(Janet)he attended the Premiere of BJD in London 3 weeks after the birth of Luca. It was three days! The difference: he wanted to be associated with BJD, but not with WAGW. He's stiffed the latter every step of the way, IMO.:-( (Kate)Oh, man, this one is bound to show up in most of the reviews The irony is that Eileen Atkins ad-libbed that line. I think the newspaper reviews will be savage. See my comment above.:-( (Karen)Rom-coms are a difficult genre to do well because of their predictability and the need for chemistry between the leads. And poor word-of-mouth puts the nails in the coffin. Lots of comedies this summer have tanked, despite the presence of big names--Down With Love (RZ and Ewan McG), Alex and Emma (Kate Hudson--who had a big hit with How to Lose a Guy), Hollywood Homicide (Harrison Ford).

From the BBC website, interviews with Amanda, Dennie, and Oliver. No Colin, but lovely things said about him. Stiffed! Amanda Bynes is the latest tween idol to make the transition from small to big screen. Star of All That and The Amanda Show, her first foray into film came with the 2002 hit "Big Fat Liar". Now she's aiming to discover "What a Girl Wants". The movie tries to highlight the differences between Americans and Brits and make that a source of the comedy. How do you feel about Britain after spending time there making the film? Well, I learned that it's not as different as we portray it in the film. We try to magnify the difference between Americans and the English. In real life it's really much more similar than how we show it. Everyone was so nice and it was an entirely British crew except for Kelly Preston, Dennie Gordon and I. And what about working with Colin Firth? How was that? It was really special. He's an amazing guy and a wonderful actor, and to work alongside him was an honour. He's down to earth and has such a good sense of humour and he's so charming. He's such a lovely guy. Why did you think this film would be a good vehicle for you? I like the message in the movie, and I think it's a good story. I just thought this would be a good message to give to girls. I've grown up with kids watching me on TV and as they're growing up, I'm growing up, and hopefully they can get a good message from it. What is that message? I think that the most important lesson you can learn is just to be yourself and not to change yourself for anyone else. Not for your boyfriend, not for your parents. That's a strong message in this film. "What a Girl Wants" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 8th August 2003.

Here's DG's interview, also from the BBC site: Dennie Gordon has honed his directorial skills on the small screen, working on series as diverse as Ally McBeal, Dawson's Creek and Sports Night. His first movie was the David Spade vehicle "Joe Dirt". His sophomore effort is tweenie Amanda Bynes vehicle "What a Girl Wants". How much fun is it doing a film where you put free-spirited Americans alongside the stuffy English? We had so much fun with that, having fun with the stuffy Brits! But let me tell you, they had fun with us too! We took it in turns to take potshots at each other and some of the really fun lines came out of our experience together. When the character played by Dame Eileen Atkins says "We don't hug, dear, we're British, we only show affection to dogs and horses", that was improvised because we Americans were hugging everybody. How did you persuade Colin Firth to play the father of a teenager? Colin was really game to play the part. He's a parent himself. He has children and I think the father-daughter relationship appealed to him. I think he was just ready to show the world his comedy chops, and I think he's hilarious in the movie. How was it shooting in London? I had to shoot in London because London is like a character in the movie. I had to have Big Ben and I had to have the Thames. It was really very simple to shoot there. They were very welcoming to us and I had killer locations, like St James' Palace and the Millennium Bridge. In fact, the City of London shut down the Millennium Bridge so I could get my shot. They were friendly to us and it only rained a little bit! Why does the movie work, in your opinion? I took this movie because I really love what it says. It says that life is full of second chances if you're not afraid to take them. And if you follow your dream, happiness and love can be yours. That's a fairytale for all ages.

(Liz)Has anyone else seen CF on a Best Western commercial? What network and show was it, Liz? I wonder if Disney owns Best Western.

(BBC) Dennie Gordon has honed his directorial skills Doesn't look like they had a press conference. ;-D (Mari) I wonder if Disney owns Best Western. Nope. Nothing/no relationship mentioned in last annual report. Besides, all of Disney's hotel/accommodations are all so branded.

(Liz)Has anyone else seen CF on a Best Western commercial? No! I wonder if the clip was used by permission of the studio (as opposed to the actors)? And, um, is HS the image Best Western wants? Does anyone have confirmation on the bambino/bambina? (BBC) Dennie Gordon has honed his directorial skills (Karen) Doesn't look like they had a press conference. ;-D No photos in the press kit? And, if it was an interview, how could the writer get it wrong? Unless it was done via email????

" How did you persuade Colin Firth to play the father of a teenager?" $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

(Ev)$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Pfft! But promotional services will cost you extra. ;-)

(Mari)Pfft! But promotional services will cost you extra. ;-) Yeah, and it looks like WB isn't biting...no private plane for this one;-)

Could be that was part of his contract."No promos!!" He certainly has been MIA on this one, except for "Colin Unplugged", and we saw how enthusiastic he was about that one. Only SLOW & L'dum were worse.

About the HS clip in the Best Western commercial: I saw it on CNN headline news (US). The clip was very short (a few seconds) and not attributed to the movie, nor were the actors named -- I just recognized CF and HG and didn't think they'd appeared together in anything else.

(Beedee) Yeah sure, but that's probably not gonna stop them at the BO is it? (Karen)I don't know. However, it does make the point that Colin's name isn't enough to attract an audience, i.e., he isn't "bankable." Sorry, but that's the reality. You know, sometimes reality sucks ;-)!

(Mari) It was three days! The difference: he wanted to be associated with BJD, but not with WAGW. He's stiffed the latter every step of the way, IMO.:-( I agree. Other than the conference he hasn't done anything for this movie. Personal choice, could have been in the contract and agree WB wouldn't foot the bill for a plane on this one. But leaves hope for alot of press with EOR. Yeah.

(Kelli)Colin is not attending due to the fact his wife has just had a baby. Haven't read anything in the press about the birth. He's certainly succeeded in keeping it under wraps. Maybe confirmation will come during the press coverage of the Premiere on Sunday, explaining his non-appearance.

My n'spaper says WAGW DVD to be released this coming Tuesday.

(Pam)agree WB wouldn't foot the bill for a plane on this one. But they'd still pay for a commercial flight, 1st class. Standard practice. It occurs to me that maybe he's feeling so burned by the HS reviews that he doesn't feel like facing it down again, though WAGW is a better film and he is *much* better in it than he was in HS and therefore may not be as decimated in the reviews. Maybe he'll surprise us all and show up anyway.

WAGW review from View London: OPENS FRIDAY AUGUST 8th Three out of Five stars Running time: 105 mins Fluffy, silly and packed with the usual London clich�s, this is still surprisingly good fun, thanks to a sparkling performance by Amanda Bynes. Child star Amanda Bynes is much better known in the States than she is here, thanks to her success on shows such as All That and Nickleodeon�s The Amanda Show. She�s best known to UK audiences as Frankie Muniz�s delightful co-star in Big Fat Liar, but here she gets her own vehicle, which opens just three weeks ahead of her TV �rival� Hilary Duff�s The Lizzie Maguire Movie (due August 29th). Impulsive Child Seeks Father Bynes plays Daphne Reynolds, a seventeen year old girl who lives with her single mother (Kelly Preston) in New York and daydreams about the father she never knew. Impulsively, she hops on a plane to London, intending to track him down, whereupon she discovers that he is, in fact, Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth: Stuffy Upper-Class Brits a Speciality), who has just renounced his peerage in order to stand for Parliament. Though initially taken aback by the daughter he never knew he had, Dashwood quickly accepts her into his home and attempts to get to know her. However, his slimy political advisor (Jonathan Pryce) and his conniving fiance� (Anna Chancellor) have other ideas and they scheme to get Daphne sent back to the States. All the usual London clich�s are present and correct, the most laughable being that Dashwood supposedly lives in a vast country mansion that is handily situated in central London, a mere stone�s throw from Buckingham Palace. In fact, the film is slightly obsessed with the Royal family, as the Queen and Princes Charles, Harry and William (or rather, their lookalikes) all make appearances for Comedy Purposes (Bynes falls off a catwalk into Charles� lap, etc). Teenage Target Audience Based on the 1958 Rex Harrison / Sandra Dee movie The Reluctant Debutante, What A Girl Wants is very much in the mould of other fairytale movies such as The Princess Diaries. The target audience, then, is very much 8-15 year old girls, and maybe teenage boys with crushes on Bynes. With that in mind, it�s still an enjoyable piece of fluff, largely thanks to Bynes herself, who gives a spirited, funny performance and should be a big star in the future. (The camera certainly loves her, judging by the unusually high number of close-ups in the movie). The supporting cast are equally good � Firth can do this sort of thing in his sleep, but he genuinely puts the effort in and clearly enjoys the scenes where he gets to loosen up a bit. There�s also good support from newcomer Oliver James, who plays Daphne�s love interest. In short, as fluffy fairytale movies go, What A Girl Wants is undoubtedly cheesy but still pretty enjoyable and should be a decent hit with its target audience. Reviewed by - Matthew Turner

(Mari)It occurs to me that maybe he's feeling so burned by the HS reviews that he doesn't feel like facing it down again, though WAGW is a better film and he is *much* better in it than he was in HS The US reviews of WAGW were kind to him, even the ones that dismissed the movie as fluff, so he shouldn't be afraid to show up for WAGW. Thanks for posting the review, Mari. It's pretty good. At least it says nice things about Colin (loved the comment about his "specialty"), and it doesn't complain about the cliches. The reviewer certainly liked AB.

(Mari's)In short, as fluffy fairytale movies go, What A Girl Wants is undoubtedly cheesy but still pretty enjoyable and should be a decent hit with its target audience. Pretty much on targer notable only for the *Drooler* attraction factor;-) (Kate)The US reviews of WAGW were kind to him, even the ones that dismissed the movie as fluff, so he shouldn't be afraid to show up for WAGW. The HS reviews were especially venomous and personal so could he expect better with WAGW? If that is in fact why he's absent.

Firth can do this sort of thing in his sleep, but he genuinely puts the effort in and clearly enjoys the scenes where he gets to loosen up a bit. *shaking head* This reviewer really missed the boat. :-(

Thanks, Mari. Glad they liked Oliver James, too. I'm really enjoying the TV commercials for the WAGW DVD. (I'm so deep in HD withdrawl...the commercials help) I've seen/heard it upwards of 8 times today, and at least 3 different versions. HD is back!!!

(Linda) HD is back!!! Ohhhh....lucky girl! I haven't seen the commercials yet! But I'm seriously debating taking the day off work so that I can watch HDTV all day! They can't expect me to concentrate on my job when there is a DVD waiting for me to slo-mo a particular scene (you know the one I'm talkin' about) over and over and over again...;-D

(Tress) HDTV LMAO! Good one, Tress. I actually do have a high definition set, so I guess I'll be watching HDHDTV.;-) Mmmm, 65 HD inches of HD . . . hurry, Tuesday! I haven't seen the WAGW commercials, but I did catch the one Liz mentioned for Best Western. I know it's highly unlikely, but if that isn't Colin, then he has a double in this world. Omigod, 2 of them walking around . . .:-) There's also a different version, without him/his twin.

(Evelyn) My n'spaper says WAGW DVD to be released this coming Tuesday. Saw an ad on TV for DVD last night, available Tuesday and saying starring AB and CF.

Haven't seen either of these ads. :-( Guess I watch too much cable and not enough commercial TV.

I've scanned in and added the actual pictures from the Glasgow newspaper supplement that Janet kindly sent me to this article: http://www.firth.com/articles/03eveningtimes_508.html Very lovely, if I do say so myself. ;-D

Thanks, Janet and Karen. (Dorine)Guess I watch too much cable and not enough commercial TV. Where else can you get BJD every night for the past week;-)

The French actress Marie Trintignant, who played Bianca in Wings of Fame, was found badly beaten in a hotel room. She died a few days later. Her boyfriend has been arrested.

(Linda)Thanks, Janet and Karen. (Dorine)Guess I watch too much cable and not enough commercial TV. Ditto.

A report from Zreview about Trauma filming that took place about two months ago: The following info on the Trauma filming has just been sent in "The scene (filmed on a sunny weekend, indoors, at Spearmint Rhino lapdancing club in Colnbrook, just slightly to the North of...Terminal 4, Heathrow Airport!) about two months ago, I thought that it would not be fresh. Also, the scene's words are absolutely X-rated. Colin Firth was sitting in the nightclub/lapdancing club. We extras are punters. The four actors surrounding Firth have taken him there to bring him out of the introspective shell he's been in, since avoiding death in a car crash which claimed the life of his wife. He is brooding and pensive, as the loud, beery circle of friends (one of which is played by an actor with a very big scar on his face, Scottish, about 30, think he was in Braveheart. That scar is NOT the work of the makeup department.) discusses homosexual sex in graphic street terms, and whether they would be 'takers' or 'receivers' in such sex acts. All this while the dancers/strippers are dancing on the small stage. Firth, eyes to the stage, is goaded by one of his friends that he may be a closet gay. He asks if he'd ever been tempted to engage in gay acts, Firth says "dunno, you any good?" The group of extras numbered about 40, additional to the dancers. The dancers were attired as a Kylie (white chiffon/hood), Tina Turner, Geri Halliwell, and a Britney Spears. The dancers come down off the stage and pair off with extras, and one of the principals, and lead them into the back of the club, ersatz, for individual lap-dancing session. Judging from the way the actors were directed, it seems obvious that the producers don't care about the US market for this film. So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying, even with the music partially muted so that the mics could pick it all up. Even English audiences will need subtitles for some of this. The DP is John Mathieson BSC, who did Gladiator. He mused at how different it was to be doing a smaller project after the scale of Gladiator. But his enthusiasm for this project was no less, for that. But the dedication of all the technical crew in a very tight workspace was full-on. In another scene, extras are arrayed around a smaller podium stage looking at a pneumatically endowed dancer, topless, whom I think was called Ashley, but I am not sure. Between takes, she covered up, and some of the extras (middle-aged men) had a great interest in talking to her. Behind the extras, Colin Firth is determinedly exiting the club, to the protestations of his friends. On the second day (the Sunday) one of the extras actually fainted/passed out during the take. I don't know what brought this on, because it was a lot cooler in the dark club than outside where the weather was glorious, and some of the extras were lying out on the lawn watching planes drift down onto the runway, about 200 metres away." Thanks to Anon!

The Scotsman review (read at your own risk;-) Is this what girls want? WHAT A GIRL WANTS (PG) Director: Dennie Gordon Starring: Amanda Bynes Running time: 107 minutes REMEMBER those horrid Friends episodes when the gang flew to Cool Britannia for one of Ross�s many weddings? How could you forget? The writers dealt in the crassest of cultural stereotypes, depicting a neverland of double-decker buses, Beefeaters on every corner and Richard Branson flogging souvenirs on the Thames. All that was lacking was Dick Van Dyke having a knees up with some sooty urchins and pearly queens twirling in the background. Now, imagine that guiding philosophy applied to an entire feature film and you will know exactly what to expect from the toe-curling embarrassment that is What A Girl Wants. A very loose remake of the 1958 Rex Harrison comedy The Reluctant Debutante, What A Girl Wants unfolds in time warp notions of a Britain populated by snooty aristocrats and chinless wonders and defined by emotions that are as cold as the weather. "No hugs," warns the redoubtable Eileen Atkins. "I�m British - we only show affection to dogs and horses." The clash of cultures can provide some of the most fertile material for screen comedy but this is lazily conceived and sloppily executed. Even by fairytale standards everything is unconvincing and entirely formulaic. Seemingly stuck in the kind of roles that Hugh Grant must reject by the dozen, Colin Firth is once again cast as a repressed, cold fish Englishman. His Lord Henry Dashwood is a pillar of the British establishment but he is also an independent spirit intent on renouncing his peerage to stand for the Commons. We could be looking at a future Prime Minister here. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, teenage Daphne (Amanda Bynes) lives with her wild child wedding singer mother Libby (Kelly Preston) in the heart of New York�s Chinatown. She is Dashwood�s daughter, the result of a reckless youth in which he almost defied convention to begin a different life with Libby. Scheming adviser Jonathan Pryce managed to send the mother packing and Dashwood doesn�t even know that Daphne exists. Wasted in a supporting role, Pryce appears to have become a weary disciple of the Roger Moore school of acting in which his performance consists entirely of raising, lowering and occasional arching an eyebrow. You may already be ahead of the plot by now as the 17-year-old Daphne heads to London in search of the father she has always wanted to know. The Clash are heard on the soundtrack, those double-decker buses drive into camera shot, the rain pours and soon Daphne is struggling to comprehend rhyming slang. Fortunately, Daphne�s arrival in London comes just in the nick of time. The 17-year gap was apparently an emotional void for everyone concerned but now Dashwood is about to make the mistake of marrying bossy, ambitious Glynnis (Anna Chancellor) who has a daughter from hell. Set during the society season and filled with dubious Royal Family lookalikes, the story follows Daphne�s impact on the stuffy Dashwood family and her desire to try to change her personality to suit their more traditional ways. Obviously, the target audience for What A Girl Wants is tweenie girls but surely even they won�t swallow the kind of bilge that has Daphne falling into Prince Charles� lap, effortlessly entrancing minor royalty and enlivening a coming out ball by getting the audience to shake their tiaras and boogie on down to the sounds of James Brown�s �Get Up Offa That Thing�. Probably happens all the time. Bynes apparently has a huge following in the States thanks to her television series The Amanda Show. She is personable and vivacious but bears a disconcerting resemblance to Linda Blair from The Exorcist and sports a distractingly large nose. Everyone from Jonathan Pryce to dear old Sylvia Syms were presumably just grateful for the work but Colin Firth really needs to find some fresh challenges. The one person who almost makes the whole thing work is Eileen Atkins as Dashwood�s formidable mother. Serving tea and sympathy or blasting away at the ancestral pile with her shotgun, she provides some of the few bright moments along the way. Leaving the cinema at the end of What A Girl Wants, I discovered that my foot had fallen asleep - a mercy unfortunately denied to the rest of my body.

Colin Firth really needs to find some fresh challenges. Ask and ye shall receive. (re: Amanda) and sports a distractingly large nose. I find this unnecessary. There seems to be quite an odd array of happenings in Trauma. The outcome could go both ways in that it all gels together in a very intriguing and suspenseful way, or it could seem like a bunch of mish mash. Suppose time will tell. Thanks Karen and Mari.

From Premiere Mag's Fall Preview, typed up by Evelyn: GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING Starring Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson and Essie Davis, directed by Peter Webber (Lions Gate, Dec 12) Based on the best-selling 1999 novel by Tracy Chevalier, this fictional story about the relationship between the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (Firth) and the servant muse in his famous painting (Johansson) is the kind of clothes-on love story audiences rarely see these days. "You want them to be together," Johansson says of the unspoken adoration her shy character feels for her married master. First-time director Webber realized he wanted to make the film when he read the script's sexiest scene, in which Vermeer pierces the young girl's ear. "I just thought, 'Oh my God, this is something I haven't seen before,'" he says. Firth (What a Girl Wants) admits he was worried about how to portray the mysterious artist-who left behind a few dozen masterpieces, but no real self-portrait-but he'd come to terms with his own artistic limitations: "I could do all the research in the world and never do an average portrait." CANVASSING THE MASSES: Webber would rather please fans of the book than art historians. "It's no surprise to me that there's an awful lot of middle-aged women who loved this novel to death, " he says. "It's a romantic drama. We can't go too highfalutin about it." ------------------------ Here's the US poster: Names are CF, SJ and TW, in that order ------------------------ And Premiere's preview of Love Actually: LOVE ACTUALLY Starring Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, and Keira Knightley; Directed by Richard Curtis (Universal, Nov 7.) Curtis, who wrote "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill," steps into the director's chair for this compendium of ten stories of love-romantic, platonic, sibling, unrequited, etc.-that interweave during Christmastime in London. "Some of the stories are sad and rather hopeless, some are rather sweet and tender and romantic, and others are complicated," says Firth, whose novelist character heads to France after catching his girlfriend in bed with his brother-only to fall for a Portuguese maid. Grant plays the very single new British Prime Minister who's smitten by a staffer on his first day on the job, while his sister (Thompson) suspects her husband (Rickman) of having an affair and struggles to "get on with the fact of living together and bringing up children," she says. Neeson plays a father who fantasizes about Claudia Schiffer; she appears as herself in a role once slated for Nicole Kidman, who was tied up shooting "Cold Mountain." Inevitably, a wedding and a funeral are involved, plus sever l cameos, including Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President. PLAY IT AGAIN: In the film, a fading rocker (Bill Nighy) attempts to revive his career by releasing a version of "Love is All Around"-the hit song from "Four Weddings."

it seems obvious that the producers don't care about the US market for this film. So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying . . . Even English audiences will need subtitles for some of this. Oh swell. If the locals can't even understand the dialogue, may I ask who this film was made for??? :-( On the other hand . . . I am loving the GWAPE poster, yes I am! Thanks so much, Evelyn and Karen. I needed that, after the Traumatic report of what sounds like an unreleasable film.

the script's sexiest scene, in which Vermeer pierces the young girl's ear Absolutely it is! Webber would rather please fans of the book than art historians. "It's no surprise to me that there's an awful lot of middle-aged women who loved this novel to death, " he says. "It's a romantic drama. We can't go too highfalutin about it." That's right, don't go messin' with it. ;-D Firth, whose novelist character heads to France after catching his girlfriend in bed with his brother His *brother*, eh? So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying . . . Even English audiences will need subtitles for some of this. Hmmmm, sounds like Sweet Sixteen, a recent Scottish(?) film with all subtitles (including the multitude of F-words, LOL). Not sure how well that did here, but I know it was well reviewed here. It was a very good film. Well, no matter how Trama turns out, I do give him props for trying something that seems radically different for him. Interesting on the GWAPE poster (which is *quite* yummy!), that his wonderful stubble has disappeared. Just the moustache is noticeable. Also, it looks like he might be wearing that funny hat like the one sitting on the bedpost in that one picture of him standing, as opposed to it being his hair. Though it's hard to tell in a small picture like that. Thanks Evelyn for the Premiere tidbits. And thanks Karen for the GWAPE poster. ;-) If the movie is even close to being as awesome as I think it might be, I think I'll be breaking down to buy a Colin poster. :-)

Thanks ladies for the articles and film reviews. Trauma looks to be a definite 18 (NC17) rating. Although the States will probably get a 'diluted' version. Regarding accents. In Britain, some people are just a little lazy when it comes to understanding regional accents, IMHO. I can understand accents from anywhere in the UK - I pay attention! However, I understand the difficulties for non-British english speakers. Isn't the GWAPE poster wonderful? I have high hopes for this one. Can't wait!

"So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying . ." And I had trouble with Clive:-((( Don't go away, Janet...Promise? Trauma sounds very art house. But I was pleased to find GWAPE among the "fall aces" in Premiere Mag. Hey, this is the first time I've seen one of his starring films (his name first) even mentioned in a US movie mag. Classy poster.

(Mari/Scotsman)Colin Firth really needs to find some fresh challenges. The one person who almost makes the whole thing work LOL! I love the way this is wrapped by the Trauma and GWAPE posts! Thanks everyone. ((Karen)A report from Zreview about Trauma filming that took place about two months ago: Very interesting. Thanks Karen. It may be a work to understand the language but I'm not at all put off thus far. DQ was worth the work IMO and I can't p & moan about his selling out anymore;-) TDW looks to be another limited interest film. More power to him. These look like *fresh challenges* indeed.;-) No HG fare here either. ((Karen/Evelyn/Premiere)"It's no surprise to me that there's an awful lot of middle-aged women who loved this novel to death, " he says. "It's a romantic drama. We can't go too highfalutin about it." Hey! They made this one for me (being MAged)! I was a fan of the book before ODB and love the photos, love the poster and can't wait either! Thanks for posting/typing it Karen and Evelyn. A great balm for the review. (Dorine)Well, no matter how Trama turns out, I do give him props for trying something that seems radically different for him. A big Ditto from me!

(Janet)I can understand accents from anywhere in the UK - I pay attention! However, I understand the difficulties for non-British english speakers. (Evelyn)And I had trouble with Clive:-((( Don't go away, Janet...Promise? Sorry to double post but like Evelyn I hope that Janet will help, not only with the words, but also the colloquialisms!:-))

Judging from the way the actors were directed, it seems obvious that the producers don't care about the US market for this film. So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying, even with the music partially muted so that the mics could pick it all up. Even English audiences will need subtitles for some of this. This is a bit worrisome IMO because it won't be the mainstream horror/thriller piece I had imagined Warners usually distributes, aimed at the pimply crowd. With the accents and language, it'll go more along the lines of what Dorine mentioned (Sweet Sixteen) and even 28 Days Later, as a specialty art house. But that lapdancing club scene sounds like it has potential. (Premiere/Webber) when he read the script's sexiest scene, in which Vermeer pierces the young girl's ear. Yes, yes, yes. Totally! But didn't Griet pierce her own ears? She only did one at first, but he wanted her to wear both earrings, so she had to do the second on the spot. He pretty much ordered her to take care of it right then and there. Webber would rather please fans of the book than art historians. How lovely to be considered for once. ;-D (Dorine) Interesting on the GWAPE poster...that his wonderful stubble has disappeared. Probably airbrushed out by the same guy who did Angelina's nipples. ;-D (Janet) Although the States will probably get a 'diluted' version. If it's released as an art house film, then it wouldn't be any different. What's usually diluted from our versions is sex scenes and, well, we know Colin isn't doing any these days. *sigh*

I wouldn't worry too much about the Financial Times reveiw of WAGW. No one who reads the FN would be caught dead seeing a piece of fluff like this ...even if it got good reveiws. They go to art house cinemas that show only foreign films.... without the subtitles;-)

No one who reads the FN would be caught dead seeing a piece of fluff like this As I said before I hope none of you is expecting anyone in the UK to actually go and see this? As far as I can see it has nothing that would appeal to anyone here except the obvious of course... I hope I am wrong but releasing it when half the country is on holiday is an indication of what the marketing people think. CF was wise to stay away from the premiere IMNSHO ;-)

(Allison) As far as I can see it has nothing that would appeal to anyone here except the obvious of course... Which is why you should've seen it in a more receptive setting. ;-D (Scotsman) bilge that has Daphne falling into Prince Charles� lap, effortlessly entrancing minor royalty and enlivening a coming out ball by getting the audience to shake their tiaras and boogie on down to the sounds of James Brown�s �Get Up Offa That Thing�. All of those scenes struck me as ones that wouldn't go over very well. Interestingly, the boogying on down scene reminded me of the finale of Dirty Dancing, yet that wasn't as condescending as this one was. :-(

Which is why you should've seen it in a more receptive setting. Okay. I know but I did not like to inflict yet another viewing on you :-)

LOL. A hardship! Actually Allison I had the same opinion (FN:"pure bilge") before I saw the film;but was pleasantly surprised. Not as offensive as some of his previous ones and definitely better than HS.

Re the Z review thing. The guy with the big scar would be Tommy Flanagan. Thanks for that. Enjoyed it. And thanks, Ev, for your typing.

(Evelyn)And I had trouble with Clive:-((( Don't go away, Janet...Promise? LOL, Clive was the first thing that popped into my head when I read this. (Karen)But that lapdancing club scene sounds like it has potential. Lots of potential. Can't get thoughts of it out of my head. (Allison)As I said before I hope none of you is expecting anyone in the UK to actually go and see this? Well, actually, I hope they do so they can be most pleasantly surprised, as well.;-) Thanks ladies for the poster, news, and reviews...good and not so good;-)

Probably belongs in Odds and Ends, but there is a mention of WAGW: The LA Times: Little miss moviegoer The 8-to-18 female audience not only reads a lot of books but also flocks to movies based on those books, as Hollywood is discovering. By Andre Chautard August 3, 2003 Not all moviegoers who powered "The Princess Diaries" to $108 million at the U.S. box office may know that the film was based on a young adult novel by Meg Cabot. But many of the teen- and tween-age girls who made up the surprise hit's core audience certainly do. They probably have the book (or one of its three sequels) on their shelves alongside titles by other favorite bestselling authors like Ann Brashares, Gail Carson Levine and Louise Rennison. Girls are reading a lot, and they're looking beyond "Harry Potter" and "Holes." Girls see a lot of movies, too, so it's no wonder that Hollywood is taking notice. Now, some of the hottest girl-centric titles � a mix of Cinderella stories, coming-of-age tales and sassy comic novels � are coming to the screen with a number of on-the-rise teen stars in tow. "Ella Enchanted," based on the popular fantasy tale by Levine, will be released by Miramax next spring with Anne Hathaway of "The Princess Diaries" in the title role, and Lindsay Lohan, who stars in the current remake of "Freaky Friday" (originally a young adult novel by Mary Rodgers), is filming an adaptation of Dyan Sheldon's "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" for Disney. The studio has also signed Raven, star of the hit Disney Channel series "That's So Raven," for a big-screen version of Cabot's book "All-American Girl." Brashares' publishing sensation "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is in development at Warner Bros. and scheduled to shoot next year with director Ken Kwapis, while Paramount and Nickelodeon are working on an adaptation of Rennison's "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging," which has been described as a "Bridget Jones's Diary" for the younger set. And a sequel to "The Princess Diaries" is set to shoot in November, with Hathaway, Julie Andrews and director Garry Marshall all retur ing. This increased interest from studios in young adult fiction aimed at girls is a marked change from past years, says "Ella Enchanted" producer Jane Startz, who has worked on adaptations of young adult and children's books for over two decades. "When I first started out, I was doing after-school specials based on young adult books and that was really the only venue for those stories," she says. "Nobody considered the audience economically viable to do a project for that audience on a feature level." But unexpectedly muscular grosses from films like "The Princess Diaries," "Legally Blonde" ($96 million) and "Save the Last Dance" ($91 million), for which girls made up a large part of the audience, changed that perception. Studios since have rushed to fill out their slates with girl-oriented movies like spring's "What a Girl Wants" ($36 million) and "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" ($42 million), which can be made on modest budgets and tap into a devoted audience that will often see a film more than once. "The time I was growing up in this industry, the conventional wisdom was girls will watch something that has a boy [as the lead character], but the boys won't watch something that has a girl," Startz says. "That may or may not be true But I think what people are realizing is it really doesn't matter that much if the boys are going to come or not because there is such a faithful following for some of these girl projects." Fueling this box-office boom is the growing population of teens and tweens in this country: 45 million youths between ages 8 and 18 with more than $90 billion to spend each year, according to market research firm Packaged Facts. That means more young girls are buying books, and Hollywood, looking for ways to reach that audience, is discovering a trove of source material in the young adult section of bookstores. "I think right now the genre is really in the best place it's been," says author Sarah Dessen, whose novels "That Summer" and "Someone Like You" formed the basis for the recent Mandy Moore vehicle "How to Deal." "It's really evolving, and I think that a lot of these books being made into movies is bringing them to a wider audience." Although the overall book market is soft, "the fiction category in publishing is very strong right now in the middle grade and young adult areas," says Shannon Maughan, a contributing editor at Publishers Weekly who writes about children's books. "There are a lot of girls that are reading all of these books," says Debra Martin Chase, who produced "The Princess Diaries" and is now shepherding "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "All-American Girl" to the screen. "You can talk to [many] 12- to 16-year-old girls and they've read all four of the 'Princess Diaries' books, they've read 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' and bought the sequel as soon as it was available. They're devouring them." The popularity of the books ensures a solid base audience for the films, which also drive new readers to the books. "There's a great synergy back and forth between the books and movies," says Startz, who notes that the novel "Tuck Everlasting" topped the charts on Amazon.com in the weeks before the film, which she produced, came out last year. Reader loyalty At test screenings of "Ella Enchanted," "it was encouraging how many kids had already read the book," says Startz, who is also developing Levine's "The Two Princesses of Bamarre" for Miramax. Dessen's two novels were packaged in a single volume as a paperback tie-in to "How to Deal." Although the movie, made for a reported $16 million, opened last month to a disappointing $5.8 million, the tie-in landed Dessen for the first time on the New York Times children's bestsellers list. Girl readers often become loyal to their favorite authors and love to recommend books to their friends and talk about them online. "Because most people now know that teenagers spend a good deal of time on the Internet, there are numerous Web sites and chat rooms and all kinds of discussion groups out there where these books are getting a lot of attention," Maughan says. Dessen, like many contemporary young adult authors, maintains a Web site and even keeps an online journal, wanting to reach out to her readers with the idea that a writer is a real person. "I can't imagine what it would have been like when I was teenager if I could have gone to Judy Blume's Web site," she says. "I think it does make readers feel a connection to me." That so many young adult novels are making their way to the screen is a testament to the passion of producers like Chase and Startz for that body of literature. "I grew up on my version of these books when I was younger," Chase says. "I was always a voracious reader, and I still enjoy them as an adult. They speak to, I think, all girls and the girl in every woman, when they're written right." Startz, who has three children, the youngest of whom is 14, adds that "now you have more women who are in strong positions at the studios who are mothers or who have access to children or who are interested in children, and when something hits home to you I think you become much more interested in it." Disney, attuned to the family film market, was quick to identify the potential of such projects. Chase notes that when she first shopped around "The Princess Diaries," other studios doubted there was a market out there, but Disney knew there was from its success with the 1996 remake of "The Parent Trap," which starred Lohan. "Now, it's part of most studios' slates," Chase says. "They are looking for their 'girl' movies." Books spoke to producer "How to Deal" producer William Teitler first came across Dessen's pair of coming-of-age novels six years ago and was struck by the honesty of the author's voice. "Being the father of two teenage daughters, I felt it was unusually real and true," he says. Although the two novels concern different characters, they both feature a teenage girl protagonist, and Teitler and his partner Chris Van Allsburg (author of the children's book "Jumanji") commissioned playwright Neena Beber to fuse the storylines into one script about a 17-year-old dealing with her best friend's pregnancy, her parents' divorce, her older sister's engagement and her own determination not to fall in love. Studios didn't bite right away, however. "People read it and a lot of people loved it, but it didn't have that high-concept hook," Teitler says. "There was a strong romantic element, [but] it was a more nuanced family story." As the option on the books was running out, the script sparked the interest of Moore, whose "A Walk to Remember" had just opened strongly, prompting New Line to quickly give the film the green light. Beber is now adapting Dessen's latest novel, "This Lullaby," for the studio. More young adult-inspired projects aimed at girls are on the way. Chase, who speaks to young girls regularly to find out which books they are talking about, says, "I've come across a couple of things that maybe weren't on the Hollywood radar screen but that they were enjoying." Her projects include the new Lifetime mystery series "1-800-Missing" (which debuted Saturday), based on a series of books by Cabot, and the Disney Channel telefilm "Cheetah Girls" (airing Aug. 15), based on a book series by Deborah Gregory. "Cheetah Girls" features Raven as one of four multiracial teen girls who form a singing group in Manhattan, while "1-800-Missing" stars Gloria Reuben as an FBI agent who partners with Caterina Scorsone, a young woman with psychic powers, to find missing persons. Chase is also developing Cabot's ghost story "The Mediator" for ABC. Another coming television series, the WB's "Fearless," is based on a series of books by Francine Pascal and stars Rachael Leigh Cook as a young FBI agent unable to feel fear. And Startz is teaming with Blume to bring several of the author's well-known books to film and television, after years of Blume declining offers to adapt her works. "It's Judy Blume who really sculpted out the whole young adult fiction for girls," Startz says. "She was really the pioneer of the whole movement." As Maughan notes, "There have always been wonderful young adult novels. It's just that in recent years, Hollywood has woken up to the wealth of good storytelling that is available for that age level of audience."

Your first inclination was correct, Murph, I'd say this belongs on O&E, if anyone wants to comment on it. Also, the "first degree" type postings also belong there too. :)

(KarenR) But didn't Griet pierce her own ears? She only did one at first, but he wanted her to wear both earrings, so she had to do the second on the spot. He pretty much ordered her to take care of it right then and there. I seem to remember that during an interview, TC mentioned a scene, not in her book, which she was very pleased with. Maybe this is what she was referring to. Very erotic!

That first pic from the Glasgow article has had me swooning for a day or two now...but add all the other goodies.... Firth, eyes to the stage, is goaded by one of his friends that he may be a closet gay. He asks if he'd ever been tempted to engage in gay acts, Firth says "dunno, you any good?" ROTFL....good one! Judging from the way the actors were directed, it seems obvious that the producers don't care about the US market for this film. So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying... Say it ain't so! My biggest fear is that there are ODB movies out there that I won't be able to see! Most accents I'm okay with (okay...I did turn on the subtitles for Snatch, but only for Brad Pitt) so bring it on...I'll go art house (I like art house)!!! (Karen) If it's released as an art house film, then it wouldn't be any different. What's usually diluted from our versions is sex scenes and, well, we know Colin isn't doing any these days. *sigh* *double sigh* At least if scenes are 'cut' then, we can assume they won't be scenes with ODB! And I don't know if I want him having sex in Trauma anyway....his wife is dead....could take this film to a whole nother level... ;-) (Dorine) Well, no matter how Trama turns out, I do give him props for trying something that seems radically different for him. I'll second....or third that, after Beedee! I enjoyed '28 Days Later' and had my doubts going into that one. Hope this one can be as interesting....the reports so far give me hope. First-time director Webber realized he wanted to make the film when he read the script's sexiest scene, in which Vermeer pierces the young girl's ear. "I just thought, 'Oh my God, this is something I haven't seen before,'" he says. OMG is right....just the thought makes me weak in the knees....(amazing, wonderful, beautiful poster BTW). (Karen) Yes, yes, yes. Totally! But didn't Griet pierce her own ears? She only did one at first, but he wanted her to wear both earrings, so she had to do the second on the spot. He pretty much ordered her to take care of it right then and there. She pierces one herself before the sitting, but when she goes to pose with it, she asks Vermeer to put it in for her...that's when we get that bit where he runs his hands on her jawline and neck....she begins to cry and he wipes tears away and brushes her bottom lip with his thumb....I am not going to be make it through this film. I'll be unconscious before he even begins to walk toward her...such a pity too...I was looking forward to seeing that bit! ;-D He does tell her to pierce the other ear right then....and although she stuggled with the first one for days, she just slams that second one in....symbolic or somethin'? I dunno! ...whose novelist character heads to France after catching his girlfriend in bed with his brother-only to fall for a Portuguese maid. Well...didn't she call 'Jamie' pencil dick? Took a chance going after the brother then, didn't she? ;-) Thanks Karen for the articles and Evelyn for typing up the GWAPE bit...much appreciated! And thanks for Mari and Murph for WAGW review and article.

(Karen) With the accents and language, it'll go more along the lines of ....even 28 Days Later, as a specialty art house. I don't find that such a bad prospect. 28 Days Later (with Naomi Harris ironically) has more than exceeded expectations here, if I'm not mistaken. *And* was well reviewed. But that lapdancing club scene sounds like it has potential *crossing fingers* ;-) (Evelyn) But I was pleased to find GWAPE among the "fall aces" in Premiere Mag I, too, was surprised to see GWAPE mentioned again in Premiere of all places since that first bit with the pictures a while back. Doubt it would get a cover article nearer to the release time as Tommy C. and The Last Samurai and Cold Mountain people will be the cover darlings I'm sure, but maybe a decent feature article will be in the offing since it's already been mentioned twice.

Have been watching the WAGW dvd this weekend and there's really not much to the extras section (I've been spoiled by the Lord of the Rings SE/EE dvds). Things I would have liked to have seen: cast interviews, more deleted scenes, Oliver James singing (DG kept saying that he could sing and surprised the cast & crew with his talent). I'd give it a B+. There are 2 commentaries: AB, and DG (constantly thanking everyone and mentioning other movies that used the same locations, but she did say again that CF was her 1st & only choice to play Henry) w/ the writers. I didn't much care for the "What's a Girl to Wear" section, had the hardest time getting out of there :( There were 3 deleted scenes: CF & KP in Morocco (no dialogue), AC & CC at the breakfast table, and CF giving a speech and his voice trailing off as he watches a father & daughter coming in. Fashion 101/Etiquette 101 (apparently I've been buttering my toast wrong all these years!!!) was pretty good. The costume designer talks about meeting up w/ CF at Savile Row. He had a lot of input, wanted vintage leather pants, and the traditional Moroccan groom's outfit left him speechless. This segment ended with a couple practical joke reels between CF & JP :)

Thanks for all the articles ladies. As for not being able to understand the accents in Trauma just think of the fun when the DVD comes out and we just have to watch the scene over and over and over again until we get it;-)

(Tress) Well...didn't she call 'Jamie' pencil dick? Took a chance going after the brother then, didn't she? ;-) Are you speaking from experience? ;-D (moi) With the accents and language, it'll go more along the lines of....even 28 Days Later, as a specialty art house. (Dorine) I don't find that such a bad prospect. 28 Days Later (with Naomi Harris ironically) has more than exceeded expectations here, if I'm not mistaken. *And* was well reviewed. Was I critical? It merely surprised me, as I thought it would be more pimply faced, mainstream fare, which WB usually pumps out. (moi) But that lapdancing club scene sounds like it has potential (Dorine) *crossing fingers* ;-) Yeah, I want to hear his answer to the taker/receiver question. *guffaw* Thanks for the report on the WAGW DVD extras, Marianne. *counting days on fingers and wondering* Obviously, Linda's record-setting attendance didn't influence their plans for the DVD. Imbeciles!

(moi) With the accents and language, it'll go more along the lines of....even 28 Days Later, as a specialty art house. (Dorine) I don't find that such a bad prospect. 28 Days Later (with Naomi Harris ironically) has more than exceeded expectations here, if I'm not mistaken. *And* was well reviewed. (Karen) Was I critical? No and I didn't take it as such. But you did express concern....This is a bit worrisome .....and I was simply expressing my opinion why there may not be a need to worry per se. That's all. :-)

(Karen)But didn't Griet pierce her own ears? She only did one at first, but he wanted her to wear both earrings, so she had to do the second on the spot. He pretty much ordered her to take care of it right then and there On the second piercing: "But-my other ear is not pierced." I faltered. "Then you must tend to it". He continued to hold it out. I reached over and took it. I did it for him. I got out my needle and clove and pierced my other ear. Inspiration for the poster, perhaps: Vermeer: "Show me your ear". I did not want to. I had no choice. I felt under the cap to make sure no hair was loose, tucking a few strands behind my ear. Then I pulled it back to reveal the lower part of my ear. The look on his face was like a sigh, though he did not make a sound. Looks like JV has a thing for ear lobes. Can't you just imagine Colin having a look on his face that is like a sigh? ***Triple Sigh*** On my way to reread this book, tonight! Now back to reality. Seemingly stuck in the kind of roles that Hugh Grant must reject by the dozen Honestly, do these critics ever strive for creativity? How many times will they repeat what someone else has said, and think it's clever?

Seemingly stuck in the kind of roles that Hugh Grant must reject by the dozen (Linda) Honestly, do these critics ever strive for creativity? How many times will they repeat what someone else has said, and think it's clever? I fear (this does worry me, Dorine, too! *winkie winkie*) that we're going to be faced with one more round of HG-lite comments, with Love Actually. Then hopefully it will stop.

(Karen) I fear ...that we're going to be faced with one more round of HG-lite comments, with Love Actually. Then hopefully it will stop. Why would they do it with Love Actually? Not only is Hugh Grant already in it also, Colin apparently barely, if at all, speaks. He couldn't do the "HG stammer" then.

(Linda, quoting) Vermeer: "Show me your ear". Griet: I did not want to. I had no choice... The look on his face was like a sigh, though he did not make a sound. Anyone wanna guess what an Andrew Davies stage direction to CF would be like at this point? (This movie cannot come a moment too soon!)

(Tress) HDTV (Mari) LMAO! Good one, Tress. I actually do have a high definition set, so I guess I'll be watching HDHDTV.;-) Mmmm, 65 HD inches of HD . . . hurry, Tuesday! So does that mean we all have HDDD (Hunk Daddy Deficit Disorder) until Tuesday? ;-) "So dense were the accents, Scottish and East End, that I could barely make out a word that they were saying . ." (Evelyn) And I had trouble with Clive:-((( Me,too. :-( Thanks to all for the reviews, pics, and articles. Thank God the memory of HS is fading fast.... So, where are our reports from London? Yoo-hoo, Ladies. :-)

From Ain't It Cool News: I�ve been saying this for a while, but I�m going to go officially on the record right now: LOVE, ACTUALLY is going to turn out to be one of this year�s biggest hits. Richard Curtis is one of those guys you just don�t bet against, and this buzz on this one is building steadily as we get closer to release. At the beginning of the year, it would have seemed like total madness to go head-to-head with the final MATRIX film, but after the extremely mixed responses to RELOADED, it looks like Universal may have some very good news this November... What is it about good writing that is so impressive? I mean, hundreds of movies are released every year (this year, what 400+?). So why is it at the end of the year I can always pick out on one hand the films that actually made an impression writing-wise? Using that math, there are roughly 2.5 films per one hundred released that are memorable. Depressing? Partly. Mostly it just makes me grateful for those 10 or so films every year that are added to the ever-growing DVD collection. So in a year such as this, where the best films I�ve seen most likely won�t get a wide release (Sundance faves �Die Mommy Die� and �The Station Agent� and by all means, if you get the chance, please go see both), and there is no release from Wes Anderson or Scott Frank, it�s a real joy to have seen Richard Curtis� �Love Actually.� You all are smart enough to go to IMDB to figure out who�s in the cast, but just know it�s everyone who�s anyone in Britain. Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant... wait, I said I wasn�t going to name them all. But you get the point. Good cast. Oh... I�ll say this: Keira Knightly. Future Mrs. Keira Dough. Yikes... she�s something. Okay, so plot? Similar in structure to Altman�s �Short Cuts,� Curtis uses intertwining characters and plot points to tell the story of the love in 10 or so people�s lives. Neeson plays a widower with an 11 year old son (who steals the film) both dealing with the loss of love and attempting to find new love; Grant (so good in Curtis� �Notting Hill�) plays the newly elected Prime Minister, who finds it a bit difficult to concentrate around his tea-server (Martine McCutcheon); Firth is a man who, after being dumped, heads to a cottage in France to write his novel, but finds that love isn�t necessarily the international language (that would be Portuguese); Knightly is a new bride trying to deal with her husband�s jealous best friend; Emma Thompson & Alan Rickman (I told you everyone was in it) play a married couple with children, testing the limits of their love for each other; as well as several other characters all dealing with love in some form. That�s quite a run-on sentence. Forgive me. I don�t want to get too much into specifics, but there are a few things I feel I must talk about, as they were too good to not start buzzing about now. First off, the casting of the 11 year old son of Neeson. The girls I was with all �awwwed� when he first showed up, but it was his acting that got me. The kid�s real. Doesn�t exude any of that �I�m a child actor and look at me, I�m precocious!� crap. He�s just real. And funny, to boot. Then there�s Bill Nighy. See below. The guy�s incredible. Every scene he�s in had the audience laughing. Then there�s the Colin sub-plot. My note: Huh? Maybe Colin is the character's name.) Colin�s a guy who�s had a brilliant plan to come to America and seduce our women. Damn him. Damn him straight to H-E-double hockey sticks. Harry... let me say this. You�re gonna freak out. Best use of a �24� star yet, plus the scene (and you�ll know it when you see it... it involves �Milwaukee�) has January Jones. Fantastic stuff. You know those reviewer-friendly quotes like �A rollicking good time!!� and �I laughed non-stop!!�? Well, they actually fit here. I can�t really say enough about what a blast this movie was. The great part is, too, that every of the above-mentioned actors gets a real moment to shine. And I�ll say this: Bill Nighy had better get nominated for his work in this film. It�s Kevin-Kline-FISH-CALLED-WANDA good. I�m not even going to say what his deal is, other than to say that along with Johnny Depp�s �Cap�n Jack Sparrow,� the Stones are proving fertile ground for creating characters. The only problems I had with the film, and this is all put down on those handy-dandy survey sheets, is that the resolution of the film is a bit... lacking in some areas. The challenge of creating a piece like this is getting the audience to care for all of these characters, and Curtis succeeds 100%. But that actually ends up being his biggest problem: we care so much about each of the characters, that to not be given a proper resolution for each of them seems... wrong. Technically speaking, the film was a bit rough, but the release date is months away, so I�m sure it�ll all get worked out. Granted, I was sitting in the front row (I mention that because it�s entirely possible that the �roughness� I saw was due to the extreme, migraine-inducing view I had), but a lot of the film looked unfinished. Now, I could definitely be mistaken here, but it also looks like they filmed on digital, which I found interesting. Some of the more polished scenes looked just like film, which is where my confusion came from, because suddenly it was like watching something off my Digicam. But since the few scenes that looked good looked so good, I can only assume that the rest of the film will look that good in a few months� time. The soundtrack is fantastic. Every song is a classic, perfectly used to deliver either a comic punch to the scene or the right weight behind the drama. The temp score they were using was 100% �Life Is Beautiful,� so obviously the score�s still being worked on, which they said prior to the start of the film. Here�s a fair warning: THIS FILM IS AN UNABASHED ROMANTIC COMEDY. Hell, the movie opens with shots of the Heathrow welcoming gate with people hugging and laughing and kissing and a voiceover telling us that love is everywhere, that despite how bad the world may seem, for the most part, people still crave love and are willing to do good things to achieve it (it was a bit like the beginning of �Dogma,� actually, with the exception of the two foul-mouthed, crotchless, prank-pulling angels). It�s mush, I guess, but I�m a sucker for mush. And this is mush that�s actually got some substance... you know, like oatmeal. And really, on a cold morning (and this comes out in November, so for most of the country, it�ll be nippy), who doesn�t love a good bowl of oatmeal? Now that I type that, I realize that the majority of the people who will actually read this are probably not, you know, huge oatmeal freaks, so ignore that sentence. For the rest of us, go check this movie out. It�s absolutely worth your $6.50-$14.00 (de ending on where you live, naturally).

Thanks for posting the review of LA, Mari. But is this reviewer for real? Can the film really be this good? - I hope so! I keep returning to the poster of GWAPE. Isn't he is AFG, airbrushed or not? Can anybody make out(or speculate on)what the 3 words are underneath his delectable chin?

Thanks for the reviews, article and poster - can't make out much of the words (Sorry Janet), but I wasn't really looking at it to read.:) (Janet)is this reviewer for real? Almost seems dreamlike. Dreamlike is good.

(Mari's note: Then there�s the Colin sub-plot. My note: Huh? Maybe Colin is the character's name.) That's the storyline about the guy, played by Kris Marshall, who goes to Wisconsin and meets up with Elisha Cuthbert. Bill Nighy is certainly making a huge impression on everyone this year, especially if you've seen I Capture the Castle too. He reminds me a great deal of Peter O'Toole in appearance and style. The review sounds a tad to enthusiastic to be real, especially for anyone at AICN about a rom-com. ;-D

The only cast members I've seen pics of attending the celebrity screening were: Oliver James, Cassie and Connie Powney (Peach and Pear), Christina Cole, and Natalie Bromley. AB was at the Teen Choice Awards and KellyP had a Scientology thing.

No idea what the words are, yet, but a close-up:

Thanks everyone for all the news on GWAPE, Trauma and LA. Have just returned from London and Colin didn�t show. There was a screening at 10.00am for press etc. and another at 3.00pm. We only saw Sylvia Sims and Oliver James from the film. Those of us waiting and melting in 91 degrees recognised hardly anybody. We asked press photographers whether they knew if Colin was attending and one said �after watching the film this morning, I shouldn�t think he would dare�, or something similar. Very low key. No carpet, guests entered by a side door. We didn�t see any posters at all advertising the film apart from one on the side wall of WB cinema. There was an article in yesterday�s �News of the World� which had a lot of re-hashed material re BJD. Of WAGW: Colin is back on the silver screen this Friday playing a high-flying English Politian in the family comedy, What A Girl Wants. He is traced by his secret daughter Daphne (Amanda Bynes), the result of a whirlwind romance 17 years earlier with American Libby (Kelly Preston). Being a politician, having an illegitimate daughter could ruin his chances of winning an upcoming election. So should he sacrifice his daughter for a second time to pursue his ambition? �This is something completely different for me,� says Colin. �I have played French, American and Scottish roles on screen and I always like to keep on moving around, trying new things.� He�s banking on the film making a bigger impact than his recent romantic comedy, Hope Springs. Despite co-starring Minnie Driver and Heather Graham, it sadly failed to impress the critics. �You know that quote about never being out of fashion because you have never been in fashion? That applies to me perfectly,� laughs Colin. �I have rarely been in pole position or flavour of the month.�

Thanks Aishling for being such a trooper esp since no one thought he would be there. (CF)?I have rarely been in pole position or flavour of the month.? " Explain "pole position" ...have to do with rafting? Anyway, I get the drift and I'm glad he's taking it in good humor .

(Evelyn)Explain "pole position" ...have to do with rafting? Didn't see a winkie, so here it goes: pole position: first to go in a car race (Formula One) Thanks all for articles, pictures... Yummy week! (Colin)�I have played French, American and Scottish roles on screen and I always like to keep on moving around, trying new things.� So referring to Valmont, Jess (or Ross) and Edward... Umm, fun to see what's on his mind. Although "trying new things" "This is something completely different for me" when referring to WAGW, had me in stitches (picturing Mark Darcy's twinkle when introducing Bridget to Natasha):)

The great part is, too, that every of the above-mentioned actors gets a real moment to shine That's encouraging. Thanks, Mari. I hope LA is as good as it sounds. The article was so upbeat I felt like breaking out the old cheerleader shakers;-) (Odile)(picturing Mark Darcy's twinkle when introducing Bridget to Natasha) I love that twinkle...shows he isn't as stiffupperlipped as he seems. Please, boss, post a warning each time you enlarge that GWAPE poster. I can't take it. Beginning to save my money...it's going to be a very expensivefall. I'll be bankrupt by the new year;-) Thanks Karen, Aishling, and Mari

Thanks for the report, Aishling. Good for you for trying! Nothing ventured . . . A video store nearby has signage advertising the WAGW DVD/tape for tomorrow "with a free soundtrack while supplies last." So, look out for those two-fers! Thanks for the heads-up on the extras, Marianne. I honestly wasn't expecting much, so at least he's in some of them. Was looking at the GWAPE book cover next to the poster and it's astonishing how much Scarlett has been made to look like the painting. Love how they've capitalized on that resemblance while nicely working in a very seductive-looking CF. Whoever is doing their promo is off to a good start.

From a site called This Is Local London: What a Girl Wants (PG) IF IT is double cheesy mush with a cherry on top you want, then What A Girl Wants is the film for you. I wanted to hate this, and it was cringeworthy on several occasions, but let�s not detract from what it is � an old-fashioned, feel-good romantic comedy. Amanda Bynes, little known in this country but famous in America for Nickelodeon�s All That, is like a breath of fresh air and fits perfectly into the role of the feisty teenager. She�s confident, pretty, and reveals all of the innocence and naivety of a youngster finding her way in the world. Colin Firth (or is it always Mr Darcy to his legions of female fans?) is also good as the stuffy and reserved aristocratic father/Lord/MP, although you do wonder why an actor of his stature isn�t challenging his talents with something a bit grittier. The same could be said of Jonathan Pryce, who plays the evil political manipulator � with some aplomb may I add. Nevertheless, you still wonder why his talents are wasted in a film which is basically a coming-of-age flick. The rest of the cast just play their one-dimensional stereotypes in unremarkable style. In essence, the movie is a fairy story with Cinderella, a wicked stepmother, an ugly sister and a Prince Charming. The Cinderella character is Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes), a precocious 17-year-old who was the result of a whirlwind romance between her mother and an aristocratic Englishman. Although the spirited teenager has an unconventional but loving relationship with her bohemian mother, Libby (Kelly Preston), she feels the need to find out who her father is. Prince Charming is Daphne�s father (Colin Firth), Lord Henry Dashwood, a high-profile politician who is unaware he has a daughter. Henry believed his former lover Libby had left him because she did not love him. Libby mistakenly thought her beloved Henry had abandoned her when he found out she was pregnant. The truth was they were both the victims of a conspiracy concocted by Dashwood�s advisors who thought she was unsuitable to be the wife of a would-be Prime Minister. Daphne arrives, much to the chagrin of Henry�s conniving fianc�e (Anna Chancellor), the wicked stepmother, and her jealous daughter (Christina Cole), the ugly sister, who are hell-bent on ruining the popular teenager at every turn. And they do a pretty good job, setting her up to Daphne breaks every social convention associated with the stiff-upper lipped aristocratic life. Not wanting to jeopardise her father�s campaign for an upcoming election, Daphne stifles her naturally vibrant personality, refashions herself as a proper debutante and plunges into a whirlwind of stuffy British social events. But she soon realises she doesn�t like the person she�s becoming in the process. As much as she wants to be her father�s daughter, it�s not worth it if she can�t be herself. After all, as Ian (Oliver James), a charming and society-savvy local musician, asks her, why fit in when you were born to stand out? Will it all end in tears or will there be a fairytale ending where everybody lives happily ever after? You will have to go and find out.

From The Usher filmsite. I've deleted the plot summary. The American dream of finding out that you have a rich, unknown relative that will make all of your dreams come true, is bought to the screen again in an extremely sickly sweet and sentimental way. A remake of the 1958 movie "The Reluctant Debutant" starring Rex Hamilton and Sandra Lee, this is just The Princess Diaries all over again. Girl discovers she is related to a rich aristocrat, in this case a Lord not a King, but her American upbringing, while adding street smarts and the joy of all things modern, makes it difficult for her to become accustomed to the pomp and circumstance associated with more civilised society. You get the picture and you know she is going to change him and they'll live happily ever after. It does have its good points. Amanda Bynes, from TVs The Amanda Show and Big Fat Liar, shows that she is an upcoming teenage actress that has enough personally to make a good screen lead. She is charming, personable and nice meaning that you can't help liking her endearing qualities. Colin Firth is nicely cast as her reluctant father, as he bungles his way through parenting for the first time. Anna Chancellor is also good as the prospective wicked stepmother. What lets the movie down is the sugar coated, overly sentimental ending that you could see coming from a mile away. While the movie was always destined to end this way, it would have been nice for some inkling of originality to have crept in their. Also, the supporting cast is very underdeveloped. Jonathan Pryce's Alistair Payne is extremely underwritten and a waste of a talented actor. Kelly Preston is only in the movie for about ten minutes and Oliver James looks like a reject from a boy band which a really posh accent. What a Girl Wants is as sugar coated a teenage 'chick-flick' as you could get. While the performances from Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth are good, you just end up wishing that they could have chosen a better film to star together in as this is decidingly average.

Thank you, ladies for the all the news and reviews. (Mari)Was looking at the GWAPE book cover next to the poster and it's astonishing how much Scarlett has been made to look like the painting. Love how they've capitalized on that resemblance while nicely working in a very seductive-looking CF. Whoever is doing their promo is off to a good start. I did just the same, and totally agree. About LA, as Janet said I hope this isn't too good to be true. Saw Mena Suvari on tv tonight and started thinking about Trauma and lapdancing - really like the gay-sentence: dunno - are you any good? ;-) All in all, I think the winter is going to be a very good one ODB-wise :-)

(Annette) Thank you, ladies for the all the news and reviews. How wonderful of you to profess opinions which are my own. :-)

(Karen) The review sounds a tad to enthusiastic to be real, especially for anyone at AICN about a rom-com. ;-D My first thought, as well. Second thought is to go to the AICN Talkback section below that report and see if others concurred. Thanks everyone for all the news and reviews. Aishling, what a trooper in that heat! Boy, that poster really is something. "I'm mellllting!" ;-)

Thanks, Aisling, for making the effort, just in case. I'm just so glad I didn't waste my airmiles! -I'm saving them for November. I think the Premiere of GWAPE will be around my birthday, so I've got a good excuse for a trip to the capital!

From the British Films in Progress website click on page 2. DEAD WAIT, THE (UK/SA/GER) Director: Jens Meurer Producer: Sheryl Crown, Blue Orange Films Cast: Colin Firth Sales agent: Beyond Films Status: pre-production http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/inprogress/?&skip=30

Quite possibly one of the most condescending articles in recent memory. From the Telegraph, the slugs :-( 'I don't want to be a celebrity' (Filed: 05/08/2003) She's America's sweetest, perkiest and most popular teenage star. But is Amanda Bynes old before her time, asks Michael Shelden Teen stars with baby faces and big contracts are becoming the hottest commodity in Hollywood, where the common wisdom seems to hold that old age now begins at 30. In an effort to tap into the lucrative pre-teen market - in which 15-year-old Californian twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have built a multi-million dollar fashion and media empire - the big studios are putting their marketing muscle behind a new pack of "tween queens". The leader of the gang is Amanda Bynes - a showbiz veteran at the tender age of 17 - who makes Britney Spears look like a late bloomer. She was auditioning for television adverts at seven, doing stand-up comedy at 10, starring in her own series at 13 (The Amanda Show on Nickelodeon) and is now featured in a new film with a supporting cast that includes such oldies as Colin Firth and Jonathan Pryce. So, are you excited about your first British premiere, Amanda? "I don't know when it comes out over there," she tells me, as we sit and chat at the Hollywood headquarters of Warner Brothers. She waves her hand vaguely, as though Britain and all those other strange places outside sunny California are somewhere in the general direction of the Pacific Ocean. No plans to go to London, then? "No," she says, curtly. Jolly Olde England seems to have lost its charm for the young star, who spent three months in and around London last summer making her new film, What a Girl Wants - a princess fantasy in which American teen Amanda enjoys playing aristocratic dress-up as the long-lost daughter of Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth) and, in the process, shows a lot of stuffy Brits how to have fun. She insists that she had a good time working on the film, but admits that she would have enjoyed her visit more if the stay in England had been shorter. Three months was an eternity to a Californian girl who had never been abroad before. "A month would have been better," she says with a weary look, then quickly adds, in a sudden show of perkiness. "But I really enjoyed London. Everybody was so friendly." It isn't easy being a teen sensation when you have to remember to say nice things about places that are, you know, so far away and, like, so different. But the studio has trained Amanda well. She is polite, amazingly mature ("Yes, I am mature," she says with disarming bluntness) and so squeaky clean that no dirt will stick to her. Even her boyfriend is a steady young fellow she's known for years. Not for her the fast life of drugs, sex, booze, tattoos and silicone enhancement. Her job is to entertain the crucial demographic of pre-pubescent girls by being incredibly cute and innocent while surviving close encounters with the adult world. Accordingly, her principal companion during her stay in London was not some fellow teen heartthrob but her Canadian grandmother. "Innocent is who I am," she says, earnestly. "I don't need to watch my image." Such pronouncements fall from her lips with ease, and without any trace of irony. She is a marketing dream come true - the good teen who loves her corporate Big Brother and will do nothing to embarrass the brand. Before I meet her, her publicist warns me not to be late, saying: "Amanda is very prompt." When I arrive early, the corporate machine is already in high gear and the meeting has been moved forward at the last minute so that the busy star can make another appointment - so I'm late anyway and the super-teen is patiently waiting for me in a room overstocked with icy drinks and decorated in the equally icy style of big media management. I feel like a schoolboy interviewing a jaded old pro who might look 17 but speaks with an air of solemn calculation worthy of a 40-year-old banker. She says things that ordinary 17-year-olds rarely say, telling me: "People are very judgmental and don't have empathy." The last word is pronounced with such careful precision that you can almost imagine her holding up the flashcard from her latest tutoring session on "big words". But the careful fa�ade of grown-up sophistication soon cracks and the little girl emerges. As she goes over the details of her career with robotic speed, she suddenly pauses to lick not only the bottle cap of her sugary fruit drink, but also the heel of her palm. In a flash, she goes from stage-managed adult to the child she really is. It is sad to see a child forced to grow old before her time, but she insists that her corporate persona is her own creation and seems unaware that her strings are being pulled by anyone above her. Though her father - a dentist - took her to her first audition 10 years ago, she steadfastly holds that every step in her career has been voluntary. "I love acting. It's fun, and my parents have never pushed me into anything." Yet she almost shudders with dread when she recalls watching other children endure the horrors of auditioning, and she came to dread the ordeal herself. "Between seven and 10, I used to audition for commercials all the time. Sometimes, I would do three auditions a day. My mother would go with me, but she wasn't pushing me like some of the other mothers did with their kids. "I can still remember the look of pain on one little girl's face when her mother pulled her aside and began combing her hair too hard. It hurt to watch that." Young Amanda had no trouble getting job offers. She became a star on the Nickelodeon channel by playing madcap characters who were parodies of older people. Part of the appeal of her persona for her teen fans is that she makes gentle fun of adults by pretending to be one, and - by design - not entirely succeeding. When she was given her own series on Nickelodeon, she ran it like a child's version of an adult variety programme - with guest stars and skits that were funny largely because they were pint-sized imitations of the real thing. The problem now is that she has imitated adults for so long that she can't seem to figure out whether she's 17 or 37. And the humour that she displays on screen is strangely lacking in person. She rarely cracks a smile during our interview. "I almost feel like I'm not part of my own generation," she says. "I feel more comfortable sometimes with older people, and I get to meet a lot of really neat ones. You know, women who are, like, 30." Scratch her hard surface and a thousand insecurities escape. "I don't want to be a celebrity, yet I do," she says, with a revealing look of childish indecision. Hurtful phrases from bad reviews of her film still ring in her ears. "People said I have a puffy face. What does that have to do with the quality of the movie? They're reviewing me, not the work, and that's not fair." Her face twists as she complains, then just as quickly returns to her usual look of rehearsed sophistication as she retreats behind an adult platitude. "But I've come to terms with it now, so that's fine." When she has a chance to fight back, she often finds, to her confusion, that she can't. She has been acting "sweet" and "perky" for so long that she finds it difficult to confront the studio when its wishes conflict with hers. "We took maybe 500 promotional photos on the set of my latest movie, so we had lots to choose from, but everyone told me that the one in the poster was the best and I didn't agree." So what happened? "It stayed in the poster," she says - then adds, candidly, "Imagine, everywhere you go, seeing a picture of you that you don't like. I have such a fake smile in that photo." Older people may not yet know her name or face, but Bynes has so many young fans that her website gets millions of visitors a week. Such fame has its drawbacks, and she winces at the thought of all those fans waiting to pounce on her in public. "A woman came up to me recently and put her arm on my shoulder. That may not sound like a big deal, but I don't like having people invade my personal space. They think they know you, but they're strangers, and nobody likes being touched by strangers. "Up until recently, I was pretty sure I would go away to college, but how could I live in a dorm room? It's a question of security. When you're famous, you can't just live anywhere and have an ordinary life. But at home, I try." She is a bright young woman, and I suspect that one day she will look back on her career as a teen idol and find that much of it had an unreal - if not fake - quality to it. She wants to continue acting for the foreseeable future, but she also wants to get married and have a family. "I think it would be such a cool thing to have a baby - to create a person who is a part of you." In bringing up her own children, she may discover how much of her own childhood was lost. But at this stage in her life, she is more of a Hollywood creation than she can afford to admit and cannot be blamed for misunderstanding what adults have done to her. When her career was just beginning to take off, one studio executive at Nickelodeon summed up the corporate attitude towards her by declaring: "Amanda is funny, and funny is money."

(Linda)http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/inprogress/?&skip=30 LOL! When you scroll down a little there's the blip about the movie Cloud Cuckoo Land! Can't wait to read more about that one;-) (Mari's post)where the common wisdom seems to hold that old age now begins at 30. Hey! What's the big deal. Used to think this in the 60's! What a stupid and gratuatously mean spirited piece...... Yuk. Makes me want to write her (Amanda) a fan letter.

My DVD of WAGW arrived this morning. - It doesn't even open in the cinema until this Friday. -Don't know if I'll be able to persuade my DH to go with me, but I must see him on the big screen!!

(Janet)DVD of WAGW arrived this morning. - It doesn't even open in the cinema until this Friday How did this happen. Am I living in a parallel universe? I must see him on the big screen!! This is a definite MUST. Just a pity that you can't get close enough to the screen to touch.

Quite possibly one of the most condescending articles in recent memory. From the Telegraph, the slugs :-( "She rarely cracks a smile during our interview." Can't imagine why. I guess she was "mature" enough to recognize a jerk when she saw one.

http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/inprogress/?&skip=30 "Cold Mountain" is a British film? Puh-leeze. (Telegraph)But the careful fa�ade of grown-up sophistication soon cracks and the little girl emerges. Psst...most 17yr old react that way.It's normal and part of their charm. This writer doesn't even know a teenager. Why does the Telegraph, a respectable newspaper even file an article like that.

Aishling, thank you so much for making the effort? I know you must be disappointed. Did you get to see the movie, and if so what did you think? Thanks for all the reviews everyone. Let's hope LA is as good as this reviewer thinks. Remarkable cast and so many well known here, I think it should be very well received, and timing is just right for the kick off of the holiday season.

Thanks for the article, Mari. Yeah, it's mean and seemingly predisposed to dislike and all the other tween queens; however, there were a few very similar observations I had myself, when I saw her on the Craig Kilbourn show. The problem now is that she has imitated adults for so long that she can't seem to figure out whether she's 17 or 37. And the humour that she displays on screen is strangely lacking in person. She rarely cracks a smile during our interview. When she would laugh, it looked so phony. Not for her the fast life of drugs, sex, booze, tattoos and silicone enhancement. I wouldn't bet on that last one. Was probably done for her 16th birthday. ;-D

(AICN) Okay, so plot? Similar in structure to Altman�s �Short Cuts,� Curtis uses intertwining characters and plot points to tell the story... Really liked SC....the reviewer said something about the only problem he had with the film were the resolutions to some of the stories. That some lacked a 'proper' ending. But that is what SC did....and why I enjoyed it so much. I enjoy films that aren't neatly wrapped up at the end. Leave you thinking a bit about the possibilities. If this is what Curtis is doing, I like that idea and hope that they don't go in, edit it and give each story a fairy tale ending. Thanks Karen for the 'enlarged' version of the GWAPE poster....definitely swoon-worthy for me. (The Telegraph) She is a bright young woman, and I suspect that one day she will look back on her career as a teen idol and find that much of it had an unreal - if not fake - quality to it. Fake? Like the interviewer's face! GAH! Horrible....why the anger in this one? I'm sure that when Amanda was interviewed, she had no idea that the interviewer would turn around and write such a hateful piece...or maybe she did and that explained her lack of enthusiasm. Thanks ladies for all the articles!

Thanks, Mari. I was a bit surprised by the article. I found AB delightful and sweet in the interviews I watched. She was particularly funny and very gushy about Colin and her stay in London last summer during the Wayne Brady interview. Oh well, just one of those intervies that somehow gets twisted before it goes to print;-( My Henry is back...arrived just a few moments, ago...and off I go to recover him.

Here are links to deleted scenes found on the DVD. There is only one clip, but there are a jillion formats to chose from (Real Player, Quick Time, WM, etc.) plus transmission speeds. Whatever works for you, you should find amongst these links: http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_100.asx http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_100.ram http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_100.rpm http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_300.asx http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_300.ram http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_300.rpm http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_56.asx http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_56.ram http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_56.rpm http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_100.mov http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_100.smil http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_300.mov http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_300.smil http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_56.mov http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/whv/med/what_a_girl_wants/addl_scenes_qt_56.smil

The second scene on the clip is HD giving an assnumblingly boring speech. A real dynamo. ;-D

(Karen) HD giving an assnumblingly boring speech. BWAH! In it he says he comes from Wickham! Wonder how many little in jokes they'll throw into EOR. Doesn't appear the biggest one will be making it in. Thanks for the links, Karen. No time to pick up HD today or to watch it tonight anyway.

(Janet)DVD of WAGW arrived this morning. - It doesn't even open in the cinema until this Friday (LeahP)How did this happen. Am I living in a parallel universe? I bought a Region free DVD Player last year. Best purchase I've made in a long time!! - And WAGW isn't released in the UK until this Friday, so I get the best of both worlds!!

I've just finished watching my DVD of WAGW. And I can't believe how unbelievably gorgeous he is in this film! Friday can't come soon enough for me!

(Janet)And I can't believe how unbelievably gorgeous he is in this film And the DVD is just the tip of the iceberg...wait till you see him on the big screen. Lucky girl! I just checked into multi region DVD players, yesterday...after the Trauuuuuuuuuma report I figure it's time to invest. I wish they had included more outtakes. The few after the fashion and etiquette segment were funny and left me wanting more. Blast! But, I'm not complaining...Henry is home.

(Linda) Henry is home. No time, nuff said.

(Linda) Henry is home. For any of you with Sam's Club memberships, I would suggest looking there for WAGW - the DVD was a few bucks cheaper. Anyway, I have my DVD! So excited as I actually have not seen the movie yet. Got a great question today... over dinner, my mother very seriously asked, "So what is it with Colin Firth? How long has this been going on?"

(Linda) Henry is home. LOL....he is indeed! Think I'll go curl up on the couch with him right now! Sweet dreams, Droolers!!

(Shoshana)Got a great question today... over dinner, my mother very seriously asked, "So what is it with Colin Firth? How long has this been going on?" LOL! You are so busted! This is a question that I fear from the DH.;-)

From an article in THR about up and coming new directors: That sort of unearned self-assurance � a willingness to leap blindly into the unknown � is common to all novice filmmakers, who often don't have the good sense to recognize that they're in over their heads. Independent films make for a cruel apprenticeship because there's no margin for error, no room in the minuscule budget and harried shooting schedule for the occasional rookie mistake. These conditions would rattle even the most-seasoned veteran, but a promising new crop of directors is hoping to survive its trial by fire unscathed. [...] In "Station Agent," the trains represent a neat metaphor for themes of connection and disconnection, but they also evoke an era that has long-since passed with antiquated values that share little relation to the present. It's this same nostalgic spirit that led Peter Webber, a veteran of British TV dramas and documentaries, to make his feature debut with Lions Gate's "Girl With a Pearl Earring," the long-awaited adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel. Based on the Johannes Vermeer painting of the same name, the project came to Webber after a previous incarnation � with director Mike Newell and stars Ralph Fiennes and Kate Hudson attached � slipped through the cracks. Likening the transition from television to film to "slipping into a comfortable pair of shoes," Webber cast Colin Firth as Vermeer and an uncanny Scarlett Johansson as the peasant maid who inspired his famous painting. "It's really a story about repression," says Webber, who mimicked the painter's elegant simplicity in depicting 17th-century Dutch culture. "We live in a world where very little is repressed, where sexuality is worn on people's sleeves, where every other film people are jumping into bed. I relished the idea of making a film where people can't do what they want and have a passion that's denied somehow. "Maybe it's because I'm a Brit," Webber jokes. "We're supposed to be repressed, aren't we?"