Anna Friel’s “outgoing” personality helps her Pushing Daisies co-star Lee Pace be more sociable, he says.

“I’m shy, but Anna is very gregarious and outgoing,” Lee told People magazine. “She’s good at getting me out of my house. My weekend is staying at home and going on hikes with my dog.”

In fact, Lee, who plays Ned in the hit series, prefers nights in with his friends rather than hitting the Los Angeles club scene, and even celebrated his recent Emmy nomination for Best Actor in low key fashion.

“I have friends over for games so we raised a glass,” he said. “Our favourite game is Mafia but we also play running charades. Better than going to some horrible club.”

Pushing Daisies returns to US network ABC in October after its first season was cut short by the writer’s strike.

“We’d only shot nine episodes when we ran out of scripts,” said Lee. “But oddly enough, the first day back we had the exact same crew that we had when we left - and it was kind of like we had left on a Friday night and came back on a Monday morning.”

Source: thisisscunthorpe.co.uk

On a (Not So) Routine Expedition

Diablo Cody on the set of ‘Land of the Lost’ — The writer goes behind the scenes of the ’70s remake with Will Ferrell and Danny McBride

Marshall, Will, and Holly: These three simple names are a generational mantra of sorts. Recite them in front of any American who was reared in the ’70s and you’re likely to elicit an immediate (sung!) response: ”On a routine expedition…”

Bottom Line: Breathless, bloody and barmy sex and swordplay epic that remains a hoot in spite of itself.

By Ray Bennett
Venue: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

KARLOVY VARY, Czech Republic — Legend has it that Countess Elizabeth Bathory was a murdering monster, the scourge of 16th century Europe, slaughtering virgin girls by the score and bathing in their blood in order to stay young. Slovak director Juraj Jabubisko’s over-the-top English-language epic “Bathory” says history got her all wrong: She was the victim of a terrible libel.

Colorful, bloodthirsty and absurdly comic, the film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and could reap substantial international boxoffice rewards from indulgent audiences with a taste for that kind of thing.

Read more… »

Actress Anna Friel has admitted feeling “nervous” about what the UK will make of her hit US show Pushing Daisies when it airs next month.

Speaking before a screening of the programme at Hollywood’s Paley Television Festival, she said: “I’m so nervous, all the big billboards have started to go up [in the UK] so I’m hoping they like it. It’s very important for me that the Brits like it.”

The show has meant Anna and her family have moved to LA, and the former Brookside star is loving it.

“I’m really settled here now. I went back [to Britain] for two weeks about three weeks ago for the first time in ages, it was lovely, but it’s really nice to come back,” she said.

Anna’s co-star Lee Pace explained the show’s premise: “I play Ned who can touch the dead back to life. If the dead live for longer than a minute then something else will die and if I touch something for a second time they die again forever. But in the first episode I bring to life my childhood sweetheart (played by Anna) and high comedy ensues.”

Ned’s gift means the pair can never touch each other or Anna’s character Chuck will die forever. And Lee revealed there are several re-takes when he accidentally touches Anna during filming.

“She’ll drop dead and we’ll all laugh and have to do another take but I really like that there’s that standing in between us, rather than us falling into bed together.”

Pushing Daisies airs on ITV in April.

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Actress Anna Friel has slammed her native Britain for holding back her career - because the media still associates with her stint on U.K. soap opera Brookside. Friel, who has found fame Stateside on hit U.S. series Pushing Daisies, finished her two-year run on Brookside in 1995 - but states the British press still bombard her with questions about the now obsolete series.

The 31-year-old played the role of lesbian Beth Jordache in the show, who killed her abusive father and buried his body in the garden. She explains, “It was getting to be a joke here (in the U.K.). Even when I was 80 (sic), my epitaph would be, ‘Brookside. Used to be in a TV soap.’ How long ago is it now? Thirteen years.”

However Friel insists she doesn’t regret her time on the series: “I’m not embarrassed about any aspect of my life or past. It’s just really boring - people talking about the same things. I just think it’s time to let it go. Otherwise, the last 13 years have been for nothing. I do feel it’s a bit of a shame, though, that it had to happen in America rather than here. I wouldn’t say I’ve reinvented myself but, in America, they just take me in a different way.”

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