Gawker: defamer, steve coogan

Steve Coogan Smells Like Indie Spirit

STV — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:12:50 EST

The British comic who vied with Rainn Wilson for August's Worst Flop honors today took Wilson's old job hosting the Independent Spirit Awards on Feb. 21.

Not quite what we'd call a huge step up for the organizers, but, said Spirit Awards executive producer Diana Zahn-Storey in a statement, "He's a brilliant actor and comedian whose style and accent will bring an international flair to the event." In other words, Ricky Gervais turned them down. [The Envelope]

Steve Coogan or Rainn Wilson: Who Had the Worse Weekend?

STV — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EDT

It's probably asking a lot for a Monday, but pretend for just a second that you're Focus Features, Universal's mini-major offshoot and the folks who last January made the single biggest buy in the history of the Sundance Film Festival: Hamlet 2, which sneaked into Park City at the last minute and left 10 days later with lukewarm (at best) reviews and a check for $11 million. So imagine your signature was on that check, and imagine how much weight you'll lose this week as your appetite plunges with Hamlet 2's box-office prospects: $435,000 on 103 screens, averaging $4,223 per for one of the most profound festival flops of the decade — not to mention the film that bumps Steve Coogan back to ensemble/supporting-class in American movies.

To be fair, the film goes wider later this week, and Focus always has the UK release this fall and whatever slight cult audience accrues for video. So it could be worse — now imagine you're Rainn Wilson.

As we anticipated last Friday, TV viewers' Wilson goodwill isn't exactly multiplex-ready. The Rocker's marketing misfires, non-existent word-of-mouth and release-date follies yielded a $2.8 million, 12th-place opening. We're not in the short-sighted camp that thinks Fox is having the Summer From Hell — not with The Happening and What Happens in Vegas finding very respectable profits overseas — but there really is no positive way to spin this one, at least not for his toplining future. Until further notice, Wilson is Dwight Schrute and the clever bit-parter who has a way with pregnancy-test pitches and other Oscar-winning patois — maybe not in that order, but at least in that zone. Maybe a few scenes in Inglorious Bastards? Our Mondays are too fragile as it is to go through this again.

Weeken Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]

'Tropic Thunder' Trailer Doesn't Exactly Bury The Whole Robert Downey Jr. Blackface Subplot

Seth — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:04:38 EDT

You'd be forgiven if a visit to Tropic Thunder's website—where the trailer premiered today—led you to believe the movie featured billed stars STILLER and BLACK DOWNEY, as the preview ballsily features a good deal of Robert Downey Jr.'s white-Method-actor in blackface (and muttering stereotypical, The Jefferson's-theme-inspired dialogue in blackvoice). That said, there's lots to enjoy here, including the movie star archetypes that inhabit this Platoon-set-turned-real scenario—particularly Stiller's "Action Guy," whose previous roles required him to deliver catchphrase, "Who left the fridge open?" while BabyBjörning two tiny pandas.

And while Owen Wilson pulled out of the production due to, uh, the incident, his enabler Steve Coogan appears to be relishing the opportunity to play the director of a runaway production. And we haven't yet even touched about the (Jack) Black confusingly alluded to above-the-title. (We're now honestly beginning to question if Downey Jr. relinquished second billing just to get that visual joke on the promotional material.)

www.tropicthunder.com

The Breakout Star Of Sundance 2008 Is ... Steve Coogan?

mollyf — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:58:01 EST

Last we heard from Steve Coogan, Courtney Love (of all people) was throwing him under the bus for being a bad influence on Owen Wilson. But now that Hamlet 2 has sold for a whopping (and probably ludicrous) $10 million to Focus Features at Sundance, Steve Coogan has officially rebounded from scoundrel to star status. While it may be too early to proclaim him to be the next Mr. Bean (who, by our humble estimation, is the last British comedian to break here Stateside), his starring role in what may turn out to be this year's Park City standout can't do anything but help raise the British comedian's rep from the murky depths of tabloid hell.

Playing the tried-and-true role of bleeding-heart teacher (perfected already by Michelle Pfeiffer first in Dangerous Minds and Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson), Coogan's annoyingly named character Mr. Marschz will save his drama department by writing a sequel to Hamlet. Judging by the dearth of updated Shakesperean knee-slappers in the last decade of cinema (does 10 Things I Hate About You count?), we're not really sure how Coogan pulls this off, but we are hoping for a Courtney cameo in which she slithers onto the stage of the inevitable High School Musical-like finale and whispers "Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" in her crackheadiest voice.

Steve Coogan Finally Gets His Breakthrough Moment As Owen Wilson's Enabler

Seth — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:03:47 EDT

At the height of Owen Wilson's very public personal crisis, Courtney Love uncharacteristically offered up her own, highly opinionated views on the topic—suicide and hard drugs being two subjects that run, pun only partially intended, deeply in her veins. Suspecting she knew exactly who and what led Wilson to his act of desperation, the singer told Us magazine that the culprit was Steve Coogan: A far bigger star in the U.K. than in the U.S., Coogan gained fame overseas for his TV portrayal of dim-bulbed newsman Alan Partridge. (In this clip, he fittingly admits he has no idea who Kurt Cobain is, and is baffled over why he might have taken his own life.) Coogan and Love had a brief affair, which was rumored to have caused a pregnancy, but that thankfully produced no illegitimate children—between Love's body dysmorphia and Coogan's English dental genes, the kid never stood a chance.

Once the actor befriended Wilson on the set of A Night of the Museum—the two men played warring diorama figurines—it was only a matter of time, Love suspected, before they mounted their miniature horses and galloped off into the dark abyss. Now Coogan, who was set to have a cameo in the same Ben Stiller-directed movie from which Wilson just pulled out, has rushed back to town for what will likely be the greatest damage control performance of his life. From Page Six:

Our source reports, "Coogan was in Hawaii when the news [of Wilson's suicide try] hit, but he came back Wednesday night and is trying to get in touch with Owen, Luke [Wilson] and Ben [Stiller]. He's trying to make sure that the movie ['Tropic Thunder'] doesn't fall through now."
Coogan fired back on "Access Hollywood," saying, "I do want to set the record straight and say that the allegations . . . are completely and utterly false." [...]

Love hasn't had contact with Coogan in months, except for an e-mail she sent him after Wilson's suicide attempt. It read, "You must feel really great right now. Does this feel life-affirming?" Love has said on her Web site she'll have no further comment.

There would, of course, be more comment—lots more—including this choice one from an interview with The Sun: "Hopefully the guy will leave us alone in this town and go back to Brighton or wherever the hell he's from...and stay there." If Coogan does manage to salvage his Thunder cameo, we suspect the production will quickly become The Most Awkward Set in Hollywood, marked by excruciating moments in which the actor idles up to the craft services table to see what Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. are laughing so heartily about, only to have the three stars fall deadly silent, before ringleader Downey Jr. pipes in, "At least I never took anyone down with me, you fish n' chips-eating enabler."

OWEN BUDDY: DON'T BLAME ME [NY Post]
Love: Coogan should go home [The Sun]