H mag - September 2010 by The H magazine

H mag

Publication Director Davide Russo Editor in Chief Elisabetta Colli Art Director David Holsen Executive Editor MariaTeresa Belli Fashion Director Melissa Tozzi Managing Editor Alex Censi Senior Features Editor Amanda Rosental Graphics Jonathan Galli Melinda Broson

Well, we did it again. A phenomenal Lisa Edelstein is our cover story for the september issue. She’s ready for the new House M.D, season and she looks absolutely wonderful in this feature photographed by Joey Shaw. Also in the same issue a spotlight dedicated to Naomi Watts; the making of Inception; the reviews; news; the script of Legion and much more. We planned this digital project as a new choice for our readers. Today this choice is making the biggest numbers ever: H mag is the most downloaded digital magazine ever! 607,971 thanks and enjoy!

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Executive Contributors New York Mark Segrat Paris Gerard Bergen

Warning: all images and texts are copyright protected. Every reproduction is not permitted without our special agreement signed.

London Mortimer Ashler Los Angeles Clarissa Mondi Advertising Corinthia Helgar Public Relations Samantha Rusconi

September, 2010 Year IV - Issue n. 20

Lisa Edelstein photograped by Joey Shaw Beverly Hills, California

“Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.” Marlene Dietrich

4 - Colophon & Editorial 10 - LISA EDELSTEIN Interview

24 - TAKERS Movie 30 - INCEPTION Making of 42 - EASY A Movie

48 - NAOMI WATTS Spotlight 60 - WEST SIDE STORY Soundtrack

64 - YOU AGAIN Movie

70 - THE TOWN Books 72 - MARLENE DIETRICH Legends

80 - THE AMERICAN Movie

86 - FOOTLOOSE Cult 96 - LEGION Script

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98 - RELEASES Cool Stuff

104 - V Television

The Legendary Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

interview

editing by Mike Lamas

“No woman should compare herself to those of us on the red carpet. We have the unfair advantage of a team of people coming over and putting us together piece by piece. It’s part of the job.”

Elegance

UNLIMITED

LISA

interview by Rose Hamilton

EDELSTEIN photos by Joey Shaw H: Who is Lisa Edelstein in her private life? What kind of woman? L: A very private one. H: You are always looking great in every public event. What’s your secret of beauty? L: No woman should compare herself to those of us on the red carpet. We have the unfair advantage of a team of people coming over and putting us together piece by piece. It’s part of the job. In my private time I wear very little make-up, especially as I get older. I do yoga, go for walks with the dogs and eat lots of vegetables. H: What’s your relation with the fashion? Do you choose by yourself what to wear for the red carpets? L: Yes, I always choose my dresses. I love to play dress up.

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H: How and what do you like to wear in your free time? L: When I was little, my mother used to have to send me back to my room to change because the costume I’d conjure up was completely inappropriate for school. I haven’t changed much. I dress however I feel. H: What was your best moment, considering all the episodes, playing Dr Lisa Cuddy? L: Unfortunately, they all blend into one big mushy pile. I can hardly remember what we were shooting yesterday, let alone last year. H: What’s the greatest aspect of the Dr. Cuddy’s character that you like? L: She’s very bold. H: What kind of music do you like? L: All kinds. Well, maybe not Death Metal. It’s a bit silly. H: We know you love painting. What’s your preferred scenario and why? L: I stopped drawing and painting for quite a while and just recently picked it up again. I’m fixing up my garden and enjoy drawing out concepts for the space. It’s great to be creative that way again. I really missed it. H: We also know you like writing as well. If you can write a script, what direction and what genre is your imagination bringing your mind to? L: I’m a bit dark. H: Can you tell us something about your rescue dogs? How does it come the idea to adopt them? L: My first dog, Sandwich, was a roommate’s dog who’d been hit by a car and was near death. She needed a lot of help that my roommate didn’t have the skills or the money to give. Eventually, I kicked the roommate out and kept the dog. Since then, I’ve adopted many more animals or rescued them and found them other homes. It just makes sense. There are incredible beasts that need loving homes, and plenty to go around of every age and breed, so buying one from a store or a breeder seems completely wrong. H: Do you like to cook? if yes, what kind of food? L: I’m a vegetarian for 28 years. I love to cook and prefer to eat homemade food to restaurant food. I take inspiration from other cultures and borrow their spices to create tasty feasts that are as cruelty and chemical free as possible. H: We know you are an avid practitioner of Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga. Could you tell us something more about that? L: I’ve had a yoga practice for about 13 years. H: Is it Yoga really making our days better? L: For me, it’s a great way to connect to my body, feel where it’s at each day, listen and adjust. Sounds a bit hokey but I run so fast from place to place that the quiet time with myself each morning really means a lot. H: What’s attractive for you in a man? L: Smarts, humor, confidence, sex appeal... it’s not that complicated.

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H: Today you are a wonderful and successful woman, what is missing in your life? L: Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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always something more to learn.

MOVIE Written by Demetra Loggins

TAKERS T

• Release Date: August 27th, 2010 • Director: John Luessenhop • Writer: Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop, Avery Duff • Starring: Zoe Saldana, Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker, Matt Dillon, Idris Elba • Studio: Screen Gems (Sony) • Genre: Crime, Thriller • Official Site: whoarethetakers.com • Rating: for intense sequences of violence and action, a sexual situation/partial nudity and some language.

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akers takes you into the world of a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective (Matt Dillon) who is hell-bent on solving the case.

Filming Locations * Culver City, California, USA * Los Angeles, California, USA * Sony Pictures Studios, California.

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Zoe Saldana

born June 19, 1978. Zoe Saldana is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage, and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and Neytiri in James Camerons Avatar. In 2010, she appeared in the film The Losers.

aldana was still a member of the program when she gained exposure in an episode of Law & Order (titled “Merger”) which first aired in 1999. She left school after Center Stage, which film led to appearances in the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads (2002) and the comedy-drama Drumline (2002). She has appeared in a number of television shows and movies, including The Ter-

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minal (2004) and Guess Who (2005). Saldana was also the lead in the video for Juan Luis Guerra’s song “La llave de mi corazón”. Saldana has an interest in fashion and has her own fashion line, called Arasmaci[. She is also a global ambassador for Avon, and serves as the face of its color cosmetics line and the inspiration for the fragrance Eternal Magic. H mag -

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Paul Walker

Walker’s small-screen career began as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers. He began modeling at the age of 2 and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who’s the Boss?, The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel. Walker’s film career began in 1987, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. He has continued with roles in several other movies without much success. It wasn’t until 1998 that Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to supporting roles in the movies Pleasantville, Varsity Blues, She’s All That, and The Skulls. In 2001, Walker’s breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor Vin Diesel in the successful action film The Fast and the Furious. The film established Walker as a notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as Joy Ride, Into the Blue, and Timeline, and also had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s 2006 adaptation of Flags of Our Fathers. Walker’s most recent feature films are crime thriller Running Scared and Walt Disney Pictures’ Eight Below, both released in 2006. Eight Below garnered criticalacclaim and opened in first place at the box office, grossing over US$20 million during its first weekend. During the filming of Running Scared, director Wayne Kramer stated that “Walker is that guy on some level” when comparing Walker with his character in the movie, Joey Gazelle. Kramer continued on to say that he “loved working with Walker because as a director he’s completely supportive of my vision of what the film is. And even better, he’s completely game for it.”

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directed by

written by Samantha Villa

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams.

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Christopher Nolan

MAKING OF

During production, details of the film’s plot were kept secret. Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script, cryptically described it as a contemporary sci-fi action thriller “set within the architecture of the mind.” H mag -

MAKING OF

Color info: s n o i Color t ica f i c e p S Sound mix: l a c i Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDS Techn Camera: Arriflex 235, Panavision Primo and G-Series Lenses / Arriflex 435 ES, Panavision Primo and G-Series Lenses / Beaumont VistaVision Camera, Panavision Primo Lenses / Panavision PFX System 65 Studio, Panavision System 65 Lenses / Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL, Panavision C-, E-, G-Series and Super High Speed Lenses / Phantom HD Camera, Panavision Primo Lenses / Photo-Sonics 4C, Panavision Primo Lenses / Photo-Sonics 4ER, Panavision Primo Lenses Laboratory: Imagica Corporation, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan (processing) / Laboratoires LTC, Paris, France (processing) / Technicolor, Hollywood (CA),

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USA (also prints) / Technicolor, London, UK (processing) Film length: 3925 m (Portugal, 35mm) Negative format: 35 mm (also horizontal) (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 500T 5219) / 65 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 500T 5219) / Video (HDTV) Process: Digital Intermediate (4K) (master format) (some scenes) / HDCAM SR (1080p/24) (source format) (high-speed shots) / Panavision Super 70 (source format) (some scenes) / Panavision (anamorphic) (source format) / VistaVision (source format) (aerial shots) Printed format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383) / 70 mm (horizontal) (Kodak Vision 2383) (IMAX DMR blow-up) / D-Cinema Aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1 H mag -

MAKING OF

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobbs rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossibleinception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the

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Zak Alaoui¹ ... line producer: Morocco John Bernard ... line producer: France Chris Brigham ... executive producer Jordan Goldberg ... co-producer Thomas Hayslip ... associate producer: Canada Christopher Nolan ... producer Kanjiro Sakura ... producer: Cross Media, Japan Yoshikuni Taki ... producer: Wave Media, Japan Emma Thomas ... producer Thomas Tull ... executive producer

Producers

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• • •

•

• • • • • •

•

• • •

FILMING LOCATIONS

The name of Leonardo DiCaprio's character is the same as that of one of the main characters in Christopher Nolan's first feature film, Following. Further, both the characters have the same profession - they supposedly play thieves.

Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, UK Cardington, Bedfordshire, England, UK Falls Lake, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA Farnborough Airfield, Hampshire, England, UK (exterior) Fortress Mountain, Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada Kananaskis Village, Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada Paris 15, Paris, France Paris, France Pasadena, California, USA Pont de Bir-Hakeim, Paris, France Rue Bouchut, Paris 15, Paris, France Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA Stage 16, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA Tangiers, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco Tokyo, Japan University College London, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK

SOUNDTRACKS “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” Written by Charles Dumont and Michel Vaucaire Performed by Édith Piaf Courtesy of EMI Music France Under license from EMI Film & Television Music “Aboun Salehoun” Written by Youssef El Mejjad and Pat Jabbar Performed by Amira Saqati Courtesy of Barraka el Farnatshi Productions

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MAKING OF

Original Music Hans Zimmer Cinematographers Wally Pfister (director of photography) Editors Lee Smith Casting Directors John Papsidera Production Designers Guy Hendrix Dyas¹ Art Directors Luke Freeborn Brad Ricker (supervising art director) Dean Wolcott Set Decorators Larry Dias Doug Mowat¹ Costume Designers Jeffrey Kurland Make Up Department Luisa Abel ... makeup department head Janice Alexander ... hair department head Terry Baliel ... hair department head Connie Grayson ... contact lens technician Sian Grigg ... make up artist: Mr Di Caprio Joel Harlow ... key prosthetics makeup artist Matthew Jorgensen ... makeup lab: painter WM Creations Matthew W. Mungle ... make-up lab: bodies Sharon O’Brien ... key hair stylist Koji Ohmura ... special makeup lab effects: bodies: WM Creations Fulvio Pozzobon ... hair stylist Estelle Tolstoukine ... hair stylist Jay Wejebe ... key makeup artist Tricia Chiarenza ... color timer (uncredited)

Evan Rachel Wood was Christopher Nolan’s first choice to play Ariadne, but she turned it down. Nolan considered casting Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams and Emma Roberts, but chose Ellen Page instead. 38 - H mag

Music Department Pete Anthony ... conductor Pete Anthony ... orchestrator Jeff Atmajian ... orchestrator Robert Danzey-Persaud ... technical score advisor Sandy DeCrescent ... orchestra contractor Mark Graham ... head of music preparation Hollywood Film Chorale ... choir H mag -

MOVIE

Written by Matt Hines

fter a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Emma Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in The Scarlet Letter, which she is currently studying in school â&#x20AC;&#x201C; until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

easy

Release Date: September 17th, 2010 Starring: Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet, Patricia Clarkson Director:Will Gluck Writer:Bert V. Royal Studio:Screen Gems (Sony) Genre:Comedy Website: letsnotandsaywedid.com Rating: for for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material.

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MOVIE

Will Gluck is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Will’s career started off writing for The John Larroquette Show, and ended with “Fired Up!”. He went on to write and produce for shows like Grosse Pointe, Luis and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. He co-created and produced the Fox series The Loop with Pam Brady. He then became a feature director and his first effort was the film Fired Up for Sony which was released on February 20, 2009. His next film is the upcoming Screen Gems film Easy A starring Emma Stone, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow, and Malcolm McDowell among others in which he also rewrote and produced. It will be released September 17, 2010. His next project, Friends with Benefits is currently in production and stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. It is expected to continue filming into September, 2010.

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Directed by

In the original script, the “F”word was used 41 times, the “S” word was used 13 times and the “C” word was used 3 times. The uses of these words were later cut down in the final script so as to receive a lower rating of PG-13 (the movie’s target audience) as apposed to a rating of R.

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Emma Stone

Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, the daughter of Jeff Stone, a contractor, and Krista Stone. She has a brother who is younger by two years. She was a member of the Valley Youth Theatre while growing up, a regional theater in Phoenix, Arizona, where she appeared in her first stage production, The Wind in the Willows, at the age of 11. Stone attended Sequoya Elementary School and then Cocopah Middle School for sixth grade. She was home schooled for two years, at which time she appeared in 16 productions at Valley Youth Theatre, including: A Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas Tail, The Princess and the Pea, Cinderella, The Wiz, Titanic, Honk!, The Little Mermaid, Schoolhouse Rock Live!, Alice in Wonderland, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and performed with the theater’s improv comedy troupe. Stone attended Xavier College Preparatory, an all-girl Catholic high school, as a freshman for one semester. She gave a PowerPoint presentation to her parents, set to the Madonna song “Hollywood”, to convince them to let her move to California for an acting career. She dropped out of high school and moved with her mother to Los Angeles in January 2004, at the age of fifteen. Stone at the Fantastic Fest premiere of the film Zombieland in Austin, Texas, in September 2009. Stone launched a career in television after winning the role of Laurie Partridge on In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004), a VH1 talent competition reality show. The resulting show, The New Partridge Family (2005), only produced a pilot episode. Stone next had appearances in the television series Medium, Malcolm in the Middle and Lucky Louie. In 2007, she had a regular role on the Fox drama Drive, playing Violet Trimble, until the series was cancelled. Stone made her feature film debut in the 2007 teen comedy Superbad, playing Jules, the love interest of lead character Seth (Jonah Hill). In 2008, she appeared in the comedy The Rocker, with Rainn Wilson. Stone played Amelia, the bassist in a band featuring singer Teddy Geiger. Stone learned to play bass for the role. Also that year, Stone appeared in The House Bunny, starring Anna Faris, alongside Katharine McPhee, Kat Dennings, Rumer Willis, and Colin Hanks. Stone played the president of a sorority and sang on a single from the film, “I Know What Boys Like”, a cover version of the 1982 song by The Waitresses. In 2009, Stone appeared in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a romantic comedy directed by Mark Waters, the director of Mean Girls (2004), starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. Stone played “The Ghost of Girlfriends Past”, a takeoff of the Ghost of Christmas Past from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. She starred in the horror/comedy Zombieland, along with Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg. The project, her third comedy for Columbia Pictures, began shooting in Atlanta in February 2009. Stone played Wichita, a survivor/con artist from Wichita, Kansas, traveling across the U.S. with her younger sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).

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editing by Mike Lamas

“‘Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as

an artist you have to experience suffering. It’s not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing.” “

I AM

WATTS

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NAOMI

SPOTLIGHT

THE ONE

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SPOTLIGHT

Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, the daughter of Myfanwy Edwards (née Roberts), a Welsh antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts, a road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd.

Watts

has one brother, Ben, a year older and now a photographer residing in the United States. Watts’s parents separated when she was four years old, and her father died during her childhood. Following her father’s death, her mother moved the family to Llanfawr Farm, on Anglesey in North Wales, where they lived with Watts’s maternal grandparents, Nikki and Hugh Roberts. During this time she attended a Welsh language school, Ysgol Gyfun, Llangefni where she carried out her studies for several years. Watts described her mother (also an actress) as a hippie “with passive-aggressive tendencies” and no money, who used to threaten to send her and her brother to foster care in order to get her parents to provide for them. Although her mother occasionally moved the family around Wales and England, usually to follow boyfriends, she always ended up returning to Llangefni, living there until Naomi was 14. Watts says that she wanted to become an actress since watching the 1980 film Fame. In 1982, the family moved to Sydney, Australia. Her grandmother was Australian, which made it easier to obtain the documentation necessary, since Watts and her family were entitled to Australian citizenship. Of her nationality, she has said: “I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and Wales and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot”. “I consider myself very Australian and very connected to Australia, in fact when people say where is home, I say Australia, because those are my most powerful memories”. After moving to Sydney, she attended Mosman High School. She attended several schools, including North Sydney Girls’ High School, where her classmates included Nicole Kidman, with whom she is still close. In 1986 she took a break from acting and went to Japan to work as a model, but the experience, which lasted for about four months, was fruitless as Watts did not have the physical requirements for a professional runway model and could only hope to be working in promotions, which did not excite her. Watts describes it as one of the worst periods of her life. Upon returning to Australia, she went to work for a local department store and from there she went to work as assistant fashion editor with an Australian fashion magazine. A casual invitation to participate in a drama workshop rekindled her passion for acting, and prompted her to quit her job and dedicate herself to succeeding as an actress.

“We’re so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we’ll appreciate the life we have more.”

Watts’s career began in Australian television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..! She was featured in a supporting role in the acclaimed 1991 Australian indie film Flirting, starring future Hollywood up-and-comers Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton. As Watts made the transition from Australia to the United States, she landed a supporting

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SPOTLIGHT

role in the cult 1995 film Tank Girl, playing the part of “Jet Girl”. Finding quality roles in the Hollywood system at first proved difficult. She appeared in the short-lived series, Sleepwalkers and numerous B-list productions such as films like Children of the Corn IV. Much of her early career is filled with near misses in casting as she was up for significant roles in films such as The Parent Trap, Meet the Parents and Man on the Moon, roles would eventually go to other actresses. Gradually, Watts attracted supporting roles in films such as Dangerous Beauty.

In 2001

, she starred in The Shaft directed by Dick Maas, which garnered poor reviews. Watts starred in David Lynch’s highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, winning her the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the Year. The surrealist film attracted controversy with its strong lesbian theme. Having worked with director/screenwriter Scott Coffey on Mulholland Drive, they teamed up to co-produce her next film, the semi-autobiographical Ellie Parker, which grew out of the friendship forged between Watts and Coffey. In 2002, she starred in one of the biggest box office hits of that year, the English language remake of the Japanese horror film The Ring. The following year, she starred in the film Ned Kelly opposite Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush, as well as the MerchantIvory film Le Divorce with Kate Hudson. Her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She said of the nomination, “It’s far beyond what I ever

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dreamed for - that would have been too far fetched”. She produced and starred in the wellreceived independent film We Don’t Live Here Anymore. She reunited with Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman in David O. Russell’s ensemble comedy I Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the Ring, The Ring Two. She then starred in the much-anticipated remake of King Kong (2005) as Ann Darrow. The role, immortalized by Fay Wray in the original film, proved to be Watts’s most commercially successful film yet. Helmed by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the film won high praise and grossed $550 million worldwide. ... you’d better know why you’re here as an actor ... I’m here to work out my shit, what my problems are and know who I am, so by cracking open these characters perhaps that shines a light on it a little bit better. Watts starred in The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber, released in December 2006. She has since finished the films Funny Games (a remake of the 1997 Austrian film by director Michael Haneke) with Tim Roth, and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen. The press has labeled her the “queen of remakes” because she has starred in so many of them; she is scheduled to star in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). Watts has stated only that there have been “discussions” about the remake. In January 2010, she was cast for the thriller film Dream House, which will be directed by Jim Sheridan. She also appears in the drama Mother and Child, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Watts is, according to Forbes, one of the most cost-efficient actresses when comparing salary paid with box-office gross. She helped the box office rake in an estiH mag -

SPOTLIGHT

mated $44 for every $1 she was paid for her last three major films. Watts was most successful with King Kong (2005), which grossed in its first weekend at U.S. $50,130,145, for which she received $5 million (USD). In 2006, Watts became a goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS, it helps to raise awareness of AIDS issues. She has used her high profile and celebrity to call attention to the needs of people living with this disease. Watts participates in events and activities, including the 21st Annual AIDS Walk. She is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards. She has participated in campaigns for fundraising. On December 1, 2009, Watts was meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and joined the AIDS response at a dramatic public event commemorating World AIDS Day 2009. During the event, she said: “It has been both unfortunate and unfair for HIV infection to be considered a shameful disease, for people living with HIV to be judged as blameworthy, and for AIDS to be equated with certain death. I have personally seen that dignity and hope have been strongest among those whose lives were changed by HIV.”

Her father’s manic laugh

can be heard in Pink Floyd’s “Speak to Me” and “Brain Damage” and her mother’s comments can be heard in “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Money” from The Dark Side of the Moon. Watts is pictured in her mother’s arms with her father, brother, the band, and other crew members, in the hardback/softcover edition of drummer Nick Mason’s autobiography of the band Inside Out. Watts dated Stephen Hopkins in the 1990s and actor Heath Ledger from August 2002 to May 2004. Since the spring of 2005, Watts’s partner has been the actor Liev Schreiber. She confirmed in an interview in late January 2009 that Liev had in fact given her a ring (which she was not wearing at the time) but that neither of them wanted to rush into marriage. This would confirm that they are engaged but had no serious plans for marriage at the time. Liev, known to play tricks on the media, had once before called her as such in 2007 but later revealed that it was all a joke. Since there has been no proof given other than Liev’s word in the video, it is unclear as to whether or not he is telling the truth or simply playing another joke. The couple’s first son, Alexander “Sasha” Pete, was born on 25 July 2007 in Los Angeles, and their second son, Samuel “Sammy” Kai, on 13 December 2008 in New York City. After a temporary hiatus from acting, she returned to work with The International, her first project since becoming a mother. Watts stated in April 2010 that she would have a third child if she could guarantee a baby girl. Watts is a close friend of Benicio del Toro, with whom she co-starred in 21 Grams. Watts is friends with actress Isla Fisher, and is godmother to The Mentalist’s Simon Baker’s oldest daughter, Stella. She is also best friends with fellow Australian actress Nicole Kidman, after having met when they were in their teens during an audition. Watts even moved in with Kidman for a time as nanny to the children of Kidman and her then husband Tom Cruise when Watts’s own career had yet to gain commercial success. After filming The Painted Veil, she became attracted to Buddhism, claiming, “I have some belief but I am not a strict Buddhist or anything yet. There was a lot of excitement and energy there.” On March 25, 2010, she was voted one of the Twenty People Who’ve Gotten More Attractive with Age by Nerve.

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SPOTLIGHT

“It’s always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, ‘Don’t grab me there: That’s where my cellulite is’!” H mag -

SOUNDTRACK written by Louise Swartz

West Side Story is the soundtrack to the 1961 film West Side Story.

Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s album charts, giving it the longest run at #1 of any album in history, although some lists instead credit Michael Jackson’s Thriller, on the grounds that West Side Story was listed on a chart for stereo albums only at a time when many albums were recorded in mono. In 1961, it won a Grammy award for “Best Sound Track Album – Original Cast”. In the United States, it was the best-selling album of the 1960s, certifying three times platinum by the RIAA on November 21, 1986. Though the album was released just a few years after the release of the original broadway cast recording, it is according to Broadway Babies preferred by some to the earlier version both sentimentally, as the film succeeded in establishing the musical as a “popular masterpiece”, and musically, as it contains “beefier orchestration”.

“Overture” – 4:39 “Prologue” – 6:37 “Jet Song” (Tucker Smith, Jets) – 2:06 “Something’s Coming” (Jim Bryant) – 2:32 “Dance at the Gym” (Blues, Promenade, Mambo, Pas de Deux, film dialogue, and Jump) – 9:24[10] “Maria” (Bryant) – 2:34 “America” (Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Sharks & Girls) – 4:59 “Tonight” (Jim Bryant, Marni Nixon) – 5:43 “Gee, Officer Krupke” (Russ Tamblyn, Jets) – 4:14 “Intermission” – 1:30[11] “I Feel Pretty” (Nixon, Yvonne Othon, Suzie Kaye) – 3:35 “One Hand, One Heart” (Bryant, Nixon) – 3:02 “Quintet” (Bryant, Nixon, Moreno, Jets, Sharks) – 3:22 “The Rumble” – 2:39 “Somewhere” (Bryant, Nixon) “Cool” (Tucker Smith, Jets) – 4:21 “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” (Betty Wand, Nixon (as both Anita and Maria)) – 4:28 “Finale” (Nixon, Bryant) – 4:20 “End Credits” – 5:05[12]

WEST SIDE STORY

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Technical Specifications

MOVIE

Written by Clarissa Feltri

Color info: Color Sound mix: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDS Camera: Panavision Genesis HD Camera

o matter how old you are, you never get over high school. Successful PR pro Marni (Kristin Bell) heads home for her older brother’s (Jimmy Wolk) wedding and discovers that he’s marrying her high school arch nemesis (ODETTE YUSTMAN), who’s conveniently forgotten all the rotten things she did so many years ago. Then the bride’s jet-setting aunt (SIGOURNEY WEAVER) bursts in and Marni’s not-sojet-setting mom (JAMIE LEE CURTIS) comes face to face with her own high school rival. The claws come out and old wounds are opened in this crazy comedy about what happens when you’re reunited with the one person you’d like to forget.

Release Date: September 24th, 2010 Director: Andy Fickman Writer: Moe Jelline Starring: Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver, Betty White, Kristin Chenoweth, Jamie Lee Curtis Studio: Walt Disney Pictures Genre: Comedy Official Site: http://www.facebook.com/YouAgainMovie Rated: for Brief mild language and rude behavior

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MOVIE

Producers

Andy Fickman ... producer Mario Iscovich ... executive producer John J. Strauss ... producer Betsy Sullenger ... co-producer Eric Tannenbaum ... producer

Make Up Department

Filming Locations

• • • • •

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Burbank, California, USA Calabasas, California, USA Los Angeles, California, USA Monrovia, California, USA Pasadena, California, USA

Make Up Department Simone Almekias-Siegl ... makeup department head Mary Burton ... makeup artist: sigourney weaver Ashley Fox ... additional makeup artist Natasha Ladek ... wig maker Barbara Lorenz ... department head hairstylist Anthony Veader ... personal hair stylist: Sigourney Weaver Victoria Wood ... wig maker

MOVIE

SIGOURNEY WEAVER

Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies such as Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Dave, and The Year of Living Dangerously, she is best known for her appearances as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the blockbuster Alien movie franchise. She first appeared as Ripley in Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. She reprised the role in three sequels, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens, one of the very few actresses so honored for a role in a science fiction movie. She also starred in two films in 1988, receiving Academy Award nominations for her roles as Katherine Parker in Working Girl and as naturalist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. She lost out to Geena Davis and Jodie Foster respectively, although she received Golden Globes for both roles. Weaver also appeared in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II as Dana Barrett. She played the role of agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat. In addition to her trademark role as Ripley, Weaver has recently concentrated on smaller roles such as 1999’s A Map of the World and 2006’s Snow Cake. She has also appeared in comedic roles, such as Jeffrey (1994), Galaxy Quest (1999), and Heartbreakers (2001), in which she starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Gene Hackman.

n 1997, Weaver won the BAFTA Award for her supporting role in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm. In 2003, she was voted 20th in Channel 4’s countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time. She was one of only two women in the top 20 (the other was Audrey Hepburn). That year, she also played The Warden in the movie Holes. In 2006, Weaver returned to Rwanda for the BBC special Gorillas Revisited. In 2009, Weaver starred as Mary Griffith in her first made-for-TV movie, Prayers for Bobby, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also guest starred in the TV show Eli Stone in the fall of 2008. Weaver also played the role of a news reporter in the 2008 American film Vantage Point. 2009 was also the year in which James Cameron’s Avatar premiered with Sigourney playing a major part as Dr. Grace Augustine, leader of the AVTR (avatar) program on the film’s fictional moon Pandora. Weaver also has done voice work in television and film. She had a guest role in the Futurama episode “Love and Rocket” in February 2002, playing the female Planet Express Ship. In 2006, she was the narrator for the American version of the Emmy Awardwinning series Planet Earth.

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BOOKS

TOWN

Written by Leah Bosch

THE

# Paperback: 400 pages # Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (August 17, 2010) # Language: English # ISBN-10: 1439196508 # ISBN-13: 978-1439196502 # Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches # Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

oug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang’s latest job, when they briefly took a hostage--bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name... and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug...not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path. The dark third novel by the author of The Standoff isn’t the fast-paced thriller it’s marketed to be. It is, rather, a story of doomed love focusing on Doug MacRay, a Boston-based career thief (he comes from Charlestown, “a breeding ground for bank and armored-car robbers”) who becomes enamored with the manager of the bank he and his pals have just robbed. Claire Keesey, who has been badly traumatized by the robbery, later begins to develop feelings for him as well, unaware that a masked MacRay was the lead perpetrator in the heist that turned her life upside down. Hogan then leads readers through a long-winded labyrinth of inner reflection as Doug spends much of the book pondering whether he should quit the criminal life in order to pursue a deeper relationship with Claire. This undermines the suspense that crime fiction requires, and the novel is overlong by more than half. Although some characters are quite lively, most of them (including Doug) are not very sympathetic, and the end brings tragedy for many of them. All the same, the author’s original writing style and knack for unusual metaphors can make for engaging reading, and the book’s cinematic quality and grittily realistic action sequences bode well for its day on screen (it’s been optioned by Law & Order producer Dick Wolf).

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LEGENDS Written by Matt Hines

MARLENE

Dietrich ™Most women set out to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him.∫

ietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 in Schöneberg, a district of Berlin, Germany. She was the younger of two daughters (her sister Elisabeth being a year older) of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine Dietrich (née Felsing). Dietrich’s mother was from a well-todo Berlin family who owned a clockmaking firm and her father was a police lieutenant. Her father died in 1911. His best friend, Eduard von Losch, an aristocrat first lieutenant in the Grenadiers courted Wilhelmina and eventually married her in 1916, but he died soon after as a result of injuries sustained during World War I. Von Losch never officially adopted the Dietrich children, hence Dietrich’s surname was never von Losch, as is sometimes claimed. She was nicknamed “Lene” (pronounced Lay-neh) within the family. Around the age of 11, she contracted her two first names to form the then-unusual name, Marlene. Dietrich attended the Auguste Victoria School for Girls from 1906 to 1918. She studied the violin and became interested in theatre and poetry as a teenager. Her dreams of becoming a concert violinist were cut short when she injured her wrist. In 1921, Dietrich auditioned unsuccessfully for theatrical director and impresario Max Reinhardt’s drama academy; however, she soon

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found herself working in his theatres as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas, without attracting any special attention at first. Dietrich made her film debut playing a bit part in the 1922 film, So sind die Männer. She met her future husband, Rudolf Sieber, on the set of another film made that year, Tragödie der Liebe. In the G. W. Pabst film Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse; 1925), the actress playing Elsa is Hertha von Walther (1903–87), who looks very much like the young Marlene Dietrich, giving rise to the false rumor that Dietrich has a bit part in this film. Dietrich and Sieber were married on 17 May 1924. Her only child, daughter Maria Elisabeth Sieber, later billed as actress Maria Riva, was born on 13 December 1924. Dietrich continued to work on stage and in film both in Berlin and Vienna throughout the 1920s. On stage, she had roles of varying importance in Frank Wedekind’s Pandora’s Box, William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as George Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah and Misalliance. It was in musicals and revues, such as Broadway, Es Liegt in der Luft and Zwei Krawatten, however, that she attracted the most attention. By the late 1920s, Dietrich was also playing sizable parts on screen, including Café Elektric (1927), Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (1928) and Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen (1929). In 1929, Dietrich landed the breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer who causes the downfall of a hitherto respected schoolmaster, in UFA’s production, The Blue Angel (1930). The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, who thereafter took credit for having “discovered” Dietrich. The film is also noteworthy for having introduced Dietrich’s signature song “Falling in Love Again”.

n the strength of The Blue Angel’s international success, and with encouragement and promotion from von Sternberg, who was already established in Hollywood, Dietrich then moved to the U.S. on contract to Paramount Pictures. The stu-

“The relationship between the make-up man and the film actor is that of accomplices in crime.”

LEGENDS

dio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to MGM’s Swedish sensation, Greta Garbo. Her first American film, Morocco, directed by von Sternberg, earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination. However, at the time she knew very little English and so spoke her lines phonetically. Dietrich’s most lasting contribution to film history was as the star of a series of six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935: Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman. In Hollywood, von Sternberg worked very effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous femme fatale. He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress – she, in turn, was willing to trust him and follow his sometimes imperious direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted. A crucial part of the overall effect was created by von Sternberg’s exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect—the use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted blinds (as for example in Shanghai Express)—which, when combined with scrupulous attention to all aspects of set design and costumes, make this series of films among the most visually stylish in cinema history. Critics still debate vigorously how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased to work together. Maintaining her image required hard work: according to her daughter, she would have herself strapped into an elaborate contraption of her own design that moulded her figure, especially her “terrible breasts”, and she kept a full-length dressing mirror on wheels in which she would check the lighting before a shoot. The skin of her face was tightened by a painful arrangement of small hooks stuck into her scalp under the wigs. In later years she suffered terrible pain in her legs but maintained a trooper’s attitude to whatever she felt was necessary to look her best for her public. Without von Sternberg, Dietrich—along with Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Mae West, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn and others—was labeled “box office poison” after her 1937 film, Knight Without Armour, proved an expensive flop. In 1939, however, her stardom revived when she played the cowboy saloon girl Frenchie in the light-hearted western Destry Rides Again opposite James Stewart. The movie also introduced another favorite song, “The Boys in the Back Room”. She played a similar role in 1942 with John Wayne in The Spoilers. While Dietrich arguably never fully regained her former screen glory, she continued performing in the movies, including appearances for such distinguished directors as Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, in successful films that included A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Stage Fright. Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In interviews, Dietrich stated that she had been approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but had turned them down flat. Diet-

rich, a staunch anti-Nazi who despised antisemitism, became an American citizen in 1939. Dietrich signing a soldier’s cast (Belgium, 1944). In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She toured the US from January 1942 to September 1943 (appearing before 250 000 troops on the Pacific Coast leg of her tour alone) and it is said that she sold more war bonds than any other star. During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945, she performed for Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria, Italy, England and France and went into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometres of German lines, she replied, “aus Anstand” — “it was the decent thing to do.” Her revue, with future TV pioneer Danny Thomas as her opening act, included songs from her films, a mindreading act and performances on her musical saw, a skill she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s. In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musac project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Dietrich, the only performer who was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including Lili Marleen, a favourite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.[7] William Joseph Donovan, head of the OSS, wrote to Dietrich, “I am personally deeply grateful for your generosity in making these recordings for us. Dietrich was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the US in 1945. She said that this was her proudest accomplishment. She was also awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French government as recognition for her wartime work. Kenneth Tynan called her voice her “third dimension”. Ernest Hemingway thought that “if she had nothing more than her voice, she could break your heart with it.” Dietrich’s recording career spanned over half a century. Prior to international stardom, she recorded a duet, “Wenn die Beste Freundin”, with Margo Lion. This song, with its lesbian overtones, was a hit in Berlin in 1928. In 1930, Dietrich recorded English and German language selections from her film The Blue Angel, for Electrola in Berlin. It was at this time that she recorded Friedrich Hollaender’s “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” for the first time—it would become her theme song, to be sung in thousands of concerts. A 1933 Parisian recording session for Polydor produced several classic tracks, including Franz Waxman’s “Allein in Einer Grossen Stadt.” Dietrich recorded “The Boys in the Back Room” from Destry Rides Again for Decca Records in 1939. In 1945, she recorded her version of “Lili Marleen”. H mag -

When Dietrich signed Burt Bacharach as her musical arranger in the mid1950s, her show started to evolve from a mere nightclub act to a more ambitious one-woman show featuring an array of new material. Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day. Bacharach’s arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich’s limited vocal range – she was a contralto – and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect. Dietrich’s return to Germany in 1960 for a concert tour elicited a mixed response. Many Germans felt she had betrayed her homeland by her actions during World War II.

LEGENDS

Dietrich signed with Columbia Records in the 1950s, with Mitch Miller as her producer. The 1950 LP Marlene Dietrich Overseas, with Dietrich singing German translations of American songs of the World War II era, was a hit. She also recorded several duets with Rosemary Clooney; these tapped into a younger market and charted. During the 1960s, Dietrich recorded several albums and many singles, mostly with Burt Bacharach at the helm of the orchestra. Dietrich in London, recorded live at the Queen’s Theatre in 1964, is an enduring document of Dietrich in concert. In 1972 Dietrich taped a television special, An Evening With Marlene Dietrich – also known as I Wish You Love – at the New London Theatre in London: the concert was re-released, with bonus material, as a 75-minute DVD in 2003. In 1978, Dietrich’s performance of the title track from her last film, Just a Gigolo, was issued as a single. She made her last recordings from her Paris apartment in 1987: spoken introductions to songs for a nostalgia album by Udo Lindenberg. Asked by Maximilian Schell in his documentary, Marlene (1984), which of her own recordings were her favorites, Dietrich replied that she thought Marlene singt Berlin-Berlin (1964) – an album featuring her singing old Berlin schlager (popular songs) – was her best-recorded work.

During her performances at Berlin’s Titania Palast theatre, protesters chanted, “Marlene Go Home!” On the other hand, Dietrich was warmly welcomed by other Germans, including Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. The tour was an artistic triumph, but a financial failure. She also undertook a tour of Israel around the same time, which was well-received; she sang some songs in German during her concerts, including a German version of Pete Seeger’s anti-war anthem “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, thus breaking the unofficial taboo against the use of German in Israel. Dietrich appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, with Bacharach as conductor, in 1964 and 1965 and made appearances on Broadway twice (1967 and 1968), winning a special Tony Award for her performance. Her costumes (body-hugging dresses covered with thousands of crystals as well as a swansdown coat), bodysculpting undergarments, careful stage lighting helped to preserve Dietrich’s glamorous image well into old age. In November 1972, a version of the show Dietrich had performed on Broadway was filmed in London. She was paid $250,000 for her cooperation, but was hopelessly drunk during the shoot and unhappy with the result. The show, originally titled I Wish You Love, was broadcast in the UK on the BBC on 1 January 1973 and in the US on CBS on 13 January 1973. The show was retitled An Evening With Marlene Dietrich for the later VHS and DVD releases.

“A country without bordellos is like a house without bathrooms.”

From the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, Dietrich worked almost exclusively as a highly-paid cabaret artist, performing live in large theaters in major cities worldwide. In 1953, Dietrich was offered a then-substantial $30,000 per week to appear live at the Sahara Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The show was short, consisting only of a few songs associated with her. Her daringly sheer costumes, designed by Jean Louis, attracted a lot of publicity and attention. This engagement was so successful that she was signed to appear at the Cafė de Paris in London the following year, and her Las Vegas contracts were also renewed. It was the start of a new phase in Dietrich’s career.

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Dietrich’s show business career largely ended on 29 September 1975, when she broke her leg during a stage performance in Sydney, Australia. Her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer on June 1976. Dietrich’s final on-camera film appearance was cameo role in Just a Gigolo (1979), starring Da-

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LEGENDS

“The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.” Bowie. An alcoholic and dependent on painkillers (especially a brand of morphine suppositories she referred to as her Fernando Lamases after “the most boring actor in Hollywood”), Dietrich withdrew to her apartment at 12 avenue Montaigne in Paris. She spent the final 11 years of her life mostly bedridden, allowing only a select few—including family and employees— to enter the apartment, where she lived surrounded by bottles of whisky, Handi Wipes, a Limoges pitcher that served as a bed pan, garbage cans and various other necessities, warming food on a little hot plate she kept by the bed. During this time, she was a prolific letter-writer and phone-caller. Her autobiography, Nehmt nur mein Leben, was published in 1979. In 1982, Dietrich agreed to participate in a documentary film about her life, Marlene (1984), but refused to be filmed. The film’s director, Maximilian Schell, was only allowed to record her voice. He used his interviews with her as the basis for the film, set to a collage of film clips from her career. The final film won several European film prizes and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 1984. Newsweek named it “a unique film, perhaps the most fascinating and affecting documentary ever made about a great movie star”. Dietrich’s gravestone in Berlin. The inscription reads “Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage” (Here I stand at the mile-stone of my days), a paraphrased line from the sonnet Abschied vom Leben (Farewell from Life) by Theodor Körner. She began a close friendship with the biographer David Bret, one of the few people allowed inside her Paris apartment. Bret is thought to have been the last person outside her family that Dietrich spoke to, two days before her death: “I have called to say that I love you, and now I may die.” She was in constant contact with her daughter, who came to Paris regularly to check on her. She kept in contact with world leaders by telephone, including Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, running up a monthly bill of over US$3,000. In 1989, her appeal to save the Babelsberg studios from closure was broadcast on BBC Radio, and she spoke on television via telephone on the occasion of the fall of the

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Berlin Wall in 1990. Dietrich died of renal failure on 6 May 1992 at the age of 90 in Paris. A service was conducted at La Madeleine in Paris before 3,500 mourners and a crowd of wellwishers outside. Her body, covered with an American flag, was then returned to Berlin, where she was interred at the Städtischer Friedhof III, Berlin-Schöneberg, Stubenrauchstraße 43–45, in Friedenau Cemetery, near her mother’s grave and not far away from the house where she was born. Unlike her professional celebrity, which was carefully crafted and maintained, Dietrich’s personal life was kept out of public view. Dietrich, who was bisexual, enjoyed the thriving gay scene of the time and drag balls of 1920s Berlin. She married only once, assistant director Rudolf Sieber, who later became an assistant director at Paramount Pictures in France, responsible for foreign language dubbing. Dietrich’s only child, Maria Elisabeth Sieber, was born in Berlin on 13 December 1924. She would later become an actress, primarily working in television, known as Maria Riva. When Maria gave birth to a son in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed “the world’s most glamorous grandmother”. After Dietrich’s death, Riva published a frank biography of her mother, titled Marlene Dietrich (1992). Throughout her career Dietrich had an unending string of affairs, some shortlived, some lasting decades; they often overlapped and were almost all known to her husband, to whom she was in the habit of passing the love letters of her men, sometimes with biting comments. In 1938, Dietrich met and began a relationship with the writer Erich Maria Remarque, and in 1941, the French actor and military hero Jean Gabin. Their relationship ended in the mid-1940s. She also had an affair with the Cuban-American writer Mercedes de Acosta, who was Greta Garbo’s lover. Her last great passion, when she was in her 50s, appears to have been for the actor Yul Brynner, but her love life continued well into her 70s. She counted George Bernard Shaw and John F. Kennedy among her conquests. Dietrich maintained her husband and his mistress first in Europe and finally on a small ranch in the San Fernando Valley, California. Dietrich was an atheist. She was raised a Calvinist, but lost her faith due to battlefront experiences during her time with the US Army as an entertainer.

“In

Europe, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman - we make love with anyone we find attractive.”

MOVIE Written by Barbara Dorsi

The

AMERICAN

The suspense thriller The American stars Academy Award winner George Clooney in the title role for director Anton Corbijn (Control). The screenplay by Rowan Joffe is adapted from Martin Booth’s 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman. * Release Date:September 1st, 2010 * Starring: George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Irina Björklund, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli * Director:Anton Corbijn * Writer:Martin Booth, Rowan Joffe * Studio:Focus Features * Genre:Drama, Thriller * Official Site: TheAmericanBlog.com, TheAmericanTheMovie.com, facebook. com/TheAmericanMovie, twitter.com/ FocusFeatures * Rating:R

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Filming Locations * * * * *

Castel del Monte, L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy Rome, Lazio, Italy Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden Sulmona, L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy Östersund, Jämtlands län, Sweden H mag -

MOVIE

Technical Specifications Color info: Color Sound mix: Dolby Digital / DTS Camera: Arricam LT / Arricam ST / Arriflex 435 Negative format: 35 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 500T 5219) Process: Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format) / Super 35 (source format) Printed format: 35 mm (anamorphic) Aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1

As an assassin, Jack (played by Mr. Clooney) is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, Jack retreats to the Italian countryside. He relishes being away from death for a spell as he holes up in a small medi82 - H mag

eval town. While there, Jack takes an assignment to construct a weapon for a mysterious contact, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). Savoring the peaceful quietude he finds in the mountains of Abruzzo, Jack accepts the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues a torrid liaison with a beautiful woman, Clara (Violante Placido). Jack and Claraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time together evolves into a romance, one seemingly free of danger. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate. H mag -

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MOVIE

looney’s first role was as an extra in the TV series Centennial in 1978. The series was based on the novel of the same name by James Michener and was partially filmed in Clooney’s hometown of Augusta, Kentucky. Clooney’s first major role came in 1984 in the short-lived sitcom E/R (not to be confused with ER, the better-known hospital drama, on which Clooney also costarred a decade later). He played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life and appeared as Bobby Hopkins, a detective, on an episode of The Golden Girls. His first significant break was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr’s overbearing boss Booker Brooks, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk and then as a sexy detective on Sisters. In 1988, Clooney also played a role in Return of the Killer Tomatoes. Clooney achieved stardom when he was selected to play Dr. Doug Ross, alongside Anthony Edwards’s and Noah Wyle’s characters on the hit NBC drama ER from 1994 to 1999. After leaving the series in 1999, he returned for a guest spot in the show’s final season and also made a cameo appearance in the 6th season.

looney began appearing in movies while working on ER. His first major Hollywood role was in From Dusk till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He followed its success with One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman. Clooney was then cast as the new Batman in Batman & Robin, which was a moderate box office success, but a critical failure (with Clooney himself calling the film “a waste of money”). In 1998, he starred in Out of Sight opposite Jennifer Lopez, marking the

first of his many collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. He also starred in Three Kings during the last weeks of his contract with ER.

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interview editing by Mike Lamas

“Classic tale of teen rebellion and repression features a delightful combination of dance choreography and realistic and touching performances. When teenager Ren (Kevin Bacon) and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he’s in for a real case of culture shock.”

FOOTLOOSE R

en McCormack (Bacon), a teenager raised in Chicago, moves with his mother to the small town of Bomont to live with his aunt and uncle. Soon after arriving, Ren makes a friend named Willard, and from him learns the city council has banned dancing and rock music. He soon begins to fall for a rebellious girl named Ariel, who has a boyfriend named

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Chuck Cranston, and an overprotective father named Reverend Shaw Moore (Lithgow), an authority figure in the town.

After

an insult from Ariel’s boyfriend, Ren ends up in a tractor race, and despite not knowing how to drive a tractor, he wins. Shaw distrusts Ren, forbidding Ariel to see him. Ren and his classmates want to do away with the law, especially since the senior prom is around the corner. Ren goes before the city council and reads several Bible verses that claim in ancient times people would dance to rejoice, exercise, or celebrate. Although Rev. Moore is moved, tries to get them to abolish the law, but the council votes against him. Ren brings these claims to the council, he can not pass the law, with the support of the council. Shaw’s wife is supportive of the movement, and explains to Shaw he cannot be everyone’s father, and that he is hardly being a father to Ariel. She also says that dancing and music is not the problem. Shaw soon has a change of heart, after seeing some of the townsfolk burning books that they think are dangerous to the youth. Realizing the situation has gotten out of hand, Shaw stops the burning. On Sunday, Rev. Moore asks his congregation to pray for the high school students putting on the prom, which is set up at a grain mill outside of town. Shaw and his wife are seen outside, dancing for the first time in years.

• • •

Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormack Lori Singer as Ariel Moore Dianne Wiest as Vi Moore

• John Lithgow as Reverend Shaw Moore • Chris Penn as Willard Hewitt • Sarah Jessica Parker as Rusty • Frances Lee McCain as Ethel McCormack • Jim Youngs as Chuck Cranston

ean Pitchford wrote the screenplay (and most of the lyrics) for Footloose, Herbert Ross directed the movie, and Paramount Pictures co-produced and distributed it. H mag -

interview

Michael Cimino was hired by Paramount to direct the movie when negotiations with Ross initially stalled. After four months working on the film, the studio fired Cimino, who was making extravagant demands for the production, and ended up rehiring Ross.

Footloose

hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received 1985 Academy Award nomination for Best Music (Original Song). “Footloose” also received a 1985 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song - Motion Picture. Footlooose received mostly mixed reviews, garnering a 55% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert said “Footloose is a seriously confused movie that tries to do three things, and does all of them badly.” The film, despite critical reviews, grossed $80,035,403 around the world.

also starred Lori Singer as Reverend Moore’s independent daughter Ariel, a role for which Madonna also auditioned. Dianne Wiest appeared as Vi, the Reverend’s devoted yet conflicted wife.

musical version of Footloose that features many of the same songs from the movie has been presented on London’s West End, on Broadway, and elsewhere. The musical is generally faithful to the film version, with some slight differences in the story and characters.

Footloose is one of the earliest film appearances of Sarah Jessica Parker as Ariel’s friend Rusty, a role for which she was nominated for Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama at the Sixth Annual Youth in Film Awards. It was also an early role for Chris Penn as Willard Hewitt, Ren’s best friend, who doesn’t know how to dance until Ren teaches him.

he film was made at various locations in Utah County. The high school and tractor scenes were filmed in and around Payson, Utah and Payson High School. The church scenes were filmed in American Fork, Utah. The steel mill was the Geneva Steel mill. The final sequence is filmed in Lehi, Utah, with the Lehi Roller Mills featured in the final sequence. The movie’s soundtrack was released in cassette, 8-track tape, vinyl, and Compact Disc format. The soundtrack was also re-released on compact disc for the 15th anniversary of the film. The re-release included four new songs: “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” by Quiet Riot, “Hurts So Good” by John Mellencamp, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner, and the extended 12” remix of “Dancing in the Sheets”. The soundtrack includes three rock singles, the title song by Kenny Loggins, “Holding Out for a Hero” by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, and “Girl Gets Around” by Sammy Hagar, three R&B singles, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” by Deniece Williams, “Somebody’s Eyes” by Karla Bonoff, and “Dancing In the Sheets” by Shalamar and the love theme “Almost Paradise” by Mike Reno from Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart. The film was later released in VHS, Laserdisc and DVD formats, Some of the music for the songs was composed by people such as Sammy Hagar, Eric Carmen, Jim Steinman and Kenny Loggins and the soundtrack went on to sell over 9 million copies in the USA. The first two tracks both

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Paramount

Pictures has announced plans to fast-track a musical remake of Footloose. Zac Efron was cast as Ren in the new movie, but he later dropped out, reportedly saying that he wanted to take a break from musicals. Kenny Ortega was originally announced as director, with Peter Sollett re-writing the script and Dylan Sellers, (producer of The Replacements), Craig Zadan and Neil Meron as co-producers. It was announced on May 19, 2009 that Chace Crawford will be playing the lead role of Ren in the upcoming remake. Derek Hough from Dancing with the Stars was in talks to play Ren since he played the role in the musical version in London and pop recording artist Keithian has been in talks to play Ren’s best friend. According to E! News, Julianne Hough, Derek’s sister, also of Dancing with the Stars, has been in talks with the producers to take on the role of Ariel, formerly played by Lori Singer. It was confirmed on June 21, 2009 that Hough will be playing the role of Ariel if her schedule permits. In January 2010, the film was taken off Paramount’s release schedule, but has now been announced to be released in 2011. On April 13, 2010, Chace Crawford had backed out of the movie due to scheduling conflicts. The remake is set in the fictional town of Beaumont, Tennessee, but will be filmed in Georgia. It is budgeted at $25 million. The full cast for the remake was announced June 22, 2010. Paramount Pictures announced that Kenny Wormald will play the lead as Ren McCormack, with Julianne Hough as Ariel and Dennis Quaid as Rev. Shaw Moore. The remake is currently slated for a release date of April 1, 2011. H mag -

interview

• • • • •

American Fork, Utah, USA Lehi, Utah, USA Orem, Utah, USA Payson, Utah, USA Provo, Utah, USA

LOCATIONS The original director hired for this film was Michael Cimino.

Michael Cimino was originally hired as director. He was fired when he asked for a $250,000 advance for re-writing the entire screenplay prior to shooting. (The movie’s total budget was only $7.5 million.)

The scenes where Chris Penn’s character had to learn how to dance were added to the script because Penn really could not dance. Christopher Atkins was originally signed to play Ren MacCormack.

the liner notes for the re-released “Footloose” soundtrack (1999), there’s a brief introduction by Kenny Loggins which mentions that the script for the film was loosely based on actual events which tranpired in the young life of his long time friend, and “Footloose” screen writer, Dean Pitchford. With the Principal’s knowledge, 24-year-old Kevin Bacon attended the Payson Utah High School as “Ren McCormack”, a transfer student from Phili to get into his role. With his narrow tie and new-wave haircut, he was treated pretty much like in the film. Bacon gratefully left with the location scouts on the afternoon of the first day. Dianne Wiest, who plays Ariel’s mom, Vi, is only 9 years older than Lori Singer (Ariel). Kevin Bacon broke out in hives around his

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1. “Footloose” - Kenny Loggins – 3:46 (Kenny Loggins/Dean Pitchford) 2. “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” - Deniece Williams – 4:20 (Tom Snow/Dean Pitchford) 3. “Almost Paradise” (Love theme from Footloose) - Ann Wilson and Mike Reno – 3:51 (Eric Carmen/Dean Pitchford) 4. “Holding Out for a Hero” - Bonnie Tyler – 5:49 (Jim Steinman/Dean Pitchford) 5. “Dancing In the Sheets” - Shalamar – 4:03 (Bill Wolfer/Dean Pitchford) 6. “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)” - Kenny Loggins – 3:46 (Kenny Loggins/Dean Pitchford) 7. “Somebody’s Eyes” - Karla Bonoff – 3:33 (Tom Snow/Dean Pitchford) 8. “The Girl Gets Around” - Sammy Hagar – 3:23 (Sammy Hagar/Dean Pitchford) 9. “Never” - Moving Pictures – 3:47 (Michael Gore/Dean Pitchford) 10. “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” - Quiet Riot - 3:55 (Carlos Cavazo/Kevin DuBrow/Frankie Banali/Tony Cavazo) (1998 re-release bonus track) 11. “Hurts So Good” - John Cougar Mellencamp - 3:42 (John Cougar Mellencamp/George M. Green) (1998 re-release bonus track) 12. “Waiting for a Girl Like You” - Foreigner - 4:50 (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm) (1998 re-release bonus track) 13. “Dancing In The Sheets” 12” mix - Shalamar - 6:16 (Bill Wolfer/Dean Pitchford) (1998 re-release bonus track) 14. “Mega Mix, The (Radio Remix Black Majik Mega Mix)” (2002 Australian Souvenir Edition bonus track) 15. “Mega Mix, The (Finale)” (2002 Australian Souvenir Edition bonus track)

SOUNDTRACK midsection when he had to film the City Council scene where he makes the case for holding a prom dance. The actor says he is uncomfortable when speaking in public, but has never had a reoccurrence of hives. Chris Penn couldn’t dance, so they had to teach him in terms of what he already knew: wrestling. Footloose was loosely based on events that took place in the small, rural, and extremely religious farming town of Elmore City, Oklahoma in 1978. Dancing had been banned for nearly 90 years until a group of high school teens challenged it. Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe were both slated to play the lead. The casting directors H mag -

interview

Color info: Color Sound mix: Dolby Camera: Panaflex Cameras and Lenses by Panavision Laboratory: Movielab, USA (color) Film length: 2947 m (Sweden) Negative format: 35 mm Process: Spherical Printed format: 35 mm Aspect ratio: 1.85 : 1

In the scene where Rev. Shaw shows Ren a picture of his deceased son Bobby, John Lithgow actually showed a photograph of his real son.

TECHS

While it’s true that the dance was filmed in Utah and that Lehi was a prophet found in the Book of Mormon, Lehi is actually the name of the town where the Lehi Rollermills resides. The Lehi Rollermills is actually an old time grain house as depicted in the film and it’s still operating in Utah (2010). The film is often considered Lehi’s claim to fame.

Kevin Bacon was offered the leading role for the Stephen King

were impressed with Cruise because of the famous underwear dance sequence in Risky Business, but he was unavailable for the part because he was filming All the Right Moves. Lowe auditioned three times and had dancing ability and the “neutral teen” look that the director wanted, but he pulled his knee, and the injury prevented him from taking the part. After watching Diner, the director had to convince the producers to go with Kevin Bacon.

John

Lithgow filmed scenes for Terms of Endearment while on a break from shooting this film. The character of “Willard” (not even called by that name in the original script) was specifically rewritten by author Dean Pitchford with Chris Penn in mind.

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movie Christine, at the same time that he was asked to do a screen test for “Footloose”. The producers had to convince Bacon that turning down a sure role in “Christine” for a part he might not even get in “Footloose” was the wiser choice. The producers told him that if he got the part for “Footloose,” the role would make him a star. 30 seconds into the screen test, Bacon was offered the part. The movie was adapted to a Broadway musical and opened on October 22, 1998 at the Richard Rogers Theater, ran for 709 performances and received the 1999 Tony Awards for Best Book and Score for a Musical.

Daryl Hannah turned down the offer to play Ariel in order to play Madi-

son in Splash. Elizabeth McGovern turned down the role of Ariel in order to play Deborah Gelly in Once Upon a Time in America. Melanie Griffith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rosanna Arquette, Meg Tilly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Heather Locklear, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jodie Foster, Phoebe Cates, Tatum O’Neal, Bridget Fonda, Lori Loughlin, Diane Lane and Brooke Shields were all offered the role of Ariel, but turned it down. John Travolta was offered the role of Ren, but turned it down.

The dancing feet in the opening credit sequence contained many of the cast and crew. Over 150 different pairs of feet were shot. The dancer with the gold shoes was actually Kenny Loggins. H mag -

SCRIPT Written by Lucrezia Landi

God

loses faith in humanity and sends his legion of angels to wipe out the human race for the second time. Mankind’s only hope lies in a group of misfits holed up in a diner in the desert who are aided by the archangel Michael.

N O I LEG

• • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • • • • • • •

Release Date:January 22nd, 2010 Starring: Paul Bettany Lucas Black Tyrese Gibson Adrianne Palicki Charles S. Dutton Director:Scott Stewart Writer:Peter Schink, Scott Stewart Studio:Screen Gems Genre:Action, Horror, Thriller Official Site:legionmovie.com Rating: for Strong bloody violence, and language. Runtime:1 hour 46 minutes Box Office:$36,101,895

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STUFF Written by Massimo Cenci

Emma Watson launches new People Tree collection After her dramatic re-branding with a new pixie haircut just last week, and with the longawaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows press campaign underway, Emma Watson has been hitting the headlines of late. The latest news? The British actress-cum-model-cumdesigner announced yesterday (August 18) that she will be launching her spring/summer 2010 collection for Fairtrade label, People Tree, at a garden party thrown by none other than HRH, Prince Charles. “A Garden Party to make a Difference” is a 12-day eco-festival organised by the Prince’s Charities, going from September 8 – 19. Combining music from Jools Holland with comedy from Ben Elton and Alistair McGowan, alongside fashion and food, the festival offers hints on how to take those small steps towards a more sustainable future, all in the grounds of Clarence House.

E-Books Make Readers Less Isolated VOLUMES have been written about technology’s ability to connect people. But burying one’s nose in a book has always been somewhat isolating — with its unspoken assertion that the reader does not want to be disturbed. So what about a device that occupies the evolving intersection between? Enlarge This Image Albert Gea/Reuters A model in a Barcelona fashion show holds an iPad. “Strangers constantly ask about it,” Michael Hughes, a communications associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said of his iPad, which he uses to read a mix of novels and nonfiction. “It’s almost like having a new baby.” An iPad owner for four months, Mr. Hughes said people were much more likely to approach him now than when he toted a book. “People approach me and ask to see it, to touch it, how much I like it,” he said. “That rarely happens with dead-tree books.” With the price of e-readers coming down, sales of the flyweight devices are rising. Last month, Amazon reported that so far this year, Kindle sales had tripled over last year’s.

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STUFF

Moschino On Film When classic Italian style is required to recall the elegance of Sixties Rome, Moschino is the obvious answer. Director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds), has worked with the Italian label and costume designer.

The new Californian ponytail The new ‘Californian convertible’ pony I defy anyone not to want long hair after seeing the ponytails created by Orlando Pita for the Michael Kors a/w 10 show: this is exactly how well-groomed long hair should look – not scraped back into an old elastic, but straightened before securing and gently mussed to give it a carefree feel. Pita, inspired by the 1970s mannequins Patti Hansen and Lisa Taylor, achieved that edgy disarray with a brush to summon fluff within the tail and give it a slight windswept look as if the girls had just stepped out of convertibles. These staples will create the California girl pony: Aveda Pure Abundance volumising hairspray Apply at the roots section by section to build volume into hair as you blow-dry it. £15, aveda.co.uk. Mason Pearson pocket-size pink brush Use it to tease hair around the hairline and softly backcomb strands within the pony.

Selfridges and Dolce & Gabbana in ‘giant falling out’ From next spring, the chain’s department stores will not offer the premium label or its D&G line. There were claims the retailer and the designer parted on bad terms after Selfridges proposed a change to the lines’ in-store positions, according to industry magazine Drapers. The co-owner of one premium brand said: “They have had a giant falling out and flounced off. “I’m sure they will kiss and make up when they have cooled off. They’ll have to.” Sources were unclear whether Dolce & Gabbana had dropped Selfridges or vice versa, and neither party would disclose details of the alleged disagreement. Selfridges said it had wanted to refresh its brand mix and found itself “unable” to continue offering the lines. “We constantly seek to improve the diversity and presentation of our brand portfolio and address the demands of our ever-evolving fashion and accessories departments,” the retail chain said in a statement. “To this end we have found that we are unable to accommodate Dolce & Gabbana and D&G in our mix going forward.” Dolce & Gabbana’s Milan headquarters were closed until next week and no one from its UK office was able to comment.

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STUFF

Verizon shows off iPad TV app and more NEW YORK--Verizon Communications is prepping a new live TV streaming app for tablet PCs like the Apple iPad, a move that could eventually eliminate the need for a home set-top box and set the stage for true “TV everywhere” viewing. At a demonstration at the home of Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir, Verizon executives showed off a slew of new features for its Fios TV service, including the live TV streaming application on an iPad. The new app allows Fios TV subscribers to stream live TV from their service onto an iPad over a home Wi-Fi connection. Initially, the service will work only in the home. But Kheradpir said that eventually the service could be offered as part of Verizon’s TV-anywhere strategy, allowing people to access live TV anywhere they are using a username and password to authenticate the service. “We built Fios TV as a cloud computing product,” Kheradpir said. “The set-top box function is all done in software, and we simply redirect the broadcast TV signal to another screen. And because the set-top function is in software we can implement the functionality in devices.” Kheradpir said that the iPad is a perfect device for the application because of its elegant design. The large touch screen is big enough for comfortable TV viewing. And the device also turns on and off quickly, unlike many laptops, which take several minutes to boot up and shut down. Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir shows off a new app that allows people to watch live TV on an Apple iPad. (Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET) Eventually the app will be available for other tablet PCs as well as other connected devices, such as laptops and mobile phones. “We have to start the engineering somewhere.” Kheradpir. “And the iPad is an ideal device for this.” Kheradpir told journalists at the demonstration that the app is technically ready to go, but the company must wait until it has signed deals with content providers before it will go live with the service. The company is currently negotiating with several major cable and broadcast TV providers, such as Time Warner, to hammer out programming agreements. “The engineering work is done,” he said. “Now we have to work with the ecosystem and the content community to come up with equations that work for everyone.”

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Written by Eleonora D’Onofri

V is an American science fiction television series first broadcast on ABC on November 3, 2009. A re-imagining of the 1983 miniseries created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series chronicles the arrival on Earth of a technologically advanced alien species which ostensibly comes in peace, but actually has sinister motives. V stars Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Charles Mesure, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Scott Wolf, and is executive produced by Scott Rosenbaum, Yves Simoneau, Scott Peters, and Jace Hall. The series is produced by The Scott Peters Company, HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television. On May 13, 2010, ABC renewed V for a second season. A return date has not been confirmed, though it is speculated to return in November. Giant spaceships appear over 29 major cities throughout the world, and Anna (Morena Baccarin), the beautiful and charismatic leader of the extra-terrestrial “Visitors”, claims to come in peace. The Visitors claim to only need a small amount of Earth’s resources, in exchange for which they will share their advanced technological and medical knowledge. As a small number of humans begin to doubt the sincerity of the seemingly benevolent Visitors, FBI counter-terrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) discovers that the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments, businesses, and religious institutions and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the Earth. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan (Morris Chestnut), a Visitor sleeper agent who over time developed human emotions and now wants to save humanity. The Visitors have won favor among the people of Earth by curing a variety of diseases, and have recruited Earth’s youth — including Erica’s son Tyler (Logan Huffman) — to serve them unknowingly as spies.

Inspired by the Sinclair Lewis novel about fascism in the United States, It Can’t Happen Here

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(1935), director–producer Kenneth Johnson wrote an adaptation titled Storm Warnings, in 1982. The script was presented to NBC, for production as a television mini-series, but the NBC executives rejected the initial version, claiming it was too “cerebral” for the average Ameri-

• Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans – an FBI counterterrorism agent who stumbles upon the Visitors’ true reptilian nature and ulterior motives. She becomes a member of the counter-Visitor Resistance. • Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols – a Visitor posing as human as well as a Fifth Columnist trying to undermine the insidious plans of the Visitors. • Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry – a Catholic priest and former U.S. Army chaplain whose unease with the Visitors is soon validated by his alliance with Erica over their discovery of the Visitors’ secret.

Visitors

can viewer. To make the script more marketable, the American fascists were re-cast as man-eating extraterrestrials, taking the story into the realm of science fiction. The new, recast story was the mini-series V, which aired from May 1–2, 1983.

• Charles Mesure as Kyle Hobbes (recurring Season 1, starring Season 2) – a former British SAS soldier and current mercenary, on top of the wanted lists of many law enforcement organizations.

• Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie Stevens (Season 1) – Ryan’s fiancée who was originally unaware of his alien nature. • Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans – Erica’s teenage son who becomes a V “peace ambassador” and love-interest of Lisa.

• Laura Vandervoort as Lisa – a Visitor and love-interest of Tyler. She is the daughter of the Visitor High Commander, Anna. • Morena Baccarin as Anna – the manipulative High Commander and the Queen of the Visitors.

• Scott Wolf as Chad Decker – a news anchor caught between his journalistic ethics and his ambition when his exclusive access to Anna comes with a price. Characters of V from left to right: Jack Landry, Valerie Stevens, Tyler Evans, Erica Evans, Anna, Chad Decker, and Ryan Nichols

• Christopher Shyer as Marcus – Anna’s second-in-command in charge of operations.

•

Mark Hildreth as Joshua – Physician in charge of the medical crew on

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board the New York mothership. He appears loyal to Anna but is in fact a Fifth Columnist undermining the Visitors’ operations from within. • David Richmond-Peck as Georgie Sutton – One of the original members of the human resistance, Georgie wanted revenge against the Visitors for causing his family’s deaths after he discovered the aliens’ agenda. • Roark Critchlow as Paul Kendrick – Erica’s superior in the FBI counter-terrorism unit. • Rekha Sharma as Agent Sarita Malik – An FBI agent assigned to work with Erica and V mole. • Lexa Doig as Dr. Leah Pearlman – A V doctor (posing as human) and a Fifth Columnist.

•

Jane Badler as Diana – Anna’s mother.

• Bret Harrison as Dr. Sidney Miller – In the Season 2 premiere, the Fifth Column, led by Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), seeks out Dr. Miller, an evolutionary biologist who appears to have information about the Red Sky which was seen in last season’s cliffhanger finale.

Visitors

ntertainment Weekly put the original V on its 2008 list “The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre’s Best Since 1982” and called Visitor leader Diana’s devouring of a guinea pig “one of the best TV reveals ever.” Asked about the 1983 reveal of the Visitors’ reptilian appearance beneath their human disguise, Peters noted “That was the other one, of course... We tried to put our own [spin on it]. We’re... a little bit different than their execution of it. It wasn’t so much latex mask as it is real flesh and blood.” The Hollywood Reporter called the idea behind V “a powerhouse concept that combines conflict, suspense and imagination with some heavy-duty philosophical issues,” noting that the update “preserves the original framework but shifts the atmosphere to accommodate contemporary concerns... the militaristic notes will be more subdued. Instead, there will be more of a post-9/11 emphasis on questions of trust and terror.”

September 2009, it was announced that four episodes of V would air in November 2009, and that the series would resume its 12-episode season in March 2010 after the 2010 Winter Olympics. ABC entertainment president Steve

“We always intended to break the show up into ‘pods’ to make it more of an event.” As production of the fourth episode of V wrapped, it was anMcPherson said,

nounced on November 3, 2009 that Scott Rosenbaum had been named executive producer and showrunner of the series, with Peters and Hall remaining as executive produc-

he series was announced in May 2009, to be executive produced by Scott Peters, Jace Hall, Steve Pearlman, and Jeffrey Bell. Filming of the post-pilot episodes began on August 10, 2009. Cast member Elizabeth Mitchell noted that the show would do service to the most iconic moments from the original franchise.

Peters later confirmed that in addition to potentially using cast members from the 1983 miniseries, the new series would nod to the original in other ways. He said that when asking people what they thought were the most memorable elements of V, the top responses included “the huge ships, the red uniforms, eating the hamster, and the alien baby,” adding that “we are well aware of those moments and are looking to put our own little spin on them to tip our hat to the old audience.”

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ers. Production of the remaining eight episodes resumed in January 2010 with new episodes returning March 30, 2010. On May 13, 2010, ABC renewed V for a second season. The series premiere of V garnered generally fa-

vorable reviews, scoring 67 out of 100 on Metacritic.

E! Online stated “on a scale of 1 to 10, we give it an 11. V is the best pilot we’ve seen in, well, forever.” USA Today’s Robert Bianco put V on his list of the top ten new shows, stating that the remake is well-made and “quickly establishes its own identity,” and The Hollywood Reporter called the new series “clever enough for a cult following and accessible enough to reach a broad demo.” King Features’ entertainment reporter Cindy Elavsky calls V “the best new show on television, by far. The special effects are feature-film quality; the writing is intelligent and timerelevant; and the acting is first-rate. The first five minutes alone will hook you for the entire season.”

“The ideas in V, about alien encounters and mass delusion and media manipulation, are enticing. It’s too bad that they’re floating around in a show that at this early stage, is so slapdash and formulaic in its storytelling.” The Onion’s The New York Times wrote that

The A.V. Club gave V’s premiere a ‘C’ rating, calling it “rote and by-the-numbers.”

The re-imagined series has been interpreted as an allegory of the presidency of Barack Obama. In his review of the show, Troy Patterson of Slate points out that bloggers and journalists had noticed parallels between the show’s premise and the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, and writes that “if the show is to have the symbolic import that we expect from a science-fiction story, this is the only possible way to read V as a coherent text. The only problem with this analysis lies in its generous presupposition that the text is, in fact, coherent.” Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post noted in her review that the fact the series was debuting on the first anniversary of Obama’s election “was not lost on some ... TV critics” and also remarked that the use of phrases present in the series (such as “hope”, “change”, and “Universal Health Care” being offered by the Visitors) made it seem as though “Lou Dobbs had taken over the network, as those things only became popular with the current administration.” Chicago Tribune reviewer Glenn Garvin called the show “controversial”, saying the series was “a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president’s supporters and delight his detractors.” In Episode 8, Anna is asked why she is giving the V’s “blue energy” to the humans, to which she replies, “Once they become dependent on it, we can turn it off.” Bloggers have interpreted this line as a commentary on the dangers of a growing dependency class under the Obama administration. Protesters at at least one Tea Party

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event referenced the show on protest signs. The show’s cast and crew deny the charges of bias. Actress

Morena Baccarin ac-

knowledges that she had modeled her character, Visitor leader Anna, after politicians but she and series executive producer Peters were surprised by the controversy. At a press conference at Summer TV Press Tour 2009, Peters said that the show was open to interpretation and that “people bring subjective thoughts to it... but there is no particular agenda.” Bell agreed, stating that it was simply “a show about spaceships.” Season 1 of V is set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 2 on October 18, 2010, in Region 1 on November 2, 2010 and in Region 4 on October 27, 2010. Special features on the DVD and Blu-ray will be commentary tracks, unaired scenes, and three behind-the-scenes featurettes – “The Visual FX of V”, “The Actor’s Journey” and “An Alien in Human Skin: The Makeup FX of V”. A race of aliens arrive on Earth in a fleet of 50 huge, saucer-shaped motherships, which hover over major key cities across the world. They reveal themselves on the roof of the United Nations building in New York City, appearing human but requiring special glasses to protect their eyes and having a distinctive resonance to their voices. Referred to as the Visitors, they reach out in friendship, ostensibly seeking the help of humans to obtain chemicals and minerals needed to aid their ailing world. In return, the Visitors promise to share their advanced technology with humanity. The governments of Earth accept the arrangement, and the Visitors, commanded by their leader John and his deputy Diana, begin to gain considerable influence with human authorities. Strange events begin to occur and scientists become objects of increasing media hostility. They experience government restrictions on their activities and movements. Others, particularly those keen on examining the Visitors more closely, begin to disappear or are discredited. Noted scientists confess to subversive activities; some of them exhibit other unusual behaviors, such as suddenly H mag -

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and a man named Sancho. The members of the Resistance strike their first blows against the Visitors, while procuring laboratory equipment and modern military weapons from National Guard armories to carry on the fight. The symbol of the resistance is a blood-red letter

demonstrating an opposite hand preference to the one they were known to have.

police and the Visitors.

elevision journalist cameraman Michael Donovan covertly boards one of the Visitors’ motherships and discovers that beneath their human-like facade (they wear a thin, synthetic skin and human-like contact lenses in public), the aliens are actually carnivorous reptiles preferring to eat live food such as rodents and birds. Donovan records some of his findings on videotape and escapes from the mothership with the evidence, but just as the exposé is about to air on television, the broadcast is interrupted by the Visitors who have taken control of the media. Their announcement makes Donovan a fugitive, pursued by both the

Scientists around the world continue to be persecuted, both to discredit them (as the part of the human population most likely to discover the Visitors’ secrets) and to distract the rest of the population with a scapegoat to whom they could attribute their fears. Key human individuals are subjected to Diana’s special mind control process called “conversion”, which turned them into the Visitors’ pawns, leaving only subtle behavioral clues to this manipulation. Others become subjects of Diana’s horrifying biological experiments. Some humans (including Mike Donovan’s mother, Eleanor Dupres) willingly collaborate with the Visitors, seduced by their power. Daniel Bernstein, a grandson of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, joins the Visitor Youth and reveals the location of a scientist family to the alien cause. One teenager, Robin Maxwell, the daughter of a well-known scientist who went into hiding, has sex with a male Visitor named Brian, who impregnates her as one of Diana’s “medical experiments”.

resistance movement is formed, determined to expose and oppose the Visitors. The Los Angeles cell leader is Julie Parrish. Donovan later joins the group and, again sneaking aboard a mothership, he learns from a Visitor named Martin that the story about the Visitors needing waste chemicals was a false story. The true purpose of the Visitors’ arrival on Earth was to conquer and subdue the planet, steal all of the Earth’s water, and harvest the human race as food, leaving only a few as slaves and cannon fodder for the Visitors’ wars with other alien races. Martin is one of many dissidents among the Visitors (later known as the Fifth Column) who oppose their leader’s plans and would rather co-exist peacefully with the humans. Martin befriends Donovan and promises to aid the Resistance, and gives Donovan access to one of their sky-fighter ships, which he quickly learns how to pilot. He escapes from the mothership along with Robin, who was a prisoner there,

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V (for victory), spray-painted over posters promoting Visitor friendship among humans. The symbol was inspired by Abraham Bernstein, another Holocaust survivor and grandfather of Daniel. The mini-series ends with the Visitors now virtually controlling the Earth, and Julie and Elias sending a transmission into space to ask for help to defeat the Visitors from other alien races.

side from It Can’t Happen Here, several scenes from the original TV pilot resemble the Bertolt Brecht play The Private Life of the Master Race. A short story by Damon Knight entitled To Serve Man (later adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone) had a similar theme suggesting that deceptively friendly aliens were secretly cultivating humans as food. The story became a Nazi allegory, right down to the Swastika-like emblem used by the Visitors and their SS-like uniforms. There is a youth auxiliary movement called the “Friends of the Visitors” with obvious similarities to the Hitler Youth, and Visitor broadcasts mimic Nazi-era propaganda. The show’s portrayal of human interaction with the Visitors bears a striking resemblance to stories from Occupied Europe during World War II with some citizens choosing collaboration and others choosing to join underground resistance movements. Where the Nazis persecuted primarily Jews, the Visitors were instead depicted to persecute scientists, their families, and anyone associating with them. They also H mag -

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distribute propaganda in an effort to hide their true identity. Some of the main characters in the initial series were from a Jewish family and the grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, frequently commented on the events of the past again unfolding. Once they are in a position to do so, the Visitors later declare martial law to control the scientists (and resistance fighters) as well.

he two-part miniseries ran for 200 minutes; the first part earned a 25.4 rating or more than 40 million viewers. Its success spawned a sequel, V: The Final Battle, which was meant to conclude the story. In spite of the apparent conclusion, this itself was then followed by a weekly television series, V: The Series, from 1984 to 1985 that continued the story a year after The Final Battle. Johnson left V during The Final Battle due to disagreements with NBC over how the story should progress. In November 2005, Entertainment Weekly named V one of the ten best miniseries on DVD. The article noted, “As a parable about it-can-happen-here fascism, V was far from subtle, but it carved a place for lavish and intelligent sci-fi on TV. Its impact can still be felt in projects like Taken and The 4400.” In December 2008, Entertainment Weekly put V on its list “The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre’s Best Since 1982”, and called Visitor leader Diana’s devouring a guinea pig “one of the best TV reveals ever.” A reimagining of V premiered on ABC on November 3, 2009. Though Johnson is not involved and the new series features all new characters, executive producer Scott Peters says that it will nod to the most iconic moments from the original franchise and may potentially include actors from the original in different roles.

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