Stupid Movie Executive Quote of the Day
“We’re Not Looking For Home Runs”
- Tom Bernard, Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics (aka Where Good Films Go to Die) [indiewire]
Smart Movie Executive Quote of the Day
“When you have a quality film of this caliber made by amazingly talented filmmakers and actors who truly believe and support a project, you can only succeed. We knew [Juno] had cross over potential and it has resonated with audiences all across the country. The entire marketing, distribution and publicity team has poured its heart and soul into making this a phenomenal success and their efforts have been truly remarkable.”
- Peter Rice, Fox Searchlight President
The Overall Difference
- Sony Pictures Classics - 23 Film Releases in 2007 - $39 million
- Fox Searchlight - 15 Film Releases in 2007 - $130.8 million
Kate Hudson Biography
Inheriting a great deal of her mother’s looks and bubbly charm, with a good measure of her own unique talent, presence and level-headedness thrown in, actress Kate Hudson seemed well poised to make the most of her Hollywood legacy. The daughter of actress-producer Goldie Hawn and comedian-musician Bill Hudson, the ingenue was raised by Hawn and her longtime live-in love, fellow actor Kurt Russell amidst their own entertainment careers. Her firsthand knowledge of the workings of Tinseltown and the influence of her business-wise mother made Hudson an actress with no glamorous misconceptions about the film industry. She decided to join the business and secured an agent on her own, landing an audition for the Kurt Russell actioner “Escape from L.A.” (1996) and a 1996 guest spot on TV’s “Party of Five” (Fox).
Making a relatively late big screen start, Hudson catapulted into the public sphere with a spate of film releases in 1999. First up was a featured role in “200 Cigarettes”, playing a clumsy young woman on a New Year’s Eve date from hell among an ensemble cast featuring a veritable who’s who of young actors, including Christina Ricci, Ben and Casey Affleck and Paul Rudd. Morgan J Freeman’s charming “Desert Blue” followed, with Hudson as a young actress driving across the California desert with her father (John Heard), ending up in a small town full of interesting characters. Also featuring Ricci and Casey Affleck, “Desert Blue” paired Hudson with indie favorite Brendan Sexton III, and they proved a compelling couple, her transformation from snobby starlet to smitten teenager was most endearing. Hudson was also featured in “Gossip” (2000), a psychological thriller set on a college campus also comprised of a young star-studded ensemble, this time with Joshua Jackson and James Marsden. She additionally starred in “Ricochet River” (lensed 1997), a drama set in a Pacific Northwest logging town, co-starring Jason James Richter. Hudson’s screen radiance and palatable talent, convincingly conveying girl-next-door naivete as well as cosmopolitan cynicism, more than ensure a bright future for the young actress.
Hudson’s moment to shine came in her breakout role in Cameron Crowe’s Oscar winning, sentimentally charming movie “Almost Famous.” As Penny Lane, a quintessential groupie of the 1970’s, Hudson delivered a perfect performance. A combination of innocence and carefree abandon mixed with a deep-buried inner sadness permeated her portrayal of Penny Lane and earned her an Oscar nomination. The young actress chose her next starring role carefully, and appeared in 2002’s remake of “Four Feathers” with Heath Ledger, where she played the fiance of a man believed to be a coward for abandoning his post just before a battle.
In 2003, Hudson co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in the romantic comedy “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” a sleeper hit that firmly established her ability to lure in an audience, and later the same year she was then paired with Luke Wilson for the Rob Reiner romantic comedy “Alex and Emma.” Playing an opinionated stenographer who helps a slightly blocked writer get his book plot on paper, Hudson also got to further explore her comedic character actress side by playing a trio of fictional au pairs in the planned novel–each inspired by Wilson’s growing attraction to her character, Emma. Once again, Hudson provided much needed spark to an otherwise listless exercise. Shifting gears away from the mainstream and into the art house, Hudson took a co-leading role in the restarained, sophisticated Merchant-Ivory production of “Le Divorce” (2003), an adaptation of Diane Johnson’s bestselling novel. Returning to more naturalistic acting, Hudson excelled in her portrayal of a naive American girl visiting her depressed, divorcing sister (Naomi Watts) in Paris who becomes swept up in an affair with a charming if caddish older, married man.
Hudson’s three 2003 films affirmed her star power at first, though interest waned slightly with each subsequent release, as the films came out only months apart. The following year she appeared in director Garry Marchall’s “Raising Helen” (2004) as a self-involved career woman who suddenly finds herself named the guardian of her late sister’s three children. Though familiar and formulaic, the film allowed Hudson to show off some her most endearing on-screen attributes. The actress tested the waters of the thriller genre with “The Skeleton Key” (2005), a gloomy, atmospheric supernatural entry in which Hudson’s inherent sunniness was effectively used in contrast to the plot’s voodoo goings-on.
- Also Credited As:
Kate Garry Hudson - Born:
on 04/19/1979 in Los Angeles, California - Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Family
- Brother: Oliver Hudson. born on September 7, 1976
- Father: Kurt Russell. with Hawn since 1982; father of Boston and Wyatt Russell; Hudson considers he and Hawn her parents
- Father: William Louis Hudson. eldest of the musical comedy trio The Hudson Brothers; married Hawn in 1976; divorced in 1980; married actor Cindy Williams in 1982; rarely had contact with his daughter
- Grandfather: Edward Rutledge Hawn.
- Grandmother: Laura Hawn. appeared in small roles in Goldie Hawn’s films “Swing Shift” (1984) and “Deceived” (1991)
- Half-brother: Wyatt Russell. born on July 10, 1986; son of Hawn and Kurt Russell
- Half-brother: Zachary Hudson. son of Bill Hudson and Cindy Williams
- Half-sister: Emily Hudson. daughter of Bill Hudson and Cindy Williams
- Mother: Goldie Hawn. born November 21, 1945
- Son: Ryder Russell Robinson. born January 7, 2004; father is former Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson
- Step-brother: Boston Russell. born c. 1980; son of Kurt Russell and Season Hubley; raised by Hawn and Russell along with Hudson
Significant Others
- Husband: Chris Robinson. lead singer of Black Crowes; dating as of late spring 2000; reportedly gave Hudson a diamond ring in summer 2000; married on December 31, 2000 in Colorado
- Companion: Eli Craig. son of actress Sally Field; dated for 18 months; no longer together
- Companion: Lenny Kravitz. reportedly dated
Milestones
- 1996 Guest starred on the Fox drama “Party of Five”
- 1997 Modeled for a Tommy Jeans ad campaign
- 1999 Featured as part of an ensemble cast of big name young stars in the 1980s period comedy “200 Cigarettes”
- 1999 Starred opposite Brendan Sexton III in the drama “Desert Blue”
- 2000 Appeared in the college campus-set psychological thriller “Gossip” along with Joshua Jackson and James Marsden
- 2000 Had pivotal role of Penny Lane, a young girl who travels with rock bands in “Almost Famous”, written and directed by Cameron Crowe; garnered a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination
- 2000 Played Richard Gere’s spoiled daughter in “Dr. T and the Women”, helmed by Robert Altman
- 2000 Starred opposite Stuart Townsend in the Irish comedy “About Adam”
- 2002 Played female lead of the remake of “Four Feathers” opposite Heath Ledger
- 2003 Co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in the romantic comedy “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
- 2003 Played five different characters in the romantic comedy “Alex and Emma”
- 2004 Co-starred with John Corbett in “Raising Helen,” about a woman who must raise her sister’s three children after her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident; director by Garry Marshall
- 2005 Starred in the thriller “The Skeleton Key” with Gena Rowlands and John Hurt
- Co-starred with Matt Dillon as a newlywed in the comedy “You, Me and Dupree” (lensed 2005)
- Raised in California