Emma Stone Rocks

I loved the teen comedy SUPERBAD.  Silly, yes it was.  But that 2007 movie was big fun and made me laugh.  If some hightone moviegoers and critics didn't feel the same way and regarded the cast members as being just goofy kids in a teen comedy, the cast members got the last laugh.  Two of them now see the words "Oscar nominee" written before their names in print entertainment reports.

Jonah Hill with his Chia Pet hair now has two Oscar nominations to his credit for Best Supporting Actor.  I noticed the actress who played his high school classmate and crush in SUPERBAD.

The appealing and talented young actress was Emma Stone.  She now also had an Oscar nomination to her credit. She got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in BIRDMAN, Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2014.

Emma Stone starred in another teen comedy.  When it was on DVD, a few young buddies of mine urged me to see it.  So, one weekend I caved in and rented the Emma Stone movie they recommended.  I thanked each one for the recommendation.  What a clever teen comedy.

And how refreshing to see a teen character who loved being with and talking to her parents.  Her parents knew all about her high school reputation dilemma.

Emma Stone now stars in a musical that's gotten fabulous reviews from critics, it got her a Golden Globe nomination and many critics predict that the musical, called LA LA LAND, will be an Oscar nominee for Best Picture next month.

Listen to my short podcast piece recorded after I saw Emma's 2010 teen comedy EASY A:
bobbyrivers.podomatic.com/entry/2011-01-25T04_47_15-08_00.

Here's a trailer for LA LA LAND:

I'm Seeking Work

I need some help and this post will be my pitch for job consideration.  I was an on-air team member for Whoopi Goldberg's national weekday morning radio show from 2006 to 2008. Most of our group got laid off when the show was cancelled.  I got a TV job in 2010.  I got laid off from that one a few months later.  I've been seeking steady employment ever since.  You might say, "Can't your agent help you?"  Well, I do not have a broadcast agent.  I met with several in New York City, but they all turned me down.   I had to get my own auditions.  In my career, I've been extremely blessed in getting work opportunities because someone mentioned my name or got in touch and gave me a chance.  My wish is to get steady employment so I can pay my debts, help take care of my mother and help out a couple of other very dear family members.

I'm a veteran network TV host, entertainment reporter, film reviewer and celebrity interviewer.  I'm a former national talk show host.

I'm a writer, a segment producer and I'm a veteran of entertaining man-on-the street segments.  I've done speaking roles in national TV commercials and comic acting as a recurring satirical news character for THE ONION.  Film is my passion. I was the first black person to have his own prime time celebrity talk show on VH1.  I'm one of the few black people who's been a weekly entertainment editor/film critic on a network news TV show.  No brag.  Just fact.                                   

Take a look at my work.  Keep me in mind.  Mention my name.  Tell a good agent about me.  First up is a clip from when I was entertainment editor for a live weekday ABC News magazine show called LIFETIME LIVE.  Yes, I got that job on my own too.

Actor Michael Shannon played the protective father of a sweet child being hunted because of his supernatural gift.  I talked to Shannon about this year's sci-fi thriller, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, and his career.

And if you want proof that I had my own talk show on VH1, here you are.

You can contact me via Twitter:  @BobbyRiversTV.  Or go to my Facebook page:  Facebook.com/BobbyRiversTV.

IF there was big surprise and I booked a network TV gig that paid very well, I want to make a sizeable donation to New York City's chapter of the Actors Fund so I can help others the way I've been helped: ActorsFund.org.

 

In Praise of Carrie Fisher

Does this actress, screenwriter, novelist have recognition on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yet?  Carrie Fisher is globally famous as Princess Leia from 1977's STAR WARS and its first two sequels.  Those films were box office blockbusters.  The lead actress/heroine from STAR WARS should have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Surely billionaire STAR WARS producer/writer George Lucas could pitch in some bucks and buy her one.  She deserves it.

You know that the former Princess Leia is real-life Hollywood royalty.  Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, reigned as a queen of MGM movie musicals.  Her father, a hugely popular singer in the 1950s, was Eddie Fisher.  He divorced Debbie so he could marry Elizabeth Taylor.  Carrie has written about that and humorously talked about that onstage.  Besides Carrie's actress credits in the original STARS WARS trilogy, she was also a supporting player in Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and the romantic comedy hit, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.   In addition to that, Carrie Fisher is one helluva good writer.  She's written novels and wickedly funny memoirs.  Her new memoir is called THE PRINCESS DIARIST.

In it, she reveals that she and co-star Harrison Ford had quite the sexy fling back in their sci-fi movie-making days.

Wasn't it great to see them back together onscreen last year in STAR WARS:  THE FORCE AWAKENS?

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE by Carrie Fisher is fresh, funny, wise and ironic.  It's one of the best Hollywood-on-Hollywood novels I've ever read.  If you read it, you will have greater respect for her skills as a screenwriter.  She adapted her best-selling book into a screenplay.  Mike Nichols directed the 1990 film starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Listen to my short podcast piece about Carrie and POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE.  It has some backstory info that might be new to you:
bobbyrivers.podomatic.com/entry/2011-03-06T09_08_00-08_00.

If you want to see clips of my VH1 talk show interviews of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, just play this short video promo reel:

Rent THE PAINTED VEIL

I paid to see this movie during its theatrical release.  I loved it.  So did the others in the audience.  I loved it so much that I've seen it on DVD several times.  If you have leisure time during this holiday season and want to rent a movie, keep this one in mind.  THE PAINTED VEIL stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.

They play a British married couple.  When first we see them, the marriage has grown chilly.

Also in the cast are Liev Schreiber as a very sexy and married British consul...

...and the sublime Diana Rigg as a woman who chose a religious life.

A whole generation dig Ed Norton for his work in 1999's FIGHT CLUB with Brad Pitt. Last week, Norton was GOOD MORNING AMERICA to plug his new film, COLLATERAL BEAUTY.  Ed Norton graciously spent a major portion of his air time praising the work of co-star Will Smith.  Norton is one of my favorite actors. He doesn't get the entertainment news and red carpet exposure that Brad Pitt and Will Smith get.  But, for my money, he's the actor with more range.  Look at him as the skinhead racist in AMERICAN HISTORY X, as the delusional modern-day cowboy in DOWN IN THE VALLEY and his musical comedy performance in Woody Allen's EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU.  I loved him as Inspector Henckels in THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

Edward Norton and Naomi Watts reunited for BIRDMAN, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture of 2014.  In that, Norton played a talented but annoying Broadway actor.  He got his third Oscar nomination for that performance.

Listen to my short piece on THE PAINTED VEIL.  This film is one that many critics praised.  Unfortunately, many moviegoers passed on seeing it.  Click on this link:
bobbyrivers.podomatic.com/entry/2011-03-15T05_27_33-07_00.

I Love A LETTER TO THREE WIVES

What a special delivery this movie is.  A LETTER TO THREE WIVES combines sophistication with a working class vibe.  It's like champagne with a really great cheeseburger deluxe platter.  Just like the 1950 classic, ALL ABOUT EVE, A LETTER TO THREE WIVES boasts the talents of writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, actress Celeste Holm and actress Thelma Ritter.  Mankiewicz takes us to New York to meet three friends.

One of the friends is played by Linda Darnell.  This 1949 comedy was a 20th Century Fox film.  Darnell had been a Fox contract player since 1939 playing virgins and vamps.  In my opinion, Linda Darnell should have been in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race for her knock-out performance as Lora Mae.  She was born to play that role.  Let me know if you agree.  Lora Mae is a dame who knows what she wants, goes after it and always has a leg up on the competition.

 Says Lora Mae, "I've got very definite ideas."

You can never go wrong with a film that had a great role for Thelma Ritter.  She plays the best friend to Lora Mae's mother.

Notice this:   Thelma Ritter's character is a local domestic. But whereas everyone else calls the intimidating and burly town millionaire "Mr. Hollingsway," she casually calls him by his first name.

That is a marvelous and subtle piece of business from Mankiewicz that hips you to respect she has and the "regular guy" quality that the shrewd millionaire never lost.  Kirk Douglas, known for lots of physicality and giving his muscles a workout in his film roles, is different here.  Here, he's a character who's probably a house-husband in the summer months.

To hear more of my notes on A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, including an observation on the film's literature in its set design and how it accentuates characters, listen to my short podcast overview.  Just click onto this link:
bobbyrivers.podomatic.com/entry/2011-03-05T07_06_25-08_00.

A highly entertaining classic, A LETTER TO THREE WIVES is also a Mankiewicz screenplay master class in how to write first class roles for women.  Enjoy.

A John Malkovich Comedy

Kirk Douglas and John Malkovich have something in common besides being fine actors with Oscar nominations to their credits.  Kirk Douglas, the world-famous star of SPARTACUS, turned 100 years old yesterday.  It was John Malkovich's birthday too.  In addition to being born on the same day, they both have sort of a SPARTACUS connection.  The late Stanley Kubrick directed SPARTACUS.  Kirk Douglas was the film's co-executive producer.  Of Kubrick, Douglas said this:  "He was a bastard" but immensely talented.  Malkovich made a movie in which he played "a bastard" who was immensely talented.  He was talented enough to swindle big money out of gullible, sophisticated people.  He did this by claiming to be director Stanley Kubrick.  Here's Malkovich as the real-life con man.  He's on the right side of the photo.  The one clutching a bottle o' booze.

Yes.  People actually bought that this character was the man who gave us SPARTACUS, PATHS OF GLORY and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  This queen should have been arrested.  By the fashion police.

He was able to pull this off this scam because, not only was he talented at charming folks, the director was not one who sought red carpet celebrity moments.  He liked his privacy.

If you're a John Malkovich fan, you may not be familiar with this 2005 film.  But I am positive it will give you some laughs.  Listen to my short piece about....COLOR ME KUBRICK:

bobbyrivers.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-09T13_26_07-08_00.

....

Hollywood Birthday Pairs: Kirk Douglas

Happy Birthday, Spartacus!  The word "icon" is tossed around much too much nowadays in entertainment media.  However Kirk Douglas, the star of SPARTACUS, truly is a film icon and a Hollywood legend.  Today, he turned 100 years old.  I am someone who had the enormous thrill and privilege to interview Kirk Douglas.  I had a half-hour prime time weeknight talk show on VH1 back in the late 1980s.  Kirk Douglas was my first guest and my only guest for the premiere edition.  He had star magnetism and charisma combined with a working class charm.  We loved having Kirk Douglas in our studio.  During the interview, I thought of how my parents loved SPARTACUS.

I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, a child of the Civil Rights era.  There's something I never hear mentioned when folks on TV talk about or introduce the 1960 classic directed by Stanley Kubrick.  They don't mention why black folks, like Mom and Dad, connected to SPARTACUS as strongly as they did.

Think about the Civil Rights era.  Spartacus was a rebellious slave.  Spartacus and Varinia (beautifully played by Jean Simmons) were not seen as people really.  They were slaves.  They're put together in slave quarters for the purpose of his sexual gratification while leering soldiers watch.  Spartacus treats her with respect.  He treats the black gladiator and fellow slave with respect when they are pitted against each other for the amusement of Romans.  We see the humanity in these slaves, these people treated as minorities in society, treated as second class citizens.

The movie SPARTACUS has echoes of America's history of slavery and bondage of black people -- and it was released when Martin Luther King, Jr. was a living voice involved in helping black people demand their civil rights...such as the right to vote and the right to an education.  When SPARTACUS was released, interracial marriage was still illegal in several American states.  Keep that in mind when you see the new movie LOVING.  That's about Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple sent to prison for marrying.  The took their case to the Supreme Court and a landmark decision came in 1967.

Yes.  SPARTACUS starring Kirk Douglas has more resonance that some film lovers realize.  Kirk Douglas, very much a Civil Rights advocate, was aware of the socio-political times while making the film.  Click on the link to see a clip.

https://youtu.be/YoQeksBRPLI?list=PL926.

Today is the birthday of Kirk Douglas.  Also born on this day in history -- the blacklisted screenwriter of SPARTACUS, Dalton Trumbo.  Trumbo had a fake name on the screen credits because of his being blacklisted during the Sen. McCarthy political witch hunts of the 1950s.  Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).  Senator Joe McCarthy's henchman in his ruthless political practices was Roy Cohn.  As reported this year on PBS. Roy Cohn was the mentor to a young Donald Trump.

Dalton Trumbo's screenplays include KITTY FOYLE which brought Ginger Rogers the Best Actress of 1940 Oscar, the patriotic fantasy/comedy THE REMARKABLE ANDREW (1942) starring William Holden, the patriotic WW2 fantasy/drama A GUY NAMED JOE (943), the patriotic WW2 drama, THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO and ROMAN HOLIDAY, the William Wyler film that brought Audrey Hepburn the Best Actress of 1953 Oscar.

In the restored and remastered edition of SPARTACUS, Dalton Trumbo's name appears in the credits.  Dalton died in 1970.  Actor Bryan Cranston received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his lead role performance in the 2015 biopic, TRUMBO.  Kirk Douglas was co-executive producer of SPARTACUS.