Laughing Out Loud With 'Barefoot in the Park'

 

A husband and wife team, steeped in the tradition of bringing theater to Anoka County, temporarily trade in their producing personas to deliver laughs to audience members when they appear opposite each other in Lyric Arts Main Street Stage’s “Barefoot in the Park.”

Patti Hynes-McCarthy and husband Tom McCarthy of Coon Rapids play supporting roles in the hilarious romantic comedy penned by Neil Simon.

Patti is Ethel Banks. She lives a rather humdrum existence alone in New Jersey. She is quiet, dresses in outdated clothes and has a bad back and sensitive stomach.

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Life is Far From Comedy

Inspired by the humour of everyday dialogue, Smrithi Amarendran had no other go but to let out her creativity using the medium of theatre.

This young tom-boy-esque lass hardly had any hesitations of owning a theatre group. An introvert in school, she says, “It was my college, MOP Vaishnav, that mirrored the real ‘me’ and probably my hidden talents to myself,” says the director who started off with a spoof on Ramayana in college. Caricatture Productions, as she named it, thereby came up as a toast to friendship amongst the last benches of the college classroom.

Year 2010 recognised her as a debut director through her full length play, Whole Lotta Love, a romantic comedy. “This was like a turning point in my life, which made me pretty confident as to what I wanted to do. It brought to my notice snippets of a professional life like, patience is the name of the game,” reveals Smrithi. This was followed by an adaptation of The Addams family at Museum Theatre and an interactive murder mystery comedy, Murder Me Always, both of which became runaway hits.

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Former Wrestler Shows Interest in Romantic Comedy

The 33-year-old model walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival without her boyfriend George Clooney, and admitted she plans to steal his spotlight on the big screen by becoming an actress.
She told the Metro newspaper: "Romantic comedies are more my speed. I feel like that's more my personality.
"I'm usually happy, smiling, joking and having a good time so I think those kind of roles suit me. Comedy and dramedy is what I'm better at."


The striking star has had small guest parts in 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'Men at Work', but is hoping to progress to the silver screen as soon as the right role comes along.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do? 

Romantic Comedy Shares Its Dark Side

OTTAWA — On the film set of Hit By Lightning, Ottawa doubles as Los Angeles, Librairie du Soleil in the ByWard Market is turned into an American bookstore and there’s no paparazzi to bother the lead actors.

Welcome to filmmaking in Ottawa.

On Tuesday afternoon, the producers of the independent film starring Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), Will Sasso (The Three Stooges) and Stephanie Szostak (Iron Man 3) took over a ByWard Market bookstore for one of the scenes in the romantic comedy. The movie, budgeted at $1.1 million, concerns a middle-aged guy (Cryer) who looks for love online only to find a soul mate who is married.

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Local Cast in a RomCom Play Grows Big

Playwright Talia Moore of Binghamton has done it again.

Big time.


With several well-received plays already to her credit — “The Christmas Girls,” “Momma Don’t Cry” and “The Hidden Secret Documentary” — she and her DT Productions are now bringing another potential hit to the stage, with a big name to boot.


“Sneakin‘ Wit The Deacon” will feature a local cast — and actress Chandra Currelley of Tyler Perry Productions.


Most recently seen in the film, “Madea’s Big Happy Family” as the choir soloist and as “Shirley” in the play of the same name, Currelley also appeared as the singer in the nightclub named Chandra’s in the box office blockbuster, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” She is also the former lead singer for the recording group, the S.O.S. Band.

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Romance Over Craft Brewing

It's a natural, because as anyone who's ever been part of a brew day knows, brewing is steamy work...just maybe not steamy in this sense...but Drinking Buddies must mark some sort  of mile/millstone for brewers and breweries, right? Look for Drinking Buddies in theaters on August 23...

The new rom-com starring Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson as friends with the possibility of benefits has an official poster, seen here first on EW.

Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) are coworkers at a brewery who have one of those will-they-won’t-they friendships. Unfortunately, beyond uncertain chemistry, they are also each in a relationship. Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston), and Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick). Jill wants to take their relationship to the next level, but Luke isn’t ready to commit … especially when he and Kate find themselves spending a weekend alone.

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'Blue is the Warmest Color' Snagged Critics' Applause

                       

The 66th Cannes Film Festival ends this weekend, but not before closing with some controversy, this time involving a lengthy lesbian sex scene.

"Blue is the Warmest Color" (or, its original French title, "La Vie D'Adele Chapitres 1 et 2"), directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, tells the story of two girls who enter into in an all-consuming, life-changing relationship. The graphic sex scenes (including a ten-minute scene which Vulture said had "impressive scissoring") have kept festival goers gossiping since the screening earlier this week.

"Blue is the Warmest Color" is being called the best film at the festival by many. Popular film site,"The Playlist" said it is "the most transportative, truthful and sublime movie experience of our Cannes to date." And the film's performances are being praised as well, with Adèle Exarchopolous, who plays Adèle, being touted by some as the frontrunner to win the Cannes Best Actress award.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Love that Grown-ups Need

No romantic comedy would be complete without its protagonists (and destined partners) burdened by personal baggage.

In co-writer and director Susanne Bier’s “Love Is All You Need,” that burden is particularly harsh for midlife characters who have been around the block a few times and barely survived.

Philip (Pierce Brosnan, alternately raw and charming) is a driven businessman who won’t fully face his rage over the death of his wife. Ida (the appealingly enigmatic Trine Dyrholm, star of Bier’s Oscar-winning “In a Better World”), a Copenhagen hairdresser, is recovering from breast cancer when she discovers her husband, Leif (Kim Bodnia), is cheating on her.

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Scandalous RomCom in 'Different Animals'

Abby Rosebrock is diving headfirst into the shark tank of New York theater with her new comedy, Different Animals, now playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Rosebrock began her career in comedy writing with the Upright Citizens Brigade, a New York improv theater, where she trained in sketch comedy performance. Different Animals not only marks Rosebrock's off-Broadway debut as both a playwright and an actress, but the production also marks the debut of her first-ever full-length work.

The play follows a friendship that develops between two RomCom-obsessed women floundering through their twenties in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Jessica is cheating on her much older husband, Leo, with a local pastor named Will while Molly (played by Rosebrock herself) becomes obsessed with Jessica's husband and slowly reveals herself as a mentally unstable sociopath. Jessica, Molly, and Leo soon find themselves living a polygamous lifestyle as one big dysfunctional family.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Broadway Debut for 'First Date'

Zachary Levi, best-known to television audiences as the titular star of "Chuck," will make his Broadway debut in August as the male lead in "First Date."

The play is described as a romantic musical comedy and focuses on the characters of Aaron (Levi) and Casey (Krysta Rodriguez, "Smash") after they get set up for a drink at a busy restaurant. Over the course of the story, a drink turns into a "high-stakes dinner" with various patrons and waiters portraying the couple's neuroses and inner critics. All of these suddenly embodied issues sing and dance the new couple through the night.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Daniel Radcliffe Discusses 'Kill Your Darlings'

                 

In "Kill your Darlings," slated for release later this year, Daniel Radcliffe plays Allen Ginsberg, who befriends writers William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac while in college. The "Harry Potter" veteran, 23, didn't shy away from exploring his character's bisexual side in the movie, which is based on a true story of a murder that entangles the three writers.

On next week's episode of "The Graham Norton Show," Radcliffe reveals how director John Krokidas gave him "step-by-step instructions," including kissing critiques, before the controversial gay sex scenes were shot.

“I was doing a gay sex scene and the director was giving step-by-step instructions," Radcliffe toward Norton, as quoted by Pink News. "And the favorite note I have ever had was when we were kissing and the director shouted, ‘Not like that. Crazy sex kissing!’"

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Mixture of Fun and Romance

 

Sparks fly when cupid strikes. That’s what happened when the handsome young man saw the beautiful damsel. And when their eyes met, sparks flew instantaneously. This scene, conceived by the upcoming director P.V. Krishna, is shot by cinematographer Binendra Menon on Navadeep and Sneha Ullal at the Spoil Pub in Road No.1, Jubilee Hills, opposite to the Chiranjeevi Eye and Blood bank. 

The title denotes the romantic flavour to the theme. “It is a romantic comedy. The hero and his friends frequent this pub which is also shown as a coffee shop. The heroine also visits the joint and that’s when the two meet. They cannot tear their eyes off each other. It is a feel of love between the two lead players. Navadeep is a Radio Jockey while Sneha Ullal plays the role of a designer from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

''Mud' Romantic Comedy Shows Promise

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Set on the Mississippi River, “Mud” features a character played by Matthew McConaughey in love with a character played by Reese Witherspoon. And, boy, doesn’t that sound like another lame romantic comedy?

Except that “Mud” is written and directed by Jeff Nichols, who was responsible for the smart and inventive Southern film “Take Shelter,” one of my favorite films of 2011.

True to promise, the director’s new film delivers excellent performances, an interesting story and wonderful river scenery, all told and shown at a pace appropriate to its countrified storyline and the nature of its characters.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

 

Jon Cryer Ventures in Romantic Comedy Film With 'Hit By Lighting'

TORONTO — Jon Cryer is about to start work on an independent movie in Ottawa.

Cameras are set to roll starting Tuesday on Hit By Lightning, a romantic comedy in which Cryer plays a fast food manager who meets the woman of his dreams online, only to find out there’s a catch — she wants him to kill her husband.

Cryer, whose film credits include Pretty in Pink, plays hapless Alan Harper on the long-running comedy series Two and a Half Men.

Stephanie Szostak, currently seen in Iron Man 3, co-stars in the film along with Will Sasso, a native of B.C. who starred in The Three Stooges and on MADtv. Seth Green is also reportedly in the cast.

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Take a Look at 'My Romantic History' at Welwyn Garden City Theatre

ONE moment you are just colleagues. And then Friday night drinks, a quick grope and you’re suddenly an item.

Directed by John Davies, My Romantic History opens at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City this Friday.

Written by DC Jackson, it’s a wry romantic comedy that is unsentimental, a bit rude – it comes with a strong language warning – but in the end hopeful and warm-hearted.

“This is the funniest and most original new play I’ve seen in a very long time,” said John Davies, director of the play and a veteran of theatre productions worldwide.

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Sci-Fi Actress, Gillian Anderson, Shows Interest on Romantic Comedies

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Millions will always associate Gillian Anderson with her nine seasons (and two films) as skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully on the sci-fi thriller series "The X Files." But the actress recently appeared as a guest star on NBC's "Hannibal," and Anderson joined Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on Monday to talk about the "creepy" factor attached to the role.

"I'm playing Hannibal's psychiatrist!" she laughed. "How cool is that?"

Anderson is often found in serious, dark roles -- no doubt a legacy of her "X-Files" days -- but says she'd be open to doing a silly little romantic comedy.

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Romantic Baggages Ready for Takeoff

"My relationships have never been cleared for takeoff..." Fox Searchlight has put out a trailer for their fall romantic comedy Baggage Claim, written & directed by David E. Talbert based on his own novel, starring Paula Patton as a beautiful flight attendant looking for Mr. Right. This looks about as cheesy as they come for romantic comedies, but maybe a few of folks will be interested in it. The supporting cast includes Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Jill Scott, Boris Kodjoe, Trey Songz, Adam Brody, Tia Mowry, LaLa Anthony and Djimon Hounsou. If you need a break from all the sci-fi and action and superheroes, give this a look.

Determined to get engaged before her sister's wedding, flight attendant Montana Moore (Patton) finds herself with only 30 days to find Mr. Right. Using her airline connections to "accidentally" meet eligible ex-boyfriends and scour for potential candidates, she racks up miles while searching for the perfect guy.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

'Can't Stand the Heat' Spices Up Romantic Comedy

 

“Can’t Stand the Heat” by Shelly Ellis, c.2013, Kensington Dafina, $15/$16.95 Canada, 296 pages

Sometimes, your entire life feels like a recipe for drama.

Oh, you really hate it and you’d like to wipe your plate clean of it all, but that’s never gonna happen. No matter what’s cooking around you, there’s always an extra ingredient to increase the tension: raw emotion, sliced egos, boiling tempers, a teaspoon of tears, a pinch of regret and two cups of family.

It’s a daily dish you wish you didn’t have, and you’re not alone. In the new book “Can’t Stand the Heat” by Shelly Ellis, drama causes quite a stir.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

'Peeples' Coming Up

                   

Craig Robinson said it wasn't hard to get him to sign on for the new film "Peeples" once he heard one phrase in particular.

"They said something about spanking Kerry Washington and I was like, 'OK," the actor told CNN.

Robinson, who many will recognize from his role of Darryl Philbin on NBC's "The Office" and Nick in "Hot Tub Time Machine," takes a star turn in the new romantic comedy.

In the film, Robinson portrays Wade Walker, a man who ventures to the Hamptons to ask for the hand of Grace Peeples, played by Washington. Funnyman and former "In Living Color" star David Alan Grier plays Grace's father, a man who isn't at all impressed by his daughter's beau.

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Pierce Brosnan's Love Stories Between Hopeless Romantic and James Bond

Pierce Brosnan's career fits neatly into two chapters — before he played James Bond, and after.

Before, the Irish actor traded on his looks charm and style; think Remington Steele, the arch detective show that introduced him to U.S. TV audiences in 1982. Three-piece suits never looked so good.

After he traded in Bond's dinner jacket, though, Brosnan took a left turn. He played a sad-sack hitman in The Matador, a soldier in the brutal Western Seraphim Falls. And he sang, infamously, in Mamma Mia.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

  

Horror Flicks With a Blend of Romantic Comedy

 

Two horror flicks open this week after making the film-festival rounds, both more horrible than horrifying.
Enter at your own risk.

Aftershock is the latest shlockfest from cult actor-director-producer-writer Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever), directed by Chilean horror icon Nicolás López. It features an assault of grotesque tortures, atrocities and slaughters of sexy Latino women set against the 8.8-magnitude Chilean earthquake in 2010. Mr. Roth plays an American tourist from San Diego on vacation in Chile, nicknamed “Gringo,” who joins two local dudes and three smoking babes for a wild all-night dance party on a picturesque mountain in the coastal town of Valparaiso. All he wants is to get drunk and ravaged, but before he can get laid, nature turns violent, trapping them all in a flaming disco, snapping the cable car to the mountaintop and destroying the town below.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

 

From Zombie to Romantic Comedy

 

After wrapping up zombie comedy Go Goa Gone, director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK will start shooting with Saif Ali Khan and Ileana D’Cruz for a romantic comedy in June. 

“It’s a romantic-comedy and we will start rolling the film as soon as Go Goa Gone releases. Most probably the film will go on the floors in June. It is yet untitled and the entire film will be shot in the US. I can’t reveal much about it at present as it is in its initial stage,” says Krishna.

Ileana, who has done several Telugu movies, made her debut in Bollywood last year with Anurag Basu’s critically and commercially successful film,  Barfi!. Nidimoru and Krishna are known for their films, including 99 and Shor In The City. Their Go Goa Gone will come out May 10.  

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Romantic Comedies Derived From Horror Stories

They say there are only a few stories out there in the world. Maybe that's why so many classic horror stories seem to have been remade as the fluffiest romances modern Hollywood has to offer. Here are just a few.

We're not entirely sure that the people who made these romcoms realized that they were rebooting classic horror stories. But probably they did, right?

With all that fuss and bother about vampirism and fly-eating mental patients, it’s easy to forget that Dracula was, at heart, a story about the cold feet of young couples on the verge of marriage. The three principle victims – Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra, are all about to get married, and are all fretting about aspects of their marriage. Dracula comes in and prevents, delays, or bedevils their marriage plans. In Forces of Nature, Ben Affleck, at the height of his popularity as an actor, plays a guy named Ben who must go on a journey just prior to his marriage. There he meets an enigmatic stranger (played by Sandra Bullock who definitely should play Dracula in the next Bram Stoker film), who delays his trip, forcing him to take a tour through a bizarre underworld during which he meets people who challenge his faith in marriage and tempt him personally. There are also some weird, hallucinatory semi-supernatural scenes that evoke the experiences of unreliable narrator Jonathan Harker in the book. (Plus there's a succubus doling out sexual degradation scene where Sandy strips Ben in a club for cash.) It ends with the banishment of the stranger and the re-commitment to the marriage, but both heroes are forever haunted by their encounter.

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French Romantic Comedy Rules at Newport Film Fest

"Fly Me to the Moon," starring Danny Boon and Diane Kruger, was the big winner at the 2013 Newport Beach Film Festival. The French film, also known as "Un Plan Parfait," received jury awards for best feature film, actress (Kruger), director (Pascal Chaumeil), and screenplay (Laurent Zeitoun and Yoann Gromb).

The sun has set on the 2013 Newport Beach Film Festival.

The 14th annual gathering concluded Thursday night with record-matching attendance, the West Coast premiere of "The Way, Way Back," and a festive closing-night party. Award winners chosen by a jury and audience members were announced Friday.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

Sentimental Romantic Comedy in Bollywood

Prabhudheva's next Bollywood film, Ramaiya Vastavaiya, is a remake of his directorial debut, Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005, Telugu), which was a blockbuster. 

The Hindi version marks the debut of Girish Kumar and Shruti Haasan plays the female lead opposite him.

Says Prabhudheva, "Unlike my first two Hindi films (Wanted, 2008 and Rowdy Rathore, 2012), which were essentially action-oriented, this one is a youthful romantic comedy, with a couple of interesting action sequences thrown in. The subject required a young actor and Girish suited the part perfectly. Here, I must add that I'm very attached to this film."

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?

'Four-Play', a Gay Romantic Comedy

                                          

Openly gay actor Craig Daniel Adams and his partner Bruno Collins have announced a new series of short films to introduce their upcoming feature Four:Play, and they’re looking for online donations to help with the filmmaking process.

Four:Play is a romantic comedy centring on two couples – Michael (David Paisley) and Jay (Arron Blake), and Sam (Adams) and Leo (David Ames). The scene is on the morning of Michael and Jay’s wedding, beginning with the four friends hungover and wondering if the night before ended in foursome. The foursome deliberate on the importance of trust, love and family in a modern relationship, interrupted by crazy mothers, bitchy best friends and overly-accepting fathers.

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For more information about a wonderful romantic comedy please visit What Would Meg Do?