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Tag: film actress

  • Katie Holmes Returns To TV With ABC Pilot

    It has been 11 years since Katie Holmes was seen on the small screen, but she will finally be making her return with a new show. As many people remember, Holmes gained her initial fame through her role on Dawson’s Creek.

    Since her departure from television, she has been spotlighted for her personal life with her marriage to Tom Cruise, and raising her daughter Suri, along with a several films. Following her divorce to Tom Cruise in 2012, she has reportedly been dating Jamie Foxx.

    Katie Holmes originally played Joey Potter on the drama series, which ran from 1998 until 2003, and was a gateway for her to enter the Hollywood life. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Batman Begins and Pieces Of April, an indie film from 2003.

    Her potential drama show is still untitled, but comes from writer Richard LaGravense, who also wrote the screenplay for the Golden Globe winning Behind The Candelabra. The show will be directed by Taylor Hackford. It is a drama about high society, and has been said to share similarities with the classic Dangerous Liaisons.

    The series will be set in modern-day New York City. It will feature Katie Holmes as Ann, a woman of education and breeding, who has never used those advantages for power over others. She also runs a philanthropic foundation with her husband Phillip, who will be played by Rufus Sewell.

    Phillip and Margot, who has not been cast yet, make a bet that will destroy his seemingly happy marriage to Ann, and soon Ann will learn to play the game, and be a competitive match for Phillip.

    In a time when many film actors and actresses are turning to television perhaps to keep more of a routine, or get more in touch with a different type of audience, Katie Holmes will be returning to the medium that she knows best, and originated on.

    Katie Holmes may be making her return to television shortly with the upcoming untitled ABC pilot. She will be seen on the big screen next in the film adaptation of the classic novel The Giver, which opens on August 15th.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Carey Mulligan Is Set To Take The Stage In Her West End Debut

    Carey Mulligan has been no stranger to the big screen in recent years, and now she will take her acting skills to the stage, debuting in a play at the West End in London. She will be appearing in a revival of David Hare’s Skylight, which will be directed by Stephen Daldry.

    She will make her debut in Skylight this summer, and the show will preview at the Wyndham’s theatre in June.

    It will mark the second time that Skylight has been performed in the West End, with Bill Nighy returning to fill the role that he played back in 1997.

    Skylight premiered at the National Theatre in 1995, where it won the Oliver Award for best play. The production then transferred to the West End before heading to Broadway, and later returning to the West End in 1997.

    In Hare’s Skylight, Bill Nighy will play the role of Tom, a newly widowed owner of a restaurant. He starts staying with his ex-girlfriend Kyra Hollis, who is much younger, with the hope of rekindling their relationship.

    Matthew Beard is also a part of the cast, and will be making his stage debut in the play. Beard has previously worked with Carey Mulligan in the film An Education.

    While Bill Nighy has appeared on the stage before, it will be a show filled with two of the biggest British actors that are currently acting. Carey Mulligan was last seen on stage three years ago in an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s film Through a Glass Darkly in New York.

    Her acting ability on the stage has been highly praised, and in reference to her role in Through A Glass Darkly, New York Times Critic Ben Brantley said “If you want to experience the shock of illumination that acting, at its best, can achieve – and only occasionally does – you need to see Ms Mulligan’s performance.”

    Carey Mulligan was most recently seen on screen in Inside Llewyn Davis, and she has received great praise for each of her other films including An Education and Shame. Some notable films for Bill Nighy include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Love Actually, Notes On A Scandal, and Still Crazy.

    After mostly being known as a film actress, Carey Mulligan has been in a few plays already, but will make her West End debut this year, and work with the talented Bill Nighy for the first time.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Olivia de Havilland Mourns The Loss Of Her Sister, Joan Fontaine

    Olivia de Havilland and her sister, Joan Fontaine, were both incredibly popular and well-received actresses during their time in the era of classic Hollywood. However, the two of them had a lifelong feud and were very competitive with one another.

    Their lifelong feud as acting sisters ended over the weekend, when Joan Fontaine passed away in her home in Carmel, California. She died of natural casuses at the age of 96.

    As sisters, they were nominated against one another during Academy Award ceremonies, and were bitter rivals with one another throughout their career. This happened most notably when Joan Fontaine beat out de Havilland for the Oscar for Best Actress in 1941 for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion.

    While a bitter rival with her sister since their childhood, and as they grew up to star in motion pictures, Olivia de Havilland is very saddened by the loss of her sister. The 97-year-old actress released a statement saying that she was “shocked and saddened by the news, and that she was grateful for the many kind expressions of sympathies.”

    Post by Olivia de Havilland Fan Club.

    Both actresses won Oscars throughout their long film careers, and Olivia de Havilland may be remembered most for her role as Melanie in Gone With The Wind. She also won Oscars for To Each His Own and The Heiress.

    The loss of Joan Fontaine is significant for fans of classic Hollywood, and in addition to de Havilland, she was one of the last remaining links to the classic period of films. She had not been seen on the big screen since 1966 in The Witches, but she was in select episodes of several television series and TV movies.

    Olivia de Havilland is a longtime resident of Paris, and over the years she has often declined to talk about her sister. De Havilland also spoke of her feud with her sister when saying “Imagine what we could have done if we had gotten together. We could have selected the right scripts, the right directors, the right producers—we could have built our own empire. But it was not to be.”

    While Joan Fontaine had disappeared off of the Hollywood grid for several years, de Havilland appeared at the 75th Annual Academy Awards, where she received a standing ovation. She took the stage to present 59 of her fellow past winners who had gathered for the landmark show.

    Despite the troubled relationship between the two sisters throughout their lives, Olivia de Havilland is deeply hurt and shocked by the death of her sister.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Joan Fontaine, Film Actress, Dies At Age 96

    Joan Fontaine, Film Actress, Dies At Age 96

    Well, it was a rough weekend for classic Hollywood. People tend to say that things happen in 3’s, and over the weekend, three members of the Hollywood community died, with Joan Fontaine being the latest to pass away.

    Joan Fontaine was an actress who acted during the classic Hollywood period, and had starring roles in multiple Hitchcock films, which earned her recognition at the Academy Awards.

    The news of her death was confirmed by Fontaine’s assistant, Susan Pfeiffer, stating that she died of natural causes on Sunday at her home in Carmel, California. She was born on October 22, 1917 in Tokyo, Japan.

    She was one of the last remaining links to the Golden Age of film in the 1930s’ and 1940’s, and won a best actress Oscar for her role in Suspicion. She was also nominated for an Oscar for Rebecca, and was seen in several other films including Ivanhoe, Something To Live For, and Letter From An Unknown Woman.

    Joan Fontaine has not been seen on the big screen since 1966 in The Witches, but she was in select episodes of several television series and TV movies.

    She has been described as having an on-stage presence that could seem radiantly shy, believably insecure, gazing into the middle distance with a hesitancy that drew you immediately to her side.

    In addition to Joan Fontaine, Peter O’Toole, known for his role in Lawrence Of Arabia, also passed away over the weekend. Billy Jack star Tom Laughlin died as well. The actors were 81, and 82, respectively.

    Throughout her life, she was married and divorced four times, the first being to actor Brian Aheme. She is also the younger sister of Olivia De Havilland, a well-known actress of the same time period, who won Oscars for both The Heiress and To Each His Own.

    Both Fontaine and her sister were born in Tokyo, although were brought to California at a young age after their mother removed them due to their father’s affair with the Japanese maid.

    Throughout their film careers, the sisters remained bitter rivals with one another, and were even nominated against each other in the case when Joan Fontaine won the award for Suspicion. In 1978, she published her autobiography, No Bed of Roses, which detailed also detailed the long-running feud that she had with de Havilland.

    In an eventful weekend for classic Hollywood’s actors, Joan Fontaine has passed away, and will be remembered as one of the shining stars of her time.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons