The movie “Hope Springs” brings two words to mind: painfully funny. This gem of a film stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as Kay and Arnold, a Midwestern couple with two grown children. Married more than 30 years, their relationship has been ossified by age, domestic routine and a sea of unspoken hurts that crest like a tsunami between them. Seeking to revive their intimacy, Kay schedules a week of intensive couples therapy in Maine with a counselor named Dr. Feld, played by Steve Carell.

Although it’s high-stakes drama –- you really don’t know until the end if this marriage can be saved -- it’s a nuanced portrait of a relationship in which nothing, and yet everything, happens.

“It’s a little journey,” said Streep in a roundtable with a dozen reporters in New York. “That’s the story: A door opens. It’s not hyperbolic at all; it’s just a little movement within a relationship. But it’s seismic and it speaks to people; it’s [about] your deepest yearning.”

Ironically, screenwriter Vanessa Taylor, co-executive producer on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” is unmarried and decades younger than the characters in the film. So why this story for her first feature?

“I kept having these unsuccessful relationships [that weren’t] just unsuccessful, they were unsuccessful in exactly the same way. I kept ending up at this place of distance,” she told me in sit-down interview. Taylor began reading therapy books, and found the composite couples described tended to be older and long-married. “And it just suddenly started to dawn on me: I’m having this problem and I’m younger and feel pretty in the swim of things. How much harder would that be? How awkward would that be?”

And awkward it is: Carell, who plays the straight man in this set piece, asks the couple pointed questions about their sex lives that leaves the audience alternately cringing and laughing out loud. I asked Carell if he was squeamish about certain lines.

“You mean, ‘What about masturbation?’” he said, eliciting a roar of laughter from reporters. “No, I wasn’t. When I read the part I thought, ‘Am I really going to say these things to Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones?’” But he quickly got into character: “The last thing a therapist would do is to shy away from any of those topics. I feel like he’s old school in his approach … and [he] comes from a place of real kindness and earnestness.”


Tommy Lee Jones delivers a richly layered performance as Arnold, who is stoic and frugal and a bit of a bully toward Kay at the outset -- but also a solid and loyal family man. As he moves toward acknowledging his pain, vulnerability and desire -- as he regains lost hope -- there’s almost a physical transformation, from frumpy to sexy.

Celeste And Jesse Forever

Lee Toland Krieger wasn't planning to read the script for "Celeste and Jesse Forever" in one night. It just sort of happened that way.

"I thought, 'I'll read it first thing in the morning,'" Krieger told HuffPost Entertainment. "I opened the first page, though, and was immediately hooked. I read the whole thing right there."

Following the late-night reading frenzy, Krieger had a meeting with producer Jennifer Todd and co-writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack to make his case as director.

"Luckily enough I was able to get the gig."

Luck probably had little to do with it: Not even 30 years old, "Celeste and Jesse Forever" is Krieger's third feature directing credit, but judging from the critical and financial response to the film, it will hardly be his last. Co-starring Jones and Andy Samberg as a couple who try to remain friends after their divorce, "Celeste and Jesse Forever" joins "Ruby Sparks" and "Safety Not Guaranteed" as 2012 indie romances that don't feel like typical indie romances. Credit for that goes to Krieger, who makes the film -- and Los Angeles -- look exceedingly original and unconventional.

With "Celeste and Jesse Forever" out in New York and Los Angeles now (a wider rollout will follow soon), Krieger chatted with HuffPost Entertainment about his inspirations for the film, how he got such a great performance out of Samberg, and whether he was satisfied with the script's bittersweet ending.

You met with Rashida, Will and Jen after reading the script. How'd you sell yourself to them?
What I tried to present were that my touchstones for this movie were going to be "Broadcast News," "Husbands & Wives" and "When Harry Met Sally," and not so much a contemporary, fluffier rom-com, for lack of a better description. Will, Rashida and Jen were determined to make the film as authentic as possible in terms of putting on the screen what it's like to really have a broken heart and go through the six stages of grief we go through. I don't think they wanted to pull any punches either. That's what they responded to primarily.

The movie certainly owes a large debt to "Husbands & Wives" and "When Harry Met Sally," but why "Broadcast News"?
At times Celeste can have this very vitriolic component to her character and be fairly unlikeable. We wanted to make sure that was never marginalized. We wanted to make sure we didn't do what a lot of rom-coms do, which is take the lead actress and pound her into the ground in the first act -- she loses her job, her boyfriend breaks up with her -- and then we root for her to rise again. We wanted to make sure Rashida was this tough, type-A personality, and we didn't hold back from that. I know in the cutting process we played around with things: How far can we go with this before she becomes unlikeable? Fortunately for us, Rashida is such an incredibly likeable person to begin with, we found we could take it pretty far. She's got a lot of goodwill out there because she's sweet and likeable and there's an undercurrent of vulnerability that exists in her performance. That was why "Broadcast News" came up. Elements of that film are tough -- they don't pull punches.

You previously got an unexpectedly dramatic turn from Adam Scott in "The Vicious Kind"; now you do something similar here with Andy Samberg. What's your secret to getting actors to perform out of their comfort zone?
In the case with Adam, I knew his work a little bit. Before "Party Down" and long before "Parks and Recreation," I had seen him on the HBO show "Tell Me You Love" where he played a dark, quiet, brooding character. Then I saw him do broad comedy and thought, "This guy can do both." For me, it's more about making sure you're finding someone who really fits the material perfectly. In the case of Andy,who better to play a 30-year-old man-boy who doesn't want to grow up? The real Andy is very sophisticated and grown up and a savvy businessman, but generally speaking, he's tapped into this "I'm going to feel like I'm in college forever!" vibe. It's not like we're asking him to play Hamlet. I'm not saying he's not capable of playing that too, but for this you want to make sure it's a stretch to an extent -- you want to make sure he feels pushed and challenged -- but that it's not so far out of his wheelhouse that people are going to have a knee-jerk response to the role or performance. Again, they wrote a great part for him. It fit him well and I tried to stay out of the way and make sure that Andy knew he was going to be safe with me and we can make it as small as we want. We're not doing sketch comedy where you're sharing the stage with 12 people. I'm going to be on a long lens, really tight, and if you think it, it's going to be there.

Since audiences first got to know her at age 12 as Gia on Full House, Sokoloff has had many memorable TV roles — Jody on Party of Five, Lucy on The Practice, Claire on Desperate Housewives – as well as turns on the big screen in Whatever It Takes, Dude, Where’s My Car? and Sugar & Spice.

Sokoloff, 31, also sings and plays guitar and released an album, Grateful, in 2005.

She wed her husband, music composer Alec Puro, in November 2009 and the couple — plus pup Coco Puro — make their home in Los Angeles.

You can find Marla, now mom to 5-month-old daughter Elliotte Anne, on Twitter.

July 11th:

I am writing this blog from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif. The last time I was at this hospital, it was to visit my dear friend Kristy, who had just given birth to her son Cohen. Sadly, I am here today for a less celebratory occasion.

I am currently sitting in the waiting room with my husband Alec. We are doing everything and anything to distract ourselves (which is proving to be an impossible task) because — at this very moment — our 5-month-old daughter Elliotte is having lung surgery.

Just minutes ago, we endured the hideous task of handing our precious girl over to a nurse, as they don’t allow parents in the operating room, obviously. (They did kindly allow us to stand in the doorway as they put her under anesthesia.)

This little lady has been by my side since the moment she was born, and I just watched as a complete stranger carried her away. A stranger who has promised to update me every hour over the next five hours while Elliotte is in surgery.

(For the record — my brave little girl didn’t shed a tear — she even smiled as they took her away. Mommy and Daddy are a different story.)

I know this news may come as a shock, as I have never mentioned any of this before — but it’s no shock to my family and me. Remember that second trimester scare I had? Well … the blood work was in fact a false positive, and the amnio did come back showing a completely perfect little baby girl … but when they performed the level 2 ultrasound, they saw some very worrisome lung tissue.

Divine intervention is putting it mildly, because if my blood work wasn’t red-flagged, we may have never known about Elliotte’s condition, as there was no correlation between her lung issue and my abnormal blood work. I couldn’t see it at the time because I was so scared and confused, but someone was definitely watching over my family and me.

Nick Cannon is the funny-guy host of America’s Got Talent and it’s no secret that he’s absolutely against his wife Mariah Carey selling her soul to American Idol, but has this little disagreement caused their relationship to go on the fritz? Are Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon breaking up? While Nick admits that his wife will be an amazing judge on American Idol, he’s furious that she’ll be working on a show that is in direct competition with his own show. Snap crackle pop!

An inside source for the National Enquirer said, “Nick was tossing around outrageous sal­ary figures in hopes of pricing Mariah out of the market. Right until the eleventh hour, he was begging her to pass on the offer.”

It seems as if Nick was trying everything and more to get people to bow out of pursuing his wife for the show, but he should know by now that Mariah gets what Mariah wants. Come on, Nick . . . we know who wears the pants (or dress) in this relationship — and I’m pretty sure it’s not you. The insider for the tabloid even said that Nick went so far as to bribe (that’s right, bribe) his wife to stay away from the show:

“He was dangling incentives –- diamond jewelry, a luxurious spa vacation, even promising to pay her a one-time ‘gift’ of $15 million for saying no [. . .] Nick wants her to be a stay-at-home mom to their twins, at least until they turn 5. He was even hoping to have another baby, but Mariah has effectively scorched that dream.”

We’re not quite sure if Nick Cannon is just overreacting here or if this is actually the small beginnings to something bigger . . . Is there another big divorce on the horizon? It would be unfortunate if the two let something as petty as this come between them, but people in Hollywood have broken up over smaller things — True Dat!

Since the all-star cast of the fall season of Dancing with the Stars was revealed, it's become clear that all bets are off regarding the show's next winner. After all, the cast includes returning champions like former NFL player Emmitt Smith and Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno and Shawn Johnson, as well as beloved fan-favorites like Melissa Rycroft, Kirstie Alley and Gilles Marini.

But Dancing pro (and season 13 winner) Karina Smirnoff isn't afraid to share her thoughts on who might emerge victorious in the show's new season, which premieres Sept. 24 on ABC.

"The women are very strong, but the male celebrity guests are a little bit stronger overall," Smirnoff told PEOPLE at an event sponsored by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. "I mean, we have an Olympian male guest – Apolo Anton Ohno. I'm sure he'll go very far."

Otherwise, added Smirnoff, it's a crapshoot. "It's going to depend on the chemistry that [the stars] have with their partners, the quality of the dancing that [they] do, and who has more fans," she said.

There is one star for whom Smirnoff doesn't have high hopes, however. "I'd be very, very surprised if [Bristol Palin] won," she said. "Bristol was not known as the best dancer of [her] season. ... There was so much controversy when she was on." (Still, the reality star landed in the finale during season 11.)

Smirnoff doesn't know with whom she'll be waltzing this fall, but she says she'll be happy to start rehearsals with any of the male all-stars. "From Joey Fatone to Gilles Marini to Emmit Smith," she said, "Whoever it is, I can't go wrong."

Russell Brand is the subject of an upcoming documentary for BBC Three, entitled "Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery." In the tell-all special, Brand reveals that he feels jealous of his old self when watching footage of him taking heroin.

According to The Sun, the shocking footage -- of Brand smoking smack in his 20s -- will be featured in the BBC film, which depicts Brand’s highs and lows as he recalls his drug-addicted past.

"This is when you know it's a disease. It doesn't matter that I was sat in that flat in Hackney and now I'm in the Savoy. I'm jealous of me then," he tells his friend Martino Sclavi as he watches the homemade video at the London’s Savoy Hotel. "It doesn't make a difference to me. The money, the fame, the power, the sex, the women - none of it. I'd rather be a drug addict."

In April, the comedian and actor testified before a parliamentary committee reviewing U.K. drug policy to call for more "compassionate" action toward drug addicts.

"By regarding addiction as an illness, by offering treatment instead of a more punitive approach, we can prevent people from committing crimes," Brand told members of Parliament, before opening up about his own struggles with heroin addiction. "Personally, I was a criminal when I was a drug addict by virtue of my addiction and the ways that I had to acquire money to get drugs."

According to The Guardian, Brand testified to advocate for treating drug addiction as a health and social welfare issue rather than as a criminal one. Despite cracking a few jokes, Brand was serious in his plea. "I think there needs to be love and compassion for everybody involved," said Brand. "If people are committing criminal behavior, then it needs to be dealt with legally, but you need to offer them treatment."

Brand has been open about his battle to overcome drug addiction in the past and has said society needs to change the way it views addicts. After the death of singer Amy Winehouse in July, Brand wrote a passionate blog post on his website to not only honor his late friend but also to advocate for treatment, claiming that drug addiction should be treated like a potentially fatal illness.

"Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions or death," he wrote. "All we can do is adapt the way we view [addiction], not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill."

Brand, who has been sober for nearly a decade, attends AA meetings three times a week in order to keep his addiction in check.

Late last night, minutes after NBC aired the much-anticipated cuticle-picker that was the Olympic women's all-around gymnastics finals—hours after the event actually took place, of course—the broadcast director cut from an on-floor interview with gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas to a broadcast booth somewhere nearby. In it sat longtime NBC commentator and sports journalism veteran Bob Costas, his prime-time-friendly, man-child hairdo in perfect position.

"You know, it's a happy measure of how far we've come that it doesn't seem all that remarkable, but still it's noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women's all-around in gymnastics," Costas intoned, his besuited left elbow resting comfortably on the anchor desk. "The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself."

In a political and cultural environment in which the patriotism—the very Americanness—of people of color (including the current president of the United States) is often called into question, Costas's scripted deep thought—his "little homily,” as one Twitterer called it—was at worst dishonest, at best naive. What leveled barriers, I wondered, was Mr. Costas referring to? Who, excepting the most Pollyanna-ish or cloistered of cultural observers—the type who assert the legitimacy of phrases like "post-racial"—would believe that Gabby Douglas' challenges were primarily psychic, a statement that can be contradicted by pretty much any news story or feature profile on the 16-year old gymnast, all of which make no secret of the undeniable whiteness of being that is high-level American gymnastics? "Bob Costas just re-affirmed that the success of a black person means we're not racist anymore. THANK GOD THAT'S OVER," wrote the political writer Ana Marie Cox. A few moments later she offered a revision of sorts: "Ok what he said was 'a barrier has fallen' or somesuch but one person over the wall does not a fallen barrier make. TAKES NOTHING FROM GABS."

Costas, of course, did have a point: Our ideas about ourselves, no matter our color, often prove as limiting and toxic as the external and institutional roadblocks put in our way. But you can't have one without the other. In this, Douglas' triumph seems extremely remarkable, both because of the commonality of her situation—the big dreams, the economic hardships, the one-parent household—and its unusualness: a minority in a historically "white" sport.

Army marksman Vijay Kumar gave India its second medal of the London Olympics, winning the silver in the men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol event after his compatriot and rifleman Jaydeep Karmakar narrowly missed a bronze, finishing fourth in the men's 50-metre prone event here Friday.
Leuris Pupo kept his cool to win Cuba's first gold of the Olympics. Pupo scored 34 to edge out India's Vijay Kumar, who took silver with 30.
China's Ding Feng won bronze after being edged out by Kumar by one point in the final elimination round at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Russia's Alexei Klimov had set a new world record of 592 in qualifying, but struggled in the final after two low-scoring rounds early on, and eventually finished fourth after failing to make it into the final two medal rounds.
It was an exciting battle as the rapid fire pistol event was being held under new rules, where one of the six shooters was being eliminated after every round. German Christian Reitz was the first to be eliminated followed by Chinese Jian Zhang and Russian Alexei Klimov.
In the final round, all the six shooters had to start from scratch as their qualification scores are not counted unlike other shooting events.
Vijay, who was fourth in the qualification, was in his element right from the start in the final round. He shot a perfect five in the first series to take joint lead. Vijay followed it up with a series of 4, 4, 3, 4, 4 and 4 to stay in the medal contention. But going into the final round it was all over for Vijay and he managed just two, his worst, in the final series.

The marksman became the first Indian pistol shooter to win an Olympic medal. He is also the second Indian after double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to win a silver medal. Rathore won the maiden individual Olympic silver for India at 2004 Athens.
Vijay's medal was second for India in the 2012 London Games after rifle shooter Gagan Narang had won bronze in the men's 10 metre air rifle event here Monday.
Narang, however, flopped Friday in the men's 50m rifle prone event where his teammate Karmakar excelled.
Karmakar finished a creditable fourth in the finals while Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the final round.
Karmakar shot an overall score of 699.1, including 595 in the qualification and 104.1 in the medal round. His score in the final was third highest among the eight shooters.

Miley Cyrus reportedly took some steamy photos for her beau, Liam Hemsworth, and now they are making the rounds online.

A photo of Cyrus naked in a bathtub covering her breasts -- showing off her signature sideboob look and her dreamcatcher tattoo -- was taken by friend and photographer Vijat Mohindra. The sexy photo is featured on his website along with several other steamy, but fully-clothed photos.

The blog Life of the Rich and Famous first posted the photo and claims it was taken in 2011, when Cyrus was just 18. Mohindra and Cyrus are known to be close friends as he actually documented the singer's Gypsy Heart tour in the spring of 2011.

The photo was allegedly intended to be for Liam's eyes only, but it is now prominently featured on Mohindra's website. Request for comment from the photographer's reps were not immediately returned.

Regardless of whether or not the photos were meant to be private, it's strange that the photo is reminiscent of Miley's 2008 Vanity Fair cover shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The cover photo famously featured Cyrus at the age of 15 wearing nothing but a white sheet.