stars, sex and nudity buzz : 01/12/2013

Great news, guys. In fact it just made my weekend in a weekend of boobies. Maggie Grace will show her tits for the first time on-cam. Christ! I don't think I invested in an actress as much as on Maggie with yours truly
requiring nearly half-a-dozen confirmation from reliable folks throughout the months.
I contacted a reviewer who saw the first 6-episode of Californication. Here is the screen-cap of the e-mail:

Maggie is scheduled to return to L.A this week from New York and hopefully will be on Californication promo run. We need to hear straight from the horse's mouth.

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Banshee Season 1: Episode 1 (Full Episode)

Click here

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Banshee’ Review: Sex, Violence, More Sex, More Violence, And Strong Writing

Written by Dustin Rowles


Cinemax continues its efforts to become a player in the original content game. They’ve got one hit, Strike Back, which has been renewed for a third season, and last year’s Hunted, a co-production with BBC-One from Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) that ended up being a nifty espionage series that got better over the course of its first season (a second season is up in the air; BBC-One dropped out, but Cinemax and Spotnitz are working to bring the series back in some form). Cinemax’s third stab is Banshee, which comes from executive producer Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, True Blood), and is set to premiere tonight.

Banshee stars New Zealander Anthony Starr as Lucas Hood. As the series opens, he’s just been released from prison. He’s also on the run from a mob boss, Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross, Chariots of Fire, Sarek from J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek) for stealing from him before entering prison. The loot he stole, however, is purportedly in the hands of his ex-girlfriend, Carrie (Ivana Miličević), who assumed a new identity, moved to Banshee, married the district attorney, and had two children while Lucas was away in prison.

Lucas, in turn, assumes the identity of the new sheriff of Banshee (after the out-of-town sheriff-for-hire is killed before meeting anyone). Hood’s biggest challenge is trying to maintain authority in a town ran by a brutal mob boss (Ulrich Thomsen), who comes from an Amish community that makes up much of the population of Banshee. There’s also Lucas’ only friend, a bartender played by The Wire’s Frankie Faison. He and the ex-wife are the only people in Banshee who know Lucas’ real identity.

There’s a lot of balls up in the air in the pilot. Hood is on the run from one mob boss; trying to wrest control away from another; he’s also still in love with his ex-wife, and he’s a felon working as a sheriff, which — as you might imagine — means exchanging Miranda rights for a lot of ass-kicking and the gun work of early season Justified. There’s enough going on, in fact, to ignore the low-production values and the spotty performances long enough to get invested in the storylines.

Unlike Hunted, which featured espionage, deep-running storylines, and superior acting, Banshee is more of what you’d expect from a Cinemax series: There’s more violence, and a lot more sex. But the writing is surprisingly sharp, and the acting of Anthony Hood, Ben Cross, and Frankie Faison mostly counterbalances the more amateur performances from the rest of the cast (specifically, the Amish and the Pennsyltuckians).

The second episode I saw was a huge letdown from the pilot, but that was mostly owed to miserable choices by the director (the pilot was directed by an Emmy-winning director of House, the second episode was not) and not the writing.

There’s definitely something promising bubbling beneath the already busy premise, and as the pulpy storylines come into sharper focus, it could make for a guilty — and maybe even compelling — Friday night series.

* you got to love reviews by conservative chicks enamored with the male lead and enviously obvious in fake disgust with the sexual depiction. Read on.

Banshee: "Pilot" Review

Stop the carnage.


Let me paint a picture for you: A man stands holding the posts of a bedframe, as a prostitute, who has donned - per his request - an Amish prayer cap, performs fellatio on him. He strips off his shirt to reveal a massive tattoo of Christ on the cross covering the entirety of his back. With a look that dances the line between lust and disinterest, he plucks a human tooth from his fist.

That, in a nutshell, is Banshee.

Some of you may be saying, “We’re in!” There’s an over-the-top, swinging so-far-past-the-rafters-and-into-bats**t-insanity quality to the show that may appeal. There’s nothing subtle on tap here, folks, with the occasional exception of lead Antony Starr’s performance. Perhaps more saliently, the “shocking” elements of the series are very clearly there for the sake of shock value, rather than in service of the story.

Premiering on Cinemax, Banshee stars Antony Starr as Lucas Hood, an ex-con and master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of Banshee, Pa., where he continues his criminal activities, even as he's hunted by the shadowy gangsters he betrayed years earlier. Ivana Milicevic co-stars as Carrie Hopewell, a notorious jewel thief/Hood’s former partner in love and crime, who now lives in Banshee under an assumed identity with her new family, who know nothing of her past.

The man-who-accidentally-became-sheriff is a device I’ve seen used more and more of over the last several years. It’s kind of inherently silly, and becomes far more difficult to buy in the context of a show like Banshee, which is seemingly attempting to set a tone of “gritty realism.”  In fact, the central issue with the series is that it lacks a cohesive through-line and style. Simply put: it doesn't know what it wants to be.
Hoon Lee’s Job is a painfully over the top impersonation of a drag queen - a club owning, computer hacking, by all accounts underground super spy, drag queen, mind you. Lee is working with absurd circumstances and weak text, but ultimately, his portrayal boarders on offensive and is in no way in line with Starr’s more understated, and far more appealing, rendition of an anti-hero.

Story-wise, it is impossible to imagine that the town’s police force is foolish enough to continue to allow Hood to impersonate a sheriff over the course of the series. Also, does the real man not have friends and family who will be wondering where he is? Ultimately, the dramatic moments feel like loosely thought out interstitials stitched together in order to create an excuse for elaborate violence and occasionally unnerving sex.

The show's executive producer, Alan Ball, has been bathing in blood and sex for the last several years. The True Blood creator/showrunner has moved away from supernatural gore and romance in Banshee, however, and into action, thugery and far weirder sex.

Okay, I’m making Banshee sound awesome. Let me tell you why it’s less than spectacular:  Over the course of his tenure on True Blood, Ball has developed a reputation for a glaring lack of restraint. As well as a remarkable ability to take solid ingredients and create what, for some, became a hodge-podge of moments of genius mixed within a soup of the ridiculous. There were, and continue to be, compelling elements on the show, but True Blood consistently fails to live up to the promise of Season 1.

True Blood, and Ball's Six Feet Under for that matter, had a more than solid first seasons, however. Banshee’s schizophrenic identity crisis is apparent right out of the gate. In all fairness to Ball, Banshee creators David Schickler and Jonathan Tropper wrote the pilot, so it’s difficult to know how much responsibility he has for the final product. There are some distinctly Ball-esque missteps here, though.

The sex and violence feels masturbatory, and not necessarily in a good way. As a viewer, one occasionally gets the spine-chilling sense that they’ve stumbled upon a peeping Tom’s disturbed pornographic drawings, just as he makes the transition into full-blown sexual assailant. The violence is fetishized to a degree that one genuinely feels concern for the creators’ psychology in moments.

Additionally, the show is overfull with trite dialogue, outlandishly illogical plotlines, asinine character responses and stereotypes. There is also a shoehorned in romance that is, in all likelihood, a grab at the female audience. It is impossible to qualify Banshee as “quality.”

There is, however, the potential for an entertaining series. When it doesn’t annoy and infuriate with its attempts to be cool, or unnerve with bizarre moments of sensual violence, it does serve up some well-constructed action sequences, imaginative brutality and legitimately motivated and titillating sex scenes.
In addition, there is a decent bit of chemistry between the two, sadly underdeveloped, leads. The once-Amish, and clearly-in-need-of-decades-of-analysis villain, Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) makes for a uniquely sinister and engaging enough antagonist. Though it is hard to imagine how both he and the series’ big-big bad, the long-ago double-crossed Rabbit (Ben Cross), will both be served.

Ultimately, Banshee is going to need to make a choice: Either clarify the tone, tighten the dialogue and eliminate the offensively overblown caricatures. Or, simply submit to being ridiculous and become consciously and masterfully so.

As it stands, Banshee is essentially the series equivalent of the SNL sketch that proposes that Game of Thrones is: “brought to you from the mind of acclaimed author George R.R. Martin, and this 13-year-old boy.” Only in Banshee’s case, there is no elevated Martin material at the core, just the self-indulgent adolescent.

For some viewers, however, this psychotically-violent, ultra-sexualized, Amish-country-set, kinda gangster, off-the-rails, jewel-thief drama, may be just the guilty pleasure you’re looking for.

Banshee Review: A Ludicrous Series, and It Knows It

The new Cinemax series Banshee, which debuts tonight, is so plot-driven, so utterly dependent on “I can’t believe they did that!” twists, that I’m reluctant to describe any part of it in this opening paragraph. So I’ll just say that while it’s emphatically not a great show, it is an overheated yet intriguing one, driven more by visuals than words — and if you don’t mind that its gory action and soap-opera plots aren’t yet matched by dialogue and performance, it’s worth a look.

The story starts with our hero (Antony Starr) — who remains nameless and nearly silent throughout the pilot’s first half, though his name is Lucas Hood — being released from prison. We eventually get hints of what he was in for, but we don’t yet know what drives him — only that he has managed to elude mysterious assassins in a high-speed chase through New York City and then sped off on a stolen motorcycle toward Banshee, Pennsylvania, which feels like a mythical small town in an old Western. Banshee is a corrupt, fearful place ruled by a crime boss named Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), whose fingers are in everyone’s pie. (An intriguing wrinkle: Banshee is located in Amish country, and Kai was formerly part of the sect and takes great offense when some local bullies harass his elderly dad.) The local sheriff’s department, which includes a deputy played by Matt Servitto of The Sopranos, wants to clean the place up, so they’ve hired a new sheriff. Unfortunately, almost immediately after arriving in town, the poor bastard gets killed in a bar fight in the presence of our hero. What’s a strong, silent, merciless ex-con to do but call his forger buddy Job (Boon Lee) to hack into databases and substitute his picture for the dead man’s, put on his uniform and badge and start fighting evil?

In the immortal words of William Shakespeare, WTF???  Yes, this man of mystery who shouldn’t get within miles of any sort of criminal activity instantly assumes the identity of a lawman that was murdered by thugs in his presence. He helps the owner of the bar in which the fight occurred (the great Frankie Faison) bury the bodies of the victim and his killers. Then he strides around like Harrison Ford in righteous snit mode, beating up guys who are picking on the local Amish before he’s even been fitted for the dead man’s dress blues. Hood also tries to get back together with his main squeeze and former partner in crime Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevec). This is complicated by the fact that she’s now married to the town’s prosecuting attorney, Gordon (Rus Blackwell), but she still fantasizes about having sex with Hood even as her husband is going down on her, so hey, there’s hope! Meanwhile, a truly terrifying villain known as Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross) is lurking in the background of the story, a dark presence that’s all the more unnerving for being kept mostly in the narrative shadows.

Created by Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler and executive-produced by Alan Ball (True Blood), Banshee is a ludicrous series and knows it. It consists of one silly scene after another, all pitched at that super-hard-boiled, faux-noir level characteristic of so many graphic novels set in the underworld: so humorless that it’s kind of funny. A man gets shot through the hand in close-up, and you can see the rest of the room through the wound. The opening chase ends with an overturned double-decker bus roaring toward Hood like that train in Inception, but Hood escapes unscathed, and this event, which would be an international sensation in our reality, is presented here as just another crazy thing that happened in New York City. Hood is less a character than a presence: Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name by way of Lee Marvin in Point Blank, a walking scowl with hints of pain and longing in his eyes. (Starr is an amazing physical presence, by the way; he’s got a great angry walk, and he poses in doors and windows nearly as well as Daniel Craig.) There were points in the first couple of episodes where I wanted to turn Banshee off because it wasn’t rising to the level of its promise. It’s an arty-trashy macho B movie in TV-series form, good but not good enough. And yet I intend to keep watching because the show is more brazenly cinematic than most, and because I need to know the characters’ secrets. As my late grandfather liked to say, that’s how they get ya.

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Now it's the White House of Cards: It was the most compelling series of the 90s, and if you thought Francis Urquhart was Machiavellian, says creator Michael Dobbs, wait and see Kevin Spacey in US makeover

Spacey doesn't do things by halves. He stands at the top of the glittering Hollywood tree

Step forward Kevin Spacey, the star of a sensational new television series. My house of cards is being rebuilt.

So much is different to the original version - the action has been moved from Westminster to Washington, his name has been changed from Francis Urquhart to the more pronounceable Francis Underwood, the series is 13 hours instead of four, there's a £60 million production budget that would make the original BBC producers weep.

The backdrops have changed, the supporting characters have been revised, the original plot expanded, there's more sex and even more skulduggery. But it's still an exercise in unashamed wickedness.


More here 

* after verifying with couple of rather patchy 'spies', casting notices (which are subject to change on the set considering the multiple directors involved), auditions and Kate's own sudden active tweeting in recent months, I'm now more than sure Kate will perform her first frontal nudity.

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Watch: First clip from Sundance-bound “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” starring Kaya Scodelario


Kaya Scodelario takes the sullen teenager act to a new level in our first look at a scene from “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, the Francesca Gregorini drama headed for a Sundance premiere next week. Scodelario plays the titular character, who is drawn into mystery and drama when she meets her next door neighbor Linda, played by Jessica Biel, who is a doppelganger of Emanuel’s dead mother. Linda has her own issues stemming from the death of her baby, and carries around a lifelike doll which she believes is her child. Emanuel begins to babysit the doll in order to get closer to Linda.

The first scene released from the film sees Scodelario’s Emanuel having a bit of trouble communicating with her father, played by Alfred Molina, about her new job at the dinner table. You can watch it below, and catch “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” at Sundance when it premieres next Friday night. The film has no distribution and no release date yet.


* Look at those cute freckles! We'll know in week time (Sundance) if Kaya reveals her dumplings in the flick.

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Girls”: Everyone Gets Naked on the Second Season

hbo-girls-lena-dunham-

Everyone gets naked in the second season of “Girls,” which debuts this Sunday on HBO– according to our PAULA SCHWARTZ.

The “Girls” 2.0 premiere was Wednesday at N.Y.U.’s Skirball Center. The glitzy after-party was at Capitale in the Meatpacking district, where guests entered into the main ballroom by walking across a crossway that was designed to look like the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lena Dunham, who has a new sophisticated new pixie haircut that’s kind of like Anne Hathaway’s, wore a strapless black jumpsuit edged with white, and super-high spike heels. Hats off to Dunham, who’s secure enough in her body to wear an outfit that would make even a size 4 woman look like a dumpling.

Close by her side until midnight when they exited was her boyfriend Jack Antonoff, who heads rock group Fun, which is featured on the season two “Girls” soundtrack.

On the red carpet Dunham said the show would continue to “push the envelope,” a challenging proposition considering last season’s no holds-barred sex scenes. But after last night’s premiere screening we can report Dunham succeeded. It’s also no spoiler to mention that Dunham has a black boyfriend and the show opens with them having wild, noisy sex. Wonder if this is a response to last season’s critics gripping about the lack of black characters in the show.

There’s also an anal sex scene but I won’t spoil it for you. And co-star Alex Karpovsky has a nude scene as well.

Rita Wilson is a new cast edition as Marnie’s (Alison Williams) sarcastic and body-obsessed mother, who is having an affair with a caterer-waiter. Peter Scolari, who plays Hannah’s father, co-starred with Wilson’s husband Tom Hanks in their early underrated cult series”Bosom Buddies.” (The two team up again in the spring in Norah Ephron’s “Lucky Guy.”)

Everyone gets naked sooner in  “Girls.” Last season Scolari had a hilarious shower sex scene where we saw a body part of his we never expected we’d see.

I asked the 57 year-old-actor if his character gets naked again in Season two. He told me he turns up in the back half of this second season in episodes 7 through 10 and yes clothes come off.
“There’s another nudity scene that occurs for my character that’s pretty personal and a little unsettling that developed in the writing with Lena and executive producer Jenny Konner,” he said, “so what happens for Dad in this season is very meaningful to me.”
How so? “It’s a progression that I guess you could say of the state of psychic distress that is a hallmark of ‘Girls’ we see in her Dad, and I was very taken, in all seriousness, taken with that writing and that direction that Lena and Jenny Konner brought to me. I feel like a lucky old dog to be able to be a part of this youthful, sexy show,” he said. “I’ve never felt so not at work as I am at work making these episodes.”
Does it feel peculiar to do naked sex scenes at his age? “With all due modesty put aside, I’ve never been healthier or more available to do work. I didn’t know that, but I’m much healthier at 57 than I was at 47 or 37, so not peculiar. I feel some great timing is at work in my life, and I’m not making the timing. I’m just around.”
He introduced me his date Tracy Shayne, an actress, who he described as his “soon to be wife.”
I asked Shayne if she fell in love with Scolari after seeing him in the shower scene, which inspired endless chat room discussions about his penis.
“I fell in love with him many years before that,” Shayne said.

“Girls” cast members Zosia Mamet, Williams and Jemima Kirke–all daughters of famous people David Mamet, Brian Williams, and Simon Kirke– hung out late into the late.
They don’t seem to have any of the show’s boyfriend problems. Kirke, 27, who just had her second child, a son, last month, cuddled with husband Michael Mosberg at a banquette, While in another corner, Williams sat on long-time boyfriend College.Humor.com co-founder Ricky Van Veen’s lap.


Girls Season 2 Scoop: Lena Dunham and Cast Dish on Nudity, Romance and More!

 Zosia Mamet, Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams
Oh, the Golden Globes are this Sunday? Sorry, we're just way more excited about the season-two premiere of HBO's breakout hit Girls!

Yes, Hannah (Lena Dunham), Marnie (Allison Williams), Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) are back and better than ever. And by better, of course we mean more confused than ever, with each girl making mistakes (Drugs! Sleeping with her BFF's ex! Marrying a total stranger!) and having a damn good time doing so.

We chatted with Dunham and the girls and guys of Girls at the show's season-two premiere in New York, where they dished on getting naked onscreen, shocking hookups and what's ahead for one of the show's fan-favorite couples...

"I get naked enough that they at least now their director and showrunner has experience before," Dunham explains of creating a comfortable environment for her actors. "I just try and say, 'This is a safe space. When you take your pants off, no one's going to laugh...until later when the show airs on TV.'" While Allison Williams has yet to appear naked onscreen, she admits, "The scariest thing I've ever had to do yet is go to the bathroom on camera, just urinating, that felt very personal to me!"

Girls (and Dunham) has received praise for showcasing realistic body types and the 26-year-old says, "I hope that my presence and that of my castmembers on television has given people some sense that a range of body types is appropriate and even wonderful on TV." Of Dunham's talent, Kirke says, "I suppose it's the ability to say what everyone's really thinking and to show what everyone's doing. Not everyone, of course, but the girls that she knows in her age group are doing."

The New Normal's Andrew Rannells appears heavily in the first four episodes as Elijah, Hannah's former boyfriend/current gay roommate. He teased, "I got to do my first nude and sex scene this season. I'm a little nervous!" So who's Elijah hooking up with? Spoiler alert: one of the girls!


Everything You Never Wanted To Know About The Return Of Girls


dunhamglover0113.jpeg In the second episode of Girls' season two, there's one scene in which it seems clear that Lena Dunham, speaking through her character Hannah Horvath, is having a conversation with her critics. "I don't live in a world with [racial] divisions like that," she declares, in a not-so-subtle reference to the backlash against the show's first season. Some viewers criticized Dunham for excluding minorities from her twenty-something version of New York City, and in season two—which starts this Sunday—she finally gets to respond on screen, almost immediately. 

Not even three minutes into the season two opener, Dunham's character is naked and having sex with Donald Glover, a black actor.

If season one started setting up the foundation of Hannah Horvath's world, season two is breaking it all apart. Without giving much away, here are some observations from the first few episodes. I watched these about a week ago with a few girlfriends and more than a few glasses of whiskey—these are some of the thoughts that remain:
  • Charlie has ditched his good boy smile for a gruff, bearded smirk. And the new demeanor isn't just for the screen, at the party earlier this week, we spotted Christopher Abbott looking tired, broken, and depressed... which obviously made us much more attracted to him. Assuming he's okay: hoorah! Sad Charlie is hot.
  • Lena Dunham gets naked or basically naked three times in episode one alone. This is a great thing—first of all: why not? Secondly, Dunham isn't a size 0 model, so she is helping many young women climb out of the self conscious pitfall they've fallen in to. But if you are on the shallow side and feel something negative rising up your throat as a reaction to this, please read that Linda Stasi piece of vitriolic garbage and ask yourself: "Is this the kind of person I want to be?"
  • There is one reference to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, but it's fleeting, just like any 20-something's interest in that book.
  • Shoshanna needs to CHILL. THE FUCK. OUT. Zosia Mamet is taking that character into some new orbit of over-the-toppism. Hopefully an Ambien addiction is on the horizon for her sometime this season because O-M-EFFING-G she has become a zany caricature of her season one self.
  • Prepare for a Duncan Sheik comeback! Or at least prepare to have this song burned into your brain crevices so hard and so deep that you end up loving it in like a cultish "I didn't mean for this to happen" way—so much that you pry your eyelids open with toothpicks or tape or whatever's laying around at the end of the night just so you can keep listening to it forever.

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Sundance Channel original series TOP OF THE LAKE will be first TV show to premiere at Sundance Film Festival



For the first time ever, a television series will screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres lineup. Sundance Channel’s original series TOP OF THE LAKE will screen in its entirety on Sunday, January 20th at the Egyptian Theater in Park City and will be followed by a Q-and-A with the creators and cast, including Oscar-winning writer and director Jane Campion (THE PIANO), and co-stars Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Holly Hunter (THE PIANO). But that’s not all! Our new series RECTIFY will also debut at a private screening in Park City during the festival. Both shows are already popping up on critics’ must-see lists. Read on for more about these two new Sundance Channel originals and make sure to check back during the Festival (January 17th-27th) for daily updates.

TOP OF THE LAKE is a powerful and haunting mystery about the search for happiness in a paradise where honest work is hard to find. Set in the remote mountains of New Zealand, the story follows the disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl who five months pregnant and was last seen standing chest deep in a frozen lake. Robin Griffin (Moss) is a gutsy, but inexperienced, detective called in to investigate Tui’s case. During the investigation, she collides with Matt Mitcham (Peter Mullan, WARHORSE), the missing girl’s father and local drug lord, and GJ (Hunter), a guru at a local women’s camp. Robin will find this the case that tests her limits and sends her on a journey of self-discovery. 

“I am excited to be returning to the Sundance Film Festival with TOP OF THE LAKE,” said director Jane Campion. “I love crime mysteries and I wanted to write one that had room to expand like a true novel so the idea of doing a six hour long story was very exciting to me. To be able to screen the series in its entirety for the film community is a fantastic opportunity.”

RECTIFY, which will be showcased at a private screening in Park City on January 19th, was created and written by acclaimed actor and filmmaker Ray McKinnon (THE ACCOUNTANT). When Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is suddenly released from prison after 19 years on Death Row, it reopens a mystery that defined a small town. Having spent his adult life waiting to die, Daniel must now learn how to live in a world, a community, and a family he no longer knows. His return divides the small Georgia town and the man who became a State Senator on the heels of his conviction is dead set on putting him back behind bars. Daniel’s release reignites the mystery, the power plays and the questionable justice that condemned him. The six-part series was produced by BREAKING BAD producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein.

* Again I must reiterate there will be nudity in the series but does it involved Moss? It always promising when you throw around phrases like 'journey of self-discovery' in a Jane Campion flick. 

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Introduction to 22-years old American model-dancer Lydia Walters.
More here and here and here.
You can find her all her nude pictorials here.

Started modeling in the buff after moving to L.A. 
from South Carolina. Surprised she didn't go straight into porn biz. Caution though. You don't want to fuck around with her.
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South African model Miriam Adler - Page 33 Issue 37

from
This is Miriam. She’s playing under a sprinkler. Who didn’t love playing under the sprinkler when they were a kid? Better yet, who didn’t love putting a sprinkler under the trampoline on a hot summer’s day? Even better still—who didn’t delight in throwing lemons into the pseudo-affluent neighbor’s kidney-shaped pool late at night? Growing up, my neighbors put in an inground pool—the only one in the neighborhood—and they thought they were the shit. I’d hear them splashing about on the hottest days of summer, having the time of their faux-luxurious lives. Meanwhile, I was playing under the sprinkler with a drooling German Shepherd and sunburn. When the sun went down, I’d redress the balance by hurling fruit over the fence and listening for the gratifying plops.
I was a sour little fellow, but I wouldn’t have been so bitter had Miriam come over to play under the sprinkler with me—I would’ve been the happiest little 10-year-old in the world. Sure, it would’ve been weird when my mother looked out the window and saw her little boy frolicking with a topless bombshell and a tent in his togs, but imagine how jealous the neighbors would’ve been.



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Bullet To The Head Review: One Of Stallone’s Worst To Date


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Rating: ★½☆☆☆

The recent nostalgia for those gleefully silly action romps from the 1980s, embodied in films such as The Expendables, could have coincided swimmingly with the big-screen return of legendary and influential filmmaker Walter Hill, who hasn’t directed a feature film in over a decade. However, working from meatier source material than the genre is used to – Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete – apparently does little to inspire the director, who anonymously helms this brain-dead action movie that will struggle to please even Sylvester Stallone’s most dew-eyed and dedicated fans.

After his partner is brutally murdered, amusingly-monikered hitman Jimmy Bobo (Stallone) teams up with a young detective, Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) to take down the shady bureaucrats responsible and clean up the New Orleans streets once and for all. Though this premise has plenty of low-rent potential as a stylish, knowing throwback to classically daft action films such as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando, Bullet to the Head plays like an unwilling parody of all those gratuitous, politically incorrect action movies of the 1980s, minus the charm, thrills and charisma.
From a scene early on in which Sly gets the better of Terminator-like assassin Keegan (Jason Momoa) – a man half his age and more than a few inches taller – it’s clear that the film’s punishing lack of self-awareness is its undoing, delusionally trying to convince audiences that Sly’s still in his forties, or even his fifties.

Bobo struts around in sharp suits, occasionally stopping off at the local bath-house to show off his physique (which is admittedly impressive, given his age), before kicking some ass and hurling out some cheesy wise-cracks, while ridiculous blues rock music reminds us that, yes, the film is set in New Orleans. Though this sounds fun in a “so bad it’s good” sort of way and some of the banter between Stallone and Kang does work, the gratuity quickly becomes tiresome simply because it’s so unimaginative; the nudity is fleeting – the scene in which a beautiful, braless tattooist (Sarah Shahi) turns out to be Bobo’s daughter feels like it belongs in Last Action Hero – and the violence just isn’t graphic enough.
Furthermore, incomprehensible action editing comes straight out of the Steven Seagal School of Filmmaking, frantically splicing dozens of shots together in order to give a passing impression that Sly can keep up with his far younger adversaries. Party to this the unsurprisingly forgettable plot, terrible performances and cringe-inducing script, and there’s absolutely no doubt that without Stallone and Hill’s involvement, this would have been a straight-to-DVD flick, likely starring Luke Goss or Cuba Gooding Jr.

One is tempted to say that the film doesn’t feel like a Walter Hill film, but then, when was the last time the Warriors director actually made something worth watching? With its irritating, fidgety aesthetic – which indulges too many lightbulb flashes, fast fades and tacky pause-zooms – it plays like something that would pacify only the most boozy and faithful Stallone worshippers. Some of the supporting appearances provide some perverse laughs – Christian Slater is a hoot as a sleazeball high up the conspiracy, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hams his role up appropriately – but on the whole, this is unbearably lazy, low-mileage rental fodder that does nobody involved any good at all.

Sleazy but dull, this glorified TV movie continues the self-destruction of the once-talented Walter Hill’s career.

Bullet to the Head is in cinemas February 1st.

* It seems Sarah Shahi led us on wild nudity goose chase. Or maybe in her world going braless is tantamount to topless nudity. 

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Showtime Lands High-Concept Drama From ‘Skyfall’ Duo John Logan And Sam Mendes

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of their movie Skyfall smashing worldwide box office records as the highest-grossing James Bond pic of all time and landing the franchise’s first Oscar nominations in 30 years, the film’s co-writer John Logan and director Sam Mendes are headed to Showtime. I’ve learned that the pay cable network, flying high on the critical success of original drama Homeland, has landed the duo’s high-concept drama project, which Logan and Mendes took out to premium cable networks in November as a spec written by Logan. Deals are still being finalized but I hear that the project is eyeing a straight-to-series order at Showtime, with Logan and Mendes executive producing with an eye for Mendes to direct. The untitled drama, which has undergone some tweaking from the original spec to tailor it to the Showtime audiences, is described as a psychological horror drama series with literary underpinnings, including Dr. Frankenstein and his creature, set in the 1800s. This would mark both Logan and Mendes’ series debut. They are executive producing the show with Pippa Harris, Mendes’ partner at Neal Street Prods.
A couple of weeks ago, Skyfall became the first movie in the 50-year history of the James Bond franchise to cross the $1 billion worldwide box office mark. Tipped as a potential best picture contender, the movie missed out on the top category but landed five Oscar nominations yesterday, including best song for Adele’s Skyfall. Logan is far from done with Bond –  he already has been tapped to write the next two installments, Bond 24 and 25. Meanwhile, Mendes was the first Oscar winner to direct a Bond pic with Skyfall.
Mendes and Logan share a stage background. Mendes was a top theater director and Logan an accomplished playwright before they segued to feature directing/writing. Logan has been nominated for three Oscars for co-writing Gladiator, and scripting Hugo and The Aviator. His work also includes Rango, Coriolanus, Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai and Any Given Sunday, and he won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle awards for his play Red. Mendes won an Oscar for his feature directorial debut, American Beauty. His directing credits also include Revolutionary Road and Away We Go. Both are repped by CAA.

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Meg Imperial The new face of sexy

By Isah V. Red
She is FHM’s December 2012 cover girl. And her name is Meg Imperial.

The 19-year old has appeared in a number of TV5 shows like Bagets, Lokomoko U, Pidol’s Wonderland, Game and Go, Maynila, and Just Got Lucky.

Now, she steps on another level in her career in show business as the star of the new adult drama from Viva Entertainment.

The movie is called Menor de Edad, and Meg says she isn’t so minor anymore as she turns adult this year.
A talent of Viva Artists Agency (VAA), she has also played contra vida to Ritz Azul in Glamorosa and is about to start work on a new series, also for the Kapatid network, very soon.

Meg admits TV work has to take a back seat temporarily so she can go full time on her most daring project, Menor de Edad, directed by Joel Lamagan. She stars with Wendell Ramos as her leading man.
She is FHM’s December 2012 cover girl. And her name is Meg Imperial.
In an interview, she says, “Mahirap mag-say ‘no’ sa ganyang offer. Big break ko na po ito at nangako ako sa Viva na gagawin ko ang makakaya ko para sulit ang tiwala nila sa akin. Malaki naman din po ang tiwala ko sa kanila dahil magaling na director ang humawak sa pelikula namin, si Direk Joel. Alam kong magandang lalabas ang pelikula namin kaya hindi na po ako nag-in-arte pa.”

The stirring tale of a troubled teenage girl’s sexual awakening is due in theaters Jan. 23.  It also serves as Meg’s birthday offering as the screen neophyte turns 20 three days before the actual play date.

In the movie, Meg plays a 15-year-old Jen Guilarman, a third year high school student who leads a lonely, troubled existence in a tenement housing. A dysfunctional mom (Ara Mina) and her mom’s lesbian live-in partner brought her up. Jen experiences a hellish life from which she tries to escape.
She hooks up with a teacher, played by Wendell Ramos who is himself undergoing a difficult marriage. His wife, Laida, has been in and out of the hospital, diagnosed with cancer of the uterus, and they are saddled with financial problems.

A loner himself, the teacher is sympathetic to the equally lonely Jen and their counseling sessions lead to a friendship misconstrued by others as more than just platonic.

Jen, being the more vulnerable one, imagines herself in love with her teacher and fantasizes about him falling in love with her.

Meg says that while she may be inexperienced, she gave her all  in this movie, including passionate love scenes with Wendell Ramos. She said, she discussed what will happen in the movie and the scenes that she had to go through with her parents. “Okay naman sila, for as long is it is for the good of the movie and my career,” she added. Meg doesn’t want to say if she is still a virgin. “I think that’s too personal a question,” she answered when a member of the media asked her.

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Former Miss Alabama USA Katherine Webb to pose for Sports Illustrated


It's been a big week for former Miss Alabama USA Katherine Webb.

The girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron became a national overnight sensation during the BCS Championship game, gaining more than 30,000 twitter followers in one evening thanks to the work of ESPN cameras and comments by announcer Brent Musburger. Now Webb will be in this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, according to SportsIllustrated.com.

kw.JPGWebb, who told Sports Illustrated in an interview Friday that she was "completely dumbfounded," to receive the offer, said she agreed right away to be in the famous swimsuit magazine.

"When Sports Illustrated called it just became even more real that this is happening," she said in the interview. "Every single model wants to be in Sports Illustrated, and I feel extremely blessed to have that opportunity."

Webb told Sports Illustrated she's been approached by different publications, but chose carefully who to pose for because she thinks, "America appreciates how classy," she is. 

"I'm from Alabama and I have morals and I have class," she said. "That's my personality. A lot of people have said I'm the anti-Kim Kardashian and I'm all right with that."

Webb started speculation about her involvement with the swimsuit edition when she sent out a tweet Thursday, saying, "It's official...shooting with Sports Illustrated!"
The tweet didn't stay up long, but was re-tweeted before it was removed.
This year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue goes on sale the week of Feb. 11.

* Playboy is also 'classy'. She is a Southern sweet-heart. The girls there have broad definition to the word 'classy'. 

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"Paper Moon" not erotic enough
By Peter Chai

Stanley Law, director of "Paper Moon".
After receiving positive reception from international film festivals last year, local director Stanley Law was very excited to see the release of his feature film "Paper Moon" in his home country this month but the filmmaker is not satisfied with the amount of love scenes in the movie, according to sinchew.com.my.
"Paper Moon" stars "Cold War" and "Infernal Affairs" star Gordon Lam, "Men Suddenly In Love" actress Chrissie Chau, local singer-actor Tedd Chan Kwok Fai and Rynn Lim Yee Chung. The film is a bittersweet love story centred on a poor kite-maker named Chen Tian Song who finds himself falling in love with the daughter of his first love due to her uncanny resemblance to her mother.

Director Law explained that he did not shoot a lot of love scenes for "Paper Moon", which is currently classified as P13, because of the limitations of the censorship rules implemented by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS).
"We could have shot more love scenes if not because of local censorship issues. I hope FINAS can be slightly lenient to our production," said Law.

He added, "I have another version for some parts of "Paper Moon" which I might be posting it up on Facebook to share with the public in the future."

Hong Kong actress Chrissie Chau will have spicy love scenes in "Paper Moon".
The audience will get to see how Law and his team instilled the unique Malaysian culture that is the kite-making tradition by the Kelantanese in "Paper Moon". Incidentally, the film's title, "Paper Moon", is a direct translation of the phrase 'wau bulan'.
"I want to show my love for Malaysian culture in this film but I also hope that the government will show more support to Chinese productions in this country," he said.

"Paper Moon" will see release in Malaysia on 17 January. A gala premiere for the film will be held at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur on 15 January, with the main actors to be present on the day.



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The Verge List: 2013 Sundance Cover Photo by Jeff Vespa

Amy Seimetz

Sundance Films: Upstream Color, Pit Stop

Age? “31”
Where are you from? “I’m from Florida so nothing really shocks me. You can’t be judgmental coming from Florida.”
Big Break? “I’m currently working on a TV show with Christopher Guest for HBO.”
Amy Seimetz Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Amy Seimetz Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Amy Seimetz Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa
This isn’t your first time at the festival.What’s your take on it? “Look, the goal of films is that you want a large audience to watch them. Otherwise, we would have drawn pictures in the sand and let the tides take them away. So the best part about Sundance is that everyone there pays attention. Plus all the free stuff, which is surreal coming from poor people—my family can barely qualify for Medicaid, but publicists are pushing ten free pairs of designer jeans on me!”
Describe the characters you play in your two films. “In Upstream Color, I’ve gone through something traumatic. That’s where the movie starts—and all I’m allowed to say. My other film is Pit Stop; I’m a small-town girl trying to accept my husband’s sexual preference after he comes out of the closet.”
What’s the buzz? “The former is Shane Carruth, who directed Primer, a time travel movie that won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2004—then he disappeared. He’s this elusive filmmaker who has created a new language of cinema. The latter is Yen Tan, a graphic designer who’s done posters for tons of movies. Pit Stop isn’t just about being gay; it’s about what ‘till death do us part’ really means today. You’re in a short as well!
What about before you became a Sundance sensation? “When I was living in San Francisco, I sewed costumes for people who went to Burning Man. I made so much money off faux-fur outfits.”
What do you think of Robert Redford? “You mean aside from being the sexiest man alive?”


Julia Garner Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa

JULIA GARNER

Sundance Film: We Are What We Are

Age? “18.”
Where are you from? “Riverdale, New York, so I wear a lot of black. What’s more New York than that?”
Big Break? “My film Electrick Children was my first lead—it was in competition at South by Southwest. And also Martha Marcy May Marlene because that did well at Sundance [in 2011].”
Julia Garner Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Julia Garner Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Julia Garner Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa
So what are the highs and lows of Park City? “The best thing is that it’s like a reunion: Bumping into people you’ve worked with before and don’t get to see anywhere else really—Amy Seimetz, for instance! All over Main Street it’s like: ‘Hey, where have you been? How are you?’ I’d have to say the worst part is the overcrowded restaurants.”
Describe your character in one sentence. “Her name is Rose Parker and she is ashamed of this toxic secret in her family that affects her and everyone around her.”
What’s the buzz? “That it’s edgy. You know it’s about cannibals, right? They actually have a lot of films about boy meets girl at Sundance…this is more like boy eats girl.”
What about before you became a Sundance sensation? “I started acting professionally in the 10th grade—three years ago. But before that I was still in middle school and didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I didn’t realize that acting was, like, a real job.”
What’s next? “I’m in a film that takes place in New Orleans and comes out in March. It’s called The Last Exorcism: Part 2.”

Ambyr Childers Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa

AMBYR CHILDERS

Sundance Film: We Are What We Are

Age? “24.”
Where are you from? “I’m from Arizona. And yes, I still listen to country music—just like my parents.”
Big Break? “Doing Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie, The Master. And I have a small part in Gangster Squad.”
Ambyr Childers Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Ambyr Childers Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Ambyr Childers Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa
What’s special about this trip? “I’ve been to Sundance four or five times but this is the first year I’ve had a film there.”
What’s not to love, right? “It’s breathtakingly beautiful. And you get to play while you’re working, so I will find time to ski with my husband. I’m not nearly as skilled, so he’ll be waiting for me at the bottom!”
Describe your character in one sentence. “Iris is withdrawn and introverted yet she has an incredible amount of strength that she discovers throughout the movie.”
What’s the buzz? “I think it’s about Jim Mickle, my phenomenal director. William Morris are huge fans of his, and we’re not talking about some small agency here.”
Are you a fan of Robert Redford? “Love him! Oh, my gosh. Not only is he handsome but he started this festival—in Utah of all places. I’ve been to Cannes and Toronto but Sundance is a special place: It’s full of down-to-earth artists who just care about making films.”

Lindsay Burdge Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa

LINDSAY BURDGE

Sundance Film: A Teacher

Age? “28.”
Where are you from? “I live in Williamsburg, but I’m originally from California. All I want to do is lie in the sun. I’ve been in Brooklyn too long!”
Big Break? “Last year I produced and acted in a film called First Winter, which was at the Tribeca Film Festival.”
Lindsay Burdge Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Lindsay Burdge Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Lindsay Burdge Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Lindsay Burdge Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa
Sundance virgin? “Yes, this is my first time. It’s funny, you hear such different things: Some people say: It’s the worst! And everyone’s like: Don’t drink too much. Someone even told me to bring my bikini because hot tubs are everywhere.”
One of your Williamsburg girlfriends? “No, actually. It was a programmer for Sundance!”
Describe your character in one sentence. “I play a Texas high school teacher who appears to have it all together—but is crumbling under the stresses of an illicit affair with her student.”
What’s the buzz about A Teacher? “The subject is taboo and we show compassion toward the protagonist—she’s not a monster—so that’s potentially controversial. It’s interesting that sometimes the most normal seeming people have the most to hide.”
What about before you became a Sundance sensation? “I did casting for commercials and music videos. Last year I cast and associate produced Gimme the Loot, which won South by Southwest’s Grand Jury prize.”
* I will be holding out for Ms. Burdge to give us a glimpse of her lady bits in the flick. 

More about Sundance Stars here


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33-years old Canadian actress-model Tricia Helfer : US Playboy [February 2007]
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* months old article but with Merlin out of the picture.....Katie pack your bags and come to US. We are desperate to see your tits and ass on a cable show. Please...please listen to your agent.


Katie McGrath : “I’d do Fifty Shades of Grey
By FIONA WYNNE - The Sun (October 14th, 2012)
 
Merlin star Katie McGrath would love a crack at Fifty Shades of Grey — but couldn’t stand the thought of her mum watching the X-rated movie.

The enchanting beauty, who plays Morgana in the epic BBC fantasy series, is the latest star to be linked with the sought-after role.

Some of Hollywood’s hottest young actresses are looking to land the part of Ana Steele in EL James’ erotic best-seller, with the likes of A-listers Emma Watson and Kristen Stewart pushing for it.

Katie, 29, is no stranger to raunchy on-screen action after making a saucy debut in The Tudors with a sex scene alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

But the Wicklow babe, who grew up in Ashford, claims her mum’s disapproval would frighten her away from the controversial Fifty Shades role.

She said: “I read the book and while I’m sure the movie will be fantastic, it would be a tricky one for me.

“It’s one of those things where all I’d be thinking about if I got the part was, would my mother be able to watch it? “What if she did watch it and then I sat down to dinner with her and she says, ‘So, I saw you in Fifty Shades of Grey’, that’d be a bit of a ‘wow’ moment.

“I just think it’s an honour that anyone would think I’d be suitable for the movie.” Since shooting to fame as evil sorceress Morgana in hit series Merlin, the gorgeous brunette has earned an army of devoted fans around the world and has gone on to work with superstars Roger Moore, John Hurt and Madonna who cast Katie in her directorial debut W.E. She said: “It sometimes boggles your mind how so much can happen in such a short space of time.

Fainting “In a year, I’ve worked with some of the biggest names out there and I’m going to Comi-Con in the States where giggling nervous people dressed up as Morgana are practically fainting in front of me. I’m like, ‘Stop, please don’t do that’. I’m a just girl from a small town from Wicklow. It’s weird to think this is now my life.”

Working closely with the Material Girl on historical drama W.E, which also starred rising starlet Andrea Riseborough, Katie confessed she was in awe of the Queen of Pop, but they haven’t stayed in touch.

She explained: “Madonna’s just like any director I’ve worked with, it’s work. You do your work and move on to the next project.

“Amazing to be around, an inspiring presence on set and works so, so hard, I was really in awe of her. You did have to pinch yourself when you were talking to her in the beginning but she’s so lovely, you kind of get over it.”

Despite attracting fanatical admirers, Katie admits she’s lucky none has ever stepped over the line.

She said: “In five years, I haven’t had a bad experience with a fan. I’ve never had one make me feel uncomfortable. Merlin’s the type of show where you get the committed support from people.

“They’ve all been so sweet and really good to me and I’m so grateful to that.”

Besides a previous rumoured fling with movie star Meyers — one that she has repeatedly denied — Katie, who’s currently single, has managed to maintain a low profile in the gossip columns.

The beauty admitted, however, her favourite rumour was reports she was replacing Victoria Secret’s babe Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the new Transformers sequel. She laughed: “That is the best one I’ve ever heard. Brilliant! You bet your money I want to run round with giant robots for Michael Bay.

“But who would ever want to be the person to follow the shoes of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, one of the most perfect female specimens on the planet?” Committed Returning with a new series of Merlin, Katie reveals Morgana’s plans to destroy King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot, after being left on the brink of death at the end of the last season.

She revealed: “In true Merlin fashion, you can’t keep a bad girl down.

Morgana’s even more committed and further along the dark path this season.

She’s like a rebel freedom fighter leader, totally focused on the end goal and committed to whatever it takes to get there.”

With the BBC strapped for cash, Katie admits she’ll be devastated when the show comes to an end.

She said: “It depends on the audience, they are the ones who decide. “We only get renewed year-toyear, there’s no three-year contract, so our next move, who knows? “It’s such a fantastic job with some wonderful people, over five years, it really is like a big family so part of me never wants to leave that, part of me wants to stay with the show and the cast who I’m so close with now.”

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Amanda Seyfried stars in "Lovelace," a biography of the "Deep Throat" star Linda Lovelace. The movie will premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Right-wing group protests Utah support of Sundance

Sutherland Institute says some festival films are obscene and pornographic.

A right-wing Utah policy group argues the state of Utah should stop supporting the Sundance Film Festival, because the internationally acclaimed event shows "films that are obscene and contrary to [Utah taxpayers’] values."

"Given the amount of sexual promiscuity that Sundance Film Festival regularly brings to Utah, it seems similarly indecent that Utah’s major economic development agencies basically endorsed the event," writes Derek Monson, of The Sutherland Institute, in a blog entry posted Friday.

The Sutherland statement decries the sexual content of some of this year’s Sundance titles, which Monson labeled "obscenity" and "pornography." He mentioned (without naming their titles) "Lovelace," a biography of "Deep Throat" star Linda Lovelace, and "Two Mothers," a drama in which two women each begin affairs with the other’s adult sons.
"For the sake of public decency and encouraging a free, moral society, the state of Utah should end its ‘complex relationship’ with the Sundance Film Festival," Monson writes, concluding, "Some things are more important than money."

Sundance, the nation’s most prestigious film festival, will begin its 11-day run Thursday. It will screen 119 feature films and 65 shorts in Park City and at venues in Salt Lake City, Ogden and the Sundance resort.

According to a study written last May by the University of Utah, last year’s Sundance Film Festival generated $80.3 million in economic impact to the state and attracted 31,121 out-of-state visitors.

Three state agencies — the Utah Film Commission, the Utah Office of Tourism and the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development — are listed as "Festival Host State" support in Sundance’s film guide and other literature.

Officials for the Sundance Institute and the Utah Film Commission did not return calls for comment by deadline Friday evening.

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Josie Loren - Verge

Josie Loren’s Next Chapter

Photography by Jeff Vespa

After four years on a hit TV show “Make It Or Break It,” Josie Loren is ready for her next challenge. She has worked hard to get here and trust us she isn’t going anywhere.

JL: I had a blessed and beautiful childhood in Miami, Florida. My parents are still together and I am number 3 of 4 kids. We already had a full house, but our friends and family were always over. Our house was the “it” house to come to. It was where everyone gathered on holidays and where people came to throw their parties. To say that our house was loud and boisterous is an understatement. There was ALWAYS something going on. It was great and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but in the hustle and bustle of it all it was very easy to get lost. I soon learned how to get people’s attention by being funny or dramatic. It worked every time.
Josie Loren - Verge
Josie Loren Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Josie Loren Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa  Josie Loren Verge Photo by Jeff Vespa
I went to a private, Christian school until I was in 5th grade. The principal there was a huge advocate of the arts; so every year she would make every child learn a monologue. We would perform it for a panel that would then select a team of 5-7 students for each grade. She would spend the next month coaching each team in preparation for a monologue competition among Christian schools in South Florida. I was selected every year and always ranked in the top of the competition. After my first year, I knew I loved acting. I didn’t know I wanted to be an actor. I had no idea what that entailed or that it was even an option. I just knew I loved it. My principal, Ms. Patsy, always gave me extra attention because she truly believed that I had a gift. I came to love our sessions together where we would work together on these monologues and completely lose track of time. Often times, my teacher would have to come and pull me from her office because I had missed too much class. I owe Ms. Patsy everything. She saw something in me nobody else did and she cultivated my love for the arts.

In the fourth grade my principal recommended to my mother that I audition for the theatre department of an arts school. I auditioned, was selected, and left my private school. When it was time to go to middle school, I auditioned for another arts program and was again selected. As for high school, I attended New World School of the Arts and graduated from their musical theatre program. I have been in countless school plays and musicals as well as community theatre. My high school also had a musical theatre touring company, of which I was a member that performed throughout all of Florida. I made it into the musical theatre program at UCLA, but after 2 quarters, decided to switch to a major that allowed me to work as an actor outside of school.

There was a period of time where I wasn’t booking work, so I started to work as a caterer for UCLA. It was grueling! I think my back is still messed up from it. I booked Make It Or Break It while I was working there, so I gave my 2 weeks notice the minute I got the call. It was, however, a humbling experience. I recognized that a lot of people work those jobs their whole life and never get their “big break.” That’s their reality. It made me so grateful that I had the opportunity to make a living doing something that I love. How lucky was I? That experience also instilled a deep compassion and respect for honest, hard working people. I walked onto the Make It Or Break It set feeling truly blessed and I can honestly say that 4 years and many jobs later, I still feel the same way.

Now that Make It Or Break It is over I am in the process of getting that next job. Since I was on a drama where I played a 16-year old for the last four years I’d like to go the opposite direction and work on great sitcom or do an edgy indie that will separate me from my predominantly young audience. I’d love to be in a period piece and play one of the many roles that Keira Knightly plays, but I highly doubt I will ever get the chance. Hispanics don’t really fit in that period of history unfortunately.

I always try to look beyond simply booking the job. I take it out of myself and put it into a greater context that’s more powerful than just me. I feel this way because of an experience I had auditioning for a guest star role on a hit drama series playing the role of a sex trafficking victim. Before going in for the callback I did a lot of research on the topic and the countless women that have suffered because of this grotesque crime. I was shocked at the things I saw and the stories I read. I made the choice before going in to the audition that I would dedicate my performance to the victims of sex trafficking, so that their stories would be heard. I put aside the goal of booking the audition, and focused on bringing these women justice. I didn’t get the part, but I have never been more proud of a performance. I realized then that we must choose to have a greater purpose, one that lives outside of us.

* Josie the cute Cuban is on the same path as Dominik García-Lorido was few years ago: failed auditions, subtly blaming her Hispanic appearance for lack of work and holding on to soon-to-be obsolete nudity clause. The good news is she already talking about taking on edgy indie films. My prediction is leaning towards a stint on a cable show. Well..all my predictions lean that way but I don't know....Josie desire to succeed will take her beyond the fear of displaying T-and-A's on the screen. Josie can next be seen on supposedly raunchy 21 and Over (2013). Strangely she is not listed on cast credits but she confirms she is in it on her tweeter.

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Beauty and the Booze: Former Miss USA’s Struggle with Drugs and Alcohol

miss_usa.PNG(Long Island, N.Y.) Tara Conner, the first Miss Kentucky to ever win the Miss USA pageant in 2006, had a tumultuous rise to national stardom in the years after her win. The former Miss Teen USA went on in 2006 to win fourth runner-up positions in the Miss Universe pageant.

Soon after, a downward spiral started to spin. While shacked up in an apartment at Trump Place, owned by Donald Trump, Conner went about her schedule of appearances ringing the opening bell on the Stock Exchange, appeared on dozens of talk shows, was guest judge on the Bravo network show Project Runway, until just before her 21st birthday party that was scheduled to take place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas when the paparazzi-fueled drama ensued to unravel her dreams.

On December 14, 2006, just four days before her birthday, controversy erupted when TMZ.com published an article reporting the 20-year-old had been engaging in reckless behavior in New York bars and would be stripped of her crown. On Dec. 16, 2006, the New York Daily News stated that she had been sneaking men into her Trump Place apartment, been photographed kissing Miss Teen USA Katie Blair in front of several leering cameras and had tested positive for cocaine.

Trump refused to take her crown, telling CNN in an interview that he believed in second chances. “Reports that Miss USA is being ‘dethroned’ are absolutely not true.” He then said to CNN that Conner is “Tara can do tremendous service to young people, troubled people throughout this country and in many countries that have problems with alcohol and drugs,” Trump said. “I believe that Tara can serve as somebody even more than just Miss USA.” Trump said. A case in point for this article. Trump checked her into a Pennsylvania drug rehabilitation center.

After she left rehab in January 2007, the blond-haired and blue-eyed temptress started coming clean about the pain she’d been self-medicating for years. She told Matt Lauer about abusing alcohol and cocaine to battler her demons. She told Oprah a few months after coming out of rehab about her past: a rape at 14, for which she started cutting herself, drinking underage and abusing prescription drugs like Klonopin, OxyContin and Percocet — as many as 30 pills a day to numb the pain she felt inside.

She’d get bad grades or get in trouble in school, The Examiner reported in 2010, but her pageant success helped her cover up those failures. “My name was in the papers,” she said. “And [everyone would think], ‘Well, she can’t be a drug addict if she’s winning pageants.’” When she won Miss USA, she reports being high on Xanax.

Conner reportedly has stayed clean and serene since leaving rehab in early 2007. She’s also stayed busy doing pageants- and spokesperson-related work. She worked for MTV for a 2007 Pageant Place reality show and on a 2008 Spring Break special, as well as hosting a 2009 MTV show called The Girls of Hedsor Hall She’s now hosting a Web show called Kaboom in which various items are exploded to the audience’s delight.

This article was a contributor piece sent in to bring attention to helping a loved one battle substance abuse. It was fact checked and edited by NewsLI.com before publication. For more information about the harmful effects of drugs, visit http://www.drugscope.org.uk

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Terry Richardson's Diary - Barbara Palvin
* It appears Terry has stopped posting nude pictorials at his site. Palvin in a bathrobe and Selena Gomez was in one too few weeks ago. They reportedly posed for Terry as a favor after working together for another project. Isn't he working on a new pic-book?


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'Girls' Star: Brian Williams On Set So Much We Want 'BriWi-Cam' to See Reaction to Daughter's Sex Scenes

If your daughter was an actress doing a sex scene in a movie or television show, would you want to watch?
On the CBS Late Show Thursday, Girls star Lena Dunham said that not only is NBC's Brian Williams often on the set for the filming of this sex-packed HBO program, the cast jokes about having a "BriWi-cam" on him to gauge his reactions to his daughter Allison's sex scenes (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: We had Brian Williams on the show the other night. His daughter, one of your lovely stars.

LENA DUNHAM: Allison.

LETTERMAN: Yes. And I didn't talk to him specifically about it, but from the shows that I have, if I were the father of one of the women on the program, I'd, you know, maybe just a little, whoa.

DUNHAM: It’s true.

LETTERMAN: You know what I'm saying?

DUNHAM: He's surprisingly jaunty about the whole thing. I mean, my Dad sort of takes a perverse pleasure in it. Like people will say to him like, “God, you must be so upset watching Lena get naked and have sex in all these odd positions." And he kind of goes like, "No, I love it, I'm so proud." He like really wants to defy people's expectations. And but Brian is like, Brian’s on the set more than some of our PAs.

LETTERMAN: Actually showing up!

DUNHAM: He comes and sits in video village and acts really proud of us. He calls me "Leans." It's not a reality I ever thought I'd exist in.

LETTERMAN: Yeah. Well, I mean, we have to be adult and proud and happy about the circumstance, and it is, again, acting. It is entertainment. It is a business.

DUNHAM: Yeah, we had our premiere last night and we always make jokes about how when there's a sex scene with Allison we want to have like a BriWi-cam, like just like a camera on his face where we can register it all.

On Monday and Tuesday, folks were hyperventilating about ESPN's Brent Musberger having commented during the NCAA National Championship football game about how pretty the girlfriend of Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron was.

I don't know about you, but I found this entire discussion between the 65-year-old Letterman and the 26-year-old Dunham far creepier.

As the father of a 19-year-old daughter, I can't imagine watching her sex scenes if her acting career somehow demanded such a thing. I certainly wouldn't be doing so sitting in an audience with others present.
In a word, EWWW!

* Brian was probably there to make sure his daughter - still green behind her ears - wasn't taken advantage of nudity-wise. He knows how the biz operates but someone should remind Brian it was Allison choice to audition for a role that required nudity and sexual situations. Lena (and Judd) actually been more than considerate and kind enough to not force the issue. If it was any other show-runner, Allison titties will be up for an award as Mr.Skin 2012 nudecomer.

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Meet the 2013 Sundance Filmmakers: Stacie Passon Tracks the Double Life of a Lesbian Housewife in 'Concussion'

The U.S. Dramatic contender "Concussion" marks Stacie Passon’s first feature film as writer/director. In 2012, the project was chosen for the Independent Feature Project’s narrative lab. Also in 2012, Passon received the Adrienne Shelly Director’s Grant and the Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers Live the Dream Grant at the Gotham Awards for "Concussion." She began as a commercial producer and director, creating media for dozens of clients, including Warner Music Group, Donna Karan, IBM, and Sony Music Entertainment. Most recently Passon produced "Elliot King Is Third" for director and mentor Rose Troche.

What It's About: "The film is about a wealthy suburban, lesbian housewife searching for intimacy who begins a double life in the city."

What It's REALLY About: "'Concussion' is about marriage, when a person gets lost in the roles they play that they forget who they are, what they need. It's also very much about how mid-life hits you hard, you realize you have limited time in your beautiful body and some how all these social rules don't make sense anymore. Abby, the main character wants to feel life and independence and intimacy again and the way she goes about it is pretty interesting." 


What I Want to Provoke: "I audiences to think about broadening the conversation about marriage and fidelity. What makes a marriage. What it takes to keep one. Also how to reclaim independence and identity when you're so used to being seen as wife, mother, husband, father, etc."

What I Shot On: Epid Red.

Up Next: "I'm writing a TV show called 'Animals' and researching a new feature."


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