Latest news with #SayAnything
Associated Press
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
‘Punch the Line': Nick Searcy, Allegra Edwards, Francis Cronin, Austin Kane to Star in New Fictional Podcast
'Working with Paul Roland is a gift—his genius for blending unique voices with unconventional scenarios creates delightfully odd adventures that thrill both performers and audiences alike,' says Francis Cronin Hollywood, California, United States, July 17, 2025 -- Nick Searcy ( Justified ), Allegra Edwards ( Upload ), Francis Cronin ( Guns Up ), and Austin Kane ( The Santa Clauses ) will star in the upcoming fictional podcast Punch the Line, from award-winning writer/director Paul Roland ( Exemplum ). First love, fierce competition, and fast-paced comedy take center stage in Punch the Line, which blends the heart and humor of 80s teen romantic comedies with the high-stakes world of high school competitive improv. Inspired by beloved coming-of-age classics like The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this eight-episode story delivers a funny, heartfelt, and emotionally-charged look at the highs and lows of teenage life – both on and off the stage. Set in present-day South Orange County, California, the story centers on the fictional Punchline League, in which high schools go head-to-head in competitive improv matches. At Trabuco Mesa High School (TMHS), the Punchline team has earned a reputation for its quick thinking, sharp humor, and electric energy. Team captains Court Erickson (Grayson Lay) and Lindsey LaRoux (Rae Varella) are determined to lead their squad to victory–until tragedy strikes with the sudden loss of their beloved coach, Ted Snyder (Joe Coffey). With the team in disarray and their new drama teacher, Julia Hayden (Allegra Edwards), determined to shut them down entirely, the students must band together, navigate their personal struggles, and prove they have what it takes to win the SoCal Laugh Gamez — the most prestigious improv tournament in Southern California. For Court, the competition means more than just winning; improv has been his lifeline in a turbulent home life, and losing the team means losing the one place where he truly belongs. As tensions rise, friendships fracture, and rivalries ignite, the team learns timeless lessons about trust, self-discipline, and, most importantly, living each moment to the fullest. 'Working with Paul Roland is a gift—his genius for blending unique voices with unconventional scenarios creates delightfully odd adventures that thrill both performers and audiences alike,' says Francis Cronin, who will star alongside Kevin James, Christina Ricci, and Oscar-winner Melissa Leo in the upcoming action comedy Guns Up. 'Working on this project was a pleasure, and Paul Roland has crafted a special story straight from the heart,' says actor Nick Searcy. Punch the Line wrapped production on July 9 and will be available on all podcast platforms later this year. For more information, visit About the company: Punch the Line is an epic coming-of-age teen dramedy about a high school competitive improv team. Paul Roland directed his first feature film, EXEMPLUM, on a budget of just $10,000 during the pandemic of 2020. Despite a multitude of challenges (personal and professional), he led a team of fellow creatives to shoot the film over the course of seven weekends. Filming started on a hot night in September and wrapped just days before Thanksgiving. On average, the film had no more than about four crew members working on set at any given time Contact Info: Name: Paul Roland Email: Send Email Organization: Paul Roland Website: Video URL: Release ID: 89164615 In the event of encountering any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies within the content shared in this press release, we kindly request that you immediately contact us at [email protected] (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our dedicated team will be readily accessible to address your feedback within 8 hours and take appropriate measures to rectify any identified issues or facilitate press release takedowns. Ensuring accuracy and reliability are central to our commitment.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Gen X icon Ione Skye on why she's more Liz Taylor than Jennifer Aniston
This story is part of the June 28 edition of Good Weekend. See all 21 stories. Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Ione Skye. The British-born American actor, director, painter, writer and podcaster, 54, is a Gen X film icon best known for her role in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. Her memoir is Say Everything. BODIES You started acting at a young age. How much of the attention on your looks was flattering and how much was annoying? I was very photogenic, which was helpful, but there was so much worry about weight. One time, I did a job in Rome and in Tunisia and was told, 'Lose 10 pounds in Italy.' Are you kidding me? But I did, then gained it back in two days. I didn't get to eat any amazing Italian food the whole time. None of this sounds healthy or joyous. I was never – for better or worse – strict enough. I did a movie with Jennifer Aniston before she did Friends. She'd eat a bagel and cut out the inside. That's someone who's very ordered. I'm more Elizabeth Taylor-messy, I think, which is kind of fun. Do you have tattoos? [ Counts ] I have one … two … how many tattoos? … Three? Technically, four. What are they and where are they? My first one was done by hand by the same guy who did my mum's tattoo: your classic moon and star that a young person gets. Then I did a swan on my hip with my ex-sister-in-law. This other tattoo is meant to say 'NOW' but it just looks like a blob. Then I had the name 'Adam' for my ex-husband [Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys], but I changed that to 'Madam'. MONEY Your father is the Scottish musician Donovan, your mother is model Enid Karl. As a result, you've been described as 'the OG nepo baby'. Is that fair? When I say I didn't get one cent from my parents, it's kind of true. I mean, my father paid child support, but my mum didn't make a lot of money. So it gave me a lot of confidence and pride when I started making my own. My father didn't really open any doors, but there were creative people around me, via my mother. So I saw examples of people in the industry, which was helpful. And having my father's name was intriguing to someone like [director] Cameron Crowe who was really into music; he cast me in Say Anything.
The Age
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Gen X icon Ione Skye on why she's more Liz Taylor than Jennifer Aniston
This story is part of the June 28 edition of Good Weekend. See all 21 stories. Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Ione Skye. The British-born American actor, director, painter, writer and podcaster, 54, is a Gen X film icon best known for her role in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. Her memoir is Say Everything. BODIES You started acting at a young age. How much of the attention on your looks was flattering and how much was annoying? I was very photogenic, which was helpful, but there was so much worry about weight. One time, I did a job in Rome and in Tunisia and was told, 'Lose 10 pounds in Italy.' Are you kidding me? But I did, then gained it back in two days. I didn't get to eat any amazing Italian food the whole time. None of this sounds healthy or joyous. I was never – for better or worse – strict enough. I did a movie with Jennifer Aniston before she did Friends. She'd eat a bagel and cut out the inside. That's someone who's very ordered. I'm more Elizabeth Taylor-messy, I think, which is kind of fun. Do you have tattoos? [ Counts ] I have one … two … how many tattoos? … Three? Technically, four. What are they and where are they? My first one was done by hand by the same guy who did my mum's tattoo: your classic moon and star that a young person gets. Then I did a swan on my hip with my ex-sister-in-law. This other tattoo is meant to say 'NOW' but it just looks like a blob. Then I had the name 'Adam' for my ex-husband [Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys], but I changed that to 'Madam'. MONEY Your father is the Scottish musician Donovan, your mother is model Enid Karl. As a result, you've been described as 'the OG nepo baby'. Is that fair? When I say I didn't get one cent from my parents, it's kind of true. I mean, my father paid child support, but my mum didn't make a lot of money. So it gave me a lot of confidence and pride when I started making my own. My father didn't really open any doors, but there were creative people around me, via my mother. So I saw examples of people in the industry, which was helpful. And having my father's name was intriguing to someone like [director] Cameron Crowe who was really into music; he cast me in Say Anything.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'It's the Kinks meets AC/DC': Jim Babjak revisits 5 classic Smithereens riffs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Smithereens are, without a doubt, one of the greatest guitar bands to come out of New Jersey, which – scientifically speaking! – means Smithereens guitarist Jim Babjak has recorded some of the greatest riffs to come out of New Jersey. Below, Babjak goes to town on the roots and gear behind five of those riffs. And if you're gonna try to play them yourself, remember to tune down half a step, à la Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan. 'Pat came up with the opening riff, but I helped him out on some of the chords. There's an F chord in there, but I don't know what it's called, and I do a sort of unorthodox thing with the E minor. The solo is all mine. I played it on the demo because the song was originally planned for Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. In fact, that's why Pat sings, 'I'll say anything' at the end. 'We were definitely going for a heavier sound, and I needed something even tougher than my SG. I said, 'I gotta get a Les Paul.' I've never been one of those guys who will go into a guitar store and start playing Stairway to Heaven. I was always kind of embarrassed by that sort of thing. 'We were recording in California, so I went with one of our assistant engineers to a used-guitar shop by the studio. I pointed to Les Paul and said, 'Can you plug that in to see what it sounds like?' He did, and I said, 'Okay, I'll take that one.' It was 1975 Les Paul. I put it through my Marshall, and it sounded great. I still have it – I don't want to give it up.' 'There's a chord with the pinky on the E and the B of the fourth fret – I don't know what you call it. I was watching Del Shannon doing Runaway, and he was playing that chord. I was like, 'Wow, that's really cool. I'm going to start doing that.' For the riff I play in the beginning of this song, I'm keeping my pinky on the E and the B while I move around with the other fingers. 'Around this time, I bought a new SG to get a heavier sound. It was a 1987 SG with regular humbuckers. Later on I put P90s in it. It was a good guitar and worked out fine, but I think an SG from 1967 or '68 would have been better.' 'I used the same SG that I played on Drown in My Own Tears. Same Marshall, too. I never veered too much from a winning combination. It's kind of funny, though; in the video, I play a Rickenbacker because we had an endorsement with them. 'The riff is pretty Kinks-ish, but heavier. It's the Kinks meets AC/DC. I had to play around with the riff because I didn't want it to sound like You Really Got Me – you don't wanna get sued or anything. We worked everything out in rehearsals during pre-production. Mike came in with his basslines, so it all came together.' 'I came up with that riff during a soundcheck in Madrid on our first tour. There's always a lot of waiting and goofing around at soundcheck – people aren't always ready at the same time. So it's a good chance to play around with new ideas to see if anybody reacts. Back then, if you played something good, you had to play it over and over so you could remember it. 'The minute I played this riff, I was like, 'I think there's a song here.' The other guys looked at me – 'What was that?' When we got back to the States, Pat put some chords to it and wrote the lyrics, which were different at the time. 'We went to a rehearsal studio before recording the album and worked out the parts. When we recorded the song, I used the SG for the rhythm, but I played the riff with a Strat. The Strat just sounded better with the part. Don Dixon put some sort of effect on it, and it sounded weird but good.' 'Capitol wanted another A Girl Like You. It was like the Kinks following up You Really Got Me with All Day and All of the Night. We were like, 'All right, we gotta give the record company that type of song again.' They told us that's what they wanted; they even said we had to use a click track. I was like, 'Are you fucking kidding me? That would stifle the drums.' Dennis actually got really good at playing with a click, though I wasn't a fan of it. 'We did the demo of it, but I don't think Pat had all the lyrics yet. The song is in the key of A, just like A Girl Like You, and I thought, 'How am I going to make it sound different?' I don't like to play solos on demos because I want them to be fresh in the studio. I just wait till we're recording and then I do a few passes. Eventually, the producer will say, 'Okay, we got it.' 'Sonically, I tried to make the song different from A Girl Like You in that I added an acoustic guitar under the electric on the opening riff. It added a little bit of texture and made it sound different. The electric was the '75 Les Paul I bought in L.A. The acoustic was a big-body Guild D-50.' This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
New York Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
When Real Life Calls for a Cheesy Rom-Com Gesture
The second time I fell in love, before it began to go well, it went very badly. After only a couple of conversations over coffee, I showed up at my beloved's apartment and confessed the depth of my feelings — to which she responded, with heartbreaking nonchalance, 'Um … what do you expect me to say?' I was so devastated that, in trying to flee, I inadvertently stormed right past her front door and straight into her hallway closet. On my way home, I almost walked into the path of a moving train, then verbally abused the subway conductor for daring to warn me about it. That night I drank an entire bottle of wine, watched the 2005 film adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice' for the umpteenth time and cursed my sorry fate. Yes, I know. You don't have to tell me what I looked like. What did I think I would accomplish, pulling some cheesy rom-com move, as if my life were 'Say Anything' or 'When Harry Met Sally'? Had Hollywood turned me into a tacky derivative? Relationship advice is awash with warnings to not be duped by films. We poor schlubs out in the world don't have teams of writers scripting our happy endings, experts caution — and so taking inspiration from rom-coms' corny gestures just sets ourselves up for disappointment. And it's true that real life does not tolerate clichés. Falling for someone is a highly individual experience. An unassuming widow's peak, the sound of their vowels when they're running late — it's small, specific details that stoke and justify desire (and that sent me marching to my beloved's doorstep that night). When we are fervently in love, wrote the novelist Stendhal, 'everything is a symbol.' If you have ever disapproved of a friend's partner, then you were not seeing the same symbols your friend was. But so then, if nothing is more unique than a love affair, how come so many of us watch Nicholas Sparks's films with the same generic scenes of rain-kissing and love-declaring? It's because underneath a rom-com's boilerplate narrative structures, there is extreme passion and ardor and desperation — and all of that is very true to what the actual nonmovie experience of falling in love feels like. Rom-coms resonate with us because we do see ourselves in them: They function as mirrors through which we can pinpoint and understand our own amorphous feelings. And their sweeping gestures also provide encouragement for us to turn our passions into concrete action. I have never seen anyone kiss a lover in the pouring rain — in real life, cold rainstorms are no aphrodisiac — but I have witnessed a grown man get down on bended knee and belt out the worst Nickelback cover. His girlfriend, who hates Nickelback, adored it. I was raised by a man who, after a decade of friendship with a woman, got drunk and flew across the country so he could tell her that he couldn't wait a moment longer to be together. Years later, my mother's brother was almost arrested for loudly declaiming his regret outside his wife's window in the middle of the night. (At least he didn't use a boombox.) As the sociologist Niklas Luhmann put it, 'Showing that one could control one's passion would be a poor way of showing passion.' I may have made a clown of myself when I showed up out of the blue to declare my love, but nothing else I could have done would have demonstrated the bigness of my feelings more clearly. And I don't think I would have had the courage to try had I not been bred on a steady diet of finely calibrated melodrama. Those Hail Mary moments in rom-coms, the porn of courtship, remind us that maudlin embarrassments are often what bring a couple together in the first place. Can these big declarations be stereotypical? Of course — but in the same way all rituals and ceremonies are stereotypical. They provide us with something recognizable. That structure connects us to the many attempts at love fumbled by the millions over the years. Things turned out OK for me. My corny gesture didn't go over as badly as I had assumed. In the end, I got the girl — she re-evaluated her reaction, after that initial disastrous moment, because she liked that I was a person capable of such earnest affection. We married. We have gorgeous children. These days, though, our happy ending doesn't seem as assured as it once did. But it's not because romantic movies have given us impossible expectations — it's because a long-term, real-world marriage is hard work, and ongoing, and often we're too tired to try. In the challenging moments, however, we have rom-coms. Watching and rewatching on-screen couples' phony theatrics reminds us of the ways in which our own relationship began. Remembering our origin story — intense, bumbling and yet very real — imbues our middle age with the optimism of our youth. By kicking off our relationship with a rom-com gesture, we ended up giving it a certain durability, taking our romance into an illustrious tradition of other lovers, real and fictional. Sometimes, who you want to be is who others have imagined they were. Nowadays, my wife and I come together through rom-coms. Watching their overwrought scenes, we laugh and reminisce about the time, all those years ago, when a stupid kid marched into the closet of a beautiful, sophisticated woman, who, later that night, while he was drunk on pride and prejudiced by films, sent him an email. In that email, she quoted characters from other love stories, whose words were much clearer about her own feelings than she could be.
