A More Seductive Coffee Break with Dominic West

Man, those Brits know how to do ads. This is a new viral online campaign by Carte Noire coffee for a "more seductive coffee break".

Carte Noire is aiming to inject sex appeal into coffee breaks using actors including The Wire's Dominic West to read steamy excerpts from novels such as Pride & Prejudice in Jackanory-style online video clips.

The campaign, perhaps designed as the thinking woman's equivalent of the Diet Coke break hunk, aims to give women a diversion when they want some "me-time" over a cup of coffee.

Kraft-owned Carte Noire has signed up West, Cranford actor Greg Wise and Dan Stevens, whose credits include Sense and Sensibility, in a series of online videos reading romance scenes from 30 classic titles.

Watch and listen to Dominic West (300 and The Wire) read the proposal scene from Pride and Prejudice. A late birthday present for me, as it was posted on my birthday. It could almost make a girl switch to coffee from tea!

There are eight coffee break readings so far.

14 Romantic Movies I Love from the 2000's

Are these films all Oscar worthy? No. But I love them, and would stop and watch them again on cable any day. Not necessarily in order:

14. Down With Love. Ewan McGregor in a frothy musical. What's not to love?! The costumes and sets just make me smile.

13. Moulin Rouge. Ewan McGregor in an angst filled frenetic musical. What's not to love?! And it's Baz!

12. Amelie. A French film filled with whimsy.



11. The Holiday. Jack Black is sweet, but Jude Law redeemed himself to me (somewhat), and that took some doing. He's what we call mommy porn in this movie, and I just try to ignore Cameron Diaz.

10. Far From Heaven. Modeled after the melodramas of the 50's and just beautiful to look at, too.


9. Lost in Translation. Not everyone likes this film, but I adore it. Bill Murray is so great in this, and from someone who knows him, totally himself in it.

8. 40 Year Old Virgin. What could have been just a crass comedy, is actually incredibly sweet. The first of the Judd Appatow dynasty.

7. Pride & Prejudice. Nothing can match Colin Firth's mini-series, but this movie does a great job capturing the essence of the romance in a two hour film.


6. Bridget Jones Diary. Hilarious, and also you have Colin Firth spoofing his own performance as Darcy from the Pride and Prejudice mini-series.

Bridget: Wait a minute... nice boys don't kiss like that.
Mark Darcy: Oh, yes, they f**king do.

5. Twilight. Swoon! An excellent film version of the novel.

4. Once. A simply magical little film. The two musicians in the film became lovers in real life, although I heard they just broke up.

3. Brokeback Mountain. If Heath Ledger wins the Oscar for playing the Joker this year, it will partly for being robbed for his amazing portrayal of Ennis. I dare you not to cry when he clutches those two shirts, one inside the other.

2. Kate & Leopold. I absolutely adore Hugh Jackman in this movie as the Duke. It's my favorite film of his, and it tickles me pink that he and Liev Shreiber are reuniting in Wolverine, where Liev will play Sabretooth.

Leopold: I warn you scoundrel, I was trained at the King's Academy and schooled in weaponry by the palace guard. You stand no chance. When you run, I shall ride, when you stop, the steel of this strap shall be lodged in your brain.
[bag snatcher throws down the bag an flees, onlookers applaud]

Kate: Are you for real?
Leopold: I believe so.

1. Love Actually. I remember seeing this movie in the theater with a friend, and the first thing she said when it ended was, "I want to see it again!" There are so many great moments in this movie (Hugh Grant dancing!), but I love Colin Firth and his maid who only speaks Portuguese. He learns enough to come back and propose to her:

[in Portuguese]
Jamie: Beautiful Aurelia, I've come here with a view of asking you to marriage me. I know I seems an insane person - because I hardly knows you - but sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof. And I will inhabit here, or you can inhabit with me in England.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.

Who wouldn't want to read the new and improved version? You just can't have enough zombies, I've always said. lol

Owning Mr. Darcy

From The Times

Today, a handful of die-hard fans were engaged in a bitter bidding war to own a piece of the smouldering aristocrat who won the hearts of millions in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice.

A portrait of Firth as Mr Darcy, which hung in the character’s fictional mansion in the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, was finally auctioned for £12,000 at Bonhams today, double its estimated price. The oil painting, which shows the actor gazing soulfully through the canvas in full period costume, featured in the fourth episode of the drama in which Elizabeth visits Darcy’s ravishing country estate, Pemberley.

It was accompanied at auction by a signed letter from Firth, who sent women nationwide into a collective swoon when he emerged from a lake tousled and dripping in a wet shirt during the same episode.

The actor wrote: “The painting was basically a bit part player in episode four of the BBC’s 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.

“Looking at him now I would say he has weathered better than most of us. In fact, he is the only character you can meet in person who looks precisely as he did the day he was filmed.

“Whatever you think of him today, you can consider yourselves fortunate to have been spared his earliest incarnation. Mr Darcy Mark 1 came across as a shabby, insubstantial, derelict-looking actor.”

The so called “wet shirt scene”, which comes just after Elizabeth is shown gazing dreamily at the portrait hanging in Pemberley’s Great Hall, is credited with being one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history.

The painting sold for twice the estimated amount, and proceeds were donated to charity.

You can see the $16,500 portrait in my friend Sooth's Pride and Prejudice fan video set to the song Eden. One of my all time favorites that I love to watch on my iPod.