Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The morning after
Juno writer Diablo Cody snapped by Fataculture the morning after her Oscar win...
Plus she has another memoir coming out next year. read here
Plus she has another memoir coming out next year. read here
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Enter Nadar
Can persistent third party candidate Ralph Nadar have any impact on this year's election in the US? Read here.
Once more with feeling
Glen, Marketa and Once are the focus of the editorial in today's Dallas Morning News
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sex and the Shitty?
New full length trailer for the Sex and the City movie is out. I was a big fan of the show but I have a baaaaad feeling about this movie project...
Jon's Show
Watch Jon Stewart's opening monologue at last night's Oscars.Didn't he do well? Gaydolf Titler - love it!
Once wins Oscar
Glen and Marketa just won the Oscar for Best Original Song for 'Falling Slowly' from Once!!
Go Tilda!
Without a Sky subscription I'm following the Oscars as they happen via the interwebnet. Is Tilda Swinton, this year's deserving Best Supporting Actress, the coolest woman on earth or what?!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The Sound of Music
Read a feature on the Quaid family, a clan of musical geniuseseseses, in Weekend in today's Irish Independent written by my identitcal twin brother, Dermot Cashin
Addictive TV
Finally, some coverage of one of my favourite TV shows, Weeds, in today's Irish Times of all places. Read here.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Going for Gold...
...the heat is on, the time is right...
The Oscars will be presented on Sunday night having been saved due to the resolution of the writer's strike. Now I know that many, myself included, tend to get our knickers in somewhat of a twist over the decisions made - and not made - by the loftily titled Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (a moniker that prompted director DW Griffith's caustic response: 'What art? What science?').
But this year, there are a slew of thoroughly deserving nominees for mostly dark, challenging films that reflect the edgy times we live in. The problem is that these days, the Oscars are a bit of an afterthought before they even take place, thanks to the proliferation of award ceremonies that come before it - such as the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild Awards.
For thatreason, there are a lot of heavy favourites this year, so much so that Sunday night's ceremony is shaping up to be mind-implodingly predictable. Worthy, but predictable.
Oscar remains the big cheese though, and below are my tips to win on Sunday night, broken down again into my "head" choices (who I think will win) and my "heart" choices (who I think should win). (Incidentally, the best Irish chance of picking up an Oscar this year is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for Best Original Song for the track Falling Slowly from Once, which I think is a lock to win).
Best Supporting Actor:
This category is arguably the strongest in this year's contest, yet strangely it's been a one-man race for the entire award season - Spanish actor Javier Bardem, for his mesmerising portrayal of the relentless, bowl-haired killer in the Coens' No Country For Old Men.
Bardem, who was nominated for Best Actor in 2000 for sensitively playing persecuted Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (directed by Julian Schnabal, who is up for Best Director on Sunday too), has won the Globe, BAFTA and SAG, as well as 14 critics' citations, and so is the heavy favourite going in.
His only competition could come from 83-year-old Hal Holbrook, who was heartbreaking as the lonely widower who tries to stop Emile Hirsch's quasi-suicidal trek to Alaska in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. Sentiment would normallly push the award in Holbrook's direction, but it genuinely doesn't seem to be the case this year.
Elsewhere, Casey Affleck, in the running for his deeply unnerving performance in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, will build a successful career on the back of his recognition here, while Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won Best Actor two years ago for Capote, never really stood a chance, despite being the best thing in Charlie Wilson's War (by a long way) and giving two equally award-calibre performances this year in The Savages and Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. Lastly, Tom Wilkinson devoured the scenery in Michael Clayton, but this isn't his time (he should have won the Best Actor gong in 2001 for his devastating performance in In The Bedroom).
My heart says: Hol Holbrook
My head says: Javier Bardem
Best Supporting Actress:
In a year of apparent foregone conclusions, this category is the one that is genuinely impossible to call. There's no real favourite per se, and all the pre-Oscar awards have been divided in their choices. Double nominee Cate Blanchett was the early choice, winning Best Actress at Venice and then the Golden Globe for her electrifying (literally) channeling of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.
All the while the critics were falling over themselves praising the unheard-of Amy Ryan for her gritty turn as a drug addict mother whose child goes missing in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone. Then, 83-year-old Ruby Dee seemed to have locked up the all-important actors' support by claiming the Screen Actors Guild gong for her 5 minute role in American Gangster (the actors make up the largest voting block in the Academy).
Then, a fortnight ago, British actress Tilda Swinton swept up the BAFTA for her brilliant performance as a corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton.
The only nominee not to take home any pre-Oscar award hardware - apart from an IFTA which I doubt holds too much sway - is 13-year-old Carlow native Saoirse Ronan, nominated for her extraordinary performance in Atonement, where she acted Keira Knightley and James McAvoy right off the screen, and where her pitch-perfect portrayal was so crucial to the movie's action.
Personally, I'd give the award to Ronan, though I'm always reluctant about rewarding Oscars to stars so early in their careers. This girl is going far- and will go further - with or without an Oscar now, and who doubts that she won't be back here again soon, maybe even next year for her role in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones?
I think that Blanchett has lost her edge - the Academy admires her movie, but doesn't like it, plus she won this category recently for The Aviator. Ryan could be the Marcia Gay Harden of this year and pull it off, but I think Swinton has emerged late as the most serious competition. Dee could coast to victory purely on the sentimental vote, but her role really is too small, even in comparision to the modern benchmark for short Oscar winning screen times, Judi Dench, who won this category 10 years ago for an 8 minute role in Shakespeare In Love.
My heart says: Tilda Swinton
My head says: Amy Ryan
Best Actor:
Look, why waste my time and yours? Is there anybody in the world who doesn't think Daniel Day-Lewis is going to win here for his monumental (the emphasis on 'mental') performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's There WillBe Blood? He's won the GG, BAFTA, SAG, and 14 critics' prizes. Literally no other actor has won a Best Actor gong at any of the pre-Oscar award shows.
George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Tommy Lee Jones (superb in Paul Haggis' little-seen In The Valley of Elah) and Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) are all making up the numbers sadly.
My heart says: Daniel Day-Lewis
My head says: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress:
This race has become a lot tighter in the last few weeks. 66-year-old Julie Christie has been the long-time favourite for her understated and moving portrayal of an Alzheimers patient in actress-turned-writer/director Sarah Polley's Away From Her. Christie, who won the Best Actress prize in 1965 for Darling, has won the Golden Globe (Drama) and SAG, as well as 12 critics mentions.
However, there seems to have been a bit of a late swing behind French star Marion Coitillard's turn as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, a move no doubt aided by the fact that Harvey Weinstein has taken her under his wing. The 32-year-old delivered an astonishing performance but in an almost psychotically uneven film, which has held her back until now. But she won the BAFTA a fortnight ago ahead of Christie, and has been working the circuit in Hollywood like crazy for the past month.
Ellen Page also is somewhat of a dark horse who could pull off a last minute upset. Juno is by far the most successful movie of any in the race (with a domestic gross of $120m and rising) and has clocked up extremely positive reviews. It's also the most light-hearted movie in the race, providing much-needed relief from the cynicism and nihilism of the main contenders. While the movie itself stands its best shot in the Best Original Screenplay category, 21-year-old Page might just become the conduit for the Academy's love of the movie.
Cate Blanchett was great in the very mediocre Elizabeth: The Golden Age, while Oscars's perennial always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride Laura Linney gave a complex and sympathetic texture to her damaged character in The Savages.
I think Christie peaked too early which, together with her vocal disdain for the awards process, will trip her up at the last hurdle. I'd like to see Page pull off the upset, but I suspect Cotillard will pass the finishing line.
My heart says: Ellen Page
My head says: Marion Cotillard
Best Director
Ethan and Joel Coen are the safest bets heading into the contest, having won the Directors Guild and the BAFTA. No Country is the year's most feted movie, and indeed the brothers stand to win 4 Oscars apiece if they win here as well as Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing (under their pseudonym Roderick Jaynes).
Be that as it may, I'm not sure their victory here is set in stone. There's a real sense that Paul Thomas Anderson has done something very special with There Will Be Blood, a movie that has wowed, baffled and haunted critics and audiences like few others in recent years. There may have been a late swell of support behind him, and I would not be shocked to see him carry off this gong.
Jason Reitman showed great promise in Juno but this isn't his time, while Tony Gilroy will also be back again after his deftness in channeling the great 70s paranoia thrillers in Michael Clayton.
I'm rooting for Golden Globe winner Julian Schnabel, who simply blew me away with the flair, imagination and daring he demonstrated in transplanting Jean Dominique Bauby's memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly into the beautiful and profoundly moving film of the same title. If Schnabal does win, I'm pretty sure it will mark the first time that a director has won here without a Best Picture nomination (an omission that was a travesty by the way). It will be very close, with Anderson closing up on the Coens, but I'm sticking my neck out for Schnabel.
My heart says: Julian Schnabel
My head says: The Coens
Best Picture:
When The Departed won this award last year, everyone expressed surprised that such a dark and violent movie could triumph at the normally safe and anodyne Academy Awards. This year, however, the two frontrunners are even darker - No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
No Country won the Producers Guild and just about every pre-Oscar gong going, so it's in the best position to win. But as with the Best Director race, there's a feeling that There Will Be Blood is one for the ages, a cinematic epoch that will be analysed in years to come, and one which the Academy doesn't want to be seen to be missing out on or ignoring. I myself think the movie is flawed, but is still a momentous piece of cinema that has lingered in my mind ever since, for good and for bad.
Juno is the most commercially successful picture running and would be a mjaor upset if it were to win, but perhaps not that much of a shock. Remember that the Academy tends to plump for the movies it likes, irrespective of the movie's artistic merits or its inferiority to the other nominees, which would explain some of its more bizarre choices down through the years.
I doubt it will go all the way, however. Michael Clayton is a brilliantly acted movie with some fantastic set pieces, and it has the most acting nominations of the Best Picture nominees. But I felt it didn't all come together as well as I'd liked. Plus it has no buzz.
Atonement, meanwhile, has been the great non-starter of the season. Once considered a major contender - mainly before anyone actually saw it - the movie has failed to make a significant impact, even failing to win a Best Director nod for Joe Wright, which would have been more deserving recognition for the movie than this nomination.
I think No Country will just about pull it off, though it will be a close race. Don't bet the house on it.
My heart says: No Country For Old Men
My head says: No Country For Old Men
The Oscars will be presented on Sunday night having been saved due to the resolution of the writer's strike. Now I know that many, myself included, tend to get our knickers in somewhat of a twist over the decisions made - and not made - by the loftily titled Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (a moniker that prompted director DW Griffith's caustic response: 'What art? What science?').
But this year, there are a slew of thoroughly deserving nominees for mostly dark, challenging films that reflect the edgy times we live in. The problem is that these days, the Oscars are a bit of an afterthought before they even take place, thanks to the proliferation of award ceremonies that come before it - such as the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild Awards.
For thatreason, there are a lot of heavy favourites this year, so much so that Sunday night's ceremony is shaping up to be mind-implodingly predictable. Worthy, but predictable.
Oscar remains the big cheese though, and below are my tips to win on Sunday night, broken down again into my "head" choices (who I think will win) and my "heart" choices (who I think should win). (Incidentally, the best Irish chance of picking up an Oscar this year is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for Best Original Song for the track Falling Slowly from Once, which I think is a lock to win).
Best Supporting Actor:
This category is arguably the strongest in this year's contest, yet strangely it's been a one-man race for the entire award season - Spanish actor Javier Bardem, for his mesmerising portrayal of the relentless, bowl-haired killer in the Coens' No Country For Old Men.
Bardem, who was nominated for Best Actor in 2000 for sensitively playing persecuted Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (directed by Julian Schnabal, who is up for Best Director on Sunday too), has won the Globe, BAFTA and SAG, as well as 14 critics' citations, and so is the heavy favourite going in.
His only competition could come from 83-year-old Hal Holbrook, who was heartbreaking as the lonely widower who tries to stop Emile Hirsch's quasi-suicidal trek to Alaska in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. Sentiment would normallly push the award in Holbrook's direction, but it genuinely doesn't seem to be the case this year.
Elsewhere, Casey Affleck, in the running for his deeply unnerving performance in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, will build a successful career on the back of his recognition here, while Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won Best Actor two years ago for Capote, never really stood a chance, despite being the best thing in Charlie Wilson's War (by a long way) and giving two equally award-calibre performances this year in The Savages and Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. Lastly, Tom Wilkinson devoured the scenery in Michael Clayton, but this isn't his time (he should have won the Best Actor gong in 2001 for his devastating performance in In The Bedroom).
My heart says: Hol Holbrook
My head says: Javier Bardem
Best Supporting Actress:
In a year of apparent foregone conclusions, this category is the one that is genuinely impossible to call. There's no real favourite per se, and all the pre-Oscar awards have been divided in their choices. Double nominee Cate Blanchett was the early choice, winning Best Actress at Venice and then the Golden Globe for her electrifying (literally) channeling of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.
All the while the critics were falling over themselves praising the unheard-of Amy Ryan for her gritty turn as a drug addict mother whose child goes missing in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone. Then, 83-year-old Ruby Dee seemed to have locked up the all-important actors' support by claiming the Screen Actors Guild gong for her 5 minute role in American Gangster (the actors make up the largest voting block in the Academy).
Then, a fortnight ago, British actress Tilda Swinton swept up the BAFTA for her brilliant performance as a corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton.
The only nominee not to take home any pre-Oscar award hardware - apart from an IFTA which I doubt holds too much sway - is 13-year-old Carlow native Saoirse Ronan, nominated for her extraordinary performance in Atonement, where she acted Keira Knightley and James McAvoy right off the screen, and where her pitch-perfect portrayal was so crucial to the movie's action.
Personally, I'd give the award to Ronan, though I'm always reluctant about rewarding Oscars to stars so early in their careers. This girl is going far- and will go further - with or without an Oscar now, and who doubts that she won't be back here again soon, maybe even next year for her role in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones?
I think that Blanchett has lost her edge - the Academy admires her movie, but doesn't like it, plus she won this category recently for The Aviator. Ryan could be the Marcia Gay Harden of this year and pull it off, but I think Swinton has emerged late as the most serious competition. Dee could coast to victory purely on the sentimental vote, but her role really is too small, even in comparision to the modern benchmark for short Oscar winning screen times, Judi Dench, who won this category 10 years ago for an 8 minute role in Shakespeare In Love.
My heart says: Tilda Swinton
My head says: Amy Ryan
Best Actor:
Look, why waste my time and yours? Is there anybody in the world who doesn't think Daniel Day-Lewis is going to win here for his monumental (the emphasis on 'mental') performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's There WillBe Blood? He's won the GG, BAFTA, SAG, and 14 critics' prizes. Literally no other actor has won a Best Actor gong at any of the pre-Oscar award shows.
George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Tommy Lee Jones (superb in Paul Haggis' little-seen In The Valley of Elah) and Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) are all making up the numbers sadly.
My heart says: Daniel Day-Lewis
My head says: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress:
This race has become a lot tighter in the last few weeks. 66-year-old Julie Christie has been the long-time favourite for her understated and moving portrayal of an Alzheimers patient in actress-turned-writer/director Sarah Polley's Away From Her. Christie, who won the Best Actress prize in 1965 for Darling, has won the Golden Globe (Drama) and SAG, as well as 12 critics mentions.
However, there seems to have been a bit of a late swing behind French star Marion Coitillard's turn as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, a move no doubt aided by the fact that Harvey Weinstein has taken her under his wing. The 32-year-old delivered an astonishing performance but in an almost psychotically uneven film, which has held her back until now. But she won the BAFTA a fortnight ago ahead of Christie, and has been working the circuit in Hollywood like crazy for the past month.
Ellen Page also is somewhat of a dark horse who could pull off a last minute upset. Juno is by far the most successful movie of any in the race (with a domestic gross of $120m and rising) and has clocked up extremely positive reviews. It's also the most light-hearted movie in the race, providing much-needed relief from the cynicism and nihilism of the main contenders. While the movie itself stands its best shot in the Best Original Screenplay category, 21-year-old Page might just become the conduit for the Academy's love of the movie.
Cate Blanchett was great in the very mediocre Elizabeth: The Golden Age, while Oscars's perennial always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride Laura Linney gave a complex and sympathetic texture to her damaged character in The Savages.
I think Christie peaked too early which, together with her vocal disdain for the awards process, will trip her up at the last hurdle. I'd like to see Page pull off the upset, but I suspect Cotillard will pass the finishing line.
My heart says: Ellen Page
My head says: Marion Cotillard
Best Director
Ethan and Joel Coen are the safest bets heading into the contest, having won the Directors Guild and the BAFTA. No Country is the year's most feted movie, and indeed the brothers stand to win 4 Oscars apiece if they win here as well as Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing (under their pseudonym Roderick Jaynes).
Be that as it may, I'm not sure their victory here is set in stone. There's a real sense that Paul Thomas Anderson has done something very special with There Will Be Blood, a movie that has wowed, baffled and haunted critics and audiences like few others in recent years. There may have been a late swell of support behind him, and I would not be shocked to see him carry off this gong.
Jason Reitman showed great promise in Juno but this isn't his time, while Tony Gilroy will also be back again after his deftness in channeling the great 70s paranoia thrillers in Michael Clayton.
I'm rooting for Golden Globe winner Julian Schnabel, who simply blew me away with the flair, imagination and daring he demonstrated in transplanting Jean Dominique Bauby's memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly into the beautiful and profoundly moving film of the same title. If Schnabal does win, I'm pretty sure it will mark the first time that a director has won here without a Best Picture nomination (an omission that was a travesty by the way). It will be very close, with Anderson closing up on the Coens, but I'm sticking my neck out for Schnabel.
My heart says: Julian Schnabel
My head says: The Coens
Best Picture:
When The Departed won this award last year, everyone expressed surprised that such a dark and violent movie could triumph at the normally safe and anodyne Academy Awards. This year, however, the two frontrunners are even darker - No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
No Country won the Producers Guild and just about every pre-Oscar gong going, so it's in the best position to win. But as with the Best Director race, there's a feeling that There Will Be Blood is one for the ages, a cinematic epoch that will be analysed in years to come, and one which the Academy doesn't want to be seen to be missing out on or ignoring. I myself think the movie is flawed, but is still a momentous piece of cinema that has lingered in my mind ever since, for good and for bad.
Juno is the most commercially successful picture running and would be a mjaor upset if it were to win, but perhaps not that much of a shock. Remember that the Academy tends to plump for the movies it likes, irrespective of the movie's artistic merits or its inferiority to the other nominees, which would explain some of its more bizarre choices down through the years.
I doubt it will go all the way, however. Michael Clayton is a brilliantly acted movie with some fantastic set pieces, and it has the most acting nominations of the Best Picture nominees. But I felt it didn't all come together as well as I'd liked. Plus it has no buzz.
Atonement, meanwhile, has been the great non-starter of the season. Once considered a major contender - mainly before anyone actually saw it - the movie has failed to make a significant impact, even failing to win a Best Director nod for Joe Wright, which would have been more deserving recognition for the movie than this nomination.
I think No Country will just about pull it off, though it will be a close race. Don't bet the house on it.
My heart says: No Country For Old Men
My head says: No Country For Old Men
Awardfest
My backstage piece on the Meteors and the IFTAs in Day and Night in today's Irish Independent
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Obama is Santos; Santos is Obama
I've been arguing this point for years to anyone who will listen but now it's official: The West Wing based its presidential candidate Matthew Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) on the then rising political star Barack Obama. Read Jonathan Freedland's piece in the Guardian here.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
O-mentum grows
Obama opens up 14 point lead over Hillary and beats McCain in a theoretical match-up. Read here.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Sound of Silence
My column on Apartment Living in Property Plus in today's Irish Independent
Living slap bang in the middle of Dublin city centre, only the most hopelessly naive person would expect to find much peace and quiet. This is particularly true when you live in an apartment block that has the acoustics of a Gothic cathedral, and where the sound of a dog wagging its tail in the apartment upstairs travels through the whole building and is distorted and amplified to sound like a small aircraft landing on your terrace. Continue here.
Living slap bang in the middle of Dublin city centre, only the most hopelessly naive person would expect to find much peace and quiet. This is particularly true when you live in an apartment block that has the acoustics of a Gothic cathedral, and where the sound of a dog wagging its tail in the apartment upstairs travels through the whole building and is distorted and amplified to sound like a small aircraft landing on your terrace. Continue here.
Summer Loving
My interview with Rachel Bilson in Day and Night in today's Irish IndependentIs there life after The OC? Rachel Bilson talks to Declan Cashin about leaving Summer and Seth behind -- for good
February 15 2008
It was a scene that lasted just over a minute, but it was enough to immortalise actress Rachel Bilson in the minds of a generation of young male fans of hit TV drama The OC. In the show's first "Chrismukkah" episode, her ditzy character Summer Roberts dons a sexy Wonder Woman outfit in a bid to win the heart of comic book geek Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), all to the tune of that sauciest of festive hits, Santa Baby. continue here.
It was a scene that lasted just over a minute, but it was enough to immortalise actress Rachel Bilson in the minds of a generation of young male fans of hit TV drama The OC. In the show's first "Chrismukkah" episode, her ditzy character Summer Roberts dons a sexy Wonder Woman outfit in a bid to win the heart of comic book geek Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), all to the tune of that sauciest of festive hits, Santa Baby. continue here.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Deal
The details of the tentative deal between the striking Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP
Modern Age
Piece on the online show Kate Modern in today's Independent...The internet drama that makes TV look so last year
The online supernatural thriller Kate Modern is an interactive, multimedia sensation, writes Declan Cashin
The online supernatural thriller Kate Modern is an interactive, multimedia sensation, writes Declan Cashin
It's 'Who Shot JR?' for the tweenage generation. The pioneering online drama Kate Modern -- which airs on the social networking site Bebo -- has just kicked off its second series with the boldly Hitchcockian move of killing off its leading lady, a troubled art student named Kate. Continue here.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
Private Ryan
My interview with Ryan Reynolds in Day and Night in today's Irish Independent
Ryan Reynolds is sitting before me in a London hotel room suffering from what he claims is jet lag, but it’s probably more accurate to say he’s been struck down by a dose of Scarlett fever. On the day that we meet, the interweb was rife with reports that the handsome Canadian actor was about to propose to his actress girlfriend, Scarlett Johansson.
For this reason, the 31-year-old is on edge, and steadfastly refusing to answer any questions about his private life. Another journalist informed me that there had been a tense interview earlier that day when the scribe had dared to probe the details of Reynolds’ love life. “Just don’t mention the ‘S’ word and everything will be fine,” is the publicist’s strict message as I’m ushered into the room.
That defensive shield aside, Reynolds is a friendly and charming interviewee. Tall and tanned, and stylishly dressed in a black jacket, open collared white shirt and light-coloured jeans, Reynolds is a true movie beefcake, and was duly named People magazine’s third sexiest man alive last year (coming in behind Matt Damon and Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey).
Reynolds is in the midst of a publicity tour for his new movie Definitely, Maybe, a romantic comedy-drama that can only be categorised as a guy’s chick flick. Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a 30-something New York advertising exec on the verge of divorce. One day in school, his inquisitive daughter Maya (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin) is given a sex-ed class, which prompts her to ask her dad all about his love life before he was married, and how he came to meet her as-yet unidentified mother.
Will reluctantly agrees to fill her in, and his story then flashes back to 1992, where Will, then an aspiring politician, had just moved to New York to work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. In his version of events for Maya, Will gives a PG-rated account of his love life, and changes the names of the women involved so Maya will have to solve the ‘mystery’ and guess which woman turns out to be her mum. Is her mother Will’s college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his kooky friend and confidant April (Isla Fisher), or ambitious journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz)?
Definitely, Maybe marks a distinctive move into more a more mature role for Reynolds, who is still perhaps best known for jock humour comedy movies like Van Wilder, Waiting and Just Friends. So what drew him to the part? “The reasons I pursued this role as emphatically as possible was because it’s a really unorthodox movie for a romantic comedy,” he explains. “I can’t think of an instance where you really, truly don’t know who the guy is going to end up with in the end. It felt like a true mystery to me.”
Reynolds could also more than relate to his character Will, who arrives in the Big Apple with huge hopes and dreams, only to become disillusioned by the realities of adult life.
“That’s a rites-of-passage for everyone,” he says. “We all go out into the world expecting things to be a certain way and, of course, our expectations are not met and disillusionment sets in, followed by its bitchy twin sister cynicism! So I think I definitely started out that way. I came to Los Angeles expecting the streets to be paved with gold, and everything would be easy in the land of milk and honey, but it was really exactly the opposite.
“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have the start that a lot of guys did where they’re starving for 10 years. I was pretty fortunate with work. I’m talking more about the social climate. LA is a pretty hostile, scary place to go as a young man.”
Reynolds, who was born in Vancouver, started his career with small gigs on kiddies channel Nickelodeon, as well as other forgettable Canadian productions. He moved to LA in 1996 with another actor friend, and soon after landed the lead role in the TV sit-com Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place.
The show was a minor hit, running for three seasons, but it was enough to open doors for the actor. In addition to his aforementioned comedic roles, Reynolds starred opposite Wesley Snipes and Jessica Biel in the fantasy action sequel Blade: Trinity, and the crime caper Smoking Aces, as well as being cast in his most dramatic role to date in the remake of The Amityville Horror, where he played a young father who tries to murder his family after becoming possessed by a haunted house.
Moving between light and serious roles is a key objective of Reynolds’ (his next movie is Fireflies in the Garden, an intense drama co-starring Julia Roberts and Emily Watson). “It’s definitely a plan to do as diverse an amount of work as possible,” he states. “It’s not to say I wouldn’t do two or three comedies in a row. I look back at some of the great actors and they did it all. These days, it seems some people want you to stick to one particular genre, but I don’t want to go that way.”
One project that has continually followed Reynolds around is that of the big screen outing for comic book hero The Flash. To his disappointment, it doesn’t look like it’s doing to happen anytime soon.
“I was very interested in The Flash solo project, but I don’t know what’s happening with it at present,” he reveals. “It’s on hold. The writers’ strike has put Hollywood into gridlock. If it comes about I’d love to look into it, but at this point I’m not involved in anything with it.”
As well as giving him the chance to flex his dramatic acting muscle, Definitely, Maybe also afforded Reynolds the chance to indulge in some 1990s nostalgia, which was a crucial formative period in his life. “The 1990s for me were just school and just about every ‘first’ you can imagine in every way, shape or form - even the dirty ones!” he laughs.
He continues: “The 90s was a funny decade. I believe it was the decade that retro was born. Everything suddenly was an amalgamation of the 60s, 70s and 80s. It was like a weird time. It was identityless, it didn’t have its own flavour. It was just borrowing from every other decade. That’s what the 90s was for me.”
Reynolds’ guardedness about his private life can no doubt be traced back to his engagement to Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. The couple, who started dating in 2002, saw the last year of their relationship blighted by intense speculation and rumours of a split until they finally confirmed that they had broken up early last year. With his new relationship with Scarlett Johansson, Reynolds seems determined not to let every aspect of life become fodder for the tabloid machine.
“You have to deal with fame in certain respects, but I live a pretty minimalist life,” he states. “I don’t have a flashy car or a mansion on top of the hill. I just love the work – boring answer I know – but everyone handles fame differently.
“I think people who go into the industry and suddenly spiral out of control were out of control before they were in the industry too. I think Hollywood is really just a giant magnifying glass. Anything that you are going in becomes exposed and magnified. There are ways to keep your privacy if you really want to, absolutely. Privacy is a choice.”
With that in mind, Reynolds’ is full of praise for his young ‘leading lady’ Abigail Breslin, who is already an Oscar nominee at just 11 years of age.
“She’s an unbelievable kid,” he says. “She truly has both feet on the ground. It’s shocking because most kids in Hollywood who are her age have their five years sobriety pin, so she’s got it together. She has good parents and siblings to keep her grounded. She lived in New York, which made her savvy. These kids see what not to do in the media these days.”
Away from the camera, Reynolds tries to make the most of his time off by visiting his family at home in Vancouver (“I have three older brothers so that’s normally a dose of reality hitting me in the form of a fist”, he laughs). He also loves travelling, and spent a period last summer visiting impoverished Malawi in Africa. “That was unbelievable,” he recalls. “I was wide awake when I left there, I can tell you.”
And while audiences will have to wait and see if his Definitely, Maybe character Will gets his happy ending, Reynolds himself is confident that things can work out for us all if we really want it.
“Yeah I believe in happy endings,” he says. “I believe in manifest destiny. I believe we’re much more in control of our fate than we realise. I think happiness is as much of a choice as what colour socks you put on in the morning.”
Ryan Reynolds is sitting before me in a London hotel room suffering from what he claims is jet lag, but it’s probably more accurate to say he’s been struck down by a dose of Scarlett fever. On the day that we meet, the interweb was rife with reports that the handsome Canadian actor was about to propose to his actress girlfriend, Scarlett Johansson.
For this reason, the 31-year-old is on edge, and steadfastly refusing to answer any questions about his private life. Another journalist informed me that there had been a tense interview earlier that day when the scribe had dared to probe the details of Reynolds’ love life. “Just don’t mention the ‘S’ word and everything will be fine,” is the publicist’s strict message as I’m ushered into the room.
That defensive shield aside, Reynolds is a friendly and charming interviewee. Tall and tanned, and stylishly dressed in a black jacket, open collared white shirt and light-coloured jeans, Reynolds is a true movie beefcake, and was duly named People magazine’s third sexiest man alive last year (coming in behind Matt Damon and Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey).
Reynolds is in the midst of a publicity tour for his new movie Definitely, Maybe, a romantic comedy-drama that can only be categorised as a guy’s chick flick. Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a 30-something New York advertising exec on the verge of divorce. One day in school, his inquisitive daughter Maya (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin) is given a sex-ed class, which prompts her to ask her dad all about his love life before he was married, and how he came to meet her as-yet unidentified mother.
Will reluctantly agrees to fill her in, and his story then flashes back to 1992, where Will, then an aspiring politician, had just moved to New York to work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. In his version of events for Maya, Will gives a PG-rated account of his love life, and changes the names of the women involved so Maya will have to solve the ‘mystery’ and guess which woman turns out to be her mum. Is her mother Will’s college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his kooky friend and confidant April (Isla Fisher), or ambitious journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz)?
Definitely, Maybe marks a distinctive move into more a more mature role for Reynolds, who is still perhaps best known for jock humour comedy movies like Van Wilder, Waiting and Just Friends. So what drew him to the part? “The reasons I pursued this role as emphatically as possible was because it’s a really unorthodox movie for a romantic comedy,” he explains. “I can’t think of an instance where you really, truly don’t know who the guy is going to end up with in the end. It felt like a true mystery to me.”
Reynolds could also more than relate to his character Will, who arrives in the Big Apple with huge hopes and dreams, only to become disillusioned by the realities of adult life.
“That’s a rites-of-passage for everyone,” he says. “We all go out into the world expecting things to be a certain way and, of course, our expectations are not met and disillusionment sets in, followed by its bitchy twin sister cynicism! So I think I definitely started out that way. I came to Los Angeles expecting the streets to be paved with gold, and everything would be easy in the land of milk and honey, but it was really exactly the opposite.
“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have the start that a lot of guys did where they’re starving for 10 years. I was pretty fortunate with work. I’m talking more about the social climate. LA is a pretty hostile, scary place to go as a young man.”
Reynolds, who was born in Vancouver, started his career with small gigs on kiddies channel Nickelodeon, as well as other forgettable Canadian productions. He moved to LA in 1996 with another actor friend, and soon after landed the lead role in the TV sit-com Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place.
The show was a minor hit, running for three seasons, but it was enough to open doors for the actor. In addition to his aforementioned comedic roles, Reynolds starred opposite Wesley Snipes and Jessica Biel in the fantasy action sequel Blade: Trinity, and the crime caper Smoking Aces, as well as being cast in his most dramatic role to date in the remake of The Amityville Horror, where he played a young father who tries to murder his family after becoming possessed by a haunted house.
Moving between light and serious roles is a key objective of Reynolds’ (his next movie is Fireflies in the Garden, an intense drama co-starring Julia Roberts and Emily Watson). “It’s definitely a plan to do as diverse an amount of work as possible,” he states. “It’s not to say I wouldn’t do two or three comedies in a row. I look back at some of the great actors and they did it all. These days, it seems some people want you to stick to one particular genre, but I don’t want to go that way.”
One project that has continually followed Reynolds around is that of the big screen outing for comic book hero The Flash. To his disappointment, it doesn’t look like it’s doing to happen anytime soon.
“I was very interested in The Flash solo project, but I don’t know what’s happening with it at present,” he reveals. “It’s on hold. The writers’ strike has put Hollywood into gridlock. If it comes about I’d love to look into it, but at this point I’m not involved in anything with it.”
As well as giving him the chance to flex his dramatic acting muscle, Definitely, Maybe also afforded Reynolds the chance to indulge in some 1990s nostalgia, which was a crucial formative period in his life. “The 1990s for me were just school and just about every ‘first’ you can imagine in every way, shape or form - even the dirty ones!” he laughs.
He continues: “The 90s was a funny decade. I believe it was the decade that retro was born. Everything suddenly was an amalgamation of the 60s, 70s and 80s. It was like a weird time. It was identityless, it didn’t have its own flavour. It was just borrowing from every other decade. That’s what the 90s was for me.”
Reynolds’ guardedness about his private life can no doubt be traced back to his engagement to Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. The couple, who started dating in 2002, saw the last year of their relationship blighted by intense speculation and rumours of a split until they finally confirmed that they had broken up early last year. With his new relationship with Scarlett Johansson, Reynolds seems determined not to let every aspect of life become fodder for the tabloid machine.
“You have to deal with fame in certain respects, but I live a pretty minimalist life,” he states. “I don’t have a flashy car or a mansion on top of the hill. I just love the work – boring answer I know – but everyone handles fame differently.
“I think people who go into the industry and suddenly spiral out of control were out of control before they were in the industry too. I think Hollywood is really just a giant magnifying glass. Anything that you are going in becomes exposed and magnified. There are ways to keep your privacy if you really want to, absolutely. Privacy is a choice.”
With that in mind, Reynolds’ is full of praise for his young ‘leading lady’ Abigail Breslin, who is already an Oscar nominee at just 11 years of age.
“She’s an unbelievable kid,” he says. “She truly has both feet on the ground. It’s shocking because most kids in Hollywood who are her age have their five years sobriety pin, so she’s got it together. She has good parents and siblings to keep her grounded. She lived in New York, which made her savvy. These kids see what not to do in the media these days.”
Away from the camera, Reynolds tries to make the most of his time off by visiting his family at home in Vancouver (“I have three older brothers so that’s normally a dose of reality hitting me in the form of a fist”, he laughs). He also loves travelling, and spent a period last summer visiting impoverished Malawi in Africa. “That was unbelievable,” he recalls. “I was wide awake when I left there, I can tell you.”
And while audiences will have to wait and see if his Definitely, Maybe character Will gets his happy ending, Reynolds himself is confident that things can work out for us all if we really want it.
“Yeah I believe in happy endings,” he says. “I believe in manifest destiny. I believe we’re much more in control of our fate than we realise. I think happiness is as much of a choice as what colour socks you put on in the morning.”
His Dork Materials
The last The Last Word in today's Day and Night in the Irish IndependentThey say that everyone has at least one good book inside them, but did you know that your odds are greatly increased if you happened to keep diaries when you were younger? I’ve been thinking about – in fact, make that haunted by - this idea all week, having spent some time nosing through journalist Rae Earl’s My Fat Mad Teenage Diary.
Earl swears that the book is actually her diary from when she was an overweight, insecure, angry 17-year-old girl, and my instincts tell me that the material in it is too cringeworthy and painfully honest to be made up.
Flicking through the entries provoked several feelings in me. First was admiration for Earl’s bravery in making these missives of teen misery achingly public, followed by utter embarrassment - and some soul searching - as I realised I related a little too well to what this girl was feeling.
More than anything though, it plunged me into an intense flashback, transporting me back in time to the mid-1990s,when I too undertook to keep a record of my exciting and riveting teenage existence. I had forgotten about these diaries until a couple of years ago, when my parents were moving house and I unearthed the journals at the bottom of a closet.
Now, I know nostalgia is really “in” at the moment, but I don’t think enough time has passed to make me read these horror stories with anything other than pure, joyless mortification. I always think that those who can look back pleasurably on their teenage diaries - and, by extension, their teenage years - are like people who reminisce fondly about life in the Eastern Bloc before the Wall came down: if you’re really honest with yourself, you’ll admit the experience was a soul-crushing endurance test that stretched the power of the human spirit to its absolute limits.
I can only skim through my own teenage diaries one monotonous entry at a time, before I have to tuck it away safely in the freezer, kind of like how Joey had to deal with his copy of Stephen King’s The Shining in that episode of Friends. In fairness, the years I kept a diary were between the ages of 13 and 15, so my social life was limited to say the least. Open the journal at random and you’ll read all the gripping news about my trip to the library, or how my sister-in-law bought me an ice-pop, or what I learned in Geography class that day.
Of course, looking back now, these diaries are more interesting for what they don’t say rather than what they do. And in that regard, as much as I mock them, perhaps it’s a good thing to have a record of who and what you were – and weren’t - and perhaps who you were trying to be – and not to be – at that time.
I know I’d love to be able to go back to who I was then as the 26-year-old I am now, and take my 14-year-old self aside and tell him to just relax, and that everything will work out. Knowing me, I wouldn’t have listened anyway, and besides, it’s probably important to go through all those things that I’d like to have spared my younger self from. What’s that term that we all use to describe experiences that were less than perfect? Oh yes: “character building”, that’s the one.
And in case you’re wondering: no, I shan’t be hunting down a publisher for my own fat, mad teenage diaries that I’ve deigned to christen His Dork Materials. How could I ever look the 14-year-old me in the face again if I did?
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
It's The Man's World
There was a great article in The Guardian's Guide magazine on Saturday - which I'm characteristically only getting round to reading now - on 'The Man', who we're all supposed to be sticking it to at every opportunity.
We heart the 90s
Feature on 90s nostalgia in today's Irish IndependentIf there is one defining feature of the Noughties so far, it is our obsession with the past. You need look no further than the popularity of RTE's Reeling In The Years and other retrospective clip shows as proof that nostalgia is big business these days. Continue reading here.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
"I drink your milkshake!"
I was lucky to see Paul Thomas Anderson's multi-Oscar nominated There Will Be Blood on Saturday afternoon, and although I'm writing this a day later, I still think I haven't let enough time elapse before giving an assessment of this film that, for good or for bad, is truly extraordinary.Ordinarily, critics see movies a week or more before they open, meaning they often have a long deadline for their review.In the case of this film, most critics will need that period to make their judgement on TWBB. My initial reaction was total befuddlement: I couldn't tell for sure if it was the greatest American movie in decades, or the most insane 2 hours and 40 minutes ever committed to celluloid.
I'm siding more with 'greatness' the more I think about it - and it is a movie that is impossible not to think about - but it's also flawed and totally, bag-of-cats mad.
But whatever opinion you form of this movie, there can be little doubt about the seismic, gargantuan achievement that is Daniel Day Lewis' performance as oil tycoon Daniel Plainview. In a role that has won him just about every Best Actor gong going this year, DDL has created one of the screen's most startling, understated, sensible, insane, generous, evil, charming, hideous, funny, vile, tragic, unsympathetic characters.
It's a pity for young actor Paul Dano that he has been so overshadowed by DDL, for the 23-year-old also delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as an insidious preacher and Daniel's arch-nemesis. These are astounding pieces of acting that, along with Jonny Greenwood's bizarre, atonal string score, makes for an unnerving, deeply unsettling first two hours, that finally explodes into barmy and barnstorming drama in the film's coda.
And this is where most viewers will make their lasting judgements of TWBB. PTA keeps this story of rampant captalism, religious fundamentalism and yes, bloody violence, bubbling away for the greater part of the movie, always only hinting at a potential explosion, kind of like the astonishing sequence where an oil pump strikes gold, but with devastating consequences.
The final 20 minutes will be ripe for parody, and indeed there are already re-edited and re-dubbed clips on YouTube ("Drainnnnaaage!" and "I drink your milkshake!" - coming soon to a T-shirt near you!). It's a completely bonkers sign-off, but one that seems fitting with what's gone before also. You'll get my point when you see it.
There Will Be Blood has haunted me like few films have in recent years. Images, words, and even fleeting gestures have burned into my mind. Oh this is a chin-stroker alright. This is a film about which you will have passionate opinions. You will argue and disagree about what it all means, and whether it's worthy of all the lavish praise it has attracted. I need to see it on the big screen rather than on a screener DVD - a story and a performance this big deserves that much. It's great to have a big, bold, brainy, bonkers epic to inspire such strongs feelings. There Will Be Blood is quite unlike anything you will see in cinemas this year.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Vanity project
My feature on 90 years of Vanity Fair celebrity portraiture in the Review section of today's Irish IndependentBy Declan Cashin
Saturday February 02, 2008
In a modern age where tabloid rags and websites such as Perez Hilton and TMZ positively thrive on catching celebrities looking and behaving their worst, there remain only a handful of publications that seek to treat stars like royalty. Bestriding that dwindling group like a colossus is Vanity Fair, America's foremost high-society magazine. Continue reading here
In a modern age where tabloid rags and websites such as Perez Hilton and TMZ positively thrive on catching celebrities looking and behaving their worst, there remain only a handful of publications that seek to treat stars like royalty. Bestriding that dwindling group like a colossus is Vanity Fair, America's foremost high-society magazine. Continue reading here
Friday, February 01, 2008
Weighed down by guilt
The Last Word column from Day and Night in today's Irish Independent
Wow, February 1! It’s hard to believe I’m one month into my new exercise regime in the gym. The last month has just flown by and I’m really feeling the difference…
…Agh, I can’t keep up these lies! The truth is, I’m only theoretically one month into my new regime, but at least the part about the month flying by and me feeling – or should I say weighing – the difference is true.
I’m going to be straight with you (stop your sniggering down at the back): I haven’t darkened by gym’s door since last September – at least that’s the date I’ve settled on in my own mind as part of a revisionist project to assuage my guilt about not going (but still paying for it).
Because that guilt is the worst – yes, even worse that a mother’s disapproval, or when someone you really admire and want to impress, like a favourite teacher or supportive boss, says something like, ‘I’m not mad, I’m just so disappointed in you’.
Gym guilt, ironically, eats away at you, but sadly not enough to waste away those unsightly post-December pounds. And while you may occasionally have good reason to dodge the sweat house – say, if you’re travelling for work or lying in traction - that guilt will soon come back and bite you on your slightly-bigger behind.
It does this when you’re just lying idle, with time on your hands, and with no distractions to let you off the hook. Telling yourself you won’t go before work because it’s raining outside, and the bed is just sooo comfy, won’t pass muster.
Similarly, trying to justify skipping your treadmill duties on the way home from work because you need to spend quality time with your loved ones isn’t going to stack up either, not when you realise that the two hours you’re spending in your car or on a bus trying to get home could have been spent sweating it out on the cross trainer.
My big gym avoidance hook is time. I convince myself that I just can’t fit it into my hectic schedule, or, even better, that I do have a little time on my hands today, but not enough to commit to a proper workout. Of course, I could follow the example of Condoleezza Rice or Barack Obama’s wife Michelle, who both apparently get up at 4.30am to hit the gym because it’s the only time they can make for it in the day. I don’t even know where to begin making excuses to avoid that.
And so, always with others in mind, here are my top five tips to help you ease your gym guilt and live a more content, if rotund, life:
1. Get an off-peak membership: This way, all you have to do is get through the guilt of not going in the morning, because you literally can’t use the facilities after 3pm. Suckers.
2.Develop a fear of sweat and/or lycra. Once it’s psychological like that, it’s not really your fault now, is it?
3. Take on a second job. If you’re working 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, going to the gym can be easily ditched. Who’d criticise such a person for doing that?
4. Conveniently keep losing the key for your locker in the gym. It’s simply not safe to leave your stuff unguarded like that. Also, make a point of not getting a new key cut to teach yourself an imaginary lesson about taking better care of your things.
5. Read one of the very many new books out at the moment that denounce gym-going and excessive exercise. While sitting with a bag of mini Cream Eggs by your side.
Wow, February 1! It’s hard to believe I’m one month into my new exercise regime in the gym. The last month has just flown by and I’m really feeling the difference…
…Agh, I can’t keep up these lies! The truth is, I’m only theoretically one month into my new regime, but at least the part about the month flying by and me feeling – or should I say weighing – the difference is true.
I’m going to be straight with you (stop your sniggering down at the back): I haven’t darkened by gym’s door since last September – at least that’s the date I’ve settled on in my own mind as part of a revisionist project to assuage my guilt about not going (but still paying for it).
Because that guilt is the worst – yes, even worse that a mother’s disapproval, or when someone you really admire and want to impress, like a favourite teacher or supportive boss, says something like, ‘I’m not mad, I’m just so disappointed in you’.
Gym guilt, ironically, eats away at you, but sadly not enough to waste away those unsightly post-December pounds. And while you may occasionally have good reason to dodge the sweat house – say, if you’re travelling for work or lying in traction - that guilt will soon come back and bite you on your slightly-bigger behind.
It does this when you’re just lying idle, with time on your hands, and with no distractions to let you off the hook. Telling yourself you won’t go before work because it’s raining outside, and the bed is just sooo comfy, won’t pass muster.
Similarly, trying to justify skipping your treadmill duties on the way home from work because you need to spend quality time with your loved ones isn’t going to stack up either, not when you realise that the two hours you’re spending in your car or on a bus trying to get home could have been spent sweating it out on the cross trainer.
My big gym avoidance hook is time. I convince myself that I just can’t fit it into my hectic schedule, or, even better, that I do have a little time on my hands today, but not enough to commit to a proper workout. Of course, I could follow the example of Condoleezza Rice or Barack Obama’s wife Michelle, who both apparently get up at 4.30am to hit the gym because it’s the only time they can make for it in the day. I don’t even know where to begin making excuses to avoid that.
And so, always with others in mind, here are my top five tips to help you ease your gym guilt and live a more content, if rotund, life:
1. Get an off-peak membership: This way, all you have to do is get through the guilt of not going in the morning, because you literally can’t use the facilities after 3pm. Suckers.
2.Develop a fear of sweat and/or lycra. Once it’s psychological like that, it’s not really your fault now, is it?
3. Take on a second job. If you’re working 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, going to the gym can be easily ditched. Who’d criticise such a person for doing that?
4. Conveniently keep losing the key for your locker in the gym. It’s simply not safe to leave your stuff unguarded like that. Also, make a point of not getting a new key cut to teach yourself an imaginary lesson about taking better care of your things.
5. Read one of the very many new books out at the moment that denounce gym-going and excessive exercise. While sitting with a bag of mini Cream Eggs by your side.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
