Monday 31 December 2012

Cutest couple in the world - Will and Kate pics of 2012 (SOCIALITE LIFE)


Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge have a laugh at Bacon's College on July 26, 2012 in London, England. The Duke and Duchess, along with Prince Harry launched the 'Coach Core' Programme, a partnership between their Foundation and Greenhouse. (Photo by Richard Pohle - WPA Pool/Getty Images


The Duchess has a good giggle before Prince William throws a foam javelin s part of a children's sports event. The couple, along with Queen Elizabeth, visited Vernon Park during a Diamond Jubilee visit to Nottingham on June 13, 2012 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty Images).




The Duke and Duchess surprised everyone by showing off a little PDA during Britain's victory at the Velodrome on August 2, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)


William and Catherine take a moment to tour the Kranji War Memorial in Singapore on September 13th, 2012.


The Duchess affectionately puts her hand on William's knee during a swimming event at the London Olympics on August 3rd, 2012.


William was no doubt relieved to have his wife discharge from King Edward VII hospital in London. He drove the Duchess from her parents Berkshire home after she complained of severe morning sickness.









Maggie Gyllenhaal Joins Michael Fassbender In Music Comedy Frank published: 2012-12-30 19:19:47 Author: Sean O'Connell (CINEMA BLEND)



Neither Maggie Gyllenhaal nor Michael Fassbender are names that come to mind when casting for a comedy. So we’re already curious about the smaller-budgeted Frank before a sing;e frame of footage is shot.


The Film Stage posts the news – confirmed by the Albuquerque Business Journal – that Gyllenhaal has joined the still-developing ensemble for the musical comedy, which also stars Domhnall Gleeson (currently burning up the screen in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina) and Scoot McNairy (currently burning up the screen in both Ben Affleck’s Argo and Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly).

READ MORE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Maggie-Gyllenhaal-Joins-Michael-Fassbender-Music-Comedy-Frank-34836.html

Ripper Street: episode two plot and picture preview Find out what's in store for Reid and the team in the next instalment of BBC1's new crime drama (RADIO TIMES)


David Brown
9:37 PM, 30 December 2012


The new Victorian-set crime drama continues next Sunday with a case centring around Ernest Manby (David Coon), a 60-year-old toy maker beaten to death for the coins in his pocket and a mysterious brass box.


The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee offers up 14-year-old Thomas Gower (Giacomo Mancini) as a culprit, with the youth refusing to deny the charge. Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) – his conscience pricked by a radical lawyer called Eagles (Hugh O'Conor) and orphanage governess Deborah Goren (Lucy Cohu) – tests the validity of the investigation.

READ MORE:http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-12-30/ripper-street-episode-two-plot-and-picture-preview

Sunday 30 December 2012

15 Stars to Watch in 2013 - Benedict Cumberbatch, Henry Cavill, Ben Barnes, Luke Evans (Xfinity Entertainment)


Will 2013 be the Year of Cumberbatch? The 36-year-old star of the critically acclaimed BBC series "Sherlock" is poised to become a megastar in the U.S. In May, Cumberbatch will star as the villain in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness," in which he is rumored to be portraying the infamous "Trek" baddie Khan. In December, the actor will play the dragon Smaug and a character called The Necromancer in the second and third installments of "The Hobbit" series. In between, Benedict will appear in the films "August: Osage County," which co-stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, and "Twelve Years a Slave," which co-stars Brad Pitt.—XFINITY Entertainment Staff (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) 



Henry Cavill

Superman makes his grand return to theaters in 2013, and the man wearing the American hero's cape is 29-year-old Englishman Henry Cavill. "Man of Steel" is a reboot of the iconic comic book hero's life on film, and will have no attachment to the previous films starring Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh.—XFINITY Entertainment Staff (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) 



Luke Evans

Cumberbatch isn't the only star grabbing on to "The Hobbit" franchise. Actor Luke Evans, 33, will also appear in the final installments of the Peter Jackson adaptation. To boot, Evans will reportedly star as the villain in "The Fast and the Furious 6," which is due out in May. —XFINITY Entertainment Staff (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) 





Ben Barnes

English actor Ben Barnes, 31, was brought to our attention as Prince Caspian in the less-than-satisfying "Chronicles of Narnia" sequels. In 2013, Barnes returns to the big screen alongside Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams and Amanda Seyfried in "The Big Wedding" (April), and follows up with the lead role in "The Seventh Son" (October), the first in a reported series of fantasy films based on "The Wardstone Chronicles" books.—XFINITY Entertainment Staff (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok) 


READ MORE: http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/entertainment-starwatch2013/6/

TV review: Ripper Street; Neil Armstrong – First Man on the Moon; The Hotel It throws in everything from CSI to Sherlock, but Ripper Street is proper crime drama (GUARDIAN)



Sam Wollaston
The Guardian, Sunday 30 December 2012 17.00 EST


Methodical ... Matthew Macfadyen as DI Edmund Reid in Ripper Street. Photograph: Amanda Searle/BBC/Tiger Aspect

Cor blimey. East London, 1889, ain't no place for no shrinking violet. Well, not according to Ripper Street (BBC1, Sunday). The men are all at the fight (bare–knuckle, naturally) and the women are all on the game, even though it's only a few months since the horribly mutilated body of Jack the Ripper's last victim was found. Suspicion, rumour and terror run in the gutters, along with all the usual Victorian filth.

Then there's blood in the gutters, too. Another body, another young woman, with the Ripper's calling card slices. Is it him – is Jack back?

Sensible, handsome Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) isn't so sure. He's not jumping to any conclusions, nor ruling anything out, just going about the investigation in the methodical, pragmatic way he would any other, pinning photos and stuff up on the blackboard (that's what the police used is it, before they got those transparent screens modern TV detectives have?). Reid calls on a seedy American pal, a former Pinkerton detective who has the combined talents of Grissom and Holmes, for a bit of help with the forensics and the logical reasoning.


It would be easy to be negative about Ripper Street. Do we really need more on a story that's been not just done to death, but then carved up, and had its insides torn out? Why this obsession? You could also be cynical about it more specifically as television. It's manufactured, a hybrid, televisual eugenics: take beautiful period drama, then sex up, literally, with sex; and darken, with nasty dark sex; add CSI, Waking the Dead, Sherlock, a touch of Life on Mars, Garrow's Law … anything that's been done well recently. Perhaps in the next episode there will be a phone vote to decide who goes to the gallows.


But, on the first point, this isn't really about Jack the Ripper – not so far, anyway. It's about the aftermath, it's about a time and a place and a feeling, it's about the police, and the press, and the people, and it's actually about that obsession. And on the other: well, maybe it is a cocktail – but it's a bloody good cocktail. Warlow's/Leveson's script is real, alive and human. It's beautifully performed, and beautiful to look at – stylish, and stylised. The bare-knuckle fight scenes are brutal and memorable. It's proper, character-based crime drama, gripping, and yes – I'm afraid – ripping as well.

READ MORE:http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/dec/30/ripper-street-tv-review


Uncensored Really - 300 Sexy Secrets with Gerard Butler & Carrie Keagan uncensored



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqO6L4uF8g

No Good TV

Gerard Butler: Having a ball (SCOTSMAN.COM)


 By Alice Wyllie
Published on Sunday 30 December 2012 11:00


GERARD Butler has had a busy month. Dubai, Toronto, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oslo. And Scotland.

He celebrated his 43rd birthday last month and knew he had to do it in the motherland, so he made a stopover on his way back to the US, where he lives between New York and LA.

Born and raised in Paisley, for Butler, Scotland is “a break” from a life lived 24/7, a place where he can “get out and breathe and be a part of the mountains, glens and lochs”. As such, he visits as often as he can, and 
today – a grey December morning in a bare hotel room in London – he can’t stop raving about a “magical” Highland trip he took in the summer.

“I just made it up as I went along,” he says excitedly. The adventure took him from a “haunted room” in Loch 
Lomond to Inverlochy Castle via various pitstops: “I was begging for a B&B at 1am in Plockton because everywhere was full and the barmaid ended up saying, ‘well, I have a B&B in another town if you want to come and stay there?’ It was nuts. A lot of my best trips have been those ones in Scotland where you never quite know they’re going to happen.”


He recalls another: “I was on my way to the airport and it just felt too soon. It was really breaking my heart. You know that feeling that only thinking about your country can ever give you, those butterflies?” He puts his hand on his heart.

“I was on the phone with my agent saying, ‘why am I leaving?’ And they said, ‘well don’t leave. Stay’. So I got to Edinburgh Airport and I carried on driving. I drove right through to Perth, went into an outdoors store and bought a tent and walking boots and spent the next few days camping and walking.”

Start him on the green green grass of home and he’s got plenty to say.


READ MORE: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/gerard-butler-having-a-ball-1-2712144http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/gerard-butler-having-a-ball-1-2712144

SPOILER ALERT FOR DOWNTON ABBEY IN AMERICA


**SPOILER ALERT for U.S. fans of DOWNTON ABBEY who have not yet viewed the drama's third season or last night's holiday episode which aired on Britain's ITV network**



DOWNTON ABBEY creator Julian Fellowes has officially decided the fate of Dan Stevens' character 'Matthew Crawley,' he told the Daily Telegraph this weekend.

Rumors of Stevens' potential departure developed months ago, when he first made the move to Broadway to star in THE HEIRESS alongside Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain.

Crawley, following the series' Christmas special, will officially be killed off. Fellowes told the paper that he "didn't really have an option."

"We have always tried to persuade him to stay," Fellowes said. "He had done fantastically well for the series and his creation of Matthew was terrific.

But there was no changing Steven's mind, Fellowes said.

"But this is life. Dan felt that this was right thing for him, and the right moment to move on to different areas."

There were few options Fellowes could take with DOWNTON's Crawley, while respecting the character's relationship with Mary. There was one choice, and Fellowes, as the showrunner, knew it was the only viable one.

"So we didn't really have any option. By him dying, their love can remain in tact."


READ MORE: http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/Julian-Fellowes-has-Decided-Matthew-Crawleys-Fate-on-DOWNTON-ABBEY-20121230

Kate Winslet becomes Mrs RocknRoll: if it’s down to practice, this will be perfect We can but hope that the 'unusual’ Ned Abel Smith brings the British Hollywood star lasting happiness (TELEGRAPH)


By William Langley7:00AM GMT 30 Dec 2012


It can be only the real thing for the new Mr and Mrs RocknRoll, even if everything else in their lives might appear a touch make-believe. They are old hands at the marriage game, these glamorous thirtysomethings, and you have to hope that this time they know what they’re doing.

Mr RocknRoll, who used to be a popular London party boy called Ned Abel Smith, took Kate Winslet to be his wife at a small, unannounced ceremony shortly before Christmas. The groom, who apparently made up his new name because he didn’t think the old one was enough fun, works for Virgin Galactic as “Head of Marketing Promotion and Astronaut Experience”, a job title he also made up.

According to his former wife, Eliza Pearson, the heiress daughter of Viscount Cowdray, he nevertheless takes the job seriously: “He would say to me, 'There is no destination. The destination is now, now, now,’ ” recalls Eliza. “'The journey is the destination. We’re not trying to get somewhere.’”

Kate Winslet, a different type of aristocrat with her movie career, cheerfully borne bodily imperfections and salty vocab, should be quite a catch. Her two previous husbands clearly thought so, although the complications of marriage have a way of catching her by surprise.

First came little-known London producer Jim Threapleton, whom she met on the set of a film called Hideous Kinky and married in 1998. In early 2001, Kate was on the cover of Glamour magazine, telling the readers why: “My husband is one in a million.” Unfortunately, by the time the edition hit the streets, Mr Threapleton, with whom she has a daughter, Mia, now 12, had been dumped.

READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9770642/Kate-Winslet-becomes-Mrs-RocknRoll-if-its-down-to-practice-this-will-be-perfect.html

Benedict Cumberbatch and baby???


What is this?  Haven't a clue, but it was posted on Scoop.it. Daily for Benedict Cumberbatch.  The post only says

adamackland Adam Ackland 22h
Introducing my new son...Jacob Elliot Hervey Ackland pic.twitter.com/NpNW3BnD
Details   Reply  Retweet  Favorite


Matthew Macfadyen: Watching the detective (SCOTSMAN.COM)



MATTHEW Macfadyen admits he had reservations about accepting the lead role in Ripper Street,

Richard Warlow’s gory new series for BBC1 about an 1889 police squad patrolling the streets of London’s East End in the wake of Jack the Ripper’s bloody murders.

The actor, who made his name playing Tom Quinn in Spooks, says, “Before starting on Ripper Street, I remember feeling scared. I had the same feeling before Spooks. There is something peculiar about a series. It’s somehow more frightening than a one-off. You feel more responsibility and you’re more worried that you will annoy people. It’s open-ended, so you think, ‘It’s going to go on and on irritating people.’”

Yet there seems little likelihood of Macfadyen falling out of favour with the viewing public. Good looks and his memorably brooding performance as Mr Darcy opposite Keira Knightley in Joe Wright’s 2005 movie version of Pride and Prejudice mean the 38-year-old commands an army of followers; one website devoted to him is called darcylicious.com

Sitting opposite me in his agent’s office in central London, he is virtually the dictionary definition of “tall, dark and handsome.”

Dressed in a pair of black corduroy trousers and a grey rollneck jumper, he has a winning, slow burning sense of humour.

“Acting is such a lovely job. You have to take it seriously, but not yourself,” he says.

“The mistake lies in doing the reverse. I guard against that. If I started throwing scripts out of my Winnebago and shouting, ‘My trailer’s not big enough, I’m walking,’ I’d feel absolutely ridiculous.”


READ MORE: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/tv-and-radio/matthew-macfadyen-watching-the-detective-1-2712200

Jennifer Aniston & Justin Theroux Vacation With John Krasinski & Emily Blunt Posted on December 29th, 2012 at 11:30 am - richard@rumorfix.com


Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have some company for the holidays — celebrity couple John Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt.



13 YEARS AGO: GEORGE HARRISON ATTACKED AT HOME (ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK)


by Dave Lifton


“They used us as an excuse to go mad, the world did,” George Harrison said in the Beatles‘ 1995 ‘Anthology’ documentary. “And then blamed it on us.” But even he could never suspect that, four years later, those words would ring true again when, on Dec. 30, 1999, a mad man attacked Harrison in his own house, nearly killing him.

At approximately 3:30AM, Michael Abram, a 33-year old native of Liverpool, avoided security by scaling the fence of Harrison’s Friar Park estate near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and entered the mansion by throwing a statue through a window, which woke up the sleeping Harrisons.


George confronted Abram, who was screaming at the spiritual Beatle with a knife in his hand. The 56-year old Harrison ran at Abram to try to tackle and disarm him. The attempt was unsuccessful, and George was stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

Meanwhile, Harrison’s wife, Olivia, whose mother was staying with the Harrisons at the time, struck Abram with a lamp, causing him to drop the knife. Abram then went after Olivia by trying to strangle her with the lamp’s cord, but she was able to escape.

Police arrived after 15 minutes and arrested Abram. Paramedics stopped Harrison’s bleeding and took him to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for a punctured lung. According to the hospital’s medical director, some of the wounds were very close to major arteries, which would have been fatal if they had been hit.


READ MORE: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/george-harrison-attacked/

Saturday 29 December 2012

Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Conti: Guards Chapel Christmas Concert (WE CLIMB MOUNTAINS)



2012’s 25th Anniversary Concert

The evening comprised a mix of musical performances, readings and congregational carols followed by a post-concert reception at Wellington Barracks.

Three outstanding artists with flourishing international careers performed at 2012's event – Guy Johnston (Cello), Hannah Stone (Harp) and Kate Royal (Soprano), accompanied by the award-winning Academy of St Martin in the Field.


They were joined on the night by the Scots Guards band and their pipers, together with the Royal Military Chapel choir and the Eltham College Trebles.

The concert was introduced once again by Martyn Lewis, and celebrity readers included Penelope Wilson, Matthew Macfayden, Tom Conti and Ronni Ancona.


(Big thank you to May at Matthew Macfadyen Topix for finding this)

READ MORE: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Fundraising/LondonSpecialEvents/GuardsChapelChristmaslConcert.aspx

Ripper Street, Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, Luther.. (BLEEDING COOL).



http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/28/video-the-bbcs-2013-new-season-trailer-doctor-who-luther-ripper-street-and-more/

Being from the States I have no idea who this woman is from Miranda, but is she mimicking Jennifer Saunder's Edina of ABFAB? Sounds just like her.  Anyway, hope we see half of these shows on PBS or Masterpiece or BBC America!  Are you guys listening at all?

Friday 28 December 2012

David Tennant being Hilarious on Graham Norton


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcZYsQWLFBk

StephenDHenderson

Colin Farrell - Lovely mobile phone pic of him holding a sick child.


Facebook page of   Ireland and Peg's Cottage



This photo is of Colin Farrell, taken on a mobile phone by the parent of a sick child in Our Lady's Hospital in Ireland on Christmas Day. He arrived unannounced (not even his publicist knew of his plans) with hundred of gifts to spend time with the sick children. No TV ... no media ... reminded me of this poem:-

IRISH HE IS
A strange blend of shyness, of pride and conceit,
And stubborn refusal to bow in defeat
He’s spoiling and ready to argue and fight,
Yet the smile of a child fills his soul with delight.
His eyes are the quickest to well up in tears,
Yet his strength is the strongest to banish your fears.
His hate is as fierce as his devotion is grand,
And there is no middle ground on which he will stand.
He’s wild and he’s gentle, he’s good and he’s bad.
He’s proud and he’s humble, he’s happy and sad.
He’s in love with the ocean, the earth and the skies,
He’s enamoured with beauty wherever it lies.
He’s victor and victim, a star and a clod,
But mostly he’s Irish... in love with his God.

It’s a Ripper! You can almost smell the fear on the set of frighteningly fantastic new crime drama Ripper Street (TV MAGAZINE)

By ANNE-MARIE HAMILTON Published: 27th December 2012



DENSE fog swirls above the cobbles as chickens in wooden cages let out high-pitched squawks and a pair of bloomers swings from a washing line high above the street.

Welcome to the mean streets of Whitechapel in 1889 where corpses, violence and general squalor abound.
It’s a lawless place ruled by fear and the setting for a new crime drama focusing on the terrifying aftermath of the Jack the Ripper murders.

TV Magazine is on location at a former army barracks in Dublin that’s doubling for London’s East End.
And as we peer past a crowd of extras, a familiar figure emerges in the gloom – former Spooks star Matthew Macfadyen, all broad-shouldered and reassuring in a well-cut check suit.


“Everyone has got this terrible hangover from not finding the Ripper – and they’ve got real hangovers as well,” says Matthew, 38, who stars as Detective Edmund Reid. “There has been a little bit of Guinness...”
Within minutes on set, it’s clear that pints of the black stuff have created a tight bond between the show’s three male stars, Matthew, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg.


“There is a lot of giggling,” admits Jerome, 49. “I have to admit, one of the reasons I wanted to be in the series was because Matt was doing it. I’m a big fan of his and thought: ‘Well, he’s not going to involve himself in anything that’s going to die.’ I think made the right decision.”

“It’s nice being away from London,” muses Matt (here’s hoping his actress wife Keeley Hawes, 36, isn’t offended). “Dublin feels very contained. And the set feels like a playground.”


Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/tvmagazine/tvmagazinefeatures/4714805/Its-a-Ripper-Matthew-Macfadyen-Jerome-Flynn-and-Adam-Rothenberg-star-in-Jack-the-Ripper-drama-Ripper-Street.html#ixzz2GOcA0RZU

Fake bodies on Ripper St left me scared stiff - Says Jerome Flynn (THE SUN)


ACTOR Jerome Flynn has suffered recurring nightmares since playing a cop on the mean streets of 19th Century London’s East End.

The Game Of Thrones star — who plays thuggish Sergeant Bennet Drake in Ripper Street — admitted some of the props, including fake corpses and a HORSE’s head, were so gruesome he could not sleep.

He said: “There was lots of fake blood and gross prosthetics. There were lots of dead bodies lying around, it was quite a gruesome affair.

“But for me one of the most challenging things was a horse’s head.

“While it was haunting seeing a human’s head, there was a scene in which we have to examine a horse who has been shot.

“It was very realistic and, as I’m a vegetarian, I found it really difficult to look at.

“It did get to me a bit — I have had quite a few disturbed dreams.”


READ MORE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4715295/Actor-Jerome-Flynn-has-suffered-recurring-nightmares-since-playing-19th-century-cop-in-Ripper-St.html

Happy Birthday to the wonderful, beautiful, magical Maggie Smith!


Maggie Smith

Dame Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith, DBE, is an English film, stage and television actress. She has had an extensive career both on screen and in live theatre, and is known as one of Britain's pre-eminent actors.

Born: December 28, 1934 (age 78), Ilford

Awards: Academy Award for Actress in a Leading Role, More

Spouse: Beverley Cross (m. 1975–1998), Robert Stephens (m. 1967–1974)

Children: Toby Stephens, Chris Larkin

Parents: Nathaniel Smith, Margaret Hutton-Smith


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btuGt_ENgPg


Mirrenfan2

EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Macfadyen shares all the GORY details from his new TV series Ripper Street (MAIL ON LINE)

By DAVID WIGG



Matthew Macfadyen has been tempted back to a major TV series for the first time since the long-running Spooks ended two years ago, in which he played a very modern role as counter-terrorism chief.

Now he has re-emerged as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, a late 19th-century policeman whose beat is London’s East End, haunt of the notorious Jack The Ripper.

The time is April 1889, six months after the Ripper has claimed his last victim, hacking a fifth young woman to death -  and people are beginning to venture out after dark again, in the cautious hope that his murderous reign of terror is over.



But is it? After all, the series is called Ripper Street.

The famously buttoned-up Macfadyen reacts with mock horror: ‘I couldn’t possibly give anything away’, he says.  ‘But I will say that Inspector Reid is a very modern policeman, and what he investigates takes him beyond the Ripper’s crimes.

'He is beginning to see huge new advances in forensics and pathology as for the first time police work becomes truly scientific, and he can see that this is the future’.


I watched the opening scene as Macfadyen as Reid – tall, imposing, well-dressed in  a long heavy coat and a black bowler hat, and sporting distinctively fashionable sideburns - sips his beer in Whitechapel’s packed Brown Bear tavern.


He smiles as his fellow drinkers cheer on a brutal bare-knuckle fight. It’s all good fun - or what passed for fun in the late 19th century - but Reid’s off-duty moments are numbered.

Suddenly, a scream echoes through the fog-shrouded warren of streets. The naked body of a young prostitute has been found with her throat cut. The murder has all the Ripper’s hallmarks, and panic once again grips the East End.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2254341/Matthew-Macfadyen-shares-gory-details-new-TV-series-Ripper-Street.html#ixzz2GNrw2erg 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook



Incredibly charming - TOM HIDDLESTON's outtakes from MTV Loki'd (PEREZ HILTON)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oycUmHZK6MI

Who is that beautiful man in the video above?

Why, he's Loki! He's the God of Mischief!

Tom Hiddleston busted Chris Hemsworth's balls in Thor and The Avengers, but now he's breaking hearts with his beautiful boyish grin!

Ch-ch-check his cute and cheery Christmas vid (above), as he introduces never before seen outtakes from his Loki'd featurette on MTV!

READ MORE: http://perezhilton.com/2012-12-28-tom-hiddleston-lokid-the-avengers-outtakes-highlarious-charming-yummy#.UN2zMoc1k8c

BBC's Sherlock voted top TV show of 2012 Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective wins Radio Times poll (GUARDIAN)


Caroline Davies and agency
The Guardian, Thursday 27 December 2012



The sleuth drama Sherlock, a modern-day version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's crime-solving stories, has been voted the top TV show of 2012 in a Radio Times poll of writers and critics.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, the BBC1 series beat the US Emmy and Golden Globe winning thriller Homeland, shown on Channel 4, into second place.

The Olympics comedy Twenty Twelve, the BBC2 mockumentary following a fictitious team behind the Games and starring Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes, was voted third.

Armando Iannucci's political satire The Thick of It, another BBC2 series, was placed fourth in the TV Top 10.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/dec/28/bbc-sherlock-top-show-2012?_tmc=Csk0-0YPaQHf0gQgSeq0FQiLHUnfqALWEfrbuhZAdOI

Thursday 27 December 2012

Inside The Actors Studio with Hugh Grant



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjnW4YfmAUc

SirPsychoFleas

'Inside Ripper Street' - Matthew Macfadyen BBC America (DREAD CENTRAL) BY The Woman in Black)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yhSdUxEvCBI

"Ripper Street," starring MATTHEW MACFADYEN (Anna Karenina, MI-5, Pride and Prejudice), JEROME FLYNN ("Game of Thrones"), ADAM ROTHENBERG ("Alcatraz"), MYANNA BURING (The Twilight Saga, White Heat) and DAVID DAWSON ("Luther," "Secret Diary of a Call Girl"), premieres Saturday, January 19, 2013, at 9/8c on BBC America.



READ MORE: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/62417/get-look-inside-ripper-street-bbc-america

Ewan McGregor Talks About “The Impossible” And Family POSTED DEC. 26, 2012, 6:00 AM BEVERLY COHN / EDITOR-AT-LARGE (SANTA MONICA MIRROR)


It is no accident that the perennial youthful and stunningly handsome Ewan McGregor is an international acting treasure who has racked up a list of impressive credits earning him the Number 9 spot on Channel 4’s Greatest Movie Stars of All Time.

His breakout role was in “Trainspotting” in which he played a heroin addict and since then starred in such films as the prequel trilogy of “Star Wars” playing Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, the love-struck poet in “Moulin Rouge,” the son in both “Big Fish” and “Beginners,” as well starring roles in “Black Hawk Down,” “Cassandra’s Dream,” “Emma,” “Ghost Writer,” and “Angels & Demons.” Theatre trained, McGregor also received accolades for his stage performances in “Guys and Dolls,” and “Othello.”

His latest film, “The Impossible,” is the heart-wrenching story of a family’s struggle for survival in the wake of the horrifying tsunami that hit Thailand the morning after Christmas in 2004. One of the worst natural disasters in history, it tells the story of determination and bravery under unimaginable conditions. McGregor plays Henry, the father and co-stars with Naomi Watts as his wife, Maria, and three wonderful young actors who play their sons – Tom Holland (Lucas), Samuel Joslin (Thomas), and Oaklee Pendergast (Simon). The film is a monument to honoring the best that human beings can be in the face of unspeakable carnage.

McGregor recently sat down with a group of select journalists to discuss the film, along with personal revelations, and the following has been edited for content and continuity for print purposes.

What this family went through is beyond belief. Did you meet the father who you played as Henry?

Ewan: I met him when the family came out to Kolok (Thailand) where we were shooting, after about a month of filming. I did have telephone calls with him. They are a Spanish family, but we decided not to play them as a Spanish family, so I felt like I was concentrating playing the guy on the page. The character in the script is Henry and I used the things I learned from the real father about his experience, but also things I learned from other survivors. I met this amazing woman in London who was very gracious and told me her story. She lost her husband in the tsunami and she has three children and her story is very similar to my character’s in that she was with her two younger kids and her husband and eldest daughter were separated. She didn’t know where they were. So her experience and journey was very similar to his (Henry) in that she was looking for them. She would find somewhere safe to leave her kids and then she would search for her daughter and her husband.



Danny Boyle’s Trance – First Images With James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel – UPDATED With More Posted on December 27, 2012 by Brendon Connelly (BLEEDING COOL)



Danny Boyle‘s next is a do-over of Joe Ahearne‘s 2001 TV movie Trance, a noirish twister about an art theft gone wrong.

In the film version, James McAvoy plays the inside man at the gallery who gets a good bash on the head and forgets who he is – and where he’s hidden the painting. A hypnotherapist is called in to try and unlock these memories and the story is quickly revealed to be a blend of the real, the remembered and the imagined.

There’s a piece on the film in the current issue of Empire magazine – the iPad version of which is going for just 69p right now, so check it out for yourself.


Alan Rickman: I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm! (video)!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kHYIjQx2cQ

MsSardonicus

‘Sherlock’ Stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman Talk ‘Hobbit The Desolation Of Smaug’ (THE GLOBAL DISPATCH)



The “Sherlock” co-stars are together again in next year’s second chapter of the “Hobbit” trilogy and both stars offered a few words in the new Empire Magazine.

Martin Freeman, who stars in the franchise as Bilbo Baggins, was seen in one promotional photo nearly swimming in the dragon’s gold.

“I’m Scrooge McBaggins. It’s about a million pieces. It’s the biggest pile of gold I’ve ever seen! Well, obviously – I’m not used to hanging out in big piles of gold! They’re all fake, obviously, but it was a big eff-off pile of gold made it very hard to walk on.”

Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars with Freeman on the BBC hit series “Sherlock,” voices Smaug the Terrible, but doesn’t get to reunite with his co-star face-to-face for “Hobbit.”

READ MORE: http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/sherlock-stars-benedict-cumberbatch-martin-freeman-talk-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-49782/

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Henry Cavill - I Wanna Do Bad Things To You



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYNc_Ujr1JA

Love this song - it works on so many levels



Tom Hardy - Christmas card king Tom Hardy (CONTACT MUSIC)



The 'Dark Knight Rises' actor and his girlfriend Charlotte Riley are renowned for their festive crafty skills, and after impressing their friends with personal greetings last year, the pressure is on for them to better themselves this December.

Charlotte said: ''Tom and I make cards. Last year, we drew the Wise Men next to a sign saying, 'Bethlehem this way'.

''We made about 30 cards for family and friends. Now we've got a reputation - it's a tradition that can't be broken.''


READ MORE: http://www.contactmusic.com/news/christmas-card-king-tom-hardy_3429976


'Quartet' Star Tom Courtenay Refused To Watch Dame Maggie Smith As The Dowager In 'Downton Abbey' (huffington post)



Veteran British actor Tom Courtenay deliberately avoided watching Dame Maggie Smith in 'Downton Abbey' before playing her love interest onscreen because he didn't want to be "put off".

Courtenay puckers up to kiss Smith in their movie 'Quartet', about a group of retired opera singers, and admits he didn't want to see her as feisty character the Dowager Countess of Grantham in the hit TV show before their big moment.

READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/24/quartet-star-tom-courtenay-dowger-downton-abbey-maggie-smith_n_2357746.html

Keira Knightley thrilled Love Actually is part of Christmas


Shameless plug for my first book.  So sorry.  Couldn't feel worse.

The 2003 movie was a collaborative film starring Knightley, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson, and is regularly shown on U.K. TV in the lead-up to Christmas Day.

And Knightley loves having a film which has become a must-see for families at this time of year.

She tells the Huffington Post, "It's amazing that it turned that kind of Christmas movie, isn't it? I don't think anyone realized it was going to do that.

"It's an extraordinary thing when people come up and go, 'Oh, you know, that's the thing I watch every Christmas'. It's a lovely thing. That's why you make them."


Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/Keira-Knightley-thrilled-Love-Actually-is-part-of-Christmas_38116758#ixzz2GB61fxui

SPOILER SPOILER Dan Stevens Has Something to Say About ‘Downton Abbey’ By DAVE ITZKOFF (NEW YORK TIMES)



Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley on “Downton Abbey.”
WITH Michelle Dockery

Be forewarned that this post deals with developments on “Downton Abbey” that British viewers are now aware of, but which have not yet occurred in the American broadcast of that series. In other words, major spoilers ahead.

Just when things were going swimmingly for Matthew Crawley at “Downton Abbey” — that aristocratic character, played by Dan Stevens, was enjoying his long-delayed wedding to Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery); his wife had given birth to their first child, a son; he was delighted by his fancy new motorcar — an automobile accident he sustained in the show’s Christmas special resulted in his demise, and ended Mr. Stevens’s tenure on the popular period drama.

Speaking with The Telegraph of London, Mr. Stevens said that his departure from “Downton Abbey” felt strange but inevitable, and that his decision to leave the series was made before he started filming its most recent season (which begins in the United States on Jan. 6).


READ MORE: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/dan-stevens-has-something-to-say-about-downton-abbey/

Kenneth Branagh recalls the opening ceremony of London 2012 27 July: the actor relives working with Danny Boyle to help create the dazzling opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics (GUARDIAN)


"I have never learned a part more thoroughly": Kenneth Branagh performs at the opening ceremony. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

I was in Liverpool on a location scout for the film Jack Ryan when I got the call. Danny Boyle rang me and explained that they'd had a great tragedy – Mark Rylance's daughter had passed away and he was pulling out of his role in the opening ceremony. He asked if I would take over. I was standing on a street corner and I was so shocked at Mark's news that I didn't really take in the second part.


A couple of days later I went to see Danny at the Olympic Stadium. It was three weeks before the ceremony and the place was packed with thousands of people all doing things impressively. Danny seemed to know everybody's first name – it was like taking a walk with the Pied Piper. We climbed on to the hill that I'd eventually be doing my piece from. It was quite a lot to take in. Danny said, "You'll be here in the person of Isambard Kingdom Brunel performing Shakespeare to the accompaniment of Elgar," and I said, "God, that's a lot of Great Britons all at once." I asked him where the prompter or autocue would be and he said, "Oh, no we won't have one of those." I have never learned a part more thoroughly in my entire professional career. The notion of screwing up in front of a billion people concentrated the mind very strongly.

On the opening night the energy was incredible and hard to resist. There was a temporary structure built as our dressing rooms and all the children involved were on the top floor. They were so wild with excitement the building was shaking. I remember being in my dressing room with the Arctic Monkeys rehearsing "Come Together" for the 5,000th time next door, and on the other side of the partition, Rowan Atkinson and Simon Rattle were discussing, in minute detail, how to be funny in two minutes and 11 seconds. Across the way Danny Boyle was talking JK Rowling off the ledge because it was her first time performing in public. As for me, I was just trying to keep my head straight and going through my lines: "Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises…"


READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/dec/23/kenneth-branagh-danny-boyle-olympics

Henry Cavill Career Montage - I Was Here



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcz_m8wkIVk&feature=youtu.be


Henry Cavill Fanpage Videos

Richard Armitage Dishes on Battle of Five Armies in 'Hobbit: There and Back Again' ACES SHOW BIZ

The Thorin Oakenshield depicter predicts the epic battle will be a manic fight in the air, while another cast member Andy Serkis claims, 'It's going to be intense beyond belief.'


"The Hobbit" has just released the first installment of the trilogy, but one of its actors, Richard Armitage, is already raving about the epic Battle of Five Armies in the third film, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again". While the intense sequence hasn't been shot just yet, he envisioned what it would be like.


"It's been put aside until next year, thankfully," Armitage jokingly said of the filming. "It's this big thing looming over us. I'm predicting about ten weeks for the shoot because it's an extensive battle and each character is going to have their 'hero' moment on the battlefield. It's a manic fight in the air - the eagles are fighting bats - and on the ground, and I can't wait to see what Pete does with that."

Actor and second-unit director Andy Serkis, who will handle the big fight sequence, hints that "it's going to be intense beyond belief. It's going to be extraordinary - that's all I can say." The epic battle sequence will see the Men, the Elves, the Dwarves and the Eagles, all fighting for the future of Middle-earth.

Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00056650.html#ixzz2GAZI25HR

Henry Cavill: All I Want for Christmas is You from your Christian Grey fans



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xoffUqqkgU&feature=youtu.be

Melissa Davideit

SPOILER - KING OF SPOILERS - DOWNTON ABBEY CHRISTMAS EPISODE **BEWARE** (MAIL ON LINE)

By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS




The fatal twist was so unforeseen that it took the breath away. In Downton Abbey, after two hours of premonitions that Lord Grantham’s oldest daughter, Mary, would suffer the fate of her sister Sybil and die in childbirth, an entirely different tragedy occurred.

It happened off-screen: an open-topped roadster on a country lane, a looming lorry, and then a cut to Maggie Smith in the Abbey drawing room, reflecting that ‘we don’t always get our just deserts’.

That was, for her, an uncharacteristic understatement. Mary’s husband, cousin Matthew, was bowling home from the maternity hospital, where he had just kissed hello to his baby son, born a few weeks premature. 


He told his wife that he felt as if he’d swallowed a box of fireworks. She told him to remember the feeling, so that he’d forgive her more easily next time she did something silly... like crashing his precious car.

Downton Abbey has never been Matthew’s story: it’s a family saga. And yet he has been the pivot, the axle for the free-wheeling plot.