by Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi beauties Anna Paquin and Anna Hutchison have united in a celebrity battle against a killer beast – cancer.

True Blood babe Paquin and Underbelly hottie Hutchison are among a galaxy of stars who will appear in The Beauty Book, compiled by Australian celebrity photographer Darren Tieste.

Tragedy struck Tieste in 2008, when one of his best friends, fashion designer Natalie Sattler, lost her fight with brain cancer.

Inspired by her courageous struggle, the 35-year-old decided to raise funds for cancer research by doing what he does best – getting behind the camera.

Tieste chased down every major star he could get his hands on and committed them to a photoshoot to appear in the 260-page coffee table book, to go on sale worldwide in August.

Famous Kiwi faces in The Beauty Book include Outrageous Fortune and Ugly Betty hunk Grant Bowler.

Tieste said getting Paquin involved was a real coup.

“Anna’s a great girl, we had three hours with her. She was a big one to get, and the sweetest girl, so down to earth and easy in front of the camera.”

All of the proceeds from the book will go to charity including Snog, or Sydney Neuro-Oncology Group, and Abta, the American Brain Tumour Association.

Tieste told Sunday News it took a lot of hard work fitting into the schedule of the celebrities.

“We’re talking about some of the busiest people in the world here, so finding time was really difficult.”

He said his efforts got a boost when Hugh Jackman, his first A-list star to sign up, agreed to be involved in the project.

Tieste got his big break with a cover shot for Dolly Magazine when he was just 20 and has since then travelled the world shooting pictures for clients such as Coca Cola, Samsung, Nokia and Visa.

In 2003, the Sydney born-and-bred photographer relocated to Los Angeles, where he has since worked with Christina Hendricks, Rosario Dawson and Sam Worthington.

Pre-order at www.thebeautybook.org

by PR Newswire

Team Todd, Plum Pictures, Benaroya Pictures and Four Of A Kind Productions announced today that Paramount Famous Productions has picked up all U.S. and Canada rights for “The Romantics.” The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, was written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer, and produced by Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, Michael Benaroya, Ron Stein and Daniel Hendler. Featuring an all star cast including Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin, Malin Akerman, Adam Brody, Dianna Agron with Candice Bergen and Elijah Wood, “The Romantics” is about a tight knit group of college friends who reunite for a wedding of two of their own.

Daniela Taplin Lundberg said, “The response to the film has been extraordinary and I am delighted to have Paramount Famous Productions as our domestic distribution partner.”

“We are thrilled to be in business with the talented team at Plum Pictures and their partners. We have been tracking several of Plum’s projects and “The Romantics” is a great way to start,” said Louis Feola, president of Paramount Famous Productions.

The film was repped domestically by John Sloss of Cinetic Media.

The finished version of the film will screen in Cannes. Simon Crowe of SC International will sell the remaining territories.

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom ( VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group and Worldwide Television Distribution.

As we know, Anna is going to present at Screen Actors Awards. But this year only True Blood ensemble got a nomination of ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series‘, along with The Good Wife, Mad Men, Dexter, The Closer.

Source: SAG Awards official site

by Gregg Kilday

George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Jane Lynch, Michelle Monaghan, Chris O’Donnell, Anna Paquin, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci will be presenters at the 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 23rd.
They join previously announced presenter Sandra Bullock, who will present SAG’s Life Achievement Award to Betty White.

The SAG Awards will be simulcast on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles.

by People.com

It’s true love for True Blood couple Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. The two are engaged to be married, reps for both actors on the HBO vampire series confirm to PEOPLE exclusively.

No further details were available.

Paquin, who plays telepathic Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood, is originally from New Zealand and won a 1994 Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the precocious child in The Piano.

Moyer, from Essex, England, plays bloodsucking Bill Compton on the series. He also has two children from previous relationships: a son, Billy, born in 2000, and a daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.

Last month, Paquin, 27, said of her nude love scenes with Moyer, 39: “Obviously, if you’re already with that person then you’re not having to sort of get over the ‘Wow, I’m naked with someone that I don’t even know the middle name of!’”

For his part, Moyer has said of his lady love, “My girl is hardcore.”

The film took three months to film and has run aground in the editing room — for three years.

by John Horn

“You Can Count on Me” was the kind of Hollywood arrival that every aspiring filmmaker dreams about.

Kenneth Lonergan’s 2000 directorial debut about two siblings’ splintered relationship was a solid art-house hit, the film helped launch the career of costar Mark Ruffalo and was nominated for two Academy Awards — lead actress for Laura Linney and original screenplay for Lonergan.

It was hardly surprising, then, that in early 2005 Fox Searchlight and financier Gary Gilbert (“Garden State”) were eager to back Lonergan’s second turn behind the camera, deciding to co-finance his complex account of a young girl’s grappling with guilt and adolescence, “Margaret.”

But although “You Can Count on Me” seemed blessed at almost every turn, “Margaret” has turned into a nightmarish production that has devolved into a bitter court fight. Despite “Margaret’s” initial promise, it is now uncertain when Lonergan’s movie, which was filmed more than three years ago, will ever make it to theaters.

Movie studio shelves are filled with troubled projects that have been put on hold for any number of reasons, but rarely do they involve someone of Lonergan’s standing working with such quality actors (“Margaret‘s” cast includes Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Anna Paquin) and an all-star producing team of Oscar winners — Scott Rudin ( “No Country for Old Men”) and the late Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”).

More unusual still is why, according to one of the film’s two lawsuits, “Margaret” hasn’t come out: Lonergan can’t finish the film.

Because of the litigation and a confidentiality agreement among the lawyers, all of the principals central to the film declined to be interviewed for this story. But conversations with a dozen people close to or familiar with the production, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an endless post-production cycle that left Lonergan and Gilbert clashing and Fox Searchlight sitting on what might be an unreleasable movie.

… read more »