Pushing Daisies

I had the pleasure of watching The Fall on DVD yesterday. This is one of those films I’d be delighted to share to children over and over, or recommend it to friends who are looking to watch something different.

There are no complex storylines to this, so if you’re looking for a depth you will be disappointed by it. But growing up, The Fall has that kind of story my great grandfather use to tell to me and my cousins. Someone who is very open and has a wild imagination will understand the heart of this.

It’s very charming and captivating, this film. Although the character of Lee Pace is one wallowing in depression, it’s poignant and very fitting for children to watch it. I watched The Fall with my 11 year old and he was equally enchanted by it, although there are parts to this he has a hard time understanding.

The little girl who stars opposite Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, is so adorable even Lee Pace is enamored by her…it obviously shows on screen. She is wonderful and I know that for the most part, her lines were unrehearsed so all of her reactions are genuine.

The kind of friendship they share is very moving. Pace does shine in this film and I can now truly say the actor has a lot of range in him.

The imagery is also breathtaking. The DVD film also comes out in BluRay, so those with Plasma screens and HDTV will find this film so worthy of the investment!

The Hollywood Reporter the other day announced ABC is going to adapt DC Comics’ “Fables” series into a TV show. The way the concept is described reflects, in many ways, a post-Pushing Daisies setting.

“Fables” is about fairy tale characters living in modern day New York. Think about the movie Enchanted and you basically get the idea….although this one is definitely not as sweet and sappy as that. The premise of the story even starts with a murder of Snow White’s sister, Rose Red.

The report goes on to say that the show will be handled, written and produced by Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner, who’ve previously done “Six Degrees” for ABC.

The characters are described as “real people in the real world who live and breathe and look just like you and me” and in order to define the physical characterization, the Big Bad Wolf, for instance, would have to look like someone with a four-day shadow or facial hair.

Does this sound like a show you would want Lee Pace or any of the Pushing Daisies cast be part of?

The fact that this show hasn’t been renewed for the season doesn’t change the fact that it is still one of the better shows on air. This latest recognition just proves it. The awards and honors are never-ending!

Pushing Daisies has once again been nominated for three award categories at the Satellite Awards, which will culminate on December 14th.

Television Series, Comedy or Musical

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• 30 Rock
• Pushing Daisies
• State of the Union

Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical

• Lee Pace - Pushing Daisies
• Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
• David Duchovny - Californication
• Danny DeVito - It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• Justin Kirk - Weeds
• Jonny Lee Miller - Eli Stone

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Laura Dern - Recount
• Sarah Polley - John Adams
• Kristin Chenoweth - Pushing Daisies
• Dianne Wiest - In Treatment
• Chandra Wilson - Grey’s Anatomy
• Fionnula Flanagan - Brotherhood

This is the second time the show has been honored by this particular award giving body. If you should recall, Pushing Daisies actually won it last year. It’s also the second nomination for Lee Pace and a first for Kristin Chenoweth.

Congratulations to the nominees and I hope the show wins another batch of awards again!

The Satellite Award is a recognition given by the International Press Academy, which was formed in the 90’s. The organization has over 200 members worldwide, in print, radio, television, cable and more recently, the internet. This body is actually a spin-off from HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) who is responsible for the Golden Globes.

These are the types of books one will find on Lee Pace’s bookshelf, featured here on the most recent issue of O Magazine. The photos are from The Pie Hole community.

CNN Living puts a list of TV Characters together and sums up how much they make if they were actual, living persons. Ned and Olive are in this list:

• Ned, “Pushing Daisies” — Head pie maker, general manager

Real-life median salary: $21,241, according CBSalary.com.

Ned (Lee Pace) probably makes a little more than this as the owner of his restaurant, which is near broke. To pad his pockets in the meantime, Ned helps a private investigator bring murder victims back from the dead to gather details to solve their murders, collecting reward money in the end. That should be enough to buy pie ingredients for a lifetime.

• Olive Snook, “Pushing Daisies” — Waitress

Real-life median salary: $15,850, according to the BLS.

Presumably Olive (Kristin Chenowith) doesn’t rake in much additional money from tips from her services at The Pie Hole, the financially-failing restaurant where she works. Something tells us she’s not in it for the money — she just wants to be near Ned, head pie maker and apple of her eye.

TV Guide talks to Lee Pace as he examines Ned’s “sexual frustration, their family dysfunctions, his biggest fear and Chuck’s big secrets…

Thanks Lauren again for the tip!

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Here are a couple of interviews featuring Lee Pace and Kristin Chenoweth for the Houston Chronicle.

Lee talked about his childhood…

• Pace had a somewhat rootless childhood. He was born in Oklahoma and spent part of his youth in the Middle East, before the family settled in Spring. He’s not sure if that informs Ned’s awkwardness around people in any way. To wit: “I bet it does. Or maybe not,” he says. He laughs. “I don’t know . . . I’m not as self-reflective as many other actors are. So maybe. Probably.” Pace says he fell into acting. He’d wanted to be a swimmer but recurring ear infections kept him out of the water. He needed another high school elective, which is when his mother suggested acting. “I thought she was kidding.” He says “in Texas they can make anything competitive,” so he found himself in speech tournaments that included actors and debaters interacting.

  Pace did some work at the Alley Theatre before studying acting further at Juilliard. He suggests that time between high school and drama school was particularly important. “It gave me some perspective,” he says. “You hear people in drama school ask things like, ‘When I get out do I want to work in theater, TV or film?’ When you get out you don’t have time to ask that. You have to hustle.”

Kristin dished on her upcoming autobiography…

• Chenoweth, whose on-again, off-again romance with West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin was mined for material in Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip — in which the Christian character played by Sarah Paulson was not-so-loosely based on Chenoweth — has stories of her own to tell, and she’ll be doing just that next year in a book titled A Little Bit Wicked. “I had a ghost writer, I’m not going to pretend I wrote it by myself. I worked on it solid for three months,” Chenoweth said. “It’s about my adoption, but it is about my life. I didn’t want to call it a memoir, because I don’t think that fits yet,” she said, laughing.

  One thing it’s not about is the search for her birth parents. “It’s actually kind of the opposite, about what it’s like not to do that, and what it’s like not to have that family history, but to connect with the people who raised you,” Chenoweth said. At first, she was nervous about telling her family about the book, “because I didn’t want to hurt them. Because my mom’s always like, ‘You know, if you ever want to find your real parents . . . ‘ But they were thrilled. Because I wanted to kind of give other people inspiration.”

Here’s an interview with Lee Pace and Anna Friel which was printed on a broadsheet daily in the Philippines. The interview took place during Pushing Daisies’ press junket a couple of weeks ago. In addition to discussing the series, the two also gave a few tidbits about their personal lives like first kisses…

Some excerpts to the interview…

• In real life, how much of a touch person are you?
• A: I’m really tactile. I’m very close to my mum and dad. I get my big lovely hugs all the time. It’s not nice to be able to work with someone so gorgeous (as Lee is) and not be able to go “Hi” (and she demonstrated physical contact by locking an arm with Lee’s).
• L: I sometimes have a hard time getting close to people. Anna caught me when we were shooting. Someone had come up to me and touched me. I kind of flinched. Anna said, “That’s Ned.”
• Since you play childhood sweethearts who shared the first kiss, can you tell us about your first kiss in real life?
• L: My first kiss was very awkward. I’ll say the girl’s name if people promise not to print it (laughter). Her name is actually very funny. [He mentioned the name.] I remember walking around the back of the junior high school and holding her hands. Both our hands were all sweaty. We kissed and we didn’t know what to do with our tongues. Then we pulled away and went like, “Was that it? Yeah, I think that’s it (laughter). All right, let’s go home.”
• A: I got taught. I got to practice. I used to go to my godparents every weekend. Their son taught me how to do it (laughter) because I didn’t know how. He showed me on his hand so it wasn’t particularly romantic. I thought, at least when it does get romantic, I’ll know what to do. My girlfriends and I used to lie in bed and we’d practice on our own hands. I don’t know how many girls will ever admit to doing that. You quite don’t know what to do with the tongue bit.
• What kind of comments about the show or your characters do you get from strangers?
• L: I get the “Oh, shake my hand. Oh, I’m dead” bit.

You can read the full interview here.

There’s also an interview with Kristin Chenoweth.

I’m not certain if these are old promo photos for Season 1 or the latest ones used for Season 2. But I do know he looks really smashing in these sets!

From Celebutopia

E! Talks to Kristin Chenoweth and Lee Pace at the Emmy party:

Lee Pace was present at the 60th Creative Emmy Awards the other night, where Pushing Daisies walked away with two Emmy Trophies.

Lotsa things from our favorite people today, catch up with me!

Kristin celebrated her 40th birthday last July. This site has a photo of her blowing the candles to her enormous birthday cake. Why does her cake say 29? And apparently, the birthday toast was delivered by her boyfriend (former?) Aaron Sorkin.

Anna has a new movie coming up. Well, she’s doing Land of the Lost, but Goal 2 is about to be released in theaters this week (August 29). Although, I’m pretty sure this is one of her old films, way before doing Pushing Daisies. Right?

Lee’s last movie,  The Fall, is coming to DVD in two weeks! (September 9th to be exact). The DVD cover art is as pictured. And I’m not so sure about the special features  but the disc is also available in BluRay release. It should maximize its spectacular visuals on a kick-ass home theater!

I was finally able to watch Lee Pace’s movie Soldier’s Girl a few days ago. I have to tell you, I’m a bit in awe. No, a lot in awe. He was so pretty! He played the part like a real lady (which means he was very good!) as Calpernia Adams, the transsexual who was in a relationship with a US Army.

The movie is based on a true story. This was the film that brought Lee the Breakthrough Award at the Gothams (independent film award organization).

Anyway, here are some screen caps I managed to capture in the video.

Does he not look like Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman? Incidentally, she too played a transsexual in Transamerica.

I earlier posted a video of him from that film, which apparently has been removed now. But I found the trailer video:

Just done with watching Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day with Frances McDormand, Amy Adams and Lee Pace. I liked everything about it — the costume, the set, the music, the quaint little story. Amy Adams is amazing here. She isn’t exactly the lead of the movie but it was all about her. Lee Pace did okay; wasn’t thrilled about the accent but he really did well playing Amy Adam’s character’s true love. He got the girl in the end. And Miss Pettigrew got her man, too.

This is the scene in which Lee Pace sang with Amy Adams:

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With school starting in a couple of days, I thought it would be great to look at our favorite TV star’s educational background and see how they are as students. Are they geniuses in school? Slackers? Nerds? Popular guys? School bullies? Where did their interest lie and was it originally related to their jobs as actors now?

Kids look up to celebrities for many reasons, but seldom do fans like us take inspiration from these stars when it comes to school work. And why should we not? Maybe after reading this, we’d see these actors in a refreshingly  different light.

Lee Pace actually dropped out of high school for awhile in order to pursue acting at a local theater. But when he did finish his studies, he went on to study at Jilliard with a degree in Fine Arts.

Anna Friel had wanted a career as a barrister (lawyer) when she was younger and went to a local college where she eventually discovered a love for acting. She eventually landed a role on television in the UK and became a household name.

Kristin Chenoweth graduated magna cum laude in Musical Theater and also has an MBA degree in Opera from Oklahoma University. She was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Her voice is also said to be near perfect pitch.

Chi McBride graduated high school at the age of 16 years old and then pursued music. He didn’t become an actor until he was about 30 years old.