From the Los Angeles Times’ Ministry of Gossip blog:
Let us present one of the loveliest of distractions from the Sundance Film Festival’s focus on independent-film sales: the Sundance “it” girl, an actress who stars in multiple films, lights up cocktail and dinner parties with fun cold-weather fashion and charms jaded industry vets.
This year, that girl is Ari Graynor — star of festival entries “For A Good Time, Call ...” and Rashida Jones’ “Celeste & Jesse Forever.”
A breakout as the loony drunk sidekick in cult hit “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” Graynor has a laundry list of supporting credits and is poised for a leading-lady breakout thanks to upcoming projects, not to mention her current starring gig on Broadway in “Relatively Speaking,” a one-act play by Woody Allen. Here are a few essentials on 2012’s Sundance “it” girl.
Career hyphenate: Graynor is an actress by trade, but came on as executive producer of “For A Good Time, Call ....”
“I require a lot of stimulation,” she told us at Grey Goose’s Blue Door lounge on Main Street in Park City, “and there’s so much I’ve learned being in front of the camera, I felt like I had more to give behind it.”
Style guide: Let’s not pretend that looking great doesn’t contribute to enticing potential film buyers. So did Graynor activate a glam task force for the festival?
“There was a little bit of thought, but it wasn’t extensive,” she said with a laugh. “I went to Dolce & Gabbana, and they gave me a few things, which was so helpful.”
Free-stuff factor: Sundance’s other distractions, including swag suites, raging after-hours partying, celeb canoodling and silly industry folk, have Graynor amused.
“You come here and it’s this hilarious dichotomy of independent filmmaking — blood, sweat and tears, no money — and then you show up to ... places where’s there’s like ... all this free stuff, and this world of junior publicists,” she said, laughing. “That’s a little bit intense for me.”
Starstruck: The fame game may not entice Graynor, but she was starstruck meeting Ethel Kennedy, subject of the Sundance documentary “Ethel.” A Massachusetts native, Ari was obviously hit with some Camelot fever.
“In fact, I was one of her grandsons’ senior-prom dates. I asked her to tell him hello for me.”
Obvious Redford swooning: Any Sundance “it” girl must pledge allegiance to festival founder and American heartthrob Robert Redford. We asked which Redford, through the ages, she found the sexiest.
“For me? It’s ‘Butch Cassidy’ Redford,” Graynor said.
— Matt Donnelly
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“Man on a Ledge” star Sam Worthington should be pretty accustomed to working with green screen by now, after “Avatar” and “Terminator: Salvation,” but the comforts of a visual-effects-ready backlot stage were not an option for the Aussie star this last time around.
Going out on a ledge isn’t a figure of speech here: The actor literally spent several days filming on the ledge of a New York building, about 200 feet above ground. The actor and filmmakers chalked the decision up to savvy audiences who can tell when CGI has created an artificial background.
“I think sometimes an audience demands a certain authenticity. People actually knowing that I’m up there 200-odd feet in the air adds to the thrilling aspect of it,” Worthington told the Ministry of Gossip at the film’s L.A. premiere Monday at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
It’s Worthington’s character who does most of the high-up dancing with death, but others involved with the movie got to give it a try, too, including Anthony Mackie and Ed Burns. Actor Titus Welliver, who plays an NYPD officer in the movie, wasn’t feeling quite as adventurous.
“I was offered the opportunity, and I flatly refused because even when I would watch Sam when I was on the ground, when he was on the ledge, it would make my hands perspire. It made me so nervous,” Welliver said.
Worthington started the film with a fear of heights but eventually found that “you get comfortable out there when your confidence builds.”
Director Asger Leth and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura both walked out onto the ledge.
“The director and I both said, ‘If we’re going to ask our actors to go there, we’re going to out there, too,’” Di Bonaventura said.
The producer said aside from testing out the ledge for Worthington, the most daring thing he’s done from far off the ground was climbing on Yosemite’s Cathedral Rocks. Leth revealed he had a “scary” experience at about 14,000 feet in Argentina’s mountains shooting a commercial for Guinness.
But Worthington had no tales of daring feats to regale reporters with.
“Trust me — in real life I’m a pussycat,” he said. “I stay at home, make scrambled eggs, watch ‘Law and Order,’ pretty normal stuff. I only do crazy stuff in the film.”
Summit Entertainment’s “Man on a Ledge” hits theaters Friday. The thriller also stars Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris and Jamie Bell.
— Emily Rome
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Bethenny Frankel, the former member of “The Real Housewives of New York” who has starred in two other reality series about her life, is getting her own syndicated talk show this summer.
The daily one-hour “Bethenny” will begin this summer and air in a six-week preview on select Fox stations. The show, which lists Ellen DeGeneres as an executive producer, will feature Frankel’s “no-nonsense perspective on everything from pop culture and current events to relationships, beauty, fitness and lifestyle segments.”
Frankel first gained attention as the first runner-up of NBC’s “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” After three seasons on “The Real Housewives of New York,” she starred in spin-offs “Bethenny Getting Married?” and “Bethenny Ever After.” A third season of “Bethenny Ever After” will premiere on Bravo next month.
— Greg Braxton
Ministry of Gossip: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/
