Jodie Foster In Her Greatest Role...Herself

Last night's Golden Globes featured an instantly legendary speech by Hollywood icon Jodie Foster as she received the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. The speech, which brought the crowd to its feet even before it started, has been classified by some as her coming out speech. However it was so much more than that.  It was something like a loose monologue/sololiquy about her life in general and her unusual career in show business since the ripe young age of 3.

I just watched it again and the honesty and the eloquence of it are just so striking. And the emotions, unlike some acceptance speeches, completely unguarded. When she talks about her mother, who seems to be suffering from Alzheimers, it is such a intense moment and a beautiful sentiment, (made with a movie metaphor no-less) as she says "I Love You" three times in hopes that restorative magic may happen.

I first saw Jodie in a Disney movie FREAKY FRIDAY, when I was a youngster. I not only had the hugest crush on her....I wanted to be her. Now I see why. Her enormous talent is just the surface. With her heartfelt eloquence and deep emotion in receiving that award she showed that she is an incredible human being, and one with a rich sense of humor too.  She is not Honey-Boo-Boo, as she memorably noted. (That was the understatement of the night.) She is Jodie Foster and maybe the next 50 years will feature her reprising last night's role and simply playing herself. Who knows? Maybe that could be her greatest role.

GLEE's Chris Colfer Gets STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

My friend and fellow filmmaker Brian Dannelly (SAVE ME, WEEDS) has directed a new movie STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, which opens today in NYC and LA. Not only does the film star GLEE's gay breakout star Chris Colfer but the script was also written by Colfer as well. The film is a wickedly black comedy in which Colfer's character gets struck down (as they title says) in the opening shot and then reflects via flashback/voiceover about his final days at a small high school where he had big dreams of literary fame, which he tried to achieve via blackmail. Ah high school...

I got a chance to see the film via Apple TV (it was digitally released last month) and it's a smart, sassy comedy which is all the more remarkable for the fact that Colfer wrote the script when he was all of 21.  The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival here last spring and did the festival circuit last year to much acclaim. You can watch the movie's trailer below...and, if you like a good high school comedy (as I do!) you catch it in theaters this weekend! 

A Murderer Makes An Appearance On THE DATING GAME

The TIMES this week reported on the sentencing of a serial killer who'd murdered two women in New York City back in the late 1970s. Rodney James Alcala's hearing made the news because the judge sobbed openly during the proceedings over the brutal nature of the killings.  He had also killed a number of women and teen girls in California, for which he is serving multiple life sentences in that state.

The article mentioned a creepy fact that Alcala made an appearance on THE DATING GAME back in 1978, a year after the two unsolved NYC murders.  What's even more creepy is that he was the winning bachelor. The woman he went out with survived her date fortunately but must have totally flipped out when she realized years later who her TV suitor really was. Here's the clip on YouTube:

New Details On The New Season of SMASH

Out in Pasadena, the annual winter TV press tour is underway and yesterday SMASH got to have it's meet and greet with the critics.  The Hollywod Reporter has all the details but the major news is that the new season will feature a lot more music and a brand new musical too.  Jeremy Jordan, from the hit real Broadway show NEWSIES, has joined the cast and will be working on a show within the show called "The Hit List" while "Bombshell", the Marilyn musical from Season 1 will continue to develop.

There was also news that a full "cast recording" of the fictional "Bombshell" musical will be released mid-February with songs from both Season 1 and Season 2. The musical itself, however, is still fictional as it was confirmed last year that there is no book written and no current plans for an actual Bway show about Marilyn.  They haven't ruled it out but it seems unlikely that it will ever happen, given the history of Marilyn flopping on the Great White Way before.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a new season of the show which many love to hate. I'll be honest--I just love it. A show about Broadway on network television? I mean seriously...what's not to like? :) Here's the trailer for Season 2--with some serious guest stars too. It all starts Feb 5th.

DOWNTON ABBEY And The Case Of The Missing Wedding

When Season 3 of DOWNTON ABBEY made it's premiere this week in the US, there was a good deal of rejoicing after having to wait a few months since the UK premiere last fall.  However, there was also some grumbling over something that seemed missing--that is Lady Mary and Cousin Matthew's actual wedding ceremony. After Mary got her quip off about being unpredictable (which was awesome and so Mary!) there was a clumsy dissolve the her and Matthew driving through the country on their way back from the honeymoon.

Well, the executive producer of the show responded to the fans outcry.  I mean this was the moment that the show has really been leading up to for 3 whole seasons afterall.  His full statement is on EW's website but essentially he said that showing the wedding would have been repetitive as people have seen countless wedding scenes in countless TV shows and movies. Yes, but in SOUND OF MUSIC they did not cut to a car returning from the honeymoon -- you get the whole royal wedding!  (Unless you happen to watch it on NBC).

Despite this misstep, the show did killer ratings for PBS and nearly 8 million people watched, more than double those who watched last years season opener.

Black and White: Two White House Sitcoms On TV

There have been a lot of ads and hype recently about the new NBC sitcom 1600 PENN, a family show set in the White House which debuts this Thursday night.  Starring BOOK OF MORMON's Josh Gad as the unruly son of a sitting president, it could be entertaining as Gad is a pretty inventive comedian. But the show already has some competition as it is actually the second White House sitcom to debut this television season.  And the other sitcom is somewhat more true to current history in that it features a black family in the White House.

THE FIRST FAMILY premiered last September as a syndicated show (it airs in NYC on MyNetwork TV) and I randomly saw an episode of it last week when flipping channels. The president has a rambunctious extended family which notably includes Jackee Harry as his wacky sister.  The show, however, seems to have been beamed in from the 1980s and, despite its unusual premise, is bland and unfunny. I'm amazed the show hasn't gotten more attention given the reflection of the Obama White House (though this fictional family hails from Detroit!) but then again, it is just not that good. We'll see if 1600 PENN can be any better.

Dying Star Trek Fan Gets Special Screening Of INTO DARKNESS

This is such a cool story. Filmmaker JJ Abrams, who is known for being super secretive about keeping his various projects under wraps, did an extraordinary thing for a dying STAR TREK fan; he gave him an advance screening of the new film INTO DARKNESS since this fan will not likely live to see the film's commercial release this summer. 

I saw the story linked on IMDB yesterday from NextMovie.  The whole thing started on Christmas Eve as the dying man's family posted the request on a STAR TREK board on Reddit.  Things took off from there after many comments and eventually the request made it's way directly to the film's director. Kudos to Abrams for making a dying man's dream come true. A truly heatwarming Hollywood tale...

The Bottom 10: Worst Movies of 2012

Hollywood is in full on awards season mode as they roll out the contenders for this year's Academy Awards. After seeing ZERO DARK THIRTY, I think it's clearly got the lock on Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Yes--it's that good. But what about the bad movies of the last year? Well, these days with the proliferation of online critics, there are plenty of lists to choose from when looking for the Worst Movies of 2012.

CNN has a bottom 10 that has two Chris Pine movies (bad year for him) but also THE HOBBIT too (which people seem to love or hate). Moviephone has Tyler Perry's action misfire leading the list as well as TOTAL RECALL, which seems to be a bad-list regular.  GQ's list also includes TOTAL RECALL and the big budget disaster JOHN CARTER. Over at HitFlix, they thought 2012 was such a bad year that they came up with 20 films for their worst list---I hadn't even heard of PIRANHA 3DD but I'm somewhat intrigued (maybe because it stars one of my Kinda Cute dudes, Matt Bush). And the AV Club list features big budget, star-crossed films like HYDE PARK and THE PAPERBOY

As for me, I don't have a personal bad list as I tend to smell a bad movie a mile away (ie. Tyler Perry as a shotgun wielding detective formerly played by Morgan Freeman!). But I do have a de facto worst movie because I saw the trailer so many times I feel like I saw the whole horrendous movie; THE WORDS (starring Bradley Cooper). It was painful seeing this trailer once, but after the 7th time?  I don't know if anyone saw this film but it was on CNN's list which made me feel good.

The Miracle on 42nd Street Xmas Video

So I know this video is not new...it made the NYC-viral rounds last year during the holidaze. But, cleverly created by two Bway gypies who've got spunk and pizazz to spare, it is so good that I wanted to share it here again. It truly fills me with the joy of the season. I mean Mariah Carey, jazz hands, and Santa-inspired unitards. What's not to like!

Wishing everyone the merriest of Christmases and a joyous, dance-filled New Years!  :)

All I Want For Xmas Is A Non-Gender Specific EZ Bake Oven

This is one of the cutest holiday stories I've heard this year. A 13 year-old girl in New Jersey, Mackenna Pope, was shopping for an EZ Bake Oven for her brother Gavyn (real name!) who had it on his list. However, Mackenna noticed they only came in puple and pink which are pretty girly colors. Why was there no butch oven, she wondered....though I'm guessing she probably didn't use the word "butch."

So Mackenna got industrious and started a petition for Hasbro to make a non-gender specific oven that  received over 40,000 signatures online at Change.org. And guess what? Hasbro invited her to their headquarters and they will come out with a silver and black version of its iconic toy next year. (Turns out, it had been in the works for a little over a year but this certainly gave them some great press on it.) The new version of the EZ Bake will be in stores available for the 2013 Christmas season.

I love this story for two reasons: first their is the big sister angle which is just too adorable. But also there's a personal side too. When I was an aspiring young baker, I wanted an EZ Bake Oven for Christmas as well and put it on my list even. Needless to say, Santa did not bring me a pink plastic toy with which to bake cakes. Undeterred, my mom did allow me to use the adult oven and I baked up a storm in my youth; cookies, cakes, brownies and even fudge.

Anyway, this is just a lovely story in a season that could use it, with the tragedy in Connecticut dominating the news. Below is a cute report on these two kids from CBS News.