The Brad Pitt film will be released Christmas Day in the US.

I Love, love, LOVE this look on Judith. Part Ellen, Part Elvis, it just looks right on Light. It seems like the kind of outfit they’d feature in Hot Flash.

As an aside, did they ever decide the final fate of Hot Flash on Ugly Betty? As I recall, Alexis was planning on killing it, but never quite did, and Connor later sold some underperforming magazines, but we were never told that Hot Flash was one of them. Y’all refresh my memory. Is Hot Flash in limbo (this is what I think), or was there a moment in season 3 where the magazine was actually dropped? I only ask because I loved the idea – it was so brazen and whimsical at the same time.

Regardless, I think Judith looks casually wonderful here.

As for the film, I think Benjamin Button may be the must-see movie for me this year.

More pics after the jump.

Post from: Ugly Betty News

Here are photos of Rodriguez and the rest of the cast at a New York screening of the film at the Cinema II Theater.

Let’s talk facial hair. Some men can pull it off, some men can’t. Mr Rodriguez most certainly can.

There is talk that Freddy might be around for more than a few Ugly Betty episodes this year. I know quite a few folks that would be very happy with that prospect.

As for the film, I’ve seen quite a few good reviews of it, the strangest of which was from right-wing columnist Debbie Schlussel. She gave the film “Four Reagans”. In the same post, she gave The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, America Ferrera’s new film, “Three Marxes”. I don’t comment on this stuff, I just report it.

Also, you’ll see my favorite bad guy of all time, Alan Rickman in the pics. Then did he become, well, “grandfatherly”?

Anyway back to the ever-popular Mr. Rodriguez.

More pics after the jump.

Post from: Ugly Betty News

He’s played a recurring role on Desperate Housewives. He’s had guest stints in everything from Rosanne to NYPD Blue to Alias, to hundreds of other appearances. He’s a Broadway stage actor, he wrote and starred in a one-man show, “I remember Mapa”, and he was even in the video for REM’s “Losing My Religion”: Mapa was actually the man tied to a tree with an arrow through his heart. (How cool is that to know?)

He has a new solo show, “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart,” going onstage at Joe’s Pub in New York on June 28 and 29

Mapa’s latest big thing, besides of course, being an Ugly Betty regular, is a role in Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Alec plays Claude, a hairdresser who teaches and helps Sandler’s character, Zohan (an Israeli commando who fakes his own death) pursue his dream: become a hairstylist in New York.

Mapa played Claude “straight” (no, not THAT kind of straight!). He says, “The whole movie had such colorful, outsized characters to begin with and I was acting opposite Adam, so my goal was to get laughs by not playing for laughs. The visual jokes in the script were so bananas that all I had to do was react.”

Alec was a classmate of Adam Sandler at New York University. “Adam and I were in the same class as Molly Shannon (’Saturday Night Live’,'Evan Almighty’). We were all friendly because none of us ever got cast in any of the plays put on by the University. We all started doing our own comedy routines in clubs and theaters. Being proactive was what moved us forward. Adam’s a bit on the shy side, but he’s extremely loyal. The entire crew on ‘Zohan’ had all worked on tons of movies with Adam before, so I felt like I had walked in on a family reunion that was already underway.”

About Ugly Betty’s move to New York, Mapa says, “I’m thrilled about the double [airline] miles! I’m on the road half the year, so traveling to New York is a piece of cake. I lived there for seven years, so each trip back feels like a homecoming. I’m just sad for the 300 crew members who lost jobs here (in LA). First class rocks. A single glass of champagne at 30,000 feet gets me drunk faster than anything.”

If you will remember, in season 1, Ugly Betty had multiple reporters on its Fashion TV segments. In season 2, they gave the role solely to Mapa, and I think we’re all happy they did!

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Umage: Newscom

Post from: Ugly Betty News

In 1997, a 10-day-old girl (Delimar Vera) disappeared from her crib during a December 1997 fire at her parents’ Philadelphia home. Lacking a body, fire investigators concluded that the fire had consumed the newborn.

In a bizarre twist, the child’s biological mother, Luzaida Cuevas saw a girl at a party in 2003, had suspicions, took a sample of the girl’s hair, and had DNA testing performed, proving the child was indeed her baby. The child had been kidnapped during the fire, and raised by another woman, Carolyn Correa.

If that isn’t a Lifetime movie, I don’t know what is. You can read about Correa’s trial here. Here is a pic of the real mother and daughter:

Ana Ortiz will play a relative who helps reunite mother and daughter. (Hurray! At least she’s a “good guy”). Judy Reyes (Scrubs) will play Cuevas. A Martinez will play Angel Cruz, an elected official who helps the mother.

In another interesting twist, did you know that Ana Ortiz’s father is a former Philadelphia City Councilman, Angel Ortiz?

I generally avoid Lifetime movies, but I think I’m going to check this one out. It airs Aug. 17 on Lifetime.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Images: Newscom

Post from: Ugly Betty News

First is the blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In a past movies post, I told you that former cast member Alan Dale would be in the film. I’ll be honest with you: I forgot about it. So, here I am enjoying the movie, and early on, out walks Dale in full military dress. My wife and I both exclaimed “It’s Bradford Meade!”, before getting shushed by others who did not share our Ugly Betty infatuation. I told you Dale would land on his feet. Good for him.

Next, we rented 27 Dresses. I remember that during the live blog for episode 2.16, Betty’s Baby Bump, some of you commented that the yoga scene was right out of 27 Dresses. My goodness, you were right! I’ll say this to Silvio Horta: there’s a fine line between paying tribute to another artistic work and outright bootlegging. Yes, I realize that the movie had some serious product placement in Ugly Betty episodes after the strike, but…wow.

I wouldn’t feel so bad about it, except the whole time I was watching the love triangle in 27 Dresses, I kept thinking, “I’ve seen this before. George and Kevin are slightly better looking versions of Henry and Gio. Jane and Betty have some pretty striking personality similarities.”

I don’t want to make it sound like I think the post-strike version of Ugly Betty was an absolute rip-off; I don’t. I think there were many brilliant, original moments late this season. But there can be absolutely no doubt that Silvio Horta has seen 27 Dresses, and doing so influenced his writing this season.

Once again, I still think Ugly Betty is the most enjoyable, original show on television today. I was just taken aback by seeing many UB elements on the big screen in an unrelated film.

More Ugly Betty movie news is upcoming (Don’t forget America Ferrera!). I just had to share my Ugly Betty movie thoughts from this weekend.

Illustration: Newscom

Post from: Ugly Betty News

Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera recently spoke with the San Jose Mercury News, and she’s quite frank as usual. She’s quick to admit that her high school years were not very happy. “I had a really rough time through high school. I don’t think I liked myself very much. High school is a very hard place to like yourself. It’s easier for some people, but it wasn’t very easy for me.”

Join the club, America. I’ve just about come to the conclusion that nobody had an easy time in high school. But,apparently, Ferrera has always known where she wanted to go, even before high school. “I’m very much in awe of how young children have such bravery to dream so big. They just don’t question it,” she says. “I never questioned it. I used to lie in bed and say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get there. I just know I’m going to.’ I was, like, 10 and thinking, ‘What is taking so long? Why has my life not started?’”

America is about to turn 24 in April (as is her character, Betty), and although she’s enjoying success, she’s also looking inward.

“There is no possible way someone standing on the outside could know what I’ve been through in my life,” says Ferrera. “Sure, it looks like a Cinderella ball. It’s an amazing show, and the fame and the awards and recognition, but those are just the side effects of what, for me, is truly fulfilling. I work really hard for something I’m really proud of. ”

There’s kind of a calm about it for me,” she continues. “There are so many ways to become frightened of your own success. It’s a big learning lesson in questioning ‘Why do I do this and what is it for?’ And what do I want out of it?”

More after the jump.

She told the Mercury News that, although happy that the show has been embraced by the gay community, latinos, and parents of young girls concerned about body consiousness, there is only so far she can go as a role model. She says that gasp! she no longer reads message boards or blogs.

Oh, dear. Shame, that.

Ferrera has recently returned to the set of Ugly Betty, but in general knows no more than we do about where the show is going. (If she would read Ugly Betty News, she’d get all kinds of juicy spoilers).

About her latest movie “Under the Same Moon”, in which she plays non-Spanish-speaking American who tries to earn money for her brother’s college tuition by smuggling Mexican babies over the American border, she says she didn’t expect much when she first heard of the project. She was sent the script, then called “Immigrant Boy”, and read it at bedtime as a sleep aid.

“I thought I’d be asleep by Page 4. It usually works,” she recalls. “Of course, at 2 a.m., I’m on the last page, crying. I just really connected to it on a very human level.

“I just thought it was a perfect way to get a human connection to what immigration is all about,” she adds. “Yes, it’s deemed a crime and it’s illegal, but to call this 9-year-old boy who wants to be with his mother a criminal, something about that seems not complete.”

Ferrera is an important voice coming out of Hollywood these days. Here’s hoping that her meteoric rise just continues (as far as she wants it to go)

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Post from: Ugly Betty News

Ugly Betty star America Ferrera is slated to be a starring voice in the upcoming CGI film “How to Train Your Dragon,” the CGI fantasy feature from DreamWorks Animation. She will star alongside Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

The movie is based on Cressida Cowell’s first novel in the children’s book series. It is centered on the timid son of a Viking chief who must capture and train a dragon in order to be initiated into his tribe.

Baruchel will voice that boy, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third (you have to love that name!). His dragon happens to be quite uncooperative.

Ferrera wll be the voice of Astrid, who partners Hiccup for the initiation. Hill plays the bully Snoutlout, and Mintz-Plaase plays Fishlegs, a large Viking with not a lot upstairs.

My son tells me this book series is quite popular, so I have no doubt America will have another hit on her hands. The project was moved back from a March 20,2009 release to March 26,2010.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Post from: Ugly Betty News

I love how they match with the earthtones.

They were there to speak in the Warner Bros Pictures presentation “The Big Picture ‘08″. The two star, along with Ferrera pal Amber Tamblyn and Blake Lively in this summer’s sequel “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2“, set for release August 8.

For a blow-by-blow report of the convention, check out USA Today’s Scott Bowles’ blog.

Lots more pics after the jump.

Post from: Ugly Betty News

I am really looking forward to this film, which has a limited opening March 19th. Here is a Variety review from the showing at Sundance in January.

We’ve seen it before, but purple is a wonderful color for America. I think she looks quite beautiful in these photos.

More after the jump!

Post from: Ugly Betty News

Jenna Mays (who also played a character named Charlie on Heroes), will be the female lead in the upcoming made-in-Massachusetts comedy formerly known as “Mall Cop,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The movie stars stars Kevin James as a security guard who has to raise his game when his mall is taken hostage by a group of thieves. The Hollywood Reporter also said Mays will play the owner of a hair extensions kiosk at the mall. Keir O’Donnell, Shirley Knight, Raini Rodriguez, Stephen Rannazzisi and Adam Ferrara will also appear in the comedy.

The owner of a hair extensions kiosk? Perfect! This is the kind of role that can endear an actress to the audience, like Trish the E-Bay merchant in “The 40 Year Old Virgin” or Deb the Glamour Shots photographer in “Napolean Dynamite”.

I’ve always WANTED to like Jenna Mays, but her character in Ugly Betty was so destructive (with that innocent smile on her face), that it has been hard up till now. Maybe “Mall Cop” will put her on the good list again!

Source: Boston Herald

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