Beyonce gets animated on 'Wubbzy!'
Beyonce Knowles is a superstar, no doubt about it. She's a multi-platinum pop artist, she's got the No. 1 movie in America out now and, since Monday, she's been guest starring as Shine, a singer in a girl group, in the Nickelodeon animated show Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Her week of "appearances" ends Friday with an hour-long Wubbzy movie at 1 p.m. ET on Nick. It will air again in primetime on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Nickelodeon's Noggin.
Beyonce has a nephew Daniel who is four and she says that with her role on Wubbzy! she was finally able to impress him. "(To him) It doesn't matter who I meet—even President Obama! He's not Wubbzy to my nephew, so this is like the coolest thing in the world to him."
The underlying lesson in this week of Wubbzy! is to yourself be true. (Click here and you'll see what I mean.) Beyonce underscores that. "We are all different," she says. "Once you get a little bit older those things that were different about you you realize that’s what makes you so amazing."
Photo by Peter Lindbergh/Nickelodeon
Wolverine Week: Taylor Kitsch on working with Hugh Jackman
When our Brian Truitt caught up with Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch earlier this year, Kitsch was on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine completing reshoots in his native Canada. The two mostly talked about that TV drama, but Kitsch also discussed playing the popular Wolverine mutant Gambit, a flamboyant Cajun card shark who can do wonders with a staff and a royal flush. (As you saw in our exclusive Wolverine video, the man has style and can throw a mean six of spades.) Brian saved the Wolverine talk for this week, so click on read more to learn who Kitsch learned the most from on the movie set, as well as what one FNL co-star thinks of Kitsch's newfound stardom.
Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
Celebrity Birthdays: Kirsten Dunst, Johnny Galecki
Spider-Man’s girl Kirsten Dunst, set to star opposite Ryan Gosling in the summer flick
All Good Things, turns 27 today. Although she's hinted that she'll be returning to play redhaired Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 4, there's been no official announcement just yet. One guy that knows something about web-slinging superheros is lovable nerd Leonard on CBS' The Big Bang Theory — the guy who plays him, Johnny Galecki, is 34. NBA player turned sports commentator
turned basketball coach Isiah Thomas is 48. Thomas recently took a job heading the Florida International college team. And country music icon Willie Nelson turns 76 today.
Photo by Dan MacMedan/USA Today
April 29, 2009
Tim Daly says 'Private Practice' finale will shock
Tim Daly says Thursday night's Private Practice finale may be one we'll be talking about Friday morning. "I think it's going to be pretty shocking for people," Daly tells me. "It's quite something. I think it will be relatively controversial."
Intrigued? I know I am. Daly goes on: "Being able to create TV or entertainment that people talk about and that affects them strongly is getting more and more difficult, without it being something
that's truly shocking for the sake of being shocking. But I think this
episode manages to do that."
This is a big week for Daly, 53. In addition to the show's season ender, he has two movies opening - The Skeptic, a psychological thriller shot a few years ago, and a documentary, PoliWood, which is opening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Friday night. The latter grew out of Daly's work with the Creative Coalition, an arts advocacy group, and when we get talking about that it's clear he's passionate. But Daly is a thoughtful interview on all topics, so click on read more below.
Photos courtesy of ABC
John Krasinski says this 'Office' season is tops
I’ve been really into The Office this season, particularly since the hilarious post-Superbowl fire episode, because the writers have been changing things up big time. So, it was fun to talk this week to actor John Krasinski, whose character – the always-cool Jim Halpert — had to deal with so many of those changes. “Speaking personally,” Krasinski says, “I think these most recent episodes – other than the incredibly romantic stuff they’ve written for me with Pam – are the best stuff they’ve ever written for the character. I love seeing Jim in a tight spot and sort of not being the cool guy.”
In fact, Krasinski, 29, says this season is one of the best. “I usually get the feedback that Season 2 was our best season because we found our footing,” Krasinski says. “But, honestly, I think this is the best season since Season 2.”
Krasinski has a summer movie directed by Sam Mendes called Away We Go and he's signed for another movie that stars Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Both are directed by people Krasinski worked with previously, if only in small roles, which speaks to his professionalism. It's clear Krasinski is on his way to a big career but he's not quitting his day job. "I owe everything to The Office," he says, acknowledging that working with his Office mates AND people like Mendes and Streep is "surreal. They're all the best at what they do, they are the apex, they're the thing to shoot for. To work with them consistently is insane."
Chuck Wicks is out of 'DWTS'
Dancer Louis van Amstel always reminds me that Dancing With The Stars is about more than the dancing and last night's elimination proved him right again. Country singer Chuck Wicks and his real-life girlfriend Julianne Hough were eliminated on a week when contestant Melissa Rycroft had the lowest scores and couldn't perform because of injury. Blog and message board posters are abuzz this morning about whether this elimination was fair, but I keep thinking about what Louis says: it's important for the celebrities to develop a DWTS following, to let their personalities come through to attract a base of fans who will vote to keep them on. Fan votes must have helped Rycroft, who is paired with the very likable Tony Dovolani and Ty Murray, the rodeo champ paired with Chelsie Hightower, in the running for the mirror ball trophy. Don't cry for Chuck and Julianne, however. She's now a successful country singer too, so the duo is heading back to a life they love and while Chuck says they'll probably still dance, it won't be ballroom.
Photo by Kelsey McNeal/ABC
Wolverine Week: Will.i.am makes film debut
It's been a life-changing year for hip-hop musician and Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am. His songs Yes We Can and It's a New Day became Internet sensations and anthems for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, his group the Black Eyed Peas recorded a new album The E.N.D. (out June 9), and he got his first film role, as teleporter John Wraith in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Making the movie was so much fun, "it’s like they took me to freakin’ Mars. It showed me a whole new world," says Will.i.am (pictured at left with Wolverine star Hugh Jackman), a longtime fan of the X-Men comic books. Our Brian Truitt recently talked with the fledgling actor as he was finishing up the new Peas album. Click read more for his thoughts on Wolverine, his changing musical influences and what summer movies he wants to see.
Photo by James Fisher
Celebrity Birthdays: Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis
Michelle Pfeiffer, who has been everything from Tony Montana’s wife in Scarface to Catwoman in Batman Returns to a witch in the recent Stardust, turns 51 today. Her latest feature Personal Effects, co-starring Ashton Kutcher and Kathy Bates, will be released to DVD next month (check out a trailer below). Another acting icon, Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar last year for his role in There Will be Blood, is 52. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, reuniting with the entire Seinfeld cast on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm this fall, turns 55. Quentin Tarantino muse Uma Thurman is 39, and rapper/entrepreneur Master P is 40.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
April 28, 2009
'DWTS' elimination night: Is it Ty's turn?
Louis van Amstel, the Dancing With The Stars pro who weighs in on the weekly competition each Tuesday, is traveling with another show this week so we won't have his insightful commentary. Regardless, one of the stars will go home tonight — who will it be? Though at first blush it might seem that cowboy Ty Murray (pictured with partner Chelsie Hightower), who works hard, competes well and exudes gentlemanly charm, is the logical choice (the others remaining are just better dancers), it's possible Melissa Rycroft will be eliminated — and not only because she was injured and had to be judged on rehearsal tape Monday. Judging only by some of the DWTS related online communities, Ty seems to be the guy with fans. And fans vote. What do you think? Who will stay and who will go? Tell me in a post below.
Photo by Kelsey McNeal/ABC
Wolverine Week: Kevin Durand chats about playing Blob
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is mostly about how title character Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, originated. But movie goers also will get some of the back story of other characters, including one called Blob. Comics fans know Blob as the ultra-obese member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but in the movie, he's an extremely muscular mercenary who does something he regrets while on a mission and deals with his guilt by eating way too much pizza. "He Blobs out," explains Kevin Durand, the buff, towering star of Lost, Smokin' Aces, 3:10 to Yuma and Wild Hogs. "At first we [filmed] Fat Blob stuff, and that was just an absolute laugh and it was sad. And then with Muscle Blob – I call him Muscle Blob – we did get to do a wee bit of action. I got to beat up a tank, which was cool." Our Brian Truitt talked to the Canadian actor, who's currently filming Robin Hood with Russell Crowe in and around London, about playing an 800-pound behemoth, a Norse god (possibly) and one of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Click read more below for their entertaining Q&A.
Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
