Belleville

Maria Dizzia and Greg Keller in "Belleville" A Yale Repertory Theater presentation from the play in one act by Amy Herzog. Directed by Anne Kauffman. Abby - Maria Dizzia Zack - Greg Keller Alioune - Gilbert Owuor Amina - Pascale ArmandA play concentrating on a young, vibrant American couple dwelling inside a raffish part of Paris appears just like a evening of romance and fun, but playwright Amy Herzog's have a look at her protags' deceitful lives turns dark and disturbing. Noirish elements may not increase the risk for play a job candidate for feel-good seasons, but scribe's picking apart from the misguided match -- enhanced by stellar central perfs in the world preem at New Haven's Yale Repertory Theater -- transform it into a tempting selection for modern-day venues. Still, work should be implemented to clarify figures, flesh out backstory and close some finish-of-play plot holes before tasks are Gotham-ready. Sure, central couple Abby Zack (Maria Dizzia and Greg Keller, both terrific) obtain problems once we meet them inside their apartment in this less-than-fantasy-perfect part of Paris. However marriage sounds excellent initially: He produces child Helps research, she's a yoga instructor, and so they are both reasonably affectionate, vibrant and funny. But you will discover signs all is not well. She discovers him home all of a sudden self pleasuring to disturbing porn she seems a touch too installed on her cell phone lifeline for the States. She's off her anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds and appears to become high maintenance spouse he's off around the pot high along with his youthful Senegalese landlord Alioune (Gilbert Owuor), who upsets Zack's tenuous equilibrium by announcing he wants some several days of rent they owe -- now. Their expatriate escape is soon revealed being based on some faulty premises. Since the play progresses the marriage becomes progressively more troubled as self-abuse, self-centeredness and self-indulgence compete for destructive honors. Placed instead of the Americans' relationship might be the stable marriage of Alioune and also the youthful wife Amina (Pascale Armand). Their very own is not among elevated living looking for an difficult "happiness" just one of responsibility, stability and reality, a location well-taken at play's finish. Nonetheless, the play becomes unmoored since the tone changes and many a few particulars don't accumulate. Auds may question if Herzog ("4,000 Miles," "Following a Revolution") is after really a geopolitical statement too. Anne Kauffman helms properly, enabling her lead stars to create their unique inter-personal dynamic -- which is a sizzler, full of tasty particulars and bold options. Dizzia particularly can be a question as she rides Abby's emotional ride. Keller makes aud's sympathy at first along with his charm and persistence before showing other colors too. It's a mind trip for individuals involved. Owuor and Armand give perfectly measured perfs since the couple who know the Us citizens a lot better than they do know themselves. Production values are top class, including Julia C. Lee's funky apartment setting, Nina Nyun Seung Lee's Parisian light and Robert Kaplowitz's effective appear.Sets, Julia C. Lee costumes, Mark Nagle lighting, Nina Hyun Seung Lee appear and composer, Robert Kaplowitz stage manager, Gina Noele Odierno. Opened up up, examined March. 27, 2011, Runs through November. 12. Running time: 1 hour, 40 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

The X Factor: Humble Simon, Paula vs. Nicole and 11 Other Things You Didn't See on TV

The X Factor The remaining X Factor contestants were whittled down to the final 12 on Tuesday's first live episode ... but who cares about that when Simon's entertaining a marriage proposal from a 13-year-old, Paula's shunning Nicole, and a "friend of" The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is in the audience?Read our episode recap from Tuesday's episode of The X FactorThere's a whole lot more that you didn't see on television. Here's TVGuide.com's top 13 behind-the-scenes highlights:1. Brandi Glanville in da house. Spotted waiting in line with the masses, one would-be cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Brandi was all smiles, too... probably because Kim and Kyle Richards were nowhere to be found. Why do we think Brandi has to be a Lakoda Rayne fan?2. Simon's front-runner is Drew - but he says she'll need to watch out for Josh. "Josh is gonna be a tough competitor," he told TVGuide.com after the show. "America is going to get him. And I like the fact that he's not trying to be somebody he's not. That authenticity is refreshing." (Who was less impressive? "Chris Rene has got some way to go," he said. "But you know when he's good, he's brilliant.")3. Paula vs. Nicole? Forget the kiss you saw. These two barely speak when the cameras aren't rolling. In fact, Paula rarely acknowledges her neighbor to the right, even though all Nicole seems to want is her love. It's a dynamic that isn't likely to change seeing as how Nicole age-checked Paula after the Brewer Boys performed ("I used to have Paula Abdul [posters] up on my walls!")4. The newly humbled Simon Cowell. Among the things Simon never did during Idol but does on The X Factor: shake hands with the audience during commercial breaks, entertain marriage proposals from 13-year-olds (she got a hug and a kiss on the cheek after professing her love), wait more than an hour for his first cigarette break (although on X Factor, he also serves as an executive producer), tell the crowd, "This is probably the best live audience I've ever had, a naughty audience. You can do whatever you like"... Guess that's what not delivering 20 million viewers will do to a guy.5. Melanie's "I Have Nothing" made Rachel cry. "I definitely cried for Melanie when she hit those high notes," Rachel told us. "Drew and I were back there behind those big screens just singing along, it was so fun."6. Astro thought being picked as the first act to perform was "stupid." "I think closing the show is better," he said after the show. "I didn't want to go first, I thought it was so stupid. But then the judges told me I set the tone for the rest of the night and that was pretty awesome."7. L.A. Reid felt really bad about eliminating Phillip. During the commercial break, L.A. told the audience, "That was tough for me. Was it tough for you guys? I thought I'd feel better than I do right now." But you did the right thing, L.A., really!8. Paula can't handle nice Simon. According to Simon, Paula established one very important thing tonight. "She proved she's not a ditzy judge," he said. "She actually can work with artists. She really proved a point tonight." Asked later what she thought of all this praise from Simon, Paula was flummoxed. "Oh my gosh ... there were three separate occasions during the show, right?" she said. "It was a little off-putting. I mean, he was complimenting me so much. Like, do I kiss him? That's a little awkward. What do I do?"9. Nicole can't win. She told us that Simon's claim that he'd be a better mentor for Leroy "is hogwash," explaining that Leroy used to only stare at the floor while he sang. "He came up to me afterward and said, 'Thank you so much for helping me open my eyes - it's a whole other world, a whole other experience now.' Simon doesn't know what he's talking about!" she told us after the show. Asked what he thought of Nicole getting snippy with him over it, Simon said, "I was amused by it all, I thought it was funny. It's always that way with Nicole, though: in, out, forgotten."10. Bigger than American Idol in every way! Remember how Fox first billed The X Factor? They said it's "the biggest show on television, the biggest show in the world!" So even though X Factor films on the same stage as Idol, on the night of its first live show, they packed the audience with more people. They erected video screens bigger than those used on Idol. They even managed to build the stage so everything is pointed in the direction opposite the way things Idol face on Idol. You know, that way you can't confuse them.11. Steve's glad he's out of that 18-wheeler, too (although, he and the driver did become close.) "I was very good friends with Chuck," the host said. "We spent many a night in that little wagon, in the back, keeping each other warm ..." But seriously, the host was kind of hoping for more screen time during the audition, boot camp and judges' houses rounds. "All my stuff was cut out, but it's the nature of the beast," he said. But now, "it's my stage, baby! It's the first time people are seeing the front of my face rather than my profile!"12. Drew says Simon likes her bare feet. "It's like my nature girl thing," she told us. "I think Simon really likes it. Afterward, he came and grabbed me and said, 'I really love the whole outfit.'" That includes her lack of shoes.13. The girls won the night. As far as the loudest applause-getters go, Melanie, Drew and Rachel are all fighting for the crown. Astro also instantly got the crowd on its feet - and, impressively, kept them there during his entire number.What did you think of the first live show? Who are your favorites?

Pedro Almodovar Chooses 'The Murders,' 'Nightmare Alley' to Screen at AFI Fest

Jean-Pierre Melville's crime tale Le Cercle Rouge and Edmund Goulding's circus-set film noir Nightmare Alley are probably the films that Pedro Almodovar has selected to screen at AFI Fest, which runs from November. 3-10 in Hollywood. VIDEO: Pedro Almodovar on 'The Skin My Home Is' -- and What It Really's Like to reside in His Skin The The spanish language director, who's becoming the festival's guest artistic director, will attend the festival November. 7 for any 25th anniversary screening of their own film What The Law States of Desire, where he'll be became a member of through the movie's star Antonio Banderas, who also stars in Almodar's current film Your Skin My Home Is. VIDEO: Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas Reunite in 'The Skin My Home Is' Trailer Almodovar's film choices tend to be heavy on horror films and crime thrillers: Additionally to Le Cercle Rouge and Nightmare Alley, he's selected Georges Franju's Eyes Wihout a Face, by which Pierre Brasseur plays a mad physician, and Robert Siodmak's The Murders, an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway short story starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. Related Subjects Antonio Banderas Pedro Almodovar

Magnolia builds up '360' for U.S.

Jude Law and Rachel Weisz star in Fernando Meirelles' relationship drama '360.'Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Fernando Meirelles' "360" six days after its premiere within the Toronto Film Festival. Magnolia introduced the sale Monday and mentioned it plans a theatrical release in 2012 in many major U.S. areas, bolstered having a prominent film festival presence just before release. "360" can also be distributed through Magnolia's Ultra VOD program. Pic, composed by Peter Morgan, can be a circular study of recent couplings that develops the inquiry of Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play "La Ronde" with a global scale. Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Ben Promote, Jamel Debbouze and Moritz Bleibtreu star, and "360" weaves together the tales of a variety of people from disparate social abilities through their intersecting associations. The film was produced by Andrew Eaton and David Linde with Chris Hanley, Danny Krausz and Emanuel Michael. The Eu premiere happened captured within the London Film Festival, where it absolutely was the opening-evening gala film. Pic was shot on location in Vienna, Paris, London, Bratislava and Rio p Janeiro. Law plays a travelling businessman who's thinking about a liaison getting a prostitute while Weisz can be a married lady who's breaking off rapport getting a far more youthful guy. Hopkins can be a guy looking for his missing daughter, and Promote plays a sex offender recently released from prison. The sale was talked about for Magnolia by senior V . p . of purchases Dori Begley and mind of legal and business matters Chris Matson with UTA Independent Film Group for your filmmakers. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Alan Alda and Daniel Sullivan Collaborate with 'Radiance'

Alan Alda is well known by much around the world from his starring role on "M*A*S*H." He's another film actor ("Tease With Disaster"), a theater actor ("Art"), a author-director ("Betsy's Wedding"), and quite the raconteur. Daniel Sullivan can be a director famous for his collaborations with America's great playwrightsincluding Wendy Wasserstein, Jon Robin Baitz, Jesse Margulies, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Lynn Nottage. Sullivan offered as artistic director of Dallas Repertory Theatre inside the eighties and 1990's. Who understood more youthful crowd labored becoming an actor inside the sixties and '70s? They're cooperating on Alda's world-premiere play "Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie," opening November. one in the Geffen Playhouse in La. The play concentrates on Marie Curie, the very best hyphenate: Polish-French physicist-chemist whose existence bridged the 19th and 20th centuries as she examined radiation. "The play," Alda has mentioned, "notifies a great deal about her, it notifies about who we are just like a speciesthese knowledgeable animals that individuals are, and the way we're almost condemned with this thirst for understanding." Alan Alda: Is the same Back Stage which i did formerly read in NY, about where to setup to determine for just about any part? I must are actually the first site visitors. I believed you're older than that. I started trying to find work 54 in the past. I discovered Back Stage after four years of walking the streets. I don't think I ever got employment from this. And I'd like my money-back.Again Stage: How have you receive a earliest acting jobs? Alda: My father introduced me onstage once i was 6 several days old, however wouldn't call the acting job. I used to be students once i was 16, which i carried out leading parts that year. But the first time I used to be really trying to find are an actress but got jobs are in an Equity Library Children's Theater output of some play where I carried out Prince Charming, which we've got $10 a performance. Needed to setup the scenery ourselves and trolley it around. Daniel Sullivan: I'd the same experience. My first professional job will be a touring children's theater show, in San Francisco Bay Area, $80 each week, which i drove your truck and carried out the Container Woodman. As well as the lady who went this factor would book us anywhere. She once reserved us inside the veterans hospital psycho ward. We carried out there throughout the evening, like 8 o'clock. Then when I obtained to the level where I mentioned, "I've not any heart!" somebody went [crazed voice], "Heh, heh, heh." After which it somebody emerged onstage and asked for me where the bathroom was. That was for just about any year. My partner was Dorothy. Alda: Maybe you have drive a cab? I drove a cab, in NY. A couple of countless days.Sullivan: I didn't really ever audition, because I grew to become an associate from the [San Francisco Bay Area] Actor's Workshop from San Francisco Bay Area Condition [College], which i had been doing that although I used to be doing the children theater. Therefore I never experienced that whole process of really trying to find an audition.Alda: Oh, I auditioned continuously, for approximately eight or nine years, drove a cab, will be a doorman, colored baby pictures. Which we were living for 3 several days in the racetrack. Back Stage: Either can people remember your worst audition? Alda: From the an audition for just about any play that my father [Robert Alda] reaches, therefore i was type of a "must." I didn't realize how important it absolutely was I believed i had been just reading through with the play. I believed I'd the job. Therefore I seen, and also over the area I saw producer along with his mind in the possession of. However really was excellent within it after i practiced within it. However think he was ready to cut his arms.Back Stage: Did either people have negative people available who mentioned you might never ensure it is? Sullivan: I did so. I did so summer season stock inside the Robin Hood Theatre in Delaware once i was attending school. My friend which i, Jack Davis, drove nationwide from San Francisco Bay Area. We didn't realize itwe would should also build the scenery. From the the two producers needed us aside and mentioned, "This is not to suit your needs. You're too smart with this particular.In . Back Stage: Whoever else notice if you auditioned stars for "Radiance"? Sullivan: It's about understanding all the different the level of smoothness. That's things i am doing after i am searching at stars. It is not of a good actor or possibly a poor actor. I'm not to imply, "Wow, precisely what an excellent actor!" I'd say, "Wow, precisely what an excellent actor, not appropriate with this role." However only uncover it when the actor is who audition. Alda: I furthermore realize that there's sometimes a big difference between the way they see the scene and who they may be and the way they talk when they're themselves. And frequently I'm I am in a position to uncover from that what they have to draw in on just like a person that's useful for the character, and frequently that arrives inside the reading through through and frequently it doesn't. Nevertheless it always feels somewhat better essentially get yourself a hint this individual has something that's probably likely to be launched consonant while using character. Back Stage: And that means you as being a little chat after they walk inside the room? Alda: I really like somewhat chat.Sullivan: I'm not a real large chatter. Alan is capable of doing the speaking. I guess, over time, I spent lots of time inside an audition situation, and over time I've recognized everybody knows it is really an awkward situation. You are trying to accomplish what you might to get rid of that. But finally everybody knows how it's really about. It's like, when people have a very first day's testing, and you also be familiar with stars are nervous about reading through with the script the first time through. So when you wallow inside it and discuss the play along with your idea for the whole factor, you will be aware nearly half of what you're saying goes in, because the stars Are going [piteously], "Will we just see the script?"Back Stage: If you were beginning, whom perhaps you have idolize? Sullivan: Personally, it absolutely was all the great ones in the period. It absolutely was Olivier. It absolutely was Marlon Brando. It absolutely was celebs, similar to most kids now, until they understand theater and discover plenty of theater.Alda: I wasand still aminterested in watching and identifying a great performance, because I observed that stars, no matter how good they were, could do bad performances. The very best, people I'd acknowledged as great, could create a lousy performance. I'd favorite performances that we was trying to know. Mostly mine. No, this can be a joke. Mine were frequently terrible in the beginning. I'd find mentors inside the companies I labored in, which i'd study a lot just from watching. Where personally ever to check out, and this is where In my opinion I learned most likely probably the most, was browsing the wings, because Used to do formerly see masters of miracle when my father reaches vaudeville, and I'd observe they've been effective, 'cause within the side you aren't finding the illusion, you are receiving how a illusion is created. I'd have that same understanding watching stars, 'cause I'd just be a few foot from their website. I'd uncover their location sweating and spitting, but I'd start to see the energy as well as the focus that went into a great performance. And watching within the side, a few foot away, I saw items you can't see watching right in front. And right in front you're either attracted in or you aren't, however, you do not define why. However, you find out more why when you're watching within the side. Sullivan: From the in San Francisco Bay Area, because San Francisco Bay Area will be a tour town, inside the '50s I saw "West Side Story," so Jerome Robbins will be a huge hero once i will be a kid. Which I saw a output of "The Visit" while using Lunts. Which I didn't understand it in those days, nevertheless it was Peter Brook who had directed that, when he only agreed to become a director. Plus it was absolutely amazing. It changed my existence. All of people [productions]. [Alfred Lunt's] will be a great performance. It absolutely was most likely probably the most fantastically behavior, specific factor. [Lynn Fontanne] will be a little fancy. Back Stage: Serta, when perhaps you have stop watching the acting and start watching the pointing? Sullivan: Onstage. I'd realize I'm not always in this role I'm just watching what everybody else does. So, type of, I used to be always taken off the play, because I'd constantly be critical from the products everybody's doing. It absolutely was hard will be able to keep the kind of focus you must have becoming an actor. I used to be too thinking about other things.Back Stage: Throughout rehearsals for "Radiance," what kinds of questions are you currently presently asking Alan? Sullivan: They're usually questions of clearness. How all this? The way in which this be perceived? What had you been thinking if you written that line? How perhaps you have think about the scene starts we're in the heart of the scene, any idea what continues to be mentioned right before we start that? It's about, somewhat, making my job simpler, if I am able to initiate Alan's mind, I am in a position to learn to do things. It's also for your stars to know, so that it keeps the conversation going, it focuses the conversation.Alda: The higher questions, the higher, because any kind of stage writing must be so compressed that eventually when you're getting familiar with it, the truth is [that] what each line is really glints initially from the much much deeper ocean of meaning. But at first it may be confusing how people glints comparable to something. So plenty of questions make certain they all are be more suitable. Back Stage: Have either people could ever not agree along with your collaboratorthe author while using director and vice versaabout just what the subtext is, or does "correct" subtext matter for your ultimate product? Sullivan: In my opinion more often than not there's apt to be moments where essentially go to a factor a specific way [and] Alan sees it yet another way, when he describes the means by that they sees it also it appears sensible, it appears sensible. If Alan states he sees it a specific way, I have faith that, "Yeah, however it might be using this method,Inch Alan states, "I recognize everything you mean, but they're wrong," that's the way is.Alda: It doesn't happen often. In my opinion it's like the way they describe the very best Court: They may feel strongly about things, nonetheless they never raise their voice, and so they persuade one another with rational thought. And not even arguments but merely thinking it through. I buy the sense that people are generally dedicated to a thing that works theatrically which is truthful and serves the goal of the play itself, to make sure that the 2 people is trying to find great moments that stick out like sore thumbs but a thing that helps it be a satisfying theatrical experience, with a strength in it. Sullivan: That's true, plus you've got to think about your ego from this. You're just trying to find a realistic look at itwhat's will make this happen. Alda: Often, through the testing, I'll say, "Fogged headlights I'd in your thoughts once i written that." However don't condition that to impose it on everybody The most effective them to understand what the logic was, so when there's better logic, or possibly there's better imagery will have the ability to choose, If only to understand about this.InchRadiance: The Passion of Marie Curie" plays within the Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., L.A., November. 1-12 ,. 11. (310) 208-5454. internet.geffenplayhouse.com.

Melissa McCarthy Finds Tammy

New Line has bought her spec scriptMelissa McCarthy is unquestionably getting one of the better years in Hollywood at this time around. She was one of the apparent breakout stars of Bridesmaids, nabbed an Emmy on her behalf sitcom work and contains art galleries clamouring on her behalf scripts. The newest company later on a-calling at her door is completely new Line, which has just bought the rights to her script Tammy.While McCarthy hasn't mentioned if she'll star inside the film at this time around, she did write it with various character she created, which is clearly specific towards her talents. Tammy follows a girl whose existence falls apart when she's release from work and finds her husband getting an affair. To flee everything, she heads on the journey, getting along her diabetic, alcoholic, foul-mouthed grandmother (paging Betty White-colored!)"It comes down lower to these two women who aren't where they thought they'd be, plus they kind of band together," McCarthy notifies The Hollywood Reporter. "It's just my perfect tone. It's so funny, and additionally it kind of breaks my heart."The actress also provides all irons inside the fire. She will get her steady starring job on tv comedy Mike & Molly, is at discussions to participate Identity Crook alongside Jason Bateman which is during the time of co-writing another movie on her behalf to use on at Vital. She'll next come in Judd Apatow's still-untitled Paul Rudd/Leslie Mann comedy, that's due to arrive here on December 21.

Lindsay Lohan Undertaking Her Court-Bought Community Service With Red-colored-colored Mix

First Launched: October 13, 2011 8:32 PM EDT Credit: Getty Premium La, Calif. -- Caption Lindsay Lohan is spotted within the Givenchy aftershow party at LArc in Paris on October 2, 2011 Lindsay Lohan is serving her court-bought community service having a completely new organization. On Thursday, an agent for your American Red-colored-colored Add La confirmed to get into Hollywood the actress is undertaking her community service while using group. The representative was unable to provide particulars on her behalf account start date or perhaps the character of her work. Lohan formerly was undertaking her community service within the Womens Center in downtown La. A repetition for Lohan wouldn't discuss why the actress isn't any more coping with the initial organization she was designated to with the court. Lohan has another hearing as you're watching judge in La on October 19. She was formerly bought to complete 480 several hours of community service in the year, a sentence connected together with her probation for drunken driving and misdemeanor robbery cases. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All rights reserved. These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Cougar Town Stars to Pop On Your Preferred Shows

Christa Burns and Courteney Cox The heavens of Cougar Town are going to show up on your TV screen quicker than their scheduled midseason return. "We made the decision it may be funny to express our cast will probably be on within the fall a lot more than every other cast," executive producer Bill Lawrence told USA Today. As a result his stars can look in background roles on numerous shows prior to the Season 3 premiere. Ian Gomez will begin things off like a physician on Thursday's Grey's Anatomy, then Courteney Cox and Christa Burns, who is visible like a lesbian couple on Private Practice. Watch full instances of Cougar Town within our Movie Guide "I believed it was hysterical," Cox stated. "Bill and also the authors will always be great about determining methods to keep people conscious of our show even if we are this is not on TV." Presently, 13 shows across several systems take part in the trick with uncredited, non-speaking looks which will likewise incorporate Serta Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Busy Phillips and John Van Holt. "Hopefully, it will likely be type of a game title for the fans and help remind people we are still around and returning in no time,Inch Lawrence added.

The spin on stats

Tethered to the success of the movie "Moneyball," the NY Times ran a recent business piece identifying what it referred to as "Generation Moneyball" -- young MBA types smitten by Michael Lewis' book and the concept of using analytics to "exploit inefficiencies, allocate resources and challenge conventional wisdom."Despite hostility toward science in some political quarters, there's certainly appeal in this notion of better -- or more productive -- living through new ways of utilizing data, in everything from solving crime to better understanding and anticipating media and cultural trends. Yet while we have moved into an age of virtually infinite data, much of it is suspect, and making sense of the chaos often appears well beyond our grasp.Understandably, this hasn't dissuaded media outlets from pursuing such big-picture stories and companies from seeking to tap into the Web's treasure trove of information to unearth the Next Big Thing. Indeed, every day seems to bring a new player pitching breakthrough technology in regard to social media, hoping to establish itself as an arbiter of the public pulse. This hunt for meaning, however, frequently doesn't survive close scrutiny. Take the survey in which almost a third of U.S. respondents said they intended to watch the Emmys (overstating the actual rating by a factor of about 10), or another putting interest in Comedy Central's Charlie Sheen roast far ahead of the "Two and a Half Men" premiere -- which outdrew it ratings-wise by more than four to one.Overworked as we are, the media haven't been especially adept at sifting through this flood of ancillary data and separating what's truly significant from what merely sounds interesting, and what's essentially meaningless.The Wall Street Journal, for example, gave considerable play to a story about "decoding" the conversation on Twitter. Citing "the scientific appetite for the insights the data can yield," the paper quoted an exec saying what can be culled from those 140-character bursts is "the ultimate customer research tool."Twitter undoubtedly has value as a communication medium, though transforming that into a clear referendum on pretty much anything remains questionable. Given the limits the format imposes, there's ample room for skepticism about its ability to yield identifiable patterns, except perhaps to serve the company's desire to reshape its chorus of voices into a marketable product.Other companies, such as TiVo, are also eager to package their databases into something they can sell. It's another permutation on spinning ratings, which now includes such elements as delayed DVR viewing and more detailed audience profiles, such as ABC's recent press release touting its performance among "upscale categories, including high-income professionals or managers and those with four-plus years of college."Or, reading between the lines, "Hey advertisers, maybe not as many people watched us, but the right ones did." In terms of the zeitgeist, scientific knowledge as a means of thwarting evil has also taken a next step forward. CBS' intriguing new series "Person of Interest" hinges on a machine capable of spitting out vaguely predictive data in the war against terror, moving the science fiction of "Minority Report" into a present-day milieu.Ultimately, the allure of analyzing reams of assembled research lies in achieving a sense of security not readily associated with creative endeavors. The principal challenge is separating what has true real-world implications from diverting nonsense -- namely, opt-in polls, instantaneous online comments and other tidbits that might fill time on cable news but which are only representative of whatever yahoo happened to hit "send" the fastest. Although "Moneyball" focuses on baseball, as the Times piece noted, for execs receptive to new methods of mining data, "it's a short step to applying similar principles in their own organizations" -- a practice that could gain momentum as the next generation ascends the corporate ladder.As a Jewish mother might say, it couldn't hurt.But if she happens to have a successful son or daughter, she might also tell you that when push comes to shove, trust your gut and swing for the fences. Contact Brian Lowry at brian.lowry@variety.com

It's Like 'Sherlock Holmes' Meets 'Se7en': Watch a clip for 'The Raven'

You do not have thought a movie of a serial killer resembling the entire shebang of Edgar Allen Poe can make for excellent cinema, nevertheless the trailer for 'The Raven' will be here to prove otherwise. What initially made an appearance as being a joke-y conceit -- John Cusack is Edgar Allen Poe -- looks kinda great. Or otherwise a lot better than 'From Hell' and 'Sleepy Hollow.' Watch ahead. That's Luke Evans playing the Baltimore detective (you will notice him in 'Immortals' later this year) and Alice Eve as Poe's onscreen lady love. She's a extended way from being Vince's arm-chocolate on 'Entourage.' 'The Raven' flies (ding!) into theaters on March 9, 2012. Watch a clip in HD at Apple. Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook RELATED

Dirty Girl Viral Blog Exposes 13-Year-Olds to Filthy Sex Fantasy Chatter

How do you possibly promote a movie about a promiscuous high school student in the ’80s? If you’re ripping a page out of the Weinstein Co.’s Dirty Girl’s marketing book, try launching a blog where users can anonymously share their deepest, darkest, most twisted sexual fantasies… then making it accessible for anyone aged 13 and up! Um, guys…? Today Movieline received a press release announcing the viral marketing website for Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl called Dirty Secrets Blog, a “wildly addictive blog [that] lets users anonymously spill their dirty secret.” There, after confirming that you are at least 13 years old — seriously, only 13 years old — users can create a clever pseudonym and post about their own naughty musings and sexual fantasies, just the way Dirty Girl’s heroine Danielle (Juno Temple) might…if she had access to the Internet in the ’80s. Take a look at some of the threads (warning: NSFW): Will you be partaking in this sexy marketing adventure? Or does the idea of this sexual fantasy blog targeting teenagers make you cringe and wish for simpler times like Oklahoma in the ’80s? Maybe that’s the actual intention of this viral venture. Dirty Girl premieres October 7 and follows “the story of two mismatched misfits headed for the bright lights of California, and how they discover each other and themselves through a funny and serendipitous friendship.” The Juno Temple-starrer is rated R “for sexual content including graphic nudity, and for language,” and though it’s not readily apparent exactly what the quirky road trip pic has in common with the Dirty Secrets blog aside from its title and filthy mind, Weinstein Co. might want to in the least reconsider boosting its age-gate. Otherwise youngsters who aren’t even old enough to buy a ticket could wind up learning a lot more from the film’s viral blog than the film itself. Update: We’ve added evidence that users only need to be 13 to enter the site. [Dirty Secrets]

Jobs Appreciated By Disney, Pixar Professionals

Carrying out a dying of Jobs on Wednesday, March. 5, Hollywood is talking about recollections in the beloved Apple Boss.our editor recommendsSteve Jobs: 10 Memorable Key occasions in the Apple Co-Founder's CareerRemembering Jobs (Video)What's Steve Jobs' Hollywood Legacy?Jobs Dies at 56Steve Jobs' Dying: Hollywood Honors the Visionary PHOTOS: 9 Finest Paid out Entertainment CEOs The mastermind behind Apple's apple apple iphone, iPad, ipod device device, iMac and iTunes, stood a extended have trouble with failing health after fighting a distinctive kind of pancreatic cancer, too as with 2009 acquiring a liver transplant. "Jobs will be a great friend additionally to some reliable consultant. His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or perhaps the companies he built. It'll be the large amounts of individuals he inspired, the lives he changed, as well as the culture he defined," mentioned Disney Leader and Boss, Robert Iger, in the statement. "Steve was this type of 'original,' getting a totally creative, imaginative mind that defined a period of time. Despite all he accomplished, it feels as if he only decided to receive started. " PHOTOS: Hollywood's Notable Deaths "Along with his passing stuck lost an infrequent original, Disney has lost an connect within our family, which i've forfeit a great friend," the statement ongoing. "Our ideas and hopes are along with his wife Laurene and also the children throughout this difficult time.Inch In the joint statement, Pixar's John Lasseter and Erection dysfunction Catmull mentioned: "Jobs was an amazing visionary, our very dear friend as well as the guiding light in the Pixar family. He saw the opportunity of what Pixar may be just before the comfort people, and beyond what anybody ever imagined." "Steve needed an chance here and supported our crazy imagine making cartoon films the primary one factor he always mentioned wound up being to merely 'make it great.' He's why Pixar switched view we did and also the strength, integrity and adoration for existence makes most of us better people," the statement ongoing. "He'll forever be a part of Pixar's DNA. Our hearts visit his wife Laurene in addition to their children throughout this incredibly difficult time.Inch STORY: What's Jobs' Hollywood Legacy? Jobs referred to as Pixar "most likely the very best and reliable brand in animation." When Iger bought Pixar within the month of the month of january 2006 for approximately $7.4 billion, Jobs was presented with a 7.four percent stake in Disney together with a chair on its board of company company directors. Before Jobs grew to become an associate of Disney, he was reaping helpful benefits in the conglomerate's close link with Pixar to improve the opportunity of iTunes, which began supporting video in 2005. Along with music videos, a couple of from the earliest content available were Tv shows from Disney's ABC and Disney Funnel systems like Desperate Regular folks, Lost, That's So Raven as well as the Suite Information on Zack & Cody. Related Subjects Bob Iger Jobs Pixar

Mitt Romney, Bachmann Desired to Boycott Univision Debate Due to Extortion Accusations

Five Republican presidential candidates are missing a Univision debate following a network was billed with threatening to humiliate potential V . p . candidate Marco Rubio when he wouldn't sit lower with an interview while using The the spanish language language-language network.our editor recommendsAfter penalty, FCC fine with Univision saleEXCLUSIVE: Univision Revs Up Brand Integration With GM PHOTOS: 7 Best Presidents in Movies and TV Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Ron Perry, Jon Huntsman and Bachmann Wanted launched separate claims description of how the wouldn't attend the Jan. 31 debate, in line with the Miami Herald. PHOTOS: Leader George W. Rose rose bush on 9/11 Univision is billed with recently investing a couple of days of coverage to Rubio's brother-in-law Orlando Cicilia's 1987 drug arrest -- in retaliation for Rubio lowering being asked with the network's Al Punto show, which reflects liberal sights on immigration. "This work for balance extorting a respected Republican selected official like Senator Rubio, who's another proud American of Hispanic descent, is offensive and unacceptable," written U.S. Repetition. David Rivera, condition House leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, and Miami-Dade Republican Chairman Erik Fresen in the joint statement. Univision calls the accusations "absurd" and mentioned they reported the 24-year-old story in justness. Mentioned Perry within the statement: "With NBC and Telemundo also hosting a debate the identical weekend within the month of the month of january 2012, we'll plenty of opportunity to connect to The the spanish language language-speaking Us citizens.Inch Related Subjects Univision

WME-John Ferriter Arbitration Searching for March. 19 (Exclusive)

Neil Rasmus/PatrickMcMullan.com/Sipa Press/Newscom Fallout within the cutthroat 2009 merger of a few Hollywood's best talent agencies will land before a judge. John Ferriter, the primary one-time William Morris board member that has a customer list including Piers Morgan, The X Factor host Steve Manley and Came Pinsky, left the organization and punished for $25 million inside the wake of the takeover by Ari Emanuel's Endeavor. The Hollywood Reporter finds that Judge Stephen Lachs, who's controlling the non-public arbitration in the situation, has set an March. 19 start date for just about any two-week proceeding to discover whether WME, additionally to partners Emanuel, Ron Rosen and Mark Itkin, marginalized Ferriter and lastly went him in the agency. The problem already has featured depositions of numerous top WME agents and former WMA mind Jim Wiatt additionally to 6 occasions of testimony by Ferriter. As well as the witness list for your closed-door arbitration could include Emanuel and blogger Nikki Finke, who Ferriter thinks written nasty articles about him within the behest of WME brass. At problem inside the situation is if Ferriter, really the only WMA partner to election in the April 2009 merger in the storied William Morris while using upstart Endeavor, was fired despite accurate documentation of stellar performance or whether he handled to obtain proven to his partners he was quitting. Days following a merger was approved over Ferriter's opposition, he became a member of a health care facility and nearly died in the blood stream clot that introduced with a Penicillin-resistant MRSA infection. When he returned for the agency within this summer time of the year, Ferriter states he was specific by new management for elimination. According to him he was declined among his two assistants, saw his monthly monthly subscriptions to THR together with other magazines stop and was expected to cede energy inside the unscripted department to WME partners including Sean Perry and Lance Klein. Sources say Ferriter and Emanuel together with some of the best WME agents also clashed. WME lawyers, introduced by Patricia Glaser and Kerry Garvis Wright, reason why on March. 19, 2009, Ferriter -- who had previously been bad-mouthing the completely new WME -- asked for his lawyer to see the organization he was resigning, a telephone call that introduced with a WME board announcement that Ferriter wanted out. But Ferriter, represented by his sister, litigator Patricia Kramer, states he never resigned and was concentrating on account the organization until he was started among a trashing on Finke's blog. He's since be considered a manager at Octagon, nevertheless the WME exit has cost him millions, he claims. "This isn't nearly money," states an origin. "John has already established this factor so personally. He's become passionate relating to this situation." Lawyers for WME and Ferriter declined to comment.

The Reasons of the Heart ((Las razones del corazon))

A Mil Nubes Cine, Wanda Vision, Fidecine production, with the participation of TVE. (International sales: Wanda Vision, Madrid.) Produced by Roberto Fiesco, Jose Maria Morales. Executive producer, Hugo Espinosa. Directed by Arturo Ripstein. Screenplay, Paz Alicia Garciadiego.With: Arcelia Ramirez, Vladimir Cruz, Plutarco Haza, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Alejandro Suarez, Pilar Padilla, Paola Arroyo, Carlos Chavez, Eligio Melendez, Marta Aura.An overly literary script combined with a wearying theatricality mar Arturo Ripstein's loose black-and-white adaptation of "Madame Bovary," christened "The Reasons of the Heart." The soapy title fits the helmer's attempted deconstruction of the meller form, though it's not clear what the tinkering adds to either Flaubert or the film itself, centered on a Mexican housewife with a bland hubby and an uncontrollable passion for an unsympathetic lover. Ripstein's rep will be the main reason "Reasons" will bounce around the fest circuit. The opening owes more than a little to Jean Cocteau's "La Voix humaine," as Emilia (Arcelia Ramirez) engages more or less in a monologue within her downmarket apartment. She grasps at her reflection in the mirror, a gesture of frustration that sets the deliberately theatrical tone for the remaining two hours. Emilia has a regular rendezvous in an upstairs garret with Cuban sax player Nicolas (Vladimir Cruz) and is far more focused on her obsessive need for her lover than on her neglected 10-year-old daughter Isabel (Paola Arroyo), or her dull, hard-working husband, Javier (Plutarco Haza). She goes up to prepare for her usual assignation, literally licking the sheets before his arrival in one of several over-the-top flourishes that struggle to reconstitute melodrama's excesses yet fail to make them meaningful in even a postmodern way. Nicolas can't cope with her neediness and dumps her, saying, "I may be an asshole but I'm not a bastard" (perhaps the line works better in Spanish). Emilia falls into a downward spiral of selfishness and self-destruction, giving herself to sleazy upstairs neighbor Jasper (Alejandro Suarez), bemoaning fate when creditors repossess her furniture, and crying over her inability to escape her passions. Javier has resigned himself to his station, but Emilia is incapable of reducing her impossible demands on life. Ripstein has previously played with staginess ("The Virgin of Lust") and black-and-white ("The Ruination of Men"), and his impressive career is full of interesting adaptations, but "Reasons" too often feels like empty experimentation. "The heart has reasons that reason cannot know," said Blaise Pascal, quoted at the start, yet the film says nothing new about the inability of supposedly intelligent people to explain or justify giving their love to an obviously unsuitable object of affection. Ripstein's frequent scripter (and wife) Paz Alicia Garciadiego uses language to convey a hothouse atmosphere of studied literacy whose prose styling pays homage to the pic's source material, but never makes a case for the self-conscious artifice. When Emilia yells at her daughter, "Go somewhere else with your drama," auds will be tempted to direct the same exclamation at the filmmakers. The most memorable character is Ruti, the building concierge, who acts as witness and stable ur-force, wonderfully fleshed out by a magnetic Patricia Reyes Spindola. Alejandro Cantu's lensing is pleasingly textured, and his camera describes the limited spaces in interesting ways. Music, especially the wails of Nicolas' saxophone, adds another self-referential layer with its film-noir moodiness.Camera (B&W), Alejandro Cantu; editor, Alejandro Ripstein; music, David Mansfield; production designer, Sandra Cabriada; costume designer, Laura Garcia de la Mora; sound (Dolby Digital, THX), Armando Narvaez, Omar Juarez. Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival (competing), Sept. 23, 2011. (Also in Abu Dhabi Film Festival -- competing. Running time: 125 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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