August, 2012

Connecticut native John Mayer has been back in the news lately, and it once again, is not for anything related to his Grammy Award-winning singing and song-writing. The Bridgeport born crooner suddenly split with pop star Katy Perry last week after a brief but very public relationship, and was spotted out for the first time since the announcement earlier this week. Mayer stopped by a party at Skybar in Los Angeles to support Cambridge’s Mindy Kaling in her latest endeavor, the soon to premiere “The Mindy Project”, a TV show to air on NBC. At the party, Mayer made waves—or rather lack thereof—for his appearance. The formerly long-locked star has returned to his roots and chopped his hair back to a length more similar to what the singer sported when he first appeared on the scene all the way back in 2002 when “No Such Thing” first began rocking the airwaves. Mayer has been in the headlines off and on since that time, dating many high-profile starlets, like Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston, and Taylor Swift.

While there’s been no official word as to what precipitated the breakup with Perry, there likewise has been no word on why the sudden change in appearance. For the past several months, Mayer’s looked more like a Johnny Depp impersonator, growing his dark mane to shoulder length, and wearing layered shirts, vests, jackets, and jewelry increasingly reminiscent of the ever-Boho thespian. Some sources have even speculated that Mayer got a trim as a sort of cleansing ritual post-breakup. What do you think of John’s new look?

On Friday night, the latest season of “America’s Next Top Model” debuted on the CW with a new line-up of judges and a brand new theme–college. Inspired by Tyra Banks recent experiences in the extension program at the Harvard Business School, cycle 19 of the popular show is featuring college students from around the country all vying for the same contract and spot at the top of this class. Along with the new theme, a new system of voting will incorporate viewers votes along with the mentors on the show. The new crop of contestants feature some New England faces who are hoping that their scores will get them to the finals.

Leila is a 20 year old University of Rhode Island student from Framingham, MA. Her height is listed at 5’11″ and her favorite TV show is “Project Runway.” She includes Zoolander as her favorite movie, and Glamour as her favorite magazine. She also says salmon is her favorite food.

Brainy student Maria originally hails from Las Cruces, NM, but attends the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She is 22 years old and works as a mobile editor for AdMonsters part time while taking classes. Her height is listed as 5’7 ¼” and her favorite movie is Zombieland. Her favorite magazines include Vogue, Fitness, The New Yorker, and U.S. News. And, in a very un-model-like turn, she lists doughnuts as her favorite food.

The new panel of judges include fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone, who appeared on the show last season, male model Rob Evans, stylist Johnny Wujek, blogger BryanBoy, and catwalk coach Jonte. Only time will tell if all of the new elements (judges, theme, and time slot) will work for the long-running reality show, and whether or not this cycle’s “Top Model” will also have a Hollywood East Connection.

It’s hard to think about doing much during the dog days of summer, and we certainly aren’t complaining about it. There really is nothing better than taking in the heat as we dilly dally our days away. What an “extra” special summer 2012 has been for the New England film scene. Our glow has been bright from the beauty of summertime film, but slowly fades as Labor Day approaches.

So let’s keep beaming, and FLASH it out tomorrow with a popular television show!  Who is looking for you to perform in a flash mob on the Cape! Interested crew need to respond to the invite on FB, and be prepared for to be in Osterville at 8am. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Contact [email protected] and get ready to move!

Labor Day starts the unofficial beginning of a new year as we all slowly shift back into “school mode” it’s time for a fall fling.  Get those #2 pencils sharpened while we sharpen up our craft this year. It’s a tough biz, but with the right training and networking. We might just nail that audition.

As always, the Media Performance Center at Boston Casting has a fabulous fall line-up that will make any actor blush. Not only will you get the chance to perfect your act, but you could even star in your own film in the number of courses shuffled at the MPC. Like Boston Casting, C.P. Casting and LDI Casting have the same caliber line-up of classes.

In this biz, we always need to stay a float as we tread along together. It doesn’t matter which company you choose or what class you in enroll in as long as you continue to network and work on your craft. Check out Hollywood East Connection’s Career Scene Page for more casting companies and jobs in Hollywood East!

Tell us on HEC FB if you’re joining the Flash Mob tomorrow!

Cute country crooner Taylor Swift has been logging a lot of time in the Bay State this summer in the midst of what seems to be an ever-escalating romance with Conor Kennedy. Twice last month alone, the 22-year-old star was at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, for a weekend visit. Swift and the 18-year-old curly haired, lookalike son of lawyer RFK Jr. and his late wife Mary Kennedy, first met earlier this summer, and have been spending numerous weekends together on the beach and attending Kennedy family events. Over the July 4^th holiday, a photo of Swift hugging Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 18-year-old son Patrick generated headlines, but Taylor denied they were romantically involved. Conor, who is Patrick’s second cousin, was also there that weekend, and has since been spotted holding hands and cuddling with Swift in a variety of locations.

This past Saturday, the couple headed to the Hub for the wedding of Conor’s cousin, Kyle Kennedy, and education consultant Liam Kerr. The celebration began with a cocktail bash in the courtyard at the gorgeous Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, with the wedding taking place at the Paulist Center on Beacon Hill. After the ceremony, the celebration moved to the Fairmont Copley Plaza to party the night away. While there, Swift reportedly posed for pictures with excited fans in the lobby. Other famous attendees of the soiree included the bride’s grandfather, former NFLer Frank Gifford, and his wife, “Today” show hostess Kathie Lee Gifford.

Apparently, while they were in town before returning to the Cape, Conor did have a chance to show his Taylor a bit of the city, because Twitpics of the two at Haymarket and the North End surfaced over the weekend. The following day, Conor and Taylor joined several other members of the Kennedy family to visit the grave of his mother, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who died this past May. Her resting place is in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

It seems that Swift is set on spending as much time with the Kennedy clan that she can. She just paid around $4.9 million for a mansion directly across from Ethel Kennedy, Conor’s grandmother. The property, which overlooks Nantucket Sound, features a luxurious seven bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The Hub has been abuzz with celebrity sightings lately, with stars of stage, screen, and radio making appearances all around town.

Just this past weekend, singing sensation Gloria Estefan stopped by the Max Brenner in Boston. Word has it that the hot Grammy winner cooled off with a couple of chocolate milkshakes. Apparently she’s quite the chocoholic!

On Tuesday, Tobey Maguire, who is currently in town filming Labor Day with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, stopped by FoMu in Boston for a frosty treat. The Allston-based “alternative ice cream” joint has hosted the vegan actor before. This time he ordered a salted caramel, peanut butter, cinnamon sticky bun ice cream with mochi, gummy bears, and salty peanuts.

Former talk show goddess and current cable network maven, Oprah Winfrey, made a surprise appearance on August 2nd at Boston College in Chestnut Hill. While there, she met with members of the first graduating class of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Country music star Carrie Underwood stopped by the Tufts Medical Center’s Floating Hospital for Children on July 31^st. Her visit included visits with young patients and their families in both the medical/surgical unit and the pediatric bone marrow transplant unit of the children’s hospital. Underwood helped cheer up the children dealing with serious illnesses by passing out an autographed compact disc to each child. The sweet singer even performed a rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” upon the request of a 2-year-old patient.

Have you spotted a celeb this summer somewhere in Hollywood East? Comment below or post pictures to our Facebook page!

Season 7 “Hell’s Kitchen” contestant and chef, Jason Santos, is celebrating the first year of opening his own successful restaurant, Blue Inc., by revisiting the show that made him famous. Tonight, Santos will be hosting a reunion of fellow contestants from season 6 and 7 of the popular Fox cooking competition, including chefs Salvator Coppola, Fran Waters-Klier, Jim McGloin, and Ed Battaglia. The event, called “ A Night Back in Hell’s Kitchen,” will feature a meet and greet with the chefs, passed appetizers created by the former contestants, craft cocktails, and a special viewing of the current season of the show. Special guests are invited for an exclusive three-course dinner prior to the cocktail hour, and all festivities will be taking place at Santos’s restaurant in the Financial District.

Santos, a native of Medford, Massachusetts, appeared on the show in 2010, eventually making it all the way to the finals, before losing to chef Scott Leibfried. After returning to his job as head chef at Gargoyles in Somerville, Santos decided to strike out on his own, and created Blue Inc. A week before the restaurant was set to open last summer, chef and curmudgeonly host of “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gordon Ramsay, traveled to Boston to surprise the runner-up, check out the new spot, and wish him well. Any patron who visits Blue Inc., which is so named for the color of Santos’s hair, will find that clips of season 7 of “Hell’s Kitchen” regularly plays on the TVs behind the restaurant bar, and a framed, autographed picture of Ramsay hangs by the front entrance.

It’s summertime summertime sum sum summer-FILM-time! What a fabulous twenty-twelve film season it’s been! The shooting just keeps rolling on in Hollywood East with all this Heat and Labor Day.

Grown Ups 2 is wrapping up this week, in the insanely awesome dome set, and The Way Way Back called it a wrap early last week. Thank you New England boys, Adam Sandler, and Steve Carell! You make our digs bright.

Sure, we crush on cool stars like Kevin James and Sandra Bullock. We are in love with movies made in Massachusetts, but when we get to have a fling on set. Score! Casting notices galore. The LA based Sande Alessi Casting has had us floating in Columbia Pictures extra work this month, even work tomorrow. Boston Casting and C.P keep us smitten all year long.

Have you been on set? Do you want to? Here’s your chance with a  “Club Goer” notice from C.P  looking for EXTRAS EXTRAS early next week for The Heat. It’s a two day commitment and they are seeking attractive, dynamic and fun EXTRAS!  Check out C.P for all the deets.  Also read about the latest posting: An On-Camera acting course at BU. It’s FREE!

Boston Casting is looking for Non- Union Stand Up Comedians/Improvers for a new show going to be shot here in Boston early September. HEC submitted. They are also casting your 70′s car for Labor Day!

In a biz, where we always need to watch what we eat. It was nice to digest the latest bon appetit article with The Way Way Back, Marshvegas boy Steve Carrell who had Dorchester Mark Wahlberg’s back! Questioned about what his last meal on Earth would be. Carell said, “A cheeseburger, fries, and a shake from Wahlburgers, which is owned by Mark Wahlberg and his brothers Donnie and Paul. That burger holds up against all others.” Now that’s two Boston boys sticking together!

As we hang out in the Way Way Back. Let’s continue to support each other too in the roles we all play in the Hollywood East film community of brilliance! Hollywood surrounds us big and small, but what matters most is that we all meet in-between with the passion to be here. Go New England Film and Television.

Last night at the Back of America Pavilion, in Boston’s Waterfront District, the folksy singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile serenaded the nearly packed crowd that gathered together on a rather warm August evening. The crowd, which could be heavily identified as those of her infamous, fiercely faithful following, were delighted to hear the news that their beloved performer, who is a lesbian and got engaged to her girlfriend in early June, will in fact be getting married in the Bay State. However, there is still no word yet on exactly when and where that will be.

Carlile, who originally hails from Washington state, has had a busy summer overall, releasing her fourth studio album in June, called Bear Creek, and heading out on the road to play concerts across the country in promotion of the album. Last month, the 31 year-old headlined at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, for the first time ever.

This was not, however, the first time the talented musician has made her way to Beantown. Throughout the past several years, Carlile has played everywhere around town from the Orpheum to outside at Copley Square, to the House of Blues, where, in 2008, she even recorded an EP, “Brandi Carlile—Live From Boston.”

This time around, Carlile co-headlined with Josh Ritter, a fellow singer/songwriter originally from Idaho, who at one point lived in Somerville, MA and Providence Rhode Island. Despite the shared name and initials, the performer bears no relation to the late actor, John Ritter.

So what’s the deal? Summertime in the city just got ‘squared’. As the heat rises, the Seinfeld Food Truck will be serving into town.  Wear sunblock!

Food trucks are all the rage here in Boston, and this Friday, August 3^rd, we will get tempered ‘occupying’ “The Soup Nazi” and his truck!  I mean…if you can move along. If not, NO soup for you!

George wanted his ‘free bread” and asked.  Will you? Even when your best friend says, “…let it go”.

“The Soup Nazi” truck has been fueling through city to city and now, BOSTON! We think the “Soup Nazi” is deciding which square to spare. Seinfeld Truck moves to Boston? I want in on production! He has already made it in New York City. Why not reside here? Lights, camera, action!

For over a decade he has told us NO, and because of a Facebook campaign of Seinfeld fans, “The Soup Nazi” is saying, “Yes”, 17 years later! Larry Thomas the “Soup Nazi” will be parked in Harvard Square from 12- 2 p.m., and at the infamous occupy Boston, Dewey Square from 3-4 p.m.

Have a Twix with the  “Soup Nazi”?! He wouldn’t give George something for free, but he will be handing out muffin tops, Junior Mints, black and white cookies, Twix, and SOUP to you for FREE!  Swill it down with a Snapple too. If you can make it through the line with no charge, “The Soup Nazi” will be signing autographs and taking pictures.

Next stop South Station or Harvard Square? MBTA is your best bet. It’s Friday, the commute will sizzle us up. HEC will be’ occupying’ the FREE SOUP as well.

Guess what the “Soup Nazi’s” favorite soup is? New England Clam Chowdah! Ask him tomorrow and order him up on FB!