Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman Updates 09/06/10

Wow- the final weekend run on the Summer Lovin' Tour... very bitter sweet. Thanks for a fantastic summer
posted by @KeithUrban


http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100906/NEWS02/100905014/Champlain-Valley-Fair-hits-end-of-the-ride

Otherwise, numbers for the 10-day fair are pretty good. Over the Labor Day weekend, he said, the fair is at times the largest city in the state. Saturday, he said, 15,000 to 20,000 came in at the gate, close to 10,000 watched Keith Urban, several thousand more came with discount tickets, 5,000 to 10,000 came with group tickets and another 2,000 to 3,000 had tickets bought at Price Chopper.

The Champlain Valley Fair is ending after tonight. Sunday afternoon, it was on pace to match the numbers of the last three “very good” years, Champlain Expo Treasurer Kevin Marchand said.







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Keith Urban thrills crowd with wild 'n' rockin' show at Oakdale

WALLINGFORD, CONN. – Keith Urban is 42 years old but he makes teenage girls scream as loud as their mothers.
He also manages to ignite the animal instincts in virtually every female of any age but this is no boy toy under bright lights. Urban may be well chiseled and camera friendly but he’s also a phenomenal entertainer, a barn-burning guitar player and a passionate singer, as he proved again and again Sunday before a packed house at the Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre.
The Australian heartthrob – husband of actress Nicole Kidman – turned in a rollicking two hour finale to his “Summer Lovin’” tour, often drawing Beatlemania type shrieks from the predominantly female audience. Wearing jeans and a tight, short-sleeve black shirt with three buttons undone, he kicked off the night with the pulsating “Kiss a Girl,” ably backed by his three-piece band.
Urban is classified as country but he’s marginal country and falls a lot more into the crossover rock territory. Except for an occasional bit of twang it’s tough to figure why any rock fan would write him off thinking simply that “he’s that country guy.” Indeed, Urban can rock with the best of them and his high-energy stage show is absolutely one of the best in the business.
After a rockin’ “Days Go By,” other early set highlights included a harmony-filled “Sweet Thing,” a kickin’ “Where the Blacktop Ends,” and the highly-melodic crowd fave “You’re My Better Half.”
A strong “I’m In,” off Urban’s latest album “Defying Gravity,” followed before the atmospheric, slow building “’Til Summer Comes Around,” which featured some stellar guitar work by the star.

The acoustic-based ballad “Making Memories of Us,” and the sing-along “Only You Can Love Me This Way,” each shined, but after that, Urban and his bandmates turned up the power and the intensity for the rest of the night.Opening act Kris Allen, winner of the eighth season of “American Idol” joined Urban for a rousing cover of “Jack and Diane,” and when Allen briefly drew a blank on some of the lyrics, Urban had the rising star and the crowd laughing when he shouted out “And you won ‘American Idol?’” The crowd went into near total hysteria when Urban jumped into the audience for a raucous rendition of the playful “You Look Good in My Shirt.” This wasn’t just an obligatory step or two into the first couple of rows. Urban raced up the aisles singing the song, providing quite a challenge for the security staff trying to keep up with him – while trying to keep fans from some overly-aggressive star-grabbing. Urban even stood in the center of the theatre, singing heartily near the soundboard to fire up the crowd in the back of the room. Mission accomplished and then some. He was laughing by the time he finally returned to the stage, ending the song flat on his back, evoking a deafening roar from the throng. There was still time for plenty of passion however, especially during the lyrically stinging “You’ll Think of Me,” a classic break-up song. In a classy gesture, Urban brought out his friend and Australian country star Troy Cassar-Daley who took center stage for a fine version of Curtis Mayfield’s gospel soul classic “People Get Ready.” After the optimistic “Better Life,” Urban returned for encores that included a solo version of Dusty Springfield’s often-covered “I Only Want to Be With You,” and the full-band workout “Somebody Like You.” Allen’s opening set was well received, sparked by a driving rendition of his newest single “The Truth,” his breakthrough hit “Live Like We’re Dying,” and covers of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and The Beatles’ “Come Together,” the latter two culled from his “American Idol” appearances.





Video of Keith performing with Troy! A must-see!



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Here's a nice write-up about one of Nicole's more underrated movies and performances....Margot At The Wedding


Overlooked Movie Monday: Margot at the Wedding

Can a film whose central characters are uniformly unlikeable be dramatically compelling in their midst?

“Margot at the Wedding,” Noah Baumbach’s caustic follow up to his 2005 foray into the dynamics of divorce, “The Squid and the Whale,” raises that question right at its onset and persists in not chocking up an easy answer to it. It tells the story of Margot—a self-centered, passive-aggressive egotist played to perfection by Nicole Kidman—and her son, Claude, as they attend her sister’s wedding in the Hamptons and stay the weekend at their childhood home.

The aesthetic brings to mind Bergman’s delicate, icy approach to familial acrimony and the hand-held neo-realism of many a contemporary drama. The palate is one of desaturated grays and browns and blues and pinks, and it is the best visual rendering of a gloomy weekend culminating in marriage I can recall. Everything about it feels melancholy, and it’s a fully appropriate format for the film’s array of misanthropes to congregate and collectively ruin.

jack black jennifer jason leigh margot at the wedding 2007Instead of the lot feigning normalcy or putting on airs and then finally breaking down into hysterics, Baumbach has it so that the moment everyone is situated in a close proximity to one another, they immediately reignite (or otherwise develop entirely) their dysfunction in lots of colorfully passive-aggressive and immature ways. The film is an exercise in dashed expectations—in every scene where enjoying one another’s company enters the realm of possibility, it’s almost always sidelined by one or more person’s awkwardness or hostility.

Naturally, Margot disapproves of her sister Pauline’s fiancée, Malcolm, and spends her time smoldering with contempt as a result. Their tacit rivalry is an example of the time-tested archetype of the judgmental sophist and the stooge. And who better to play that stooge than Jack Black?

As Pauline, Margot’s sister, Jennifer Jason Leigh maintains a certain equanimity throughout the performance and really only expresses angst backhandedly and under the radar. They’re all doing some of their best work. Throw in heartfelt and effective performances from the younger half of the cast and John Turturro (one of the most delightful surprises in movies, period) as Margot’s (soon-to-be-estranged?) husband, and the end result is a rich and satisfying, if somewhat bleak, character drama.

kidman jason leigh margot at the wedding 2007Baumbach’s strengths undoubtedly have their roots in his literary background (see “Squid” if this contention seems murky). His dialogue is incisive and droll and usually plays to one or more psychological defects the character spewing it is harboring; his characterizations are unremitting, honest, and unsentimental. There’s a certain grace and beauty to everyone’s emotional ugliness.

And that brings us back to the key question raised by a film of this disposition: Why should unlikeable characters preclude an emotional point of entry for the viewer? If they’re painted as pitiable and insecure and their delinquency isn’t celebrated, sympathy—or at least some version of understanding—shouldn’t be too strenuous to muster.

Cinema has beckoned greater sympathies for villains far more despicable than the insecure narcissists who populate “Margot at the Wedding.” These are people who navigate their interpersonal experiences like wounded puppies and exist in a mode of self-defense; they’re not serial killers. When people reject movies with unsavory characters at face value, I think it’s more or less an admission that they hit too close to home.


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Twentieth Century Fox Celebrates 75th Anniversary At Hollywood Bowl

Posted Sunday September 5, 2010 - 11pm

By Brenton Garen, Beverly Hills Courier

The ever so iconic Twentieth Century Fox theme tune was the opening score at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night as its orchestra paid tribute to the studio's 75th anniversary.

Conductor David Newman led the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra through many award-winning scores that included The Sound of Music, Star Wars, Avatar and more which were projected on the Bowl's big screen.

The night's event, titled The Big Picture: The Films of Twentieth Century Fox, was hosted by Robert Osborne.

The night opened with a montage of clips from 165 of the studio's films, to the opening theme of Star Wars.

Early into the evening, Osborne spoke about the studio's most acclaimed musical director Alfred Newman.

"For 20 years, he was the studio's general musical director, he composed the music for over 300 films, he even did the 20th Century Fox fanfare we hear at the beginning of every Fox film," Osborne said.

"One of the great treats tonight for us is the fact that his son David Newman is our conductor tonight.

"Alfred Newman went on to be the most honored musical in the history of the Academy Awards and Hollywood - 45 Academy Award nominations and 9 Academy Awards."

Highlights in the first half of the evening were a montage of clips from Slum Dog Millionaire and a sequence between Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge.

For more click HERE

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It looks like Trespass is on break from filming until after Labor Day.

http://www.onlocationvacations.com/

An update from Nicole's stand-in says she starts later this week

jenngreen.com

And the family is in Nashville

Aamandan5: Just saw keith urban and nicole kidman and sunday rose at Green Hills Mall about 2 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry

Alena29: My friend just FBed that she's eating at the Cheesecake Factory across from Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban. Tempted to join her for lunch! lol 24 minutes ago via TweetDeck


a funny tweet from yesterday

ScarlettDomino: My confusion of Tim McGraw and Keith Urban made my Mom want to go to the WFC. Now she's mad because McGraw's not married to Nicole Kidman.