Scanner : film

Jane Lynch Is Glad Ellen Came Out So She Didn't Have To

Emily Farris — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:39:00 GMT

VIA THE REMOTE ISLAND: Jane Lynch, of Christopher Guest hilarity and infamy, has had a quick and thunderous rise to comedic success over the last fifteen years or so. But where was she before that? Watching Glee, it's hard to imagine why any casting director would pass on her brilliant brand of funny. In a chat with Jesse Thorn on The Sound of Young America, Jane explains why she really didn't work until 40.

But that's not all she talks about.

Interview highlights include: Why Jane can’t walk down the street unmolested, what happens when she auditions for male roles, and why she’s so glad Ellen Degenerous took one for the team.

Read more...

Sloppy Seconds: Amy Winehouse is "Back in the Saddle"

Emily Farris — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:34:00 GMT

That girl from Twilight will play Joan Jett in a still unnamed film about The Runaways. [AfterEllen]

The saddest thing we've seen all day: 11 extinct animals that have been photographed alive. [EcoWorldly]

The most depressing thing we've seen all day: the unfolding story of the hostage situation in Binghamton, NY. [CNN]

We (read: Scanner Emily) still need your 10 stars. Real bad. Because we need $200. Real bad. Pretty please? [MissedTees]

We (read: Scanner Collen) still need you to vote for our dream photography assignment. Because we also need $50,000. Real bad. Pretty please? [Name Your Dream Assignment]

Now all three of your Scanners are on Twitter, even though only one of us stays true to the Scanner name. [Scanner Emily, Scanner Colleen, Scanner Brian]

Remember yesterday when Madonna threw a party to celebrate an adoption that hadn't yet been approved? Um, yeah. Maybe not the best idea she ever had. [Us]

Apparently there was a fractured penis scene in last night's ER finale. Was it a swipe at Grey's Anatomy? [The Remote Island]

On April 11 Alternative Nation Countdown Takeover, a show on Sirius radio, will premiere new solo material from Rivers Cuomo that features Jason Schwartzman Rainn Wilson. Weird. Cool. [Rolling Stone]

According to a post on her MySpace blog this morning (obviously not written by her) Amy Winehouse is hard at work on her third album. We'll believe it when we hear it. Either way, we thought you'd enjoy seeing this picture again. [MySpace]

Related:

Sloppy Seconds: Amy Winehouse's New Single Life

"My dog humped your leg. I wanted to."

Support a Scanner or Two

[Image, Image]

'Rom Coms' Can Ruin Your Love Life, Sound a Lot Dirtier Than They Are

Emily Farris — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:02:00 GMT

Ladies (and perhaps gentlemen) something you're doing on a regular or semi-regular basis could be ruining your personal life, according to a new study. It's causing you to have unrealistic expectations with it comes to love and impairing your communication with your partner. This thing is the rom com.

Just what is a rom com?

While it sounds like something along the lines of an anal probe or a high-powered vibrator, a rom com is simply a romantic comedy. And some psychologists believe that watching rom coms can affect intimate relationships in pretty significant ways.

They found that fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Hitch often fail to communicate with their partners effectively, with many holding the view that if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you needing to tell them.

Psychologists at the Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory at Edinburgh's Heriot Watt University studied 40 top box office hits from 1995-2005.

They included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.

Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

"We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

"The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."

We're not surprised (though we're more likely to believe that our iPods are playing the soundtrack to our lives), but we're still a little hung up on the term. It just sounds so.... dirty. Are we really that behind the times that we've never heard the term "rom com?" We saw "Sleepless in Seattle" at least 20 times. Maybe we're too young (we were eleven when it came out) or too old. Our old friend Scanner Bryan even threw out the term back in January but we seem to have missed it.

According to Wiktionary, the term was most likely inspired by "sitcom" or situational comedy, for those of you out there who are even younger and/or more dense than we are.

[Press Association: 'Rom coms' can ruin your love life]

Related:

Get Out The Waterproof Mascara: More Chick Flicks Coming Your Way

Video of the Day: "American Psycho" as RomCom

The 50 Sexiest Movies of All-Time: The Top 5

Get Out The Waterproof Mascara: More Chick Flicks Coming Your Way

Emily Farris — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:55:00 GMT

We like all kinds of movies. Even though we've not seen Star Wars (any of them, ever), we like action, sci-fi and anything even remotely apocalyptic. But more often than not, we watch movies when we're feeling kind-of crappy, and in those times, only one genre will do: the romantic comedy, otherwise known as the "chick flick." Anything with Catharine Keener tops our list, but sometimes we sink low, and it is a fact that more than one of the ladies who write for this blog love the Bridget Jones movies, so it's no surprise that we're totally fine with Hollywood's chick flick surge. But the movie makers already know they have an audience in women; they're looking to expand it—to the men.

In New York and other locations, two of the most successful directors of the form — Nora Ephron and P. J. Hogan — are currently shooting what might pass for a couple of next-generation chick flicks. But those involved seem determined to avoid having that classification hung on their films, even if it is rooted in honest observation.

Ah yes, chick flicks with a twist. Cooking? Possibly. But shopping?

Mr. Hogan, who directed the 1997 hit “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” starring Julia Roberts, is filming “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” with Isla Fisher in the lead role, for Touchstone Pictures, owned by the Walt Disney Company. The film is based on a literary series that began with the British publication of Sophie Kinsella’s novel with that title in 2000, about a financial journalist with relationship problems and a penchant for overspending.

But the movie is not just for women, the filmmakers insist. “We all have spending habits, a lot of us do,” said Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the film’s producers, speaking by telephone last week.

“If we do our job right, this could be another ‘Wedding Crashers,’ ” added Mr. Bruckheimer, best known for testosterone-fueled entertainments including “Bad Boys” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy. He was referring to the 2005 comic hit that included Ms. Fisher, but actually starred Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a couple of playboys who cruise weddings for easy sex — really not the stuff of chick flicks.

Ms. Ephron, for her part, is shooting “Julie & Julia,” with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, for Columbia Pictures. In a complex exercise, it is based on both the life of the cooking enthusiast Julia Child and the 2005 book of the same title by Julie Powell, who, stuck in place as an office temp as she approached 30, spent a year whipping up every recipe in Ms. Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

But that could be a guy thing, right? “We hope this will be a movie for everyone who likes eating,” said Laurence Mark (“Dreamgirls,” “Working Girl”), one of the film’s producers.

What say you, men?

[NYT: Wary Hollywood Plans More Chick Flicks (Hoping to Lure the Guys)]

Queen Kong Will F*ck You Up and Looks Great in a Chain-Link Bra and Panties

Emily Farris — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:07:00 GMT

We looked on IMDB; this is for real, yo. We're definitely renting this to go along with our painkillers and some popcorn this week.

Lesbians Love Angelina Jolie

Emily Farris — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Lesbians, along with everyone else in the world, love Angelina Jolie.

LesbiaNation named the big-lipped beauty their favorite on-screen lesbian:

The 1998 HBO film Gia was not technically a big screen movie, but we had so many requests for Angelina Jolie as Gia that we just couldn't say no. A fictionalized biopic about the life of fashion supermodel Gia Marie Carangi, Gia landed a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Jolie, who portrayed the title role. Gia's desperate passionate affair with makeup artist Linda in the film is a central theme and Gia's sexuality is key to her character. Beautifully filmed and deeply moving, Gia stands as one of the most powerful films featuring a lesbian/bisexual character of the last decade.

Jolie's Gia beat out Clea DuVall (#8) in But I'm a Cheerleader (one of our favorite on-screen lesbians) and Gina Gershon (#3) in Bound.

[Lesbianation via FameCrawler]

Video of the Day: Future Juno or Future Genius?

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:30:00 GMT

This girl would make an awesome screenwriter, way better than that Thesaurus-plagiarizer Cody El Diablo.

She can pitch better than most collaborators we've worked with. As a filmmaker, one needs a cut-to-the-chase style smooth talker to get through the thick skulls of people like Ron Howard and the rest of the execs. This girl is our hero of the day, and possibly of all time...