Happy Birthday Daniel Craig!

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman give the shirts off their backs for Charity

Oh, man!  I wish I had been there.  Can you imagine the hearts stopping when Hugh said, "Lock the doors!"  Where's the cellphone video, people?!

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman have given a steamy private performance to a Broadway audience.
At the end of the play A Steady Rain, Jackman said "lock the doors" and told the audience he and Craig were trying to raise funds for the Broadway Cares charity, for AIDS research.
"Then he and Daniel started to peel off their shirts," says Aussie Jan Murray, who was in the audience with Julian Brown. "They announced they were going to auction their singlets for charity."
After a moment's (stunned) silence in the crowd, an all-out bidding war broke out. "It became a frenzied bid among New York's female fans for the sweaty tees of Wolverine and James Bond," Murray says.
The actors raised more than $20,000 in donations.

Hugh Jackman & Daniel Craig vs. the Cellphone

In character, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig react to a cellphone that goes off twice during their Broadway play, 'A Steady Rain.'

I saw Hugh Jackman in Boy From Oz and he would stop the show, in character, and call out people who came in late. "Traffic, darlings? We'll wait."

Daniel Craig on a stick

Del Monte asked 1000 women who they'd deem worthy of a popsicle, and they chose Daniel Craig. Unfortunately you can only get these in England. Daniel Craig. License to Chill. In blueberry, pomegranate and cranberry flavors and only 100 calories!

Who would you want to give a big lick to? In the US, we've got Wolverine pops, but they sure don't have Hugh Jackman's six pack!

Daniel Craig AND Hugh Jackman in Broadway Play!

I had a very difficult afternoon, but my husband gave me the best news when I got home. I thought Hugh Jackman was going to do a musical next on Broadway, maybe a Carousel revival or a new play about Houdini. Instead, he's doing a serious play about two Chicago cops with Daniel Craig, in Craig's Broadway debut!! You better believe I will be flying to NYC to see this one!!!

From the Chicago Suntimes:

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman are set to star in Keith Huff's play "A Steady Rain" slated for this fall. They’re playing Chicago cops, no less. In what’s perhaps the ultimate good cop/bad cop scenario, the drama tells the story of two best friends and partners who — after answering a call about a domestic dispute in an inner-city neighborhood that results in the accidental death of a boy — find their friendship put to the ultimate test.

The play won several local theater awards in its run in Chicago in 2007.

The NY Post reports:

Craig, whose Bond movies "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" are among the highest grossing films of all time, will be making his New York stage debut. He started off in the theater in London, playing bit parts, but he has not appeared in a play in several years.

Jackman won a Tony Award in 2004 for his role as Peter Allen in "The Boy From Oz."

Although the musical received mixed reviews, Jackman became a box-office sensation, shaking a pair of maracas and flouncing around the stage in tight leopard pants.

"The Boy From Oz" regularly grossed more than $1 million a week. Jackman became the most sought-after leading man in the theater, though he's turned down every offer to star in another show until now.

"Everybody wanted him to do a musical, but he wanted to do a serious play," a theater source says. Theater sources say Craig and Jackman have the potential to match Broadway's biggest box- office champ, Julia Roberts, who sold over $10 million worth of tickets in just 12 weeks in the play "Three Days of Rain" in 2006.

Although "A Steady Rain" is harsh and harrowing, one Broadway wag predicted that even those theatergoers whose tastes run to splashy musicals will want to see it.

Said the wag: "Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in police uniforms? All the boys will be there!"

Hey, I'd love to see Hugh do another musical, but I'll take whatever he has on offer. I sat third row center for Boy From Oz, and it is a night I will never forget. Hugh Jackman is simply amazing and he doesn't always need to have metal claws to get me to buy a ticket. A play about two cops doesn't sound like Hugh and Daniel will be shirtless, but we can still hope!

Catherine Tate and Daniel Craig

The look on Daniel Craig's face!

The Ultimate British Man

With Hugh Grant's floppy mane and Daniel Craig's famous piercing blue eyes, this is the face of the ultimate British man.

The Notting Hill star and Quantum of Solace actor both feature in a new computer-generated composite which represents the average male's most wanted celebrity features.

More than 40 per cent of men surveyed liked the nose of Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom, who is currently dating Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr.

And while he may be most famous for his sporting prowess, English rugby union player Jonny Wilkinson’s pout also won legions of fans in the survey.

Almost half voted for Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton's skin while Ewan McGregor's chiselled jaw rounded out the list.

Check out The Mail Online to see the pics used for the composite.

Daniel Craig the villain

Jamie Bell (all grown up!) from Billy Elliot will be Tintin and Daniel Craig will be his co-star as the dastardly pirate Red Rackham.
From the BBC:

British actor Daniel Craig, best known for playing secret agent James Bond, has signed up to play the villain in the new Tintin movie.

The 40-year-old has landed the role of Red Rackham opposite Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell, who will play the intrepid young reporter Tintin.

Filming for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg, has already begun.

It is thought the Tintin movie, planned for released in 2011, will be the first of two or three movies.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who is co-producing the project with Spielberg, has been lined up to direct the sequel.

Confused by what Tintin is all about? Read this article on the European cult of Tintin.

Completely Gratuitous

Daniel Craig vacationing in the Caribbean. He really does wear short Speedos!

Hurray for Chest Hair

Jessi Klein has written a hilarious article on The Daily Beast about the return of chest hair:

After many years of drought, during which the only reliable source of manly tuft seemed to be the Baldwin brothers, chest hair has returned with a vengeance as the sign of sex appeal and virility. Mad Men star Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper) is entertainment’s tall drink of testosterone du jour.

Even the Tiger Beat crowd is sporting post-pubescent chest curls these days. Robert Pattison, the delicately anemic looking young star of Twilight, has unbuttoned just enough on the red carpet to reveal a healthy crop of pectoral fuzz. And Gossip Girl fave Ed Westwick, while barely of legal drinking age, has the dark downy appearance of someone who has spent all day frolicking with a black Pug.

Then there are the ubiquitous everyman hunks of the Judd Apatow empire, the thinking woman’s boyfriends: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and Seth Rogen. All three are endowed with chest hair that could best be described as “enough for a handful” (employing the phrase I’ve heard men use to evoke the ideal-sized breast.) And while they all play man-children with immature tendencies, their resolute hairiness is a reminder of their ultimately full-grown hearts.

Frolicking with a black Pug! *snort* Read the rest here. Being married to a hairy man myself, I have to admit that I also agree that an obviously waxed chest (Daniel Craig are you listening?) is a bit off-putting. I find Seth Rogen's teddy bear "enough for a handful" qualities, well, sexy!

Quantum of Solace - Mini-Review

First, the absolute BEST thing about seeing Quantum of Solace was the Star Trek trailer. It totally got me from that little kid declaring, "James Tiberius Kirk!" I'll post it online tomorrow when they make it available.

I thoroughly enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig is a great Bond, and as my son said, "We got to see tons of explosions!" There was one particular knife fight scene that definitely was influenced by the Bourne films. I just wish Bond's morose demeanor wasn't also so much Jason Bourne, and Dark Knight for that matter. A. O. Scott noticed the same thing in his NY Times review. Does every hero now have to be a tragic hero?

This is a good film, but it's not as good as Casino Royale, because there's no Bond joie de vivre. He's mourning Vespa, and he's out for revenge. Got it. But couldn't he seduce Strawberry Fields in a more amusing way than telling her he can't find the stationary in his hotel bedroom? In Casino Royale we had some witty banter and tension with Vespa. I'm not expecting to go back to the old Bond bimbo days, but a little spark would be nice.

The plot? I couldn't explain it to you if I tried. My husband and I joked all the way home about how weird the villain's goal was -- not to rule the world, but more in the meeeeellion dollar category -- to corner the market on Bolivian WATER. Water, for cripes sake! It's still not clear if Bond was dealing with a middle man, and more will be revealed about the super secret Quantum organization in the next film.

I won't be as harsh as the Chicago Tribune (2 1/2 stars) or Roger Ebert (2 stars). It's a Bond film, so expectations are high. It was action value for the money, and worth seeing on the big screen so three stars. The action sequences are stellar. I just hope that Bond dropping that necklace at the end means he's over it, and he'll at least give us a little smirk once in a while next film.

Daniel Craig yumminess

''It's better than picking a title just because it has the word die in it. At least Quantum of Solace evokes the spirit of Ian Fleming's writing.''
Daniel Craig's on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Three more days and counting!

Defiance Trailer

Not only do we get Daniel Craig as Bond next month, but we get a possible Oscar nod role in Defiance. Defiance's release date has been pushed to late December for the Oscar season. Love Liev Shreiber, too, and glad to see him getting such a great role. Looks even more awesome than I'd hoped from what I'd heard about it.

New Quantum of Solace Trailer

Hot! Looks like even more action than Casino Royale.

New Quantum of Solace Pics

Thanks to Empire!