Farrah Fawcett, 1970s sex symbol, dies aged 62

By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie`s Angels" television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She was 62.
Fawcett, first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California.
"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Fawcett`s long time companion, actor Ryan O`Neal, said in a statement.
"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."
Fawcett`s death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.
Called "Farrah`s Story," the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown.
O`Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms.
Fawcett`s close friend Alana Stewart, ex-wife of rocker Rod Stewart, told Entertainment Tonight after leaving the hospital on Thursday; "I just lost my best friend. Her death was very peaceful."
Fawcett, born February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art student in college before she began modeling, appearing in shampoo ads.
She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the television hit "The Six Million Dollar Man" after marrying the show`s star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.
ANGEL CULTURE
Fawcett`s career took off thanks to a poster of her posing flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit. It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in "Charlie`s Angels," an action show about three beautiful, strong women private detectives.
As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe -- part of a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson -- Fawcett was the hit show`s most talked-about star. She left "Charlie`s Angels" after only one season but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent years.
Fawcett`s face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to epitomize the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.
The New York Times once described that hair as "a work of art ... emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation -- strong, confident and joyous."  Continued...
Original article

Studios wary of Oscar`s new best-picture rule

By Elizabeth Guider
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - If ever there were a time that the town needed a jolt of adrenaline, Wednesday was it -- but from, of all places, the staid, mostly predictable Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences?
What everyone thought would be another sleepy announcement about an arcane rule change in the documentary or foreign language category turned into the headline of the day -- opening up the Oscar race to 10 best picture nominees.
The rationale is not that hard to fathom: The awards telecast has been dwindling in the ratings for a decade; at the same time, folks have been carping about the tilt of the noms -- too arty, too downbeat, too too -- or the exclusion of comedies or the relegation of animation to its own category. Some had even hazarded aloud that, of all things, the Golden Globes were the guys with the right idea, even if their 10 best pic noms are bifurcated by genre.
So with one masterstroke, all the goal posts have been shifted.
Most folks were gobsmacked by the news, with many -- think all those filmmakers who believe their films have been snubbed -- applauding the stratagem. As for wannabe Oscar consultants, now is the time to hang out that shingle.
"I think (Academy president) Sid Ganis has a great marketing mind and that this is a brilliant move," media consultant Michael Levine said. "After all, the biggest sin these days is irrelevance, and whether the expansion ultimately resonates with the public or not, the move will get a lot of attention. Sometimes you just have to do something bold to re-energize a classic brand."
But from a different perspective, longtime Oscar maven Tony Angellotti, who now consults for Universal and Disney Animation, thinks the move could well dilute "both the quality and the impact of the award. I would imagine the studios are grieving over this. They`ll have to spend more money and not likely see a return -- just what they don`t need in a recession."
In fact, one studio executive compared the Academy bombshell to getting doused with a bucket of cold water. He confided that he has enough trouble every awards season figuring out whom they have to satisfy with an Oscar campaign and which talent they can safely neglect or do less for.
"Were we behind this move by the Academy? No way," one top studio executive said. "We`re going to have to spend more money in marketing campaigns for one or more unlikely winner, and mostly there`s very little financial upside even when we do win. All of this takes enormous time and energy, and now it`s extra time and energy."
Another studio executive shook his head in dismay. "This likely means more filmmakers will want to see their movies open late in the year so they can still be in release during the crucial period between nominations (February 2) and the actual telecast (March 7). It`s simply going to clog up the distribution pipeline or mean we have to consider re-releasing one title or another. Don`t even mention what it might do to DVD campaigns."
The studio naysayers were reluctant to speak for the record, however, as they know that the town has become obsessed with and obsessive about awards. They do not want to appear churlish.
The most obvious contingent of happy faces might very well be the talent behind, say, "Up." Almost certainly a shoo-in in the still-to-remain animation category, the Disney/Pixar hit now stands a much better chance of getting into the top 10 noms as well. So too -- given what`s out there so far this year -- is a film like "Public Enemies," Michael Mann`s upcoming period actioner about John Dillinger, which is well crafted and acted, neither too arty nor too populist.
Other pictures that could benefit are the little gems that have "a small but passionate fan base," as another consultant put it, a la "Once" or "The Visitor" or more ambitious movies that got overlooked because they came out at the wrong moment or whatever -- think "Revolutionary Road."
Whatever the consensus around town about the Academy`s bias, the organization has never really turned its back on well-made commercial movies; it just doesn`t have much of a feel or appreciation for warmed-over popcorn -- meaning sequels and other material derived from nonliterary sources like, you guessed it, those proliferating comic-book adaptations.
That`s why the sixth (or whatever it was) iteration of Batman, meaning "The Dark Knight," did not make it into last year`s best picture list, not because the Academy was appalled by how much money the film made.  Continued...
Original article

Oscars` best picture race: 10 in 2010

By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There will be 10, count `em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced February 2.
In a move designed to let more movies share in the limelight that surrounds the contenders for Hollywood`s top award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday announced a rule change that doubles the number of movies that will be welcomed into the best picture category.
Academy president Sid Ganis characterized the move as a "return to the past" when the Academy regularly spread its largesse out among 10 -- and sometimes even more -- best picture nominees.
Speaking to the media at the Academy`s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Ganis on Wednesday was flanked by posters listing the 10 nominees for 1939 -- widely regarded as the high-water mark for quality studio releases. That year, the lineup ranged from Westerns ("Stagecoach") to sophisticated comedies ("Ninotchka") to melodramas ("Dark Victory") to all-time classics like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Wizard of Oz" and eventual winner "Gone With the Wind."
"Suppose you had to narrow that field down to five nominees? Which of these films would you keep? Whichever five movies you selected, you`d be losing five extraordinary films," Ganis asked rhetorically.
While the Academy hasn`t nominated 10 films since 1943, momentum for the course correction grew out of this year`s Oscar show. Its producers, Larry Mark and Bill Condon, made a concerted effort to acknowledge the whole range of movies produced during the past year in an effort to reach out to a wider audience.
In their post-show autopsy, they encouraged the Academy to consider opening up the best picture category, and the committee that reviewed the show championed the idea, recommending it to the board, which approved the change with virtually no opposition.
The move also comes in the wake of the howls of outrage from fans of last year`s "The Dark Knight," which earned eight nominations but didn`t crack the best picture circle. Arguably, a wider field of nominees would have included that movie, which also had a lot of critics in its corner. And if more popular entertainments are in the running for the big prize, that could in turn benefit the Oscarcast ratings, which have been in general decline, although they did experience an uptick in February.
Ganis acknowledged that "in discussions about this, we talked about what might have happened, and I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words `Dark Knight` did not come up."
One idea that didn`t fly in the internal discussions: Arriving at 10 pictures by nominating five dramas and five comedies, a la the Golden Globes.
"It`s about the best picture -- not the best something picture," Ganis said. "It`s a singular honor."
By sticking to one best picture category, the Academy also avoids being drawn into debates about whether a given film is properly considered a comedy or a drama. But Ganis did suggest that comedies, continually short-changed come Oscar time, could benefit.
"In casting a wider net, who knows what`s going to turn up," he said. "Maybe even a comedy in that group of 10."
Ganis, who will step down as Academy president this summer after four consecutive terms, insisted that having 10 noms "does not dilute" the honor. Pointing out that about 300 films are eligible each year -- in 2008, the number that qualified for best picture consideration was 281 -- he argued that to be one of 10 nominees is still an achievement.
Academy executive director Bruce Davis also said that the board was given assurances that including 10 best picture nominees would not result in a longer show. That assurance will be put to the test when the Oscars take place March 7.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Watchmen" director`s cut headed to theaters

By Borys Kit
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The director`s cut of "Watchmen," featuring an additional 25 minutes of footage and the death of a supporting character, will receive a limited theatrical rollout during the weekend ahead of its July 21 home-video release.
The superhero saga, which was considered to be a bit of a box office disappointment during its first go-round in March, will screen in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas.
The rollout will culminate with a special screening July 25 at the Comic-Con International confab in San Diego, taking advantage of a Blu-ray Disc feature that will allow any viewer in North America to watch the movie at the same time as the audience at Comic-Con, see and hear director Zack Snyder comment on the movie, and even ask questions. The screening will then be archived and will be able to be accessed for future viewings.
"Comic-Con, it isn`t just comic book fanatics, it`s cinephiles as well. It`ll be cool to discuss what people are thinking," Snyder said at a "Watchmen" press day, held Wednesday at Warner Bros., where the news was unveiled.
The day was designed to showcase a bonus Blu-ray feature called Maximum Movie Mode as well as features to be seen in Snyder`s Blu-ray release of "300: The Complete Experience."
The theatrical rerelease is unusual, given that the costly movie grossed just $107.5 million domestically. Critics were also divided about the movie, with some saying it was too slavish to the graphic novel`s many devotees.
Snyder, however, stood by it. "I`m proud of the movie. It does everything I wanted it to," he said.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Public Enemies" a missed opportunity

By Kirk Honeycutt
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Michael Mann's John Dillinger movie "Public Enemies" is slow to heat up and never quite comes to a boil.
The elements are certainly here with the always charismatic Johnny Depp as the Depression-era bank robber and, in some quarters, idolized Robin Hood and Marion Cotillard, off her Oscar win, as his lady friend. But Mann and co-writers Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman never crack the meaning of John Dillinger.
The film veers between fact and legend, sticking mostly with facts but still unable to bring its protagonist into focus as either an amiable sociopath or a true antihero. He winds up being just a guy who robs banks, which is probably all he ever was, so why such a lavish production? John Milius accomplished as much if not more with "Dillinger" in 1973 at the cost of probably two scenes in "Public Enemies."
Since there's nothing in the marketplace right now like "Public Enemies," Universal should recoup the reported $80 million budget between domestic and international box office. But the film lacks the juice promised by the teaming of such extraordinary filmmakers with a cast as large as a Hooverville encampment.
There is both too much going on here and not enough: Multiple jail breaks, frequent bank robberies, deadly shootouts with G-Men, bodies everywhere. But you'd probably have to read the source material, a book by Bryan Burrough, to understand the significance of many scenes.
Dillinger breaks out of "escape proof" Crown Point, Ind., jail, driving off in the female sheriff's (Lili Taylor) own car. The shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin is a fiasco for the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation, which allowed Dillinger to escape.
Incensed G-Man Melvin Purvis (a stoic Christian Bale) figures Dillinger will foolishly head back to Chicago, so his men watch the apartment of Dillinger's half-French dame Billie Frechette (Cotillard) around the clock. She still eludes them. Purvis' men finally do arrest her, but Dillinger drives away from the scene without anyone noticing him. This sets up the famed betrayal of the "Lady in Red," which was actually a yellow dress.
So many of the era's personalities parade before the cameras -- look, there's Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) getting shot at long range by Purvis; there's famed bad guys Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Garrett) plotting jobs with Dillinger; there's crime boss Frank Nitti (Bill Camp) growing tired of Dillinger's juvenile shenanigans; there's young J. Edgar Hoover (a stiff Billy Crudup) just getting his feet wet!
You can't keep them all straight and a muddy soundtrack doesn't help. Depp got his own sound technician according to the end credit roll yet you still can't hear him. Between mumbled lines and busy music cues much of the film's dialogue is indistinct.
The anticipated points are made about how both Dillinger and Hoover track their own publicity. The Dillinger-Frechette love match is built up into something it probably never was. Indeed the woman, Polly Hamilton (Leelee Sobieski), Dillinger fatefully attends his last picture show with is believed to be his new girlfriend at the time.
What's missing is an investigation into character. Who are all these people? Why do they matter to us now?
The great Depression bank robbing movie "Bonnie and Clyde," to which "Public Enemies" will undoubtedly be compared, kept the focus narrow and intense and somehow spoke to its counter-culture era. "Public Enemies" sprawls everywhere with too many characters and winds up being mostly a history lesson unrelated to anything in the zeitgeist.
Mann oversees top-drawer work by cinematographer Dante Spinotti, production designer Nathan Crowley and tremendous second unit personnel. The strategies, setups and shoot-outs are terrifically staged, but the human element goes missing.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Oscars' best picture race: 10 in 2010

More Oscar contenders
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By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There will be 10, count 'em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced February 2.
In a move designed to let more movies share in the limelight that surrounds the contenders for Hollywood's top award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday announced a rule change that doubles the number of movies that will be welcomed into the best picture category.
Academy president Sid Ganis characterized the move as a "return to the past" when the Academy regularly spread its largesse out among 10 -- and sometimes even more -- best picture nominees.
Speaking to the media at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Ganis on Wednesday was flanked by posters listing the 10 nominees for 1939 -- widely regarded as the high-water mark for quality studio releases. That year, the lineup ranged from Westerns ("Stagecoach") to sophisticated comedies ("Ninotchka") to melodramas ("Dark Victory") to all-time classics like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Wizard of Oz" and eventual winner "Gone With the Wind."
"Suppose you had to narrow that field down to five nominees? Which of these films would you keep? Whichever five movies you selected, you'd be losing five extraordinary films," Ganis asked rhetorically.
While the Academy hasn't nominated 10 films since 1943, momentum for the course correction grew out of this year's Oscar show. Its producers, Larry Mark and Bill Condon, made a concerted effort to acknowledge the whole range of movies produced during the past year in an effort to reach out to a wider audience.
In their post-show autopsy, they encouraged the Academy to consider opening up the best picture category, and the committee that reviewed the show championed the idea, recommending it to the board, which approved the change with virtually no opposition.
The move also comes in the wake of the howls of outrage from fans of last year's "The Dark Knight," which earned eight nominations but didn't crack the best picture circle. Arguably, a wider field of nominees would have included that movie, which also had a lot of critics in its corner. And if more popular entertainments are in the running for the big prize, that could in turn benefit the Oscarcast ratings, which have been in general decline, although they did experience an uptick in February.
Ganis acknowledged that "in discussions about this, we talked about what might have happened, and I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words 'Dark Knight' did not come up."
One idea that didn't fly in the internal discussions: Arriving at 10 pictures by nominating five dramas and five comedies, a la the Golden Globes.
"It's about the best picture -- not the best something picture," Ganis said. "It's a singular honor."
By sticking to one best picture category, the Academy also avoids being drawn into debates about whether a given film is properly considered a comedy or a drama. But Ganis did suggest that comedies, continually short-changed come Oscar time, could benefit.
"In casting a wider net, who knows what's going to turn up," he said. "Maybe even a comedy in that group of 10."
Ganis, who will step down as Academy president this summer after four consecutive terms, insisted that having 10 noms "does not dilute" the honor. Pointing out that about 300 films are eligible each year -- in 2008, the number that qualified for best picture consideration was 281 -- he argued that to be one of 10 nominees is still an achievement.
Academy executive director Bruce Davis also said that the board was given assurances that including 10 best picture nominees would not result in a longer show. That assurance will be put to the test when the Oscars take place March 7.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Blink-182, Weezer to headline free Virgin fest

By Mitchell Peters
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - After months of speculation about the fate of the 2009 Virgin Mobile Festival, organizers have made an announcement that should please music fans who've felt the economic pinch of the recession: this year's event is free.
With headliners Weezer and Blink-182, organizers say 35,000 free tickets will be given away to the newly branded Virgin Mobile FreeFest, to be held August 30 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md.
Other acts scheduled to perform on the festival's two main stages and dance tent include Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Jet, the National, Girl Talk, the Bravery, the Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, Taking Back Sunday, Holy F*ck, Pete Tong, Danny Howells and Lee Burridge.
"The idea was to do something that nobody else is doing," Seth Hurwitz, chairman of independent concert promoter I.M.P., tells Billboard.com. "It really comes from a sincere desire to make people happy."
Tickets to the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be available to the public on June 27 through ticketmaster.com. Virgin Mobile customers and previous ticket-buyers to Virgin Mobile Festivals will be sent an e-mail that gives them the first crack at obtaining free tickets from June 25-26. Organizers declined to say how many of the festival's tickets will be set aside for those people.
Ticketmaster has also agreed to waive its convenience fees for concertgoers who pick up their tickets at the Merriweather Post Pavilion or the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Fans will also have the option to pay Ticketmaster to deliver their tickets. In light of recent controversies surrounding ticketing fees, Hurwitz, whose company will promote and produce the event, is curious to see what choice fans will make.
"I'm pretty excited about seeing how many people really prefer to pay Ticketmaster to deliver their ticket," he says. "Convenience charges originated with people having the option to pay to have tickets brought to them, instead of them having to go to the ticket. So we wanted to get back to basics on that."
The concept of hosting a free festival came from executives at Virgin Mobile USA. Virgin Mobile USA senior director of brand marketing and innovation Ron Faris says "all the bad news about the economy and the layoffs" was the main reason behind the company's decision to help cover costs of the festival.
"We wanted to put something out there that would put a smile on people's faces," Faris tells Billboard.com. "That was the genesis around why we did this." He declined to reveal financial deals about the company's involvement in the festival.
Last year's third annual Virgin Mobile Festival was held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on August 9-10. The non-free event -- which attracted approximately 60,000 fans over two days -- featured headliners Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots, among other acts.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Cameron Diaz takes a motherly turn in new movie

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Cameron Diaz has never been a mom, but in her new movie "My Sister's Keeper" she faces a choice no mother would want, which is one reason the actress known mostly for comedic skill stepped into the serious drama.
In the movie opening in U.S. theaters on Friday, Diaz portrays a mom whose daughter suffers from leukemia. So, she gives birth to a genetically engineered second daughter in order to take life-saving umbilical cord blood from the younger sibling and give it to the sick one.
But family relationships are upended when, as girls, the little sister sues her parents to block them from making her give a kidney to her dying sister. Diaz's character, a former lawyer named Sara, fights her 11-year-old daughter's attempt at "medical emancipation" in the serious family drama.
The role is far from Diaz's parts in feel-good movies such as romantic comedy "There's Something About Mary," action-packed "Charlie's Angeles" or voicing the role of Princess Fiona in the "Shrek" animated movies.
Yet Diaz, 36, told Reuters she doesn't see herself as one kind of actress or another -- comedic or dramatic -- and she looks to her own youth in working class neighborhoods of Long Beach, California, for lessons in how real life can get messy.
"I don't feel I've ever played the same person twice. Even though I might have done a couple of comedies or a couple of romantic comedies, the characters are all very different to me," she said.
Nick Cassavetes, son of the late groundbreaking independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, directed "My Sister's Keeper" and said he always saw Diaz for more than her bubbly on-screen personality in fluffy Hollywood tales.
"This is a really wonderful actress and over the next few years you're going to see, she's going to be borne out to be one of the finest actors of our generation," he said.
STRONG SUPPORTING CAST
Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin, 13, plays younger sister Anna, who is forced to serve as a donor to the older Kate, played by Sofia Vassilieva, 16, who stars in TV's "Medium."
A hotshot attorney (Alec Baldwin) takes Anna's legal case, and faces off against Sara in court. As Kate's health spirals downward, tensions in her family become increasingly strained.
Cassavetes, director of 2004 romantic drama "The Notebook," has a personal connection to the story since his own daughter has lived with a congenital heart defect since birth.
"To work with somebody who was so familiar, so intimate with this situation, this story, made it really easy to trust him," Diaz said about the director.
Diaz said that while it may seem to some of her fans that she leads a soft life in Hollywood, growing up in Long Beach gave her "street smarts."
"The place that I came from it was very urban. There was a lot of lessons to be learned," she said. "I didn't grow up in a protective, sheltered life by any means." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Oscar organizers expand film nominee list

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar organizers on Wednesday unveiled plans to expand their list of best film nominees to 10 from five, broadening the group of contenders for the world's top film honors.
The Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which gives out the Oscars, or Academy Awards, annually honors the best movies, actors, actresses, directors and other filmmakers in a gala ceremony that is watched by tens of millions of people around the world.
"We will be casting our net wider and in casting that net wider, who knows what will turn up?" Academy President Sid Ganis told reporters at a news conference.
The Academy has come under scrutiny from movie fans in recent years because many nominees for best film have been adult-oriented dramas that play mostly in art houses and, as a result, do not lure the huge crowds or draw the big box office of major studio releases aimed largely at kids and teenagers.
For instance, 2008's best film nominees included political drama "Frost/Nixon" which made $27 million at box offices while last year's top-grossing movie at $1 billion worldwide, Batman thriller "The Dark Knight," failed to be nominated.
As a result, industry insiders see a disconnect between Oscar voters and typical movie fans, and they worry that declining viewership in the Oscar telecast results from the lack of widely popular movies being nominated.
Ganis told reporters that "casting that net wider" means that films like "Dark Knight" or animated movies, documentaries or foreign films had a better chance at getting nominated.
He said boosting TV viewership was not a key factor in the Academy's decision, noting that U.S. viewership was up about 13 percent at 36 million for this past February's telecast compared to an all-time low 32 million the year before.
A record 55 million people tuned in to watch blockbuster "Titanic" sail off with the best picture award a decade ago. In 2004, 43.5 million fans watched popular "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" win 11 Oscars, including best film.
The Academy noted its expansion takes it back to the start of the awards in the late 1920s and 1930s when there were routinely 10 nominees. The 1943 Oscar ceremony, which saw "Casablanca" walk off with best movie, was the last with 10. In 1934 and 1935, there were 12 nominees.
The number of nominations for best director, best actor, best actress and other key roles will remain at five.
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards covering 2009 movies will be announced on February 2 next year and the Oscar ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 7.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Eric Walsh)

Source: Reuters

Sexy? Yes. Megan Fox says it's part of "Transformers"

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By Edwin Chan
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two years ago few people knew her face, much less her name. But now Megan Fox of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," is among Hollywood's hottest actresses whose sex appeal has won millions of fans.
While many of the 23-year-old's peers might want to avoid the label "sex symbol" for fear it would obscure their acting talent, Fox, whose new "Transformers" sequel debuts in theaters on Wednesday, is just the opposite.
She thinks being sexy has its advantages. It helped get Fox her start in 2007's original, big-budget action flick "Transformers" from director Michael Bay, and that has led her to her other parts where she is now achieving what she set out to do in Hollywood -- become a real actress.
"Women in movies, in general, are sexy -- especially in Michael's movies. And if you want to make movies that people want to see, that's part of it. That's part of the formula," Fox told reporters at a recent news conference.
Bay, who was sitting with her, chimed in: "It's called summer fun. It's a robot movie."
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is based on the popular toys and cartoons about shape-shifting cars which morph into "autobots" that fight alien "decepticons" who want to control Earth. In the 2007 movie, the decepticons got thrashed in the final battle. Now, they're back to avenge their losses.
The effects-filled movies are aimed mostly at young men, and with that in mind Bay hired the attractive brunette from Tennessee to co-star as the movie's main love interest, Mikaela Banes, who favors tight jeans and even tighter t-shirts.
OPENING SHOT, OPENING DOORS
Bay, ever willing to indulge fan tastes, has made sure Fox's first appearance in "Revenge of the Fallen" has an impact. As Mikaela, the lanky actress is filmed from behind, sprawled on a motorcycle in hotpants and motorcycle boots.
"We got that first shot out of the way, just to get it out for the young boys...and moved on," Bay said.
Before 2007, most of Fox's work had been small parts on TV and in movies, but fan buzz from the smash hit "Transformers" ($700 million global box office) catapulted her to stardom.
"The movie, its success and how well it was received has opened a lot of doors for me, career-wise," Fox said.
Fox wants to be more than just a pretty face in Hollywood's next big action flick, and when "Transformers" "opened a lot of doors" for her, she took advantage.
She will soon star opposite Oscar-nominees Josh Brolin and John Malkovich in sci-fi Western "Jonah Hex", due to hit theaters later this year. In September, she headlines supernatural comedy "Jennifer's Body", penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno").
"I've been able to be a part of films I don't really feel like I deserve to have been a part of," she said, in a nod to her lack of experience. Continued...
Source: Reuters