THE NEW HOLLYWOOD: VANITY FAIR TRI-FOLD COVER BY MARIO TESTINO MARCH 2012

The New Hollywood: Vanity Fair presents its annual Hollywood issue with a stunning three-panel foldout cover featuring eleven of the most buzzed about actresses of now. Captured by Mario Testino on a Jazz Age Art Deco set, the glamorous group portrait includes starlets, Rooney Mara, Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Elisabeth Olsen, Adepero Oduye, Shailene Woodley, Paula Patton, Felicity Jones, Lily Collins and Brit Marling, all styled by Jessica Diehl in pastel satin dresses and frothy feathers to lend a 20s and 30s boudoir feel.

View behind the scenes video of the photo shoot here.

Vanityfair.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINNIE DRIVER (42) ‘BELOVED’ MUSIC VIDEO

Minnie Driver (born Amelia Fiona J. Driver; 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.

Early in her career, Driver was a member of a band called “Puff, Rocks and Brown”; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.

She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW. Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket, which reached No. 34 in the UK, and a second single, “Invisible Girl” peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn’s band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered “Hungry Heart” from Bruce Springsteen’s The River. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.

In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher’s film of The Phantom of the Opera. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to Learn to be Lonely, a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie). Driver released her second album entitled Seastories on 17 July 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc “Doc” Dauer, who also produced Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket. Ryan Adams and his band The Cardinals and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.

Read more here.

Song Lyrics:

The late light of the desert made
The mountains a silhouette
As curved as a woman’s side
As far off as I feel inside
Gravity it’s heavier than my fears
Pulls me to a new conclusion
The light of you is the weight that keeps me here

I wake up with my soul on fire
I’m swimming in my heart’s desire not
Drowning in somebody’s wake, not
Smiling for somebody’s sake
Why don’t you just stay here in the sun
Beats me why you disappear honey
Ain’t I your beloved one

My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one
My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one

I see you blue eyed old and grey still
Up all night ’til break of day.
You dance me across the kitchen floor,
You still got one eye on the door.
How you love me with,
Them halfway eyes.
And when I think there’s nothing left
I think of love and all the time it buys.

My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one
My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one

The late light of the desert made
The mountains a silhouette
As curved as a woman’s side,
As far off as I feel inside.
The battle was hard fought but nobody won,
I’ll be your magnetic north baby,
You be my beloved one.

My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one
My beloved, my beloved, my beloved one

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN BALE (38)

Christian Bale photographed by Terry Richardson for GQ

Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.

Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987). He played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. He is also notable for his role as serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000), and for portraying Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) and in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In 2010, Bale portrayed Dicky Eklund in the biopic The Fighter. He received critical acclaim for his role and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Read more here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANESSA REDGRAVE (75)

Vanessa Redgrave, (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.

She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London’s West End and Broadway, winning both the Tony and Olivier Awards. On screen, she has starred in more than 80 films; including Mary, Queen of Scots, Isadora, Julia, The Bostonians, Mission: Impossible and Atonement. Redgrave was proclaimed by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as “the greatest living actress of our times,” and she remains the only British actress ever to win the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guildawards. She was also the recipient of the 2010 BAFTA Fellowship ”in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film.”

Highlights of Redgrave’s early film career include her first starring role in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (for which she earned an Oscar nomination, a Cannes award, a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Film Award nomination); her portrayal of a cool London swinger in 1966′s Blowup; her spirited portrayal of dancer Isadora Duncan inIsadora (for which she won a National Society of Film Critics’ Award for Best Actress, a second Prize for the Best Female Performance at the Cannes Film Festival, along with a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination in 1969); and various portrayals of historical figures – ranging from Andromache in The Trojan Women, to Mary, Queen of Scots in the film of the same name. She also played the role of Guinevere in the film Camelot with Richard Harris and Franco Nero.

A member of the Redgrave family of actors, she is the daughter of the late Sir Michael Redgrave and Lady Redgrave (the actressRachel Kempson), the sister of the late Lynn Redgrave and the late Corin Redgrave, the mother of Hollywood actresses Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson, and the aunt of British actress Jemma Redgrave.

In 1995 Redgrave was elected to serve as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Read more here.

KATE WINSLET FOR ST. JOHN BY CRAIG McDEAN SPRING/SUMMER 2012

The beautiful and talented, Kate Winslet continues as the celebrity face representing the luxury brand, St. John. The cinematic style Spring/Summer 2012 ads feature the Academy Award Winning actress captured by Craig McDean in sleek modern penthouse in the Chelsea Arts Tower in New York City.

“Kate embodies the elegance of the St. John woman,” said Creative Director George Sharp. “Her continued support in the brand and women’s receptiveness to her beauty and extraordinary body of work are just some of the reasons to continue on with our relationship and decision to work together for our Spring 2012 Ad campaign.”

“It has been a great experience working with St. John. I am very excited for this upcoming season, George and St. John have created wonderfully chic and effortless styles for the modern woman”, said Winslet.

 

Images via Tom & Lorenzo / Sjk.com

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABEL LUCAS (27)

Isabel Lucas photographed by Craig McDean for Interview Magazine

Isabel Lucas (born 29 January 1985) is an Australian actress, perhaps best known for her role as Tasha Andrews on the Australian television soap opera Home and Away (2003–2006). Lucas moved to Los Angeles in early 2008 and has since been featured in film and television projects including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Immortals, The Pacific and Daybreakers.

Lucas was born in Melbourne. As a child, Lucas lived in Cairns, Queensland. She also lived in Switzerland and Kakadu, in the Northern Territory. She has a Swiss mother and an Australian father and speaks German and French in addition to her native English. Lucas went to St. Monica’s College in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Lucas enrolled in the Victorian College of Arts but had never pursued commercial roles. Sharron Meissner, a Sydney talent agent suggests she ‘discovered’ Lucas strolling on the beach at Port Douglas (whilst the meeting was actually arranged). She auditioned for the role of Kit Hunter in Home and Away (now played by Amy Mizzi); although the producer of the show, Julie McGauran, felt that role was not right for Isabel, she was sufficiently impressed to have a new character, Tasha Andrews, created for her. Lucas won a Logie Award (for new popular talent) for her performance on the program. Playing Tasha Andrews on Home and Away was Lucas’ first television role.

Lucas was cast as Gwen in the Steven Spielberg World War II miniseries, The Pacific. She appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Alice. Reports suggested that although assigned to the William Morris Talent Agency in Los Angeles through the auspices of Meissner Management, Lucas obtained the role of Alice in her native Australia before moving permanently to America. It has been claimed that Lucas was handpicked by Steven Spielberg. Her subsequent theatrical releases included Daybreakers (8 January 2010) and Red Dawn (TBA).

In October 2007, Lucas was part of a group of thirty people from Surfers for Cetaceans, including American actress Hayden Panettiere, surfers David Rastovich and Vaya Phrachanh who took part in a protest against dolphin hunting drive in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. The group paddled out on surfboards to the dolphins to attempt to stop the hunt, but they were forced to turn around after being intercepted by one of the fishing boats. They drove straight to Osaka airport and left the country to avoid being arrested for trespassing by the Japanese police. There is still an outstanding arrest warrant for Lucas in Japan.

Lucas is a spokesperson for the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation, and supports many organisations including, World Vision, The Humour Foundation, Women Against Violence, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, Global Green Plan, Save the Whales Again.

Lucas was nominated as one of Australia’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities on PETAAsiaPacific.com for 2010.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDWARD BURNS (44)

Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, film producer, writer and director.

Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly (née McKenna), a federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Burns is the second of three children (with siblings Mary and Brian) in an Irish American family. He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island. He briefly attended Chaminade High School before transferring to Hewlett High School. After high school, Burns attended SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Albany, before earning a degree in English from Hunter College in 1992.

Burns got his start in the film industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film, The Doors. While working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed and starred in his first film The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely shot in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the film, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, Burns wrote, directed and starred in the ensemble drama She’s The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet, as well as Sidewalks of New York in 2001.

Burns is also known for his acting work on movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digitalPanasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The film’s entire budget was $200,000 and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual film-making process in the director’s commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director’s Letter “If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York… and have a blast”.

His film Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a string of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage mid-way through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler’s boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new TV series in which Johnny Drama is able to land a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper. Burns plans to use the comic series as a springboard to a film of the same story.

In March 2009, The Lynch Pin, a series of shorts starring, written and directed by Burns were released via the internet. The ten episodes are only available to view online as of August 2009 and future plans for the project are unknown.

With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns was considering taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading a few scripts and taking a few meetings, he decided that he chose to get into film to be a writer/director. He then wrote “Nice Guy Johnny” and shot it quickly, on the RED One camera, for a reported $25,000 with a small crew. ”Nice Guy Johnny” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote a movie, Newlyweds that he also directed and starred in. Following a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was shot on the Canon 5D, with an even smaller crew, for $9000 in 12 days. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the closing night film. He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget broke out to “5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can.”

He is currently running a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intends to help get produced.

Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and has two children, Grace (born 2003) and Finn (born 2006).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPRAH WINFREY (58)

Oprah Winfrey photographed by Steven Meisel for Vogue, October 1998

Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world’s only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication, she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue, which a Yale study claims broke 20th century taboos and allowed LGBT people to enter the mainstream.  By the mid 1990s, she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality. Though criticized for unleashing confession culture, promoting controversial self-help ideas, and an emotion-centered approach she is often praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others.

In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple as distraught housewife, Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The film went on to become a Broadway musical which opened in late 2005, with Winfrey credited as a producer. In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film Beloved, based on Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. In 2005, Harpo Productions released a film adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The made-for-television film was based upon a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, and starred Halle Berry in the lead female role.

From 2006 to 2008, her support of Barack Obama, by one estimate, delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race.

Read more here.

Below: Oprah Winfrey for Vogue magazine, October 1998 issue, photographed by Steven Meisel.