Celebrity Chatters

Every other Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

There were some really great suggestions for last week’s challenge, the recast of the Nickelodeon ’80s hit Hey Dude. I had a feeling this recast would get a lot of folks who were kids during that era of television feeling nostalgic, and I’m so excited most of you remembered the characters! I had a great time thinking about new cast members, too, but mostly I just couldn’t get the theme song out of my head all week.

I really loved the ideas of of Rainn Wilson as Mr. Ernst and Greek’s Spencer Grammer as Melody that azulskies suggested. The more I think about it, the more Spencer looks like a young Christine Taylor to me, and they already have similar careers — both getting their starts on TV as the nice girl.

I thought that the somewhat nerdy Buddy Ernst would be tough to cast, but ladyelephant’s suggestion of Haley Joel Osment is creative and I think it would work well. A young Freddie Muniz would be fun too, as bratty3000 pointed out. And I’m glad we all agreed last week that David Lascher was such a crush-worthy Ted McGriff, but I see kendallina’s point that Ben McKenzie would give David a run for his money.

Thank you to everyone for your great suggestions! There was one cast that was right on with the innocent Melody and the rich girl Brad, not to mention a totally hilarious suggestion for Mr. Ernst that I just couldn’t resist. Congrats to khowell!

To see who khowell picked, along with a new cast photo,

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We’re still nearly two months away from when Coldplay’s fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, drops (June 17 in the United States), but today, the band is throwing fans a bone by releasing a song from the album to download for one week only. The song is called “Violet Hill” and is the eighth track on the album that is supposedly taking the band in a new creative direction.

In addition to the early download today, the band will also play two free shows in support of the new album, one in London and one at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A few details about the London show are on the band’s site now.

To grab your own copy of the song, go here and fill out a short form that asks for your Zip code and e-mail address. The site will then e-mail you directions for downloading the song. A lot of people must be doing this, so beware that it could take a while for you to get the e-mail — mine took more than three hours!

The song definitely hints at a new, somewhat harder sound for Coldplay, but it also doesn’t feel that out of step with the material they’ve released before. Now I’m curious to see if the full album will live up to the hype — not to mention the commercial success they’ve experienced thus far.

If you’re busy waiting for your own copy of “Violet Hill,” or if you want to know if the song is worth checking out, you can hear it if you

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• TV Squad wants to know why some people seem to hate Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
• Cinematical wonders how you feel about it when famous people play themselves.
• You Ain’t No Picasso has the video of Prince covering Radiohead’s “Creep” at Coachella.
• The TV Addict has a chat with Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr.
• PopSugar wonders whether you love or hate Scarlett Johansson’s new video for “Falling Down.”
• Stereogum chats about Tegan and Sara’s witty onstage banter, complete with video evidence.
• Seat42f has an interview with Moonlight star Jason Dohring.
• Speaking of Moonlight, Popwatch saw that show’s shirtless opening scene last week and now wants to know about some of the other most gratuitous moments in TV history.
• The MTV Movies Blog talks to Emile Hirsch about whether a Speed Racer sequel is inevitable.

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As is the case with many movies, you can kinda tell how you’ll feel about Savage Grace from how you feel watching the trailer. For me, I thought the trailer was tense, dark and disturbing. Julianne Moore looked powerfully off-kilter, exhibiting that magnificent control she utilizes with every role she takes on, but ultimately the trailer left me with a bleakly ominous feeling. Physically, it was like I’d swallowed cement.

The full movie left me with that feeling times a thousand. Julianne Moore’s character is appalling in this story, and yet Moore makes us sympathize with her. But aside from that, this supremely messed up film is just hard to watch. Moore portrays the real-life American socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland whose hostile marriage with plastics heir Brooks (Stephen Dillane) Baekeland produced one son, Antony (Eddie Redmayne). After the dissolution of Barbara and Brooks’ marriage, Antony became Barbara’s closest friend and confidant. Barbara and Antony’s relationship was really close, if you know what I mean. If you don’t (even if you do),

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Last night’s episode of Gossip Girl hit pause on the Blair vs. Little J storyline and made way for Georgina Sparks. Woohoo! She started out harmless enough (even a little needy), and it seemed like Serena was just making bad choices that had little to do with the arrival of her old friend. However, considering the packages full of porn and handcuffs Georgina sent last week — and the fact that she looks like Michelle Trachtenberg, whose appearance in anything is practically a synonym for “seriously b*tchy” — I was fairly certain things were going to get diabolical fast.

Don’t forget to take Geek’s tech quiz and then take a look at some of my thoughts on all that went down last night:

• First off: Jenny’s tantrums are getting on my last nerve. Plus, all that talk of needing a king and not a jester is just tacky. And not to be too negative about Little J, but the dog walker, Asher Hornsby, was kind of dopey, no? Or did anyone think he was cute?
• I love scheming Blair! She’s so resourceful (and evil) when she needs to be, and her target last night was over-achieving Nelly Yuki, who, like Blair, wants to go to Yale. According to Blair-logic, only one kid from Constance Billard can get into Yale, so naturally she had to sabotage Nelly’s SAT performance.

For more on how the gang survived their SATs and my thoughts on the something-something that’s a-brewin’ between Nate and Vanessa,

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Yeah, yeah, I rolled my eyes a little too when I heard Lori Loughlin had been cast as the mom in the 90210 spinoff. But today’s spate of casting news has me feeling much, much better about this little project. Witness the following:

• Canadian cutie Shanae Grimes will play the lead teen, Annie Mills, an emo drama nerd trying to make it big with the cool crowd. OK, so that might not mean anything to you . . . unless you’re a big fan of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Her character, Darcy, was stalked online, drugged at a party, and involved with breaking another cheerleader’s leg on purpose, so she should be well prepared for the craziness of Beverly Hills. (Also, this was the role the producers were reportedly hoping Hilary Duff would take — so, whether this is good or bad news might depend on your feelings about Hilary Duff.)
• Jessica Walter, aka Lucille Bluth, will play family matriarch Tabitha Mills, the alcoholic ex-actress who was linked to Warren Beatty in her heyday. She’s the impetus for bringing her son, Harry, and his wife (Celia, Loughlin’s character) back to 90210. See, I told you it was a good week for Arrested Development alumni.
• There aren’t a lot of details about this last piece of news yet, but Ryan Eggold — whom I fell a little bit in love with as Farber Kaufman on Dirt this season — has apparently also been cast. TV Guide describes his role just as “the teacher,” Ryan. But just knowing I have another place to catch Eggold is good enough for me.

Does any of this warm your heart toward the spinoff? Or are you still a skeptic?

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Monday’s episode of House had everything I could have hoped for in the show’s return — and I’m not exaggerating when I say everything. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman were all there — but so was the new team. There were scenes with Wilson and scenes with Cuddy — and a scene with the two of them together. They even threw in a little Hugh Laurie tooling away on the piano. Doesn’t it just figure that the episode about a too-happy guy would make me smile for almost an hour straight?

The team’s treatment of the happiest man alive (”Is he Canadian?”) led them on a quest to figure out why House is the crankiest man alive. Meanwhile, House set about rekindling his bromance with Wilson by proposing joint custody with Amber. Could House survive seeing his best dude on Wednesday nights and every other weekend? To find out, just

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Trucker largely reminded me of another indie movie titled Come Early Morning which was written and directed by Chasing Amy’s Joey Lauren Adams (who, incidentally, also stars in Trucker). The tone of both movies features a kind of weary, weathered fondness for the southern American landscape (in Come Early Morning it’s the South, in Trucker it’s the dusty deserts of southern California). At the heart of both movies, too, are hard-edged, tough-talking women in jobs that others in the movie ridicule for not being “women’s jobs”: Ashley Judd’s character in Early Morning worked in construction while the main character of Diane in Trucker, played by Michelle Monaghan is a truck driver.

On the surface these two films might blur together in my mind as one unrecognizable narrative of the rough-around-the-edges woman learning to soften and accept love as well as give it. Trucker stands out a bit, though as a more interesting story, more layered with higher stakes. And while it’s not the most memorable movie in general, it’s captivating enough and ultimately sends a heartwarming message. To see what I mean,

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