4VF News – Daily News Channel

Sky Television has apologised to viewers for airing footage of a Crowd Goes Wild presenter swearing.

During an advertisement break on a repeat broadcast last night the show cut back to presenters Andrew Mulligan and Mark Richardson, with Mulligan telling his co-host to “F*** off”.

The show then cut to more ads, before the exact same clip of Mulligan swearing was aired again.

The footage was apparently shot during a rehearsal for the show and was aired due to human error, a statement from Sky said.

“This error was out of the control of The Crowd Goes Wild team.”

Sky would review how this mistake occurred so that it could be prevented in future.

Shortly after the incident last night, the Crowd Goes Wild Facebook page posted a light-hearted message apparently on behalf of the show’s producer, Ric Salizzo.

“This is the Boss of CGW. My name is Ric. I would like to see both Mark and Andrew in my office tomorrow.”

Commenters on the post generally supported Mulligan and Richardson, blaming the error on the behind the scenes staff.

Others dismissed the slip-up as a publicity stunt aimed at upping ratings.

“Chur boys promotion time. Can’t see any other reason. If you are getting complaints then those complaining should simply watch Shortland Street,” Troy James wrote.

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– Stuff

I Wanna Marry Harry, which starts this week on Fox in the US, is the most brazenly morally bankrupt reality show to air on network television since the lawless years of the early aughts.

Back when the wildly successful first seasons of Survivor set off a bonanza for the format, producers pretty freely explored just how distasteful a show could be before it became too distasteful.

It was a muck-burrowing period that sludged upon us Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, Temptation Island, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, Joe Millionaire – of which I Wanna Marry ‘Harry’ is just an update with a fauxyal – and ended with The Swan, a plastic surgery makeover show that still retains the dubious distinction of being the vilest reality show ever to exist.

But that was more than a decade ago! And so here comes Harry, a show predicated on the uncomfortable, but not entirely insupportable, supposition that audiences totally will watch something icky, sordid and morally wanting, so long as a minimal effort is made to make it look like a love story.

A British man named Matt Hicks, who kind of resembles Prince Harry, impersonates him for 12 American women who think they are on a dating show.

This is so obviously mean-spirited and disingenuous, the show’s only recourse is to pretend that it is not. To do this, the show presents Matt as just in it for love.

Matt is a “poor” guy (please ignore his upper-class accent) who cleans up oil spills and is never given the time of day by the women he deserves.

“Can love survive when fame, wealth and status melt away” the show asks, framing the story as one in which it is Matt, and not the women, who’s taking the big risk. He’s opening up his heart even though it is possible he will be rejected – not for being a liar and a manipulator, but just for his blameless status as a non-prince. What non-prince among us cannot relate

For all of this to work, the women have to mistake a snake in the grass for a member of the royal family. And this is Harry’s insidious pi

Accusations of plagiarism in music happen every other day, but what if a song that defined a genre came into question What if

Ryan Gosling debuted as a film director at the Cannes Film Festival with a stylish, theatrical fable that critics quickly slammed.

The first screening of Gosling’s Lost River played Tuesday (local time) for one of the festival’s most packed crowds, who surely got something they weren’t expecting. “Lost River” is a baroque fairy tale set in the ruins of Detroit, filmed with bold, florid cinematography and a lurid, David Lynch-like atmosphere.

Immediate reaction from critics was largely negative. Variety’s Scott Foundas called it a “first-rate folie de grandeur.” The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin dubbed it “dumb-foundingly poor.”

But there were also cheers from festival-goers for Lost River, which screened in the afternoon ahead of its evening premiere. Some acknowledged that the film, whatever its failings, was vibrant, ambitious and gave more focus to the imagery than most actors-turned-directors do.

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) stars as a single mother, Billy, to a toddler and a teenager named Bones (Iain De Caestecker). They live in a run-down building amid the detritus of a Detroit neighbourhood where they’re behind on their mortgage. Bones lives in fear of the local gangster named Bully (Matt Smith), while Billy, out of desperation for money, begins performing at an underworld nightclub featuring bloody acts of horror. (Gosling’s girlfriend Eva Mendes plays a star performer.)

Gosling was a late absentee at the Cannes Film Festival last year because he was in the middle of filming Lost River. Instead of appearing for the premiere of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives (a brother revenge tale also panned by critics), Gosling sent a note of apology. This year, he’s slated in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section with Lost River.

But the influence of Refn, who also helmed the noir thriller Drive starring Gosling, was easy to see on Lost River. It has a theatrically bold visual style (with cinematography by Spring Breakers photographer Benoit Debie) and shares a composer from Drive in Johnny Jewel.

US distributor Warner Bros. has not yet scheduled a release date for Lost River, which was previously titled How to Catch a Monster.

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– AP

It’s swords and crossbows instead of six shooters and rifles, but French film Michael Kohlhaas could be a cousin to the western, right down to the enigmatic anti-hero of the title, played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen.

While set in the mountainous Cevennes region of southern France in the 16th century, this isn’t a flashy period drama dominated by the costume department.

“Intuitively, what I expressed to my crew and team was that we were not going to do an re-enactment of history. We were going to do an evocation of history,” says the film’s director and co-writer Arnaud des Pallieres.

“Right from the start I asked my costume designer and my art director to be extremely humble. Very often when you do a period drama this is where people [express] all their artistry. I absolutely did not want this. I thought that costume and set design could be a real obstacle and could be counter-productive to the project in itself.

“Strangely enough, I said to my costume designer, ‘What you have to do is draw your inspiration not from the French fashion of that time, not from the Italian, which were much more sophisticated. You have to draw your inspiration from the way German people dressed at the time. It was much more geometric and much more simple and you have to simplify it even more.’ ”

Des Pallieres says the result brought his film closer to that of a 19th-century western.

“The western actually relies on the scenery, the faces, on the sweat, the dust and dirt, the animals and the horses, the insects. The western is also a moral adventure and this is what really defines the western. This is why we feel that [our film] is very contemporary and modern.”

In the film Michael Kohlhaas is a prosperous horse dealer and happy family man. But when he’s treated unfairly by a lord he raises an army and attacks those in power, demanding that his rights be restored. Des Pallieres’ film is based on a novella of the same name by German author Heinrich von Kleist. Von Kleist’s historical inspiration was a 16th-century merchant Hans Kohlhasem, whose horses were stolen by a Saxon nobleman. After failing to get justice by normal channels, Kohlhasem assembled an army and attacked Saxon authorities.

Des Pallieres first read the novella 26 years ago. “I was studying cinema and a friend of mine gave me the book. He advised me to read it, saying: ‘I am going to do an adaptation of this book when I can’. So it is very likely that even before I started reading it, I had a take on the possibility of an adaptation.

“When I started reading it the desire to make it into a film came very quickly, even before I finished reading it. [But] I felt a little jealous [of my friend]. I didn’t want to consider [adapting] it because I felt I needed to respect my friend.”

DES PALLIERES says in hindsight he’s pleased he didn’t make it when he was younger. “I wasn’t wise enough, I didn’t have the skills.” It meant the director, whose earlier films include 2008’s Parc, based on the novel Bullet Park by John Cheever, learned a lot as a film-maker before embarking on Michael Kohlhaas. By that point his friend had also stopped making films.

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Des Pallieres decided to set it in France rather than Germany because he wanted it to be in French. But the lead didn’t have to be a Frenchman.

He was first keen on Mikkelsen, who stars in television series Hannibal, about four or five years ago, prior to the actor’s success in A Royal Affair and The Hunt, for which he won the best actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

“I knew I wasn’t to find an actor in France. I started searching for actors in Italy and in Poland and when somebody showed me Mads’ face I thought it was an incredible face. It was one of those cinema faces for genre films.

“But then I had doubts whether he could express the complexity of the role because in my film it was an ordinary man that later became extraordinary. [I thought for] Mads it’s not possible to be an ordinary man because he is so exceptional. He’s such an extraordinary person. I had to be sure he could be the ordinary man.

“But after seeing him in [the film] After the Wedding I saw how he could act like a man in love, who is almost shaking when he is giving a present to his wife, in fear that she may not like it. So then I could see that he could be this man.”

Also impressed with Mikkelsen is co-star French actress Delphine Chuillot, who plays his wife Judith. Chuillot says Mikkelsen gave a lot and it included a scene where she’s placed on a table after being attacked.

“When we were actually shooting it, it was very him and me. I could feel the heat of his face. I could feel the heat of his tears. His emotion really gave me a lot when we were shooting this scene. He was so heavily engaged. There was a lot of emotion. It was so unbelievable. I had the impression I was levitating from the table.

“We all finished the scene being extremely moved and shaking – and very happy to have succeeded.”

THE DETAILS

Michael Kohlhaas is released on DVD in New Zealand today.

– The Dominion Post

The four-month countdown is almost over for Wellington bar and venue Mighty Mighty, which is now in its final days.

The Cuba St venue, which opened in November 2006 , has its last night this Saturday.

When she announced the closure in January, co-owner and manager Sally Thomson the bar was originally opened with the idea of being around for two to three years.

”The space took on a life of its own and now, as circumstances for the owners have changed, it’s time to close the doors and leave the legend large.”

Three of her fellow owners – Christian McCabe, Sam Chapman and Leon Surynt – were living out of Wellington and busy with other projects.

”This is a decision we have made and are positive about.”

Since opening it has hosted many acts, including Lorde in her first paid gig.A who’s who of musicians had played there, including Delaney Davidson, The Clean, and Die! Die! Die!

The line up for the final four nights is:

Tonight: Make Out Night, complete with a vodka slide, kissing booth, music, and more.

Thursday is a ”Robot Party” with a costume competition and music from Disasteradio and Golden Axe.

Friday is Country Night with The Rye Grass Staggers, Ping Pong Country, Moonshine Hut, DJ Cousins and MC Field Days O’Brien.

Saturday, the final night, is Party Til You Die with The Users, Lightning Tape Wolf, The Raskolnikovs, and a DJ battle.

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– The Dominion Post