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Drew Grant

By Drew Grant 5/16 4:48pm

movie pitches

Video

Violet & Daisy: a chick-flick for psychopaths.

The Best Film Pitch Ever Sent Out Via PR Blast: VIOLET & DAISY

Have you ever just glimpsed at a film review, or poster, or what have you and thought, “I need to see that movie, immediately?” That just happened to us when we passed by IFC on West 4th and saw the poster for Shane Caruth’s Upstream Color. (It’s like Primer, but with worms living under your skin!)

That feeling of excitement is rare, and should be treasured for the moment of cinematic magic that it is.

However, sometimes you see a review, or in this case, a pitch over email, for a film and you think “This is perfect, but not intentionally.” It’s also a rare moment of celluloid joie-de-vivre, but very different from its cousin in the first example.

VIOLET & DAISY is a film of the second category, which we last heard about as the movie that Buddy Fletcher used Louisiana public pension funds to fund. There are so many parts of it that make us laugh out loud, we’re not sure if maybe this was just someone messing with us.

Take a look at the email, her in its entirety: Read More

By Drew Grant 5/16 12:04pm

electric bikes

Banning e bikes? Same old story.

Wheel Estate: City Council Tries to Ban Electric Bikes With Bill That Just Adds Confusion

Hey, remember all the crazy state, federal, and city statutes regarding the definition of an electric bicycle? Yeah, we don’t want to delve into that particularly confusing string again either–just thinking about that whole “e bike or scooter” controversy makes us want to stick our mouth around an exhaust pipe–but sadly, we must. As New York City Council decided to “crack down” on ebikes with three bills that would increase fines and illiminate loopholes that have kept e bikes on the streets as well as create an “interactive crime map” for citizens with nothing better to do, the issue is back on the docket.

Only problem? Neither bill, which Mayor Bloomberg signed yesterday, gets to the real problem. Let’s take a look. Read More

By Drew Grant 5/15 9:20am

Party Favorites

Mike Dean, Liam McMullan on Plooms.

Purple Prince Promotes Ploom

Liam McMullan was standing outside of the West Village Bistro Highlands on Thursday night, wearing what appeared to be a homemade Bart Simpson t-shirt. As the new brand ambassador for Ploom “Pax,” which proudly boasts itself as being the “premium loose leaf vaporizer,” the son of famed New York photographer Patrick McMullan was doing his best to earn his Purple Prince title. When the Transom asked the young party scion how he had become involved with promoting the San Francisco-based company, he told us:

“I went to Wonderland and met Alice, and we went to a tea party with the Mad Hatter!”

Okay? Read More

By Drew Grant 5/15 8:20am

books

Americanah

On the Page: Americanah

There are readers who will never pick up a copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (Knopf, 496 pp., $26.95), perhaps scared off by the premise—a Nigerian couple whose love for one another is dwarfed by their infatuation for Anglo and American culture—or from reading the blurb by Dave Eggers on the back cover (“Adichie paints on a grand canvas, boldly and confidently,” etc.). It does not scream “beach book.”

Read More

By Drew Grant 5/14 10:45pm

Saturday Night Live

Bill Hader leaving SNL. (NBC)

Watch for the Bill Hader-Sized Hole in Saturday Night Live Next Season (Video)

Well this was quite the turn of events. If anyone was going to leave SNL in-between seasons, we knew it would Seth Meyers, who is taking over Jimmy Fallon’s old spot. After him, we would have put our money on Jason Sudeikis saying goodbye, since he’s always trying to negotiate his way off the show in order, we assume, to spend more time banging Olivia Wilde. (Can you blame him?) Or what about Fred Armisen, who already has one foot out the door with his IFC show, Portlandia? (Which, it should be mentioned, is produced by Lorne Michaels.)

If we had to think of a fourth person to leave, we’d probably guess Keenan Thompson, whose perpetually youthful appearance belies the fact that the 35-year-old has been working on the NBC variety sketch show for a decade now.

We just weren’t expecting today’s news that our favorite male performer (okay fine, tied for first with Taran Killam,) Bill Hader would be announcing his departure. Why, Stefon, why??? Read More

By Drew Grant 5/13 11:37am

Exclusive

RHONY, Season 5 (Bravo)

Exclusive: RHONY Contracts Still Unsigned as of This Morning; Tensions Still Running High for New Season

Last week it looked like The Real Housewives of New York City could get shut down for good when all six of the cast members refused to sign their contracts. Shooting for the series was supposed to commence last Wednesday (according to several news outlets), but was delayed when negotiations stalled.

Thank goodness it might not be over. According to Deadline, RHONY ladies Carole Radziwill, Ramona Singer, LuAnn de Lesseps, Heather Thomson, Aviva Drescher and Sonja Morgan all received modest pay increases, though how “modest” that money is definitely on a case-by-case basis; Ramona Singer made $500,000 last season and was holding out for a million, while a source close to the negotiations told The New York Observer that The New York Post’s quoted “average” payout for a housewife–$65,000–was “in the ballpark” of what was being offered this time around.

According to an industry insider, however, none of the ladies have officially signed their contracts yet, so don’t be jumping for joy just yet. Read More

By Drew Grant and Noam Cohen 5/13 9:32am

Game of Thrones

Illustration via Alex Bedder

Five Essay Prompts for Game of Thrones 3×7: ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair’

These questions regard last night’s episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. Daenerys’s negotiating style is less familiar to us from fantasy narratives than it is from gangster movies. She is not unlike an rising underworld kingpin using her muscle to build her empire, drawing her competitors into negotiations and then turning the tables with the threat of violence. “You thought this was a negotiation? Sorry, no. Say hello to my little friends. Oh, and leave the gold.” Of course in this case, the weapons are her children (happy Mother’s Day!), who also happen to be flying, fire-breathing teenage reptiles. How does this detail affect the genre conventions? Are the dragons more like guns or more like the ranking members of her growing gang? Read More

By Drew Grant 5/10 4:56pm

viral videos

Video

The happy couple.

James Franco, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton and Lonely Island Get Married on Spring Break (Video)

As part of YouTube’s “Comedy Week,” Zach Galifianakis held a very special edition of his Funny or Die web series Between Two Ferns which starts out like a regular James Franco interview but then gets weird real quick. Lonely Island and Edward Norton co-star, which is great, because we haven’t seen those guys in forever. (Edward Norton, where’ve you been hiding?) Read More

By Drew Grant 5/10 12:42pm

Movie premiere

Ain't no party like a Gatsby party.

Baz Luhrmann on Gatsby Excess: ‘Sometimes a Party Is Just a Party’

Great Giggling Gatsbys! After taking a hit for over-romanticizing the gaudy decadence of the roaring twenties in hist latest film (and subsequent press tour), director Baz Luhrmann spoke to The Observer at Lamb’s Club Tuesday night during The Cinema Society, Brooks Brothers and Town & Country‘s after party for The Great Gatsby. Apparently, we should just all chill out and not think so hard about the implications of reveling in the excesses of high society, despite the film’s moral statement against such extravagance. Read More