Club Jade

The Nerdist Channel has the latest episode of their All-Star Celebrity Bowling show, and it’s the Wolfpack from Star Wars: The Clone Wars taking on Chris Hardwick and his team from Nerdist. Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein, Catherine Taber, and Dee Bradley Baker hope to strike back at host Chris Hardwick. There’s probably more bowling / Star Wars puns to be had here, but I’ll spare you.

Original trilogy make-up artist Stuart Freeborn has died at age 98, the BBC reports.

Freeborn worked on many celebrated films, including Stanley Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Star Wars fans will know him best as the man who created Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt and Yoda. He famously based Yoda’s face on Albert Einstein – and himself.

StarWars.com writes more about his Star Wars contributions, as well as comment from George Lucas:

“Stuart was already a makeup legend when he started on Star Wars,” said George Lucas. “He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy. His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His Star Wars creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films.”

Below the cut, a two-part documentary where Freeborn talks about his work.

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Director Bobby Razak, who’s well known in the world of action sports, is turning his focus to Amanda Lucas and her MAA career with an upcoming documentary Featuring interviews with both Amanda and her father, the doc will “cover several years of Amanda’s life with a major focus on her entry into the women’s MMA circuit.”

Kathleen Kennedy is the The Hollywood Reporter‘s cover story and naturally, it begins with how she convinced J.J. Abrams to take on Episode VII:

Famously plain-spoken, she summarizes her pitch like this: “Please do Star Wars.” And she had cards to play. Not only was Oscar winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) writing the script, but Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote 1980′s The Empire Strikes Back and 1983′s Return of the Jedi, was on board to consult. Abrams “was flipping out when he found out that Michael and Larry were on the movie already,” says Kennedy.

Abrams tells THR, “I learned firsthand how incredible and persuasive she is.” Some — but not all — of his reservations were dispelled. “The thing about any pre-existing franchise — I’d sort of done that,” he says. “But when I met with Kathy, it was suddenly very tantalizing.”

Kennedy goes on to discuss Lincoln’s Oscar campaign and her partnership with director Steven Spielberg, including this cute tidbit of how George Lucas approached him about hiring her:

Lucas called to raise the issue during a dubbing session on Lincoln. “He actually asked for her hand in business,” says Spielberg. “I wasn’t going to stand in her way.”

We learn that she’s commited to Lucasfilm for 5 years, splitting time between San Francisco and Los Angeles, her start in the business, meeting husband Frank Marshall and more.

As for Lucas? Spielberg says he’s ready to stay retired:

Asked whether he believes Lucas can really keep his distance, Spielberg doesn’t hesitate. “I completely know he can do that,” he says. “He’s ready to start living without the burden and weight and responsibility of this huge corporate asset.”

In short, if you’re curious about Kennedy, this article is a good place to start!

As Star Wars fandom argues whether or not Leia can fly an X-wing, Carrie Fisher considers her GFFA doppelganger – and that “foolish focus-pulling hairstyle” – at Bullett.

I’ve spent almost two-thirds of my life walking galaxies in those fucking white leather boots. I’ve even attempted to answer for your actions, to explain your possible motives for choices one of us failed to make. But while you will forever be remembered loitering in star-infested landscapes, existing endlessly in imaginations and onscreen, I putter noisily in that infamous closet of celebrity—expanding, wrinkling, stooping, and far too often, stupid with age. Here we are enacting our very own Dorian Gray configuration. You: smooth, certain, and straight-backed, forever condemned to the vast, enviable prison of intergalactic adventure. Me: struggling more and more with post-galactic stress disorder, bearing your scars, graying your eternally dark, ridiculous hair.

What’s George Lucas going to do now that he’s sold his company to Disney? Get married, naturally.

Lucas and longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson are engaged, a Lucasfilm rep confirmed to the The Hollywood Reporter. The couple talked about their relationship when they appeared on Oprah’s Next Chapter last year.

Hobson is the president of the Chicago-based investment management firm Ariel Investments LLC, chairman of DreamWorks Animation and regularly appears on Good Morning America to talk finance.

This will be Hobson’s first marriage and Lucas’ second. He split with first wife Marcia Lucas in 1983.

Curious about Episode VII screenwriter Michael Arndt? The internet has dug up this video from 2007, where he discusses screenwriting and Little Miss Sunshine. (via)

This is only a 10 minute clip – you can watch the full hour and change at FORA.tv

Forbes, always one for making lists, has ranked Natalie Portman (aka Padmé Amidala — please tell me you knew that) as the star worth the most bang for the buck. For every dollar she is paid in salary, the studio makes $42.70. Apparently, she had some rather surprising hits outside of Black Swan. (Who knew No Strings Attached made such a big profit?)

Twilight’s Kristen Stewart was #2.

Another Lucasfilm alum making the list was Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) at #3 with $35.80 returned for every dollar he’s paid. (Let’s hear it for him beating out Robert Pattison!)

More lists are surely soon to follow.

It seems like Salmon Fishing in the Yemen flew mostly under the radar this year, so there was plenty of surprise when it received 3 Golden Globe nominations – most notably, for our purposes, best actor in a comedy or musical for Ewan McGregor.

McGregor is up again Jack Black (Bernie,) Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook,) Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables,) and Bill Murray (Hyde Park on Hudson.)

The Golden Globes nominations are, per usual, very slight on genre.

The Hollywood Reportor has named Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as one of their top ten power women in entertainment.

Kennedy is ninth on the list, which is led by Disney’s Anne Sweeney and NBC’s Bonnie Hammer.

The full list of 100 will be released later today.