Miley Is No Madonna
Miley and Mandy "4 Minutes" video is not a Madonna spoof.
Miley Cyrus' best friend and backup dancer, Mandy Jiroux, gives News the exclusive dish about the ladies’ hit video that has gotten nearly 900,000 hits since debuting on Sunday.Contrary to some reports, the video is not a spoof but just a dance battle against Step Up 2 director Jon Chu, who, along with the film's star, Adam Sevani, challenged Miley and Mandy to a dance-off on YouTube.
"They made a video first calling us out, and we made this video responding to theirs. M and M Cru definitely won!" Mandy says, referring to the name they gave themselves for the vid, "M and M Cru with a U."Mandy explains that the rumor of a spoof started "probably just because we do, like, two moves Madonna has done in the past."
Or maybe because it’s set to Madonna’s "4 Minutes." Or because it has the same street-festival-during-the-apocalypse feel as Madonna’s video. Or because Miley wears her hair like Madonna’s. Or because…should we go on?Mandy tells the video's dance sequences were choreographed by pro choreographer Teresa Espinosa, who worked on Miley's Best of Both Worlds tour, and actress-dancer Alison Faulk. One of their friends filmed and edited it. It was shot over two days last week at L.A.'s Foresight Studios.And in case you are wondering who the old woman is in the video throwing down some mad moves, Mandy reveals, "That's Miley's grandmother!"
See, and here we thought that was Madonna…
Editors Blog: Oscar Notes
Random Notes from the Editor:
Errol Morris’ short film which opened the Academy Awards show was fantastic. If you didn’t see it, you can check out the video at Oscar.com.
Ellen DeGeneres is not funny (with exception of the Jennifer Hudson/Al Gore joke, but I have a feeling someone probably wrote that for her).
“If their weren’t blacks, jews, and gays - there would be no oscars!” - so true.
Abigail Breslin is such a cute little girl. It looks like she’s really enjoying the whole experience. Let’s hope that she doesn’t go the way of most young childhood stars. Because, remember, Drew Barrymore was a cute little girl once.
I know most of America probably doesn’t care, but why don’t they air the technical awards on like IFC or the Sundance Channel. Hardcore film geeks would probably watch. May-be I’m wrong. I’m probably wrong.
Tenacious D: Why don’t they replace Kyle Gass with Will Ferrell?
The sound effects choir thing was neat, but do they really need to cut off the speeches for this? They make us sit thorough these interpretive dance sequences but have the nerve to cut off Jennifer Hudson, William Monahan and Guillermo Navarro?!
Al Gore has gained some weight. I’m glad they decided to make a joke out of the monkey in the room (Gore’s big announcement).
Bad Hair Day: A bald Jack Nicholson? Cameron Diaz needs desperately to dye her hair blond. Tom Hanks looks better without his Da Vinci hair-dew.
Why did Happy Feet win? Because of the liberal environmental message attached, not because it was the best movie. And that’s coming from an environmentally friendly liberal.
The best screenplay and best costume presentations were spot on.
The Departed screenwriter William Monahan breaths very loudly when he’s nervous.
Need to buy Apple iPhone.
OSCAR ERROR: They claimed that The Departed was based on a Japanese film, but they were wrong. It’s actually based off a Chinese Film.
I would write about how Guillermo del Toro was robbed for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, but that would just be stating the obvious.
Clint Eastwood should have worn his glasses.
JC Penny’s advertisement which recreates famous scenes from cinema’s past was amoung my favorite of the show.
George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg presenting Martin Scorsese with the Best Director is the way to do it. Talk about surreal. And Jack Nicholson waiting in the wing to congratulate him? Marty couldn’t have scripted it any better.
Peter Sciretta,
/Film Editor in Chief
Aishwarya Rai Biography
Aishwarya Rai was born November 1, 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Born in a traditional south Indian family, Aishwarya started modelling at a young age. This green-blue eyed beauty stole ads for many prestigious firms, the ones which brought her into the limelight were the garden sari and the pepsi ad.
Aishwarya Rai is one of the highest-paid actresses in India’s prolific movie industry, the Julia Roberts of the Asian subcontinent. She began modeling at 14, came to fame as the gorgeous new neighbor in Indian Pepsi commercials, and won the Miss World beauty pageant in 1994.
In more than two dozen movies, Rai has never been kissed on screen. It simply isn’t done in Bollywood. Instead, when an on-screen scene reaches that moment, characters typically burst into song-and-dance sequences intended as metaphors for steamy passion. Rai has, however, attempted to broaden her fame by appearing in the English film Bride and Prejudice with Martin Henderson, a comedic singing-and-dancing adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She has signed to co-star in Singularity with Brendan Fraser in 2005.
So at some point soon, a script may require a smooch instead of a song. “It would definitely be a topic of discussion [in India],†she says. “They’re going to enjoy (the controversy)… In our society, you don’t really see people around the street corner kissing or being extremely or overtly physically demonstrative.â€
Rai is no stranger to controversy, having dated movie star Salman Khan — he is Muslim, she is Hindu. When Rai appeared at an Indian awards ceremony sporting a black eye, there were rumors that Khan had beaten her, but Rai explained otherwise. “For some perverse reason, no one wants to believe me, that I fell down the stairs. First the media calls me the woman of the millennium, a woman of substance. Then how can the same media make me out to be such a doormat? I’m a self-respecting woman, I don’t take nonsense from anyone. No one tries caveman tactics on me. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger can fall and get hurt, so why should I be any different?â€
After they eventually broke up, there were reports that Khan stalked her, and Rai admitted that there “were times when Salman got physical with me.†Her family filed a police complaint against Khan, when he showed up drunk and started pounding on her door and screaming late one night.
Rai made her film debut in 1991′s forgettable Mamagaru . Her other early films included bombs like Iruvar and Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya , and even the Tamil-Telugu hit Jeans which was disastrously received by India’s Hindi audiences. By 1998, critics were carping about Rai’s lack of talent and “three stock wooden expressions.â€
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam , of course, changed everything, and Rai’s spirited performance as the emotionally complex Nandini made her a star instead of a joke. Her other triumphs include Mohabbatein , Chokher Bali , and the epic Devdas.
In 2003, Rai was injured on the set of Khakhi when a driver lost control of his Jeep and ran into Rai, who landed on a cactus.
DVD REVIEW - Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 Two-Disc Special Edition DVD
Disc One Special Features:
– Digitally Mastered Audio and Video.
– Audio: English Dolby True HD 5.1, English PCM 5.1 (Uncompressed), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai 5.1 (Dolby Digital).
– Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Thai, Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Cantonese.
– Bloopers.
– Photo Galleries.
– Snow Patrol Music Video.
– Audio Commentary with Director Sam Raimi and cast members Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
– Audio Commentary with Producers Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad and Grant Curtis, Editor Bob Murawski and Special Effects Supervisor Scott Stokdyk.
– Bonus Previews.
Disc Two Special Features:
– Digitally Mastered Audio and Video.
– Audio: English, Spanish 5.1 (Dolby Digital). English, Spanish (Dolby Surround).
– Subtitles: English, Spanish.
– Featurette: Grains of Sand - Building Sandman.
– Featurette: Re-Imagining the Goblin.
– Featurette: Covered in Black - Creating Venom.
– Featurette: Hanging On…Gwen Stacy and the Collapsing Floor.
– Featurette: Fighting, Flying & Driving - The Stunts.
– Featurette: Tangled Web: The Love Triangles of Spider-Man 3.
– Featurette: Wall Of Water.
– Featurette: On Location Cleveland - The Chase on Euclid Avenue.
– Featurette: On Location New York - From Rooftops to Backstreets.
– Featurette: The Science of Sound.
– Featurette: Inside The Editing Room.
– Theatrical TV Spots From Around the World.
THE FILM
Oh, what a tangled web Spider-Man 3 turned out to be. The third entry in this highly successful franchise suffered from a convoluted plot, undeveloped characters, and one of the worst (and unnecessary) dance sequences in the history of film. I saw the film twice in the theatres, and both times I was disappointed. So, did a little bit of time and a third viewing of the film make it any better?
As a matter of fact, yes, it did. Allow me to explain.
When the film was released, there was a huge outcry from the fans. Much like the third film in the X-Men franchise, this film tried to do too much in too little time. Director Sam Raimi really upped the stakes this time out by having not one, not two, but THREE villains for Spider-Man to tangle with. That’s perfectly fine. Some movies have done the multi-villain formula before, and still managed to be successful. However, this was not the case in Spider-Man 3. Raimi choose three villains that had very complicated back stories, and gave them very little screen time to grow. Let’s start with the Sandman.
In order to make the character more sympathetic to the audience, Raimi & Co. added a daughter into Flint Marko’s life. He’s shown as a criminal with a heart of gold. Sure, he may be stealing money and committing crimes, but he’s doing it for a good cause. His daughter has a terrible disease and he’s trying to raise the money to pay for an operation to cure her. While this may be a good idea, this subplot disappears by the films midpoint. We only see his daughter once, in the very beginning, and then she is never heard from again. Flint’s objectives change gears, when his mission of trying saving his daughter changes into a personal vendetta against Spider-Man. Despite the character’s flaws, I really think Thomas Haden Church was a great choice for the Sandman. He had the look of the character and even played it off really well.
Venom was a tough choice for the fans. I firmly believe that no matter what the movie did with him, fans would have hated it. Venom is perhaps the most beloved of all the Marvel villains. He is essentially evil incarnate. The character changed from a burly bastard from the comic into a skinny nerd. But you know what? It worked. At least, to me it did. Eddie Brock was everything Peter was not, but hoped to be. Topher Grace really did pull off the arrogant prick role quiet well (though I had a hard time believing he would have a girlfriend as good-looking as Bryce Dallas Howard, let alone treat her that badly and still be together).
The real problem with the character was the amount of screen time. Venom doesn’t even show up until the very last reel. Eddie has no real time to explore the extent of his new abilities. He just jumped into his crusade against Spider-Man. I would have really liked to have seen Eddie become Venom in this film, and then really explore the character more in the next. Alas, that’s not going to happen now. Regardless, Eddie’s transformation into Venom toward the end of the film was absolutely frightening. It was very interesting to see how quickly he went from ‘help me’ to accepting this new found rage that found him.
The only villain that can be argued about the amount of development he has had is Harry. Over the course of three films, we have seen Harry go from a very loving best friend to a total prick. Harry has, perhaps, the best character arc out of anyone else in the franchise. James Franco has really grown as an actor, and it definitely shows. In this film, we really see how far he will go to destroy those he believes did him wrong. When he is at the restaurant with Peter, telling him that he is the ‘other man,’ with a smile on his face the entire time, it’s absolutely amazing.
On the other hand, Tobey Maguire left a little to be desired. He seemed to be playing the character the same way he’s been in the past two films. Sure, at some points it worked, but the character has grown a lot over time, and Tobey did not show that as much as he could have. When “Emo Peter” comes out to play, it just seems like he is going through the motions to get his paycheck. I remember when I saw it in the theaters that any time he cried, a lot of people laughed. He seemed to be forcing his emotions and it just came off as comical.
As always, the worst part of the film is definitely Kirsten Dunst. I’m sorry, but she is terrible. She is the weakest link in all three films, and I really hope that, if they do a fourth film, they do not bring her back.
I know I did a lot of complaining about the movie, but I do think it grows on you. Like I said earlier, a repeat viewing after a little bit of time definitely did make it better in my eyes. This movie IS a fun little film, and I did enjoy myself watching it. The fight scenes are pretty awesome, and just watching Harry and Peter wail on each other is fantastic. Sure, it may not be a great film but it’s still a good one. Watch it again and expect a good time, and I guarantee that you’ll have one.
Hell, I’d watch it for the fantastic Bruce Campbell cameo alone.
THE EXTRAS
Like the other Spider-Man discs, this one also comes packed with a bunch of special features. Both the single disc and special editions of the film come with a bit of fun stuff on the first disc. The commentary from the cast is pretty funny. There are a lot of little inside stories that they tell, and everyone seems to have had a good time making the film. However, I’m fairly certain that some of the cast members were recorded in different sessions, as they sometimes don’t interact with each other. The commentary from the producers talks more about the business side of things. Also rounding out the disc is a music video from Snow Patrol and a short blooper reel.
The special edition of the film contains a second disc filled with more goodies. Each featurette runs anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. Each of the three villains has their own feature, with Raimi & producers talking about how they developed each character for the film. The actors even through their own two cents in, and you can see that they have a deep love for their characters. Especially noteworthy is watching crew members pull fishing lines attached to Topher Grace’s face during the transformation sequence…it looked absolutely painful. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff are ‘fly on the wall’ sort of things, letting us see Raimi in action and running the show. Pretty interesting stuff. The Love Triangle feature was the only one I didn’t like that much. It showed us pretty much everything that has happened between Peter, MJ, and Harry and the love triangle they have been caught in. All in all, not a bad offering.