The Open Road. This is one of those times when, well, because I founded and edit this thing, I get to blatantly promote whatever I want. You'll be happy to know it isn't something one of our advertisers put me up to though this time. No, this is only for you—if you are so inclined, as I was, to relive, or live for the first time, the open road and the open love between two men (and a few hot women, too), played by Keanu Reeves and the late and wonderful and beautiful River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho. Thing is, I saw this flick in the theatre with Claire over a decade ago—a date night it was. Claire and Neal style that is. Then I got to thinking. I have to reckon with that road. I'd spent from kindergarten to now literally living on it because the man who adopted me was obsessed with road trips, cars, and travel—and because my career had me all over the map for years. I've repeated it too many times, but I've been to all our 50 states, many times over, in a van, in a Greyhound bus, and on my motorcycle. But when I saw this movie again about three years ago, I became obsessed with something more than the road. I locked in on the bike. Back then, I wasn't up on foreign bikes really. My life was surrounded by Harleys, so I called Gus Van Sant's office with that stupid question: "Gus, what Norton is he riding?" A Norton Commando. Right away I was off in my head with a screenplay of my own—and a map. I went 5500 miles about six month's later—on my bike. From NYC to LA—and I'll never forget it, or the movie that inspired the ride. My Own Private Idaho: The Collectors Edition. On sale now, and god damn worth it.—N.B.
Watchmen, (Warner Brothers Pictures) starring hotty Malin Akerman (above) and Billy Crudup opened Friday, and Zack Snyder’s dark superhero picture based on the classic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is tracking like a monster on audience surveys. Entertainment reporters and bloggers are frantically hashing out the possible box office scenarios.
Over at Movie City News, they’re ruminating over whether women moviegoers will be turned off by the film’s violence, while the Los Angeles Times frets that the movie could play soft among teenage boys. Under the headline “Will Watchmen be Big Enough?” the local paper heaps blame on Warner Brothers marketers for failing to explain the complex, R-rated movie to the teen crowd.
One blogger—assuredly to Warner’s chagrin—goes the other way, citing strong Fandango advance sales: Shouldn’t expectations be even higher for Watchmen?
Of course, it’s also worth remembering that just a week ago—as Hollywood awaited the opening of Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience—box-office pundits were predicting that that group’s fans would turn the film into a monster hit. It ended up making a bit over $12 million for the weekend, a far cry from what it was expected to make.
Vanity Fair's Vanities Pin Up Girls, in which some of Hollywood's hottest are photographed in the style of pin up painting masters Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas, do it for us. Here, Confessions of a Shopaholic's Isla Fisher—fresh from the mall.
Age and Occupation: 30, actor. Provenance: Muscat, Oman (birth), Scotland (parents' background), and Australia (upbringing). The name is pronounced … "EYE-la," and she was so named in tribute to the Isle of Islay, where many of Scotland's greatest single malts—presumably including Mum's and Dad's favorites—are produced. On making her name by nympho-assaulting Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers: "My character in Wedding Crashers [Gloria Cleary] just jumped off the page to me. The story was dark: womanizing, misogynistic men crashing weddings. I straightaway liked the story, but when women come up to me and say, 'I love that character, that character is me,' I'm like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe you're proud of that! I was doing that ironically!'" And the laffs continue with ? A starring role in Michael Ian Black's romantic comedy, The Pleasure of Your Company (opposite Jason Biggs); a movie called Groupies, which she's co-writing with Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler; and marriage to Sacha Baron Cohen, also known as Ali G, also known as Borat. "I know it's going to sound biased but Borat [the film-length vehicle for Cohen's fictitious Kazakh journalist] is the funniest movie I have ever seen in my life." But first, some serious work: Fisher took on a meatier role in the crime thriller The Lookout, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels. "Both of them in the film have an impediment—Jeff is blind and Joseph is mentally challenged. It's interesting, because when you're acting opposite people that are not really emotionally available, you have to work so much harder." The pedigree of her comic talent: "At 21, I studied at the Jacques Lecoq school [in Paris], which is the theater school where you learn clown and mime and commedia dell'arte, where Geoffrey Rush and Emma Thompson went. I definitely think that, particularly for strong characters, I use a lot of my skills from there. But I'd never use the juggling or the mime—there's not much call for doing 'the wall' in a film." Confession of a Shopaholic has been a smash hit and it's still in theaters, and still worth it—Krista Smith for Vanity Fair
Photograph by Michael Elins for Vanity Fair
Monica Lewinsky poses for fashion. This banned Kleenex, I mean, Puma ad might have worked better if it had been all over a blue dress we wonder.—N.B.
Let your fingers do the walking. On your way to New York City for the first time (or tenth)? Not been out in awhile? Moving in? Or, just coming out and want to put yourself in the mix? When I came out in 1985 I had never been to a gay bar, let alone even knew where to go. I found my way by driving into town to where I had heard gay men lived, parked my big old navy blue nearly dead '75 Chevy, and followed two men who I thought might be gay and together into a nondescript club with no sign on the door. Luckily, I scored and found myself in a place called Badlands in Washington, D.C. (now Halo). The dance floor was all laser lights, poured in fog, and guys in leather harnesses snorting poppers while dancing the night away—suddenly, with me (I was only 17 after all). Today, knowing where to go for all of your LGBT desires is not as easy, which is why we recommend HX Magazine. A free weekly publication with hot covers, absolutely-right-now-content as well as event, party, and club listings, and an online component in which you can type in what you want and they recommend where to go. Sort of like the yellow pages, but pink. Online now, and worth it.—N.B.
So BastardLife. Our friends at Fashionologie always publish the hottest news: "It's been a few years since Brooke Shields told us that nothing comes between her and her Calvins—almost two decades to be exact. Not since the early 1980s, when those Calvin Klein Jeans commercials were running, has the brand tried to top them. Enter 2009, the year the label finally gives it another go, with a grainy Steven Meisel-shot commercial featuring Anna Selezneva, Anna Maria Jagodzinska, and Natasha Poly greased up and writhing in nothing but their Calvins. The ads have already been banned from even late-night cable TV—nothing CK isn't used to, since the same thing happened last year with their Eva Mendes Secret Obsession commercial, but they plan on having this one actually make it on TV in the US. An edited version will air on American cable, and countries like Italy, France, Spain, and Germany will run the unedited version."—Fashionologie
