaggars in Germany on Saturday - Wonderwall
Did Tony Romo dump Jessica because of texts from John Mayer? - Celebitchy
Joey McIntyre and his wife are expecting a boy in December - Celebrity Baby Blog
Tito Jackson said his family tried to stage a drug intervention for MJ - Lifeline Live
Vanessa Hudgens is not thinking about marriage - I'm Not Obsessed
Cameron Diaz credits her parents' loving marriage as a reason for her success - Fox Pop Tarts

Jim, Jenny, Ben, Ashton and Mariah Smile at Sundance

PopSugar — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:00:21 -0800

The Sundance Film Festival is officially in full swing and big names flocked to Park City to promote their movies. Ben Affleck stopped on his way to DC for "Reporter," which he serves as executive producer. Jim Carrey had his girlfriend Jenny McCarthy to help support his role where Ewan McGregor is his boyfriend in I Love You Philip Morris. Ashton was there to promote his gigolo film, Spread, with his loyal wife Demi by his side. Funny ladies Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch posed for a portrait picture, which is a lot more tame than their film Spring Breakdown. Festival favorites like Michael Cera, Zooey Deschanel, and Sam Rockwell all showed off their films while Paris Hilton made sure to hit all the parties. Mariah continues to look elated in every photo with Nick but her movie "Push" is apparently pretty dramatic. Even Anna Wintour hit the festival this year to promote her debut in a The September Issue. The festival is just getting started so expect many more big names all week long posing in cute portrait shots, walking red carpets and attending parties.

To see tons more pictures including new dad Gael Garcia Bernal, Kevin Bacon, Emily Blunt, Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan and many, many more just read more.

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Images include: Alia Shawkat, Gael Garcia Bernal, Carlos Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, Missi Pyle, Parker Posey, Ryan Shiraki, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Jane Lynch, P.J. Byrne, Donnamarie Recco, Denise Richards, Christa Campbell, Jamie Kennedy, Julie Davis, Mircea Monroe, Dominic Monaghan, Peter Gallagher, Rose Byrne, Hugh Dancy, Frankie Faison, Max Mayer, Marc Webb, Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kevin Bacon, Michael Strobl, Ross Katz, Rory Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Michael Cera, Jake Johnson, Nicholas Jasenovec, Charlyne Yi, Michelle Trachtenberg, Olivia Thirlby, Trudie Styler, Sam Rockwell, Spike Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Emily Blunt, Anna Wintour, Andie MacDowell, Kenneth Cole, Robert Redford, Semi Moore, Ben Affleck, Cuba Gooding Jr, Russell Simmons, Eliza Dushku, Jack White, Soleil Moon Frye, Jason Goldberg, John Krasinski, Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, Paul Giamatti, Robert De Niro, Grace Hightower, Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan, Virginia Madsen, Ewan McGregor, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, Rodrigo Santoro, Paris Hilton

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Weekend Reading: The History of Sundance

BuzzSugar — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:30:05 -0800

This year marks the 25th anniversary for the Sundance Film Festival, which is about as long as some of us have been alive. It's easy to take for granted the fact that this festival held in a snowy little Utah town wasn't always the influential mega-event it is today. Recently the LA Times had an interesting retrospective about the festival's origins and the way it revolutionized independent film.

Some interesting nuggets:

Steven Soderbergh's debut feature film is partly responsible for the festival's success. Director Bryan Singer reminisces, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape made guys like me go, 'If I can get into the Sundance Film Festival, I'll have a shot at a career.'"
Aw, Kevin Smith was working as a convenience store clerk when he brought his little movie Clerks to Sundance. He says of the heady experience, "It was basically me showing up in Utah and the Mormon God saying, 'I am going to grant you every wish you ever had, including some you never thought of.'"
Also, Smith tells the reporter that Clerks was made for $27,575.
Originally the festival was called The Utah/U.S. Film Festival but after Robert Redford's gang took over in 1989, some changes were made. "Organizers began to shift the festival's focus toward contemporary films that took storytelling risks."
The article asserts that "nobody embodies the go-for-broke moviemaking ingenuity now commonly associated with Sundance entries more than. . . Robert Rodriguez." Apparently Rodriquez (director of Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City) raised money for one of his movies by "volunteering for experimental clinical drug testing." Hard core.

Photo courtesy of Sundance

Farewell, Playgirl!

GiggleSugar — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:20:48 -0700

It's the end of an era, people - a hairy, sometimes overwaxed, and cheesy era of pics of nekkid men photographed supposedly for her pleasure. Alternately dubbed "the magazine for women," and then "entertainment for women," Playgirl is gone after 35 years! They say that in order to properly mourn something, you have to know what you've lost. Well, I hardly knew ye, Playgirl, but let's take a highly random walk down bohunk lane . . . All pictures from this source unless otherwise specified.

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Movie Night: Far-Off Destinations

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:30:04 -0700

I've been really inspired by traveling this week - both because of my own itch to go on an adventure and because I have a handful of friends who are either planning their honeymoon or enjoying it right now. As part of my travel urge, I got to thinking about movies that captured a culture and a country so well that they've made me add a new entry to my list of places I have vowed to visit. Come away with me on a mini-jaunt around the globe via this movie night!

Out of Africa
This Oscar-winning classic directed by the late Sydney Pollack starred Meryl Streep and an extremely dreamy Robert Redford, but the biggest star of the film is East Africa. The movie is loosely based on Karen Blixen's 1937 autobiography about her real-life journey to Kenya. The character based on Blixen enters a loveless marriage but then meets Redford's character, a local-game hunter, and an epic romance ensues. The movie was filmed on location and is breathtakingly beautiful. If this doesn't make you consider Africa as a travel destination, I don't know what will.

Two more glorious locations, so read more.

French Kiss
Most people probably don't need their arms twisted to stick France on their travel list, but when a movie comes along that captures that certain je ne sais quoi of the French countryside, vineyards, and coast, it makes not being there feel nearly intolerable. French Kiss is one of those movies, and it stars Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline as unlikely partners in a trek across France. She's on a mission to get her cheating fiance back, and he's a petty criminal who helps her as a means to reach his own goal of buying back a vineyard he lost. Their chemistry is charming, but the way the film captures the spirit and nonchalance of the place is what makes it a lovely vicarious trip abroad.

Sex and Lucia
To call this movie racy is probably an understatement. The word "sex" is in the title for good reason, because there's a lot of it in this mystical Spanish film - and it's pretty explicitly discussed and enacted. You've been warned. That said, nearly five years after I first saw this, what sticks with me are the unbelievably gorgeous shots of nature: the azure skies and ocean set against the snow-white sands of Spain's Balearic Islands. After this movie, this semi-remote location has remained high on my list of places to get myself to.

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Tax Season Movie Night: Money, Money, Money

BuzzSugar — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:30:27 -0700

Tax season is upon us and I know how stressful it can be to dig up receipts, fill out the forms and file the ol' taxes. Although my friend Savvy wouldn't be too happy to hear this, I have a bad habit of procrastinating and will find any reason to avoid doing my taxes. This year I have a new strategy: hold a money movie night with the following films and then do my taxes - no more excuses! It's a good plan because there are a lot of good lessons to learn from these movies, you know? OK, that's a lame rationalization, but hey, these movies are fun and might even convince you to stay away from white-collar crimes.

Trading Places
Just thinking about Trading Places makes me laugh, which is the perfect way to kick off a tax season movie night. Eddie Murphy stars alongside fellow funny man Dan Aykroyd in this film that poses the question: Does money make the man?

Louis Winthorpe III (Aykroyd) is a Harvard educated broker who has it all. Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy) is a street hustler angling for a dollar. When these two men switch places in society, all hilarity breaks loose. It's a wacky premise, but Murphy is hysterical and it's a funny peek at the ways in which money changes people.

Two more money movies, so read more.

Wall Street
In high school, my economics teacher taught us all about the stock market and making lots of money. And then he made us watch this movie starring Michael Douglas (who won an Oscar for his performance) and Charlie Sheen to warn us of the dangers of excess. Looking back, this was a smart move as Wall Street is the ultimate cautionary tale. At the center we see the evil, morally depraved Gordon Gekko (Douglas), who embodies the worst of the opulent 1980s. Sheen plays the young and naive newcomer who first believes he can make it big as a mover and shaker on Wall Street, but under the tutelage of the greedy Gekko finds himself tangled in an insider trading scheme and has to fight for his soul. Again, white-collar crime is bad. Thanks, Teach!

Indecent Proposal
Indecent Proposal, starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson and Robert Redford, is a provocative twist on an age-old question: How far are you willing to go for money? Moore and Harrelson are a happy couple who find themselves in a serious financial crisis and head to Vegas (naturally!). There, a rich, handsome stranger (Redford) offers them $1 million for a night of you-know-what with Moore. What follows is scandalous, shocking and painful. In the end though, it's a good lesson in how just a little bit of moral compromise in the name of greed can eat you alive.

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Sugar Bits – Justin's Problem With Women

PopSugarUK — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:44:26 -0800

David Walliams completed his epic 12 mile swim from Spain to Morocco yesterday, congratulations David!- BBC
Justin Timberlake will executive produce a new TV series on NBC called My Problem With Women. Do you reckon he'll be a good executive producer? - PopSugar
Keira Knightley is releasing an album... sort of. She'll be singing a few tracks on the soundtrack to new movie The Edge Of Love in which she stars with Sienna Miller. - Daily Mail
Robert Redford, Robert Downey Jr and Ang Lee will receive career achievement awards at next week's ShoWest convention in Las Vegas.- Guardian
China is cracking down on pop stars that visit after Bjork exclaimed "Tibet, Tibet" at a recent gig in Shanghai. Talk of freeing Tibet is considered taboo in China. - BBC
Hollyoaks's Mandy is apparently going to be in The Dark Knight? Really? The world's gone mad. - The Sun
Paul Gascoigne has been released from hospital.- Mirror
Presenting dreamteam Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan are back together on the radio. So how are they getting on?- Telegraph
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Robert Redford to Take Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:30:33 -0800

There's a lot of great post-Sundance news out there, but this story is really making me smile: Festival founder Robert Redford has said that his next project will be an adaptation of A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson's best-selling book about an attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail. Redford plans to play Bryson, and Barry Levinson is expected to direct the film.

I'm getting a kick out of the idea of Redford as Bryson, who was an overweight, out-of-shape man edging toward a mid-life crisis when he decided to walk the trail in 1997 (that's the real Bryson up there on the right). And apparently, so is Redford, who told the Associated Press "I don't know when I've read a book that I laughed so loud."

Redford also noted that the landscape of the country will be a big part of the film as Bryson and his hiking companion, Stephen Katz, make their way along the trail. (In the book, the two men didn't finish their hike - so do you think the movie will get a Hollywood ending?)

Other than making me want to read A Walk in the Woods again, this news makes me wonder: Who's going to play Katz? Their hilarious banter is one of the best parts of the book. Any suggestions?

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