Tag: Brad Pitt (21-30 of 31)

Feb 2 2012 06:28 PM ET

Shira Lazar of 'What's Trending': Can social media predict the Oscar winners?

by
Tags: , , , , ,
SHIRA-LAZAR

For the past few years, social media has become the watercooler for online chatter surrounding any big televised event, and awards season is no exception. Every show has its own hashtag, winner trend, and surprise on-air moments that get shared and go viral more quickly then ever before. But can online chatter reveal who the winners may be?

The Meltwater Group, which measured online buzz last year, predicted two of three big Academy Award wins: The King’s Speech, which won Best Picture, had the most Twitter mentions, as did Best Actress Natalie Portman. James Franco, however, who seemed to win in terms of Web engagement, lost to Colin Firth for Best Actor.
READ FULL STORY »

Feb 1 2012 05:00 PM ET

Newt Gingrich wants Brad Pitt to play him in the movie. Think a fat Benjamin Button.

by
Tags: ,
brad-gingrich

Image Credit: Jason Kempin/FilmMagic.com; Michael Tran/Getty Images

We know Newt Gingrich has a healthy ego but this is getting ridiculous. Politico reports that during a radio interview on Tuesday, the former House speaker was asked, “If Hollywood was going to do a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the role?” Gingrich’s answer: Brad Pitt. “I don’t look like him at all,” Gingrich correctly noted. “He’s thinner,  he’s better looking, he’s younger. But you asked me if I had anyone who could play me in a movie, why not go for Brad Pitt?”

We’re having a hard time visualizing Pitt in the role (although the photoshopped picture to the left helps) but maybe you, fellow PopWatchers, have some better ideas for who should play Newt? William Shatner? John C. Reilly? Andy Serkis? Let the casting notes fly…

Jan 24 2012 12:50 PM ET

'Extremely Loud' and incredibly disliked: The critical gap in this year's most surprising Best Picture nominee

by
Tags: , , , , , ,
Loud-Close-Tom-Hanks

Image Credit: Francois Duhamel

Something is Rotten in Hollywood. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises at this morning’s Best Picture nominations was the nod for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The 9/11-related drama, which was just released wide Jan. 20, was admittedly a hit with audiences (it merited an A- CinemaScore), but critics… not so much. The film scored a paltry 48 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes the B- grade from EW’s own Lisa Schwarzbaum (“A polarizing load of quirkiness in Extremely Loud gunks up … what is at heart a piercing story”) seem practically charitable. Compare to the other eight Best Picture nominees, which ranged critically from a low-end 76 percent RT score (The Help, which had 196 reviews to Extremly Loud‘s 119) to a near-perfect 97 percent (The Artist, with 175 reviews). And yet! The film scored a Best Picture nom. Where does Extremely Loud fit into this mix? READ FULL STORY »

Jan 23 2012 10:32 AM ET

Pop Culture by the Numbers -- Oscar nominations 2012 edition!

by
Tags: , , , , ,
the-oscars

Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

When Jennifer Lawrence and AMPAS President Tom Sherak announce the nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards tomorrow morning, lives will change, salaries will grow instantly, and new Cinderella stories will be spun. But what of the nominees of the past? What was Oscar’s most expensive film ever nominated? Who has been recognized the most times without ever actually winning? And which actor was nominated two years in a row — even after his death? Read on…

$320 million Production cost (adjusted for inflation) of 1963′s Cleopatra, the most expensive movie ever nominated for an Oscar — even with nine nominations, that’s about $35.6 million per nomination

1939 First year an Oscar (Hammerstein II) was ever nominated for an Oscar READ FULL STORY »

Jan 14 2012 05:13 PM ET

'Angelina, could you pass the salt?': Who would YOU want at your 2012 Golden Globes table?

by
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Emma Stone, Golden Globe Awards, Television, TV
globes-seats

Image Credit: AP Images

While the Golden Globes are Hollywood’s most star-studded event, it’s actually the event planners who hold the real power in the room because they get to design the seating chart. Then again, it’s mostly a paint-by-numbers job since tradition dictates that casts are lumped together. What’s the fun in that? We’re turning it over to you, PopWatchers. If you could be lucky enough to attend the Globes tomorrow night, who would you like to have at your table?

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 4 2012 02:30 PM ET

Clooney, Pitt, Gosling to double-dip in Best Picture race? Is this mainstream entertainment?

by
Tags: ,
brad-pitt

Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon; Merie Wallace

When the Oscars agreed to expand its list of nominated films for Best Picture from 5 to 10 in 2009, it was understood that a more generous category would reward solid blockbusters that previously had just missed the cut. Films like The Bourne Ultimatum and The Dark Knight were critical successes with A-list stars, and their inclusion, it was argued, would only boost television ratings for the awards ceremony.

This year, the Academy might have its hands full of handsome A-list movie stars, as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Gosling all starred in multiple films that could potentially earn Best Picture nods under the Academy’s new award calculus (which will yield between 5 and 10 nominated films). Clooney directed The Ides of March and starred in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants. Pitt headlined Moneyball and The Tree of Life, and Gosling starred in The Ides of March and Drive. More than likely, all five films will not make the final cut, but they’re in the discussion. (Drive and The Tree of Life were left off the PGA’s list of 10 best films.) READ FULL STORY »

Dec 28 2011 10:00 AM ET

This year's pop-culture time capsule: What will be your 2011 keepsakes?

by
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Books, Music, New Girl, Revenge, TV, Videogames
iPhone4S

Image Credit: Paul Sakuma/AP Images

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, PopWatchers, is to help me put together a 2011 pop-culture time capsule. It’s been a year of change that swept from the lowest brow (Two and a Half Men) to the highest (the Arab Spring). We saw many great people pass on and many more step into the spotlight. With all this in mind, what cultural relics would you pick to communicate this strange and marvelous year to the future? Check out my picks, then add your own ideas to the mix. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 22 2011 09:23 PM ET

Angelina Jolie talks 'heavy, darker times' on '60 Minutes'

by
Tags: , , , , Movies, Television, TV
Before she raised lots of children, Angelina Jolie raised lots of eyebrows by wearing a vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck and kissing her brother but good on the mouth. On this Sunday’s edition of 60 Minutes, the actress/humanitarian/wife of Brad Pitt opens up (a little) to Bob Simon about those wilder days as well as her experiences as a first-time director of a film, the Bosnia-set romantic drama In the Land of Blood of Honey. But enough for about the latter for right now — what did she have to say about the old Angelina? “I went through heavy, darker times and I survived them,” she reveals. “I didn’t die young, so I’m very lucky.” She also makes reference to taking “too many chances” and being close to “too many dangerous things” while never quite articulating what those chances and things were. We’re guessing that’s all the tidbits she’s giving away, but maybe we’ll find out more on Sunday? That doesn’t mean that she’s completely reformed: “I’m still a bad girl,” she notes. “I still have that side of me … it belongs to Brad. Or… our adventures.”
Watch a preview of the segment below: READ FULL STORY »
Nov 14 2011 01:33 PM ET

Brad Pitt says he'll retire from acting in three years. (But we won't even be done watching 'Tree of Life' by then!)

by
Tags: , , , , , , , Movies
Brad-Pitt

Image Credit: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

Not even Harold Camping’s vision of the future could have seemed this bleak. In an interview with the UK’s version of 60 Minutes, Brad Pitt threatened claimed that he’ll retire from acting within three years.

When asked why was he ready to step down from being one of the biggest, most respected movie stars on the planet, the 47-year-old said, “I am really enjoying the producing side and development of stories and putting those pieces together. And getting stories to the plate that might have had a tougher time otherwise … I have gotten away with a few things in writing and I have been pissed off about a few things. How’s that?” What’s he pissed about exactly? “Oh, dear God. I mean, come on. I’m gonna pass on that one.” (Listen, Brad, whatever it is that upset you, we promise to make it up to you. Was it this? We totally understand. But we’ll all get through this together!) See Pitt’s interview here. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 4 2011 02:05 PM ET

'Too Much Moneyball': The true story of how the New York Yankees finally solved the big-market blues

by
Tags: , , , Movies

Critics and moviegoers alike seem to be enamored with Moneyball, the Brad Pitt movie about the small-market Oakland Athletics and the outside-the-box thinking that allowed them to compete with the sport’s Goliath, the New York Yankees. But like The Blind Side, another Michael Lewis work of nonfiction that was turned into a streamlined cinematic confection, rough edges had to be sanded, inconvenient details had to be discarded. As a result, critics can accuse filmmakers of ignoring the other side of the story. Fortunately, there are independent filmmakers willing to shine a light on those inconvenient details, in this case, those damn Yankees. In Too Much Moneyball, the team at Jest.com investigated the “system” that has helped the Bronx Bombers win 27 World Series championships. Many have tried to emulate the secret to New York’s success, but no team has been able to replicate their winning formula. Take a look inside the Yankees braintrust, and see how they reinvented the way baseball works. READ FULL STORY »

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Which will you see this weekend?