First off, please don’t yell at me and call me a racist for putting two attractive “women of color” in one “separate but equal” post. I only wanted to put Sofia Vergara and Freida Pinto together because they were wearing similar colors (this beautiful blue-green-teal). I swear! I promise! But seriously, how gorgeous are these two women of color? As a woman of similar coloring, I could only dream of looking this beautiful.

Sofia was one of my picks for Best Dressed at the Golden Globes. Her dress is Vera Wang, an ID that I didn’t expect. Usually, I tend to dislike Wang’s red carpet gowns, but this is absolutely stunning. It’s a gorgeous color on Sofia, it fits her like a dream, and she manages to look sophisticated and sexy without having the girls in our faces, you know? My only (small) complaint was that Sofia’s hair should be different. I don’t like it down and poker-straight with this beautiful dress. Also: how funny was Sofia’s speech when Modern Family won best comedy? She was so cute! I like her even more when she speaks in her native tongue.

As for Freida, she went for this strapless Prada in a similar hue as Sofia. This is one of those rare dresses that looks different (and better) in still photos than it does in motion (and I suspect, in person). When E! News got in close on the fabric of the dress, it looked really cheap. But from a distance, the effect is gorgeous. Plus, that face! God, she’s beautiful. Oh, and that necklace was amazing too! I find it hard to wear yellow gold with similar coloring to Freida, so I found it enchanting that she made it work.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Last night was the big premiere for The Immortals, that 300-looking film with Henry Cavill attempting to look like Gerard Butler. I actually think Cavill is more traditionally handsome than Gerard… but for some reason, I think The Immortals looks totally dumb, while I still think 300 is pretty awesome – is it because of The Butler? The Fassbender? Who knows? Anyway, I don’t really care about any of the dudes at the premiere (Kellan Lutz was there, in all of his Kellan Lutzy glory), so let’s just talk about the girls. Specifically, let’s talk about Freida Pinto in this Antoni Berardi gown.

Now, you know I think Freida is one of the most beautiful girls out there. Her face is magnificent. She has a slender figure that is a great “hanger” for so many styles and designers. I think she probably has a great eye for fashion too. But I kind of hate this dress on her. First of all, it looks like a knockoff of something Alexander McQueen would have done. Second of all, there’s a bridal vibe to it – I think it’s because of the overblown white and all of the bodice work. Thirdly, I dislike Frieda’s too-heavy makeup with this dress. If she had styled it differently, I think I might have liked it more. Still, even though I’m not crazy about this look, she’s so striking and pretty.

I also found Isabel Lucas to be “striking” at the premiere too. But mostly I was struck by how she looks sickly and deathly. She’s lost weight and that blonde makes her look terrible. So rough. I hope she gets some help, both psychologically and sartorially. The awful dress is Roksanda Ilincic, by the way. Hideous.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are some new photos of Freida Pinto in London. She was premiering her new Michael Winterbottom film, Trishna, at the London Film Festival. I don’t know anything about the film, so I’m really just writing about Freida because she’s so beautiful, and I love her black Ralph Lauren jumpsuit. At first, I thought it was an outfit made of separates – a sparkly, shiny top and some nice slacks. But it’s all-in-one, and all of it is glittery and sparkly. You can see the runway look here. The look is absolutely gorgeous on her. Plus, I love her styling. Great hair, beautiful makeup. And you know how I am about a great profile – Freida’s profile is magnificent.

I’m also including Freida’s photo call look earlier in the day – a paneled Louis Vuitton dress that I’m not in love with. The fit looks off, the colors don’t do anything for Freida, and I’m not sure this would look on anybody, really. Meh on this one.

I’m a little surprised that Freida didn’t do the London Film Festival premiere with her boyfriend, Dev Patel (her costar from Slumdog Millionaire). There are photos of Freida and Dev from last week, as they were traveling together and looking couple-y, and I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s nice that they’re still together.” But there may be trouble in paradise – a few nights ago they went to a London event, and media outlets noted that their body language seemed “off”. And then Dev didn’t come to her premiere… hmm. Interesting.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

This box-office weekend was a bit of a surprise in a more ways than one. First up, Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed an estimated $54.0 million domestically thanks in part to some fantastic CGI (very impressive on a $92 million budget) and a 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and despite an utter lack of James Franco performance art. In fact, this was a very non-Franco movie in that it was a blockbuster (which we haven’t seen from him since the Spider-Man movies), and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that fact. Seriously, if Franco would just admit, “Yeah, I occasionally make popcorn movies so that I can finance all of my Ivy League schooling and ridiculous performance art,” we’d all probably like him a lot better, right? But no. In fact, Franco gave an interview to Playboy in which he tried to prepare the public that this movie could (in his mind, unlike his other movies) very well suck terribly despite his elevating presence.

What occurred was the precisely opposite, for Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a an immensely enjoyable movie (I liked it too) despite the presence of Franco, who was playing the straight man with less life than a paper doll. Pajiba gave the film a positive review while also penning the following assessment: “Franco is in stoic Oscar-hosting mode, and though he’s onscreen for most of the film, you never develop much feeling for his character.” Ouch. And yes, Kaiser recently called out Franco’s douchey ways that don’t quite match up to an actor who supposedly “lives, breathes, kills, poops and dies for art.” If Franco is such an incredible artist, you know, he could’ve given much better than his flat, lifeless performance in this movie. In fact, I generally do like Franco as an actor, but I don’t like that his attitude in non-artsy endeavors is such that this film would’ve been better off if it had hired an actor who actually wanted to be there.

Meanwhile, The Smurfs continued its inexplicable reign by adding another $21.0 million for a domestic total of $76.2 million; and Cowboys & Aliens shamefacedly follows the little blue people with another $15.7 million for a total domestic take of $67.4 million. Ordinarily, that would be great news for a couple of summer pics in their second weekend, but Cowboys is hurting a lot due to its $200 budget and failure to meet very high expectations for a movie starring the current James Bond and directed by the helmer of Iron Man.

In huge upset news, the body switching comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, The Change-Up, opened to a measly $13.5 million. This result is definitely cause for concern where gerbil-faced boy is concerned, and we are not experiencing the summer of Reynolds that was projected, for his presence as a leading man in Green Lantern only resulted in a $53.2 million opening weekend, which was at least $10 million below both the Thor and Captain America openers. While Green Lantern went on to a $160 million worldwide total, that doesn’t scratch the $200 million budget (plus promotional expenses). It goes without saying that the box office totals for Lantern cannot even be properly credited to any star power on Reynolds’ behalf, for the vast majority of people that bought tickets were fans of the comic. Certainly, Reynolds’ name on the marquee brought nothing additional to the table.

Meanwhile, Captain America: The First Avenger picked up another $13.0 million for a $143.2 million domestic total and a $246.2 million worldwide take. In other words, there will be a sequel and much more therapy for Chris Evans and his waxed-up nips. No complaints in that department, right?

Photos courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

These are some new photos of Freida Pinto in New York City yesterday, where she’s been making the promotional rounds for The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. James Franco has been around too, but I feel like Freida has been more visible, perhaps because James is too busy being an ARTIST to promote the film, or perhaps because Freida seems happy to promote her work, unlike James. I absolutely hate that terrible pea sh-t dress, but I love the vivid purple-aubergine dress.

In a recent interview with The Independent, Frieda talked about something that is rather taboo for Indian actresses to discuss – the obsession, amongst Indian women, for lighter skin. The entire Independent interview is interesting – go here to read it – but I was fascinated by Freida’s thoughts:

At college in her mid-teens, Pinto had realised that theatre and literature were her “calling”. To earn some money, she began modelling. The well-mannered, inquisitive youngster found it easy working with photographers, but it was far from satisfying. Nor was the advertising work which followed.

“There were some very silly, stupid auditions that I had to go for. Like, there’s this girl who walks into college and nobody’s paying any attention to her because she is not using this particular cream – some kind of moisturiser or fairness cream, which I’m completely against. Then she’d put on the cream and all the boys would turn to her. And, I was like, ‘Arrgh, this is so bloody cheesy!’ If I ever got shortlisted for any of those parts I’d feel this sudden burden: ‘Oh my God, if I do this, they’ll pay me and I’ll earn my pocket money – but then it’s gonna be history.’ Some of my ads are now on YouTube and it’s just so embarrassing.”

Embarrassing, yes, but she can laugh about them. “There is a silly Wrigley chewing-gum ad you should check out. It’s so stupid. This guy pops a gum in his mouth and I fall from a tree on to his bike! Then he’s got a girl!” Pinto cracks up with laughter at the memory. “So from doing cheesy stuff like that to doing something as fulfilling as Miral – I think I’ve come a long way.”

She has, but Pinto can’t, and won’t, forget where she has come from. She despairs at the popularity of those “fairness creams” in Southeast Asia – bleaching potions to lighten the skin. “It’s completely wrong medically – and culturally, of course, because it’s giving people the wrong idea. My friend who’s a doctor told me that she’d have parents come in with kids who were three years old, saying, ‘Do something – I want my baby to be fair.’ It’s just this thing that people [in India] are so fascinated by white skin. There’s a lot of people there who are naturally really pale. But the whole idea that you have to be fair – without naming actors, but there are actors who admit it – the fairer you are, the easier it is.”

Even within Bollywood? “Oh yeah, absolutely. The amount of pancake cream on your face is ridiculous. I don’t think it is required, by the way. If a cream can give you confidence then you really have to check your whole confidence department in the first place.”

But Pinto herself is a bright beacon for Indian actors. Slumdog Millionaire showed that European and American audiences could be receptive to non-Western stories. And with her nonstop career since, this proudly Indian actress has succeeded in Hollywood without having to compromise by changing her looks or the way she speaks.

“Yeah,” she nods, “but it’s so funny. I feel like this whole idea of wanting something that you don’t really have is also very American in a way. They love tanning! Why the hell are you tanning that much? Then in my country people want a fairer skin tone! It’s just crazy. So when I was that Indian export that went to America and people were wanting that natural tan – which I don’t really have to go through tanning [to acquire] – they were excited to include something in their culture, into their film industry, that was not really there already. Or not properly or appropriately represented. So I just feel that this was a change.

“And I embrace the change and am hopeful it brings in more actors from Southeast Asia, without [them] having to do stereotypical roles. To be able to do something like Rise of the Planet of the Apes that is not concentrating on ethnicity – I’m so glad that is changing in the West.”

[From The Independent]

I remember the first time one of my Indian aunts told me that I had the “right” kind of complexion, because I’m mixed, my skin is much lighter than that of my Indian father’s. My Indian relatives always remark on it now – I have lightest-skin of anyone in my family. It’s a weird thing to remark on, but Frieda is right, there is a lot of emphasis on lighter skin amongst Indians. Personally, I prefer when I’m darker, and I’m totally not above going to a tanning bed to get some color. I can feel my aunts gasping from here.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Does the camera love Freida Pinto or what? These are new photos of Freida (and Dame Franco) at last night’s Hollywood premiere of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Frieda wore this interesting green dress by Juan Carlos Obando. The shoes are Brian Atwood. As a fellow Indian girl with similar coloring, I have to admit that I’m surprised she looks so good in this shade of green. This shade is difficult when you’re darker and your skin has yellow undertones – I think I would probably look sickly in this shade, but Freida really pulls it off. Her hair, especially, looks great and that face…! I love her. I want her to do well and make good movies. I want her to not be a brat. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, WWD has an interesting interview with Frieda, which you can read here. Here are some highlights:

Frieda hasn’t seen the 1968 original “Planet of the Apes” nor its 2001 remake by Tim Burton: “I have not even seen the films, to be honest,” she confesses. “I think the best way to do it is go in ignorant.” Instead, she researched her role as a primatologist by immersing herself in documentaries about chimpanzees, research and animal testing.

On trying not to be nervous: “I’m not thinking about the fan pressure or anything right now,” she explains. “On the Woody Allen film set, I wasted a lot of my time being nervous, and I just feel the more you get nervous, the less you focus on the more important thing: delivering your goods.”

On traveling: “Strangely enough, when I’m passing immigration at airports, I keep getting, ‘Are you Brazilian?’ all the time,” she says. “I’m very curious to see if that would actually happen when I’m in Brazil. I love going into a country and just blending.”

[From WWD]

I feel her about people mixing up ethnicities. When people guess my ethnicity, I get Greek, Mexican, German (you’d be surprised how many people guess German), Italian, Native American and Portuguese. Or, as they say in England, “foreign.” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked “What tribe are you from?” when I say that I’m Indian.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Freida Pinto is one of the cover girls for the May issue of Glamour Magazine. Freida is promoting Miral, where she plays a Palestinian girl caught up in the second intifada, I believe. As I’ve mentioned before, I like Freida a lot, and I think she’s beautiful and talented. But I find myself only wanting to see her in more conservative clothes, and I hate how she’s been styled in some of her recent photo shoots. Last year, she did a shoot with GQ where they literally poured baby oil on her and tried to style her to look like Padma Lakshmi (for shame). And now this Glamour shoot, where they’re trying to make her look like… I don’t know, Britney Spears? Is it so wrong that I want her in conservative clothes and just styled to look beautiful?

Anyway, here are some excerpts from Freida’s interview:

On ethnicity:
“I think people are starting to become more color-blind in the industry. Of course, my Indian-ness cannot be ignored. At the same time, if I am being considered for a romantic comedy, I would like if [the script] didn’t try to inject as much ethnicity into the story as possible.”

On getting support from Dev while filming in Tunisia:
“There was a civil war going on. People were burning down shops and malls; there was killing and bloodshed. I was stuck in this massive hotel with 354 rooms and only six guests. The lights kept shutting down, and there was a 5:00pm curfew. But I wasn’t there by myself: Dev came down to see me. I was so glad I had company.”

On setting rules to minimize time apart from him:
“We recently realized we need a rule like that, because every time we think we’re going to be together, something work-related comes up. But we can’t put our careers on hold for this. We’re not at the stage where we have the privilege to turn things down. So we’ll say, “You have two days off? Let’s find a way to meet up.” I think you can always make it work if you want to.”

On Hollywood, and temptations:
“When a doctor is performing an operation, his mind cannot be somewhere else. And it’s the same with actors. You have to commit yourself mind, body and soul to a project in order to do justice to it. And temptations are rife in this industry, which is why I think it’s important to know yourself before you try to deal with a relationship.”

[From Glamour]

I’m kind of surprised that Freida and Dev Patel are still together. I thought she would have upgraded to some other actor by now – after all, she dumped her fiancé for Dev when she needed Dev for an entrance into Hollywood. Hey, I’m not judging. Freida has done very well for herself, and she’s an ambitious girl. An upgrade is in her future.

Glamour shots courtesy of HuffPo.

A funny thing happened when I was looking through the full set of photos from the London premiere of Miral (Julien Schnabel’s new film): I had to really hunt for photos of Freida Pinto’s full body shot. Nearly all of the photos of Freida were close-ups of her face – it’s like photographers are so enchanted with her beauty, they forget to do their jobs and get some fashion pics. Anyway, Freida is wearing Alexander McQueen – black with gold detailing. I really, really like it – it’s oddly subdued and edited for a McQueen piece. Also: I love her hair, and her makeup is awesome. Well done, Freida.

Freida’s boyfriend Dev Patel didn’t walk the red carpet with her – and he wasn’t even in town. But no worries about the couple – Freida told the red carpet journalists that Dev is filming in India: “I’m here until tomorrow, so there’s no way I can celebrate my birthday in India, and that’s where Dev is filming. But my family are here so I’m going to just celebrate with them a bit later.” She turned 26 years old yesterday.

As for the movie, when hearing or reading the cold, dry description, it sounds very angsty and upsetting. It’s about a Palestinian girl growing up in an orphanage/school, and she falls in love with a Palestinian freedom fighter/terrorist (the lines are blurred, what can I say) just before the first Intifada, circa mid 1980s, or at least that‘s what it seems like in the film, although the first Intifada is defined as starting in 1987. The film is based on a book by Palestinian journalist Rula Jerbeal. Pinto told journalists, “It is a film about hope. It is a film about perseverance. It’s a film about education being key to devote to peace. And Rula’s mentioned this many times, and I think it’s really beautiful, she said Gandhi said this, the father of my nation. ‘There’s no way to peace, peace is the way.’ And I think it’s as straight forward as that.” The film is getting so-so-reviews – one critic calls it “plodding” but there is much admiration for trying to tell the story of this period of Middle East history through the eyes of a young Palestinian woman. Here’s the trailer:

I think it looks interesting. Rental-worthy. Guess who else was at the premiere? Benecio del Toro, looking rough!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Does being absolutely gorgeous trump whatever racist stereotype people might have about you? If it does, then I predict Freida Pinto will have a much better career than her boyfriend, Dev Patel. Where Dev is still scrounging for parts after being the lead of the Oscar-winning Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, Freida is already on her way to becoming one of Hollywood’s go-to girls. She’s promoting two films this season – the Woody Allen picture, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, and Julian Schnabel’s Miral, where I believe she has the lead. So, to promote her films, Frieda took off her pants and posed for some sexy photos for GQ. I really, really don’t like how “oily” they made her for some of these pics. The whole thing is rather trashy, not sexy.

After a while, even Freida Pinto got a little tired of Slumdog Millionaire.

“I felt like people almost got fed up with seeing our faces splattered all over the place,” she says. Long after the Oscars and the breathless global embrace ended, the 25-year-old still had collateral damage to contend with.

“In the movie, Jamal says, ‘She’s the most beautiful girl in the world.’ I was like, Damn it. That’s gonna be the end for me. I’m not going to get anything serious after that!”

She needn’t have worried; in fact, this fall, the Bombay-born actress will tick off two essential items on the serious-actress bucket list—appearing in a film by Woody Allen, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (out now), in which she plays a cellist who beguiles Josh Brolin from the window of her London flat, and one by Julian Schnabel, Miral (December), playing a Palestinian raised in a Jerusalem orphanage, “sheltered from what’s happening outside” until a school project takes her to a refugee camp in the West Bank.

The two virile directors couldn’t have been more different: “Woody is someone I really respect, because he’s a legend, but it’s not like I got to know everything about his life. With Julian—we ended up sharing a very kind of personal relationship.”

For a moment our heart sinks for her real-life boyfriend, fellow Slumdog Dev Patel, until Pinto clarifies: “Almost that of a father-daughter.”

[From GQ]

Sure, Frieda doesn’t come across as the most interesting person or even like she’s very passionate about her work. But it’s just a little GQ profile, and what could it hurt? Sex sells and Frieda wants a long career.

Also – I just got it. They styled her to look like Padma Lakshmi. Freida is WAY prettier than Padma. Ugh. So insulting.

GQ photos courtesy of GQ online.

My lord, Freida Pinto is gorgeous. This is such a simple photo too – just a basic head shot of a beautiful woman, and she’s captivating. Anyway… Freida is the cover girl for the NYT Style Magazine’s Fall issue. Other than the cover shot, the photos online are kind of meh, so I hope the print magazine had a full editorial. Frieda also gave a little interview – and she talks in greater detail about that “scandal” from last year, where the tabloids claimed that she was secretly married, and that she had abandoned her husband for Hollywood. Long story short, most sources now agree that Freida was NOT secretly married to the dude, but she was engaged to him, and she did dump him rather spectacularly for Hollywood and a romance with Dev Patel. Freida tells the magazine: “I feel what I did was right. There were no two ways about it… Everyone is going to write you off for one thing or another, but you know what? It’s my life, and if I didn’t go through it, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, sitting here talking about what happened back then and being a little more knowledgeable about what happens in relationships.” Hmm…

Freida Pinto is not one to shy away from a grand gesture. “As my friends and family are quick to remind me, I have always been a big drama queen,” Pinto, 26, recalls over breakfast in a Midtown hotel suite. “As a child, I would stand in front of the mirror and pretend I was this or that person from television. All I needed to do was realize it and recognize what I wanted to do.”

For Pinto, the epiphany came at 11, when India’s Sushmita Sen won the 1994 Miss Universe competition. “The country was really proud of her, and I was like, One day, I want to do the same,” Pinto says in her clipped, slightly accented English, which betrays her middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Mumbai. “It wasn’t just the glamour of it all because I think at 11, I could hardly understand what glamour was. I really wanted to be like her — appreciated and a source of inspiration. I think that’s what made me go into acting.”

Fortunately, Pinto’s genetic gifts meant that having a career inspired by a beauty queen was a possibility. (Before her crossover success as Latika, the female lead in the 2008 hit “Slumdog Millionaire,” Pinto was a model and the host of a television travel show.) And although she is an eloquent interview subject, her responses occasionally sound like the platitudes you might hear from a contestant being grilled in a beauty pageant.

But Pinto is ever the good sport. After it is pointed out to her that she has a habit of answering in evening-wear-competition oratory, she checks herself a couple of times and allows, “There I go again, sounding like a Miss Universe contestant.” It’s a candor that is also evident when she is asked about her appearance in Woody Allen’s latest London-based ensemble film, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” to be released next month. In a case of art imitating life, Pinto’s character, Dia, a gorgeously exotic musicologist — is there any other kind? — leaves her fiancé for another man. (In January 2009, Pinto called off her engagement to Rohan Antao and started dating her “Slumdog Millionaire” co-star Dev Patel.)

“I feel what I did was right,” she says of her real-life breakup. “There were no two ways about it. But when I walked into Woody’s office and read the scene in the nursery, where Dia confesses for the first time that she has doubts about what she is getting into, I was like, Has someone been reading the gossip magazines to Woody?”

The gossip magazines certainly had a field day with Pinto’s personal life, after Antao gave an interview to a British tabloid about their relationship and Indian newspapers claimed the two had in fact been secretly married.

“Everyone is going to write you off for one thing or another, but you know what?” Pinto continues. “It’s my life, and if I didn’t go through it, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, sitting here talking about what happened back then and being a little more knowledgeable about what happens in relationships.”

Not having appeared in any Hindi-language films, Pinto admits that she has a way to go before she convinces the doubters back home in India, who know her only as a professional beauty and for her role in “Slumdog Millionaire,” that she has the acting chops to match her cheekbones. And although she holds her own in “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” alongside a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts and Anthony Hopkins, Pinto’s character is little more than imported wallpaper. Ask Woody. “She’s the perfect obscure object of desire,” Allen said via e-mail. “She’s exactly what I wish I saw when I look out the back window of my house in Manhattan.”

Pinto’s desire not to be reduced to the subject of a gaze or to paparazzi bait may be realized with the December release of Julian Schnabel’s film “Miral,” based on Rula Jebreal’s novel, which follows an orphan (played by Pinto) as she falls in love with a Palestinian activist during the first intifada. Not that Pinto is worried about the difference of opinion the movie is likely to generate. “I knew it was going to be one of those stories that will create a lot of controversy,” she says. “But there are stories that need to be told, and if you’re always going to live in fear of what’s going to happen, you’re really not being truthful to yourself. For me, it’s not only an excellent opportunity to prove myself as a serious actor, but also to make a difference in the world.” She smiles, knowing that Miss Universe could not have put it better.

[From The NYT Style Magazine]

I really do hope that Freida finds major success in Hollywood – I think she’s a talented actress, and I also think she’s one of the most beautiful of all the “starlets” getting work currently. I hope Hollywood finds a place for her and doesn’t just typecast her in “Indian chick” roles (not that there are that many). All that being said, I do think she was kind of mean to dump her fiancé when something better came along – and, according to the fiancé, she barely even spoke to him about it, just dumped him and immediately moved on.

Photos from the NYT Style Mag, courtesy of NYT online.