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It used to be that if you wanted to be a Broadway star, you had to get yourself to Broadway first. Now, especially for young actors, Broadway’s talent scouts and casting directors are increasingly coming to you.
The new production of Annie is holding an online casting call. Hundreds of kids have auditioned via videotape, submitting performances recorded in their living rooms far from the glitz of New York.
Online casting searches are a relatively new thing. Even when they’re not formally collecting audition tapes, though, casting directors are increasingly relying on the Internet to help them find new talent. That’s right, your homemade YouTube clips really might be sitting on a talent scout’s laptop right now.
Are the producers of the Real Housewives franchise violating child labor laws?
The answer to that question is … maybe, according to an investigation published in the Los Angeles Times yesterday.
At issue is how shows ranging from The Real Housewives of New Jersey to Kate Plus 8 should be classified. Children appearing in movies and traditional scripted television series’ enjoy much protection and oversight, from state laws regulating child labor to union rules setting the working conditions for actors under the age of 18. However, producers of reality shows such as the Real Housewives series routinely argue that the programs are documentaries and, therefore, the underage children they are filming do not need to be considered or treated as employees. Continue reading »
Parents profiting off of a child's misery?
Last week in teeth-gnashing, we featured the video of Hannah, a crying 4-year-old whose mother recorded the girl’s anguish over moving to Japan. It’s a tough video to watch — I couldn’t find anything cute about it. And more than one commenter wondered what the mother was thinking sharing such a personal moment on YouTube.
Maybe she was thinking “David After Dentist,” the video of a seven-year-old still loopy from his trip to the dentist. Not everyone thought that video was cute, either. But who needs anonymous approval when two minutes from your child’s life can now pay for their college and then some.
How much, exactly?
Do you remember that baby-faced Andy Keaton? The wide-eyed cherub that adored his older brother, Alex P. (Michael J. Fox) on ‘Family Ties’?
When most people think about the movie “Say Anything…,” they think about John Cusack, a boombox and Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Then they think about Lili Taylor singing “Joe Lies.” Then maybe they think about John Cusack, on a payphone in the pouring rain, proclaiming, “I gave her my heart. And she gave me a pen.”
But eventually, after they’ve covered all those things, they will eventually recall that Cusack’s character — the iconic, perpetually romantic kickboxer Lloyd Dobler — had a nephew. You remember this kid. He also did a little kickboxing. He had a mullet. His mom was played by Joan Cusack. And when Lloyd asked, “Hey, my brother. Can I borrow a copy of your ‘Hey Soul Classics’?,” the kid responded: “No, my brother. You have to go buy your own.”
Turns out little Jason Dobler was played by an actor named Glenn Walker Harris, Jr. And since 2009 marks the 20th (!) anniversay of “Say Anything…,” this seems like as good a time as any to find out what happened to him.
It takes a very special girl to win the heart of Steve Urkel. And Laura Winslow — as played by Kellie Williams during nine seasons of TV’s “Family Matters” — was just that sort of special girl.
Williams, a native of Forestville, Md., in the Washington D.C. area, dabbled in modeling and theater before she snagged her starring role on the ABC (and later, briefly, CBS) sitcom at the age of 13. So what has happened to her since the days of laugh tracks and listening to Urkel repeatedly ask the question, “Did I do that?” Let’s find out.
Of all the demonically possessed kids to ever show their devilish faces in a horror movie, Regan McNeill in “The Exorcist” is easily the most terrifying — and memorable. Is there anyone who grew up in the ’70s and wasn’t absolutely petrified by the sight of her freaky head spinning all the way around? Or later, when the footage was reinserted into the film, the image of her crawling, spider-like, down a staircase?
It seems only fitting, then, to bring this month’s Halloween-themed Rich or Rehabs to a close with a primer on the queen of the child horror stars, the actress who played Regan: Linda Blair.
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