Into The New Thing

Alyson Hannigan: Willow led to Mother

2006-11-08T01:58:00.000-08:00

From News.com.au, a piece about how Willow led to Alyson getting her role in How I Met Your Mother:

Hannigan's character is based on executive producer Craig Thomas's wife Rebecca, and Marshall and Lily's antics are loosely based on Thomas's own clumsy romantic experiences.

"I didn't steal too much from her (Rebecca), but I will because she's awesome," Hannigan said.

"It is really cool to be playing somebody who's alive until she hates it and then you're like, 'Oh I don't know, sorry'."

But that is unlikely to happen since Rebecca is a huge Buffy fan and urged Thomas to watch Hannigan in the show.

"Arguably that is why we cast Alyson," Thomas said.

"None of us knew about Buffy and my wife told me to watch it.

"We became almost embarrassingly huge Buffy dorks to the point where I think Alyson is uncomfortable around us sometimes."

Hannigan said she had worried that after Buffy she set her sights too high when looking for new projects and was thankful when How I Met Your Mother came along.

"I was definitely looking for a half-hour show," she said. "It is like doing a play.

"And I really enjoy the energy that you can get from performing in front of an audience and knowing if you hit a joke or if you didn't."

Fancy squeezing into Evil Willow's corset?

2006-11-03T01:27:00.000-08:00

The Evil Willow outfit from Doppelgangland and The Wish is up for sale on, natch, Ebay - you can make it yours for $17,500. It's unclear if there's enough DNA left on the bodice to clone your own Alyson Hannigan, but it's worth a shot.

alyson hannigan
ebay
buffy

BUFFY COMES TO DOWNLOAD

2006-06-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

BBC News is reporting that Buffy is coming to iTunes as part of a download deal between Fox and Apple.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: HIMYM

2006-05-27T04:22:00.000-07:00

How I Met Your Mother has finally turned up on British TV, and its... well, disappointing. The problem is that Alyson has a natural talent for comedy - she's got the timing, she has a way of delivering a double entendre that doubles the original double, and the scene of her hanging around in a bar desperately trying to get picked up was perfect.

The trouble is, of course, the rest of the show doesn't match up. There are ideas there that really work - the concept of taking bags, leaving them on a carousel at an airport and using them to pick up girls is a neat one; the plotline that this would then lead into Department of Homeland Security style complications is pleasing. But the execution is just too poor.

We're constantly told how the US style of team-writing comedy is the model to follow - lots of eyes cast over the script, each joke given a workout by so many hands it's as buff as a beach volleyball player by the time it reaches the screen.

HIMYM, though, shows the pitfalls of that approach - rather than getting a workout from so many writers, it's like each comedic moment has been given a dressing down by a boatload of comedy mothers-in-law, and far from being buff, what reaches the screen has had its spirit broken. You can see that four or five rewrites ago, there might have been a really funny show there. Instead, you get a show sitting around on its sofa eating Doritos.

See also, of course: Date Movie

alyson+hannigan how i met your mother date movie

SMG: New photo

2006-05-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

From a Walter Chinn photoshoot; part of the 'leave Buffy behind' campaign that SMG has embarked on since the series. Trouble is, of course, every time she takes one step away from the role, there's another reworking of the DVDs or a new channel picks up syndication rights. She's going to have to really pick up speed if she wants to break from the pull of having been Buffy, and the odd photoshoot and role playing - gasp - pornstars isn't anything like enough to do it.
sarah michelle gellar

RIP: SCOTT BRAZIL

2006-04-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Scott Brazil, who directed the 'Angel' episode of Buffy has died from espiratory failure stemming from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Lyme disease. Recently Brazil has been exec producing The Shield.

BUFFY AND BEARS

2006-04-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

Lisa Spodak has been raising funds for breast cancer by getting celebrities to pose with a small teddy bear. Amongst those featured: Amber and Alyson.

NOXON AGAIN

2006-04-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Some good news from the always-worthwhile USA Today PopCandy blog: marti Noxon has just signed a deal with Touchstone TV; amongst other duties, she'll be overseeing ABC's new Rachel Griffiths series Brothers & Sistsers.

ALYSON HANNIGAN FIGHTS BAD WIND

2006-02-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Chicago Sun-Times interview

2006-02-14T08:46:00.000-08:00

Spotted in Chicago Sun-Times:

Alyson Hannigan can't take herself too seriously

February 12, 2006

BY CINDY PEARLMAN

Alyson Hannigan always wanted to experience love like in the movies.

"I truly believe the film 'Say Anything' ruined real-life romance for all women of my generation," she says. "I left that movie thinking that all guys should look like John Cusack and, frankly, they should be standing on the end of my driveway with a boom box.

"But did I get a boom-boxing in high school?" she asks. "There wasn't even an accidental boom box or even a loud radio coming my way," says Hannigan, 31, who parodies this act and all romantic comedies in her new film, "Date Movie," which opens Friday. She also stars on the CBS TV series, "How I Met Your Mother."

1. In "Date Movie," you add about a million dress sizes to your frame. What did it feel like to go from a skinny minnie to a big gal?

The good news is that my husband ("Angel" and "Buffy" star Alexis Denisof) loved me as the bigger gal and he told me, "Honey, I don't care. At any weight, I think you're real cute." I didn't gain the weight, but instead they made a large costume. I'm not sure how large the skirt I wore was but the shirt was an XXXL. I was also well-endowed in the movie. I had knockers. Can you print that word?

2. I'm not sure. We'll have to check. How about ... ?

My chest was screaming, 'Pimp my ride!' Honestly, it's cool to have huge breasts in a movie because it's a place to rest your hands and even your plate of food on. But big fake breasts are hard on the neck. And Victoria obviously doesn't know the secret about breasts that big. The bra we made was a like a huge slingshot and I was still spilling out.

3. Back when you were dating, what was your biggest gripe with men?

That they weren't John Cusack, who was always so smart and cute in movies while most boys were dorks. Plus, you don't want to put pressure on the guy, but just calling would have been nice. I know, I know, us girls. We ask for so much.

4. What was your worst date in high school?

I dated this guy for quite a while and the only thing he would do is have me meet him at Carl's Jr. That was the date. And I'd drive a long way from my house in Los Angeles to Orange County to this stupid Carl's Jr. It was pathetic because when I got there we didn't even order a meal. He'd order a cookie for both of us and we'd sit there and eat our cookies and talk. This is not the technical definition of a good date. But luckily I met my husband on "Buffy" and we were friends for years. Flirtatious friends. But we never eat cookies at Carl's Jr. Too many bad memories.

5. Who is stranger: A "Buffy" fan or an "American Pie" fanatic?

The great thing about the "Buffy" fans is they know all the lore. I'd actually ask them more questions then they would ask me. I'd get solid information from them. As for "American Pie," well, that movie is a classic now. So I'll be walking around New York or Los Angeles and some guy will scream, "Hey, band camp!" For some reason, fat guys always yell it at me. I can't figure out why, but if anyone knows, just drop me a note.

ASH: To be Elton

2006-02-01T05:53:00.000-08:00

As Giles in Buffy, he fought demons; in Anthony Stewart Head's new role, playing a sitcom character created by and based on Elton John, he'll, erm, be fighting metaphorical demons:

The project revolves around an over-the-hill gay rock star and his relationship with his long-time manager and the rest of his colourful entourage.

Apart from the words "featuring Britney Spears as a Christian conservative cook", we can't think of anything that sounds less like a fun way of spending half an hour, and we'd much rather Head got back to the important business of signing autographs at twenty quid a throw for Buffy fans.

music buffy elton john anthony stewart head

SPIN-OFF SPOTTING

2005-12-01T02:18:00.000-08:00

It looks like Ripper might be happening - although it's been on and off more times than Faith's knickers - says Moviehole:

Remember that planned “Buffy” spin-off that was set to revolve around Anthony Stewart Head’s character of Watcher Rupert Giles? It was all-set for a BBC unleashing at one stage?

How things change. But possibly, in a good way.

Head’s Giles character – for the dilettante, he was the British chap who guided Buffy the Vampire Slayer on her many adventures – will star in a “Ripper” series for DVD, says the actor.

“It’s gone from, being a series to a two-hour movie that might be part of a series of DVDs that we were talking about doing for the different characters from the shows. It’s got a lovely story, and I hope he does something wonderful with him”, Head told Buffy Magazine, reports TV Squad and Whedonesque.

There’s also DVD spin-off’s in the works with the characters of Spike (James Marsters) and Illyria (Amy Acker).

The Giles film, set in England, has been on and off for a number of years now.

EW DISAPPOINTED WITH BOX SET

2005-11-18T02:00:00.000-08:00

From Entertainment Weekly on CNN.com:

There are some things you can't state often enough. The Aston Martin DB5 was the greatest Bond car ever. "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best "Star Wars" movie.

And "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is one of the seminal TV shows of the last 50 years. In the top 10. Not open for debate.

So it's particularly noteworthy that now you can get all seven seasons, 144 episodes' worth of slayage, 40 discs' worth of ground broken by creator Joss Whedon, in one handy box.

Behold "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Collection." And behold a colossal missed opportunity.

On the surface, "Buffy" was about a pretty blonde who killed vamps every episode, with a werewolf or a demon thrown in for variety. But the greatest weapon in Whedon's formidable arsenal was metaphor. Adolescence is a breeding ground for all sorts of insecurities that can be extrapolated to end-of-the-world dilemmas: the girl no one notices who actually disappears; the picked-on nerd who might snap ... and kill; the boyfriend who totally changes once you sleep with him.

And by confronting them all, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her Scooby Gang -- Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) -- evolved and matured as they went from high school to college to real life, even to the afterlife.

"Buffy" did what all great genre fiction does. It allowed us to look at ourselves through a fantastical lens, and see who we truly are: at once stronger than we thought we could be and weaker than we'd like to let on. And, as with most great genre fiction, the establishment just didn't get it.

"Buffy" was never nominated for a best-drama Emmy, probably because it was a show about a hottie who dusted vampires. But many of us fell for the girl, and the show, with a white-hot passion.

That geek lust explains why some were disappointed with Fox's first "Buffy" DVD sets. The handful of commentary tracks, documentaries, even the occasional full script couldn't satisfy our jones for more dirt. And now, in offering a $200 collection that, let's be honest, only the diehards are gonna buy, Fox has still failed to deliver the mother lode of extras. A few new docs and an admittedly nice Whedon-hosted roundtable featuring some of "Buffy's" most valuable players don't cut it.

Where are the audition tapes, so we can see why Charisma Carpenter, Selma Blair, or Julie Benz wasn't fit to be the Slayer? Where's that first abandoned pilot, with Riff Regan playing Willow? Where are the deleted scenes? I find it hard to believe that someone as geek-to-the-core as Whedon wouldn't have saved this stuff; why not let those of us willing to pony up for this set -- and you know most will be buying these seven seasons for a second bloody time -- finally have the goods?

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a titanic achievement, one worth holding on to so you can show your children. If only "The Chosen Collection" had lived up to it.

EW Grade: B

SMG: New promo picture

2005-11-10T01:18:00.000-08:00

An early promo shot from Sarah Michelle Gellar's new movie Southland Tales. We're guessing she'll play some sexy minx here, in order to try and lose the goody-goody image she's (wrongly) been lumbered with post-Buffy. Like every film she's made, then.

BUFFY: One box, all the slayings

2005-09-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's the whole Buffy series from Xander falling off his skateboard to Anya being killed in one box.

SMG: Porn star

2005-09-24T01:21:00.000-07:00

Presumably she sees it as her last option to make some money in films: Sarah Michelle Gellar is going to make a porn flick. Okay, not quite - she's going to appear in Southland Tales, a film about making porn.

The worry? Amongst other cast members are Justin Timberlake and Mandy Moore.

AMBER BENSON: Pictures

2005-09-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

There's a feast of Amber Benson pictures from her recent outing to Outfest over on whedon.info. Stuff like this:

ROBIA LA MORTE: Calendar

2005-09-12T00:52:00.000-07:00

We're not sure if it's just a product that's going to exist simply because it's a great pun, but for 2006, you can buy a Jenny Calendar calendar.

AMBER BENSON: Stalkery musings

2005-08-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Spotted in
The Armchair Anthropologist, the joys of having familiar faces come to your coffee shop:

I'm a television fanatic and genuinely enchanted by seeing the actress who played Willow's girlfriend, Tara, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer eating a sandwich, and not just because Amber Benson has lovely skin. What can I say? I'm white trash and this is what my people do. My sister will gladly tell you all about the time that Joey Lawrence (again --"Whoa!") hit on her at a New Year's Eve party in Lake Tahoe. My other sister has boasted that Tony Hawk's son is her six-year-old daughter's boyfriend ever since her family was invited by Hawk's ex-wife, (who knew my sis in high school) to stay in one of their houses and get celebrity passes to Disneyland. My niece doesn't particularly care about the pedigree of her kindergarten boyfriend, but give her time -- she's of my ilk.

We really do recommend the whole article, mind.

AMBER BENSON: Having sex with Willow

2005-08-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Harvested from our inbox:

Amber on the episode Seeing Red:

"There'd been hints that we were going to have some sort of love scene, but I didn't really understand what the extent of that was going to be until I went in for a wardrobe fitting and Cynthia, the wardrobe supervisor, said, 'Now, what kind of modesty clothing [flesh-toned garb to simulate nudity] do you want?' I hadn't read Steve DeKnight's script yet, and I was just like, 'What are you talking about? Modest - I'm not modest - I want fully clothed!' We [Amber and Alyson] both had band tops. I had boxer shorts and she had biker shorts. We were in bed with the stupid satin sheet. I'd never experienced satin sheets before. I'd pull the sheet up, and two seconds later, she's pulling on it, and it goes down, and I'm pulling it up - it's so slick that it won't stay where you put it. It slides. So I'm like this." [Amber mimes holding the sheet to her chest for dear life.]

ALYSON HANNIGAN: No fourth pie

2005-08-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Spotted in The Sun:

By SIMON THOMPSON
Sun Online
IT has been confirmed there will be a fourth American Pie movie - but the original cast will not be returning.

The comedy trilogy made stars out of Seann William Scott, Jason Biggs Tara Reid and Alyson Hannigan, and single handedly revived the gross out comedy genre.

However, the new movie will star a cast of virtual unknowns and will bypass cinemas, going straight to DVD.

American Pie: Band Camp will follow Stifler's little brother Matt as he heads off to the summer get together to try and copy his brother's lucky streak with women.

Instead he meets the girl of his dreams and decides to change his wild ways.

Although the main characters from the first three films will not be present, there will be a cameo from Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas).

American Pie: Band Camp is expected to be released on DVD in December.

It's going to be lacking a certain something, isn't it?

Buy the original trilogy (sure, it's rubbish, but you can't deny you've pulled the mental image up more than once, haven't you?)

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mysterious Skin Review

2005-08-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Monterey County Herald by way of the Washington Post and others:

'Skin' deep

Indie filmmaker Gregg Araki comes of age with fascinating, disturbing 'Mysterious Skin'

By DESSON THOMSON

The Washington Post

Mysterious Skin" is a helter-skelter ride of the soul, an unblinking, white-knuckle crash landing into the mushy mysteries of the subconscious.

Gregg Araki's movie, which makes an ingenious, dark metaphor out of extraterrestrial visitation, is not for the fainthearted, the squeamish or the inflexibly decent.

It plunges headlong and unequivocally into themes of pedophilia, prostitution, rape and I haven't even mentioned alien probing.

While watching this movie, I scribbled the word "whoa" five times into my notebook.

Two young men, in voice-over, recount their traumatic stories, side by side, as it were.

One is 18-year-old Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet), who has no conscious explanation for two blackout experiences in his childhood, one of which has caused him to have spontaneous nosebleeds when he's under stress.

He has also suffered nightmares and wet beds. In his teen years, he sees a television show about alien abductions and comes to believe he may have been the victim of an encounter himself.

He contacts one of the women interviewed on the show and discovers she shares many of his experiences.

The other storyteller is Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a gay hustler in his late teens, whose formative sexual experiences consisted of pleasuring himself at the age of 8, while watching his promiscuous mother (Elisabeth Shue) in an intimate encounter.

At the same tender age, he also had consensual (according to him) sex with his male baseball coach Heider (Bill Sage).

Sick of the two-bit transactions he's having in his Kansas home town, he moves to New York City. But his risky behavior there sets him up for almost certain disaster.

"Where people have a heart," observes Neil's best friend, Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg), "Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole."

Why these two men's histories are in the same drama becomes apparent later.

But until that time, we watch -- fascinated, appalled and powerfully moved -- as they recount whole lives spent in a downward spiral.

Brian is so traumatized he has been unable to enjoy any kind of intimacy, but Neil, who believes he feels a liberated awakening about his sexuality, walks without hesitation toward sexual self-obliteration.

Each story oddly complements and fortifies the other, in terms of gearing up the dread, the desperation and the suspense.

And when they converge, the boys' fusion of anger, bitterness, regret and revelation is mesmeric.

If you have thrived from your experiences with any combination of filmmakers David Lynch, Todd Solondz, David Cronenberg and Larry Clark, you might be prime audience material for this film.

And yet, Araki, who made such thematically intense and sexually graphic films as "The Living End," "Totally Fed Up" and "The Doom Generation," ratchets things even more acutely than those directors.

But he does it with silky, inspired skill. Despite the hard-edged, controversial subject matter, he makes you view the taboo from another perspective.

In those moments, you at least temporarily reconsider your paradigm for morality.

When Coach Heider seduces the boy, yes, it is pedophilia and a deeply immoral offense.

But in the context of Araki's film, something else is happening. The 8-year-old Neil, who has a big crush on his coach, has partly engineered this seduction, and he's perhaps even more lost in the passionate moment than Heider.

But whether Neil really had the halcyon experience he thought he did becomes a later matter.

Corbet is note perfect as the crushed, anguished Brian, who's determined to understand what has happened to him; and Gordon-Levitt's harrowing turn as Neil surely marks him for even greater roles ahead.

There's something extraordinarily tender about him as he takes you through his personal nightmare. (He has come a long way since playing Tommy Solomon in TV's "3rd Rock From the Sun.")

Their performances are so vital for the dangerous brinkmanship of this movie.

And behind the camera, Araki is the steadying force, hands firmly on the wheel of this bucking, swerving vehicle.

His unblinking conviction makes this movie, at least by its own standards, a disturbing triumph.GO!

'MYSTERIOUS SKIN' (Unrated, 99 minutes) -- Contains intense thematic material, pedophilia, violence, rape, obscenity and sexual scenes

Taut 'Skin' is brutal yet brilliant

'Skin' is both touching, unnerving

BY WESLEY MORRIS

The Boston Globe

The two Kansas boys who undergo a traumatizing sexual experience in the haunting new movie "Mysterious Skin" grow into young men troubled in radically different ways.

Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) becomes a gay hustler, a feral viper whose innocent eyes and drawn, boyish face suggest that his viciousness is just a pose.

But it's impenetrable all the same: He's equipped to hurt people.

Brian (Brady Corbett) turns asexual and reroutes his psychic disfigurement into a geeky, almost religious obsession with extraterrestrials.

He believes he was abducted by aliens and spends the movie trying to uncover the nature of the abduction.

His search leads him to another alleged abductee, played poignantly by Mary Lynn Rajskub, and eventually back to Neil, his Little League teammate all those years ago.

Set mostly in the late 1980s, "Mysterious Skin" traverses a pulpy, punky landscape of ache and rage.

The catalyst for that pain is the man who molested the boys, generically but indelibly called Coach -- played with surpassing tenderness by Bill Sage, who here sports a killer Mark Spitz mustache.

The scenes of the crime are discreetly, tastefully, almost lovingly filmed, mostly from the man's perspective. (It's one of the movie's more audacious suggestions that the teenage Neil is loveless because Coach stole both his innocence and his heart.)

Director Gregg Araki adapted "Mysterious Skin" from the evocative 1995 novel by Scott Heim.

The book worked hard to keep Brian's memory of what happened to him suspensefully opaque, while Araki focuses more on illustrating the evolution of Neil and Brian.

But more significantly, Heim's book has given Araki's filmmaking a new sense of narrative purpose.

The film is actually a major artistic breakthrough for Araki, a onetime bad boy of independent filmmaking.

Its psychological intelligence, attention to emotional currents, and humanity are surprises.

Could this be the same man who created the hateful wasteland known as "The Living End"? That movie was a long time ago (1992), and so were his others, including "The Doom Generation" and "Splendor," sensationalist films that sullied American art houses in the 1990s.

Araki's attraction to the danger in Heim's novel makes sense. The director used to be among a group of troublemaking gay directors (including Todd Haynes) who used controversy to combat artistic complacency.

Haynes evolved into "Safe" and "Far From Heaven." Araki long remained stuck in nihilistic petulance.

He's 45 now, and "Mysterious Skin" is his first movie of this millennium.

The usual Araki elements are here (hustlers, rebels, uproar, the absurd), but now he appears to be working with focus and compassion.

His movie is sensual and comic, bizarre and piercing, brutal and otherworldly, like Pedro Almodovar dreaming in the key of Gus Van Sant.

Araki has never been an actor's director (he rarely hires trained ones), but the performances here are generally strong (an exception is Michelle Trachtenberg, sadly miscast as Neil's artist-freak best friend).

Corbett does deceptively smart work as Brian, who is closed-off, weird, and remote in just the way you'd expect someone preoccupied with aliens to be.

Because Levitt is so volcanic, it's easy to overlook Corbett's sensitive work.

And Levitt, a long way from "Third Rock From the Sun," is very good in a part that calls for truculence and sorrow.

When the film goes violently bleak toward the end, Levitt follows, body and soul.

He shows us Neil's aching spirit, letting out a great, primal howl at one point that could have come from James Dean.

It's a shout that can't be lost on Araki. The rebel has finally found his cause.GO!

Mysterious Skin

Directed by: Gregg Araki

Written by: Araki, adapted from the novel by Scott Heim

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbett, Bill Sage, Elisabeth Shue, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jeff Licon

Running time: 99 minutes

Rated: NC-17 (Language, scenes of simulated sex, and one sequence of child molestation)

Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorrisglobe.com.

'Mysterious Skin,' deft and haunting

By ANN HORNADAY

The Washington Post

Of all the representations of pedophilia in movies recently, from "Mystic River" to Kevin Bacon's powerful performance as a recovering abuser in "The Woodsman" to Todd Solondz's treatment of the subject in the unsettling, if condescending, "Palindromes," "Mysterious Skin" might be the most unflinching depiction of how sexual predation reverberates over time, like toxic ripples through a pond.

In this sad, often unnervingly graphic adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim, former child TV star Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock From the Sun") delivers a haunting, uncompromising performance as Neil McCormick, a young man who at 8 was seduced by his Little League coach.

Now a gay hustler cruising for tricks in his tiny home town in Kansas, Neil has the half-lidded, sneering gaze of a teen-ager who has embraced nihilism, not as a fashion statement but as a survival mechanism.

He's shut off and shut down, careering down a frightening path of unsafe sex and increasingly violent encounters that seem to be leading inexorably to his self-destruction.

Meanwhile Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) is heading down his own path, searching for answers to the pivotal episode in his young life, when he witnessed a UFO landing and was abducted by aliens.

Narrated by both characters as young men, "Mysterious Skin" traces how their lives intersected as kids, and what led to the mysteries they're living with as adults.

Director Gregg Araki, until now best known for such transgressive gay-themed underground films as "The Doom Generation" and "Nowhere," has made the most mature movie of his career, one that deftly cuts not only between the stories of these wildly different young men, but also between past and present within those stories.

Capturing 1980s suburban ennui just as vividly as early-'90s New York, Araki suffuses both worlds with a dreamlike quality, one that at times threatens to make "Mysterious Skin" more like a parable than realistic drama.

Similarly, its characters often speak in improbably well-turned phrases that seem more literary than lived. (For some reason, the plummiest lines are given to the film's two female leads -- Elisabeth Shue, who plays Neil's blowzily unaware mother, and Michelle Trachtenberg as his bad-girl best friend.)

Still, for its occasional ponderousness, there is a terrible, terrifying honesty at the core of "Mysterious Skin" that will make it chillingly recognizable to some viewers and important to recognize for others.

Araki spares no detail in showing how Neil's coach (Bill Sage) cultivates his young victim, taking him home to a wholesome-looking ranch house full of video games, toys and variety packs of sugary cereals.

The scenes between the coach and young Neil (played by Chase Ellison) are sickening, as are the ways Neil later copes with his experience, becoming a kind of predator in his own right.

If "Mysterious Skin" becomes a bit schematic in keeping Neil and Brian apart and then bringing them together as adults (wouldn't they have known each other all along in such a small town?), and if it seems too deeply steeped in its literary provenance, it is still a startling portrayal of how the cycle of abuse plays itself out in the lives of its victims, who are in danger of either sliding into nothingness or becoming perpetrators themselves.

"Mysterious Skin" would be tragic if it weren't for the glint of redemptive hope Araki offers at the end, but its pervading mood of sadness nonetheless suggests that some wounds never heal.GO!

-- "Mysterious Skin" (99 minutes) is not rated. It contains graphic scenes of sexuality, sexual violence, profanity and drug use.

'MYSTERIOUS SKIN' • Featuring:Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Jeff Licon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Sage, directed by Gregg Araki • Where:Osio in Monterey • Rating:Unrated, contains intense thematic material, pedophilia, violence, rape, obscenity and sexual scenes • Running time:99 minutes

ALYSON HANNIGAN/JAMES MARSTERS: Gossipy Spike movie

2005-08-06T05:31:00.000-07:00

Spotted on MTV.com - Movies - News - Movie File:

Alyson Hannigan made a name for herself telling band-camp stories in the "American Pie" films, but the actress' fans also remember her for kicking some serious butt as Willow on the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show. Now she's saying there's talk of reviving the show for the big screen. "There's talk of Spike movies, or a Spike movie," Hannigan reported of efforts to bring back James Marsters' bloodsucking breakout character. Hannigan said she won't be in the movie, and Marsden's manager said the project is "nothing we have on our radar at this moment." ...

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mysterious Skin Review

2005-08-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Indianapolis Star:

Film about child sexual abuse dares viewer to look at subject differently

Mysterious Skin

• Cast: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Sage, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Chase Ellison, George Webster.

• Location: Key Cinemas.

• Running time: 99 minutes.

• Rating: Not rated; language, violence, nudity, strong sexuality, drugs.

By Christopher Lloyd
christopher.lloyd@indystar.com

Haunted, harrowing and seductive, "Mysterious Skin" is one of the most audacious films ever made about the sexual abuse of children. Directed and written by Gregg Araki (based on the novel by Scott Heim ), "Skin" is at once disturbing and beguiling. It dares to show both the charismatic power an abuser can have over a child, and the insidious effects that abuse has, burrowing its way so deep it resides in the bones.

"Skin" follows two boys from a tiny Kansas town who barely know each other, even though they play on the same Little League team. Neil is the best player on the club, outgoing and good-looking, and he quickly becomes the coach's favorite. Brian is runty and wears Coke-bottle glasses, can't play a lick, and is so quiet and introverted it's like he's trying to erase himself.

In the summer of their eighth year, Brian and Neil each has an experience, at once entrancing and traumatic, that will set the courses of their lives in very different directions and yet bind them together.

Neil has a lengthy sexual relationship with the coach of his team -- a blond, handsome all-American type who entices with the lure of sweet treats stocked in his cabinets and the role of a father figure missing from the boy's broken home.

Brian, after seeing what he believes is a UFO, starts having dreams involving aliens with buggy eyes and snaky fingers stroking his face. His frequent blackouts and nosebleeds contribute to the mystery.

Flash 10 years later. Brian (Brady Corbet ) has become a reclusive college student who still lives with his mom and spends his nights scribbling drawings of his alien nightmares. After seeing a TV report about a nearby farmgirl named Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub ) who claims to have been abducted by aliens, Brian seeks her out and she encourages him to unlock what she claims are suppressed memories of his own UFO encounter.

A dangerous road

Neil has chosen a darker road and becomes a street hustler. Sitting in a gay bar with his sycophantic friend Eric (Jeffrey Licon), Neil coldly estimates that he's been paid to have sex with every man in the room. He can't wait to get out of town and join his best friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) in New York, where both greater opportunity and danger await.

Neil is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a powerful and charismatic performance that will stun those who know him only for his role as the geeky kid on the goofball TV comedy "Third Rock From the Sun." Sleepy-eyed and usually stoned, Neil slouches nonchalantly through life, willing to sell his lean young body to older men -- not because he likes it, but because it's the only thing he knows. He regards his seductive powers much like an Old West cowboy felt about his six-gun -- reliably within reach whenever needed.

The most difficult scenes to watch, but also the most compelling, detail Neil's childhood relationship with the coach. The older man is played by Bill Sage, who is so naturalistic and nonthreatening that it actually becomes difficult for the audience to generate ire for him, despite the despicable things he does to a little boy. Young Neil is portrayed by Chase Ellison in a knockout turn that conveys the innocent fascination -- and even twisted affection -- a child can develop for his abuser.

Araki stages the physical interaction between man and boy so masterfully that it's only with careful examination that one realizes they're not actually coming into contact with each other.

"Mysterious Skin" is an amazing cinematic experience because it takes a societal ill that evokes near-universal repulsion and makes you think about it in daringly unexpected ways -- some of which may well disturb viewers.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mysterious Skin Review

2005-08-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

Spotted in World Socialist Website:

Mysterious Skin, written and directed by Gregg Araki, based on a novel by Scott Heim

Mysterious Skin is the latest film by Gregg Araki, an American independent filmmaker often identified with radical gay cinema. Araki came to prominence with three movies that were considered landmarks in “New Queer Cinema,” a term coined by the media in the early 1990s for low-budget, gay-themed movies. The director professes an interest rather in “polymorphous sexuality.”

Araki summarizes these early films, which he refers to as his “teen apocalypse trilogy,” as depictions of “the chaotic violent world of teens, where bad things happen unexpectedly.”

That bad things happen in an Araki film is an understatement. Totally F***ed Up (1993) is the story of teenage angst and suicide. The Doom Generation’s (1995) contains a brutal, if cartoonish, scene of rape and castration (heads and limbs are also blown apart in graphic detail) and the bloody finale of Nowhere (1997) features a character being transformed into a giant cockroach.

Although Araki abandons some of his trademark outrageousness in Mysterious Skin and considers this a more “mainstream” project, the movie nevertheless still tends toward the sexually and emotionally extreme, and not in particularly enlightening or useful ways. Based on a 1995 novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin focuses on two Kansas adolescents, the victims of sexual molestation, and the parallel stories of how they process the experience.

“The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace,” says Brian (Brady Corbet). A decade after the rape, he explains the time lapse, as well as his frequent nosebleeds and fainting spells, as the work of alien abductors. Emotionally disfigured, he develops a quirky relationship with Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub), a teenage alien abduction theorist who is probably also repressing memories of abuse.

On the other hand, Neil (Joseph Gordon Levitt) not only remembers his molestation but thinks he was in love with his victimizer—the boys’ Little League coach (Bill Sage). His consciously chosen career, prostitution, allows him to exalt in the sexual power he exerts over the older men who pay for his services.

Neil has a reasonable support system that includes a loving, hip, but promiscuous mother (Elisabeth Shue) and a female “soul mate,” Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg). He is cold to the more normal love offered him by his best friend Eric. Both Wendy and Eric fear the dangers attendant to Neil’s profession. “Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole,” says Wendy, after one of her many lectures on the deadly risks of unsafe sex.

In their separate worlds, Brian and Neil exist as emotional lepers. As the film progresses, Brian develops a compulsion to uncover the truth about his childhood that leads him to a life-changing encounter with Neil. When the latter reveals the horrific details of their shared abuse, recovery becomes a possibility.

Araki has a talent for directing actors and at its best, the film exhibits moments of real sensitivity. Neil and Brian are affecting, as are Neil’s mother (Shue), Wendy, Avalyn and Eric. Performances are enhanced by an intelligent musical score and adept cinematography. But the emotional energy generated is truncated and marred by the film’s relative flatness. More serious is the fact that the movie registers its observations with sexually manipulative and violent imagery. In short, not much happens dramatically except when the film pumps up on gratuitous shock-tactics.

In justifying this distasteful aspect of Mysterious Skin, Araki states: “I want the film to let people go through what these boys went through and feel their suffering. I want to give people something to think about.” The question is: what induces people to think? Making an audience squirm at provocative sex has nothing necessarily to do with encouraging thought. It’s a peculiar form of preaching to the choir, which tends to reinforce the viewer’s existing prejudices. One walks out of the theater with as little or as much insight into child abuse—and sexual orientation—as when one sat down to watch the film.

Araki’s limited but belligerent presentation of sex does not, contrary to his opinion, make the director a forthright, sex pioneer. The increasing repression faced by homosexuals is a legitimate subject for artistic treatment. To ask how far explicit sex and pointless exoticism advances this struggle does not imply a prudish adaptation to hypocritical, bourgeois mores. Mysterious Skin’s innumerable, graphic sex scenes between Neil and his clients are unnecessary. They are clearly a substitute for dealing in a more substantial way with the film’s central theme—the variegated repercussions of pedophilic sexual abuse.

Furthermore, the film’s treatment of this sensitive topic borders not only on pornography, but sadism. In an interview with suicidegirls.com, Araki reveals that Neil’s move to New York was calculated solely as a plot device to augment the level of danger involved in his prostitution. In small-town Kansas, Neil maxes out on clients—all average “Joes.” New York City offers far more varied and exotic encounters, culminating in Neil’s vicious rape by a deranged psycho from Brighton Beach. This last is a repulsive scene suggesting an alarming degree of insensitivity and indifference on the part of the film’s creators. Such depictions of torture, whatever the director’s intentions, emanate from a general process of brutalization in the culture and have the effect of further inuring the population to suffering.

This raises the problem of how an artist is to oppose a profoundly antidemocratic and anti-gay administration in Washington. Araki’s cinematic equivalent of shouting angrily at the top of his lungs and ripping off everyone’s clothes could not be less effective. It has all of the impact of streaking in front of the White House. American culture is awash with artists who specialize in this type of criticism, which is not criticism at all. Such antics are essentially the “left-wing” of media sensationalism and tabloidism. Lurking underneath is a demoralized attitude that anti-gay bias is persuasive and cannot be successful challenged. In a statement that exudes more than a whiff of revenge, Araki told RadioFree.com: “My goal with the movie is to devastate people.”

Araki has missed an opportunity to delve into what is only hinted at in Mysterious Skin: a dead-end society, where in the forgotten towns and impersonal cities, loneliness and alienation—and sexual dysfunction—are widespread. More could have been made of Neil’s mother, a good-hearted, but lost and desperate soul. One only catches glimpses of Brian’s family, whose Betty Crocker mom is oblivious to her son’s classic symptoms of sexual abuse, writ large as a billboard. A state of acute denial persists as her family implodes. Attempting to unveil the social circumstances responsible for this misery would have yielded a more enduring work. The movie’s timeframe is referred to rather than shown dramatically—the film’s timelessness is part of the same lack of interest in concrete conditions.

In several interviews, Araki states that child abuse has become a cliché. Despite massive attention paid to the problem by the media, with three-ring circuses like the Michael Jackson trial, and television programs, such as “Law and Order,” there exists no empathy or understanding within the general population, according to the director. This is no doubt true.

Child abuse is a social problem. It has been reduced to a cliché in a cinema and media that can only explain any dysfunction in society as originating in individual neurosis or “evil.” The pedophile is a monster, non-human—full stop. Complexities of life are boiled down to individual psychic experiences. How far outside this orbit is Araki? Although he introduces certain ambiguities—i.e., whether Neil’s sexual orientation is innate or conditioned—Araki adopts the same general template.

Tragedies such as child abuse are real tragedies. But it is necessary to explain the role the present state of society plays in making them possible. There is nothing anti-establishment or original about this outlook in the accepted formula that individual traumas in childhood, rather than a social order at the end of its rope, create the world’s problems.

That there is an audience for this line of reasoning is underscored by the wide critical acclaim heaped on the film. The fact that many reviewers warn that Mysterious Skin is not for the faint of heart does not stop them, in many cases, from issuing hearty recommendations. To please this crowd, the artist cannot divert far enough away from the more challenging task of social analysis—even if it means crossing the boundary between art and pornography. By uncritically projecting on screen their own confusions, filmmakers like Araki end up, with works such as Mysterious Skin, encouraging retrograde fascinations.

BUFFYVERSE: New series

2005-08-02T01:13:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Philadelphia Daily News:

Boreanaz is also part of another group of returning favorites. The former "Angel" star, whose character was launched on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," is just one of a number of former "Buffyverse" denizens who'll be working this fall.

Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow, is co-starring in CBS' "How I Met Your Mother," while Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia on both "Buffy" and "Angel," is joining the cast of UPN's "Veronica Mars."

Nicholas Brendon, who was Buffy's friend Xander, will be dealing with diners, not demons, in Fox's "Kitchen Confidential," while James "Spike" Marsters will show up as a completely different kind of bad guy - without the English accent and the bleached hair - in the WB's "Smallville."

Overbrook Park's Seth Green, who since his stint as Willow's werewolf boyfriend Oz has worked steadily on everything from the "Austin Powers" movies and indie films to the Cartoon Network's "Robot Chicken," will settle down in a slightly more conventional role in ABC's buddy sitcom "Four Kings."

However all these new projects turn out, the actors will likely face questions for the rest of their careers about the roles that first brought them to our attention.

Even if they weren't particularly memorable.

Heather Graham, who despite a stint on "Scrubs" last season, is still more known for movies than TV, will be starring in ABC's midseason comedy, "Emily's Reasons Why Not."

Her network bio mentions a stint in "Twin Peaks," though not one even most TV critics appear to have remembered.

One finally asked what she'd done on the show.

"Oh, I was Annie Blackburn," she said. "I'm not positive that was my last name, but I was Peggy Lipton's sister. I tried to commit suicide. I was a nun, and I was Kyle MacLachlan's love interest.

"And I think we went on a boat and we made out, and we started a relationship.

"It was very, very far towards the end of the show," she added.

Hey, laugh if you like, but there may come a day when Boreanaz will have piled up enough other roles that he'll actually have to explain to a group of professional couch potatoes that he once played "a vampire with a soul."

AMBER BENSON: Shadowplay interview

2005-08-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

Spotted on The Comic Wire:

Certain entertainers seem to revisit the same milieu again and again-- whether they choose to or not. It may be fate, or perhaps destiny, but these genre "niches" seem to bring these artists luck. Steven Spielberg started his career with aliens ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), had his biggest success with aliens ("E.T."), and is currently enjoying a huge box office hit this summer thanks to aliens ("War of the Worlds"). Between "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams," and "For Love of the Game," Kevin Costner has cornered the market on sentimental baseball flicks. For actor-director-writer Amber Benson though, her "lucky charm" seems to be vampires.

While she began her career as a professional actress at a young age, Benson is best known for playing the character of Tara on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" television series. Since finishing with that role, however, Benson has co-written (with Christopher Golden) several comic book stories for Dark Horse's Buffy-licensed line, she co-wrote and directed the animated "Ghosts of Albion" series for the BBC website, and wrote/directed/acted in the live-action feature "Chance." For her latest project, though, it's back to vampires as she writes a tale about young bloodsuckers for the four-issue "Shadowplay" miniseries coming this September from IDW Publishing.

The format of this miniseries is a bit unique: each issue contains two separate stories that run through all four issues. Benson's story is called "Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues" with art provided by Ben Templesmith ("30 Days of Night"). The second vampire-centric story is called "Shunt" and is written by Christina Z ("Witchblade") with art by Ashley Wood ("Metal Gear Solid"). CBR News was fortunate enough to catch up with Benson and Templesmith to find out more about this intriguing collaboration.

Benson began with a quick explanation of the project's origin. "'Shadowplay' actually came about because Steve Niles approached me to do a few issues of his '30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales' comic. He's a very cool guy and I really liked his '30 Days of Night' series, so I was totally excited to be working with him. But part way through the process, things kinda fell apart. Steve gave us his blessing to continue working on the project, so Ben and I decided to finish the work we'd started and the whole thing metamorphosed into 'Shadowplay.'"

As for her story in particular, Benson said, "'Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues' is all about a little boy named Pinwheel who gets sucked (literally) into the vampiric world against his will. All he wants is to be human again and go home, but he finds himself trapped in a David Copperfieldian-type scenario where he's forced to join Demon Father John's gang of vampire children.

Benson said she has no idea where the idea for the story exactly came from, but that the title flashed into her mind and the Pinwheel's story unfolded from there. "I've always been fascinated by the idea of the failsafe point and what happens after you cross it," said Benson. "And that's what happens to Pinwheel: he crosses over the point of no return, but refuses to accept that his fate is sealed."

For someone who is fairly new to the comic industry, Benson has come a long way in a short amount of time. According to the writer, her experiences in the world of filmmaking have aided her greatly in this endeavor. "Writing a screenplay is similar to writing a comic book. Actually, comic writing is akin, I think, to the art of storyboarding, which is uber-important to the filmmaking process. Once I realized that, I definitely wasn't as nervous about writing my first comic with Chris [Golden - a 'Willow & Tara' one-shot].

"I was very lucky to learn the comic book ropes from Chris Golden. He basically put me through comic book writing boot camp when we did the 'Willow and Tara' stuff for Dark Horse. Afterward, I felt completely comfortable in the world of comic writing. The more I do, the better I think (and hope) my stuff gets."

It would appear that Templesmith would agree with this assessment. "Her scripts are a breeze to work on though: detailed but open enough to allow me a little experimentation, which I'm definitely doing with the colour," Templesmith told CBR News. "I wanted to have the guts to use true grey scale (with more vivid colour highlights) for ages and she's given me that chance."

Benson is also excited to be working with Templesmith on this project, and sounds pleased with what they've achieved. "I was very lucky to get to collaborate with Ben," said Benson. "He's an amazingly talented artist and I think the work he's done on Demon Father John is fantastic. He actually brought tears to my eyes at one point. I just love his stuff."

With regards to vampires being Benson's "magical milieu," she responded, "For some strange reason, the cult of vampire has become an integral part of my life. I guess it's just karma for being such an Anne Rice fan as a teenager. My love for Lestat and Louis has followed me into adulthood. But seriously, I think there's always something new to be found in the vampire mythology and I just dig as hard as I can to make it interesting to the readers and myself. Obviously, my time on 'Buffy' opened the door to all this vampire stuff, but I don't regret any of it, no matter how odd my life has become."

As for Templesmith, his decision to draw another vampire-based comic came down to the kind of story Benson wrote. "More than anything else, I've had comments about the kiddies I draw-- the vampire-type kiddies," said Templesmith. "It was my idea to do that as much as we did on '30 Days of Night.' There's just something more creepy about the nasty kiddies. I love drawing them. Let's just say there's plenty of kiddies in this-- has them in spades and that does it for me.

"That makes me sound really sick, doesn't it? Heh…"

When asked how he differentiates the bloodsuckers in this story with the ones from "30 Days," the artist responded that the Pinwheel vampires are "very different. More classic vampires really. Not so ghoulish-- more defined incisor teeth, etc. Slightly different look overall for them. The art in general is a bit clearer-- more inked/definite, and the colours should be a bit of a departure. The '30 Days' vamps were meant to be grotesque distortion-- lots of jagged teeth, almost gouls in appearance more than anything else. These guys are something different to that, really."

Both Templesmith and Benson are excited for the book to hit stands, but in the meantime, it appears that each of them have plenty to keep them busy. Benson said, "Chris Golden and I have a novel coming out in November from Del Rey called, 'Ghosts of Albion: Accursed.' I wrote and directed a new film called 'Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics' which I am in post-production on. And another film I acted in called 'Race You To The Bottom' just appeared at Outfest in LA."

Templesmith ran down his laundry list of upcoming projects as well: "'Fell' with Warren Ellis of course, and a miniseries that's ending up going through Image apparently that'll be announced soon, so I won't say much more. And hopefully another monthly (or semi-monthly thing) from IDW called 'Wormwood,' if the gods are kind to me…and the sleep deprivation doesn't kill me. This would be a more personal thing, offbeat crazy stuff-- like a Guinness-drinking, slightly black, horror version of the old Doctor Who, but he sleeps with his companions, is a bit of a bastard, and already happens to be dead. I've had him for years and he's already appeared in LOFI magazine periodically.

"There's probably other stuff I'm forgetting, but perhaps I'm repressing the rest, or I'll go mad and my head will explode."

As no one wants Templesmith shrapnel on their clothes, suffice it to say that "Shadowplay" is a 32 page book with a cover price of $3.99 that arrives in stores this September.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Dive From Clausen's Pier interview

2005-08-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

Spotted in South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Michelle Trachtenberg isn't the one who makes The Dive From Clausen's Pier in her new Lifetime movie.

She's taking a major leap of another kind, however. Buffy's little sister is growing up.

Adapted from a best-selling novel, Dive casts 19-year-old Trachtenberg, formerly of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Carrie Beal, who plans to break off her engagement to her childhood sweetheart after a Memorial Day picnic with friends. At the lakeside gathering, however, Mike (Will Estes, American Dreams), makes an ill-advised dive into shallow water, resulting in paralysis.

Confused over whether she should stay in a relationship she had planned to end, Carrie bolts from her Wisconsin hometown to New York, where she quickly falls into an affair with an older man (Sean Maher, Brian's Song).

Trachtenberg says she relished playing Carrie, a young woman going through a painful passage in her life, even as the actress herself is making a professional transition into adult roles.

"What attracted me to Carrie is that she is so flawed and realistic," Trachtenberg says. "She has problems that people deal with on a daily basis. I don't mean everyone has a fiance who is suddenly in a life-threatening accident, but everyone has to make sacrifices and choices in her life.

"Carrie is closer to me in maturity level than other characters I've played in the past. I was attracted to her strengths and the way she handles the situations she finds herself in. It takes a lot of guts to leave everything you know and go out on a limb."

The role also calls for some tasteful but sexy love scenes with Maher and Estes, and she says she's ready to leave behind those naive teens she has played so successfully to date.

"It feels very natural and organic for me to play a character like Carrie right now, because I'm not a 15- or 16-year-old anymore with huge insecurities," she says. "I know how to talk to boys. I appreciate parts like Ice Princess and other past roles, but Carrie is sort of a transitional character, testing out the waters, seeing if I felt comfortable being more mature."

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: ICE PRINCESS REVIEW

2005-08-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Playstation Magazine:

IMDb assures me that Michelle Trachtenberg is 20 years old, and yet she projects such an air of dazed teenage gawkiness in this film that I feel I should be cuffed with a sex offender GPS anklet just for looking at her.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Geek Love

2005-08-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

Aly's character from American Pie comes in sixth in JoBlo's Geek Top Ten:

6. Michelle Flaherty - AMERICAN PIE (1999)

"This one time at Band Camp...." ....there lived the only girl to crack the top ten. Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) is a perfectly written character. Her constant lip flapping and general annoyance throughout the film are enough to drive a deaf man insane. Which is why we were absolutely floored when it was time for her confession about inserting a musical instrument into her privates. It was the conversational equivalent to beer goggles. You immediately forget that this woman is the queen of losers and her barrage of boring Band Camp stories. This girl is now a hottie and there's nothing you can do about it.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Interview

2005-07-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Spotted on Zap2it:

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The character Alyson Hannigan plays in the new CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother" is based on co-creator Craig Thomas' wife -- who, on some level, may be responsible for her husband casting the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum.

In the show, Hannigan plays Lily, a close friend of the main character, Ted (Josh Radnor) and the new fiancee of Ted's best friend Marshall (Jason Segel, "Freaks and Geeks"). Thomas describes her as "very self-assured ... more in control" than Marshall, who's based on himself.

"[She] kind of wants the Marshall character to kind of step up and be more aggressive and confident, but also secretly, I think, kind of likes wearing the pants in the relationship a little bit," Thomas says, implying things are not that different between him and his wife, Rebecca.
Hannigan says she didn't meet Rebecca until after she started work on "How I Met Your Mother's" pilot, "so I didn't steal too much from her. But I will."

Rebecca is also an "enormous 'Buffy' fan," says Carter Bays, who created "How I Met ..." with Thomas and on whom Radnor's character is based. "And she got both of us into it, and ..."

"Yeah, arguably that's why we cast Alyson," Thomas adds. "None of us knew about 'Buffy,' and my wife said, 'Watch "Buffy."' And we became almost embarrassingly huge 'Buffy' dorks to the point where I think Alyson is uncomfortable around us sometimes."

"Extremely," Hannigan deadpans.

For her part, Hannigan says her real-life counterpart is "awesome," and she's looking forward to playing the TV version of her in the coming season ("How I Met Your Mother" will air at 8:30 p.m. ET Mondays in the fall).

"It's really cool to be playing somebody who's alive, I think," Hannigan says. "Until she hates it. And then you're like, 'Oh, I don't know. Sorry.'"

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Interview

2005-07-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Chicago Sun-Times:

Witchy woman fun as ever

July 21, 2005

BY DOUG ELFMAN TELEVISION CRITIC
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- On "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Alyson Hannigan played a Jewish lesbian witch, and she used her soft-spoken delivery to eke out lines such as, "I'm so evil. And skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay." But "Buffy" wasn't a No. 1 show, so it took 1999's "American Pie" to introduce Hannigan to a nation of moviegoers.

In "Pie," she was the redhead who told a boy about a sexual escapade with a flute by saying, "This one time, at band camp. ..." Later she straddled that same boy and screamed, "Say my name, bitch!" In the third "Pie" movie, she announced, "I just shoved a trumpet in [an uncomfortable place]. Aren't instruments fun?"

On screen, what makes Hannigan's sexual playfulness amusing and more everyday cuddly than the dominants we see in roles filled by, say, Linda Fiorentino is that Hannigan looks as if she's barely aware of sex, even at age 30. It must be her steady meter of a happy voice that pulls this off. Or maybe it's the childlike swirl of joy and discovery that twirls in her eyes.

Either way, she has a new fall show headed for CBS that makes use of this skill. It's a sitcom called "How I Met Your Mother," and in the pilot, her character has sex with her man on a kitchen floor. A mishap leaves her with a bruised eye, they jump in a cab to see a doctor, and the cabbie asks her if the dude hit her. She laughs. Her tone is as light as a condom:

"This guy could barely even spank me in bed for fun. He's all, like, 'Oh honey, did it hurt?' And I'm like, 'Come on. Let me have it, ya pansy!' "

Hannigan showed up at a TV critics meeting on Tuesday to promote her new sitcom. I asked her what she thinks about this sub-theme of sexual dominance that has arisen in her acting-role arc.

"I know!" she said. Her smile looked as curvy and fun-time as ever. "I don't know why this keeps following me. ... I don't want people to be, like, 'Well, that's just the "American Pie" movie.' But you know, it was fun, and I love that cab scene. ... I guess people just think of me that way."

Reporters wanted to know if there'd be a "Buffy" movie.

"I hear there might be a Spike movie, which I think might be the logical character to start with," she said. Spike was the British vampire with a soul who fell in love with Buffy, gave her some smooth lovin', then saved the world. Show creator Joss Whedon "has talked about different things, and I think the last thing I heard him say was a straight-to-DVD type movie."

One of her former "Buffy" co-stars, Nicholas "Xander" Brendon, is also working on a new sitcom, called "Kitchen Confidential."

"Nick and I are competing for the same time slot, which is really sad, but we're on the same lot," she said. "Nick came to the set, and he was saying that [the two shows don't aim for] the same demographic. He's like, 'Yours is sort of the younger crowd.' And he's, like, 'Ours is probably, like, older gay men.' "

For those of us who think "Buffy" is the best show ever, it's reassuring to see Hannigan in any role. Co-executive producer Carter Bays joked that she won her new part because another co-executive producer, Craig Thomas, has a wife who's a "Buffy" fan of such an embarrassing degree that it became uncomfortable to hang around Hannigan after all the fawning.

One TV critic rightly asked Hannigan why she's doing an ensemble sitcom when it looked as if her career was headed to lead roles. She said she took a break after "Buffy" wrapped in 2003. She hung out with her husband ("Buffy" alum Alexis "Wesley" Denisof), did some yoga, walked her three dogs and went looking for an ensemble comedy so she could be surrounded by funny people all day.

Doing a sitcom is an easier job than shooting hourlong dramas with one camera, she said. And unlike plays, if someone screws up, they reshoot.

"It's like doing a play, but with training wheels."

See what I mean? What kind of dominant woman uses the phrase "training wheels" in relation to anything? Linda Fiorentino could never get away with that.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: HIMYM review

2005-07-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Spotted in The Toledo Blade:

TV's balance will continue to tip in favor of dramas this fall (18 new dramas, 10 new comedies), but for the first time in several years, the comedies are a better bet.

Based on a viewing of its pilot episode, CBS's How I Met Your Mother is as close to a sure thing as TV can come. It's scheduled in CBS's successful Monday night comedy block, features talented, young, familiar stars, and this sitcom is actually - prepare to be shocked - pretty darn funny.

It's the story of a group of friends, nar-rated 25 years in the future by 27-year-old Ted (Josh Radnor) as he recounts his life to his children. The narration scenes are brief (Bob Saget does the voiceover narration), and the show is mostly set in the present as Ted's best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel, Freaks and Geeks), proposes to his longtime girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He gets advice from his pal, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, Doogie Howser, M.D.).

For Hannigan, Harris, and Segel, the series marks a dramatic departure from the type of shows viewers are used to seeing them in. All three grew up starring in single-camera shows that were more dramas with comedy than out-and-out yukfests.

"On a one-camera show, you spend most of the day in your trailer until you're called to the set, " Harris said. "We get to do a little playlet and rehearse it and present it every day, which is great fun. … We were having so much fun, [Alyson] was worried there was no way this pilot will ever go. "

In addition to a more appealing schedule - making a three-camera sitcom takes much less time than a single-camera drama - Hannigan said she liked the opportunity to try something closer to stage acting.

"It's like doing a play with training wheels," she said. "If you mess up, it doesn't matter, you just do it again."

The pilot for How I Met Your Mother ends on a surprising note that fails to resolve clearly a portion of the show's premise, but the cast isn't worried about leaving viewers in the dark.

"You never found out who the boss really was on Who's the Boss?," Hannigan joked.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: HIMYM review

2005-07-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Spotted in San Jose Mercury News:

BEVERLY HILLS - Sometimes you can tell just how good a new series might be from how the creators and cast interact when they meet reporters at the Television Critics Association's semiannual press tour.

Sometimes, the writers and actors are totally out of sync with each other, as if they have different ideas about where the show is going or even what it's about. Sometimes, cast members lack any real chemistry, looking as if they were just on the series to pick up a paycheck.

When press conferences go south like that, the TV reporters start taking bets on how long the series will last.

Then there are sessions such as the one held by the producers and cast of CBS's new ``How I Met Your Mother,'' which gets the juicy Monday night slot between ``King of Queens'' and ``Two and a Half Men'' come the fall.

The show, which has a nice twist to it that I don't want to spoil, revolves around a group of friends trying to help a buddy find the right girl. Writers have already pegged it as one of the better new offerings for the fall season, and the session just amplified that good will.

The actors -- who include such veterans of the TV wars as Neil Patrick Harris (``Doogie Howser'') and Alyson Hannigan (``Buffy'') -- were clearly on the same page when it came to the ensemble comedy. The creators -- relative newcomers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas -- were funny and charming and seemed to have a fresh take on the traditional sitcom.

``I didn't want to do a sitcom,'' said Harris, who admitted he didn't have a lot of fun on NBC's ill-fated ``Stark Raving Mad'' a few years back.

``Neil actually sat in my living room'' after ``Mad'' went off the air ``and kept going, `I don't ever want to do a half-hour sitcom again,' '' injected Hannigan with a laugh.

``But then this script came along and the character was really fun,'' continued Harris, who added that CBS ``did very little meddling from the very beginning. They let us do our thing.''

Which was a sentiment echoed by Bays and Thomas, who didn't seem to be reciting the usual pat lines about how great the network had been.

``We decided, `Let's go write about our lives, the real things we deal with,' '' said Bays. ``Let's just see happens. And every step along the way -- where you think that's not going to work, this is CBS -- it's just been green light all the way.''

POST-BUFFY SHOWS

2005-07-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Chicago Tribune:

The fall TV schedule will have a distinct Sunnydale feel to it, Zap2it.com reports.

Alyson Hannigan (CBS' "How I Met Your Mother"), Nicholas Brendon (Fox's "Kitchen Confidential") and David Boreanaz (Fox's "Bones") are all starring in new shows, while Charisma Carpenter has landed a recurring part on UPN's "Veronica Mars."

Hannigan and Brendon will be competing directly for viewers -- their shows are opposite one another at 9:30 p.m. Mondays. The former Willow says "How I Met Your Mother" and "Kitchen Confidential" film on the same lot, so she and Brendon (Xander) have had the chance to talk some good-natured trash about which show will win the ratings battle.

She also says that at least in Brendon's mind, the two shows might have somewhat different audiences.

"Nick said to me, `I think your show goes for the younger crowd, and ours is sort of for older, gay men,'" Hannigan says.

Hannigan does say that she and Brendon have found one common cause: A plan is afoot to TP ex-Angel Boreanaz's car while he's shooting elsewhere on the lot.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: HIMYM review

2005-07-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Philadelphia Inquirer:

TV Guide's Matt Roush calls My Name Is Earl, shot without an audience or laugh track, "the freshest of that type of show since Malcolm in the Middle."

About How I Met Your Mother, which stars, among others, Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.) and Alyson Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Roush says, "If you're looking for the next Friends, that's the closest we've seen in a while."

MICHELL TRACHTENBERG: Interview

2005-07-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

Spotted in FilmStew.com :

With a talent and poise well beyond her years, Michelle Trachtenberg remains one of Hollywood’s most promising young actresses. Best known for her work as Buffy’s sister Dawn on the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the 19-year-old New York native has sought to avoid pigeonholing by taking roles in such films as Harriet the Spy, Inspector Gadget, the raunchy R-rated comedy EuroTrip, Gregg Araki’s current indie Mysterious Skin and the G-rated Disney film Ice Princess, new this week on DVD.

The film didn’t exactly burn up the box office charts, debuting at number four with a first weekend take of $7 million. But the film looks poised to better connect with its core figure skating audience, even in the dog days of summer, thereby finally rewarding the efforts of Trachtenberg, who learned how to ice skate for her role as the brainy girl turned champion figure skater, Casey Carlyle.

“I trained extremely hard for this movie,” explains the avid tennis player and former ballerina during a recent interview with FilmStew. “When we weren’t shooting, I was training, five hours a day, five days a week. I had ballet every other day. I was constantly on the ice.”

“When we were shooting, I was working seven days a week,” she continues. “Five days of shooting and then, on the weekends, I was learning all the choreography and whatnot. I was working 20-22 hour days because I was one of the only adults on the movie, outside of Joan Cusack (who plays her mother) and Kim Cattrall (who plays her skating coach). Everyone else was pretty much a minor, so after 10 hours, they went home, and I was still there on ice skating, working my way around.”

Asked to compare the difficulty level of acting to that of ice skating, Trachtenberg says that skating is, by far, the harder of the two. “It’s cold and the skirts are short,” she says, laughing. “In the past, I’ve done a bikini scene and I was like, ‘I’m done. That’s it. That’s my sex scene.’ But, with this, I had the little skirts and everything.”

“My big thing, which none of my doubles could do, was an outside edge spread eagle, which is basically when your feet are in one line and you’re leaning back on the outside edge, going around on a curve,” Trachtenberg continues. “Not even a lot of skaters who are at Olympic levels can do that because it depends on your body.”

Even though Trachtenberg took to the sport, the rising star admits to her fair share of mishaps during filming. “I tore a couple of ligaments and dislocated a knee,” she admits. “And my knee cap is probably off kilter because, when you’re doing a spiral, you put all your weight on the knees.”

“It sounds really bad, but those are things that happen to athletes,” continues the girlfriend of X-Men 2 star Shawn Ashmore. “I’m very lucky because I didn’t get any stress fractures, which is one of the hugest things. I’d never trained to be an ice skater before, but when I was 8 or 9, that’s
what I wanted to do. I was obsessed with Michelle Kwan and Oksana Baiul.”

“So when Disney came to me with this movie, I was like, ‘Okay. I can skate. No problem. I did it at a party once.’”

And after I started training, my coach came up to me and said, ‘If you had started this when you were five years old, you’d be able to do those double axles and everything.’ She said I was a natural at it, which was really cool.”

As a lifelong fan of Michelle Kwan, Trachtenberg found herself more tongue tied in the presence of the Olympic champion filmed than many of the Hollywood stars who preceded her in the actress’s life. “I was the biggest nerd,” Trachtenberg confesses. “I said, ‘You’re Michelle Kwan,’ like she didn’t know that she was Michelle Kwan, so I had to tell her.”

“To see her on the ice is like what I would imagine it’s like to watch Sean Penn or Dustin Hoffman work,” she adds. “It’s just so effortless and brilliant. And, she said to me, ‘You’re good. You’re a natural for what time you’ve had and what you’ve accomplished. I’m impressed.’ That, to me, was the utmost compliment.”

With three upcoming films - next week’s Lifetime movie The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, about a young woman who re-examines her life; Vinyl, about the women behind a male rock and roll band; and Odd Girl Out, about the students at a prestigious boarding school - Trachtenberg continues to maintain a professional pace that began at the tender age of three. But she always has a career in sales waiting for her.

“One day, I worked at a friend’s store,” she reveals. “It was baby store and I sold $5,000 worth of baby stuff in one day. I was literally pulling people in off the street, telling them, ‘You need to buy this. This is perfect and it’s so pretty, and you’re going to have babies someday, so you should be prepared.’”

“It was really fun, because I actually got to see and talk to people,” suggests Trachtenberg. “The one thing that you don’t get with movies is that you don’t actually get to talk to or experience the people that you’re putting these things out for. With sitcoms, the audience is right there. You can hear them laugh, immediately. With movies, you’ve got to wait for some time.”

But having been in the business for almost two decades now, Trachtenberg is still pretty clear when it comes to her career vision. “Every character that I play is like a tiny percent of my personality, sort of heightened, but I’m very adamant about never playing the same character again,” she explains. “Casey is my first character where I’ve had to be unconfident and scared and insecure.”

SNAPSHOT: ASH in MIT

2005-07-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Threatened with Australian ban

2005-07-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

It seems like Australian censors are getting jumpy at the thought of letting a film about paedophilia into the cinema, according to the Sydney Morning Herald:

An intense American drama about two teenagers who were molested by a pedophile when they were eight has become the centre of a censorship controversy.

Until yesterday, Mysterious Skin was due to be released in cinemas next month with an R18+ rating and the consumer advice that it contains adult themes, strong sexual violence and medium-level sex scenes.

Directed by Gregg Araki, the film has screened at international festivals and has had cinema releases in the US and Britain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from the television show 3rd Rock from the Sun, plays one of two youths dealing with sexual abuse by their baseball coach.

An application to have the film reclassified threatens to have it banned in Australia.

The federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, sought the review after contact from his South Australian counterpart, Michael Atkinson.

It is believed Mr Atkinson was lobbied by the Australian Family Association and the Festival of Light.

The organisations earlier opposed the R18+ rating but were denied a request to waive a reclassification fee by the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

A spokesman for the Australian Family Association, Richard Egan, said he was concerned after reading the film's synopsis. Mr Egan thought the film could be used by pedophiles for their own satisfaction or to help them groom children they were planning to abuse.

"Being able to get hold legally of a DVD where they can play the scene over and over again, showing the adult baseball coach fellating an eight-year-old boy ... could prove very helpful to some pedophiles."

The president of the lobby group Watch on Censorship, Margaret Pomeranz, described Mysterious Skin as a mature and moving film.

"This is a film about the damage that pedophilia creates. It's been so carefully filmed, the impact is on the audience ...

"Pedophiles could watch this film and be stricken by remorse. It could be a pedophile-curing film because they're confronted by the damage they do."

In giving Mysterious Skin an R18+ rating, the Office of Film and Literature Classification described it as "a serious and legitimate exploration of a disturbing and confronting theme".

"The film takes the victims' viewpoint and presents the dark and bleak nature of the abuse to which they are subjected, and the resulting impact on their lives."

ALYSON HANNIGAN: How We'll Watch Your Mother

2005-07-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Good news - the BBC has snapped up How I Met Your Mother, and is planning to give it a US Office style BBC THREE/BBC TWO double whammy. Sometime in 2006.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Dress Me Up

2005-07-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

Spotted in U-Daily News - Spywitness:

Young actress Michelle Trachtenberg jokingly revealed her plan to get more Perse clothes: "James (Perse) is my future husband." Oh, the lengths some people will go to for an employee discount. In reality, she's happily attached to Canadian actor Shawn Ashmore, who'll soon start shooting "X-Men 3."

SNAPSHOT: MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG

2005-07-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

Looks like she's having some late nights. Or planning to.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: ICE PRINCESS REVIEW

2005-07-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

From Boston Herald:

Casey Carlyle (doe-eyed Michelle Trachtenberg, ``Euro Trip'') climbs the social ranks at school when her physics project helps the popular skating clique - Gen (Hayden Panettiere, ``Remember the Titans''), Tiffany (Jocelyn Lai) and Nikki (Kirsten Olson, a competitive skater in real life) - improve their jumps.

When Casey applies her physics theories to her own skating, former Olympic skater Tina Hardwood (Kim Cattrall, ``Sex and the City'') agrees to coach her.

Sound too good to be true? It is.

This sap-fest of a film doesn't help itself in the DVD department either.

Music videos by Disney progeny Caleigh Peters and Aly & A.J. are entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons. As for the deleted scenes, once you've seen the movie you'll wish more moments had hit the cutting-room floor.

Why rehash the horror?

TONY HEAD: SPOTTING

2005-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Nice to see Anthony Head down in Traflager Square MCing for the London Bombings memorial; he'll be in a more actorly role guesting on Murder Investigation Team on ITV on Monday night.

PUBLICATIONS: CINE-MANGE

2005-07-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Spotted in ActiveAnime.com:

Los Angeles, CA (July, 2005) – In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone shall stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. She is the Slayer. A critically-acclaimed television show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer has reached worldwide cult status. Now TOKYOPOP, the #1 publisher of manga, and innovator of the Cine-Manga book format, is proud to present Buffy's 100th episode, "The Gift," as you've never seen it before.

In TOKYOPOP’s trademarked Cine-Manga format, The Ultimate Buffy The Vampire Slayer delivers the story’s spine-tingling dynamics and disturbing plotline with vivid screen captures and manga-style word balloons. This chilling Cine-Manga adaptation of "The Gift," one of Josh Whedon’s most unforgettable and shocking episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is packed with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos, director and actor commentary, excerpts from the uncut script, and intricately designed stunts.

The apocalypse is at hand in Sunnydale! Buffy must square off against a true god when Glory prepares to use Dawn to unleash all Hell on Earth. The only way to save the day is to kill Dawn--but Buffy refuses to harm her little sister, and the gang heads into battle knowing that some of them may not survive...

"Buffy has become an icon. I've always been a huge fan, and it was a thrill to work on something that other fans will love," said TOKYOPOP Cine-Manga editor, Erin Stein. "’The Gift’ is one of the greatest episodes ever, and TOKYOPOP is so excited to present it with behind-the-scenes content that fans have never seen before!"

SMG: PRESUMABLY NOT THINKING OF SCOOBY DOO III

2005-07-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

According to Contactmusic:

Actress SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR wants to go topless in her next film role - to shock movie bosses into giving her sexy roles in future films.

THE GRUDGE star is approaching her 30th birthday and fears she will be deemed too old to play raunchy roles, unless she proves she is still attractive and daring by baring all in a film.

She explains, "I am approaching 30 and I need a change.

"The sort of roles I would like are not being offered, so this way might just shock people into choosing me."

ALYSON HANNIGAN: IN 3D

2005-07-15T02:35:00.000-07:00

Well, if she has had some work done, it'll be fairly obvious from I Love The 80s 3D. Yes, it's the usual talking heads clip show, but this time it'll look like they're coming out the screen. And Aly is going to be on it.

Let's hope they don't remake the UK version in 3D. Kate Thornton apparently in your home? Don't bear thinking 'bout, does it?

SETH GREEN: Profile

2005-07-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

Spotted in BostonHerald.com

Name: Seth Green

Character: The voice of dimwitted, 13-year-old Chris on ``Family Guy'' (Sundays at 9 p.m. on WFXT, Ch. 25)

Hometown: Philadelphia

Age: 31

Where you have seen him: Green was Scott Evil in the ``Austin Powers'' movies and Willow's sweet boyfriend/werewolf Oz in ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer.''

Childhood: The 5-foot-4-inch tall actor has been in the business since he was a child. He had roles in ``The Hotel New Hampshire'' and Woody Allen's ``Radio Days.''

Fun fact: Before playing Alyson Hannigan's sweetheart on ``Buffy,'' he played her boyfriend in the 1988 film ``My Stepmother Is an Alien.''

Summer plans: He'll play Barry in NBC's upcoming comedy ``Four Kings,'' executive produced by ``Will & Grace'' show-runners David Kohan and Max Mutchnick.

Quote: Like the show's devoted fans, he was a little surprised there was life two years after ``Family Guy's'' premature death. He told TVGuide.com, ``It is the only time a corporation like Fox had to say, `Maybe we didn't understand this show, but it is undeniable that it is popular and it makes money.' ''

Where you'll see him in five years: In an ``Oz'' movie. Pretty please?

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: MYSTERIOUS SKIN REVIEW

2005-06-30T00:32:00.000-07:00

Spotted in MetroWeekly, Washington DC's Gay & Lesbian magazine:

Skillfully crafted, Mysterious Skin calls to mind the works of Neil LaBute and Todd Solondz, but without any of the mean-spiritedness. The film has a core of heart that prevents it from descending into an exercise of pure shock value. Araki's direction has never been more self-assured, and his cast turns in performances that are ripe, rich and rooted in reality. Gordon-Levitt, best known for his work on the series Third Rock from the Sun, astonishes as Neil, the epitome of a carefree and careless young gay hedonist. It's an unabashed, unmatched, unforgettable performance. Corbet, as well, is quite good, as are supporting players Elizabeth Shue, Michelle Trachtenberg and Jeffrey Licon.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: MYSTERIOUS SKIN REVIEW

2005-06-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Nashville City Paper's Mysterious Skin Review:

Mysterious Skin is a film that dramatically and at times graphically deals with the ramifications of child molestation. The two main characters are each molested by their little league coach as boys. The story then catches up with them in their early 20s, and each has reacted differently to their experiences. One, played by former Third Rock from the Sun star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is now a prostitute still filled with love and resentment for his abuser. The other, played by Brady Corbet, has blocked out the incident and has convinced himself he was abducted by aliens. The two finally meet up after 10 years apart to try to deal with their past.

When the film deals with the peripheral cast, the quality of the movie gets a little shaky (neither Michelle Trachtenberg nor Elisabeth Shue are particularly convincing in their roles). But the focus stays mostly on Gordon-Levitt and Corbet, and both do great work selling their roles, Gordon-Levitt in particular. The anger and ambivalence he brings to his character is remarkable. Mysterious Skin is not an easy film to watch, but director Gregg Araki and his cast infuse it with enough humanity and emotion to make it worth seeing. Now playing exclusively at the Belcourt.

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: ICE PRINCESS REVIEW

2005-06-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

Spotted in New York Times' Herbie review:

As in another Disney film released this year, "Ice Princess," the heroine is forced to choose between short-term sports stardom and a long-term career investment that makes use of her education. (In "Ice Princess" the choice is between the rink and college.) It's not much of surprise that in an era in which everyone is supposedly entitled to his or her 15 minutes of fame, stardom wins.

It helps that Ms. Lohan, unlike the pallid Michelle Trachtenberg in "Ice Princess," is a genuine star who combines a tomboyish spunk with a sexy, head-turning strut, executed with minimal self-consciousness. Likable but never saccharine, confident but not snooty, and endowed with the natural freckled-faced beauty of an 18-year-old Everywoman, Ms. Lohan seems completely at home on the screen.

Ice Princess available for pre-order on DVD

OST currently available

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: MYSTERIOUS SKIN

2005-06-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Spotted in City Pages - That Was Now This Is Then:

Mysterious Skin, adapted by Araki from Scott Heim's novel, is the first film the director has made that isn't from an original screenplay. I'm tempted to say, as Greil Marcus once wrote of Billy Bragg and Wilco's transformation of Woody Guthrie lyrics, that the collaboration pole-vaults the principals past all previous failures: "This time you got it right."

[...]
Mysterious Skin, adapted by Araki from Scott Heim's novel, is the first film the director has made that isn't from an original screenplay. I'm tempted to say, as Greil Marcus once wrote of Billy Bragg and Wilco's transformation of Woody Guthrie lyrics, that the collaboration pole-vaults the principals past all previous failures: "This time you got it right."

IT'S LIKE A SLASH FICTION CHALLENGE, ISN'T IT?

2005-06-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Michelle Trachtenberg and Alyson Hannigan:

AMBER BENSON: OUT ON THE TOWN

2005-06-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Spotted in The Advocate

Hopping into the festival van, I introduce myself and realize I'm talking to Amber Benson, the unjustly murdered Tara of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She's sitting in the back with Cole Williams and Russell Brown--her leading man and director, respectively, in tonight's opening feature. During a hilarious ride, the straight-but-polar-opposite-of-narrow Amber regales us with behind-the-scenes Buffy stories. Lesbian fun fact: In order to get Willow and Tara's unprecedented love scenes on the air, Benson, costar Alyson Hannigan, and series creator Joss Whedon submitted such carnal clinches that the horrified censors willingly went with the footage we saw. Food for thought, no?

It's doubly fun afterward to see my new friends Cole and Amber in Russell's film, Race You to the Bottom: Both actors hit their marks as a bi guy and a hetero girl swept up in an affair in Northern California's wine country. The movie is a smart window on a new world of romantic complications. Where old-world queers were traumatized by the thought of an either/or coming out, young queers with fluid sexual boundaries are up against a whole new set of dilemmas.

So, still banging on about how "unjust" the murder of Tara was... even after all these years. We do wonder what happened to the out-takes that the censors didn't pass, though...

Is it just us, or does Race You To The Bottom put anyone else in mind of Threesome?

INBOX: BUFFY TRIVIA

2005-06-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

This arrived through a Buffy list the other day:

Trivial Pursuit
Written by Rob Francis
Transcribed by Hmorsey from Davidboreanazishot
20 Things You Never Knew About Buffy the Vampire Slayer

1. Despite the cast and crew's dedication to perfection, the 144 episodes of Buffy have plenty of goofs - lapses in visual continuity, contradictions with earlier mythology and more. The first recorded goof occurs in the opening scene of "Welcome to the Hellmouth". The top button of Darla's blouse is initially undone, but when she putss on her game face, it's magically done up. The last goof appears in the end of "Chosen." When Sunnydale collapses into the crater, there's no sign of the sea, despite it being firmly established as a coastal town. However, it is possible that the Scoobies escaped inland, and the ocean side of the town just isn't visible.

2. Alyson Hannigan is allergic to plaster dust, which caused problems during the filming of "The Body". When Xander punches his hand through the wall after Joyce's death, Alyson's right eye and face swelled up and she had to be taken to the hospital. The crew still had to complete the scene before Aly left the set, and if you look carefully, only one side of her face is in shot throughout that scene.

3. Tara gives Giles a rubber monster as a leaving present in "Bargaining" and says "Grr, argh" - clearly a reference to the monster in the Mutant Enemy logo. The Mutant Enemy monster was drawn by Joss, who also supplied its voice. The logo has altered specifically for various episodes. In "Amends" the monster wears a Father Christmas hat, in "Becoming, Part 2" the monster says "I need a hug", In "Graduation Day Part 2" he wears a graduation cap, In "Once More With Feeling" he sings his "Grr, argh", and in "Storyteller" he says "We are Gods". The name Mutant Enemy is a lyric from the song 'And You and I' by prog rock legends Yes. It's on their album, Close to the Edge.

4. The most popular first run episode of Buffy on American TV was "Innocence," which received a Nielsen rating of 5.2 or 5,096,000 American households. Least popular was "Puppet Show" with a Nielsen rating of 1.9 or 1,843,000 households. Buffy's highest chart position on American TV was 62nd place out of all Prime Time shows for Season Five's "Real Me."

5. Joss Whedon's original plan for bringing the character of Tara back involved Buffy being given the chance to play a mystical get out of jail free card - "One completely reality altering thing that she could have - she could bring Angel back to her, she could do anything she wanted," noted Joss at a recent convention appearance. "At the end of the episode she basically comes to Willow and says 'Look at these shoes I got!' and Willow's like 'What?' 'I got these really awesome shoes. I wanted them, and now I have them!' and Willow's like 'You used the wish for shoes?' and Buffy says, 'Of course not, you idiot,' and walks out of the room and Willow turns around and Tara's standing behind her.

6. Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy) celebrated her 19th birthday in style. It was on the set of the Season 3 episode "Gingerbread," whilst filming the scene where her character was being burned on a pyre. "When they lit me up they yelled 'Fire in the hole' and everybody started to sing 'Happy Birthday'". Despite Amy turning into TV's most famous rodent since Roland Rat shortly after this, the actress is allergic to one of their favourite foods - cheese!

7. Of all the guest musicians to have played at the Bronze, only one was ever given any dialog. Aimee Mann gets the immortal line: "Man, I hate playing vampire towns" as she exits the stage in the episode "Sleeper."

8. In "The Dark Age," Xander discovers a picture of a youthful Giles with leather jacket and bass guitar. Sadly, Anthony Stewart Head's own photo album didn't contain anything suitable, so the Buffy production crew faked the photo by superimposing his head onto the body of Sex Pistol's bassist Sid Vicious. Vicious has been cited by many as the primary influence on the character of Spike, although the fellow punk and bleach-blond Billy Idol was also a major visual influence.

9. Five actresses (excluding stunt doubles) have played the character of Buffy during the course of the TV show. Aside from Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mimi Paley played young Buffy in "Killed by Death." Mimi also played Mulder's sister, Samantha in The X-Files. Candice Nicole played her briefly in "Blood Ties" as Dawn 'remembers' her fake past. Alexandra Lee played young Buffy in "The Weight of the World" and her photo is used in all subsequent photos of the character as a child. Finally, Eliza Dushku plays a body-swapped Buffy in "Who Are You?" On a side note, Giselle Loren took over the role for the two Buffy video games and will voice her in the planned Buffy Animated Series. An uncredited actress was also used to stand in for Buffy during the Angel episodes "Soul Purpose" and "The Girl in Question" and lets not forget Kristy Swanson in the original film.

10. Nicholas Brendon's real name is actually Nicholas Brendon Schultz. Professionally he uses his middle name as his surname. Likewise, his brother Kelly is really called Kelly Donovan Schultz rather than Kelly Donovan. Anthony Stewart Head only calls himself that in America because there's already an actor called Anthony Head working there. Tony is credited as Anthony Head for all his UK work. Eliza Dushku's middle name is Patricia. Ms. Calendar's name was originally Nicki, but was changed to Jenny to avoid confusion with 'Nicky' Brendon.

11. If it hadn't been for age restrictions for actors working irregular hours, another actress might have been cast as Buffy ahead of Sarah Michelle Gellar. "The only person for me who was a contender for Buffy that I had to eliminate immediately was Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek)," notes Buffy's casting director, Marcia Shulman. "[But] because of the nights shoots and the length of hours [and because] Katie was not yet 18... I couldn't put her up for the part." Katie went on to star alongside Marc Blucas in the film First Daughter. It's a bit like Season 4 might have been, only set in the White House.

12. The destruction of the original Sunnydale High School for "Graduation Day Part 2" didn't win the Buffy crew any friends. Sound and vibrations from the explosion, filmed at Torrance High School, California, woke up many residents and set off car alarms, causing locals to ban any future Buffy episodes from filming there. Producer Gareth Davies revealed. "Unfortunately, when we warned them we were going to blow it up, we neglected to say when, and when it went up at 5 am in the morning...Torrance is still upset with us actually." The crew were eventually allowed to return nearly 3 years later. "I've already heard of one phone call from some irate lady saying 'You should be punished for what you did 3 years ago,'" Gareth noted at the time.

13. You probably knew that writers/producers Marti Noxon and David Fury have both made cameo appearances in episodes of Buffy, singing in "Once More with Feeling" and "Selfless" but did you know that Jane Espenson briefly appears as a lunch lady in "Band Candy," and Andy Hallett can be seen sitting at the back of the UC Sunnydale lecture hall in a scene from "Hush?" Joss Whedon's only Buffy cameos are as the radio announcer in "I Robot, You Jane" and overdubbing Angel's heavy breathing during the sex scene flashback in "Innocence." He was too embarrassed to ask David Boreanaz to do it.

14. Angel, Lyle and Tector Gorch and Pike (from the Buffy film) are all named after characters from the classic Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch - a favorite of Joss Whedon's and while it wasn't the inspiration for the character's name, did you know that the U.K.'s late, lamented Queen Mother was affectionately known as Buffy?

15. Everyone knows that Buffy's address is 1630 Revello Drive, but Giles' address was only revealed recently, when Fox auctioned off his $10,000 cheque to Buffy from "Life Serial". The address on that is 3441, Oakhurst Lane, Sunnydale, California. Although you can't see all of Giles' ZIP code on the cheque, it starts 900, which contradicts the Sunnydale ZIP code 95037 seen on Buffy's college rejection letter in "As you Were." Mind you, that claims she lives at 1630 Crewtview. Giles banks at the City Trust & Savings Bank on the corner of Third and Main, by the way.

16. Joss nicknamed Marti Noxon "Suicide Girl" for the first year she worked on the show, "because all of my projects had a theme of wanting to off yourself," Marti explains.

17. Despite being far more hands off during the show's final years, Joss Whedon has still written or co-written the greatest number of Buffy episodes (27), with Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson both in second place with 23 episodes apiece. Joss has also directed the most episodes (20), sharing the honor with James A. Contner. David Solomon directed 19 episodes.

18. Nerf Herder fan Alyson Hannigan persuaded Joss Whedon to use the band to write the Buffy theme tune. A nerf herder is a kind of shepherd/rancher from Alderaan, referred to but not seen in the original Star Wars film. Nerf Herder performed at the Bronze in the episode "Empty Places." Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, was named after a famous line uttered by Meryl Streep in the film A Cry in the Dark, based on the true story of an Australian court case surrounding a woman who claimed her child had been taken and killed by one of the creatures.

19. It's possible that Michelle Trachtenberg's first Buffy appearance was in the Season 4 episode "Restless" rather than Season 5's "Buffy vs. Dracula". When Xander is talking to Buffy in the sand box during his dream, we also see a second Xander in the ice- cream van. There are a group of children queuing to the right of the van, but if you look to the left there's a girl with long, straight brown hair - who looks very similar to Dawn. Although we only see this girl from the back, Sarah Michelle Gellar apparently took Michelle Trachtenberg to the Buffy set on one of the days this episode was being filmed, which adds to the possibility that it could be her. As we know, there were many references to the arrival of Dawn in this episode - perhaps Joss and Co. decided that it may be fun to actually sneak the actress in there as well.

20. Buffy's birth date has changed several times. In "I Robot, You Jane" its given as both 24 October 1980 an 6 May 1979. In "Nightmares" her gravestone reads 1981-1997., and in "The Gift", it says 1981-2001. The official date is widely believed to be 19 January 1981, as that's the date many of Buffy's birthday episodes have aired on US TV. She also claims to have been born on the cusp of Aquarius, which ties in with that.

MOVIES

2005-06-22T00:51:00.000-07:00

Spotted on Moviehole.net:

Sunnydale's Willow taking the Mickey

Former "Buffy" star Alyson Hannigan is following in the footsteps of former co-stars Danny Strong and Marc Blucas by putting her hand up to star in a film spoof.

The lass behind Witchy Willow has signed to star in an untitled comedy that will take the Mickey out of romantic comedies.

Hannigan, who recently guest-starred on "Veronica Mars", will play the lead role, with Eddie Griffin playing her father.

Adam Campbell, Fred Willard and Hannigan's "American Pie" co-star Jennifer Coolidge co-stars. Campbell plays her romantic interest, with Coolidge and Willard playing his parents.

Written and directed by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg (the co-writers of "Scary Movie"), the film started rolling earlier this week in Sunny LA.

WITCHES

2005-06-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Spotted in Rewind: From Hags To Hotties from MTV Movies news, a review of Bewitched:

In the '90s, TV threw some more comely conjurers at us in the forms of Willow from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Alyson Hannigan) and the women of "Charmed." Played by Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan (who replaced Shannen Doherty after three seasons — we shall refrain from any imitation-of-life jokes), the Halliwell sisters use their powers to fight the forces of evil, as does Willow. What, TV can't give us any bad witches anymore?

... so, no mention of Tara, then. And... is it just us, or might that whole destroy-the-world Willow be a teensy bit Evil?