Pushing Daisies

In an interview with In Style Magazine UK, Anna Friel, who is the cover girl for its July issue, confesses she’s not in a hurry to marry partner, actor David Thewlis, with whom she has a two-year old daughter named Gracie.

The couple, who shuttle between the UK and in LA to be nearer to Anna’s work commitments on Pushing Daisies, has been blissfully happy together and Anna says, “It just seems to work as it is right now and there doesn’t seem any point.”

Anna also speaks of her daughter with fondness and more than anything she says it is motherhood that makes her life complete. “When you’re a mother, life just changes. [Her daughter] is the most loving child ever. I just tell her how beautiful and lovely she is and how much Mummy loves her.”
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Speaking of which, I of course would like to extend my Mother’s day greetings to every mother visiting this little website. ABC Network is also one in keeping with the yearly tradition, which happens every 2nd Sunday of May. They’re offering e-cards on the network’s site which features special “words of wisdom” and Mothers Day greetings from the cast of the Alphabet channel’s most successful programs like Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives. In fact, they’ve got one e-card with Lily on it. Some of the concepts are cheesy but hey, it’s a special day for moms…grin and bear it!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Anna Friel, Mother’s Day, ABC, Mother’s Day card from Pushing Daisies

Okay, that’s not even a word — Californified! Hah. But really, how would you call it?

It seems Anna Friel has been adapting to the LA way of life so much based on this article from Now Magazine UK, where Anna speaks of going under the knife and getting nipped and tucked. She has also talked about not being ready to have another child, not while Pushing Daisies is demanding so much from her.

Personally, I have no problem with one wanting to look their best, especially if its going to be a big part of their career.

And her career decision versus the choice she makes about her family is basically a choice we don’t really have a say on. It’s her career, obviously. And it’s her life.

I just don’t think these things need to be publicized, don’t you agree? As a fan, it’s turning me off when I read things like this about my favorite celebrities. I wish to find more substance in publicities like this and it’s just not showing that about her to me. What other projects is she working on aside from Pushing Daisies? I know she has Land of the Lost, but is there anything else? How’s the filming going for her? Why choose those projects? What’s she like at work? What has her career been like? Where can I read about those?

I have been reading so much about her LA life. Whether it’s a publicity stint and therefore half the truth, or whether it’s the real deal, I do wonder if the Brits are loving her more or is it just the opposite?

Or it that how way things are in the industry because publicities like these make the more buzz?

Anne Friel, Land of the Lost

Just a note to say that Anna Friel is on the cover of UK’s July 2008 issue of InStyle Magazine where she talks about her Hollywood Life. The scans to this magazine may be found at Anna Friel Org.

Anna Friel, InStyle Magazine

Pushing Daisies would have to the very first time I learned who Anna Friel is. I’ve never seen her movie, Goal! and it had been quite popular among my friends. Since I’m not from the UK, I wasn’t familiar with Brookside, the drama series where she became a household name in Europe.When I first saw the previews of the show last year, I thought that the program starred Zooey Deschanel; she even sounded and moved like her. And this made me look forward to the show more because I like Zooey Deschanel.

I’m quite sure I’m not the only one who sees the resemblance between Anna and Zooey. As the show went on, other fans have been comparing her physical appearance to these actresses:

When Anna had shorter hair, I’m told she reminds someone of a young Ally Sheedy:

Ally Sheedy, actress from the 80’s…

A younger Anna Friel with shorter hair…

Anna also slightly resembles Sara Groves, a Christian Music Artist (photo to the right), who I see to be someone who’s also similar in looks as Evangeline Lilly. Some of my friends think Anna looks like Eve, too…but I fail to see the resemblance. Yet if you scroll down this site, they do think think Eve and Anna are look-a-likes.

This younger picture of Faye Dunaway reminds me a bit of Anna, too.

Does Anna resemble any of these actresses or do you have another face in mind? Does having a lot of look-a-likes makes her beauty pretty common? What do you think?

Anna Friel, Anna Friel look-a-likes, Anna Friel looks like Zooey Deschanel, Anna Friel and Ally Sheedy, Anna Friel and Sara Groves

The UK Press is really going all out with Anna Friel. Pushing Daisies is about to premiere over there this weekend and she has been getting her fair share of publicity.

The other day, I read about her turning down Simon Cowell’s record deal offer. And here I am wondering if she’s ever had old videos of her on Youtube or somewhere else singing. I would definitely wanna hear her singing voice. If Simon was good enough to offer her a record deal, that would mean she can decently carry a tune, right? But I couldn’t find any. Although, my digging up did tell me Anna Friel’s parents were folk song singers once.

I’m sure there are plans for more musical numbers in Pushing Daisies for season 2. Will we ever hear her sing on Pushing Daisies, too?

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Anna Friel confesses to having had her teeth improved in preparation for her first US TV job on Pushing Daisies. Her agent and the producer told her she needed to undergo teeth bleeching, upon realizing that these look less than pearly white on screen.

“When I first started filming Pushing Daisies, my agent and the producer told me I needed to have my teeth whitened. I’m very good at brushing them. So I refused. Everyone just shrugged and told me they’d do a test film. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe what I looked like on screen. I’m not kidding, compared to everyone else my teeth looked green. I was horribly embarrassed.”

She also got herself orthodontic braces, which is supposed to improve her smile. On Pushing Daisies, she’d have to be doing this a lot as the charming Chuck Charles.

Anna also had gotten eyelash extensions and currently keeps a strict physical regimen with a trainer to keep her body in perfect shape. She says her look has really improved compared to several years ago, starring as a soap opera star in the UK.

Is she going with cosmetic surgery in the near future? Anna is considering major surgeries when the time comes. But she also has confessed to a few enhancements already, saying, “LA teaches you to make yourself better”.

If you have seen old pictures of Anna, you will definitely see the changes. She looks far younger than her age now, me thinks (Anna is 31 years old). But personally, I thought she looked fine the way she was then. So I guess that in order to make a good mark in Hollywood, she has to live up to some standards and has to make those choices for her career.

Via: The Sun and Times of India

Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies, Anna Friel makeover

One of the reasons why Pushing Daisies is highly anticipated in the UK, is because it stars their very own media darling, Anna Friel. Based on press releases, she’s been forever known as a soap opera star among the Brits and Pushing Daisies will be a chance for her to show this new side.

Pushing Daisies will be premiering in the UK on April 12, Saturday 9 PM at ITV 1. A repeat will be aired on the same channel Sunday afternoon. In the British TV Grid, the show is up against a well established series like Casualty, also airing at 9 PM on BBC. But Pushing Daisies has a strong lead in with Britain’s Got Talent.

Will this spell success for Anna? Will the show succeed in it’s time slot? Will the Brits welcome this with open arms?

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When Anna Friel first came to the set of Pushing Daisies and spoke in an American accent, she fooled enough of the crew members into believing she was genuinely an all-American chick.

Apparently, years of training with her dad, who is a linguist, has helped her play and speak the role of Chuck Charles a lot better.

“My dad’s a linguist, and I speak French and take great pride in my accents. I start a characterisation with my voice and I don’t want to lose it. It’s a form of superstition for me - and it helps me concentrate. A lot of people out there don’t know I’m English. Now when I speak to the American crew in my normal voice they say, ‘Will you stop doing that funny accent?’”

Have you heard Anna’s actual speaking voice in one Pushing Daisies episode? She did the voice over for Dandy Lion’s SX Commercial in “Dummy”, the second episode of the series.

Via Digital Spy

Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies

The lead stars of Pushing Daisies, Lee Pace and Anna Friel, are in the UK promoting their program, as it will begin airing on ITV this April.

Over at The Sun, there is a video of Anna and Lee talking to the press. Anna’s distinct British accent was definitely coming out. She pronounced Chuck as “Chock”.

“I liked the idea of playing a character that was absolutely fearless, she’s had a chance to look at life for a second time and she looks at life with big wide eyes and true joy, every single minute – and she completely loves Ned, totally and utterly in love. It’s a good old romantic story.”

Teasers are already running on television in the UK. And we’ve found a clip of it. The voice-over still belongs to Jim Dale but they have also included and made mention of the fact that the program has been nominated for three Golden Globes:

Source:
Anna Friel Org
The Sun UK

Anna Friel, Lee Pace, Pushing Daises in the UK, Pushing Daisies

Evidently, for Anna Friel and her partner David Thewlis, her role as TV’s newest sweetheart Chuck, playing opposite another sweetheart Ned (by actor Lee Pace), is causing no romantic jealousy between the couple.

In an interview with the UK Press, while promoting her TV show, which is going to air in that region by April, Anna says: “It’s the perfect role for any jealous girlfriend or boyfriend – they’ve got nothing to worry about! ‘Ok, you’re going to work today, but you’re not going to be touching, are you? Shame!’ It’s a mad, visual fairy-tale world, it’s driven strongly by a love story. Chuck and Ned just long to be together, and long to be able to have sex but they’re never going to be able to.”

Source

At the Paley Festival over the weekend, Anna Friel has admitted to feeling quite a bit nervous about how the British audience will react to her American TV show, Pushing Daisies. The whimsical fantasy story airs in the UK on ITV in April this year.

“I’m so nervous, all the big billboards have started to go up [in the UK] so I’m hoping they like it. It’s very important for me that the Brits like it.”

Known in her country as a former soap star on the dramatic series, Brookside, as well as a party girl early in her career, Anna wishes to transcend that image and be more identified for her recent work.

Anna has made a lot of sacrifices to be able to work on this series. It meant uprooting her whole family from the UK to Los Angeles. But the former Brookside star has no qualms about this foreign place she now calls home.

“I’m really settled here now. I went back [to Britain] for two weeks about three weeks ago for the first time in ages, it was lovely, but it’s really nice to come back,” she said.

Aside from Pushing Daisies, the move to Hollywood has also afforded her to work on a new movie with no less than comedy royalty Will Ferrell in  the adaptation of  Land of The Lost.

Any Brits out there who are reading this blog? Are you anticipating Anna’s new TV series? How excited are you for her? How do you think this one will fare in your television landscape?

Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies, Pushing Daisies in the UK

As Pushing Daisies is set to premiere in the UK in the following month (on ITV), it is no surprise UK media is dotting on their very own, Anna Friel, for coverage and interviews. Below is a very interesting piece from UK’s You Magazine. I read through it and got to know so much more of Anna…

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The Sun UK reports that Anna Friel is on the cover of Esquire’s March issue, now out on the stands in the UK…

Anna Friel is a bit of all-tight

Hose a naughty girl . . .

Former soap star Anna Friel manages to make a pair of tights look sexy in a new photoshoot. The ex-Brookside babe, 31 — mum to two-year-old Gracie — stars as a murdered woman brought back to life in upcoming ITV1 drama Pushing Daisies.

Anna has wowed US critics with her performance as American Charlotte.

Must be her stocking trade.

And Metro UK also has a piece on her….which doesn’t sound like good press. What do you think? Does the British press not like her?
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Can you spot Anna Friel in this photo? This was taken from 1999 by esteemed photographer, Annie Leibovitz, who is celebrating her 14th year with Vanity Fair. Or rather, Vanity Fair is celebrating 14 years of her work on their covers.

“Vanity Fair marks the 14th year of its gigantic annual Hollywood Issue, and thus the 14th year of Annie Leibovitz’s spectacular gatefold covers. These classic photographs capture Tinseltown talent and glamour like nothing else.”

APRIL 1999: “NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK” Adrien Brody, Thandie Newton, Monica Potter, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Stiles, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Polley, Norman Reedus, Anna Friel, Omar Epps, Kate Hudson, Vinessa Shaw, and Barry Pepper. | Vanity Fair

There’s our girl in the short red hair, looking very cool.

Of the actors in this photo, two of them went on to become Academy Award winners (Brody & Witherspoon); one is a regular on House (Epps), a few of them have carved their identities in Hollywood (Hudson, Sobieski, Ribisi, Stiles, Newton)…but I am not familiar with the rest anymore. Where have they gone, I wonder?

Anna Friel, Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz

Anna Friel will be seen on the big screen next in the movie Bathory. It is the story of a Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Bathory, who was said to have killed 600 girls, thus earning her the nickname Countess Dracula. Her lifestory has inspired countless of legends where the countess supposedly drank blood from virgins to retain a youthful glory.

The role of Elizabeth Bathory was originally meant for actress Famke Janssen. Anna Friel’s daughter, Gracie, will also be part of the film and this would have to be her own film debut.

The film began production in early 2006 but is only set for release on March 5, 2008 in Hungary. It will also be shown in countries like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Thailand, USA, Czech Republic and Slovakia this year.

Bathory is the first English-language film of director Juraj Jakubisko and is considered as the most expensive Slovak movie, with a budget of US $12M.

Below is the film’s trailer:

Anna Friel, Bathory