Crime spinoffs aren't having to pay

The crime drama, especially as made by CBS, was primetime television's most bankable drama format for around ten years -- but that appears to become altering. Sure, skeins like "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds" still succeed for that Eye, however the internet has not seen quite exactly the same success yesteryear 2 yrs with "Blue Bloods" or "Person of great interest,Inch crime implies that required the genre in slightly different directions. Elsewhere, NBC's copshow "Prime Suspect" was declined from the beginning within the fall, and ABC's "Body of Proof" remains a modest artist in the second season. But possibly the very best indicator of the trend is the fact that during the last 12 several weeks, spinoffs of three venerable crime shows -- "Law and Order," "Bones" and "Criminal Minds" -- have unsuccessful to click with auds. Sure, "Bones" offshoot "The Finder" just bowed recently, however the early returns weren't encouraging. Fox used "Bones" to funnel audiences into "The Finder" if this opened on Jan. 12, however the newbie settled for any 1.7 rating (in comparison having a 2.4 because of its lead-in). As well as in its second week, despite a large lead-in from "The American Idol ShowInch (5.7 rating), "Finder" increased to simply a couple.2 -- still 4th in the Thursday timeslot. NBC attempted to breathe existence in to the diminishing "Law and Order" franchise with "Law and Order: L.A.," however the show's reboot last April opened up having a thud (1.5) and it is run ingloriously ended with burnoff episodes in This summer. It had been the 3rd "L&O" spinoff within the U.S., only "SVU" remains around the air ("U.K." continues in Blighty). And also at CBS, "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior," fronted by Forest Whitaker, delivered dramatically from the ancestor, which preceded it on Wednesdays. Auds updated set for the premiere (3.3 rating), however the show dropped to some 2.4 the next week and was hanging around a couple if this wrapped its 13-episode run. It had not been surprising to determine the nets order more spinoffs within the wake of CBS' success with "NCIS" and "NCIS: La,Inch using the latter going strong in the third year. But that certain might be the final we'll see work for some time. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com

L.A.-Italia fest fetes 'Hugo' art company directors

ROME -- The seventh La-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival will celebrate Italo production design and hang decoration duo Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Oscar-nommed for art direction on Martin Scorsese's "Hugo."The husband-and-wife team will get an Excellence Award throughout the Italo showcase, which runs February. 19-25 at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.Fest will even pay tribute to late Spaghetti Western maestro Sergio Corbucci, whose 1966 cult classic "Django," inspired Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," that is due for release 12 ,. 25Event, chaired this season by helmer Pupi Avati, will even feature first-and-second works from youthful Italian filmmakers.Headed by Pascal Vicedomini, a journo with pubcaster RAI, La-Italia is really a sister event to 2 Italian fests, Capri-Hollywood and Ischia Global, both devoted to creating an innovative and business bridgehead between Hollywood and Italy's film and showbiz towns. Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com

Sean Penn Shares Films Imagine Ducking Fame

First Launched: The month of the month of january 22, 2012 9:32 PM EST Credit: Getty Images PARK CITY, Utah -- Caption Sean Penn attends the Tribeca Film Festival after-party for Love-hate Love in NY City, on April 26, 2011 Sean Penns new movie casts him just like a former rock star who turns his back on fame and switches into exile overseas. Penn can relate. He mentioned inside an interview Sunday he'd the concept frequently about ducking in the limelight. He stars within this ought to be the region, that have its U.S. premiere within the Sundance Film Festival. Penn first found Utah about 27 in the past while using Falcon as well as the Snowman. The film, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, stars Penn as Cheyenne, a raven-maned, mascara-caked former pop icon whose look was inspired by Robert Cruz in the Cure. The childlike Cheyenne leaves the glamor of his old existence now lives quietly in Ireland along with his firemen wife, carried out by Frances McDormand. After his fathers dying, lost soul Cheyenne embarks around the journey over the united states . States to locate a classic Nazi who brutalized his father in the concentration camping. Penn mentioned he empathizes with Cheyennes decision to escape the spotlight. Turning ones back on fame might be the finest kind of sense. The one that I'd need to be full of, Penn mentioned. I dont think its an overstatement to convey that it's an obscene disease of celebrity thats absorbed far lots of existence that individuals do live. In my opinion its a disease. I still find it reduced the conventional of existence. Not particularly for individuals who're the primary focus from this, though that's clearly a thing that Ive been compromised by. Along with the culture particularly, there's this kind of herd commitment. In my opinion its just become cheap. This Ought To Be the region owes its start to the Cannes Film Festival, where Penn headed the jury that granted honours in 2008. Penns panel presented Sorrentinos political drama Il Divo while using festivals third-place jury prize. The actor as well as the director found themselves standing beside each other for just about any group photo within the Cannes closing ceremony. Simply because they spoken, Penn told Sorrentino he desire to use him, together with annually roughly later, the filmmaker sent the script with this ought to be the region. The film opened up at Mays Cannes festival and opens in U.S. theaters in March. Penn is likely to direct his fifth film, The Comedian with Robert P Niro and Kristen Wiig. Much like he's considered retreating from fame, Penn mentioned he wish to be capable of quit acting and merely direct films. This is not inside the cards given his financial needs, including his J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which boosts money to assist people displaced with the 2010 earthquake. Especially if youre connected having a business like mine in Haiti, there is a factor referred to as drained of funds and needing to function, Penn mentioned. I can create a better living becoming an actor than I am in a position to just like a director. Though I certainly prefer to be pointing movies. ___ Online: http://internet.sundance.org Copyright 2012 with the Connected Press. All rights reserved. These elements may not be launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ough Gervais: Countdown Of His Best Golden Globes Jokes

Let's not pretend that Rickey Gervais was his old, flame-throwing self on Sunday evening within the 2012 Golden Globes. He left his scorching commentary, vicious jokes and demon-may-care hilariousness this season, and rather shipped a fascinating performance that left most lower unruffled, all egos in tact, and many audiences disappointed. Yet Gervais around the so-so evening still produces an entertaining experience. He referred to as Colin Firth, possibly the very best guy in the world, a racist puppy puncher. He in contrast the Globes to Kim Kardashian: noisy, trashy, drunk and just bought. He requested Justin Bieber's manhood. Good occasions, all. At MTV Movies, Ryan J. Downey counted lower the host's finest moments in the evening. Take a look at his full report on Rickey Gervais' best Golden Globes jokes now! And search for the 2012 Golden Globes individuals who win!

Daniel Radcliffe Goes Rogue In 'American Talk: Ghost Protocol'

We could be ahead of time together with you at this time around: the main reason you have to watch the newest After Several hours, "American Talk: Ghost Protocol," is really because you are capable of seeing Daniel Radcliffe punch MTV News' Josh Horowitz as hard while he can. Though Radcliffe has managed to get several incarnations in the show formerly, we felt he needed another challenge to prove the "Harry Potter" star is certifiably American. So strap inside your Captain America mask and pull your American flag snuggie closer surrounding you, because this time around around, things get serious. We'll forgive Radcliffe for trying to assert that James K. Polk can be a better American leader than Bill Pullman in "Independence Day" too for unsure the lyrics for Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" from the top his mind because no less than he could title all obligations of America's "essential" film series, "The Twilight Saga." Plus, after we formerly stated, he did pull a "Fight Club" striking Horowitz as hard while he could. Little did everyone knows that Radcliffe had this kind of mean right hook! Whoever else consider this latest version of After Several hours? Reveal inside the comments section below or on Twitter!

California Pictures backs 'Storm'

Pierce California Pictures has come onboard to produce and package "After the Storm," a drama from writer-director Cole Wiley that has Wendell Pierce ("The Wire") attached to star.The story of a fateful journey of survival follows a young boy who must overcome the loss of his home and family to the destructive wrath of Hurricane Katrina.Pierce will play the boyfriend of the child's mother who, many years later, loans her the money she needs to move her family back to the Ninth Ward, which is again threatened by a massive storm.Jason Leibovitch and Steven Istock will produce for California Pictures, while Wiley will produce through his Hey Good Images banner along with Mollye Asher and Christian McGuigan. Production is expected to start this summer in New Orleans.Wiley's script won the 2011 Urbanworld Screenplay Competition sponsored by BET and HBO, and also won the 2011 Spike Lee Production Fund Award. Although Lee is not an official producer, he has championed the project and been instrumental in pushing it forward.Wiley graduated from Harvard Law School but decided against being a lawyer and instead enrolled in NYU's film program, of which Lee is an alumnus. "After the Storm" is Wiley's thesis project.California Pictures recently produced the indie drama "A Warrior's Heart," which stars "Twilight" thesps Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz. Company's next release is the sci-fier "Scavengers," starring Sean Patrick Flanery and Jeremy London. Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com

Report: Sienna Miller Is Pregnant

First Published: January 6, 2012 11:44 AM EST Credit: Getty Premium Caption Tom Sturridge and Sienna Miller are seen walking their dog in Notting Hill in London on September 17, 2011LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Sienna Miller is reportedly expecting her first child. According to Us Weekly, the 30-year-old actress and boyfriend Tom Sturridge, 26, are having a baby. According to a mag source, the couple doesnt have plans right away to marry, if at all. Friends are really happy with her relationship with Tom, the source continued. Hes younger, yes, but hes mature and hes a good guy. Loved ones of the couple were not surprised by the news of the pregnancy, the source said. They just spent the holidays in Paris together after they announced the news in London. In February 2011, Sienna ended her relationship with Jude Law for a second time. The former couple began dating in 2004 and first split in 2006. A reps for Sienna was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Access Hollywood on Friday morning. A rep for Tom told Access, We do not comment on our clients personal lives. Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Hollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable

Reinvention is a hallmark of great actors, so it's fitting that several of the talents invited to participate in "The Hollywood Reporter's" annual Actor Roundtable have distinguished themselves in 2011 by playing against type. Famed comic Albert Brooks embodies a ruthless criminal in "Drive" regal screen presence Christopher Plummer lets loose as a flamboyant gay man exploring his sexuality at age 75 in "Beginners" and Christoph Waltz, so effective as a Nazi commander in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 hit "Inglourious Basterds," plays a suburban American father in "Carnage." They joined George Clooney ("The Descendants," "The Ides of March"), Nick Nolte ("Warrior"), and Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") at Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood on Oct. 24 for an hourlong discussion that touched on Nolte's personal struggles, what Oldman said when asked to play Charles Manson, and why Clooney prefers acting to selling women's shoes.The Hollywood Reporter: Do you have a pet peeve about scripts that will make you stop reading immediately? Nick Nolte: By page two, you know.George Clooney: Pretty much by page four or five, it's got to get you.Albert Brooks: The first speech that's over two sentences, where you actually have to see writing, if those start to sound false, then it's over.Christopher Plummer: Do you have a habit of going right through to the end to make sure you're in the last scene?Clooney: You're just looking for the sequel. [Laughter.]Brooks: The computer tells you everything now. What part are you playing? Larry. The computer says you're on six pages. Well, Jesus, I'll just read Larry.THR: Is there any role you would not play? Clooney: Larry. [Laughter.]Gary Oldman: Ten or 15 years ago, someone approached me to play Charles Manson. I just felt, out of respect to the family, I'm not interested.Nolte: There's too much karma around that. It's way too heavy. You know, I used to cut off the top of my trucks, and that's the same thing [Manson] did. So the police used to stop me a lot. They called him Chuck.Clooney: Chuck, to his friends.Nolte: Then they'd stop me and say, "Are you related to Chuck?" I always pled the Fifth.Brooks: Nick, you got stopped for a lot of things. I never knew about that.Nolte: Yeah. I didn't tell you everything, Albert.THR: Is there a role you've played where the character has really stayed with you? Christopher, you've played King Lear. Plummer: Yes, that haunts you.Clooney: Literally.Plummer: The first part's all right. But the second act, once he's on the heath, forget it. Then it becomes an entirely other play. It's a play about Gloucester and Edmund, and you're sitting in your dressing room getting stoned, waiting to come on again. Then you come on, finally. The audience says, "Hey, that looks like King Lear. Forgotten all about him." It's not the magisterial play they all say it isnot the second act,anyway.THR: What's the toughest role you've played? Plummer: The part in "The Sound of Music." It was so awful and sentimental and gooey. I had to work terribly hard to try to infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it. Brooks: You mean you didn't believe everything you said?Plummer: Oh, shut up.Nolte: Albert's actually got some experience in that territory.Brooks: What? Escaping from Nazis? THR: Was shifting from the stage to film difficult? Plummer: Not really. As a young actor on the screen, I was very bad. One is always thinking of how you look when you're young. You're always conscious of the profile; you're so conceited. I thought that was all that movies were about. It wasn't until I hit the drunk stage of my life, in my 40s, that I suddenly had fun on film playing character roles.Brooks: Drinking is the key?Plummer: Yeah. John Huston's [1975 film] "The Man Who Would Be King." I thought that was terrific. Clooney: Drunk through the whole thing, were you?Plummer: Poor John Huston. He had emphysema very badly by that time. But he was such a marvelous character. He had an oxygen tent on the set, but he always had his cigar with him.Clooney: That always works well.THR: George, is acting fun, or is it hard work? Clooney: I cut tobacco for a living in Kentuckythat was hard work. I sold insurance door to doorthat's hard work. Acting is not hard work. If you're lucky enough to be sitting at a table like this, you've been very lucky in your life. You caught the brass ring somewhere along the way. I've known a tremendous number of talented actors who didn't get opportunities. Is it hard work? It's long hours, but nobody wants to hear you complain. I remember I was selling women's shoes at a department store, which is a lousy job. It sounds like it'd be great, but it wasn't elegant shoes. It was 80-year-old women [saying], "That's a hammertoe!" You're like, "I don't want to see that!" I remember I would hear of famous stars complaining in Hollywood about how hard their life wasI didn't want to hear that. So I don't find it difficult. I find it challenging, and sometimes I'm very bad at it, but I don't find it hard.THR: Do you think you were bad and have become better? Clooney: I think scripts make people better. Direction makes people better. You can find a lot of projects where actors were tremendously good in one project, but you'll see them not work necessarily well in others. I think scripts make a huge difference in that department.THR: Did you always know you wanted to act? Clooney: I figured it out right after I finished cutting tobacco. My uncle was an actor named Jose Ferrer. He came to Kentucky to do a movie when I was 20 with his son Miguel Ferrer, also a wonderful actor. I was an extra for about two months on the setthey got me a gig. Then Jose said, "You ought to go to Hollywood and be an actor."THR: Nick, you did big Hollywood films, then walked away. Why? Nolte: Well, it was obvious I wasn't going to get any more roles. I could see it coming. The scripts weren't getting any better. In fact, the bigger the budget, the worse the scriptit seemed to follow hand in hand. The better work was in the independents, while the independent studios were still operating. When I was working with Paul Schrader, we were in the bar across the street from where we were shooting. We were having a glass of wine, and Schrader said, "Boy, I want to do one of those $100 million films." I said: "Paul, you're just full of it! You'll never have more control than you have right here. Yet you want to get on one of those nightmarish $100 million collaborative efforts?"THR: Was there a film you did where you thought: "This is it. I want to change"? Nolte: I actually didn't want to do "48 Hrs." [Someone] kept saying the black kid [Eddie Murphy] wasn't funny. To this day, [Jeffrey] Katzenberg is afraid I'll blurt out who it was. I won't. I wouldn't get my Christmas bonus.THR: What has been the low moment in your career or life? Nolte: That's kind of daily.THR: Really? Why? Nolte: I don't know. I live with death lately because I'm 70. After 70, you don't think about sex much anymore. You think about death.Plummer: Wait until you're 80. [Laughter.]Nolte: Don't go into it.Plummer: I won't.THR: Does getting older change your perspective on the roles you choose or the work you do? Plummer: No. I'm working more than I've ever worked in my life. It's unbelievable. Either there's only me left in their 80sbut I think there are other people who must be 80 who act. I'm having an absolute ball. I've never been happier.THR: Christoph, you've found global success relatively late in your career. Were things hard for you before that? Christoph Waltz: Relatively? [Laughter.] In all cultures, the actor has ups and downs. That's the nature of the beast. So I've had ups and downs on a smaller level. In the German-speaking arena, you can be a member of a theater company and do that forever. My grandparents did it in one theater for their whole careers. But a certain degree of consistency brings a certain degree of mediocrity.THR: When you participated in this roundtable two years ago for "Inglourious Basterds," you said you were looking forward to the opportunities arising from the success of that film. Have you been satisfied by those opportunities? Waltz: It made life certainly more exciting, and certain parts more enjoyable and more interesting. But that's where success late in a career comes in veryhandy.Clooney: For me, it was relatively late. I'd been on so many failed television series for such a long time. By comparison, my aunt was a really talented singer, Rosemary Clooney. In 1950, she was on the cover of every magazine. She was a big hit. Then rock 'n' roll came in, and women singers were all gone. It became a male-dominated thing. She was on the road, and people started saying, "What happened to you? Where'd you go?" She's like, "I'm here. I'm singing. I'm doing my thing. What the f--k are you talking about?" She was gone for 20 years. Because she was so youngshe was 19 when [success] first happenedshe sort of believed all that shit that you believe when you are 19. People tell you how brilliant you are, all those things. So that meant now she clearly wasn't. Of course, she didn't become less of a singer along the way. The elements changed.Nolte: I never thought she went away.Clooney: She did. But later on, she came back. She had an unbelievably great renaissance.Nolte: She was one of my favorites. Clooney: She was one of the greats. But she was gone for 20 years. She couldn't get a job. Bing Crosby gave her a job 20 years later. She had some drug issues, prescription-drug things.THR: Are you afraid of failure? Clooney: All of us are afraid of failure.Nolte: I don't think the downside is about failure. The downside is about not working. I do one European film a year. I just did one in Spain, but I was the only person who spoke English. The rest could only speak Spanish. I can't remember who was in it, but you would recognize the people. It was a great experience. Now if I had stayed home with no work, then I would have been in the shitter.Brooks: But the truth is, and without turning this into a men's group Plummer: Tell us [your secret]. You can feel comfortable.Brooks: It was only once, and I was drunk! I was doing King Lear. [Laughter.]Clooney: You had too much time off!Brooks: You are who you are, no matter what happens to you. My father was a famous radio comedian [Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein]. He was very ill, and he died when I was young, I think before I really comprehended anything, I saw that this [fame] stuff had no meaning. He was paralyzed. He didn't care about people going, "Oh, I love your radio show." He could barely get out of a chair. People think that success changes you, but your demons are your demons. They're only magnified.THR: Has any great role model influenced you? Brooks: Jack Benny did something when I was very young that showed me more about how to live a life in this business. I was on "The Tonight Show" early in my career. When they went away for the last break, Jack Benny leaned over to Johnny Carson and said, "When we come back, ask me where I'm going to be performing, will you?" Johnny said, "Sure." So they came back, and they were saying good night, and Johnny said to Jack, "Jack, where are you going to be performing?" Jack said: "Never mind about me. That's the funniest kid I've ever seen." He set that up to make a compliment. I was like: "Oh, so you can be brilliant and gracious. They gotogether."Oldman: My mother is a hero. She's 92 and still gets around. She lives here; I moved her out. Still takes the bus.Brooks: Get her a car, man. [Laughter.]Oldman: I've never heard my mother say, "Poor me." She used to do big tapestries and then met my father when he was in the Royal Navy and became a housewife. Then when I was about 6 or 7, he ran off with his best friend's wife. It happens. I have older sisters who had flown the coop. I was essentially an only child. She's a great inspiration.Nolte: You're very lucky to have a mom of 92. I lost mine at 86. That was the last parent. When the last parent dies you call your sister or brother and say, "How old are you?" Whichever one's the oldest, that's the next to go. My sister's two years older than me, but it's not going to work out that way, I don't think.Brooks: You're getting the most calls?Nolte: Yeah.THR: What's the best or worst career advice somebody has given you? Nolte: The best advice is to do theater.Clooney: Sometimes when you work with younger actors who haven't done theaterbecause most of them haven't now; they've gotten famous quicklywhen you're directing them, they will try to "win" every scene. But you have to lose some scenes because you're going to win in the end. If you had done theater, you would go, "No, I'm not going to cry in these next two scenes because I'm going to really lay it on at the end and have earned it."THR: Has directing changed your acting? Brooks: I started as an actor before I became a director. I went to Carnegie Tech, which was a theater school. You were taking mime with this man Jewel Walker and dance with Paul Draper. You did everything.Clooney: You took mime?Brooks: Shh! Anything you do helps you as an actor. A trip you take to Spain will help you as an actor. As a director, I work with actors from an actor's point of view. I think there are some directors who like the picture more than the person.Clooney: You are more direct. You simplify a lot of things. There's this weird dance that directors and actors have to play. The director is basically trying to manipulate the actor into doing what hewants Oldman: Yes, but the actor likes to think that it was his idea!Clooney: Right. So the actor is trying to manipulate the director into doing what he always thought. There's this weird dance .Waltz: I read this really interesting article written by a cognitive behavioral psychologist, Daniel Kahneman. The "illusion of validity," he calls it. Everybody is so convinced about the validity of their actions, their opinion, and so confident about their decisions. It's complete illusion. It's really a confidence of communicating your point rather than being right or wrong.THR: Do you like your work when you see it? Waltz: I don't see it. Not regularly.Clooney: Do you go back and see old things you've done?Waltz: No. Never.Oldman: I think it's healthy sometimes. It's just, it's old work. Some of it's good, some of it stinks, and what does tomorrow bring?THR: What makes a great actor? Plummer: The great rage. Someone who can lose their temper suddenly, very quickly, and frighten the shit not just out of the person he's playing with but the audience as well. That's the rage. Mr.Oldman has that. Then, the ability to make classic roles seem so modern and fresh.Oldman: He does that. [Points at Clooney.]THR: Gary, do you agree you have the great rage? Oldman: I think a few ex-wives would agree.Brooks: Fifteen minutes before we started, he was yelling at the hairdresser. [Laughter.]Clooney: There's an element of that even in comedy. You'll see that kind of rage. It doesn't have to be angry. Watch Joel McCrea in [Preston Sturges' 1941 film] "Sullivan's Travels," and there is this sort of throbbing undercurrent that's always going around.Oldman: Albert has that, too. I've certainly seen it in Mr. Nolte.Brooks: I think it's an additional thing also, especially in movies. The actors who have always been the most affecting to me are the ones that allow me to interpret on my own. There are some actors that give you 100 percent, but they don't let you get in. They're working; you see them working. There are other actors that are instinctively laid-back. It's really like a painting. I mean, why should any work from a modern artist sell for millions of dollars? It's only because people are standing there and they're thinking what this means to them. The same thing happens with a good actor.Clooney: Good singers will do that. I used to say to Rosemary: "You're 70 years old and can't hit any of the notes you used to hit. Why are you a better singer?" She goes: "I don't have to prove I can sing anymore. I just serve the material."THR: Do you have any regrets? Plummer: There are a couple of parts I think I'd like to have played that I didn't get. I made a little success in London in "Becket," the play about [Thomas] Becket and King Henry II. I was furious when Peter O'Toole, my friend, got [the lead role in the movie, 1964's "Becket"]. Son of a bitch.THR: Have you ever thought of doing something other than acting or directing? Brooks: I wanted to be an eye doctor for a few years.Plummer: I started studying the classics as a pianist.Brooks: Do you still play?Plummer: When drunk, yes.Clooney: I'm going to his house.Brooks: Can I go home with you? You have more fun than me.Plummer: I'll think about it and let you know.Nolte: A lot of what we discussed is the decision of whether to live in real life or not. I certainly prefer not to be in real life. It's horrifying. The Cold War and the bunkers and all that shit that was laid on us as kids, it's just not any place I wanted to be. So I felt at home when I hit the stage. I prefer it to the horror of real life.Brooks: Nick, that's a good title for your autobiography.Nolte: What, "Whore of Real Life"? I think it was my fifth wife.Clooney: No, no"Horror."Nolte: Oh, the horror! The Performances Albert Brooks, "Drive"Brooks takes a 180 from his comedic persona to play a brutal crime boss opposite Ryan Gosling in the violent thriller.George Clooney, "The Descendants" and "The Ides of March"Clooney directs himself as an ambitious presidential candidate in "Ides" and stars as a lawyer forced to deal with his comatose wife in "The Descendants."Nick Nolte, "Warrior"After a career spanning five decades, the gravel-voiced Nolte co-stars in the mixed martial arts drama as an alcoholic father seeking redemption from his two sons.Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"Oldman, who came to prominence in 1986's "Sid and Nancy," leads an ensemble cast as a veteran spy in the adaptation of the John le Carr novel.Christopher Plummer, "Beginners" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"Plummer steals scenes as a terminally ill man exploring his homosexuality in director Mike Mills' drama "Beginners" and appears in David Fincher's adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel.Christoph Waltz, "Carnage"The Austrian uses a convincing American accent in Roman Polanski's adaptation of the play "God of Carnage." It's a far cry from his role as a Nazi commander in "Inglourious Basterds." PHOTO CREDIT Frank W. Ockenfels 3 Reinvention is a hallmark of great actors, so it's fitting that several of the talents invited to participate in "The Hollywood Reporter's" annual Actor Roundtable have distinguished themselves in 2011 by playing against type. Famed comic Albert Brooks embodies a ruthless criminal in "Drive" regal screen presence Christopher Plummer lets loose as a flamboyant gay man exploring his sexuality at age 75 in "Beginners" and Christoph Waltz, so effective as a Nazi commander in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 hit "Inglourious Basterds," plays a suburban American father in "Carnage." They joined George Clooney ("The Descendants," "The Ides of March"), Nick Nolte ("Warrior"), and Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") at Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood on Oct. 24 for an hourlong discussion that touched on Nolte's personal struggles, what Oldman said when asked to play Charles Manson, and why Clooney prefers acting to selling women's shoes.The Hollywood Reporter: Do you have a pet peeve about scripts that will make you stop reading immediately? Nick Nolte: By page two, you know.George Clooney: Pretty much by page four or five, it's got to get you.Albert Brooks: The first speech that's over two sentences, where you actually have to see writing, if those start to sound false, then it's over.Christopher Plummer: Do you have a habit of going right through to the end to make sure you're in the last scene?Clooney: You're just looking for the sequel. [Laughter.]Brooks: The computer tells you everything now. What part are you playing? Larry. The computer says you're on six pages. Well, Jesus, I'll just read Larry.THR: Is there any role you would not play? Clooney: Larry. [Laughter.]Gary Oldman: Ten or 15 years ago, someone approached me to play Charles Manson. I just felt, out of respect to the family, I'm not interested.Nolte: There's too much karma around that. It's way too heavy. You know, I used to cut off the top of my trucks, and that's the same thing [Manson] did. So the police used to stop me a lot. They called him Chuck.Clooney: Chuck, to his friends.Nolte: Then they'd stop me and say, "Are you related to Chuck?" I always pled the Fifth.Brooks: Nick, you got stopped for a lot of things. I never knew about that.Nolte: Yeah. I didn't tell you everything, Albert.THR: Is there a role you've played where the character has really stayed with you? Christopher, you've played King Lear. Plummer: Yes, that haunts you.Clooney: Literally.Plummer: The first part's all right. But the second act, once he's on the heath, forget it. Then it becomes an entirely other play. It's a play about Gloucester and Edmund, and you're sitting in your dressing room getting stoned, waiting to come on again. Then you come on, finally. The audience says, "Hey, that looks like King Lear. Forgotten all about him." It's not the magisterial play they all say it isnot the second act,anyway.THR: What's the toughest role you've played? Plummer: The part in "The Sound of Music." It was so awful and sentimental and gooey. I had to work terribly hard to try to infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it. Brooks: You mean you didn't believe everything you said?Plummer: Oh, shut up.Nolte: Albert's actually got some experience in that territory.Brooks: What? Escaping from Nazis? THR: Was shifting from the stage to film difficult? Plummer: Not really. As a young actor on the screen, I was very bad. One is always thinking of how you look when you're young. You're always conscious of the profile; you're so conceited. I thought that was all that movies were about. It wasn't until I hit the drunk stage of my life, in my 40s, that I suddenly had fun on film playing character roles.Brooks: Drinking is the key?Plummer: Yeah. John Huston's [1975 film] "The Man Who Would Be King." I thought that was terrific. Clooney: Drunk through the whole thing, were you?Plummer: Poor John Huston. He had emphysema very badly by that time. But he was such a marvelous character. He had an oxygen tent on the set, but he always had his cigar with him.Clooney: That always works well.THR: George, is acting fun, or is it hard work? Clooney: I cut tobacco for a living in Kentuckythat was hard work. I sold insurance door to doorthat's hard work. Acting is not hard work. If you're lucky enough to be sitting at a table like this, you've been very lucky in your life. You caught the brass ring somewhere along the way. I've known a tremendous number of talented actors who didn't get opportunities. Is it hard work? It's long hours, but nobody wants to hear you complain. I remember I was selling women's shoes at a department store, which is a lousy job. It sounds like it'd be great, but it wasn't elegant shoes. It was 80-year-old women [saying], "That's a hammertoe!" You're like, "I don't want to see that!" I remember I would hear of famous stars complaining in Hollywood about how hard their life wasI didn't want to hear that. So I don't find it difficult. I find it challenging, and sometimes I'm very bad at it, but I don't find it hard.THR: Do you think you were bad and have become better? Clooney: I think scripts make people better. Direction makes people better. You can find a lot of projects where actors were tremendously good in one project, but you'll see them not work necessarily well in others. I think scripts make a huge difference in that department.THR: Did you always know you wanted to act? Clooney: I figured it out right after I finished cutting tobacco. My uncle was an actor named Jose Ferrer. He came to Kentucky to do a movie when I was 20 with his son Miguel Ferrer, also a wonderful actor. I was an extra for about two months on the setthey got me a gig. Then Jose said, "You ought to go to Hollywood and be an actor."THR: Nick, you did big Hollywood films, then walked away. Why? Nolte: Well, it was obvious I wasn't going to get any more roles. I could see it coming. The scripts weren't getting any better. In fact, the bigger the budget, the worse the scriptit seemed to follow hand in hand. The better work was in the independents, while the independent studios were still operating. When I was working with Paul Schrader, we were in the bar across the street from where we were shooting. We were having a glass of wine, and Schrader said, "Boy, I want to do one of those $100 million films." I said: "Paul, you're just full of it! You'll never have more control than you have right here. Yet you want to get on one of those nightmarish $100 million collaborative efforts?"THR: Was there a film you did where you thought: "This is it. I want to change"? Nolte: I actually didn't want to do "48 Hrs." [Someone] kept saying the black kid [Eddie Murphy] wasn't funny. To this day, [Jeffrey] Katzenberg is afraid I'll blurt out who it was. I won't. I wouldn't get my Christmas bonus.THR: What has been the low moment in your career or life? Nolte: That's kind of daily.THR: Really? Why? Nolte: I don't know. I live with death lately because I'm 70. After 70, you don't think about sex much anymore. You think about death.Plummer: Wait until you're 80. [Laughter.]Nolte: Don't go into it.Plummer: I won't.THR: Does getting older change your perspective on the roles you choose or the work you do? Plummer: No. I'm working more than I've ever worked in my life. It's unbelievable. Either there's only me left in their 80sbut I think there are other people who must be 80 who act. I'm having an absolute ball. I've never been happier.THR: Christoph, you've found global success relatively late in your career. Were things hard for you before that? Christoph Waltz: Relatively? [Laughter.] In all cultures, the actor has ups and downs. That's the nature of the beast. So I've had ups and downs on a smaller level. In the German-speaking arena, you can be a member of a theater company and do that forever. My grandparents did it in one theater for their whole careers. But a certain degree of consistency brings a certain degree of mediocrity.THR: When you participated in this roundtable two years ago for "Inglourious Basterds," you said you were looking forward to the opportunities arising from the success of that film. Have you been satisfied by those opportunities? Waltz: It made life certainly more exciting, and certain parts more enjoyable and more interesting. But that's where success late in a career comes in veryhandy.Clooney: For me, it was relatively late. I'd been on so many failed television series for such a long time. By comparison, my aunt was a really talented singer, Rosemary Clooney. In 1950, she was on the cover of every magazine. She was a big hit. Then rock 'n' roll came in, and women singers were all gone. It became a male-dominated thing. She was on the road, and people started saying, "What happened to you? Where'd you go?" She's like, "I'm here. I'm singing. I'm doing my thing. What the f--k are you talking about?" She was gone for 20 years. Because she was so youngshe was 19 when [success] first happenedshe sort of believed all that shit that you believe when you are 19. People tell you how brilliant you are, all those things. So that meant now she clearly wasn't. Of course, she didn't become less of a singer along the way. The elements changed.Nolte: I never thought she went away.Clooney: She did. But later on, she came back. She had an unbelievably great renaissance.Nolte: She was one of my favorites. Clooney: She was one of the greats. But she was gone for 20 years. She couldn't get a job. Bing Crosby gave her a job 20 years later. She had some drug issues, prescription-drug things.THR: Are you afraid of failure? Clooney: All of us are afraid of failure.Nolte: I don't think the downside is about failure. The downside is about not working. I do one European film a year. I just did one in Spain, but I was the only person who spoke English. The rest could only speak Spanish. I can't remember who was in it, but you would recognize the people. It was a great experience. Now if I had stayed home with no work, then I would have been in the shitter.Brooks: But the truth is, and without turning this into a men's group Plummer: Tell us [your secret]. You can feel comfortable.Brooks: It was only once, and I was drunk! I was doing King Lear. [Laughter.]Clooney: You had too much time off!Brooks: You are who you are, no matter what happens to you. My father was a famous radio comedian [Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein]. He was very ill, and he died when I was young, I think before I really comprehended anything, I saw that this [fame] stuff had no meaning. He was paralyzed. He didn't care about people going, "Oh, I love your radio show." He could barely get out of a chair. People think that success changes you, but your demons are your demons. They're only magnified.THR: Has any great role model influenced you? Brooks: Jack Benny did something when I was very young that showed me more about how to live a life in this business. I was on "The Tonight Show" early in my career. When they went away for the last break, Jack Benny leaned over to Johnny Carson and said, "When we come back, ask me where I'm going to be performing, will you?" Johnny said, "Sure." So they came back, and they were saying good night, and Johnny said to Jack, "Jack, where are you going to be performing?" Jack said: "Never mind about me. That's the funniest kid I've ever seen." He set that up to make a compliment. I was like: "Oh, so you can be brilliant and gracious. They gotogether."Oldman: My mother is a hero. She's 92 and still gets around. She lives here; I moved her out. Still takes the bus.Brooks: Get her a car, man. [Laughter.]Oldman: I've never heard my mother say, "Poor me." She used to do big tapestries and then met my father when he was in the Royal Navy and became a housewife. Then when I was about 6 or 7, he ran off with his best friend's wife. It happens. I have older sisters who had flown the coop. I was essentially an only child. She's a great inspiration.Nolte: You're very lucky to have a mom of 92. I lost mine at 86. That was the last parent. When the last parent dies you call your sister or brother and say, "How old are you?" Whichever one's the oldest, that's the next to go. My sister's two years older than me, but it's not going to work out that way, I don't think.Brooks: You're getting the most calls?Nolte: Yeah.THR: What's the best or worst career advice somebody has given you? Nolte: The best advice is to do theater.Clooney: Sometimes when you work with younger actors who haven't done theaterbecause most of them haven't now; they've gotten famous quicklywhen you're directing them, they will try to "win" every scene. But you have to lose some scenes because you're going to win in the end. If you had done theater, you would go, "No, I'm not going to cry in these next two scenes because I'm going to really lay it on at the end and have earned it."THR: Has directing changed your acting? Brooks: I started as an actor before I became a director. I went to Carnegie Tech, which was a theater school. You were taking mime with this man Jewel Walker and dance with Paul Draper. You did everything.Clooney: You took mime?Brooks: Shh! Anything you do helps you as an actor. A trip you take to Spain will help you as an actor. As a director, I work with actors from an actor's point of view. I think there are some directors who like the picture more than the person.Clooney: You are more direct. You simplify a lot of things. There's this weird dance that directors and actors have to play. The director is basically trying to manipulate the actor into doing what hewants Oldman: Yes, but the actor likes to think that it was his idea!Clooney: Right. So the actor is trying to manipulate the director into doing what he always thought. There's this weird dance .Waltz: I read this really interesting article written by a cognitive behavioral psychologist, Daniel Kahneman. The "illusion of validity," he calls it. Everybody is so convinced about the validity of their actions, their opinion, and so confident about their decisions. It's complete illusion. It's really a confidence of communicating your point rather than being right or wrong.THR: Do you like your work when you see it? Waltz: I don't see it. Not regularly.Clooney: Do you go back and see old things you've done?Waltz: No. Never.Oldman: I think it's healthy sometimes. It's just, it's old work. Some of it's good, some of it stinks, and what does tomorrow bring?THR: What makes a great actor? Plummer: The great rage. Someone who can lose their temper suddenly, very quickly, and frighten the shit not just out of the person he's playing with but the audience as well. That's the rage. Mr.Oldman has that. Then, the ability to make classic roles seem so modern and fresh.Oldman: He does that. [Points at Clooney.]THR: Gary, do you agree you have the great rage? Oldman: I think a few ex-wives would agree.Brooks: Fifteen minutes before we started, he was yelling at the hairdresser. [Laughter.]Clooney: There's an element of that even in comedy. You'll see that kind of rage. It doesn't have to be angry. Watch Joel McCrea in [Preston Sturges' 1941 film] "Sullivan's Travels," and there is this sort of throbbing undercurrent that's always going around.Oldman: Albert has that, too. I've certainly seen it in Mr. Nolte.Brooks: I think it's an additional thing also, especially in movies. The actors who have always been the most affecting to me are the ones that allow me to interpret on my own. There are some actors that give you 100 percent, but they don't let you get in. They're working; you see them working. There are other actors that are instinctively laid-back. It's really like a painting. I mean, why should any work from a modern artist sell for millions of dollars? It's only because people are standing there and they're thinking what this means to them. The same thing happens with a good actor.Clooney: Good singers will do that. I used to say to Rosemary: "You're 70 years old and can't hit any of the notes you used to hit. Why are you a better singer?" She goes: "I don't have to prove I can sing anymore. I just serve the material."THR: Do you have any regrets? Plummer: There are a couple of parts I think I'd like to have played that I didn't get. I made a little success in London in "Becket," the play about [Thomas] Becket and King Henry II. I was furious when Peter O'Toole, my friend, got [the lead role in the movie, 1964's "Becket"]. Son of a bitch.THR: Have you ever thought of doing something other than acting or directing? Brooks: I wanted to be an eye doctor for a few years.Plummer: I started studying the classics as a pianist.Brooks: Do you still play?Plummer: When drunk, yes.Clooney: I'm going to his house.Brooks: Can I go home with you? You have more fun than me.Plummer: I'll think about it and let you know.Nolte: A lot of what we discussed is the decision of whether to live in real life or not. I certainly prefer not to be in real life. It's horrifying. The Cold War and the bunkers and all that shit that was laid on us as kids, it's just not any place I wanted to be. So I felt at home when I hit the stage. I prefer it to the horror of real life.Brooks: Nick, that's a good title for your autobiography.Nolte: What, "Whore of Real Life"? I think it was my fifth wife.Clooney: No, no"Horror."Nolte: Oh, the horror! The Performances Albert Brooks, "Drive"Brooks takes a 180 from his comedic persona to play a brutal crime boss opposite Ryan Gosling in the violent thriller.George Clooney, "The Descendants" and "The Ides of March"Clooney directs himself as an ambitious presidential candidate in "Ides" and stars as a lawyer forced to deal with his comatose wife in "The Descendants."Nick Nolte, "Warrior"After a career spanning five decades, the gravel-voiced Nolte co-stars in the mixed martial arts drama as an alcoholic father seeking redemption from his two sons.Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"Oldman, who came to prominence in 1986's "Sid and Nancy," leads an ensemble cast as a veteran spy in the adaptation of the John le Carr novel.Christopher Plummer, "Beginners" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"Plummer steals scenes as a terminally ill man exploring his homosexuality in director Mike Mills' drama "Beginners" and appears in David Fincher's adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel.Christoph Waltz, "Carnage"The Austrian uses a convincing American accent in Roman Polanski's adaptation of the play "God of Carnage." It's a far cry from his role as a Nazi commander in "Inglourious Basterds."

Keri Russell Gives Birth To First Daughter

First Published: January 5, 2012 4:22 PM EST Credit: WireImage LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Caption Keri Russell and Shane Dreary attend Dallas Mavericks vs NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, NYC, on December 10, 2007Keri Russell has given birth to her second child a baby girl. On Thursday, a rep for the former Felicity star confirmed to Access Hollyood that the actress gave birth on December 27 to a little girl Keri and husband Shane Deary have named Willa Lou. Willa is the second child for Keri and her husband, Shane. The two are parents to son River, who was born in 2007. Keri told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on Today, back in November 2009, how becoming a mother made her more sensitive to children. You become a mom and you sort of think, Is it going to change everything? But it doesnt. You still like what you like, Keri previously said. But I think the one thing is it makes you very sensitive and in tune to kids. If any kid is in peril, youre like, Thats my kid! Keri and her husband married on Valentines Day 2007, in front of a small group of friends. Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ABC Orders Drama Pilot From Independence Day Director

Roland Emmerich ABC has bought a drama pilot from Independence Day and 2012 director Roland Emmerich, Variety reviews. The project, ABC's first drama pilot pick-up for your 2012-2013 TV season, occur in NY through the presidential race of 2012. Throughout this time around around, a young astrophysics student finds out his future lies not inside the section of science, but roughly paradise and hell. ABC approaching deal to obtain Kirstie Alley comedy pilot Emmerich written the script with 2012 film author Harald Kloser and may direct the pilot. He'll executive-produce with Mark Gordon (Criminal Minds) and Nicholas Pepper. Emmerich co-created rapid-were living TV alien invasion series The Client, which went for 13 episodes on Fox in 1997.