Other Works: Frenemy of the State #4 Preview

Preview of Frenemy of the State #4

 

Ariana's two worlds have now officially collided! Her life in shambles because of her cover story, Ari gets a surprise from her mother that may prevent her from taking part in her mission. Oh, and did we mention the nuclear bomb?

via Comic Book Resources

Other Works: Frenemy of the State #3 Preview

Issue #3 "Codename: Noob Part Three"

Celebutante Ariana Von Holmberg is in over her head chasing a lead during her first mission as a secret agent for the CIA. Will her training save her from jihadists out for blood? Will she get caught and sold into white slavery!? Will she score a totally SWEET kafiyah?!

Info & images via Comic Book Resources

Talk Show: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Clips of Rashida on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week.

Classic!

The first part explained the yellow & brown picture of Rashida's profile is from his bathroom wall. Jimmy and his wife have decorated it with silhouettes of family and friends and Rashida is now up there.

Upcoming talk show alert: Rashida will be on Ellen Wednesday, September 29

Other Works: Frenemy of the State #2 Preview

Issue #2 "Codename: Noob Part Two" out now!

Ariana's test mission might have not have gone as smoothly as planned but her handlers at the CIA are running out of time to stop a weapons deal that could have grave consequences for several countries. Ready or not, it's time for this socialite to jump into the world of international espionage while trying to avoid the 'Spoiled Rich Girl' section of the tabloids!

Info & images via Comic Book Resources

Interview: Reel Artsy at Meltdown Comics

The lovely Karen from Reel Artsy was lucky enough to meet Rashida at her Frenemy of the State comic book signing. Check out the full interview and photos over at her site.

Read the full interview here

On what allured her to the story Frenemy of the State:

The concept for me was this girl who had been programmed to be the projected object of desire of the world and she knows her place in the world: to be pretty and go to parties, to be rich and be watched. And then all of a sudden her life changes and her priorities change and she's forced in a situation where she's going to jail or she's going to work for the CIA and in doing that she kind of discovers who she is. She discovers she's really good at something besides going to parties, and she likes her work and feels skilled and capable. I think right now, young girls, they kind of need that sort of a paradigm: where it's not just about being pretty and what you wear and who you know.

On finding her niche (entertainment and otherwise):

Finally, I do feel like I've found my place in the world and to be honest it wasn't always written out for me. I feel like I've had to battle some elements of my own confusion and people's judgment of me, which everybody obviously deals with. The more that I try to tell stories that come from me I feel like I have a better idea of who I am, especially when people like it. It makes me realize that I can be true to myself and still be able to do what I do. I don't have to fit into any mold of what the girl next door looks like, what a comedian is supposed to be, what an actress is supposed to be like. I can kinda do my own thing.

On characters she'd like to explore next:

I'd love to do some more dramatic roles. Maybe I could play something a little darker, a little sexier. I feel like I play a good girl a lot, which is fine, I'm okay with that but I'm not all good girl all the time.

See more photos of the signing here

Thanks Karen :)

News: Comic Book Signing in LA

Meet Rashida and her comic book collaborators this Saturday in LA!

Meltdown Comics

Meet the creative team behind Oni Press’ Frenemy of the State.
Rashida Jones (writer), Christina Weir (writer), Nunzio Defilippis (writer), and Jeff Wamester (artist)

Saturday, May 22nd @ 7PM
Meltdown Comics
7522 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Other Works: Frenemy of the State Preview

Comic Book Resources has posted an exclusive preview of the comic book series Rashida co-created. The first issue, Frenemy of the State #1 (Codename: Noob, Part One) comes out today.

Story by
Rashida Jones, Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis
Art by
Jeff Wamester
Cover by
Jeff Wamester
Publisher
Oni Press
Cover Price:
$3.99
Release Date
Wed, May 12th, 2010

An all-new series from the star of NBC's PARKS & RECREATION and veteran comic scribes DeFilippis & Weir! Ariana Von Holmberg is an heiress with a secret. But what she's hiding isn't a sex tape or a drug addiction or an affair with a professional golfer—it's a new career as a CIA operative! What better cover for an agent than a globe-trotting, care-free femme with a penchant for flights of fancy? But can Ari balance her high society obligations with her new role as a spy or will the weight of two worlds bring her dual lives to a violent end?
--Comic Book Resources

News: Frenemy of the State comic out in May

Rashida's comic book Frenemy of the State is coming out in a couple months! Oni Press is publishing it in May and here's the cover art and a short synopsis:

FRENEMY OF THE STATE #1

Written by Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis and Rashida Jones, art and cover by Jeff Wamester.

An all-new series from the star of NBC's PARKS & RECREATION and veteran comic scribes DeFilippis & Weir! Ariana Von Holmberg is an heiress with a secret. But what she's hiding isn't a sex tape or a drug addiction or an affair with a professional golfer—it's a new career as a CIA operative! What better cover for an agent than a globe-trotting, care-free femme with a penchant for flights of fancy? But can Ari balance her high society obligations with her new role as a spy or will the weight of two worlds bring her dual lives to a violent end?

32 pages, $3.99.

via Comics Continuum

Thanks to Tev for the link :)

Interviews: Vanity Fair Q&A

I just realized this post about a Q&A Rashida did with Vanity Fair never actually went up (sorry Chloe). It's from mid-December but better late than never!

Q&A | Question Time

Rashida Jones is All About Hot Chicks Kicking Ass!

When word hit the Internet not long ago that Rashida Jones, the co-star of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, was creating her own comic book series—a spy thriller called Frenemy of the State, co-written with Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, that will be published in early 2010 by Oni Press—the response was a resounding “Yes, please.” Actually, as sometimes happens when attractive women mix with comic fandom, things got a little creepy. Bloggers didn’t hesitate to use terms like “geek chubby” when describing their excitement. And as one online commentator noted, “Rashida Jones is so hot, and the fact that she made a comic makes her much hotter.”

Jones isn’t the first actress to try her hand at comic book authorship—Jenna Jameson and Rosario Dawson both created their own graphic novels, Shadow Hunter and Occult Crimes Taskforce, respectively—but something about Jones’s comic ambitions seems especially surprising. After all, this is the daughter of Quincy Jones and the Mod Squad’s Peggy Lipton. This is the woman who played the woman who cock-blocked Pam on The Office. Sure, she got all the worst lines in the Paul Rudd/Jason Segel flick I Love You Man, but goddammit, she was in I Love You Man! A woman of her pedigree should be hanging out in Hollywood nightclubs, snogging with John Mayer and trying to decide if she’s too drunk to drive. Learning that Rashida Jones wrote a comic book is like finding out that the hot cheerleader at your high school is really into video games and heavy metal. It’s validation that maybe the things that you love don’t necessarily make you a social outcast. To borrow a phrase from Benjamin Franklin, it’s proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I called Jones to talk about Frenemy of the State and comics in general. She was gracious and outgoing, talking to me with the warmth of an old friend. And best of all, she was unfazed by the occasional jackassery of my questions—especially when I asked her if she could convince Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau (who she’s rumored to be dating) to slip some Li’l Wayne lyrics into the president’s next speech (“Look at the ice, radiculous price. Your camera has neva seen a picture this nice”)—for which I am eternally grateful.

.....

Your comic is about a rich heiresses named Ariana Von Holmberg who leads a double life as a C.I.A. spy. I’ve heard that the character is loosely based on Paris Hilton but, well… that can’t be true, can it?

It sounds like kinda a stretch, I know.

When most people look at Paris Hilton, they don’t think, “Hmm, I wonder if she’s secretly fighting crime?” They think, “Hmm, I wonder how long until her next amateur porno leaks?”

Back when Paris was at her height of fame and people were just obsessed with her, I had this funny notion that she’s actually some crazy genius who knew exactly what she was doing, and she was just conducting this elaborate anthropological study on the world. I imagined that she was going home every night and whispering into her mini-recorder: “Day three hundred and twenty seven. I continue to have them all fooled.” That was sort of where the idea for this comic started. And also, I’m obsessed with our country’s almost cannibalistic obsession with people who are famous for no other reason than that they’re famous. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to give somebody like Paris Hilton another layer? What if her fame is something more than just an overwhelming need to be an object of desire?”

.....

Read the rest here at vanityfair.com

Interview by Eric Spitznagel

Misc: The Word XIV

Some bits & pieces from around the web...

INTERVIEW (RADIO)
Rashida also did a radio interview on Elliot In The Morning yesterday. Topics included:
-How Parks and Recreation has evolved since season one
-What the set is like working with such talented comedians
-How she joined the show and was 'on hold' with NBC for months beforehand
-and, sneaking in a personal question, how often she visits her boyfriend in Washington D.C. (meaning Jon Favreau)
Link: MP3 of her answering the questions, or not, is here

EVENT/ ACTIVISM
LA social diary site The Daily Truffle says Rashida hosted a Peace Games fundraising Tea yesterday.

Link: TDT: You're Invited!

OTHER WORKS
Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, who are collaborating with Rashida on Frenemy of the State, have an official website. [Link: weirdefilippis.com] They have posted a brief note about the series, the Universal and Imagine deal and how they came to work with her at Oni Press.

...Rashida Jones came to Oni with an idea - "what if Paris Hilton was recruited by the CIA?" To be fair, she was describing a Paris Hilton-esque celebrity, not Paris herself.

Oni put us in touch with Rashida and we all talked about her idea, and together we created FRENEMY OF THE STATE. It's launching as a miniseries from Oni in the spring. The mini is the first of what will likely be many miniseries...
Read the rest here.

RUMORS
eonline.com's Ted Casablanca posted another denial of the Rashida and John Mayer story that came out last weekend. It's from a friend of Mayer's, and Casablanca says they have each had their friends and reps deny the rumor so they probably are just friends. He adds that most of John Mayer's fame, at least in celebrity terms, is really based on the famous women he is always being linked to. Sounds like he's not a fan of his.
Link: Blab Blab Blab

INTERVIEW (Parks and Recreation)
Rashida and Chris Pratt did an interview with BuzzSugar about the show and Ann and Andy's relationship.

• Rashida on the possibility of Ann and Andy getting back together: You know, I don't think it's an impossibility. I think there's still love in Ann's heart for Andy. I think so much would have to change for him to be OK with her. But I don't think it's an impossibility.
• Chris on whether Andy will get a job or home: Yeah, the writers have found a nice way for Andy to get out of the pit and get a job and start sort of working his way up into independence.

• Rashida on whether she likes Ann and Andy better together or apart: I think there's a lot of comedy both ways. I mean, I like this particular paradigm; I think it's really funny, because I just think Chris gets to shine a lot here and do something with something that could potentially seem really kind of cartoony and big which is like him, you know — showing up places and pretending to be casual about seeing me and all that. But he manages to make it kind of realistic and really sweet. So I like this dynamic for now.
• Chris on whether Andy will start dating: I think that Andy's undying devotion toward Ann is one of the only things that sort of redeems him, so I hope not. I hope that he just keeps pining after Ann for 10 seasons to come. That would be the best for me.
• Rashida on what Chris wears when he's naked on the show: They have those really unappealing little dance belts that were uncomfortable for Chris Pratt.
• Chris on the nude scenes: Yeah, let's just say there was a dance belt included and it was uncomfortable. They kind of just are these little things that cover up your junk, but it was almost as if I was wearing nothing at all. Yeah.
• Rashida on the show clicking more in the second season: It just takes time. I think for the actors, for the writers, for the audience, you just need some time to settle into what the characters actually are, and what's funny about their dynamics. And I'm super grateful that people gave us a shot to get there but I definitely think it takes about 10 episodes to even know what anything is, you know? I mean, you watch some early Seinfeld, you watch some early Sex and the City, it's nothing like the show turned out to be; the things that people loved about that show did not exist at the beginning of that show, you know.
• Chris on the same: I've noticed that, as a fan of the show, I've seen it get better and better, and working on it I've noticed the scripts coming down the pipes have gotten better, but it kind of goes back to what Rashida said: it takes time for everybody. And I think it's just a matter of finding the sensibilities to all the characters and starting with Amy, you know; I think a lot of people compared Steve Carell to Ricky Gervais from The Office. But he has a different style of comedy, and maybe they were writing for Steve the way they did for Ricky Gervais. And maybe in the beginning, they were writing for Amy the way that they wrote for Steve Carell, but her comedic sensibility is a little different. Maybe it's not that funny to watch her be uncomfortable the way it is with Steve Carell, but it's so goddamned endearing when she smiles. And you see her and when she's enjoying herself, so is the audience. And you see her doing that a lot more now; kind of just becoming comfortable in who she is, and like the episode with the beauty pageant, she's standing up for women's rights. You're seeing more dimensions of her. And maybe it's always been who they've envisioned her to be, or maybe they're figuring it out, but I sure like Leslie a lot more in the second season. I just enjoy watching her more and I think that's starting to happen with all the characters.
  

Link: BuzzSugar

Read more...

Movies: Frenemy of the State

Rashida and her writing partner Will McCormack have secured another screenwriting deal! They are going to adapt Rashida's comic book series 'Frenemy of the State' into a movie for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, the majorly successful production company founded by Ron Howard & Brian Grazer.

-----------
Universal and Imagine make 'Frenemy'
Rashida Jones to co-write adventure script
by Michael Fleming, October 13, 2009

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have acquired screen rights to "Frenemy of the State," a graphic novel miniseries created by actress Rashida Jones, who will write the script with Will McCormack.

Brian Grazer is producing for Imagine. Eric Gitter will be a producer for Closed on Mondays.

The adventure revolves around a young wealthy heiress who works undercover for the CIA. Jones co-wrote the original comic, published by Oni Press.

Jones currently stars on NBC's "Parks and Recreation." The daughter of composer Quincy Jones and "Mod Squad" star Peggy Lipton, Jones will be writing her second script with McCormack, an actor whose credits include ABC's "Brothers and Sisters" and USA's "In Plain Sight." They previously scripted "Celeste and Jesse Forever," a Jennifer Todd-produced pic set up at Overture to star Jones.

"Frenemy of the State" wasn't conceived by Jones as an acting vehicle for herself, she said.

"It's intended for a girl much younger than me, about age 20, an interesting age for girls as they make that scary jump to adulthood," she said. "She has lived a life of privilege, attended the best schools and learned every language, but her obsession with spying on exes gets her into trouble and she is recruited to be a spy in exchange for not going to prison. There is a comic element to it, this girl who is so conscious of social standing and wearing the right shoes, suddenly becoming responsible for these dangerous, life-threatening missions."

Gitter's Closed on Mondays just completed the Edgar Wright-directed "Scott Pilgrim" and is developing several films at Universal.

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Info & images via Variety

Misc: The Word XII

TALK SHOWS
Zap2it: Rashida will be the first guest on tonight's episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS).

COOLNESS
Here's some random news: Rashida has been secretly working on a comic book to be published by Oni Press!! She's co-created and co-written Frenemy of the State, a "new mini-series following a wealthy heiress working for the CIA." The cover...

Info & image via Indie Pulp and Major Spoilers
Who knew she was into comic books!?

SIGHTINGS
Cool site Sweet Kiwi has some candid shots taken in Beverly Hills

See the rest here

LISTS
Entertainment Weekly.com: The Must List

STYLE
Her two public appearances this week - The ESPYs and the Funny People premiere - made a few style and beauty sites...
*Instyle.com

July 16 & July 21

July 20

*People.com

July 17 & July 23

*Glamour.com (read the rest at...)

Slaves To Fashion & Girls in the Beauty Dept.

*FabSugar

Celeb Beauty & Trend Alert