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January 24th, 2013 | 4:45 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Daniel Radcliffe, Kill Your Darlings Co-Stars Fess Up To Their Poetry-Writing Days

Between last year’s On the Road and this year’s Sundance flicks Kill Your Darlings and Big Sur, it’s safe to say the Beat Generation is having a moment. The real mystery to us, actually, is why they’re not always having a moment. Because if you were anything like us in high school, you either went through a phase in which you wanted to be Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac or William Boroughs, or you dated someone who did. VH1 News found further proof that this is a thing when they interviewed the cast of Kill Your Darlings at its Sundance premiere last weekend.

“I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager,” Daniel Radcliffe, who plays a college-age Allen Ginsberg in the film, confessed. What he likes in particular about Ginsberg in the movie, he said, is,”Everyone’s experienced that massive self-doubt. Howl is a poem written by someone who’s terrified that they can’t write.”
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January 24th, 2013 | 12:13 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Twilight World? Stephenie Meyer, Austenland Stars Discuss Which Books Would Make The Best Theme Park

You don’t have to read too much into Twilight to realize that before she was the creator of books people obsess over, Stephenie Meyer was obsessed with other people’s books. She took that obsession to new levels recently, becoming a producer on the film Austenland, based on Shannon Hale’s book about a woman (played by Keri Russell) who visits a Jane Austen theme park in search of some old-fashioned romance. At the flick’s Sundance premiere, VH1 News asked Meyer and a handful of the movie’s stars what books or authors they’d like to see made into theme parks, a la The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

“[Austenland] is my theme park,” Meyer said. “If this place really existed, if I could go and dress up in Regency attire and hang out all day, reading books in a beautiful library, I would totally … That’s my vacation.”

And no, she doesn’t really see a Twilight World in our future. “There was interest in that, and honestly, what are you going to do?” she asked. “That doesn’t sound like fun. What kind of rides are you going to have? There’s not as much scope for an amusement park there.”

I don’t know, Stephenie, I think a lot of us would love the chance to hop on Edward’s back for a ride through the treetops.

Speaking of Twilight mania, Meyer told us that none of that craziness followed her to the Austenland set, which lived up to its idyllic name in the English countryside:
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January 23rd, 2013 | 1:48 pm by VH1

Daniel Radcliffe Made Acting Easy For Kill Your Darlings Love Dane DeHaan

By Melissa Smith

Dane DeHaan is earning rave reviews for his performance in Kill Your Darlings at the Sundance Film Festival, but what audiences there are really talking about is his passionate onscreen kiss with Daniel Radcliffe, who plays a young Allen Ginsberg. We’re talking steamy, sexy, “is it getting warm in here?” stuff.

At the film’s Sundance premiere, DeHaan (known for his work in Chronicle and Lawless) revealed his trick to portraying such a realistic relationship: He fell in love with Daniel in real life. And, as Harry Potter fans across the globe already know, it wasn’t a hard task.

“Whenever you have somebody in a movie that you’re supposed to be in love with, I guess what I do is I look at that person and try to fall in love with them, and I see what about them is incredibly appealing to me,” Dane explained. “Dan’s such a great person; he wasn’t hard to fall in love with, you know? He’s funny, he’s nice, he’s kind, he’s a wonderful artist.”
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January 22nd, 2013 | 6:39 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Michael C. Hall Plots His Post-Dexter Return To TV

By Melissa Smith

We’re approaching the impending (maybe possible) series finale of Dexter with a mix of excitement and dread. Sure, we can’t wait to see how things will wrap up, but we also know we’ll soon have to go on with life without our favorite characters and actors. Like with most series endings, there will be some sort of twisted mourning period we all must go through.

If you’re like us, you’re already worrying about missing Michael C. Hall after season eight airs this summer. And if you feel an extra twinge of panic at the thought, it might be because Michael has been a major part of groundbreaking television for well over a decade, first portraying funeral director David Fisher in Six Feet Under before moving on to the serial killer we can’t help but love in Dexter. In fact, there hasn’t been a year without Michael gracing our screens since 2001! Who else could make us want to hug a funeral director? Who else could make us want to hang out with a murderer? Please don’t leave us, Michael!

That’s why I had a bit of desperation in my voice at the Sundance premiere of Kill Your Darlings, when I asked Hall if there’s any chance he might sign on to a new series. And what type of roll could live up to the two iconic characters he’s already portrayed?

“I would like to find something that had, you know, someone who was both a murderer and a funeral director. If that comes my way, I’m in,” he quipped. “No. … I’d never say never, you know. Who knows what the future holds? But I’ve been very fortunate thus far.”

Let’s hope the fortune continues. And in the meantime, all you writers out there get to work on some scripts about bloodthirsty morticians.

Michael C. Hall on Dexter

[Photo: Showtime]

January 22nd, 2013 | 4:22 pm by VH1

Daniel Radcliffe Enthusiastically Brings Back The Perm In Kill Your Darlings

By Melissa Smith

There are a lot of firsts for Daniel Radcliffe in his role as beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings. First gay love scenes, first time filming in the U.S., and first PERM! The 23-year-old actor has proved he’s not afraid of taking risks, and we’re sure you’ll agree that this time, the result is adorable.

As soon as we saw the first photos from the film, we became envious of Daniel’s luscious head of curls and couldn’t help wondering what his secret was. So soft and wavy! So dreamy! Don’t you just want to run your hand through it?! So at the movie’s Sundance premiere, we asked him to spill on the secret to his locks and also asked if he agreed it’s the best hair he’s gotten to sport for a role.

“Oh, yeah, [it's] far and away the best hair I’ve done,” he told VH1 News at the Sundance premiere of Darlings. “I actually really did end up liking it probably a bit too much. I had a perm.”
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January 22nd, 2013 | 3:25 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

If Joseph Gordon-Levitt Is Happy At Sundance, We All Win


“I remember watching Reservoir Dogs and Sling Blade and Swingers and Big Night and The Usual Suspects and all those movies that came through Sundance back when I was working on 3rd Rock From the Sun, and I said to myself, ‘One day I’m going to have a movie at Sundance,’ ” Joseph Gordon-Levitt told VH1 News at the Sundance (and world) premiere of Don Jon’s Addiction on Friday night. And boy has his dream come true in a big way. Since his days as a sitcom alien, Joe’s been in quite a few Sundance films, but Don Jon’s marks his writing/directing debut. You could say he was rather pleased about that: “I’m kind of astonished and flabbergasted and just happy!”

This meant the rest of us got to enjoy plenty of photos and videos of JGL being astonished and flabbergasted and happy as he partied at the Sundance Channel’s house on Friday night, along with co-stars Julianne Moore and Tony Danza. And we’re going out on a limb here and guessing that his beaming face is part of what helped him sell the film about a Jersey guy so addicted to porn that he gives up a relationship with Scarlett Johansson for it. On Monday, Relativity Media confirmed the huge deal they gave JGL that will land the movie on 2,000 screens this summer.
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January 11th, 2013 | 2:53 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

You’re Pretty Sure You Hate Girls, But Let’s Help You Reconsider Before Season 2 Starts

It seems to us that vast majority of people who hate Girls haven’t actually seen the show. Not that there aren’t plenty of people who tuned in for the first season and decided it wasn’t for them; they just don’t happen to be the people who seem to really loathe it. If you know for sure you hate Girls and yet haven’t actually watched it, or you saw the first ep and bailed, indulge us for a few minutes when we try to explain why you should tune in to the show’s second season. Open your mind and heart to this reality!

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January 10th, 2013 | 5:25 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Lena Dunham, Please Cast Your New Dog Lamby In Girls Soon

In real life, Lena Dunham is way more responsible than most people — she’s 26 and runs her own show and makes her own movies! — but something about the way she talks about her new dog Lamby, whom she adopted on Wednesday, reminds us a whole lot of her Girls character, Hannah Horvath.

“I adopted him at Brooklyn Animal Rescue Coalition,” she told VH1 News at the season two premiere of Girls. “I wanted a dog for so long.”

Lena Dunham and her new dog Lamby
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January 9th, 2013 | 4:22 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, More Help Decide The Most Important Movie Award: Best Facial Hair

Forget the Golden Globes; put aside your hopes and wishes for tonight’s People’s Choice Awards; sleep in and skip tomorrow’s Oscar nominations announcement, because we here at VH1 Celebrity have a much more important title to hand out this awards season: Best Facial Hair Performance in a Motion Picture. You know we’re not alone in pointing out how important beards, mutton chops, mustaches and scruff have been to 2012′s most critically acclaimed films: Can you even imagine Lincoln, Django Unchained, Argo, Les Miserables, Bernie or (god forbid) The Hobbit with clean-shaven stars?

VH1 News polled the heavy hitters at the National Board of Review Awards on Tuesday night to see who the stars would nominate and the answers were predictably enthusiastic.

“I’m not worried about awards season, but I have been going for best beard,” Ben Affleck told us. “[Leonardo DiCaprio's] got the best, probably, and Bradley [Cooper's] got, like, the scruff, which doesn’t look like a beard-beard but you can’t discredit because it’s carefully calibrated.” Read more…

January 4th, 2013 | 9:00 am by VH1

Kanye West Planned To “Take Over The World” As A Baby, His Mom Said – Will Babye Follow?

By Melissa Smith

With news of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s bun in the oven, we can’t help but wonder just how powerful their offspring is going to be. Just take the case of Blue Ivy, who reached number 7 on our list of celebs who dominated 2012 … just by being born! When it comes to Kimye’s spawn, the baby might actually be genetically primed for world domination, at least if he/she is anything like Kanye’s mom says he was as an infant.

Before Donda West tragically passed away in 2007, she sat down with VH1 News to talk about raising her son. Apparently there were very early signs of his powerful personality — even indications he’d like to rule the planet!

“I never saw that blank stare in Kanye’s eyes,” she told us. “Some babies come here, and it takes them a little bit longer to focus. It just seems like he came here knowing something, maybe something that I didn’t even know. … I looked into his eyes, and he had those two fingers in his mouth, and it just seemed like he was saying, ‘OK, I’m a few months old now; let me plan how I’m going to take over the world.’ ”
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