stars, sex and nudity buzz : 06/04/2012

Behind the Scenes with RegardMag.com featuring Dominik Garcia-Lorido

For our current issue we had a chance to do a gorgeous editorial shoot with actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido. She is currently playing Mercedes Lazaro in the STARZ Network hit series about 1959 Miami Beach, Magic City. Dimitry styled the shoot with a glamorous edge featuring gorgeous dresses by Project Runway alum Rami Kashou. Dominik looked amazing in his designs…. Thanks, Dominik for a fun shoot. Be sure to like Dominik on Facebook.

Behind the Scenes
RegardMag.com Issue 13
Photos: Dimitry Loiseau/RegardMag.com
Hair/Make-up: Valerie Noble/RegardMag.com
Model: Dominik Garcia-Lorido
Designs: Rami Kashou

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The light is your friend

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Maggie Grace at 16th Annual Global Green USA Millennium Awards [June 2 2012]

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Jenna Dewan : at MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles [June 3 2012]

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Blue Lagoon revisited: Brenton Thwaites and Indiana Evans bare it all in isle romp

Aussie stars Indiana Evans (pictured) and Brenton Thwaites won a global search for the lead roles in a reboot of the classic coming-of-age movie, Blue Lagoon, which first shocked the world on release in 1980.

Actor Brenton Thwaites says the remake is going to be racier than the original. "I'm pretty much naked for a lot of it".

IT was the film of the risque beach romp film and it made international superstars of Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins.

Now two young Australians are set to bring Blue Lagoon back to celluloid life and kick-start their Hollywood careers in the process.
Home And Away alumni Indiana Evans and Brenton Thwaites have won a global search for the lead roles in a reboot of the classic coming-of-age movie which first shocked the world on release in 1980.

Thwaites, who won local acclaim last year for his breakthrough role in Foxtel's local teen drama Slide, told The Daily Telegraph that the new script promised to be racier than the original.
"It's quite heavy and a completely different storyline," he said. "The only similarity is that it's on an island and called Blue Lagoon. I'm pretty much naked for a lot of it which is going to be, um, different."
The 22-year-old is expected to jet home "to pack up" direct from India, where he is currently appearing in Brendan Cowell's new film, Save Your Legs.
He came to the attention of studio executives after a two-month stint in Los Angeles late last year.
His "first job in the States" would bring extra scrutiny, he said, but was "really excited to be doing this with Indi".
He joked: "There's going to be a lot of interest in why they gave these jobs to two Aussies, so no pressure".

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A VERY adult role! Elizabeth Olsen grows up fast as she is seen on the set of erotic period drama Therese for the first time

It seems Elizabeth Olsen is growing up very fast indeed.
For the 23-year-old has been seen on the set of her forthcoming erotic thriller Therese for the first time in Budapest, Hungary today.
The younger sister of twins Mary-Kate and Ashley was in full period dress for the bodice ripper, which is set in the 1860s.

Growing up fast: Elizabeth Olsen is getting ready to tackle the adult role of Therese Raquin and was spotted filming with actor Tom Felton in Budapest today

English actor Tom Fenton, who is best known as Harry Potter villain Draco Malfoy, was by her side for the early shoot scenes.
Elizabeth is starring as the movies titular character Therese Raquin, who is married off and trapped in a loveless union with her sickly cousin Camille, who is played by Fenton.
As a beautiful but sexually repressed young woman, her character cannot bear to remain innocent for long, and begins a torrid affair with her husband's best friend Laurent.
The good news for Elizabeth is that the latter is being played by Drive hunk Oscar Isaac.

Breaking the illusion: Plastic bottles of upmarket mineral water were hard to come by in the 1860s

Don't get too comfortable: Elizabeth will have her dress ripped off numerous times in the erotic drama

Let the servants do it: Tom and Elizabeth's characters were happy to have their baggage carried for them

American Horror Story favourite Jessica Langer is playing her controlling aunt Madame Raquin.
The film's climax follows the disastrous results of Therese's ill-fated dalliance with Laurent.
Elizabeth looked like she was having a fine time in the glorious European city, and at one point was seen indulging in a deep discussion with the film's director Charlie Stratton.
Some of the film's themes will include the subjects of imprisonment and punishment, temperament and the human animal.

Transported back in time: The only hint this was not the seventeenth century came from the man wielding a digital camera

What's my motivation? The thoughtful actress tried to get to the roots of her character's psyche during a chat with director Charlie Stratton

A spot of polish: Elizabeth got some help with her make-up from a lackey as they got ready to shoot the scene

Eager aunt: Jessica Lange was seen sauntering around the set taking personal photographs with her camera

* There are two versions frequently adapted for the stage play. The popular adaptation (in the States) had rather graphic, although fully clothed, sex scenes. The rare ones includes nudity. The movie was supposed to be Kate Winslet pet project. At one point she was attached as the producer and star. Even said in interview it will be unflinching portrayal of graphic sex and rampant nudity. Elizabeth Olsen have mentioned previously in interviews she will never do the type of nudity associated with Miss Winslet. She leans more towards fleeting shots than long and wankable capture of the nakedness. So I will keep my cock-o-meter at neutral before more news filters out.

Are Elizabeth Olsen and Carey Mulligan paving way for new nudity?

October 27, 2011

For the last couple weeks, Carey Mulligan was making the rounds to help publicize her soon-to-be-released film "Shame" before heading off to Australia to work on Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." In the NC-17 "Shame," directed by Steve McQueen, Mulligan plays the younger sister of a man (Michael Fassbender) with a crippling sex addiction, which seems to be the result of some shared trauma between them. In one particular scene, which audiences seem to respond to as equal parts disturbing and disarming, he discovers her in his apartment using his shower. Her bold refusal to cover up as he talks to her is a signature point in the film.
A few weeks back when Elizabeth Olsen was in Los Angeles for a whirlwind promotional tour for "Martha Marcy May Marlene," the 22-year-old perked up when a conversation turned to the 26-year-old Mulligan. (It should perhaps be noted that both "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Shame" are being distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.)
"I've loved the movies Carey Mulligan has been in in the last year and a half or two years," said Olsen. "She's made cool choices, especially this year with 'Drive' and 'Shame.' That's amazing. Those are two movies it would be great to be a part of. I saw 'Shame' at the [New York Film] Festival. I did like 'Shame.' My personal taste, it's a little too graphic for me. I understand why all of it was there, but..."
Her response naturally (honest!) brought up the issue of Olsen's own offhanded nudity in "Martha Marcy May Marlene." In the film, written and directed by Sean Durkin, Olsen plays a young woman who is in the first stages of regaining her identity after fleeing from a cult. Certain societal norms seem for the moment beyond her, such as when she curls up on the corner of a darkened bed where her sister and brother-in-law are making love, or the way she casually shucks her clothes to skinny-dip in a lake, or unabashedly changes into a dress right in front of her sister.
Whether these high-profile actresses baring themselves marks a shift in the attitudes of young performers to nudity in the movies remains to be seen. Perhaps things are swinging back the other way from the modesty of the past few years, itself a response to the era of ubiquitous screen-capture infamy, when a moment from a film can be decontextualized to its basest, barest essentials and live forever on the Internet. While the bra-in-bed sex scene has become an accepted norm for audiences, are these few performances pointing the way to a new candor?

"In theater I don't think of nudity as something that's difficult because it's so ephemeral and it's not captured, it just is in the moment and if it tells the story better, it tells the story better and you go on with your life and it's not recorded in any way," said Olsen.
"With this movie, it's different," she continued. "And my biggest fear, because it's only my second film, I got nervous. 'Wait, does this set a precedent for me? Are people going to think I'm just game for that?' Because I'm not. When it's sensationalized or gratuitous, I have no interest in it. But for this movie, it's so a part of the nature theme that's explored and the loss of identity. The No. 1 way of manipulating someone in these cults and taking away their identity is by sexually taking away the identification of their body, being not theirs anymore and being someone else's. And that's so important.
"So that was scary. However, I saw 'Holy Smoke' coincidentally right when I got the job and Kate Winslet in that film has much more difficult, physically vulnerable scenes then I did in this movie and it was so impactful. And I was thinking, look at her career now. She's not pigeonholed, it just is the story. And that was a lesson to learn, to look up to her career as something that's pretty ideal in my mind and so that gave me a type of courage of being like, 'I'm going to support the movie, this tells the story better, this is important for the story and that's that.'"
The fleeting, contextual nudity of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" is perhaps most reminiscent of the casual glimpses of naked bodies in American films from the 1970s and early '80s, when it could just be another part of the storytelling.
"And that's the way Sean shoots too," said Olsen. "What Sean would say is that we're not trying to highlight it, we're just not trying to hide it."

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Next Spartacus Season, War of the Damned, Will End the Series

Exclusive: Executive Producer Steven S. DeKnight on why Spartacus is coming to an end.

by Eric Goldman

June 4, 2012

He’s defeated Batiatus and Glaber, but it turns out that the end is almost here for Spartacus. Yes, the next season of the hit Starz series, which we can now reveal will be called Spartacus: War of the Damned, will be the final one, as the show comes to an end after four years, three “regular” seasons and one additional prequel season.
It’s a surprising move, given how meaningful Spartacus has been for Starz, where it is easily their biggest hit and has been crucial in getting the cable channel established as a destination for original series. I spoke to Spartacus’ executive producer and showrunner, Steven S. DeKnight, for an exclusive chat about the decision to end the series after a relatively short run, why the time was right and what we might expect when War of the Damned begins its ten episodes in January 2013.
IGN TV: So let's just start with the first and foremost question: Why end the show right now?
Steven DeKnight: Starz always does the unexpected. This show has been challenged, to say the least, in many, many ways. We’ve faced many difficulties and tragedies on the show. My original plan was to attack the show in a five to seven season arc. Once we got into it and after Andy’s passing and looking at the historical story of Spartacus, we came to the decision to basically end on a high note. We certainly could have continued for a few more seasons and stretched it out, but we really wanted to end high and not feel like we were treading water - and really just condense the rest of the history into one amazing ten-episode, badass final season. You know, the whole show was a huge risk from the start for Starz, and it was another huge risk when I decided to try to keep the show going after Andy’s passing. Any normal studio would have just cancelled the show at that point and not risk the financial downside of it not working. But Starz, thankfully, really stuck by the show, and they really wanted it to be told all the way to the end. They didn’t want to cheat the viewers and just suddenly pull the plug. So they gave us this opportunity to wrap up the story, and we’re certainly taking that opportunity and running with it. This is by far the biggest season we’ve ever attempted.

IGN: I have to ask – Did Starz simply tell you, “Next year is your last,” or was there a lot of conversation about it and about what would work best for the story?
DeKnight: There was a lot of conversation. We knew towards the end of making the last season - we were 90 percent sure that we would be wrapping it up. And then there were a lot of questions and back and forth about do we do ten episodes, do we do 12, do we do 16, do we do 20? Ultimately, when we looked at it from all angles both financially and creatively, we decided, “Let’s do ten. Let’s take history, take the best parts of the story and really just try to end this as strong as possible.”
IGN: I think it will surprise a lot of people because it has become Starz’s flagship show and is their biggest success. After last season, I’d personally figured you’d probably go at least two more years.
DeKnight: Yeah, I think the last thing Starz would want to do is, because it’s a success, drag it out and then have it end when it’s on the downslide; when people start to get tired of it and less interested and we start repeating ourselves. That would just be a horrible way to go out. But the thing about this show is, I think it is an incredibly risky thing to end it now. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s a good way to go or a bad way to go. But with Starz, they’ve taken such a big risk on every season. They took a huge risk greenlighting the show, and then once Andy [Whitfield] fell ill, they took a gigantic risk doing the prequel.
And it’s funny with this show... After each season, it seems like what I read a lot on the message boards is people ringing our death knell. When they found out Andy was sick and we were doing a prequel, everybody hated the idea of a prequel. “What are they doing? It will never work.” Then the prequel was a success. And then, unfortunately, when Andy passed away we had to recast Spartacus. Everybody was saying it would never work. And then last season we had even bigger numbers than the previous two seasons. So this show had been one constant risk, every single season. And Starz is throwing the dice one more time. It’s a little unprecedented -- in fact, I think it’s very unprecedented to take your one big hit show on your network and end it earlier than people expect.
IGN: This title of this new season, War of the Damned, certainly doesn’t seem to be very optimistic for either side in this battle.
DeKnight: No! [Laughs]
IGN: Should we extrapolate from that?
DeKnight: You certainly can. I hatched this “brilliant” graphic novel idea of, “Let’s subtitle each season,” instead of Season 1, 2, 3… “We’ll have different subtitles!” Which was the best/worst idea I’ve ever had in my life. Because after Blood and Sand -- which was something I just threw out in a meeting and it just kind of stuck, and we rolled with it until the end -- each of the next seasons, it been very difficult to get everybody to agree on one title. Months and months and months we’ve gone back and forth. This one was eventually… It was kind of the same process, but it really stuck. We wanted something that was epic, but also, quite frankly, as you point out, it also gives that uneasy sense of doom. It is the War of the Damned. And like you say, it is very much about both sides, the Roman side and the rebel side.

One of the things I really wanted to explore this season was the cost of war. Not just physically and financially, but the cost of war emotionally. And both sides take serious, serious damage this season. The flip side of that is I wanted to play with what really is victory and what really is defeat. Can you win and still be defeated? Which is something I think in the Kirk Douglas version of Spartacus that they did so well - that even when Spartacus is up on the cross dying, there’s the ray of hope with his wife and with his newborn son, who will live a free man. But that’s one of the big challenges of this season is everybody kinda-sorta knows how the story ends -- although most people think that Spartacus was crucified, which historically isn’t quite accurate -- but it’s how do we get there? And once we do get there, how do we end the season so that there is some of form of an uplifting message? I think it would be a mistake to just have it be, “Aaaand Spartacus and all of his people were murdered, and the Romans won!” after following the story for four years.

IGN: You're obviously way more researched on Spartacus than I am, but there is a debate over his ultimate fate. How much thought did you have to put into where to end this character? Did it come to you pretty quickly?
DeKnight: Oh, I’ve spent the last four years thinking about that! That’s something that Starz brought up in the first season when we were talking. And it’s funny, for the first couple of years, whenever I would bring up the eventual end of the show, somebody at Starz would lean over and whisper, “You know, Spartacus’s body was never found. He might have lived.” But I think we’ve come up with a way that stays true to history to end the story but also gives a sense of closure. There’s obviously going to be a lot of sadness at the end of Spartacus, but I think we’ve managed to figure out a way to temper that crushing defeat with a ray of hope.

IGN: You mentioned that this will be your biggest season yet, and I imagine knowing that this is the final season must completely raise the stakes on everything you’re writing and all the character interactions, knowing you’re aiming towards the finish line.
DeKnight: It really does. I’m very conscious of that fact. I’m hoping we can make ten episodes where there isn’t one episode that just, story-wise, falls flat. I always approach a season like that, but this time around it’s even more important that each of these episodes really, really gives the audience something special.
IGN: You’re introducing a couple of major new villains with Crassus and Caesar, and we also know there are other new characters. You guys have killed off several people, but you still have plenty returning. How do you juggle that time between the people we already are invested in and want to see get a proper payoff, and also making these new characters important enough to follow them through these final ten episodes?
DeKnight: That’s always a struggle on a show that has so many characters. Luckily, I think we have fewer characters than Game of Thrones, so it’s a little bit easier. [Laughs] I love that show! But it is a bit of a juggling act. Some episodes you move people into the forefront and others into the background. Then the next episode you switch it around. I think this season everyone will get their moment to shine. There will definitely be some Spartacus-style surprises that happen. There will be things that you do not see coming.
IGN: Your show has done such a great job with the villains, but we’re pretty much starting from scratch in that regard this season. Can you say anything about these two new characters and what your approach is and what kind of tone you take with them, considering the bad guys you’ve had in the past?
DeKnight: Well, first and foremost there’s Marcus Crassus. And this is a guy we’ve consciously set up through the past three seasons. When people speak of him, it’s almost like whispering about the boogeyman. He’s someone very powerful, very rich, someone to be feared. Going into this, the problem was you want to get the feeling that Marcus Crassus can really give Spartacus a good run for his money. Not just with other soldiers, but physically himself - that he’s not just a guy who sits back and commands. He is a fighter, he’s smart, and he uses strategy much the way Spartacus does. I just recently saw the first cut of episode one [of War of the Damned], and Simon Merrells, who we hired as Crassus, is just… You hope and pray you can find the right person for that role, and he is just electrifying. He’s everything I dreamed Crassus would be and much, much more. From that first episode, you’ll see he is a completely different kind of big bad for our show. He’s incredibly shrewd, incredibly smart and really a perfect foil for Spartacus.

Simon Merrells (Crassus) during the cast boot camp training for Spartacus: War of the Damned

And then in a later episode we introduce Julius Caesar. We hatched this idea about, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could somehow work in Julius Caesar?” And then we asked our historical consultants, and they said historically, people think he was part of this war against Spartacus. This is an area of his life that’s a little bit vague. All the books I read said the same thing, that it is more than likely he was involved in the war. And because he has a relationship with Crassus, it was also possible that he was directly under Crassus. But I think this Julius Caesar is different from what a lot of people are familiar with. He’s still in his twenties -- historically he’s about 27 at this point. He hasn’t really started his meteoric rise. That comes after the war. Of course, historically, Julius Caesar didn’t have two dimes to rub together. Crassus really funded him in his rise. So we get to see the early part of their relationship that eventually leads -- for people who know -- to Crassus, Julius Caesar and Pompeii overthrowing the Republic. So we start that story.
IGN: That leads me to my last question. One thing that can be said about Gods of the Arena is it really did prove you had created this great world and characters that were worth investing in, without Spartacus himself in it for the entire season. Do you think there’s any possibility of any sort of spinoff or continuation of this world, even if it is the end of the Spartacus story this coming season?
DeKnight: We’ve definitely kicked around the concept. I think we’re all interested in it. I wouldn’t even attempt it without the other side of my brain, Rob Tapert, who just does such an amazing job. This show would not have happened and would not be the show it is without Rob Tapert being in New Zealand and really just pouring his heart and soul into it. I would definitely entertain doing some form of spinoff within this world with Rob. And there are a lot of different ways to go, and we’ve kicked some of them around. Do you go Julius Caesar and Crassus and follow that story, or do you just go in a different direction where we’re in this world but the historical stuff becomes more of a background that you’re not locked into? Or do you do a movie? I would also love to do that. So it’s such a rich world that Rob and I have created that there’s definitely the possibility that somewhere down the line we may explore it in a different fashion.
Spartacus: War of the Damned premieres in January 2013 on Starz.

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