Conor McPherson's The Eclipse eclipses IFTAs

I was thrilled to learn that Conor McPherson's new film The Eclipse swept the Irish Film and Television Awards on Saturday, snagging awards for Best Film, Best Film Script, and Best Supporting Actor for Aiden Quinn.

I saw the film Monday night at a press screening and was excited, I'll admit largely because The Eclipse stars the unpronounceable Iben Hjejle, best known in America for her star turn opposite John Cusack in High Fidelity (easily one of my top five favorite movies). In The Eclipse, which is set at a literary festival in Cobh -- the gorgeous and eerie scenery holds a supporting role all on its own -- Hjejle plays a novelist caught between the competing desires of Nicholas (Aiden Quinn), an absolute asshole American writer/drunk (Quinn is fantastic in this, alternately hilarious, tragic and complexly, awfully intense, and the award is well-deserved) and Michael (Ciaran Hinds), a widower who serves as a volunteer at the festival and thus is a much ignored silent witness to the egomaniacal and neurotic writers' personalities.

The movie, which was shot in five weeks on a very small budget, is categorized, depending on what reviews you read, as a romance, a thriller, a ghost drama, or an "indie film". The air of downright frightening suspense that pervades the atmosphere of the movie comes to a head in only four moments of building horror-flick terror, as Michael experiences disturbing sightings of his father-in-law as a ghost before he's even deceased. While these moments are few and far between, I found myself scrunched down in my seat, hands over my eyes, biting my lip to keep from screaming out loud. But the film is also funny, wry, and deeply moving.

All three of the lead actors are extraordinarily compelling, and McPherson gives them plenty to work with. "When I am trying to tell a story, I need the beyond to frame the story," said McPherson in a Hollywood Reporter interview. "I need that sense of total mystery to imbue the story with a sense of wonder. When I was a kid, I suppose, I was always interested in ghosts, vampires, zombies, you name it. I've always found those things incredibly absorbing. I think we often feel we are making decisions, but a lot of the time that is probably an illusion in the sense that we are driven by forces which we're probably not even conscious of."

The Eclipse is in theatres starting March 26.

At size 4, supermodel Coco Rocha says she's out of luck

Irish Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha, who I interviewed for Irish America's June/July 2009 cover story, claims that she's not getting work because she's (gasp) a SIZE FOUR. Although she's appeared for Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenburg this fashion week, Rocha says she's not in demand anymore. The New York Times quoted her as saying, "Girls are told they're not skinny enough, or they hear, 'She's old, she's boring, we've had her, she's not tiny anymore... A lot of people don't take into account the vulnerability of these young girls.

"Everybody knows that, in general, a basketball player needs to be tall and a fashion model needs to be skinny, but how skinny is too skinny?"

Coco has spoken out before about the problematic expectations of the fashion industry (in which the sample size industry standard is a size zero). When I interviewed her last July, she said, "When you start off you have to have a certain body type. I mean, that’s why we get [recruited] so young. Your body hasn’t even gotten to that peak yet. So when you start aging and your body is changing, people want it to stop, they don’t want that happening. … You can’t please everyone. If Client A and Client B want two different girls, are you somehow going to get both of them? No. If you don’t want me today, someone will want me tomorrow.”

Click here to read Irish America's interview with Coco Rocha.

Let's cut Robert Pattinson a break (interviews, context clues and good journalism)

Okay, Irish Central readers. You seem to have this thing about Robert Pattinson. It's a love/hate relationship. Not that I can blame you: our website seems to have a thing about him too. A fixation, if you will. A preoccupation. A sort of mesmerized cult following.

At the ripe old age of 22, I'm not exactly the kid's target audience, but I am generally fascinated by how differently some hot young things react to their newfound celebrity, and find myself torn between opposing stances of You Get What You Ask For (stars innately have signed away all rights to a normal and private adolescence) and They Become What We Make Them (American media's obsession with celebrity culture and constant salivating over the rise and continuing freefall feeds into self-destructive behaviors).

So when I saw the news about RPatz's recent comments about being "allergic to vaginas," alternately written about as offensive, gay, or just plain weird, my reaction was to give him the benefit of the doubt and head for the original Details interview for further research.

I have to say I was a little surprised to find that the interview, conducted by Jenny Lumet, didn't provide much context for the remarks either. As an article, it's more a string of vignettes intended to show that this kid is -- shocker -- self-conscious, unrestrained, metacognitive and a little, well, "off." Big surprise. The interview covers his fascination with exotic tropical diseases, his self-diagnosis as a compulsive eater, his uncle who worked in a steel mill, and an anecdote about meeting some cool elephants. The vagina comment seems to me to be a sort of awkward observation about the awkwardness of doing a photo shoot with a whole bunch of naked girls-- he then goes on to comment on how porn in the 1980s exemplified a sense of 'community' that's worth being nostalgic for.

Robert Pattinson is not as grounded as some, nor as cocky as others. He's an aspiring intellectual and tries to be sincere about his art. In short, he seems to be doing his level best.

I've been thinking about the contextualization of interview quotes recently, largely in part because of the John Mayer fiasco, in which the musician tried to make a valid and coherent point about white privilege and his experience of it that turned into a complete and complex shitshow when a few quotes were taken out of context.

Ideally, when you're a star giving an interview, you should remain ever-vigilant about trying not to produce bite-size offensives, one-liners built for Twitter-sized scandal. You should know that when it comes to spinning the story, you're at the mercy of the journalist. But readers, bloggers and media consumers should also keep in mind the plethora of filters, edits and tweaks that come between the words of a star and his audience. At best, an interview gives a sidelong glimpse into the inner workings of a mind. At worst, the words take on a life of their own, entirely divorced from context and intent.

Irish Americans Spillane and Kearney win Olympic medals

The 2010 Winter Olympics have already become a source of pride for Irish Americans, with two of our own snagging medals in cold-weather events.

Skiier Hannah Kearney from Vermont, just 23 years old, scored the U.S. its first gold medal of the games. Fellow skiier Johnny Spillane took home the silver, winning the U.S.'s first-ever medal in men's Nordic combined, a blend of ski jumping and cross-country

Click here to watch a video interview with Johnny Spillane.

The Good Guy: snark and sappiness abound in the new Alexis Bledel film

This Tuesday night a friend and I went to see a press screening of The Good Guy, a sort-of romantic sort-of comedy written and directed by Julio dePietro, coming out in theatres February 19. Starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter and Bryan Greenberg, it's the none-too-original story of Beth, a twenty-something girl in Manhattan trying to figure out who to date, with an adorably bro-y She's All That-style subplot about clueless dudes teaching a more clueless dude how to succeed with women and on Wall Street.

(Very) loosely based on the 1915 novel The Good Soldier, most aptly by way of the satisfying if not particularly shocking turning point in which the unreliability of the narrator is revealed, the film doesn't waste much time developing any of the characters or their relationships: each is given a fairly convenient and two-dimensional backstory (Daniel, the soft-spoken new hire at Tommy's Wall Street firm, spent time as an aviation engineer in the army, which doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose beyond furthering the Good Soldier allegory and explaining his ridiculously buff biceps).

Instead, the writing seemed torn between genuinely wide-eyed sentimentality and one-liners that often felt like they hit below the belt, prompting laughter of the shocked variety ("This is Manhattan. The only happy endings are in Chinatown" from one of Beth's friends at a book club meeting, or one of the bros, while chatting up a fly honey at the bar, talking about how he respects bulimia because it shows a willingness to second-guess your decisions and adapt to changing circumstances.

The highlight of the film for me was easily Andrew McCarthy's role as the jaded, heartless forty-something Wall Street boss--coming from the golden age of real romantic comedies (Pretty in Pink), McCarthy seemed in on the joke that this post-millennium drivel has to make up in snark for what it lacks in real emotion.

Click here to watch The Good Guy trailer.

Brittany Murphy mystery part two: visit from the coroner's office

First off, I should say I have mixed feelings about the media circus that the circumstances surrounding Brittany Murphy's death continue to drag out (although, of course, compared to Michael or even Heath, it's more like a media small-town-summer-carnival-with-maybe-one-sketchy-looking-ride). I am obviously a diehard Clueless fan, but even aside from that, I think she had some pretty incredible performances in some really fantastic movies (anything co-starring Ashton Kutcher notwithstanding), and always seemed like a likeable, sweet Irish-Italian girl who came from genuinely tough circumstances to make it big.

I also think things got pretty shady for her, between the eating disorder and drug allegations and her marriage to Brit Simon Monjack, who, let's face it, no one had really heard of until Brittany died in December. I want wholeheartedly to give darling Brittany the benefit of the doubt about the whole "natural causes" thing, and for her family to be allowed to mourn her in privacy.

But this is the Internet, and besides, if the message that comes out of all this is to tell young girls 'Oh hey, not eating and doing cocaine, etc. might kill you,' that seems like a pretty solid statement to promote.

So on that note, the latest shady developments, courtesy of TMZ and Perez:

Assistant coroner Ed Winter from the LA Coroner's office spoke with both Monjack and Brittany's mother Sharon (both of whom were reported to be cooperative) after a source reported that a guy was coming to Murphy's house on a weekly basis dropping off manila envelopes addressed to "Lola", the contents of which were as-of-yet unidentified prescription meds.

Even more puzzling, there's no record of Brittany having visited a doctor in the months before her death...although she apparently had several medical conditions and experienced serious abdominal pain days before she died.

Mystery continues with cancellation of Brittany Murphy memorial

Mysterious circumstances continue in events surrounding the untimely death of actress Brittany Murphy. Her widower, Simon Monjack, had planned an enormous launch party for tomorrow night to kick off the new Brittany Murphy Foundation, which he is creating to fundraise towards the cause of arts education for children.

TMZ reports that days before the launch party, the planned venue, Beverly Hills Temple of the Arts, received a phone call that the party was postponed without a rescheduled date--essentially, canceled. TMZ also said that while guests got an e-mail explained the reason of postponement was "an illness in the family," the rabbi who was supposed to lead the memorial was given no such excuse. Hmm...

Click here to read Brittany Murphy's obituary in Irish America magazine

One step back for gay visibility, one step forward for Carrey and McGregor

I think we took a significant step backward this week when CBS decided to reject the proposed Super Bowl ad from the gay dating site ManCrunch, which depicted two dudes watching football who start making out after their hands brush in the chip bowl.

Despite the complete normalization of TV spots for straight dating sites (even those which blatantly exclude bisexual or homosexual users) and the long tradition of sexually explicit Super Bowl commercials for beer and other consumer goods (not to even mention the ever-present cheerdancers at football games), CBS released a statement saying that their "Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this particular spot." ManCrunch is calling CBS out on discriminatory practices.

Click here to watch the rejected Super Bowl ad.

On the upside, Irish-American actor Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor (who's Scottish) shared a pretty romantic moment yesterday in Paris, where they were named knights in France's National Order of Arts and Letters.

They were honored with The Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, recognition of a significant contribution to the arts. Carrey and McGregor were in Paris to promote "I Love You Phillip Morris," a gay romance starring Carrey as a con man who falls in love with his prison cellmate.