inacove

Tag: celebrities

  • Friends with Money (2006)

    Friends with Money (2006)

    I was looking for something light to watch. You know, something that wouldn’t require a lot of actual “watching” so that I could get some other things done. I wanted something girl-flicky, something “talky.” Boy, did I found it.

    Friends with Money (2006) has a great cast: Jennifer Aniston (Friends), Catherine Keener (Death to Smoochy), Frances McDormand (Fargo), and the amazing Joan Cusack (um, everything).

    Friends with Money (2006)
    Friends with Money (2006)

    Let me summarize how I saw each one:

    • Jennifer: good-for-nothing, depressing, klepto, indecisive. Her mood throughout the whole movie resembled her role in the movie The Good Girl (2002). It was so depressing that it was quite unbearable to watch. We all know someone like that: they can’t seem to get their act together, but show no interest in turning things around. Life is happening to them, as opposed to them making their own path. In the end, she serendipitously finds a rich guy, and that’s supposed to fix all her life problems. You know it won’t. It’s the start of yet another self-destructive cycle. Sorry I just spoiled the ending for you.
    • Catherine: Am I the only one who finds her unbelievably whiny? Even on Death to Smoochy (opposite my boyfriend Ed Norton, I did not find her likable. Or in The 40 year old virgin (one of my favorite comedies), her smile just does not seem genuine. I guess I have not found her to fit the right niche. In this movie, she plays someone who finds it difficult to let go of what people think of her. I could definitely relate to that. I could relate to her wanting to be asked “are you ok?” when she burns her hand on the stove. She was possibly the hardest character to watch for me because she needed validation, and her husband probably just got sick of it and decided to not enable her anymore. I live in fear of that every day. Am I so insecure that one day I will be found out as a fraud and everyone will leave me?
    • Frances: I love her. Even though she played a very depressed character, you could actually see that her acting and physique matched it perfectly. I felt for her. I knew what she meant when she said “it’s like we are all just waiting to die.” When you don’t know what else life is going to bring your way, it’s easy to settle in the comfort of the status quo and imagine that life is pretty much going to stay the same way until you are dead. I don’t want that for my life. I want change. 2014 can’t be the year that looked exactly the same as 2013.
    • Joan: This character was the most out of reach for me. She’s rich, she’s happy in her marriage, and she takes care of her house/kids full time. I can’t relate to someone who doesn’t want to work. However, she wasn’t annoying. She was caring and genuinely wanted to help her friends with her good fortune, but in a realistic way. She and her husband still complained about things being too expensive, and seemed to have the most down-to-earth relationship. I liked them. It made me wish my marriage continued to be that way in 10 years. I never want it to settle into Catherine’s fiasco.

     

    In conclusion, when you have money, happiness is not a given. Sounds like what we have to strive for and work for is the happiness part, not the money part. Yet, somehow, money keeps being the driving force in our lives through our jobs and daily worries. If happiness is the ultimate goal, and money is our only focus, what do we have to do to reprioritize?

    Food for thought as 2013 comes to an end.

    I would liken this movie to: About a Boy (2002). About Schmidt (2002). The Good Girl (2002).

    Huh, looks like this movie missed its mark by about 4 years. Maybe that’s why I had never heard of it until today.

    Anyways, have a great last few days of the year everyone!

    ina

  • Three Historic Events

    This was an eventful weekend in history, and this would not be an opinionated person’s opinion blog if I didn’t weigh in on every single event.

    Royal Wedding
    The Royal Wedding of Will & Kate
    I woke up at 5:30am on Friday, April 29th, and decided to have breakfast in front of the TV… And there it was: the Royal Wedding was in procession! I got to see the invitees go in, Princes William and Harry arrive and take their places, the much-awaited wedding gown of Kate’s, and the exchange of vows.
    The commentators said that this was as close to a fairy tale as we get to see in real life. This made me look at the whole thing with a new set of eyes. It’s so true: the Prince found his Princess in college, had a 9 year relationship, and decided to finally marry when they were both good and ready to say “I do” (or “I will” as they actually did say).
    I have full faith in this fairy tale ending for them, and I am sure they will go on to do great things with their new roles in life as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Congratulations!

    bin Laden is Dead
    Osama bin Laden is dead
    Sunday, May 1st, at 11pm EST, President Obama addressed the nation to inform us that Osama bin Laden had been located and killed by US forces. Turns out he wasn’t in a cave at all, but living in a large compound in Pakistan, near a military base.
    I cheer with Americans for this long awaited triumph over one of the lords of al-Qaeda.
    This is a great moment for the world and says a lot about Obama’s presidency. On the flip side, the fight is not over. Osama bin Laden gave terrorism a new life, and the movement expands beyond himself. I see this event as (hopefully) a pivotal point in the fight against world terrorism, but there is still much more to be done.

    My 30th Birthday!
    My 30th Birthday
    Lastly, on April 30th, I turned 30! It was a great weekend full of celebration with friends, Facebook messages, phone calls, hallmark cards and presents.
    All through my 20s I dreaded turning 30. That was the end of life as I knew it. What can I say, Sex and the City makes you feel like life after 30 is spent wishing you were 20 again. But then I started thinking: ten years ago I had NO IDEA what my life was going to be like, I had not met 99% of the friends I have now, and I had not met my husband. Think about it: 10 years is a really long time to do something with your life!
    All I have to say is that I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my first day of a new decade. I feel renewed and very much alive! I love happy beginnings! “I’ll do it better in my next 30 years” 🙂

    I’ll leave you with this 30th bday song by Tim McGraw (man, there’s a song for everything, isn’t there?)

    Youtube video with lyrics:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoR78-PomKc]

    My Next Thirty Years

    Tim McGraw
    Performed by Tim McGraw

    I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
    The ending of an era and the turning of a page
    Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
    Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

    In my next thirty years, I’m gonna have some fun
    Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done
    Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears
    And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years

    My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores
    Cry a little less, laugh a little more
    Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
    Figure out just what I’m doing here
    In my next thirty years

    Oh my next thirty years, I’m gonna watch my weight
    Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
    Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
    Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years

    My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
    Raise a little family and hang out with my wife
    Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
    Make up for lost time here
    In my next thirty years

    In my next thirty years

    ina

  • The Next Generation

    Jaden & Will Smith
    They played the new The Karate Kid (2010) movie on my flight this morning, with Will Smith‘s son in it. As I watch little Jaden Smith I felt a rush of emotion and nostalgia: his facial expressions resembled those of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!!! It was really uncanny!
    Tom & Colin Hanks
    It’s the same feeling I got when I saw The Great Buck Howard with Tom Hanks‘s son, Colin Hanks. It was like watching The Money Pit all over again. I am so excited to see that the stars from my childhood are being reborn before my very eyes.

    It really feels like the rebirth of an era. The physical comeback of a wonderful period when actors had to earn their place in the spotlight. When celebrities were so beautiful and perfect they transported you to a fantasy world. When fame was something only talented people were worthy of experiencing. I know it’s too much to hope for just because of the fact that child actors remind me of their parents, but I can’t seem to let it go.

    Kathleen Turner
    As the stars we have come to know and love grow older and/or sick, we can’t help but attaching ourselves to our memory of them. Michael Douglas, Michael J Fox, Sharon Stone, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
    Kirstie Alley
    Kirstie Alley, John Travolta, Kathleen Turner, Dustin Hoffman, and does anybody even remember Dudley Moore? [Deep sigh] Now, obviously there is nothing we can do about actors growing older, nor would we want to. Actors are very capable of reinventing themselves constantly and many manage to
    Michael Douglas
    successfully remain current for subsequent generations. I guess my point is that we will never get young and beautiful Kathleen Turner back, or handsome and sexy Michael Douglas, or funny and quirky Kirstie Alley (without the stupid fat jokes embedded in). Gone are the days when these stars graced our screens. We really want to think of them the way they were in their prime, and it’s hard for us to face the reality that their greatness will only live in our memory… and in movies for posterity. So if I can fantasize about their reincarnation by watching their offspring, then, gosh darn it, I will indulge in that pleasure.

    Seeing our stars being born again gives me hope that the world of entertainment will not be downgraded and obfuscated by the celebrity of Snooki, Paris Hilton, Heidi Montag, and Flavor Flave. If that is all the “talent” we are harvesting, then what will our children have to look up to?

    The Next Generation

    I pray for the world… I pray very hard.

    ina

  • Soul Searching

    Something’s bothering me, but I know it doesn’t bother everyone, and I wish I were one of those people. They are happy people.

    We all know about my infatuation with Taylor Swift. If you’ve read my past entry about Girl Crushes, you’d understand that there are certain women whom I admire. I want to be near them, I want to talk to them, I want their happiness to rub off on me.

    Warning: The next 3 paragraphs are the background of how I got to this point and it’s kinda boring… you can skip to “So what bothers me about this?” to not waste precious seconds of your life.

    Yesterday Taylor hosted a Meet & Greet for what ended up being 14.5 hours of just meeting, hugging, kissing fans and taking pictures with them (in Nashville, TN, for Country Fest — which I did not attend). It was broadcasted live on the web, so I logged on a couple of times throughout the day to see how she was doing. She’s just so genuinely appreciative of her fans, and she has an amazing self-awareness, uncharacteristic of a typical 20 year old, that makes her see that she’s a huge influence in young girls (plus me). She knows she’s being watched and people hang onto her every word, so she always makes sure to be positive, encouraging, and self-esteem raising. She’s what I think a real-life Barbie doll would be: considerate, ethical and just sweet.

    After the broadcast, it gave you a “suggested” video, which was a 1-hour webchat with Taylor at her house. She read questions and answered them from her personal Mac webcam. That was in 2008.

    Then last night I had a dream about her. There was a Taylor Swift camp, and all the girls were there to meet Taylor and spend time with her. I remember waking up and thinking that I had to go back and do something… I don’t remember what it was… I was writing a book? making a scrapbook? I don’t remember, but I needed to go back and finish it! It was so real.

    So what bothers me about this? I lied in bed last night for about 20 min thinking about what it is that I love about Taylor so much and why do I find being star-struck so frustrating at the same time. I know that I love that she is doing something she loves to do and that she’s really good at. That’s why this is not just a celebrity crush, I also have this kind of infatuation for others that love what they do and do it well despite adversity, like my sister-in-law, who is yet to be christianed with a new name on this blog. She’s a teacher, and she knew she wanted to do this all her life. She puts up with the downs because this is IT for her. I guess I wish I were so sure about my life path as Taylor and sis-in-law are.

    I was trying to think what would be the end result of my soul search. How would it feel? I couldn’t come up with anything. I just can’t see myself being perfectly content with just one thing. I am always thinking, jumpy, nervous, hating everything, wishing I were somewhere else. I could not picture a single scenario where I was happy and content and static. For some reason that’s how I define happiness: do something you like, do it well, live worry-free for the rest of your life. Even in my dreams I can’t accomplish that.

    I am also nervous because I have been thinking about teaching versus working at my husband’s company, and my husband’s company is winning. I couldn’t have foreseen feeling like this in a million years. I guess the money issue is really a big one, especially right now. If I could make some money and save up, maybe I would be ready for a career in teaching. I really need to take a good look at my finances at some point.

    So, I didn’t have any real conclusion. Apparently I am doomed to wandering in anxiety for the rest of eternity. What a life…

    ina

  • Taylor Swift Tix

    Taylor Swift in Concert
    It is no secret that I am a Taylor Swift fan. I can’t wait for her concert in June!

    If you missed out on getting tix to see her in Foxboro, I’m selling a couple of tix on eBay:

    Click here for tickets on eBay

    Good luck in the auction!

    ina

  • Capture It, Remember It

    Taylor Swift
    I had a dream last night where I went backstage and hung out with Taylor Swift and her band. This is not the first time I’ve had this dream, and every single time I feel too excited and nervous to behave normally, and just end up feeling like I’m trying too hard and it gets totally awkward 🙂

    I know I probably just completely confused you, so let me clear that question on your mind: No, I’m not a 15-year old girl still living at home blasting Taylor’s music and crushing over boys. I am a 28-year old home-owner who blasts Taylor’s music while her husband is in the other room with his headphones on.

    My crush on Taylor started through country music. I have been listening to country stations pretty exclusively since the first time I had to commute (2002). Taylor captivated me in two ways: she was 16 when she first came out, and she wrote every single one of her songs. She stood out as a real artist in my eyes. At the moment she started to come through I had been hooked on Carrie Underwood, who was nice to listen to and challenging to sing along to, but her songs did not speak to me. All of the sudden in comes Taylor with her songs about boy crushes and she took me back to my school days. I bought her CD (which is something I normally DO NOT do) when she had only release two singles so far, and had won zero awards. I like to think of myself as the first one to discover her in a 30 mile radius (remember that I live in Massachusetts… not the most country-friendly state).

    I’ve seen Taylor grow up and become a real, generous, funny and just genuine artist with the savvy and initiative to not only write her own songs, but also design and direct her own shows When you see a show or hear a song, that it ALL Taylor, not some label executive experiment, and that’s something that I respect tremendously.

    Taylor just became the very first female country artist to fill up Gillette Stadium, thanks to me, in part 🙂 I’ll be there on June 5th cheering her on. I can’t wait 🙂

    ina

  • RIP Corey Haim

    Every once in a while a celebrity’s death hits you like a pile of bricks. Brittany Murphy, Celia Cruz, among them. And now, Corey Haim at age 38 of an overdose.
    I grew up with the movie License to Drive. I rooted for him in his A&E reality show “The Two Coreys.” I wanted him to be OK.
    May he rest in peace.

    License to Drive (1988)

  • About something else

    I’m on the train with nothing to do but blog (which I certainly don’t mind one bit). I’d like to get out of my head for a second and blog about something else. Something I have not been obsessing over, but would be nice to open up and talk about.

    … Mmmm… I thought I’d come up with something by the time I finished writing that sentence, but… *blank*. I don’t know what… After all, anything I say will be coming from inside my head… So I won’t really achieve getting out of it, huh?

    Random thoughts:

    • The person next to me on the train has a kindle. I wish I had a kindle.
    • I didn’t have enough $ to pay for $4 parking fee at the station. I’ll have to pay $5 when I get back.
    • I’ve discovered that I am really bad at negotiating, but I have all the eagerness in the world to get better
    • I’m happy that Monica Geller and I get along so well now after so many years of animosity and teenage angst hanging over us
    • I think I might be afraid of having children without being ready, and I’m afraid of never being ready
    • On a more upbeat note, I declare that today will be a great day 🙂
    • I love it that Taylor Swift is now a Grammy winner. She’s so perfect and talented.
    • I wanted to get my boots fixed today, but left them at home by mistake!
    • I love Boston

    ina

  • First News about Conan’s fate

    The news have started trickling in. This one from the Buenos Aires Herald:

    On Sunday, attorneys from both sides were putting the final touches on a financial settlement that ends O’Brien’s seven-month stint as “Tonight” host. The payoff to O’Brien is said to be close to $40 million.
    The pact also includes sizable severance packages for O’Brien’s longtime executive producer Jeff Ross and the rest of the “Tonight” staff, some of it possibly coming out of O’Brien’s settlement paycheck.

    And NBC has already started the re-build of Jay Leno’s image in this article in the Tennessean:

    “Jay doesn’t have the power to make these decisions. The decisions are made by NBC,” [Tracie Fiss, a co-producer who has worked with Leno for 18 years,] said.

    If FX actually picks up Conan’s show, it’s said to happen either soon or in the fall at the latest. I just hope they put him in the same time slot as Jay.

    If that happened, Leno can say goodbye to his ratings, since he would ACTUALLY be competing with Conan (as opposed to before when they were shown at different times on the same network). In the same time slot, we could call this a fair fight. Good luck, chinny!

    ina

  • Awaiting official Conan news

    NBC is expected to announce today that Conan O’Brien and his staff are out, while Jay Leno will take back "The Tonight Show."

    I read today that a network exec was calling Conan names. Truth is that Conan is too nice a guy to survive in such a hostile corporate world. Jay Leno, on the other hand, has a shark for a lawyer and will take all or nothing.

    I’m waiting patiently for the official statement from either side.

    Conan: we’ll follow you wherever you go. Thought of coming back to Boston, maybe?… no?…. just an idea… 🙂

    ina

  • Team Conan

    For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, NBC is letting Conan O’Brien go in favor of returning Jay Leno to the Tonight Show (read the story from the Washington Post here).

    Here is Conan’s full statement from Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

    People of Earth:

    In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

    Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

    But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

    Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

    So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

    There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

    Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

    Yours,

    Conan

    Conan is getting a really raw deal here. We love him and want him to keep going! The problem here is the importance of the time slots to NBC executives, and how their ratings went down when they moved Jay Leno. I would argue that it’s not even about the ratings of either show, but about how the local networks news shows were hurt by the Jay Leno show being put at 10pm. The News are one of the few shows (and sports) that just don’t work on DVR — you want to know the news, or the score, as it’s happening. So for the news, the time slot matters a lot.

    But what about shows like Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien? Does the time slot really matter in the era of DVRs?

    Let me share something with you that you won’t get anywhere else:

    In my MBA class, our teacher would sometimes bring people in industry to discuss our case studies with us. Sometimes he would have them on the phone and we’d be able to ask them questions about the cases we read. It was quite the amazing class format, and we got to talk to some people we would have never met before. One class, we got to talk over the phone with an Anonymous network executive.

    She kept stressing the importance of a good line up in different time slots, and how revenue is generated from sales of airtime for commercials. My question to her was “with the increasing trend of DVRs and online watching, have they considered new ways of making money in the future when live TV is no longer relevant?” Pretty obvious question to ask, but I really was curious about the answer. You wanna know what she said??? She said that they have noticed that people’s TV watching habits revert to live TV as people get older (what?? How do they even know this?? DVRs are not a lifetime old yet!). I followed up and told her that the younger generations, or at least myself, definitely watch more DVR’d TV than live TV. So she asked for a pole around the room to see the % of people who watch live TV. Only a couple of hands were raised. She chucked that to be because we have a specific group of people in the MBA class, and we might not be representative of their real audience.

    She also said that if that trend was true, they would go out of business. So people better start putting more importance on live TV, or there will be no shows to watch at all. Talk about not evolving with the times.

    When we hung up the call, I openly expressed how deluded the networks are, and how they are completely ignoring the fact that new trends are driving them out of business.

    I just wanted to illustrate to you why the time slot matters to them: it’s how they make money. If the ratings are low, the companies who advertise will not pay as much money for the time. All this is happening while most of us are here thinking “who cares? I fast forward through commercials anyway!” But they do care, because people who watch the news might stick around and keep watching Leno. Unfortunately they really screwed up that strategy by replacing the news 10pm slot ALTOGETHER.

    From Conan’s perspective, I don’t think he cares about time slot per se. I think he really cares about the fact that he is being totally disrespected and his contract is being broken by a network that pretty much made him hang tight for 6 years before giving him the Tonight Show. Did you know that? He signed the agreement to host the Tonight Show back in 2003! He passed on multiple more lucrative offers for this opportunity. He moved his family and the ENTIRE crew (and their families) from New York for this. And now, they are bumping him back to his Late Nite schedule. That is NOT how you treat the Tonight Show’s host. That’s how you treat a second-rate less-important whatever show. That is NOT what Conan deserves, and Conan is right to stand up for himself.

    I just hope that Conan finds a new home that will treat him with the respect he deserves. We love him, and will continue to DVR his work. After all, my DVR knows no network. Just shows.

    ina

  • On Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin was on Oprah today, and she will be on 20/20 and Good Morning America this week, and I plan on watching every single appearance! I would like to buy her book, “Going Rogue” by Sarah Palin, after I’m done with “A Civil Action” for the book club.

    Sure, I was for Obama. Sure, her little rants are a little Miss Teen South Carolina 2007. Sure, she’s not to be trusted with the Presidency of the United States (I refrained from saying she was not qualified, as many people are so fond of saying, but the truth of the matter is that she was actually more qualified than Obama, resume-wise). But, by golly, the woman is gorgeous. I have a mini girl crush on the lady. I could not get my eyes off any TV airing she was in during the campaign in 2008. Yeah, this is serious.

    How do you feel about Sarah Palin?

    ina

    PS: You should definitely watch Jimmy Kimmel’s dissection of Miss Teen South Carolina’s speech. It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious.