18 settembre : Un po' di news!

	Baldwin: 'Basinger Compared Me to Saddam Hussein'. Alec Baldwin insists ex-wife Kim Basinger made him feel so awful about himself and his capability as a father, he wanted to "die." The Hollywood star split up with Basinger in 2002 and has been locked in a bitter custody battle ever since.  Baldwin was staggered when the L.A. Confidential beauty likened him to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and was especially crushed when she claimed in legal missives that he was not a good parent to their daughter Ireland. He says, "My ex-wife once said, 'He's Saddam Hussein.' She said that.  "And I thought, 'Do I hide myself in cramped underground quarters? Do I like to shoot firearms in a celebratory way? Did I execute whole villages of people and bulldoze their bodies into a pit? What are you saying? Explain this to me.'  "I remember lying in bed, thinking I wanted to die on the spot. I would say, 'Please don't let me wake up. I can't face another day.' "
	AUSTRALIA BOX OFFICE: August 3-6: 5 - The Sentinel Fox $683,361 - 196 $3,487 $683,361 1 August 10-13: 7 5 The Sentinel Fox $303,695 -56% 197 $1,542 $1,252,852 2 August 17-20: 10 7 The Sentinel Fox $177,325 -41% 190 $933 $1,550,480 3 August 24-27: 13 10 The Sentinel Fox $73,182 -59% 112 $653 $1,698,061 4
	ITALY BOX OFFICE: da 18/8/2006 a 20/8/2006: 24 THE SENTINEL 01 DISTRI 9 5.313,00 -43 6 896.424,20 25/8 - 27/8: 46 THE SENTINEL 01 DISTRI 10 1.327,00 -76 3 903.144,20
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	Basinger gets exposure, has solid role in 'Mermaid Chair' More and more veteran movie stars are turning to television because it's getting harder and harder to find work on the big screen as they get older. That hasn't been a big problem for Kim Basinger, but she admitted in an interview with The Associated Press that it's difficult for a 52-year-old actress to find solid roles these days. Still, she has a good one in "The Mermaid Chair" tonight at 9 on Lifetime. It repeats tomorrow night at 8 and Monday at 9. Basinger said that she wanted to do the film because the best-selling book by Sue Monk Kidd was so well-received and it would be seen by a large audience on Lifetime. "The Mermaid Chair" is about Jessie Sullivan, who is about Basinger's age. She's been married for 20 years to a caring guy who is a psychiatrist. They have just sent her daughter off to college. Now Jessie is feeling restless. It's the usual midlife thing when you wonder where time and your youth have gone, although Basinger has kept a lot more of that intact than the rest of us. Anyway, while she is trying to figure it out she gets word that her aging mom, who lives on an island off South Carolina, has cut a finger off for some crazy reason. Jessie's husband thinks that her mother ought to be psychologically evaluated right away, and the couple get into an argument that is about a lot more than her mother's mental state. Being the dutiful daughter she returns to where she grew up, a place that holds both pleasant and painful memories. Her mother now seems like a stranger. Egret Island is an idyllic sort of escape from the modern world in many ways. It has been heavily influenced by a monastery and a local custom involving a Mermaid Chair. The town goes along with a myth about mermaids being underwater angels that save people from perils at sea. Jessie heard the tales from her father as a little girl before he died under circumstances that no one ever fully explained to her. That's also part of the reason that she has bad feelings about going home. Jessie is not back on Egret Island long when she runs into a fortysomething man named Thomas, who is close to taking his final vows as a priest. This all happens in the first few minutes of the movie, but alarm bells are ringing already. More than one viewer will be thinking Meggie and Father Ralph from "The Thorn Birds." Basinger says the closest she has come to any monks in real life is mail-ordering some cheese. She was born in Athens, Ga., the third of five children whose dad played big-band jazz and whose mom did water ballet in Esther Williams' movies. She was so shy as a schoolgirl that she wouldn't answer in class but got over it in a hurry as a teenage beauty who won pageants and was a supermodel long before that label was invented, according to her imdb online biography. The interesting thing about Basinger is how she has blossomed from a beauty queen and magazine cover girl into a very convincing actress. Actually, she got her start on television in a "Charlie's Angels" episode in 1976 and a co-starring role in a show called "Dog and Cat" in 1977. She also played in a TV series version of "From Here to Eternity." Anybody who likes her in "The Mermaid Chair" ought to rent "Door in the Floor," based on John Irving's book "A Widow for One Year," which earned her high praise. The book and movie are fascinating reading but adult-rated. Anyway, now that Basinger has broken the ice with Lifetime, maybe we'll see more of her in TV movies. Let's hope so.
	"Black Dahlia" lacks a Bogie or Basinger From left, cops Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) seek out a brutal killer in "The Black Dahlia." (Universal) It takes precisely the right kind of actor to pull off a neo-noir. When re-creating the cynicism, paranoia and sexy fatalism of classic film noir, a modern director has to choose his leading men carefully. The hard-bitten hero - or anti-hero - needs to look older than his years, wearied by pessimism. He must snarl artful, hard-boiled lines about thrown fights and double-crossing dames without sounding as if he's in a high school production of "The Maltese Falcon." And when he finally gets the girl, he should look like he doesn't care about getting the girl, right up until the moment he cares very much. Noir cops shouldn't go doe-eyed for Scarlett Johansson in the first scene, no matter how swell she looks in a cashmere sweater set. All of this to warn that Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" never rises past the poseur stage to become noir of its own, for the perfectly forgivable fact that Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart are not Bogie and Mitchum. Or even Brody and Affleck, given that last week's neo-noir "Hollywoodland" is a much better movie. De Palma is trying to re-create the Russell Crowe-Guy Pearce-Kim Basinger magic of 1997's "L.A. Confidential," using another James Ellroy crime novel. Rival cops chase morality and fame in the semi-corrupt Los Angeles police force of the late 1940s. Their efforts are encouraged and hindered by a blond femme fatale whose own path toward morality took a detour on Sunset Boulevard. With such a fine example as Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" as their mark (nine Oscar nominations, two wins), it's hard to tell when Hartnett and Eckhart are playing Ellroy's characters, and when they are reduced to lesser imitations of Crowe and Pearce. Johansson is far more lost, a virtual teenager in a plot made for grown-ups. She will not make anyone forget the smoking-hot, sad-as-rain Basinger and her Academy Award anytime soon. Hartnett is neither intense nor cynical enough to sort out a twisted plot that intentionally recalls noir classics from "Chinatown" to "The Blue Dahlia." For many of his crucial scenes, Hartnett appears on the verge of tears. Bogie may have sported an ulcer-ready grimace for much of his career, but he never looked like he was crying when he played private-eye. Eckhart's smiling deviousness might have worked in his role as an increasingly compromised golden-boy detective. But the movie sidetracks him into an obsession with gruesome murder photos of the Dahlia, and then makes him disappear during crucial stretches. About that plot? Pour some hot joe, black as night, and get ready to sling some hash. A beautiful wannabe actress turns up butchered - literally. She was the Black Dahlia, turned into an icon by the tabloids, the police department and L.A.'s glam-lesbian nightclub scene. Hilary Swank, playing the pouty, dangerous rich girl Madeleine Linscott, starts dressing as the Dahlia for kicks. While Eckhart's cop becomes obsessed with the Dahlia, Hartnett grows enamored of Swank's look-alike; of course, the two plots shall meet. Hartnett also has a pistol in his holster for Johansson, completing the love triangle from "L.A. Confidential." A half-dozen other murders and complications are nearly incomprehensible in Josh Friedman's script. The climactic scene plays like a farce, just after De Palma has reverted to gory form by showing us more of the taxidermy business than a layman needs to know. It's laughable - and not the kind of bitter laughter that can make noir bite so deep. De Palma composes some nifty shots, including a Hartnett- point-of-view cam during his meeting with the bizarro Linscott family. The zoot suits and fedoras look great, but without a script or hard-eyed private detective in sight, it's merely a production designer's exercise. Since the leading men are so important to successful noir, who could do it well? I'd love to see Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cynical gumshoe. Kevin Costner has the right demeanor of quiet cynicism. Denzel Washington tried it on in "Devil in a Blue Dress," and it worked. Daniel Day Lewis? Joaquin Phoenix? Terrence Howard? Bring them on. A good neo-noir is just a casting call away.
	Basinger settles back into TV in film 'The Mermaid's Chair' LOS ANGELES - Kim Basinger has one word for why she's venturing back into television after two failed series and a 27-year absence: "synchronicity." The Oscar-winner agreed to star in Lifetime's "The Mermaid's Chair," adapted from Sue Monk Kidd's popular romantic novel, because she believes the original movie will sit well with the network's loyal female audience. Basinger also identifies with her lead character, Jessie Sullivan, a woman searching for her true path in life. And the 52-year-old actress realizes older female roles are hard to find in the movies, but that Lifetime often provides them. All of which combine into "a great opportunity for me to go back and reacquaint myself with TV," says Basinger, still vibrantly beautiful in a teasing combination of dark pinstripe vest and skirt, sheer cream blouse, fishnet stockings and strands of pearls. In 1977, eons ago in TV years, Basinger starred in the series "Dog and Cat," in which she played a rookie cop partnered with a veteran detective. It lasted two months. She also played a prostitute in the 1979 spinoff series "From Here to Eternity," which was canceled after one season. So it was off to the movies for Basinger, who went on to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of prostitute Lynn Bracken in the 1997 crime drama "L.A. Confidential." Although she still gets interesting roles and has earned good reviews in such films as "8 Mile" and "The Door in the Floor," Basinger knows her days of being a Bond girl - as she was in 1983's "Never Say Never Again" - are, well . . . never again. Yet Lifetime clearly understands the value of snagging an Oscar-winner like Basinger. "It sends a message to the creative community and the audience alike that you've got material that draws actresses of this kind of stature," says Libby Beers, Lifetime's vice president of original movies. "The Mermaid's Chair" premieres at 9 p.m. Saturday, with repeat showings the following two nights. "Kim did a lovely job conveying where this woman is - in the head and the heart - wondering what happiness is," Beers says. Sullivan, who is married with a college-age daughter, returns to her childhood island home to tend to her mother. Physically and emotionally attracted to Brother Thomas (Alex Carter), a monk about to take his final vows at the local Benedictine community, Sullivan must confront her feelings about her past, present and future life choices. Basinger says she related to Sullivan because, "She's come to a place in her life, which I think we all do come to - whenever that happens - when you look back on your life and say, 'Do I like where I've come from? Do I want to change things? Am I happy with the way it's all going and the journey that I'm on?' " Her voice becomes more intensely Southern as the Georgia-born actress talks, her feelings about Sullivan clearly mirroring some of her own. She laughs effusively when it's suggested the accent reveals enduring ties to her roots. "I am truly, truly Southern," she says. "I go home, and also home meaning home in my gut and my heart. I do . . . And I drag that Southern accent right along with me." It was made clear prior to the interview that Basinger wouldn't discuss her stormy marriage and messy divorce with actor Alec Baldwin, the stuff of many a tabloid headline of late. But she did talk some about their daughter, Ireland, when discussing how she has coped with the vicissitudes of her personal life and professional career. "I have a great support team around me. I have wonderful people that work with me in my home and also my daughter, she's 10 years old and she's such an inspiration to me." She also credits "God and a sense of humor." God, she says, has been with her "from the very first, as a kid, as a little girl." Basinger on humor: "We are all a mess. Everybody's a mess. I'm a mess, everybody's a mess. Somebody might look and say, 'Oh speak for yourself.' Well, fine, I'll speak for myself. I'm a mess. Everybody's a mess. Life is a mess. OK? But also there is so much humor in us." So does she know any monks? "No, but synchronicity is very strange," she laughs. Recently, she recounts, she saw two monks in brown robes - like the monks in the movie. It was a sight she didn't expect to glimpse in a bookshop in the San Fernando Valley. Other than that brief sighting, she says she's had no contact with real monks, apart from "ordering some fudge" made by some religious order. If you watch.
	Kim Basinger on possible contempt of court charge Wednesday September 6th, 2006 at 12:22 pm by HeatherHoneypot Kim Basinger could be charged with contempt of court after allegedly withholding vital information about her daughter with Alec Baldwin during their ongoing custody dispute. Kim and Alec have been arguing over the custody arrangements for daughter, Ireland, since they split up in 2002. Alec is now accusing Kim of not revealing when she was working out of town and Ireland could have stayed with him, or letting him know about one occasion when Ireland required medical attention after an accident. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert A Schnider has ordered Kim to appear in court next month to defend herself against the allegations but her attorney Neal Hersh has claimed it is “nothing more than harassment”.
	Even Basinger's hair can't save 'Chair' In Lifetime's ``The Mermaid Chair," midlife crisis never seemed so ``Thorn Birds." Instead of buying a nice little red corvette, Jessie Sullivan goes and gets herself a nice hot Benedictine monk-in-training. And this particular man of God comes fully equipped with a pair of smoldering eyes, not to mention a robe of many muscles. Jessie's tormented mother is cutting off her own fingers, her husband is nice but boring, and her daughter has gone to college. She's at a crossroads and losing her passion for life. Brother Thomas offers her a healing balm, a sweet taste of cosmic mystery, a spiritual, artistic, and, yes, erotic reawakening. More like: Oh brother. ``The Mermaid Chair," which premieres tonight at 9 on Lifetime, is an irritating piece of nonsense about finding oneself through narcissism. Based on Sue Monk Kidd's novel, the movie blends the worst kind of Lifetime sincerity about becoming a satisfied woman with hokey psycho-religious symbolism, including the mermaids we see swimming periodically throughout the film. It's a silly story dressed in gauzy island scenery and aided and abetted by a moody soundtrack that rubs your nose in emotion. Essentially, the movie is a vehicle for Kim Basinger, who plays Jessie as a series of blowsy, expressive hairstyles. In one scene, as Jessie stands on a lawn filled with monks weaving nets, her wind blown hair practically screams, ``Take me now!" At other points, her teased frizz simply states, ``I need to get out of this marriage" and ``My mother is crazy." Within her blond mane, however, Basinger's face remains so impassive that her Jessie doesn't seem to change much from start to finish. Jessie's plot arc -- excuse me, her voyage to selfhood -- begins when she returns to her island hometown in South Carolina, to be near her mentally troubled mother (Roberta Maxwell). While her mother stubbornly resists help, Jessie doesn't resist her flirtation with Brother Thomas (Alex Carter), and they begin dodging suspicious eyes on a private beach. Soon enough, Jessie is telling her psychiatrist husband (Bruce Greenwood) on the mainland that she needs time apart. Of course she doesn't tell him that our mermaid has a merman on the side. Meanwhile, the deeper cause of Jessie's unhappiness emerges slowly, as she learns the truth about the death of her father many years ago. And that long-secret truth is also closely connected to her mother's unhappiness. Turns out Mom is not crazy after all; she has been cutting off her fingers for a good reason. And what of Brother Thomas? Alas, the Lifetime movie doesn't have much to say on the matter. Used and discarded, he's just another boy toy on his own voyage to selfhood.
	DVD RENTALS: Till Sept. 3: 1. New The Sentinel (2006) 5 $8.28M $8.28M Sept. 4-10: 2 1 The Sentinel Fox $7.21 -13.0% $15.49 2 $36.28 42.7%
	Mick Jagger starebbe per sposarsi. Lo dice un anello tempestato di diamanti apparso al dito della sua fidanzata, l'ex modella L'Wren Scott. Secondo il Daily Express, L'Wren sarebbe stata beccata dalle telecamere a Londra in compagnia di Kim Basinger e avrebbe messo la mano in bella mostra. Per il leader dei Rolling Stones, legato alla canadese da quattro anni, sarebbe il terzo matrimonio. Ma secondo Jerry Hall, ex moglie numero due, 'la Scott e' solo una dei tanti flirt di Mick'.