Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy might soon be reunited with his wife.
After spending almost all of Season 6 off camera, and remaining a very big part of the storyline, Elizabeth Banks is set to reprise the recurring role of Avery Jessup on 30 Rock.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Banks will appear in an episode of 30 Rock later this season. Though the exact timing is uncertain, sources confirm that it won’t be for the recently announced live episode on April 26.
Banks, currently appearing as Effie Trinket in the blockbuster The Hunger Games, has 13 episodes of 30 Rock under her belt playing Jack’s journalist wife. Shortly after giving birth to their first child in Season 5, Avery was detained in North Korea while on assignment and forced to marry Kim Jong-un.
There has been lingering questions over how the series would handle the Avery storyline — mostly pertaining to Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s December death, which happened after much of the current season was already filmed.
“We realized that, luckily, we hadn’t referred to King Jong Il by name yet — just to North Korea in general,” showrunner Robert Carlock said at the time. “The fun puzzle is turning around and trying to figure out how to get her out of there and how to continue things.”
Most recently on the series, Jack tried to raise awareness about Avery’s situation by producing the made-for-TV movie, Kidnapped by Danger, in which Jenna (Jane Krakowski) played Avery.
Mary Steenburgen has taken on the recurring role of Avery’s mother, Diana, since Banks was last on the show.
In her exclusive blog for the iVillage blog series CelebVillage, The Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks writes about having her son Felix (who turned 1 recently) via a surrogate — and why she credits birth control pills for helping bring him into the world.
Just over a year ago, my son Felix was born via gestational surrogacy. He came out of me nine months early and because of my broken belly, his babycake was baked in a wonderful angel’s oven and now — I can’t believe it — he’s a year old and walking. He has expanded my capacity for joy a thousand-fold.
His life would have been much harder to come by if not for the birth control pill. How’s that, you ask? Well, it’s a simple fact: The pill is used for many situations that have nothing to do with the prevention of pregnancy. The pill was prescribed to me when hormonally induced migraines kept me locked up in dark rooms for days at a time. It was prescribed to me to regulate insanely painful cramps every month — cramps so painful that I often vomited. And here’s a little secret I am happy to blow the lid off of: The pill is often prescribed during the IVF (in vitro fertilization) process to help MAKE BABIES! That’s right, women dealing with infertility are often put on the pill to help regulate a cycle so that they might have a more successful IVF. The pill is used to manage ovarian cysts, endometriosis and other conditions too. Not to mention, it helps couples plan for wanted children.
Obviously, I’m not a doctor. I’m just a woman grateful for my necessary and very helpful medication. And I’m sure glad I don’t have to discuss any of these conditions, including infertility, with my employer.
A girlfriend and I recently wondered what would be more mortifying: having to tell her male employer she needed birth control to mitigate a heavy flow or just bleeding all over herself in the office?
So with that image in mind, I encourage all women — and the men in their lives — to protect access to birth control, and encourage our politicians to take women’s health issues out of the political process.
For more information, please visit the most comprehensive and willing advocates for women’s health in America: www.plannedparenthood.org.
And for information on surrogacy, visit Center for Surrogate Parenting, Inc.
In her first exclusive blog for the iVillage blog series CelebVillage, actress Elizabeth Banks (whose movie adaptation of the best-selling book The Hunger Games hits theaters on March 23) writes about why her vacation strategy has been all wrong in the past — and her tips on changing that in the future.
Spring break is here and for many people, that means a vacation. I’ve been on some lovely vacations in some really nice places but the quality of my vacations has deteriorated in the past few years. I’ve lost sight of how to truly vacate my work life and just relax.
For instance, over the holidays, I took a “vacation.” I put the word in quotes because it was not quite a vacation and also because, let’s face it, vacation means different things to different folks. Some people take very ACTIVE vacations. And others take super LAZY vacations. For me, the best vacations are a combo. They entail rest, relaxation, fun and, usually, some form of recreation — swimming, scuba diving, skiing, hiking the Alps. (I don’t know why I put the Alps on that list, since I’ve never been there, but if I vacationed near them, I would want to hike them.) No matter which type you take, at the end, you should come home refreshed, reinvigorated, and really tan.
My holiday vacation just left me EXHAUSTED. When I arrived back home, all I felt was…I need a vacation after that vacation.
We’ve all been there. We get overzealous and try to pack way too many things into a limited amount of time. “Sure, we can see Florence, Rome, Venice and Paris in four days!” Or we go with the wrong people, like the boyfriend who should already be an ex. Or we cheap out. “Sure, I can live for a week with my toddler in 300 square feet.” We end up feeling stressed instead of relaxed. We lose control of the vacation, sucking the fun out of it. And nobody wants to be a fun-sucker.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s all in the past for me now. Time to focus on making sure the next vacation is a real, reinvigorating, rocking vacation. Herewith is my advice to myself that I welcome you to take as well. I am not that great at taking my own advice so I’m hoping you do better with it than I do.
1. Chill out. Curb some of those Type-A tendencies. Plan way less, do less. Then, you can enjoy what you do do. (Yup, that’s how you get doo doo into a sentence.)
2. Step away from the cell phone. Maybe “forget” the charger? Disconnect and focus on recharging your own battery.
3. No hair and makeup. Liberate yourself from your beauty routine. Just wear a hat. Dark circles under your eyes? A zit that won’t quit? The R&R vacation should help clear those right up. Otherwise you’re doing it wrong!
4. Sleep. Period, the end. If you don’t have kids, you might not need this advice. If you don’t have kids but want them someday or this particular vacation is to make a baby, then this is all you should be doing on vacation because soon you will never be able to get enough sleep. If you have kids and they are with you, you are barely on vacation so sleep when they sleep or get a local babysitter to watch them as much as you can afford to, especially in the mornings — which you hate — and then SLEEP IN!
5. Eat delicious food. A vacation is no time for a diet. Eat well, whatever that means to you in the moment. BLT? Ice cream for breakfast? All vegan for a week? Whatever floats your boat!
6. Massage. Or mani/pedi, or facial. Treat yourself and go ALONE!
7. Nature walk. Be outside as much as possible. Take in your surroundings, soak up some vitamin D, teach your kid about the outdoors, whether you’re on the beach or the streets of Paris.
8. Read for pleasure. You have a computer, an iPad and a Kindle? Use at least one of these to read something artful, educational and thrilling.
9. Be selfish. Don’t let anyone else take these vacation essentials away from you. Don’t be a pleaser and don’t feel guilty when you choose to sleep/read/pedi instead of going to that stupid museum that your mom/aunt/sister really wants to go to. That’s her thing, not yours.
Finally, I’m going to leave you with one final, cribbed-from-JFK thought:
10. Ask not what you can do for your vacation — ask what your vacation can do for you.
From exclusive interviews with the cast to the latest breaking news, MTV News has been your go-to source for all things “Hunger Games,” and now we will be taking you to the red carpet for the hotly anticipated film’s March 12 premiere.
On Monday, March 12, from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. ET, MTV.com will be streaming live with host Josh Horowitz from the red-carpet premiere of “The Hunger Games” outside of Los Angeles’ famed Nokia Theatre. Josh will be talking to all of your favorite “Hunger Games” stars, from Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth to Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley and Woody Harrelson (and everyone in between).
Throughout the show, Josh will be joined by MTV News’ Christina Garibaldi and Down With the Capitol fan-site editor Arianna Ruiz for expert fashion and fan commentary. Fans will also be treated to never-before-seen interviews with the cast and the film’s director, four-time Oscar nominee Gary Ross.
You can even get in on all the action live via Twitter by using the @mtvnews handle and hashtag #askhg to get your burning “Hunger Games” questions answered.
Set in a dystopian world in the country of Panem, where North America once existed, “The Hunger Games” is the story of Katniss Everdeen, who is chosen as a “Tribute” to represent District 12 in the annual Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games is a nationally televised event in which Tributes — one teenage boy and girl chosen from each of the country’s 12 districts — must fight one another until only one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly trained Tributes who have prepared for the Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Lionsgate will release the film on March 23, 2012. Before then, MTV News has a ton of “Hunger Games” content for you to check out. We have full interviews with Lawrence, Hutcherson and several other castmembers, commentary on the film’s trailers and the latest breaking news on one of the year’s biggest films. And don’t miss our MTV First with Taylor Swift, where she discusses her contribution to the “Hunger Games” soundtrack, “Safe & Sound.”
Some news in regards to finding more Elizabeth Banks online – officially!
She has launched her official website, ElizabethBanks.com and is updating there frequently with blogs and such.
Also, Capitol Couture has launched. The website is the official site to find the latest fashion trends and information in regards to the upcoming film “The Hunger Games”.
Elizabeth Banks, who stars in this weekend’s Man on a Ledge with Sam Worthington, has joined the star-studded cast of Frank or Francis, Charlie Kaufman’s musical satire about Hollywood.
Banks joins a roll call that includes Jack Black, Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Catherine Keener and Kevin Kline in a story that follows a battle of wills between Frank, an intellectual film director (Carell) and Francis, an online blogger (Black) who still lives with his parents and who delights in attacking the other man’s films.
Cage plays an actor who is famous for his high-concept films, while Kline will play the director of the world’s top-grossing movie as well as that character’s brother, who turns into an animatronic head. (Yes, it’s a Charlie Kaufman film.)
Banks will play a highly-regarded actress making formulaic comedy bombs who is having an affair with Carell’s Frank.
Anthony Bregman of A Likely Story is producing.
Banks, repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham, will also appear in Lionsgate’s Hunger Games, which opens March 23.
