valentine's day
(click on poster to go to official site)
16 february 2010
More Details on the Gay Storyline in Valentine's Day
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 6:47pm by Jonathan Rosales, GLAAD's Entertainment Media Manager
Last week we posted our intentionally vague take on the hit film Valentine's Day. Since the film had yet to come out, New Line asked that we not reveal too much so as to maintain the surprise, but we're now pleased to offer more details on the film's gay storyline.
The film, which had the highest grossing President's Day weekend opening ever, features multiple intertwined love stories as Los Angeles celebrates Valentine's Day. Eric Dane plays Sean Jackson, a top NFL player who is contemplating ending his career to have a family. Sean ultimately announces in a press conference that the reason he hasn't been able to fulfill his personal goals is because he is gay and has had to hide for the sake of his career. The story is a particularly bold one because Sean also makes it clear that he is going to continue playing professional football, a move that is met with support from the local sportscaster played by Jamie Foxx.
In another storyline, Bradley Cooper's Holden shares a plane ride with Julia Roberts' Kate, a soldier coming home to visit "her man" for Valentine's Day. Kate notices that Holden seems put off by the holiday and he reveals that he is freshly out of a relationship. When Kate points out that the flight attendants are all attracted to Holden, he seems largely uninterested.
In one of the film's final scenes, Sean is shown sleeping in his living room. Behind him, the door opens and a man walks in. As he kneels next to Sean and wakes him, the man is revealed to be Holden. Now that Sean is out, the two can reunite and have the life that they couldn't before.
We applaud director Garry Marshall, a longtime friend of GLAAD, and screenwriter Katherine Fugate for including a gay couple when so many other major romantic comedies tend to relegate gay characters to the best friend role. On top of that, it tackles the hot button issue of openly gay professional athletes in a way that we hope will open hearts and minds, especially given the film's box office success.
To date, no NFL player has come out while still active in the game, though the climate may slowly be changing. Scott Fujita, a straight linebacker for the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, is a strong and vocal supporter of LGBT rights who has said he would support a gay teammate, an attitude that appears to be spreading.
Though the Sean and Holden's story is not one of Valentine's Day's central love stories, nor is it fully revealed until the end, it is still a marked improvement from the norm in this genre. We look forward to the day when a fictional gay or lesbian couple can headline their own major studio romantic comedy.
11 february 2010
IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE THIS WEEKEND!
So grab a hand, open your heart and get to the theater!
FRIENDS AND FAMILY: It's on! I just bought 50 TICKETS to "Valentine's Day" at the ARCLIGHT HOLLYWOOD this SATURDAY, FEB 13th at the 8:20PM SHOWING.
I WILL BE INTRODUCING THE MOVIE. THERE WILL BE A LINE FOR MY FOKKERS (Friends of Katherine) and I will personally hand you your movie ticket.
THE FIRST 50 FOKKERS ARE FREE - MY GUESTS!
LET'S ROCK THIS LOVE PLANET! SEE YOU THERE!
click on the pics above to see a slideshow of the premiere!
13 February 2010
Feeling the love from the Who Dat Nation and New Orleans in this 'local girl done good' story by Mike Scott in today's Times-Picayune! Best story ever as it's about my love for the city of New Orleans - and feels like a big warm hug of lagniappe!
By Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
February 13, 2010, 5:00AM
Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts in a scene from 'Valentine's Day.'So you think your Super Bowl weekend was busy?
Unless your name happens to be Andrew Christopher Brees, or maybe if you're a beer vendor in Miami, then you probably don't have much on screenwriter and devout Who Dat Katherine Fugate.
Her weekend consisted of flying coast to coast, from Los Angeles to Miami, to root for the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, a bigger-stage version of a trip she made to New Orleans two weeks earlier to cheer for the Saints against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.
Once the Super Bowl clock ticked down, there was cheering, there was crying, there was the release of decades' worth of pent-up emotion -- and then there was the flight back to Los Angeles for the premiere of what promises to be the biggest film of her career so far, "Valentine's Day," an ensemble romantic comedy with a big-name cast for which any screenwriter would kill.
Jennifer Garner takes aim at a Valentine's Day pinata in the romantic comedy 'Valentine's Day.' MOVIE NOTESEmptying the critic's notebook on 'Valentine's Day' Familiar face: Director Garry Marshall makes a cameo appearance in the film, playing a member of a three-piece band shooed away by Topher Grace's character. Doubling down: Not only does the film feature two Jessicas (Alba and Biel), two Taylors (Lautner and Swift) and two Robertses (Julia and Emma), but it has two former cast members from "That '70s Show" (Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace) and two "Grey's Anatomy" hunks (Drs. McDreamy and McSteamy -- Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane). 'Odd' signs: In an airport-set scene, a pair of drivers can be seen holding signs that say "Madison" and "Unger," an homage to "The Odd Couple," which Marshall produced for TV.
It ain't over ...?: Movie-goers might want to stay put when the film ends. During the closing credits, an amusing blooper reel runs. "It's been magic after magic," Fugate said in a telephone interview from her Los Angeles home, where she lives when she's not at the French Quarter house she's kept since 2002.
"I keep feeling like somebody's going to tell me I'm dead and that these are my dreams coming true," she added, laughing. "Like they're going to say, 'They always make them come true for someone when they die.' "
But it's all actually happening. The Saints have, indeed, won the Super Bowl -- no matter how funny it still feels to say it. And "Valentine's Day" -- directed by Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman," "The Princess Diaries") and starring Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Alba and a host of others -- opened Friday (Feb. 12) in wide release.
And when local movie-goers head to theaters this weekend for the traditional Valentine's date, they can take pleasure in knowing that the film was written from the heart of a Who Dat.
"I've always had an almost preternatural draw to the French Quarter and the fleur-de-lis," said Fugate, who, although she grew up in California, traces her family heritage to New Orleans. "I feel like I've lived here before -- and I always say that knowing it sounds hokey and all -- but it's my place, it's my home."
It also is what has prompted her to put Saints stickers on her car and to get a discreet fleur-de-lis tattoo.
And when you think about it, who is better emotionally equipped than a devoted Who Dat to write about loyalty in the face of despair, about unconditional but often unrequited love and, now, after the Saints' Super Bowl win against the Indianapolis Colts, about the sheer ecstasy and unbridled emotion when that love finally is returned.
The funny thing: As good as the past week has been, things could get even better for Fugate. The only major new releases competing with "Valentine's Day" is a children's movie ("Percy Jackson and the Olympians") and a horror remake ("The Wolfman"). That leaves Fugate's feel-good hand-holder as the Valentine's Day date movie and positions the film to finish at the top of the box office.
It helps that the film, which tells several overlapping stories all centered around a florist's shop in Los Angeles, doesn't take itself too seriously as it strives to honor love in all its forms. "I think Ashton Kutcher said it the best: Love is still the only shocking thing. It's still the only thing that knocks your socks off," she said. "We've all become so jaded, but when you fall for someone, it's still the most shocking thing there is."
She added: "Love to me is the greatest feeling. Even when you're heartbroken, you're feeling something."
Jessica Alba and Ashton Kutcher in 'Valentine's Day.'What Fugate is feeling right now is overwhelming satisfaction that her script has connected with so many people, starting with the raft of big-name actors who signed on to play parts in the film.
"As a writer, you can't predict what's going to happen," she said. "You just write a story, and you don't know. 'Is this the one that everyone responds to?' You just respond to your heart."
Movie fans are responding, as well. Reactions from test audiences have been so positive, in fact, that even before the film opened, New Line Cinema commissioned a sequel.
Fugate already has delivered the script for that one, which will be titled "New Year's Eve" (and which, contrary to some online reports, will not include any of the characters from "Valentine's Day," but which might include some of the same actors, just in different roles).
"New Year's Eve is an even bigger ticking clock than Valentine's Day -- everyone knows that, globally -- you kiss at midnight, you start a new year, you start over."
And if that goes well? Fugate allowed that other sequels could follow, perhaps set on less obvious holidays.
"If you pull out some of those unusual ones, that gets peoples' attention," she said, adding in all seriousness: "I'm going to pitch 'Mardi Gras.' "
12 january 2010
Valentine's Day Featurette
Hollywood Reporter: 12 may 2009
New Line celebrates 'Valentine's Day'
Garry Marshall to direct all-star cast in romantic comedy
By Borys Kit
New Line is putting together an all-star cast for its latest romantic comedy, "Valentine's Day," to be directed by Garry Marshall. The screenplay was written by Katherine Fugate.
Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper and Ashton Kutcher are in final negotiations to star in the movie, which has five slightly interconnecting stories playing out during a Valentine's Day in Los Angeles.
A scorecard may be needed to keep track of the story lines:
-- Roberts is an army officer on leave from Iraq on a flight to L.A. Cooper, on the same flight, is a gay man whose lover is a closeted football player.
-- Kutcher is an owner of a flower shop who proposes to his girlfriend (Alba), only to realize he is in love with his close friend, played by Garner, who discovers her boyfriend is married.
-- MacLaine plays Roberts' mother, a happy retiree who reveals to her husband a long-ago affair.
-- Hathaway is an assistant working at the biggest talent agency in town and dating a mailroom assistant; Biel is a publicist unlucky in love (is there any other kind?) who has no date on Valentine's Day.
Major roles still to be cast are the gay football player, MacLaine's husband, the mailroom worker, a talent agent and a young boy looking to give his crush some flowers.
Mike Karz is producing along with Wayne Rice.
Sam Brown and Michael Disco are overseeing for the studio.
New Line had success with its recent ensemble romance "He's Just Not That Into You," but "Valentine" is more ambitious in scope and cast. The project, which could be compared to "Love, Actually," has already upped the budget from its initial $25 million to the mid-$30 million-dollar range, though New Line would not comment on the dealmaking or the budget.
Variety: 23 may 2005
New Line's heart is in it
By DAVE MCNARY
New Line has fallen for Katherine Fugate's untitled romantic comedy, preemptively buying her pitch about intertwined Valentine's Day stories and setting it up with Mike Karz and Wayne Rice. L.A.-set story involves several couples whose lives intersect on Feb. 14.
New Line project is the second for Fugate, who's penned the upcoming Jennifer Aniston comedy "The Senator's Wife," with Karz and Rice producing along with Plan B. Fugate's credits include Paramount's "The Prince and Me."
New Line execs Mark Kauffman, Matt Moore and Luke Ryan will oversee the project.
New Line-based Karz is developing two other projects for the mini-major -- Chuck Klosterman's "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% a True Story" and "Honeymoon With Harry," with "Million Dollar Baby" scribe Paul Haggis attached to write and direct.
Rice is a producer on New Regency's casino drama "Chasing the Whale." He's exec producing CBS' unscripted comedy project starring Jon Lovitz and is developing an FX pilot with Gary Randall and Peter O'Fallon.
