Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker Set to Guest Star on Glee!

Glee season four is already kicking off with a bang.

Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker are set to guest star on the Fox hit series next season. Can you say star power?!

So how long is each lady sticking around on Ryan Murphy’s show? And what did Reilly have to spill about the show’s game-changing fourth season?

While Parker will appearing in “a multi-episode arc,” according to Fox President Kevin Reilly, Hudson has booked a whopping six-episode arc. Yes, six episodes!

Although he kept specific plot points under wraps, Reilly says Glee is “poised for a real creative renaissance. Several characters are graduating, we’re going to have a show within a show, following some characters to New York to a school for the arts.” We’re assuming he means Rachel (Lea Michele), Finn (Cory Monteith) and Kurt (Chris Colfer), so fingers crossed all three seniors get into their dream schools.

Fret not, McKinley fans! The main part of the show will still be set in Ohio and is introducing new characters (who will be announced in the coming weeks).

“Glee is really positioned for a strong year,” Reilly adds.

Glee marks Parker’s first return to TV since starring on HBO’s Sex and the City.

We’re thinking both actresses will be showing off their vocals as Parker got her start on Broadway in Annie and Hudson starred in the movie musical Nine.

Glee is set to move to Thursday night at 9 p.m. after The X Factor in the fall.

- EOnline.com

‘Glee’ Nabs Sarah Jessica Parker, Kate Hudson For Guest Spots

Stylish leading ladies Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson have just been announced as the latest A-listers to appear on “Glee.”

While details about their roles and story lines on the Fox hit have yet to be announced, according to the network, Parker will appear in at least one episode, while Hudson has been confirmed for a six-episode arc. The news comes hot on the heels that the show has been moved to Thursday nights, to air on the same night as results shows for either “The X Factor” or “American Idol.”

The show’s season finale is set to air May 22. It includes appearances from Lindsay Lohan and Perez Hilton. The fourth season of the show, set to premiere this fall, will follow the graduating class of McKinley High as they pursue their dreams outside of New Directions.

Many fans have been wondering how the show will press on outside of the high school setting, and with the network expected to hold its upfront presentation in New York on Monday (May 14), those questions should get some answers.

Fox is expected to make a number of announcements at the event. The biggest news expected to come out of the presentation is the announcement that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato have been confirmed to sit at the judges’ table alongside L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell on “X Factor” this fall.

The new Thursday-night block of “Glee” and “X Factor”/ “American Idol” makes sense, given that all of the programs are music-centric. Tuesday nights on the network will now be focused on comedy, with “New Girl” and “Raising Hope” airing that night alongside new shows “Ben and Kate” and “The Mindy Project,” starring Mindy Kaling of “The Office.”

- MTV.com

Glamour (South Africa) – December 2008
Promoting ‘Fools Gold’ 

Click images to follow through to the gallery…
Please do not repost without crediting Kate-Hudson.org 

xo april

Which stars light up indie biz?

With the big six Hollywood studios making fewer pics and focusing more and more on tentpole franchises, the independent sector has a clear-cut opportunity to expand.

And as buyers and sellers gear up for the Cannes Film Festival, it’s clear that stars have become a key currency in that expansion.

So who are the key stars at the moment that are selling out in the international market?

“It’s not an exact science,” says one sales agent. “But at the moment, Jason Statham at the right price is sellable in something that remotely hits his sweet spot while Michael Fassbender, Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson and Gerard Butler can have value.” The agent adds that Sean Penn is huge in France, as is Hugh Laurie. And with actresses there’s a wider range from Angelina Jolie to Natalie Portman to Rooney Mara. “But women don’t necessarily have too many movies that are carried on their backs right now. There’s a broader spectrum of females that work out there.”

Sales agents reported robust sales in Berlin on a number of titles, thanks in no small part to the star power of Kate Hudson, Mara, Wahlberg, Statham, Jennifer Lawrence, Cooper, Shia LeBeouf and Paul Walker.

“Stars help people know the value of the movie, just like a great script and a strong director,” says Voltage Pictures topper Nicolas Chartier, whose slate includes Robert Redford starrer “The Company You Keep” and “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,” with LaBeouf (pic’s cast also caters to European tastes with German superstar Til Schweiger and Danish B.O. draw Mads Mikkelsen). “It’s a very important factor — probably the most important factor. Stars drive the sales.”

Lightning Entertainment’s Audrey Delaney agrees.

“Actors really are the tipping points in any package,” she says.

It’s true that with studios making fewer pics, higher-profile thesps still need work and these opportunities are falling into the laps of the indies.

“One of the things about studios making fewer films is that we’ve definitely got more opportunities,” says FilmNation’s Glen Basner, who virtually sold out Mara starrer “Bitter Pill” and Redford starrer “All Is Lost” at the European Film Market.

“But you still have to have the right actor in the right film,” he says.

—

Hudson’s upcoming turn as an action star in “Everly” proved an example of a distinctive project suited to the current marketplace.

Adam Ripp and Rob Paris of Crime Scene Pictures and Anonymous Content produce with Joe Lynch directing from Yale Hannon’s script, which was on the Hollywood Black List of best unproduced screenplays. In the pic, Hudson’s character is under attack by mob assassins hired by her ex.

Sierra/Affinity introduced the project to foreign buyers at Berlin, where it sold like hotcakes. “I think it’s really interesting to see a romantic comedy star like Kate become an action star,” Meyer says.

“It’s always a balancing act between commercial and artistic,” says Paris. “You can’t decide to cast someone solely on the basis that they sell well in Germany.”

The fact that stars are more available has made foreign buyers more savvy about the U.S. market and a star’s career trajectory, according to Exclusive Media’s Tobin Armbrust.

It’s attractive to cast a star against type, but sometimes the risk factor can spook buyers.

- Variety.com

Millennium Entertainment and the Colon Cancer Alliance Join Forces to Promote Colon Cancer Prevention

The Colon Cancer Alliance and Millennium Entertainment have partnered on the new romantic comedy, A Little Bit of Heaven, to bring attention to the importance of getting screened for colon cancer – the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., but one that is largely preventable.

Millennium Entertainment’s new film features an all-star cast including Kate Hudson, Whoopi Goldberg and Gael García Bernal. Easy-going career woman Marley Corbett (Hudson) finds love with her doctor Julian Goldstein (Bernal) after discovering she has terminal colon cancer. A Little Bit of Heaven opens in theaters and On Demand this May.

In an effort to communicate the importance of screening and early detection, Millennium Entertainment will feature the Colon Cancer Alliance’s “Screening Saves Lives!” PSA at the end of the film. The PSA will be seen on DVD and Blu-ray releases beginning June 12, 2012.

The Colon Cancer Alliance applauds the filmmakers’ decision to show a strong, vibrant young woman battling this disease. “We are hopeful that the film will encourage people of all ages to start talking about colon cancer and the importance of screening with their families, friends and doctors,” stated Andrew Spiegel, Chief Executive Officer of the Colon Cancer Alliance.

While most often affecting those over the age of 50, colon cancer can strike anyone at any time. Risk factors such as having a family history of colon cancer or polyps or a personal history of inflammatory bowel disease can increase one’s risk of developing this disease.

The Colon Cancer Alliance (CCA) is the leading national patient advocacy organization dedicated to increasing colon cancer screening rates and survivorship. The CCA is an active, caring community that provides hope and support to patients and their families, while saving lives through screening, access, awareness, advocacy and research. Visit www.ccalliance.org.

The Star Market: Can Kate Hudson Escape the Rom-Com Curse?

In A Little Bit of Heaven, out today, Kate Hudson plays a successful, free-spirited single woman who learns that she has cancer, and then learns how to love. It’s a new, maudlin twist on Hudson’s old standby, the romantic comedy, a genre that kept her scheming and smiling onscreen for the better part of a decade. But Hudson’s rigorous release schedule has slowed since 2009, and in the interim, rom-coms have continued to lose their box-office power. A Little Bit of Heaven, which has been shelved for more than a year, seems unlikely to reverse that trend. But how will it affect Hudson’s flagging career? To find out, Vulture polled industry insiders to ask one simple question: If Kate Hudson were a stock, would you buy, sell, or hold?

Stock History: Almost Famous won her awards and made her a name, but it was 2003’s How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days that established Kate Hudson as the mid-aughts rom-com queen. Six years of “get the guy” (or “keep the guy”) movies followed, some merely unmemorable (Alex & Emma, You Me & Dupree) and some genuinely regrettable (Fool’s Gold and Bride Wars, both at 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). Hudson’s quick jaunts outside the genre (Rob Marshall’s bloated Nine and indie thriller The Killer Inside Me) didn’t fare much better with the critics, so Hudson retreated to her safety zone: 2011’s Something Borrowed, based on the chick-lit novel of the same name, and this week’s A Little Bit of Heaven. The tepid (at best) response to both movies likely explains why she’s abandoning the rom-com yet again in her next project: an adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s 9/11 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Peers: While not as accomplished as cohorts like Reese Witherspoon (36) or Charlize Theron (36) — both of whom have Oscars under their belts — Hudson, like Drew Barrymore (37), has had the benefit of institutional knowledge and wisdom that comes from being part of a Hollywood family. As a result, she hasn’t burned any bridges, unlike Katherine Heigl (also 33). But she also has the disadvantage of being less entrepreneurial than Cameron Diaz (39) and — at least thus far — less versatile than the younger Anne Hathaway (29).

Market Value: Paired with a big name — think McConaughey, (Owen) Wilson, or Hathaway — Kate Hudson was a reliably solid earner; Fool’s Gold and Bride Wars both managed $20 million-plus opening weekends (and $100 million worldwide grosses) despite their poor reviews. But without a major co-star, Hudson has been less reliable: See the $14 million domestic gross of the (Luke) Wilson film Alex & Emma. And with the exception of the middling Something Borrowed ($40 million domestic), she hasn’t led a studio movie since 2009. A Little Bit of Heaven’s release date — it drops the same day as guaranteed blockbuster The Avengers — doesn’t suggest much faith in Hudson’s continued appeal.

What Hollywood Thinks: One former studio chief puts the conundrum facing Kate Hudson best: “She is beautiful, smart, and funny — someone should write a movie for her.” The problem facing both Hudson and just about all of the leading ladies of romantic comedy is: No one is.

“She is known, pretty, and relatable,” says this former chief, “But I don’t know what her prospects are — and not because of her, but because the genre of romantic comedy is kind of confusing right now … I think she and all the women in her age group — I would even include Reese Witherspoon — need roles tailored for them and that those kinds of movies are not being written.”

With her sunny but plucky, determined demeanor, one could easily imagine Kate Hudson as the heir to Melanie Griffith in Working Girl (or to take a step further back in time but closer to home, Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin). But, alas, as the global market beckons, such movies don’t travel well overseas, and so they increasingly get made at limited budgets, if they get made at all.

“What movie would you make for them?” asks our former studio chief, “They can’t date anymore, they’re all mothers. After a while, trying to extract the same story from the same tropes gets old.”

Another motion-picture literary agent puts it this way: “These actresses? They’re fucked. Good luck to Kate and Reese. When Cameron [Diaz] was getting cold, she bet on herself, took just a million dollars on Bad Teacher. But even that’s not a romantic comedy. The mid-budget studio film — what used to be the sweet spot for romantic comedy — is getting painfully squeezed.”

This, as our former studio chief explains, leads to a catch-22 for Hudson and her rom-com sorority sisters.

“There aren’t many roles, and there are a lot of women of the same age,” says this former studio head, “So, either they take the roles that are available and then get punished because the material is bad, or if they wait, they get punished for not working enough.”

Analysis: With her chosen genre on the skids, and her own earning power in question, Kate Hudson will have to find a way to reinvent herself — and fast.

“We have a name for what’s happening to her,” jokes a third agent, “‘Ashley Judd syndrome.’ It’s happening to Kate Hudson; it’s already happened to Jennifer Aniston.” (Aniston’s The Switch badly misfired in 2010, studios began to lose confidence that she could carry an entire film, and as a result, she has been seen largely in supporting roles, as with last year’s Just Go With It and Horrible Bosses.)

Still, our third talent-agency partner contends that it’s possible to rescue such a career. The key is to move with perpendicularity, not to execute a jarring, 180-degree flip.

“People like Kate Hudson and Reese did their best work with [auteur] directors, with a capital D,” says this third agent. “So, to save her, it involves trying to turn the paradigm on its side. Even though your core demo is leaving you in droves, you can’t go and do The Razor’s Edge. Instead, you go make a comedy, or even a romantic comedy — you just make them archer and smarter … You have to pervert them a little bit.”

Ah, but how?

If you are part of the newly ascendant clutch of women artists who can self-generate material to write themselves into the picture, like Girls creator and star Lena Dunham, 30 Rock queen Tina Fey, Another Earth writer-star Brit Marling, or The Office’s Mindy Kaling, it’s easy enough. And some, like Cameron Diaz in last summer’s sleeper hit Bad Teacher, are able to bet on themselves, defer most up-front compensation, and develop their own material, even if they didn’t write it.

The problem facing unhyphenated romantic comedy actresses like Hudson is that studios today aren’t much interested in paying for leading ladies to hang a shingle on the lot and develop material for them the way they once did.

“Pre-[2007–08 Writers Guild of America] strike, they’d give [development] deals to the Reese’s of the world,” explains one motion-picture literary agent, “Sandy Bullock had a company. And so did Julia Roberts. But because of the economic atmosphere in the movie business, it’s virtually impossible today.”

All the reps surveyed by Vulture insist that absent self-generating her own material, the best way forward for Hudson might lie not just in switching genres, but switching mediums, too. “The logical segue would be television, or something like that,” says our third talent agent, “You do a Mary Tyler Moore–style show, or an action franchise. But I don’t think there’s a parachute for rom-coms.”

Unlike her character in A Little Bit of Heaven, Hudson can do something else besides simply make the most of the time she has left. The question is whether she’s capable of that. “She’s had bad management, sure,” says our third agent. “But the real problem is, she might not have too much darkness inside her there; she might just project the same sunny disposition that her family does. You know: ‘Not enough grist for her mill’?”

Bottom Line: Market conditions don’t favor Hudson’s forte, the rom-com, nor does she seem interested in or able to develop her own material to propel herself forward. Put simply, the right roles don’t exist anymore — or if they do, they’re going to other actresses.

Rating: Weak sell.

- Vulture.com

We will have photos and any tidbits etc. from the big event for you tomorrow

EDITED on May 8th: Turns out I and my source were wrong about the Met Ball – it seems that Kate did not attend, unfortunately!

In a great feat of counter-programming to the insanity that was the $200 million opening weekend of “The Avengers,” Fox Searchlight found fantastic numbers from the first weekend of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” nearly topping the 2012 limited debut record set by “Bernie” last weekend. And while the news for “Bernie” continued to be very good as well, its fellow Millennium Entertainment release “A Little Bit of Heaven” — starring Kate Hudson and Gael Garcia Bernal — opened to some of the year’s worst numbers.

Check out the full rundown below, including notable holdover releases “Headhunters,” “Sound of My Voice,” “Marley,” “Darling Companion,” “Bully,” and “Monsieur Lazhar.”

“A Little Bit of Heaven” (Millennium Entertainment)
While Millennium Entertainment has reason to celebrate due to the continuing success of “Bernie,” things were not so sunny regarding Nicole Kassell’s cancer-themed romantic comedy “A Little Bit of Heaven.” Starring Kate Hudson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Kathy Bates, Rosemarie DeWitt and Whoopi Goldberg, the film — which received some of the worst reviews of the year — opened on 11 screens to a dismal $9,830 gross. That gave it an average of only $894 as it will likely become one of the biggest duds of the year.

- IndieWire.com

Skipping the parties preceding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Reese Witherspoon and hubby Jim Toth opted instead for a double date with some famous pals!

Joined by Kate Hudson and fiancé Matt Bellamy, along with Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model Kate Upton and a talent agent, the party of six dined at Café Milano in Georgetown on Friday night for three hours.

“They seemed to be having lots of fun,” an onlooker tells PEOPLE, adding that Witherspoon laughed throughout the meal and appeared to be in great spirits, while displaying her baby bump in a black dress.

On the menu for the pregnant actress? Fresh baby artichoke, salad in a lemon vinaigrette and spinach fettuccine with veal Bolognese sauce.

- People.com

Please be kind and don’t re-post these elsewhere without a proper credit to kate-hudson.org, as they are rare.

Enjoy!

• The Killer Inside Me > Promotional Photoshoot x2

The first photos from this event can be seen in the Gallery, and there are more to come asap, including some great pics from the Vanity Fair ‘after party’…

• White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner x22