With so much information coming at us on the Internet it's tough to keep up with all of the mostly meaningless but guilty pleasure type of info out there – and some of it is meaningful. Either way, here's a smattering of pop culture from around the web!
Diehard fans of the Millennium Series on film -- the journey in Swedish comes to an end for Noomi Rapace as the computer hacker and general badass Lisbeth Salander. Noomi, who has starred in all three of the Swedish films based on Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular trilogy, says that The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, released today, will be the last time she inhabits Lisbeth, even if the purported fourth novel comes to light and eventually to celluloid.
While David Fincher is currently shooting an American remake of the films, with The Social Network’s Rooney Mara filling Lisbeth’s punk ‘Stomper’ boots, Noomi’s Lisbeth is a pure original, a smoldering bundle of dynamite continually on the verge of igniting and threatening to blow.
I caught director Daniel Alfredson’s second film in the series – he directed The Girl Who Played with Fire – and it’s a strong representation of the novel, if not a tad pared down to consolidate Stieg’s complicated plot involving the Swedish government and a plot to silence Lisbeth forever.
This installment has Lisbeth rendered somewhat immobile in her hospital bed awaiting trial for attempting to murder her father for much of the film, but Noomi’s so good at expressing emotion with the flash of an eye or the twitch of her lip, that Lisbeth’s still a wholly watch-able character even in a hospital johnny. Lisbeth communicates with Millennium star journalist Mikael Blomkvist primarily via a stashed smart phone but the duo still makes a terrific pair of mismatched, feminist crime fighters.
While Lisbeth is most fun when she’s seeking real physical revenge on the misogynists in Stieg’s world – like tasering and beating the crap out of bikers out to kill her in The Girl Who Played with Fire – Hornet’s Nest provides a satisfying end to the celluloid trilogy, even if Lisbeth’s courtroom look is reminiscent of Johhny Depp’s Edward Scissorhands.
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Where Glee goes the culture follows these days. Last night LA’s famed Wiltern Theater hosted a star-studded Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th anniversary benefit for The Painted Turtle, for chronically ill children.
Glee’s vocal wonder girl Lea Michelle reprise the role she played on the show earlier this week, the virginal Janet, while her teacher Mr. Shue (Matthew Morrison) played the dork with the hot body Brad. True Blood’s lesbian vampire queen Evan Rachel Wood took on what looks like a pretty good approximation of Magenta while The Pussycat Dolls Nicole Sherzinger – who delivered a killer Maureen in The Hollywood Bowl’s Rent this summer – played Columbia. Nip / Tuck’s bad boy Julian McMahon took on Dr. Frankenfurter’s Sweet Transvestite while Jack Nicholson played the criminologist.
All I can say is video please – of Nicole and Evan Rachel as Magenta and Columbia!
Speaking of Nicole Sherzinger, who really did turn my head with her Maureen in Rent, the DWTS juggernaut has a new video out. And I just can’t argue with Nicole’s Nikita-esque kick-ass dance moves.
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Also on the big screen in selected theaters this weekend is something decidedly not Haloweenish. Kristen Stewart is garnering Oscar buzz for her portrayal of a runaway stripper opposite James Gandolfini in Welcome to the Rileys. The always-worth-the-price-of-adminssion Melissa Leo (The L Word, Frozen River) also stars. If you need a break from the slasher flicks this weekend checkout the Oscar bait film.
The girl that launched a thousand angry parents protests for her sexy Elmo outfit, which was eventually censored out of Sesame Street, Katy Perry, is also good at launching things from her breasts. First it was whipped cream streaming from her nipples in the “California Gurls” video, and now she’s shooting fireworks from her rack in the inspirational “Firework” video.
Not only can Katy shoot amazing things from her breasts, she’s also politically and socially conscious. She’s dedicated the “Firework” video to the “It Gets Better” campaign for LGBT teens.
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While, in my opinion, not even Jane Lynch could save SNL from the flat writing, it’s good to see a couple of gals who had success hosting in the past will host this November. The sumptuous Scarlett Johansson will host for the third time on Nov. 13, while Anne Hathaway makes her second hosting appearance Nov. 25, with musical guest Florence and the Machine! That’s some good estrogen for the mostly male these days SNL.
Sadly, but not so surprisingly, Big Love will bid farewell following its upcoming fifth season. The HBO show ostensibly about a man, Bill Paxton’s Bill Henrickson, trying to navigate his plural marriages in society and in the household, but really about how his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) navigate their various roles, has reached the culmination of the story, according to the show’s creators.
While the fourth season was a bit of a mess plot-wise, I’ll miss Sevigny’s scheming Nikki wreaking havoc throughout the Henrickson’s households, Goodwin’s Margene’s cock-eyed optimism about reality of their attempting to assimilate and Tripplehorn’s Barb’s continual locking horns with her pigheaded husband. Farewell ladies.
The lovely Portia de Rossi is slated to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show Monday. And while I’d love to see Portia spill about the minutia of her life with her wife Ellen DeGeneres -- who gets up to feed the cats, cleans the litter and washes the errant wine glass -- it looks like it will be a fairly emotional interview with Portia there to discuss her book Unbearable Lightness. In the book she discusses in depth her struggle with anorexia. And since this is Oprah, it’s a fair assumption there won’t be a dry eye in households across America once Oprah’s finished.
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