Alan RickmanWhen you do a movie like "Bottle Shock," you have to know your wine. After all, "Sideways" was about amateur connoisseurs (even if Paul Giamatti's character Miles is up there with the best of them: "I'm not drinking any f---ing Merlot!"). But "Bottle Shock" is about the actual tastemakers -- those who grow the grapes, sell the wine, and make judgments which affect the world market. It's actually about the judgment, the Judgment of Paris, which put California wines on the map. "So pretty much we had to get drunk for three months," laughed Rachel Taylor, who plays an intern at the Chateau Montelena.

"A lot of the vineyards [in Napa and Sonoma] realized the significance 'Sideways' had for the Santa Barbara area," said filmmaker Randall Miller, "so people were like, 'Come see our vineyards!' And to get rights to a lot of [real-life] characters, I had to go drink wine with the vinters." Read More...

Tags , ,

Alan RickmanYou can't blame a girl for trying.

Ever time I have to chance to talk to Alan Rickman, I try to ask him about Snape -- but he won't spill. I'm not the only reporter who has this problem -- Rickman is notorious for not saying anything about the Harry Potter series, because he doesn't want to ruin it for the kids who have yet to finish reading "Deathly Hallows." And while I can respect that in theory, it's been a year. Even J.K. Rowling herself talks about what he won't.

So, when he was doing press for "Bottle Shock", I thought perhaps he might respond to a spoiler-free type question. Instead of asking about Snape's motivations, or the great Snape debate -- which prompted its own book -- I thought something more general, something connective, might work. His character Steven Spurrier runs the Academy of Wine, and cares deeply about the art and science of winemaking. His other character Severus Snape is a professor of potions, and cares deeply about the art and science of potionmaking (so much so he can invent his own, or improve on pre-existing ones -- see "Half-Blood Prince"). Wouldn't the two characters have so much in common -- despite being from disparate worlds -- that they would have a lot to talk about?

"Sneaky question!" Rickman laughed. Read More...

Tags , , ,

Rachel Taylor in 'Transformers'"Transformers" was Rachel Taylor's first U.S. film, but she won't be in the sequel -- because she wants to be more than meets the eye.

As Maggie Madsen, the Aussie actress played a computer analyst who was just as much eye candy as she was tech-smart. And while that was a "great experience," Taylor said, it's "not quite what I want to do" and it would defeat the purpose of becoming a better actor "if I was just going to become a 'Transformers' girl." (Is that like being a Bond girl, with less prestige?) Read More...

Tags , ,

SPONSORS
AD:
©2012 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.