She notably made her Brooklyn debut last year to much fan fair and now singing diva Barbra Streisand will make her way to the Academy Awards telecast for a return.
[Related: Norah Jones To Perform 'Ted' Oscar-Nominated Song At Academy Awards]
The two-time Academy Award-winner has only lent her voice to the Oscars once before back in March 28, 1977 when she sang the them song from “A Star Is Born.” Streisand won the Oscar for Best Original Song that same night for Evergreen.
Streisand won her first Oscar for Best Actress in Funny Girl (1968), and was nominated again in 1973 for her lead performance in The Way We Were. She was also nominated for producing the Best Picture nominee The Prince of Tides (1991), which she also directed, and for co-writing the original song “I Finally Found Someone” from The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
“In an evening that celebrates the artistry of movies and music,” said producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron in a statement, adding, “How could the telecast be complete without Barbra Streisand? We are honored that she has agreed to do a very special performance on this year’s Oscars, her first time singing on the show in 36 years.”
The 85th Academy Awards takes place February 24th in Hollywood. Seth MacFarlane will host the live event, which will be broadcast on ABC.
It looks like Clint Eastwood is facing another empty space, but this time the repercussions could hit the wallet. Beyoncé Knowles has quit his forthcoming remake of A Star is Born – and it’s even for the second time. The musical take on the well-known tale has been made three times by Hollywood.
The superstar singer and actor is thought to have ended her involvement in the production due to delays in setting a start date for the film. The pic still lacks a male lead despite a three year search that has sailed through the names of a slew of top stars including Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr., Eminem, Christian Bale, Jon Hamm and Bradley Cooper, according to The Guardian.
This is not the first time Knowles took her leave from A Star is Born. She actually came back on board when Eastwood was named director in January last year after departing over production delays prior to the announcement. Eastwood hopes to pattern the latest Star in the vein of the 1976 version, which starred Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, which moved the story from the film biz to the music industry.
The original version filmed in 1937 starred Fredric March and Janet Gaynor as an aging Hollywood actor who takes the young budding star under his tutelage. James Mason and Judy Garland took on A Star is Born in 1954.
Speculation has now turned to jazz musician Esperanza Spalding as a replacement, but Warner Bros. wants to lock down a male lead before moving on with finding Beyoncé’s replacement. Bradley Cooper was the latest in the long line of male contenders to surface as the eventual choice.…
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Lance Armstrong is done going ball out to fight the doping charges against him and is throwing up his hands and giving up. Because Lance is done brawling with those bitches at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, he will be stripped of all 7 of his Tour De France titles and his Olympic bronze medal and he isn’t allowed to ever compete professionally again.
Lance still claims that he did not have relations with that syringe full of performance enhancing drugs, but he’s ending the dope hunt against him, because a ho can only take so much. Lance wrote a statement on his website (via People) yesterday and I should warn you, reading the first line will make you pull a tiny disco ball out of your bottom desk drawer (I know you keep one there) and hold it above your head while you swish your hips and sing out the lyrics, “I can’t go on, I can’t go on no mo nooooo!” You’re going to Donna Summer out (or Barbra Streisand out, depending on your mood), so you should warn your co-workers. Here’s a piece of Lance’s statement:
There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, “Enough is enough.” For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and
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Throughout the ’70s and into the first part of the ’80s, it was hard to ignore singer/songwriter/actor/sometimes talk show host and best-friend of the Muppets Paul Williams. He won Grammys and even an Oscar for hits he wrote including “We’ve Only Just Begun,”, “Rainy Days on Mondays,” “Evergreen,” “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” and “Rainbow Connection.” Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and even Kermit the Frog are among the artists he wrote super-hits for. Below, Paul Williams gives us his top ten movie songs of all time and dishes insight on Stephen Kessler’s documentary about him, Paul Williams Still Alive, about his raging ascent and crashing fall and return to form…
Johnny Carson first brought the artist onto the Tonight Show as the swinging ’70s were just beginning. He did television, movies, concerts. If there was a group of “It-guys” in that crazy decade, Williams would surely have been a part of that cadre of people at the center of all that spectacle. But as the ’80s wore on and into the ’90s Paul Williams all but disappeared from the center of it all. Drugs and booze did him in for a while, though he came roaring back though via a less flashy route.
Enter fan and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Kessler. He had long been a fan of Williams as a teen growing up in Queens, NY and his songs which he described as about “depression, loneliness and alienation,” and set out to find Williams and make a documentary. Williams said ‘yes’ but he was hardly a willing participant, at least initially, as Williams told Movieline. “By the time I decided to go along, he had spent a lot of time and a lot of money. I didn’t want to flat out say no and didn’t know…
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The ten millionth remake of A Star is Born is turning out to be an idea as good as butt fucking a popsicle in the middle of August. It’s going to have the same outcome too. Clint Eastwood has already signed on to direct and Beyonce is going to take the Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand role, and now Tommy Girl is in talks to play the has-been rock star. Yup, this is going to be a puddle of shit, sugar water and ice cold regrets.
Deadline says that Tommy and Clint have had several conversations about him taking the lead opposite Beyonce. Once the pillow baby-inflected velcro burns on Beyonce’s belly heal, she’ll be ready to start making Razzie history. Beyonce could be ready as soon as June, but Tommy’s plate is full with two other movies. Clint has also considered Will Smith, Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCatchaHo, Russell Crowe and Eminem (???).
Tommy and Beyonce has to be the weirdest pairing since toothpaste and blowjobs. Beyonce’s lacefront emotes more raw emotion on a movie screen than she does and Tommy as her lovah is just a whole new level of awkward. I bet Tommy only wants to do this shit, because he really wants Beyonce to teach him the Single Ladies dance. Tommy, it ain’t worth it. Sashay away from this mess and take your black catsuit with you.
The late Sue Mengers was a major agent in Hollywood who once represented Barbra Streisand and in her later years she threw all kinds of fancy as fuck parties where she made friends with famous hos like Jennifer Aniston. In a profile on Sue for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd writes that even Sue didn’t want Jennifer to be Forever Aloneistone. When Brad dropped Jen off in MiserableVille (Population: Aniston) to enlist in St. Angie’s holy army, Sue gave her a drop of advice:
But she had a soft, warm side; she was a yenta who loved fixing people up, in work and in love. If a match struck, she would urge the woman, “We have to close the deal.” After Brad Pitt left Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie, Mengers told me that she advised her beloved Jen to ask Brad for some of his sperm.
You know shit is dire when someone you aren’t related to is concerned that you’re going to become a dusty, crazy old spinster who doesn’t think it’s weird that her bedside tables are made out of the skeletons of her dead cats.
Sue did give Jen good advice, though. Jen should’ve taken it and then took that shit ten steps further. Jen should’ve fertilized one of her own eggs with Brad’s stoner jizz. Then Jen should’ve yelled
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Full Story »Photoshoot homages are a dime a dozen at this point, and it’s hard to separate one starlet’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s tribute from any of the hundreds of others. That’s why Lady Gaga’s new cover shoot for Vanity Fair, in which she toasts My Fair Lady and Funny Girl, is so ideal: Unlike most celebrities, she can take iconic images, juxtapose them with her own persona, and make them mean something new. She’s not just aping Barbra Streisand’s pucker like Jennifer Aniston, she’s relating a muse to herself, and that’s impressive even in a bombastic Annie Leibovitz shoot like this one. It’s what really makes her the new Madonna, not sheer popularity. Photos after the jump.
The My Fair Lady garb seems pretty inspired when Lady Gaga wears it. If Katy Perry tried it out, I’d surely roll my eyes like vintage Madonna. Instead I’m thinking, “Hey! Rex Harrison! Grow accustomed to THIS.” There’s also a NSFW shot that’s pretty stunning here.
All in all: I support this PR package. Bring on the starring roles — even it means adapting The Fame Monster into a horror movie.
• Lady Gaga, January 2012 Cover of ‘Vanity Fair [VF]
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Over the past four years, Yvonne Strahovski has acquainted herself with television audiences as CIA agent Sarah Walker on NBC’s fast-paced, quick-witted spy series Chuck. Now, as the beloved comedy-drama gears up for its fifth and final season, the Australian actress is making her big-budget box office debut in Gary McKendry’s action film Killer Elite which pits a retired British Special Air Service member (Jason Statham) against a violent hit squad. As Statham’s onscreen girlfriend, Strahovski gets to retain her Aussie accent, stay away from the testosterone-fueled violence and share coffee with Robert De Niro.
In anticipation of Killer Elite’s release this Friday, Strahovski phoned Movieline to discuss this welcome change of pace, her upcoming comedy debut opposite Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand and the possibility that she and Chuck will conceive before the series ends.
What drew you to this role?
Well, I got the script, and I really enjoyed reading it. And I liked the idea that there was this love story embedded in the script that made it deeper than the average action thriller. It’s not so much about just having the token girl in a movie as much as it is a love story. It’s the heart of the film. A bonus for me was also that I got to be Australian because so often I am playing American characters. It was nice for me to get back to my own roots by doing this character and also to film in Australia.
How close were you filming to your home?
We filmed in Melbourne, and I’m from Sydney originally — which is north of Melbourne. We shot in the Yarra Valley, which is the countryside out there. And it was just gorgeous. That’s one of the…
