By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—It’s getting harder to turn on the TV or find an indie film that doesn’t star Hollywood “It” girl Aubrey Plaza. Her day job is playing oddball civil servant April Ludgate on the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation.” She also has a recurring role on the N [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—When she was only a toddler, Sarah Wayne Callies recalls battening down the hatches in her home for Hurricane Eva in her native Hawaii. She and her grandmother—her parents were out of town—filled the bathtub with water (in case the storm damaged the w [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—YouTube has replaced Schwab’s Pharmacy as the place for aspiring film actresses to be discovered. Just as Lana Turner was purportedly discovered sitting at the drug store counter by Mervyn Leroy back in the day, French-Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bo [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—Franka Potente has upped the ante this season in the FX crime drama “The Bridge. She plays a shunned Mennonite named Eleanor Nacht, who has many secrets, including the fact that she is involved with upper echelons of the Mexican drug cartel. The serie [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—Megan Fox is best known for her role as Shia LaBeouf’s girlfriend Mikaela Banes in the first two “Transformers” movies. After a very public falling out with the blockbuster franchise producer Michael Bay, the two apparently have patched things up beca [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—Screenwriter John Swetnam is on top of the world. Two of his screenplays have been turned into feature films that will be released this Friday (August 8): Warner Bros’ tornado movie “Into the Storm” and Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment’s 3D dance [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—In “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” Dame Helen Mirren plays the snooty proprietress of a Michelin-starred restaurant in a quaint French village. The imperious widow’s calculable world is turned upside when an Indian family moves in across the street and op [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—“Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn can’t say enough nice things about Benicio Del Toro, who plays Taneleer Tivan a.k.a. The Collector, one of the bizarre characters five superheroes, led by a human named Peter Quill, encounter during their [...]
By ANGELA DAWSON Front Row Features HOLLYWOOD—Benjamin Arthur plays the unlikely family scion in NBC’s new summer comedy “Working the Engels.” As Jimmy Engel, he is a petty criminal and perennial bad boy. Nevertheless, he’s completely committed to his family, and when called upon to help out with [...]