Disco, Dogs and Designer Toilet Paper

Top-notch designers and supermodels may be prone to desultory daydreaming, but in today’s highly structured—and often censored—world of fashion journalism, they rarely have the chance to wax poetic about their own hobbies. Enter author Jan Kedves, a former writer for German underground pop culture and techno magazines. In his new book “Talking Fashion,” published recently in German and English by Prestel, Kedves managed to get the likes of Nick Knight, Juergen Teller, Veruschka and Raf Simons to discuss disco, dogs and designer toilet paper. Read More »

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen play Hirst and Spooner in Harold Pinter‘s “No Man’s Land,” a drawing-room drama about two men in their 60s who grapple with memory, the past and hard truths about the present.

The actors, both in their early 70s, say they drew upon their own age and experience in approaching the play. ”We have lived some decades and so have the characters,” Stewart says. “I suppose 20 years ago we’d have given a pretty good representation of performing it, but now quite a lot of it is very real.”

McKellen adds that Stewart’s Hirst, has memory problems tied to drink and age, and his own character, Spooner, is constantly fighting to get Hirst back into the present.

“That’s the story of ‘No Man’s Land’ — how do you cope with being a bit decrepit?” McKellen says.

Watch the clip from the WSJ video interview with Stewart and McKellen on “No Man’s Land.” Read More »

“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke has been cast as Sarah Connor in the coming reboot of “The Terminator” franchise, according to her publicist.

Clarke is best known for her role as the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s fantasy series “Game of Thrones.” She recently did a turn on Broadway in a stage production of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” The new version of “The Terminator” is being made by Paramount,  Skydance Productions, and Annapurna Pictures. Read More »

Beyonce‘s surprise album “Beyonce”  is expected to land at the No.1 slot on the charts, according to Billboard.

The music publication says the singer’s latest album could sell as many as 600,000 copies in the U.S. alone during its first week on Apple Inc.‘s iTunes Store. The official Nielsen SoundScan figures are due out later this week.

World-wide, Apple said Monday, the self titled album sold 828,773 copies during its first three days, which the company called a record.

The entertainer’s last album, “4,” debuted with 310,000 in sales in 2011. Her new album is likely to be the biggest debut week for a female artist since Taylor Swift sold 1.2 million copies of “Red” in 2012. Read More »

This episode caps a season full of twists and turns, and starts without the usual credit roll, straight to the scene where we left off last week.

Brody has Akbari’s blood on his hands, and he tries to clean up the mess by hiding the body behind the desk. He takes Akbari’s gun and exits, and just as his car is leaving the premises, guards appear to chase him down. Brody holds a gun to the driver’s head and escapes.

Carrie calls Saul to tell him Brody followed through with the mission, but Saul is suspicious. She tells him to confirm the extraction plan so she and Brody can get out alive. Read More »

Previously on “Once Upon a Time” – Everyone came back to Storybrook but Peter Pan had secretly switched bodies with Henry. Panry (that’s what I am going to call Pan when he is in Henry’s body) tricked Regina and stole the scroll containing the big, bad Curse that brought everyone to Storybrooke in the first place. He and Felix are going to use it to make everyone in town forget who they are, allowing Panry to turn Storybrooke into “The New Neverland.”

Let’s see what happens on tonight’s winter finale!

We start with Panry and Felix talking about casting the Curse. Panry drops it in the well. Back in town, Gold explains that the only person who can stop it is Regina, but she will need the scroll to do it. She must destroy the scroll. Gold warns there will be a price though. At the well, Panry takes Felix’s heart, the final element he needs for the spell. Read More »

A rich Felliniesque film, the inside story behind the chaotic creation of Broadway’s “Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark” and Beyoncé’s album surprise are on Marshall Heyman’s agenda.

Movies: “The Great Beauty”

One of the more marvelous experiences of the season, this Italian-language movie directed by Paolo Sorrentino, which has Felliniesque qualities, follows the charmed life of journalist Jep Gambardella as he romps through Rome. But the Eternal City of today is not the same as it had been, and Mr. Gambardella, who wrote one acclaimed novel in his youth, is facing his own kind of expiration date as well as a certain ennui with the people and parties around him. Read More »

“The Hobbit” returned to the box office with a solid debut that was still well behind the first installment in the trilogy one year ago.

Sequel “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” opened to $73.7 million, according to an estimate from distributor Warner Bros, owned by Time Warner Inc. On the same weekend one year ago, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” opened to $84.6 million.

The new movie received somewhat stronger reviews and it remains to be seen whether a weaker start will ultimately mean a softer box office total, or if better word-of-mouth will bring out more people in the coming weeks. Read More »

BEVERLY HILLS –Even though Michael Sheen is playing real-life fertility expert Dr. William H. Masters on Showtime‘s “Masters of Sex,” the 44-year-old British born actor doesn’t consider the series — or his character — a historical portrayal.

“I don’t look like him, I don’t sound like him, he’s just another character,” Sheen told the Journal. Sheen, who has also played the likes of Tony Blair (in 2006′s “The Queen”)and David Frost (in Ron Howard’s 2008 “Frost/Nixon”) said he approached the character of Masters from series creator Michelle Ashford’s script first, than from the book on which the show was based.

“Yes, he was a real person, but this show isn’t a biopic,” he added.

The program is a dramatized take on Masters and his collaborator and, for a time, spouse, Virginia E. Johnson (played by Lizzie Caplan). Beginning in the 1950s and over the course of several decades, Masters and Johnson pioneered scientific studies on love and intimacy.

“Masters of Sex” is reaching about 5.4 million viewers with a full week of airings including repeats on the network as well as delayed DVR viewing and video on demand, Showtime reported. The season one finale airs tonight and Speakeasy talked with Sheen. Read More »

The teaser trailer for “Interstellar” has hit the web. The coming sci-fi film was directed by Christopher Nolan, the filmmaker behind The Dark Knight Trilogy. Due out Nov. 7, 2014, the movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Topher Grace, Michael Caine and Matt Damon, among many others. The teaser taps into a feeling many people might have felt in the age of the web. With so much focus on inner space and the internet, what ever happened to manned space exploration? “Perhaps we’ve just forgotten,” a narrator who sounds like McConaughey says in the clip, “that we are still pioneers. That we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us–that our destiny lies above us.” The plot for the movie has been closely held, but Iceland served as a backdrop for the production. Watch the clip. Does it look like it lives up to Nolan’s “Batman” movies? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Follow me on Twitter @cjfarley and check out my coming novel “Game World.” Read More »