Beauty Is In The Eye of the Viewer

While looking at Aussies Graeme Squires and Nicholas Gunn discuss their latest project, The Dream Children, it is impossible not to wonder exactly "how beautiful can dads be?" That question — and the distraction it provides — will no doubt haunt their movie about a closeted star and his longtime partner who become dads ("gay dads" for headline writers) when they adopt the child of a druggie.



Even as the movie searches for international distribution, the question lingers. Other than "more beautiful than I," exactly how beautiful can a father be?

Let Me Show You Dad's Black Heart

Every son finds the place to his father's heart in a different way. John Gotti Jr. found his way through a willingness to whack. Junior is son of the iconic Dapper Don, who thugged his way to the top of the Gambino crime family and rotted from cancer in a jail cell for the last years of his life.

However, almost as important as finding a way to the heart is finding a way to the head and Jr. seems to have gotten there — and "there" being the place where you decide that if there is action available, you want a piece — as evidenced by his announcement that he will be selling the story of him and pops. His view: people have been making millions off his dad for years (now that they don't fear retribution) and it's about time he got his share. So,come sometime next year, expect to see a very fictionalized father-son love story set in mafialand suggestive of the Gotti's stories.

Already Loud and Closer

Build up the tear duct reservoirs, you'll weep them empty in 2012 (or maybe 2013 or 14, you know how these Hollywood things go) as Oskar Schell goes searching for his dad in the screen adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks are in talks to insure that the mega-budgeted, high-expectationed film will grind on every heart with its story of how a 9-year-old boy goes on a quest with his father's mysterious key in the aftermath of the old man's death during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Making Out With Papa

Among the ways dad and daughter Osbourne are connected is in their pursuit of the just-a-bit-off public persona. Somehow, somewhere there is a movie in the works that will take a look at metalist/reality dad Ozzy Osbourne's life. Among the folks the man well known for his head banging tones and dove- and/or bat-head chomping ways

For that movie, Ozzy (born John Michael about 62 years ago) has suggested that either (African-American) Denzel Washington or Prince might be good at playing his life as a dyslexic, high school dropout from Birmingham, England, who grows up to claim the mantle as "Prince of [Rock] Darkness." To match her father, daughter Kelly is throwing her panties in the ring to be cast in the movie as Ozzy's wife even though, "...it’d be a bit weird having to make out with someone playing my dad!" Wake up Signmund Freud ....

Kelly Osbourne feat. Ozzy - Changes sur Yahoo! Vidéo

The Undespicability Force of Children

What could be sweeter (or potentially more lucrative) than the frown of evil turned upside down by fatherhood? That was apparently the thinking behind the the folks at Illumination who wanted to challenge Pixar (think Toy Story) at the movie theaters. How'd they do with the idea that men are evil (by varying degrees) until they have kids? They offed the twist that it is orphan adoptees in Despicable Me hero-villain Gru's case who salve the id of a guy after the title of worstest villain.

It's not as bad as you might think, although there is little balance in the attempt to beat the viewer over the head (paddle his/her backside) with the concept.

Don't Preach, Market

In a shining example of do what we preach, not what we do, 2.3 percent of the fathers as Japan's labor ministry take paternity leave. According to a recent Reuters' post, the goal for the fathers taking paternity leave in the country as a whole is 13 percent. The idea is that the more men who stay home with the kids (and risk problems with their coworkers), the more who will decide (or whose wives will decide) to have more kids.

The current birthrate is just over one child per woman, low enough apparently, to encourage someone to come up with the 13 percent policy. Is science at work here? Maybe they should try the sort of marketing that makes hits out of Adam Sandler bombs about fathers. [Earlier: Not So Grown]

Not So Grown

Ironically enough, if you haven't or never plan to grow up, then Grown Ups might be for you. One time fountain of weeny and whiny Saturday Night Live characters, Adam Sandler continues to write himself parts as the outcast hero — in this case mogul husband to dream wife Salma Hayek and dad of two spoiled kids — who, playing out situations that make 10th grade boys and 5th grade girls chuckle, teaches the "normals" how we're all just people.

Sandler says he based this one on his fears for the spoiled brat futures of his two young daughters. However, while the fear may be real, it doesn't quite excuse making a movie that doesn't require talent from friends greater than everyone had before you were fathers and when you were just friends, twenty, thirty years ago.

Waving the Magic Wand

And they all (well, actually, "he and son all") lived happily ever after ...

That's the story Hallmark is peddling with its Freshman Father. Dad, "based on the life of" current Seton Hall professor John Wand, is an Idaho guy on his way to Harvard who brings his pregnant high school sweetheart with him. He's fab as a father and at school. She can't cut it and leaves the son with him. Ups, downs and eventually uplifting happiness. Just like real life ... as condensed and cleaned up and uplifted for a greeting card.

In case you'll miss it, the trailer that precedes it:

One Brand of Fatherhood

Every guy faces the transition from boy to man to father. Some navigate it well, others ... not so much.

In today's gossip round-up we peek in on the trip of Russell Brand, currently promoting life as a boy for the movie Get Him to the Greek. Brand hasn't made it to fatherhood, but he is talking up the idea as fiancee of shock-singer Katy Perry. Putting the more outrageous aspects of his life behind him, Brand is talking up how he wants to be a good father. As a model, he is presumably not setting his cap on his own dad who is reportedly not invited to the Brand-Perry nuptials and was also making news recently for trying to snuggle up without invitation to troubled singer Amy Winehouse.

Who Is Abel?

Can a father's departure cause a son's muteness and also provoke laughs? That is both the premise and hope of Diego Luna's "Abel," now featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Luna, awaiting the newborn who will grow into partnership with his current two year old to drive him crazy, has written and directed the tale of how a Mexican father's absence creates a situation for his son to first not say a word, but then start talking the talk of the missing man of the house.


Official Trailer ABEL from Showbeast MktgServices on Vimeo.

Collecting Daddy LongLegs

"I'm entitled to screw up in my two weeks and you're entitled to screw up the rest of the year. Okay?"

That probably offers all that is needed to entice any divorced father into the a story of how children are caught in the middle of the (fairly autobiographic) Josh and Bennie Safdie new film about two sons and their father, Daddy LongLegs.



Which is not to be confused with the Daddy Longlegs of rich Fred Astaire and young and beautiful Leslie Caron.



And neither is in any way related to the animal, certainly not the spider described by Ricky Gervais.


Ricky Gervais- Daddy Longlegs - Watch more top selected videos about: Ricky_Gervais

Tear and Cheer

The directing, acting Miller twins (who basically do both for the first time in this one), said, "we just wanted to tell our dad's story." Ed Harris, star (?) of Touching Home said he was just, "trying to do justice to this man, who these two young fellows obviously cared a great deal about ... and never, ever gave up on him. The result — just in time for Father's Day — is a movie about a drunk father and the twin sons who connect to him through baseball, in a fairly convoluted but effective way.

Buzz, Buzz

The current press buzz around Iron Man II is a lovely conceit. Word is that what plays out on screen about a wealthy, talented superduperman (i.e., Tony Stark) trying to come to terms with dad's legacy is a parallel to star Robert John Downey Jr.'s own life in the shadow of his minor league baseball player, professional pugilist, broadway playwright, film making father, Robert "A Prince" Downey Sr.

It is a lovely conceit — in life both father and son have battled with drug addiction and multiple wives and great talent that has to be reined in, while in the movie ... well the movie's a bit muddled so we'll just trust them on that. However, is it enough to try to relaunch the gate for the movie? A bit slow out of the blocks, Iron Man II has been looking to disappoint financially. Perhaps what has been needed all along is a simple father-son spin.

Iron Man 2 Clip

Comic vs. Funny: Dad's Death

A movie and near tragedy remind one that a father's death can be comic, but it can never be totally funny.

Getting very mixed reviews is Death at a Funeral, a Hollywood remake of a British comedy about the posthumous unraveling of a man's life — very, very complicated, secretive and slightly scandalous life — and how it unravels his family as well.



In real life, also comic without really being funny, is Mullion'  (somewhere near Cornwall) Andrew Wythe, 52, whose life was saved by his son spritzing a bottle of Coke all over him. Wythe set himself aflame while trying to start a fire by using gasoline. Son Nicholas grabbed a 2-liter bottle, shook and sprayed away. Comic? Absolutely. Funny? Not so much.

Here's Looking for You, Kid

Is it a curse if your father lives forever? That is the question at the heart of Stephen Bogart's every day life.

The minor media star (think G list) is the son of the the iconic every (little) man, Humphrey, and has wrestled with being enveloped by his father's legacy pretty much every day since he was born to Bogie and [Lauren] Bacall. The elder Bogart died in body when his son was eight, but in spirit and character he is the reason people call his son out of the blue to ask somewhat random questions. In 1995 Stephen tried to come to terms with his life in Bogart: In Search of My Father. In 2010, he is still promising behind-the-scenes looks into what his dad was doing before he was born because that is what people want from him. As time has gone by and he has  searched for dad and only maybe found him, perhaps it's time he goes searching for dad's son?

Another Scacry Case of the DGs

Creepy and bad news (in a pop culture way) for fathers who spoil their daughters, here comes Daddy's Girl. The Chris R. Notarile film features Zoe Sloane, who in character describes herself: "I guess you could say I'm really shy at times ... and kinda a total daddy's girl.



Like she says, "nothing good can ever come from a bad attitude."

65-Year-Old New Pops Mostly Crazy. Really.

One hundred and five year old couple give birth to 6-pound, 7-ounce girl.

Weighing in on the dad side for new Californian Luke Samson Busey is the quite toothsome and mostly crazy Gary Busey, 65. No advice so far from his previous spawn, son Jake and daughter Alectra for their half-brother on getting along with their sometimes-odd, movie-star pop.

Among his greatest hits is a bit on remaking yourself into a wordmonger:



Is he crazy enough to think that at 80 he'll be able to obfuscate his 15-year-old teen son into submission? Time will tell.

Bring on the Bleak

"Except for the sense of mortality that makes every dying old man a portent of what lies in store for all humanity, there is no particular reason for anyone to care about this father. But [his son] wants to love him, and tries," was how Time Magazine explained the plot of Robert Anderson's 1968 Broadway production of I Never Sang for My Father.

So, it is safe to say this isn't a great play, but it is a theme — and a story taken from the life of so many children — that cannot help but touch the heart. A classic. Something to see. And coming around one more time (there was also a 1972 movie version starring Gene Hackman, Melvyn Douglas and Estelle Parson) is a new production heading for (just off) the Great White Way.

Read it. See it. Try to figure out love enough so you don't have to live it.

Pop's Publicity Push

Last year, actor Michael Douglas brought his dad an ice cream cone at the end of a show, publicly embracing father Kirk, forgiving him for whatever drawbacks he might have had as a father. [Earlier: Buy vs. Build] Now, the star of the past Wall Street is on the publicity path for the remake, releasing March.

Playing the father card — since that is a much more sympathetic public persona than old lech with young(ish) hottie — Douglas is talking of how he failed his felon son, 31, and might not be active enough to beat up the young studs who arrive on his doorstep when his six-year-old daughter is ready to step out  as a swan-like teen.

Zuma Pic: Is Right Right?

Get Hollywood on the phone. Quick! ASAP! Stat!

The pitch: Take the genial goodness of Fred Mac Murray,  the dad in My Three Sons, apply the edginess of Bill Hendrickson (who plays Bill Paxton) in HBO's polygadrama Big Love, and then roll it into a "based on a true story" feature pretending its all the life of South African Prezzie Zuma [Earlier: Polygamy Post] whose XXth son said folks should get off his back about all his wives and children — including his latest, a four-month-old with a woman to whom he is not (YET) married. As XX, Duduzani Zuma, says:  "It is my father's right within the context of his culture to have as many children as he wishes."

To which we can only add that it is "a right" certainly, but that does leave open the moral question for the film — the hook for all the highbrow critics, while the lowbrows will no doubt enjoy the creation of 20-some kids — of whether his right is the right thing to do. We're seeing multiple Oscars.