Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Appearances: NBC 2010 Winter TCA Tour

Rashida was out promoting Parks and Recreation at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour on Sunday in Pasadena.




The Parks and Recreation panel


The cocktail party later that night

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

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

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Activism: Stand Up 2 Cancer

Rashida has filmed a PSA and posed for a print ad in the latest Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign.

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Watch the video via the LA Times
*It was too wide to fit on the blog

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Print ad

News: The 2009 Black List

Rashida and Will McCormack's script, 'Celeste and Jesse Forever', has been included in the 2009 Black List!

Votes are cast by a couple hundred Hollywood execs every year; according to founder Franklin Leonard it isn't a "best of" list per se, but more of a "most liked" list of their personal favorites.



CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER
by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack “A divorcing couple tries to maintain their friendship while they both pursue other people.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Keya Khayatian (Jones)
Gersh-David Kopple, Lindsay Porter (McCormick)

MANAGER Brillstein Entertainment Partners -Andrea Pett-Joseph (Jones)

Overture. Team Todd producing.


-Of the 97 scripts on the list, 'Celeste...' is equal 16th and overall 20th
-Rashida is one of only 10 women on the List
-Rashida and Will are the highest ranked actors/screenwriters, polling above Sarah Polley, Mindy Kaling and Zach Braff
-311 'insiders' & industry figures participated in the voting

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In other news 'The Social Network', which Rashida just landed a major role in, came in at #2.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK by Aaron Sorkin
“The story of the founders of the social networking website Facebookand how overnight success and wealth changed their lives.”

AGENT William Morris Endeavor –Ari Emanuel, Jason Spitz
Sony.
Scott Rudin Productions, Michael De Luca Productions, Cean Chaffin, and Dana Brunetti producing

via The Black List

Thanks to R for the info :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Movies: Social Network

Variety is reporting that Rashida has joined the cast of Social Network, the upcoming movie about the founding of Facebook.

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Jones logs in to 'Social Network'
Thesp joins Sorkin-written pic about Facebook
By TATIANA SIEGEL

Rashida Jones is the latest to log in to Columbia Pictures' "Social Network."

Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg have already boarded the David Fincher-helmed pic, which revolves around the founders of the social-networking website Facebook. Aaron Sorkin penned the screenplay.

Pic is currently lensing in Los Angeles.
Rashida Jones
Jones, who recently wrapped the bigscreen drama "Monogamy," sold her script "Frenemy of the State," which she co-wrote with Will McCormack, to Universal. In addition, she and McCormack's screenplay "Celeste and Jesse Forever" is in development at Overture, with Team Todd producing. Jones will also star in the comedy.

The actress-scribe, who most recently starred opposite Paul Rudd in the DreamWorks comedy "I Love You, Man," can currently be seen on the smallscreen in NBC's "Parks and Recreation."

She is repped by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment.


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Style: Piperlime Holiday Gift List

Rashida is one of four actresses to make a gift list at Piperlime to benefit The Art of Elysium organization. The first list is what she wants and the second is gifts she's giving, with proceeds from each sale going to the charity.


*The other lists are from Rachel Bilson, Brooke Shields and Kristen Bell.

Buddies: Natalie Portman

Rashida talks about her close friend Natalie Portman in the January 2010 issue of Marie Claire. Natalie is the magazine's cover girl.

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--- [Natalie] doesn't spend her time with a posse of celebs; her closest circle of friends is still mostly made up of people from high school and college, plus a small core of women in L.A. One of these, Rashida Jones, says Portman "would fight beasts 10 times her size to protect the people she loves. She is the kind of friend who can sub in and love you through the times when you can't necessarily love yourself."

via Marie Claire


Images via Sweet Kiwi Gallery

Thanks to Kelly for the heads up!

Activism: Peace Games Tea in LA

Starworks posted about the Diane von Furstenberg shopping day Rashida hosted in West Hollywood, CA last month. Proceeds from sales went to Peace Games, her favorite charity. She has served on their Board of Directors since 2004.

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with her mom Peggy Lipton

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Movies: Untitled Kevin Smith Movie

Movie site AICN has an early review of Kevin Smith's upcoming film, formerly known as A Couple of Dicks and then A Couple of Cops, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Rashida has a role in the movie, which apparently includes a scene where she's wearing lingerie.

A quick Google search didn't turn up anything else about her being in it, but there should be more as the release date draws near. The movie is scheduled for 26 February 2010.

Thanks to TJ for the link :)

Cool Site: Rashida Jones Web

Our thanks to Jennifer at Rashida Jones Web, the fansite that is now archiving magazine scans from this blog. Many of them were sent in by fans, which is much appreciated, and now they're nicely organized in one easy-to-navigate place.

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RJ Web has thousands of pictures, including screen caps from every Parks and Recreation episode, and is a fantastic resource for all things Rashida.

Sweet Kiwi is also a great gallery of Rashida pictures, scans and screencaps.

Our thanks again to everyone who supports this site, including the tipsters for many of today's posts!

Talk Show: It's On with Alexa Chung

UPDATE: Babes on the Tube Blog has posted the entire interview for downloading.


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Rashida Jones brings the 'Park' to 'It's On'
Parks and Recreation's Rashida Jones chats about her biggest fear, riding the "cool" bus and attending Harvard.

Interview Clip:


via IOWAC