For three decades, we've been treated to numerous looks-back on the Dan Aykroyd-John Belushi comedy team, and the one perfect film they managed to make, 1980's The Blues Brothers. So much dirt has already been dished over the decades that it almost feels like we know everything we'll ever need to about the hard-partying tendencies that ultimately killed Belushi in 1982. We would be mistaken, as a new Vanity Fair profile will no doubt demonstrate that however many skeletons you think might have been unearthed, there's always room for one or two more in the mass grave of a dead celebrity's life story.
The January issue features a new and very detailed look into the making of The Blues Brothers. Part fond remembrance, part cautionary tale, and part "Jesus H Christ, seriously. You seriously did all that," it delivers absolutely delicious — and absolutely tragic — stories from Belushi's friends, family and former coworkers about that film's troubled production. We've culled a few choicer nuggets from the online preview:
* The '70s were even more decadent than we think. According to Dan Aykroyd, "We had a budget in the movie for cocaine for night shoots" during the making of The Blues Brothers. And just like that, films like Zardoz suddenly begin to make more sense.
* Belushi's drug problem had gotten so out of hand that they actually asked Carrie Fisher - Carrie Fisher! - to keep him from consuming. I wonder if they also asked Chevy Chase to keep Dan Aykroyd from making bad decisions about the roles he intended to take during the late '80s and early '90s.
* Belushi and Robert Downey, Jr. have a lot in common: Apparently Belushi disappeared from the set one night, and Aykroyd found him at a nearby home where, the homeowner told him, Belushi had just showed up, raided the man's fridge like it wasn't even a thing, and passed out on the couch.
Obviously, this thing just became required, end-of-the-year reading. It goes without saying also that we're very glad this kind of addiction is no longer enabled so blatantly.
[Source: Vanity Fair]
Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia, came out from under the heavens giving her hilariously light-hearted thoughts on the future of Star Wars and whatever came of Leia and Han Solo. Episode VII writer-apparent, Michael Arndt may want to take a peek at what Her Celestial Highness has to say about the character she first brought to the Galaxies, way back in the late '70s, and a tidbit or two on where to go from here.
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Star Wars fans worldwide learned Tuesday the celestial shattering news that George Lucas had sold Lucasfilm, and its most famous offspring to Disney for $4.05 billion. That news even surprised none other than Luke Skywalker himself. Actor Mark Hamill said he was surprised by the news, though he and fellow Star Wars veteran Carrie Fisher had met with Lucas who told them he wanted to do additional episodes in the decades-long franchise.
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With the nasty back and forth between William Shatner and Carrie Fisher arguing the eternal question -- Star Wars or Star Trek? -- it seemed peace was all but a fantasy in the world of science fiction. Enter George Takei, the erstwhile Mr. Sulu and the voice of reason in this galaxy-splitting debate, to unite both fandoms in the hatred of their "ominous, mutual enemy" -- Twilight. "And it is really, really bad."
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And now, allow Carrie Fisher to break up your busy work day by pointing out the differences between the epic film franchise in which she starred as Princess Leia, Star Wars, and the television sci-fi series Star Trek. "They're not in the same league. I mean, they have the word 'star' in the title. And there is space travel. Where do they go to? [...] Klingon? That sounds like a laundry detergent." Click here for the rest of Fisher's inspired diatribe which also touches on Star Wars merchandising, her Princess Leia metal bikini and Dick Cheney's penis, of course. [YouTube via EW ]
Jennifer Saunders will begin scripting a feature version of her classic BBC series Absolutely Fabulous sometime next year, after she finishes work on the Spice Girls stage musical Viva Forever in London. Deadline reports that Ab Fab: The Movie will open with "Patsy and Edina waking up hungover in the empty drifting yacht of an oligarch in the middle of the ocean. Even worse, their cellphones can't get a signal." I'm torn -- I want to be excited that the movie's happening, but I can't shake the paralyzing sadness of Ab Fab's most recently aborted revival.
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