Filmmaker Mick Caouette Shines New Light on Thurgood Marshall

Image Courtesy of Mick Caouette

Most of us learned about Justice Thurgood Marshall in school. We all know he was the first black Supreme Court Justice, nominated by Lyndon Johnson in 1967. But few know of the heroic life he lived leading up to that high profile position. Filmmaker Mick Caouette has set out to change that with his new documentary Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, scheduled for a fall 2014 release.

Mick said he wanted to make the film because he hoped to shine a light on the Thurgood Marshall none if us knew. He states, "He was the first black Supreme Court Justice, which is probably the most significant thing… A lot of people only know him from that period… But the early part of his life was, in many ways, more courageous — from 1908, when he was born, to the early 1950s… So the story we're telling is that story of that period."

He continues, "He traveled the south as an NAACP lawyer and fought case after case in these white courtrooms. It was really dangerous. He was at the foot of death wherever he went. And he traveled a lot alone. Always running from the Ku Klux Klan and other people. He slept in three or four different houses some nights and just kept moving, and all by train from Harlem to the South. He was a really courageous person."

Marshall was trying to do what no one else at the time would dare. Mick explains, "He was trying to bring equalization to education. He was trying to enroll African Americans in colleges and high schools. So the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was the culmination of his journey in 1954 and 1956."

The filmmaker, who has been making docs since the '90s, didn't know much about Marshall himself when he decided to make the film. He recalls, "I knew something about him from [my earlier film, "Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible"] because they knew each other. Humphrey was Vice President when Marshall became Supreme Court Justice. For the Humphrey film we interviewed Roger Wilkins who was Roy Wilkins nephew. Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall were best friends and they ran the NAACP together." When Mick contacted Wilkins to do a film about his uncle, Roger suggested he look into Marshall instead. "So I dug into it a little bit and he is a colorful person."

The film tells the story of how Marshall paved the way for the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Mick tells us, "He had a dozen Supreme Court cases that had been decided that he had won, that were the foundation for all the things that happened in the '50s and '60s, like Rosa Parks. Those decisions were based on his victories in the Supreme Court."

During his research, Mick was most surprised to learn about Marshall's courage. He claimed, "I had no idea that he did what he did. At one point they brought him to the river to lynch him and he was arguing in the Supreme Court within weeks. So absurd. He got away from them at the last minute, because another group of black guys that came back from World War II had guns in the car and they chased the crowd and got him freed. That's the kind of courage he had. He was going to these kinds of places where they wanted him dead… It's not a well known story and that's why I wanted to do it."

Marshall went about his crusade under the radar and was never really acknowledged for his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. Mick points out, "He was a real hero… He was not out in the public. He was behind the scenes doing all this. He laid the foundation for the [Civil Rights Movement] and never really got credit for it."

In fact Marshall was so behind the scenes that it posed a problem for Mick while making the film. "It was tricky because he didn't really travel with a camera person, so it was hard to find visuals."

But he found resources to help round out the doc. "There were a few black filmmakers from the '40s and '50s that were shooting around Harlem and they were shooting these amateur films. And I found a number of those that were public domain and used scenes from them. And also there a lot of photographs of Marshall. And then I used contextual film from the time of Harlem and New York and other places… But I panicked at first at what I got into. There's nothing. There was no TV, no anything at the time… If you look through the old newsreels, everything's covered except African Americans, through the whole period. They were nonexistent. So it was tricky but it worked."

Mick hopes the film will be an inspiration to all people facing any kind of hurdle. He says that the film is evidence that "incredible obstacles can be overcome with persistence and drive and the belief that you can change things. What [Marhsall] changed and what he did is no less difficult than any problem we face now. He was overcoming everything. He was overcoming race. He was overcoming opposition everywhere he turned, and yet he did it. It's a story of inspiration and courage."

To find out more about Mick Caouette's film Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP visit Mick's website at southhillfilms.com and watch for the doc on screens this fall.

Movie Heroes to the Rescue

Photo courtesy of Movie Heroes

How would you feel if the movie theater where you had your first date was going out of business? What would you do if the cinema where you saw the movie that inspired your career path was closing its doors forever? Well that happened to Keith Walker and Matt Sconce. But they put their best caped-crusader effort into saving their local movie house… and subsequently Movie Heroes was born.

Keith and Matt learned in November of 2012 that their local movie theater, The Met Cinema in Oakhurst, California, could no longer afford to operate. So rather than let their childhood memories fade into oblivion, the independent filmmaker and aerospace engineer sprung into action. In a recent one-on-one interview Keith stated, "That's the place where we saw every single major movie growing up. I remember seeing October Sky there which really inspired me. It's about building rockets, and that's what I ended up doing with my life… So there's a heart for that place and it closed, and it's like, 'Oh, no, we have to save this.'"

Matt added, "For me that was the theater that I went to my first date on, Oliver and Company. So I remember growing up it was always the place to go. For me, being a filmmaker, it was one of the biggest things that inspired me. Because I love to be able to see the stories that other people like, to be able to look into different realities and different places and be able to travel the world."

So how do a filmmaker and an engineer who know nothing about running a theater go about such a daunting task? It was perhaps their naiveté that made the venture successful. Instead of thinking about all the stumbling blocks in front of most theater owners, they took a different approach.

Keith said, "We attribute our success to the fact that we didn't know much about it. Now that we know what we know, we realize that what we were doing was more significant and more risky than we know at the time." They went into the business thinking it was all about the consumer and creating a value added proposition for them. However they did not realize how much control the movie studios have over the theater owners.

They thought they could turn the business around by selling subscriptions a la Netflix. For $19.95 a month a consumer got unlimited access to see any film showing at the theater at any time. They set a goal to sell 3,000 monthly subscriptions and assumed the studios wouldn't care how they got their money as long as they got it.

Keith recounted, "What we found out is, they didn't do it that way. They viewed this as a very different thing. As a result we had to spend a lot of time building trust with the studios and developing audit mechanisms so they would feel comfortable with what we were doing."

So while they were building a business — hiring a staff, ordering concessions, updating the projectors — they were also negotiating with major movie studios to get product. Matt admitted, "For a while we had saved the theater but we had no studios giving us movies. So we had this limbo state for about three months where we wondered, 'Did we save the theater just to not save the theater?'"

But once they gained the studios' trust, business began to flourish. In fact, the model has been so successful for them that the movie house has had better attendance under this subscription model than at any other time in the theater's history.

Keith explained, "People watch way more movies. And by 'way more'  we don't mean 10% more. People are watching at a rate between six and 10 times the national average. A 500 to 900% increase."

Not only have the Movie Heroes saved The Met Cinema in Oakhurst, they have applied the same model to movie houses on Coalinga, Avenal and Red Bluff. And these theaters have more than doubled their revenue. Matt and Keith hope to save many more theaters around the country and are in contact with 60 other cinemas that are interested in the Movie Heroes model.

So if the local theater where you shared your first kiss is on the verge of closing its doors forever, the Movie Heroes might be able to help save it… one subscription at a time. For more info visit MovieHeroes.com.

Hallie Jordan: Possibly the Hardest Working Woman in Show Business

Photo courtesy of Hallie Jordan

If you think you’re busy, you should meet Hallie Jordan. The young actress and producer has a lot on her plate, but that’s been her goal from a very early age when she was inspired to follow her father and grandfather into show business.

As she explained during a recent one-on-one interview, “My family has always been in entertainment. My grandfather was a publicist for RKO. My father was an inventor and a pioneer in cable television in the ‘80s. So it’s always been encouraged.”

Although she was born in New York City, Jordan moved around a lot growing up. She recounted, “I went to a new school every year between fifth grade and college. I lived in Orange County, in Florida. I did Second City Chicago for a little while. And then I graduated from the University of Redlands out here in California.”

Patton Oswalt Will Be the Biggest Fan at the Film Independent Spirit Awards

Photo Courtesy of IFC

While some mega-stars will spend Saturday night getting their beauty sleep for Oscar day, a far hipper band of movie-making brethren will be gathered to celebrate the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Although it seems each year, the crossover between the two events gets larger, this is still the place for the lesser known (and funded) fare to get their dues, too. In a recent conference call, host Patton Oswalt, explained what sets this show apart from all the others. “This awards show digs pretty deep in trying to find movies that took risks and rolled the dice… It rewards people that are clearly emerging and are going to be doing great stuff with their careers.  You get to see them early.”  

Of course, with the ever-changing entertainment climate, a lot of veteran actors will be popping up at the award show as well. “What I also love is that they keep an eye open for veterans like Robert Redford and Bruce Dern who continue to take risks and seek out challenging, different materials.”

Being a cinefile himself, Oswalt has his own opens about what projects he think deserve a flying bird this year. “The Spectacular Now, I thought was fantastic. Enough Said.  I hope Enough Said wins everything that it gets nominated for.  The documentary, The Act of Killing, I thought it was crucial — hard to watch, but crucial.  Then I really hope that Bruce Dern gets wins for ‘Nebraska’ because I thought he was just amazing.  That guy has had awards coming for a long time in my opinion.  That would be great.”

A Broken Code Was Literally Made with Blood, Sweat and Tears

Filmmakers Michael Girgenti and Josh Webber are proof that filmmaking is a fateful business. On paper it seems unlikely that the two would meet and become co-directors of the new film A Broken Code. Girgenti grew up in Chicago and studied music at a young age before a modeling career led him to the West Coast. Webber was born in Montreal, Canada, and after a brief stint in business school in Arizona, moved east to attend the New York Film Academy.

But ultimately the two aspiring moviemakers landed in Southern California and destiny played its hand. As Webber recounted, "Michael and I met on the set of the popular television show '90210' at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach. We were background extras, just hanging out. And it just so happened that we were sitting next to each other."

They soon discovered that they shared common interests. Webber remarked, "We got to talking and Mike was telling me about this screenplay he had written. And over the next eight hours he just basically told me all about it as we just walked around and sat around and talked. And then over the next couple of months we met up and shaped the screenplay a little bit and then decided to shoot it."

The newfound friends co-directed Girgenti's screenplay for A Broken Code. The film about two brothers in an old-school crime family was inspired by classic movies like Goodfellas and Casino but it has a twist. "All the Italian family, mobster movies always focused on the older men," noted Girgenti,  "and there are younger people, siblings and children, in those Italian, crime oriented families but there really wasn't anything that touched on that."

The duo decided to go an unusal route and helm the film together. Webber described their collaboration, saying, "I led the direction and we would just collaborate on ideas behind closed doors and anything I may have dropped or slacked on, Mike was always there to pick it up and keep it rockin' and rollin'. It was a smooth process for us. We let each other go with the flow and move and direct as we see fit."

But it wasn't always smooth sailing. Just two days before production was supposed to wrap, there was a terrible accident that almost completely sunk the film and left Girgenti with serious injuries.

Webber recounted what happened,  "We were in New York. A friend of mine had a speedboat and we convinced him to shoot a little scene on the boat. After filming the scene, we were on our way back to the harbor to dock the boat. One thing led to the next, we were going a little too fast, and we ended up flipping the boat going roughly 80 miles an hour. Everybody was ejected. Our equipment was ruined. Michael was sent to the hospital. It was a really heartbreaking day to say the least."

Although he's fully recovered, Girgenti didn't have an easy go of it in the early days after the accident. He acknowledged, "I couldn't do too much. I couldn't fly. I couldn't lay down on my right side where they had to stick the tube in my chest because I had were a collapsed lung and I had a tube… The lung injury held me in the hospital for a week and then it took a little while to recover and I had to do all of these breathing exercises."

But as painful as it was, Girgenti maintains a sense of humor about it all. "I joke and say that I don't think my lung ever fully recovered but, I mean, I'm breathing so I'm sure it's better."

Besides the physical impact that the accident had on Girgenti, it also almost put an end to A Broken Code. Per the movie's creator and star, "Production was immediately on hold because we had to figure a lot of things out because all or our equipment was on the boat and that was all in the ocean now. And we had spent all of our money. We were at the end of the road. The day we flipped the boat was pretty much the day before the last day of completely wrapping the film. So we lost about 30 or 40% of the film. I was in the hospital and Josh was trying to scramble to figure out what we were going to do with the equipment."

Yet the determined young filmmakers weren't about to give up. "Essentially the biggest thing was, how are we going to afford to continue?" admitted Girgenti. "We ended up fundraising, successfully raising about $10,000 on Kickstarter and we just picked it up. We just felt like there's no way we could give up.  We came too far. We just put too much into it. It's funny because everybody always throws around that term 'blood, sweat and tears' but we literally lived those three adjectives."

A Broken Code is available on DVD in the U.S. and Canada and On Demand on Time Warne Cable. Learn more about the film by following it on Facebook and Twitter.

Steve Roberts and Sandy Moore Shine a Light on Indie Filmmakers

Every day, kids all around the world dream of a future in Hollywood. Some hope of being stars. Others imagine what it would be like to be a big time director. That was not the case decades ago for Steve Roberts or Sandy Moore. But not only did they end up in the film industry, they have become champions for independent filmmakers everywhere.

In reality, a young Roberts never imagined he would end up in the entertainment business. After all he grew up in Nebraska, which he joking called the "film Mecca of the world" in a recent exclusive interview.

Still, he was a film fan growing up. In college he developed an interest in photography and majored in Business Administration. Those skills made him the perfect candidate to be a field rep for a video wholesaler in the early days of home video. His work in that arena led to a job with Paramount Pictures' home entertainment sales team.

After 18 years with the company and a promotion to Vice President of sales for their retail and distribution team along the way, Roberts finally decided to hang his own shingle with Moore.

ToddleWood Takes a Pint-Sized Look at Hollywood Glamour

Anyway who reads our blog knows we’re far more likely to write about adorable monkeys or pug dogs than we are about kids. But we were struck recently by a rug rat-centric project that really struck a chord with our love of pop culture.

ToddleWood is the brainchild of photographer and former advertising executive Tricia Messeroux. She goes to great lengths to recreate tot-sized versions of some of Hollywood’s most glamorous red carpet moments. 

The whole idea started back in 2008, after Tricia had been told that her three-year-old daughter looked like Diana Ross. She soon turned to friends who knew about styling, make-up and hair to help her make the perfect mini-homages to some of the world’s biggest stars.

Robin Mountjoy Set to Release Debut Feature Film

Courtesy of Robin Mountjoy

First time feature film director Robin Mountjoy got his start in entertainment playing blues music in bars in Kansas City. But after a move to New York, a friend suggested he try his hand at acting.

A love of filmmaking led him to study the work of the directors when he wasn’t on camera. He soon was taking acting classes and writing scripts. A grant from the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Queens, New York, has taken Robin all the way to Hollywood. And he’s on the verge of releasing his first full-length movie “Quick to Duck” in which he co-stars with Steve Guttenberg.

In a recent exclusive interview, Robin talked about casting the project. On the advice of a former co-worker, Mountjoy realized that he needed to have a big name in his film. Being new to the game, he turned to his distributor’s website for inspiration. There he saw the names of some recognizable actors.

Director Louise Palanker Talks about The Cowsills

Written in conjunction with ScreenPicks.com

Lots of family singing acts have come and gone through the years — some more successful and with greater longevity than others, like the Jacksons, the Osmonds or even the Carpenters. But there's one group of singing brothers and sisters that really didn't get the recognition they deserved — The Cowsills. You may not even know their name but you probably know their hits "The Rain, The Park & Other Things," "Hair" and "Indian Lake."

The bad had a few incarnations beginning with the four brothers Bill, Bob, Barry and John. Soon mom Barbara and sis Susan brother Paul joined the act. Does this sound at all familiar? That's because their other claim to fame was that they were the inspiration for the TV hit, The Partridge Family. Although they were considered for the show themselves, the producers decided they needed to hire real actors.

Despite a few big years in the spotlight, The Cowsills quickly faded into oblivion. Until now. Louise Palanker, a longtime fan of the band, has spent the last eight years trying to uncover exactly what happened to The Cowsills. Her documentary Family Band: The Cowsills Story is airing this month on Showtime. We spoke with Louise about why she wanted to make the film and some of the shocking discoveries she made.

One night Louise went to a small pub to see Bob Cowsill perform and it coincidentally was the night John Cowsill was marrying Vicki Peterson from the Bangles, so the whole family was in the house. Louise's memories of her favorite childhood band came flooding back and she began wondering why they didn't remain famous and successful throughout their adult life. She recalled, "When the Cowsills came out, they were ahead of the Osmonds, they were ahead of The Jacksons and to me, they were the best. They were playing their own instruments, all those harmonies, writing their own songs. To me by far and away this is the most talented family and then they just disappeared."

So she needed to find out why. She approached Bob about a documentary. Louise said, "He was very reluctant, but he never actually said no." So she went back to see him play again and pushed a little harder. Bob told her the story, "was too big, too complicated and it can't be done." She finally convinced him it can be done. And she did it.

The first shoot was in 2005 at Fenway Park in Boston, where The Cowsills were invited to sing The National Anthem before a game. The family agreed to let Louise tag along and film the performance. What she witnessed was a family with a lot of tension and a lot of demons and over the next few years she would burst open the floodgates.

They began shooting but just a few months later tragedy struck in the form of Hurricane Katrina. Both Susan and Barry were living in New Orleans at the time. Susan and her family made it out of town, but Barry lost his life in the tragedy.

And as is that weren't enough, the night the family was gathered for his memorial service, and Louise was filming, the word came to them that brother Billy has also passed from complications of emphysema. Louise described the moment the family learned the news, "It was so shocking and devastating. When you look at it, you saw they were all together as a family, they can be together. And you're thinking, do I film? Do I not film?" Ultimately she said, "We stopped filming for two years. Nobody wanted to do it any more."

She gave the family their space and eventually Bob called and said, "Let's have lunch." He told her that day that his siblings wanted the movie finished. Louise finally got her chance to tell the world why The Cowsills didn't translate into adult stars.

What she uncovered was that behind those cheery songs about swimming in lakes and loving flower girls was a sad group of abused kids. And because of that rough childhood, they didn't have the capacity to translate their success into adulthood. She stated, "Why weren't people this talented given as children all the ingredients and the fuel that you need to be powerful, successful adults with life skills? They weren't given any of that. It was robbed from them."

It was stolen from them by their abusive, controlling alcoholic father who also acted as the band's manager. She added, "When the teen idol fame ended, they didn't have the tools they need to regroup. They just scattered…. They had to figure out how to raise a family and how to be a good human being. They had to figure that out on their own."

From everything she uncovered during her time with the family she was most surprised to learn what good parents they all turned out to be. "When you found out what their dad had done to them and you saw what good parents they all were… that's not supposed to be the pattern is it. They're all heroic in that way… There's so much love there. I didn't think I was going to see that when I was beginning to find out about what had happened."

And as for The Partridge Family, Louise remembers as a kid reading that The Cowsills were getting their own TV show, so when David Cassidy and Shirley Jones showed up, she was a little disappointed. After all these were just actors. And Tracy couldn't even play the tambourine on the beat. She did love the show and the songs, but she couldn't help but wish The Cowsills had gotten that break. She stated, "You felt gipped if you were a Cowsills fan."

You won't feel gipped watching Louise's movie. Although word of warning, it's not as upbeat and happy a their music once was. But it's a great trip down memory lane and a powerfully dramatic, gut wrenching tale. Family Band: The Cowsills Story is airing this month on Showtime. Check local listing for dates and times.

For related stories check out:
Barry Williams & Danny Bonaduce on Bigfoot, Bradys and Partridges
La Toya Jackson Talks About Celebrity Apprentice

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Amara Miller Skyrockets to Success in Hollywood

  Photo by Chris Haston/NBC

Everyone’s heard the tales of actors who weighted tables or drove taxicabs, struggling for years until they got their big break. This is not one of those stories. That’s because Amara Miller admittedly was lucky when it came to finding success in Hollywood. In a recent exclusive interview she explained it all.

As the 12-year-old actress recounted, “My aunt, Carrie, who lives in L.A., she was at a Valentine's party and heard that Alexander Payne, the director of The Descendants, was looking for a 10-year-old girl to be in his next movie. And she's like, 'My niece, Amara, she's 10.'  So she calls up the next day and asks do I want to audition for a movie and I thought, ' Sure why not? That would be really fun.' So I put myself on tape and sent it to Alexander and he said that within 20 seconds of the tape he knew that I had the part. It was really exciting.”

The result was a breakout turn as George Clooney’s youngest daughter, Scottie King, in one of the hottest movies of 2011. With that came instant success and changes at home in Monterey, California. As Amara explained, “At home a lot of kids were treating me differently. Some jealous kids were being a little meaner. People wanted to be my friend a lot more. I have definitely learned how to tell people apart, definitely who your real friends are, who are friends with Amara Miller and who are friends with the girl who was in 'The Descendants.'”

Amar Sidhu from Dermosurgeon to Action Star

               

Photo courtesy of Amar Sidhu

The beauty of Hollywood is that there’s so set path to becoming a star. Harrison Ford was George Lucas’ carpenter before he got cast in his career re-booting role in American Graffiti and Halle Berry worked the pageant circuit before landing her first TV series. So it’s not totally unprecedented for Amar Sidhu to have taken his unusual path.

The Pacific Northwest  native started out as a doctor. Earning his medical degree at Tulane University before ultimately becoming a dermatologic surgeon in Los Angeles. Yet something inside him was drawn to acting.

But as he recalled in a recent exclusive interview, “I was always a very practical thinker growing up and I just thought, practically, here in Seattle, Washington, if I try and go in this direction, what are the odds of me succeeding? I was always based in practicality so I was like, ‘It’s just not going to happen.’ So I put it on the backburner and just shifted my attention after high school for a complete decade into working my ass off studying.”

The Princess Bride Threatens Air Travel

The Princess Bride is one of our all-time favorite movies. So we had to laugh when the film inadvertently created a stir on a recent Qantas flight from Australia to New Zealand. Don't tell Rain Man, but Qantas may not be the safest airline to fly on anymore, now that they left people with threatening t-shirts on board.

Apparently last weekend Wynand Mullins boarded a Qantas flight innocently enough. But the crew began getting complaints that the man's attire was freaking people out. A flight attendant approached Wynand and asked him to change his shirt to console the anxious fliers. When he replied that he didn't have an extra in his carry on, he wondered if they might give him a pilot's coat. But instead the subject was dropped.

So what was he wearing that caused all the commotion? A t-shirt that read "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Apparently Wynand's fellow passengers had not seen "The Princess Bride" in which Mandy Patinkin's character has been on a lifelong quest for the revenge of his father's death. Instead they thought he was going to kill them all.

Mullins told Stuff magazine, "I thought it was all a bit silly. The person next to me was laughing, because they knew the movie." What is the world coming to?

Austin Abrams Talks About Gangster Squad and Toy's House

Photo by Blake Gardner

In just a few short years, Austin Abrams has gone from playing Chip in a dinner theater production of Beauty and the Beast at age eight to appearing in films alongside big name stars like Ryan Gossling (Gangster Squad), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Ticking Clock) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (Jewtopia). Earlier this month the 16-year-old actor from Sarasota, Florida, made his Sundance Film Festival debut on a new movie called Toy's House.

The film also stars Alison Brie, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Megan Mullaly. Austin's character Aaron is a nerdy kid who sets off with two friends to live in the woods after getting fed up with life at home. In a recent one-on-one interview, Austin told us, "I wanted to mix it up a little bit so I made him nerdy-ish but trying to be cool."

But off-camera, Austin is not like that, "Essentially I'm different from him because he's trying to be something else than he actually is and for the most part I try not to do that."

The movie has drawn comparisons to other coming of age films like Stand By Me and The Goonies. Austin says noting the similarities is fair. "It has the same kind of vibe, but it's filmed different. It's filmed in a more artistic way. But the comparisons are accurately made."

The young actor said there was a lot of improvisation on the set and recalled, "They are all really fun people and they are all really creative. It was really amazing to have such creative people in such close proximity to each other."

Amy Weber Offers Redemption in Crossroad & Joy Through Her Music

  Courtesy of Amy Weber

Amy Weber’s fans might not know it by looking at her. But even though she was once named one of FHM’s sexiest women in the world, she had very unglamorous beginnings.

As she revealed in a recent exclusive interview, “I was born in Mapleton, Illinois, which is on the outskirts of Peoria, Illinois. And I was raised on a really small corn farm. The nearest house was literally like five miles away. So most of the time I spent outdoors being a tomboy and climbing trees. My dad really wanted a boy and he got me instead. So that didn’t stop him from raising me as a tomboy and I ended up racing motorcycles and doing a lot of boy activities.”

Yet she also discovered a love for acting at an early age, entering fine arts contests where she would deliver monologues when she was just five years old. She went on to the drama club in high school and while in college realized that she wanted to be a performer. So she packed her bags and moved to Hollywood.

Parental Guidance's Joshua Rush on Technology & Genghis Khan

At the age of ten Joshua Rush is practically a veteran in the business and has wisdom beyond his years. He started acting in his mom's corporate videos at the age of four. In a recent exclusive interview he stated, "I've always just been a ham. I've loved being in front of the camera. It feels like home to me."

Since his first professional TV appearance in Private Practice in 2009, Joshua has appeared in Criminal Minds, Heroes, Chuck and CSI: NY. And he's lent his voice to Family Guy and Gravity Falls. But this holiday season he leaps to the big screen alongside some pretty big Hollywood names. In Parental Guidance, opening December 25, he plays the grandson of Bette Midler and Billy Crystal and the son of Marisa Tomei. When he's not acting, he's a self-proclaimed nerd. He loves playing with computers and even provided some tech support for Ms. Midler on set. We spoke with Joshua about his co-stars, his influences and what he'd be if he weren't an actor.

On His Acting Influences
"My parents, my mom and my dad, my teachers. Everyone around me is an influence to me because you can learn a little nugget from everyone."

On What He'd Do Other Than Acting
"I'm a complete nerd. I'm an official geek because I have a PC in the house along with my Mac and iPad and all that. I just love science and technology. I love STEM — science, technology, engineering and math. It's just a passion for me. I would be a nano technologist if acting didn't work out for me."

On Describing a Nano Technologist
"A nano technologist basically creates robots that enter the bloodstream or go inside of bacteria — very, very small things that help us understand life."

On Playing with Mac Coding Software Terminal
"I love messing with terminal. I go on line and I search for weird things you can do to your Mac in terminal. I wouldn't recommend doing it because it can completely mess up your Mac. It's bad. Just little things like you can change black into white, turn things to orange, invert the colors. Just can just change little things. It's a lot of fun though, but you can also completely mess up your computer."

On Advice for Kids Being Bullied
"If you're being bullied, don't let it affect you. Because you, at your heart, is who you really are. So it doesn't matter what other people think of you."

Twilight’s Christian Serratos Designs Jewelry in Angela’s Honor

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Photo courtesy of Christian Serratos

Fans flocked to theaters recently to catch the final installment of the Twilight Saga. True, most of the attention is focused on the romance between Bella and Edward, and the off-screen relationship of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson — but they have been surrounded by a strong supporting cast throughout the franchise.

Among those stalwart co-stars was Christian Serratos, who played Bella’s BFF Angela in all of the films. In a recent exclusive interview the 22-year-old actress talked about working on the movies and her new jewelry line.

When looking back on the Twilight experience, Christian recounted, “It’s been incredible. It’s been a big chunk of my growing up. I started on the movie when I was 18. So traveling and filming was great for me. And working with incredible directors and cast was just the icing on the cake.”

MOVIE NEWS: Tara Reid to Co-Produce Cop Drama

Photo by Eva Rinaldi

American Reunion star Tara Reid will be taking a role off-camera in her latest project, a feature film called Disengaged. Tara is best known as an actress in the American Pie franchise, The Big Lebowski, Saved by the Bell and Scrubs, but this time she will take on the task of co-producer as well.

Tara will join Brickroad Films founders Kevin Barrett and Anthony Thorne to produce the movie in 2013. They are currently in pre-production on the crime drama that will star Reid alongside Sticky Fingaz (Flight of the Phoenix), Dylan Sprayberry (Man of Steel) and Ellery Sprayberry (The Butterfly Room).

The movie will tell the tale of two Los Angeles cops during the shooting investigation of a 17-year-old boy. Tara will play one of their wives. Find out more at the Brickroad Films website.


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A Few Things You Don’t Know About Queen Latifah

 Courtesy of Lifetime

This weekend Queen Latifah takes on a daunting task — tackling the beloved role of M’Lynn created by Sally Field in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias. Field was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role of the over protective mother of Shelby, played then by Julia Roberts. Phylicia Rashad’s daughter, Condola, co-stars as Shelby and her real-life mother walks in Olympia Dukakis shoes as Clairee Belcher.

The all African-American cast certainly has big shoes to fill. But it’s not the first time Queen Latifah took a big chance on her career. Originally known strictly as a rapper, Latifah surprised fans when she started singing soul songs in 2003. Those who knew her music career didn’t expect her to sign-up for a sitcom role. But she did just that, playing Khadijah James on Living Single from 1993 to 1998. And anyone who underestimated her acting sops never would have predicted her Oscar-nominated turn in Chicago in 2002.

In a recent conference call, Queen Latifah talked about Steel Magnolias and her career. Here are a few things you might not know about her:

A Visual Guide to The Planet of the Apes

 Courtesy of Fox

We believe that there’s no finer type of entertainment than a movie or TV show that contains a talking (non-human) primate. Clearly we were influenced at a very young age by what we consider to be the most under-rated movie of all time — the original Planet of the Apes.

If you’ve never see the Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall classic, well frankly, “Damn you all to hell.” You’d get the joke if you’d seen the flick. Now stop reading (because we’re about to get into some serious spoilers) and go directly to Amazon and download it now. Trust us, it’s worth the $2.99.

Now for those of you that have soaked in all the old-school make-up glory, let’s continue. We remember the Saturday night when our parents went out and left us in the care of our older brother. He sat us down in front of the TV and let the “Apes” magic unfold. We loved every second of it and remember having our tender young minds blown for the very first time at the ending.

Pop Culture Passionistas Trivia — Week of July 30, 2012

Photo by Karen Blaha

Our picks from this week's Pop Culture Passionistas' interviews and celebrity headlines.

Pop Culture Passionistas Trivia — July 30, 2012 » Make A Quiz