Five Girls, One Musical February 3, 2010
Posted by Paula in Muzak.Tags: Geri Halliwell, Judy Craymer, Mamma Mia!, Simon Fuller, Spice Girls, Viva Forever
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Plans for a Spice Girls musical were finally confirmed last week. The musical’s working title is Viva Forever, and will hit the West End sometime in the next two years. The Spice Girls are said to be “very excited” about the plans. Who wouldn’t be?
The word on the street is that Geri Halliwell will co-produce the project, but that has yet be confirmed. Fingers crossed. For now though, Mamma Mia! creator, Judy Craymer will be at the musical’s helm, in partnership with former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.
Whether the musical will be about the Spice Girls’ rise to stardom, or whether it will follow a Mamma Mia!-esque structure, which just uses the band’s music, remains to be seen. I’m hoping for the former.
She’s with the Band February 3, 2010
Posted by Patrick in Lit, Televisual.Tags: HBO, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, pamela des barres, zooey deschanel
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Another day, another piece of Zooey Deschanel news. Alongside her successful music and film careers, Zooey’s finally sticking her finger into the television pie (unless we’re counting guest appearances on Bones and Tin Man) by signing up to star in and executive produce HBO’s new comedy pilot, I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie.
The show is based on the book of the same name, a 1987 memoir by notorious groupie Pamela Des Barres. Some of her story was already told in the film Almost Famous, which incidentally was one of Zooey’s first film appearances.
It’s a half-hour comedy, so I’m not expecting anything along the lines of The Sopranos or Six Feet Under here. But HBO’s needed something in the comedy department to fill the void left by Sex and the City. I don’t see this as being the worthiest of replacements, but with Zooey on board I can’t help but be optimistic.
For a taste of what to expect, here’s the book’s blurb:
The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s is back in print in this new edition that includes an afterword on the author’s last 15 years of adventures. As soon as she graduated from high school, Pamela Des Barres headed for the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars’ backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. She traveled with Led Zeppelin; lived in sin with Don Johnson; turned down a date with Elvis Presley; and was close friends with Robert Plant, Gram Parsons, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa. As a member of the GTO’s, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tell–all stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most thrilling eras.
[Blurb via Good Reads]
[Image: Girls Aren't Funny]
Hollywood Infected Your Vain February 3, 2010
Posted by Patrick in Cinematics, Trashion.Tags: abbie cornish, amanda seyfried, Anna Kendrick, annie liebovitz, Carey Mulligan, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, hollywood issue, Kristen Stewart, Mia Wasikowska, Rebecca Hall, vanity fair
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Vanity Fair have unveiled their annual Hollywood photoshoot, featuring nine of the film industry’s brightest up and coming female stars (click above for larger version).
The talent selected, from left to right: Abbie Cornish (Bright Star, Candy), Kristen Stewart (Twilight, The Runaways), Carey Mulligan (An Education, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Jennifer’s Body), Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Defiance), Emma Stone (Superbad, Zombieland), Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler, Across the Universe) and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Twilight).
The girls were photographed by Annie Liebovitz (no surprises there), who has been doing the annual shoot for the past sixteen years.
The editorial has been criticised for being all-white, which is certainly true. Forgive me for saying it, but I don’t think it would do Precious‘s Gabourey Sidibe any good to be plonked in the middle of the fold-out amongst nine other thin white girls.
Even in the magazine’s first Hollywood cover, in 1995, there was one non-white face in the form of Angela Bassett. And everyone had a lot less on.
Behind the scenes at the 2010 shoot, below.
[Images: Vanity Fair, Oh No They Didn't!]
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