Beatty Buddies Roast, Honor Warren
It wasn’t just politics as usual at the American Film Institute’s tribute to Warren Beatty. Though, it was a little of that.
A laundry list of stars and politiciansincluding wife Annette Bening, sister Shirley MacLaine, Robert Downey Jr., Halle Berry, Dustin Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Quentin Tarantino, Bill Clinton, a pretaped John McCain and a post-Lakers-game Jack Nicholsonturned up for the 36th annual AFI Lifetime Achievement lovefest in Los Angeles Thursday night.
And while the ceremony itself may sound staid, the comments dished out were decidedly not…
Jane Fonda: “I thought he was gay. He was so cute, and all his men friends were gay, and brilliant. He had a way of collecting really brilliant gay men friends. And he liked to play piano in a piano barI mean, what were the odds he was straight? Shows you how dumb I was.”
Halle Berry: “There was the usual discussion with the studio if there should be a scene to spice up [Bulworth]if somebody should go topless. But I have to say, to Warren’s credit, he put his foot down and insisted on keeping his shorts on for the entire movie.”
Dustin Hoffman, on His Costarring Roles in Ishtar and Dick Tracy: “It’s ironic that I’m here for the movies-that-bombed portion of the evening…Ishtar shall rise again!”
Hoffman, on Beatty’s Initially Absent Lakers-Watching BFF, Jack Nicholson: “Rumor has it that he was going to try to combine the two. Rumor also has it that he might have been sitting courtside in a tuxedo.”
A Fashionably Late Nicholson: “[Beatty] has received eight times as many awards as he’s made pictures. You get all these honors because of your passion and your dedication to excellence. This is why I’m crazy about your work.”
Bill Clinton: “Over all these decades, you have shared with us, as moviegoers, this insatiable hunger for life. That’s what I think about when I think of you.”
Warren Beatty: “I was a liberal when it was fashionable, I was a liberal when it was unfashionable, and I’m a liberal when it’s coming back into style.”
Beatty on Bening: “I love my profession because it’s introduced me to the person who’s given me the most important thing of all, which is her love and the love of our four children…Annette. I can thank the movies for leading me to you.”
The 36th Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Warren Beatty, honoring the 47-year career of the 71-year-old star, airs June 25 on USA.
It’s an FNMTV summer
It looks like MTV is making an effort (albeit a small one) to show music videos again. Tomorrow a new show called FNMTV will premiere at 8 p.m. The show, hosted by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, is a 24/7 non-stop music celebration combining the best music experiences from the TV and the web. Each week MTV will premiere new music videos from established or up-and-coming artists. Also, Fans will be able to create their own music experiences on MTV.com and choose which ones will be aired on the show.
Confirmed talent for the this summer includes Panic! at the Disco, Snoop Dogg, The Pussycat Dolls, Flo-Rida, The Ting Tings, Lil’ Wayne, Duffy, Boys Like Girls, and Vampire Weekend. These artists are set for either special guest appearances or live stage performances.
Of the decision to focus the programming more on music, Senior VP Amy Doyle says, “Our audience has an insatiable hunger for the new and the fresh… We’re going to be loud about what’s new and use the power of MTV to engage music fans around music videos. Every week this summer we are going to highlight the most exciting artists and music and elevate the true art of the music video.”
I’m still suspicious. I loved MTV back when it played mostly videos. Somewhere along the way, TRL took over along with other shows that have nothing to do with music (The Hills, Made, Super Sweet Sixteen). I almost stopped watching the Video Music Awards because I found that I had no idea about the videos being honored.
Do you think this is step in the right direction for MTV? Or is MTV’s playing music videos again just a lost cause? By the way, the F stands for “feedback” and the N stands for “new.”
Laurence Fishburne to Voice The Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four 2
Last week AICN reported that Laurence Fishburne would voice Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. They were WRONG! Fishburne will instead voice the Silver Surfer, who is played by Doug Jones.
The Surfer, who first appeared in 1966, was a young astronomer named Norrin Radd of the planet Zenn-La. Radd agreed to serve as herald to the god-like entity, Galactus, in order to save Zenn-La from the world devourer’s insatiable hunger. Granted enormous powers , a silvery appearance and a surfboard-like vehicle — all of which were modeled after a childhood fantasy of Radd, the Silver Surfer roamed the cosmos, searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. In the new film, the Fantastic Four will square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus. Galactus has consumed countless planets, resulting in the elimination of entire extra-terrestrial civilizations.
I always imagined the Silver Surfer would sound more like the traditional surfer (think Keanu Reeves) than Fishburne. But my knowledge of the character is pretty limited.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer will hit theaters on June 15th 2007.