It’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fault Carly was cut
Okay, well maybe. Certainly he talked Carly out of her original song choice of The Phantom of the Opera’s “All I Ask of You” and into the more controversial “Superstar,” from Jesus Christ Superstar. The New York Times reports that Carly Smithson’s song choice may have spelled her doom from American Idol this past week. Many fans were none too pleased with her performing that particular number, sounding off online against the singer.
Surely Webber recalls the furor the album and subsequent stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar wrought from some religious groups when it first came out. While, as the Times piece indicates, the sensitivity over its controversial nature has waned in the passing decades, it has not died out. Just as many say Kristy Lee Cook’s rendering of “God Bless the USA” rallied a certain sect of the population to vote for her and keep her around longer, it’s certainly possible that Carly’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” had the exact opposite effect.
Her performance was lauded by the panel as one of the stronger ones of the night. So if it was the choice of song that spelled Carly’s demise on American Idol, and Andrew Lloyd Webber essentially pushed her into singing that song, then logic dictates it’s all his fault. Right? Or was it the tats? Or the failed former recording career? Or the funny faces she made? Or was it just her time? Hey let’s find out all official-like what you all think it was.
Suri Cruise Bids Farewell to Manhattan
Suri Cruise Bids Farewell to Manhattan
Getting an early start to the day, Tom Cruise, Kate Holmes and Suri Cruise departed their Manhattan hotel on Sunday morning (May 4) - bidding farewell to the Big Apple after a short stay.
Heading over to an awaiting helicopter at the Westside Heliport, the Dawson’s Creek cutie carried her 2-year-old angel in her arms - with Tom toting around Suri’s stuffed animal elephant and baby bottle.
As previously reported by , TomKat enjoyed an evening out on Broadway last night, taking in the stage production “The Country Girl” at the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre.
The Hollywood supercouple also grabbed a bite to eat with Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, Jessica, before retiring to their hotel for the evening.
Dirty Dancing gets Rereleased in Movie Theaters For 20th Anniversary
Lionsgate is celebrating the 20th anniversary (God, are we that old?) of Dirty Dancing by rereleasing the film in over 300 movie theaters for a special two night engagement. I really wish they would do this sort of thing for other movies. Back To The Future, Goonies, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Ghostbusters are some that immediately pop into my head. Check out the full press release after the jump.
LIONSGATE AND NATIONAL CINEMEDIA’S FATHOM TO BRING BABY OUT OF THE CORNER AND BACK ONTO THE BIG SCREEN TO CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF “DIRTY DANCING”
1987 Classic Starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze Returns to Movie Theatres for Two Nights Only – May 1 & 2 With Exclusive New Anniversary Segment.
Lionsgate Also Prepares Launch of 20th Anniversary Dirty Dancing DVD as Dirty Dancing Stage Play Phenomenon Heads For North America
Centennial, CO & Santa Monica, CA (April 20, 2007) – It may be two decades later, but you can still have the time of your life! Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, and National CineMedia’s Fathom are bringing Dirty Dancing back to the big screen- with brand new 35mm prints with enhanced picture and sound - in a special event on May 1 & 2 , 2007 to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. Theatergoers will be treated to a never-before-seen, 20-minute exclusive look inside Dirty Dancing featuring a collection of interviews from key people who brought the film to life, a look back on the impact of this modern classic and a glimpse into the Dirty Dancing London stage production.
This exclusive two-night-only event will be presented in over 300 AMC and Regal Entertainment Group movie theatres across the United States at 7:30 p.m. local time. Tickets are on sale now at participating movie theatre box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com for $10.00. For a complete list of theatre locations, please visit the Web site (theatres are subject to change). Tickets have been selling fast, so fans are advised to purchase tickets in advance to ensure that they don’t miss out on this special anniversary celebration.
The theatrical event is part of a 20th anniversary celebration that features the May 1&2 feature film release, a 20th anniversary home entertainment re-release featuring a DVD special edition and Blu-Ray disc, a remastered companion CD from Sony/BMG, a full licensing and merchandising program, and the stage play’s continued march across several continents, setting box office records in the process. Lionsgate is an investor in the stage play and also launched the eight-episode “Dirty Dancing: The Reality Show” television show on the WE Network.
First released in 1987, Dirty Dancing redefined date movies and continues to captivate the hearts and minds of generations of fans, generating more than $170 million in worldwide box office receipts and selling more than 10 million DVDs. Starring Jennifer Grey (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) as “Baby” Houseman and Patrick Swayze (Ghost) as the sexy Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing is the story of a naïve girl who meets an experienced dance instructor and becomes his pupil in dance and love. The Oscar®-winning film (Best Music, Original Song) was recently named one of the Top 10 Date Movies of all time, according to an E! Entertainment Television poll of industry executives and celebrities. Thanks to this 20th anniversary event, both old and new fans nationwide now have a chance to see this classic on the big screen.
Dirty Dancing remains one of the most popular films in Lionsgate’s 10,000-title library and is one of the most enduring modern classics in feature film and home entertainment history.
The Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary Edition DVD, being released on May 8th, is highlighted by Patrick Swayze’s first-ever DVD participation with the new filmed interview “Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze,” and also features deleted and alternate scenes, original screen tests, outtakes, a tribute to Jerry Orbach and much more.
On the fashion front, JEM Sportswear, under its Cold Crush by Awake brand, has designed a full line of Dirty Dancing-inspired vintage tops for women. The tees retail for $24 - $26 and are available at www.80stees.com and Target stores nationwide. In addition to the tees, Next Craze is creating a line of underwear and sleepwear featuring foil lettering and satin ribbons with photographic references to the cult classic.
Other products in the works include a full-color 2008 calendar filled with memorable moments and lines from the movie from Rizzoli as well as movie posters, and from Basic Fun are talking pens, keychains and a projector keychain that projects images from the film at the push of a button. There will also be a Dirty Dancing videogame from Codemasters that lets players work alongside the team at Kellerman’s resorts in order to earn camp dollars to purchase memorabilia, cabin furnishings and the all important dance lessons with Johnny and Penny.
The celebration continues when Sony/BMG releases a newly re-mastered anniversary edition of the film’s soundtrack with a bonus DVD containing the five music videos from the soundtrack also on May 8th. The bonus DVD also includes a photo gallery with rare behind-the-scenes photos of the making of the film and an exclusive karaoke version of the Oscar-winning song “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life.”
The Dirty Dancing stage musical continues to set box office records around the world. After enjoying enthusiastic acclaim in Australia and selling out theatres in Germany for nearly a year in advance, it recently premiered in London, where it set the UK record for pre-opening ticket sales, and currently has a growing advance of more than $30 million. On the heels of that success, the Toronto production of “Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage” is scheduled for its North American premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, where it just achieved a record-breaking $1.65 million in first day ticket sales for its November 2007 opening there. The production is then scheduled to open in the Netherlands in March 2008, with a tour of the United States also kicking off in 2008.
For the latest news on Dirty Dancing’s 20th Anniversary, visit www.DirtyDancing.com.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, winning the 2006 Best Picture Academy Award® for CRASH, generating two consecutive years of $300 million-plus domestic theatrical box office, operating a $500 million-plus home entertainment business and producing a broad slate of prime time television series for fiscal 2007. It is a premier producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious and prolific library of more than 10,000 titles is a valuable source of stable, recurring revenue and a foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
About National CineMedia
National CineMedia LLC operates the largest digital in-theatre network in North America through long-term agreements with its founding members, AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA, Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC), the three largest movie theatre operators in the U.S., and through multi-year agreements with several other theatre operators. The company produces and distributes its FirstLook pre feature program; cinema and lobby advertising products; comprehensive meeting and event services and other entertainment content in movie theatres nationally. NCM’s national network includes over 14,000 screens of which approximately 12,000 are part of the company’s Digital Content Network (DCN). The national DCN is available in 154 Designated Market Areas® (49 of the top 50). During 2006, approximately 550 million patrons attended movies shown in theatres owned by NCM’s founding members. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) owns a 44.8% interest in and is the managing member of NCM LLC. www.ncm.com
Toni Collette Biography
A tall, vivacious Australian actress with a chameleonic ability to alter her appearance as the role dictates, Toni Collette shot to international fame at age 22 as the overweight but determined bride-to-be in P J Hogan’s blackly comic “Muriel’s Wedding” (1994). Raised in Blacktown, a suburb of Sydney, this eldest of three first performed onstage as a teenager in a production of “Godspell”. By age 16, she had left home to work with the Australian Theatre for Young People before enrolling at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art. After a year and half, though, she dropped out to pursue her career when she landed a major role in a stage production of “Uncle Vanya”. After appearing in a handful of other theatrical productions and guest appearances on Aussie TV shows, Collette landed her first film role as a tomboyish factory worker in the comedy “Spotswood/The Efficiency Expert” (1992).
Auditioning for her breakthrough role, Collette proved one determined actress. She announced to writer-director Hogan “I AM Muriel!” and offered a strong audition. Hogan resisted casting her, though, because she was too thin. Like any actor who wants a role badly enough, Collette began a supervised diet, gaining over 40 pounds. Her efforts paid off as she earned worldwide critical praise and an Australian Film Institute Best Actress Award. (Her contract also wisely included a provision for a personal trainer to help her shed the excess weight after filming.) Like Minnie Driver (who underwent a similar experience with her breakthrough in “Circle of Friends”), Collette found that people had difficulty matching her svelte self with her onscreen persona. Gradually, through a series of fine performances in a variety of films, she has proven to be one of contemporary cinema’s finest actresses. Collette offered a moving interpretation of the youthful version of the title character, an eccentric who was confined to an institution by her cruel father, in “Lilian’s Story” and was suitably tough as an incarcerated drug addict who proves to have a sweet singing voice in the comedy “Cosi” (both 1996). The actress headed to America to play the girlfriend of one of David Schwimmer’s high school buddies in “The Pallbearer” and then traveled to England to undertake the role of Harriet Smith, the sympathetic protege of Jane Austen’s titular “Emma” (also both 1996) in Douglas McGrath’s winning screen adaptation.
Adding to her gallery of characterizations, Collette proved effective as a timid office worker who longed for more than the life of a temporary worker in the ensemble comedy-drama “Clockwatchers” and essayed a British detective trailing jewel thieves in “The James Gang” (both 1997). One of her oddest roles was as an Australian named Diana Spencer who identifies with the British princess of the same name in “Diana and Me” (1997). What was meant as a witty romantic comedy took on a frivolous triviality after the tragic death of the real-life Princess of Wales. Collette bounced back as the brassy bottle blonde girlfriend of an ex-con who gradually comes to doubt herself in the Australian drama “The Boys”. She further proved her dramatic mettle as Mandy Slade, the American wife of a glam rock singer who recreates herself as a British party girl, in Todd Haynes’ “Velvet Goldmine” (both 1998), While she seemingly was all wrong for Mandy, Collette bravely threw herself into the part and delivered a layered and complex portrait of a woman who loses a part of herself when her husband’s career comes to an abrupt end. Yet another unconventional role followed as she was cast as a nun who works in a brothel in Peter Greenaway’s “8 1/2 Women” (1999). That same year, the chameleonic actress was once more cast against type as a struggling thirtysomething single mother of a psychic child (Haley Joel Osment) in the popular “The Sixth Sense”. Collette successfully conveyed both the character’s nonjudgmental stance as well as her feelings of inadequacy. Her richly nuanced performance garnered her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Collette started 2000 taking on the new challenge of starring in a Broadway musical. Cast as Queenie, a 1920s vaudeville performer, who with her on stage partner Burrs (played by Mandy Patinkin), throws the titular bash. Revealing her singing and dancing abilities, Collette proved a revelation to many. While she was lighting up the Great White Way, she was also seen in John Singleton’s remake of “Shaft” which reunited her onscreen with “Velvet Goldmine” co-star Christian Bale.
Collette continued to be an in-demand performer who could casually straddle the line between star, character actress and supporting player. She had a memorable turn as a wife in the midst of a marital breakdown in the HBO telepic “Dinner With Friends” (2001), playing one of the four leading roles; added some emotional support as Ben Affleck’s long-suffering gal Friday in “Changing Lanes” (2002); and was mesmerizing in her brief, one-scene turn in “The Hours” as a 1950s woman suffering with an inability to give birth - and some other secrets as well. But it was in the 2002 comedy “About a Boy” (directed by the Weitz brothers from Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel) that Collette gave her best post-”Sixth Sense” work to date, as a British single mother struggling to raise her sensitive and precocious but geeky son (Nicholas Hoult), who tries to fix her up with his new friend, an unrepentant rogue in a seemingly permanent arrested adolescence (Grant).
Collette received glowing reviews for her role as a geologist who becomes entangled with an Asian businessman in the Aussie indie “Japanese Story” (2003) and was a welcome presence in the underappreciated comedy “The Last Shot” (2004) opposite Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin, but could definitely avoided lending her talents to Nia Vardalos’ comedic misfire “Connie & Carla” (2004). She was much better paired with co-star Cameron Diaz in director Curtis Hanson’s dramedy “In Her Shoes” (2005), which cast the actresses as tight-knit but polar opposite sisters–Collette the responsible attorney with low self-esteem, Diaz played the reckless, sexy party girl–who have a calamitous falling out and must slowly come to learn that they share more than the same size feet.
- Born:
on 11/01/72 in Sydney, Australia - Job Titles:
Actor, Singer, Pizza delivery person, Sales clerk
Family
- Father: Bob Collette.
- Mother: Judy Collette.
- : has two siblings; Collette is the eldest of three children
Significant Others
- Husband: Dave Galafassi. married c. January 2003 in a Buddhist ceremony near Sydney, Australia
- Companion: Jonathan Rhys Meyers. no longer together
Education
- National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, Australia, acting
Milestones
- — Will star opposite Cameron Diaz in the film “In Her Shoes” based on the book of the same name by Jennifer Weiner (lensed 2004)
- 1986 Performing debut, at age 14, in a school production of “Godspell” (date approximate)
- 1988 Left school to pursue an acting career (date approximate)
- 1989 Attended college for a year and a half, left to work on the Sydney stage (date approximate)
- 1992 Feature acting debut, “Spotswood/The Efficiency Expert”
- 1994 Won international attention as the title character in the Australian black comedy, “Muriel’s Wedding”; gained 40 pounds to play the leading role
- 1995 Portrayed the young version of the title character in the Australian film “Lilian’s Story”
- 1996 Co-starred in “Emma”, directed by Douglas McGrath
- 1997 Had the lead role of Diana Spencer in the Australian film “Diana and Me”
- 1998 Delivered strong supporting turn in the Australian film “The Boys”
- 1998 Featured in “Velvet Goldmine” as the wife of a glam rocker played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers
- 1999 Co-starred as the mother of a psychic child in “The Sixth Sense”; received Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress
- 2000 Appeared in John Singleton’s remake of “Shaft”
- 2000 Made Broadway debut in the musical “The Wild Party”, by Michael John LaChiusa and George C Wolfe; received Tony nomination as Actress in a Musical
- 2001 Co-starred as Beth, a woman facing the end of her marriage, in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning play “Dinner With Friends”
- 2002 Appeared as a 1950s housewife troubled by secrets in “The Hours”
- 2002 Co-starred with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson in “Changing Lanes”
- 2002 Played a struggling single mother opposite Hugh Grant in the comedy “About a Boy”; received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- 2003 Starred as a geologist in “Japanese Story”
- 2004 Co-starres with Alec Baldwin and Matthew Brodrick as a narcissistic and manipulative English bomb-shell starlett in the film “The Last Shot”
- 2004 Co-starres with Nia Vardalos in the comedy “Connie and Carla,” about naive musical enthusiasts from Chicago who performe cheesy songs at the local airport and witness a murder; writtten by Nia Vardalos and directed by Michael Lembeck
- 2005 Co-starred with Cameron Diaz in the film “In Her Shoes” based on the book of the same name by Jennifer Weiner
- Acted in the Australian TV series “G.P.” and “A Country Practice”
- Raised in Blacktown, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
- Worked with the Australian Theatre for Young People