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Television
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The last year has been pretty quiet for Michael Cera. Scott Pilgrim vs the World was released last summer (you might remember that we liked it quite a bit) and the actor hasn’t been seen in much since then. He shot a part in an indie project from Scott Pilgrim co-star Mark Webber, but aside from some smaller comedy work, that’s been it in the past few months.
Now Sebastian Silva (director of The Maid) has written and will direct Magic, Magic, a thriller set in Chile, and Michael Cera is polishing up his Spanish language skills for a role.
Cera isn’t actually the lead in Magic Magic; he’ll plan an unknown supporting role. The story follows, “a girl vacationing with her friends in a remote area of Chile who slowly starts losing her mental faculties. She tries to get her friends’ attention, but they ignore her until it’s too late.
That’s just about all we’ve got on the film, though a couple months back The Playlistspoke to Cedar Rapids director Miguel Arteta, and he said then that Michael Cera would be working with Sebastian Silva on a film that is obviously this one. He said, “he’s gonna do a movie with him in Chile. He’s spending five hours a day learning Spanish. He follows his own heart.”
So that’s an interesting wrinkle and will, I hope, forestall the predictable comments about Michael Cera always playing the same character. This seems like it could be a dramatic departure for him, and we’ll be waiting with real interest to see what comes of it. Magic, Magic still has to cast the female lead, and once that is done it should shoot later this year.
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Television
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Did we just hear what we think we just heard? When Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) performed Adele's song "Rolling in the Deep" tonight on the highly anticipated prom episode of"Glee," we're pretty sure that a certain curse word wasn't cut out.
Meanwhile, on "Dancing With the Stars," Adele performed the hit -- and she did censor it to keep it prime-time friendly.
The line in question in Adele's original version is "Finally, I can see you crystal clear. Go ahead and sell me out and a I'll lay your s*** bare." If we're not mistaken, that's what we heard on the air.
Perhaps they replaced it with "shift" or "ship" or something equally nonsensical, and we just can't tell the difference? Listen to the clip below and tell us what you think. Is it what we think it is?
While you're at it, weigh in on the episode. Did Groff deliver as Jesse or are you hoping he gets out of the way quickly to make room for Finchel? |
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Television
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Well, anything is possible. Maybe it was because, as the “DanceCenter” panel pointed out, he had too many cookies and “he’s not working out hard enough.” OhRomeo, Romeo. Despite that swagger and a confidence that stretched on for days, the multihyphenate talent formerly known as “Lil” and son of Master P was eliminated from the competition during this, Season 12’s eighth week. Just shy of the semifinals, too. And while I can safely say that I never want to hear him shill anything ever again (“He’s plugging to the very end!” exclaimed Tom), I was still sad to see him go.
Remember when Romeo didn’t want to put on heeled shoes? He’s come such a long way, thanks to pro partner Chelsie Hightower, and he should be proud of his efforts. Carrie Ann in particular, seemed shocked that Romeo was the one leaving and not injured Ralph Macchio, who received a good six points less than his fellow bottom-dweller. But at least Romeo was able to leave with strong tango and salsa performances that showed that he can not only talk the talk (and talk and talk), but walk the walk as well. He won’t have to turn down movies for fear of dancing. And his message remained on point. As they said on “DanceCenter,” Romeo (member of the Celine Dion fan club) did it for the kids, for the troops “and for his father’s record company.”
Well, this leaves Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff, Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Hines Ward and Kym Johnson and Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas to duke it out in the semifinals.
Kirstie and Maks got their semifinal notice early, like a reward after their Argentine tango was selected as the encore performance. In the performance recaps, Kym buttered up Hines before his individual dance, saying “Your butt looks cute in those pants” and then requesting that “If we get a Mirrorball trophy, I want a proper ring on my finger.”
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Television
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In the stirring yet unsatisfying documentary “Becoming Chaz,” which airs Tuesday night on OWN, a Los Angeles woman who has lived a life of relative despair (including the death of a lover, the stillbirth of a singing career and a struggle with painkiller addiction) can only truly heal herself by becoming himself. We follow Chaz Bono through a significant part of the process that took place in 2010, including hormone treatments and the surgical removal of his breasts.
As many know, Chaz Salvatore Bono was once Chastity Sun Bono, born in 1969 during the pop heyday of her parents, Sonny and Cher. (The Bonos were so saturated in show biz that they named Chastity for a disastrous movie project that same year, directed by Sonny and starring Cher.)
When Sonny and Cher’s variety show hit big on CBS in 1971, Chastity became a useful prop — the shy, towheaded cutie in baby-doll dresses and Mary Jane shoes who was brought out at the end of every show to blow goodnight kisses to America. Some of “Becoming Chaz’s” best moments feature clips from that time, with a heightened, melancholy regard for the scared girl who is frozen in stage lights and paparazzi flashes.
That essential anguish, now coursing with injected testosterone, remains. “Becoming Chaz” is one thing — and it’s occasionally fascinating to watch — but being Chaz gets old pretty fast.
As his longtime (and long-suffering) live-in girlfriend observes, Chaz’s change has also meant that she has become a lesbian with an overweight, temperamental, 42-year-old boyfriend who sits on the couch and plays video games all day. He’s become “a real [male appendage],” she says. Which, to Chaz, sounds like high praise indeed.
After its debut at Sundance earlier this year, “Becoming Chaz,” directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, was immediately purchased by Oprah Winfrey’s new network as an example of just the sort of programming values Oprah wishes to exalt.
Indeed, the film encourages inquiry and open-mindedness; it tenderly attempts to explore a deep discomfort in both its subject and its potential viewers; and it is at times as difficult to look away from as it is to watch. If anything has characterized OWN since its debut in January, it would be this fascination with human difference, emotional fragility and social marginilization. All that, plus sutures, needles and drainage tubes.
But most of all, “Becoming Chaz” is about living just within the reach of celebrity’s hot glare, which is another of OWN’s fixations, demonstrated in the network’s reality series about the Judds, Shania Twain and, soon, Sarah Ferguson. No matter what Chaz becomes (or hopes to become), the lingering effects of his parents’ fame colors all of it.
A lot has happened since the ’70s, of course. Cher embarked on a never-ending journey of reinvention and self-preservation; Sonny became a politician and died in a 1998 ski accident while serving in Congress. Though focused on the life of a transgendered person in progress, “Becoming Chaz” can’t help but discover themes of abandonment and loss.
The film is also an inadvertent study in message and media management — starting with the fact that Chaz is credited as one of the film’s producers, thus exercising some control in what we see. Aside from the prying eyes of TMZ and “Entertainment Tonight,” much of Chaz’s PR maneuverings concern his mother’s public reaction to his gender change.
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