Rych McCain Hollyhood Notes : July 2014

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Kelly Noonan and Joey Kern In "Beneath" - Film

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Kelly Noonan and Joey Kern In "Beneath" - Film

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

By Rych McCain, www.twitter.com/rychmccain and Facebook (Like Me)

Kelly Noonan And Joey Kern

Ride The Edge Under Ground In “Beneath”

Photos by IFC Midnight Films

In the coal mining belt of the country, miners and their families are ever aware of the dangers and hazards of going deep into the bowels of the earth to dig out the minerals that are needed for many purposes in industry and commercial use. Every now and then tragedy strikes in the form of a cave-in collapse underground. The new IFC Midnight film “Beneath” is based on a real life coal mine collapse but what really happened to the miners who died down there remains a mystery to this day. Some think something unexplainable may have gotten to them or maybe the lack of oxygen turning into to methane gas could have caused them to go mad and turn on each other to who knows what else. For some this movie will be a horror film and others a suspense thriller.

L Randy (Joey Kern) & Samantha (Kelly Noonan)

Two of the main characters are Kelly Noonan who plays Samantha Marsh the daughter of George Marsh who is the leader of the minors who go down. Due to his failing health, George is being forced to retire so this will be his final trip down. His daughter Sam decides to go in the shaft with him for his last trip. Joey Kern plays Randy who is Samantha’s ex. She left their small town to go to school and is now a lawyer practicing environmental law. Of course her ex-boyfriend feels less than because he’s just a hick town minor.

Sam (Noonan) in the cave

Considering the danger and drama that unfolded 600 feet underground in the mine, would she actually go that far under ground in a coal mine in real life? Noonan responds, “I don’t know. I don’t think that I would have any desire to go that deep in a mine – no.” At the beginning of the movie Noonan is all fine and the queen bee of the bar room scene but once she goes down in the earth with the all male crew she gets filthy dirty and stays that way for the duration of the flick. What was it like psychologically to be dirty for an entire film? She laughs, “I was very happy on the last day of shooting. I was praying that we didn’t have to re-shoot anything because it got real after a while.

How did the make-up people achieve that look? “Oh yeah, it was so funny. I would come in the morning and sit in the make-up chair. They would make me pretty and depending on where we were shooting that day on the script, it was about four different levels of dirty and bloody. They just started whapping me with dirt socks and brushing dirt on my face. It was pretty funny.” Men on the other hand have a different viewpoint on being dirty as Kern explains it, “I love it! “You know it’s so much easier to get into the character when you have something like that, that you can just kind of put on. You have to resign yourself that for the next five weeks or so while you’re shooting this that you are just going to get dirty every day. Those real coal minors get filthy so you really have to kind of like embrace it.” When asked if he would go down in a real mine kern is quick to respond, “Hell no! Especially not after making this movie, I feel it’s like karma. I fell like now if I did go down in a mine something bad will happen.”

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Day 26 - Music

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

By Rych McCain, Twitter.com/rychmccain and Facebook (Like Me)

Day 26

Back In The Saddle!

Photos VSP

In 2007 MTV aired a new show titled “Making The Band 4” During that first season finale on August 26^th the show’s creator music mogul Sean “Ditty” Combs selected five young men to form a singing group named after the 26^th day of the show that they were formed. Brian Andrews, Michael McCluney, Qwanell Mosley, Robert Curry and Willie Taylor thus became “Day 26.” They were signed to Combs’ Bad Boy/Atlantic Records. Day 26 released their debut single “Got Me Going” in January of 2008 and in march three months later released their self titled album “Day 26” that debuted a #1 on the Billboard 200 going gold selling 800,000 copies. The second single released in June failed to make the Billboard Hot 100 and only peaked at #52 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop songs chart. Unfortunately a third single was scrapped

In August of 2008 the group return to the second season of the show titled “Making The Band 4 – Tour,” which saw the break up of their sister group of the show “Danity Kane.” The group followed up with their second album “Forever In A Day” which was released in April 2009 and featured Danity Kane members Dawn Richard and Aundrea Fimbres. Unfortunately the smooth sailing waters became rough and ugly as Que was having disagreements with their manager Screwface and other members of the group and he eventually left the ensemble. In November of 2011 the group released a single “Made Love Lately.” As the old saying goes, if you get a little rip in the fabric it will eventually become a big tear and that is what happened as the group eventually broke up.

By November of 2013 word surfaced via Twitter that the group had reunited. They signed with a new label BMG Rights Management. We caught up with the guys back stage at the BET Music Matters concert at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall in Los Angeles and had a nutty good time. What kind of conversations did the guys have when they decided to come back together so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes that they did initially? Que said and they all agreed, “Keep it all out in front, keep it all out on the table. That was the problem the first time. Keep it all out on

Day 26 on stage in LA, BET's Music Matters Pre-BET Awards

the table and keep God first and that’s where we lost it the first time. Not letting other people in. It starts with us five and ends with us five. Not letting nobody else come in on the five and divides it up. So as long as us five take care of what we need to take care of from day one, we’ll be fine.” The group recently dropped their new EP “Return” which is FREE to download and also includes a free 26 page E Book. Brian adds, “We’ve got all hot new music and even got some things on there that the fans requested.” This is definitely a fun loving group to be around. They crack jokes, laugh and easily go with the flow but on the serious side; what would they say to upcoming groups who are subject to outsiders getting into one members ear against the others and the host of other mind games, ego trips etc. that they have to pull through.

Robert says, “You don’t need them. First and foremost, always put God first in anything that you do. But also educate yourself on this game because you’ll get into this game thinking like things should be a certain way and it’s really not that. But I mean as far as groups are concerned; yo, if that’s your group, you stay true to your brothers or sisters. As long as your group is solid nothing can infiltrate that. But when you start allowing people to come in saying oh you don’t need this person or you can do this by yourself. Of course each and every one of us has experienced that and that’s when things start to unravel. But once you keep your core with your group, nothing can stop that.”

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The Young Actors In "Earth To Echo" - Film

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

By Rych McCain, www.twitter.com/rychmccain and Facebook (Like Me)

The Young Stars of Echo

Regroup And Have Fun

Photo Courtesy of Relativity Media

“Earth To Echo” is a new film from Relativity Media and stars a youth cast of which years from now fans will say I remember when. The film is very similar to the 80’s blockbuster “ET.” Although the project’s writers, producers and director are quick to dismiss the comparison; all of the essentials for comparison are there. The young cast consists of Teo Halm, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Reese Hartwig and Ella Linnea Wahlestedt, most of whom are fairly new. Halm plays Alex the best friend of Tuck. He has had a hard life being orphaned at a young age and going through a series of five foster families. When he hooked up with Tuck and Munch he finally felt a since of real bonding with a couple of friends. Halm started acting at age nine on stage and has a couple of movies forthcoming. Tuck is the leader of the group and is played by Brian “Astro” Bradley who convinces his two buddies Alex and Munch to go on an adventure of a life time while he videos it. Bradley started in music as a rapper. His YouTube single video “Stop Looking At My Momz” went viral snatching up over 500,000 hits. This put him on the map and got him appearances on Good Day NY, MTV’s The Seven and a feature on Fuse TV. He eventually finished seventh on The X Factor with a record deal and started making TV and movie appearances.

Top L-R: Brian "Astro" Bradley, Ella Wahlestedt Bot L-R: Reese Hartwig, and Teo Halm

Reese Hartwig plays Munch who is the comic relief of the film. Like his cast mates he started young at ten years-old doing commercials, voice over, movie and TV appearances. He even says he wants to be a plastic surgeon. His screen focus is on comedic acting such as his idols Jim Carrey, Chris Farley and Will Ferrell. Rounding out the pack is the only girl in the bunch Emma who is portrayed by Ella Wahlestedt. The Stockholm, Sweden native moved to the USA with her parents at age six. Stints of being a level 7 gymnast, modeling and landing roles on TV and movies followed. Many know her as Caroline on Lifetime’s hit serried “Army Wives.” In this movie Wahlestedt plays the cute, middle class, uppity, popular girl in school who eventually gets sucked up into the guy’s adventurous night out.

L-R: Astro, Ella, Teo and Reese

The cast had such good chemistry on screen; did that rub off in real life off set? Halm speaks up and says, “We’re really good friends now and think we always were especially when we got started because it was all of our first big production and we had a ton of collective nervousness. I think that definitely helped us bond.” Astro simultaneously has a music career going how does he plan to juggle that with acting? He voices his thoughts, “Music is still my main thing. Acting is something that I trying out. I know some people will think I’m crazy when I say “trying out,” because this is a major film but I love them both equally. I have one more film to shoot right now then I’m going to take a break because it’s a lot of work. Its fun to actually shoot and be on set but the promotional tours and stuff you really have to be prepared for that.”

Wahlestedt may have the most television experience of the bunch so what is the difference for her between working film and TV? She smiles, “TV series are structured and you know what things you are going to do that day. It’s all timed out as opposed to a movie set . You might spend a couple of hours on one scene getting different angles or it might go by like a breeze, it all depends. I think with movies you have more freedom which is nice. We talked to the director and he was open to suggestions.”

Echo

There was a scene where the gang reunited a year later that actually was shot a long while after the base movie had been shot. The cast did look older. Was that due to make-up or real life aging? Hartwig chimes in saying, “I think we definitely change a lot by then.”

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BET Awards 2014 - TV

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

Rych McCain www.twitter.com/rychmccain and Facebook (Like Me)

Photos Courtesy of BET

The 2014 BET Awards

The 2014 version of The BET Awards was a huge success on screen and The three day BET Experience was equally as successful packing the LA Convention Center with star studded multiple events and performances that drew people from all over the United States and abroad. This event will only get bigger in the years to come. It was safe with tons of security and fans could actually rub elbows with their favorite entertainers. Unlike last year where it was held in the searing 85o heat outside, the air cooled LA Convention Center made it an enjoyable experience. As word of caution for next year however, don’t come to LA broke with no tickets hoping to B.S. your way into any of the events. Security was way too tight for that.

On the down side, a lot of veteran Black Press members were denied press credentials to cover a Black Award Show. Many of these people have been covering The BET Awards for years. This didn’t sit well considering that a lot of the White journalist aren’t even familiar with nor fans of the Black entertainers who were walking the carpet. They have poor knowledge of Black entertainment. I personally became sick and tired of a chap from the British press next to me on the red carpet who kept asking who people were like Lou Gossett, Jr., Kerry Washington and T.I. I ask why are you covering a show where you have no knowledge of the entertainers? Needless to say he quit buggin’ me.

Host Chris Rock

Now back to the show which was broadcast live from The Nokia Theater located in the heart of LA Live which is also home to the Staple Center honored the best of Black actors, actresses, athletes, singers and rappers. Chris Rock as host was a breath of fresh air after last year’s host Chris Tucker stunk the place up with a boring routine. Rock’s opening monologue poked fun at the movies, music, Oprah, Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Solange, Dr. Dre, Kevin Hart and Donald Sterling. Rock kept the place in stitches throughout the entire broadcast. Jay-Z and Beyonce led the pack with five nominations followed by August Alsina, Pharrell Williams, and Drake each of whom had four nominations. Pharrell was the first act to perform and was joined on stage by Missy Elliott. Singer August Asina emotionally accepted the Best New Artist which was the first award presented. Lionel Richie took home the BET

ABC-TV "Scandal" star Kerry Washington

Lifetime Achievement Award. Another surprise for the evening was a performance by Chris Brown who seems to have not lost a step or his magic touch. He didn’t have that radiant youthful glow about him which is understandable considering what he has been through.

BET Talk Show Hostess KeKe Palmer

Serena Williams took home the Subway Sportswoman of theYearAward while Nicki Minaj waltzed off with Best Female Hip Hop Artist of the Year for the fifth year in a row. In her acceptance speech Minaj clearly made note that she actually writes her own raps making a reference to Iggy Azalea who is receiving major hype but is being propped up from behind the scenes with help. In other words one is original (Minaj) while the other (Azalea) is a cookie cutter, manufactured imitator. I’m sure we’ll hear a response from Azalea. For a complete list of the winners and show highlights go to www.bet.com.

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