Seen: John Krasinksi & More 401 Celebs
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Brown University grad and The Office star John Krasinski has a new project in the works. He's collaborating with acclaimed The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (who spoke at the Ivy Film Festival at Brown just a few months ago) on a mini-series for HBO based on the book Life at the Marmont. The book, a work of nonfiction, contains stories from the legendary Los Angeles hotel and celebrity hotspot The Chateau Marmont. Sorkin will of course be writing and producing it, while Krasinski will be acting in the production. Director Sofia Coppola actually made a movie set in the same hotel last year called Somewhere, but this is a project that Krasinski is very passionate about, so I’m sure that it will have his own personal Brown-inspired touch on it…
He’s just as funny in person as he is on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. That’s what everyone who was in the audience at Aziz Ansari’s stand-up show at the Newport Yachting Center is saying, anyway. The actor and comedian, who hosted the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, kept everyone in stitches on the 2011 Newport Summer Comedy Series’ opening night last Friday. Named one of 2009’s “Breakout TV Stars” by Entertainment Weekly, Ansari has a great blend of geeky charm and contemporary material that made him the perfect act to begin the series, with such acts as Bob Saget and Louis CK to come in later weeks. If laughter is the best medicine for what ails you, then these famous comedians should consider calling themselves doctors…
It might have an odd name, but there’s nothing goony about Jennifer Egan’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories, A Visit From the Goon Squad. The writer read from her New York Times-acclaimed novel last Friday
afternoon at the Ocean State Summer Writing Conference at the University of Rhode Island. Egan has received numerous grants and prizes, such as the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award, and her early novel The Invisible Circus was made into a 1999 movie starring a young Cameron Diaz. Besides just reading from the work, Egan also imparted some tips and secrets for writing stories as successful as hers… GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Seems that James Wan has an interest in more than just sadistic torture and creepy masks. The director and creator of the Saw movies has joined the Summit Entertainnment project, The Conjuring, which is inspired by the true-life story of the Perron family of Harrisville. The script is being written by Chad and Carey Hayes, who are known for Whiteout and House of Wax. The Perrons claimed that they “lived among the dead,” meaning that they felt their farmhouse was haunted by spirits during the 1970s. Apparently the movie deal comes with the life rights to the Perron family and Ed and Lorraine Warren, famous New England paranormal experts who studied the house at the time (they are also known for investigating the Amityville Horror Case). There isn’t a production start date as of now, so it will be a while before we can experience the Rhode Island hauntings for ourselves on the big screen…
Better get down to Thames Street while you still can, because the New York Times just ran a feature in its travel section all about Newport. The article walks potential visitors through a weekend in the summer destination, hitting on all the restaurants, bars, hotels, and recreational areas anyone with an inkling to walk down Thames Street should explore. Among the mentioned spots were Fluke restaurant for its wide assortment of cocktails, the Fifth Element for its pub food and dancing, the rum tour and tastings at the Newport Distilling Company, and the natural beauty of the Norman Bird Sanctuary. But these are just one non-Rhode Islander’s opinions on the best places to go to enjoy Newport. We locals know that there are many more fabulous areas down the coastline that shall remain a local secret for now…
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