The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| Posted: 13 Dec 2011 02:05 AM PST Some of our stars are overweight, but we love them just as they are. IT'S almost hair-raising to read about the lengths some celebrities go to in order to maintain an often unrealistic weight or physique. Actor Taylor Lautner shared recently that after filming his last shirtless scene in the final instalment of Twilight, part of his celebration involved going out for a dessert, a luxury he had not been able to indulge in for a long while due to the need to maintain his buff body for the movies. Then there's Anne Hathaway's dramatic recollection of the painful dieting she went through in 2006 to lose weight for The Devil Wears Prada – a regimen of fruits, vegetables and fish that left her in constant hunger and tears. Today's column, however, is not about the travails and deprivations of celebrities and their diets. Instead, I would like to feature some of the stars who are not afraid to have their after-dinner sweets, are comfortable in their own skin and who give credence to the phrase not often heard these days: Fat is beautiful. First up has to be the inimitable Queen Latifah, the hip hop artiste and actress who looms large in whatever character she plays on screen. She makes more impact in a supporting role than other actresses in lead roles, as she did in The Dilemma, where she overshadowed Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly, whose names I had to struggle to recall. It's always a sign of a strong X-factor when an actor is able to stand out in an all-star ensemble cast. The Queen was the female nominee from Valentine's Day in the Romantic Comedy category in the 2010 Teen Choice Awards even though the movie featured the likes of Julia Roberts, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and Jennifer Garner, among other Hollywood it-girls. The Queen turned 41 this year, but is still big, sexy and utterly relevant in Hollywood. All Hail The Queen was the title of her hit debut hip hop album in 1989 at the fresh age of 19, a harbinger of the stellar career of a woman who is beautiful whatever shape she is because of the confidence she possesses. The multi-hyphenate recently launched her own clothing collection that features larger sizes as well. Actor Kevin James, who made his name as the happily-fat delivery driver Doug Heffernan in the hit US sitcom The King Of Queens, is a big man made good, and not a whiff has been heard about any attempt to lose weight. And where's the need for that, when he has been capturing audiences and scaling the box office with one hit after another. James is so likeable that while he may not fit the slim mould of the more typical romantic lead, few would harbour any doubt that a hottie like Rosario Dawson, his co-star in his latest romcom Zookeeper, would fall for him. Hong Kong actor Sammo Hung has his place in film history assured for his contributions as one of the pioneers of the modern brand of martial arts movies featuring realistic and long one-on-one fight scenes in his roles as action choreographer and director. But what is more remarkable is his convincing portrayal of an overweight martial arts hero on screen, not least because he is a martial arts exponent in real life. Hung is surely the poster boy for overweight men all over for showing them that being hefty is no barrier to being an agile fighter. At 59, he is still very active in the industry. One of his latest projects was last year's Ip Man 2, in which he served as the action director and played a formidable martial arts master who challenges the Wing Chun legend, Ip Man. The presence of these celebrities help to redress the imbalance in a mindless cult of the thin that seems to have permeated modern television these days intoning "fat is bad and thin is good". The Biggest Loser, a reality TV programme in which obese contestants seek to win a cash prize by losing the most weight, is into its eighth year in the United States where it started and from which has spawned a franchise spanning the globe from Australia to Asia, and from Ukraine to Brazil. It's almost like being fat is a sin committed by people who have no control over themselves. While it is true that obesity can give rise to certain ailments, the current fad of achieving thinness at all costs is not quite about one's health, but one's looks. Worse, the ideal look is all too thin, as evidenced by the overblown obsession with the slight weight gains of stars like Miley Cyrus, who recently blasted the media for suggesting that she was fat. Moreover, not everybody can achieve weight loss as easily as some celebrities and the contestants on The Biggest Losers seem to do. An active, healthy lifestyle is surely the more reasonable target, rather than the not quite reasonable thin is good, thin is healthy mantra that has taken hold. It is a sign of an unhealthy trend when someone like Mike & Molly star Melissa McCarthy, this year's Best Actress winner in the comedy category at the Emmys and a plus-sized actress whose work has been well-supported by fans, talks about wanting to be smaller and not having the time to worry about what the industry thinks she should weigh in the same breath. The industry could do with more Jack Blacks and Kent Chengs, whose prominent stomachs have never been the centre of attention in their successful careers. > In this column, writer Hau Boon Lai ponders the lives, loves and liberties of celebrities. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| MMU offering Hollywood-style film making course Posted: 12 Dec 2011 02:45 PM PST JOHOR BARU: Movies with Hollywood-style content – that's where the local film industry could be headed for. This has been made possible with a collaboration between Multimedia University (MMU) and the University of Southern California (USC) to offer a Bachelor of Cinematic Arts course, said to be the first in Malaysia. "Ours is different from other film-related courses available locally as we focus on a wide range of subjects involving activities in the film making industry," said MMU chairman Datuk Dr Halim Shafie. He said the syllabus offered in the programme include cinematography, screen writing, directing, post production and television writing as well as script-to-screen approach. Halim said the university decided to work with USC as it was recognised worldwide for its prestigious film programmes and studies that produced Hollywood personalities. Among them are Ugly Betty's America Ferrera, Kelly Preston, who starred alongside Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire and movie legend John Wayne. Halim said the programme would start at the university's Cyberjaya campus from June 2012 before moving to its new campus in Educity@Nusajaya near here upon completion in 2014. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 12 Dec 2011 02:45 PM PST NEW YORK: Ipoh-born actress Datuk Michelle Yeoh says she will be more than happy to do a Bollywood film. "Yes, why not? I would be willing to do a Bollywood film if I get a good role," she said at the sidelines of a special screening of The Lady which is based on the life and struggle of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The special screening was held at a packed auditorium of the Asia Society in New York on Sunday. Yeoh, who was in Goa last week to host the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India, said she had grown up in Malaysia watching Indian films and was impressed by the dance, colour and drama that were characteristic of a Bollywood film. Asked if she still had a strong affinity to Malaysia, she responded spontaneously: "Yes, very much indeed. "I have my Malaysian passport and my parents live in Malaysia which is my home country, even though I am based in Hong Kong for professional reasons." Yeoh appeared on stage with the director of The Lady, Luc Besson, who revealed some of the intricate details of film-making as he talked about the challenges in making the film which was shot mostly in Thailand. Besson said the large number of demonstrators and supporters of Suu Kyi were recruited from camps set up in Thailand for Myanmar refugees. At the special advance screening of The Lady, to be commercially released in February, the large audience of mainly fans and supporters of Suu Kyi saw a film that seemed to touch a sensitive chord within them. Yeoh starred in Hollywood hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and the Memoirs of a Geisha, but she said that there was something special about The Lady. "Playing Aung San Suu Kyi was a journey in itself. "She represents many things for many people and for many reasons. "For the role I tried to step into her life," she said. — Bernama. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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