This week in SEAN, Ewan McGregor talks about being off the booze for nearly ten years, Brian Cox has a trailer out for his new film, there is a chance to win the premiere of ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ for your local cinema and Gerry Butler gets his knockers out for Architectural Digest.

Gerard Butler graces the cover of Architectural Digest


Gerry is on the May 2010 issue of Architectural Digest and you can find the entire cover story in the issue which is on newsstands now.

Thirteen-foot-tall mahogany doors with a knocker that could summon the dead. A ceiling fresco depicting the rape of Ganymede. Plaster walls chipped and mottled with age, massive columns supporting limestone lions, crystal chandeliers casting spidery shadows…. Medieval castle? Ancestral manor house? Try a two-story loft in the heart of New York’s ultratrendy Chelsea district. The doors alone are remarkable enough to stop the most jaded Manhattanite in his tracks: Who in the world lives here?

Why, King Leonidas of Sparta, who else? The place starts to make a little more sense when one considers that its owner is the actor Gerard Butler, and Gerard Butler is known for channeling such larger-than-life figures as the Spartan king, Attila the Hun, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera and Beowulf. “I wanted something elegant and gorgeous and at the same time rather masculine and raw,” the actor declares, his Glasgow burr somehow enhancing the description. “I guess I would describe the apartment as bohemian old-world rustic château with a taste of baroque.” [Peter Haldeman]

‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ Delayed

This is really disappointing news. Consolidated Pictures Group, the company distributing I Love You Phillip Morris has postponed the film’s US release again. The film, starring Ewan McGregor, had been scheduled for a Valentine’s Day release, then a March 26 release, and was then rescheduled for April 30 for a limited release before being expanded in the weeks after. A spokesperson announced that the film has once again been delayed and will not be released on April 30. No release date has been scheduled.

New trailer for ‘The Good Heart’ with Brian Cox

The Good Heart’s official poster and trailer were unveiled about a month ago, and now Magnolia Pictures has released the red-band trailer posted below. The Good Heart re-teams Brian Cox and Paul Dano and is about an ailing bartender (Cox) who takes in a homeless suicidal young man (Dano). The film will be released on Video-On-Demand on April 2 and in theaters on April 30 in the US.

The Good Heart trailer from zik zak on Vimeo.

Win the UK premiere of ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’

CinemaNX is giving UK fans the opportunity to win the UK premiere of The Disappearance of Alice Creed at their local cinema. All you have to do is nominate your local cinema and get enough votes to win the premiere. Head on over to the film’s Facebook page for you chance to enter. The Disappearance of Alice Creed stars Martin Compston and opens on April 30 in the UK.

Synopsis: On a suburban street, two masked men seize a young woman. They bind and gag her and take her to an abandoned, soundproofed apartment. She is Alice Creed, daughter of a millionaire. Her kidnappers, the coldly efficient Vic and his younger accomplice Danny, have worked out a meticulous plan. But Alice is not going to play the perfect victim – she’s not giving in without a fight. In a tense power-play of greed, duplicity and survival we discover that sometimes disappearances can be deceptive…

Thanks to the folks at CinemaNX for providing the artwork and sharing the information about the contest with us.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbeJl3dt0Aw

New Ewan McGregor interview + new photos


Ewan did an interview with the Daily Mail to promote The Ghost Writer which opens on April 16 in the UK. It comes with three photos from a photoshoot, and an excerpt from the lengthy interview is below.

McGregor was once a party animal who enjoyed all that London’s nightlife had to offer. He clearly felt it was getting out of hand, and hasn’t touched alcohol for years.

“This November it’ll be ten years since I gave up, and I don’t really miss it.”

He pauses, running a hand through his hair.

“Actually, occasionally I do. There are times when I think about it, but I always know that when I’m thinking about it there’s something wrong. The problem isn’t that I want a drink; it’s that for me – as it is for a lot of other people – drink was a way to dull the pain of something else. For people who drink a lot it’s a way of not dealing with emotions and feelings.”

What was he avoiding?

“I think it was growing up. It’s hard to say without making it sound dramatic, which it isn’t. I was just somebody who always liked to drink a lot. So now when I think about drinking I ask myself, OK, what is it? It’s not really that you’re thirsty for a beer, because you haven’t had a beer for ten years. It’s often something else that’s bothering me.”

McGregor, 38, grew up in Crieff, Perthshire and his parents, Carol and James, are both teachers. For the last 15 years he has been happily married to French production designer Ève Mavrakis, and they have three daughters, Clara, 14, Esther, eight, and Jamiyan, also eight, who was adopted. He has an older brother, Colin, an ex-RAF fighter pilot who served in Iraq. The brothers are close, although they disagreed over the British Government’s decision to go to war in the Gulf.

“He was very gung-ho about wanting to go there, and I found that upsetting. Because I’m trained to be an actor, I was in a different camp on that situation, and I find that quite difficult to reconcile. But I learned to appreciate that that was the path he took. I respect that, and I respect all our forces.

“I went out to Basra to meet some of them and I’m full of respect for their work. I don’t think it should be any other way. I worried about Colin more later on, because – and I don’t know if I should say this – I think he felt that they shouldn’t be there. I thought that was scarier than anything, the idea of being out there and flying and putting yourself at risk if you didn’t know why you were there. I thought that was pretty hardcore.”

McGregor swells with pride when he describes how his brother took him for a ride in a Tornado jet.

“We went barrelling down the runway and I was in the seat directly behind him, and because you can’t see what’s coming you can’t prepare for the G-force. You’re wearing a G-suit that inflates and pushes on your body, and it pushes the blood back. Without it you’d just pass out, as the G-force is unbelievable. It’s horrible.

“I was a little sick, but not too much. We did a lot of low-level stuff and then he went up to 2,000ft, over the clouds, and I started to sweat and I was thinking, ‘Conquer it, conquer it!’ I managed to be all right, but then he asked me to change the frequency on the radio, and as I put my head down he veered off. I couldn’t get my head back up, and it’s horrible when you can’t see. I instantly threw up. When you land, you’ve got your little bag of sick on your lap, and the canopy comes up and the ground-crew fella comes up the ladder and he says, ‘OK?’ And you have to hand him the bag.” [Martyn Palmer via Best of Ewan]

Weekly schedule for Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Mo 4/12: Tim Gunn, Kathy Kinney
Tu 4/13: James Marsden, Charlyne Yi
We 4/14: Andie MacDowell, Dario Franchitti
Th 4/15: Kirstie Alley, Sade
Fr 4/16: Willie Nelson, Ellie Kemper

www.cbs.com/late_late_show

For more from Saba check out her websites here and here.