"Dark Knight star Christian Bale recalls his costar Heath Ledger as "intense" and "anarchistic" on the set of the set of the late actor's last movie. "He was incredibly intense in his performance, but incredibly mellow and laid-back. Certainly there was this great anarchistic streak to it – just getting dirtier than anybody's envisioned the Joker before," Bale, 34, tells Details magazine.Ledger died on Jan. 22 of a prescription-drug overdose at the age of 28. And Bale laments that the film "was something I wanted to share with him – and expected to do so."
"And I can't do anything else but hope that it will be an absolutely appropriate celebration of his work," he says. In earlier interviews, Bale commended Ledger on doing "one hell of a job."Bale adds that he almost never donned the Batsuit at all because of a deep-seated fear in closed spaces.
"[I was] just thinking, 'This isn't going to work. I'm claustrophobic, I can't breathe, I'm getting a headache already, and this is all going to go very badly,'" he says.
But once he overcame his claustrophobia, the actor says, he went on to cheerfully perform much more dangerous feats.
"I was standing on the corner of the Sears Tower, on the outside, 110 stories up. I felt quite oblivious to it ... not fully aware that the blades were actually just feet from my head", he says".Source: www.people.com
"Director, actor and producer Sydney Pollack -- who died Monday, at age 73 -- made some terrific movies and some that were not so hot. But his death represents a loss the meaning of which isn't immediately apparent, at least not until you start fitting it into the context of what mainstream Hollywood filmmaking used to be, and what it has become.
Pollack was a filmmaker who believed, even past the time many others had given up, that you could make a good mainstream movie about a serious subject, and he believed -- right up to his last few fiction features, the highly imperfect but well-intentioned pictures "The Interpreter" (2005) and "Random Hearts" (1999) -- in making movies for grown-ups, pictures that at least attempted to tell adult stories. Even when it became not just unpopular but almost untenable to do so, he continued to put his faith in the strength of a script and the quality of his actors' performances.
But in the past 20 years or so, Pollack has been a strong presence in the movies even when he wasn't behind the camera. In recent years he's meant more to me as an actor than as a filmmaker, but that's in no way a denigration of his career: Even in a small role (and even in a bad movie) Pollack would often be the guiding spirit of a picture. He'd show up on-screen and, sometimes with just a single line of dialogue, become a flashpoint for everything that makes us human, a way of recognizing bits of ourselves even in a character who may -- we think -- be nothing like us. That's not a negligible contribution to the movies; it's representative of everything that keeps us going to the movies, period.
In Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," Pollack should have been scarcely believable as a sleazy zillionaire who runs a sordid sex ring. But even though Pollack is an inherently warm presence in any movie, warmth isn't the same as likability, and his performance in "Eyes Wide Shut" reminds us of that: Pollack has always played people, not qualities (greed, lust, what have you), and even though you or I may not know what Pollack was really like as a human being, it's always been clear that he's found the key to each role deep inside himself: His performance in "Eyes Wide Shut" stings even more because it's Sydney Pollack up there: a man who ought to be considered a monster also has a face you can't help trusting.
The list of wonderful Pollack performances, including his turn as a crusty, seen-it-all lawyer in "Michael Clayton" (which he also produced), is too long to detail. He has often been marvelous in his own movies, including, of course, his performance in "Tootsie" as the agent who keeps the ego of Dustin Hoffman's title character in check. But I feel bereft knowing that he will never again pop up in some otherwise dismal picture, as he did most recently in "Made of Honor," as Patrick Dempsey's addicted-to-marriage dad. Pollack had crummy lines, including some dumb sex jokes, but the performance is ultimately so tender and so carefully shaped (despite the fact that it consists of only a few scenes) that, 10 years from now, I know it's the only thing I'll remember from the movie.
One of my favorite Pollack "movies," which also includes a Pollack performance, is the spot he did for Cingular that used to run in theaters before movie showings, reminding audience members to turn off their cellphones. In this miniature masterpiece, Pollack barges into a kitchen and interrupts the babbling phone conversation of a clueless kid. Pollack berates the guy for his "performance": How are we supposed to believe anything he's saying? He has no conviction, no energy, no soul. The spot is brilliant for the way it parallels the absurdity of a filmmaker directing real life with the annoyance of a ringing cellphone throwing us out of a movie. But the spot is wrenching for another reason that didn't occur to me until after I heard of Pollack's death: It underscores the fractured relationship between the old way, the Pollack way, of making movies (with care) and the new way of watching them (with one eye on your lit-up cellphone, in case your buddy happens to text you from a party or a bar).
Pollack, in his performances and in many of the movies he made or produced, always had faith in what movies, and the people in them, could be. His legacy, dropped in our laps at a time when mainstream filmmaking is in trouble if not in crisis, is a challenge to us not to lose faith. And, at the very least, to silence our cellphones and pay attention to what's in front of us". Source: www.salon.com
"The power of Hard Candy lies in the fact that it makes you think rather than frightens you, and that for all of its 104 minutes runtime, you are wondering just who is playing who here.
Hayley is determined to wrench the truth out of Jeff, but her actions show that she has made up her mind long before meeting with him and that she is already convinced of his guilt. Hayley’s fortitude is more about justification for her actions than about actual fact-finding. And Jeff may be a dodgy guy, but both Hayley and the audience can never be sure of just how dodgy he truly is. It is never clarified if Jeff is actually guilty of anything, or merely feels guilty for desiring something he knows is wrong. The audience is left to make up their own minds, and opinions willsurely vary. One of Hard Candy’s strengths is that it in no way sexualises Hayley’s behaviour; yet in terms of the cruelties she inflicts, her unambiguous intentions and calculated actions are those of a grown-up. Hayley is fully aware of the consequences of her acts, deliberately aiming for those consequences even. Wilson (excellent in Angels in America and underplayed in The Phantom of the Opera) keeps Jeff sympathetic yet ambivalent. Jeff’s intentions are never clear, anything he says and does can be interpreted at least two ways. Wilson keeps the viewer guessing if Jeff is telling the truth (when he conveys a childhood memory, for instance) or just doing anything to escape the degradation Hayley imposes on him. The two actors are fully committed, and have good chemistry (that ever elusive quality, which can never be predicted) between them. Hard Candy suggests that, when exposed to extreme circums- tances, people become what they are meant to deter from. By holding him over the abyss, Hayley may have created a monster out of a fairly decent guy, and unleashed in herself an inner demon that she’ll not be able to put back into its cage". Source: www.chokingonpopcorn.com
May 24th. Jake and Reese Witherspoon get lunch in LA. The couple tried to keep a low profile with hoods up in the LA rain. May 24th - Jake & Reese Outside the Katsuya Restaurant In Brentwood. Pictures by Iheartjake.com
"Kirsten Dunst and costar Ryan Gosling walk back to their trailers on the set of their new movie, "All Good Things", in New York City on Friday.
The pair filmed scenes indoors at a private building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The period thriller is set in the ’80s and centers on the scion of a New York real estate dynasty (Gosling) who falls for a girl from the wrong side of the tracks (Dunst). When the girl disappears, a down-and-out detective begins to uncover information that could put people close to the case in danger". Source: Justjared.buzznet.com
"Jake Gyllenhaal has laughed off reports he is planning to propose to girlfriend Reese Witherspoon and rush her down the aisle. The superstar couple began dating on the set of their 2007 film Rendition, and have been inseparable since, prompting reports of an imminent engagement.
Now, friends tells magazine OK! Gyllenhaal will propose any day soon, and they don't want to wait long for wedding.
A friend of Witherspoon tells the tabloid, "They'll be formally engaged any day now. They want to spend the rest of their lives together."
Gyllenhaal, 27, recently confessed he was deeply "in love" with Witherspoon to producer pal Ryan Kavahaugh.
But Gyllenhaal's spokesperson Carrie Byalick insists the gossips are jumping to conclusions, telling OK! "There are no current wedding plans."Source: www.wfrv.com On 17 th May - Shopping With Reese In Santa Monica. "After attempting to join two different yoga classes, without success, the couple headed to American Apparel store on Main Street for some shopping. Later they had a romantic dinner at Axe on Abbot Kinney in Venice. The couple are under watch as Jake is reported to plan to propose Reese". Source: iheartjake.com
"Dark Knight star Christian Bale recalls his costar Heath Ledger as "intense" and "anarchistic" on the set of the set of the late actor's 
last movie. "He was incredibly intense in his performance, but incredibly mellow and laid-back. Certainly there was this great anarchistic streak to it – just getting dirtier than anybody's envisioned the Joker before," Bale, 34, tells Details magazine.
Ledger died on Jan. 22 of a prescription-drug overdose at the age of 28. And Bale laments that the film "was something I wanted to share with him – and expected to do so."
Bale adds that he almost never donned the Batsuit at all because of a deep-seated fear in closed spaces.
