Video: Weekend Look Sneak Peek
Hear all about what’s coming up in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman in this week’s Sneak Peek video.
My colleagues and I have again cooked up a listing of the summer movies coming out. The summer blockbuster season kicks off Friday with the opening of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
Video: Toby Keith acknowledges he can hold a grudge
If you checked out the blog on Wednesday, you probably saw my report on Toby Keith’s new interview with the Associated Press, in which he talked about holding a grudge against people who lie about him to “make your star brighter.”
It seems to be a reference to his recent tangle with actor/writer Ethan Hawke.
You can hear his take on this issue in this NewOK video.
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Video: Wayne Coyne talks living in Oklahoma and the state rock song
Check out these NewsOK videos from Tuesday’s ceremony making The Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize??” the state rock song. He has some very interesting things to say about why he continues to live in his home state of Oklahoma. He also discusses the origins of the song.
“If The Flaming Lips can have the state rock song of Oklahoma, I think it really is true that anything is possible. It really is,” he says.
We’ve also got video of the whole ceremony in case you didn’t catch it on Tuesday.
I have it on good authority that people aren’t done hashing over this issue. I understand that at least three columns of letters to the editor on this deal will be running in The Oklahoman on Friday and Saturday. My understanding is that most of the letters are opposed to “Do You Realize??” as the state rock song.
Of course, it’s pretty typical for newspaper to see more letters opposing something than supporting it. The people who get their way are too busy being happy to write letters.
But not blog posts. I love the Lips and “Do You Realize??,” so I’m quite happy with the pick. Of course, all 10 state song finalists are excellent and a testament to how many great creative people there are in this state.
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Carrie Underwood named one of People’s “Most Beautiful”
Carrie Underwood (Associated Press photo)
Oklahoma country star Carrie Underwood joins Oscar winner Halle Berry, heartthrob actor Robert Pattinson, and “Slumdog Millionaire” actress Freida Pinto and more on People magaine’s “World’s Most Beautiful People” 2009 list.
The magazine’s annual “Most Beautiful” special issue will be on newsstands Friday. It will feature 100 famous people, including first lady Michelle Obama, “High School Musical” actor Zac Efron and supermodel Cindy Crawford posing without makeup.
Christina Applegate, star of the TV show “Samantha Who?,” has been named most beautiful and will grace the issue’s cover. Applegate, 37, recently underwent a public battle with breast cancer, undergoing a double mastectomy in July and reconstructive breast surgery in November.
Others featured on the list include the cast of the TV remake “90210,” actor Channing Tatum, and country stars Taylor Swift and Julianne Hough.
Underwood told People that even after frequenting the Grammys, Oscars and many other awards shows the past few years, she still gets nervous on red carpets.
“I feel more beautiful when I see the pictures after. I’m like, ‘I wish I had felt like I looked like that when I was actually there,’” Checotah’s favorite daughter told the magazine.
A Sneak Peek of the “World’s Most Beautiful People” issue is featured on www.People.com.
Contributing: The Associated Press.
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What to do in Oklahoma on April 30
Today’s featured event:
TULSA – Hear country singer Jo Dee Messina at 7 tonight at SpiritBank Event Center, 10441 S. Regal Blvd. Doors open at 6.
Special guest for the show will be Kacey Musgraves of “Nashville Star.”
For more information, go to www.spiritbankeventcenter.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Will Roger Rabbit return in a sequel?
Director Robert Zemeckis has expressed interest in finally making a sequel to his groundbreaking hit film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
MTV.com reports that Zemeckis in a recent red carpet interview said that he has a “new idea” that’s been “buzzing around” in his head about doing a “Roger Rabbit” follow-up.
“I’ll tell you what is buzzing around in my head now that we have the ability-the digital tools, performance capture-I’m starting to think about ‘Roger Rabbit,’” he told MTV.
The innovative 1988 film mixed live action and animation. It won four Oscars and grossed $330 million worldwide. A sequel has long been discussed and desired, but Zemeckis sounds pretty serious this time, though he refused to give any more details.
(I’m not listing a synopsis here because if you haven’t seen “You Framed Roger Rabbit?,” you should click over to your NetFlix or Blockbuster account and immediately reserve it. Or something along those lines. You need to see this movie ASAP. Go, go, go.)
Zemeckis has turned his attention to films that tinker with technological advances since 2000′s “Cast Away.” He has worked with performance capture with his last three films: 2004′s ”The Polar Express,” 2007′s “Beowulf” and the upcoming Charles Dicken adaptation “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey.
If Zemeckis can deliver the same quality storytelling of his ’88 film plus the high-tech whiz-bang, along with Bob Hoskins as private detective Eddie Valiant, I’m all for it. As Jessica Rabbit coos to Roger, “I’ve loved you more than any woman’s ever loved a rabbit.”
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Oliver Stone signs on for “Wall Street” sequel
Michael Douglas in “Wall Street”
Oliver Stone has closed a deal with Fox to direct a sequel to his 1987 film “Wall Street,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The follow-up, tentatively titled “Wall Street 2,” would starMichael Douglas, who won an Oscar for the first film. He will reprise his seminal role as ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko, who declared “Greed is good.” Gekko will again be matched with a young upstart looking to survive the vicious world of Wall Street.
Shia LaBeouf is in talks with the studio to take on the younger role, according to the trade publication. (Charlie Sheen played Gekko’s protege in the ’87 film.)
Considering the current economic state of affairs, it’s probably not surprising that a sequel is in the works, even if it has been a long time since we saw Douglas as Gordon Gekko.
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Production starting soon on “Nanny McPhee” sequel
Emma Thompson in “Nanny McPhee”
Oscar-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson will reprise her role as the magical Nanny McPhee in the sequel “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.”
Universal Pictures and Working Title Films – in association with Three Strange Angels Productions – announced Tuesday that principal photography begins early next month on the follow-up.
Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) returns to the role of the powerful nanny who appears when she’s wanted the least and needed the most in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world.
I’m among the enchanted ones. I gave “Nanny McPhee” four stars when it opened in 2005 and took my husband, son, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece to see it the weekend it opened. So, I’m thrilled to hear that Thompson is working on the sequel.
In addition to starring in and writing the script, Thompson will executive produce, along with Working Title’s Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin. (Thompson also is penning an adaptation of “My Fair Lady.”)
The family comedy will be directed by BAFTA winner Susanna White (television’s “Bleak House,” “Generation Kill,” “Jane Eyre”). Kirk Jones of “Waking Ned” directed the first one.
Also returning to the series are BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated producers Lindsay Doran (“Stranger Than Fiction,” “Sense and Sensibility”) – in her fifth collaboration with Thompson – and Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
In the latest installment, Nanny McPhee jumps forward in time and appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny McPhee discovers that Mrs. Green’s children are fighting a war of their own against two nasty, snobby cousins who have just moved in and refuse to leave.
From flying motorcycles and statues that come to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant that turns up in the oddest places, Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.
Joining Thompson in “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang” for the project are Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Dark Knight”) as Mrs. Green, Rhys Ifans (“Notting Hill”) as Mrs. Green’s villainous brother-in-law, Phil; Asa Butterfield (“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”) as Mrs. Green’s eldest son, Norman; and Oscar-winning Dame Maggie Smith (“Harry Potter” series) as the somewhat befuddled Mrs. Docherty. Ralph Fiennes (“Harry Potter” series) will have a cameo in the film.
“Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang,” based on characters created by “Nurse Matilda” author Christianna Brand.
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Toby Keith has problem forgiving liars
Toby Keith performs during his 2008 USO tour.
In a new interview with the Associated Press, Oklahoma country music star Toby Keith said he is the type to hold a grudge.
Keith, who currently is on his eighth United Service Organization tour, told an AP reporter he can forgive certain offenses “but if you’re gonna tell a lie about me, and then back it up like it’s the truth to try to make your star brighter … yeah, I’ve got a problem with that.”
Keith recently was embroiled in a controversy involving actor/writer Ethan Hawke, singer/songwriter/actor Kris Kristofferson and Rolling Stone magazine. In a feature story he wrote in Rolling Stone about Kristofferson, Hawke mentioned an ugly incident between Kristofferson and an unnamed country star who strongly resembled Keith. Keith vehemently denied the spat ever happened; Kristofferson said he has no memory of it.
Keith told the AP he deals with “haters” on a daily basis but makes no apologies for being outspoken, especially when it comes to supporting the troops.
“Anytime people are gonna put their life in jeopardy to make my world advance forward, I’m gonna pat ‘em on the back,” he says. “And if somebody wants to find something political out of it, then fine. But my dad taught us that those people ought to be respected.”
The Norman resident is performing 17 shows in 11 days for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. As he has on past tours, he will leave the heavily protected “green zone” and travel to two forward operating bases a day to perform for small groups of troops on the front lines.
He told the AP the danger of these shows concerns his wife and three children.
“We’ve been shot at a few times,” he says. “I’ve literally been in a foot race with other Marines and soldiers to the bunkers, with the sirens going off and mortars hitting.”
To read the rest of the AP interview with Keith, click here.
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Slideshow: “Passport to Paris”
Mary Cassatt (American, 1845 1926), “The Coiffure,” 1891, Drypoint and aquatint on laid paper (Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia)
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will open a new exhibit titled “Passport to Paris: 19th Century French Prints from the Georgia Museum of Art” on Thursday.
To see a NewsOK slideshow previewing the exhibit, click here.
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