Nickelodeon: Mad About Jamie Lynn’s Maddie
One kid-friendly cable net just got a little kid-friendlier.
“We wish her and her family well,” a rep for Nickelodeon tells News about this morning’s birth of former network star Jamie Lynn Spears’ daughter, Maddie Briann.
Spears’ former Zoey 101 crew also wasted no time in sending best baby wishes to the 17-year-old new mom.
“I wish her the best,” onetime costar Erin Sanders tells News. “I know she’s going to be a great mom. She’s always been really great with kids, from what I’ve observed. Jamie Lynn is a wonderful girl. I’m really excited for her. I know she’s going to have a wonderful time.”
Faced with a pregnant star and the resulting P.R. crisis, Nickelodeon pulled the plug on Zoey’s four-season run in May, despite big ratings.
Spears, accompanied by fiancé Casey Aldridge and several family members, including sister Britney, gave birth at the Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center around 9:30 a.m. The new mommy will be taking some maternity leave before heading back to work.
Sanders agrees that some mother-daughter bonding time is definitely in the cards.
“I think she knows the importance of having a new child and being around. She’ll be able to weigh out what will be right. I think she will [return to TV], the question is just when.”
Additional reporting by Matthew Donnelly and Whitney English
M Night Shyamalan Talks The Last Airbender
M Night Shyamalan has been doing limited press to promote his new film The Happening, and has been talking about his big screen adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon Anime-influenced animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
When the hostile Fire Nation threatens to enslave the Water, Earth, and Air Nations, a reluctant and irresponsible twelve-year-old named Aang, who must forgo his selfish wandering to learn to master his latent powers and face his destiny as the Avatar, the Chosen One who can restore the world order. Night describes the film to SciFiWire:
“It has martial arts and spirituality and the supernatural, and it has Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy–really, everything I talk about–all in one movie,” Shyamalan said. “It has a mythology. It’s Shakespearean. It’s all this incredible stuff, and it has a balance. All these movies are plays on magic, whether it’s Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or Star Wars even, and each one of them relates to me in a different way, in its belief system.”
Not that Night would compare the film to any of the previously mentioned films.
“I wish I could put my finger on what it is like to say, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings,’ but it’s not really like that,” Night told RopesofSilicon. It’s its own thing. We have been striving to find the right balance between a fantasy world, and anchoring it in a reality you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know it’s real.”
Night also confirms The Last Airbender will be completely live-action and possibly even PG-13.
“It will be tough to keep it PG from PG-13. It will be tricky. I don’t know how to make a PG movie so that’s going to be much harder, because with R, everything was no problem,” Shyamalan told ComingSoon. “The great thing about it is it’s almost like they don’t ever really touch each other based in this world. They kind of do a form of manifesting something and then it comes at the other person and they manifest something. It’ll be great to do it as extensions of what the characters are feeling, and there’ll be much more CG.”
And Night insists in his interview with ROS that you’ll be amazed at the depth and realism that he will create with CGI:
“I feel more confident that I can make the CGI something that when you see it, like when you see two years from now and you see the trailer for The Last Airbender you will go, “Wow,” because you instinctively know that there is depth and reality to that moment of CGI.”
Shyamalan is currently deep into the design process and set construction will begin in August. I have yet to watch the animated series, but have heard a lot of great things about the series (shockingly from people you would never expect to be watching cartoons on Nickelodeon). The mix of asian philosophy, magic, and mythology has certainly gotten my interest. The Last Airbender is being targeted for a July 2nd 2010 release.
Cameron Diaz Starts “My Sister’s Keeper”
Cameron Diaz Starts “My Sister’s Keeper”
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen or heard from Cameron Diaz in any substantial sense. But we have the latest pics of the “There’s Something About Mary” babe on the set of her new movie.
Yesterday, Diaz was spotted in full costume on the set of “My Sister’s Keeper” the new flick based on Jodi Picoult novel. And the film sounds like it’s going to be a turn toward the dramatic genre for Cameron’s career.
According to press, “Diaz will play a former defense attorney who returns to the courtroom to defend herself and her husband when they are sued by their 13-year-old daughter for emancipation. The girl was conceived as a genetic match with the hope she could prolong her cancer-ridden sister’s life.”
Later this month (on March 29th) the “Shrek the Third” actress is slated to appear on the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards, along with Miley Cyrus and a host of other celebrities. And Jack Black will be play host once again.
Cameron Diaz Honored with Wannabe Award
Cameron Diaz Honored with Wannabe Award
Always a favorite when it comes to the kiddies, Cameron Diaz graciously accepted a trophy at last night’s 2008 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
During the Pauley Pavilion ceremony, What Happens In Vegas co-star Ashton Kutcher presented Diaz with the Wannabe Award for being the best role model.
Diaz used her time at the winner’s podium to promote environmental causes, saying to the audience: “You’re going to change the world. Every one of you kids is the future - go out and make the world a better place.”
The Shrek actress added that the Wannabe prize is “the biggest honor of my entire life”. Previously, Cameron picked up a Kids Choice award for her burping skills in 2001.