A year ago, Sam Worthington broke up with his girlfriend of two-and-a-half years, Natalie Marks. The relationship was notable because Sam and Natalie had been together through his Hollywood rise, and once Sam seemed to be brokering a place on the A-list, he dumped her. It was also notable that Natalie was a self-described “stylist” yet she had increasingly horrendous style, including a really terrible case of bangs trauma. Anyway, Sam has a new girlfriend – her name is Crystal Humphries. These are photos of Sam and Crystal at last night’s LA premiere of Man on a Ledge. Some sites claim that this was Sam and Crystal’s red carpet debut as a couple, but they were at a screening of Man on a Ledge together last week. So, yes, this is the first big premiere red carpet, but they’ve been seen together before now.

I think Crystal is a pretty, normal-looking girl. Sam’s type doesn’t seem to be “bombshell” or “mind-numbingly hot”. He likes normal-looking, accessible, girl-next-door types, and considering how Sam is towering over Crystal, I think he must like ladies who are very petite. I’m just saying… Sam isn’t a very tall dude, so Crystal must be tiny.

Anyway, they make a cute couple. Sam has grown on me a bit, although I still think he’s a meathead. CB would probably still let Sam get it, though – I wonder if she approves of Sam’s new girl?

PS… I’m also including photos of Elizabeth Banks from last night’s premiere. She looked GREAT.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Back in March, Elizabeth Banks and her husband, Max Handelman, welcomed a son named Felix through surrogacy. At the time, Elizabeth released a pretty awesome statement showing much appreciation for her surrogate. She also talked about infertility, and she elaborates more on the topic in the February issue of Lucky magazine, which she covers to promote the upcoming Man on a Ledge. In the movie, Elizabeth does all of her own stunts because she admits to liking heights. Of course, this is another busy year for the actress, since she’s also got What to Expect When You’re Expecting in the can as well as a role in The Hunger Games. That last one is of particular interest in this interview:

On Playing Effie Trinket In Hunger Games: Playing the upbeat mentor to children who battle to the death on live television, she sports shaved eyebrows, cotton-candy hair and a bleached-white face that emphasizes every wrinkle. And then there’s Banks’ special contribution, the voice, which sounds like a demented ’50s schoolmarm: “It’s based on my heroes, Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame and Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.”

On Growing Up Blue Collar: She was never really a girly girl. “We played baseball and fixed cars, because that’s what Dad liked to do with us,” she says. Fun was “jamming a stick into a beehive and running.” With a mess of frizzy curls and bad acne, she was not cheerleader-perfect. “I’m so glad those photos from the ’80s haven’t surfaced on the Internet yet!”

On Her Husband: Banks [met] her future husband-writer and former investment banking analyst Max Handelman-on her very first day of college. “He looked like Jason Priestley in 90210, and he was wearing a vest with no shirt underneath, a look that was incredibly cool in the fashion world for about 10 minutes.” Today they run their own production company, Brownstone Productions, and work on scripts together. Their latest sale is a TV show called Dave’s Dead: “It’s a buddy comedy. It’s basically Two and a Half Men but if Charlie Sheen were dead and constantly in a different body.”

On Using A Surrogate: “It was a womb issue for me. Embryos wouldn’t implant,” she says. Banks is passionate and grateful about her own surrogacy experience. “It’s a big leap, inviting this person into your life to do this amazing, important thing for you. And it’s hard losing that kind of control. But our surrogate is so extraordinary, and she’s still in our lives. She’s like an auntie.”

On Her Future Parenting: “My plan is that when Felix is 15, we’ll go skydiving together. I mean, the guy is fierce and fearless, and I’m hoping he stays that way. Because I want to be that mom.” That’s right-not the glamour-puss, movie star, beauty icon mother. She gives me a slightly maniacal sidelong glance. “The one who takes her kid skydiving.”

[From Lucky mag]

Elizabeth is so damn likeable, isn’t she? That is, even if the new television show that she and her husband are working on sounds perfectly dreadful. Still, I do admire her statements about surrogacy, and it’s remarkable that Elizabeth and her husband have kept her around as part of the family, so to speak. That’s much classier than, say, merely cutting a check and arranging for transport away from the hospital delivery room. Still, it’s gotta take a lot of self-confidence to invite a surrogate to stick around afterwards. I’d probably be completely jealous of potential competitive bonding, but it sounds like the situation here is well under control.

Photos courtesy of Lucky

One of the overriding complaints thus far about The Hunger Games promotion is that the actors, as featured within promotional stills, don’t really appear to be starving, near-death subjects of Panem. They look too clean. Too airbrushed. Too healthy. Too Hollywood. Further worries arose with a series of lackluster character posters and a Vanity Fair spread that looked like pages ripped from a J.Crew catalog. Although Jennifer Lawrence, who portrays Katniss, attempted to distance this adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ acclaimed trilogy from Twilight Saga, the comparisons were inevitable. Not to mention those people (who may not have even read the books) who insist upon comparing Hunger Games to Battle Royale without a trace of irony. Bitches, please.

Fans of the books should now prepare to have all hope restored, for Lionsgate has released the first full trailer for The Hunger Games. The trailer does an excellent job of both satisfying fans of the source material as well as offering an altogether thrilling presentation of the story’s framework for those who haven’t read the novels. It also only details the first half of the story so as not to spoil too much of the action. Check it out, and then we’ll discuss:

CB and I both agree that this trailer looks fantastic. The voiceover by Donald Sutherland (as President Snow) gave me chills, and the grittiness of District 12 stands out in stark comparison to the clinical feel of District 1. The three leads (Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth) all fit the bill here, and the love triangle is significantly downplayed as well, which is the exact opposite of what I feared would happen. The supporting players all get their moments as well, with Woody Harrelson and Lenny Kravitz at their mentoring best, and little Rue (Amandla Stenberg) peeking around a corner to break our hearts. While I’m not entirely satisfied with Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket (I thought she’d be a bit more vivacious), that’s not a huge complaint. Overall, this trailer is solid and should do a bang-up job at driving holiday-based interest for The Hunger Games before its March 23 release.

Movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

While I have read both the entire Twilight Saga and the Hunger Games trilogy and can attest to the inherent differences between the two, it’s also easy to concede to the similarities between target audiences when it comes to the movie adaptations for both franchises. While Hunger Games (based upon Suzanne Collins’ best-selling trilogy) is obviously based upon more complex and universal themes than those of Stephenie Meyer’s weepy Twilight vampire-werewolf romances, both of them appeal to a tween-age audience. Of course, Collins has widely stated that she got the idea for her books not from (as many have speculated) Battle Royale but from watching the footage of both the Iraq war and reality television. In the spirit of defending Collins’ works against Twilight-geared accusations, Jennifer Lawrence has been interviewed by Vanity Fair:

On How She Got Involved With The Hunger Games: “I had read the books before I even knew I would be auditioning for the movie, and was a huge fan of the material. Actually, my mom read them first and thought it was an incredible role and story. She did the same thing with Winter’s Bone, so she must be a clairvoyant, or just has really great taste. Katniss is an incredible character: she’s a hunter but not a killer, a 16-year-old who’s being forced into the arena. These kids are killing one another only because if they don’t they’ll die. It’s needless, pointless, unjustified violence. It’s heartbreaking. When I auditioned, I told [director] Gary [Ross], ‘I understand if you don’t hire me, but please remember that after Katniss shoots a bow and kills someone, her face cannot be badass.’ So there’s nothing cool about her. It’s not like she looks around the arena and goes, Yeah, I got this. I think she looks around helplessly, and thinks, I made a promise to my sister that I would survive; now I have to kill in order to do so.”

On Comparisons With Twilight: “I try not to think too much about it. Hunger Games is not Twilight, and while I hear the comparisons, it’s really premature to say that it will be the same phenomenon. I’m so proud of the work we did on the film-Gary and the entire cast and crew were amazing, and I can’t wait for it to be brought to life because I think it’s an important story. If it does become a crazy phenomenon, I’ll soak up my freedom now!”

[From Vanity Fair]

Naturally, I very much appreciate that Lawrence has read the subject matter at hand but would also be much more likely to understand her argument if, say, this interview hadn’t appeared on VF.com, which also (not coincidentally) features eight pages of very similarly-structured archives of Twilight-related promotional material. In addition, there’s also the matter of the above Hunger Games photoshoot, which appears to feature the cast members in advertisements for Abercrombie & Fitch clothing instead of a movie based upon a post-apocalyptic literary trilogy.

Further, I have to relent and accept arguments that Lionsgate’s marketing thus far of Hunger Games has been both airbrushed to the max and far too mass-marketed to be authentically believable in terms of the books themselves. AFter all, this film is supposed to portray characters that are both starving and in fear for their very lives. So why do the film stills look so bloody clean?

In addition to the above-described promotional materials, Lionsgate has also just released eight character posters — among them is the Lenny Kravitz as Cinna poster for which I’ve been anxiously awaiting. However, I must admit that the end results are … sadly lacking. Presenting Katniss, Cinna, Effie, Peeta, Haymitch, Gale, Cato, and Rue:

Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair and Lionsgate

Elizabeth Banks is a curious little number, for she has a tendency to appear on the red carpet and in magazine shoots looking like a very prim and proper lady. Then, one only needs to catch a glimpse of the bathtub scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin to realize that Banks has a risque minx hiding inside of her. And it doesn’t stop there, for Banks has previously talked before with Esquire about the concept of “good naked vs. bad naked.” Now, Banks sits down again with the men’s magazine to promote her new movie, My Idiot Brother (which, sadly, debuted in sixth place over the weekend) and talk about, among other things, why she finds sex to be absolutely hilarious:

On Why Sex Is Funny: Well, it’s a fairly ridiculous act. I mean, let’s be honest: It’s a very primal thing that you’re doing and it involves, you know — it’s what they call bumping uglies, which sort of puts it in the right place. It’s a horrifyingly embarrassing act. It’s the most vulnerable you can be as a person, I think.

On The Appeal Of “The Hunger Games”: There’s no one thing. Just read the books. [Laughs] They’re very easy to read – I read all of them in like, hours – but they’re hard to summarize, because there’s a lot going on. Like “Game of Thrones.” I wanted to play this role. I asked to play this role. I wholeheartedly pursued it.

On How She Got Sucked Into Twitter: I accidentally got on Twitter because there was a fake Elizabeth Banks, twittering, and David Wain, who’s the director of Role Models and a good friend of mine, was staying at my house in L.A., twittering. I didn’t know anything about Twitter at the time, but he was following me, thinking it was me. And this person tweeted, “Hanging out by my pool! Just chilling on Saturday!” And David Wain was actually hanging out by my pool, on Saturday, and I wasn’t there. I was in New York or something. And so he was like, “Huh, I don’t think you’re Elizabeth Banks.” And this person broke down, and said, “No I’m not Elizabeth Banks. I started this because I’m a fan and now I have all these followers and I don’t know what to do.” David called me and said, “Do you want me to broker the password away from this guy and get your identity back on Twitter?” And he did! So, yeah: I got Twitter identity theft.

On Television Vs. Film Work: I love the finality of film. When you make a movie, you know the beginning, middle, and end. Television, one week you think you’re a single child from Alabama, and then they throw in your secret brother, your half-sister, your drunk mom. Like, on “30 Rock,” who knew I was gonna end up married to Kim Jong-un?

[From Esquire]

Banks is pretty correct about sex as a ridiculous act when you really think about the mechanics of it, right? As far as Twitter impersonations go, that particular problem was pretty widespread while the social media site started to become more popular, but I think “verified” accounts have helped cut down on a lot of the riff raff. Even Eli Roth had a Twitter faker at one point who was randomly (and comically) announcing bizarre movie-related developments that were obviously not true; but then Roth took over the account only to get “verified” before immediately commencing with the orgy of the Blueberries. As far as I’m aware, Banks has done nothing of the sort on Twitter, so girlfriend needs to step up her game to stay relevant! I’m only kidding, I think.

Back to the Esquire column at hand, however. As you can see the photos that accompany the piece are, well, pretty meh. This photoshoot contains absolutely none of the charm of Banks’ last Esquire shoot, which makes me wonder even more about the future of that magazine. To be perfectly blunt, Esquire is really falling down on the job lately with their photoshoots — they did a horrific job with the “Bradley Cooper and the Cougars” concept. Since Banks herself has recently declared that “Life’s too short to work with a–holes,” perhaps her people should push for photoshoots that are at least as interesting as her words, no?

Photos courtesy of Esquire

Elizabeth Banks was a guest on the Chelsea Handler show on Monday, where the two revealed that they’re sometimes mistaken for each other. Chelsea bitched that people compare her to Elizabeth but think she’s older than her (since she is but continues to lie about it) and Elizabeth told a funny story about how a guy mistook her for Chelsea, his girlfriend’s favorite author, and she went with it because she didn’t want to ruin it for him.

During an appearance on Chelsea Lately Monday, 37-year-old Banks admitted that while she’s often mistaken for the Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang author, she rarely corrects people when they’re wrong.

“I was sitting in Toronto and a guy walked up to me and said, ‘Oh my god, my girlfriend loves you. She would die if I didn’t get your autograph. This is so exciting!’” the Our Idiot Brother actress recalled. “He’s like, ‘I just love your books. I mean, My Horizontal Life….’ I was like, ‘Oh, he thinks he’s meeting Chelsea Handler.’ I couldn’t ruin it for him!”

“I was like, ‘It’s nice to meet you,’” Banks told the man, acting as Handler. “I was just hanging out, being Chelsea, drinking my vodka and having a good time. He couldn’t have been happier.”

Handler experienced a similar situation in April when Bill O’Reilly mistook her for Banks at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

“People always say, ‘They look alike, but Chelsea’s obviously much older.’ Meanwhile, we’re the same age,” Handler, 36, quipped. “It’s like, what is wrong with everybody? Why can’t I just get a break?

[From US Weekly]

Chelsea’s story wasn’t as clear cut a case of Bill O’Reilly mistaking her for Elizabeth. She said that O’Reilly was talking to her at the White House Correspondents dinner, but that she said “I think you’re confusing me with Elizabeth Banks,’ because I wanted to get the f#&% away from him…

I said if I ever get caught with an underwear shot in public I’m just gonna blame you.”

Banks joked “I blame Rachel McAdams.”

If that ever happened where someone legitimately mistook Handler for Banks you know they’d be saying “Wow, Banks is looking so rough.”

Banks also told a funny story about her first day on the set of 2001′s Wet Hot American Summer with Paul Rudd. She said that she immediately had to make out with Rudd. “That was it. We just made out. Like horribly, licking , sucking, noisy, like really gross. We did it on a floating dock. I couldn’t get up on to the dock to save my life… they had to bring over a P.A… He held on underneath the dock with his hands up and his feet up and I used his stomach as a ladder. Me getting up on the dock in the movie is me standing on this poor kid.”

Banks is promoting My Idiot Brother with Paul Rudd and Zoey Deschanel. It’s about a stoner guy (Rudd) who stays with each of his three sisters after he’s busted selling pot. It’s out in the US next week and it looks decent and maybe funny. Here’s the trailer. Kaiser just covered the premiere photos, which featured some laughably bad fashion by the female cast.

And here’s the interview with Elizabeth on Chelsea Handler.

Wow, Star Magazine got one right! A few weeks ago, Star Magazine claimed that Elizabeth Banks and her husband were expecting a baby via surrogate, and on Wednesday, Elizabeth announced the happy news. Their surrogate gave birth to a baby boy, which they named Felix Handelman (Elizabeth‘s husband is named Max Handelman). What’s particular refreshing in this case is Elizabeth’s almost too-honest and heartfelt public statement announcing the birth. It actually made me kind of emotional:

Her 30 Rock character Avery Jessup is a new mom – and it turns out Elizabeth Banks is as well. The actress and husband Max Handelman have welcomed son Felix via gestational surrogate, Banks Tweeted Wednesday.

“I have been very fortunate in life both professionally and personally,” Banks, 37, wrote on her Web site in a blog post announcing the birth.

“The one true hurdle I’ve faced in life is that I have a broken belly. After years of trying to get pregnant, exploring the range of fertility treatments, all unsuccessful, our journey led us to gestational surrogacy.”

“From that came two miracles,” she continues. “The first was meeting our carrier and her husband who were truly humbling in their decency and generosity. And the second miracle was the birth of our baby boy, Felix Handelman. Felix means ‘happy’ and ‘lucky’ in Latin. And true to his name, Felix is a very happy baby and a blessing on our life.”

Banks and Handelman – who met on her first day of college in 1992 – wed in July 2003.

[From People]

I love that she comes out and says something about infertility. It’s none of our business, of course, but many of us wonder, and I appreciate that Elizabeth puts it out there. I also love the respect and gratitude she publicly shows for her surrogate. I mean, that’s how you publicly thank someone for carrying your child (take note, Nicole). Also: I love that she’s been with the same guy since college. That’s awesome. Congratulations to Elizabeth, Max and Felix!

Sidenote: I pray that Felix inherited his mother’s truly extraordinary bitchface. I love Elizabeth Banks, and her face can go from beautiful to raging “Imma gonna shank someone” bitchface in two seconds flat.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I had no idea that Elizabeth Banks was even married, probably because she goes to a lot of events single and gives off a single vibe, but Star Magazine is reporting that she is married (which is easy to verify) and that she’s expecting a baby via surrogate. According to Star, Elizabeth, 37, has tried fertility treatments and after many unsuccessful attempts she made the decision to have a baby through a surrogate, which is due any day now. Elizabeth’s friend Sarah Jessica Parker, who has twin girls via surrogate, is said to have suggested it:

After years of failing to conceive, 30 Rock’s Elizabeth Banks and her spouse, author Max Handelman, are expecting a child via a surrogate in Shreveport, LA, at any moment, Star can reveal. “They tried everything, including fertility treatments, but nothing worked,” her friend explains. “She was devastated.” The two, both 37, considered adoption. But they turned to surrogacy after Elizabeth’s pal Sarah Jessica Parker, whose infant twins were born to a surrogate, suggested it. And Elizabeth plans to take a few months off to focus on her little one. Adds the friend: “She’ll be an amazing mom!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, March 14, 2011]

I don’t know much about the surrogacy process, but I read an article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine a couple of years ago by a woman who went through it. It really helped me understand that it’s not a simple or quick solution. High profile people like Camille Grammer give surrogacy a bad name.

This story is in Star Magazine, which makes it suspect. Elizabeth Banks isn’t a big star and I doubt Star would fabricate a random minor story like this, though. If it’s true, congratulations to Elizabeth and Max! It sounds like it’s been a long a difficult process for them, and they must be overjoyed.

These are the only photos I can find of Elizabeth and Max, and they’re from 9/24/09. Maybe he just doesn’t like to go to events. Credit: WENN

Here’s Elizabeth on 2/24 and 2/27/11. She doesn’t wear a wedding ring, which could mean nothing because she wasn’t wearing one with her husband there either.

The Cannes Film Festival got off to a solid start Wednesday night with the premiere of Pixar’s Up. Tilda Swinton was one of the biggest names on the red carpet, and I think we can officially say that she’s now wearing make-up for her most of red carpet appearances. Hooray! Her outfit even looked amazing, some sort of layered maroon dress/cardigan thing that looked lovely. But her hair! Oh, God, that hair. Isn’t that the haircut Marines are given? The shaved bottom half and kept longish at the top? Perhaps I think that’s a Marine cut because I see it so often on NCIS.

From what I can tell, Bollywood goddess Aishwarya Rai just came to party, considering she’s not in any of the films premiering at Cannes and she’s not a judge. She’s still one of the best dressed women thus far.

The evening gowns glittered, the red carpet was unfurled _ and the 3-D glasses were at hand as the 62nd Cannes Film Festival opened Wednesday with the soaring animated adventure “Up.”

“Up’”s delighted filmmakers from Pixar Animation joined the crowd of stars and cineastes on the red carpet in this French Riviera resort and said being invited to Cannes was a dream come true.

“We’re just a bunch of animation geeks from northern California on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival,” said a beaming John Lasseter, Pixar’s creative maestro.

Edward Asner, who voices “Up’”s main character, did not come to Cannes. But his counterpart in the French-language version, crooner Charles Aznavour, was there.

Lacking star power from the “Up” voice cast, the biggest name on the red carpet was Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton.

Inside, Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry serenaded the crowd with a version of Aznavour’s “She,” before Aznavour declared the festival officially open.

Organizers were hoping “Up” would provide a buoyant start before the festival plunges into 12 days of movies that take in passion, murder, Korean vampires and a band of Nazi-hunters led by Brad Pitt.

Members of the jury, led by French actress Isabelle Huppert will be wrangling over which auteurs _ from a slate that includes Pedro Almodovar, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Ken Loach _ should receive Cannes’ coveted prizes. But on Wednesday, Huppert was in a gentle mood.

“I don’t think we are here to judge,” she said. “I think we are here to love films _ and to see what we love more than others.”

Huppert is one of only a handful of women ever to head the jury at the world’s most prestigious film festival. She said the numbers didn’t bother her: her predecessors _ who include Sophia Loren and Liv Ullmann _ were “women who count for a lot.”

Fellow juror Hanif Kureishi, the British screenwriter of “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “The Mother,” was more concerned with another omission.

“I’m not aware we’ve ever had a black or Asian president of the jury,” he said. “It will be interesting to see when that will occur.”

Scores of celeb-watchers waited patiently outside Cannes’ waterside film complex Wednesday, hoping for a glimpse of the stars _ any stars. Few knew who was due to arrive, but most didn’t seem to mind.

“I want to see Angelina Jolie on the red carpet,” said Corinne Besnier, who traveled hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Reims in northern France. “And Johnny Hallyday” _ the French rock star who plays a killer in Hong Kong’s director Johnnie To’s “Vengeance.”

Hundreds of brightly colored helium balloons festooned the building in honor of “Up,” the story of an old man and a young boy who float off to South America in an airborne house.

There’s weightier fare among the 20 films in competition, including Tarantino’s World War II epic “Inglourious Basterds,” with Pitt as leader of a group of Jewish soldiers hunting down Nazis.

The lineup looks strong, but festival organizers and industry attendees are apprehensive about how the global recession will affect the event. Festival director Thierry Fremaux said he expects attendance to be up slightly from last year, but Vanity Fair magazine has canceled its annual Cannes party, and some soirees are rumored to have swapped champagne for sparkling wine.

[From Huffington Post]

As HuffPo mentioned, French actress Isabelle Huppert is the jury’s president this year, taking over from last year’s president Sean Penn. In a weird twist, Robin Wright Penn is on the jury this year too. Last year, Sean said publicly that his goal was to reward and recognize political films, but Huppert has already stated her difference in opinion. She told the media that her number one rule for recognizing a film was “the importance of the humanist ambitions and esthetic intentions of movies.” So, it looks like the Nazi bloodfest of Inglourious Basterds isn’t going to make the cut!

Shown are Tilda Swinton, Elizabeth Banks, Aishwarya Rai, Robin Wright Penn, Asia Argento, and Shu Qi of “UP.” Credit: WENN.com