Casting Couch: A Tale of Two Joshes
In this edition of Casting Couch, Lost’s Josh Holloway is hoping to find some big-screen success and Josh Hartnett is heading to the stage to channel his inner Tom Cruise.
The 37-year-old Holloway, who plays badass con man Sawyer on ABC’s hit series, is climbing aboard the Polish brothers’ Stay Cool, touted as a “knowing-your-age comedy.”
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Holloway joins an ensemble that includes Winona Ryder, Sean Astin, Chevy Chase, Hilary Duff, Jon Cryer and Mark Polish, who cowrote the screenplay with twin brother Michael, who will direct.
The plot revolves around a writer (Polish) who returns to his hometown and has an unexpected reunion with a former high school classmate (Ryder), who still harbors an unrequited love for him. At the same time, the author must fend off a young student (Duff) with the hots for him.
Holloway plays a former high school jock and ex-beau of Ryder’s character.
Hartnett, meanwhile, will top the marquee in a stage version of the 1988 Best Picture winner, Rain Man.
The 29-year-old Sin City star plays Cruise’s character, Charlie Babbit, on London’s West End. British thespian Adam Godley takes on the role of his autistic savant of a brother, Raymond Babbit, played to Academy Award perfection onscreen by Dustin Hoffman.
Playwright Dan Gordon, whose film credits include The Hurricane and Wyatt Earp, is adapting Rain Man for the boards. The scribe previously penned a theatrical take on Terms of Endearment, which toured the U.K. Rain Man bows at the Apollo Theatre on Aug. 28 and runs through Dec. 20.
In other casting news:
- Val Kilmer has joined the indie drama Silver Cord, based on a true story about a man who’s successfully revived after being declared clinically dead on multiple occasions. It starts lensing in September.
- Tom McCarthy, best known for directing the indie hits The Station Agent and The Visitor, has signed on to play the boyfriend of Amanda Peet’s character in Roland Emmerich’s latest end-of-the-world extravangaza, 2012. The would-be Hollywood blockbuster follows a group of people who must survive a series of natural disasters, and costars John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt. Shooting starts in August in Vancouver.
- Young Jeezy is set to make his feature acting debut in fellow hip-hopster Ice Cube’s upcoming comedy, Janky Promoters, playing a young emcee who gets involved with a pair of crooked concert promoters.
- William Hurt has been tapped to star in The Rivery Why, a coming-of-age drama adapted from the 1983 Sierra Club novel of the same name. The Oscar winner plays the father of Gus (Zach Gilford), a young man on a mission to catch an elusive rainbow trout. Amber Heard plays Gus’ girlfriend, a tomboy fly-fisher.
- Upright Citizens Brigade comic Jason Mantzoukas has landed a starring role in Off Duty, a pilot for NBC about cops who can’t leave their job at the station.
Lindsay Lohan’s Ready For Big Screen Success
Lindsay Lohan’s Ready For Big Screen Success
She moved out of BFF Samantha Ronson’s house and into her own place over the weekend, and Lindsay Lohan now looks poised to reclaim her status as a working Hollywood movie star.
The 21-year-old recovering redhead was spotted out this morning, getting an early start on the set of “Labor Pains” - which is currently filming in Woodland Hills, California.
The movie tells the tale of “A young woman (Lohan) who to pretends to be pregnant in order to avoid being fired from her job. When that gets her a bunch of special treatment by everyone involved in her life, her character tries to keep up the lie for nine months.”
Set for a 2009 release date, “Labor Pains” is directed by Laura Shapiro, co-starring Connie Britton and Chris Parnell.
Seven soap divas ready for primetime
For some actors, the soaps are a stepping stone to a career in features. That’s how it was for Meg Ryan, who began as Betsy on As the World Turns. For others, like Eva Longoria Parker, the place she made her mark before becoming one of the Desperate Housewives was as Isabella on The Young & the Restless. Allison Janney is another one. She was a lowly — but brilliant — maid at the Spaulding mansion on Guiding Light before lighting up the screen as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing and winning four Emmys along the way. Looking at the current crop of actresses at work in daytime today, who are the women, the divas if you will, who are ready for primetime, nay silver screen, success? Here’s a list of seven who have caught my eye.
1) Jennifer Landon, Gwen, As the World Turns
In daytime, there’s usually one way to tell if an actress (or actor) really has the chops, the real skills and talent, for a major career. If she can play twins, or has a double that’s nothing like her original character, she’s someone to watch. Michelle Forbes proved her mettle on Guiding Light as Sonni and her evil twin Solita. On As the World Turns, Jennifer Landon has done the same. Playing both Gwen and Cleo. Jennifer’s shown her range. The two characters are completely unique and that’s a credit to her talent. But even before doing the twin thing, Jennifer had already impressed. She made her character, which could have easily been a soap opera cliché — the troubled teen — more than the words in the script. She made her real. She won the Daytime Emmy in 2006 as Outstanding Younger Actress, and repeated the feat in 2007. The daughter of the late actor Michael Landon, Jennifer has recently decided to leave ATWT, so she’s already on her way to something better. She’s definitely ready for primetime.
2) Orlagh Cassidy, Doris, Guiding Light
You know that cell phone commercial where the mother is frustrated because her daughter won’t stop texting her BFF Jill? That commercial’s been so successful, there’s now a sequel in which she’s playing Scrabble with the kid and complaining that she can’t spell because she’s using text abbreviations instead of words! Well, that exasperated parent is Orlagh Cassidy. On Guiding Light, she steals every scene she’s in as ballbuster D.A. Doris Wolfe. You’d never imagine she’s the same actress. Then a few weeks ago, I saw her in the feature Definitely, Maybe. Whatever the size of the role, Orlagh Cassidy stands out. Cast her on Law & Order and she’ll give Sam Waterson all he can handle as an adversary!
3) Alison Sweeney, Sami, Days of Our Lives
As the host of The Biggest Loser, Alison Sweeney is already sorta in primetime. But she’s an actress more than a hostess. She should be in a drama or comedy series because it’s as an actress that Alison Sweeney is going to become a star. As Sami, she’s shown many arrows in her quiver. She can be a bitch as well as a good girl. Unlike many young actresses on the soaps, Alison projects a personality as well as a character. That’s star power and it would great to see her leave the security of NBC’s daytime for NBC’s primetime. She has a flair for comedy, and as Sami has shown her ability to do the most extreme type of storyline, so give her a shot on My Name Is Earl. She could be Joy’s long-lost bitchy step-sister. That’d be a hoot!
4) MacKenzie Mauzy, Pheobe, The Bold & the Beautiful
If you didn’t watch intently, you might think of MacKenzie Mauzy as just another sweet young thing. She is beautiful, no doubt about that, and she plays sweet great. As Phoebe, the child of privilege, born into a family immersed in the fashion business, she’s had lots of chances to appear as a mannequin. But what I like about MacKenzie is that there seems to be something brimming beneath the surface. She’s like a still water that runs deep. On an episode of Cold Case last year, she showed off her hidden depths as an Amish girl who goes off on Rumspringa and winds up falling in with the wrong crowd in south Philly. For much of that episode, I recall watching her as Anna, and not recalling that I’d been seeing her regularly on B&B. She was so completely submerged into this other character, that she appeared new to me. That opened my eyes to MacKenzie Mauzy and why I can see her very soon out of daytime and into primetime.
5) Farah Fath, Gigi, One Life to Live
There’s something about Farah Fath. She’s arresting. Not because she’s a great beauty or a drama queen, but because she’s interesting. You can’t explain that indefinable quality she has, but when she’s on screen, you want to watch her. There’s a naturalness to her performances. As Gigi, a single mom who’s been working as a waitress at a truckstop in Paris, Texas, she’s been terrific. Playing opposite an actress as formidable as six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak (Viki), Farah’s more than held her own. When she was on Days of Our Lives — as Mimi — she rarely had a storyline. It was like the powers-that-be on that show never saw Farah as more than a graduated day player, because that’s how she began on that show. On OLTL, she’s been thrust into a main story and she’s coming through like gangbusters. I hope she doesn’t get too comfortable on daytime, though. She has a quirky style and she’d be a great support to America Ferrera on Ugly Betty, for instance, or perhaps another waitress at The Pie Hole on Pushing Daisies (but I may just be thinking of pies because of her playing a waitress on OLTL!).
6) Carolyn Hennesy, Diane, General Hospital
Amid the mob action in Port Charles, with the Corleone organization going up against the Zacchara family, you’ll find that Carolyn Hennesy is giving the best performance of the year as Sonny’s lawyer, Diane Miller. Arch, sharp, biting and brilliant, Carolyn’s made a character that on paper was strictly one-dimensional into a flesh and blood, dynamic powerhouse. For the longest time, the role of the lawyer on this show has been nothing more than a device to get Sonny and/or Jason — Sonny’s enforcer — out of trouble with the authorities. But the way Carolyn has played Diane, she’s not a tool. She’s a fashionista, ogling over a pair of Jimmy Choos like Carrie Bradshaw’s big sister. She can also handle an automatic weapon if necessary, as it was in one show when she and fellow legal eagle Alexis Davis, were waylaid at a biker bar on the way to a Litagator of the Year award ceremony. The bottom line about Carolyn Hennesy is this: she’s better than the work she’s being given to do. She’s a star ready to explode. No actress on daytime now has shown that Allison Janney-potential as much as Hennesy. She would make mincemeat out of Alan Shore on Boston Legal.
7) Christel Khalil, Lily, The Young & the Restless
It may seem like hyperbole perhaps, but a young actress like Christel Khalil could be another Merle Oberon or Ava Gardner. Even though she’s still very young, only 21, there’s an exotic quality and ethereal presence that she possesses. She’s currently playing a young girl, Lily, who’s being thrust into a modeling career with all the inherent, potential problems. A bulimia story seems to be on the horizon, and I’m sure she’ll bring the requisite emotional turmoil to the role. But for an actress with her look, she deserves something more challenging. Maybe a mini-series or TV movie set in another country or a faraway kind of story would suit her.
Frances O’Connor: In the Limelight
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If you’ve caught any of the first few episodes of Cashmere Mafia, you probably know that the main reason to tune in each week is this actress in the above picture. I thought my reason for watching would be Lucy Liu (who I love and who is ever so gorgeous) but she’s been less-than-impressive and her storyline is bland and annoying. Instead I have fallen in love all over again with Frances O’Connor who plays the quirky, intelligent Zoe Burden on the show.
After the jump, I have some information about her life, some filmography and some excerpts from interviews.
While Frances O’Connor was born in England, she spent most of her life in Australia (living there from the age of 2). She was raised in a Roman Catholic family and attended a convent school in Perth, Australia. In this interview, O’Connor talks about the strong foundation Catholicism gave her: “I am really glad I was raised Catholic. I like the fundamental aspects of that religion. I think they give you great grounding in terms of having a moral code. But I do not subscribe to any religion specifically now.”
O’Connor attended Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts and has a B.A. in Literature from the Curtin University of Technology (also in Western Australia). She achieved screen success in Australia with her breakthrough role in the crime thriller Kiss or Kill (1997). This film earned her one of her two Australian Film Institute nominations for “Best Actress.” The other film for which O’Connor was nominated for an AFI award was Thank God He Met Lizzie, a romantic comedy.
In addition to these AFI nods, O’Connor has received a Golden Globe nomination in 2000 for Best Actress in a Series / Miniseries / TV Movie for Madame Bovary. I’ve not seen Madame Bovary yet, but I think I might resurrect my Netflix list and add it. She also received critical acclaim for her role in Iron Jawed Angels, an HBO movie about the womens’ suffrage movement that also starred Hillary Swank. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that year and got a standing ovation from the audience.
Also after the success of Kiss or Kill, Frances O’Connor landed the roll of Fanny in Mansfield Park in 1999. This was the first time I fell in love with her. Admittedly, I am mildly obsessed with all things Jane Austen but I was captivated by O’Connor’s portrayal of the reserved and full of conviction Fanny. I highly recommend it to not only Austen geeks but also to anyone who enjoys a good period romance. Here Frances O’Connor explains why she likes period dramas: “Well I have only done three in about nine films. But what they all share are fantastically complex and interesting characters. That is the important thing to me rather than the period the piece is set in.”
And Mansfield Park is not the only period drama O’Connor has appeared in. In 2002, she played Gwendolyn Fairfax in Oliver’s Parker’s screen adaptation of the comedy of manners The Importance of Being Ernest. Despite it’s all-star cast which included Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon, and Judy Dench, the film didn’t go over well, only grossing about 8.3 million dollars. Here O’Connor talks about the reaction in America to her appearance in what seemed like so many period films: “In Australia I was seen as somebody who did only very modern, contemporary stuff. Then as soon as I went overseas I did two period pieces so it was like, “When are you going to get out of the corsets?” And I was thinking I just got into them!”
While O’Connor has appeared in some flops (Windtalkers in 2002 with Nicholas Cage and Timeline in 2003 with Paul Walker), she also co-starred in one of my favorite guilty-pleasure films, Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. I know, I know. I shouldn’t love Bedazzled but I do. I love how Brendan Fraser has to play all these different characters (the drug dealer is great, that nose!). Frances O’Connor follows suit appearing with Fraser in all the fantasies that the devil constructs for him after he makes a wish (or perhaps, I should say nightmares).
You may also recognize O’Connor from 2001’s AI: Artificial Intelligence. Remember that movie with Jude Law and the little kid who sees dead people? It was Stanley Kubrick’s last project that Steven Spielberg finished after Kubrick’s death. O’Connor played Monica Swinton the mother whose child is suffering from an incurable disease and “frozen,” so she adopts David (Haley Joel Osment). The film got mixed reviews, even from the actress herself: “I think it is flawed. But at the same time I think it was a very brave experiment.”
Nowadays, you can see Frances O’Connor every week on ABC’s new show Cashmere Mafia. The show is produced by Darren Star Productions, the same company responsible for Sex and the City. Another SATC alum who joined the crew of Cashmere Mafia is Patricia Field, famed costume designer. On Cashmere Mafia, O’Connor plays Zoe Burden, a successful woman who works in Mergers and Acquisitions by day and tries to be the best mommy she can at night and on the weekends. Not only is O’Connor’s comedic timing the best on the show, but her American accent is surprisingly natural. How did she learn to “speak American”? She watched Sesame Street and learned from Grover.
You can catch Frances O’Connor in Cashmere Mafia, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.