What is Simon Monjack thinking? The husband of late Brittany Murphy is hosting a launch party to celebrate the Brittany Murphy foundation, which is dedicated to arts education for children. Why do I think this is so bad? Usmagazine reports that Monjack is “suggesting” $1,000 contribution from individuals attending and $10,000 from corporations to attend the event to take place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. The 32 year old actress was found dead in her home on December 20th. Toxicology reports could help determine the cause of the death. There have been suspicions around the death of Murphy and suspicions regarding her husband. Whether he was involved in anyway, this just seems incredibly tacky and inappropriate.
Actor Justin Mentell, who appeared on the TV show Boston Legal has died at age 27. People.com reports the cause of death was a one person car accident in rural Wisconsin, after Mentell reportedly crashed his jeep. Police reports show that he was not wearing a seat belt, and his car had gone down a steep embankment near Blanchardville, Wis., and hit two trees. The actor also starred in the film G-Force with Nicholas Cage.
The Oscar nominations are in! Anne Hathaway announced early this morning the nominees that will be up for the biggest prize of the award season- an Academy Award. Sandra Bullock, who has already taken home best actress awards in the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, will again be vying for the trophy along with Meryl Streep. One thing that is different this year: there are 10 movies up for best picture instead of the usual five. More nominations are as followed: Best Picture Avatar This Blind Side District 9 The Hurt Locker An Education Inglorious Bastards Precious A Serious Man Up Up in the Air Best Actor Jeff Bridges- Crazy Heart George Clooney- Up in the Air Colin Firth- A Single Man Morgan Freeman- Invictus Jeremy Renner- The Hurt Locker Best Actress Sandra Bullock- The Blind Side Helen Mirren- The Last Station Carey Mulligan- An Education Gabourey Sidibe- Precious Meryl Streep- Julie & Julia Best Supporting Actor Matt Damon- Invictus Woody Harrelson- The Messenger Christopher Plummer- The Last Station Stanley Tucci- The Lovely Bones Christoph Waltz- Inglorious Bastards Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz- Nine Vera Fermiga- Up in the Air Maggie Gyllenhaal- Crazy Heart Anna Kendrick- Up in the Air Mo’Nique- Precious The 82nd annual Academy Awards, which will be co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, takes place Sunday, March 7, and will air live on ABC starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Q: You grew up in Illinois. Why did you make the decision to move to L.A.? We moved to LA so my husband could pursue his acting career. And I decided to work at an agency to hopefully learn a ton about entertainment, possibly help my husband's career, and because I didn't want to take a third bar exam. (I'd taken Illinois and Colorado and passed all within two years.) Q: Was it hard adjusting to the California ways? California wasn't as challenging to adjust to as the world of entertainment. I love the warm weather and the casual lifestyle. My most difficult adjustment in entertainment was calling everyone by their first name. And I mean everyone. From the president of production to the CEO. If you work in entertainment you call them by their first name. So foreign for a girl from Illinois. Q: You split your time between writing and producing. Is that difficult? Lately I've been doing more writing than producing. Writing at this point in my career comes first. Later, I may find that I spend more time as a producer. Q: How much fun did you have writing your Hollywood novels? They were a blast. The characters wouldn't stop telling me there story! In the morning, on the drive to work, late at night.; I couldn't get their voices out of my head. Q: I’m sure you get asked this a lot, but are the characters based off people you know or have come across while living in LA? Each character is a unique individual created by my psyche. Although, I've had a number of friends and colleagues ask me if they are based on specific people... They may share some traits with people I've worked with....but I'll never tell. Q: From reading your books, (and watching TV!) it sounds like there aren’t too many people you can trust in Hollywood. Would you say that is a correct statement? Entertainment is a business. An incredibly competitive, high stakes business. Just like any business you have some great people to work with and some not so great people to work with. Luckily I've been blessed with a huge number of great people in my life. Q: How do you handle the difficulties of working in the entertainment industry? Resilience and persistence. My family keeps me grounded. Plus, when you get to do what you absolutely love for a living...how bad can it really be? Q: I read on your site that you are writing a contemporary romance. Can you give any details about that? I LOVE this book. I use both my background as an attorney as well as the world of entertainment in this book. Q: What do you find to be your favorite part about writing? When I come back to a page to edit and rewrite and I read something that I love and don't remember writing. Q: When did you decide you wanted to write? Probably around 8 years old. But I grew up in Illinois and Kansas and writing wasn't really a career choice...or something that I realized could be a career choice. As an adult, I began to write my first manuscript in 1996 and the first book sold late 2005. Q: How you enjoy your free time? Playing with my children. Spending time with my husband. Watching movies. Reading. Going to the beach. Q: What is or would be your favorite place to travel? Paris. I want to live in Paris for a while.
Kristen Bell is engaged! Usmagazine reports that Bell’s rep confirmed that boyfriend Dax Shepard proposed over the holidays. The actress, 29, showed off her new ring at the red carpet on the Grammy’s Sunday night. The couple has been together since January 2008.
Fern Kendal certainly doesn’t have it easy. Living in a completely unglamorous flat above and Indian restaurant, Fern must take on multiple jobs just to afford her rent. She desperately hopes to make it as a singer, but performing at a small pub with an unappreciative audience is not helping her case. Her best friend and accompanist Carl convinces Fern that they should try out for Fame Game, a reality TV competition for singers. To Fern’s surprise, she makes the callbacks- but has to go ahead without Carl. Meanwhile, Fern is struggling to make ends meet while trying to help support her brother and his extremely asthmatic son who needs constant care and dealing with her new housemate- her father. Fern’s parents are on the verge of divorce and her father is quickly becoming more than a nuisance for Fern. She takes on the job of assistant to Evan David, popular opera singer- even though she knows nothing about opera and keeps having to run out on her professional duties to deal with her personal life events. To make matters more confusing, Evan David takes an unexplainable liking to Fern, all while Carl is desperately hoping that Fern will one day love him as much as he loves her. Welcome to the Real World by Carole Matthews brings likable characters and a scenario that is very real. It was fun to read about the struggles that the heroine is dealing with, and was refreshing to see a character that isn’t just hoping to fall in love- she is pursing big dreams and fantasies. With a supporting cast of hilarious characters (Fern’s father pretending to have Tourette’s to try to win back his wife) readers will enjoy the humor and snappy dialogue that Matthew’s brings to all her novels.
Brenda Janowitz, a native New Yorker, thought from a small age that she wanted to be a writer. She graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors Degree in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. She then went on to attend Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. She has worked as a law associate and also a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York. Janowitz has since worked as a career counselor at two New York City law schools, where she published a number of articles on career related issues in publications such as the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal. She has published two chick lit novels, titled Jack with a Twist and Scot on the Rocks, as well as a short story Based on a True Story. Her work has also appeared in the New York Post and Publishers Weekly. Brenda Janowitz currently lives in New York with her husband and teaches creative writing at Mediabistro.
The 2010 Miss America Pageant aired live last night from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Newly engaged Katie Stam passed on her crown to 22 year old broadcast journalism student Caressa Cameron. The Miss Virginia contestant, who is a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, won the coveted crown along with a $50,000 scholarship for her year long reign as Miss America. Cameron showed off her impressive singing skills, singing the Beyonce song “Listen” from Dreamgirls, and impressed the judges by her interview answer when asked about child obesity. “We need to get our kids back outside, playing with sticks in the street like I did when I was little.” Miss California, Kristy Cavinder, is the first runner up and winner of a $25,000 scholarship, and will take over Cameron’s duties as queen if Cameron is deemed unfit throughout the year. The judges for the pageant included radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Vivica A. Fox, musician Dave Koz, American Idol's Brooke White and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson. Mario Lopez hosted the event.
