Julia managed to make it all the way over to the center lane, and eventually head on into an on coming car carrying a family of 4. Everyone was injured. 2 people in the oncoming car were seriously injured. The jaws of life had to be used to extract them. Also no arrests were made at the scene - but investigators are looking into it. Why jump to conclusions? Julia wasn't necessarily drunk or stoned. Maybe she just graduated from the Lindsay Lohan Driving Academy. If she was driving a Toyota or Honda she might even have grounds for a sudden acceleration suit. No word on whether corny lady driver jokes are making a come back.
Speaking of sudden acceleration, that's what happened to actress Emma Thompson's mouth recently. Thompson has had a hot week what with getting her new star on the walk of fame. She posed for that in front of the Pig & Whistle pub while holding a piglet. There's really no life like show business. Anyway Thompson has been busy hyping up her new My Fair Lady pic. It was supposed to star Kiera Knightly based on her being the most Audrey Hepburnish of modern actresses. Except that Kiera has bailed. Must be another Pirates of the Caribbean in the works, 'cause I know that she ain't making a sequel to Domino.
Well that left Thompson scrambling around for a plausible leading lady before her project started to come apart (That can happen fast in the glamorous world of movie making. Even established A list directors can have a pet project either stalled for years, or suddenly get canceled while it's in preproduction!). She's talking with Carey Mulligan - who something might just be Hepburnish enough - but it ain't a done deal. That leaves Thompson asking "Who needs Audrey Hepburn to remake MFL?" At least that's what she asked right out loud in a couple of interviews with The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
When asked about the project and about Hepburn. Thompson replied that she thought that Hepburn was over rated. In fact she went on to describe her as window dressing. She went o to say that she thought Hepburn was sweet in a dumb, childlike way, but almost irritatingly so. She even used the Brit term 'twee' to describe the late Oscar winning actress. The closest American equivalent to twee might be 'simp', or 'simpering'.
Now maybe Thompson thought that she was doing herself some kind of favor. Down playing Audrey Hepburn might be a way of increasing the credibility of her Audreyless project. However there was one flaw. Hepburn is a beloved Hollywood icon. She has the kind of legendary status that today's performers only dreaming of getting. She's also still got enough fans to get outraged. So now some blow back is slowly building in Ms Thompson's direction. No word as yet on whether her reps are saying that she was taken out of context, but I'm sure we'll hear something as her new Nanny McPhee movie is about to be released.
