ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | May 2, 2014
Jon Favreau was right - it's an exceptionally bad idea to watch "Chef" on an empty stomach. Slow-cooked cured meats, golden-brown grilled cheese sandwiches, sugar-sprinkled beignets and undeniably delicious-looking Cuban sandwiches drew murmurs of appreciation from all who watched his latest project Thursday. But the "Wolf of Wall Street," "Elf" and "Swingers" actor doesn't consider himself a foodie. Although he enjoys eating, he won't necessarily hunt down restaurants in different cities or work his free time to be able to taste different types of preparations.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani and Michael Miller | May 2, 2014
Ballots from the 15th annual Newport Beach Film Festival have been turned in and accounted for. While the selection committee reviewed more than 2,000 submissions, viewers watched over 400 films from 50 countries. Each movie competed for honors in three categories: Jury Awards, voted on by a panel of film experts and industry insiders; Festival Honors, given by the event's staff; and Audience Awards, determined by ballots from filmgoers. Here's a roundup of this year's victors: *JURY AWARDS Best Feature Film: "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Actor: Blake Robbins, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Actress: Aunjanue Ellis, "Una Vida" Best Director: Blake Robbins, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Cinematography: Lyn Moncrief, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Screenplay: Jason Strouse, "Teacher of the Year" Special Jury Prize for Actress in a Feature Film: Laura Kirk, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Special Jury Prize for Cinematography of a Feature Film: Patrick Jones, "The Last Lonely Place" Best Documentary: "The Honest Liar" Special Jury Prize for Documentary Film: "Who Took Johnny" Best Narrative Short Film: "Mr. Invisible" Best Documentary Short Film: "Aerodrome Best Animated Short Film: "Rabbit and Deer" Special Jury Prize for Animated Short Film: "Rhino Full Throttle" * 2014 FESTIVAL HONORS Feature Film: "Break Point," "Fort...
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | May 1, 2014
Angela Alford spent three months, silently, on the sidelines. The former professional athlete, who is 6-foot-5 and played for Vanderbilt University and USA Basketball in the 1990s, had a hard time believing the scene unfolding in front of her. A senior women's amateur basketball team from Raleigh, N.C., her hometown, was battling it out on the court. "I thought they must be genetic anomalies to still be playing in their 70s," she said. "Surely they just didn't age like the rest of us. " What started out as giving advice on a shot or calling out encouragement from the bleachers led to her coaching the Fabulous 70s at the National Senior Games in Texas in 2011.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Michael Miller | April 30, 2014
Charlie Anderson only smoked for two years, but when he made up his mind to quit, the habit was hard to shake. So he talked about his problems - to the cigarettes themselves. "I would put a cigarette out there, right in front of me in plain sight, and every time I got the urge, I would sometimes pick it up and act like I was, you know, I would threaten the cigarette," Anderson said. "'I'm in control here, not you.'" That image stayed in Anderson's mind, even as he neared two decades without a smoke.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | April 24, 2014
Filming "Brahmin Bulls" was not a breeze. Director Mahesh Pailoor valiantly balanced budgetary issues and his cast's schedules while shooting the entire movie out of order. He even faced an unexpected foe - the 85th annual Academy Awards. "We only had one day to shoot in a hospital and that day happened to be the day of the Oscars, which Mary Steenburgen was presenting at," he recalled. "We were running up against the clock and only had time to do a few takes per shot. Mary and Roshan [Seth]
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | April 24, 2014
Ellen Fisher was in for a surprise. Determined to avoid a repeat of last year's Newport Beach Film Festival opening night - where she arrived a half hour before the start of the film - the Orange resident made her way to Edwards Big Newport with two hours to spare Thursday. "We were almost late," the 70-year-old recalled. "We were way down the street in line. " Although Fisher and her husband, Bill, 66, expected to be quite a ways down the road, they found a spot right at the top of the queue.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | April 23, 2014
For Charlie Darby, love is intimately linked with lunacy. From the outside, the grade-school principal in the movie "Lovesick" - played by actor Matt LeBlanc - has everything: a great circle of friends, a supportive family and a satisfying job. All that's missing is a relationship. He seems to have trouble in that department because while he is perfectly sane, it's a different story when he falls in love. Although not biographical, the story is based loosely on the experiences of Bel Air-based writer Dean Young.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Rhea Mahbubani | April 19, 2014
Dennis Baker is inclined to associate with winners. That's not to say he won't help an organization, initiative or individual get closer to victory. But, when that doesn't work, he has no misgivings about cutting loose or moving on. "My energy goes to where I see success," the Corona del Mar resident said. "I like being associated with things that work. I like to think that I'm part of why they work. " One such alliance is with the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2001, Baker, then a member of the city's Arts Commission, attended an event where he met Leslie Feibleman, director of special programs and community cinema.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 3, 2014
Director David Ayer is known for his ultraviolent police epics like "Training Day" and "End of Watch. " Screenwriter Skip Woods ("A Good Day to Die Hard") is also no stranger to action movies with a high body count. These two masters of death and treachery join up with an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger to create a new cop thriller with lots of blood and guts. "Sabotage" has a subdued Arnold playing the legendary leader of a team of undercover DEA agents. As the strong but quiet godfather of the operation, he puffs his cigar while the younger actors do the stunt work.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Michael Miller and Rhea Mahbubani | April 1, 2014
However long other ticket buyers stand in line to see "Don't Quit: The Joe Roth Story," Mike White has waited longer. Nearly four decades, in fact. White, the former football coach at UC Berkeley, has hoped to see a film about the story of Roth, the promising quarterback who played two seasons on the university's team, since shortly after Roth's 1977 death at age 21 of melanoma. For years, White heard rumblings about proposed scripts, but no project ever came to fruition. Then, five years ago, a pair of Berkeley alums who attended the school after Roth's time there got to work on a documentary.