By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Feb 26, 2009
When Hilary Swank failed to thank then-husband Chad Lowe in her Oscar acceptance speech, the omission caused a media uproar. But when Sean Penn thanks his "circle of longtime support" including best friend Sato Masuzawa (his assistant), but fails to thank wife Robin Wright Penn -- or, for that matter, mention Harvey Milk – in his "Milk" Best Actor acceptance speech, the omission goes all but unnoticed.
When Angelina Jolie told the BBC last fall that she was going to slowly wind down her movie career in order to spend time with her children, she was quoted all over the world in Angelina to Retire stories. But now that she's making the spy thriller "Salt," and still has a To Do list that includes going to Russia to play Catherine the Great in Randall Wallace's "The Mercenary: Love and Honor" -- not to mention still being expected to star in "Atlas Shrugged," scripted by Wallace -- few notice she doesn't seem to be winding it down. Maybe it's so slow it's imperceptible.
UNEXPECTED: Ryan Murphy has made quite a name for himself by pushing the envelope on his show "Nip/Tuck" -- which is why it's surprising that he would sweeten things up a bit with the upcoming musical comedy "Glee."
"Totally. You're like, 'What? Ryan's doing a show about a high school glee club?'" acknowledges Jessalyn Gilsig, star of the forthcoming Fox show. "I knew he'd done 'Popular,' so it's not his first teen comedy, but this particular show is really sweet and very heartfelt," adds Jessalyn, who also played Gina Russo on "Nip/Tuck."
"One of the things about 'Nip/Tuck,' I know it has very shocking subject matter, but it's really preoccupied in dealing with the sense of trying to belong, and that's such a high school thing," she notes.
However, as she points out, a talented writer is a talented writer. "I feel like people will watch this and say, 'Oh, this is what he does.' He's just very good that way. It's sort of like a novelist who writes something set in Ireland, and then does something set in Italy, but you'd swear that person was Irish or Italian based on the book." While the show has not been given an exact premiere date, it is expected to snag the post-"American Idol" timeslot in the spring.
"We're just starting the first episode after the pilot right now. We're really excited," she says. "It's a very strange time obviously. To say I'm grateful to have this job is probably an understatement. Everyone's just glad to be working, and Ryan has such a clear vision that we're excited to go deeper into it."
When Hilary Swank failed to thank then-husband Chad Lowe in her Oscar acceptance speech, the omission caused a media uproar. But when Sean Penn thanks his "circle of longtime support" including best friend Sato Masuzawa (his assistant), but fails to thank wife Robin Wright Penn -- or, for that matter, mention Harvey Milk – in his "Milk" Best Actor acceptance speech, the omission goes all but unnoticed.
When Angelina Jolie told the BBC last fall that she was going to slowly wind down her movie career in order to spend time with her children, she was quoted all over the world in Angelina to Retire stories. But now that she's making the spy thriller "Salt," and still has a To Do list that includes going to Russia to play Catherine the Great in Randall Wallace's "The Mercenary: Love and Honor" -- not to mention still being expected to star in "Atlas Shrugged," scripted by Wallace -- few notice she doesn't seem to be winding it down. Maybe it's so slow it's imperceptible.UNEXPECTED: Ryan Murphy has made quite a name for himself by pushing the envelope on his show "Nip/Tuck" -- which is why it's surprising that he would sweeten things up a bit with the upcoming musical comedy "Glee."
"Totally. You're like, 'What? Ryan's doing a show about a high school glee club?'" acknowledges Jessalyn Gilsig, star of the forthcoming Fox show. "I knew he'd done 'Popular,' so it's not his first teen comedy, but this particular show is really sweet and very heartfelt," adds Jessalyn, who also played Gina Russo on "Nip/Tuck."
"One of the things about 'Nip/Tuck,' I know it has very shocking subject matter, but it's really preoccupied in dealing with the sense of trying to belong, and that's such a high school thing," she notes.
However, as she points out, a talented writer is a talented writer. "I feel like people will watch this and say, 'Oh, this is what he does.' He's just very good that way. It's sort of like a novelist who writes something set in Ireland, and then does something set in Italy, but you'd swear that person was Irish or Italian based on the book." While the show has not been given an exact premiere date, it is expected to snag the post-"American Idol" timeslot in the spring.
"We're just starting the first episode after the pilot right now. We're really excited," she says. "It's a very strange time obviously. To say I'm grateful to have this job is probably an understatement. Everyone's just glad to be working, and Ryan has such a clear vision that we're excited to go deeper into it."
