Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, one-third of super girl group TLC, is ready to make her comeback. At the age of forty-two the raspy voiced songstress is stepping back into the limelight with a new reality show titled “Totally T-Boz” which will premiere on January 1.

The reality show will capture Watkins attempting to reclaim her position in the music industry as well as some of her most vulnerable moments including her divorce, financial problems and life threatening illnesses.

In a sneak peek of the first episode, Watkins meets with music producer Bangladesh (Beyoncé, Missy Elliot, Kelly Rowland, etc.) who expresses his doubts about T-Boz’s commitment to crafting a new album. He has some serious questions for which Watkins does not seem to have the answers. One thing that T-Boz does make clear, however, is that she does not mind proving herself to music consumers.

“I guess I have to prove myself all over again, even if it’s to the world,” said Watkins. “I don’t have a problem doing that.”

Proving herself to the world may be harder than she expects. Indeed, the music industry has seen many changes since her days of girl group domination alongside Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. The last full length album that Watkins was featured on was TLC’s ’3D’.  Released in 2002, seven months after the car crash death of Lopes, 3D achieved platinum status in the United States.

That same year T-Boz was hospitalized for four months due to complications of sickle cell anemia. The singer had been diagnosed with the disease during her early childhood and went public with her illness in 1996.  She later became a spokesperson for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

In 2004, Watkins filed for divorce from her rapper husband Mack 10. The two married in 2000 and welcomed a daughter, Chase, shortly after their nuptials. In the years since the dissolution of her marriage, Watkins has had to care for her daughter on her own while battling sickle cell anemia and, most recently, a brain tumor. Mack 10 reportedly owes the singer more than $250,000 in back child support. Her medical issues and lack of support from her ex-husband led Watkins to file for bankruptcy in 2011.

“Totally T-Boz” will also chronicle Watkins’ challenges and joys of single parenthood. The singer is not necessarily alone though. Along for the ride are her support system which includes her younger brother, Koya, cousins Barb and Chris and friend Tae-Tae, as well as her business partner, Tara. “Totally T-Boz” will premiere on January 1 at 8/7c on the TLC network.

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Sarah Polley’s second film debut, ‘Take This Waltz,’ explores the strain of long-term relationships and forbidden attractions. The film is full of metaphors such as the hot and steamy Toronto summers. This article is part 2 of a two part series.

It was story, specifically the “Storm” scene which made Polley and Montpellier decide to shoot the film digitally. This allowed them to let the camera roll for over two hours continuously. There’s an emotional response to images you get when you are able to film them at certain times of the day. Shooting at magic hour (a misnomer because this is the last 15 minutes of sunlight in a day, as well as the first 15 minutes in early morning) was something Polley wrote into the script. As the sun set on Margot’s marriage, it also rose on the potentially new relationship she had with Daniel. “Neither of these scenes would have had the same significance if they were shot at high noon,” commented Montpelier.

“For the hero house, where Lou and Margo live, the colors are slightly off prime because I didn’t see Sarah’s ‘bowl of fruit’ as being fresh, but rather sticky and over ripe,” remarked Production Designer Matthew Davies. “I wanted a sense of heat building up in the house, slightly oppressive, with a treacley, beautiful amber light filtering through the windows. This is in direct contrast to Daniel’s apartment which is bright white with high key, primary colors.”

As envisioned by Polley, the hero house in Toronto’s Little Portugal (which is the scripted neighborhood) is a fine example of real estate as biography, embodying the spirit of Queen West: a liberal, independent middle class couple would have bought the place when the market took a momentary downturn and then began extensive renovations which dragged on. “Unfinished, like everything else in Lou and Margot’s life,” continued Davies. “So we see the uneven surfaces, exposed wiring and peeling plaster.

Textured surfaces play light in an interesting way so we used grass wallpapers, a shiny, leather sofa, which has a sticky quality and the coffee table made from samples of linoleum. The colors are oranges, greens and nicotine khaki.” The interior walls of the house are a very saturated, hot, apricot color and is further intensified by installing amber and lilac glass panels which pick up shafts of exterior light shining through into the house through patterned gobos, lace sheers and wicker blinds. And in every room are oscillating fans. The effect of heat is a result of layer upon layer upon layer of architectural detail.”

Davies furnished the house with vintage pieces, re‐appropriated from other sources. The art on the living room wall, created specifically for the film, is a photographic triptych of seven graffiti artists (mostly kids from a city project) at one Toronto streetcar stop. This piece is made more significant as a result of the agenda of the new mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, who had that particular wall painted over a few months after the film was completed. This is also the same streetcar stop in the scene where Daniel, with his rickshaw, passes by Margot.

“To say Sarah is collaborative doesn’t do justice to her approach. Sarah is very multi‐layered and cultivates very healthy relationships with the crew, allowing everyone to feel like they are a part of the project, to invest themselves in it, and bring something exceptional of themselves to the film,” explained Davies.

“Life has fantastic moments of absolutes, moments where you believe absolutely something, and those moments should be really enjoyed,” concluded Polley. “My general belief is that every decision is ambiguous and it is rare that a decision is clearly right or wrong. Sometimes it can feel that way and those are interesting moments that stand out for me. But I think we are all just muddling through. You never know how a decision will end up so you never know what the right one is. To me, the only real truth is in ambiguity.”

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In the chicken‐egg world of deciding to take a role because of the script or because of the director, Seth Rogen had not read ‘Take This Waltz’ before meeting Sarah Polley on the set of ‘The Green Hornet.’ “She came to LA and told me about the film. She was so nice and so cool. I’d actually been a big fan of hers for a long time, both as an actor and director. And then I read it and thought it was really awesome and very well written, much better written than I can write,” Rogen laughed at his admission. “So I was very thrilled to do it, and yeah, I was very excited.”

Rogen, who tends to think of everything in terms of humor, regards the perspective of his character as amusing. Lou is, for the most part, completely unaware of what is happening around him. “For Lou, ‘Take This Waltz’ is a movie about a guy who writes a chicken cookbook and then finds out his wife is cheating on him. It’s kind of funny that my character is just not that emotionally involved.” Rogen is more familiar with cynical characters who are in on the action, albeit not necessarily in the brightest way possible. But he played Lou “as comfortable. He’s just making his chicken and everything is fantastic.”

“I did draw on my Dad a little for this role, honestly,” he admitted. “My Dad does a thing where he talks with his eyes closed, so I did that a few times.”

But getting back to the chicken, Rogen viewed it as, “Slightly symbolic for a guy who’s aspiring to do something, but not something that’s incredibly exciting or daring. Chicken is the middle ground of meat. It’s a good metaphor for the relationship. It’s good, but it’s not the most exciting thing in the world.”

What was exciting was the prep. “I can confidently say I did more research for this movie than any movie I’ve ever done, except maybe ‘Pineapple Express.’ You learn little things from movies, like how to ride a motorcycle or shoot an AK‐47. But for ‘Waltz,’ I spent a lot of time learning how to cut up chickens. I had chefs coming to my house in LA and they’d leave me dozens of chickens. I’d cut them up and cook them in different ways, but I would mostly just cut them up. I’d also watch a lot of cooking shows, like “Top Chef,” and steal the way they do stuff.” Rogen was so into his prep, he started having chicken dreams, but confused his chicken‐sized Cavalier King Charles Spaniel for the food. “That was weird.”

That said, his wrap gift from the film crew was a magnificent set of carving knives. All reports indicate the dog remains in good health.

While Sarah Silverman, who played Lou’s sister, Geraldine, was dreading the naked shower scene, Rogen had to deal with the scene which has come to be known as ‘The Storm.’ It is when Lou faces the truth about the state of their marriage. “It was pretty brutal, but we did it.”

“It was about emptiness and emotional lost‐ness and a void. When I look at comedy, I can feel if it’s funny or not. But when it’s all based on nuanced emotional moments, it’s a lot harder to gauge whether or not I’m doing a good job. In some ways, I thought it was a lot harder than comedy.”

“The entire scene was primarily scripted with a healthy blend of ad‐lib,” said Cinematographer Luc Montpellier. “Sarah only stopped to reload the camera every half hour or so. Only key crew remained on set to give Seth space to breathe.”

“This scene was all on his strong shoulders,” said Williams. “The camera was not on me, so I was improvising off camera, but he was doing it all on camera. Leading up to this, Seth and I had found a nice rhythm together. It’s nothing we had planned on, but just accidentally Sarah would keep the camera rolling after a take and that became a habit that at the end of each scene. I had my crash course in improv on ‘Blue Valentine,’ so I’ve gotten more comfortable with it. But Seth rewards your efforts with his hardy laugh. He’s just such a deeply generous guy.”

Seth Rogen has emerged leading a new generation of comedic actors, writers and producers. Rogen demonstrated his wide‐ranging ability as he co‐wrote, executive produced and starred as the main character, Britt Reid, from the comic book turned action film, ‘The Green Hornet.’ Directed by Michel Gondry, Rogen stars opposite the Academy Award‐winning actor Christoph Waltz, who plays the villain Chudnofsky. Rogen was most recently seen in ’50/50,’ a film based on the real life experience of Vancouver native Will Reiser. Starring alongside Joseph Gordon‐Levitt, the film unfolds the comedic perspective of the 25‐year‐old’s (Gordon‐Levitt) cancer diagnosis and subsequently, his best friend’s desire for him to beat the disease. Furthermore, Rogen starred as the voice of the title character in the comedy, ‘Paul,’ teaming once again with ‘Superbad’ director, Greg Mottola which was released by Universal Pictures in January 2011 and will be out on DVD in August, 2011. Written by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, and co‐starring Jane Lynch, Kristen Wiig and Jason Bateman, Rogen voiced an alien who has escaped outside of Area 51 and his encounters with two geeks on their way to Comic Con.

Nominated for an Emmy Award in 2005 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy for “Da Ali G Show,” Rogen began his career doing standup comedy in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 13. After moving to Los Angeles, Rogen landed supporting roles in Judd Apatow’s two critically acclaimed network television comedies, “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared,” the latter for which Rogen was also hired as a staff writer at the age of 18. Shortly after, Rogen was guided by Apatow toward a film career, first with the box office smash hit, ‘The 40‐Year‐Old Virgin,’ which opened No. 1 at the box office and remained at the top perch for two weekends in a row. The film went on to gross more than $175 million worldwide and helped put Rogen on the map as a future film star. The film was named one of the 10 Most Outstanding Motion Pictures of the Year by AFI and took home Best Comedy Movie at the 11th annual Critics’ Choice Awards. Rogen was a co‐producer on the film as well.

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Sarah Polley’s second film debut, ‘Take This Waltz’ is a fantastic romantic and erotic drama/comedy about married life: what it does to sex, love, and the images of ourselves. In the film Margot (Michelle Williams) is married to Lou (Seth Rogen), a cookbook writer. Margot and Lou’s relationship is stalling and Margot becomes extremely attracted to her neighbor, Daniel (Luke Kirby). Throughout the summer Daniel and Margot explore their erotic relationship while Lou is none the wiser.

Polley brought producer Susan Cavan and Luc Montpellier, her Director of Cinematography, with whom she worked on “Away From Her,” in after the first draft of the script. “As the project evolved, Sarah folded her key creative people into the process so her vision became a shared vision. In the case of Luc, alone, he was brought in far earlier than cinematographers are normally engaged. She is meticulous in her planning, and she and the actors had extensive rehearsals ‐ often right on the sets the scenes were to take place. That kind of comprehensive familiarity allows for improvisation, such as with the party scene which was heavily choreographed, but still had a looseness and imperfection that produced a very creative result,” said Cavan. Polley has indeed turned imperfection into an art form. “You could walk out of this film and feel quite good about yourself because you don’t know and are unsure, are imperfect and unfinished and have grafted your own experiences onto any one of the characters. It happens subtly throughout the film, and you come out breathless.”

“One of the first mandatory attributes of the film, in addition to the “bowl of fruit” motif, was that Sarah declared it be shot at the height of the summer in sweaty, hot downtown Toronto,” said Montpellier. And after two consecutive summers of cool and wet weather, the jet stream shifted north, allowing warm air from the Gulf to flow at record‐breaking levels. Muggy, soaring temperatures were capped off by Hurricane Earl, which made landfall in Nova Scotia, the film’s second location, just after 35 days of principal photography wrapped.

In an effort to create a visual language for the film, Polley and Montpellier, with the contribution from a graphic artist, Jessica Reid, began trading images among themselves. “There were a lot of summer city images, paintings with a tremendous amount of chromain them, a lot of primary colors and night images. On a subconscious level, we always picked images with some kind of wetness to them where you could feel the heat within the frames,” recalled Montpellier. “In the end, this is what the film ended up having which is quite a victory when your original intention is actually reflected in the film.”

All the creative and visual decisions came from the characters, an organic design strategy which is a function of bringing the creative team in early in the process. “Margot and Lou live together in a wonderful life,” Montpellier continued, “but there is something slightly missing in their relationship. So the world of color and warmth is a celebration of uneasiness as well as satisfaction and every frame needed to tell that story without words.” By using a tremendous saturation of color and working primarily with source light (sunlight) coming in through windows, intruding into interior spaces, which in turn would bounce off objects, floors and ceilings in frame and then washing over the actors, everything appears honest and true to itself instead of looking artificially lit.

Light and heat coming into Margot’s home and life is a metaphor for what takes place throughout the story and Montpellier strove to duplicate the poetry of the screenplay on the canvas of his cinematography. The backlighting of Lou during ‘the Storm’ scene reflects the emotion of what is happening to Lou at that moment. “All you need is a clear idea to start and for me, for the production designers, for costume design, for all of us, it is the dramatic point of view from which we all work. Story informed everything.”

The rest of this article can be read in Part 2.

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‘Take This Waltz’ is the second feature film from writer/director Sarah Polley, based on her screenplay which made the coveted Black List in 2009. Whereas Polley’s feature film directorial debut, ‘Away From Her,’ was the tender story of a couple in the winter of their married life, ‘Take This Waltz’ follows a younger couple, married for only a few years, moving from the springtime of their romance, settling into what should be a warm, loving life together.

Set in Polley’s hometown of Toronto, she proudly admits that she romanticizes the city, and wanted to show her affection for the tree‐lined streets and downtown residential areas tucked in around neighborhood restaurants and cinemas. So she placed the story right onto the sidewalks, streetcars and beaches which she walks every day.

The title of the film, ‘Take This Waltz,’ comes from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name, the words of which Cohen interpreted from “Little Viennese Waltz” by the modernist poet, Frederico Garcia Lorca, who was assassinated in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. The lines read: “Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women. There’s a shoulder where/Death comes to cry. There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows./There’s a tree where the doves go to die.”

“The lyrics are so tragic and romantic,” declared Polley. “You never completely understand it, but it makes perfect sense on some deep, emotional level. I listened to it non‐stop while writing the screenplay and it informed the tone of what I wanted to accomplish.”

In the story, Lou is the good husband, durable in his affection for his wife, grounded in his kitchen, as he diligently works his way through his chicken recipes; Margot, however, is a zephyr. Temperate in her self‐awareness, untethered by intention, she is easily propelled by gusts of inspiration coming from others. Side by side, making all the proscribed choices young, urban couples are advised to make, they move towards their future. Lou, contentedly – Margot, because she is his wife.

For Polley, this opening scene in the kitchen, domestic, yet dull, approaching claustrophobic; peaceful, yet intensely restless, is a bookend for the film. “I start and end the film with this scene, even though a great deal goes on in between,” said Polley, “I wanted to make a film about desire, not a philosophical essay, but to be inside of it, to feel how delicious it is, and how difficult it is for us, as human beings, to either turn our backs on that sensation or to live with the primal gap it creates, one that needs to be fulfilled. I wanted to show the process of someone trying to escape that essential state of being and how it doesn’t always work.”

In many respects, ‘Take This Waltz’ is a coming of age movie about a woman in her late 20s, for whom the veil concealing the reality of romance and relationships truly falls away, revealing an emptiness that cries out to be addressed. “For women like Margot, and most women I know in their 30s,” said Polley, “there is a point when they realize the ‘happily ever after’ relationship fairy-tales they were told about as a child are not quite true. If you’re lucky, there is a great love, but apart from that, how do you know if a relationship is ‘wrong’ or if needing/wanting/desire is a function of life being complicated? It’s not simple. You may be in a relationship where you are mostly happy, but also sad or angry ‐ and nothing prepares us for that.”

The emotional reality of relationships is complicated by the pervasive happiness imperative that runs through our lives. Relationship guidelines abound in books, magazines and online, dictating the levels of happiness we should be experiencing with our partners: are your needs being met? Can you communicate? Do you still laugh? Do you still enjoy being alone with them? Can you still overlook minor annoyances? Polley weighs in on this subject: “I think we live in a culture where if there is something missing in a relationship, then there is something wrong. It can be fixed, we are told, and it’s a failure to not fix it,” she said.

The honeymoon period of Margot and Lou’s marriage is over. Their fifth anniversary dinner scene at the restaurant, where they struggle to converse, poignantly highlights this. As the novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote, the cruelest lies are often told in silence. “There are very few couples who are completely engaged and fascinated by each other years into their relationship,” noted Polley. “Once you know someone that well, it’s hard to have the space between you to be interested and excited by each other’s company.”

Margot copes with this by adopting slightly baroque behavior: irregular in its rules, swinging wildly between baby talk, verbal jousting and perfunctory sex. Lou, who is having a hard time following her playbook, takes the passive approach. “Lou has a belief that if you don’t address something head on with words, it has a chance of just going away. I understand why he wants to avoid conversations. From an outside perspective, it’s so obvious that talking about the problem would be the better thing to do, but in an intimate relationship, it’s the scariest thing in the world to admit that there might be something insurmountable there,” explained Polley.

The marriage isn’t enough for Margot, but for Polley, the question becomes, “Is anything really enough? My wish is that throughout the film, people will not know what Margot should do and they’ll bring their own lives into the decision. There’s a tremendous amount of ambiguity in the film. For people who left a stagnant relationship and it was the right decision for them, I hope they’ll feel this film supports that. For those who have turned away from temptation, and stayed in a relationship, I hope this film will act as a confirmation that this was the right choice as well.”

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“I’d never get to read for a part like this,” Sarah Silverman pronounced upfront about the new film ‘Take This Waltz.’ Unquestionably, the role of Geraldine is casting against type in the extreme and it is an unabashed masterstroke on the part of both Polley and casting director John Buchan. Silverman elaborated, “Usually when I’m told that someone had me in mind for a part, it’s vulgar and it has shit jokes and it’s gross. It must be what I put out there, but I don’t see myself like that. But when I read this, I got choked up because I couldn’t believe someone would see me this way. I see myself able to play drama. But we put people in boxes and can’t see outside of it, but Sarah did. It was so nice. And I’m so grateful for this.”

Geraldine is Lou’s sister. She is also a recovering alcoholic. While Margot is surrounded by the comfort of Lou’s sprawling family, Geraldine is the only one with whom she shares any personal thoughts. “Margot is like a little sister to Geraldine, although she does view Margot in the context of protecting Lou’s happiness. I also think there’s a self-centeredness in both characters where they’re connecting but only because they’re getting something that they need or giving something that they need to give. Like many friendships, theirs is like two islands in a way ‐Geraldine has her own shit and she’s seeing everything around her in relation to her own shit, and so is Margot,” explained Silverman.

And to be working with Polley, Silverman declared, “So many directors, great directors, directors I love, are fully socially retarded. Sarah actually isn’t. She has a plan, knows exactly what she wants, and knows how to manipulate exactly how to get it in a way that makes you, the actors and me, feeling like “Oh my God, I’m amazing in this!” instead of shells of ourselves.”

“Sarah Silverman is my favorite living performer and has been for years,” stated Polley. “You know the “If you could have dinner with one person in the world, who would that be?” question? For the last five years, the answer has always been Sarah Silverman. The moment her name was suggested by John Buchan, it was all hands on deck to get her. As much as I knew she was going to be fantastic in this part, nothing could have prepared me for how complicated and nuanced and strange and beautiful her work was. It was such a joy to watch her work.”

The part of Geraldine is that of the proverbial Greek chorus, the wisest character in the film even if her life is a bit of a mess. The key to this wisdom is the cross she bears throughout the film, her alcoholism. “That state of ‘needing, wanting and ‘won’t survive unless you have it’ is something that an addict is very familiar with,” continued Polley, “and they understand what a trap it can be, what an illusion. The rest of us struggle to understand this in increments. As a result, Geraldine recognizes in Margot the qualities of needing a drug, except in Margot’s case love and filling emptiness are more organic to her life. Geraldine tried in vain to fill the emptiness as well ‐ she just does it with something else.”

The progression of shifting from comedy to drama is a subject of perpetual interest to viewers because the funny‐ actor‐turned‐serious‐actor has to convincingly take audiences, and their previous conceptions, along for the ride. Silverman is adamant that the key to the transition is honesty in performance. “To me, Seth Rogen is the marker of where comedy started being played very real. It was like the anti‐Ace Ventura (which was great when it came out). It’s just playing it real and letting the moments be funny. So watching Seth go from comedy to drama is seamless because he’s just playing the lines very naturally in both cases. There’s no difference.”

Rogen wasn’t quite as convinced. “With comedy, for me, you develop a pretty good gauge of whether it is funny or not. The kind of comedy that we generally have done is naturalistic, conversational, which means it’s not like completely based on call‐and‐response. But I also thought that when you find out what’s happening to Lou and to Margot, it’s very impactful and there are a lot of really interesting moments that I’d never really seen in a movie before. More than anything, Sarah [Polley] really seemed to think I was going to help her movie a lot and that to me was the most important thing.”

Emmy winner Sarah Silverman is as versatile of a performer as they come. Her repertoire includes everything from film and television, stand‐up comedy, to iconic online videos and she added author to this list when she released her first book last spring. Silverman was most recently seen starring in the third season of “The Sarah Silverman Program,” on Comedy Central and her New York Times bestselling book, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, was recently released in paperback. Silverman was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series category for her portrayal of a fictionalized version of herself in “The Sarah Silverman Program.” This marked Comedy Central’s first ever Emmy nomination in a scripted acting category. She also received a WGA nomination last year for her work on the show. Silverman won a Primetime Emmy in 2008 in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category for her musical collaboration with Matt Damon. In addition, she was honored with a Best Actress Webby Award for her online video “The Great Schlep,” in which she persuaded young Jewish kids to encourage their grandparents in Florida to vote for President Obama prior to the 2008 election.

On the film side, Silverman appears in the comedy “Peep World” opposite Michael C. Hall and Rainn Wilson about a group of dysfunctional adult siblings who are fighting over a novel that one of them is writing, about the family. The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters in 2011.

Silverman was dubbed “the most outrageously funny woman alive,” by Rolling Stone. With her comedic timing and stage presence it’s no surprise that Sarah has been asked to host major award shows. In 2007 she hosted the MTV Movie Awards and she has also twice hosted the Independent Spirit Awards.

Silverman grew up in New Hampshire and attended New York University. In 1993 she joined “Saturday Night Live” as a writer and feature performer and has not stopped working since.

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In the upcoming film “Take This Waltz,” actor Luke Kirby plays the sensuous next door neighbor, Daniel. The introduction of Daniel plays a key role in the development of the story in the film.

“Originally, Daniel was the object of desire, the thing that makes you question your life,” said Polley about this character who lands, ironically, right across the street from Margot’s life. The object becomes a catalyst. “From Margot and Daniel’s point of view, it’s very, very hard to turn away from falling in love and very few people can do it.” The dizzying head‐over‐heels tumble into love is something Polley feels offers lovers the idea that they will be able to reinvent themselves with this other person in a way they were unable to do alone. It affords lovers a state of fulfillment that seemingly exists only in combination with this person.

Ultimately, Polley believes that we are not satisfied beings. “We need. We want. And we desire. And that’s part of who we are. You get to the point you’ve been longing for and then, inevitably, another chasm opens up. I feel these characters are people who mean well and are doing their best, but their best sometimes isn’t good enough for the other characters ‐ the way it is in life as well,” she explained.

Luke Kirby has been performing since his teen years after he was accepted at this country’s most respected conservatory, the National Theatre School of Canada. He graduated in May 2000 and after two auditions found himself working on two separate projects in major roles; the CBS/Alliance miniseries “Haven” and Director Lea Pool’s feature, “Lost and Delirious.”

Soon after, Luke performed the role of “Morgan” in the Factory Theatre’s production of “Geometry in Venice” in Toronto, a performance that garnered him a Best Actor nomination at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. This was quickly followed by the role of “Patroclus” in Theatre for a New Audience’s production of “Triolus and Cressida” directed by Sir Peter Hall in New York City. In 2006, he gave a critically acclaimed performance in The Women’s Project’s production of “Jump/Cut.” Other theatre credits include Judith Thompson’s premiere of HABITAT at Canadian Stage followed by Daniel Brook’s premiere of “The Good Life” at the Tarragon Theatre (both in Toronto).

His latest theatre venture was in NYC where he performed the lead role in “Defender of the Faith” (Irish Repertory Company). Luke’s first feature film lead was the role of Jim in “Halloween 8: Resurrection.” Other film credits include lead roles in Peter Wellington’s feature, “Luck” and “Mambo Italiano” directed by Emile Gaudreault. “Mambo Italiano” received a gala presentation at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival to a standing ovation and earned Luke a Canadian Comedy Award Nomination.

Following on the success of “Luck” and “Mambo Italiano,” Luke ended up with a part that was written for him in the feature film “Shattered Glass” produced by Cruise/Wagner. In 2007, Luke played the lead role of Ray Dokes opposite Rachel Leigh Cooke and Keith Carradine in the Canadian feature “All Hat” and followed with a lead role opposite Lindsay Lohan in a feature titled “Labor Pains.” Luke was cast as the lead opposite Samuel Jackson in “The Samaritan,” David Weaver’s latest feature also set to premiere in 2011.

In television, one of Luke’s favorite roles was in the critically acclaimed TMN/Showcase miniseries, “Slings & Arrows,” featuring some of Canada’s top actors and directed by his friend Peter Wellington. “Sex Traffic,” a miniseries for Channel 4 and CBC that aired in the fall of 2004, had him working with one of Britain’s top directors, David Yates and earned him a Gemini nomination. That same year he received a second Gemini nomination for his guest‐starring role in the dramatic series “The Eleventh Hour.” In the fall of 2005, Luke landed a role as a series regular for HBO’s “Tell Me That You Love Me,” directed by Patricia Rozema. The first season aired on HBO in September of 2007. Luke also had the lead as Jimmy Burns in the critically acclaimed Canwest Global television series “Cra$h& Burn.”

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Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams’ range of talents and experience have shaped her career to the point where she has become one of Hollywood’s most sought‐after and respected actors. In the second film debut by Sarah Polley, ‘Take This Waltz,’ Michelle Williams plays the main character, Margot, who is lost when she falls into an erotic love affair with her neighbor. The problem: Margot is already happily married to a cookbook writer, Lou (Seth Rogen). Michelle Williams discusses playing the role and her excitement about working with Sarah Polley.

When the story begins, Margot, 28, is a writer who has not written much. Her husband is a cook, creating recipes for an all chicken cookbook. Lou, coming from a solid, supportive family, is kind and adorable. “Lou makes her feel contained,” Williams observed. “He makes her feel cozy, safe, secure and a little drowsy. Take This Waltz is about Margot on the threshold of moving from being a girl, where it is safe, to a woman, where there are no guarantees. It’s like she’s trying to hang onto something she’s losing her grasp on ‐ all subconsciously of course.”

A two‐time Oscar‐nominee, Williams is more apt to emotionalize her roles rather than intellectualize them. After working with Seth Rogen, she had a heartfelt reaction to how their characters interact. “Knowing him and seeing his performance, I thought, ‘How am I going to walk away from this marriage? He’s so loveable!’ Yet, looking out at the world from Margot’s viewpoint, she wonders if she’s missing out on life and if something’s going to pass her by. Margot feels stuck. She’s not doing exactly what she wants to be doing. She’s not writing exactly what she wants to be writing.” In building this character, Costume Designer Lea Carlson found there to be something gentle and slightly quirky about her, but intentionally didn’t want her to be too sweet. She just slips on a pair of sneakers and, Margot being Margot, everything looks cool in a haphazard, unplanned way.

Contentment can be as deceptive as desire. When Daniel comes along, Williams sees it as being like a shot of adrenaline for Margot. “I think that falling in love is the closest thing to a religious experience that you can have in Western culture,” she professed. “It’s such a gentle thing that causes such a great upheaval in your life, rearranging your morals and your values.” It certainly was the justification Margot used to motivate herself forward, but whether it was real, or simply real enough for her, is the question because Daniel becomes the vehicle for her hopes and dreams and ambitions. “It’s like Daniel is a place for Margot to put it all,” explained Williams.

It is here where the magic of performance becomes genuine because both actor and character embrace the freedom of ambiguity Polley has written into the script and move forward with optimistic hope. Williams shied away from verbalizing how Margot makes her final decision, instead saying, “Does she want more or is she writing it off as something sexual that she wants to explore with Daniel? I hope she’s following her heart, her best heart, her most noble heart. We don’t know if it’s a mistake or not.” The question is, does anyone ever know.

“Margot evolved inside me slowly,” acknowledged Williams. “To me, Margot starts out the movie as an innocent. At first I wondered if she was someone to whom nothing bad had ever happened, and this breakup was her first kind of experience into her shadow‐self. Maybe it was her walk on the wild side. But that evolved and now I don’t think she’s entirely naïve ‐ but she does have a kind of unworldly‐ness about her so that this experience is a transformation. That’s a good thing, but it’s transformation through fire, which is painful.”

Seth Rogen, whose movie relationships have typically been about either meeting or breaking up with a girl, found the ‘happily married’ relationship completely novel. “It was really interesting pretending to be married to someone all day. It’s amazing how easy it is when you’re allowed to be comfortable with yourself when the cameras are rolling ‐ and how awkward it becomes the second they stop rolling. But Michelle made it as easy as it could be, and she’s just 100% real at all times. Because it feels kind of real at times and Michelle’s so nice, it just sucks to have to even pretend to not get along with her.”

Prior to ‘Take This Waltz,’ Michelle has what some would call an interesting, albeit imaginary relationship with Sarah Polley. “This has really has been sort of a dream come true. I told Sarah “You know what I do sometimes before I act, before I met you? I do WWSPD: What Would Sarah Polley Do?” You know when you’re on take #10 of a scene and you still haven’t found your way in, nothing’s clicking, and you’re calling upon the gods for some sort of help? One of my pull‐it‐out‐the‐bag things is, ‘How would Sarah Polley do this scene? What would she do?’”

Even from afar, the respect was reciprocated. Polley assessed the talent of Michelle Williams succinctly, “I think Michelle is the greatest actor of her generation and that’s not a superlative. What I learned from working with her is the difference between good actors and great actors: great actors don’t just surprise their directors or their audience ‐ they surprise themselves. Something about their character blindsides them in the middle of a take and their performance spins off a bit in an incredible, unforeseen direction.” So transcendent was Williams’ performance that Polley was better able to understand the character she created, and, as a result, was able to allow Margot to travel further in her emotional journey. “Michelle has such wisdom about her, such poetry about her, it was hard to keep a character in the same place if it is Michelle who is playing her.”

Image Courtesy of  Take This Waltz

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“Take This Waltz” is produced by Sarah Polley and Susan Cavan. “Sarah found me in 2009 and showed me the script. This was exactly the kind of material I wanted to be doing,” said Cavan, a veteran in the industry. “It’s provocative, unique, and humorous in places, sad in places, and complicated.”

For Cavan, her priority as producer was to provide a safe space within which Sarah and her actors could work. “The best realized movies, especially for auteur filmmakers like Sarah, benefit most from an absence of interference, crisis and chaos. This is an intimate movie, very nuanced with an emotional underpinning to it. To be able to deliver this successfully, the production was structured with a handpicked, first class crew who had a like‐minded approach to the project. Sarah is an enormously talented, perceptive director who is both completely unafraid to explore things that on the surface appear simple. This pertains to both “Away From Her” and “Take This Waltz.” She is very clear in what she wants, possibly one of the clearest communicators I’ve ever met.”

Sarah Polley (Writer, Director, Producer) has been writing and directing in Canada since 1999 when she made her directorial debut with short films. She wrote, directed and produced, “Don’t Think Twice,” starring Tom McCamus and Jennifer Podemski and then “The Best Day of My Life.” In 2001, she wrote, directed and co‐produced, “I Shout Love,” starring Kristen Thomson, who won an Actra Award for her performance in the short. The film also won a 2003 Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama. In 2002, Sarah wrote and directed “The Harp,” one of the episodes of “The Shields Stories” for television.

In 2007, Sarah wrote and directed “Away From Her,” starring Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, and Olympia Dukakis, adapted from the Alice Munro short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” In addition to two Academy Award nominations (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress), “Away From Her” garnered a long list of awards.

Susan Cavan (Producer) is one of Canada’s leading independent film and television producers. She has developed, packaged and produced over one hundred million dollars of critically acclaimed and commercially successful film and television. She is passionately committed to producing material with an original creative point of view. Cavan has been a longtime collaborator of Bruce McCulloch’s (“Kids in the Hall”), and has produced all of his feature films as a director. Their shared projects include the CBC/IFC commercial and critical hit mini‐series “Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town;” “Comeback Season” starring Ray Liotta, and “Stealing Harvard,” a comedy for Imagine Entertainment and Revolution Studios starring Jason Lee and Tom Green, and released by Sony Pictures. Cavan also acted as Executive Producer for Lorne Michaels and Paramount Pictures on the feature film “Superstar” starring Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell.

Cavan’s other credits include “Citizen Duane,” a comedy written by Jonathan Sobol and starring Doug Smith, Donal Logue and Vivica A. Fox; Peter Wellington’s Sundance Festival film “Joe’s So Mean to Josephine” starring Sarah Polley; and “Mesmer,” co‐executive produced with David Bowie and staring Alan Rickman. Television credits include Gemini winner “Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story” starring Tom McCamus; critically acclaimed “Dead Aviators” a cable feature for CBC, Showtime and Hallmark and the Gemini award‐winning series and cult hit “Twitch City” written by and starring Don McKellar and directed by Bruce McDonald, broadcast on Bravo in the US. Cavan was previously a founding partner and President of Alliance Communications, and a Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Cineplex Corporation prior to founding her own independent production company, Accent Entertainment, in 1990.

Image Courtesy of  Take This Waltz

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Luke Kirby first met Sarah Polley in 2002 when they both starred in Peter Wellington’s film, ‘Luck’. “Now she’s the boss,” he said. “And it’s incredibly lovely. I have a very strong sense with Sarah that if she isn’t feeling that we have gotten to where we want to be in a scene, she won’t relent, she won’t settle. I feel a sense of trust and it’s exhilarating. She’s like a very strong little bird in a breadbasket who you’d like to take with you on your picnic. She’s very calm and grounded and present. Those qualities are exceptional. There’s no concern of being embarrassed because of whatever truth she carries.”

Playing Daniel just felt right to Kirby. Daniel is an artist, a solitary man who finances his art life by pulling a rickshaw. Once he meets Margot, everything changes. “The relationship between them is a force too strong to even acknowledge any question of integrity. He knows she is married, but there’s not enough space for him to think about it, and he’s not blind to the spark. It’s too exciting. It feels too good to stop and assess because of the game they are playing which, for the most part, is unconscious – that is until the depth of it and the reality of it hits, which it does, heavily. It seems free at first, but there is a price tag. It is too frightening to acknowledge that there may be some kind of loss.”

There was a happy ease for Kirby moving into playing this role and that had a lot to do with the extensive rehearsal time allotted prior to shooting. “I enjoyed the process mostly for the environment Sarah created, putting us all together. I was very happy just being in a room with Sarah and Michelle and having the space to play and not being at the behest of time constraints,” he said.

The rehearsals included everything ‐ except the martini scene. The scene goes like this: they sit facing each other ‐ untouched martinis in front of them.

Daniel: “Drink.”

Margot: “You drink.”

Daniel: “You first.”

Margot: “I don’t want to get drunk with you.”

Daniel: “I’m impressed by your consistency.”

Margot: “I want.”

Daniel: “You want.”

Margot: “I want to know…” She looks up, bright red. “I want to know what you’d do to me.”

This scene, which continues on to become brazenly explicit, in spite of both actors remaining in public and fully dressed, was a moment of Machiavellian directing. “It was the first time those actors have spent much time with those lines and it was shot on the very first day right after lunch. I think it helped that there was real embarrassment and real awkwardness about that. And yes, I did that deliberately,” Polley stated.

“The martini scene anchored something deep between those two,” said Kirby, “and that only came up in the doing of it. We were vulnerable that day, but it all feels so vulnerable, always. I couldn’t ask for anyone better to play with in this regard. Michelle is entirely there. It’s very easy to smile with her. When I first read the script, I thought, they sure laugh a lot. And it’s very rare that you read ‘laughter’ written into a script and it’s everywhere. And I thought it could be difficult, but it wasn’t.”

When asked about working with Kirby, Williams said, “Each time I’m worried about a scene and how I’m going to approach it, I was comforted when I looked into Luke’s eyes and realized, ‘Oh, I can just relate to what he’s offering me.’”

It was this very point that caused Polley to say that Kirby did an incredible job of making that role into a lot more than she originally imagined. “Luke has played eccentric characters, but there is a striking purity and a kindness to him.”

Daniel’s art is that of Balint Zsako, crisp in contrast to the humid palette of Margot’s life, suggestive, in the spirit of both Inuit art and Aubrey Beardsley’s erotica, again contrasting the submerged sexuality of Margot’s existence. A native of Budapest, now living in New York, Zsako works in several media: collage, sculpture, photography and machines, but for ‘Take This Waltz’, Polley selected his bright water colors of surreal almost mystical hybrids of humanity rendered with exaggerated sexual and fertile qualities.

Kirby did spend some time with the artist in New York. “His work is quite stunning, very beautiful and sensual without being crass. As a person, he was very giving in terms of welcoming me into his home, sharing his process and his work.” There was one distinct point of overlap between the real artist and the character in the film ‐ both are hesitant about showing their work and Zsako was surprised that Daniel shared the portrait with Margot. Kirby could only explain it by way of the script when Daniel says to Margot, ‘There was something about your face that made me want to start talking to people again.’”

Image Courtesy of  Take This Waltz

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Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are rumored to be getting a divorce. Rumors have spread about the split between the couple. They have recognized that their marriage is not always perfect and they are currently having significant problems, but that doesn’t mean they have made the decision to separate.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been married for over 13 years and have two children together. Reports In Touch Weekly s stated the couple has already separated. Sources on www.tmz.com, a gossip site, were told it is “definitely a possibility,” but the couple hasn’t pulled the trigger.

Trey Smith, Will’s son from a previous marriage, wrote on Twitter,  “Will and Jada getting a divorce…not true at all. Retweet.” The couple even released a joint statement shooting down In Touch Weekly’s reports about their split. “Although we are reluctant to respond to these types of press reports, the rumors circulating about our relationship are completely false.

We are still together, and our marriage is intact,”the two stars said. Sources on www.tmz.com doubt the language constructed on their statement. They have become curious since the couple have repeated over and over again that they are still in love and committed to each other.

Smith’s family is going on vacation together.  Sources would neither confirm nor deny if the trip is meant to save the relationship. Smith’s publicist was late to the news and said to TMZ, “What? In Touch said that? I know nothing about this…Lord. I’m going back to bed.” There are also rumors about March Anthony and Jada having an affair. Marc Anthony called the whole story “laughable.”

Earlier this month Anthony said at “Nightline” that he is really upset at these reports because he admitted they have been friends for years. He is bothered by the effect might have on Smith’s family and their loved ones. Anthony also talked for the first time about his divorce with Jennifer Lopez. He said he never cheated on Jennifer Lopez and that he will always love her.

On “Good Morning America” March Anthony kept talking about his divorce wanting to clear up that nothing important caused their separation and there was no infidelity. “I’ll always love Jennifer … and she knows that, it’s important that she knows it and so do my kids,” the singer said.

Will Smith also wants to rip apart every report that says he is splitting from his wife. He wants to clarify all the rumors are ridiculous. When the couple was shopping in Malibu they showed romantic behaviour and they called each other “baby.” For Will and Jada Pinkett Smith the rumors may be just that, but for many stars rumors give a way to reality.

Several celebrities are  known by denying divorce rumors, splitting shortly thereafter, such as, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Heather Mills and Paul McCartney, Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and last but not least.  Avril Lavigne and Deryk Whibley.

 
Left Eyed Photography / Shutterstock.com

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Gwyneth Paltrow admitted it wasn’t easy to make her marriage work. The actress even said she might not be together for good with the Coldplay singer Chris Martin.

Despite this, she confirmed that Coldplay singer was a great father for their children Apple and Moses. The two stars married in California in December 2003. In their seven years of marriage, the actress and the lead singer used to split their time between homes in North London and New York.

There always have been rumours and claims in U.S newspapers and magazines that their marriage was permanently under strain. Finally and without hesitation, Gwyneth Paltrow admitted in an interview with Elle magazine the pressure of her marriage.

“Sometimes it’s hard being with someone for a long time. We go through periods that aren’t all rosy. I always say, life is long and you never know what’s going to happen,” Paltrow said.

Despite her statements, the winner of the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the 1999 film Shakespeare in Love, says the couple have no intention of separating. She said if one day they decide to end the marriage it would be friendly because they have too much respect for each other.

“If, God forbid, we were ever not to be together, I respect him so much as the father of my children. He’s such a good dad,” Paltrow  said.

Paltrow thinks that you can never be relaxed or think that you have everything done with marriage. The couple is brought together by music. The lead singer of Coldplay isn’t the only one with musical talent.

This year Gwyneth made her first spot performing at Grammy Awards, with the help of some of her famous co-stars. She also made an appearance at Glee, CMA Awards and on Saturday Night Live, where she kept being breathtaking. Coldplay is one of the most powerful musical groups, and Paltrow is very proud of her husband’s band.

“He’s a musical genius. It’s like living with Picasso,” she said. Martin “makes music for his fans, and he doesn’t want people to conjure a lame famous couple when they’re getting into his music.” Paltrow is a woman with many talents. The actress has taken on the role of the GOPP guru. She has launched different websites since 2008.

She launched Goop.com where she gives different tips and tricks to her fans, including workout routines they want to know.  She believes her online newsletters are a good way to guide any who is looking for health regimens.

“It’s so much easier to sit home and criticize other people,” she said. “What I love is inspiring people. People come up to me and say, ‘I want to have two kids and wear a bathing suit and not feel terrible about myself. I see how hard you work, and it makes me feel like I can do that too.”

Image Courtesy of adambowie

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In 2004 Iranian woman Ameneh Bahrami´s face, scalp and body were burnt with acid by the man that she declined to marry. According to the “eye for an eye” Iranian law the man should pay the same punishment that he did to her. One week ago, her attacker Majid Movahedi was about to received his penalty when suddenly Bahrami forgave him.

When the doctor was about to put some acid drops in the attacker´s eyes, who was waiting on his knees, he asked Bahrami, whose face is still disfigured, what she wanted to do then.

“I forgave him, I forgave him,” she answered at the last minute.

As Bahrami explained to Iranian state television she didn´t want any revenge, and forgiven was more important for her that any other thing, “it is best to pardon when you are in a position of power,” Bahrami remarked.

Movahedi, said Bahrami was “very generous.”

“I couldn’t imagine being blinded by acid,” said Movahedi as he cried against a wall.

In Iran, victims are allowed to ask for the appliance of Islamic law. According to the law, if no agreement is reached “quisas” also known as the “eye-for-an eye” vengeance is compulsory.

In Bahrami’s attacker’s trial, held November 2008, the court verdict permitted the woman to have a doctor drop acid on one of his eyes as retribution.

After the sentencing, Bahrami told a Spanish radio station that she was satisfied with the ruling. “I am not doing this out of revenge, but rather so that the suffering I went through is not repeated,” she said in the March 2009 interview.

After the attack, the 34-year old woman lost one eye and 40 percent of her vision in the other. Despite attempts to recuperate the damaged eye with a special treatment in Barcelona, Spain, she finally lost all of her eyesight.

According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said Movahedi would remain in jail until a court decides on an alternative punishment. In addition, her aggressor will have to pay financial compensation. In the past, Bahrami asked for up to $200,000 in compensation.

This type of aggression is not the last one to happen in Iran. Last week, a young woman died after a man dropped acid on her face when she declined to marry him.

Amnesty International criticized the Iranian law for allowing this kind of cruel torture to the attackers under medical supervision.  As a consequence to these kinds of sentences, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement that, “the Iranian authorities should review the penal code as a matter of urgency to ensure those who cause intentional serious physical harm, like acid attacks, receive an appropriate punishment; but that must never be a penalty which in itself constitutes torture.”

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The NY Times posted an article in February about a recent trend among college students: getting married to save money on college tuition. It has sparked a heated debate that is still continuing four months later on a number of web sites. The most common objections to this practice are the trampling of the sanctity of marriage, and the loss of ethics. Despite the public interest in debating this topic, it is difficult to find people who are willing to openly discuss their own “paper marriages”.

The people interviewed in the NY Times article refused to be named, and it is for more than simply legal reasons. This article focuses on the legal and ethic ramifications of getting married for lowered tuition, but it ignores the emotions that are often involved in a situation such as this. Different expectations between the bride and groom, family expectations, and criticism from everyone from your friends to your coworkers can make this personal decision fodder for public gossip.

More than just enduring criticism from those around you, there are also the emotional ramifications. Unless you follow the advice of Rick Conley from whypaytuition.com by marrying a complete stranger and securing a prenup that costs thousands of dollars, there is always the danger of someone developing feelings of love or higher expectations than the other. Sure you saved $30,000 in tuition, but now your convenient money-saving technique has backfired. Your friend decides to fall in love with you, while you want to end the marriage as soon as you have your diploma. Even if it is only for financial reasons, getting married is a huge decision, and all possible repercussions should be considered before making this life-changing choice.

As someone who has done it, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, and a lot of unexpected things can happen.

Step back to the summer of 2007. After having to get a high interest loan from a private company to pay for my sophomore year of school, I complained to my ex-boyfriend that unless I got married or had a baby, I was going to end up paying a lot more in school loans than I wanted to. That’s when he suggested that I just go down with him to Las Vegas that winter while he saw his dad for a quick forty dollar ceremony. I wouldn’t even have to tell anyone about it. I agreed and we began to make plans for our winter excursion.

Then in October we got back together, I told my parents about us getting married, and things began to get complicated. My parents pushed for a real ceremony, even though they really wanted me to change my mind. I had started to want a real relationship and a real wedding since we had gotten back together, so I ended up agreeing to the ceremony. My groom dealt with this unpleasant surprise by limiting the guest list to as few people as possible. We spent about $200 total for everything, and got married with about 30 people in attendance.

We stayed with my mother-in-law for the first few months, and then moved into a cheap apartment. The first year we were married was hard on both of us. I wanted our marriage to be real, while he wasn’t ready to commit to staying together. It created a huge discord between us, resulting in tears and hurt feelings. It was only after I learned to not take things so personally, and he decided he really wanted to stay that our marriage began to get better. We were finally together for more than just money or convenience. It was for us, and it was for love.

For all of the pains that we endured, I only ended up getting one $2,000 grant that first year. Because my husband was working full-time at a place that paid $10 an hour, and I was working part-time at Walmart, our income was too high every year after that. If anyone decides to take the plunge and get married, whether it is because you are madly in love with each other, or because you want to get that coveted in-state tuition, make sure to think it over very thoroughly. If you don’t the results could be disastrous.

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Hear that creak? That’s the old trend wheel cycling around, slow, steady, and predictable? Much like the oddly similar collections from opposing designers in fashion week, we often see parallel trends in film.

In 2005, we saw the Wedding trend: Wedding Crashers and The Wedding Date premier within weeks of each other. Wedding Crashers follows the adventures of two young bachelors (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) as the crash weddings to meet women.  In The Wedding Date, Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) takes a male escort (Delmot Mulroney) to her sister’s wedding to pretend she is not single. Both revolve around weddings and treachery, and, with the ringing of church bells so loud, it would be of little surprise if the number of engagement rings sold that year skyrocketed.

This year, we see a similar, yet opposing trend as two new films explore the concept of ‘friends with benefits’. In the soon-to-be-released like-named film, Friends with Benefits, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis’ relationship quickly goes from friendly to complicated when they add sex to the mix. Similarly, in No Strings Attached, two childhood friends, Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, decide to take things to the next level but promise to keep emotions out of it. However, they soon find themselves falling in love, and their arrangement unravels.

What does this mean for 2011? It looks like popular culture is finally catching up with the downward marriage trend of the last few decades, embracing the disassociation with marriage that may be related to the high divorce rates of our parents’ generation. According to the Pew Research Center’s Decennial Census and American Community Survey, 72% of Americas aged 18 and over were married in 1960, compared with just 52% in 2008. On the contrary, the upward trend of those who never married increased from 15% in 1960 to 27% in 2008.

Thankfully this can be seen to mean a loosing in a cultural ideology bound in centuries of tradition where young people do not need to follow the straight in narrow, but in fact have many choices in life. After all, the French translation of the title No Strings Attached is Sex Friends, which, althoug that culture is known to be more open sexually, is a case point. Alas, vive la vie, and have fun kids! There is so much more to life than the American dream.

Please find more information about this subject below:

http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/18/five-decades-of-marriage-trends/

Wedding Crashers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeUSo8voIXM

The Wedding Date: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97EPy5Ky448

Friends with Benefits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34xfcoRceeU

No Strings Attached: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubfcfs98MBw

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