This Father’s Day, we salute men who are mentors, coaches, spiritual guides, sources of inspiration and guidance or simply friends in young people’s lives. May they continue to spare time to make a difference in their kids’ future.
Imagine, director Sofia Coppola still remembers how to sing the “Pambansang Awit” (the Philippine national anthem). We were floored when Sofia, speaking in her usual quiet manner, replied to our question on what she remembers about the Philippines when she and her family were there for the “Apocalypse Now” shoot: “I know the national anthem. I could sing it, but I won’t.”
Lirio Vital, Ivy Violan, Mon David, Djhoanna Garcia and Joseph Gelito proved in a show last Saturday here in LA that they still had it—in fact, lots of it. In a concert called “Power Voices,” these entertainers, performing together for the first time after a long time, showed what years of experience could do to hone their considerable talents.
“My jaw just dropped.” That’s how Emma Watson recalled her reaction when she first walked into Paris Hilton’s closet. Paris had allowed Emma, director Sofia Coppola and the cast and crew of “The Bling Ring” to shoot in her (Paris’) house. The film is a fictionalized version of a Vanity Fair article that recounted the exploits of a gang of suburban Los Angeles teenagers who broke into the homes of celebrities, including Paris, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom.
Talk about serendipity. More than a decade ago, a 16-year-old extra in Russell Crowe’s movie, “Proof of Life,” dared to walk up to the star and asked him questions about acting. Russell ended up sending an inspiring note and a package of goodies to that teenager in the UK boarding school where they shot that sequence, sensing that the eager young boy was a member of the “acting tribe.”
Henry Cavill is going from “Man of Steel” to “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” “I can tell you that I am signed on for ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ ” confirmed the actor du jour in a recent interview at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
“There’s a new… oh God, I’ve got to be careful here,” Alexander Skarsgård caught himself as he answered a question on what direction his vampire character Eric in “True Blood” is headed. But the actor revealed the “new” development in his 1,000-year-old fanged Viking sheriff’s life, anyway.
“She looked down on me,” Ethan Hawke quipped when he recalled the first time he and Julie Delpy worked together in Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” in 1995. Ethan recalled that the France-born Julie has already worked with some of Europe’s finest actors and directors, while he described himself as “kind of the adolescent American.”
In the extended footage of “After Earth” that we saw, there’s a crucial scene where Will and Jaden Smith, as father and son Cypher and Kitai Raige, have a tense, moving exchange before the latter decides to make a perilous jump from a cliff.
“You can’t see it but I haven’t shaved my legs,” Julie Delpy blurted out with a laugh. We were talking about aging and what she was fearful of. The actress, beloved as Celine in “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and now, “Before Midnight,” said she wasn’t “into my looks and stuff”—thus the admission about her unshaved legs. “Thank God there’s this thing,” Julie said of the table skirt hiding her gams.
“It’s a dream come true—I’m in a movie with Meryl Streep,” Hilary Swank happily informed us of being cast with arguably the greatest living actress, in “The Homesman.” Then, Hilary added, “But I don’t have one scene with Meryl! I thought, ‘Well, on the days that I’m not working, I’m going to be a fly on the wall. I’m just going to watch Meryl—but, she wasn’t even in the same location! I did all my work in New Mexico. When we wrapped there recently, they went to Georgia.”
After David O. Russell netted him a slew of best actor nominations and wins for “Silver Linings Playbook,” Bradley Cooper is poised to work with several topnotch directors who may help him reap more acclaim.
