It was a bittersweet evening for Broadway at the opening of the revival of West Side Story at the Palace Theater in NYC last night. Earlier in the night, the lights of the Great White Way had dimmed to honor the passing of one of its brightest stars, Natasha Richardson.

Some of the celebrity guests took the moment to express their sadness and reflect upon the actress’s life on stage.

Patrick Wilson, a Broadway vet who starred on screen with Natasha in 2007′s Evening talked to OK! about his feelings of grief.

“It’s an unexplainable, tragic, senseless loss. It’s just a time for her family to reflect and our prayers go out to her whole family,” he shared.

Kathleen Turner, who like Natasha, has worked both on stage and on film was trying to make sense of the tragedy.

“It’s just so damn shocking!” she told OK!, “She’s so young and so good and so sweet. I liked her tremendously. And I know that they’ll [her family] handle as best they can, I feel sorry they have to at all.”

Cheyenne Jackson, who was last seen on stage in Xanadu, told OK! how he had worked with Natasha to help others.

“I worked with amfAR a lot and she was tireless in her work with amfAR for people living with HIV,” he remembered. “There’s really no words. We’re just walking to our play in the morning, it’s a sunny day and her life is gone. It’s very hard. It’s perspective. It’s unbelievably tragic.”

Reporting by Laura Lane

Comic book movie adaptation WATCHMEN has scored the biggest opening of 2009 after taking in an estimated $55.7 million (£39.8 million) at the U.S. box office over the weekend.
The adaptation of Alan Moore’s celebrated graphic novel started strongly, taking in a whopping $25 million (£17.85 million) on its opening day (06Mar09).
The film, starring Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman, opened in 3,611 cinemas across America on Friday – the widest theatre count ever for an R-rated film.
Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail came in second with an $8.8 million (£6.3 million) weekend take and Liam Neeson thriller Taken was third. Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire came in fourth – 17 weeks after the movie was released in America.
Outside the U.S., Watchmen also scored big – it took in $27.5 million (£19.6 million) at 5,097 in 45 territories to claim the top spot at the international market too.
Gran Torino, Marley & Me and Slumdog Millionaire are among the other movies doing very well at the box office outside the U.S.

source: contactmusic.com

Zack Snyder confirmed again that there will be a limited theatrical release of an extended director’s cut of Watchmen in July, and revealed that the opening title montage featured two deleted shots that may appear on a future Blu-ray or DVD, speaking in a panel at WonderCon in San Francisco on Saturday. (Spoilers ahead!)

The deleted shots from the title sequence include one of Edward Blake/the Comedian raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II and a shot of the inauguration of Richard Nixon. “They’ll be somewhere,” Snyder said, referring to future iterations of the movie that may appear on home video.

The opening title sequence is a montage of scenes that establish the 1985 alternate universe New York of Watchmen, based in part on iconic images from art and popular culture, including a Last Supper-style retirement party for Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino) and the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Edward Blake/the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

As for the three-hour 10-minute director’s cut, Snyder said that it would restore a sequence of Hollis Mason’s death as well as “other bits and bobs … a whole lot more naked blueness in it, too.” Snyder got notes from Warner Brothers to cut some of the shots of Dr. Manhattan’s blue, uh, manhood, as well as trim some of the film’s graphic violence for the two-hour 37-minute theatrical release, which he agreed to “to be fair,” he said.

As part of the WonderCon panel, Snyder also screened the opening portion of the movie, starting with the death of Blake, the title montage and Rorschach’s initial investigation of Blake’s death, right up to his conversation with Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson) in the owl cave.

Snyder also addressed the question of a sequel again and denied again that he would have anything to do with one, whether the studio goes ahead or not. “It’s a surprising question to me, because to me it seems impossible to even talk about, because it’s like a sequel to Moby Dick or something,” Snyder said. Watchmen opens March 6.

source: scifiwire.com

Tampa, Florida – Many young dancers and singers dream of being on Broadway. This summer a selected group is learning what it takes to earn a spot on stage.

The Broadway Theatre Project has helped launch many careers and has attracted many Broadway starts to USF to share their talents. Today, students got a chance to ask actor Patrick Wilson about his stage and screen experiences. Wilson, who has preformed on Broadway in Oklahoma and Barefoot in the Park has also starred on screen in Little Children and Hard Candy. He attended the program 16 years ago and will spend two days working with a new crop of students.

Apprentices audition for a spot. This year more than a hundred high school and college aged performers from the United States, Canada, American Samoa and Great Britain will learn from Broadway’s best about dancing, acting and singing on stage.

This is the nineteenth year of the program. For info on how to audition and for performance schedules click here.

David Leonard,Tampa Bay’s 10 News

source: tampabays10.com

Patrick’s birthday was yesterday June 3rd but I wasn’t around to post about it.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICK!