CelebSpice

No sooner did news break that Amy Adams is going to play Janis Joplin in the long-awaited biopic of the drug-bedeviled, bisexual 1960s music icon than the outcry began.

Music critics and Internet chatterers alike are bewailing the choice of Adams as Too Pretty, Not Gritty Enough, Not Gutsy Enough, Not Bluesy Enough, Too Sweet, Too Show-Tunesy.
Indeed, some of the near-misses for a biopic (Zooey Deschanel, Pink, Melissa Etheridge) do seem more readily adaptable into portraying Joplin than Adams, of "Enchanted," "Julie & Julia," "Junebug" and "Doubt" fame.
However, we can't help but remember, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx had lots'a naysayers before he proved just how great he could be with his tour-de-force performance as Ray Charles in "Ray."
How about the advance criticism over Joaquin Phoenix daring to play Johnny Cash (and doing his own singing?! What, is he CRAZY?!!). An Oscar nomination for "Walk the Line" ensued.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes? There were complaints that Martin Scorsese should have cast someone more grown-up-looking and manly than DiCaprio for his "The Aviator" -- until the actor turned in a performance that merited an Oscar nom.
It doesn't always work out when stars play stars, of course. James Brolin was critically crucified for his performance as Clark Gable in the film "Gable and Lombard," for instance. Jennifer Love Hewitt's portrayal of Audrey Hepburn in 2000's made-for-television movie "The Audrey Hepburn Story" won her a host of backhanded compliments. Hewitt was said by many reviewers to do an adequate job with the role, and even those critics admitted they were surprised and had expected worse.
However, when performers can nail such a performance, the rewards are big.
That's exactly what happened to Robert Downey Jr., who had done good work in a string of movies, but had yet to prove the immensity of his gifts, when he immersed himself in all things Charlie Chaplin to play Hollywood's supreme genius in the 1992 "Chaplin." He astonished critics and, yep, won an Academy Award nomination.
So Adams deserves a wait-and-see, at least.
TALK ABOUT STUNNING!: British presenter and fashion journalist Louise Roe of MTV's "The City" admits of her July 28-debuting CW "Plain Jane" reality show, "We're ridiculously up to the mark. We are still filming. We're filming till literally four days before it airs. The editors are going to work late at night for sure."
    
But despite the last-minute crunch, she's happy with the show that boasts makeovers "from the inside out. It's not just a giant shopping trip to Bloomingdales."
     
The first episode has Roe even going so far as to employ a hidden dog training electroshock buzzer on a girl, and giving her a jolt each time she falls back into such no-no behavior as slouching and failing to make eye contact. They work up to the big reveal, wherein the girls tell their secret crushes their feelings. Roe hopes viewers get inspired to shape up and speak out themselves.
    
"We've all, every single one of us, had Plain Jane moments where we've felt rejected by a guy or lost confidence for some reason. Hopefully, they can watch and relate. There's a lot of takeaway information, a lot of tips, for instance, when we go shopping -- 'If your body is like this, wear something like this.' I hope it will make everybody want to go out and buy shoes!" she adds with a laugh.
     
Fans can get Roe's help landing a crush without the electroshock aspect at the CW's www.cwtv.com. The website experience offers such goodies as first-date strategies and the opportunity to make a customized video to reveal one's feelings to that certain someone.
     
STAR SPANGLING: Caitlyn Taylor Love of Disney XD's "I'm in the Band" gets to showed off her vocal prowess before a massive crowd when she sang the national anthem in front of the Dodgers vs. Mets game at Dodger Stadium. "I'm so stoked. I don't think I could be any more excited," says the one-time "America's Got Talent" finalist -- who now plays rocker girl Izzy on the series about a teen (Logan Miller) who winds up as part of his favorite old-school big hair rock band.
     
Love is a lifelong music performer -- "I sang my ABCs and 'Jesus Loves Me' at 10 months old" -- and says that she and Miller are always jamming together in between shots on the "I'm in the Band" set. As far as the members of the faux Iron Weasel band, Steve Valentine, Stephen Full and Greg Baker, "They're really good actors. They're awesome. Since we've been doing the show, they've gotten better and better" -- performing musically, she says. "Steve Valentine actually has a pretty good voice."
     
THE BLOODLUST GOES ON: You have to know the vying is intense for the roles of vampire sisters Tanya, Kate and Irina of the Denali coven in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" -- when speculation over the casting had fans posting prospects for the parts even before Bill Condon was announced as director. Also being cast is vampire Eleazar, and casting notices specify someone who is "able to play a Spaniard." We sure wouldn't want anything unrealistic in a "Twilight" movie, after all. Based on the fourth and final novel in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga, "Breaking Dawn" is supposed to hit theaters Nov. 18, 2011.
(Image: WENN)

Hollywood star George Clooney's latest movie "Up In The Air" garnered five Oscar nominations on Tuesday but there is one film about which he may not be so proud -- "Batman and Robin."

The 1997 movie starring Clooney as the caped crusader with Chris O'Donnell as Robin and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl came top in an online survey by film magazine Empire to find the most disastrous film ever made. Clooney has not been shy about belittling the film and his role in it.

The magazine said it did not just come top in voters' rankings but got almost three times as many votes as the next entry -- John Travolta's science-fiction "Battlefield Earth" which was a film adaptation of a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Here is a list of the top 10 of Empire's list of the 50 most disastrous movies ever made with the rest available on Empire's website (www.empireonline.com):

1. "Batman and Robin" starring George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman

2. "Battlefield Earth" (2000) starring John Travolta, Forest Whitaker

3. "The Love Guru" (2008) with Mike Myers

4. "Raise the Titanic" (1980) with Jason Robards, David Selby

5. "Epic Movie" (2007)

6. "Heaven's Gate" (1980)

7. "Sex Lives of the Potato Men" (2004)

8. "The Happening" (2008) with Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel

9. "Highlander 2: The Quickening" (1991)

10. "The Room" (2003)

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Okay, so (500) Days Of Summer actress Zooey Deschanel's new project isn't exactly a TV show based on Cameron Crowe's rock pic, but it does cover some very similar territory. She's signed on to star in US cable channel HBO's new pilot, which will be based on the book 'I'm With The Band: Confessions Of A Groupie'.

Penned by Pamela Des Barres (one of the influences for Penny Lane in Almost Famous), it chronicles her adventures as she bedded musicians and movie stars in the late 1960s.

In her time, Des Barres added the likes of Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Don Johnson and many more to the notches on her bed post, but while the life was glamorous and exciting for a time, there was always the prospect of a younger model waiting to take her place.

The half-hour show (assuming it gets picked up beyond the pilot) will chronicle both the highs (some literal, we'd figure, given the era) and the lows in half-hour episodes.

Zooey Deschanel can cheer herself up just thinking about Christmas.

The '(500) Days of Summer' actress - who admits she generally has a pretty positive outlook on life - claims that if she feels unhappy all she has to do is reminisce about her favourite festive memories with her sister Emily to cheer herself up.

She said: "I think Christmas is always used at any point in the year to cheer us up, like each other up. We would use that to cheer each other up if we were in a sad mood or something, we'd just start talking about Christmas.

"So we have always loved Christmas. I don't think there's any particular Christmas that comes to mind."

The 29-year-old actress has another reason to be happy as she married her rocker boyfriend Ben Gibbard in September at a private ceremony near Seattle, Washington.

The country-folk duo of M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel, known as She & Him, is slated to return in 2010, proving that the 2008 collaboration wasn't just a one-off affair.

Aptly titled "Volume 2," the 13-song set is due March 23 on Merge and features 10 original songs and two covers, NRBQ's "Ridin' in My Car" and Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You." Deschanel wrote the originals, with Ward producing. The pair recorded the tracks over the past year in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

While most actress-to-musician crossover albums don't translate into sales, She & Him struck a chord last time around, with a formula that included Ward's signature washed guitar sound and Deschanel's crystal-clear vocals. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Volume 1" has sold 176,000 copies.

In a live setting, the group uses a full band and stages successful club tours as well as appearances at major festivals such as the Newport Folk Festival, South by Southwest and the Virgin Festival.

"Volume 2" is said to expand on the first album's 1970s-style aesthetic and production, this time including strings and guests spots from Tilly and the Wall. The duo most recently contributed a cover of the Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" to the soundtrack of "(500) Days of Summer," in which Deschanel stars opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Ward's most recent solo release is 2009's "Hold Time," and he also appeared as part of the Bright Eyes/Jim James quartet, Monsters of Folk.

Continuing the string of celebrity weddings, Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard exchanged vows over the weekend, becoming husband and wife.

The “(500) Days of Summer” actress and the Death Cab for Cutie singer got hitched on Saturday night (September 19) in a ceremony near Seattle.

Zooey and Ben became betrothed last year when the “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” singer proposed with a 3-carat diamond and platinum Neil Lane ring.

Details of the intimate ceremony are yet to be released, though both parties have been known for their low-key public profile.

Zooey Deschanel will marry this month.

The '(500) Days of Summer' actress is planning to return to the US in the next few weeks to marry her rocker fiance, Ben Gibbard.

The 29-year-old beauty is currently based in Northern Ireland while she films fantasy comedy 'Your Highness', where she takes on the role of virginal bride Belladonna.

A source told the New York Post newspaper: "Zooey is in Belfast with James Franco and Natalie Portman but will return at the end of September for her ceremony in Seattle."

Filming of the movie, out next year, is expected to end mid-October.

It was recently revealed the star has been taking ballet classes to slim down before the forthcoming nuptials.

A source said: "Zooey has been taking classes at Pure Barre in Los Angeles to prepare for the wedding. She has been doing workouts which are based on ballet barre work back to back.

"She'll take a class, wait 15 minutes, and then take another."

Looking to be ready to tie the knot, Zooey Deschanel may be walking down the aisle soon!

The lovely "Yes Man" actress is reported to be marrying her boyfriend Ben Gibbard in Seattle.

The 29-year-old will seal the deal with the 33-year-old singer later this month.

An inside source told press, “Zooey is in Belfast with James Franco and Natalie Portman filming Your Highness, but will return at the end of September for her ceremony in Seattle.”

The 500 Days of Summer starlet got engaged to Ben in December last year.

Zooey Deschanel grew up thinking her sister was an alien who wanted to kill her.

The '(500) Days of Summer' actress said she grew up living in fear, due to her sibling's rather colourful imagination, which led her to thinking she was from another planet.

She said: "I grew up believing my sister was from Neptune and had been sent down to Earth to kill me.

"My sister Emily convinced me of it when I was a toddler. I think she'd seen 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' and her imagination ran away with her."

Zooey, 29, also said she also grew up with a strong connection to the paranormal and took years to get over an innate fear of supernatural beings.

She added: "It took me years to get over my fear of ghosts. I believe there are things within my control and things outside my realm of control.

"Eventually I realised it was time to stop feeling anxious about ghosts that I've never met, may never meet and may not even exist."

One thing Zooey was always sure about, however, was becoming an actress, even as an infant.

She added: "My nursery school did a production of The Three Little Pigs. Even at two I was very specific about how I wanted the scene to play out, like I would insist that the narrator called me 'Third Baby Pig'. When the wolf started knocking on the door I refused to get up and open it because he was knocking the wrong way."

Zooey Deschanel has joined the cast of David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s medieval comedy, Your Highness.

Deschanel will play Belladonna, the virginal wife of a noble knight (James Franco) who accompanies his arrogant doofus of a brother (McBride) on a quest to save their father’s kingdom. Along the way, they meet, and McBride falls for, a warrior princess played by Natalie Portman… and we’re only guessing, mind you, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Belladonna turns out to be less than virginal.

We’ve always had a soft spot for Deschanel, who’s the right side of kooky and charming, and she’s a further good addition to a movie that we’ve got high hopes for. Not least because McBride also co-wrote the script with his Eastbound & Down writing partner, Ben Best, and if they can bring that show’s offbeat, diffident, sneering attitude to this, this could potentially be brilliant.

Scott Stuber is producing the Universal movie, which starts shooting this month in Norn Iron (presumably after the 12th…).