Image Credit: eilson Barnard/Getty Images; Murray Close/Lions G
Now that we’ve got most of the major players (okay… now that we’ve got our Finnick) for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we thought we’d go ahead and cast the rest of the film. Take a look at some of our picks for the film’s more minor characters below. (WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
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Image Credit: Lionsgate
The team at ScreenJunkies ruthlessly takes The Hunger Games to task in an “honest” version of the film’s trailer.
Check out the video below, where nothing that reeks of the nonsensical is spared, be it the perhaps slightly exaggerated powers trees lend Katniss in her quest for survival or the state of a “future so advanced they can conjure fire and monster dogs, but not food for the poor.”
Image Credit: Warner Bros; Alicia Gbur; Mark Davis/Getty Images
In posters for the musical drama Sparkle (opening this Friday), Jordin Sparks steps into the spotlight wearing a show-stopping $13,000 Chagoury Couture gown.
Turns out, it’s the second time around for the one-of-a-kind dress.
Wardrobe designer Ruth Carter had been on the hunt for a bombshell dress reminiscent of the one worn by Irene Cara (above, left) in the original 1976 film when she got an urgent call from Sparks. ”Jordin found it when she was visiting a showroom to look at red carpet gowns,” says Carter, who also created original costumes and sourced vintage clothing for the ’60s-set Motown movie. “They loaned it to us, which meant we couldn’t make alterations. Luckily, Jordin was losing weight, so she just walked into the sample size.”
The beaded chiffon column isn’t just sexy, it helps tell the story of Sparkle’s rise to the top. “This is her breakout dress,” Carter says. “It [not only] had to compete with the other dresses in the movie, it had to be the cherry on top of the sundae.”
After production wrapped in late 2011, the gown was returned as promised to the fashion showroom. Not realizing it would play such an important part in the movie, reps for the designer label put it back on the floor, where it was soon spotted by another young actress. In March, Hunger Games actress Leven Rambin (above, right, who played the tribute Glimmer) chose to wear the fiery dress to the Hollywood premiere of The Hunger Games.
When it comes to fashion, it seems Sparkle and Glimmer have similar taste.
–Nakisha Williams
Image Credit: Murray Close
The Olympics are almost finished, but archery’s greatest heroine is set to return this week when The Hunger Games arrives on home video. Jennifer Lawrence helped the first installment of the dystopian franchise split the box-office bulls eye, cashing in more than $400 million, and the blockbuster gets a special Saturday Blu-ray release. With midnight purchase parties, it could conceivably hurt the movies actually opening in theaters and make them… Expendable.
SUNDAY, AUG. 12
Olympics closing ceremonies and men’s basketball final, NBC
The closing ceremonies are notoriously a pot-luck affair, with the host nation dusting off every native-born international star who missed the cut for the opening act. Muse, the Who, George Michael, and the Spice Girls seem like sure things as London hands the torch to Rio de Janeiro, but don’t be surprised if Queen, the Kinks, and Annie Lennox pop in for a medley of some sort to celebrate five decades of British music. (The Rolling Stones are not expected, which somehow makes me respect them more.)
For American sports fans who annually look forward to getting up for Breakfast at Wimbledon every July, set your alarms for just before 10 a.m. ET for Breakfast with The King. That’s King LeBron James and the U.S. men’s hoops team, which faces Spain in the gold-medal game today, a rematch of the final four years ago in Beijing, where the U.S. took the gold, 118-107. READ FULL STORY »
Here’s how you know you’re about to watch an entertaining interview from The Colbert Report: Comedy Central’s tags for it include “Woody Harrelson,” “friends,” “audience interaction,” “let’s move on,” “sexual advances,” “marijuana,” and “Jay Leno.”
Last time the Hunger Games star stopped by Colbert’s show, the host ended up shaving his guest’s head. Harrelson’s visit wasn’t quite as exciting this time around — but between casually unbuttoning his shirt to reveal the name of his new Off-Broadway play, presenting Colbert with a sweaty tee he wore while “biking over” to the show that afternoon, and facetiously announcing that he’s quit drugs (“I mean, I haven’t had anything since this morning, so it’s going extremely well”), the actor does plenty to amuse in the following clip. Congratulations, Woody Harrelson: You just may be the perfect talk show guest. See for yourself below.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Target
Target has seen massive success with its designer capsule collections, now the retail giant is aiming for a bullseye with a limited-edition run of Hunger Games merchandise.
At midnight on August 18th — the same day the movie arrives on DVD and Blu-ray — a 14-carat-gold reproduction of Katniss Everdeen’s Mockingjay pin ($999), a replica of the Hunger Games heroine’s leather jacket ($349) and a lithograph signed by stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson ($699) will go on sale at Target.com.
Image Credit: Armando Franca/AP
While the Olympics don’t officially kick off until July 27, early round soccer play starts today. The U.S. women’s team, which has won gold in three of the four Olympics since women’s soccer was introduced as a sport, takes on France. Catch the match live at noon ET on NBC Sports Network or NBCOlympics.com.
We asked first-time Olympian Megan Rapinoe what makes women’s soccer great TV. “Look for me, I think I’m great TV,” she said, laughing. If you saw her grab an on-field mic and sing “Born in the U.S.A.” after scoring a goal at the 2011 World Cup, you know she’s not lying. “I think that we’re different from the past teams. I feel like they were pretty girl-next-door. We have a good mix for everyone. There are some darker players, some happy-go-lucky players,” she says. “And we’re good. And we win. And it’s always fun to root for the winning team.”*
*Especially if some of its players visit a castle where Harry Potter was filmed on their day off from training, risk injury to play Quidditch (watching defender Kelley O’Hara wipe out at 2:18 in the video below will never not be funny), and make a Katniss reference while shooting a bow and arrow. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images
All of those crazy kids’ favorite vamps, wolves, “unique” hairstyles, a bunch of promos for Fox’s fall TV lineup, and scores of unwanted brightly hued surfboards came out to party at last night’s 2012 Teen Choice Awards.
The X Factor‘s Demi Lovato and Glee‘s Kevin McHale co-hosted. Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, and Carly Rae Jepsen performed, and — get this — No Doubt sang live. Hey, it is the ’90s!
The full list of TCA winners is on page 3 of this post; my own personal winners of Fox’s two-hour telecast are below. By all means, list your own in the comments.
Choice Approximation to a Horse’s Ass
Demi Lovato’s head READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Murray Close
It’s the hottest thing in Hollywood, you guys: Splitting the final volume of a massively popular YA novel series into two feature films, thereby doubling the size of the studio’s Scrooge McDuck money pit box office receipts. Today, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay officially joined the club: Lionsgate announced Suzanne Collins’ final book in her bestselling series would be two films to be released on successive Thanksgivings in 2014 and 2015. (Other members of said club include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parts 1 and 2, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn parts 1 and 2, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, with the final two Matrix films and the middle two Pirates of the Caribbean films forming a sister club next door.)
But pulling off this kind of final book spliteroo is not simple surgery. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Newspix/Rex / Rex USA
The trinity of Hemsworth hotness will soon be complete: Luke, the oldest of the three brothers, will join Chris and Liam in Hollywood, reports Deadline. Although the first to catch the acting bug, Luke, 32, has worked exclusively in the family’s native Australia. He reportedly signed with his siblings’ management team last year and will soon have big blockbuster shoes to fill: his younger brothers Chris, 28, and Liam, 22, starred in two of this year’s highest grossing U.S. films, The Avengers and The Hunger Games, respectively. Hemsworth most recently shot Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms, a miniseries about two warring motorcycle clubs in Sydney. Try and spot him… READ FULL STORY »
