Owen Wilson | The New York Observer

The Week in DVR: We Heart The Girl Next Door! Plus, Community, Vertigo, Edward Norton and Wes Anderson

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:07:01 -0500

Monday: Vertigo

Halloween might be over, but that doesn't mean the scares have to stop. We wouldn't go so far as to call Vertigo a "horror movie," but Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock ratchets the tension to such unbearable levels that parts of it are more terrifying than anything you'd see in whatever torture porn is defiling theaters in a given week. Of course you've watched Vertigo before, so we aren't going to tell you...

The Week in DVR: 30 Rock Returns! Plus, Early Coen Brothers, Vampires, Jennifer Aniston, and Very Cute Dogs

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:54:21 -0400

Monday: From Dusk Till Dawn
Now that vampires have taken over the pop culture universe, it might be time to revisit the glorious insanity that is From Dusk Till Dawn. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by his longtime friend Robert Rodriguez, the film splits nicely into two halves: the first deals with the Gecko brothers (George Clooney and, in a hilarious bit of miscasting, Mr. Tarantino himself) and their murderous...

Sara Vilkomerson's Third Stringer: Ride 'Em, Wilson!

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:12:15 -0400

Is it weird that of all the great Owen Wilson screen performances out there—we’re including The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander and Marley and Me—we kinda love him the best as the itsy-bitsy miniature cowboy Jedediah in these Night at the Museum movies? We can’t explain it. … The man says “flapjack” and we’re sold. So, yes, we’re talking about Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Following up on the immensely successful 2006 film,...

Penthouse Boss Buys Sexy Scores Building

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:00:00 -0400

The notorious West Chelsea nightclub where the actress Lindsay Lohan honed her pole-dancing skills may soon be back in business.

Real estate investor Robert Gans has purchased the shuttered Scores West building at 533-535 West 28th Street, where scantily clad dancers entertained numerous celebrities over the years, ranging from radio host Howard Stern to hockey star Mario Lemieux. (The actor Owen Wilson once pulled up on a bicycle!)

Property records...

Single Person's Movie: Meet the Parents

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:32:17 -0500

It's 2 a.m. and you awake with a jerk, alone in your fully lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you've already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we're just like you: single.

Need a movie to keep you company until you literally can't keep your eyes open? Join us tonight when we pass out to Meet...

Sara Vilkomerson's Guide to This Week's Movies: Bow-Wow, Wow! Jen, Owen and Marley Make Terrific Trio

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:50:04 -0500

How come it's taken Hollywood this long to match up Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston onscreen? Not only is their chemistry nice and totally believable, these guys actually look like they could have been set up through friends, or met at a bar or whatever: His shaggy hair and busted nose compliments her I'll-always-just-be-the-girl-next-door-no-matter-how-many-times-I-get-naked-in-GQ attitude. It's great!

They play John and Jenny Grogan, aspiring journalists who move to Florida. They get jobs at competing...

Manhattan Weekend Box Office: Good Friday Good for One Thing; the Still Beating Heart of Joshua Jackson's Acting Career

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:09:12 -0400

Judging by box office—and the box office never lies—the one thing Good Friday was good for was taking your kid to the movies. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (No. 2) hauled in $25 million in its second weekend, easily winning the top spot nationally. And Manhattanites were equally irreligious, though marginally different in the object of their sin. Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (No. 1) earned 25 percent more than Horton in the...

Mr. Lonelyhearts

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:26:29 -0500

A 32-year-old ad copywriter, who sings in a downtown band and has a lot of tattoos, was on the phone from the East Village. His tone was confessional.

“For the last two years,” he said, “I’ve been chasing tail, sowing my wild oats, literally meeting girls and bringing them up to my apartment. And now”—his voice dropped a decibel or two—“I’ve gone three weeks without having sex. And I’m getting this...

I Drink, Therefore Miami: The Art Basel Bash Breakdown

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:45:58 -0500

On the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 4, two full days before the Art Basel Miami fair officially opened to the public, a large crowd was forming around the velvet rope at the Florida Room, designed by singer Lenny Kravitz, in the space below the Delano hotel that was once occupied by the David Barton Gym.

The subterranean lounge was packed with revelers, including gallerist Tony Shafrazi, Pucci designer Matthew...

The Expert: Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns of 2007!

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:57:38 -0500

What better way to lighten your Monday load than with a little celebrity lifestyle coaching from Patrick Wanis, PhD? He's just miraculously survived an invasion of legion New Yorkers in town for Art Basel Miami. Despite all that distraction, he offered up a gargantuan platter of super-chewy goss. It's The Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns of 2007!

We've included his list, which Mr. Wanis released only to The Daily...

Remains of the Day: Natalie Portman, Wes & Owen, Edward Albee

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:03:57 -0400

Natalie Portman pretends she’s important and makes fantastically obvious picks for a charity CD. A Shins remix? No way! Nice guy/every-mid-20s-to-30s-something girl’s dreamboat Ron Livingston will break out of Office Space’s shadow and into more dramatic roles in his movies opening this weekend. Damn it feels good to be… Richard Pimentel? An interview with Owen Wilson conducted by his bud Wes Anderson will be posted on MySpace at midnight tonight. Synchronize...

Owen Wilson Powers Low-Income South Bronx Housing!

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:52:37 -0400

It’s been a grim few months for Owen Wilson, but he’ll have a reason to be chipper if he heads to the South Bronx next Monday.

The Fordham-Bedford Housing Corporation is announcing a week from today that Jacob’s Place, a green affordable housing development on Webster Avenue in Fordham, has been completed. And they’re unveiling its solar panels, which Mr. Wilson happens to have indirectly bought, thanks to the eerie-sounding Solar Neighbors Program.

Welcome to Wes World

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:23:58 -0400

“I’m not going to theorize on what the symbolism of luggage is,” said the designer Marc Jacobs in a smoky, lilting voice. Speaking on the phone from his office in Paris, Mr. Jacobs was talking about the candy-colored Louis Vuitton impedimenta he created for Wes Anderson’s new film, The Darjeeling Limited.

The luggage epitomizes “Wes World”—which is how the actress Anjelica Huston described the timeless, quirky aesthetic of the director’s films to...

Giddy-up, Girlfriends! Owen Wilson, the Soothing Stallion, Brings Buddy Bing to West Village Watering Hole

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:27:28 -0400

Apparently, New York fillies are far from immune to the charms of the Butterscotch Stallion.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 10, in the smoky backroom of the club Beatrice Inn in the West Village, the actor Owen Wilson was perched atop a banquet with a wingman, real-estate heir and Elizabeth Hurley baby daddy Steven Bing, according to an onlooker. “They were sitting up on top of...

Today in Mediabistro Corrections

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:36:50 -0500

Correction to items written today by Dylan Stableford on Mediabistro's 'Fishbowlny', an oddly named New York media blog. 1. Is Page A2 of the New York Times really that funny?, Dylan asked of the Times' advertisement of a chuckling fellow holding open the paper. Caption: "Darfur? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Actually, A2 carries the News Summary, corrections, editors notes, and "for the records," not news about international genocide. 2. Dylan takes note of a publicity email he received from the...

The Transom

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400

It Should Happen to You At the after-party for the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada on the evening of June 19, Gay Talese indulged in a little free association about youth and the city. “The dreams of people,” he said. His stunning wife, the publisher Nan Talese, did a little seated dance, her arms a bit in the air, to the dated but highly effective blare of “Hey Ya.” Mr. Talese channeled...

The Polo Crashers

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:00:00 -0400

Those few who find themselves in a position to knowledgeably discuss the attendees of the Bridgehampton Polo Club games often talk in code. New Money. No Money. The Real People don’t come anymore. The interpretation of this code might lead one down some very dark social alleys. Still, more objective comments might be made about changes in the world of polo. In 2002, the pert and highly evolved Natalie Portman gave out the trophies...

Ty's House

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

As the "team leader" on the ABC program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Ty Pennington, late of the Learning Channel's Trading Spaces, might be one of reality TV's few break-out stars. The Sunday night show is a smash, literally: Headed by the 39-year-old Mr. Pennington-a self-proclaimed "handy guy" with an impressive physique and a little soul patch under his lower lip-a group of eight telegenic designers charges into the bleak household of a disadvantaged family...

Do the Hustle! Starsky and Hutch Return

Sun, 21 Mar 2004 19:00:00 -0500

Todd Phillips' Starsky and Hutch , from a screenplay by John O'Brien, Scot Armstrong and Mr. Phillips, has partially restored my faith in mainstream American movies. Just when I was convinced that a movie couldn't be both popular and moderately intelligent in today's teen market, along comes Starsky and Hutch to offer up 101 minutes of chuckle-worthy escapism.

I don't want to make any exaggerated claims for what is, after all, a recycled property-a...

The Guys

Sun, 24 Nov 2002 19:00:00 -0500

On a recent Thursday at the frat-tastic Murray Hill Bar 515, a group of young male investment bankers were decompressing after a long day of Bloomberg-staring and cold calling. A 23-year-old hedge-fund manager leaned back against the bar as a blond, large-breasted woman passed by.

"Hell- ooo, " Hedge Fund Guy said under his breath. In Hedge Fund Guy's hand was an already beer-stained copy of journalist Susan Antilla's new book: Tales from the Boom-Boom...

Reheated Rat Pack

Sun, 09 Dec 2001 19:00:00 -0500

Big is not always good, but with Ocean's Eleven , big is all there is: big budget, big noise, big confusion, big special effects, big marketing budget and a big cast the size of an armoire. In the big clamor for escapism amid the serious year-end films of higher aspirations, better quality and depressing subject matter, it will probably be a big hit. In my opinion, in case you care, it is also a...