In spring of 2007, Dorothy Snarker challenged us to cast the upcoming biopic of the '70s girl-group-punk-band, The Runaways.

The production team has finally begun to do the work for us. It was announced today that Kristen Stewart has been cast as young Joan Jett.

I’ve read a few comments indicating that some folks find this to be terrible casting, but I’m not yet sure how to react. I know that I want this movie to be done well. The Runaways paved the way for other women rockers and their legacy deserves respect. Additionally, I’m quite impressed that the band members generally survived teenage punk stardom quite well.

Bassist Jackie Fox is an entertainment lawyer in Southern California. Lead singer Cherrie Currie owns a chainsaw art gallery in Chatsworth, Calif. … continue reading

In the category of “Is this a good thing?” Twilight actresses Kristen Stewart and Nikki Reed will shoot another movie together, starting in January — playing men.

The movie, K-11, takes place in the section of the Los Angeles county jail that holds gay inmates, keeping them segregated from the general prison population. (“K-11” is the official classification for a gay inmate.) Stewart, who stars as Bella in Twilight, will play a boy and Reed, Twilight’s Rosalie, will play a 30-year-old man. Stewart’s mom, veteran script supervisor Jules Stewart, will direct.

No word yet on the relationship, if any, between the two as prison inmates. Stewart described K-11 as a “comedy-drama" saying “… [The unit is] full of eccentric, crazy, off-the wall characters, and me and Nikki play two of them … It’s a really sweet but really screwed up family in there.”

According to Reed, her role will be quite a contrast to Rosalie:

I’m going to be covered head-to-toe in tattoos. I’m going to be aged. I have scruff, I have [thicker] eyebrows and I’m a meth addict. Everything about my physical being right now will not be a part of that character.

I’m not sure I want to see that kind of transformation of this kind of hotness. … continue reading

On Wednesday, I was working with The Bonnie Hunt Show on in the background, when the audience went wild. I looked up and saw Peter Facinelli. Huh? He’s cute enough, I guess, but he’s not the kind of actor that attracts screaming fans. Silly me — I should have known. Facinelli plays Carlisle, patriarch of the Cullen family of vampires in Twilight.

Unless you’ve been cloistered, you know that Friday is The Day — the premiere of Twilight, the film based on the vampire romance that causes teenage girls (and, in some cases, their moms) to stop breathing. Literally. And part of the reason is that the fans are wondering if Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) will let vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattison) take her breath away permanently. … continue reading

Or perhaps that should be "to glow in the moonlight." The protagonist is, after all, a human in love with a vampire. For those of you not familiar with the series, Twilight will follow in the footsteps of the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia franchises in attempting to turn a bestselling young adult fantasy series into a multimillion-dollar cinematic spectacle. Kristen Stewart will star as Bella Swan, one half of the starstruck lovers.

She's done some growing up since playing Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room.

I've never read the Twilight series, which is a recent phenomenon (the first book came out in 2005), but here's the premise, according to MTV.com. Teenage girl Bella falls for what she thinks is a normal boy, but finds herself in an abnormal situation: The object of her affections is a vampire. But not just any vampire, according to Stewart:

“He's so good and he's so soulful and he's just not a liar — you can feel pain from him. The cool thing about the story is that it's a seemingly wonderful fantasy — let's fall in love with vampires and live forever — but it's so much harder than that. Imagine living forever. Living one life is hard enough.”

If you were paying attention to TV in the 1990s, you've got to be thinking the same thing I am. Is the author of this series paying royalties to Joss Whedon? … continue reading

For a movie about a man against nature, Into the Wild features some good female roles. Well, maybe I mean good actresses — I don't know if the roles would be so memorable in other hands. [Warning: Minor spoilers.]

I'll go in order from worst to best — though "worst" in this case is the always capable Jena Malone, and thus not bad at all. She plays Carine, the sister of Alex, the young man who goes out into the wild. Carine is an observer and interpreter, standing sentry over her broken family in her brother's absence. Malone's voice also provides much of the film's narration — something I could have done without. The role doesn't give Malone a lot to do, but she is still very watchable. Her presence is both vulnerable and strong, and she seems to be making a successful career of that sort of thing.

Even more compelling is Marcia Gay Harden as Alex's mother. With her suburban hair and hyperawareness of what the neighbors think, she is utterly conventional and could have been two-dimensional. But Harden can do so much with a glance or a gasp, and conveys everything from despair to defiance with her body language. She has only a handful of lines in the film, but somehow says more about loss and regret than anyone should have cause to say. … continue reading

What ever happened to Mary Stuart Masterson? I first adored her when she donned those fingerless gloves in Some Kind of Wonderful (all the better to spin those drumsticks with). I know Watts supposedly wanted Keith (Eric Stoltz) in that film, but I still can't believe she didn't end up with Amanda (Lea Thompson).

And then I couldn't help but swoon when she courted Mary-Louise Parker in Fried Green Tomatoes. Such a bee charmer. … continue reading