‘The Runaways’ Rock The Red Carpet

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning added star power to the Hollywood premiere of their rocker chick flic, “The Runaways.” The film details the life and times of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie and the legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands.
Stewart, best known for playing Bella in the teen vampire saga, “Twilight”, takes on a much edgier role as Joan Jett. Dakota Fanning plays “The Runaways” front woman, Cherie Currie.
Stewart credits Jett, who acted as an executive producer on the film, with helping her to nail down the role. For Jett, the film brings back strong memories. “The Runaways” opens on April 9.

Great Hollywood names not among Oscar voters

Taylor Lautner isn’t a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Nor is Woody Allen. Nor is George Lucas.

But Rupert Murdoch is. And so are Pedro Almodovar and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Wade through a list of the Academy’s 5,777 voting members (or at least try, since the Academy pretty much keeps it under lock and key) and you’d be surprised who’s part of the club and who isn’t.

Hollywood “bad boys” like screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, uber-agent Michael Ovitz and actor Christian Bale are all there. And so are obvious figures like Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates and Tom Hanks.

But some of Hollywood’s best-known names haven’t made the list, ranging from NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — who might seem an unlikely candidate with movies like “The Tooth Fairy,” but who is, after all, a box office favorite.

Joining the Academy is a rare privilege that’s accorded to roughly 100-plus new members per year. Members range from 15-year-old actress Dakota Fanning to 81-year-old composer Burt Bacharach, from German filmmaker Wim Wenders to Hollywood star Jennifer Aniston.

Invitations usually go out annually in late June, following a lengthy process that starts when two members “sponsor” a person and ends when the board of governors extends the invite.

After submitting reference letters and examples of their work, prospects are reviewed by the executive committee of the branch to which they are applying. Those approved are passed on to the general membership committee and finally to the board.

Oscar nominees in any given year are thrown into the mix of candidates, but that doesn’t mean they make the cut. Quality of work is one thing, but the Academy also likes its members to have a body of work behind them.

Among recent Oscar nominees, Anne Hathaway (“Rachel Getting Married”) and Viola Davis (“Doubt”) received invites — but Ellen Page, nominated for “Juno,” didn’t.

Similarly, after getting nominations for 2006’s “Brokeback Mountain,” actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were invited — but not their fellow nominee and co-star Michelle Williams. (Williams did get asked to join this past June.)

As to newcomers like “Twilight’s” Robert Pattinson or “Suberbad’s” Jonah Hill, they’ve yet to be invited — though the wait might be briefer than it was in the past, given that the Academy has been making a concerted push to bring younger members into the fold.

For the youngsters, getting an Oscar nomination may actually be easier than becoming an Academy member.

“It’s not uncommon for people with very few credits to receive a nomination,” says the Academy’s director of membership, Kimberly Roush, “whereas some people with many, many credits don’t get an Academy Award nomination. The committees are looking at the bigger picture.”

But perhaps not the entire picture: The Academy looks at the professional side but is quiet about people’s private lives. Hence the membership roster includes a number of jailbirds, like “Pulp Fiction” co-writer Roger Avary and Canadian entrepreneur Garth Drabinsky, and exiled sex offender Roman Polanski.

Jett Performed Live at ‘The Runaways’ Premiere

Jett Performed Live at ‘The Runaways’ Premiere, The 51-year-old rock star and singer Joan Jett gave a live performance during the premiere of ‘The Runaways’, the biopic of Jett’s 70s band of the same name, at the Sundance Film Festival.
Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning premiered the movie. Jett herself is the producer of the movie; she said that she loved the flick in which her real life is being portrayed. Kristen stars as Jett and Dakota as singer Cherie Currie. ‘The Runaways’ would hit the cinemas on March 19.

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Jett Performed Live at ‘The Runaways’ Premiere was first posted on January 26, 2010 at 6:14 pm.

‘New Moon’ rises with world premier in LOS ANGELES

New Moon updates, LOS ANGELES: Thousands of excited fans welcomed the stars of the ‘Twilight’ series at the world premiere of ‘New Moon‘ in Los Angeles, Monday.

Just 12 months ago and in the exact same spot, actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were surprised to be greeted by throngs of screaming fans of the novel ‘Twilight’. Those fans were eagerly anticipating – to say the least – the release of the big-screen adaptation of the first book in author Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire romance series.

As the stars unveiled the sequel, ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’, they knew what was coming.

“I’m not as scared as I was last year,” noted Stewart, despite a brief touch-and-go moment as she was signing autographs. “At some point, the security guy said, ‘This is very unsafe.’ And I was like, ‘Uh.’ Other than that, everything was cool,” continued the actress, who portrays “Twilight” heroine Bella Swan.

One of the film’s producers estimated between 5,000 and 7,000 fans were lining the area surrounding the “New Moon” premiere, in the Westwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

“It seems a bit bigger (than the 2008 premiere),” said Pattinson, who plays vampire Edward Cullen. “And it seems different to me because we have done this world tour in the last week and it has just been unbelievable in every single city. It’s about 10 times bigger in every other city in the world.”

“I mean, basically we’ve seen everything, but we continue to be surprised,” observed actor Taylor Lautner, who rises to headliner status in ‘New Moon’ as Bella’s best friend Jacob, a werewolf. “It’s the amount of passion, it’s not normal,” Lautner continued. “And it’s amazing. It continues to blow my mind.”

Some “twi-hards” – as they call themselves – arrived as early as Thursday afternoon to secure a place in line for tickets allowing them to watch the stars’ arrivals on the red carpet. The 800 available tickets were all distributed by Monday morning.

“I do feel like there is more people expecting this to be wonderful,” said Meyer. “There is more of a sense like people are into the franchise now. They are really excited for tonight.”

Some of the cheering fans – mostly young women – were wearing T-shirts proclaiming their allegiance to either Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner, the bloodsucking stars of ‘New Moon’. One woman held a homemade sign saying, “We love Robert and Taylor they rock our socks.”

“Yeah, I feel very much like it was in the ‘Frost/Nixon’ premiere, and ‘The Queen’ obviously, as well,” joked “New Moon” actor Michael Sheen, best known for those weighty dramas. “That audience was slightly younger than this one,” Sheen continued, smiling.

Like Sheen, another familiar actor, Dakota Fanning, joins the ‘Twilight’ series in ‘New Moon’ as one of the wicked Volturi vampires.

“It is definitely among the loudest (premieres I’ve ever attended),” Fanning said. “It is really crazy to see people that are such big fans, and I love that, and I love feeding off their energy because they are so excited to be here, so it is great.”

Since ‘Twilight”s premiere, Pattinson and Stewart have become big-name stars, tabloid favourites, and have also been working around the clock — hopping the globe on promotional tours and filming both ‘New Moon’ and its sequel, ‘Eclipse’.

When she finally gets a day off? “I’d like to just do nothing for a while,” Stewart said.

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‘New Moon’ rises with world premier in LOS ANGELES was first posted on November 18, 2009 at 12:39 pm.