The Muppets

March 6th, 2012 | 1:10 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Jason Segel Wants To Let Muppets “Do Their Thing” Without Him

The Muppets took Manhattan, sorry, the world, by storm again last year, thanks in part to Jason Segel’s tireless efforts to bring them back to the big screen. The movie even garnered an Oscar — Best Original Song for Bret McKenzie’s “Man or Muppet.” So why are we hearing that he won’t be involved in a sequel?

“My goal was to bring the Muppets back, and I think we’ve achieved that,” Segel told VH1 News over the weekend, while promoting his upcoming comedy, Jeff, Who Lives at Home. “So, I’m really confident that they’re in good hands now, and I’m very happy to let them walk on their own two legs.”

(Pause a minute, so you can enjoy the fact that he is still making corny puppet jokes.)
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January 13th, 2012 | 12:40 pm by Kate Spencer (@katespencer)

Jason Segel Says Date With YouTube Fan Was “More Awkward” For Her

Jason Segel, star of the The Muppets, upped his awesome factor when he took a fan and her twin sister out in Chicago last week. Chelsea Gill posted an adorable video of herself singing an original song asking Jason out for drinks, and the star eagerly obliged. “It felt like hanging out with some of my friends,” the 23-year-old told Showbiz Tonight after the big date. “He’s so down to earth.”

At the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, we asked about his decision to contact Gill and take her to the Chicago Film Critic Awards show. “I thought she showed a lot of guts!” he said. “It was really nice and really sweet and sorta reminded me of when I was a kid.”

Jason also spilled the dirty details about their very G-rated date. “We hung out with her and her twin sister,” he said. “It was cool. It was more awkward for them than it was for me. I like jumped right into and we started singing and stuff. She felt incredibly awkward.”

Sounds like every first date we’ve ever been on. Check out Jason above and Chelsea’s adorable video below.
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November 28th, 2011 | 11:14 am by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Will We See Lady Gaga, Other Star Cameos In The Muppets DVD Extras?


After years of rumors and vague responses about Lady Gaga‘s appearance in The Muppets, the cameo sadly wound up on the cutting room floor due to time constraints. Moviehole.net reports that it involved Gaga and her entourage — Ed Helms, John Krasinski and possibly Eric Stonestreet — in a showdown with Miss Piggy. And they may or may not have done a version of Madonna‘s “Vogue.” We fail to see how ANY OTHER plot point could have been more important than this. But we are still crossing our fingers that this makes it to the DVD extras.

Moviehole has a whole list of cameos cut from the original script. Elmo, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Rachael Ray, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Christian Bale, Kathy Griffin, Anne Hathaway, Katy Perry and George Clooney were all on the wish list. Of course, many of those stars happen to be very busy and couldn’t squeeze a Muppet shoot into their schedules (Elmo). But a couple of other big names shot scenes that we’re hoping to see one day: Jason Segel‘s Forgetting Sarah Marshall co-star Mila Kunis and Ben Stiller.

Given the movie’s strong performance at the box office over the holiday weekend (natch, it couldn’t beat Breaking Dawn Part 1, but it was a respectable second place), maybe some of those clever cameos will make it into another Muppets movie?

[Photos: Getty Images, Disney]

October 21st, 2011 | 3:50 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

Muppet Movie Under Fire From Original Puppet Masters

It’s time to play the music! It’s time to get in fights! Despite how ridiculously cute the upcoming Muppet movie staring Amy Adams looks, there are going to be those who think it’s garbage. Unfortunately, original Miss Piggy voice artist Frank Oz could potentially be counted in that group. “I wasn’t happy with the script,” Oz informed The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t think they respected the characters. But I don’t want to go on about it like a sourpuss and hurt the movie.” Oz wasn’t even shouting it from a balcony alongside Waldorf, so you know we have to take him seriously!

Other original Muppet performers also take issue with the film, for plot points like Kermit’s wealth causing the other Muppets to be jealous, to Fozzie’s (arguably crude) fart shoes, as depicted in the trailer. Oh, not the fart shoes! NOT THE FART SHOES! The saddest part about all this is that it was the passionate Muppet love of the film’s co-star Jason Segel that helped get it made in the first place. He cried when he met Kermit for the first time, for Gonzo’s sake! How horrible can the movie be? Damn you, fart shooooooooooes!

[Photo: Splash News Online]

August 18th, 2011 | 10:59 am by Jordan Runtagh (@JordanRuntagh)

Muppets Table Read Moved Jason Segel To Tears

It’s not every day that a talking piece of felt can make a grown man weep. But that’s exactly what happened to at the first table reading for the upcoming Muppets revival. The film was a labor of love for its writer and star, Jason Segel, a massive lifelong Muppet fan. And hearing Kermit the Frog speak the words he’d written got Jason all soaky around the eyes. “We did a table reading, and they’d brought the puppets for the first time,” he explained to HitFix.com.  “We’re all just sitting at the table, and all of a sudden they brought out Kermit and he said the first line that I had written.” And then it got real for the How I Met Your Mother actor. “I just lost my sh-t a little bit. I started crying at the table read and I had to awkwardly ask them to stop filming. It was emotional. He’s been my favorite since I was a little kid.”

Segel spent four years writing his script for the Muppets reboot, and recently spoke to Collider about the emotional collection he sees between kids and the creatures. “I wish you guys were over there so you could see how a kid reacts to those puppets,” he gushed. “It’s one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen. The puppeteer just instantly disappears. You can see the guy standing there with a puppet on his hand and he’s talking, and the kid is looking directly at the puppet.” Jason still gets floored by the Muppet Magic.  “Every time it happens it reminds me of why I wanted to do the movie. It’s a truly beautiful thing.”

[Photo: Getty Images]

June 20th, 2011 | 3:30 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

The Muppets Trailer Will Have Your Inner Child Crying Like A Baby

Well, they aren’t quite mops, and they aren’t quite puppets, but man. While The Muppets Green Lantern, Hangover and rom-com trailers were a winsome little intro to the upcoming movie, The Muppets official trailer focuses on the familiar cloth faces that used to have your inner child hyperventilating in front of the TV. Oh, and lots of karate chops to the throat. The perfect amount of throat chops. We don’t want to get too excited only to be disappointed (Alvin and the Chipmunks, we’re looking directly at you here), but based on the trailer, we’d say Jason Segal, Amy Adams and director James Bobin might have taken a precious part of our childhood (or your parents’ childhood, if you have no idea what would be so great that pig in a skirt suit)(answer: everything) and somehow managed to update it without ruining it. HI-YA!

June 16th, 2011 | 12:45 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

It’s Not Easy Being Green Lantern In The Muppets Parody Trailer

Anyone else have the distinct impression that The Muppets‘ Green Lantern parody trailer might be better than the actual Green Lantern movie? Okay, so it’s not just us then. As their most recent parody trailer (following their Hangover trailer) suggests, Kermie would definitely not take any more karate chops to the face if he was suddenly wielding alien superpowers. Well, he’d take fewer at least; he’s still just a kindly frog at heart. The trailer also gives us a sneak peek at the villainous leanings of Statler and Waldorf, and the flame-wielding heroics of the Swedish Chef. Despite Jason Segal‘s attempts to reassure to American public, we’d still see this movie if it was filmed in Swedish. After all, at least it doesn’t have all those unsettling CGI aliens.

June 8th, 2011 | 3:00 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

Emily Blunt Explains How Acting Erased Her Terrible Stutter

It’s hard to imagine her with anything but the eloquent, biting wit she showed off in The Devil Wears Prada, but as a child Emily Blunt’s stuttering problem was nearly debilitating; it took the encouragement of a drama teacher for The Adjustment Bureau actress to overcome her disability. “He said, ‘Well, why don’t you try it in a different voice? Try to do a funny voice or an accent. Maybe that would help.’ But it really did, I was actually able to speak fluently,” Blunt, who is now on the board of the American Institute for Stuttering, says. “Once you’re able to hear yourself speak fluently, albeit in a ridiculous accent, you gain the confidence to think this could happen again and again. It was easier after that night, of that school play. It all became a bit easier.” And that’s why she’s pretended to have that English accent ever since. Oh, no wait, that’s real. Supposedly.

Blunt also loved The King’s Speech and her soon-to-be costar Colin Firth for his accurate depiction of the illness, saying “He really managed to capture that hesitancy, that vocal-cords-locking-out syndrome that happens. What’s exciting about what Colin did was he actually put a face to stuttering, actually opened up people’s minds around the world to the plight of someone who has one.” Blunt will also be starring in The Muppets movie, where we can only assume she will be excellent as the Swedish chef.

[Photo: Splash News Online]

May 26th, 2011 | 4:00 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

Kermie Meets The Wolf Pack In The Muppets Teaser Trailer

In case you weren’t into Jason Segal and Amy Adams‘ sweet rom-com stylings in The Muppets trailer, maybe you’ll like the implied debauchery of the new Muppets teaser trailer, which features The Fuzzy Pack getting the same kind of dazed wake-up call Alan and the gang experience in The Hangover Part II trailer. We’re not going to blame Animal; we’re just saying, if anyone would case the same kind of mayhem, it’s him.

Also released is the official movie synopsis, which fleshes out the film’s plot. After the Muppet Theater is threatened by an oil baron played by Chris Cooper (love it already), Segel and Adams must rush to bring together a Muppets reunion benefit to save the building. Since the last film, the puppet players have all found new careers: “Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino house band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.” We know this teaser is just a parody, but the slow-motion action and gritty surroundings are pretty spot-on for a Hangover spoof. Now, which movie has a greater number of hands up the main characters’ butts? That’s something we’ll have to compare side-by-side after we see them.

May 23rd, 2011 | 6:30 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

You Got Your Rom-Com In The Muppets! You Got Your Muppets In My Rom-Com!

Audiences seeing Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides this weekend though they were just seeing a trailer for new film Green With Envy, a darling new rom-com starring that charming Amy Adams and that adorable Jason Segel and oh my god, it’s Gonzo ripping his shirt off to reveal the bedazzled hot pink number underneath. The Muppets trailer only offered a tiny sneak peak of the actual fuzzy stars, but all of the elements seem to be in place: Miss Piggy slamming her head onto a desk in frustration in front of a plate of donuts, a gigantic musical number in the middle of the street, Sweetums and, of course, very expensive-looking explosions. Even the announcer’s hesitancy when saying “…the Frog” is classic Muppet-y good times. Can we please start sneaking the Muppets into every romantic comedy? It might have made Something Borrowed worth suffering through to know the Swedish Chef would be making a cameo.

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