Casting !t: Just Kids
It was announced yesterday via MediaBistro that rock goddess and National Book Award winning author Patti Smith with be helping adapt her amazing memoir Just Kids (my Favor!te book of 2010) for the screen alongside screenwriter and Tony Award winning playwright John Logan.
If you haven’t heard (I can’t see how you haven’t), Just Kids is Smith’s memoir of arriving in New York in 1967 and the then 20 year old’s chance encounter with Robert Mapplethorpe, another 20 year old aspiring artist. It’s her story of their love, their friendship, their art and a New York few would recognize today.
So the question goes out… who would you cast as Smith and Mapplethorpe?
Kristen Stewart (age: 21) and Robert Pattison (age: 25)
Surely these two will be at the top of studio exec’s wish list. Stewart, proved that she could rock in her transformation into Joan Jett in the film biopic The Runaways and the resemblance between the two [rumored] real-life couple to the originals is uncanny. But the fit and the two megastars’ ties to the mega-Twilight-franchise may not hit audiences (or Ms. Smith) the right way.
Frances Bean Cobain (age: 19) and Ezra Miller (age: 18)
The Princess of Grunge as the Godmother of Punk? Can Miss Cobain act? Who knows? But if she can – and would want to step up into the Hollywood world, the photos by Hedi Slimane that recently were released prove she has the look – and the balls – to play Smith. I’d cast the currently almost famous Ezra Miller as Mapplethorpe against Cobain’s Smith. He has the East Village circa 1967 thing down already – and if his performance in the upcoming We Need to Talk About Kevin is as amazing as is being predicted, this could be the massive follow-up he will be looking for.
Emma Watson (age: 21) and Nicholas Hout (age: 21)
Former Harry Potter student Emma Watson seems poised for an image-crashing turn in to catapult her out of Hogwarts. I’d pair her with fellow Brit Nicholas Hout, who came to fame years ago in About a Boy and crashed his own child-star image in the amazing British take on Gossip Girl (but dirtier and better) Skins. His follow-up to that, playing the lovelorn college boy pining for a night with professor Colin Firth in Tom Ford’s A Single Man.
Jennifer Damiano (age: 20) and Eddie Redmayne (age: 29)
Perhaps the modern day Smith and Mapplethorpe might be found forty blocks north of The Village and on Broadway. Jennifer Damiano got amazing attention for her originating role in Spring Awakening. Followed by her Tony-nominated role in Next to Normal. Currently she’s starring in Spider Man. So she should be looking for a new job soon. The Mapplethorpe to Damiano’s Smith? Eddie Redmayne, the Tony award-winning star of Red and the upcoming film My Week with Marilyn.
So who do you think should be cast as Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe in Just Kids?
An Empire State of Heels
I was walking along 34th street this weekend when I was literally stopped in my tracks by the sequined heels on display in the Geox store window. I thought to myself: “Are those heels in the shape of the Empire State Building???” Indeed they were! Check out the window display below:
I simply had to find out more! After some sleuthing online, I found out I had been looking at the Geox limited edition Empire State Building heels, conveniently for sale right next to the iconic skyscraper itself.
Available in gold or silver, the 5-inch heels are covered with rhinestones to represent the skyscraper windows. The body of the shoe comes in leopard print, purple and blue sequins, or black sequins, and a choice of open or closed-toe.
With a price tag of $230, tourists may not wish to forsake their standard I <3 NY t-shirts for the heels, but they are certainly the most fashionable New York City keepsake I have seen in a while.
Don’t they just put you in an “Empire State of Mind“?
Pearls of Wisdom from Mr. Gene Simmons
We followed legendary KISS rocker Gene Simmons yesterday as he toured morning shows and book signings in NYC to promote his new book, KISS KOMPENDIUM (on-sale today). The experience was…entertaining, to say the least. Here’s what we learned from Gene about love, life, and being a very powerful and attractive man:
Gene does not smoke or drink. (Hear that folks? Straight edge is cool).
He does all his own makeup before shows, which takes him about 2 hours.
Gene was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. when he was 8. He also studied at a Yeshiva for a time before he started his music career.
His thoughts on that whole Tiger Woods situation: Women need to get a hobby. Why would a guy want to have sex with other women if he’s married? Because he can. Men are only driven by sex, period. Women need to stop obsessing about what he’s thinking and start worrying about their own lives.
Similarly: Girls grow up and mature, but men are always 12 year-old boys at heart.
On why he didn’t get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but ABBA did: KISS has sold more than 80 million albums. You can’t beat that, no matter what some committee says.
The craziest thing a fan has ever done upon meeting him: Too dirty to print.
Comment below with your questions for the rocker !
The team before the book signing
Now THAT is love.
The tiniest KISS fan in the crowd--this boy made a special book for Gene at school!
I <3 your style
