Stop Trying to Make 'Girlicious' Happen...

...it's not going to happen, Blayne!

This season, Project Runway seems to have an overwhelming number of contestants trying to emerge as "characters." Characters and Project Runway go hand-in-hand, but these people are crashing right out of the gate, trying to prove themselves the next Santino, Andre, etc.

Blayne is perhaps the worst offender of the bunch. From episode one, he was trying to weave his ludicrous catchphrases (girlicious, really?) into every other sentence he spoke, prancing around the work room like the most hyper tanorexic in Manhattan. After the success of last season's fierce winner Christian Siriano, and the attention that his catchphrases earned, Blayne's no dummy to try to fill the void.

He's simply a failure. The best part about Christian's delightfully bitchy persona last season was the fact that it just felt real. He may have been playing up his diva tendencies for the camera, but he only called something a hot mess if it was a hot mess.

Besides, Blayne's catchphrases are just lame.

New Trailer: Half Blood Prince

It's about damn time. The Harry Potter teaser turned up online tonight at AOL Movies.

The pacing is kind of slow. I was hoping for a little more action and intrigue, and definitely more glimpses at the other characters. It's not bad though, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have another, more in depth trailer by the end of August.

See for yourself...

Here's a link to the hi-def trailer.

New Trailer: W.

Ooooooh, this one's going to be strange. The new teaser trailer for the George W. Bush biopic is out, and the Oliver Stone film looks delightfully wicked. It's a little odd to see people that are still key players in the American political scene being portrayed in a film. Stone seems to play up that fact by showing us every single one of them, with a handy caption to tell us who they are.

It will be interesting to see if Stone sticks closely to the facts in this film. That would make the stronger statement, the ability to illustrate the oddity of Bush's presidency without embellishment, but the temptation to take liberties is probably pretty damn hard to fight as a director.

At any rate, I'm sure fairly scandalous tales can be woven from the lives of many past presidents and their life journey to the White House, but the decision to go after the sitting president is a pretty ballsy move.

Finally, news on an HP trailer

Looks like my expectations (hopes?) that a Half Blood Prince trailer would premier in front of The Dark Knight were at least partially correct. There was a 15 second teaser trailer ahead of the IMAX showings. Though, as you can see below, there's really nothing to the "clip" (which is why I was in no rush to get this post up).

The real deal, full-length trailer will debut on August 1st, in front of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Don't worry, I'm sure it will pop up on line that same weekend, so none of us have to worry about shelling out ten bucks for that hot mess.

Here's a link to a behind-the-scenes clip on HBP. Not sure where it came from, but the tiniest bit of insight it provides seems enormous compared to the teaser.

New Trailer: Watchmen

This one opened up in front of The Dark Knight over the weekend, and while I had heard whispers about the project here and there, I didn't expect to be that interested in it.

The trailer has certainly altered my opinion.

For me, the most compelling aspect of the trailer may have been the song choice. The film clips are scorching when paired with The Smashing Pumpkins "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" (two versions of which, perhaps not coincidentally, were used on the soundtrack for 1997s Batman and Robin).

Watchmen is certainly a mystery to me, something not really helped by the vague trailer, but the visuals here are stunning. The darkness of the movie certainly goes beyond the lighting. One of only two lines featured in the trailer is downright chilling: "The world will look up and shout, 'save us,' and I'll whisper, 'no.'" You get the distinct feeling that these super people are struggling with their humanity--and that's where the best drama is usually found.

Here's an EW story that sheds a little more light on Watchmen for those curious about the storyline or the characters, but I think the mood the trailer creates says enough.

Mini Review: The Dark Knight

After anticipating the release of certain movies, there is always that distinct possibility that they won't meet your expectations. That, thankfully, was not a problem suffered by The Dark Knight.

The film continued on in the same vein as Batman Begins, though the drama and the pathos were stronger this time. Christian Bale still makes an excellent rebel billionaire, almost more fun to watch as Bruce Wayne than Batman. The film mostly soars (despite it's loooong running time), fueled by the somewhat unpredictable plot The Joker's criminal activity creates.

In that role, Heath Ledger is nearly unrecognizable, even his physical appearance fading into the background. At first, I was certain that the oscar-buzz surrounding the role was simply respect being paid for the loss of a truly talented actor. But, even the shadow cast by Ledger's death was gone when he was onscreen as The Joker. The character was so alive, the total embodiment of eccentric anarchy, that the character stole the scenes, not the tragedy. The Joker is, as he states himself in the film, so much more interesting than any of the other super villains of the comic book world. In Christopher Nolan's Batman universe, The Joker is the criminal without a purpose, more terrifying than any other.

The only bad thing about this Batman is the pressure they'll be under to make the next one just as good.

UPDATE: The movie did even better than expected over the weekend, scoring the biggest three-day opening weekend in box office history, grossing $155.3 million.

Learning to Be Real (Just Like Pinnochio)

This week, when the TV Guide came, I sat down with it (like I always do) to see if anything seemed interesting enough to read. Practically screaming out to me from page 18 was the following headline: "Want to Be the Next Heidi and Spencer?" The sub-heading? "A new reality-TV school teaches the tricks of the trade."

What tricks of the trade? Isn't mindless self-promotion one of those skills you're just kind of born with, like singing or the ability to moon walk? Robert Galinsky, the creator of the New York Reality TV School, doesn't think so.

At the school, "students learn how to audition, create an on-air persona and parlay 15 minutes of fame into a career."

Has it come to this? Have we finally stopped pretending that reality shows are reality and not simply an excuse for networks to save the money they would otherwise spend on good actors and smart writers? I love my reality indulgences just as much as the next girl (cough**Rock of Love**cough), but if we live in a world where someone's goal is to become the next Speidi, maybe it's time to call the whole thing off.

More Twilight

This marks my 100th post on The Hollywood Minutiae, so it's fitting that the topic is something I'm a bit of a fangirl about these days. The second teaser trailer for Twilight went up today on Yahoo (and still a teaser for Harry Potter is nowhere to be found).



I think Film School Rejects made a fair point this week that up to this point the movie has not been marketed that well to those unfamiliar with the Twilight novels. Readers get to see the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and know enough about the rest of the plot to fill in the gaps left by the trailer. Non-readers are sort of left scratching their heads.

This trailer gives non-readers a little more to go on, but only time will tell if it's enough.

The Emmy Noms are In

While Kathy Griffin's beloved Shmemmys may be a little more exciting than the primetime telecast, the nominations for that show don't receive quite as much attention as the real deal.

The noms for the big-dog categories are out today, and they're not too bad. You can see the full list over at EW.com. For me, the glaring exception is that John Krasinski has once again been overlooked in the category of Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. I'm not sure how this outrage has continued for so long, but perhaps his time will come next year.

Our big Emmy nom lesson this year is that your best Emmy bet as a guest star is to appear on 30 Rock. Seven of the eleven Guest on a Comedy Series nominations were mined from Tina Fey's brainchild, which took the award for Best Comedy last year.

Overall, this year's nominations seem mostly fair, but a little boring. Perhaps it's because the TV season was hacked up by the strike, but something's just not the same.

More Potter Pics

It's the day of many tidbits here on the Minutiae. Our second tidbit of the day is a gallery of sixteen pics from Half Blood Prince over on Yahoo Movies. The batch from the MTV Movies Blog that I posted last week are in there, so if you missed them the first time, be sure to check these out.

Dunder Mifflin Downsized?

Doesn't look like that Office spinoff is happening any time soon. I can't say I'm disappointed, since I was worried from the get-go. No reason to go all Private Practice on one of the best comedies currently on television.

The new plan, a show by Office executive producer Greg Daniels that's built around Amy Poehler, could be great. Poehler is one funny lady, and without the pressure of protecting the Office brand with his new show, Daniels could build some totally new funny. If the show happens, maybe they can even get Poehlers hi-larious husband Will Arnett to make an appearance.

Confessions of a PCB

Yesterday, Amy Wilkinson wrote a fun PopWatch post about being a Pop Culture Bully (PCB). I've made an effort on this blog to poke fun at my own pop culture indulgences that may rate high on the lameness scale. Some of the most entertaining pop culture is of the so-bad-its-good variety, and there's not really any point in pretending we don't like it.

That being said, since my sister is one of the half-dozen or so readers of this blog, I can't, without consequences, say that my inner PCB doesn't emerge from time to time. She can give prime examples of me as both The Manhandler and The Insulter.

The Manhandler is clearly the more forgivable of the two PCB personae, and can truly be used for good. I try not to foist my every pop culture discovery onto others, only those that are actually fantastic and seem to fit that specific person. This is how I was turned on to Arrested Development (thanks, Kimberly!), Vampire Weekend (thanks, Jenny!), and many other lovely things that I can't recall right now. Since others passed those gems on to me, I see Manhandling as my pop culture duty, as long as I perform that duty responsibly (just how Spider-Man would expect me to).

The Insulter, however, is the persona I try very hard to contain. The Insulter is my inner Mr. Hyde, lurking, waiting to attack my poor friends and family when they try to rent a Larry the Cable Guy movie. I stand by my loathing of all things Larry, but perhaps I shouldn't be so mean to my dad about it.

Let's remember that the PCB is not always a menacing figure, as long as the PCB is thoughtful, not mean. I'll be a thoughtful PCB right now, and send you over to Act One of Joss Whedon's fantastical treat, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. And click quickly, friends. The Sing-Along will only hang around the web until Saturday. After that you'll have to track down the DVD.

New Trailer: OMG! It's HSM3!

The latest installment of Disney's hyper-lucrative High School Musical Franchise is set for an October 24th release, and the trailer has officially landed online. This one is a little scary. The first movie was cute. The second was fine. The fact that they decided to transport the cheese-tastic series to the big screen just seems like overkill.

I'll admit that I have seen both previous HSM movies. I'll also admit that I have three of the songs on my iPod. But even I will not shell out $10 to see this. The basketball scene, when Gabriella and Troy sing to one another across the gym, left me feeling a little nauseated.

If this really will be the Harry Potter of the rowdy tween set, like Jeff Jensen at PopWatch is guessing, I think I (unlike him) may be avoiding movie theaters altogether the weekend of October 24th.

Holy Bazooka, Batman!

MTV Movies Blog posted this exclusive clip from The Dark Knight yesterday:



Nice to see the bazooka that provided such an awesome image in the trailer put into some sort of context. July 18th can't come soon enough.

New Potter pics released as we wait for a trailer

We muggles get a treat from the wizarding world this week. New photos (the good, high quality kind) from Half Blood Prince have been released, and they're kind of awesome.

The great thing about these pics is that they're conveying some of the major, important moods that the sixth book deals with. I'm excluding the picture of Luna Lovegood, of course. She's just quirky fun.

HBP should be fantastic, equal parts dark and fun, and the news that Ron finally gets to show off his mad Quidditch skills (not to mention the sight of Rupert Grint in that funny helmet) is enough to convince me to be patient until the first trailer is out. No news yet on when that will be, but I've got my fingers crossed for a July 18th premier, ahead of The Dark Knight. I'll keep you posted.

Build Your Own Radio Station

I must credit my sister, Jennifer, for introducing me to this one. After her frequent recommendations, I have finally wandered over to Pandora to check out what all the fuss was about.

It was about something pretty cool. Type the name of a song or band that you really like and Pandora will build you a radio station. Based on the site's database, other songs and bands that match the qualities of that first pick will stream on your computer.

You can listen without signing up for a while, but I would recommend registering. It's free, and any station you create will be saved. Any time you access the site from the same computer one of your stations will play automatically.

Nooooooo!

After the torment that was the writer's strike, the news that an actor's strike may be unavoidable is pretty depressing. I've been avoiding reading any articles that would share such news, so I'm not quite up-to-speed on all the details.

From what I have gathered, things don't sound good. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) can't agree on their goals for negotiating with the AMPTP. The divide only benefits the AMPTP, giving them the upper hand in negotiations.

The unions will be voting soon on whether or not to strike. If things don't work out, fall TV could consist of mostly reality shows and reruns, and the 2009 movie calendar could get pretty slim. Let's hope things don't come to that, and the 72% of actors who make less than $5,000 a year don't suffer in the process.

A New Hire at The Office

Amy Ryan will appear in at least five episodes of The Office in the show's upcoming fifth season. The actress appeared in the season finale of the show this year as Holly, the replacement for Michael's HR nemesis, Toby.

Can't wait to see where Amy Ryan's character goes. Holly's potential to drag Michael into a normal relationship was a completely unexpected element of the season finale. She actually found some of his antics charming, and inspired him to shelve some of his less-successful courtship rituals (with help from Jim, of course). While Jan (Melora Hardin) is always a kick, watching Michael try to reign himself in could be make for some pretty funny material. And, as the show gets older, new story lines will be a must.

No word on what's going to happen to Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby. The actor also works as a writer on the show, so even if he's strictly behind-the-scenes for a while, he'll be around.