stars, sex and nudity buzz : 01/13/2013

Potential ‘Californication’ Offshoot Starring Maggie Grace Not Going Forward

By NELLIE ANDREEVA

Lost alumna Maggie Grace’s major arc on the upcoming sixth season of Showtime’s dark comedy Californication will remain just that. I hear Showtime has scrapped plans to potentially spin off Grace’s character Faith into her own series. Showtime had the option to do so as Grace’s deal had a regular option behind it. Faith is a former Catholic school girl-turned-groupie who has been on the road with various bands for years and is considered a muse to elite artists. Though she has a fondness for sex, drugs and rock and roll, she remains quite religious. She meets and becomes friends with Hank Moody (David Duchovny) and eventually, that friendship blossoms into more. Californication sixth season debuts tomorrow night.

* It seems Showtime boys was less than impressed with overall Maggie Grace performance and impact as Faith. It's also likely a bad news for nudity fans. Probably the spin-off was sacrificed to accommodate Sam Mendes potentially expensive gothic drama.

Californication: Season Six (*½ out of 4)

by Jonathan Pacheco 

Californication has always been more surprising and satisfying when its characters are given premises sturdy enough to prop up an entire season, but flexible enough to feel like they're being shaped organically by the characters' choices. Clumsy plot turns and forced interactions turn the characters into puppets that resemble human beings, but who are capable of little more than hitting their marks and reciting a witty line or two. In season six, the puppet show is in full force and show creator and writer Tom Kapinos's hands are quite visibly pulling the strings. 

Surviving a botched murder/suicide attempt by an ex-girlfriend at the end of last season provides Hank Moody (David Duchovny) with the potentially breakthrough realization that his disposable treatment of the opposite sex carries permanent consequences. Hank's subsequent overindulgence in alcohol and self-flagellation dutifully, if unimaginatively, conveys his guilt, but it offers few insights into the severity of his condition. What initially seems like a much-welcomed internal conflict in the first two episodes ultimately amounts to a mini arc employed solely as a device to get Hank into rehab where he can pair up with Faith (Maggie Grace), a rock n' roll groupie, acclaimed muse, and catalyst for the rest of the season.

Grace struggled with her role as the over-emotional Shannon on Lost and overplayed her character's youthful innocence in Taken, but she generally thrives here as a sexually and intellectually powerful young woman who suggests a wisdom gained from making a few too many mistakes. Admittedly, the role rarely requires much emotional range, and when Kapinos does call for tonal variety (particularly in the sloppy episode "Dead Rock Stars," which finds Hank and Faith crashing a funeral while flipping through their emotional rolodex at breakneck speed), Grace comes up short. But for the better part of the season, she hits a sweet spot, performing with a quiet confidence that's bewitching enough to make us forget we've known Grace's function in the season's overall scheme since the moment she referred to herself as a muse.

The rest of the season's contrived storyline is a forced and inelegant string of events that tries to come across as serendipitous. Kapinos's insistence on manipulating a long series of coincidences to connect all of his key characters to the Broadway musical adaptation of one of Hank's novels prevents him from developing stories rich in character illumination. Early on, Hank repeatedly expresses his desire to write another novel, a prospect more exciting than his for-pay stabs at a stage musical or Beverly Hills Cop rip-off. Hank the novelist is much more intriguing, risky, and vulnerable than Hank the screenwriter, Hank the college professor, or Hank the celebrity biographer. But Kapinos's mission to diversify the character's career as an attempt to keep Californication fresh ignores the show's strongest asset: Hank, just being himself.

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Kristen Bell's pregnant sex scenes on 'House of Lies': 'Bigger underwear and CGI'

By Drusilla Moorhouse

"House of Lies" star Kristen Bell might be "400-pounds-months pregnant," doesn't mean her promiscuous character, Jeannie, is suddenly embracing chastity.

"That's been the most hilarious part of the season for me, by far, is that none of my sexual influence on the show has changed," the actress, who is expecting her first child with fiance Dax Shepard, tells Zap2it.

"They've just purchased bigger underwear. They honestly are just providing me with dino drawers."

"She's still just as hot as she always was," notes costar Don Cheadle. "There's just more of her to love!"

"I'm still doing sex scenes, and they're hilarious because it's gross," Bell says, explaining that "they CGI" her baby bump.

"It's nasty," cracks Cheadle, whose character, Marty Kaan, becomes romantically involved with Jeannie in the Showtime comedy's sophomore season.

"He can barely keep food down," laughs Bell.

In contrast, says Cheadle, "she's eating constantly."

"You can't tell I'm pregnant by my weight, but you can tell from the food all over my face," agrees Bell. "There's a lot of crumbs."

"We tried to shoot around it for a while, and we just gave up," snickers Cheadle.

Because of the actors' hysterical banter and sizzling onscreen chemistry, we had to ask what role Don Cheadle would play in the long-wished-for "Veronica Mars" movie.

"You guys doing a movie?" Cheadle asked his costar.

"Well you know I've been trying to do a movie for like five years," she explained, feigning exasperation. " I'm going to send you an updated copy of my resume. This is so embarrassing. Don, I was on a show called 'Veronica Mars' ..."

"We will do a movie," she insists. "It will happen."

"Are you casting Jamie Foxx?" Cheadle responded with mock outrage. "Just say it. Just rip the Band-Aid off fast."

"He's going to play Veronica's new assistant," Bell said about Cheadle's (not Foxx's) proposed role. "And it's going to be this weird dynamic of like "Get me coffee!" and you being like, "I graduated from Harvard."

"I used to run things!" responded Cheadle, already reciting imaginary dialogue.

"And I'm going to say, 'You don't run things around here anymore. And then just one day they're gonna wrestle it all out. That's how Veronica fixes her problems."

Meanwhile, Bell is going to be cheering on her leading man Sunday at the Golden Globes. "I'm definitely rooting for him," she said about Cheadle, up for an acting award for "House of Lies."

The two collapse in conspiratorial giggles about a stunt they joke about staging during the awards show.

"I was going to scream from the stage -- because she's going to present -- 'You're so fat!'" shared Cheadle.

"It would be amazing because I would just throw you under the bus," chortled Bell.

"My career would be done," said Cheadle. "They wouldn't get it. I would get a lot of heat from that."

You can count on Cheadle and Bell heating up the screen when "House of Lies" returns to Showtime, Sunday, Jan. 13 at 10 p.m.

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Showtime’s 2013 Schedule: ‘Dexter’ Moves To Summer, Will Launch ‘Ray Donovan’; ‘Homeland’ Paired With ‘Masters Of Sex’

At TCA today, Showtime entertainment president David Nevins laid out the pay cable network’s scheduling plans for the rest of 2013. The biggest change is the decision to separate veteran Dexter and Homeland, which have been paired since Homeland‘s launch in fall 2011, helping both shows break ratings records. “Dexter has proved incredibly valuable as a launch pad for Homeland,” Nevins said. “Our plan is to harness (the success) and use the shows to launch the next generation of Showtime drama series.” 

Dexter will get on the air earlier than usual, on June 30 at 9 PM, serving as a lead-in for new crime drama Ray Donovan. The early return has not affected production on Dexter. “There is no less production time, just a little less vacation time between the seasons,” Nevins dais, adding that the drama’s producers and cast had gotten enough lead time to adjust to the scheduling change.

On Sept. 29, “we are employing our crown jewel Homeland to launch Masters Of Sex,” Showtime’s new drama about real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Nevins said.

* Is it a good idea to pair Homeland with Masters of Sex? The Homeland viewers are the ones carping a lot about unnecessary nudity in first season. Just can't wait for their (and media) over the top reaction after MOS premiere.

Here are month-by-month highlights of Showtime’s original programming slate for the rest of 2013:
JANUARY
Season 3 of SHAMELESS starring William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum premieres  Sunday, January 13^th at 9:00 p.m. along with the second season of HOUSE OF LIES followed at 10p.m.,  and the sixth season of CALIFORNICATION at 10:30 p.m.

FEBRUARY
INSIDE COMEDY will premiere season two of its critically-acclaimed documentary series on Monday, February 11^th at 11 P.M.  The ten, half-hour episodes will feature David Steinberg along with a line-up of comedy luminaries including Louis C.K., Steve Martin, Tina Fey, and Will Ferrell.

MARCH
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK CHENEY premieres Friday, March 15^th.  From Emmy winner R.J. Cutler (The September Issue), who spent a great deal of time with former Vice President Cheney, and with his full support, delves into his life and career. Includes original interviews with his family and Donald Rumsfeld.

APRIL
NURSE JACKIE Season Five starring Emmy^® Award winner Edie Falco, will debut on Sunday, April 14^th, at 9 PM.  A repeat of the premiere episode of Nurse Jackie will air at 9:30 PM; followed by the third season debut of THE BORGIAS at 10 PM, starring Oscar^® winner Jeremy Irons in his Golden Globe^® nominated role as Pope Alexander.
Moving to Mondays, THE BIG C: hereafter will conclude with a four-part limited event series on Monday, April 29^th at 10 PM, starring Laura Linney in her Golden Globe^® Award-winning and Emmy^®-nominated role as Cathy Jamison.

JUNE
The eighth season of the network’s award-winning drama, DEXTER will be moved up to a summer premiere, and will be the springboard for the highly anticipated series premiere of RAY DONOVAN on Sunday June 30^th.  DEXTER will premiere at 9 pm followed by RAY DONOVAN at 10 pm.

SEPTEMBER
Season Three of the Emmy® and Golden Globe® award winning drama series HOMELAND will return this fall on Sunday, September 29^th at 9 pm followed by the premiere of the new drama series MASTERS OF SEX at 10 pm.

Other notes from Showtime’s session:

– David Nevins on passing on Under The Dome, which has since been picked up to series by broadcast sibling CBS: “I really liked the script for Under the Dome but it always felt fundamentally not us and more network,” he said. “I tried at one point to push it, but I felt I was pushing it out of what it was meant to be. But I actually facilitated helping get the script to (CBS’) Nina (Tassler), and I think it’s found a really good home. I think it’s gonna be a really good show…I think it’s going be better in a broadcast environment than it would be on pay-cable.”

– Matt Damon will guest star in Season 2 of House of Lies, which premieres Sunday. “He stars as himself,” Nevins said. “He comes to those guys trying to figure out how he can get a charitable organization so he can compete better with (George) Clooney.”

– Episodes’ third season will premiere in early 2014 because creators David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, who write every episode, have full creative freedom and scheduling flexibility. It will be “fairly split between London and Los Angeles.”

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Kevin Hart Shot His Very First Sex Scene with Regina Hall in About Last Night (2014)

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John Logan/Sam Mendes TV Project to be Called Penny Dreadful

News on the TV project from John Logan and Sam Mendes, who worked together on Skyfall, came out of Showtime's TCA presentation: The show will be called "Penny Dreadful," and it will begin production in London in the second half of 2013.

From the Press Release:
Some of literature's most iconic figures will step into the light on SHOWTIME in PENNY DREADFUL, a psychosexual horror series created, written and executive produced by three-time Oscar nominee John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator, Gladiator) and executive produced by Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) and Neal Street's Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, Call The Midwife), it was announced by David Nevins, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks.
In PENNY DREADFUL, some of literature's most famously terrifying characters - including Dr. Frankenstein and his creature, Dorian Gray and iconic figures from the novel Dracula - become embroiled in Victorian London. The series weaves together these classic horror origin stories as the characters grapple with their monstrous alienation. This project marks Logan and Mendes' second major collaboration, following Skyfall, their recent critically-acclaimed and box office record-breaking James Bond film, which Mendes directed and Logan co-wrote, and their first ever collaboration for television. The project will be produced by Mendes' production company, Neal Street Productions.
"John Logan and Sam Mendes are two of the great storytellers of our time," said Nevins. "The visual spectacle, combined with the psychological insight in their reimagining of these iconic literary characters, seems totally mesmerizing to me. This promises to be a wholly original television show."

* "The visual spectacle, combined with the psychological insight in their reimagining of these iconic literary characters" = boobies, ass, more boobies and bushy galore.

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23-years old Dutch model Patricia van der Vliet : Aitken Jolly [Exit Mag]Winter 2012/2013

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Verizon Copyright Alert System Would Throttle Internet Speeds Of Repeat Online Pirates

Gerry Smith

Guilty of online piracy? Verizon may slow your high-speed Internet service to a crawl.

The company is considering punishing subscribers who illegally share movies or songs on the Internet by temporarily throttling their Web service to dial-up speeds.

An internal Verizon document leaked online Friday outlines the proposed "copyright alert program." The plan is part of a controversial strategy being rolled out in coming weeks by the entertainment industry and major Internet providers to crack down on Internet piracy, which content creators say costs them billions in lost revenue each year.

Under Verizon's proposed program, subscribers accused of copyright infringement will receive a series of alerts, which critics of such programs call "six strikes." After the first two offenses, Verizon will send emails to subscribers with a link allowing them to see if illegal file-sharing is operating on their computers and how to remove it, according to the leaked document, which was confirmed as authentic by a Verizon spokesman.

After the next two offenses, Verizon will redirect subscribers' browsers to a website where they must acknowledge receiving the alerts and watch a short video about "the consequence of copyright infringement," according to the document. After the fifth and sixth notices, accused copyright violators have the option of either accepting slower Internet speeds for two to three days or asking an arbitrator to review whether they are guilty of Internet piracy -- for the price of $35. If the arbitrator rules in the user's favor, the $35 is refunded and his or her Internet speeds go untouched.

Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said the leaked document was "a discussion draft" and had not been finalized. He said the company would send notices to subscribers about the copyright alert program in coming weeks.

Verizon, which has about 23 million landline customers in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, is one of five major Internet service providers -- along with AT-and-T, Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable -- who have partnered with the recording and movie industries on a new strategy to deter copyright violators. The shift in strategy comes one year after controversial anti-piracy legislation, known as SOPA and PIPA, sparked an Internet outcry and failed to pass Congress.

Time Warner Cable's plan is similar to Verizon's, but instead of throttling Internet speeds of accused copyright violators, the company plans to temporarily suspend their service until they call a customer service representative and agree to stop pirating copyrighted material, according to spokesman Alex Dudley. It was unclear when Time Warner Cable's program would take effect, he said.

Representatives for Comcast and Cablevision did not return requests for comment about their copyright alert programs. An AT-and-T spokesman declined to comment.

Some industry observers questioned whether the plans will be effective. Internet users who frequently engage in illegal file-sharing often use private networks or proxy services to disguise the location of their computers, noted Karl Bode, editor of the blog DSL Reports, which covers the broadband industry.

"As a result, these plans are much more about scaring most users away from piracy, as opposed to accomplishing the impossible task of trying to completely stop piracy on ISP networks," Bode wrote Friday.

In addition, accused copyright violators will not be allowed to repeatedly blame unsecured wireless routers for illegal file-sharing on their networks, a restriction that could affect small businesses that provide Wi-Fi access to customers or subscribers who leave their Wi-Fi unsecured, the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted when the program was first discussed in 2011.

In a blog post last fall, the Center for Copyright Information -- which is coordinating the program between the movie and music industries and the Internet service providers -- sought to clarify misconceptions that accused copyright violators could permanently lose Internet service.

"This is not a 'six-strikes-and-you’re-out' system that would result in termination," the post said. Instead, it called the copyright alert system a "progressive system aimed at educating Internet subscribers about digital copyright and the potential consequences of inadvertent or purposeful copyright violations through peer-to-peer networks."

But beyond the new strategy, Internet users could still have their service terminated for engaging in Internet piracy. Under Time Warner Cable's subscriber agreement, the company reserves the right to terminate or suspend the service of account holders "even for a single act of copyright infringement."

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Allison Williams Tries To Grow Up In Girls

"Girls" Allison Williams discusses with Access about how the girls are trying to transition into adults in season 2 of the HBO series. So, what's happening with her character? Plus, she laughs about how much "fun" she had filming her sex scene.


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The mysterious French Girl

from Moe Moore



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Charlotte Rampling describes 'magic' of naked Mona Lisa photoshoot

Charlotte Rampling, the veteran actress, has spoken of the "magical" and "naughty" experience of posing nude in front of the Mona Lisa for the leading fashion photographer Juergen Teller.

By Sam Marsden

Charlotte Rampling recently admitted that there were few film roles for older women because cinema-goers want to see “young flesh”.

However, now the veteran British actress has spoken of the “magical” experience of posing naked at the age of 63 for a provocative photographic shoot in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

She was persuaded to strip off by Juergen Teller, the German-born fashion photographer famous for getting Victoria Beckham to pose wearing a Marc Jacobs shopping bag.

Rampling, whose wide-ranging acting career includes French and Italian art-house films as well as more mainstream Hollywood fare, had been working with Teller for over a decade but was reluctant to take all her clothes off for him despite his repeated requests over a two-year period.

The celebrated photographer recalled: “I really wanted to photograph her naked, but I knew she wouldn't do it. 'Who wants to see an old woman naked?' she said.

“Then I caught her out. I said, 'Well, I've got an idea,' and she said, 'Oh, what are you coming up with now? Not cactuses again?'

“And I said, 'Well, you're going to be naked in front of the Mona Lisa.' She didn't have to think about it or call me back. She said, 'How can I refuse the Mona Lisa?'”

The extraordinary 2009 photoshoot in the Louvre in Paris featured Rampling posing nude alongside Raquel Zimmermann, the Brazilian-born model, who was then 26.

Teller persuaded the museum’s curators to let him have the free run of the place from 6pm until midnight, and they even switched off the CCTV cameras in the rooms where he was photographing the two women.

Rampling, who is now 66, said she enjoyed working with the German photographer because he did not “glamorise” or flatter his subjects.

The actress initially told him she was not prepared to pose naked for pictures because of her age, but he won her round when he suggested a shoot in the Louvre.

“It was such a powerful idea, a once-in-a-lifetime trip. It was really a magical experience, and there was something wildly audacious and naughty about it, too,” she told The Sunday Times.

“You know, 'Right let's get our clothes off now, quickly, go-go-go, stand there!' There was the scale of what we're doing, just two tiny little people in this magnificent palace of beauty. It was like we were going on a night picnic, and hanging out with the Mona Lisa.

“You've got all these people looking at you from the extraordinary paintings, and it's a very spiritual feeling. You feel that you are part of hundreds of years of art."

Teller has taken many other pictures of Rampling over the years, including a series of images at the Crillon Hotel in Paris in 2004 in which the photographer himself posed naked with the clothed actress.

This is not the first time that Rampling has risked courting controversy. Her 2012 film, I, Anna, included a mild sex scene which could have caused some embarrassment given that it was directed by her son.

Last year she urged older actresses to stop moaning about finding it difficult to get parts in Hollywood films.

“We should just hope that there are roles, every now and then, which do show real women as they grow older,” she said.

Teller’s first UK exhibition in a decade goes on display at the ICA in London from January 23 to March 17.

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