Friday, June 29, 2012

Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes Headed for Divorce; Adele Pregnant

Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from Tom Cruise in New York today, and is seeking sole custody of their daughter Suri Cruise. Well this came out of the blue. It feels like just yesterday when Cruise was jumping up and down on Oprah's couch and going nuts over their relationship. Now there's no more Oprah Show and no more TomKat. Oh how we miss you, 2005/2006.

Cruise is in Iceland filming a movie and apparently the filing was a shock to him. Holmes must be sick of the Scientology. I don't think this will be too hard on Suri, that girl has more high heels than you can fill an average sized house with.

In other news, Adele has announced that she is pregnant with her and boyfriend Simon Konecki's first child. Congrats to Adele. Surely her next album will have a few more cheerful songs with this new chapter in her life. There is a rumor that Adele will be performing at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, though we'll have to wait and see.

New Dark Knight Rises Commercial

Anne Hathaway brings it as Selina Kyle/Catwoman with Christian Bale in the latest commercial for The Dark Knight Rises. We're three weeks away from the film's opening on July 20, and they've ramped up the advertising big time.

The new ad shows Catwoman during her time as Bruce Wayne/Batman's ally, watch it below. Bale & Hathaway seem to have great chemistry in the film, which is going to be incredibly important for the success of this film. They both seem to deliver.

They've played up her mysteriousness throughout the past few months, leaving the question of where she'll finish the film - friend or foe? Its anyone's guess, but I'll say she finishes the film as an ally after starting as a semi-villain. A Gotham news article from the Viral Website known as Dew Gotham City talks about a mysterious person in black who committed eight robberies of Gotham's wealthiest in 72 hours, stealing thousands of dollars of jewelry from one person. We know this is obviously Catwoman, who clearly works fast.


Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Office Season 9

The Office will be entering its 9th season on NBC and some more familiar faces may be gone. Steve Carell left after season 7 and some more changes are in place for the long running sitcom. Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly Kapoor and has been a writer and director on the show since the beginning, has left to star in her own promising sitcom on FOX, The Mindy Project. Why didn't NBC pick that up? Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby, is also leaving as executive producer. He may still be playing Toby though.

Now its been announced that BJ Novak will be leaving as a full time member of the show. He'll still apparently make some appearances on it though. It does make sense there would be less of Ryan without on-again off-again love interest Kelly. I wonder if they'll make any note in the season premiere of their absence?

Season 8 episodes were hit or miss, and it was the weakest season of the bunch. Towards the end it did improve though, and the addition of Catherine Tate full time in season 9 should help. She developed a stronger character during the final few episodes. The show also looks to be returning to more episodes inside the Dunder Mifflin office. They were taken out of it too often in season 8. I do see the show ending in the near future, but I have doubts it will be with the 9th season. It definitely has the staying power to make it to a 10th season.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent
Angelina Jolie will be starring as the title character in Disney's live action film Maleficent, based on the iconic villain from Sleeping Beauty. The film focuses on her and presumably how she becomes so evil. I love the idea of basing a film around a villain as opposed to a hero or anti-hero, an idea which will no doubt pay off for Disney.

The first official photo of Jolie in costume has been released to much praise. Those prosthetic cheekbones (inspired by the ones Lady GaGa wore?) are outstandingly creepy. This will probably have to tide you over for a while, because the film will not be released until March 2014. Though I'm sure we may get a teaser trailer by the end of the year.

Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
She looks like a badass and true to the original version. Its been a while since we've seen Jolie in a fantasy film, so this has many people excited. Maleficent is such a unique and iconic character that it would be hard to even compare the role to any others. The film will be directed by Robert Stromberg, production designer from Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.

Monday, June 18, 2012

London 2012 Olympic Soccer/Football Preview

The London 2012 Olympics begin on July 27th (Soccer starts July 25th) with Paul McCartney playing at the finale of the Opening Ceremony. That's one way to compete with Beijing and their scary army of drummers. I'm probably most excited for the Football/Soccer tournaments, particularly the women's tournament. The men's tournament has a restriction where only three players can only be over the age of 23. Women's teams use their full senior national teams, so it will be all the favorites seen in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, like Hope Solo, Homare Sawa, Marta and Abby Wambach. The main difference is there will be "Great Britain" teams as opposed to England, and David Beckham may be playing for the men's squad as one of the three veterans. Onto some predictions for the women's tournament.

Group E - 1. Great Britain, 2. Brazil, 3. New Zealand, 4. Cameroon - Great Britain and Brazil are the clear favorites in this group, but New Zealand could be a dark-horse. Cameroon is too inexperienced.

Group F - 1. Japan, 2. Canada, 3. Sweden, 4. South Africa - Since their are only 12 teams in the Olympics, two 3rd place teams get to move on to the Quarterfinals. One of them should come from this group.

Group G - 1. USA, 2. France, 3. North Korea, 4. Colombia - USA & France finished 2 & 3 at the World Cup, and should finish top of the group. North Korea will probably be fighting with the other 3rd place teams, and New Zealand might edge them out for the final QF spot.

Japan winning the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
The final four teams should include World Cup champion Japan and the United States, as well as Great Britain which will be on home soil. Its hard to pick the fourth, but Canada may have extra incentive since they are hosting the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. I'm not sure Great Britain is quite ready to go all the way to the gold medal match, but I pick them to win the bronze medal over Canada. It's rare to see a major final rematch two years in a row, but Japan & USA should battle it out for the Gold Medal. The USA defense is shaky, but they tend to follow up a World Cup loss with an Olympic win, so I'll take USA winning the Gold. Japan easily has the power to beat the United States again though, especially if they score first since they always control possession.

Over on the Men's side, I'm going with Brazil winning their first Olympic Gold Medal, because it's surprising that they have yet to win a gold medal. I'll say South Korea gets the silver, and Great Britain get the bronze. As an update, its been announced that David Beckham will not be on the team.


Friday, June 8, 2012

Dark Knight Rises Bios

Selina Kyle, Dark Knight Rises
A few more details have been released about The Dark Knight Rises, mainly about Bane (Tom Hardy) & Catwoman/Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). This post may contain spoilers for some.


A scrapbook has revealed some bios for both Catwoman & Bane. Catwoman's is fairly simple: "SELINA KYLE – is a world-class cat burglar and mistress of disguise. She’s cunning and devious, but has a deep sense of honor. As Catwoman, she targets Gotham’s wealthiest. Her weapons usually include infrared goggles, bladed high-heel boots, and a belt filled with lock picks." Rumors have been circulating and I've been saying that I expect Catwoman/Selina to begin the film stealing from the wealthy people of Gotham to help the poor, also helping Bane. Eventually she realizes how extreme & dangerous Bane is and will switch sides to help Batman (Christian Bale). The commercials seem to point that way. Rumors also say Bruce will reveal himself as Batman to her, helping change her opinion. She'll realize not all rich people are snobs and crooks, when Bruce is risking his life for Gotham. So we'll probably see them fight, flirt, fight again, make out, team up. Just rumors, of course.


Dark Knight RisesBane's goes a little deeper into his backhistory, and mentions the League of Shadows. Which is probably where Liam Neeson returns as Ra's al Ghul in a flashback. "BANE – Little is known about Bane. He was born in prison and trained in the darkest forms of deception by the League of Shadows, but rumor has it he was cast out due to his extreme behavior. Bane is a ferocious hand-to-hand fighter who is willing to do anything in order to take down his opponents. Bane is in peak physical shape, but he must wear a breathing apparatus that feeds him with pain relieving gas due to an old injury. He’s never been photographed without his mask and only a handful of people have seen his face. While his true motives remain a mystery, he appears to be building an army of followers in the dark tunnels underneath Gotham in order to create his own League of Shadows."

Monday, June 4, 2012

New Dark Knight Rises Footage from MTV

New footage from The Dark Knight Rises premiered at the MTV Movie Awards with an introduction from Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Nolan. All you really need to do is watch this epic new footage though. Most new scenes feature Catwoman/Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and our best look at John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is questioning Selina about her criminal record and about Bane (Tom Hardy).

This trailer expertly plays up the ambiguity of Catwoman/Selina Kyle. You never really know what side she'll be on.

Check it out here. Don't be shy.
Selina Kyle in Prison