Emerson students whip up a phenomenon
What started as a silly joke has turned into an online phenomenon for a group of Emerson College students. The kids, all members of a comedy troupe called Chocolate Cake City, have created a fake film trailer that's popping up everywhere on the Internet. ''We were just kind of making each other laugh over dinner," said Emerson junior Patrick De Nicola, explaining the origin of ''Brokeback to the Future." The hilarious trailer combines the brooding score of ''Brokeback Mountain" with scenes from the ''Back to Future" movies to make it look like Marty and Doc were actually secret lovers. The video, which can be downloaded at chocolatecakecity.com, has been viewed more than 2 million times at YouTube.com and more than 1 million times at IFILM.com. ''I heard the producers of 'Brokeback Mountain' saw it and loved it," said De Nicola, who edited the trailer with Jonathan Ade. ''I don't know if Michael J. Fox or Christopher Lloyd have seen it, but they're two of my idols, so I'd be heartbroken if they didn't."
Pine Street Inn on the big screen?
Paul Weitz, who's writing the script for the big-screen adaptation of Nick Flynn's critically acclaimed memoir ''Another [expletive] Night in Suck City," was in Boston over the weekend to scout locations for the film. The book begins when Flynn is 27 and meets his father for the third time while working at the Pine Street Inn. Weitz and Flynn spent Saturday night at the homeless shelter so the screenwriter could get a better feel for how it operates. After a few hours in Pine Street's emergency shelter, where Flynn's father stayed off and on while Flynn was working there, the pair drove around the city in one of Pine Street's outreach vans. Weitz, who was nominated for an Oscar for his adaptation of ''About a Boy," directed ''American Pie" and wrote, produced, and directed ''In Good Company." No word on whether the Columbia Pictures production will be filmed locally.Hayek wins Harvard Foundation honor
Salma Hayek is the Harvard Foundation's 2006 Artist of the Year. The talented actress/director/producer will receive the foundation's medal at the annual Cultural Rhythms ceremony Saturday. ''She is the consummate artist, a brilliant thinker with broad intellectual interests, and a compassionate advocate for humanitarian causes," said foundation director S. Allen Counter. Previous recipients include Halle Berry, who took home her very own pudding pot from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals last week, Cambridge native Matt Damon, Sharon Stone, Jackie Chan, Denzel Washington, Andy Garcia, Will Smith, and last year, Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.Young director works to avoid dad’s shadow
It's fair to say Jason Reitman has a few advantages most other first-time film directors don't. For one, his dad, Ivan Reitman, is a Hollywood heavy, having produced or directed such hit films as ''Meatballs," ''Ghostbusters," ''Twins," and ''Private Parts." For another, Jason's movie, ''Thank You for Smoking," is based on a best-selling book by Christopher Buckley. ''But it's daunting," says Reitman, 29, who was in town yesterday to screen his movie for college kids. ''Being the son of a famous director, a lot of people assume you're talentless or a drug addict." That's no doubt true in many cases, but Reitman said he had to work hard to land the film's stars. ''The only guys that I got with my connections were Rob Lowe and Dennis Miller, who are family friends," he said. ''Otherwise, I wrote letters, and the first thing Robert Duvall and Sam Elliott said was how much they appreciated my letter." And what did he say to Buckley? ''I called and told him I was the guy they hired to [screw up] his book."Model behavior on 'Bachelor'
We got to see more of Medford's Jennifer Tammaro (above) during Monday's reunion episode of ''The Bachelor: Paris." (You'll recall that the bachelor, Dr. Travis Stork, told Tammaro to take a walk fairly early on.) ''I haven't seen [the episode] yet," the 25-year-old model told us yesterday. ''I've been hearing good things and bad things about how I looked." Tammaro knows she doesn't always come across well on the show, but that doesn't bother her. ''There's editing . . . and it's a crazy situation. That's not how anyone would act in real life." And which of the two finalists is she rooting for? ''Moana. . . . She's an amazing, wonderful girl."
Savenor's Market in Cambridge is holding a raffle to benefit the Julia Child Scholarship Fund for BU students. (In the '60s, Julia Child purchased her meats for ''The French Chef" at Savenor's.) 