PARK CITY, Utah – The younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen is breaking into showbiz with two buzzed-about films at the Sundance Film Festival.
Elizabeth Olsen, 21, stars in “Silent House,” directed by the filmmakers who made the 2004 indy hit “Open Water.” When it debuted at Sundance, it was sold to Lionsgate for more than $2 million.
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Based on a film from Uruguay called “La Casa Muda,” “Silent House” is one continuous take as Olsen’s character begins to suspect her summer house may be haunted. Olsen compares shooting the film to theater, which she started doing as a child.
“When I was auditioning, I was like, ‘Just so you know I’m used to the medium of theater, so like I can stand on my feet for this long,”‘ she laughed.
Olsen’s other film at Sundance is “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” where she plays a young woman trying to readjust to life after escaping from a cult.
“It’s hard for independent films when they want to get money,” Olsen said. “And to have a lead be an unknown — it’s kind of a risk for people to take. And so the fact that they took that risk has like made my year, my life, I don’t know! It was really exciting.”
Flavor Flav opens fried chicken chain today in Iowa
CLINTON, Iowa – Rapper and reality TV star Flavor Flav is bringing the flavor of chicken to Iowa.
Flav’s Fried Chicken opens today in Clinton, Iowa. Flav has been there preparing for the launch and told the Clinton Herald he’ll visit often for promotions and even work the fryer. He says it’s the first in a chain that stemmed from the 99-cent wings he served at Mama Cimino in Las Vegas.
Flavor Flav, whose real name is William Drayton Jr., founded hip-hop group Public Enemy in the ’80s.
Elton John speaks out against hatred in U.S.
LOS ANGELES – Sir Elton John says he is “fed up” with being treated like a “second-class citizen” in the United States.
That’s why the 63-year-old gay singer said he took a stand last week during a performance at a private Beverly Hills fundraiser for the ongoing legal challenge to California’s gay marriage ban. The outspoken British piano man, who became a parent to a baby boy on Christmas Day with partner David Furnish, added that “as I get older, I get more angry about it.”
“In this country, we need more dialogue,” he said during an interview Friday. “We don’t need any more stone throwing. We don’t need any more vitriol. We need people to say, ‘OK. I’m straight. You’re gay. Let’s get along. I’m Republican. You’re Democratic. Let’s work together.’ I’m sick and tired of people being hateful to each other in this country.”
John disappointed some gay rights activists after California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage passed in 2008 when he said he had no desire to get married and was satisfied with his civil partnership in England. He sang a different tune Wednesday when he praised the effort to overturn Proposition 8 and promised to do everything he could to support it.
The couple’s son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born in California through a surrogate mother. John said he was disappointed that members of the Church of England questioned his parenthood in the days after his son’s birth.
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