The Nerdy Hot 10 List

Maxim released its annual Hot 100 List today, focusing on women with exceptional beauty and bodacious bods. (House‘s Olivia Wilde got the top spot.)

Looking at some of the names, I thought the chosen women are indeed gorgeous but physical perfection is only one way to judge hotness. Year in and year out, the same people seem to end up on these lists.

So I decided to release my own Nerdy Hot 10 List, with male celebs who are sexy not because of their ripped bodies (though some might have them), but because of something a little imperfect, goofy, or nerdy about them. So here’s my list, in no particular order, and the reasons why these guys made the cut.

1. Colin Firth. Firth is the epitome of the awkward man who always gets tongue-tied around a pretty girl. But that awkwardness is what makes him so endearing, as evidenced by the hilarious scene in Love, Actually when he publicly proclaims his love in halting, butchered Portuguese to the woman of his affection. And remember those dreadful reindeer sweaters he sported in the Bridget Jones movies? He’s hot for having the courage and good humor to wear them.

2. Hugh Laurie. He often appears slovenly and unshaven on House and behaves like an ass. But then you hear him play piano, sing a funny ditty on a talk show or give a humorous, humble acceptance speech for an award and all is forgiven.

3. Paul Rudd. He’s most famous for doing bawdy comedies as part of the Judd Apatow gang; his blue eyes and boyish charm allow him to get away with all the mischief. But he can also do Shakespeare (I saw him do Twelfth Night in a Lincoln Center production), write scripts, sing, produce and all these hidden talents add up to one sexy guy.

4. Robert Downey Jr. The first time I saw him was in The Pick-Up Artist, where he played a pretty geeky guy trying to hit on Molly Ringwald . What a difference twenty years make. Despite all his legal troubles and drug abuse, he’s somehow managed to salvage his quick wit, intelligence and ultra-sized talent. You may be well aware of his acting prowess but have you ever heard him sing? Forget about it. He’s got a voice that can melt inhibitions.

5. James McAvoy. He may not be the tallest, most muscular or dashing man but oh, is he romantic. Check out those intense blue eyes. When he looks at his leading actresses in movies like Starter for 10 and Atonement, he really looks at them, as if they’re the most exquisite creatures he’s ever seen. And we the audience can almost feel him gazing right through the screen into our own eyes.

6. Jon Hamm. I tried watching one episode of Mad Men and Hamm did nothing for me as Don Draper, though he was certainly groomed and dressed well. Then I saw him on 30 Rock as Tina Fey’s hapless boyfriend and developed a crush immediately. Hamm was ridiculously funny as the guy who was so beautiful, no one would tell him the truth about anything. He played tennis atrociously but thought he was awesome, rode a motorcycle like a drunk but thought he was cool and was clueless about the correct usage of the word “ironic.” I think Fey is a comedy genius and for Hamm to keep pace with her is sizzling hot.

7. James Franco. He’s not that interesting as Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man movies but when he’s goofy, like in Pineapple Express and funnyordie.com videos, he gets my sexy stamp. Plus, he gets extra points for being a nerdy academic, with an English degree from UCLA and working towards graduate degrees in creative writing and film at Columbia and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, respectively.

8. Bret McKenzie. As half of Flight of the Conchords, he doesn’t have much luck in his career or with the ladies on the show. But he, along with Jemaine Clement, makes me laugh hard with brilliant, kooky songs and their hilarious, clever lyrics. I don’t get starstruck much but if I ever meet him, I’d be completely tongue-tied and that’s a true sign of hotness in my book.

9. Daniel Craig. Yeah, he beefed up for Bond and looks great in a tux but before that, he played a scrappy drug dealer in Layer Cake, a murderer in Infamous and an unsympathetic Ted Hughes in Sylvia. His face isn’t conventionally pretty, with rough features that look like he’s been in a few brawls, but I’ll take him over the typical Calvin Klein model any day.

10. Brad Pitt. I swear he’s not on this list for the obvious reasons because, frankly, I find him rather bland when he plays heroes and pretty boys on screen. But he rocks my socks when he plays crazy like in Twelve Monkeys or a doofus like in Burn After Reading. A funny man who also happens to look like Pitt? Smokin’.

What do you think? Who else should be on this list? Wanna see who’s on my Nerdy Hot 10 List—Female Edition? Click here.

Reviews of New Movie Trailers

These movies won’t be out for at least a couple of months but trailers are available so I thought I’d review them. Trailers are an art in their own right—they only have a few seconds to grab you by the throat and make you want to start saving up for that $12 ticket and $10 bucket of corn. Take a look by clicking on each title and let me know if they succeeded.

Public Enemies — July 1. The trailer just became available and it looks slick and sexy. Johnny Depp as John Dillinger is being chased by Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis but makes time to flirt with the slinky Marion Cotillard. Somewhere admidst all the gunfire Dr. Manhattan—er, Billy Crudup—shows up, too. Rating: Hot.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past — May 1. Why do people continue to give Matthew McConaughey leading roles? When was the last time he made a good movie and/or showed any kind of acting chops? Failure to Launch? Ha! Fool’s Gold? Please. Here, he plays a womanizing jerk who’s about to ruin his brother’s wedding until ghosts of girlfriends past pay him a visit to teach him about true love. Oy. The beautiful and talented Jennifer Garner is too good for him. I’d be watching the movie, yelling, “No, Jen, move along! He’s an idiot!” so what would be the point? Incidentally, many years ago, Disney almost made this movie with Garner’s hubby, Ben Affleck (Garner wasn’t attached), but then pulled the plug on it. New Line probably should’ve let Ghosts stay dead. Rating: Sucks Dirt.

Funny People — July 31. The Apatow Dumpling Gang is all here—wife Leslie Mann, kids Iris and Maude, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill—in Judd’s third feature as director. Add Adam Sandler as a stand-up comic who learns he might be dying. Unfortunately, I feel as if I’ve seen the whole movie from the trailer and wasn’t that amused by it. Apatow said he wanted to make a serious film “that is twice as funny as my other movies.” I think he succeeded with the serious, but the funny remains to be seen. Rating: Okay. (UPDATE: Here’s a pseudo-review by a source of mine who attended a screening.)

Angels & Demons — May 15. Tom Hanks is back as Robert Langdon with only slightly better hair. I thought The Da Vinci Code was unwatchable but this trailer looks kinda tight. Rome is one of my favorite cities so seeing it used as a backdrop increased my interest a little (didn’t read Dan Brown’s book; don’t plan to). Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard and Armin Mueller-Stahl also pop up, looking very intense and/or evil. Rating: Good.

Inglorious Basterds — Aug. 21.  I thought this trailer was hilarious and am not sure whether Tarantino intended it that way. But watching Brad Pitt say, “I want my scalps!” in his Southern accent and then Hitler throwing a fit, yelling, “Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein, nein!” made me laugh. I’m not sold on what seems to be an ultra-violent movie (I ran screaming from the room during the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs) but the trailer was amusing. Rating: Good.

The Taking of Pelham 123 — June 12. John Travolta’s baddie and Denzel Washington’s good guy go head to head in matching goatees, with Travolta taking hostages on a subway for ransom. Looks like lots of action, which is expected in a Tony Scott movie, but it all looked generic. Nothing stood out as awe-inspiring like, say, last year’s Wanted trailer, which showcased craaazy, mind-blowing stunts with Angelina Jolie in a red sports car and a guy who jumped out a window at the camera, his face a mask of broken glass pieces. Rating: Okay.

So, you excited about any of these? What are you saving up your loose couch change for?

Backstage Oscars Scoop!

After the ceremony, I received a call from a source who attended the show and had lots of scoop to share. Here’s our conversation: [She also took the photo below]

PCN: Spill! Tell me your favorite moments.

A: I’m so overwhelmed that the Slumdog kids won, and by the grand symbolism of the acting awards, just the way the new winners were welcomed into the club by previous winners, some who are legends. That feeling must have been like, Wow.

PCN: That was really cool how they had 5 winners come out for each acting award. I gasped when Eva Marie Saint came out to present Best Supporting Actress.

A: Me, too! I actually walked up to her and told her how starstruck I was by her. She won an Oscar for On the Waterfront! 

PCN: Who else were you starstruck by?

A: Sophia Loren. They just don’t make ’em like her anymore.  And Daniel Craig. He usually looks kinda weathered on screen but he walked by me a couple times and was very debonair, the epitome of a British gentleman. 

PCN: I need to shove you down the stairs, I’m so envious. I loooove him. Did you ask him if you could take a photo of him holding up a sign saying he loved me back?

A: Yeah, right.

PCN:  OK, let’s go back to the way the acting awards were presented. When the first group of five came out, that was a nice surprise. But then I caught on. I’d seen Kevin Kline walk the red carpet so I thought, “A ha! I’ll bet he’s one of the five presenting Best Supporting Actor!” They also kept cutting to reaction shots of Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ben Kingsley so I figured those were two Best Actor presenters right there.

A: That makes me mad! Did they really show them on TV before they presented?

PCN:  Yes. In closeups. 

A: That makes me mad, because the coordinators worked so hard to keep everyone a secret by having them not walk the red carpet, going in through the back entrance, seated far away from the front row. Joel Grey was practically in the mezzanine so that you couldn’t see him. That’s really sh*tty that you could see them from home before we could reveal them.

PCN:  Well, I never saw Christopher Walken or Robert DeNiro so those were nice surprises for me. Speaking of being seated far from the front row, where were all those adorable little Slumdog babies placed?

A: In the mezzanine. But that’s standard for non-nominated cast members who are in nominated films.

PCN:  What were they like?

A: I don’t even know how to describe them. It’s very touching because it’s been such a long road for them to be at the show. The Oscars, for me, were heightened by the joy they exuded. I’ve never been as excited for a bunch of people I don’t know to win an award as I was for these children. They were glowing, on top of the world, overjoyed. It was pure. And the littlest Salim [Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail] was asked to carry the Oscar all night. It was so cute.

PCN:  All right, I have to ask because people want to know. Was someone assigned to keep Brad & Angelina and Jennifer Aniston apart?

A: Not that I know of, but there was a close call. Brad and Angelina had left during a commercial break. They went out to the lobby, they were just hanging out, having wine when Jennifer came walking towards them from the other direction. People gasped and freaked out, “Oh no! What’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen?!” But then Jennifer just turned and went backstage before she got to them. I don’t know if she saw them or someone warned her but she was only a few feet away from them.

PCN:  It probably would’ve been okay. I think the whole Jen vs. Angie thing is stupid. They probably all moved on years ago.

A: Jennifer was a social butterfly. She was very cute. At one point, when she was coming out of the bathroom, she saw Sophia Loren and was like, “Hi!” but then her dress got caught in the bathroom door. She was, like, “This is not a good time for my dress to be caught in the door.” It was a very Rachel moment. 

At another moment, my jaw just dropped because in this one small room, Jennifer, Reese Witherspoon, Sophia Loren, Halle Berry, Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman were all getting their makeup done. I just could not handle it. 

PCN: That’s really something. Now, I know things look different on TV so who was best dressed in person? 

A: Miley Cyrus. 

PCN:  What?! Ugh.

A: You don’t like her?

PCN: She kept telling everyone on the red carpet she hopes to be back at the Oscars next year and get something for The Hannah Montana Movie. I mean, Dream on, honey. 

A: That is gross.

PCN: So, who else looked good?

A: Marion Cotillard looked really good. Diane Lane—I love her. Nicole Kidman and Penelope were very “them,” wearing what we normally expect of them so there were no fashion risks. Robert Downey Jr. looked like he did in The Pick-Up Artist [his 1987 comedy with Molly Ringwald].

PCN:  He did look like he aged backwards! How about worst dressed?

A: Shirley MacLaine. What was that?! For males, Mickey Rourke and Adrien Brody. 

PCN:  Adrien Brody could’ve done the Joaquin impersonation with that beard instead of Ben Stiller. 

A: Really.

PCN:  Overall, did everything go as planned?

A: I would say so. I thought it went really well. 

 

BENJAMIN BUTTON Q & A with Brad Pitt and David Fincher

On Monday, November 10, Brad Pitt and David Fincher came to the Mann Bruin theater in Westwood to discuss The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after a preview screening (click here for my review). Pitt, sporting brown hair and a mustache for his current role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [sic], and Fincher are obviously old chums, poking fun, interjecting constantly and finishing each other’s sentences. The camaraderie is probably due to their having previously worked together on Se7en and Fight Club but on Monday, the focus remained on Button.

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The moderator began by asking how each got involved with the project. “I first read it in ’82 and didn’t know it was a Fitzgerald story,” Fincher said. He liked the script but went on to direct other films. Over the years, he kept revisiting it, eventually finding a version he felt he could make. He liked it so much he didn’t feel it necessary to read the short story. Fincher then approached Pitt directly about playing the lead.

“He doesn’t want to talk to agents,” Pitt joked.

Pitt, who also hasn’t read the source story, had his reservations about getting involved. “I really didn’t want to do it. I’ve had my foray into romance and it didn’t go well for me. The script was beautiful but I didn’t think I was right for it.” What changed his mind? Fincher told him it wasn’t going to be a “ballad of co-dependency and that defined it for me,” Pitt said.

“It’s a love story but look at the body count!” Fincher said.

He continued to say that at first, he intended to have Benjamin be “a series of hand-offs, from actor to actor,” with several people playing the character at different stages, “but [Pitt] told me, ‘I’m not gonna do that.'”

Pitt added, “I originally wanted to play both guys in Fight Club.”

“He’s not kidding,” Fincher said.

The moderator next asked Fincher about the groundbreaking special effects used in the movie. “It’s an amalgam of lots of different processes that’s been used in video games and [the movie] Beowulf.”

Pitt interjected, “It was only finished a couple of weeks ago.”

Fincher went on to explain that they “mapped [Pitt’s] facial expressions onto actors at different ages.”

“It was amazing,” Pitt said.

Fincher added, “Amazing, but silly.”

Pitt continued, “It was all shot on digital, where you have a large monitor and you get to see right then and there how much is coming across. It’s much easier to control your decibel level.”

The moderator asked about Pitt’s time in the makeup chair and he said it usually took five hours. “When I first moved out here and read about Jeff Goldblum [and his makeup experience] on The Fly, I said, ‘That’s never gonna happen to me,'” Pitt said, smiling.

“You never cut your fee on prosthetic jobs,” Fincher advised.

Pitt continued, “There were two people on set to keep track of the math. [Benjamin] would be 17 but in 64-year-old makeup. I’d do this [he mimes getting up from a chair] and they’d say, ‘No, you’re older than that.'” Pitt then would pretend he knew it all along and say, “I was getting there. I was just warming up.”

The moderator asked about their favorite scenes. “The around-the-world trip,” Pitt said. Fincher talked about the scene where Caroline went through Benjamin’s postcards and discovered they were written to her. He praised screenwriter Eric Roth for condensing a whole life into those brief notes on the cards.

The moderator asked, “What would you like people to take away from this movie?” Fincher stammered while Pitt said, “Yes.”

Fincher explained that throughout the test screening process, there were scenes that people said he absolutely should cut and others that they thought should absolutely NEVER be cut. “If I had cut everything that people said should be cut, the movie would be an hour and a half. If I kept everything that people said I shouldn’t cut, the movie would be four and a half hours. The strength of Eric’s writing is that he finds things people relate to in an intimate way.”

The moderator concluded the evening by asking what was next for them.

“I’m filming in Berlin right now,” Pitt said.

“Sleeping,” Fincher said.

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In the next couple weeks, I’ll be attending screenings and Q & A’s with Hugh Jackman and Baz Luhrmann (for Australia); Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and John Patrick Shanley (for Doubt), and Ron Howard (for Frost/Nixon) so check back regularly for those reports.

Scoop! Review of THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Plus Q & A with Brad Pitt, David Fincher

Last night, I attended the first L.A. audience screening (meaning not a test screening) of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (out Dec. 25), where Brad Pitt and director David Fincher did Q & A afterwards. I haven’t seen a review anywhere else because the movie was only recently finished (Fincher said there are still 3 shots he’d like to fix) so this might be the first.

Before I get to the movie’s review and fun facts learned from Pitt and Fincher in person (who practically put on a comedy routine), I want to mention that in the next couple weeks, I’ll be going to screenings of some hotly anticipated Oscar bait like Australia, Milk, Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road and Doubt, so make sure you bookmark this page for all the scoop.

I also have 3 beautiful, glossy Benjamin Button programs that were handed out at the screening. They’re 6 pages long and not available anywhere else. They contain color photographs plus Q & A and testimonials from Pitt, Fincher, Cate Blanchett, screenwriter Eric Roth and producer Kathleen Marshall. On Nov. 16, I’ll randomly select 3 people from my subscribers list to receive one so if you’d like a program, subscribe now!

OK, on to the movie review. It’s based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story but it’s been expanded quite a bit because the epic film runs about 2:45 long. It opens in New Orleans in a hospital as Katrina is approaching. Fincher uses the framing device of Blanchett’s character, Daisy, on her death bed to tell Benjamin’s story. Julia Ormond (wasted in a thankless role) plays her daughter Caroline, who reads from her mother’s diary, taking us into flashbacks about a baby born in New Orleans in 1918 looking like an 80-year-old man (an older woman takes one look at the baby and says, “He looks just like my ex-husband!”). We soon find out this baby is not near death, as a doctor suspects, but will in fact get younger as he ages. This might have something to do with a newly installed clock in the local train station that tells time backwards. The clock was created by the mysterious Monsieur Gateau (Elias Koteas), who wanted time to go backwards so that his son, killed in World War I, might come back to him.

The baby’s father, Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), who actually owns a button factory, is so horrified by his son’s wrinkled visage, he first intends to throw him in a river but then changes his mind and leaves him on the doorstep of a nursing home, where caretaker Queenie (the spirited Taraji P. Henson) finds him and takes him in. Queenie, who’d been told she couldn’t have children, isn’t fazed by the baby’s condition (ossified bones, cataract-filled eyes), calling him “a miracle, just not the kind one hopes to see.”

Queenie raises the boy in the nursing home, where Benjamin has no idea at first that he’s not old like everyone else. Here, he meets red-headed Daisy for the first time as a 5-year-old (visiting her grandmother) and is instantly infatuated. They embark on a friendship that evolves into a love that lasts for the rest of their lives despite their impossible circumstances. Before they can meet again as lovers in mid-life, Benjamin finds work on a tugboat and heads off to see the world, while Daisy becomes a star ballet dancer, performing in Paris and with the Bolshoi in Russia.

When they finally come together as lovers, it’s with the knowledge it can’t last. “Will you still love me when my skin is old and sagging?” she asks. “Will you still love me when I have acne?” he retorts. Complications and separations ensue until they come together again one last time at the end of their lives in drastically different forms.

Pitt, buried in old-man makeup for most of the movie (we only get to see him as golden boy for about 15 minutes), gives a nice, subtle performance full of wonder and longing. When the 7-year-old Benjamin crawls into a makeshift tent with 5-year-old Daisy to share secrets, the scene could’ve been creepy because after all, it’s a grown man under some sheets with a little girl. It’s a testament to Pitt’s skill, then, that we’re able to overlook his old-man exterior to see the innocence in Benjamin’s eyes and realize it’s really just two kids playing.

Having said that, I wasn’t as moved by this film as I wanted to be. This was number one on my list of must-see holiday movies and I so wanted to be blown away but it just didn’t happen. This movie is a very ambitious effort—it looks gorgeous, there are some groundbreaking special effects and the rest of the cast also do excellent work but it’s the kind of movie you respect more than love. It’s like a piece of art that you look at and say, “It’s pretty,” but don’t necessarily want to bring home.

I think the problem for me was the stakes weren’t high enough for Benjamin and there was no sense of urgency throughout most of his life. Except for his father’s initial reaction, everyone pretty much accepts Benjamin upon first meeting. He doesn’t go to school where other kids beat up on him, he gets a demanding job as crew member on a tugboat while looking like a fragile old man and the captain barely questions it, and Daisy knows right away he’s not as old as he looks when she first meets him. In order for the film to be more compelling, Benjamin needs more obstacles to overcome. Even when he sees some action in World War II, we don’t fear for his safety because we already know the film will probably take us to the end of his life to fully explore his extraordinary condition. (I haven’t read the short story so if any of you have, please leave a comment and tell me how this differs from Fitzgerald’s version.)

I’m surprised there aren’t more riveting moments in this movie, considering it’s directed by Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en). I was attracted to it after hearing that Fincher would take the unsentimental route. Well, it’s unsentimental almost to the point of passivity. This isn’t to say it’s boring—it isn’t. Many times, it’s even laugh-out-loud funny (watch for an old man repeatedly telling people he’s been hit by lightning seven times). There are visually interesting aspects—the film looks like old stock at times, where you can see the pops and scratches like on an old newsreel. The color is sometimes muted, sometimes overly saturated, like the unnatural tones of a black and white movie that’s been colorized. The crash of the tugboat against a German submarine is breathtaking, Titanic-like but on a much smaller scale. The score by Alexandre Desplat (Oscar-nominated for The Queen but I thought his score for The Painted Veil was more enchanting) is lovely as usual.

All this amounts to a lot of value for your money, an especially attractive quality this holiday season. I just wish I could’ve been more moved by this character’s life story instead of being left feeling like a casual observer.

Call me only mildly Curious.

Rating: Good

Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of this post, where I’ll report what Pitt and Fincher shared during the Q & A.

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