| Dianna Agron may be a sought-after actress, but she'll admit to a little stalking. Not for a plum role — for a stylist. "Not outside her house like a creepy person," the "Glee" star said of her pursuit of stylist Samantha McMillen, "but I knew some of the people that she was dressing and I said I want her." McMillen was among those honored on the Hollywood Reporter's list of the industry's top 25 stylists. The trade paper doesn't rank the most powerful directors or producers in the industry, but it does recognize the top stylists, whose ability to effect image may be on par with those other big shots. Stylists aren't just indispensable to stars, they're integral to the whole Hollywood marketing machine. They're curators of living, breathing, world-famous billboards; the key link between fashion brands and actresses and a critical component in how both are seen. In an industry that trades on image, stylists are the most powerful image makers. This year's style-makers were celebrated at a luncheon Wednesday with Zoe Saldana, Naomi Watts and Reese Witherspoon on the rooftop patio of the private Soho House. Most of those on the list don't have famous names (except maybe for Rachel Zoe, who's third), but their work is seen worldwide in the form of glamorous looks on the most admired stars. Saldana started working with Petra Flannery while filming "Avatar." The actress said having a stylist is "paramount to a person's image, especially when they work in this business." "Not only are you respected by what you say, you're also respected and admired and reviewed on how you look, so that said, this is my office," Saldana said, pointing at herself. "You have to kind of see it that way and have fun with it." Not only do stylists keep celebrities perfectly put together, they know the fashion world's top designers and can get them to custom-make clothes for their big-name clients, as list-topper Leslie Fremar did with Witherspoon's Louis Vuitton gown at last month's Academy Awards. Stylists are catalysts for lucrative partnerships between celebrities and luxury brands, which can elevate the profile of each. "A dress they put on an actress that becomes talked about will set a fashion trend for the next year, or it'll drive what buyers are buying for major department stores," said Janice Min, editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter. "The decisions made by this small group of women and men in this room amount to millions if not billions of dollars' worth of business in the next year." Jimmy Choo chief executive Pierre Denis said Hollywood's influence continues to grow globally. No ad campaign or editorial layout can match the impact of the right piece on the right person, and "the stylists, in the end, are the ones actually making style of the actresses," he said. Though these stylists broker million-dollar looks — and deals — they still mostly operate behind the scenes, and on their own. The Hollywood Reporter luncheon, held for the first time last year, is a rare gathering. For stylist Tara Swennen, who counts "The Big Bang Theory" star Kaley Cuoco among her clients, it was a chance to celebrate her work with her colleagues. "We don't have a union or anything like that yet," she said, "so it's sort of nice to have something cohesive." |
Stylists' star-making, brand-building power feted
'Big Bang' cast celebrates success
| What a difference four years have made. When the cast of "The Big Bang Theory" first appeared at PaleyFest in 2009, their sitcom wasn't even among the top-40 rated shows in the United States. Last week's first-run "Big Bang" episode topped the list in viewers most coveted by advertisers, those ages 18-49; and it was the second most-watched show overall (behind "NCIS") with more than 20-million viewers. What made "Bang" so much bigger? Credit syndication. Reruns of the show have been almost impossible to avoid since local stations and cable network TBS debuted them in September 2011 -- introducing the series and hooking millions of viewers who didn't catch episodes the first times around on CBS. "You're kind of forced to watch the show now," joked actor Simon Helberg, one of the show's stars, Wednesday night on the PaleyFest arrivals line. "We're shoving it down people's throats, and then they're learning that they love that." From co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady ("Dharma & Greg"), "The Big Bang Theory" spins around two roommates, physicists Leonard Hofstadter (played by Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parson), as well as their friends and colleagues, engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Parsons may play a genius, but he's having a tough time getting his head around the show's current success. "There's something impossible to fathom about viewers and numbers and things like that," Parsons explained. "I can barely picture 20 people in one room. If you want to say 17 or 18 million, well you've lost me." The "Big Bang" cast and crew were careful to withhold any major upcoming plot developments, except for one -- to be revealed in the first-run episode airing tonight: the discovery of a letter from Howard's long-lost father. "They (Howard and his scientist wife Bernadette) find the letter," revealed actress Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette. "Or someone finds the letter," Rauch added, coyly. No other cast members or co-creator Lorre would go near discussions of the characters' futures. But Helberg did agree to dream up a season-20 endgame for the "Big Bang" bunch. "Well I think (Howard's) pants will probably be as skinny and probably a bit tighter," Helberg began. "I think that Sheldon will probably still be sitting in his spot. It may be in a different apartment. I think he'll sit in that spot until he's in a home. Howard and Bernadette probably will ... god, god help them if they have children. We know she hates them and we know that Howard, essentially, is a child. So I wish them luck." PaleyFest, an annual open-to-the-public series of TV-series cast and crew panel discussions, runs through Friday at the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles. |
'Spring Breakers' is a hypnotic mix Review
| Harmony Korine seems to want it both ways, all day, with "Spring Breakers," his super-stylized descent into a sunbaked hell where bikini-clad, gun-toting college babes serve as our guides. As writer and director, Korine wants us to be appalled and aroused, hypnotized and titillated. He wants to satirize the debauchery of girls gone wild while simultaneously reveling in it. And damned if he doesn't pull it off. This is the rare movie that I actually found myself liking more the longer I spent away from it and the more I thought about it — mainly because I couldn't stop thinking about it. In the moment, I found it numbingly repetitive, even boring at times: an obvious juxtaposition of sex and violence, of dreamlike aesthetics within a nightmare scenario. And it is all of those things. But it stuck with me, and it made me appreciate the genius of Korine's approach. There is a great deal of genuine artistry in this film, which is the most polished and mainstream to date from the maker of indies like "Trash Humpers." The exquisite images, which range from intimately gritty to eerily glowing, come from Belgian cinematographer Benoit Debie, and Cliff Martinez ("Drive") complements them with a mesmerizing score. But "Spring Breakers" is also provocative in various ways —totally unsurprising from the guy who wrote Larry Clark's "Kids" at age 19 — depending on the viewer. In super slo-mo, as beer-soaked party girls cavort on the beach to the thump of electronic dance music, is that how it actually feels in the middle of it? Or is that the frightening extreme adults imagine when they dare to ponder what their kids are up to each March? The corruption of formerly squeaky-clean Disney Channel superstars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens may be Korine's cleverest trick of all: They get to show some range, we get to gawk. But James Franco steals the whole movie away when he arrives about halfway through as a cornrowed, wanna-be gangster rapper named Alien (pronounced a-LEEN). It's a showy, wonderfully weird performance, but Franco also finds the vulnerability beneath the bravado. And in playing a complicated, flawed ringleader, he's much more effective here than he was in "Oz the Great and Powerful." The young women of "Spring Breakers" have their own treacherous road to follow. The four longtime friends (Gomez, Hudgens, Ashley Benson of "Pretty Little Liars" and Rachel Korine, the director's wife) long to escape the drudgery of their dreary college life. Spring break in Florida beckons, and after a quick-and-dirty, coked-up diner robbery — which three of the girls pull off without the help of Gomez's character, the churchgoing Faith — they're headed South. Clearly these women already were headed for trouble long before they got in the car; they're essentially wild animals in hot pink nail polish. They just needed a little shove, which the promise of non-stop partying provides. When they get busted for narcotics possession — and the flashy Alien shows up to bail them out — their fates are sealed. He talks a lot of trash, jumping up and down on his cash-covered bed with a machine gun in each hand, flashing a devious smile through a glittering grill. But he's also lonely and needy, and in these girls — or at least in a couple of them — he thinks he's found his soul mates. A scene in which Korine prominently (and effectively) uses Britney Spears' "Everytime" is a microcosm of the rest of the film, and its mixture of playfulness and danger. Alien sits down at his oh-so tasteful poolside piano and seems to expose himself emotionally by performing the haunting, plaintive ballad; Korine then plays the actual song over images of Alien's newfound harem bouncing in bikinis and girly-pink ski masks, hoisting rifles in the air and preparing to go on a crime spree. But a surprising amount of suspense reveals itself within the ridiculousness of it all; that's what makes "Spring Breakers" so hard to shake. They never feel like real people, these curvaceous banditas, but they are the future of America, and this might be the last, best time of their lives. We're all screwed, Korine seems to be saying. It's very sad — but also kinda sexy. "Spring Breakers," from A24 Films, is rated R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout. Running time: 92 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. |
Film online fundraiser launches 'Veronica Mars'
| "Veronica Mars" fans eager for a movie based on the TV series have a chance to put their money where their hopes are. Series creator Rob Thomas launched an online crowd-funding campaign Wednesday to make a big-screen version of the show. "Veronica Mars," which starred Kristen Bell as a young sleuth, ended its three-season run in 2007. On the Kickstarter website, Thomas said the $2 million fundraiser represents "our one shot to see a 'Veronica Mars' movie happen." More than 16,000 backers had pledged more than $1.1 million within hours Wednesday. Thomas said "Veronica Mars" owner Warner Bros. has given the project its blessing, and Bell and other cast members are ready to begin production this summer for a 2014 release. The fundraising campaign, which was confirmed by Thomas' representative at United Talent Agency, ends April 12. "You have banded together like the sassy little honey badgers you are and made this possibility happen," Bell said in an online message, promising the "sleuthiest, snarkiest" movie possible. Bell is back on TV in "House of Lies," the Showtime series starring Don Cheadle. She and several "Veronica Mars" cast members appear in a lighthearted video on Kickstarter in which they mull the prospect of reuniting. Backers are eligible for various goodies, ranging from a PDF copy of the script to be sent on the day the film is released (for a $10 pledge) to naming rights to a character (for $8,000). An appearance in the movie, available to one $10,000 contributor, was snapped up. Crowdsourcing has given filmmakers a new way to get always-elusive funding. At last month's Academy Awards, the short documentary "Inocente" became the first Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar. It received $52,000 from 300 contributors. |
ASA rules Japan Tobacco ads "misleading"
| The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that adverts run by Japan Tobacco's Gallaher last year were "misleading", in an increasingly bitter battle between tobacco firms and anti-smoking campaigners over plain packaging. Gallaher, which owns brands like Silk Cut and Hamlet and was bought in 2007 by Japan Tobacco, ran a series of British newspaper adverts in 2012 arguing against the adoption of plain cigarette packs. The adverts were challenged by pressure group Action on Smoking and Health and charity Cancer Research UK, who said the adverts made misleading claims, a complaint that the ASA said on Tuesday it was upholding. Australia ruled last year that cigarettes and tobacco must be sold in plain packets without branding, a move that is being watched closely by Britain and other countries. Such a move would likely impact hardest on sales of premium brands, where companies are seeing strongest growth. Britain passed a law in 2008 to ban the display of cigarettes at the point of sale, but held back from insisting on plain packaging. In its adverts, Gallaher said that "the policy was rejected in 2008 because there was no credible evidence". However, the ASA said that readers were likely to interpret that to mean that the government had decided in 2008 to abandon the proposal of plain packaging and not plan to revisit it. The regulator said that it understood that the government was keeping the measure under review and planned to re-assess it at a later date, though. "We therefore considered that the claims in the ads that the policy had been 'rejected' in 2008 because of a lack of credible evidence gave a misleading impression of the position and action taken at that time by the government," it said. It said that the adverts must not reappear again in their current form. Japan Tobacco said it was "disappointed" by the ASA's ruling. "Whilst we disagree with the ASA's decision, we will not use the advertisements in question again," it said in a statement. "We also disagree with those who it appears wish to close down this debate and will continue to express our concerns." Some media reports have said Britain will introduce plain packaging this year and will announce the measure in May. Japan Tobacco said it believed no decision has been made. (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien, editing by Paul Casciato) |
HP's Autonomy allegations trigger another inquiry
| British authorities have opened an investigation into Hewlett-Packard's allegations that the personal computer maker was duped when it bought business software maker Autonomy, according to regulatory documents filed Monday. The inquiry by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office is the latest legal fallout from a deal that has saddled Hewlett-Packard Co. with massive losses and depressed its stock price. The U.S. Justice Department started looking into the matter late last year, shortly after HP accused Autonomy employees of fabricating sales in a ruse that drove up the company's sale price. Autonomy's founder and former CEO, Mike Lynch, has stridently denied HP's allegations and demanded that the company provide more evidence to support its allegations. HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., has repeatedly said that it is cooperating with legal authorities looking into the allegations. HP bought U.K.-based Autonomy for about $10 billion in 2011 and then wrote off $8.8 billion of that amount late last year in a move that stunned Wall Street. At least eight lawsuits have been filed by HP shareholders alleging that the company's board and management botched the Autonomy deal and concealed vital information before the staggering write-off. The backlash also threatens to upend HP's board. Two shareholder advisory firms are recommending votes against the re-election of HP's two longest-serving directors, John Hammergren and G. Kennedy Thompson, at the company's March 20 annual meeting. Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co. say the two directors should be ousted for shoddy oversight of the Autonomy deal and other recent HP acquisitions that have turned out badly. ISS also is recommending HP shareholders oppose the re-election of company Chairman Ray Lane. Glass Lewis is pushing for the removal of two other HP directors, Marc Andreessen and Rajiv Gupta, whose tenures on the board are the next longest after Hammergren and Thompson. In a separate regulatory filing Monday, HP urged shareholders to re-elect all 11 board members. "Losing some of our directors in an abrupt and disorderly manner could undermine our efforts to stabilize the company," Gupta, the lead independent director on HP's board, warned in a letter to shareholders. |
Batman's mythology getting new boost from DC
| Batman's transformative years are getting a few new twists. DC Entertainment is going back into Bruce Wayne's past to see how he began his transformation from wealthy socialite to the scourge of Gotham's criminal underworld. Key elements of the character's history are staying the same — the murder of Wayne's parents, for example — says Scott Snyder, the writer of "Batman" since its relaunch debuted in 2011. "It's not 'let's redo the origin,'" he said Monday. "It's time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52." Snyder said the decision grew out of the success of the first year-and-a-half of DC's New 52, a sweeping reorganization of the publisher's characters that saw many given new origins and costumes that blended those from their first appearances decades ago with contemporary changes. Snyder said readers will see how the crime fighter found his calling and what challenges he faced when first donning the costume of the Dark Knight. The augmented origin begins June in the pages of "Batman" in an 11-issue story called "The Year Zero" that is illustrated by Greg Capullo. "We tried to preserve as much of Batman's history as we could and keep what we could of this history intact," Snyder said of the change. "It's 'The Zero Year,' the one that no one has told the story of before. We see how Bruce became the Batman, built the cave, faced off with his first super villain." It's not so much an origin story as it is a view into Batman's formative years. "We're not going to take apart 'Year One,'" Snyder said, referring to the Frank Miller-David Mazzucchelli four-issue arc that recounted how Wayne began to fight crime after years away. Instead Snyder, an Eagle Award-winning writer whose other efforts for DC include "Swamp Thing" and "American Vampire," said the "Zero Year" story will give readers new glimpses into the Bob Kane-created character who made his first appearance in the pages of "Detective Comics" No. 27 in May 1939. "It's time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52," said Snyder. "It builds up the mythology." |
