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Tag: Woody Allen

  • “Hannah Montana:” Is Miley Cyrus Considering A Reunion Show?

    Hannah Montana starred Miley Cyrus and her dad, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The show was Miley’s big break in the entertainment industry.

    E! News recently chatted with the bride-to-be (Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are engaged again) and asked if a Hannah Montana reunion might one day be in the cards.

    “I don’t know, only if she, like, has an alter ego and is actually me,” Cyrus replied. “Reverse it all the way around.”

    Miley Cyrus has emerged into a rather controversial celebrity–bearing body parts and doing drugs–behaving unlike the wholesome Hannah Montana.

    “People want to see a lot of things that I can’t do…on TV,” she joked.

    The topic soon turned to those Miley loves best–sex and her penchant for going naked. Those are likely the things she’d like Hannah Montana’s alter ego to experience.

    That said–a Hannah Montana reunion likely isn’t in the cards.

    When the Disney Channel show ended, many parents had already questioned allowing their children to attend concerts because of Miley Cyrus’s new cache of behaviors. The once child-friendly star was no longer appropriate for many of the little girls who considered her an idol.

    What do you suppose the Disney Channel might say if a Hannah Montana reunion was proposed? Would they have enough faith in Miley Cyrus to risk production of something with the potential to go terribly wrong?

    This doesn’t mean fans won’t eventually seen Miley back on TV. Woody Allen has cast the Hannah Montana star in a new series set in the 1960s, that will air exclusively on Amazon.

  • Bruce Willis Replaced by Steve Carell in New Woody Allen Movie–Was He Fired?

    Bruce Willis was recently replaced by Steve Carell in a current Woody Allen film already in production. There is some confusion about the reason Willis was replaced, with reports running the gamut from his being fired to production interfering with his upcoming Broadway role in Misery.

    The Boston Herald reports that Bruce Willis was set to star alongside Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeannie Berlin, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick, and Paul Schneider. Woody Allen serves as both writer and director.

    Now with Steve Carell in Willis’s role, prospective fans are no closer to knowing anything about the film. The plot is completely under wraps and no title has been announced.

    Bruce Willis will appear alongside New York theater favorite Elizabeth Marvel in the screenplay of Stephen King’s novel Misery starting this fall on Broadway. He will play the role of romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who is rescued following a car crash from a woman named Annie, who describes herself as his “Number One Fan.” When Annie reads Paul’s most recent manuscript and discovers he has killed off her favorite character, she begins torturing the author–forcing him to write a new novel.

    Kathy Bates played the role of Annie in the film adaptation.

    This is Bruce Willis’s first run on Broadway. He was beaten to Broadway by daughter Rumer Willis, however, who is starring as Roxie Hart in Chicago, beginning on September 14. Bruce Willis is set to star in Misery beginning in October.

    Do you expect Steve Carell replaced Bruce Willis in this upcoming Woody Allen film because he was fired or because of his obligations on Broadway instead?

  • Woody Allen Film About Older Man and Younger Woman: Close To Home?

    Woody Allen’s latest film, Irrational Man, is about an older man and a younger woman. Emma Stone stars as an undergrad who falls for her older professor, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Emma Stone is 26, while Joaquin Phoenix is 40.

    But that age spread is nothing compared to Woody Allen’s actual marriage.

    “I’ve been married now for 20 years, and it’s been good,” Woody Allen told NPR. “I think that was probably the odd factor that I’m so much older than the girl I married. I’m 35 years older, and somehow, through no fault of mine or hers, the dynamic worked.”

    Woody Allen is married to Soon-Yi Previn, a romance which caused quite an uproar when the pair first got together.

    “I was paternal,” Woody Allen says. “She responded to someone paternal. I liked her youth and energy. She deferred to me, and I was happy to give her an enormous amount of decision-making just as a gift and let her take charge of so many things. She flourished. It was just a good-luck thing.”

    Characterizing his relationship with Soon-Yi as paternal seems an odd choice of words, especially since that dynamic is what caused the scandal in the first place. Soon-Yi Previn is the daughter of Mia Farrow, Woody Allen’s ex-partner/girlfriend. Allen and Farrow have a son together, who is therefore Soon-Yi’s brother.

    “I started the relationship with her and I thought it would just be a fling, it wouldn’t be serious,” Allen says. “But it had a life of its own. And I never thought it would be anything more. Then we started going together, then we started living together, and we were enjoying it. And the age difference didn’t seem to matter. It seemed to work in our favor, actually.”

    Woody Allen says Irrational Man is not about him. But the May-December romance dynamic certainly seems to hit close to home.

  • Emma Stone Plays Much Younger Love Interest in Woody Allen Film. Again.

    Woody Allen is so smitten with Emma Stone, he can’t say enough.

    “Her allure is everything: She’s beautiful, she’s bright, she’s gifted, she’s sexy, she’s intelligent, she can do comedy, she can do serious things, she sings, she dances, she’s a pleasure to work with,”

    Woody Allen cast Emma Stone in his film Irrational Man. Stone plays an undergrad who falls for an older college professor.

    “I think she’s going to be the biggest female star in America over the next couple years,” Allen enthused about his leading lady. “She’s phenomenal. It’s just a pleasure to, you know, you come in in the morning at 7:30 on the set, and there’s Emma Stone: Your heart gets a little boost of adrenaline.”

    So does that mean Woody Allen will keep casting Emma Stone?

    “Well, she’s not in my next film,” he says. “But if I had anything that was right for her – and she was not doing another film at the time, she was available – I’d certainly hope that she would do it.”

    And what about Emma Stone? Maybe that depends on if she would be again cast as a younger woman involved with an older man. Irrational Man was the fourth film in which Stone played a woman in a relationship with an older man.

    Stone was opposite Bradley Cooper in Aloha, Ed Norton in Birdman, Colin Firth in Magic in the Moonlight, and now opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man.

    Remember that Maggie Gyllenhaal recently claimed she was passed over for a role opposite an older man. The reason was shocking.

    “I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”

    How does Emma Stone feel about this tendency in Hollywood?

    “It’s rampant in Hollywood and it’s definitely been that way for a long time, both culturally and in movies. But in Irrational Man, the film is contingent upon the age difference; the movie is about that disparity. And when I did Magic in the Moonlight Colin Firth and I talked about the gap which was huge, absolutely, because he was born the same year as my dad,” Stone says.

    “There’s a lot of conversation about how we want to see people represented on screen and what we need to change as a business to reflect culture in a clearer way and not in an idealized way. There are some flaws in the system,” Stone says.

  • Parker Posey of ‘You’ve Got Mail’ Remembers Late Director Nora Ephron

    Parker Posey, an incredible actress known for her role in You’ve Got Mail, took some time Thursday to remember the director of the film, Nora Ephron, who died in 2012.

    Ephron was the queen of creating a plethora of unforgettable rom-com films, including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, but according to Parker Posey, the offscreen part of working with the late director was just as unforgettable.

    “She was just amazing,” Parker Posey told HuffPost Live in describing how, while acting in Ephron’s 1998 film You’ve Got Mail, the director made time to create a special intimacy among her cast behind the scenes.

    “Her sets felt just like a cocktail party or lunch — in the same way that working with Woody Allen [is],” Posey recalled. “You talk about what you’re gonna eat later, and it’s just kind of low-key and relaxed.”

    Parker, who stars in Allen’s new, untitled film, remembered a specific direction that Efron once gave her before a scene.

    “Just be funny,” said Ephron before film rolled, leaving Posey on the floor laughing.

    “That just struck me as really funny,” Parker Posey said. “It made me laugh!”

    “I just love her,” Parker added of Nora Ephron. “I’m such a fan of hers and her writing.”

    Parker and Woody Allen worked together on Allen’s last film,Irrational Man, which starred Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix. Their next project will see Parker Posey alongside Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Bruce Willis for the project, according to Deadline.com.

  • Emma Stone: Scene In “Irrational Man” Made Her Mother Laugh And It’s Not The One You’d Think

    Emma Stone has once again taken up with Woody Allen for his latest film, Irrational Man.

    The film follows a philosophy professor, played by Joaquin Phoenix, as he deals with a midlife existential crisis and a relationship with a student, played by Emma Stone.

    Emma Stone said that while this is her second film with Woody Allen, her first being Magic in the Moonlight, she would call herself a “muse” or a “student” of his.

    Emma Stone also revealed that while her character in the film is pretty good at following her instincts, she is not that great at it.

    E!’s Maria Menounos asked during the interview, “Do you listen to your instincts as much as you wish you did?”

    Emma Stone aptly replied, “No, never as much as I wish I did. It was better when I was younger, too, when there was less complication in life, it’s easier to just kind of do…it’s like a toddler. ‘That’s mine! I want that!’ But it’s harder to do that as you, you know, have more life to balance…That’s the great thing as an actor: that’s like your entire job, to listen to your instincts—at least when you’re playing a character.”

    That bit about having life to balance as you get older…truer words were never spoken.

    Emma Stone also revealed that there was a scene in which her mother couldn’t help laughing. And while one might assume it to be an awkward love scene with Joaquin Phoenix, it was not.

    Emma Stone said, “I brought my mom to watch the movie and she burst out laughing through the whole scene. She was just hysterically laughing. She was like, ‘You play the piano? Yeah, right! What are you doing? How does anyone believe you?’”

    Interesting. Will you be seeing Irrational Man with the interesting combination of Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix?

  • Emma Stone Rumored To Be In Negotiations To Sing In ‘Whiplash’ Director’s New Musical ‘La La Land’

    Emma Stone is rumored to be in negotiations to star in Whiplash director, Damien Chazelle’s musical, La La Land, and quite possibly with Ryan Gosling, sources told TheWrap.

    When Emma Watson dropped out to star as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Emma Stone became the focus of Chazelle and Lionsgate’s search for the perfect actress to play Mia in the musical.

    Ryan Gosling is reportedly the latest actor in negotiations for the male role, alongside Emma Stone.

    “La La Land is a two-hander that follows a pair of dreamers — aspiring actress Mia, who’s lonely desperate to fit in, and cocky yet charismatic jazz pianist Sebastian — who fall in love in Los Angeles,” said The Wrap about the plot. “However, the city that brought them together may tear them apart, as they soon discover that balancing love and art in such a cutthroat climate isn’t easy.”

    La La Land is said to be a movie about “big dreams, the big city and the kind of love that makes life feel like a musical.”

    TheWrap obtained a document written by Chazelle, called the “lookbook” for La La Land, which is a summation of the story, characters, look and tone of the film.

    “At its core, this is a movie about artists in love–and what it means to be an artist in love in arguably the most competitive city on the planet. How do you juggle the need to find success as an artist with the need to share oneself with another human being? And how do you do so in a place where every poster, every street corner and every sign remind you of the glories just beyond reach? L.A. is the “Dream Factory,” and to me there’s something swooningly romantic about that: all those unsung songs and unrealized ideas clouding the air. By casting an affectionate eye on a pair of young hopefuls, while aspiring to the kind of full-fledged romanticism you hardly ever see in today’s movies, I hope to capture the spirit of the city I now call home, and make a movie that feels both classical and urgent–and, yes, intrinsically L.A.,” wrote Chazelle, in part.

    Emma Stone has been very busy of late, especially after her Oscar nomination for Birdman. Her next project is Cameron Crowe’s Aloha with Bradley Cooper, followed by Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, with Joaquin Phoenix.

    It’s no wonder Emma Stone and her boyfriend of three years, Amazing Spiderman co-star Andrew Garfield are reportedly taking a break. There just no time for romance when you’re portraying romantic leads.

  • Nancy Sinatra Denies Rumors That Dad Frank Sinatra Is Father To Mia Farrow’s Son, Calling The Claim ‘Nonsense’

    Nancy Sinatra is denying allegations that her late father, crooner Frank Sinatra, is the biological father of Mia Farrow’s son Ronan Farrow, calling the allegations by her former stepmother “nonsense.”

    In a segment of a CBS Sunday Morning interview that was posted online on Wednesday, days before the Sunday premiere of the HBO documentary Sinatra: All Or Nothing at All, Nancy Sinatra said allegations made in 2013 by Frank Sinatra’s third wife, Mia Farrow, were unfounded.

    The comments came when Mia Farrow was asked in a Vanity Fair interview if Ronan was Frank Sinatra’s son, to which she responded, “Possibly.”

    Ronan Farrow, who was born Satchel O’Sullivan Farrow 20 years after Mia and Frank divorced, is now 27.

    Few can deny, however, that he does resemble the legendary singer; far more than his reported father, Woody Allen.

    “Mia’s son? Oh, nonsense,” Nancy Sinatra told CBS Sunday Morning. “He would just laugh it off. We didn’t laugh it off because it was affecting my kids, you know. They were being questioned about it and we all knew it was nonsense.”

    “I was kind of cranky with Mia for even saying, ‘Possibly,’ she added. “I was cranky with her for saying that because she knew better, you know, she really did. But she was making a joke! And it was taken very serious and was just silly, stupid.”

    Although she became “cranky” with Mia Farrow for her joke about her father, Nancy has enjoyed a great relationship with her former stepmother.

    “Well, we loved Mia,” said Nancy Sinatra of the Rosemary’s Baby star, who was married to Frank for just two years in the mid-1960s. “Mia was one of our… like, a sister. We had a good time, [sister] Tina [Sinatra] and Mia and I did.”

  • Mariel Hemingway Claims Woody Allen Made Romantic Overtures to Her When She Was a Teen

    Mariel Hemingway is claiming that director Woody Allen made overtures to her when she was 18, inviting her to take a romantic getaway to Paris.

    In a memoir penned by Mariel Hemingway, the actress said the inappropriate attention came just after she played Woody Allen’s teenage girlfriend in the 1979 movie Manhattan.

    Mariel Hemingway explained in her upcoming memoir, Out Came the Sun that following the completion of the shoot, Woody Allen, who was in his mid-40s at the time, flew out to her parents’ home in Idaho and invited her to take a trip with him to Pars, which the actress claims made her very nervous.

    “Our relationship was platonic, but I started to see that he had a kind of crush on me, though I dismissed it as the kind of thing that seemed to happen any time middle-aged men got around young women,” writes Mariel Hemingway.

    She warned her parents “that I didn’t know what the arrangement was going to be, that I wasn’t sure if I was even going to have my own room. Woody hadn’t said that. He hadn’t even hinted it. But I wanted them to put their foot down. They didn’t. They kept lightly encouraging me.”

    Hemingway says she woke up in the middle of the night “with the certain knowledge that I was an idiot. No one was going to get their own room. His plan, such as it was, involved being with me.”

    Mariel Hemingway said she confronted Woody Allen in the guest room of her parents’ home.

    “I’m not going to get my own room, am I?” As Allen fumbled for his glasses, Hemingway informed him: “I can’t go to Paris with you.”

    According to Hemingway, he called for his private jet the next morning and left Idaho.

    Woody Allen has long been accused of inappropriate behavior with young women. The director has always denied allegations by his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow that he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter, Dylan, when she was 7, and no charges were ever brought.

    Woody Allen began dating Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s other adopted daughter, when she was a young woman, and they are now married.

    Despite the strange encounter with Woody Allen in the 1970s, Mariel Hemingway was on hand to help honor Allen last year for a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes, which Allen eventually boycotted.

  • Woody Allen Heads to Amazon for First-Ever TV Series

    Amazon Studios and Woody Allen have just announced a partnership that will see the acclaimed filmmaker write and direct his first-ever TV series.

    It doesn’t have a name at this point – it’s simply Untitled Woody Allen Project – but we do know that it’ll be a half-hour series and Amazon has already ordered a full series run.

    The series will debut sometime next year.

    “Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honor to be working with him on his first television series,” said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. “From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn’t be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year.”

    “I don’t know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Price will regret this,” said Woody Allen in a very Woody Allen response.

    The always critically-acclaimed but also controversial Allen is a big name for Amazon Studios, who is working hard to complete in the ever-crowded field of original streaming content. The company did score a big win on Sunday when its original series Transparent won best TV comedy at the Golden Globes.

    Image via David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons

  • Mia Farrow Accused Woody Allen Of Child Molestation But He Remained Unaffected

    Mia Farrow Accused Woody Allen Of Child Molestation But He Remained Unaffected

    After facing a social media firestorm this year sparked by allegations he molested his adopted daughter, director Woody Allen remains unaffected. He revealed this in a recent interview with the London Times, saying, “I don’t agonize over it for a second.”

    The allegations were made by his ex-wife Mia Farrow and concerned Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. When asked whether the scandal would affect Allen’s film legacy and what he thought about that, he replied with equal indifference. “That means nothing to me. I’ve never given it a second’s thought, afterward. And what do I care, when I shuffle off my coil? I don’t really care about anything that happens after my death. I don’t care if they take all of my movies and burn them,” he said.

    These answers reflect what seems to be a bleak view of existence held by the Academy Award-winning director of Annie Hall. In an interview with the New York Observer, he talked about noticing how children are currently aware of the supposed meaninglessness of their lives.

    “I think these poor kids, they become aware of their mortality. When they become aware of it, it’s life changing and traumatic. I feel sorry for them, but the cold hard facts don’t change,” said Allen.

    Allen has consistently denied Farrow’s claims about her daughter. He told the London Times’ Kevin Maher that he had a dull private life. “I lead, in general, a very uneventful, very dull middle-class life,” he said.

    Despite his scandals concerning the women in his life, the director of Magic In The Moonlight shared that he was lucky to have worked with some of Hollywood’s most successful leading ladies, including Meryl Streep, Maureen Stapleton, Judy Davis, Penelope Cruz, Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page and Gena Rowlands. Meanwhile, Magic In The Moonlight stars another female ingénue, Emma Stone, who joins the roster of talented female actresses that have worked with Allen.

  • Woody Allen Talks Mia Farrow, Death and No God

    Acclaimed director Woody Allen had a lot to say recently about Mia Farrow, death and his belief that there is “no God” and “no magic.”

    In an interview with the Times of London‘s Kevin Maher, Allen said his longtime dispute with ex Mia Farrow — including allegations he molested his daughter Dylan Farrow — has little impact on his life today.

    “I don’t agonize over it for a second,” he said.

    Allen, who has always denied Dylan’s claims, said he leads a very simple life.

    “I do have a dull private life . . . ,” said the actor and director. “I lead, in general, a very uneventful, very dull middle-class life.”

    The 78-year-old says he gives little thought to how he will be remembered after his death or whether the dispute with Farrow will be a lasting legacy of his life.

    “That means nothing to me. I’ve never given it a second’s thought, afterward . . . And what do I care, when I shuffle off my coil?” he said. “I don’t really care about anything that happens after my death. I don’t care if they take all of my movies and burn them.”

    Allen became even more morbid while talking about death and the hereafter.

    “There is no God. There is no magic. There is nothing other than the cold hard facts of what you see with your eyes. It begins. It ends. There is no reason for anything,” said Allen.

    To which Maher commented, “I can’t help but feel that some of the gloom of his current worldview has been forged in the base bitterness of this long-running dispute.”

  • Emma Stone, Colin Firth Dish on Working With Their Mutual Idol — Woody Allen

    Emma Stone, Colin Firth Dish on Working With Their Mutual Idol — Woody Allen

    Emma Stone and Colin Firth, 53, may be decades apart in age, but they’ve shared a common dream — to work with director Woody Allen.

    Now that their dream has been realized with the film Magic in the Moonlight, the longtime Allen fans opened up about the real experience of working with the Annie Hall actor and director.

    Stone, who’s family dog is named Alvy after Allen’s Annie Hall character, says her first encounter with the legendary director was a little unsettling.

    “I was incredibly nervous,” said the 25-year-old actress. “You don’t get to know him first, there’s no rehearsal, you don’t see him before shooting.”

    As for Firth, he said Allen’s work had a very influential role in his own life and career, so it meant a great deal when he received the call from Allen.

    “This person’s work had such a specific role to play in my whole relation with movies,” he said. “To suddenly be invited to join the narrative a bit is thrilling.”

    The long-anticipated call from the 78-year-old director was not exactly what Firth expected.

    “I thought he’d asked for the call, and it turns out he thought I’d asked for it,” said Firth. “Cate (Blanchett) told me the same happened to her with Blue Jasmine.”

    And it wasn’t as if the two chatted the night away or shared much of their personal histories.

    “It wasn’t of the ‘Welcome to the film!’ variety,” says Firth. “It was just sort of, ‘Cut to the chase.’”

    In the film, which opened last week, Firth plays Stanley, a cynical magician who wants to expose Sophie, a young American medium, as the fraud he believes her to be.

    Unfortunately, Firth’s skills in magic are, shall we say, limited.

    “I was called upon to perform a simple card trick. That was the only time I saw a hint of impatience from Woody,” said the Pride and Prejudice actor. “He was just sighing.” The scene was eventually cut.

    Firth said many of the stories surrounding Allen turned out to be myths.

    “There are a lot of stories,” said Firth. “He doesn’t really direct, don’t expect him to make jokes on the set, that sort of thing. No. He directs, and he was funny.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Scarlett Johansson Says No Sex Symbol Title For Her

    Whether she’s playing a sexy character in one of Woody Allen’s films like Match Point, or whether she’s kicking butt in action flicks like The Avengers, Scarlett Johansson has been driving men crazy for quite some time now.

    But when it comes to being a sex symbol, the blonde actress says she doesn’t care for the title at all, and when all is said and done she rather be remembered for the characters she plays, not her physical appearance.

    “I don’t want to be the ingenue anymore,” she said. “It’s nice to be glamorous, but I don’t want to always be an object of desire, because it doesn’t last.”

    Johansson said something similar in a separate interview, because for years now she’s been doing her best to shy away from that sex symbol image.

    “I don’t like being labelled as the ‘sexiest woman alive,’” she said. “As an actress I prefer to maintain the anonymity.”

    This month Scarlett Johansson, who’s now pregnant with her first child, is on the cover of Wall Street Journal magazine, where she talks about everything from her fiance Romain Dauriac, to living in Paris for the first time.

    She also talked about the pressures of being a working mom in Hollywood and said she can see why some women have troubling balancing both their family and career.

    “It seems so stressful to not be able to spend time with your family because you’re constantly chasing the tail of your own success,” said the 29 year old. “There must exist a world in which I can balance those things, be able to raise a family and still make a film a year, or work on my own, develop things, do theater. I want to be able to have it all.”

    Additionally, Johansson says she envies male actors a little bit, because after they have children nobody looks at them differently, but with women actors it’s the exact opposite.

    “I know there will be some sacrifices,” she said. “I know that’s the struggle with working mothers and successful careers….With [male actors] it just doesn’t happen that way. You can be every woman’s fantasy, and nobody thinks twice about the fact that you have eight kids or whatever.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Theo James is Great Kisser According to Divergent Co-Star Shailene Woodley

    Theo James is a great kisser, according to Shailene Woodley who stars alongside him in the much-anticipated movie adaptation of Veronica Roth’s best-selling young adult novel Divergent.

    “He’s an incredibly masculine man with a beautiful soulful heart – and he was a great kisser,” Woodley said in a recent interview.

    In the movie, which hits theaters this weekend, James plays Four, the Dauntless instructor who connects and eventually falls in love with Woodley’s Tris.

    According to Divergent director Neil Burger, there was an immediate connection between James and Woodley:

    “With the other guys we’d been auditioning, Shai was the one that was pushing them back. When Theo was opposite her, she knew that he was the Four.”

    Of the role, James has said “I had an immediate affinity with the character. I think we share certain qualities. You tend to try and use everything you share with a character in everything you do. I love this person who you don’t know what he’s thinking. He’s the type of person when he walks into a room, doesn’t need to be the loudest voice, but you still feel his presence. He’s not someone who speaks too much, but you know he’s thinking all the time. He’s a very perceptive person. On top of that, there’s kind of a dangerous stillness I felt he had when reading the book and the script.”

    A native of Oxfordshire, England, 29-year-old James earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Nottingham and studied acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In his final year at Bristol, he was tapped for a minor role in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

    “It might have worked for others, but I was not mature enough to do it,” James has said of his decision to wait until his 20s to start acting. “I needed to be a bit more grounded and to have more to draw from. It was the right decision for me.”

    James made a brief but well-remembered appearance on Downton Abbey as Michelle Dockery’s ill-fated lover Kemal Pamuk. From there, he went on to play the role of Jed Harper in the British supernatural television series Bedlam and starred opposite Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Awakening.

    Upcoming film projects include London Fields with Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and Jaimie Alexander and Franny with Dakota Fanning and Richard Gere.

    James admitted he’s concerned about being typecast after starring in what is expected to be a blockbuster this weekend: “Inevitably what will happen is that opportunities will open and you get choices presented to you that you definitely need to be strong enough to say no to. Then the stuff that you really want to go for, you’ll still have to hustle for and still have to fight for, so I think that will be my challenge: to play everything in opposition to that.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Scarlett Johansson Takes Dylan Farrow To Task

    Ever since Dylan Farrow’s open letter to Woody Allen was published in The New York Times, the reaction has been all over the place, as some have lashed out at the filmmaker for allegedly abusing Farrow, while others felt Farrow went about addressing Allen the wrong way.

    Besides taking Allen to task, the 28 year old Farrow was also critical of some of the people he’s worked with.

    “What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?” wrote Farrow.

    Well now, one of the actors she mentioned is answering back, as Scarlett Johansson–who’s worked with Allen on several projects including Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona–said Farrow was wrong for addressing a family situation so publicly.

    “I think it’s irresponsible to take a bunch of actors that will have a Google alert on and to suddenly throw their name into a situation none of us could possibly knowingly comment on,” said Johansson in an interview with The Guardian. “That just feels irresponsible to me.”

    Earlier this month at the Oscar Awards, actor and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett thanked Allen during her victory speech for casting her in the movie Blue Jasmine, and when the filmmaker’s name was mentioned, the crowd pretty much went silent, but Johansson says she’s not going to pass judgement on Allen, because she has no idea what the truth really is.

    “It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other,” said Johansson. “It’s not like this is somebody that’s been prosecuted and found guilty of something, and you can then go, ‘I don’t support this lifestyle or whatever.’”

    “I mean, it’s all guesswork…..I think he’ll continue to know what he knows about the situation, and I’m sure the other people involved have their own experience with it.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Academy Awards 2014: Will Blanchett Thank Allen?

    Cate Blanchett is not a lock to win Best Actress at tonight’s 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. However, the Australian actress has been picking up trophies left and right including a Golden Globe, virtually every critic award, an Independent Spirit Award, and the Screen Actor’s Guild Award.

    Her competition tonight includes: Amy Adams (American Hustle), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Judi Dench (Philomena), Meryl Street (August: Osage County.)

    But let’s say that Blachett’s winning ways continue, and she wins the Oscar for her heartbreaking portrayal of the titular character in Woody Allen’s film Blue Jasmine. The question everyone is asking is whether or not Blanchett will thank director and writer Woody Allen or mention his name at all in her acceptance speech.

    Allen has been working, almost non-stop, in Hollywood without issue for the past several decades. His work was hardly even interrupted when his daughter Dylan accused him of sexually molesting her 21 years ago. The police couldn’t find enough evidence against Allen, and the charges were dropped. Most people forgot about the incident, and Allen continued to woo A-List actors into doing his low-budget films like nothing ever happened.

    That is until February 1 of this year when Dylan, now 28-years-old, renewed her claim that Allen molested her as a 7-year-old. And she did it by posting an open letter in the New York Times for all the world to see. And in that letter, Ms. Farrow goes after Hollywood and all the people that continue to work with her estranged father. She even calls out Cate Blanchett by name:

    But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.

    What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?

    Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

    So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.

    Woody Allen subsequently published a letter of his own, denying the allegations. He put most of the blame on Dylan’s mother Mia Farrow, “Not that I doubt Dylan hasn’t come to believe she’s been molested, but if from the age of 7 a vulnerable child is taught by a strong mother to hate her father because he is a monster who abused her, is it so inconceivable that after many years of this indoctrination the image of me Mia wanted to establish had taken root?”

    So if Blanchett wins the Oscar tonight, will she thank Allen? The controversy surrounding the director has never been so high. No doubt, the actress is in a tough spot. She did thank him last night at the Independent Spirit Awards, she also thanked him when she took home the Golden Globe. She was even keeled and tactful at the Santa Barbara Film Festival when asked about the situation, “It’s obviously been a long and painful situation for the family, and I hope they find some resolution and peace.”

    It is of course unfortunate for Blanchett that she even has to deal with this conundrum, especially considering her performance in Blue Jasmine is truly one for the ages. It is perhaps not only the best female performance in a film this year, but maybe even the best performance of any actor in the past decade. If she wins, she should be celebrated not scrutinized. But there will be backlash either way. If she thanks Allen, many people will be upset that someone who could have possibly committed a horrendous crime over two decades ago, and got away with it, is receiving praise during the Super Bowl of movies, the Oscars. If she doesn’t thank him, it will look like she’s condemning him and telling the world that she thinks that he’s guilty.

    Of course, the Academy may decide to punish her because of Allen’s potential sins and give the award to Adams, who is the dark horse in the competition. Speculation aside, we will have to tune in tonight to see how the whole thing plays out.

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Woody Allen Responds To Molestation Accusations

    Woody Allen asked last week to be allowed to respond to adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s claims that he molested her in a public forum, and on Friday the New York Times published an op-ed piece containing his defense, plus accusations that his ex, Mia Farrow, coached Dylan to accuse Allen of sexual abuse.

    Dylan Farrow’s story hasn’t changed over the years, from the time the criminal investigation began in 1992 up until January of this year, when she spoke up on the matter again after her brother, Ronan, mentioned it on Twitter the night of the Golden Globe Awards. Ronan Farrow was none too pleased that Allen was given the Cecil B. Demille lifetime achievement award and immediately posted on the micro-blogging site about it.

    “Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” he wrote. Soon after, a media frenzy ensued.

    While Dylan Farrow says she isn’t bringing the allegations back into the spotlight to smear Allen’s name during Oscar season or to gain notoriety, Allen says he thinks there’s another reason: she’s being coached by her mother, actress Mia.

    “One must ask, did Dylan even write the letter or was it at least guided by her mother? Does the letter really benefit Dylan or does it simply advance her mother’s shabby agenda? That is to hurt me with a smear. There is even a lame attempt to do professional damage by trying to involve movie stars, which smells a lot more like Mia than Dylan,” he wrote.

    Allen still maintains his innocence and references the fact that the investigation concluded that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing; however, state prosecutor Frank S. Maco said at the time that they wouldn’t pursue the case anymore due to the toll it was taking on then-7-year old Dylan.

    “This group of impartial, experienced men and women whom the district attorney looked to for guidance as to whether to prosecute, spent months doing a meticulous investigation, interviewing everyone concerned, and checking every piece of evidence,” he wrote. “Finally they wrote their conclusion which I quote here: “It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen. Further, we believe that Dylan’s statements on videotape and her statements to us during our evaluation do not refer to actual events that occurred to her on August 4th, 1992… In developing our opinion we considered three hypotheses to explain Dylan’s statements. First, that Dylan’s statements were true and that Mr. Allen had sexually abused her; second, that Dylan’s statements were not true but were made up by an emotionally vulnerable child who was caught up in a disturbed family and who was responding to the stresses in the family; and third, that Dylan was coached or influenced by her mother, Ms. Farrow. While we can conclude that Dylan was not sexually abused, we can not be definite about whether the second formulation by itself or the third formulation by itself is true. We believe that it is more likely that a combination of these two formulations best explains Dylan’s allegations of sexual abuse.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Woody Allen Responds to Molestation Allegations

    Woody Allen, the famed film director and one-time lover of actress Mia Farrow, published an op-ed in Friday’s edition of The New York Times responding to reignited allegations of molestation by his adopted daughter, Dylan.

    In 1992, during Allen’s court battle with Farrow at the end of their 12-year-long relationship, Dylan, then 7, claimed that Allen had sexually abused her.

    The claims came on the heels of the news that Allen had been having an affair with Farrow’s 19-year-old daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who was adopted by Mia Farrow and musician Andre Previn. Allen and Soon-Yi Previn continued their relationship, eventually marrying five years later.

    Allen maintains that the frenzy surrounding the claims made by Dylan stem from nothing more than the affects of a child brainwashed to hate their father by their jilted mother.

    In the Times piece, Allen writes, “Not that I doubt Dylan hasn’t come to believe she’s been molested, but if from the age of 7 a vulnerable child is taught by a strong mother to hate her father because he is a monster who abused her, is it so inconceivable that after many years of this indoctrination the image of me Mia wanted to establish had taken root?”

    Dylan Farrow quickly responded to Allen’s disregard for the situation and his determination that the rumors were false. (There was a police investigation in 1992, but it did not conclude in any charges being brought against the filmmaker.)

    “Once again, Woody Allen is attacking me and my family in an effort to discredit and silence me — but nothing he says or writes can change the truth,” Dylan says. “For 20 years, I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life.”

    Allen and Farrow had three children together; two adopted and a biological son, Satchel. Satchel now goes by Ronan Farrow, and is estranged from his father. He recently took to Twitter to vent and show support for his sister.

    Main image courtesy TheLipTV via YouTube.

  • Woody Allen Finally Responds to Abuse Claims

    Woody Allen doesn’t attend award shows and rarely gives interviews. However, the normally shy, reserved 78-year-old film director cannot stay quiet any longer. Finally, after two decades, he is giving his side of the story.

    On February 1, his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, 28, renewed her claim that Allen molested her as a 7-year-old child. She posted her accusation in an open letter in The New York Times for all the world to see. Now, Allen has posted a letter of his own, published on Friday on The New York Times website, in response to his daughter’s scathing claims and ultimately pinning the blame on Dylan’s mother and Allen’s ex-partner, Mia Farrow.

    Allen contends in the letter that Mia Farrow is responsible for putting the horrid molestation story in Dylan’s head. That, in fact, 21 years ago when the allegations of abuse first surfaced Mia took Dylan to the doctor. The young child told the doctor that she was not abused. And it was only after a trip to an ice cream shop with her mother that young Dylan changed her story. Allen also writes in the letter that Mia Farrow was upset with the relationship that Allen started with Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi, and amid their bitter breakup, Farrow put the story in Dylan’s head as a form of retribution.

    The director continues his letter chronicling the police investigation that ensued and the decision by the local authorities and experts that Allen did not molest his daughter. Even still, Allen lost custody of his children. He wrote, “I never saw her again nor was I able to speak with her no matter how hard I tried. I still loved her deeply, and felt guilty that by falling in love with Soon-Yi I had put her in the position of being used as a pawn for revenge. Soon-Yi and I made countless attempts to see Dylan but Mia blocked them all, spitefully knowing how much we both loved her but totally indifferent to the pain and damage she was causing the little girl merely to appease her own vindictiveness.”

    Allen also insists in the letter that he doesn’t blame his daughter for the accusations. “Not that I doubt Dylan hasn’t come to believe she’s been molested, but if from the age of 7 a vulnerable child is taught by a strong mother to hate her father because he is a monster who abused her, is it so inconceivable that after many years of this indoctrination the image of me Mia wanted to establish had taken root?”

    Finally, Allen closes his letter with a final denial and a plea to Dylan. “Of course, I did not molest Dylan. I loved her and hope one day she will grasp how she has been cheated out of having a loving father and exploited by a mother more interested in her own festering anger than her daughter’s well-being.”

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Rosie O’Donnell Speaks Out On Woody Allen Accusations

    Rosie O’Donnell returned to “The View” on Friday morning after seven years and admitted it was strange to be back at the table. While it was a different dynamic this time around–Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who famously had words with O’Donnel several times on the show, wasn’t there to cause tension–O’Donnell did have a moment of disagreement with Barbara Walters, with whom she’s already buried at least one hatchet.

    The moment came when the topic of Dylan Farrow’s accusations against adoptive father Woody Allen came up and O’Donnell, who is friends with Dylan’s mom, Mia Farrow, said she absolutely believes he sexually abused his daughter.

    “I totally believe her,” she said. “I am very good friends with Mia Farrow, like, very close friends. I have seen her as a mother. She’s the best mother I’ve ever seen…if you read the custody decision by the prosecutor, you will understand that there was cause to prosecute, but they thought it would be too traumatic for this 7-year-old child. He was not given any custody of those children. I firmly believe Dylan and I believe Mia.”

    Dylan Farrow came forward with her story earlier this month when an open letter she wrote was published by the New York Times, detailing her memories from a childhood full of alleged abuse by Allen. The letter came after Allen was honored at the Golden Globes with the Cecil B. Demille lifetime achievement award and Dylan’s brother, Ronan, tweeted in response.

    “Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” he tweeted.

    Farrow told People Magazine that her intention was not to gain publicity or to steal the spotlight away from Allen during the awards season, but rather to tell the truth and possibly help others who have gone through what she has.

    “My intention in writing that piece was to put the truth on paper from a voice that was not able to speak before…people are saying that I am not actually remembering what I remember. People are saying that my ‘evil mother’ brainwashed me because they refuse to believe that my sick, evil father would ever molest me, because we live in this society where victim blaming and inexcusable behavior – this taboo against shaming the famous at the expense of their victims – is accepted and excused,” she said.

    Walters, who publicly backed Allen on “The View” recently, said that although she agrees with O’Donnell that Mia Farrow is a good mother, she has never seen Allen be anything but a doting father, and put an end to the conversation.

    “I have rarely seen a father as sensitive, as loving and as caring as Woody is and Soon-Yi to [their daughters]. I don’t know about Dylan. I can only tell you what I have seen now…she’s doing it now because he’s up for an [Oscar]. And so the question is: Does your personal life interfere with the awards that you may get?” Walters said after the letter was published.

    Image via YouTube