A very Happy Birthday to the brilliant Rowan Atkinson who turns 60 today. What with Mr Bean, Johnny English and Blackadder – Rowan Atkinson has been making us laugh for years!
The multi-talented actor, comedian and screenwriter is most famous for his sitcoms Mr Bean and Blackadder. The Observer listed him in their 50 Funniest Actors in British Comedy and also amongst the Top 50 Comedians of all time.
Atkinson first appeared in the spotlight in the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1976 and in 1978 he started a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 called the Atkinson People (written by Atkinson, Richard Curtis and produced by Griff Rhys-Jones). However, it was his appearance on Not the Nine O’Clock News from 1979 – 1982 that really introduced him to the world.
Atkinson is known and loved for speaking absurd lines with a completely deadpan delivery, for making the most incredible faces and expressions and for making hilarious fun of himself. News is just out today (January 6) that Atkinson will don tights for the first time since Blackadder to feature in the upcoming sixth series of the BBC’s historical comedy children’s show, Horrible Histories, playing Henry VII.
We don’t know much about his personal life, he has managed quite successfully to keep that private – but we do know that he loves cars, and with an estimated fortune of approximately £85 million, he is able to indulge his passion. He owns an Mclaren F1, Renalut 5 GT Turbo, Austin Metro, Audi A8 and a Honda Civic Hybrid, to name just a few. He is obsessed with cars but hates Porsche: “I have a problem with Porsches. They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people – and I wish them no ill – are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don’t go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn’t handle owning one.”
In celebration of Atkinson’s birthday we have gathered together some of our favourite funny moments from the last 30 years. To watch these videos in a playlist, scroll to the bottom of the post.
Release: December 25, 2014 The Gambler is based on the 1974 film of the same name written by James Toback. The remake, starring Mark Wahlberg, is a literature professor with a hidden life as a high stakes gambler runs afoul of gangsters. Also starring; John Goodman, Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Jessica Lange, Anthony Kelley, Alvin Ing, Domenick Lombardozzi, Emory Cohen, Steve Park, Leland Orser, and George Kennedy.
Release Date: December 25, 2014 This is a chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history. The film stars David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Common as Bevel, and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King. Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Sheen and Cuba Gooding Jr. add to the starlit cast.
Release: December 31 A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city’s history, and centered on a the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built. The film stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain with Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
Release: March 13 A live-action feature inspired by the classic fairy tale, Cinderella brings to life the timeless images from Disney’s 1950 animated masterpiece as fully-realized characters in a visually dazzling spectacle for a whole new generation. Starring Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine, Lily James as Cinderalla, Richard Madden as the Prince, Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, Stellan Skarsgard as Arch Grand Duke and Sophie McShera as Drizella.
Release: March 17 You’ve got to love a bit of Will Ferrell. This new comedy depicts Ferrell as James King, a super wealthy guy that gets done for fraud and sentenced to ten years in a maximum security prison. The film follows King as he recruits Darnell Lewis (Hart) to teach him how to survive in prison under the assumption that he actually had been there himself. Starring Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley and Craig T. Nelson.
Release: May 1 The Marvel comics superhero team The Avengers are back with a vengeance and work together to defeat Ultron, their enemy bent on human extinction. The film has a loaded cast of stars with Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Release: June 12 Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park (1993), Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor’s interest, which backfires horribly.
Release: June 19 The third in the Marvel comic series stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell as the Fantastic Four. The team work together to save Earth from a one-time friend turned enemy “Doom” (Toby Kebbell).
Release: July 10 The Minions have done it, they’ve got their own movie. This prequel to the very successful Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 comes with lots of laughs and Minion language for kids and adults alike. Starring Sandra Bullock as the voice of the female villain and John Hamm as her husband.
Release: July 17 This is definitely a big year for Marvel comic characters. Ant Man stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Wood Harris, Jordi Molla, and Michael Douglas. The plot; Thief Scott Lang must aid his mentor Dr. Hank Pym in safeguarding the mystery of the Ant-Man technology – which allows its user to decrease in size but increase in strength – from various new threats, and plot a heist that will save the Earth.
Release: November 6 This is the twenty fourth Bond film, the second by Sam Mendes and the fourth for Daniel Craig starring as James Bond. The actual name of the movie is Spectre and the plot is A cryptic message from an unlikely source sets James Bond (Craig) navigating the layers of a sinister organisation known as SPECTRE. As M (Ralph Fiennes) continues fighting political pressures that threaten the future of MI6, Bond draws closer to uncovering a hidden truth that threatens to destroy everything he has fought to protect.
Release: December 18 Episode seven in the Star Wars series is set 30 years after Return of The Jedi’s events. The film stars John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. The Force Awakens also features Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker, reprising their roles from previous films.
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Our favourite funny actor turns 40 today – Happy Birthday to the amazing Bradley Cooper! The only appropriate thing to do today, in celebration of his birthday, is to laugh! Laughter is very infectious, so just in case any of you are feeling down today, this clip of Bradley and Jimmy Fallon should get you laughing in a few seconds!
Bradley made his acting debut in 1999 in an episode of Sex in the City. He then went on to star in Wet Hot American Summer, Wedding Crashers, Failure to Launch and He’s Just Not That Into You before breaking through with 2009’s The Hangover. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for Silver Linings Playbook and again a year later for American Hustle.
Last year he was the voice of Rocket the Racoon in Guardians of the Galaxy and is currently starring in the Broadway show The Elephant Man. Critics are calling him the Best Elephant Man yet. According to the Los Angeles Times The Elephant man grossed approximately 1.1 million dollars in the last week of December alone. Bradley’s latest movie is American Sniper which grossed 850,000 in the opening week – which was amazing considering that it only opened in New York and LA – the movie will be released throughout America on January 16.
Cooper has suffered problems with alcohol but has been sober since 2004. “Bradley isn’t perfect,” says Todd Phillips, who directed him in the Hangover trilogy. “What I will say about Bradley is how evolved he is. I think it’s because he’s gone through a lot of stuff and a lot of struggle. People respond to that in different ways. The way he responds to that is by constantly evolving. He internalizes it in a way and turns it into evolution.He’s been up and been down,” she goes on. “He has really lived, for sure, but he also has managed to hold on to his child-like innocence. There’s something about him that is very pure.”
Pick up this months copy of Vanity Fair to read the story on Cooper “Bradley Cooper Has Balls!” – or check out the Cover Exclusive article online here.
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. The latest 37th edition, held at the beginning of last month at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, honoured ballerina Patricia McBride, singer-songwriter Sting, singer Al Green, comedienne Lily Tomlin and actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama presided over the star-studded gala and the honorees sat with them in the presidential box. The honorees don’t have to give acceptance speeches or perform, and they don’t know who is paying tribute to them in advance. “Allow us to love you,” host Steven Colbert said. “Tonight, Washington puts the arts above politics, because no matter what party you belong to, everyone wants a selfie with Tom Hanks,” Colbert said.
President Obama stated in his introductory speech: “The group on stage with me tonight understands what President Kennedy understood: that our art is a reflection of us not just as people, but as a nation. It binds us together. Songs and dance and film express our triumphs and our faults, our strengths, our tenderness in ways that sometimes words simply cannot do. And so we honor those who have dedicated their lives to this endeavor.”
The event conveys such a lot of warmth and appreciation for those being honoured and quite a lot of fun and giggles as well as you watch the celebrity attendees behaving like real groupies at a One Direction concert.
Just being there, Al Green said, “means the world to me.” The 68-year-old soul singer turned Baptist preacher said the honor was different from selling millions of records or winning multiple Grammys. “I worked 40 years to get this one.”
This has to be broadcast TV’s classiest show and the star-studded celebration on the Kennedy Center stage was a sight to behold. We’ve collected together our favourite performances from the show – ones you’ll want to keep in your collection. If you would prefer to listen to the songs in a playlist format – no problem, scroll to the bottom of the page for that.
(Tap on any video title to watch it using Creation 5 Media App.)
In our opinion it was Bruno Mars who stole the show with his musical tribute to Sting. Mars kicked off his tribute with the 1978 chart topper So Lonely from the Police’s debut album Outlandos d’Amour. He followed this with the 1979 mega hit Message in a Bottle from the Regatta de Blanc album. The cast of Sting’s broadway musical The Last Ship then joined Mars on stage for the “Sending out an SOS” part of the song – which was quite a real surprise for Sting. Soon enough Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and President Obama were singing along, as were the rest of the audience.
Lady Gaga’s performance of If I Ever Lose My Faith in You to honor Sting was a powerful, heartfelt rendition. She changed the words to “If I ever lose my faith in you/oh, it would sting, how it would sting.”
Another highlight for us was when Pentatonix hit the stage to honour actor Tom Hanks with a great performance from his 1997 film of the same name, which is the story of a boy band that rises to fame from the success of the catchy track That Thing You Do.
Just before Christmas, singer-songwriter Louisa Wendorff posted a cover mash-up of Taylor Swift’s 1989 hits Blank Space and Style on her YouTube page. A few days after Christmas Taylor Swift saw it and fell in love with it. She posted it on her Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts – stating to her 49.7 million followers on Twitter that she was OBSESSED with it. Watch it for yourself and you’ll see why. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Wendorff and fellow Nashville-based songwriter Devin Dawson stand back-to-back in this Taylor Swift Mash-Up, playing both songs unplugged and creating a unique love song all of their own. Swift is spot on with her obsession over this song – it’s a wondrous rendition that you’ll love to watch again and again. Wendorff and Dawson’s voices compliment each other so well turning the two pop songs into something quite serene and other-worldly.
Naturally, now that Ms Swift has given the song her stamp of approval, the video is getting the attention it deserves. At the time of writing it has gained 5.8 million views in just 10 days.
As you can imagine, Wendorff was over the moon with Swift’s reaction – she literally lost her breath when she saw the news and posted a pic to her Twitter to prove it.
The Weeknd always makes for a great sex jam and his new single Earned It which features on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack is no exception. The sultry track has debuted at Nº2 on R&B digital songs, shifting 92,000 downloads last week, according to Nielsen Music. The track also hit its debut at No. 15 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, which is The Weeknd’s highest debut ever on the Billboard chart.
The Weeknd has built his name around being mysteriously cool and erotic so associating himself with Fifty Shades Of Grey seems like a smart career move. Abel Tesfaye is playing up to his image with this track which sounds like it could have come from one of those 80s erotic thrillers. Lyrics include, “You deserve it/ The way you work it/ ‘Cause girl you earned it. It’s different, but at the same time, it’s not.”
The soundtrack to Fifty Shades Of Grey will also feature an alternate version of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Crazy in Love. The film is due to hit cinemas on Valentines Day.
The Weeknd performed on New Year’s Eve at Miami’s Fountainebleau Miami Beach and songs included Or Nah with Ty Dolla $ign, Remember Me with Wiz Khalifa and Love Me Harder with Ariana Grande. It seems that the Weeknd is easing himself slowly but surely into stardom.
The first Friday of 2015 can’t be taken too seriously…so here’s a donut-inspired hilarious parody of Uptown Funk by the guys at Sorted Food. It’s perfect! It even includes a recipe for making the delicious donuts – which is pretty handy seeing as by the time you’ve finished watching this you’ll be craving hot, fresh, donuts!
Uptown Funk has taken the world by storm so it’s no surprise that ’The Internet’ has produced some amazing parodies. This one however, is our favourite – firstly because it’s one of the grooviest songs of 2014 and secondly it’s about our favourite guilty pleasure!
Sorted Food is one of the world’s largest communities of food lovers. They are a “Global Community of people who love chatting about food” or so it says on their Facebook page. The guys seem to do a hell of a to more than just chat about food though. They have video recipes, gorgeous photos and even an app that’s available to download on the App Store.
Sorted was started a few years ago by a group of friends based in London and their conversations about food have grown to include people from all over the world who contribute ideas, tips and tricks for improving what they eat.
Last year Sorted won the New Media Award from the Guild of Food Writers, two years ago they won the Education Website of the Year and before that they were voted the Best Online Entertainment Program by BNFF World Media. Oh, and they have also been Shorty Award Finalists in the Food Category for the last three years.
Saturday Night Live is one of the funniest and longest running comedy TV shows of all time. It began back in 1975 and is now in its fortieth season on NBC! The show has been the launch to many a long and successful career in comedy and film. Some of the best known names in show business have come from a Saturday Night Live background. For example; Chevy Chase, James Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Joan Cussack, Robert Downey Jr., and more recently Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Jimmy Fallon to name but a few of the regular cast. Justin Timberlake’s acting career could well have been assisted by the performances he has given on the show. The following is a list of all the most current pop stars to have appeared on or hosted the show in the last ten years, and their comedy skits.
LADY GAGA: Hosted the show on November 16 2013. She playfully sang one of her own songs with new words to suit the opening of the show and featured throughout the programme in different skits. Gaga has appeared a few times and has the ability to laugh and make fun of herself and the industry while still showing off her musical talents…
MILEY CYRUS: took a shot at hosting the show in October 2013. She poked fun at her own twerkiness and raunchy new attitude as well as her old country ways. Her controversial performances were the subject of the following skit…
JUSTIN BIEBERas host featured him appearing in nearly all the skits throughout the show and in a few of them impersonated Miley Cyrus, the following though is of him as a nerdy presenter…
BRUNO MARStook a turn at hosting and performing on the show and did a hilarious skit as a girl named Melody…yes this is really him! He also performed his latest track, New Wild Girls for the first time on the show. The second video is a skit called Sad Mouse…check out Bruno’s first attempt at comedy!
Here’s a couple of TAYLOR SWIFT’s best moments as host on SNL in 2013. She also does a good job of laughing at herself whilst writing a cute little song to introduce the show, her musical monologue goes really well, her comedy timing is great and shows that she’s a pretty good little actress too…
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has appeared on and hosted SNL a few times but here are a few of my favourite videos of his. He has so much talent for acting, singing, dancing and here we also see his superlative comedy skills.
One person who it could be questionable as to whether they could take on comedy, especially as a reflection of self is JENNIFER LOPEZ. But, here she is hosting Saturday Night Live and doing a great job of not being a diva! She even comes on stage in her bathrobe…until she strips off to her Versace.
The December 6 2014 episode, hosted by James Franco, saw NICKI MINAJ showcasing her comedy chops and celebrity impersonation skills. The highlight was the Jingle Ballerz Special skit, a hip-hop version of the Nativity Story with many of SNL featured players pretending to be rap all-stars. It would have easy for Minaj to just play herself but instead she gave a Flawless impersonation of Beyoncé. The second skit – not quite as good as the Beyoncé impersonation – but excellent nonetheless was the Kim Kardashian impersonation. Minaj rivalled Franco in terms of screen time on the episode plus she performed three songs from her Pinkprint album.
Last but sort of not least on the list is our California Girl KATY PERRY as host on the show. She is seen here on a Finnish TV show…and later on Bronx Beat bouncing her boobies in an Elmo T-Shirt…
