Marc Malkin
EXCLUSIVE: Read it here first...
Marc's Twitpics
Brad Pitt @ the 2012 SAG Awards in L.A. Plus, Rob, Kristen, Britney, Angelina and more. Check out Marc’s latest red carpet pics
MORE PHOTOS +Most Commented
- Matt Bomer Comes Out as Gay Man (118)
- No More Whitney Houston Jokes, Says Kathy Griffin (76)
- Kim Kardashian, Movie Star? It's "Very Much Possible," Says Tyler Perry (76)
- Selena Gomez Replaces Miley Cyrus in Vampire Flick (39)
- Josh Duhamel Not Coming Back for Transformers 4: Is Anyone?! (33)
- Whitney Houston and Other Divas Who Died Too Soon (26)
- Vampire Diaries' Ian Somerhalder Talks About His...Kids?! (22)
- Whitney Houston: Winans Family Member to Deliver Eulogy at Funeral? (18)
- Bobbi Kristina Godmother CeCe Winans Hopes to Be "Very Involved" in Her Life, Says Source (16)
- Whitney Houston: "She’s in a Great Place" Now, Says Long-Time Friend (13)
Email Marc
Got a question, comment, or just want to say "Hi?" Email what you've got to MarcMalkin@comcastnets.com.
The Wild Child and the Pedophile
Sony Pictures
Want some feel-good fun? Spend some time with a schizophrenic pedophile, says Joseph Fiennes. The Shakespeare in Love thespian, who plays just such a twisted character in the movie adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ memoir Running with Scissors, was the surprise guest at the American Cinematheque screening of the flick Wednesday night in Santa Monica. He says he read the oddball script after demanding that his agent find him a part that wasn’t "a leading man in tights on a horse running after Gwyenth Paltrow." Trust me, he got his wish.
According to Fiennes, Running with Scissors is for anyone raised in a dysfunctional family or who just had a crappy childhood. Why exactly? "You’ll feel much better," he says. "No upbringing was worse than this." How bad was Burroughs' childhood exactly? As fans of his bestseller already know, the memoirist was the child of an alcoholic father (played by Alec Baldwin) and a pill-popping, free-love poet mother (Annette Bening), who adopt him out to a therapist and his family. An improvement, right? Except the therapist (Brian Cox) believes God speaks to him through his feces, and his wife (Jill Clayburgh) snacks on dog food, among many other things.
Well, I didn't feel better when I left the theater, and I had a hard time empathizing with Burroughs or his overheated melting pot of a family. (Burroughs, it should be noted, is being sued by members of his adoptive family, who claim the book has defamed them.) This dark comedy is more like a farcical cartoon than a real-life tale of a boy who somehow survived a disastrous childhood. "You have to pinch yourself to remind yourself that these are very real events," Fiennes said. It may take more than a pinch. That said, look for Bening and Clayburgh to be well rewarded come awards season. Whether the story feels genuine or not, Scissors runs based on their performances alone.
0 Comments
Now loading...