Profiles

Doug Liman has found his Pants

Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants: Doug Liman Goes From Bourne to Brooklyn, Puts Millennials Under Microscope

“I’m more inclined to see the villains’ point of view in my movies,” Doug Liman told The Observer on a brisk October afternoon over bottles of Poland Spring in the Tribeca studio of his production company, Hypnotic. “When you grow up in New York, you’re more inclined to see everybody’s point of view.”

Mr. Liman, who was raised on the Upper East Side and graduated from Fieldston and later Brown, was answering our question about how a local sensibility has crept into his Hollywood work. He does seem to have a soft spot for certain bad guys—say, Chris Cooper’s Conklin from Bourne Identity, whom the director based on Oliver North. “You identify with all the bureaucratic hassles that he has to deal with,” Mr. Liman told us. “People who believe they are patriotic, bypassing all these rules of law to get done what they think is right.” Read More

Jersey Shore

Three members of Jersey Shore at Williamsburg's hipster pants party (Getty Images)

Jersey Shore Cast Spotted in Williamsburg

On last night’s episode of the MTV reality show, viewers tuned in to see Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola get into a weave-pulling contest with some rando on Jersey Shore. But in reality, the new Dangerous perfume brand ambassador was spending her Thursday evening hanging out at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, along with some of her costars.

Wait, Williamsburg? But that’s where people who don’t own TVs live! Read More

Sundance Film Festival

Bing Presents Comedy With Aziz Ansari And A Drake Performance At The Bing Bar - 2012 Park City

Turf Wars, Lil Jon And The Josh Hartnett Sundance Stink Eye

Day 2 of the Sundance Film Festival found The Observer snowbound in the extreme. We’re talking enough snow to give Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City transit system nightmares. Astronomic surcharges became the norm as Park City’s anemic livery force struggled to even make the most ludicrous time frames: ”Yeah I can have a guy up there in like 3 and a half hours?” deadpanned one audacious taxi dispatcher, who seemed to take pleasure in seeing so many city slickers squeal. Read More

The Real Boys and Girls of Occupy Wall Street

(hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com)

Real World: Occupy Wall Street? MTV Issues Casting Call for Protesters

Is Occupy Wall Street ready to start being real? Bunim/Murray Productions, the agency casting for MTV’s Real World 27, appears to think the show Real World needs some real world drama: an ad appeared on Craigslist yesterday seeking members of the Occupy Wall Street movement to audition for the proto-reality show. Maybe the agency saw the Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street Tumblr? Read More

TV

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Catfish is MTV's latest "unscripted" "docu-series"

Without opening the whole can of worms of whether or not last year’s Sundance darling Catfish was like, a real-real documentary or a pseudo-documentary or a fake documentary that fooled nobody and that was the point, one thing can be said for the film: It did for Internet dating what Fatal Attraction did for having affairs with really high-strung women with bad perms. Without giving too much away–though if you still are worried about Catfish spoilers maybe you should just go Netflix Catfish already?–the documenting of Nev Schulman’s Facebook relationship with long-distance girlfriend Megan made us all want to go home and unsubscribe from every dating site and social network we’ve ever been a part of. Then that feeling passed, and we were back on JDate within 24 hours.

Which is all to say good luck to Nev on his latest endevour, an MTV “docu-series” where he help couples find love over the Internet. And just to avoid any confusion, this show will also be called Catfish. Read More

TV

Kelly Cutrone (Getty Images)

Kelly Cutrone, Still Not Over ‘The Hills,’ Shops a New Show

Kelly Cutrone, the fashion publicist turned reality-TV personality (The Hills, The City and Kell on Earth), self-help author and Dr. Phil protégé, is still diversifying. She recently announced plans to start her own fashion line, Electric Love Army, backed by Christopher Burch, which will launch with three stores in New York next year. And now Read More

TV

MTV's Skins: The Kids Aren't All Right

I hate to break it to you like this, but teenagers sometimes have sex. And do drugs. And behave like hedonistic, narcissist jerks. OMFG, right? In a world in which reality TV stars defecate on camera and sex tapes are traded for stardom, horny high-schoolers shouldn’t be headline news. But Skins, MTV’s hyper-hyped, oversexed remake Read More