by Carrina Suicide

During the time I’ve known Eric Victorino and Giovanni Giusti, I’ve had some of the best nights of my life. Giovanni is from my hometown – a small suburb a stones throw away from the lively, honest and culture rich city of San Francisco, where we attended the same small town high school. I met him while living in Oakland with an old boyfriend of mine. Both of them studied sound engineering at a local college. Giovanni would endlessly pound away on his beat machine, day in and day out. To this day, he hasn’t changed a bit; I can’t say the same for many people from our small town, which has become seemingly plagued with tragedy and wasted youth, drug addiction, suicide, and reckless destruction in general.

I met Eric, the other essential half of the Limousines at a music video shoot for their song “The Future.” Instantly he fascinated me with his delicate prose, even during a simple conversation. What struck me most was his kind spirit. Eric and Giovanni have an auteur theory if you will, their medium being words and melody. Unlike so many peers in our society of constraint, boundaries and bullshit, they aren’t afraid to say what they think, or communicate simple and empirical observations of the natural world.

Right now Eric and Giovanni are touring Europe with The Sounds, so I jumped at the opportunity to pick their brains and hit on them in the most subtle of ways. This is what transpired…

Read our exclusive interview with Jay and Mark Duplass on SuicideGirls.com.

by Fred Topel

When you hear Jason Segal and Ed Helms star in Jeff, Who Lives At Home, you might think of some wacky screwball comedy. It is a comedy, but not like you’d expect. Segal plays Jeff, and he has yet to move out, but he is a philosophical loser. He has embraced the movie Signs for its message that everything happens for a reason, and he looks for signs to guide him through life. Indeed the events of the movie lead him to a spectacular conclusion.

Jeff is the fourth film written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. The indie filmmakers let their actors improvise, and they frequently mix tones. Their Puffy Chair and Cyrus also had family drama like Jeff, while Baghead was a horror movie. Besides Jeff’s spiritual awakening, the film also deals with the breakup of his brother (Helms)’ marriage.

Mark Duplass may have a face you recognize too. He appears in many movies and on TV’s The League. He is also a retired musician. When he heard a reporter from Suicide Girls was interviewing him it reminded him of his rock n’ roll days.

Read our exclusive interview with Jay and Mark Duplass on SuicideGirls.com.

by Blogbot

The first episode of Wil Wheaton’s board game show, TableTop, is now live (see above). The series is part of Felica Day’s newly launched Geek & Sundry premium YouTube channel lineup. In this installment, Wil and guests Sean Plott (Day9TV and Starcraft II), Grant Imahara (Mythbusters), and Jenna Busch (geek writer and host) play Small World – a fantasy race board-based adventure which received the Best New Game Award from Games magazine in 2010.

Read our interview with Wil Wheaton re. TableTop on SuicideGirls.com, and join SG’s Board Game Group to talk about your favorite board games, ask about ones you’re curious about, and find gamers in your area.

by Nicole Powers

As a beloved (and much missed) former Newswire editor, Wil Wheaton needs little by way of introduction within the SuicideGirls community. A revered Star Trek: Next Generation alumni, after his role on the show came to an end, Wheaton turned to writing, carving a significant niche for himself as a geek’s geek in the early blogosphere. He was also one of the first power users on Twitter, and is a prolific poster on G+ and now Facebook (a platform he’d deliberately avoided until recently). Wheaton has also been working as an actor with increasing regularity of late, thanks to reoccurring roles in Eureka, Leverage, The Big Bang Theory, and Felicia Day’s hugely popular web-based show The Guild.

For his latest project, TableTop, Wheaton and Day have joined forces again. The new web series will be broadcast on Day’s Google-funded premium YouTube channel Geek & Sundry. This time Wheaton is also wearing the executive producer’s hat, as well as appearing on camera as the show’s host. TableTop aims to combine the aesthetic of celebrity poker with Wheaton’s passion for tabletop games – something he hopes to instill in even the most reluctant of gamers via the show.

We caught up with Wheaton by phone to talk TableTop. Read our exclusive interview with Wil Wheaton on SuicideGirls.com.

Join SG’s Board Game Group to talk about your favorite board game with like minded people, look for gamers in your area, and ask about games you’re curious about.

by Alex Dueben

Karen Abbott’s first book was Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul, which needles to say, was not the kind of history book you read in school. Centered around the Everleigh Sisters who ran a prominent Chicago brothel for more than a decade, Abbott explored not just the sisters and their many famous clients, but the religious and political figures who collaborated with, fought against, and made their names, locally and nationally, around this issue. Abbott’s most recent book which has just been released in paperback is American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee.

You know Gypsy Rose Lee. The legendary striptease artist and burlesque performer, author of the novel The G-String Murders, which was turned into the Barbara Stanwyck film Lady of Burlesque, who authored a largely fictional memoir (before writing such a tome became popular) that was turned into one of the great musicals. What’s clear from reading her book, is how much we don’t know about Gypsy Rose Lee.

American Rose isn’t a biography, but uses Lee and her career as a way to look at the thirties when vaudeville died and burlesque took over, and when culture as a whole was in a state of flux. It’s fascinating portrait of the theater-owning Minsky Brothers, moralist New York City mayor Fiorella La Guardia, author Carson McCullers, and America in the midst of an economic Depression but a cultural revolution.

Read our exclusive interview with Karen Abbott on SuicideGirls.com.

by Damon Martin

Veteran actor Michael Rooker has starred in dozens of films including Tombstone and the cult hit Mallrats, as well as making several guest appearances on TV in shows like Chuck and Criminal Minds. What Rooker has been best known as lately is the redneck knife wielding and now armless badass Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead.

Rooker was a regular on Season 1 of the popular AMC series, and made a brief appearance in a dream sequence during Season 2, but with his character’s current whereabouts unknown, is there a Merle Dixon sighting coming in Season 3?

Check out our interview with Michael Rooker in wich he reveals if Merle Dixon will be back when The Walking Dead returns in October.

Damon Martin: First before we get to anything else, it’s the question that’s on everybody’s mind. Are we going to see Merle in season 3?

Michael Rooker: You going to see more Merle than maybe you ever wanted to see.

DM: During Season 2 you had a fantastic appearance alongside Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon). What was it like being back on the show and did you have fun going back for that dream sequence?

MR: I was totally stoked. As soon as I walked on set, everyone was like ‘Merle is back’. They’re big fans of Merle as well, so when we got a chance to do the scene – Norman and I are good friends – and really when you think about it out of the first season and the second season, that’s the only time we ever interacted on camera before, so it was awesome. I had a great time. It was tough love. It’s big brother motivating little brother, motivating him to save his own life and sometimes you’ve got to be tough with people like that.

DM: We’re all excited you’re coming back for Season 3, but one of the interactions I always wanted to see was between Shane and Merle, but now Shane’s gone.

MR: Isn’t that a bitch? I was hoping they’d save Shane for me, but it didn’t happen and that’s just the way it is. I’m letting people know I’m coming back, Robert Kirkman (executive producer/creator) says I’m coming back, as a matter of fact Norman Reedus has stated in several interviews that his big brother is coming back.

DM: I think everybody knew when The Walking Dead came out that it had a chance to be a huge show, but it really has become a cultural phenomenon.

MR: Dude, it’s killer and it’s so amazing and I’m pretty damn honored to be involved with a group of actors, directors and producers and all these guys. I’m having a great time. Even playing the cat-and-mouse thing over this past season in my interviews, I can’t really say anything, so I’ve gotten really good at talking for an hour without saying a damn word and giving anything away.

DM: I know you weren’t directly involved in all of Season 2, but I know you watch the show. What did you think of the movement of the storyline this year?

MR: I enjoyed it because I like the fact that we get to know these people, almost too well. We know them so well that it’s going to really hurt when even the ones that we don’t like that much get eaten, whatever. It happens, it’s a post apocalyptic zombie world, we humans can get eaten, we’re not the head of the food chain anymore.

DM: So this is kind of a two-part question. Online everyone was asking when is Merle going to come back? Is Merle the Governor, the character coming up in Season 3? And now we know that you are coming back, the speculation continues to run. What does that mean to you as an actor to see the fan outpouring for your return, and can you give us any spoilers about what Merle will be doing in Season 3?

MR: No spoilers coming from this mouth, but I’ve got to tell you, the fan base is phenomenal. Even from Season 1 when I first appeared, there were fans that jumped on the bandwagon for Michael Rooker and Merle Dixon, and the Dixon brothers overall. We have several online groups, the Dixon’s Vixens, the Rooker-holics, Rooker Nation, I mean you can get Rooker’d online now. It’s very cool and I really, truly appreciate it.

DM: Season 3 starts filming in May and I’ve got to ask how excited are you to be back as a regular cast member? I know that so many people that have left have said how hard it was because The Walking Dead cast and crew is like a family, but that’s a huge dynamic of this show – no one’s safe.

MR: It’s good that no one’s safe. I don’t want to be safe. I think not being safe makes you hungry and makes you fight more. I love everybody there. This is the first real show that I’ve been involved with. I did another one called Thief, we did six episodes, but I hardly ever worked with all the other actors. This time round we hang out, we live in a similar area so we go have coffee, and chill out and talk, so it is a good family atmosphere.

DM: Now that Season 2 is over we can all just get that much more excited for Season 3 of The Walking Dead when Merle walks back onto the canvas. I think everybody is super excited for what’s coming next.

MR: It’s gonna be awesome. Right on brother, we’re going to have a damn good time.

Related Posts:
The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale Recap: And Hell Followed Them

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Boy Richard Gere is handsome and though he’’s best known as an actor he is also a very intelligent humanitarian. His latest flick is Bee Season, a film which goes to the heart of what he is most passionate about, religion.

Eliza Naumann [Flora Cross] has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul [Richard Gere], a beloved university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron [Max Minghella]. Her scientist mother, Miriam [Juliette Binoche], seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone: she wins.

Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but an entrée into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father’s imagination. But Eliza’s unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin, long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.

Read our exclusive interview with Richard Gere on SuicideGirls.com.